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TARGETED: PORTRAITS OF CIVIL SERVANTS UNDER TRUMP
On the campaign trail Donald Trump called our civil servants “crooked people” who “are destroying this country.” He vowed to “hold them accountable,” and on Day 1 of his Administration, Trump gave Elon Musk carte blanche to take what Musk described as a “chainsaw” to the civil service. 300,000 civil servants have been fired as a result. These civil servants are not collateral damage to government efficiency initiatives; they are Trump’s targets.
In April 2025 I began interviewing and photographing 62 people who had worked in 18 different federal agencies, as well as the President of the National Federation of Federal Employees. The sessions took place mostly in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, and generally in the former civil servant’s home. Three of the interviews took place in Krakow, Warsaw, where USAID veterans who had been fired traveled on their own dime to provide assistance to Ukrainian refugees.
Many of the participants chose to remain anonymous because they feared retribution.
The civil servants sharing their experiences with me range from a 73-year old physician to 28-year olds at the start of their careers. They are a cross section of America — White, Black, Asian, Hispanic; cis and transgender; gay and straight. Almost all of them have advanced degrees, but many have more modest educational backgrounds and worked in jobs such as benefits administrator and budget analyst. The project will culminate in a book and an exhibit that combine environmental portraits with interview excerpts.
Many of these civil servants remain unemployed or have taken jobs to pay the rent that have nothing to do with the mission-driven careers to which they had dedicated their lives. For example, Jessica Henry, who worked for NIH, is now selling cookies that she bakes herself. She was in an IVF regimen, but was forced to stop because the stress created by DOGE made it unlikely that the IVF regimen would succeed and the cost was draining her family’s resources. Allison Erickson coordinated disaster relief efforts for USAID; she is now working as an executive assistant at a venture capital firm. And so it goes for many of the civil servants terminated by Trump.
Our civil servants worked for the government because they want to serve. When they lost their jobs, they lost more than a paycheck. Targeted gives voice to their stories.