US Department of Education Workers are saying that a "horrible, intimidating and unnerving" atmosphere is spreading in the department amid Trump's promises to shut the department down, a measure he vowed during his presidential campaign.

Sources cited by The Guardian said that the department held an "incomplete and chaotic" staff meeting on Wednesday, during which managers tried to explain new policies to employees, namely summoning all staff back to the office.

Trump's efforts to shut the department down are spreading fears that employees would lose their jobs, when their work is already paused, "We’re called parasites in the press. There’s a lot of fearmongering about what we do. What we do is ensure states are protecting children with disabilities," one employee said.

Some employees in the New York and San Francisco offices will be exempted due to a lack of space, while remote workers will need to be re-certified and approved by the assistant secretary of education.

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This comes amid Trump's campaign targeting federal workers and entities, in a sweeping effort to reduce government spending and bureaucracy through the Department of Government Efficiency, led by billionaire Elon Musk.

Over 9,500 federal jobs have been cut according to a Reuters report published on Friday; the Department of Education was the most affected with 1,200 to 2,000 employees dismissed, the Department of Interior saw 2,300 workers laid off and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lost 1,300 employees.

Trump also launched a buyout in another effort to downsize federal workers, promising to pay those who signed up for the program their salaries until October without requiring them to work and so far, 75,000 employees applied for the buyout.

Previously, the Central Intelligence Agency offered a similar buyout to its workforce on February 4, offering its employees an identical deal, while freezing hiring for candidates with conditional job offers with CIA Director John Ratcliffe saying the frozen offers could be redacted to align with Trump's policies.

USAID workers were put on leave and recalled from abroad on February 7, as Elon Musk and Trump agreed to shut down the organization which Musk called a "criminal organization" and a "nest of radical left-wing Marxists who hate America," in a post on X.