WASHINGTON — The Trump administration finalized a new policy on Thursday that would strip job protections from up to 50,000 federal workers, a move that would make it easier for President Donald Trump to remove or discipline them, in his latest effort to dismantle the federal workforce.

Until now, the roughly 4,000 people appointed by the president, known as political appointees, were the only federal workers who could be fired at will. The policy issued Thursday allows the administration to expand that number to include career employees whom the administration considers to also have policy-related roles. For these employees, any whistleblower complaints would be handled by their agencies internally and not the independent office of special counsel as it has been in the past.

Rule Did Not Say Which Positions Affected

The 255-page rule did not say which positions would be affected. The White House is reviewing the positions submitted by agencies and will ultimately decide, Scott Kupor, the director of the Office of Personnel Management, said Thursday. In announcing the final rule, the office responded to criticism of such a move by saying that political patronage, loyalty tests and political discrimination in the federal workforce were “explicitly” prohibited.

Political appointees work in positions that determine policies and promote the administration’s agenda. The White House has not responded to questions about how many of those 4,000 positions are currently filled.

The announcement represents another push in the administration’s campaign to reshape the federal workforce, which has included mass firings, layoffs, pressured resignations and early retirements. In total, more than 352,000 employees left the federal government in 2025, according to the most recent data from the Office of Personnel Management. The announcement is also the latest step the administration has taken to replace nonpartisan civil servants with employees who are ideologically aligned with the president.

Kupor, in a statement, said that the policy “restores a basic principle of democratic governance: those entrusted with shaping and executing policy must be accountable for results.”

He added: “This rule preserves merit-based hiring, veterans’ preference and whistleblower protections while ensuring senior career officials responsible for advancing President Trump’s agenda can be held to the same performance expectations that exist throughout much of the American workforce.”

The rule, which is expected to be published in the Federal Register on Friday, describes the new job category as “career jobs filled on a nonpartisan basis. Yet they will be at-will positions excepted from adverse action procedures or appeals.”

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Eileen Sullivan/Eric Lee
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