This week, the FBI’s Office of Integrity and Compliance issued a memo ordering that posters mentioning diversity should be taken down. The memo, signed by Catherine Bruno, the office’s assistant director, stated that diversity had been considered one of the agency’s “core values,” along with accountability, compassion, fairness, integrity, leadership, respect, and “rigorous obedience to the Constitution.” Now, however, “consistent with recent executive orders”—meaning a ban on DEIA programs the new Trump administration announced in its first week—she wrote that such posters would have to be thrown away.
“It’s like they are lighting the match to watch it burn.”
“In addition to disposing of the posters described above,” the memo added, “please review all materials in your offices, both in hard copy and digital format, and remove any materials that include the core value of diversity.” Bruno wrote that mentions of diversity would also have to be scrubbed from both internal and external websites, and physical materials “should be disposed of appropriately (do not keep them).” Her message, which Mother Jones has viewed, then notes that poster frames could be reused.
The memo struck some employees at the agency as a bit of black comedy, a concrete example of the bizarre situations playing out across the federal government as agencies scramble to comply with Trump’s new executive orders. Federal employees say these early executive actions purporting to root out “inefficiency” and ban diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives are creating concerning, demoralizing, and just plain stupid situations at work.
“This is all just disheartening,” one federal employee told Mother Jones. “It’s so disgusting that our bosses, Congress, hate us.”
People working in the intelligence community have seen immediate changes to their work environment, according to two federal employees. At one intelligence agency, a support group for people with disabilities was disbanded in response to the executive order; a similar group at the same agency for employees who are disabled veterans was also scrapped.
Mother Jones asked spokespeople at the CIA and FBI about how they’re handling the executive guidance around DEIA and whether affinity groups and support systems for disabled employees had been eliminated. “We are complying with the Executive Order and Office of Personnel Management implementing guidance,” the FBI wrote. “The Office of Diversity and Inclusion has been dissolved, along with component DEIA programs.” The CIA provided a virtually identical statement: “We are complying with the EO and OPM Implementing Guidance. The Office of Diversity and Inclusion has been dissolved, along with component DEI programs.”
The General Services Administration, meanwhile, has hired Thomas Shedd, who previously worked at Tesla, to direct its division of Technology Transformation Services. A GSA employee told Mother Jones that Shedd and two men with unclear roles who appear to be recent college graduates have been conducting “code reviews,” similar to what Elon Musk did when he took over Twitter. A GSA spokesperson seemed to confirm the reviews are taking place, describing them as “customary” and “routine in the software world” after changes in leadership
According to the employee, none of the people involved have been identified during these code meetings as being part of the Department of Government Efficiency, the project Musk is leading to supposedly streamline the federal government. But Wired reported Tuesday that people now occupying senior roles at the Office of Personnel Management include a 21-year old former Palantir employee and a person who graduated high school in 2024 who “lists jobs as a camp counselor and a bicycle mechanic among his professional experiences, as well as a summer role at Neuralink,” Musk’s neurotechnology company. The OPM acknowledged a request for comment but did not provide a statement before publication.
Employees at the GSA aren’t clear about what the code reviews are meant to accomplish—only that they suspect they are designed to try to prove that the department’s current way of doing things is inefficient or inferior.
“Applying the Twitter to X model to the federal government by a bunch of tech bros risks crippling not just government activity but the public,” the GSA employee said. “If they are being this flip with our programs, it’s like they are lighting the match to watch it burn and laugh as everything becomes ash.”
“Everything that is coming down is to punish.”
A person familiar with the United States Digital Service, a little known White House organization that has been subsumed by Musk’s DOGE project, said that employees there have all been recently interviewed and specifically asked what they think of DOGE. Rumors of pending layoffs have begun to swirl.
The situation, one federal employee in the intelligence community said, is far worse than at any time in the first Trump administration. “It feels different,” they said. “It feels the like everything that is coming down is to punish. Like this is all about revenge.” It seems, the worker added, “like the admin is out for blood and wants to win some game in their head by making some other side lose. They don’t seem to realize that means we all lose.”
In all, Trump’s anti-DEI and pro-“efficiency” measures seem to have immediately created new layers of bureaucracy and busywork, plunged collective morale into the government-issued toilet, and left many federal employees desperate to leave. Of course that is likely a deliberate feature, not a bug, of the orders. Indeed, on Tuesday, employees at multiple agencies received an unusual email titled “Fork in the Road,” which took inspiration from a similar missive Musk engineered after taking control of Twitter. (A version was also posted on OPM’s website.)
The legally questionable emails suggested that employees should consider resigning or run the real risk of being fired in the near future. As Trump seeks a “more streamlined and flexible workforce,” the email warned, “the majority of federal agencies are likely to be downsized through restructurings, realignments, and reductions in force.”
“During the first week of his administration,” the email began, “President Trump issued a number of directives concerning the federal workforce. Among those directives, the President required that employees return to in-person work, restored accountability for employees who have policy-making authority, restored accountability for senior career executives, and reformed the federal hiring process to focus on merit. As a result of the above orders, the reform of the federal workforce will be significant.” The email even included a draft “separation plan,” referred to as a “deferred resignation letter,” and told employees they had only until February 6 to sign.
“Whichever path you choose,” it concluded, the irony hard to miss, “we thank you for your service to The United States of America.”
Update, January 29: This story has been updated with comments from the GSA and CIA, which did not respond before publication.
