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Supporters of Trump’s agency cuts still favor nonpartisan federal workforce, survey shows

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2 months ago

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The Trump administration has taken a multi-pronged approach to overhauling the civil service — attempting to open the doors more political appointees, while also making it easier to remove career federal employees from their jobs. But those workforce changes don’t appear to resonate positively with many Americans, including those who are supportive of the administration’s federal workforce cuts more broadly.

In a recent survey, the Partnership for Public Service found that among individuals who approve of the Trump administration’s cuts to federal agencies, there is little support for a politicized federal workforce. The survey results showed that 83% of supporters of the Trump administration’s cuts agreed that having an expert and non-political federal workforce was “critical” to the country’s wellbeing.

Paul Hitlin, the Partnership’s senior research manager, said those results indicate that any support for agency cuts and employee layoffs instead come from a different desire.

“It really is about cutting spending, and certainly waste and fraud,” Hitlin said Tuesday during a virtual event hosted by the Partnership. “It’s not about putting in a civil service that is political in nature.”

Supporters of the administration’s cuts were also more opposed to the idea of a politicized federal workforce than those who were against the cuts. For instance, 76% of supporters of the administration’s cuts said civil servants should be “apolitical,” while 70% of those opposed to the cuts answered the same way.

Results from 2025 survey on the public’s perception of the Trump administration’s federal workforce cuts. (Source: Partnership for Public Service)

Still, the Trump administration has been pressing forward with significant changes in the structure of the civil service. Most recently, President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing a new class of federal employment, called Schedule G. The classification is reserved for political appointments who focus specifically on policy-making or policy-advocating work.

Earlier this year, Trump also revived his previous Schedule F executive order — now called Schedule Policy/Career — which aims to reclassify career federal employees to strip their civil service protections and make them easier for agencies to fire.

The White House has said its efforts will make the federal workforce more accountable and give agencies more flexibility in deciding who to retain or remove from their jobs. But many organizations, including the Partnership, have spoken out against the administration’s policies and warned they will lead to a politicization of the non-partisan federal workforce.

“You do not see a lot of support for that, even among people who are in favor of the administration’s cuts,” Hitlin said.

The Partnership’s survey also showed positive public perceptions of the federal workforce, despite growing rhetoric from the Trump administration criticizing the career civil service and promising to “drain the swamp.” In the results, 51% of respondents said they opposed the recent federal workforce layoffs, while 37% supported the layoffs and 12% were unsure.

“We also found in some of our focus groups that there was a lot of uncertainty, even among people who support the cuts,” Hitlin said. “And there’s a large amount of people who said that they thought there might be some hiccups and problems, but they still thought [the cuts were] worth it overall.”

Over the last several years, the Partnership has also regularly published polling results that show public trust in government continues to decline. In 2024, 23% of Americans said they trusted the federal government — an 11% decrease since 2022. But the Partnership’s research has also shown that the public trusts career civil servants themselves more than the federal government as a whole.

“By focusing on the elements of the government that may not receive as much attention as Congress —such as civil servants and the missions of federal agencies — an opportunity exists to increase the public’s trust,” the Partnership has said.

More recently, supporters of the Trump administration’s federal workforce overhauls remain in the minority, according to the Partnership’s latest survey results. Over 50% of survey respondents said they believed the cuts would hurt the U.S. economy, make Americans less safe and make their communities worse.

survey results chart on federal workforceResults from 2025 survey on the public’s perception of the Trump administration’s federal workforce cuts. (Source: Partnership for Public Service)

When asked to select their top three concerns about the cuts, most survey respondents said they were worried about the government’s ability to deliver benefits like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

“Other things like disease research and prevention, food safety and veterans’ health care and benefits — a lot of people selected those as well,” Hitlin said. “But by far, delivery of benefits was the top concern.”

In its latest survey results, the Partnership also found that roughly one-third of respondents said they or someone they know had been personally impacted by the administration’s cuts to agencies.

“This isn’t just an ‘inside the beltway’ story,” Hitlin said. “Large numbers of people are making connections about how these cuts are affecting things around them and seeing that. And over time, that number may grow.”

The post Supporters of Trump’s agency cuts still favor nonpartisan federal workforce, survey shows first appeared on Federal News Network.

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Politics

President Trump Taps Dr. Ben Carson for New Role — A HUGE Win for America First Agenda

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22 minutes ago

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September 25, 2025

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Dr. Ben Carson is the newest member of the Trump administration.

On Wednesday, former Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Ben Carson, was sworn in as the national adviser for nutrition, health, and housing at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins shared that Carson’s role will be to oversee Trump’s new Big Beautiful Bill law, which aims to ensure Americans’ quality of life, from nutrition to stable housing.

After being sworn in, Carson shared, “Today, too many Americans are suffering from the effects of poor nutrition. Through common-sense policymaking, we have an opportunity to give our most vulnerable families the tools they need to flourish.”

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Per USDA:

Today, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced that Dr. Benjamin S. Carson, Sr., M.D., was sworn in as the National Advisor for Nutrition, Health, and Housing at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

“There is no one more qualified than Dr. Carson to advise on policies that improve Americans’ everyday quality of life, from nutrition to healthcare quality to ensuring families have access to safe and stable housing,” said Secretary Rollins.

