'It's a terror campaign.' Federal workers in Seattle area describe snitching, secrecy under Trump

At the Veterans Affairs building in Seattle’s Beacon Hill neighborhood, employees say a culture of snitching has emerged since President Trump became president again. After an email went out saying the Pride flag could not fly outside the building during Pride month, some were afraid to sport rainbow lanyards.

Up north, at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, employees were baffled when told they couldn’t talk with foreign nationals without approval.

And across the water in Bremerton, home of the Puget Sound Navy shipyard, U.S. Rep. Emily Randall (who represents a Congressional district with 27,000 federal workers) said her office has been barraged with calls – 1,200 constituents reached out via phone, email and direct message in the first week of Trump’s second term alone.

“Folks are feeling basically like it's, you know, a new McCarthyism,” Randall told KUOW. “Do they have too political an ideology? Are they on the chopping block because they are LGBTQ? Have they been too involved with their union? Are they the next round of cuts?”

Federal workers in Seattle and across Washington state say they feel whiplash since Trump took office and issued a flurry of executive orders geared at cutting the federal government to “eliminate waste, bloat, and insularity.” KUOW spoke with 15 employees across seven agencies, most of whom agreed to speak on condition of anonymity for fear of getting fired.

“It's a terror campaign,” said Carolyn McConnell, field attorney with the National Labor Relations Board, which oversees private employers and unions in the private sector. She said she agreed to be named to encourage others to do the same.

The federal workforce had already been cut to the bone, McConnell said. This, coupled with a resurgence of unions in the country, meant there was no shortage of work for her and her colleagues. Still, they’ve been pushed to leave.

Washington state is home to more than 56,000 civilian federal employees. Dozens of layoffs ordered by the Trump administration have already hit the Hanford nuclear cleanup site in eastern Washington, according to Sen. Patty Murray. And across the Pacific Northwest, hundreds of layoffs at the Bonneville Power Administration have former administrators warning of blackouts in Washington and Oregon.

An employee with the Environmental Protection Agency told KUOW, “We don’t know what’s happening and we’re scared.”

Coworkers told them that work mostly went on as usual through the first Trump administration, but they changed their tune last month when an email to federal workers offered buyouts.

“We’re getting memos calling us unproductive and threatening our jobs,” they said.

Another federal employee, two years from retirement at an agency that responds to national disasters, said she hasn’t slept a full night since Jan. 20, when Trump was inaugurated.

“I wake up at 2 in the morning, and my brain won’t shut down,” she said. “Half of my coworkers are the same.”

Emails hound her to inspect workplace contracts for any clauses that mention diversity, equity and inclusion -- newly forbidden words no longer allowed under Trump’s White House -- and she, like other federal employees across the country, has been told to report colleagues who continue DEI work.

A Veterans Affairs employee said the directive to snitch on colleagues has created a lack of trust internally.

“It's an overnight, major culture shift,” she said. “We're being told, 'healthcare as usual, provide the care to veterans.' But it's really hard to provide care when you're afraid all the time, and you're exhausted all the time because of all of it.”

An anti-trans directive has prompted agencies to remove all-gender restroom signage.

Meanwhile, hiring has been limited to one new employee for every four who leave.

Many who spoke with KUOW shared how executive directives are impacting the public: a ban on most external employee communication is stifling progress on clean water projects. Environmental Protection Agency workers headed to assist in the fire clean up in Los Angeles were put on administrative leave and therefore unable to help.

Elizabeth DeVleming, a field attorney with the National Labor Relations Board, said that as the daughter of a Foreign Service officer, she was raised with a deep-seated feeling that public service was the ultimate good. DeVleming’s brother, too, is a federal worker. She spoke with KUOW in her personal capacity, not as a representative for her employer or her union.

When DeVleming’s caseload became unmanageable, she said she considered leaving the public sector. Then she saw the “fork in the road” email, offering federal employees an exit.

“I said ‘FUCK THAT,’” DeVleming said. “How dare both Musk and Trump disrespect us, to think we’ll cave.”

Another federal employee said they’ve called their representatives, and urged them to do whatever necessary to end the federal workforce purging.

“I feel like the next step is for elected officials to go get arrested,” she said. “Congressman Lewis did it 45 times, including his last arrest in 2013 at the Capitol, and I sort of wish more Congress people would do some good trouble.”

In Bremerton, Rep. Randall said her colleagues in Congress are considering which tactics to use. But Republicans have controlling majorities on committees, and can effectively block bills and requests from Democrats.

“We're introducing amendments, but we are having questions among ourselves as leaders about what are the other tools,” Randall said. “What are the tools of maybe more civil disobedience?”

KUOW reached out to Washington’s two Congressional Republicans, Dan Newhouse (R-Sunnyside) and Michael Baumgartner (R-Spokane), and will update with any comments.

Federal workers have taken on the fight themselves, another federal employee said.

They’re organizing in backchannels with unions, and they’re hitting the streets. Federal workers have been rallying outside federal buildings downtown.

“We're fighting back in a number of ways, and we're not backing down,” she said.

In the meantime, everyday work continues. One source said staffing has gotten so bad that she works from the moment she wakes up in the morning and takes meals during meetings.

Said another employee, at NOAA: “Even though we're still scared and we're experiencing these almost daily traumas at this point, we're still coming to work with our mission in the foremost of our mind.”