issue | Issues | About Tammy | U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois

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For Veterans Fired by Trump, the Sense of Betrayal Runs Deep

Jacob Bushno has spent his entire adult life serving his country. He enlisted in the military straight out of high school. After two tours in Iraq as part of the Army’s air assault division, he transitioned into civilian service in the federal workforce. Last month, just seven days before finishing his one-year probationary period with the U.S. Forest Service, he was abruptly fired. This week, he was rehired.

Like many of the thousands of federal workers caught in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump’s efforts to shrink the federal workforce, Bushno has spent the last few weeks frustrated and confused. But as a veteran, he views his treatment by the new Administration with a different lens.

“I feel very betrayed. All I’ve done my whole life since getting out of high school was serve this country,” says Bushno, 40, who worked in the Shawnee National Forest in Illinois. “I feel like, who's fighting for me, you know?”

Bushno’s rehiring came after a federal judge on Monday ruled the Trump Administration’s mass terminations of probationary workers was illegal. Even as Bushno prepares to return to his position, he remains skeptical about the Administration’s commitment to those who have served. “I don’t trust it, and I think they’re gonna terminate probationary employees again,” he says.

The impact of the Trump Administration's job cuts has reverberated across the federal workforce, where veterans make up nearly 30 percent of civilian employees. The Department of Veterans Affairs has not been spared, with over 1,000 employees—including staff at the Veterans Crisis Line—dismissed. While some have since been rehired, many remain in administrative limbo, left wondering whether they will ever be reinstated.

To some veterans, the wave of firings, as well as cuts to workers tasked with helping veterans, has raised deeper questions about the Trump Administration’s commitment to those who served their country in uniform. They say the cuts present a contradiction at the heart of Trump's messaging: while he often positions himself as a champion of veterans, his Administration’s policies in its first months have placed many former service members in financial and professional jeopardy. “If they're the patriotic party, why are you guys firing disabled veterans?” asks Bushno, who says he has PTSD from his tours in Iraq.

The political fallout from the firings may already be shaping upcoming congressional battles and the 2026 midterm elections. VoteVets, a progressive veterans’ organization, recently launched a six-figure ad campaign targeting Republican lawmakers in competitive districts, highlighting the economic uncertainty veterans face under the Trump Administration. The ad features laid off veterans discussing their growing frustration with the political forces behind the job cuts. “I did not put my life on the line for some tech bro billionaire from South Africa to come in here and try to destroy our country,” one of the veterans says, referring to White House advisor Elon Musk, who heads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has played a role in the cuts.

Exit pollingThis link opens in new window or tab. from the November presidential election showed that veterans were much more likely to support Trump than his opponent, with more than 6 in 10 veterans casting their ballot for him.

Ross Dickman, the chief executive of Hire Heroes, a nonprofit that helps veterans find employment, said his organization has seen a sharp increase in veterans seeking help compared to a year ago. He cautioned that while the labor market is strong, “it’s not enough to really overcome the amount of unemployed veterans that we’re going to see entering the market.”

Tony Ruiz, a veteran from Orange County, Calif., was proud to be hired by the Department of Veterans Affairs last year as a Veteran Service Representative. Then he was fired last month, 10 days before his probation period was set to end. He says he was especially shocked to see the phrase “unacceptable performance” in his termination letter, after becoming the first employee in his division to win an employee of the quarter award in August. The firing left Ruiz feeling abandoned: “I feel like I got a big F-you from the American people, and I feel betrayed.”

Ruiz says he had been recruited for the position by the VA and jumped at the opportunity. “I said to myself, this is a chance to serve my country again, serve the veterans again. So I took it, but ultimately it cost me my livelihood and it cost my career,” he says.

Although he was technically still a probationary worker like many others let go, Ruiz suspects his firing was politically motivated and a result of his criticism of emails sent by the acting secretary to VA employees unwinding some of the agency’s diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Unlike other probationary employees, Ruiz has not been offered reinstatement and believes it’s because he failed the Administration’s unofficial “loyalty test.” “As an American soldier, as a veteran, we value the oath. And so for me, I didn't take an oath to a king, or take an oath to the Administration.”

“I'd rather be homeless… than to bow down to Donald Trump,” he adds.

In a statement to TIME, VA press secretary Pete Kasperowicz said that Ruiz was fired for “poor performance” and that “his dismissal had nothing to do with VA’s Feb. 13This link opens in new window or tab. and Feb. 24This link opens in new window or tab. probationary termination announcements.”

In Congress, Democrats are pushing legislation aimed at protecting veterans in the federal workforce. Sens. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Andy Kim of New Jersey introduced a bill last week that would require the Trump Administration to reinstate veterans who were terminated and provide transparency on future dismissals. Duckworth, herself a disabled veteran, has been particularly outspoken, calling the Administration’s actions a betrayal. “He says he loves veterans. No, he doesn't,” she tells TIME. “He's firing veterans left and right. These are people who served their country in uniform and then chose to enter federal service to continue serving this country.”

Trump has repeatedly defended the workforce cuts. Asked last week whether he feels responsible for people losing their jobs, Trump said: "Sure I do. I feel very badly ... but many of them don’t work at allThis link opens in new window or tab.. Many of them never showed up to work."

White House counselor Alina Habba on March 4 suggested that some veterans working in the federal government were perhaps “not fit” for their positions. “As you know, we care about veterans tremendously… But at the same time, we have taxpayer dollars, we have a fiscal responsibility to use taxpayer dollars to pay people that actually work,” Habba told reporters.

“That doesn’t mean that we forget our veterans by any means. We are going to care for them 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.’ It’s just not acceptable,” Habba said.

In response to a lawsuit filed by 20 Democratic attorneys general, U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar on Monday ruled that the mass firings were conducted illegally and ordered the administration to reinstate affected employees. More than 24,000 probationary employees across 18 agencies have since been offered their jobs back. Agencies are still sorting out how to bring back those workers and give them the back pay ordered by the courts.

Yet the Trump Administration has signaled that its broader push to downsize the federal workforce is far from over. Already, the VA is planning to cut more than 80,000 workers beginning in June in an attempt to return to 2019 staffing levels, according to an internal memo obtained by TIME. Other agencies are planning similar reductions.

Despite his misgivings with the new Administration, Ruiz says he fears losing his house and would take his job back if offered. “But then again if they don’t, I will never work for this government again,” he says.