President Donald Trump's catchphrase "You're fired!" became iconic when he hosted the reality TV series The Apprentice, which premiered on NBC in January 2004. For fourteen seasons, Trump delivered this message at the end of each episode in the boardroom, dramatically eliminating a contestant by pointing at them and uttering the now-famous line. It became so tied to Trump's public image that he referenced it during his 2016 presidential campaign, framing it as a promise to "fire" inefficient bureaucrats—though he reportedly softened it to "You're terminated" at times for political optics.
The Deep State thwarted his actions during and after Trump's first term, attempting to fire him instead - through two impeachments, a taxpayer-funded sham of an investigation called J6 that never looked into the causes of the 2020 election fiasco, lawfare directed at him at every level (federal, state, county, and local), and a vicious campaign to label him as unfit for political office - but failed miserably. Along the way, Trump had to endure two assassination attempts.
Today, Trump sits pretty in the White House, resorting to his catchphrase minutes after taking office. Five notable groups have been affected so far, reflecting his administration's aggressive push to reduce government size, improve efficiency, save taxpayer dollars, and align the country with his agenda.
United States Agency for International Development (USAID): Trump has effectively sidelined USAID, imposing a 90-day freeze on nearly all U.S. foreign assistance programs. Starting February 4, 2025, Trump's administration placed almost all of USAID's roughly 10,000 direct-hire staffers worldwide on administrative leave, except for a small group deemed "mission-critical" (e.g., 297 employees were exempted by February 7). A notice on the USAID website instructed staff to stay out of headquarters and ordered overseas personnel to return to the U.S. within 30 days, with government-covered travel costs—though staying longer would be at their own expense unless granted hardship waivers.
Probationary Federal Employees: One of the broadest groups impacted includes thousands of federal workers still in their probationary or trial periods—typically those hired within the last one to two years. Reports indicate that Trump, alongside Elon Musk's influence through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), ordered agency heads to terminate most of these employees, affecting up to 220,000 workers across multiple agencies.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Staff: On his second day in office, Trump ordered the termination of all employees working on DEI projects (about 14,000 staff members).
Federal Inspectors General: Within days of taking office, Trump fired approximately 17 independent inspectors general across various agencies, including those at the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, and Education. An Inspector General (IG) of a federal agency acts as an independent oversight body, and is primarily responsible for investigating allegations of fraud, waste, abuse, and misconduct within the agency, conducting audits to evaluate efficiency and effectiveness, and recommending corrective actions to improve operations and compliance with laws and regulations; essentially acting as a watchdog to ensure the integrity of the agency's activities. Trump contended that the IGs had failed to rein in these agencies, given how bloated they had become.
Justice Department Prosecutors: Trump fired several career prosecutors at the Justice Department who had used the vast levers of government to weaponize and harass Americans.
Corporate leaders who, during the Biden administration, played nice with wayward employees for fear of inviting media backlash or federal government interference have become freshly emboldened and routinely resort to disciplinary action if employee behavior distracts from the corporate mission.
One of the most pressing employer-employee disputes these days concerns two new terms popularized after the pandemic hit: "WFH" for working from home and "RTO" for returning to the office. As the pandemic began to ease, companies struggled with fundamental issues around productivity and teamwork—balanced against the convenience of letting employees work from home and the lower costs of leasing or owning real estate. Hybrid models began to emerge where companies demanded that employees show up for work at least a few days a week. In the last 12 months, the hybrid models began to evaporate as RTO (Return To Work) became standard across America.
According to Fortune magazine, a JP Morgan employee questioned CEO Jamie Dimon's RTO mandate at a February 12 town hall and was fired. However, he was later told he could stay. "The [WFH] abuse that took place was extraordinary," Dimon said, complaining of employees wasting time during Zoom meetings and how headcount for JPMorgan Chase had ballooned by 50,000 in the last four to five years. "We don't need all those people. We were putting people in jobs because people weren't doing the jobs they were hired to do in [the] first place."
Corporate leaders are now fearless to act to cut costs, restructure, or repurpose as business strategies change. If firing employees is a solution, companies are embracing it wholeheartedly. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, oversaw the layoffs of approximately 3,600 employees in early 2025, followed by a more significant cut of 11,000 workers in November 2022. Before stepping down in 2025, HSBC CEO Noel Quinn is said to have cut middle management and shed thousands of jobs globally as part of a $3 billion cost-saving restructuring ahead of a potential merger. Tesla, led by Elon Musk, fired over 1,000 factory workers across its U.S. plants in early February 2025, targeting underperforming shifts at Gigafactories, with workers escorted off premises mid-shift after failing new output quotas. To be sure, layoffs have been a cornerstone of the American economy, but corporate leaders using swift, uncompromising tactics—mass terminations, providing minimal notice, or enforcing policy rigidity—to assert control is something new.
America had become too slow and complacent under former President Biden, where incompetence and inefficiencies became hallmarks of governance and risked touching the private sector. Biden's legacy is that he oversaw record deficits, record inflation, a failed Afghan withdrawal, a never-ending war for ‘as long as it takes,’ an invasion by over 18 million illegal aliens, and billions of dollars unaccounted for across federal agencies, including at the Pentagon and in aid to Ukraine. Yet Biden fired no one from his cabinet during his entire term—not one individual.
