March 4 (UPI) — Military veterans are among those who have lost federal government jobs as the Trump administration continues downsizing to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars.
Attorney Alina Habba, whom President Donald Trump has made his White House counselor, on Tuesday suggested that those who have been fired from federal agencies and departments might not be qualified for the positions they previously occupied.
Reporters positioned outside the White House on Tuesday asked Habba if she sympathized with those who have lost their jobs amid the Trump administration’s downsizing of the federal government.
“I really don’t feel sorry for them,” Habba told reporters. “They should get back to work for the American people, like President Trump and this administration.”
A reporter said military veterans are among the thousands of federal workers who have lost jobs without indicating how many.
Habba said Trump always has cared about veterans and police officers who have served the nation in various capacities.
“But at the same time, we have taxpayer dollars,” Habba told media. “We have a fiscal responsibility to use taxpayer dollars to pay people that actually work.”
She said the Trump administration will care for the veterans “in the right way,” but “perhaps they’re not fit to have a job at this moment or not willing to come to work.”
“I wouldn’t take money from you and pay somebody and say, ‘Sorry … they’re not going to come to work,'” Habba said. “It’s just not acceptable.”
Habba did not say how many veterans, if any, were unwilling to show up for work when they were fired from positions within the federal government.
The reporters’ questions followed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announcing Senate Democrats have invited veterans and others to attend Trump’s Tuesday night address to the nation.
The veterans include those that Senate Democrats say were “indiscriminately fired as part of the Trump administration’s mass termination of federal government employees.”
The Office of Personnel Budget says veterans comprise about 30% of the federal workforce, which employed about 640,000 veterans in 2021. About 53% of those veterans are disabled.
The federal downsizing includes the recent firing of about 1,400 probationary workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Probationary workers have less than a year on the job and don’t have the same protected employment status as non-probationary workers in the federal government.
Officials for the Disabled American Veterans advocacy group speculated the VA firings would have a negative effect on disabled veterans and their families.