As a side note, federal employee salaries themselves (*) account for less than 8% of the federal budget. What that says about the intent of slashing the workforce is beyond me.
The intent is to remove anyone that may get in the way of the upcoming grift. And with most of (social|traditional) media wanting to be part of the grift, they will happily help him convincing the masses there’s nothing to see here.
(*) https://www.brookings.edu/articles/is-government-too-big-ref...