President Donald Trump still seems determined to purge tens of thousands of employees at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), but he's apparently hoping no one will notice.
The administration backed off from its stated plan of firing 83,000 VA employees but still intends to dump about 30,000 employees, a figure that includes thousands who already lost their jobs since Trump returned to office, but Rolling Stone reported the cuts would continue through less obvious means.
"After arguing for months that the proposed cuts were essential to ensure the VA could continue its mission, the administration has done a 180 on these claims," wrote Michael Embrich for the magazine. "It is unclear whether the administration has decided to back off due to pressure from veterans groups, no longer needing the money for their billionaire tax breaks, or pressure from Congress. It may be a combination of all three. But it is more likely that this is a shell game to buy Trump time."
The administration is cutting the VA's workforce through attrition, hiring freezes and "deferred resignation," which pays workers as they prepare to leave, and frontline staffers are speaking out.
"Nurses and doctors are now being asked to cover administrative duties because the people who used to handle billing or facilities management are simply gone," Embrich wrote. "Since January 1, the VA has lost 17,000 employees. By the end of September, 12,000 more will be gone. The administration claims these departures won’t impact veteran care. Ask any veteran waiting months for a disability claim to be processed or stuck in a long line for an appointment if that’s true."
The hiring freeze across the executive branch, including the VA, will continue for at least three more months, according to Trump's announcement on Monday, and the president will stick to the blueprint laid out in Project 2025 and carried out by Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to lay off thousands of workers in other agencies, about a third of whom are military veterans.
"Trump, VA Secretary [Doug] Collins, and the rest of his administration cannot stop going through the motions it set off when Trump took office back in January," Embrich wrote. "It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why. They never cared about saving money, they never cared about veterans, active duty military members, or their families. They care about one thing: making billionaires richer at the expense of veterans and taxpayers alike."