Graphic Truth: Federal employment already dropping

July 10, 2025

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Paige Fusco

The US Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed President Donald Trump to proceed with widespread cuts to the federal workforce, pending a full trial, overruling a San Francisco judge’s order in May that temporarily blocked layoffs at 22 agencies. Prior to the Supreme Court’s ruling, thousands of government employees had been preparing for mass layoffs, with many notified of their pending terminations but awaiting official confirmation.

Here’s a look at the changing size of the federal workforce, which includes the US military, since Trump first took power in 2017.

What We’re Watching: Kenya’s president cracks down further, UK and France open an atomic umbrella, Trump meddles in Brazil

Riot police officers fire tear gas canisters to disperse demonstrators during anti-government protests dubbed “Saba Saba People’s March,” in the Rift Valley town of Nakuru, Kenya, on July 7, 2025.

REUTERS/Suleiman Mbatiah

Kenya’s president orders police to shoot at protesters, European nuclear powers expand umbrella, and US President Donald Trump goes after Brazil.

The Lebanese government wants Hezbollah to disarm – will it?

Hezbollah beat on their chests as a sign of mourning during a mass rally to mark Ashoura, commemorating the martyrdom of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson Hussein.

ZUMA Press Wire

On Wednesday, the Trump administration’s envoy to Lebanon, Tom Barrack, received a stunning proposal from the Lebanese government– a plan to disarm Hezbollah, the powerful Iran-backed Shia militia group that has dominated Lebanon’s politics and fought two major wars with Israel over the past 20 years.

Graphic Truth: Federal employment already dropping

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What We’re Watching: Kenya’s president cracks down further, UK and France open an atomic umbrella, Trump meddles in Brazil

Kenya’s president orders police to shoot at protesters, European nuclear powers expand umbrella, and US President Donald Trump goes after Brazil.

The Lebanese government wants Hezbollah to disarm – will it?

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Graphic Truth: Federal employment already dropping

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More from GZERO Media

Do nuclear weapons make a country stronger or more vulnerable? North Korea and Ukraine took very different paths in the 1990s, to very different results.

Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Secretary-General of the ITU, discusses the urgent global challenge of the widening digital divide in AI access and policy at the 2025 AI for Good Summit, in an exclusive Global Stage interview with GZERO's Tony Maciulis.

At first glance, Russia has coped well under the weight of Ukraine-related Western sanctions, but clouds are starting to circle on Moscow.

GZEROMEDIA

Subscribe to GZERO Media's newsletter: Signal

Think you know what's going on around the world? Here's your chance to prove it.

Kenya’s president orders police to shoot at protesters, European nuclear powers expand umbrella, and US President Donald Trump goes after Brazil.

In this episode of Ian Bremmer’s Quick Take, Ian breaks down the growing crisis between the US and Brazil, sparked by Donald Trump’s surprise announcement of a 50% tariff on all imports from Brazil.