Entitled bureaucrat is very, very angry

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“Worthless parasites:” Right-wing media's denigration of federal workers

Over 80% of federal workers are outside of DC and one-third are veterans, but that didn’t stop right-wing media from mocking them

Written by Reed McMaster & Torri Lonergan

Published

Amid ongoing mass layoffs by President Donald Trump's administration, right-wing media personalities have repeatedly bashed federal workers, going so far as to call them “worthless parasites” and “entitled” employees who accomplish nothing and don’t have real jobs. But some right-wing figures expressed concerns that the firings were also harming their viewers and friends.

  • The Trump administration is laying off tens of thousands of federal workers

    • It is estimated that as many as 30,000 federal employees have lost their jobs in recent weeks, and the Trump administration reportedly plans to lay off even more. On February 13, the White House ordered federal agencies to fire almost all “probationary” employees. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers are considered probationary, NPR reports, meaning they are “often a recent hire to the agency or a long-serving employee who was moved or promoted into a new position.” Layoffs have hit the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and other federal agencies. And as of February 12, Trump’s Office of Personnel Management reported an additional 75,000 federal workers had accepted the administration’s “buyout” offer to resign in exchange for a promise of eight months of paid leave. It remains unclear whether this offer is legal and whether the employees who accepted it will actually receive the payout they were guaranteed. [ABC News, 1/19/25; New York magazine, 2/24/25; NPR, 2/15/25; AP News, 1/28/25, 2/13/25; NBC News, 2/7/25]
    • On February 23, workers across the federal government received an OPM email asking them to list “what you accomplished last week” — and were reportedly told “they will lose their jobs if they don't respond.” OPM officials later told federal agencies that workers can ignore the email, but Trump still suggested that those who didn't respond are at risk of being fired. [NPR, 2/23/25; CBS News, 2/25/25; NPR, 2/26/25]
    • The federal workforce is not based entirely in Washington, D.C. — more than 80% of federal workers are located elsewhere in the country. There are federal workers in every state, and only about 20% of them work in D.C., Maryland, or Virginia. Trump’s layoffs are not only impacting D.C.— thousands of workers have been laid off across the country. [CBS News, 2/14/25; Time magazine, 2/13/25; ABC News, 2/24/25; NPR, 2/26/25]
    • While some federal workers do earn high salaries, that isn’t true across the board. The average federal worker salary is $106,382. Half of all federal workers make between $50,000 and $110,000 a year, and 8.1% earn less than $50,000. The base pay for the lowest entry-level workers is just $22,360. [Pew Research Center, 1/7/25; U.S. Office of Personnel Management, accessed 2/26/25]
    • About 30% of federal workers are military veterans, making the federal government the largest employer of vets in the country. Based on the number of veterans employed by the federal government, Democratic Reps. Rosa DeLauro and Debbie Wasserman Schultz estimated that the Trump administration has laid off nearly 6,000 veterans so far. At least 2,400 workers employed by the Department of Veterans Affairs alone were laid off in February. [NBC News, 2/21/25; House Appropriations Committee Democrats, 2/25/25; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 2/13/25, 2/24/25]

