“Donald Trump plans to enact a massive purge of federal workers and fill their positions with loyalists should he win re-election in 2024.”
According to Wikipedia (here), “The civil service is a collective term for … career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. … Civil servants … answer to the government, not a political party.”
This may seem like arcane stuff, but protecting government workers from political pressure is central to the rule of law. Doing things “by the book” also protects citizens from favoritism, and deters corruption. But this is primarily about laws, not the whims of powerful officials, guiding what government does.
Which is why Trump doesn’t like Civil Service, and tried — and would try again, if he returned to office — to reclassify tens of thousands of federal civil servants as appointees so he could get rid of them if they don’t sing his tune and carry out his wishes.
Need an example? How about Dr. Fauci? But the purge wouldn’t stop with highly visible agency officials; it could also include line-level employees like federal meat inspectors. (George W. Bush tried to privatize them, and make them employees of the meatpacking companies. How would you like to buy hamburger inspected by a guy who could lose his job if he didn’t pass it?)
Oh, and by the way, prominent Republicans in Congress support this, e.g. Rep. Jim Jordan among them (see story here), which is another reason not to vote for them.
The first federal service law was enacted in 1871, which obviously predates Trump. He isn’t, by any means, the first or only president who wanted to run an administration staffed by lackeys personally loyal to him instead of obedient to our nation’s laws. He’s simply the most lawless of them all.
Now you know, if you didn’t before, why we have civil servants, and why they perform their duties according to “the book.”