President Donald Trump fired 17 independent watchdogs at various federal agencies late Friday as he moves furiously to rebuild the government, a Trump administration official confirmed to Fox News.
President Trump has fired inspectors general at various agencies, including the Department of Defense, State Department, Energy Department, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Department of Veterans Affairs, and notified them via email from the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, The Washington Post reported. First reported. .
“This is a massacre on a massive scale,” one fired inspector general told the Post. “Whoever President Trump appoints now will be seen as a loyalist and the whole system will be weakened.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said President Trump’s action would require the president to give Congress 30 days’ notice of his intention to fire an independent oversight agency. The Associated Press reported that it may violate federal law. .
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President Donald Trump holds up a letter from outgoing President Joe Biden as he signs an executive order in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on January 20, 2025. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
“There may be good reason why the IG was fired, and if so, we need to know it,” Grassley said in a statement. “We would like further explanation from President Trump. In any event, Congress was not provided with the detailed 30-day takedown notice required by law.”
The White House did not respond to requests for comment.
Federal agency inspectors general are being asked to investigate government waste, fraud and abuse. They operate independently and can function in multiple administrations.
The mass layoffs are the latest in an effort to bring the federal bureaucracy into submission after President Trump suspended diversity, equity and inclusion programs, rescinded job offers and fired more than 150 national security and foreign policy officials. This is an attempt. President Trump began his second term with the intention of purging the government of those who opposed his policies and replacing them with officials who would carry out his orders without hesitation.
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Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz testifies before Congress. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc, via Getty Images)
The New York Times reported that among those who escaped President Trump’s wrath was Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz. Mr. Horowitz led the investigation into the FBI’s Russia collusion investigation, which revealed at least 17 “material inaccuracies and omissions” in the FBI’s FISA warrant application in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts denounced Trump’s firing as a “midnight purge of independent watchdogs.”
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Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said the president’s firing of more than a dozen inspectors general violates federal law requiring 30 days’ notice to Congress. (Alison Bailey/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
“President Trump is dismantling checks on power and paving the way for rampant corruption,” Warren wrote on X.
President Trump fired five inspectors general in less than two months during his first term in 2020. This included the State Department, which had been involved in the president’s impeachment proceedings.
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Last year, President Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, fired the inspector general of the U.S. Railroad Retirement Board after an investigation found the agency had created a hostile work environment.
In 2022, Congress passed reforms that strengthened inspector general protections, made it harder to replace them with political appointees, and required the president to explain their removal.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Chris Pandolfo is a breaking news reporter for Fox News Digital. Send your tips to chris.pandolfo@fox.com and follow us on Twitter @ChrisCPandolfo.
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