The Trump administration is moving to make it easier to potentially dismiss career officials in senior government roles, a step that could affect about 50,000 federal workers, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. ADVERTISEMENTWorkers in the category would be exempted from long-standing civil service protections that make federal workers difficult to fire, the WSJ said. The White House and the US Office of Personnel Management did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. US President Donald Trump's administration took aggressive steps to shrink the overall federal workforce last year. Office of Personnel Management officials said the rule is aimed in part at "disciplining" federal workers who stand in the way of Trump’s policies, WSJ reported.

Source: The Telegraph February 05, 2026 11:56 UTC