Layoffs Expand at Federal Agencies, Part of Trump Purge

The Trump administration accelerated plans for widespread work force cuts across the government on Friday, as employees at multiple federal agencies learned they would be losing their jobs.

Agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Agriculture Department were the latest to be hit with layoffs as President Trump and a team led by the billionaire Elon Musk ramped up an initiative to cut government spending and overhaul government. The administration has recently focused its efforts on an estimated 200,000 probationary workers, who do not receive the same protections as many other federal employees.

On Friday, officials at the E.P.A. said they had terminated 388 probationary employees. “President Trump was elected with a mandate to create a more effective and efficient federal government that serves all Americans, and we are doing just that,” Laura Gentile, an agency spokeswoman, said in a statement.

Some of the biggest cuts were made at the Energy Department, which began laying off staff members on Thursday, according to three people familiar with the matter. Around 1,000 federal workers at the agency, all probationary employees, were told they were losing their jobs, according to one of the people. All three spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the moves publicly.

More than 300 of those workers were employed at the National Nuclear Security Administration, which manages the nation’s nuclear weapons fleet, and about 50 were at the department’s loan programs office, which helps bring new energy technologies to market, two of the people said.

The firings created confusion within the agency. On Friday night, at least some of the laid-off staff members at the National Nuclear Security Administration were told to come back to their jobs, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the firings.