OPINION: This article contains commentary which may reflect the author’s opinion
When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, one of his famous campaign promises was to “drain the swamp” in the federal government.
It is no secret that politics is deeply entrenched in the daily running of the government and that policy can be formed around political needs.
Those who want a return to statesmen and a more constitutional government were thrilled with the New York businessman’s approach to running the country.
Famous for the words “You’re fired!” on his TV show The Apprentice, Trump was perfectly suited to clearing out the federal government of swamp creatures who were not doing their jobs.
Needless to say, some federal career employees did not care for this initiative.
One of the things Trump did in his presidential position was to create “Schedule F.”
Trump created Schedule F in 2020. The executive order formed a category of federal employees who are in, “Positions of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character.”
Under the executive order, the employees who fill these positions are subject to change during a presidential transition.
“The Federal Government benefits from career professionals in positions that are not normally subject to change as a result of a Presidential transition,” the executive order read.
The Schedule F category could apply to as many as 50,000 federal employees, allowing Trump to fire thousands of federal workers effective immediately. The tactic could extend to employees at the FBI, the State Department, and the Pentagon, Axios reported.
Trump’s staffers were hardly all in on the president’s goals during his administration. Trump’s famously strained relationship with former National Security Adviser John Bolton culminated in Trump firing him.
Trump later told the Daily Caller that Bolton was a “dumb maniac who wants to go to war with any anybody that can breathe.”
Not a fan of the firings, in 2019, Former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci called Trump an “orange cancer.”
The question of filling positions of fired workers seems to be answered by organizations who are ready with replacements.
American Moment, an organization dedicated to recruiting and training potential staffers in all levels of government, reports 700 “fully vetted” young people to do just that.
“Everyone in the federal government wants to act like they’re working in policy,” Saurabh Sharma, president of American Moment, told the Daily Caller, “But if you’re doing policy you’re immediately hirable and ‘fireable’ at will.”
The former president has not made an announcement concerning running for the presidential office in 2024, but rumors are that he will and those inside his circle say talks have begun.
And it seems that the initiative to clear the dead wood from the federal government is still a high priority for the Trump team.
Former President Donald Trump and his allies are planning a second attempt to “drain the swamp,” should he run and win in 2024, according to a new report.
Conservative allies plan to staff his administration with young professionals who agree with the former president’s agenda by reimplementing Schedule F, the Trump-era executive order specific to this action, Axios reported Friday.
As Trump continues to drop hints about a potential run for president, Conservatives are in the background creating a “new inner circle,” in an effort to avoid the staff revolts of the Trump administration.
Schedule F may provide them with the necessary space to fill with ideologically aligned staffers.
For those who have commented that it is nearly impossible to clear out the “deep state” this plan fills the bill.
“We are consciously bringing on the toughest and most courageous fighters with the know-how and credibility to crush the deep state,” Russ Vought, President of the Center for Renewing America (CRA), told Axios. CRA’s mission is to, “renew a consensus of America as a nation under God with unique interests worthy of defending.”
Stephen Miller started America First Legal in 2021, an organization that was founded to legally challenge many of President Biden’s policies.
Miller is a former White House advisor and counselor to Attorney General Gene Hamilton.
America First Legal describes itself as ” right-of center” non-profit organization.
Having won a series of battles against the Biden administration, this month Fox News reported that America First Legal is ” Now turning its focus to hitting what Miller calls a ‘woke cult” in the private as well as public sector.”
Miller told Fox,” I would say our ability to deliver a significant blow to the equity cult, to the woke ideologues that have infiltrated effectively evrey facet of American life is how I would like to measure our success this year, because I think that’s existential for the country.”
Now, the organization is also assembling a group of lawyers who could fill general counsel jobs in a potential future Trump White House.
“It’s going to take principled and effective leadership at the top of the presidential personnel office to import Schedule F and make sure that the next conservative President can fill the administration with people they need,” Sharma of American Moment said.
Sources tell Axios that a future Trump administration may need as many as 10,000 vetted personnel to fill jobs in the administration, Daily Caller reports.
Trump’s top allies are preparing to radically reshape the federal government if he is re-elected, purging potentially thousands of civil servants and filling career posts with loyalists to him and his “America First” ideology.
Read Inside Trump ’25https://t.co/xunUqNp4C7
— Axios (@axios) July 22, 2022
Source: The Republic Brief