The uncivil service objects to Trump

The President of the United States is the head of the executive branch. Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution says:

The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.

Section 2 speaks more specifically to his enumerated powers, but he’s in charge of the Executive branch and everyone in it. That’s non-controversial when Democrats/socialists/communists (D/s/cs) occupy the White House. But when a Republican like Donald Trump is in office it’s the height of controversy.

Trump is demanding—gasp!—that federal employees, many of whom have been out of the office since Covid lockdowns, return to their offices and actually work 40 hours a week. He is also offering exceedingly generous buyouts for people who can’t bring themselves to actually do the kind of supervised work most Americans somehow manage every week. They’ll get their salary and benefits through September, and during that period, they don’t have to show up for work!

As one might imagine, they’re not happy about that. They’re particularly not happy about the idea that the federal government might be downsized by even a single work-at-home employee. Head of the American Federation of Government Employees Union, Everett Kelly, explains: 

“Purging the federal government of dedicated career federal employees will have vast, unintended consequences that will cause chaos for the Americans who depend on a functioning federal government,” Kelley said in a statement. “Between the flurry of anti-worker executive orders and policies, it is clear that the Trump administration’s goal is to turn the federal government into a toxic environment where workers cannot stay even if they want to.”

Actually, what Kelly and those he represents fear is like “X,” Americans might quickly discover government will run more efficiently with far fewer people on the federal payroll. Those willing to actually work likely have nothing to fear from Trump who isn’t anti-worker. He just expects people to fully do their jobs for the American people rather than engage in political posturing and subversion. 

 A serving Office of Personnel Management (OPM) employee warns Americans of a hostile Trump takeover:

Graphic: X Screenshot

A far less hysterical and constitutionally aligned observer notes Trump can’t take over the Executive Branch; he’s the head of the Executive Branch. The OPM works for him. It’s not an independent entity that gets to tell the POTUS what he’s allowed to do:

Graphic: X Screenshot

The OPM, other government employees and D/s/c politicians may argue otherwise, but Trump, like every other president, is in charge. Any POTUS may hire and fire and demand all government employees implement his policies, which reflect the will of the American People. 

The Pendleton Act of 1883 was passed, and never repealed, to set up a merit-based process to eliminate the spoils system that existed until then. It set up a three member member commission:

"THIRD. Said commission shall, subject to the rules that may be made by the President, make regulations for, and have control of, such examinations, and, through its members or the examiners, it shall supervise and preserve the records of the same; and said commission shall keep minutes of its own proceedings.(emphasis added)

That was the law in 1883; it’s the law now. When Trump told the OPM, the successor of the commission set up in 1883, to announce the buyout to all applicable federal employees, he was fully within the law and his constitutional powers. He gets to establish the rules of employment—in this case, merit—and he gets to tell federal employees about his agenda and insist they enforce it, just like every other POTUS. If they refuse, they can take the buyout or find other employment by other means. Should they choose to stay and try to subvert Trump’s lawful powers, they’re subject to firing, potentially even prosecution.

That’s the difference between a constitutional, representative republic and “our democracy,” a tyranny of the majority. In our republic, the powers of government are limited and enumerated, and what is not enumerated is reserved for the states or the people. The rule of law applies to all and must be upheld. That includes individual liberties for all.

In “our democracy,” there is no rule of law. The law is what ruling politicians and bureaucrats say it is at any given moment. Americans get only the liberties government allows. Americans had a taste of that, good and hard, for the last four years and they didn’t like it. Enough of them didn’t like it to reelect Donald Trump, who is doing precisely what he told them he’d do, precisely what they elected him to do.

That some federal employees, who can reasonably be thought to fear losing jobs requiring little, or political, work, are alarmed might be thought a good thing, exactly why America gave the job, and the power, to Donald Trump.

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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor. 

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