The dismissals will begin next week, officials said, and could expand to include tens of thousands of other workers throughout the Defense Department.
The Pentagon said Friday that it will fire about 5,400 civilian employees beginning next week in an “initial” purge of its workforce, as President Donald Trump’s hastily issued orders to shake up the Defense Department faced new scrutiny and officials scrambled to understand whether such actions could imperil national security.
Supervisors throughout the department, the federal government’s largest, have spent days requesting of the new administration that certain employees should be spared because the work they do is vital to national defense. An email obtained by The Washington Post indicates that Trump officials ultimately decided they need more time to sort through those many cases.