Trump and Musk fire thousands of federal employees.

Reuters - The United States government began firing thousands of people across various agencies on Thursday (13), as President Donald Trump and Elon Musk accelerate their purge of the United States federal bureaucracy, union sources and officials familiar with the measures told Reuters.

The Department of Veterans Affairs, which provides medical care for veterans, said it has laid off more than 1.000 employees who were on probation, while the U.S. Forest Service is expected to lay off more than 3.000.

Termination emails have been sent in the last 48 hours to employees across the government, mostly recently hired staff at agencies such as the Department of Education, the Small Business Administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Agency, and the General Services Administration, which manages many federal buildings.

Trump stated that the federal government is too bloated and that too much money is lost to waste and fraud. The federal government has approximately $36 trillion in debt and ran a $1,8 trillion deficit last year, and there is bipartisan agreement on the need for government reform.

But critics questioned Musk's aggressive approach, which amassed extraordinary influence during Trump's presidency. 

According to government data, approximately 280.000 civil servants were hired less than two years ago, most of whom are still on probation, making them easier to dismiss.

But the layoffs at the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau appeared to be going beyond probationary employees.

Notices were sent to dozens of temporary employees, full-time workers who have contracts with expiration dates, said sources who asked not to be identified to avoid any retaliation.

These layoffs occurred after the consumer protection agency fired about 70 probationary employees on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Forest Service was about to lay off 3.400 probationary employees at all levels of the agency, Politico reported, citing sources who noted that firefighters would be exempt.

In a statement, the Department of Veterans Affairs said the layoffs "will save the department more than $98 million per year, and the VA will redirect all of those resources to healthcare, benefits, and services for VA beneficiaries."

All probationary employees at the Office of Personnel Management, the human resources arm of the U.S. government, were fired in a group call on Thursday and instructed to leave the agency's headquarters in Washington, two sources said.

OPM officials also met with other government agencies on Thursday and advised them to dismiss their probationary employees, with some exceptions, according to a person familiar with the matter.