Scrambling to replace their health insurance and to find new work, some laid-off federal workers in the US are running into another unexpected unpleasantry: relatives cheering their firing.
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The country’s bitterly tribal politics are spilling into text chains, social media posts and heated conversations as Americans absorb the reality of cost-cutting measures directed by US President Donald Trump and carried out by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge). Expecting sympathy, some axed workers are finding family and friends who instead are steadfast in their support of what they see as a bloated government’s waste.
“I’ve been treated as a public enemy by the government and now it’s bleeding into my own family,” said 24-year-old Luke Tobin, who was fired last month from his job as a technician with the US Forest Service in Idaho’s Nez Perce National Forest.
Tobin’s job loss sent him scurrying to fill prescriptions before he lost his health insurance and filling out dozens of applications to find whatever work he can, even if it’s at a fast-food restaurant. But some relatives reacting to his firing as “what has to happen to make the government great again” has been one of the worst parts of the entire ordeal.
“They can’t separate their ideology and their politics from supporting their own family and their own loved ones,” Tobin said.
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Kristin Jenn got a similar response from members of her family after she learned the National Park Service ranger job she was due to start had been put on hold by the Doge hiring freeze. She thinks it’s likely the job will be eliminated altogether.