- Some federal workers voting Trump told Bi that they felt betrayed.
- They said they had voted for Trump to lower prices; Not for Elon Musk to carry out mass shots.
- Some have said they always support administration’s efforts to reduce waste and have the hope that Trump will deliver.
David Pasquino voted for President Donald Trump. Then the new administration Shot him.
The former veterans employee told Business Insider that although he still supports the aspects of the Trump administration He finds that many of the president’s actions are problematic.
In particular, he supports the president’s approach to the application of borders and his plans to increase the size of the military. He is not a fan of the dismissal led by Elon Musk thousands of federal workers.
“They literally bring a chainsaw to the government when they should use a scalpel,” said Pasquino. “This is not what I imagined when President Trump said he was going to change the government and make government more effective.”
BI has spoken to 10 current and old federal workers, offering a certain anonymity to speak freely without a remuneration. Some who are still employed have declared having voted for Trump in the hope that he would hold his campaign promises, but the constant threats for their career and their wickedness of their colleagues have led them to regret it.
“I feel betrayed. This is not what I wanted, letting everyone lose their job,” said an employee of veterans who voted for Trump twice. “You are dismissed. You are dismissed. You are dismissed. It is not” the apprentice “.”
Others have said they continue to support Trump and his mission to reduce government waste. The overwhelming message was that they had not voted for Musk.
“I don’t like Elon Musk,” said an employee of VA. “I don’t want him to get involved in my business. He’s not the president. Trump is.”
Harrison Fields, the main assistant press secretary of the White House, told Bi that Trump “had returned to Washington with a mandate from the American people to bring an unprecedented change in our federal government to uproot waste, fraud and abuse”.
“It is not easy to do in a broken system rooted in bureaucracy and bloating, but it is a task expected for a long time,” said Fields. “The personal financial situation of each American is in the lead for the president, which is why he works to reduce regulations, resonate jobs, reduce taxes and make government more effective.”
Elon Musk is “not the president”
The role of Musk as an unofficial chief of Doge confused voters and legislators through the aisle that did not provide for the influence he would have on the Trump administration. He appeared in the oval office alongside Trump, addressing journalists. His ideas published on X have resulted in official emails from the personnel management office, and he even met world leaders.
“We did not vote for him. We voted for Trump,” said the VA employee, adding: “It pisses me off.”
A National Weather Service employee told Bi that he “admired” what Musk has accomplished in SpaceX and Tesla, but “private affairs are completely different from the government”.
While private companies focus on profit, the employee told Bi: “The public sector is much more than worrying about money and being effective.”
“We have lives to save and functions to perform that does not necessarily make money, but are nevertheless extremely important,” said this person.
Musk continued to defend his Efforts and reported in a recent interview that Doge does not intend to slow down. The Trump administration, on the other hand, tried to Realize the role of Musk at the White House. Trump told journalists in the oval office last week that even if he thought that Musk was doing “incredible work”, he wants his member of the cabinet to take the lead to reduce government waste.
‘I voted for something completely different’
Marcia, 67, is another voter of Trump who was dismissed from his federal job, and she said that she felt “extremely disappointed”.
“He was going to reduce prices. He was going to make gas cheaper. He was going to help people in the middle class in America,” said Marcia, who is trying to restore his post.
The National Weather Service employee said they had voted for Trump because they wanted the country to come back to the way things happened in 2019. Instead, they said: “It’s just the most toxic environment I have ever seen.”
The employee described the feeling of “projection” by the president. During the campaign, this person said he had trusted Trump when he said he had nothing to do with 2025 projectThe Conservative BluePrint the author by the Heritage Foundation. Among other things, the 2025 project described the rupture of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which houses the National Weather Service.
After the elections, Trump appointed Russell VoughtA key architect of the 2025 project, to lead the White House management and budget office.
“I said:” I will believe Trump, he will not do everything in there “, said the national worker of the meteorological service:” But all of a sudden, it all starts to come true. “
The VA worker said that the administration did not use his vote to keep the promises that had conquered them.
“I voted for something completely different, for the economy and the border, the control of immigration,” said the worker, “I did not vote to enter and intimidate the federal government and start to draw people without reason.”
Marcia said that she felt confident in her vote in November because of Trump’s promises to strengthen the economy and repress border policy. But if she knew then what she knows now, she would never have voted.
“I was republican all my life, and it is the first time that a republican president has made me mislead,” said Marcia “if I knew that I was going to lose my job because Trump became president, no, I would not vote for him.”
Some always support the cuts – even if others arrive
Some federal workers who voted for Trump do not feel the same feeling of betrayal. One of these workers said they “fully support the Doge’s audit and fraud in the system”.
“If the agency does not need it, then why are they there?” The worker said. Bi too previously spoken to The federal workers who support Trump who said that even if they are not fully supported by Trump’s approach to the federal workforce, they support its mission to reduce government waste.
“I think that overall, we will finish better with him as president,” said one of the workers.
Another worker who largely supports Trump’s mission and Doge said that job cuts, if they came to their agency, “would be definitively hard for my family”. Upon entering the elections, they knew that the posts could be cut. Despite this, they added: “I believe that if we will continue to finance essential services such as social security, health insurance, medication, education and infrastructure, we must reduce spending in a massive way.”
More federal terminations are probably coming; The staff management office asked all agencies to submit reorganization plans by March 13. This leaves the workers in the limbo, wondering if they will be the next on the cup block – and for those who voted for the president, a particularly bitter taste in the mouth.
The national worker of the meteorological service said that the cuts did not cause efficiency within the agencies that Doge wanted.
“There is anxiety, there is a shock, and also this feeling where they do not trust us to do our job,” they said. “Doge wants us to be as effective as possible, but they distract us with all these threats.”
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