What you need to know
Donald Trump, who has touted himself as a “president for workers” who will “protect the middle class,” has cut hundreds of thousands of federal jobs.
In a Dec. 26 post on Truth Social, the 79-year-old Trump shared a screenshot of an X post from the White House’s Rapid Response account, highlighting that positions within the U.S. government are at their lowest level since 2014, with 271,000 positions being cut.
“Promises made and promises kept,” said the White House Rapid Response account, which supports President Trump’s “America First policy and holding fake news accountable.”
President Trump celebrated the job loss in a post on Truth Social, saying, “Big news for America!”
Never miss a news. Sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up to date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to human interest stories.
Andrew Caballero Reynolds/AFP via Getty
Trump defeated Kamala Harris and was elected president in November 2024. He previously served as president from 2017 to 2021, defeating Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, but losing his reelection bid to Joe Biden in 2020.
After Trump won the 2024 election, he brought Elon Musk into the Oval Office as co-director of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which sought to make significant cuts to government departments deemed unnecessary by the Trump administration.
PEOPLE Puzzler Crossword is here! How fast can you solve it? Play now!
President Trump, who previously said DOGE’s goal was to create a “smaller government with more efficiency and less bureaucracy,” signed an executive order that would keep the organization in place until July 2026. However, in November, Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Secretary Scott Cooper said DOGE “does not exist” and is no longer a “centralized organization,” according to a Reuters report.
Previously, Musk had announced in May that he was leaving his government role at DOGE, shortly after the tech company CEO criticized President Trump’s budget bill agenda.
Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty
As of November, the U.S. unemployment rate was 4.6%, with 7.8 million people out of work, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. (The unemployment rate in the previous year was 4.2%, and the number of unemployed people was 7.1 million.)
The group said employment in health care and construction-related occupations increased in November, while employment among federal workers continued to decline.
Meanwhile, the latest YouGov/Economist poll surveyed President Trump’s approval rating among Americans and found that only 39% approve of how he is handling his presidency, while 57% disapprove and 4% are unsure.
The survey results were collected between Dec. 20 and Dec. 22 from 1,592 U.S. citizens of different ages, genders, races, and incomes.
