President Donald Trump unveiled a plan to make massive cuts to various government agencies prior to his inauguration Jan. 20 where he became the 47th president of the United States.
Since becoming president, he has enacted many executive orders, including the halting of funding for international aid and some domestic programs.
President Trump appears to be basing his plans for reforming the federal government on the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” which states that Trump should “De-weaponize the Federal Government by increasing accountability and oversight of the FBI and DOJ” and “Make federal bureaucrats more accountable to the democratically elected President and Congress.”
Project 2025 says the new administration should do this by “assembling an army of aligned, vetted, trained, and prepared conservatives to go to work on Day One to deconstruct the Administrative State.”
Even before Day 1, President Trump had begun assembling this army by appointing billionaire Elon Musk to run the brand new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) which will determine which areas of the government need to be cut. Musk has attacked the government for many policies such as allowing employees to work from home, regulating his businesses, and promoting “woke” culture.
While DOGE will be able to make recommendations, any actual cuts will still need to be passed by Congress which could prove difficult as Republicans can only afford to lose one member in the House of Representatives to get any policy through.
Despite the fact that Virginia is home to over 144,000 federal employees, and relies on federal spending for 20% of its economy, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin has signed a letter along with 25 other GOP governors supporting the DOGE and Trump’s plan for cuts.
Many people in Northern Virginia are worried about these cuts and could face unemployment if Trump deems their job to be unneeded. Mr. Przywara, who teaches psychology and comparative government, is concerned about President Trump’s plan.
“I think that government employees do really important work that goes unnoticed by most Americans. Trump’s plan to cut employees will impact a lot of people more than they realize and it will especially impact my family because my wife works for the Department of the Interior,” he said.
