By Ebi Kesiena
The administration of United States President Donald Trump has finalised a sweeping overhaul of the federal civil service system, a move that significantly broadens the president’s authority to hire and fire senior career government employees.
According to a government directive, the new rule could affect an estimated 50,000 federal workers by stripping certain high-ranking career officials of long-standing civil service protections. The changes are being implemented through the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which is creating a new employment category for senior staff involved in shaping or executing administration policies.
The Wall Street Journal reported that employees placed in this category would be exempt from traditional job protections that have historically made career federal workers difficult to dismiss. OPM officials said the measure is partly intended to discipline employees perceived as obstructing presidential policies.
The new classification applies to positions considered policy-determining, policy-making or policy-advocating in nature. While these roles will continue to be filled on a non-partisan basis, they will now be treated as “at-will” positions, allowing agencies to remove occupants more quickly.
“People can’t be conscientious objectors in the workforce in a way that interferes with their ability to carry out their mission,” OPM Director Scott Kupor said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.
A more than 250-page OPM directive explained that the rule is designed to enable agencies to swiftly dismiss employees in critical roles who engage in misconduct, perform poorly, or deliberately undermine presidential directives.
For decades, the US federal government has been viewed as one of the most stable employers in the country, with many workers spending their entire careers in public service. Trump, however, has repeatedly argued that the federal bureaucracy is bloated, inefficient and resistant to reform.
At the start of his second term, the administration moved aggressively to reshape the workforce. In 2025 alone, more than 300,000 federal employees reportedly left government service as part of broad staffing cuts.
Meanwhile, the OPM has not responded to requests for comment on the new rule.
