Keep Trump’s Loyalty Tests Out of Federal Hiring

Donald Trump’s administration tried to make people prove their loyalty to his agenda before they could get a federal job. A federal judge just blocked it — but we need to make sure it never comes back.

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) required applicants for nonpartisan civil service jobs to explain how they would help carry out Trump’s policies and executive orders. In plain English: prove you’ll advance Trump’s agenda.

This loyalty test showed up in tens of thousands of job postings — including jobs where competence, safety, and experience should matter far more than politics.

The court ruling is a victory. But it’s only preliminary. The administration can keep fighting, rewrite the question, or bring the same political test back under a different name.

Tell OPM Director Scott Kupor: Ban political loyalty questions from federal hiring and prohibit agencies from using support for a president’s agenda to decide who gets a career government job.

Federal workers serve the public and the Constitution — not Donald Trump. No one should have to flatter a president or prove political loyalty to earn a civil service job.

OPM itself says loyalty tests and political patronage are prohibited in the career civil service. Now it needs to enforce that principle across every federal agency — not just delete one question and wait for the next version to appear.

Federal jobs should go to qualified people — not political loyalists. We can’t allow our government to pick air traffic controllers, scientists, or safety inspectors based on political allegiance instead of qualifications.

Add your name and demand OPM make sure Trump’s loyalty test never returns to federal hiring.

The petition to OPM Director Scott Kupor reads:

“Ban political loyalty questions from federal hiring and prohibit agencies from considering an applicant’s support for a president or political agenda when making career civil service hiring decisions.”