The political class is in shambles. Their days of taking advantage of the American people are over with.
And now the Washington, D.C. Swamp has been dealt a major blow by President Trump.
Trump’s Federal Ax Swings Hard, Draining D.C.’s Swamp-Driven Economy
President Donald Trump’s relentless push to slash the bloated federal government is hitting Washington, D.C., where the swamp’s economic lifeblood is starting to dry up. Axios reported on Tuesday that the Trump administration’s aggressive cuts, driven by initiatives like the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), are sparking what’s being dubbed the “DOGE recession” in the Washington metropolitan area. For a city that’s long thrived on the backs of taxpayer-funded bureaucracy, the reality check is proving painful as Trump’s policies take aim at the entrenched excesses of the federal machine.
The numbers tell a grim story for D.C.’s government-dependent economy. City statistics reveal a 12.2% year-over-year spike in unemployment for February, a clear sign that Trump’s trimming of federal fat is shaking the local job market. Credit card data, as reported by The Washington Post, shows a noticeable drop in spending at major retailers, suggesting that even the city’s big spenders are tightening their belts. This isn’t just a blip—it’s the consequence of a deliberate strategy to rein in a federal government that’s been allowed to balloon unchecked for decades under establishment rule.
Trump’s cuts are reshaping the D.C. landscape in tangible ways. Residential building permits have plummeted by 33%, a stark indicator that the city’s once-booming real estate market is feeling the pinch. Axios also noted that D.C.’s chief financial officer is bracing for a 1.9% economic contraction, a rare stumble for a city that’s grown fat off federal largesse. For too long, Washington has operated as a bubble, insulated from the economic realities faced by everyday Americans, and Trump’s policies are piercing that illusion with surgical precision.
In a city where the federal government employs the highest share of workers in the nation, the mood is predictably sour. Axios reported that nearly 80% of D.C. residents believe the cuts to federal programs and jobs will hurt the local economy. This sentiment exposes the deep-rooted dependency on government bloat that’s defined Washington for generations. While the swamp’s defenders cry foul, Trump’s supporters argue that draining this overreliance is exactly what’s needed to restore fiscal sanity and prioritize the needs of the American heartland over D.C.’s elite.
The scale of the federal workforce highlights the challenge Trump faces. According to the Pew Research Center, over 3 million people, excluding active-duty military, were on the federal payroll as of November 2024. Even under the Biden administration, agencies that didn’t grow their headcount still saw massive spending increases, funneling taxpayer dollars into bureaucratic black holes. Trump’s response has been decisive: on February 19, he signed an executive order to start shrinking the federal bureaucracy, followed by another on March 14 to deepen the cuts.
The Department of Education, a favorite target of conservative reformers, is feeling the heat. In March, it announced plans to slash its workforce by nearly 50%, a move that aligns with Trump’s vision of devolving power back to the states. Similarly, the administration has set its sights on dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development, a symbol of Washington’s penchant for meddling abroad while neglecting domestic priorities. These bold steps are a direct rebuke to the D.C. establishment, which has grown accustomed to wielding unchecked power at the expense of American taxpayers.
Beyond federal employees, the cuts are rippling through the swamp’s vast network of government contractors. The Washington Post noted that these firms, which rake in hundreds of billions annually, are now facing an uncertain future. In February, the General Services Administration ordered agencies to root out unnecessary contracts, a directive poised to save tens of billions for taxpayers. For a city that’s long treated federal contracts as an endless ATM, this crackdown is a wake-up call that the days of easy money are numbered.
While D.C.’s insiders lament the economic fallout, Trump’s supporters see this as a long-overdue correction. The swamp has thrived for too long on a system that rewards cronyism and inefficiency, siphoning resources from hardworking Americans to prop up a disconnected elite. By wielding the ax with precision, the Trump administration is not only reshaping Washington’s economy but also sending a clear message: the era of unchecked federal sprawl is over, and the American people are finally being put first.
New DOGE Software to Slash Federal Workforce Amid D.C. Swamp Purge
The Trump administration, with billionaire Elon Musk as its efficiency czar, is charging full throttle to gut the bloated federal bureaucracy that’s long festered in Washington’s swamp. At the heart of this mission is the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which is set to unleash a powerful new software tool designed to accelerate layoffs across government agencies, according to two insiders who spoke to Reuters. This move promises to streamline the process of trimming a federal workforce that President Donald Trump has repeatedly called wasteful and inefficient.
The software, a modernized version of the Pentagon’s dusty AutoRIF program, is being reborn as the “Workforce Reshaping Tool,” a name that softens the blow of its true purpose: mass layoffs. “The tool will allow agencies to remove a massive number of federal employees from their positions,” said Nick Bednar, an associate professor of law at the University of Minnesota who has been tracking the government layoffs. With some 260,000 government workers already gone through buyouts, early retirements, or firings since Trump’s return to the White House in January, this tool is poised to supercharge the effort to shrink the D.C. leviathan.
Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a brainchild of Trump’s vision to modernize and downsize, has been the driving force behind this overhaul. Over the past few months, OPM developers have transformed AutoRIF into a sleek, web-based platform that slashes the time needed to identify layoff targets, four sources told Reuters. Unlike the clunky manual processes that bog down HR staff with spreadsheets and endless data entry, this tool automates the heavy lifting, making it easier to execute reductions at scale.
The timing couldn’t be more critical. Major agencies like the Department of Veterans Affairs are gearing up to cut 80,000 jobs, while the Internal Revenue Service is eyeing a 40% payroll reduction, per media reports. The new software’s rollout, expected in the coming weeks with demonstrations and user testing, will empower agencies to act swiftly. “What DOGE has started is going to continue without Elon Musk,” Bednar said, noting that the momentum to dismantle the entrenched bureaucracy will persist even as Musk shifts focus back to Tesla and his other ventures.
AutoRIF, originally developed by the Pentagon over 25 years ago, was a relic—effective but limited. It could only handle one user at a time and required manual data input for agencies outside the Pentagon, leading to errors and inefficiencies. The revamped version eliminates these hurdles, allowing multiple HR staff to collaborate on layoffs and upload employee data directly for analysis. This upgrade is a rare example of DOGE delivering on its promise to modernize government technology, a mission that has saved over $160 billion through cuts to contracts and staff, though details remain scarce.
The Trump administration’s push to reshape the federal government has already left agencies like the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau hollowed out. These moves have sparked lawsuits from entrenched interests desperate to cling to their D.C. fiefdoms, but the administration remains undeterred. The new software is a critical weapon in this fight, enabling agencies to bypass the sluggish, error-prone methods of the past and execute Trump’s vision with precision.
Yet, speed comes with risks. Don Moynihan, a professor at the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy, warns of potential pitfalls. “If you automate bad assumptions into a process, then the scale of the error becomes far greater than an individual could undertake,” Moynihan said. He added, “It won’t necessarily help them to make better decisions and it won’t make those decisions more popular.” The specter of mistakes looms large, especially after some workers were wrongly fired earlier this year and had to be rehired.
The D.C. establishment, long accustomed to unchecked growth and job security, is reeling from this aggressive push. The old AutoRIF was a clunky tool, described as such in a 2020 Pentagon HR newsletter, and its limitations allowed the bureaucracy to drag its feet. Now, with a user-friendly, web-based successor, agencies can move faster, cutting through layers of red tape that have shielded inefficient workers for decades.
Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal.
