President Donald Trump loves veterans, or at least that’s what he would have us believe. “You’re amazing people, great people,” he told the Retired American Warriors PAC last October. “Our veterans, in many cases, are being treated worse than illegal immigrants, people that come into our country illegally,” he said last September. “Honor their valor,” his foundation’s website still insists.

Trump is certainly aware that no American politician can win office without appealing to veterans. But his commitment to this constituency has always been dubious. He received five deferments to avoid going to Vietnam. It took four months and heaps of negative press for him to make good on promised donations to veterans’ advocacy groups. He attacked Khizr and Ghazala Khan, Gold Star parents, and ridiculed former prisoner of war John McCain, saying, “I like people who weren’t captured.” Pundits warned that Trump was endangering the support of a critical group, but he brayed about his allegiance to the troops and pledged to fix the Department of Veterans Affairs.

It worked. Veterans voted for him by a two-to-one margin and were critical in helping him win office. Several told Reveal they liked his anti-establishment edge and conservative rhetoric: “All I know is that Trump is sending fear into the very status quo special interests I despise,” a Gulf War veteran explained.

And then he froze most federal hiring.

The Military Times reported last November that veterans now comprise roughly one third of the federal workforce—or more than 600,000 positions—a testament to the success of projects like former President Barack Obama’s Veteran Employment Initiative. These job opportunities are critical for veterans, but it also leaves them particularly vulnerable to political turmoil. The GOP-driven budget sequestration in 2013 forced the federal workforce, including veterans, to take pay cuts; it also forced many active-duty servicemembers to leave the service early. For similar reasons, any federal hiring freeze—even a temporary one, like Trump’s executive order—inevitably affects veterans. And though there are exemptions to the 90-day freeze, it’s not yet clear if these exemptions will be enough to mitigate the damage.

