It began with four words posted shortly before 12:30pm on Friday, Oct. 10.

“The RIFs have begun,” Russ Vought — a key Project 2025 author turned Office of Management and Budget director spearheading the Trump administration’s effort to reshape the federal workforce — wrote on X.

By the end of the day, according to administration sources and court records, upwards of 4,200 government employees had received notices of termination -- formally known within the government as “reductions-in-force,” or RIFs. Among the agencies bearing the brunt of the layoffs were the Departments of Treasury and Health and Human Services, though some employees working in the Departments of Education, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Homeland Security and Commerce were also laid off, as were some in th

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