Nearly one in five federal workers have left since Trump took office, with Black employees hit hardest, a Washington Post analysis finds

Nearly one in five federal government workers have left since President Donald Trump took office, according to a Washington Post analysis^1,3. The analysis found a larger reduction in the federal workforce than under recent presidents⁴. It compares the federal workforce now with its size when Trump took office^1,4.

Trump’s cuts have hit Black employees hardest, the analysis found^2,3. White employment fell about 4 percent, while Asian employment remained roughly unchanged, rising about 1 percent³. The analysis puts the departures under Trump ahead of those under recent presidents⁴.

DOGE drove diversity-related cuts to government^1,3. The analysis draws on internal planning documents from the second Trump administration obtained by the newspaper¹.

Why it matters to investors

The scale of the departures has been described as a historic exodus⁵. The winding down of Elon Musk’s DOGE after less than a year marked a turbulent end to Trump’s efforts to slash federal spending⁵.

Estimates of the cuts vary by source. An opinion column credited Musk with 2025 DOGE cuts that it said reduced the federal workforce by some 270,000 employees⁶. The newspaper’s own measure is that nearly one in five workers have gone^1,4.

The reduction is larger than under recent presidents⁴, and it has fallen unevenly across groups of employees^2,3. The cuts were driven in part by DOGE’s targeting of diversity-related work¹. The DOGE effort itself was wound down after less than a year⁵, and its role in diversity-related cuts is a central finding of the analysis^1,3.

What to watch

The first marker is whether the departures continue now that DOGE has been wound down⁵. The second is the uneven impact, with Black employees hit hardest and White employment down about 4 percent^2,3.

The third is the political debate. The findings appeared alongside coverage of the midterm campaign², and they set Trump’s record on the federal workforce against those of recent presidents⁴.

A fourth is the documentary record: the internal planning documents obtained for the analysis¹ set out how the second Trump administration approached diversity-related cuts, which DOGE drove^1,3. A fifth is the gap between estimates, from nearly one in five workers¹ to some 270,000 employees in one opinion column⁶. Black employees remain the group hit hardest in the analysis^2,3.