President Donald Trump will have to stare down federal workers whose livelihoods he ripped away, as Democratic lawmakers have invited fired employees to be their guests at Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night.
Trump and co-President Elon Musk have fired thousands of federal workers since Inauguration Day—many of them veterans—as part of their effort to shrink the federal budget via their so-called Department of Government Efficiency organization.
At least four fired federal employees will attend Trump’s speech, with more Democrats expected to announce fired employees as guests ahead of the address.
Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider of Illinois will bring Adam Mulvey, a 20-year Army veteran who served several tours in Iraq and Afghanistan who was fired from his job at a federal health care center.
“I am very concerned as both a veteran and a federal employee about what firings like the one I experienced will mean for health care providers like FHCC Lovell,” Mulvey said in a news release, referring to the Lovell Federal Health Care Center, where he’d been previously employed. “Not only was I an employee, but I receive my own health care at FHCC Lovell, as do my wife and children. Thousands of veterans come there for excellent care—I am concerned that a reduction in staff and a drastic budget cut will reduce the quality of care.”
Protesters rally outside of a Tesla store in Boston on March 1, 2025, against CEO Elon Musk, who is leading a cruel, needless effort to slash government jobs on behalf of President Donald Trump.
Democratic Rep. Joe Courtney of Connecticut will bring Gabriel D’Alatri, a Marine veteran and new dad who was fired from his role as a project manager at the IRS.
“I’m a proud Marine veteran, father, husband, and former IRS federal worker. My job helped everyday Americans access essential services and allowed me to support my wife and six-month-old daughter,” D’Alatri said in a news release. “I never imagined veterans would be targeted. I want to believe all presidents care about us, but instead, veterans and working-class people like me have been unjustly fired. My wife and I had plans to buy a new house. We just had a new baby. To be fired puts extreme pressure on our family. All I want is to return to work and do my job.”
Democratic Rep. Jimmy Panetta of California will bring Los Padres National Forest employee Ben Vizzachero, who was fired from his wildfire prevention job as part of Trump and Musk’s cuts.
“President Trump and Elon Musk’s illegal attacks on the federal workforce have not only devastated the livelihoods of tens of thousands of dedicated public servants, but their actions also undermine the Forest Service's ability to prevent and suppress wildfires, landslides, and other natural disasters,” Vizzachero said in a news release. “DOGE’s cuts also impair the maintenance and protection of our water, roads, trails, cultural and tribal sites, scenery, wildlife habitat, and more.”
And Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will bring Alissa Ellman, a disabled Army veteran who was fired from her job at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Buffalo.
“I am speaking out because I cannot see how employing veterans in the federal government is fraud, waste, or abuse,” Ellman said in a news release. “Veterans are some of the best people I know. Veterans have sacrificed for this country; they are the ones who have been defrauded—their talents wasted and service abused. For many of us these jobs are more than a job, they are how we continue our service, continue our devotion to make America a better place. I’m not telling you my story for pity; my life will be fine. But we need to be making more thoughtful cuts to the federal workforce, not our vets.”
Experts say the thousands of firings Trump and Musk have carried out threaten the functioning of government programs like Social Security, and endanger national security.
“Even with involuntary layoffs, achieving Mr. Musk’s goal of major budgetary savings through staff reductions cannot easily be achieved without reductions in workers who provide popular public services,” The New York Times reported in early February, pointing out that a majority of federal employees work for the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Homeland Security, and the branches of the military.
Demonstrators protest layoffs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in front of the CDC headquarters in Atlanta, on Feb. 18, 2025.
The firings could also negatively impact the economy since thousands of people without jobs could have negative downstream effects on local communities.
“There’s a multiplier effect,” Donna Ginther, an economics professor at the University of Kansas, told CNN. “Whenever somebody loses their jobs, they get unemployment, which only covers a small portion of their total wages, so they stop consuming in the local economy.”
A Jan. 30 report from the Urban Institute, a left-leaning think tank, found that the places that will be impacted the most are smaller towns and cities that have military institutions and bases.
For example, the Urban Institute estimated that if Musk cuts the federal workforce at the levels he’s promised to do, Altus, Oklahoma—home to the Altus AIr Force Base—could see its unemployment rate increase by 8.5 percentage points, from 2.7% to 11.2%. Kingsland, Georgia, home to a Naval submarine base, could see an 8.4-point increase in its unemployment rate. And Leonard Wood, Missouri, home to an Army training base, could see a 15.1-point increase in its unemployment rate.
“DOGE’s early promises of large cuts to the civilian federal workforce would have wide-ranging effects, with smaller areas and areas with military bases disproportionately affected,” the Urban Institute said. “Our analysis shows that cutting the workforce to this extent won’t just affect Washington, D.C.—it will spill over every region and every state in the country.”
Anger at the cuts Trump and Musk are making have spilled out into town halls across the country, where GOP lawmakers are being booed and jeered by their constituents who want them to stand up to Trump and Musk’s cuts.
A new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll released Monday found that 55% of Americans believe the cuts Trump and Musk are making to the federal government will do more harm than good. An even larger 60% believe “federal government employees are essential to the functioning of the United States,” the poll found.
A CBS News/YouGov survey conducted from Feb. 26 to Feb. 28 found that 64% of Americans believe the cuts to the federal workforce will impact their local area. And 51% think that the cuts will reduce services they use.
Trump will have to answer for this at the first congressional address of his second term—with the people he’s directly impacted staring back at him.
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