President Trump’s move this week to freeze the hiring of federal workers has sowed confusion in the Department of Veterans Affairs, and it may be driving a wedge between the president and veterans, who overwhelmingly backed him during his campaign.

Veterans make up nearly a third of all federal workers — about 623,000 people. And they are especially numerous in low-level support jobs likely to bear the brunt of the freeze.

“This has sent shock waves across the entire veteran community,” Paul Rieckhoff, chief executive of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said in an interview this week. “A lot of our members are extremely worried.”

Officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs are still trying to figure out the effects of the freeze.