When it comes to firing federal workers, President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk are showing no mercy. If you doubt that, talk to Luke Graziani, 45, a disabled U.S. Army veteran, who was fired from his job at Bronx Veterans Affairs hospital.

The Washington Post reported on Graziani and others who were fired in a Monday, Feb. 17, story titled, “Trump administration fires thousands for ‘performance’ without evidence, in messy rush.”

When Graziani got to work on the previous Friday there was a boilerplate termination email on his computer citing performance concerns. His boss was shocked when he saw the email and said Graziani was a critical staffer and he was going to try to get his job back.

The father of four, Graziani said he had believed his veteran status would protect his job. He served 20 years in the Army, deploying for two tours in Iraq and another two in Afghanistan before retiring in 2023.

The Post said Douglas A. Collins, the newly appointed veterans affairs secretary, vowed in his confirmation hearing that “we will not stop until we succeed on behalf of the men and women who have worn the uniform.”

Graziani wrote a letter to Collins, saying, “You see, I am a veteran too, just like you, Sec. Collins. I spent those same hot nights in Iraq, waiting for the all-clear after an incoming round set off the alert system, praying that there wouldn’t be another.”

Then he asked for his job back. “This can’t be how my service to my country ends.”

As of Monday, Feb. 17, Graziani hadn’t heard back from Collins. We can only hope someone has or will save this veteran’s  job.

Amanda Mae Downey experienced another cruel firing. She worked at the Michigan branch of the U.S. Forest Service. She drove a half-hour to her office and signed her name to a letter putting an end to the income she relies on to support three children, an ailing mother and a husband who just lost his own job.

The newspaper said before she walked out, she jotted five words above her signature: “Received and accepted under duress.”

A Transportation Department worker found out he was fired on Valentine’s Day just after putting his children to bed, and as he sat down to watch a movie with his wife.

An Agriculture Department employee discovered he was terminated the morning after attending an ex-partner’s funeral.

A Natural Resources Conservation Service employee was cut months after the government paid $20,000 to relocate his family to North Dakota.

In group texts and in online forums, many who were fired called it the “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.”

Here is the problem, as explained by The Post:

The firings targeted new hires on probation, who have fewer protections than permanent employees, and swept up people with years of service who had recently transferred between agencies. A federal nurse with more than five years of government employment was one of those.

The Trump administration wouldn’t disclose how many workers it fired by last Tuesday’s deadline, but the federal government employed more than 200,000 probationary workers as of last year.

A U.S. Department of Agriculture employee who was fired said, “I’d understand a strategic reduction in force if needed. But this was a butchering of some of our best. Does the public know this?”

That is the reason I wrote this column. The public definitely needs to know how Trump and Musk are disrupting the lives of so many federal workers who are employed in fields designed to protect the lives of Americans.

Some of those who were fired had just received positive reviews or had not worked in the government long enough to receive even a single rating.

Directors at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, known as CMS, were told to reassure probationary workers they wouldn’t be fired. However, eventually all of them were fired.

What is especially troubling is the fact that Musk is actually celebrating the cruel way he is treating those he is firing. He shared triumphant messages on X, reposted a picture of himself in a gladiator outfit and later,  to brag about his job-cutting skills, danced around with a big chainsaw.

Elon Musk, without a doubt, is mean-spirited.

Jim Beam, the retired editor of the American Press, has covered people and politics for more than six decades. Contact him at 337-515-8871 or jim.beam.press@gmail.com.

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