Inside the Trump administration hiring process where hundreds of applicants are rejected for lack of loyalty
The Trump administration has reportedly rejected hundreds of applicants who weren’t deemed sufficiently loyal to the president as the top qualification for a job seems to be staunch support.
Trump has long complained hostile staff and bureaucrats stymied his first-term agenda.
Potential hires have been scrutinized for whether they’ve ever made a comment critical of Trump or worked for an antagonist. Applicants are also asked whether they side with Trump’s views on issues such as Ukraine, NATO, the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and the Republican’s false claims the 2020 election was stolen, sources familiar with the process told The Wall Street Journal.
In one case, a potential staffer was rejected for past ties to then-Representative Liz Cheney in 2017, well before she became a leading Trump critic.
“President Trump, like any president or employer, is entitled to a team that supports the mission, puts personal agendas aside, and is ready to execute the president’s agenda in line with the will of the voters,” the White House said in response to the report.
Trump officials, reportedly mocked by some in government as Soviet-style “MAGA commissars” have reportedly fanned out across federal agencies and asked existing staff about their political positions and whether they previously backed Trump or supported his campaigns.
Applicants to the administration have also been asked to prove their “enthusiasm” for the Trump agenda and share the moment of their “MAGA revelation,” the Associated Press reported.
In December, nine people who interviewed for jobs in the new administration or were involved in the hiring process told The New York Times that candidates who denounced the violence on January 6, or suggested Joe Biden won the 2020 election, did not get jobs.
The administration’s hires through Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency cost-cutting effort have raised controversies of their, embedding across at least 14 different agencies and seeking to rapidly access key systems, cut contracts and other spending deemed undesirable, and, in the case of the U.S. Agency for International Development, attempt to shutter whole agencies at once.
Federal worker unions, state attorneys, and advocacy groups have challenged DOGE in court.
Some of the group’s particular staff members have raised alarm bells, including a 19-year-old who was fired from an internship on accusations of leaking company secrets, and another Musk acolyte who temporarily resigned after the Wall Street Journal reported past misogynist and racist remarks from social media, including claims such as, “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity” and “normalize Indian hate.”
