The frenetic scale and speed of leadership changes that the Trump administration has made at the Justice Department in its first week alone indicate the degree to which it intends to remake not just the political direction of the department, but also the makeup of its senior career ranks. Senior officials handling national security and … Read more
An Education Department employee was attending a funeral this week when she got the call: She was being placed on administrative leave because she works on projects that connect Black students, among others, to federal government programs. A disabled veteran employed at the Department of Veterans Affairs grew emotional when he heard about the rescinding … Read more
President Trump’s blunt message after a whirlwind week of executive orders and presidential proclamations may boil down to this: Take me at my word. During four years in political exile after his first term, Mr. Trump vowed to radically reshape American life, culture and politics if he got another chance. His first week has demonstrated … Read more
The initial plan for retooling the federal government under President Trump started with three loyal billionaires: the banker Howard Lutnick, the tech leader Elon Musk and the entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Now, it’s down to one. Mr. Lutnick emerged as Mr. Trump’s pick to run the Commerce Department. Mr. Ramaswamy decided to step aside from the … Read more
When the career staff of the National Security Council popped onto a video call at 11:30 on Wednesday morning, a sense of dread had already settled in. They knew exactly what President Trump thought of the council: that it was the core of the deep state, whose employees, almost all drawn from the State and … Read more
President Trump had barely reacquainted himself with the Oval Office after his second inauguration when he began shredding the D.E.I. initiatives of the Biden administration, fulfilling a cause célèbre for conservatives that had helped power his political comeback. On his second day back in power, Mr. Trump ordered that agency heads place those officials who … Read more
The National Treasury Employees Union said on Tuesday that it has sued President Trump to block an executive order that would enable him to fire career federal workers across the government. The order signed on Monday evening, known as “Schedule F,” would empower the Trump administration to strip job protections from many career federal employees … Read more
A transition team for President-elect Donald J. Trump has asked scores of senior career diplomats to resign from their positions on Monday, as soon as Mr. Trump takes office, and many of those asked to step down intend to do so, two U.S. officials said. The practice is common when a presidential transition occurs, but … Read more
President-elect Donald J. Trump is planning a string of executive orders during his first days in office, including one to strip job protections from career civil servants, his top policy adviser told Republican members of Congress on Sunday, according to two people briefed on the matter. In a phone call with a few dozen Republicans … Read more