Just under two weeks of occupying the role of President, Donald Trump has made major money and policy moves. He signed a record number of executive orders on the very day he was inaugurated, and has since terminated all federal DEI programs. Removal of the guidelines that promote fair treatment in and beyond the workplace has been met by a public uproar. The subsequent order to plan a mass layoff of DEI employees has since been in effect.
According to the title of Trump’s memos, this change was made as a way of “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing and Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions.” But that’s not nearly the end of his changes – there have been other significant efforts to downsize the federal government. As of Jan. 28, 2025, federal employees have been notified of a deferred resignation program which is still being demystified.
Breaking Down The Deferred Resignation Program
In a mass email, the Trump administration offered a deferred resignation program to federal employees. The message was sent out Jan. 28 but requires those impacted to make huge life and career decisions quickly. POTUS’ announcement made the objectives of the new administration clear but also gave many employees reason to leave their positions, such as requiring all federal employees to return back to the office five days a week. A fully in-person modality has not been a norm for quite some time due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ultimately promoting flexibility across the board.
The email, titled “A Fork in The Road” outlined that employees not willing to transition to full-time office work should send a one word reply (simply type the word “resign” in the subject line of their email and press send). Those that accept the opportunity to leave their post will be entitled to an around eight month deferred resignation program, granting employees access to pay and benefits up until Sept. 30, 2025. This program will only be offered from Jan. 28 to Feb. 6.
More On The ‘Fork in The Road’ Email
The “fork in the road” email to federal employees was very intentional with word choice. Instead of using the term “severance pay,” “deferred resignation” was used. This is likely because the program exempts resigning workers from going in office. Aside from this, if needed they can still seemingly work up until the deferred resignation date. This complicated situation is furthered by the questionable future of federal employees who stay in their positions. Even if they agree to go into the office, they could have similar fates. As the email states, their jobs are not secure either; this means they could risk taking a major loss if they do not take advantage of the program. The downsizing of the federal government would likely mean whole agencies or departments are dissolved. This would technically be a loophole to conduct mass layoffs since the positions are no longer needed.
There are also economic impacts and implications for this questionable program. Due to the massive scale of the buyout, the offer begs the question of how the payouts will be funded. The voluntary separation incentive payments that currently exist have a default amount of $25,000 per individual. Given the eight-month length of the deferred resignation program, that number will easily be surpassed, according to Defense One. This line of questioning comes after Trump has made big claims about how the downsizing will benefit the budget and streamline government services.
Further Implications Of Donald Trump’s Policies So Far
On top of these concerns are the looming repercussions of Trump’s removal of federal DEI programs. DEI efforts are an important part of the systems which have built more inclusive workplace environments. Without these, it is more than likely going to take minorities longer to overcome systemic oppressions. Dismantling DEI impacts many things because DEI does so much for disenfranchised people. For example, fair hiring processes, the likelihood of gender or sexuality equality and even discourages ableism. Trump’s agenda already promotes far-right politics, so things may significantly change for Black and Brown people in many facets of life. We can only hope, and act, for better.
Deferred Resignation: Connections To Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s involvement with Trump has increased over the years. The former is the richest person in the world, with a net worth of $437 billion as of January 2025. He also has recently jumped in the ranks of government thanks to Trump, leading the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). This was supposed to be a collaborative effort with Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur and politician. However, he mysteriously dropped out of the position recently. Due to this, Musk is likely making the big decisions when it comes to how the administration makes government more efficient.
With the department’s name and primary objective, Musk has been rightfully connected to the deferred resignation program. Many people are drawing comparisons between the strategy that the Trump administration is using and Musk’s past leadership decisions at X (formerly Twitter), which the South African only acquired in recent years. After spending $44 billion on the company in 2022, he has cut about 80% of the workforce, according to CNN. How he has gone about this is very distinct, first cutting about half of his staff in early November 2022. Then, the remaining employees of Twitter were sent an email with an ultimatum.
It offered them the chance to be a part of the “new Twitter” which required “extremely hardcore” work hours. Those who did not agree to that would subsequently be paid three months severance. Those who stayed were asked to respond “yes” to the email by the end of the next day. This mass message had the subject line title, “A Fork in The Road” and was identical to that of the federal buyout email this week. Although Musk might have written the email himself or simply approved the message, it aligns very closely with what was sent to his own employees, outlining the ultimatum of different work conditions in an effort to downsize the workforce.
