{"id":9400,"date":"2025-01-26T12:32:18","date_gmt":"2025-01-26T04:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=9400"},"modified":"2025-01-26T12:32:20","modified_gmt":"2025-01-26T04:32:20","slug":"loyalty-tests-and-maga-checks-inside-the-trump-white-houses-intense-screening-of-job-seekers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=9400","title":{"rendered":"Loyalty tests and MAGA checks: Inside the Trump White House’s intense screening of job-seekers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Trump Loyalty\u00a9\u00a0Mike Stewart<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Job-seekers hoping to join the new Trump administration are facing a series of intense loyalty tests, with White House screening teams fanning out to government agencies to check for \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d bona fides and carefully parsing applicants’ politics and social media posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Donald Trump<\/a> has long said he believes the biggest mistake he made during his first term was hiring what he considered to be the wrong kinds of people. Now, aides are working aggressively to ensure the government is filled only with loyalists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Negative social media posts have been enough to derail applications. Those seeking jobs have been told they will have to prove their \u201centhusiasm\u201d to enact Trump’s agenda and have been asked when their moment of \u201cMAGA revelation\u201d occurred. One federal employee said they briefly considered buying Trump\u2019s crypto meme coin in case the president\u2019s team asked about their voting record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The intense screening has led some federal workers to question whether Trump\u2019s team cares more about loyalty than competence. There is concern that his team is ousting foreign policy and national security diplomats and others<\/a> who could offer the administration expertise and institutional knowledge at a time of conflict worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump officials have made no secret of their intention to fill the administration with hires sharing the president\u2019s vision. They began checking potential staffers shortly after Trump launched his campaign and have continued since he won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An application form on the Trump transition website, for instance, asks candidates, \u201cWhat part of President Trump\u2019s campaign message is most appealing to you and why?” according to a link obtained by The Associated Press.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also asks how they had supported Trump in the 2024 election \u2014 with choices including volunteering, fundraising, door-knocking and making phone calls \u2014 and to submit a list of their social media handles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are interviewing every single one of these individuals. If you are working in the federal government in a political appointee position, that comes through the White House now,\u201d White House personnel director Sergio Gor said Thursday on Fox News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump, he said, \u201chas been very clear of who he doesn\u2019t want to include in this administration. And so those are clear guidelines that we adhere to. And we bring the best people possible into the White House and into every department across this land.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Screening teams deploy across federal agencies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Some officials have referred to the newcomers sent by the White House to federal agencies disparagingly as \u201cMAGA commissars,” a reference to Communist Party officials from the former Soviet Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are generally young and many do not appear to have particular expertise or background in the portfolios of the agencies in which they are working, according to three U.S. officials, who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They said the screeners seem to be looking for even the slightest divergence between candidates and Trump\u2019s MAGA movement and \u201cAmerica First\u201d policies. A negative social media post or a photograph with a Trump opponent has been enough for some applications to be rejected or put on hold for further review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One official said he and several colleagues from various agencies had been told that even if they passed the initial vetting process to be admitted into the applicant pool, they would still need to prove their bona fides and convince interviewers of their \u201centhusiasm\u201d to put in place Trump’s policies, including by providing references from people whose loyalty had already been established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This official said one colleague who made it to the interview stage was asked when that person’s moment of \u201cMAGA revelation\u201d had occurred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the State Department, which has been a particular Trump target since his first term, current officials have described the atmosphere as \u201ctense\u201d and \u201cglum,” with career civil and foreign service officers leery of voicing opinions on policy or personnel matters, let alone politics, fearing retribution from their new political bosses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two longtime department officials noted that there is always a period of uncertainty with any change of administration but that the current transition to a group intent on making sweeping changes to the management and work of the department was unlike what they have experienced in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Checking for MAGA alignment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Trump administration officials had made clear plans for a robust screening process that would ensure all officials inside the administration \u2014 and especially those who could help shape policy \u2014 were aligned with Trump’s agenda, according to U.S. government officials and people familiar with their planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One longtime government employee said he ran into a senior Trump administration official in December who told him that Trump\u2019s team would look to be more thoughtful about how they were vetting appointees and even detailees. Those are nonpolitical, career experts on topics that range from counterterrorism to global climate policy who are loaned to the White House from other agencies for extended assignments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All appointees, the person said, would be issued questionnaires to ensure they were fully committed to Trump’s agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AP has reported that career civil servants who work on the White House National Security Council<\/a> have been questioned by senior Trump administration officials about which candidate they voted for in the election, their political contributions and whether they have made social media posts that could be considered incriminating by Trump\u2019s team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Wednesday, roughly 160 NSC detailees who worked in the Biden administration were told that they were being sent home<\/a> so Trump’s team could conduct a review to ensure its personnel aligned with Trump\u2019s agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery president is entitled to have a staff and the advisers that they need to implement the goals that the American people elected him to pursue,\u201d Brian McCormack, chief of staff to national security adviser Mike Waltz, said in a two-minute phone call, according to a recording obtained by the AP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One NSC director learned that every detailee would need to be screened and that they would be queried about whom they voted for, political contributions and social media postings, according to a person familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White House officials defend their approach<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo one should be surprised that those being hired should align with the mission of the Administration. Nobody in private industry would ever hire someone who isn\u2019t mission focused, and the government should be no different,\u201d White House spokesperson Steven Cheung said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver 1,300 individuals have been hired, while maintaining the highest standards of competency,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every new president looks to fill the thousands of government jobs they control with political appointees \u2014 rewarding campaign aides, allies, supporters and donors with plum positions. The White House presidential personnel office exists to recruit, screen and manage those employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asking applicants their political affiliations is common. In some cases it is required, such as when filling jobs on agencies or commissions that require partisan balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s White House is going deeper into potential appointees\u2019 political histories in part because he has carved out an ideological space that is often distinct from traditional Republican orthodoxy, making straight partisanship an unreliable indicator of commitment to his agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Trump administration\u2019s conduct and imposition of a political litmus or loyalty test, it betrays the oath that the president took on Monday to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution,\u201d said Donald K. Sherman, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a government watchdog group. \u201cWhat this suggests to me is that demonstrating loyalty is as important or more important than merit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gor, in his Fox interview, said that in addition to hiring, the White House personnel office is also working to root out workers disloyal to Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re also cleaning house. And so we started the process of terminating a lot of positions,” he said. \u201cIt\u2019s time for a fresh start.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Job-seekers hoping to join the new Trump administration are facing a series of intense loyalty tests, with White House screening teams fanning out to government agencies to check for \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d bona fides and carefully parsing applicants’ politics and social media posts. President Donald Trump has long said he believes the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":9401,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[3059,2576,1724],"class_list":["post-9400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-usa","tag-loyalty","tag-tests","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"\nLoyalty tests and MAGA checks: Inside the Trump White House's intense screening of job-seekers - LISTEN WORLD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=9400\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Loyalty tests and MAGA checks: Inside the Trump White House's intense screening of job-seekers - LISTEN WORLD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 Job-seekers hoping to join the new Trump administration are facing a series of intense loyalty tests, with White House screening teams fanning out to government agencies to check for \u201cMake America Great Again\u201d bona fides and carefully parsing applicants’ politics and social media posts. 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