  • Right-wing media attacked federal workers already reeling from mass layoffs

    • Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk argued government workers “operate as worthless parasites on the American taxpayer.” He ranted, “They operate as — not them personally — but they operate as worthless parasites on the American taxpayer.” Kirk added, “You are a leech on us, and this is the core of what Elon is surfacing, what President Trump is flushing out.” [Real America’s Voice, The Charlie Kirk Show, 2/24/25]
    • Megyn Kelly dismissed concerns about federal worker layoffs, saying, “Boohoo, a bureaucrat got fired.” Kelly said, “No one feels sorry for the federal bureaucrats… Why do you think you deserve to have your federal fat cat bureaucrat job forever?” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 2/10/25]
    • Defending the email demanding federal workers explain what they did last week or be fired, Hoover Institution senior fellow Victor Davis Hanson said: “This happens every day to Americans, and they don't get any type of coddling like federal employees.” He said, “I think what everybody's upset about is that every single day we get plants that shut down or they move offshore or they're redirected or some corporation has an economy — they're on the bottom line and it's all red, so they're cutting. This happens every day to Americans, and they don't get any type of coddling like federal employees.” [SiriusXM, The Megyn Kelly Show, 2/24/25]
    • Fox host Jesse Watters argued that federal workers are “entitled bureaucrats” and have a bad attitude because they don’t want to respond to the email threatening to fire them. Watters said, “If it makes you mad or infuriated that you're being asked, that should also tell you something. It tells me a lot of these federal workers do not want to justify their jobs because they feel they’re entitled, and that’s a bad attitude, and that attitude’s about to change.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 2/24/25]
    • Fox host Laura Ingraham dismissed “all the sob stories of the bureaucrats” who have been laid off and called their jobs “unnecessary.” Ingraham argued, “As Elon Musk said today, it's better for people who are in unnecessary jobs to move into necessary jobs in the private sector. It will be better for everyone — by the way, probably for most of those employees as well.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 2/21/25]
    • Fox contributor Lisa Kennedy Montgomery said some federal workers are “completely worthless.” She stated, “If you have to sit there and figure out five things you did last week, two things can happen. One, you’re completely worthless and you shouldn't be on the government teat and you should be relieved of duty because you’re wasting taxpayer money. Or, you're going to come up with a list that is so impressive that people will take notice, and those are the kind of people that we have to have left running government.” [Fox News, The Five, 2/24/25]
    • Watters called federal workers “entitled” if they feel the email demanding justification for their jobs is “demeaning.” He stated, “If you think an email like this is demeaning, you're part of a problem, because if you don't think you have to justify your job and you think you're entitled to your job, then that’s why we need an attitude adjustment. This is what this was, this is an attitude adjustment. People need to be reminded that they’re public servants, they serve the public.” [Fox News, The Five, 2/24/25]
    • OutKick host Clay Travis said, “If you have to explain to your boss what you do, you're probably not that useful.” Travis continued, “If your boss doesn’t know what you do, then I would submit that you are very much unnecessary in the larger apparatus.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, 2/24/25]
    • Washington Examiner editor Kaylee McGhee White argued that “you’re not going to find much sympathy” for laid-off federal workers because they “are not victims.” She complained that federal workers “have been enjoying cushy six-figure salaries for the past however many years and are now being offered a free eight-month vacation at the expense of the taxpayers.” She later accused federal employees of “enjoying the American dream that they’ve destroyed for everyone else.” [Fox News, Outnumbered, 2/13/25] 
    • Fox News host Will Cain claimed, “The people who are being fired are the bureaucrats that live and work in Washington.” Cain went on to describe federal workers as “a permanent Washington of bureaucrats” and a “threat … to democracy.” [Fox News, The Will Cain Show, 2/21/25]
    • When a radio listener pleaded that Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency should avoid cutting the jobs of veterans, host Sean Hannity suggested there would be “other opportunities” for vets. He stated, “There's going to be jobs hopefully created in the energy sector, when we blow that out, which I believe the president's going to do as quickly as possible, and other opportunities.” [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 2/21/25]

  • Some right-wing pundits noted that layoffs of federal workers impacted their viewers and friends

    • Fox host Lawrence Jones said the network’s attacks on federal employees are not directed at those who send him emails. He claimed, “I have been getting a lot of emails from federal employees. I understand why some of you guys are feeling the heat and you’re being lumped into the basket of all the other federal employees that Americans have distrust for. We're not talking about you. We understand that there are career people that just want to do their job, that love their country. But you have to understand it is a bipartisan thing... Independents, Democrats, as well as Republicans all feel like there is some inefficiency in our government.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 2/25/25]
    • Jesse Watters complained about a veteran being laid off, noting that he’s “not a DEI consultant” or “climate consultant” and called for a “less callous” method of mass firing federal workers. He said of a person he spoke to: “This guy’s not a DEI consultant. This guy’s not a climate consultant. This guy’s a veteran. So when you're talking about DOGE-ing people, veterans should get priority. Because if you're going to go out there and kill enemies, and put your life on the line for this country, you shouldn’t be in the same category as people that are doing DEI. Now, Harold and his ilk like to talk about the slash-and-burn corporate ethos. We just need to be a little bit less callous with the way, Harold, we talk about DOGE-ing people.” Co-host Harold Ford Jr. responded: “You’re arguing with yourself!” “I finally found one person I knew that got DOGEd and it hit me in the heart,” said Watters. [Fox News, The Five, 2/19/25]