Former U.S. President Donald Trump delivers a keynote speech at a conference hosted by the Americas First Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, on July 26. ⓒAP Photo There are still two years left until the next presidential election, but there are a lot of people in Washington these days who are already afraid of the ‘return’ of former President Donald Trump to the White House. This is especially true of high-ranking officials who opposed his nationalistic and far-right domestic and foreign policies during the Trump administration. This is because if Trump wins the November 2024 presidential election and succeeds in his re-election, plans have been revealed to oust progressively colored civil servants who have rebelled against his state-run policy and fill the position with loyalists. According to a recent revelation by the American internet media Axios, Trump approved Presidential Executive Order 13957, entitled ‘Schedule F’, written by his aides about a week or so before the 2020 presidential election. When he comes to power in January 2025, within 100 days of taking office, public officials who are negative to his government philosophy will be selected and reclassified as ‘Schedule F’ and expelled. Officials cannot be fired unless there is a clear reason for dismissal, but Trump has allowed ‘Schedule F’ officials to be fired at any time. In the United States, there are more than 4,000 high-ranking public office positions that the president can appoint, above the vice-ministerial level. However, they are not subject to ‘Schedule F’ as most of them resign when the administration changes. According to Axios, the target of reclassification Trump has in mind is federal officials in positions of direct or indirect influence on policy making and implementation out of a total of 2.1 million civil servants. It is estimated that around 5 million people Trump aides have consistently argued that the federal bureaucracy is full of progressives trying to sabotage the conservative agenda. In light of this, the prevailing view is that, eventually, civil servants in middle managerial and high-ranking positions with pro-Democratic tendencies will rise to the top of the list for layoffs. Ex-President Trump said he would block the path to reinstatement of civil servants who were reclassified as ‘Schedule F’ and fill them all with loyalists who obey his ‘America First’ policy instead. it’s a mess The US-first policy has been criticized for causing a lot of controversy at home and abroad and causing distrust in the US. For example, after Trump took office in January 2017, the former Obama administration unilaterally abolished the Iran nuclear agreement, which was difficult to agree with with its European allies, and withdrew from the Paris climate agreement agreed with the international community, in accordance with the ‘America First’ principle. At that time, many high-ranking officials were dissatisfied with this. In a speech at the ‘America First Policy Summit’ held in Washington, DC, the capital city in late July, former President Trump said, “To drain the wetlands and develop the forces of the ‘deep state’, rogue government officials who deliberately undermine democracy We need to make it easy to get fired.” He has solidified his policy of firing officials reclassified as ‘Schedule F’ if he comes to power again. During the 2016 presidential campaign and even after his inauguration, Trump has denigrated officials who have opposed his far-right policies as ‘wetland dwellers’ or ‘deep nation’ forces. “Replacement of loyalists threatens democracy.” The executive order was immediately repealed after Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden took office in January last year. However, when Trump, who had thought he would disappear from the political arena after losing the presidential election, publicly stated his intention to run for the next election in November 2024, still dissatisfied with the election results, the issue of ‘Schedule F’ drew attention again. Because his chances of winning the next presidential election cannot be ignored. A recent poll by public broadcaster NPR found that as many as 70 percent of Republican voters who voted for Trump in the last election want him to run again. The polls assuming President Biden (pictured) as the Democratic nominee and Trump as the Republican candidate were within the margin of error. In the show, the approval ratings of the two have been fighting within the margin of error. There have been some recent changes in public opinion. Biden is slightly ahead after it became known that the FBI raided Trump’s home in Mar-Lago, Florida, in mid-August for alleged possession of illegal secrets. According to a Yahoo News poll in the first week of September, Biden led Trump by 6 percentage points. As the possibility of Trump’s re-election rises, Democratic lawmakers are busy preparing measures to prevent ‘Schedule F’. After six senators recently introduced a bill that reestablished civil servant status, Democrats are also stepping up. According to the ‘Public Employee Preferential System Prevention Act’ proposed by them, the president cannot fire public officials because they do not match his political beliefs and views. Whether or not a public official should be fired should be based on the evaluation of his/her work performance and whether he/she is dishonest, and should not be linked to his/her political orientation. Congressman Gary Connolly, a Democrat, recently told the Washington Post that “when Trump comes to power, he’s trying to replace the vast majority of the federal government’s professional workforce with his own loyalists in the tens of thousands. This is a direct threat to democracy and the rule of law.” In particular, he pointed out, “The only reason Trump is doing this is to easily fire officials who don’t agree with his will.” However, even if the Democrats, the majority in the House, pass the bill, the Republicans, who split the Senate equally with the Democrats, will likely oppose it, so it is unlikely that it will lead to actual legislation. In addition, as Republicans are expected to regain their majority in the House of Representatives in the November congressional midterm elections, the possibility is raised that the Republicans will launch a counterattack. In July, Republican Congressman Chris Cox introduced legislation to institutionally guarantee Schedule F. Runners in the Republican presidential nominee are also sympathetic to Schedule F. Senator Ted Cruz told Axios that “radicals are abusing power across federal agencies and therefore support efforts to bring these ‘deep state’ forces to life.” Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also said that “Schedule F is the right way to hold public officials accountable.” Some Republicans have expressed distrust of the federal government by comparing the Biden administration to a “Nazi German Gestapo” and calling for a cut in the FBI budget after the FBI raided Trump’s home in recent days. Former President Trump denounced the FBI as a “fascist agency” on his social media, and even picked FBI officials as the number one priority to take over when he comes to power.
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Officials tremble at Trump’s ‘schedule’
