What Happened
In the months following the reinstatement of Schedule F, the Trump administration directed multiple federal agencies to conduct Reductions in Force (RIFs) — mass layoffs of public servants, particularly within departments often associated with regulatory oversight, public education, environmental protection, and civil rights enforcement.
Key agencies impacted included (but not limited to):
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
- Department of Education
- Department of State
- Department of Justice (Civil Rights Division)
The RIFs were justified publicly as budgetary streamlining and efficiency efforts, but internal memos and whistleblower reports indicated that the cuts disproportionately targeted career experts, analysts, legal professionals, and technical staff whose work often conflicted with administration policy goals.
Many of the positions eliminated were never reinstated or refilled. In some cases, vacant leadership roles were either left open indefinitely or filled by political appointees without relevant qualifications.
Why It Matters
Reductions in Force are typically used in rare, apolitical scenarios such as agency restructuring or funding shortfalls. In this case, they were used strategically to deplete institutional knowledge, gut regulatory enforcement, and reshape departments along political lines.
Removing seasoned civil servants en masse reduces an agency’s capacity to:
- Interpret and enforce existing laws
- Provide policy continuity across administrations
- Resist legally questionable directives
It also sends a clear message to remaining staff: political alignment is a prerequisite for job security. This leads to self-censorship, fear-driven compliance, and long-term degradation of public sector expertise.
How It Contributes to the Drift
Authoritarian regimes commonly weaken or disable bureaucratic infrastructure in order to centralize power and eliminate internal resistance. By hollowing out public institutions, a government:
- Erodes its own internal oversight
- Replaces professional governance with political operatives
- Creates chaos that can justify further authoritarian responses
The 2025 RIFs were not simply staffing decisions — they were a method of institutional disarmament. In the absence of skilled bureaucrats, executive power flows more freely and with less resistance, accelerating democratic backsliding.