Think being a citizen of the U.S. under popular vote loser Donald Trump is an anxiety-inducing, exhausting ordeal, after just three weeks? Try being a public employee who's committed your professional life to the public good.
WASHINGTON — Across the vast federal bureaucracy, Donald J. Trump's arrival in the White House has spread anxiety, frustration, fear and resistance among many of the two million nonpolitical civil servants who say they work for the public, not a particular president. […]
"It's almost a sense of dread, as in, what will happen to us," said Gabrielle Martin, a trial lawyer and 30-year veteran at the Denver office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where colleagues now share daily, grim predictions about the fate of their jobs under Mr. Trump's leadership.
"It's like the movie music when the shark is coming," Ms. Martin said, referring to "Jaws," the 1975 thriller. "People are just wary — is the shark going to come up out of the water?"
This article is based on interviews around the country with more than three dozen current and recently departed federal employees from the Internal Revenue Service; the Pentagon; the Environmental Protection Agency; the Justice and Treasury Departments; the Departments of Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, and Housing and Urban Development; and other parts of the government. They reveal a federal work force that is more fundamentally shaken than usual by the uncertainties that follow a presidential transition from one party to the other.
These people don't know when or if the axe will fall and they'll be out of a job. Perhaps even more terrifying than the imminent loss of employment is what your job could turn into. Consider the relatively young and idealistic group that comprises the Digital Service, organized to "overhaul outdated government systems and databases, with the goal of helping President Barack Obama open the country's doors to refugees, protect immigrants, aid veterans and improve health care." Being told, as they were at an early meeting, that "their expertise was valued by the president; Mr. Kushner; Stephen K. Bannon, the president's chief strategist; and others in the West Wing," means that their work will be used for anything but good. "At that moment, when folks heard the name Steve Bannon, it was like a punch in the gut. It became so real," said one employee.
Then there's the chaos. The things Trump has actually done—like the Muslim ban—are bad enough. Then there's the rumors swirling around about what he might do, like the draft executive order he had to reverse rights for LGBT people. "There was a group of people who were planning some public display of protest with the purpose of leaving," said one employee and another "said his friends would have considered that order 'the last straw' and most likely would have quit."
This creates a huge moral dilemma—stay in hopes that you can keep the president from wrecking everything that's good and be the forefront of the resistance? Save your sanity and your dignity by refusing to be a part of this regime? There are no easy answers, but one hopes that if they're leaving, they're preserving as many critical documents offsite as possible.