They should worry. Frankly, given the amount of bloat even in just the past few years, I’d guess that we could cut 30% of the workforce and not even notice. Then eliminate and consolidate departments to scale back further. It should be easy, but it won’t be. I hope that Trump has the stomach to make real, necessary changes.

Trump, in his formal campaign platform, called to redistribute workers out of the Washington area and implement large-scale cuts to the federal government, which he has long derided as harboring members of the “deep state.” Before leaving office in 2020, he issued an executive order that made tens of thousands of employees subject to firing with little due process if they were found to have resisted the administration’s policies – a move unwound by the Biden administration that Trump’s allies have vowed to restore. His calls for cuts have been amplified by surrogates such as billionaire Elon Musk, who insists such moves are necessary to cut down on waste and inefficiency.