Trump admin fires early-career federal workers. It could alter the future of government.

Federal agencies have slashed many early career recruiting and development programs as the government trims spending — and employees worry the cuts could drastically alter how the government operates.

These annual training programs — which last anywhere from a couple months to two years — have long been pipelines for hundreds of mission-driven college graduates and career-switchers into full-time public service. They were heralded by the Biden administration, which aimed to bolster recruitment of younger professionals in the face of an aging federal workforce gearing for retirement.

But as the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency nix the federal workforce to shed government spending, many of the staffers in these programs have been dismissed. Over the past two weeks, federal agencies have unleashed a wave of layoffs that hitthousands of probationary workers. And in a memo issued Wednesday, the Office of Personnel Management said agencies should use all tools in their arsenal to reduce headcount, including “attrition and allowing term or temporary positions” like these programs “to expire without renewal."

At the Department of Housing and Urban Development, many recent law school graduates training to be trial attorneys through a legal honors program were terminated starting mid-February, according to two staffers familiar with the situation. Presidential management fellows training for leadership positions at the National Institutes of Health and other agencies were also terminated Valentine’s Day weekend, an NIH supervisor and fellow said. And the General Services Administration’s U.S. Digital Corps fellowship, which offers recent graduates work on the government’s technical services, is set to be cleaved by about 75 percent, according to two GSA managers who, like the rest of the federal workers in this story, spoke to POLITICO anonymously to avoid retribution.

The confluence of the early-career program closures and mass departures means knowledge about arcane government workings could disappear. One result is it’ll be easier to undermine or eviscerate certain functions of federal agencies, said a HUD attorney who participated in the legal honors program.

Some of these cuts were previewed weeks earlier when the Trump administration implemented a90-day hiring freeze that prompted agencies like HUD and theJustice Department to rescind offers for early-career programs, including unpaid externships that would have started this winter or summer.

It’s unclear how many early career programs have been cut across the government or whether they have been permanently gutted. Last week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order slashing the Presidential Management Fellows program. OPM, which manages the government’s employee services, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. White House DOGE adviser Katie Miller referred POLITICO to HUD, which did not respond, and other agencies declined requests for comment.

Six current and recently fired government staffers — most of whom participated in these programs — say they worry about the future of the federal government as early career program participants receive terminations. Trump and Musk have let go workers who guided years of opaque operational and policy decisions and probationary staff cuts, which also affected mid and late-stage workers who just received promotions. Simultaneously, they have seeded agencies with loyalists looking to undercut traditional government functions they see as bureaucratic bloat.

That’s because the offices can no longer “uphold our statutory obligations to provide safe rental housing to low-income families or investigate complaints of discrimination,” said the attorney, who spoke anonymously to avoid retribution. “This leaves open opportunities for radical political agendas to fundamentally weaponize HUD’s mission.”

“If these programs continue to exist, there might be a whole new way of qualifying people,” said Jacqueline Simon, the public policy director of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union. “Instead of skills, it might be political loyalty.”

If the hiring freeze and mass terminations are any indication, it’s unlikely the Trump administration will reopen many recruitment channels for early-career professionals anytime soon.

The cuts to the early career programs will likely shut many new staffers out of the federal workforce. That’s because early career professionals can’t leverage their stunted or nonexistent government experience to compete with external job applicants who typically have years of experience over them. They also can’t take advantage of internal procedures tied to these programs that assign participants priority for hiring.

“This was basically the only opportunity entry-level attorneys have into the federal government, specifically federal agencies,” said Camelia Pesquera Zambrana, a third-year law student whose legal honors program offer was rescinded a few weeks ago. “I think I’m going to focus on the private sector, build up my resume … and then maybe transition into public sector work.”

That could take years, Zambrana noted. Even if the government restores the legal honors program, she can’t reapply because the program excludes people who have passed the bar exam, which she now intends to take shortly after she graduates this summer.

If these programs aren’t restored, the loss of young talent in the face of high attrition in the federal government could hollow out agencies in the coming years, and that might “have very painful consequences once systems and services slow down or disappear for millions of Americans,” a GSA fellow said.

"You burned a bridge with young talent," the NIH presidential management fellow said. "I wanted to support the research enterprise and help the government because I believe it has a positive impact on people. But why would I put myself through this again to make half of what I could make in the private industry?"