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Fox joins the Trump administration’s war on the veteran-heavy federal workforce

Veterans make up nearly a third of civilian federal workers, the vast majority of whom are employed to assist veterans and the military

Written by Zachary Pleat

Published

Many Fox News personalities have celebrated the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on the federal workforce, which have ranged from offering questionable buyouts, purposefully demoralizing those who choose to remain in their jobs, and mass firings of recent hires.

But the federal workforce is the nation’s single largest employer of American military veterans, and the vast majority of civilian federal employees at Cabinet-level or otherwise major agencies work with veterans or the military.

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  • The Trump administration has gone to war against the federal workforce

    • President Donald Trump has signed multiple executive orders designed to slash the federal workforce. The New York Times reported that “on Inauguration Day, Mr. Trump signed an order that officially created the Department of Government Efficiency and gave the group the authority to install employees across federal agencies. He also signed another order empowering Mr. Musk’s team to work on a plan to slash the size of the federal work force through ‘efficiency improvements and attrition.’” More recently, Trump signed another executive order “directing agency officials to draw up plans for ‘large scale’ cuts to the federal work force and further empowered the billionaire Elon Musk and his team to approve which career officials are hired in the future.” [The New York Times, 2/11/25]
    • The Trump administration has offered millions of federal workers a “buyout offer” of questionable legality. NBC News reported that, as of February 7, at least 60,000 federal workers had accepted an offer of “deferred resignation.” But the article explained that the offer promises future pay that has not been authorized by Congress, and the agreement sent out to most agencies includes a waiver of all claims against the government. [NBC News, 2/7/25]
    • The Trump administration has drafted regulations to weaken federal worker protections. According to Politico, the drafted regulation “challenges former President Joe Biden’s rules designed to protect the federal workforce, established last April. Those measures gave workers the right to appeal if they were reclassified out of a role with civil service protections as well as the right to carry over those protections.” [Politico, 2/11/25]
    • Thousands of federal workers have been fired already, and potentially hundreds of thousands could follow. CNN reported that “the Trump administration broadened its effort to terminate thousands of probationary workers on Thursday, instructing agencies on a call to move forward with the layoffs.” The Trump administration is targeting these employees “because they have fewer job protections and lack the right to appeal.” According to CNN, “More than 200,000 employees have worked within the federal government for less than a year” and are at risk. The culling included employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs. [CNN, 2/14/25]

  • Fox News has gleefully joined in on the attack on the federal workforce

    • Fox host Greg Gutfeld to federal workers: “You should be thankful you’re being fired.” [Fox News, The Five, 1/29/25]
    • Fox host Sean Hannity celebrated Trump’s purge of FBI agents: “It’s just fun to watch.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 2/3/25]
    • Hannity responded to the Trump purge of the FBI by saying: “There are going to have to be hard questions for rank and file members in terms of their priority and whether or not they challenged some of the higher ups.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 2/5/25]
    • Fox contributor Paul Mauro called for Attorney General Pam Bondi to criminally investigate USAID workers. Mauro said: “We just got Pam Bondi confirmed, right? Here's your first remit: Throw a squad, take a public corruption squad, and throw it at USAID. Go on the offensive. Don't be on the defensive because these people are ranting and raving. Go in there and let's find out how cognizantly it was done to subvert American policy. Because that’s criminal.” Fox host Harris Faulkner chimed in, “There you go.” [Fox News, Outnumbered, 2/5/25]
    • Fox Business anchor Gerri Willis argued that an “economic adviser” would encourage federal workers to resign from their jobs and “then go get a real job.” [Fox News, Outnumbered, 2/6/25]
    • Hannity told a desperate federal worker who called into his show to “make yourself as essential as possible” and said his wife should “show up in the office” even though she has a remote federal job. Hannity added: “I think working from home is going to be an issue, and maybe your wife should be a little proactive.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 2/6/25]
    • Fox Business guest Stephen Moore excitedly predicted future government job losses after the January jobs report. Moore said: “I guarantee you that number is going to be down next month, because we’re already seeing the Trump administration really shred jobs in the government sector.” [Fox Business, Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, 2/7/25]
    • Fox anchor Dana Perino: “A new nemesis here that people need to think about … is government labor unions.” Perino continued: “These are labor unions that are formed for government employees and then they work against the American taxpayer who's paying their salary. So, a lot of these lawsuits and things where they're going to try to gum up the works and slow things down go back to government labor unions and people ought to pay attention to that.” [Fox News, The Five, 2/11/25]
    • Fox’s Outnumbered panelists: Federal workers are “enjoying the American dream that they’ve destroyed for everyone else.” [Fox News, Outnumbered, 2/13/25]

  • The federal workforce is heavily oriented toward veterans and the military

    • According to the Office of Personnel Management, “The Federal Government remains the Nation's leader in veterans' employment,” with veterans comprising “approximately 30 percent of the total Federal workforce” as of 2021. According to a 2021 OPM report, 53%, or more than 337,000 of the veterans employed by the federal government are disabled. [U.S. Office of Personnel Management, November 2023]
    • University of Michigan public policy professor Don Moynihan told NPR: “The vast majority of the [federal] civilian nonuniform employees are either in Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security or the Department of Defense.” According to March 2024 data NPR presented from OPM, nearly 500,000 federal employees work for the Department of Veterans Affairs, and more than 750,000 work with the military. [NPR, 1/31/25]