On February 20, a tearful executive at the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) informed staffers that approximately 6,000 employees would be laid off, eliminating roughly 6% of the agency’s workforce during the busy tax-filing season. This move is part of President Donald Trump’s sweeping downsizing effort targeting various government employees, including bank regulators, forest workers, and rocket scientists.
The downsizing effort is led by tech billionaire Elon Musk, Trump’s biggest campaign donor. Musk symbolically held a chainsaw aloft at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland, handed to him by Argentine President Javier Milei, to represent the drastic reduction of government jobs.
Labour unions have sued to halt the mass firings, but a federal judge in Washington ruled on February 20 that the layoffs could proceed. Christy Armstrong, IRS director of talent acquisition, emotionally informed employees about the layoffs during a phone call, encouraging them to support each other.
The layoffs, expected to total 6,700, primarily target workers hired during Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration, which sought to expand enforcement efforts on wealthy taxpayers. Republicans have opposed this expansion, arguing it would lead to harassment of ordinary Americans.
The IRS, which now employs around 100,000 people compared to 80,000 before Biden took office, has taken a cautious approach to downsizing during the tax-filing season. The agency expects to process over 140 million individual returns by the April 15 deadline and will retain several thousand critical workers for this task.
The Trump administration’s federal layoffs have focused on newer employees with fewer protections. The White House is also preparing to dissolve the leadership of the US Postal Service and absorb the independent agency into the Commerce Department.
At the IRS’s Kansas City office, probationary workers found their computer functions disabled except for email, which would deliver their dismissal notices. Shannon Ellis, a local union leader, expects around 100 workers to be fired by the end of the day.
The campaign has delighted Republicans who view the federal workforce as bloated and corrupt, while also targeting agencies that regulate big businesses, including Musk’s companies SpaceX, Tesla, and Neuralink. The Department of Government Efficiency, led by Musk, has canceled contracts worth about $8.5 billion involving foreign aid, diversity training, and other initiatives opposed by Trump.
Democratic critics argue that Trump is exceeding his constitutional authority and cutting critical government programs at the expense of middle-class families. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on February 20 indicates that most Americans worry the cost-cutting could hurt government services.
Some agencies have struggled to comply with Trump’s rapid directives, with workers overseeing US nuclear weapons being fired and then recalled, and medicines and food exports stranded due to a freeze on foreign aid. Those affected by the layoffs face challenges in contesting their dismissal, as the board handling such disputes has been paralyzed by Trump’s efforts to control it.