Less than a week into his second term, President Donald Trump reportedly fired at least a dozen internal government watchdogs late Friday, according to US media.
According to unnamed persons familiar with the matter, The Washington Post claimed that the White House personnel director sent emails to independent inspectors general of at least 12 federal agencies informing them of their immediate dismissals.
Inspectors’ oversight responsibilities often include identifying and discouraging government employee fraud, waste, and abuse.
They are in charge of looking into employee transgressions of the law, rules, and moral principles as well as auditing contracts, finances, and employee performance.
The Post stated that the Departments of Defence, State, Interior, and Energy, along with the Environmental Protection Agency and Social Security Administration, were among the government agencies that were impacted by the defections.
“It’s a mass slaughter,” one of the dismissed inspector generals reportedly stated, as reported by the Post. “The entire system will be undermined by whoever Trump appoints now because they will be perceived as loyalists.”
According to the publication, the majority of individuals dismissed were appointed by Trump during his first term.
Three unnamed sources with knowledge of the dismissals were quoted by the New York Times as saying that 17 inspectors general were let go, while another source said that the Justice Department’s watchdog remained unaffected.
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, described the dismissals as “a purge… in the middle of the night.”
In a social media post on X, she stated, “Inspectors general are charged with rooting out government waste, fraud, abuse, and preventing misconduct.”
“President Trump is opening the door for widespread corruption and destroying the checks on his power.”
Trump declared his intention to remove some 1,000 opponents from the US government on Tuesday, his first full day in office.
To alter government policies on immigration, citizenship, gender, diversity, and environment, the 78-year-old Republican launched his second term with a flurry of executive actions, some of which are already facing legal challenges.