Trump's return is a welcome course correction for America.
Rajkamal Rao is a columnist and a member of the tippinsights editorial board. He is an American entrepreneur and wrote the WorldView column for the Hindu BusinessLine, India's second-largest financial newspaper, on the economy, politics, immigration, foreign affairs, and sports.
TIPP Picks
Selected articles from tippinsights.com and more
Trump 2.0
1. Trump Invites Musk To Attend First White House Cabinet Meeting—Reagan Reese, DCNF
2. POLL: Heartland Voters Embrace Trump’s Early Actions—Steve Cortes, American Greatness
3. Secret Biden Policy Fast-Tracked Illegals Through Airport Security Lines—Neil Munro, Breitbart
4. Trump Border Czar Promises ‘Hell’ For Sanctuary Cities In Fiery CPAC Speech—Nathan Gay, Daily Wire
5. Kristi Noem Revokes Protected Status for 500,000 Haitians, Opens Them Up for Deportation—Jack Davis, The Western Journal
6. ‘It’s Called Having A Boss’: Scott Jennings Reminds Panelists Federal Workers Work For Trump—Harold Hutchison, DCNF
7. White House Kicks Huffpost, Reuters And Foreign Press Out Of First Trump Cabinet Meeting—Nikki Schwab, DailyMail
8. Karoline Leavitt Announces Major Shakeup To White House Press Corps—Reagan Reese, DCNF
9. Trump Strikes At The Last Bastion Of Power For Vain Liberal Journalists—John Loftus, DCNF
World Affairs
10. 50 Ways To Leave Your Ally: America Ends Europe’s Free Ride—Editorial Board, TIPP Insights
11. Disband NATO!—Editorial Board, TIPP Insights
12. Why We Need To Get Out Of NATO—Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr., Mises Wire
13. European Security Cannot Be Found In The Past—Friedrich Merz, Project Syndicate
14. Merz Warns Europe Should Seek ‘Independence’ From US After Conservatives Win German Election – And Far-Right Support Surges—Sophie Tanno, Helen Regan, Frederik Pleitgen and Stephanie Halasz, CNN
15. What Germany’s Election Means For The Western Left—Bartosz M. Rydliński - Project Syndicate
16. Italian PM Defends Vance: Europe Has Been ‘Sacrificed On The Altar Of Wokeness’—Nathan Gay, Daily Wire
17. Britain To Boost Defense Spending Amid Russia Threat—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights
18. This NATO Ally Will ‘Buy, Buy, Buy’ More Weapons After Intelligence Report Says Russia May Start A War In Europe In A Few Years—Jason Ma, Fortune
19. U.S., Ukraine Agree To Terms Of Critical Minerals Deal—TIPP Staff, TIPP Insights
20. ‘Long Overdue’: It Only Took One Speech To Totally Expose Europe’s Anti-Democratic Underbelly—Wallace White, DCNF
Politics
21. Maine Pulls A South Carolina—Victor Davis Hanson, The Daily Signal
22. Senate Dems Obstruct GOP Effort To Remove Biden’s Handcuffs On American Energy—Adam Pack, The Daily Signal
23. House DOGE Panel To Examine How Foreign Aid Spreads ‘Woke Agenda’—George Caldwell, The Daily Signal
24. First-Term Congressman Aims To Hold ‘Illegal’ DOGE Actions Accountable—Sarah Roderick-Fitch, The Daily Signal
25. Jamie Raskin Says Biden Admin Never Vilified Parents — Here’s What He Didn’t Mention—Jason Cohen, DCNF
26. GOP Refutes Dem Fearmongering About Budget Bill With One Simple Fact—Adam Pack, DCNF
27. Vivek Ramaswamy Announces Ohio Gubernatorial Run—Thomas English, DCNF
Economics
28. 5 Big Controversies Facing The Fed’s ‘Consumer Watchdog’ Agency As DOGE Eyes Its End—Fred Lucas, The Daily Signal
29. Jobs Rained Down On Federal Gov’t While Middle America Watched Its Private Sector Gigs Vanish—Ireland Owens, DCNF
30. The U.S. Economy Depends More Than Ever On Rich People—Rachel Louise Ensign, WSJ
31. Trump Tariff Win: Apple To Invest $500 Billion In U.S., Pledges To Create 20,000 Jobs—Lucas Nolan, Breitbart
32. No, Trump’s Tariffs Will Not Cause Inflation—Spencer P. Morrison, American Greatness
33. Conservative Groups Urge Congress To ‘Avoid Fake Spending Cut Gimmicks’—Elizabeth Troutman Mitchell, The Daily Signal
34. Bill Would Prevent Banks From Discriminating Over Clients’ Ideology, But Here’s The Problem—Patricia Patnode, The Daily Signal
General
35. Megyn Kelly Reveals She's Battling Covid Vaccine Injury... Leaving Doctor Horrified—Emily Joshu Sterne, DailyMail
36. Warning From Chloe Cole: ‘We Need To Continue To Fight’—Virginia Allen, The Daily Signal
37. ‘We’re Saving Lives’: Homan Praises Border Success, Promises More Deportations—S.A. McCarthy, The Daily Signal
38. Secession: Why Redrawing US State Borders Makes Politicians So Mad—Ryan McMaken, Mises Wire
