President-elect Donald Trump and his allies have repeatedly portrayed the federal civil service as a sinister “deep state,” a bureaucracy that he believes obstructed his first-term agenda and that he promises to upend when he takes office on Jan. 20.
Part of Trump’s plan calls for arbitrarily firing tens of thousands of nonpartisan career civil servants who were hired based on merit and expertise, and replacing them with political appointees loyal to the White House.
Trump also has named billionaire Elon Musk and financier Vivek Ramaswamy to head an advisory group on government spending that he has said will pave the way for his administration to “dismantle the government bureaucracy.” This initiative could further undermine the career workforce and make the government less efficient.
There is no doubt that the federal government needs to be modernized. It must hire faster, remove poor performers more easily, use technology better, and deliver services more effectively to the people it serves.
