Much ink has been spilled chronicling – and, depending on political leaning, either celebrating or lamenting – the president’s efforts to drain the Swamp. Already, Donald Trump and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team have cut 36,000 civilian federal jobs. Republicans rejoice as Democrats despair – and desperately try to stop it.
But why? As Just the News recently reported, Trump could soon approach Bill Clinton’s level of federal job cuts – and in just a few months, rather than spread out over two consecutive terms. Democrats were fine with it when it was their guy trimming the fat – so what changed? The answer seems clear: Trump Derangement Syndrome. If the Donald and his America First followers love it, the left must hate it – that’s the rule, no exceptions. But while we’re on the topic, how does the current president stack up to his predecessors? Who’s the real king of the cull?
Can Trump Take Clinton’s Crown?
Over the course of two consecutive terms from 1993 through 2000, Democrat Bill Clinton downsized the executive branch workforce – excluding the military and postal service – from about 2.2 million jobs to just 1.8 million. Sound familiar? And he did so mostly through federal buyouts. Sound even more familiar?
After four years of Joe Biden as president, the workforce was finally back around where it was when Clinton started his reductions. Enter Trump’s second term. Now he’s subtracting rather than adding, and he’s on track to meet and beat Clinton’s cuts.
But Bill Clinton was not the top trimmer if we go back another half century or so.
Not the First to Drain the Swamp
Using the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ numbers, we can see that, since World War II, six presidents have slimmed down the federal workforce. Harry S. Truman, a Democrat, brought it from 3.1 million in 1945 to a low of 1.9 million in 1947 before settling out at 2.5 million in 1953. So far, none have beaten his record of 566,000 net job cuts – but Clinton got close, and Trump may pass them both up yet.
Speaking of Clinton, he comes in second on this list with 399,000. Dwight Eisenhower came in third by eliminating 170,000 positions, followed by George H.W. Bush’s 66,000, Richard Nixon’s 36,000, and Gerald Ford’s 23,000. On the list of fat-trimming presidents, we have two Democrats and four Republicans.
Another eight presidents added workers. Lyndon B. Johnson had the most, with an increase of 440,000 jobs. Behind him are Ronald Reagan’s 197,000, Joe Biden’s 138,000, John F. Kennedy’s 114,000, Jimmy Carter’s 110,000, Trump’s 73,000, and finally Barack Obama, who created just 27,000 federal jobs. That’s five Democrats to three Republicans.
When we total each party’s reductions and expansions (excluding Trump’s current term), we find that, since 1945, Democrats have made three times as many cuts as Republicans, removing 905,000 federal jobs to the GOP’s 295,000. Democrats led in government growth, though, as well, adding 829,000 employees compared to Republicans’ 303,000. Over the last 80 years, that still amounts to a slight drop – 3.1 million in January 1945 to 2.3 million in January 2025 – despite the fact that more presidents added than cut.
But Trump’s already at 36,000 in just three months. If we include the remaining planned layoffs and buyouts in the next few months, it comes up to about 323,000 – around three-quarters of Clinton’s reductions, but in half a year or less rather than spread over eight years. If the current president can shrink the government by another 100,000 workers over the rest of his term, he will have brought the total workforce back down to where Clinton left it in 2001.
If Trump and his diligent DOGE team can keep up this pace (36,000 in three months is 12,000 a month, or 576,000 in a four-year term), he’ll be on track to beat even Harry Truman’s impressive record. That would, of course, result in a federal government smaller than it has been since 1947, if not longer – talk about draining the Swamp!
