Donald Trump's administration is preparing to fire hundreds of high-ranking Department of Homeland Security employees as part of a government-wide purge of anyone believed to be standing in the way of the MAGA agenda — and MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski was astonished by the reasons workers could be pushed out.
The administration compiled a list of individuals to be targeted across every component of the department, and NBC News homeland security correspondent Julia Ainsley described how agency employees were looking over their shoulders.
"This is separate from what we've been talking about with DOGE and the big push to try to really downsize the federal government," Ainsley said. "This is a list that was identified by the transition team and then the landing team of Trump loyalists who came in to DHS, and they're looking even across ICE and CBP as Trump tries to make good on this campaign promise of mass deportations.
"What they want to do is take out high-level employees, who know 'Washington speak.' They're called SES, senior executive service. These are people in manager positions, policy people, strategy people who are coming up with how they're going to carry out the wishes of the administration."
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"Many of them served under the first Trump administration, served under Biden, and they're still here now," Ainsley added. "But it's anyone who is seen as not only obstinate, but someone who is not loyal to Trump, and if they haven't gone far enough to show that loyalty, a lot of these people could now be fired. We understand that there are across every component of DHS."
Brzezinski cut in to ask how those workers could demonstrate their loyalty to the president, and Ainsley replied that workers could be targeted for a number of seemingly minor offenses.
"If there's anything in a meeting where they feel like they're not on the same page, if there's any suspicion they may have leaked, even if it's just a confirmation of something pretty basic to the media, there are a number of ways that they've come up with this list," Ainsley said. "If they don't think that they've told their subordinates to carry out the plans and the wishes, these are now people on this target list."
"Wow," Brzezinski replied.
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