Mass layoffs: Trump administration fires thousands of federal employees after expiration of deferred waiver offer

The Trump administration remains focused on its goal of drastically reducing the size of the government, initiating a round of massive layoffs in different federal agencies that will affect, primarily, probationary employees.

According to various reports, at least six federal agencies cut their probationary staff after the deadline of the differential resignation offer that the Trump administration sent to the more than two million federal civil servants.

According to Politico, the Department of Energy is moving to lay off most or all of its approximately 2,000 probationary employees. Likewise, the Department of Education, the Office of Personnel Management, the Small Business Administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the General Services Administration initiated layoffs in the last 48 hours.

Those affected by these layoffs (and more to come) will join the approximately 75,000 federal employees who accepted the Trump Administration's deferred resignation offer, which guaranteed these officials their salaries and benefits through next September 30 for accepting a resignation in lieu of a forced layoff.

These 75,000 employees represent 3.3% of the total federal workforce, which numbers about 2,300,000 federal employees.

The Trump administration had hoped to reduce between 5-10% of the federal workforce with its deferred resignation program, inspired in part by the successful layoff program that had been implemented by Elon Musk at the time of acquiring the social network X.

Still, White House officials assure that the ultimate goal is to reduce the size of the state, make the federal government less bureaucratic and more efficient.

"This is not a mission to reach a quota, this is a mission to streamline the government," a White House official who requested anonymity told Politico.

In addition to the layoffs at the six agencies mentioned, Musk and his team at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) began reviewing the budget of the Department of Housing and Urban Development to plan potential cuts and layoffs.

It is unclear how many employees have been laid off so far, however, efforts are expected to currently focus on recently hired staff members who are on probationary periods of one to two years as this allows employers to lay those workers off without cause.

The moves come after President Trump signed an executive order directing agencies to work with DOGE to make "preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force."

It also comes days after DOGE announced $900 million in cuts at the Department of Education and other agencies such as USAID have undergone significant restructuring.