Signs 'Schedule F' executive order to strip civil service protections

Trump signed Executive Order 13957, creating a new 'Schedule F' classification for federal employees in policy-making roles. This order stripped tens of thousands of career civil servants of their employment protections, effectively making them at-will employees who could be fired for political reasons. It was widely seen as a mechanism to purge the 'deep state' and install loyalists in key positions across the government, fundamentally altering the nonpartisan nature of the federal workforce.

"Creating Schedule F in the Excepted Service" — Title of Executive Order 13957