Donald Trump officials struggle to rehire workers after allegedly firing hundreds without realizing they oversee the US weapon stockpile

Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) workforce optimization initiative is reportedly backtracking and scrabbling to un-fire workers who were overseeing the US’ nuclear stockpile.

US President Trump’s implementing of an executive order to ‘reform the federal workforce to better serve Americans’ isn’t quite working to ‘better serve Americans’ as well as he hoped. Indeed, officials fired a number of National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) workers without allegedly realizing they ‘oversee the nuclear stockpile’.

On February 11, a fact sheet posted online by the White House details how Trump’s government plans on ‘reforming the federal workforce to better serve Americans‘.

One of the ways the executive order states it’ll ‘make the federal workforce more efficient and effective’ is by consulting with DOGE to ‘shrink the size of the federal workforce and limit hiring to essential positions’ – ‘significantly reducing the size of the government‘.

Indeed, on February 14, Reuters reported two sources confirmed more than 300 members of staff were fired at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) with termination notices reportedly sent out on February 13.

An Energy Department spokesperson has disputed this number and says the number is significantly lower, telling CNN it was ‘less than 50 people’ who were dismissed and they ‘held primarily administrative and clerical roles’.