“We must root out corruption and implement accountability in our Federal Workforce!,” President Donald Trump announced in a Truth Social post on April 18.

His plan for doing such a task?

Removing independent thought and critical policy analysis from the civil service.

The post detailed that this initiative was all part of his ‘Day One Executive Order.’

He, however, did not specify exactly which Executive Order he was referring to.

If you go to the White House website and look under Executive Orders – the only one listed for January 20, 2025 – Day One – is ‘Unleashing American Energy’.

Hmm…no mention in there about cleaning up the ‘corrupt actions’ of Civil Service employees.

Going through the 39 Executive Orders posted on the White House website, none seem to address the issue Trump is referring to directly.

In the post, President Trump defines the issue as such:

“The Office of Personnel Management will be issuing new Civil Service Regulations for career government employees. Moving forward, career government employees, working on policy matters, will be classified as “Schedule Policy/Career,” and will be held to the highest standards of conduct and performance. If these government workers refuse to advance the policy interests of the President, or are engaging in corrupt behavior, they should no longer have a job. This is common sense, and will allow the federal government to finally be “run like a business.”

So, blindly advancing the policy interests of the President equals no corruption?

Really?

The entire job description of a policy analyst is to question things. Literally.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ own website, a policy analyst researches, analyzes, and evaluates existing or proposed policies and programs to determine their impact and effectiveness, offering recommendations for improvement or new policy development.

Most of that definition involves questioning ideas.

So, is Trump insinuating that if someone does their described job role as a policy analyst and happens to identify a gap in the effectiveness of an edict from the Administration, it may be seen as a refusal to advance the President’s wishes and thusly corrupt?

Furthermore, precisely what does he mean by ‘run like a business’?

Most businesses are not dictatorial in nature but rather promote teamwork, idea-building, and innovation. All of which require independent thoughts and actions of various staff members.

Ultimately, what Trump wants is to be unquestioned, even when raising questionable or unsavory policy initiatives such as cultural repatriation (see: Cultural repatriation campaign 2.0?).

Long story short, he wants a Federal labor force of yes men.