As the administration continues to remake the federal bureaucracy to President Trumps liking, the Office of Personnel and Management has developed an intensive new training program for those aspiring to join the Senior Executive Service, the upper echelon of government employees.
Per an OPM memo, obtained first by RealClearPolitics, the syllabus includes course work grounded in the U.S. Constitution, “Founding ideals of our government,” and Trumps own executive orders.
The development program requires 80 hours of video-based training and culminates in two days of in-person training in Washington, D.C. It will affect government employees across the administration and disparate agencies and go live this September. The stated goal: “Ensure that SES officials uphold the Constitution and the rule of law and effectively serve the American people.”
This is the latest effort in the ongoing campaign to crush what the White House sees as an unaccountable administrative state. Trump began slashing and burning his way through the agencies as soon as he returned to office, with a particular emphasis on the Senior Executive Service. Normally little-noticed and non-controversial, they are the elite of career civil servants who serve just below presidential appointees and wield tremendous influence over federal levers of power.
To those on the right, this makes the SES the Praetorian Guard of an allegedly rogue bureaucracy that gave the president fits during his first term. Trump officials felt that they were repeatedly thwarted by bureaucrats who either slow walked his agenda or outright refused to implement his policies.
“Either the Deep State destroys America,” Trump declared during his first major rally of his last campaign, “or we destroy the Deep State.” His White House sees it as a question fundamental to self-government. “If the bureaucracy is in charge,” asked Elon Musk earlier this year in the Oval Office, “then what meaning does democracy actually have?”
The White House moved quickly to answer that question by attempting to eradicate the “deep state.” Trump stripped SES employees of civil service protections, mandated new standards, and fired many of them during his first 100 days in office. Now his administration seeks a new crop of replacements in line with his policy and more accepting of his maximalist vision of executive authority.
Hence the training, and what the OPM memo describes as “new Executive Core Qualifications.” Diversity, equity, and inclusion metrics are out. Evaluation of potential hires will, instead, be according to merit, competence, and “dedication to our Nations Founding ideals.”
The identity of the author of the new curriculum was not clear as of press time. The general parameters of the core qualifications, however, include a commitment to the rule of law, which the memo defines as “upholding the principles of the American Founding, including equality under the law and democratic self-government.”
The overture to the American founding comes ahead of the national semi-quincentennial, or 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and after nearly half a decade of dramatic disagreement over what those ideals mean. Democracy itself has been up for debate, with Democrats alleging that Trump represents an existential threat to that form of government.
The memo also outlines a streamlined hiring process, including minute details. The 10-page narrative essays required of interviewees will be struck from the application process and resumes limited to just two pages. Perhaps most significant, the administration will require every agency to add a majority of non-career federal employees to their Executive Review Boards, which are responsible for assessment, hiring, and management of senior civil servants.
This too is intended as a step toward democratization. “These requirements ensure that effective implementation of the Presidents policies is at the forefront of agency executive management decisions,” the memo says.
Philip Wegmann is White House correspondent for RealClearPolitics.
