Donald Trump’s “Schedule F” nightmare

| 9:00 pm EDT August 7, 2022
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You’ve no doubt imagined what sort of dystopian hell would engulf us had Trump won reelection. Trump and his Republican pals have recently revealed their excitement to ensure that one element of that hell becomes reality the next time they win the presidency. We can’t let that happen.

At Turning Point USA’s “Student Action Summit” in Tampa last month, Trump claimed that “to drain the swamp, we have to fire the swamp” as he announced renewed interest in his evil plan known as Schedule F. This term refers to a new category of federal employees who can be terminated at will, with Trump gaining the ability to fire thousands of people in nonpolitical governmental positions and fill the vacancies with MAGA sycophants.

This nightmare scenario nearly came to pass when, on October 21, 2020, Trump signed an executive order entitled “Creating Schedule F In The Excepted Service”. However, Trump soon lost the election, and his obsession turned to fighting the results through dangerous lies, frivolous lawsuits, and a deadly yet failed insurrection attempt on January 6, 2021.

Following his inauguration on January 20, Biden could have twisted what Trump started to the Democrats’ benefit. Biden could have used Trump’s order to convert some 50,000 federal employees to Schedule F status, then replace them with people he believed would be loyal to what the Democratic Party holds dear.

Of course, neither Biden nor the Democrats have any appetite for this sort of autocratic thuggery. Instead, Biden promptly issued his own executive order (“Protecting the Federal Workforce”) on January 22 that revoked Trump’s order. Calling the creation of Schedule F “unnecessary,” Biden slammed the move for having “undermined the foundations of the civil service and its merit system principles.”

We needn’t wonder if Schedule F could return under a future President Trump or some other Republican administration. According to new reporting from Axios, GOP presidential hopefuls are salivating at the thought. Mike Pompeo and Ted Cruz are aboard while Ron DeSantis, Marco Rubio, Rick Scott, and Josh Hawley have embraced the general idea. Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, Tom Cotton, and Liz Cheney declined to comment, with only Larry Hogan taking a stand against Schedule F, calling it “another unneeded distraction.”

In the face of this renewed threat, six Democratic Senators introduced a bill this week (“Preventing a Patronage System Act of 2022”) to “secure the civil service.” Endorsed by every major federal employee association, this legislation would protect career government officials as well as our American democracy. Although a similar bill (“Preventing a Patronage System Act”) recently passed in the House, Republicans have countered with their own bill (“Public Service Reform Act”).

With Republicans now rallying to revive Trump’s Schedule F idea, voter turnout is even more critical. Although Democratic lawmakers are tackling this issue in Congress, it’s up to us voters to show America that such blatant politicization of the federal workforce is unacceptable, regardless of which ideology it may favor. Let’s start by sending the GOP packing on November 8.