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The plan immediately triggered a wave of exits. By mid-February, roughly 75,000 federal workers had already taken the deal. Now, with the next deadline looming, another 100,000-plus are set to depart on Tuesday. The Guardian noted that this will mark the largest one-day reduction of federal workers in U.S. history.
Not all employees are leaving quietly. Many describe the atmosphere inside agencies as tense and hostile. According to The Guardian:
“Workers preparing to leave government as part of the resignation program – one of several pillars of Donald Trump’s sweeping cuts to the federal workforce – have described how months of ‘fear and intimidation’ left them feeling like they had no choice but to depart.”
One longtime FEMA employee echoed that sentiment:
“Federal workers stay for the mission. When that mission is taken away, when they’re scapegoated, when their job security is uncertain, and when their tiny semblance of work-life balance is stripped away, they leave. That’s why I left.”
Between deferred resignations, voluntary separations, early retirements, and outright firings under new reduction-in-force orders, the total number of federal employees expected to exit is staggering—around 275,000 in a single year. Officials confirm that this represents the steepest drop in civilian government staffing since World War II.
From the beginning of his second term, President Trump made no secret of his mission to slash the size of Washington’s bureaucracy. In early 2025, he directed every federal agency to prepare aggressive reorganization plans aimed at cutting “waste, bloat, and corruption.”
The administration’s early moves have already sent shockwaves through the liberal establishment. Agencies long viewed as left-leaning strongholds have been gutted. For instance, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) saw nearly its entire Washington staff placed on leave, building access revoked, and operations crippled.
While many anonymous employees who accepted the resignation package are leaving the door open to return someday, the Trump administration shows no signs of reversing course. Agencies are under strict orders to slash overlapping offices, reduce layers of management, and bring bloated departments back under White House control.
For decades, conservatives have warned that Washington’s unelected bureaucrats have grown too powerful, too insulated, and too expensive for taxpayers. Now, under Trump’s leadership, the long-promised dismantling of the deep state appears to be happening faster—and on a scale—few could have imagined.
Interestingly curious is the fact that during the Biden Administration such a response to ‘fear and intimidation’ tactics by conservatives were simply ignored or ridiculed as paranoia and conspiracy theories. It is this display of disingenuous incongruity that is devouring the DNC like a cancer.