Since the day Donald Trump was sworn into office for his second presidency, he and his billionaire pal Elon Musk have set out to dismantle seven congressionally authorized and funded government agencies and dozens of programs, in defiance of the U.S. Constitution.
Musk and his DOGE hackers have also executed a major reduction in the federal workforce, where tens of thousands of government employees have been pressured to leave their jobs, been placed on leave or been fired, with plans to reduce the number of workers even further. Government programs and services affected include the Social Security Administration, the IRS, FEMA, NOAA, USAID, the National Park Service, Health and Human Services, and National Institutes of Health-funded research on cancer and Alzheimer’s. In response, a growing number of federal workers and their unions are participating in anti-Trump protests and are speaking out at town hall meetings across the country.
Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with journalist Micah Sifry, editor of the Connector newsletter, who talks about his recent New York Times commentary, “A Different Kind of Anti-Trump Resistance is Brewing,” where he explains why he believes federal workers could emerge as leaders of a new broad-based Trump opposition movement.
MICAH SIFRY: The federal workers themselves, who are under tremendous stress, are also starting to emerge as very powerful messengers.
I’ve seen a lot of evidence of local town hall meetings, community impact meetings happening all over the country where part of what happens at the meeting is that people get up and testify about how these chainsaw attacks on the federal government are impacting their lives. And very frequently, the people telling those stories are “first-person” themselves federal workers, 30 percent of whom, by the way, are veterans.
And, you know, as you know, veterans are perhaps very special in our society because they volunteered to go into the Army. Many of them do it because they have a real sense of wanting to serve their country. And then when they finish their military service, many of them also go into public service jobs, including in the federal government because they still have that urge to serve.
SCOTT HARRIS: Micah, you say in your commentary that these 2.4 million federal workers may offer energized and effective leadership in the resistance movement that’s challenging Trump’s authoritarian agenda that ignores the U.S. Constitution and the courts. I wonder, as you look at the situation, how can these federal workers widen the reach of the resistance movement and activate Americans who may be now sitting on the sidelines?
MICAH SIFRY: Well, I think what we have is an organizing potential here that is just beginning to be galvanized into action. There’s something called the Federal Unionists Network, which kind of cuts across all of the unions that represent federal workers. There are a lot of different ones ranging from the United Auto Workers union down to something called the American Federation of Government Employees.
So a lot of this is in motion now. I think we’ll see more of it on the next big day of protest that’s coming up on May Day, which has always been a labor holiday. Furthermore, as people talk to their friends, their neighbors, their colleagues, their relatives and hear from people who are directly affected that we will begin to see this affect.
One other point to make, though, is it’s a different — I hate to use the word “resistance” — I’ve never liked the word “resistance” for a variety of reasons. It’s a different kind of opposition. I like to call it the “defiant opposition” because it is in many ways going to be tougher and more serious than what we saw in 2017.
Many of the federal workers told me, you know, we take an oath to the Constitution when we first get hired and they take that seriously. You see them at rallies and many of them are waving American flags. The, flavor, you know, what they’re signifying, I think is harder to marginalize.
The left in America has a great tradition of dissent. It’s very important that we fight for civil rights. We fight for human rights. But very often we come from the margins. And we’re in many cases, some of us are kind of happy to be poor and on the margin, you know, just speaking truth to power and not necessarily changing minds in the middle. But the middle is where the fight for America’s future really is going to be decided.
And I think people like federal workers come with a different kind of standing and a different style in how they talk about what they’re fighting to protect. You know, many of them just say, “I was just trying to do my job, and my job is to make sure that all Americans get served by their government.” That’s a very patriotic way to frame defending the government from what Trump is doing.
And I just think it could present a much stronger kind of opposition in the face of what, you know, is clearly I think, a much more energetic and confident and dangerous administration.
Listen to Scott Harris’ in-depth interview with Micah Sifry (18:02) and see more articles and opinion pieces in the Related Links section of this page. For weekly updates on the Trump authoritarian playbook now underway, subscribe here to our Between The Lines Radio Newsmagazine Substack newsletter to get updates to our “Hey AmeriKKKa, It’s Not Normal” compilation.
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