re: #136 Sir John Barron

He or Trump must have meant political appointees. Who would be replaced by a new administration anyway. Can’t purge the civil service.

They are announcing a plan to change the laws and allow them to do exactly that.

Donald Trump and Chris Christie are reportedly planning to purge the civil service

The general election is still more than three months away, but the Donald Trump campaign, at least, is getting a jump start on transition planning, and transition chief Chris Christie has some big ideas for how to make the federal bureaucracy great again.

Reuters’s Emily Flitter reports that Christie told a donor meeting on Tuesday that Trump will try to purge the government of Obama appointees, out of “fear that Obama may convert these appointees to civil servants, who have more job security than officials who have been politically appointed.”

To make that process easier, Christie reportedly said, “One of the things I have suggested to Donald is that we have to immediately ask the Republican Congress to change the civil service laws. Because if they do, it will make it a lot easier to fire those people.”

In other words, Christie and Trump would seek to replace the current civil service system, which involves extensive protections meant to keep workers from being fired for political reasons, with a system specifically designed to make it very easy to fire workers for political reasons.

vox.com