Three times during my career I was recruited to manage an organization that was either failing in its mission or in need of rapid reorganization.  These experiences give me some understanding of what a newly elected president of the United States faces, particularly with personnel issues when the prior administration was run by the opposing political party.

But first, I need to explain a bit about how federal employees are classified under the U.S. Civil Service system’s three categories.  These are:

• The Competitive Service, which includes 80+% of federal employees who take the Civil Service exam,

• The Senior Executive Service (SES), which are top positions that are frequently filled by political appointees, and

• The Excepted Service, which includes employees that are further categorized in Schedules A through E.  These employees are not covered under Civil Service rules related to hiring or firing.  

Schedule C covers approximately 4,000 political positions that are filled by the president, 1,000 of which must be confirmed by Senate.  I have read that former president Trump’s totally naïve transition team was shocked when they learned in December 2016 that they had that many political appointments to make. 

Consequently, it was no surprise that Trump lacked the knowledge and agenda to do much harm when he took control of the White House in 2017.  As a result, his administration initially included some establishment, although not all stellar, Republicans. Those included, among others, chief of staff, Reince Priebus, Sec. of State, Rex Tillerson, Sec. of Defense, former general James Matis, and attorney general, Jeff Sessions.  Before Trump’s term ended, however, all these individuals and other traditional Republicans in his administration had been replaced by loyal supporters.

But Trump finally discovered (someone had to tell him) how he could gain more control over the Executive Branch.  In October 2020, he signed Executive Order 13957, creating a “Schedule F,” class of federal employees within the Excepted Service category who could be hired and fired at will.  These would be “confidential, policy-determining, policymaking, or policy-advocating positions” held by career Civil Service personnel.

It is not clear how many positions would be included in Schedule F, perhaps thousands.  Trump’s Office of Management and Budget director, Russell Vought, called the move “much-needed reform,” but critics believe the order was designed to install Trump loyalists at much lower levels of the government who would be beholden to the president for their jobs.

President Biden rescinded this order shortly after taking office, but it hasn’t been forgotten by the MAGA crowd.     

In an earlier blog, I wrote about Project 2025, a $22 million funded effort by 70 conservative organizations working on a back-to-the-1920s, deep red “battle plan” to guide the next Republican president.  It has already produced a nearly 900-page, presidential transition strategy entitled, Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise.  Project officials are currently vetting a database of up 20,000 conservative recruits that they will train to help implement this proposal. 

Many of the 34 authors of the Mandate were knowledgeable former Trump administration officials, including Acting Deputy Secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Ken Cuccinelli, Acting U.S. Secretary of Defense, Christopher Miller and Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, one of Trump’s most trusted advisors.

These conservatives want a Trump team trained and ready to hit the ground running on inauguration day in 2025 if the former president is elected for a second term.  Project 2025 operatives will have identified hundreds, if not thousands, of government officials – labeled by them as the “deep state” – who they want to terminate and replace by pre-selected Trump loyalists.

I have a copy of the Mandate and “Day One” – meaning right after Trump, or any Republican, takes the oath of office – is when they want to execute their plan.  If they can pull it off, it will be an unprecedented blitzkrieg and before Congress and the courts can effectively react, catastrophic, perhaps irreversible, damage will be done to the federal government and its ongoing programs.

This is how the Mandate proposes rapidly deploying conservatives at the EPA but the same would occur within other agencies: “The majority of the political appointee team must be assembled, vetted, and ready to deploy before Day One. [A]ppointees in consideration for Senate-confirmed positions …. should be prepared to serve as a Deputy or Principal Deputy to get into the agency on Day One while their nomination and affiliated confirmation processes proceed.”

Within days, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of career civil servants could be moved to the sidelines or fired, far right operatives would seize control of the Executive Branch and ongoing programs they oppose would be quickly slowed or stopped.  Foreign aid (USAID) is just one of their many primary targets.

I doubt if there has ever been a transition plan like Project 2025, with an Executive Branch coup that it envisions.  Polls show, however, that most Americans are focused on the economy and wrongly, in my opinion, believe it is bad and getting worse. Needless to say, that exactly what Trump and his MAGA supporters want.  And I believe the mainstream media is also helping them by not continuously highlighting the chaos being caused by Republicans in Washington.

The 2024 election is 344 days away and many democracy advocates question if American voters will wake up in time to thwart Republican plans to create a one-party autocracy.  Well, I believe they will.