‘Government efficiency’ campaign is a libel on civil service

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Yes, of course there is waste, fraud and abuse in our federal government. Just as there has been in every organization since the human race began. Until now, that is. All such frailties have been officially banished. Washington has become Camelot. Or, as King Arthur told us, “It’s true! It’s true! The crown has made it clear. The climate must be perfect all the year!”

The Trump-Musk administration’s claim to be saving the federal government by destroying it might be comical if it were not so cruel, vindictive and dishonest. This war is not being waged to save money or make life better for the ordinary citizens who voted for this president (much less those who voted for someone else or stayed home). This is a campaign of vengeance against everyone perceived to have crossed Donald Trump or simply disagrees with him on one thing or another (anything).

As Elon Musk and his crew merrily chop off agencies and departments, they forget or overlook the fact that Congress authorized these entities, appropriated money to carry out their programs, and has oversight authority over them. If the new sheriffs in town don’t approve of this or that unit — or the services they provide — their quarrel is with Congress, which writes the laws “bureaucrats” strive to carry out.

If you are serious about making government work better, you don’t start by getting rid of the new hires still on probation. Sure, they’re low-hanging fruit, easier to dismiss since they have fewer protections, but they are also the hope for the future. Claiming that these people are being let go on merit, for demonstrably poor performance, is a travesty, a lie. Whole classes are not measuring up? So soon? How was that established? Such assertions without evidence are not offered in good faith; they are a libel on the individuals involved and all civil servants.

I was one of those civil servants, a Foreign Service Officer specifically, for almost four decades. The thousands of people I worked with, at home and abroad, did not resemble the villains portrayed in propaganda against the so-called “deep state.” They were able, hardworking and committed to “provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare,” as our Constitution requires.

One of my Foreign Service classmates was killed in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive of 1968. Three Thai former colleagues were murdered by terrorists while on a field program in northern Thailand in 1970. An American officer was kidnapped by terrorists in Argentina, shot and left unconscious on the streets of Cordoba (he survived). Another friend was wounded during the bombing of our embassy in Beirut in 1983; an Associated Press photo showed him with a bandaged head briefing the press in the aftermath of the attack.

When I arrived behind the Iron Curtain, in Warsaw in the late ’70s, I learned that one of my fellow officers had recently lost his young daughter due to the unavailability of prompt and competent medical care in that remote Cold War outpost.

In Bucharest in the early ’90s, a bloody anti-communist revolution had left the local economy in tatters, with precious little on offer in street markets. When the occasional U.S. military support flight came through, the embassy community pitched in to help onload the plane, then drew lots to decide which families would be allowed to purchase grapes or bananas that month.

This, too, is part of being a civil servant. It has nothing to do with a deep state. I don’t know any civil servants who saw themselves as such. When I joined the Foreign Service in 1966, we swore an oath to the Constitution of the United States. The commitment was to the Constitution and the public good, not to an individual. (I served to the best of my ability under nine presidents of both parties.)

If the Trump administration genuinely wants to reduce spending and improve government — as opposed to exacting vengeance on its perceived enemies or denying benefits to the public — it needs to work with Congress to identify agencies, units and programs that are unneeded or marginal. The current approach — blaming the people who are carrying out the programs Congress created — is blatantly unfair, illegal and contrary to the public interest. We can do better. We deserve better.