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President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump
President Donald Trump is "afraid," and there's a good reason for that, an ex-prosecutor said.
Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance in a post dated Thursday weighed in on Trump's attempt to oust millions of federal workers.
“There is a reason Trump is afraid of the federal bureaucracy, the career civil servants he wants to replace. They are powerful. They are knowledgeable. And although they often get a bad rap, in my experience—25 years of it—they are dedicated and mission driven,” Vance wrote. “Tell doctors at CDC, federal prosecutors at DOJ, or scientists at the Department of Agriculture that they can’t do their job, and they will find a way to get it done. Tell the entire bureaucracy you want them to leave? You’ve summoned the sleeping giant.”
Vance went on to say that's what Trump has done with the so-called “buyout offers” that have been offered to federal workers by the Trump administration.
“Buyouts are not unheard of in the federal government. In fact, they tend to happen every few years. In essence, they are a cost savings device designed to get more experienced and hence more expensive employees to retire a couple of years early to be replaced by younger, less expensive employees,” she wrote. “It’s how many offices across the country stay staffed at necessary levels to do the work without busting their budgets. But not this one. Someone experienced in these matters told me it was ‘a trap, not a buyout.’ Others with experience in federal employment law seemed to agree.”
Vance went on to criticize the purported motive of the move.
“If there was any doubt about what this was about, the email laid it out plainly,” the attorney wrote. “The goal is to remake the career professional civil service into a troop of Trump loyalists: ‘The federal workforce should be comprised of employees who are reliable, loyal, trustworthy, and who strive for excellence in their daily work.’”
Vance even took a look online to see the general reaction from the move. “On Reddit last night, it was clear that a sizeable number of federal employees are digging in for the fight. Donald Trump has always fantasized about a deep state inside of government that opposes him, something that didn’t exist. Now, he is well on the way to creating one,” she wrote. “It turns out federal employees take their oath, their job, and their duty to serve very seriously.”
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