Conservative-backed group creates list of federal workers it suspects may oppose Trump’s plans

WASHINGTON — From his home office in a small Kentucky town, a seasoned political operative is quietly investigating dozens of federal employees suspected of being hostile to Republican Donald Trump’s policies, an unusual and potentially frightening undertaking that is part of a broader conservative push to create a new White House.

Tom Jones and his American Accountability Foundation are examining the backgrounds, social media posts and comments of key high-ranking government employees, starting with the Department of Homeland Security. They are relying in part on tips from his network of conservative contacts, including staffers. In a move that has some concerned, they are preparing to release the findings online.

With a $100,000 grant from the Heritage Foundation, the goal is to post the names of 100 government employees on a website this summer to show a potential new administration who might stand in the way of Trump’s agenda in a second term — and who could be subject to background checks, reclassification, reassignment or firing.

“We need to understand who these people are and what they are doing,” said Jones, a former GOP senator’s aide on Capitol Hill.

The concept of compiling and publishing a list of government employees shows the lengths Trump’s allies are willing to go to ensure that nothing, or no one, blocks his plans for a potential second term. Jones’ Sovereignty 2025 Project comes as Heritage’s 2025 Project is preparing the groundwork, with policies, proposals and staff ready for a possible new White House.

The initiative, which focuses on top government officials who are not appointed from within the political structure, has surprised democracy experts and shocked the civil service community, with it being compared to the fear of communism.

Jacqueline Simon, policy director at the American Federation of Government Employees, said the language used — a statement from the Heritage Foundation praised the group for identifying “anti-American bad actors” — was “shocking.”

As she and others have said, public servants are often former military personnel who must swear an oath of allegiance to the Constitution to work for the federal government, and that is not a test of loyalty to the president.

“It appears their goal is to try to intimidate federal workers and spread fear,” said Simon, whose union is supporting Democratic President Joe Biden’s re-election bid.

With Trump, convicted of a felony in a bribery case and charged with a four-count federal crackdown on Biden, facing a likely rematch with Biden this fall, far-right conservatives have vowed to take down what they call the deep state bureaucracy with a bullet.

Trump campaign officials said outside groups do not speak on behalf of the former president, who sets his own policy priorities.

Conservatives say the federal workforce is overstepping its role, becoming a power center that can advance or thwart the president’s agenda. During the Trump administration, especially, government officials have come under fire from the White House and Republicans on Capitol Hill, as his own Cabinet has often raised objections to some of his more outlandish or even illegal proposals.

While Jones’ group won’t necessarily recommend firings or reassignments of federal employees on the list, the actions fit into the conservative administration’s long-range Heritage Project 2025 plan.

The Heritage 2025 Project proposes reviving Trump’s Schedule F policy, which would reclassify tens of thousands of federal workers as political appointees, which could allow for mass layoffs — though a Biden administration rule aims to make that more difficult. The Heritage Project is working to recruit and train a new generation that will travel to Washington to fill government jobs.

In announcing the $100,000 Innovation Award last month, Heritage said it would support the American Accountability Foundation’s “investigative research, in-depth reporting, and educational efforts to alert Congress, conservative administrations, and the American people to the presence of anti-American bad actors hidden in the administrative state and ensure appropriate action.”

Heritage CEO Kevin Roberts said the “weaponization of the federal government” was only possible because of a “deep state of entrenched leftist bureaucrats.” He said he was proud to support the work of the American Accountability Foundation staff “in their fight to hold our government accountable and purge it of bad actors.”

The federal government employs about 2.2 million people, including residents of the Washington, D.C., area as well as workers unions say many Americans know as friends or neighbors in communities across the country.

About 4,000 Cabinet positions are considered political appointees, which change regularly from one presidential administration to the next, but most of them are held by professionals, from landscapers at Veterans Administration cemeteries to economists at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The public list-making has some reminiscent of the era of Joseph McCarthy, a senator who conducted grueling interrogations of suspected communist sympathizers during the Cold War. The hearings were orchestrated by a senior staffer, Roy Cohn, who became a confidante of the younger Trump.

Skye Perryman, CEO of activist group Democracy Forward, said it was deeply disturbing and a reminder of “the darker sides of American history.”

Publicly naming government employees is an “intimidation tactic to dampen the work of public servants,” she said, and is part of a broader “revenge plot” being carried out during this election.

“They are trying to undermine our democracy,” she said. “They are trying to undermine the way our government works for the people.”

Jones, sitting at his desk overlooking the barrel stacks in the Bourbon capital of Bardstown, scoffed at the comparisons to McCarthyism as “nonsense.”

He is a former staffer for then-Sen. Jim DeMint, a conservative Republican from South Carolina who later headed Heritage and now runs the Conservative Policy Institute, where the American Accountability Foundation has a mailing address. Jones also worked for Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisconsin, and provided opposition research for Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2016 presidential bid.

Jones’ team of six researchers works remotely across the country, dissecting information about federal employees in the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department and other agencies involved in immigration and border issues.

They are focused on the most senior government officials — GS-13, GS-14 and GS-15 employees and those in senior management positions who could pose obstacles to Trump’s plans for tighter borders and more deportations.

“I think it’s important for the next administration to understand who these people are,” Jones said.

He ignored the risks of publicly releasing the names, salary information and other data of federal employees, who have a certain level of privacy, as well as the idea that his group’s work could threaten the workers’ livelihoods.

“You can’t make policy and then say, ‘Hey, don’t criticize me,'” he said.

He admits that part of the job often involves “checking your gut” or “gut instinct” about which federal employee would be suspected of trying to block a conservative agenda.

“We wonder if there are the wrong people on the bus right now who are openly expressing hostility to efforts to secure the southern border?” he said.

His own group came under scrutiny when it first investigated Biden’s candidates.

Biden repealed Trump’s Annex F executive order in January 2021, but a 2022 Government Accountability Office report found that agencies believe a future administration could reinstate it.

The Biden administration has since issued a rule that would make it harder to fire workers. The new administration could order the Office of Personnel Management to reverse the rule, but the process would take time and be vulnerable to legal challenges.