Over 100,000 federal employees are expected to resign imminently under the Trump administration’s sweeping “deferred resignation” program.
This mass exodus is essential to finally draining the swamp and reasserting presidential control over a bloated, unaccountable federal machine.
Late last week, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) reportedly circulated internal guidance to agencies, warning them to prepare for waves of deferred resignations and reductions in force should Congress fail to approve full appropriations, according to the New York Post.
Agencies were told to begin drafting Separation and Reduction in Force (RIF) plans targeting nonessential positions.
On January 28, 2025, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) issued a memo to the entire federal civil service titled “Fork in the Road,” offering employees a deferred resignation option.
The offer promised continued salary and benefits through September 30 if workers left voluntarily, but only if they signed away legal rights and accepted the exit by a looming deadline.
By mid-February, approximately 75,000 federal employees had signed the exit agreement.
Now, as the Trump White House prepares for a new wave, more than 100,000 additional workers are expected to depart as of Tuesday, making this breakaway the largest one-day drop in federal workforce history, according to The Guardian.
The news outlet reported:
Workers preparing to leave government as part of the resignation program – one of several pillars of Donald Trump’s sweeping cuts to the federal workforce – have described how months of “fear and intimidation” left them feeling like they had no choice but to depart.
“Federal workers stay for the mission. When that mission is taken away, when they’re scapegoated, when their job security is uncertain, and when their tiny semblance of work-life balance is stripped away, they leave,” a longtime employee at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) told the Guardian. “That’s why I left.”
[…]
The total number of expected departures through the delayed resignation and voluntary separation programs, attrition, and early retirement programs is about 275,000 employees, the spokesman said.
Several thousands of additional federal workers have been fired as part of reduction in force mandates ordered by the administration. The mass exodus is the largest single-year decline in civilian federal employment since the second world war.
Federal employees who took the deferred resignation offer requested to speak anonymously in hopes of returning to the federal government in the future and to protect future job prospects.
Trump’s agenda has long centered on shrinking the size and influence of the federal bureaucracy. In early 2025, he formally instructed agencies to prepare for deep cuts and reorganizations aimed at eliminating “waste, bloat, and corruption.”
Already, early moves have targeted traditionally liberal or expansive agencies. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has seen nearly all its Washington-based staff placed on leave, with office access revoked and operations severely curtailed.
Meanwhile, numerous agencies have been ordered to design reorganization plans, reduce overlapping departments, and shrink management layers.
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