Threatens to reinstate Schedule F to purge federal civil service

In comments over the weekend, Trump advocated for reinstating and expanding his late-term Schedule F executive order, which would effectively dismantle the nonpartisan federal civil service system. Schedule F, issued in October 2020 and rescinded by Biden, would have reclassified tens of thousands of career federal employees as at-will workers who could be fired without cause. Trump stated he would make "every executive-branch employee fireable by the president" if re-elected in 2024. Public administration experts warned this would represent the "demolition of the nonpartisan federal civil service system" established by the 1883 Pendleton Act, replacing merit-based employment with political loyalty tests. The proposal would allow a president to purge career professionals across agencies—scientists, economists, analysts, inspectors general—and replace them with political appointees, fundamentally undermining checks on executive power and expertise-based policymaking.

"Every executive-branch employee [should be] fireable by the president." — Comments advocating Schedule F reinstatement, reported March 14, 2022