Trump admits defeat in effort to entirely eliminate federal agency with 5,500 employees: report

President Donald Trump has given up on fulfilling another one of his campaign vows as he runs for re-election on a platform of "promises made, promises kept."

"President Trump has abandoned his administration’s faltering effort to dissolve a key federal agency, a major setback in his three-year battle to keep his campaign promise to make government leaner and more efficient," The Washington Postreported Wednesday. "The Office of Personnel Management will remain the human resources manager of the civilian workforce of 2.1 million employees and its functions will not — for the foreseeable future at least — be parceled out to the White House and the General Services Administration."

The Office of Management and Budget, which is led by acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, spent 18 months on the plan.

"The White House hoped that shuttering the agency of 5,500 employees could serve as a blueprint for eliminating other federal offices as Trump tries to contain the size and scope of a bureaucracy he targeted as duplicative and inefficient — and rein in a workforce he views with skepticism," The Post noted. "The agency would have been the first stand-alone federal department of its size to be eliminated in decades."

Trump abandoned the effort after something he saw on television.

"In recent weeks, Trump soured on continuing the fight after seeing an obscure television program about government while he was in the residence, according to White House officials, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Top budget office and other White House officials were rushed to meet with Trump the following day," The Post reported. "The president told his top advisers that with a win unlikely, the already unpopular plan would bring him poor reviews. Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and acting budget director Russell Vought, along with Margaret Weichert, the White House official leading the effort, tried to convince Trump to keep going in line with conservative principles of shrinking government, the officials said."

Read the full report.