Democrat says he doesn’t trust Trump administration on federal worker buyouts
Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.) on Wednesday shared his lack of faith in the Trump administration to honor the buyouts it offered to thousands of federal workers amid its moves to overhaul the government.
“I’ve told people not to take the buyout,” Mfume said during a rally. “I don’t trust the government. I never thought I’d say that before.”
The Trump administration offered two million federal workers across the country a roughly six-month buyout offer that would allow government employees to leave their positions but be paid through the end of the fiscal year in September.
About 75,000 federal workers took the buyout as of mid-February, the White House said, which falls short of the projected 5 to 10 percent they were looking for.
President Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) then instructed agencies to conduct a reduction in force, meaning many more employees would have to be laid off.
The Interior Department, for example, offered buyouts to some employees as a way to implement mass staff cuts.
While some agencies maintain that their staff needs to be slashed by a significant percentage, others have walked back firings of probationary employees, causing confusion among federal workers in various departments.
A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration must reinstate probationary employees that were fired unlawfully under a directive from the Office of Personnel Management.
Mfume told Just the News reporter Nicholas Ballasy that he doesn’t believe federal workers who took the buyout will be paid through the Sept. 30 deadline because the Trump administration and DOGE, operating under tech billionaire Elon Musk's direction, “can’t be trusted.”
“Since this is coming from Elon Musk, I really don’t trust it,” he said.
He also noted that his advice for fellow Democrats is to have them tell their constituents not to take a buyout.
Mfume said people should work with various labor organizations to stand up against the reduction efforts.
“Our strength is in our numbers," he told Ballasy.