Since Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, the federal government has seen one of the largest waves of turnover in American history. Roughly 199,000 federal employees have left their posts due to retirement, resignation, or removal.

With the Supreme Court’s Spicer v. Biden decision expanding presidential authority over appointments, the total number of potential openings could exceed 250,000. This creates both a challenge and a historic opportunity for Trump to rebuild the federal bureaucracy on America First principles.

Federal Workforce Departures

Major reductions since January 21, 2025 include:

• Defense (DoD): 55,000–60,000 departures.
• Treasury: ~30,000, primarily IRS employees.
• Agriculture (USDA): ~21,000–21,564 departures, including RIF and DRP actions.
• Education: ~1,950 positions cut (600 voluntary + 1,350 layoffs).
• Veterans Affairs (VA): ~10,300 employees gone.
• Health and Human Services (HHS): ~20,000 jobs eliminated.
• Interior, Transportation, NASA: Significant losses, numbers unspecified.
• Energy: Hundreds to thousands in layoffs and rescinded terminations.
• USAID (within State Department): ~13,000 positions fully dismantled by September.

The USAID layoffs are especially significant because they fall under the State Department umbrella. Trump could refill those 13,000 jobs with individuals aligned to America First foreign policy, shifting U.S. diplomacy away from expansive global aid and toward sovereignty, security, and trade.

Legal Impact: Spicer v. Biden

The Spicer v. Biden ruling reaffirmed the president’s broad power to dismiss most executive officials who lack statutory protection. This expanded Trump’s ability to appoint:

• 4,000–6,000 additional political appointments across agencies.
• Senior Executive Service (SES) leadership roles.
• Advisory board positions.
• Judicial-style appointments such as Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) , who play key roles in agencies like Social Security, Labor, and the SEC.

In short, beyond the standard political positions, Spicer v. Biden opens up judicial and quasi-judicial jobs like ALJs and other tribunal officers, giving Trump greater latitude to install individuals favorable to his policy direction throughout the administrative state.

Total Potential Openings

Altogether, the numbers stack up to:

• ~199,000 existing separations since January 2025.
• ~4,000–6,000 new presidential appointments under Spicer v. Biden .
• ~50,000 additional roles tied to SES turnover and DRP programs.
• Total: 250,000–260,000 jobs potentially open for rehiring or reallocation.

Redistributing Jobs Across the States

If Trump chose to redistribute these roles evenly, each state would gain about 5,000 federal jobs. The estimated annual economic impact per state, assuming average compensation of $140,000 per federal job and an economic multiplier of 1.8, would be:

• ≈ $1.26 billion injected annually into each state’s economy .
• Nationwide, this equals roughly $63 billion in total new economic activity each year .
• Additional indirect effects could double the benefit by creating hundreds of thousands of private sector jobs in housing, healthcare, and services that support federal employees.

Strategic Cost Savings

Trump could also rehire these positions not in Washington, D.C., but in the American heartland. Relocating agencies to lower-cost states could save the government 40–50% on leases, wages, benefits, insurance, and litigation risk compared to a D.C.-centric model. This would diversify and decentralize federal power, reduce taxpayer expense, and stimulate local economies that have traditionally lacked large federal job bases.

Conclusion

The combination of mass resignations, forced departures, and expanded appointment authority under Spicer v. Biden means Trump now has the chance to restaff a quarter of a million positions. From reshaping the State Department with 13,000 new hires to filling judicial-style posts such as Administrative Law Judges, Trump’s appointment power extends across every corner of the federal system.

If those jobs were strategically spread across the 50 states, they could inject more than $1 billion into each state’s economy annually—while simultaneously reducing Washington’s costs and embedding America First principles into the very structure of the federal workforce. In sum, President Trump may need to create a new hiring team to facilitate one of the greatest employment opportunities of talent in US history.

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Commissioner George Mentz JD MBA CILS CWM® holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence (JD), and an MBA from ABA and AACSB Accredited programs. Mentz is the first in the USA to rank as a Top 50 Influencer & Thought Leader in: Management, PM, HR, FinTech, EdTech, Wealth Management, and B2B according to Onalytica.com and Thinkers360.com. George Mentz JD MBA CILS is a CWM Chartered Wealth Manager ®, global speaker - educator, tax-economist, international lawyer and CEO of the GAFM Global Academy of Finance & Management ®. The GAFM is a EU accredited graduate body that trains and certifies professionals in 150+ nations under standards of the: US Dept of Education, ACBSP, ISO 21001, ISO 991, ISO 29993, QAHE, ECLBS, and ISO 29990 standards. Mentz is also an award-winning author and award winning graduate law professor of wealth management of one of the top 25 ranked law schools in the USA and is founder of the ChE Chartered Economist ® certification & education programs. George Mentz has served as a White House Commissioner, and has served the Civil Service Commission for Police and Fire and the Airport Commission (Home of Space Force). Comm'r Mentz is one of the few lawyers who has ever earned Wall Street Firm licenses of Series 7,63, and 65 , served as a Judge for the ABA, has led civil litigation cases in fraud and defamation, as well as testified as an expert in FINRA/NASD financial arbitration.