Trump & Elon downsizing the government.

Trump administration offers all federal workers Elon Musk Twitter styled job buyout framed as a way to avoid Return To Office mandates.

Nextgov/FCW – Trump reportedly will offer buyouts to all 2 million federal workers January 28, 2025 07:16 PM ET The White House’s plan to offer “deferred resignations” that pay departing federal employees their salary through Sept. 30 will likely run afoul of rules governing buyout payments. By Erich Wagner Axios, who first reported the development, cited debunked claims from White House officials that 6% of the federal workforce does not work in person—more than half of federal workers cannot telework because their duties are not portable, and employees who telework spent around 60% of their work hours in person, per 2024 Office of Management and Budget data. The email frames the buyout offer as a respite from the administration’s effort to effectively end telework for most of the federal workforce, relocate workers and eliminate programs. It warns that a “majority” of agencies will see reductions in force, and “the reclassification to at-will status for a substantial number” of feds.

Trump Buyouts Mirror Elon Musk’s Twitter Purge Trump’s sweeping orders reek of Musk’s management philosophy Ken Klippenstein Jan 28, 2025 Trump’s plan, expressed in a memo blasted out to federal workers, bears a striking resemblance to one sent by Elon Musk sent to Twitter (X) employees in 2023, before laying off around 80 percent of the company’s workforce. The two memos even have the same title — “Fork in the Road.”

Yahoo News – Salon Trump OPM hires include recent high school grad who interned at Musk’s Neuralink Alex Galbraith Wed, January 29, 2025 at 3:33 PM EST The outlet reports that the upper echelons of OPM include a 21-year-old software engineer who formerly worked at Palantir, the analytics company owned by Musk’s former Paypal partner Peter Thiel. Another unnamed employee graduated from high school this year and reportedly lists bicycle mechanic and camp counselor on their resume, alongside an internship at Musk’s Neuralink.

Government Executive – Employee groups, Democrats, experts warn feds not to accept ‘deferred resignation’ offer – The lack of a legal underpinning for the purported eight-month severance package, and Elon Musk’s history of offering—and then revoking—severance payments have many federal workers wary of the measure. January 29, 2025 05:19 PM ET By Tuesday morning, a consensus had emerged among unions and other federal employe associations: Don’t take the deal. Between the questionable legal authority to grant deferred resignations, a lack of guarantee that an employees’ resignation will be accepted and that their pay and benefits will actually continue, and Elon Musk’s involvement and past history with mass resignation efforts, feds should be wary, they said. “Right now, we have more questions than answers about this email and the ‘deferred resignation program,’” reads an email from Matt Biggs, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers to union locals.