News & Politics

These Federal Employees Say They’re Terrified of the Trump Administration

Well, they say they're feds on Reddit.

Photograph by Flickr user Anthony Quintano.

About 14 percent of Washington-area residents work for the federal government. As Donald Trump’s cabinet takes shape, some people who say they’re federal workers sound terrified about what their jobs will look like over the next four years.

On Wednesday, a Reddit user with the username “Der_Blindschtiller” created a thread asking the question, “Federal employees of Reddit – Who has the worst incoming boss?” To protect federal workers’ anonymity, Der_Blindschtiller suggested that they use throwaway accounts. Sure enough, the responses poured in. (Of course, there’s no way of knowing whether they came from legitimate federal workers or people posing as such.)

Many commenters said they worried about working at the Environmental Protection Agency:

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Others expressed concern about working under whomever Trump appoints as secretary of state:

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(US Senator Jeff Sessions was floated as a potential secretary of state but was eventually Trump’s pick for attorney general.)  Still others pointed to Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke, Trump’s potential pick for the Department of Homeland Security:

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Trump’s unprecedented use of social media also inspired pity for the press secretary:
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And others talked about 18F, the government’s digital-services “startup”:

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Just two commenters so far haven’t been all doom and gloom:

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Editorial Fellow

Maxine is an editorial fellow passionate about covering food, news, and politics. Her work has also been published in Forbes, Marie Claire, and Inside Higher Ed. She recently graduated from Brown University with honors in nonfiction writing.