Trump’s Latest Executive Order: Reshaping the Federal Government to Better Serve Fascism

October 26, 2020 | revcom.us

 

On October 21, Trump issued an executive order that would give him power to remove civil service protection and job security from thousands of government employees. Trump’s order “reclassifies” many job descriptions so that professional experts in various fields who are tasked with turning government law and policy into actual implementation in fields such as environmental protection, water safety, and many others could be fired with little or no explanation or recourse, and replaced with Trump adherents. Initial estimates of the number of people who would be affected range from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.

Trump has railed against what he calls the “deep state” for years. Part of what he means is that some of the fascist measures his regime has pushed haven’t been promoted aggressively enough within different government agencies. Shortly after Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate ended with his acquittal earlier this year, he fired two high-ranking officials who had testified against him. At around the same time, he also appointed 29-year-old Johnny McEntee, described by the Daily Beast as a Trump “loyalist,” and charged him with “purg(ing) his administration” of people Trump views as “government careerists ... trying to destroy him.” McEntee and a fascist cohort he has around him are slated to be in charge of making Trump’s executive order a reality.

Since a law enacted in 1883, civil service employees in the U.S. government have been selected by competitive exams and not based on allegiance toward a party or people in power. It has also been illegal to fire or demote people because of their political affiliations or for political reasons. Since then, while each new presidential administration appoints a small number of people to lead various government agencies, the bulk of the staff is supposed to be a professional, and nonpartisan, staff of experts. Trump’s measure would change all that—as Don Beyer, a Democratic Party congressman, accurately said, “It’s an attempt to redefine the civil service as a political arm of the presidency.”

Fascism is a different form of rule (see Bob Avakian’s August 1 statement)—and Trump’s executive order is aimed at making a big stride towards having the entire government bureaucracy decisively controlled by fascist flunkies. It is aimed at accelerating the consolidation of across-the-board fascism in all areas the federal government oversees. It is scheduled to take effect January 19, 2021—the day before the next presidential administration is scheduled to be inaugurated—another reason this regime must be removed from power.

 

Sources:

Trump’s Once-Exiled Body Man Now Leads White House’s New Purge, Daily Beast, April 20, 2020.

‘Stunning’ Executive Order Would Politicize Civil Service, Government Executive, October 22, 2020.

Trump issues sweeping order for tens of thousands of career federal employees to lose civil service protections, Washington Post, October 22, 2020.

Scoop: New White House personnel chief tells Cabinet liaisons to target Never Trumpers, Axios, February 21, 2020.

Executive Order on Creating Schedule F In The Excepted Service, White House Executive Orders, October 21, 2020.