Federal Job Applicants Must Now Pledge Loyalty to Trump

Yes this is actually happening.

It’s almost impossible to overstate how absurd this moment is.

Not because it’s shocking, nothing is shocking anymore, but because it’s so far removed from the United States we were taught about in school.

The Trump administration is now demanding personal loyalty pledges from federal job seekers.

Not political appointees. Not cabinet picks or campaign staff. Federal employees. From National Park Service maintenance workers to biologists and support staff. The people who run our country from the inside, regardless of who’s in office, regardless of which party holds power.

According to new hiring instructions sent from the White House to federal agencies, every applicant for a GS-5 position or higher must submit four short essays as part of their job application.

One of those essays reads: "How would you help advance the President's Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role? Identify one or two relevant Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired.”

That’s a loyalty test. A way to see how committed applicants are to President Trump’s ideology.

Deafening Silence

You know where you’ll find this insane story in the news? Hardly anywhere. I scrolled through so many publications and news platforms to see where this was the day it broke and in the ensuing days after and couldn’t find it. I had to specifically search for it on Google to find it anywhere.

The only reason I knew about it is because I have custom news alerts set up for this kind of stuff.

And that’s what makes this so dangerous. The normalization of this kind of behavior. The silence from people who should be screaming. The congressional shrugs.

This is how it happens.

One administration decides that loyalty to the Constitution isn’t enough. That the rule of law is too uncertain. That professionalism and expertise are inconvenient. And so they start looking for something else, not service, not skill, but allegiance. To one man.

And what’s terrifying isn’t simply that they’re doing it. It’s that no one seems to care.

We’ve already watched civil servants forced to reapply for their jobs, not because they failed to perform, but because someone wanted to humiliate them. We’ve seen agencies gutted, inspectors general fired, scientists silenced, and grants pulled from organizations that didn’t play along. We’ve watched as loyalty replaced competence, and cruelty replaced integrity, all in the name of “efficiency.”

This latest news is just another page in the same manual. Strip out the safeguards. Replace independent public service with personal loyalty. Make it clear: there is no job in government unless you bow. Unless you submit to our way of thinking.

The Price of Liberty

And once again, I find myself asking: what kind of country does this?

What kind of good system demands loyalty to a man over loyalty to law and country?

What kind of movement sees people who’ve devoted their lives to serving others, rangers, nurses, firefighters, scientists, and decides the only thing that matters is whether they’re personally loyal to the guy in charge?

Whatever that is, it’s not conservatism. It’s not constitutionalism. It’s not patriotism.

It’s cult politics in state clothing. And let’s not pretend this is about reform or efficiency. This is about control.

They want a government that does what it’s told. That doesn’t ask questions. That doesn’t push back. That serves the personal, not the public.

They want a system built on fear, not duty.

This country was founded in opposition to that kind of system. It was designed, imperfectly but intentionally, to prevent it. Checks and balances. Nonpartisan agencies. Merit-based service. Independent enforcement. Guardrails.

All of it is being stripped away, not in one blow, but one loyalty test at a time.

And somehow, we’re still supposed to act like this is just politics as usual.

It’s not.

It’s bizarre. It’s unlawful. It’s un-American.

And Congress is enabling it.

I wonder how Congress would feel if a president with the opposite ideology took these newfound levers of power and used them to impose their will? Would they all of the sudden find their voice? Would they all of a sudden cry foul? Would they decry executive overreach and tyranny?

Perhaps we’ll find out.

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