As a candidate, President Donald Trump promised to “drain the swamp” of entrenched government workers, and a new report indicates that he’s been doing exactly that.
The Government Executive reported Friday that in its first six months, the Trump administration has slashed nearly 11,000 federal jobs, reversing a trend from the Obama administration that saw the number of federal workers continually increase.
The July jobs report showed that 2,700 federal jobs were cut that month, bringing the total number of jobs cut since Trump assumed the White House to 10,700. The report was huge for the Trump administration because it also showed that more than 1 million new private-sector jobs have been created since Trump was inaugurated in January.
In March, Trump signed an executive order that sought to dramatically shrink the size of the federal bureaucracy. He tasked Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney with leading a review of the entire federal government, while asking agencies to look for ways to dramatically reduce their size and cut costs.
According to the Government Executive, the last time federal jobs were eliminated at the pace the Trump administration is slashing them was 2013 under then-President Barack Obama. But it wasn’t because Obama was concerned about the scope of government. The mass layoffs were triggered by budget sequestration built into the 2011 Budget Control Act.
However, it wasn’t long after that that the Obama administration was back to adding tens of thousands of government jobs. In fact, in Obama’s last two years, his administration added more than 50,000 employees.
During Obama’s first six months in office, his administration added more than 60,000 federal jobs. And former President George W. Bush increased the federal workforce by more than 36,000 jobs during his first six months in office.
Still, there’s a long way to go. According to the July job’s report, the number of non-postal federal workers currently stands at 2,188,900.
