John, this is a long email about what is at stake if Trump in a 2nd Trump administration. Please take a moment to read it and then support CREW’s work to hold Trump accountable and protect the merit based civil service with a donation.

John,

In a second Trump administration, Donald Trump has made clear that he wants to finish what he started in 2020 – by replacing experts and longtime public servants in government with his loyalists.

Where did this start?

Trump signed an executive order in October 2020 which established a new “Schedule F” employment category for federal employees.

Tens of thousands of civil servants who serve in roles deemed to have some influence over policy would be reassigned as "Schedule F" employees – meaning they would lose their employment protections, making them far easier to fire.

John, Trump wanted to replace the tens of thousands of experts who make sure our air is clean, our airplanes safe and our tax refunds are paid with loyalists, regardless of whether they had any particular expertise. The effort was never fully implemented because President Biden rescinded Trump’s executive order soon after he took office.

But Trump has promised that he would reimpose Schedule F in a second term, and conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation are preparing to assist through a plan called Project 2025.

What’s Project 2025?

Led by individuals with close ties to Donald Trump and his administration, Project 2025 hopes to engage in an unprecedented reshaping of the executive branch. The goal is to implement radical policies – and they want to do it by ensuring that each and every person hired into the federal government swears unflinching fidelity to Trump and the conservative cause.

The consequences of extremists overseeing a radical restructuring of the federal government could be catastrophic, which has led the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to finalize a new rule to strengthen protections for the civil service and members of Congress have introduced legislation to formalize these protections legislatively.

Here are the Trump loyalists poised to help him make good on his promised purge of the executive branch:

• John McEntee. He started as Trump’s body man during the 2016 campaign and is currently working on HR for the Trump campaign. He could build upon that role and lead OPM, the office charged with recruiting, vetting, and hiring all civil service government employees from intelligence officers and policy advisors to administrative law judges and law enforcement personnel.
• Stephen Miller. He was a Senior Advisor to the President for Policy and White House Director of Speechwriting during Trump’s administration. After the 2020 election Miller helped Trump’s attempts to overturn his loss and ultimately incite the insurrection. He is considered by many to be a candidate for Chief of Staff.
• Jeffrey Clark. He was at the center of efforts within the Department of Justice to overturn the 2020 presidential election including efforts to push out DOJ leaders who were seen as insufficiently loyal to Donald Trump. Now he’s considered a leading contender for Attorney General, despite facing potential disbarment.
• Richard Grenell. He was Acting Director of National Intelligence in the Trump administration and in several diplomatic posts, including Ambassador to Germany and Special Presidential Envoy for Serbia and Kosovo Peace Negotiations. Now he is considered to be a top contender for Secretary of State.
• Kash Patel. He was a former official in the National Security Council who spent time as the Principal Deputy in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and Chief of Staff at the Department of Defense. He’s considered a likely pick to lead the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) – despite being previously considered unfit to hold that job.

These Trump loyalists are likely appointees who would be willing and empowered to carry out loyalty purges, but there are also other potential appointees who may be similarly inclined and have conflicts of interest that might affect who is hired and fired from the federal government – from big money billionaires and lobbyists to Trump family members and conspiracy theorists.

But here’s the good news:

Leaders in Congress and the executive branch have taken note of Project 2025 and Trump’s plan to reimpose Schedule F – and they know how dangerous it would be to let Trump get away with it.

That’s why OPM finalized a rule making it harder for a future president to enact Schedule F by protecting career civil servants from being reclassified and fired at will.

But, of course, Trump loyalists don’t want this rule in place – and they may legally challenge the rule so they can continue to carry out their plan.

CREW supports this rule, and we’re committed to helping defend it in court if its legality is challenged. We’ve always fought to defend our democracy from those who threaten it, and we won’t stop now.

Thanks for stepping up and helping us defend democracy,

CREW HQ