Record number of government employees flee Trump administration

The Trump-era brain drain continues.

As insider accounts accumulate depicting the Trump administration being a chaotic hot bed of dysfunction, government employees are shedding their jobs at a record pace.

New data indicate the number of senior civil servants who have fled the government under Trump is 26 percent higher than it was under President Barack Obama.

“This will lead to a crisis that will affect the American public for years to come,” warned Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD).

And over at the Environmental Protection Agency, the Washington Post reports more than 1,500 staffers have left their jobs since Trump was sworn in. “The exodus has shrunk the agency’s workforce by 8 percent,” according to newspaper.

Those who have headed for the door make it plain who’s to blame for the exodus — Trump.

“I felt it was time to leave given the irresponsible, ongoing diminishment of agency resources, which has recklessly endangered our ability to execute our responsibilities as public servants,” said Ann Williamson, a scientist and longtime EPA supervisor. She recently left after serving 33 years at the agency. “I did not want to any longer be any part of this administration’s nonsense.”

Other agencies continue to shrink at an astonishing rate, not necessarily because of huge budget cutbacks (Congress just passed a ballooning $1.3 trillion budget) but because so many people want to leave.

The total number of permanent employees at the State Department fell 6 percent between Trump’s inauguration and March 2018, while the total number at the Department of Education declined 9 percent, according to the Post.

Back in March, more than 200 retired career diplomats signed a letter sounding the alarm about the deterioration of the State Department, warning that the Trump administration’s neglect had “crippled” the agency’s capacity to function.

Trump has certainly made plain his contempt for government workers.

On the eve of Labor Day, Trump demeaned federal employees by withholding a scheduled pay raise for million of workers across the country. In a letter to Congress, Trump cited a “national emergency or serious economic conditions affecting the general welfare.”

But that so-called “national emergency” didn’t stop Trump from signing a tax cut give-away to corporations and billionaires late last year, a move that will explode the deficit by nearly $2 trillion.

Meanwhile, not only are people fleeing the administration, but lots of professional in the private sector are reluctant to join Trump’s train-wreck administration.

“Trump’s mercurial decision-making practices, fears of being drawn into special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation and a stalled legislative agenda are keeping top-flight talent on the outside,” the Associated Press reported this year.

So much for Trump recruiting the very best people.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.