Trump Said He'd Take Care of Veterans. His Administration Is Cutting 30,000 VA Workers.

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The VA's chronic problems with wait times and access to care are well-documented and predate Trump. They led to the VA Mission Act of 2018 — which Trump signed — expanding veterans' ability to seek care from private providers. The VA had been hiring heavily in the subsequent years to address the shortfall: probationary employees — those hired within the last two years — were specifically the workers brought on to fill gaps in VA healthcare delivery. These are the workers DOGE targeted first. When you fire the newest VA hires, you're disproportionately firing the people hired specifically to reduce wait times.

VA Secretary Doug Collins stated the goal plainly: "Our goal is to reduce VA employment levels to 2019 in strength numbers, roughly 398,000 employees, from our current level of approximately 470,000 employees." That's 72,000 fewer employees than the VA currently has. After public outcry, the administration said it would achieve the reduction gradually and that the final number would be closer to 30,000. Thirty thousand people who provide healthcare, process benefits claims, staff mental health programs, and help veterans navigate the most complex bureaucracy in the federal government. The veteran suicide crisis — 17 veterans die by suicide every day — is well-documented. Mental health services at the VA are already stretched. Cutting 30,000 workers makes every one of those problems worse.

By March 2025, the VA had issued notices to cut approximately 80,000 employees — roughly 17% of its total workforce of 480,000. The VA employs 90,000 nurses, 28,000 physicians, and tens of thousands of pharmacists, mental health counselors, physical therapists, and claims processors across more than 1,700 hospitals, clinics, and facilities serving approximately 9 million enrolled veterans. The cuts targeted probationary employees — those hired within the last two years — which meant disproportionately cutting the workers brought on specifically to address wait time backlogs. You cannot reduce a backlog by firing the people hired to reduce it.

The VA loses approximately 22 veterans a day to suicide. The crisis hotline, outreach programs, and mental health counseling network that exist to address that rate require staffing to function. The mental health workforce at the VA had been built up significantly after a national reckoning over veteran suicide rates — a reckoning that produced bipartisan legislation and public commitments from both parties. Cutting that workforce mid-program is not a neutral administrative decision. It is a policy choice with a predictable human cost that can be measured in lives. Trump has invoked the military and veterans at virtually every rally he has held for a decade. The concrete record of his second term: 80,000 job notices at the department responsible for their care.