Trump Signs Executive Order to Cut Federal Workforce and Ban New Hiring

Must Cut Four Employees to Hire One
Order to Cooperate with Musk's Department of Government Efficiency

U.S. President Donald Trump will sign an executive order directing federal agencies to ban new hires except for essential personnel and to reduce workforce size.

According to major foreign media including Bloomberg on the 11th (local time), President Trump plans to sign an executive order instructing heads of government agencies accordingly.

The executive order includes provisions to downsize each agency and restrict new hires to essential positions only. It also contains a rule that for every four federal employees reduced, only one new hire can be made. However, this executive order will not apply to law enforcement, national security, immigration, and public safety-related agencies.

The order also directs agency heads to cooperate with Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), who is currently pushing federal government restructuring efforts. However, it remains unclear whether the Department of Government Efficiency led by CEO Musk will have the authority to order mass layoffs at each agency.

President Trump, who has been signaling a broad restructuring of federal government employees, announced that the Department of Education and the Department of Defense will be the next targets. In an interview with Fox News aired on the 9th, he said he would instruct CEO Musk to begin inspections of the Department of Education and added, "Then we will go to the military. We will find billions of dollars in fraud and abuse." As part of the federal government restructuring, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), responsible for U.S. foreign aid, was targeted first, followed by the Department of Education and the Department of Defense as the next targets.