The crowds of current and recently dismissed federal workers met at a Employment Fair in Maryland on Saturday to find new professional opportunities as the Trump administration continues its purge of federal workers.
Many were full of despair and frustration for the cuts, headed by the efficiency department of Elon Musk’s government.
Daniel Leckie was a specialist in historical preservation of the General Services Administration who was fired in February. He attended the work fair with his wife and 6 months.
“Now we are incredibly terrified and struggling to find new jobs to keep the roof on our head and feed our little one,” he told ABC News.
A former worker from the International Development Agency (USAID) of the United States Agency leaves USAID while holding a box with his personal belongings, during a shipment in Washington, DC, on February 27, 2025.
Nathan Howard/Reuters
Leckie said she was fired for being a test employee and that she was just one day to fully satisfy her trial period.
Leckie and his wife, Jennifer Hopkins, just bought a new house in Maryland, making their first mortgage payment only a few weeks ago. I was also working to complete the public service loan forgiveness program.
“I had about two or three months before I had satisfied the terms of my student loans. It is a proposal of $ 80,000 for our family. It is among this work, the forgiveness of the student loan with which we have and the work we take included a promotion potential while I was fully performing in my duties, which was,” he said.
“We base on our financial future, including deciding to start a family and get a mortgage and become housing owners here in the DC area,” Leckie added.
The former employees of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), finished after the Trump administration dismantled the agency, collected their personal belongings at the USAID headquarters, on February 27, 2025, in Washington, DC.
Somodevilla/Getty chip
William Dixon, a 30 -year -old veteran who has worked in the federal government for 23 years, told ABC News that layoffs are a “stab” against veterans.
“Because after we sat here and took out the sacrifice, as if we don’t even import, we don’t count,” he said.
Dixon works in logistics for the US Army Corps of Army.
Dixon said that both he and his wife received email from the Personnel Management Office asking them to list what they achieved last week, but refrained from responding based on the orientation of their supervisors.
Elon Musk listens to President Donald Trump speaks at the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on February 11, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
However, I had a message for Musk and Trump.
“Stop. You’re hurting families. You’re hurting people,” he said. “Everyone depends on having a salary to take care of their family, as well as to build for their retirement, as well as care for young people. He is not doing anything more than hurting, hurting the entire nation and their families. That is all he is doing.”
