After cost-cutting blitz, Trump administration rehires hundreds of laid-off employees

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

After cost-cutting blitz, Trump administration rehires hundreds of laid-off employees

By JOSHUA GOODMAN and RYAN J. FOLEY
Updated 5:49 PM EDT, September 23, 2025

MIAMI (AP) — Hundreds of federal employees who lost their jobs in Elon Musk’s cost-cutting blitz are being asked to return to work.

The General Services Administration has given the employees — who managed government workspaces — until the end of the week to accept or decline reinstatement, according to an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press. Those who accept must report for duty on Oct. 6 after what amounts to a seven-month paid vacation, during which time the GSA in some cases racked up high costs — passed along to taxpayers — to stay in dozens of properties whose leases it had slated for termination or were allowed to expire.

“Ultimately, the outcome was the agency was left broken and understaffed,” said Chad Becker, a former GSA real estate official. “They didn’t have the people they needed to carry out basic functions.”

Becker, who represents owners with government leases at Arco Real Estate Solutions, said GSA has been in a “triage mode” for months. He said the sudden reversal of the downsizing reflects how Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency had gone too far, too fast.

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/doge-musk-trump-gsa-fired-employees-ce18553b281fbf5816ec2fd491d79b78

[Irish_Dem]

1. So it ended up costing quite a bit of money to the taxpayer to save money.

GSA racked up high bills covering the increased costs of no management and no employees.

All a giant expensive mess.

[yellow dahlia]

2. The "We told you so" scenarios will be never ending.

[Irish_Dem]

4. Yes indeed. Deservedly so.

[yellow dahlia]

6. I just changed it to "We" told you so.

It has really been a lot of us out here sounding the alarms. It truly is a WE.

But none of us take pleasure in it. The damage is so painful to watch.

[Irish_Dem]

9. Yes YD. It is one of those times where it is very painful to be right.

So very painful to watch the destruction of everything we hold dear.

[IcyPeas]

3. But did they rehire only trump loyalists?

[Irish_Dem]

5. No doubt that was part of the plan.

Fire everyone. But keep the loyalists on the payroll, a nice vacation,
then bring only them back.

[yellow dahlia]

8. I wish they could put their creative energies toward good instead of evil.

[Irish_Dem]

10. If they just did nothing at all, the world would be a better place.

But yes imagine their time and energy going to good.
It would be a heaven like planet.

I always told my daughter, try to be a plus on the planet.
For god's sake don't be a minus.
And being a zero is not a great goal either.

But in the case of Trump and his pals, being a zero would be a blessing.

[yellow dahlia]

11. Well put.

[IcyPeas]

13. And timing might be interesting... trump and musk are pals again:

They were seen sitting together at the charlie kirk memorial.

Trump and Musk make up

— Molly Ploofkins (@mollyploofkins.bsky.social) 2025-09-21T21:24:52.071Z

Elon got the message, he's back in the open again, he never left Trump he just needed to remove himself so people would stop sinking Tesla with protests.

— Anonymous (@youranoncentral.bsky.social) 2025-09-23T11:02:28.144Z

[Irish_Dem]

14. Yes did we get played? Play acting to save Musk's ass.

Tesla was sinking like a stone.

So we had a high school level skit about their "feud."

[yellow dahlia]

7. Oh - of course. I hadn't thought of that.

Just like they will destroy agencies, and then recreate them through privatization.

[mr715]

12. How efficient nt

[pat_k]

15. Unless they hire back the estimated 154,000 who took the "not a buyout," buyout...

those people will hit the October jobs report like a tsunami (they are technically employed through 9/30, so the job losses won't be reported until the Oct report comes out in early November).

Won't be a very happy holiday for the state of the economy.