Trump administration rehires laid-off employees after cost-cutting blitz
Al Jazeera1 day
Trump Admin Offers Hundreds of Reinstatements After DOGE Workforce Cuts
Above: People walk by the General Services Administration (GSA) building on June 1, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Image copyright: Kevin Carter/Getty Images
The Spin
Anti-Trump narrative
These rehires prove DOGE's aggressive cost-cutting went too far, too fast and left critical government functions broken. The GSA has been operating in "triage mode" for months without enough people to carry out basic functions, creating costly confusion that undermines taxpayer services. There's no evidence these reductions delivered any actual savings — just administrative chaos and wasted resources.
Pro-Trump narrative
The federal workforce needed dramatic restructuring to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse, and some adjustments during this massive overhaul were always expected. Under the Trump administration, the workforce has been reduced by roughly 300,000, the largest single-year cut in decades, while GSA leadership continues making necessary corrections in the best interest of agencies and taxpayers. Plus, the vast majority of separations were voluntary, not forced.