Featured Image Credit: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP via Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, Elon Musk, US News, Politics, Jobs
Phoebe Tonks
Topics: Donald Trump, Elon Musk, US News, Politics, Jobs
Donald Trump has drawn the ire of voters after he bragged about eliminating over 270,000 federal jobs during his second term in office – despite arguing he was a ‘president for the workers.’
In a Truth Social post shared on December 26,Trump, 79, reposted a screenshot from the White House's Rapid Response account, which was celebrating the elimination of 271,000 US government roles, making it the lowest number of staff keeping their jobs since 2014.
"Promises made, promises kept," the White House Rapid Response account said, prompting Trump himself to respond with: "Big news for the USA!"
Throughout Trump’s election campaign and since returning to the White House, the president has continually championed the idea of bringing back jobs to American workers and reducing high levels of unemployment – a view which seems to be drastically at odds with the firing of employees in their thousands.
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However, many of the jobs lost have come as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to streamline services at a federal level, with the Trump administration making major cuts to any area it felt was unnecessary.
Some of the departments that have faced the largest cuts include the Department of Homeland Security, Internal Revenue Service, United States Agency for International Development, Department of Energy and the Department of Defense.
Many of the layoffs were also exacerbated by the government shutdown, which lasted from October 1 to November 12, 2025, making it the longest shutdown in US history.
Trump, who previously set up DOGE, with billionaire Elon Musk at the helm, originally said that the DOGE's goal was to form ‘a smaller government, with more efficiency and less bureaucracy.’
It was hoped that by streamlining the government, the administration could cut out unnecessary services and reduce the overall spending bill, and Trump even signed an executive order to that effect that confirmed the organization would last through July 2026.
However, this no longer appears to be the case, with Musk having long since been removed from his post and DOGE no longer existing, according to a report from Reuters.
Scott Kupor, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director, said the department was shut down after just eight months, with very little measurable savings having been made during that time.
Yet even despite the disbanding of DOGE, federal cuts have kept on coming, with many employees, both long standing and probationary, having lost their jobs as part of the cull.
It’s understood that the scale of the cuts has significantly impacted on US wide levels of unemployment, with the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealing that around 7.8million Americans remain unemployed, with total unemployment rates sitting at 4.6percent.