Key planks of US government grind to halt under hail of Trump orders

The wheels of the US government have ground to a halt in parts under a hail of new orders from Donald Trump that have left vital services paralysed and raised alarm about damaging disruption to key sectors such as health, roads and tax collection.

Meetings on cancer research to discuss federal funding and reports on how to fight bird flu were cancelled after the incoming administration placed a halt on all external communication at the health department.

The cancellations were reportedly instituted partly to ensure that communications complied with the returning president’s executive order decreeing that his administration would recognise only two genders, according to the Wall Street Journal.

One key aim was reportedly to expunge references to “pregnant people” rather than pregnant women, an example of inclusive terminology that has become widespread in the health sector in recent years, to the consternation of rightwing critics who have railed against diversity, equity and inclusiveness (DEI) initiatives.

Veterans of Washington’s sprawling bureaucracy said that while some pauses were common to all changes of administrations, the disruption engendered by Trump’s is unprecedented.

The communication shutdown extended to meetings to review potential grants for the National Institutes for Health (NIH) – considered the lifeblood of American medical science – and to consider updated data for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

An NIH meeting scheduled for Thursday to consider grants for cancer and chronic diseases was abruptly cancelled at the last minute without being rescheduled, Victoria Seewaldt, chair of population sciences at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, told the Washington Post.

“Everything is basically in chaos. And, frankly, everyone is terrified,” she said. “We’ve never seen anything like this. This is like a meteor just crashed into all of our cancer centers and research areas.”

A spokesperson for Robert F Kennedy, Trump’s highly controversial choice for health secretary, who is awaiting a confirmation hearing and vote in the US Senate, called the communication order – which was not publicly announced – “a short pause to allow the new team to set up a process for review and prioritization”.

But one unnamed laboratory leader said it was ill-timed. “It is hard to imagine a worse time to prohibit federal officials from communicating directly with the clinical laboratory community and the public health workforce,” the person told the Post, referring to an increase of winter viruses and increased cases of bird flu.

The lull in services extended beyond health. The transport department temporarily shut down a computer system for road projects, while the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) faces staff shortages caused by a hiring freeze imposed by Trump just at the point when it is likely to be dealing with an increased workload due to Americans filing their income tax returns before the annual 31 March deadline.

Trump ordered the 90-day freeze across the federal government on Monday and also instructed that the treasury department had to give approval before agencies could resume recruiting. A webinar scheduled for Thursday to give CV advice to IRS applicants who would be hired as seasonal workers to deal with the surge in tax returns was cancelled.

“As Americans prepare to file their 2024 tax returns starting next week, now is the time they need a qualified customer service representative to answer the phone,” Doreen Greenwald, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, told the Wall Street Journal. “Freezing hiring at the IRS will severely impact the level of service.”

The freeze set to affect other services such as the National Park Service, where job offers extended to seasonal park rangers were likely to be rescinded, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, which was said to have withdrawn job offers at its hospitals and clinics.

There was confusion about the effects of another Trump executive order decreeing an immediate pause on the distribution of funds from an infrastructure law and climate legislation passed by Joe Biden. Some funds had already been promised to companies through legally binding loan contracts, prompting questions about which should be halted.

The Pentagon halted all the defense department’s global social media communications, with the exception of those pertaining to the military’s involvement at the US southern border with Mexico as part of an immigration crackdown demanded by Trump.

The aim was to ensure that social media posts align with Trump’s “priorities on readiness, lethality, and war-fighting”, an official told the Stars and Stripes website.