President Donald Trump said he plans to remove more than 1,000 appointees from the administration of former President Joe Biden, announcing four firings on social media, including celebrity chef Jose Andres and former top general Mark Milley, Reuters reported, BTA reported.
"My Presidential Personnel Office is actively in the process of identifying and removing over a thousand presidential appointees from the previous administration who are not consistent with our vision of Making America Great Again," Trump said in a post on his social network "Truth Social" shortly after midnight.
The step is likely to reignite concerns that the president is aiming to replace Biden appointees with individuals loyal to his agenda, Reuters notes. Milley was given a preemptive pardon by Biden yesterday. Andres, who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Biden, was removed from the President's Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, Trump said in his post.
A portrait of Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who Trump had suggested should be executed for negotiating with China in absentia, was removed from the Pentagon shortly after Trump took office.
Trump also said he was removing former diplomat Brian Hook from the Wilson Center for Scholars and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms from the President's Export Council.
"Let this serve as official notice of the firing of these 4 individuals, and many more to come soon," Trump wrote, adding: "YOU ARE FIRED!" Trump also ordered federal workers to return to the office five days a week and weakened job protections for state employees, the first steps in his campaign to clean up the federal bureaucracy, Reuters noted.