For over the past ten years, former President Donald Trump has cycled back and forth between a television personality and a ruthless politician. During this election cycle, Trump has arguably succeeded in circulating his extremist ideas and stories, no matter their validity, across national media, spreading his message to as many potential voters as possible and mobilizing his followers. He has recently spread false claims about the execution of babies and the consumption of pets by Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Illinois. While these claims have caused irreparable damage to many—Springfield dealt with multiple bomb threats shortly after Trump claimed “they’re eating the dogs” during the presidential debate on national television—something potentially even more dangerous and far more real is on Trump’s second-term agenda: Schedule F.
In 2020, about a month before the presidential election between Trump and current President Joe Biden, the Trump Administration issued an executive order, referred to as “Schedule F,” that would have allowed Trump to pick and choose who could serve at many previously legally protected government positions. On Trump’s official website, he promises to reissue Schedule F on day one of his second term, which would give him the “authority to fire rogue bureaucrats.” Of course, these “rogue bureaucrats” likely refer to anyone who disagrees with him politically.
Federal employees are largely divided into two groups: career workers and political appointees. Career workers are hired for their expertise in a subject and deal with non-political matters; this includes FDA leaders, members of the National Institute of Health, and public safety officers. These employees are protected by strong civil laws that prevent the president’s administration from firing them for political reasons, with a lengthy process required to replace or hire a new one. Meanwhile, political appointees are the exact opposite; they are appointed by the newly elected administration and chosen because of their ability to carry out the administration’s political ambitions. They tend to leave at the end of their administration’s term so they can be replaced by the next president. An example of this is the Secretary of Defense, who makes decisions that will most benefit the administration’s goals.
However, Schedule F blurs the line between these two groups. The executive order would strip these crucial legal protections from as many as 50,000 federal workers, allowing Trump to fire and replace them with whomever he wishes. This is especially dangerous for a president like Trump, who is known for ignoring credible experts in favor of his own personal beliefs such as when he suggested injecting bleach into one’s body could fight COVID-19 during the initial outbreak of the pandemic. In 2019, he mocked global warming, suggesting that sea levels would rise one-eighth of an inch over the next 250 years as opposed to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s projection stating they would rise that same distance each year. Since the realities of climate change run counter to his own political ideology, Trump prefers to dismiss it as an insignificant problem for a future generation to deal with. Clearly, Trump would much rather spread his own opinions than trust those more knowledgeable than him.
With the ability to pick and choose certain people for nonpolitical positions, Trump could replace much of the government with his own disciples. This would lead to an even greater outflow of misinformation from the government, with federal employees refusing to speak out against the President’s inaccuracies for fear of their own job security. He could also implement whatever policies he wished by directing them through his new allies, who would immediately approve of them in hopes of receiving a promotion. Some of these officials may be replacing experts who previously held responsibilities like running safety checks on our nuclear power plants, planning for the next global pandemic, and staffing our Veteran’s Administration hospitals––whose workers are considered federal employees. In addition to this, Schedule F would lessen the amount of opposition Trump would face from the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ). Those who would dare speak against him could be fired from their jobs, and the DOJ could be weaponized to attack Trump’s opponents and ignore his own crimes.
America has never had such an unapologetically oppressive president willing to manipulate the government in order to strengthen their hold on America’s government policies. Unfortunately, Schedule F is only one part of Trump’s grand scheme he will implement if he is elected. Further restrictions on abortion, the elimination of the Department of Education, and the restriction of gender identity are on the horizon. Schedule F acts as the perfect vehicle for these actions, allowing him to carry out his authoritarian agenda with an unprecedented level of ruthless precision. America was founded on the idea that we can disagree with one another one day and embrace each other the next. Trump’s second bid at the presidency represents an increasingly dystopian future hellbent on indoctrinating the masses to embrace one ideology while simultaneously eliminating others that may conflict with it. This is no longer a battle of American ideals—it has become democracy against dictatorship, joy against oppression, love against hate.