Trump and DOGE shrank federal workforce and the world did not end

Apr 1, 2026 | Media Mentions

By Roderick Law (Washington Examiner)

The bad news: death and taxes are still inevitable. The good news: an ever-expanding federal government is not.

That statement would have been unthinkable just a couple of years ago, when President Joe Biden was hiring tens of thousands of new IRS employees (speaking of taxes) and increasing State Department staff by 22%. Biden came into office complaining that the first Trump administration had “hollowed” the federal workforce and was determined to create a “strong, healthy” federal civil service. He grew it by 6% during his term.

But 14 months into the second Trump administration, Reuters reported that the federal government has shrunk by 12% since September 2024. That follows a January report from the news service stating that the number of government workers is lower than it has been in “at least a decade.”

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