HONOLULU (KHON2) — The push to slash government waste continues. Thousands of federal employees have already been let go creating fear and confusion. One federal employee said there are real world consequences that could impact not just the livelihood of some Hawaii residents, but the safety of the state.
“It’s a big tremendous savings for our country,” President Donald Trump said sitting in the Oval Office addressing the media. “We want to downsize government but make it better.”
Trump’s aggressive efforts to cull the federal workforce and eliminate beurocracy and wasteful government spending is in full swing, leaving federal workers in a state of shock and disbelief. Multiple agencies have already purged thousands of probationary employees with thousands more opting for the governments deferred resignation offer.
One Hawaii Department of Defense employee agreed to talk under anonymity for fear of retaliation.
“Just frightening chaos, starting from January 21st,” they said. “The manner in which this is being done right now is without any thought or planning, and that is terrifying.”
They’ve worked for the federal government for three decades and have seen massive layoffs before, but this is different.
“It wasn’t the wide scale elimination of 10 to 15 to 20% of federal employees without any thought to what agencies these folks supported or what jobs they did,” they explained. “This is unprecedented.”
Cuts are happening so fast they said the agency is finding out the same time as employees, with little time to react or prepare. They are afraid what will happen if DOD in the islands is gutted.
“We have nuclear engineers here. We have an intel community. We have missile interceptors, so not well thought out cuts to those folks could have immediate, disastrous consequences, not just for our island, but for the nation as well.”
Data by the US Office of Personnel Management shows roughly 25,000 federally employed Hawaii residents, many of them working for the DOD.
U.S. Representative Jill Tokuda said the layoffs will have a ripple effect.
“It will be thousands, if not tens of thousands right here at home,” Tokuda explained. “Everyday citizens will start to see impacts on their lives and their ability to get the help that hey need and deserve from their federal government.”
She said lawsuits are in motion to fight what is happening. She is also trying to find out exactly how many have been impacted in the islands.
“This is not the America that we want to be, that we should be and definitely not the America that we voted for,” Tokuda said.