“With six in ten Americans living with at least one chronic disease, and rural communities facing unique challenges with respect to adequate housing, Dr. Carson’s insight and experience is critical. Dr. Carson will be crucial to implementing the rural health investment provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill and advise on America First polices related to nutrition, health, and housing.

“As the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the first Trump Administration, Dr. Carson worked to expand opportunity and strengthen communities, and we are honored to welcome him to the second Trump Administration to help lead our efforts here at USDA to Make America Healthy Again and ensure rural America continues to prosper.”

“Today, too many Americans are suffering from the effects of poor nutrition. Through common-sense policymaking, we have an opportunity to give our most vulnerable families the tools they need to flourish,” said Dr. Ben Carson. “I am honored to work with Secretary Rollins on these important initiatives to help fulfill President Trump’s vision for a healthier, stronger America.”

On Sunday, Dr. Carson was one of the many speakers at the memorial service of the late TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk.

During the memorial service, Carson highlighted that Kirk was shot at 12:24 p.m. and then continued to share the Bible verse John 12:24, which reads, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”

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The post President Trump Taps Dr. Ben Carson for New Role — A HUGE Win for America First Agenda appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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LEAKED MEMO: Deep State Prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia Claim There Isn’t Enough Evidence to Convict Comey Amid Reports of Imminent Indictment

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28 minutes ago

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September 25, 2025

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On Wednesday evening, disgruntled officials in the Eastern District of Virginia leaked contents of a memo explaining why charges should not be brought against James Comey.

As reported earlier, former FBI Director James Comey is expected to be indicted in the Eastern District of Virginia in the next few days.

Comey will reportedly be charged for lying to Congress in a 2020 testimony about whether he authorized leaks to the media.

Officials in the Eastern District of Virginia are still fighting to stop Comey from being charged after Trump fired US Attorney Erik Siebert.

President Trump last week fired Erik Siebert as the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia because he refused to bring charges against Letitia James, Comey, Schiff and others.

On Saturday evening, President Trump announced that he had appointed Lindsey Halligan – his personal attorney who defended him against the Mar-a-Lago raid – as US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Now, with just days to go before the statute of limitations runs out to charge Comey for lying during a September 30, 2020 testimony, Lindsey Halligan is reportedly gearing up to indict Comey.

Prosecutors reportedly gave newly sworn-in Halligan a memo defending James Comey and explaining why charges should not brought against the fired FBI Director.

Per MSNBC’s Ken Dilanian:

Two sources familiar with the matter tell me prosecutors in the EDVA US attorney‘s office presented newly sworn US attorney Lindsey Halligan with a memo explaining why charges should not be brought against James Comey, because there isn’t enough evidence to establish probable cause a crime was committed, let alone enough to convince a jury to convict him.

Justice Department guidelines say a case should not be brought unless prosecutors believe it’s more likely than not that they can win a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt.

The post LEAKED MEMO: Deep State Prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia Claim There Isn’t Enough Evidence to Convict Comey Amid Reports of Imminent Indictment appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Nearly 8 in 10 Voters Say the United States is in Political Crisis After the Assassination of Charlie Kirk

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40 minutes ago

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September 25, 2025

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Nearly eight in ten voters believe that the United States is in a political crisis in the wake of the assassination of conservative icon Charlie Kirk.

According to a Quinnipiac University national poll of registered voters released on Wednesday, a massive 93 percent of Democrats, 84 percent of independents, and 60 percent of Republicans said the nation is in a political crisis.

“The Kirk assassination lays bare raw, bipartisan concerns about where the country is headed,” Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy said of the poll results.

Quinnipiac reports:

Seventy-one percent of voters think politically motivated violence in the United States today is a very serious problem, 22 percent think it is a somewhat serious problem, 3 percent think it is a not so serious problem, and 1 percent think it is not a problem at all.

This is a jump from Quinnipiac University’s June 26 poll when 54 percent thought politically motivated violence in the United States today was a very serious problem, 37 percent thought it was a somewhat serious problem, 6 percent thought it was a not so serious problem, and 2 percent thought it was not a problem at all.

Nearly 6 in 10 voters (58 percent) think it will not be possible to lower the temperature on political rhetoric and speech in the United States, while 34 percent think it will be possible.

Over half, 54 percent, of voters believe the US will see increased political violence over the next few years. Another 27 percent said they think it will stay “about the same,” while just 14 percent believe it will ease.

A 53 percent majority also said they are “pessimistic about freedom of speech being protected in the United States.”

Surprisingly, a 53 percent majority also believes the current system of democracy is not working.

“From a perceived assault on freedom of speech to the fragility of the democracy, a shudder of concern and pessimism rattles a broad swath of the electorate. Nearly 80 percent of registered voters feel they are witnessing a political crisis, seven in ten say political violence is a very serious problem, and a majority say this discord won’t go away anytime soon,” Malloy added.

The vast majority, 82 percent, said the way that people discuss politics is contributing to the violence.

“When asked if political discourse is contributing to violence, a rare meeting of the minds…Republicans, Democrats, and independents in equal numbers say yes, it is,” Malloy said.

The survey was conducted from September 18 to 21 among 1,276 registered voters with a margin of error of +/- 3.3 percentage points.

The post Nearly 8 in 10 Voters Say the United States is in Political Crisis After the Assassination of Charlie Kirk appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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