Trump issues executive order freezing hiring for federal workforce

President Donald Trump moved Monday to make good on a campaign promise to shrink the size of the federal government, issuing an executive order to freeze federal hiring. The military was exempted from the order’s constraints.

The move is one of Trump’s first official acts in office and follows a campaign in which he pledged to take aim at the way Washington does business. It is also sure to hearten some Republicans who, despite reservations about Trump, supported him in the hope that he would hew to a conservative vision of governance, limiting Washington’s scope and reach.


“For too long, a small group in our nation's capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost,” Trump said in his inaugural address. “Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth.”

Even as Trump’s utterances since taking office have been unorthodox — he talked about feeling like a 39-year-old at the CIA, for example — he has stuck to a Republican script in his official actions. He signed an executive order to weaken the Affordable Care Act the day he was inaugurated.

