A top White House aide on Tuesday said she didn't feel bad for the thousands of federal workers—many of them veterans—who have been fired by the Trump administration, claiming without evidence that those who were fired didn't show up to work.
In two separate interviews on Tuesday, Alina Habba, a counselor and lawyer to President Donald Trump, said that those who were fired didn't deserve their jobs.
"Yeah, you get fired. You get fired when you don't show up to work. You get fired when you are taking taxpayer dollars, and you're not working for the federal government, and you are double dipping. That is this administration," Habba said in an appearance on Fox News. Habba was referencing the federal workers fired by Trump and co-President Elon Musk as part of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency's cost-cutting measures who will attend Trump’s address to Congress on Tuesday night.
Then, in an appearance set up outside of the West Wing of the White House surrounded by microphones, Habba doubled down, discussing the thousands of veterans who have lost their jobs in the federal government as part of Trump's purge.
"We have taxpayer dollars, we have a fiscal responsibility to use taxpayer dollars to pay people who actually work, that doesn't mean we forget about our veterans by any means, we are going to care for them in the right way, but perhaps they're not fit to have a job at this moment or are not willing to come to work," Habba said. "And we can't—I wouldn’t take money from you and pay somebody and say, 'Sorry, they're not going to come to work.' It's just not acceptable."
Of course, many of the thousands of federal employees who were purged from the federal government did show up to work.
There were park rangers, infectious disease experts, weather forecasters, nuclear weapons experts, and more who were let go in a mass purge in the name of cost savings—even though the firings endanger national security and the country’s health.
In fact, many of the fired federal workers who will be attending Trump's speech on Tuesday night were both veterans and in-person employees whose work product was praised in their performance reviews.
For example, Army veteran Luke Graziani—who was fired from his role as a public affairs specialist at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center in the Bronx—will attend Trump’s speech with Democratic Rep. Grace Meng.
“After 20 years of military service, including four combat tours, being terminated from my job at the VA by a thoughtless and heartless email was devastating,” Graziani said in a news release. “These terminations affect real people and real families of dedicated public servants. I am grateful to Congresswoman Meng for giving me the opportunity to represent thousands of federal workers who've been discarded while providing vital services Americans depend on. I hope my presence in our nation's capital will inspire other federal employees to continue standing for what is right.”
Army veteran Adam Mulvey worked at the Lovell Federal Health Care Center in Chicago, as an emergency management specialist in charge of creating plans for major disasters such as active shooting situations, when he was fired by DOGE.
“To be terminated and to then be told that my firing was due to performance is insulting," Mulvey, who is attending the address with Democratic Rep. Brad Schneider, said in a news release. "I, like the majority of the terminated civil servants, had received outstanding evaluations. I greatly appreciate Rep. Schneider for helping to put names and faces to these illegal terminations. Those let go from federal service are your neighbors, friends and relatives. They deserve better treatment from their government. I deserve better as well."
Another fired worker, Army veteran James Diaz, will attend the address with Illinois Democratic Rep. Eric Sorensen. Diaz, a Trump supporter, said he was fired from his job at the IRS despite getting stellar performance reviews.
“Everything was going great, all the reviews I had gotten were 100 percent-plus,” Diaz told the Pontiac Daily Leader. “The next thing you know, I got fired, alluding to my poor performance when there wasn’t anything to come close to that."
Diaz added, "Treating anyone the way I was treated, especially someone who has a combat service ribbon who is working for the federal government, someone who gave up a job making $140,000 a year with overtime to end up with a $75,000-a-year job working for the federal government should never be treated the way I was treated. If anybody should have gotten the benefit of the doubt, it should have been our veterans.”
As the Trump administration trashes veterans who were fired by Trump and Musk, Democrats are working to protect them.
Democratic Rep. Derek Tran of California introduced the “Protect Veteran Jobs Act,” which if passed would reinstate the veterans who were fired by Trump and Musk’s mass purge.
“Any individual who is a veteran and who was involuntarily removed or otherwise dismissed without cause from a civil service position during the period beginning on January 20, 2025, and ending on the date of the enactment of this section shall be eligible for reinstatement to such position or any other civil service position for which the individual is qualified,” the bill says.
It’s hard to see how trashing veterans will be helpful for Trump and the GOP. Indeed, polling shows that DOGE’s mass firings are not popular.
A new Civiqs poll conducted for Daily Kos found that 46% of voters think DOGE’s firings of federal workers is a “very bad thing,” as opposed to the 36% of voters who believe it’s a “very good thing.”
But as has been the case since Trump launched his first presidential campaign in 2015, the cruelty is the point.
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