President Donald Trump has offered a buyout to all 2 million federal employees. The White House issued a memo on Tuesday offering to pay federal workers who don’t want to return to the office through September 30th as long as they resign by February 6th.

Employees who wished to resign were told to “reply” to the email and were instructed to reply from their government account. A reply from an account other than the designated .gov or .mil account will not be accepted. Then, they were to type the word “Resign” into the body of this reply email and hit “send.”

The subject line and some of the wording echoed an email Elon Musk sent to Twitter employees in 2022, giving them a similar ultimatum: to either leave or stay and become “hardcore,” according to a report by The Verge.

One senior administration official told the outlet that they expect 5-10% of the federal workforce to quit, which could lead to roughly $100 billion in savings, according to a report by ZeroHedge. 

In December, then-President-elect Donald Trump warned federal employees working from home that they would have to return to the office or “they’re going to be dismissed.”

The memo is just the latest step in the White House’s unprecedented move to slash government spending. However, critics claim that the Trump Administration is looking to replace those who quit them with loyalists, signifying a return to a patronage system that federal law sought to banish more than a century ago.

Earlier this week, Trump’s new administration also announced that it is halting all funding for federal grants while they seek to cut the costs of operating the government. While the pause is meant to be temporary, the effects might be felt immediately as those relying on funding do not have access to it.

White House Pauses All Federal Grants

Because many federal workers are already “feeling scared” about the administration’s “crackdown on DEI” (diversity, equality, and inclusion), its return-to-office policy, and the reclassification efforts could increase take-up on this new offer.

Most Americans, though, do not want career bureaucrats any more than they want career politicians. In fact, most just want to be left alone, but the ruling class has to constantly make the civilians aware of its overbearing presence.