On July 17, Trump signed an executive order to expand the number of political appointees who do not need confirmation by the Senate to advocate for and make policy.
Trump’s impetus for doing so, despite Schedule C allowing for an uncapped number of political appointees, is that Schedule C’s employees mostly concern themselves with confidential matters and policy. Schedule G serves to be almost exclusively political in nature, with the White House stating that it wants Schedule G employees to “faithfully implement the President’s policy agenda.”
The Trump administration did not consult with experts before making this move. The administrative experts warned that the new category would be confusing, inefficient, create redundancies, and diminish the apolitical civil service. Professor Don Moynihan of the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy cautioned that career experts will lose influence as a result of this new category, with Trump loyalists enjoying greater influence. Schedule G, like C, has an unlimited amount of hiring.
Trump and his allies consistently claimed that unelected ideological bureaucrats were running former President Joe Biden’s administration. Trump is doing exactly what he accused the former President of having allowed to happen.
