With the president already running for re-election, federal workers get guidance on office politics

The day President Trump took the oath of office, he filed paperwork to declare his candidacy for re-election, not so much because he was overeager but because money was still flowing into his campaign coffers, and any funds raised over $5,000 in 2017 would have had to be returned unless Mr. Trump registered as a candidate. And we know the president doesn’t like refunds.

So what’s a federal employee to do with a boss who was technically running for office the day he stepped into the Oval Office? The Office of Special Counsel has answers. It has told federal employees that they may not express a view about whether Mr. Trump should be re-elected or defeated in 2020 while on duty or in the workplace, but it assured them that they were otherwise free to express support or disapproval about Mr. Trump and his policies.

A new guidance document was issued on Tuesday after the office said that it had received numerous inquiries about the impact of Mr. Trump’s filing for re-election. In contrast, former President Barack Obama filed such paperwork more than two years after his inauguration.

The office — an independent agency that watchdogs civil-service protections — said that with the exception of expressly advocating Mr. Trump’s success or failure in the 2020 election, federal employees were still pretty free.

“Because the 2020 election is still more than three years away, at this time not all expressions of support or opposition to President Trump constitute political activity for purposes of the Hatch Act,” which prohibits federal employees from politicking, it said.

The office also developed a new answer to its list of frequently asked questions that spells out with greater detail the scope and limits of federal employees’ right to express their views while they are at work or on duty.

The new answer distinguished between expressing a view about current events, policy issues and matters of public interest — which federal employees are always free to do — and political activity, meaning advocating the success or failure of a particular political candidate or party.