OPINION:
President Donald Trump cut around 317,000 federal workers in 2025, according to Office of Personnel management figures. Compare that to the hikes seen under Barack Obama — the fed workforce went from 10 million when he entered office, to a high of 11.3 million during his economic stimulus years — and under Joe Biden, when the growth of full-timers in the federal government jumped almost six percent in four years, and it’s clear: Trump is running a tighter ship.
Trump is moving America in the right direction.
The fewer feds, the better chance to have a government that’s controlled by the people; constrained by the Constitution; limited in its powers. And after all, isn’t that what Founding Fathers envisioned when they formed this democratic republic in the first place?
“The Trump administration’s efforts to reduce staffing across agencies resulted in the loss of more than 317,000 federal employees government-wide,” Federal News Network wrote in January. “It’s a 13.7 percent decrease compared with September 2024 workforce numbers, Office of Personnel Management data shows.”
Other reports indicated Trump’s first year of his second term saw decreases between 220,000 and 327,000 federal jobs. Either way you look at it, the trend is cut, cut, cut.
Moreover, upwards of 92 percent left their positions voluntarily, said OPM Director Scott Kupor,
“None of this is to minimize the impact of anyone losing a job, but the ‘mass firing’ headlines do not in fact tell the full story,” he wrote in late December in a social media post.
How true, how true.
Democrats may decry any reductions in government at all. The Democrats’ fawners in media may do similarly — taking the gloom and doom predictions of Democrats and running wild with them to equate downsized government with increased hunger, homelessness, sickness and even death among the people. But for conservatives — for limited government types — for patriotic Americans, MAGAs and those who think government is more the problem than the solution, then this reel-back of the federal workforce is a welcome relief over years and years of expansion.
“Obama entered office with … the true size of the federal workforce at about 10 million civil servants, postal workers, active duty military, contractors, and grantees. He raised the total with billions in economic stimulus to 11.3 million, then backed it down to about 9 million before leaving office,” Brookings reported in October of 2020.
Enter Trump, first term.
“Upon his first inauguration,” Government Executive wrote of Trump, in January of 2025, “he immediately instituted a governmentwide hiring freeze and instructed every agency to develop plans to shrink their staffing levels.”
Despite that instruction, the federal workforce grew by 2 percent under Trump’s first term — though it was due to staffing gains at Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, and the Department of Defense, areas where Democrats traditionally ignore or cut.
Then came Biden.
Then came Biden and his whole Build Back Better plan for government, which was really a way of saying more government, more government, more government.
Then came this, as Government Executive wrote: “Biden [oversaw] a nearly 6 percent growth of the full-time, non-seasonal federal workforce during his four years in office, including a jump at nearly every major agency.”
Then came Trump Two.
Now comes a reversal of government bloat.
Less bureaucracy, not more, is the way to keep Americans free. Fewer bureaucrats equals less red tape, a reduction in controls and regulations and policies and politics on the people — and ultimately, more production, more creativity, more ingenuity, more entrepreneurial endeavors, leading to a booming economy, more self-reliant Americans and a much freer country.
“Reshaping the federal work force is essential to building a government that works for the American people, not the bureaucracy,” Kupor said.
That’s it, exactly.
Bureaucrats are humble servants to the people — and the fewer needed, the better. And the cuts should keep on coming.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.