Trump Close to Beating Bill Clinton’s Historic Record With Unprecedented Federal Workforce Cuts
The Trump administration is executing an aggressive plan to downsize the federal workforce at an unprecedented speed, aiming to surpass the record reductions made during the Clinton administration.
Through large-scale terminations, buyouts and agency restructurings, the administration is rapidly moving toward its goal of cutting trillions in government spending and eliminating bureaucratic inefficiencies.
Trump nearing Clinton's record for largest cuts to federal workforce https://t.co/fOn2ev61QQ
— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) April 3, 2025
Since returning to office, Trump has directed a sweeping effort to shrink the federal payroll, focusing on the executive branch. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, is spearheading these initiatives.
The administration is on track to achieve nearly 76 percent of the job cuts made under former President Bill Clinton in just a matter of months, Just the News reports. During the 1990s, Clinton oversaw the reduction of approximately 426,200 federal jobs over eight years, the largest workforce downsizing since World War II.
A key strategy in the administration’s effort to reduce personnel has been voluntary buyouts. As previously reported by Resist the Mainstream, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) introduced a large-scale buyout program early in Trump’s second term, allowing employees to resign while still receiving pay through Sept. 30.
So far, approximately 75,000 employees, representing 3 percent of the federal civilian workforce, have taken the offer. However, the administration initially aimed for a 5 percent to 10 percent buyout rate, and to reach that goal, several agencies have introduced a second round of offers.
Unlike the initial buyout program managed by OPM, this second round is being conducted directly by individual agencies. The Departments of Defense, Agriculture, Energy, Housing and Urban Development and Transportation are among those offering direct buyouts. The Small Business Administration and the General Services Administration have also followed suit.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has emphasized that encouraging voluntary departures remains the administration’s priority, but he acknowledged that large-scale terminations are unavoidable.
Meanwhile, layoffs are accelerating across multiple agencies. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has already eliminated 6,000 jobs and aims to cut its remaining 90,000-person workforce nearly in half. At USAID, staffing levels have plummeted from 10,000 employees to just a few hundred.
The Department of Education, under Secretary Linda McMahon, has seen its workforce cut nearly in half, from 4,100 to 2,200 employees. Trump has openly discussed eliminating the department entirely.
Additional cuts are underway at the Department of Defense, where 5,400 probationary employees were let go after being deemed “non-mission critical.” The Forest Service is planning to lay off 3,400 employees following an OPM directive and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced a 10,000-person staffing reduction as part of a broader restructuring.
To surpass Clinton’s record, the administration would need to cut at least 200,000 more jobs, according to Just the News. So far, between voluntary buyouts and forced layoffs, the Trump administration has already initiated or completed at least 325,000 workforce reductions.
If these cuts continue at the current rate, the number of federal employees could drop below two million for the first time since 2008—or possibly even 1996, when the workforce dipped to historic lows.
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