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Broadly speaking, when it comes to veterans, there are two key problems with the Republican Party’s agenda. The first is that veterans’ benefits have been put in jeopardy.
As Rachel Maddow Show viewers know, this is driven in large part by the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s DOGE operation, but GOP lawmakers’ plans on Capitol Hill are also generating concerns. In fact, earlier this week, Republican Rep. Greg Murphy of North Carolina, who sits on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, appeared on CNN and was asked whether he could guarantee that veterans’ benefits and care would not be affected by his party’s proposed spending cuts.
“No, I can’t guarantee anything,” the North Carolinian replied.
But the other element to this is that the White House’s mass firings agenda is leading to layoffs throughout the federal government, which is pushing plenty of veterans out of their jobs. Indeed, The New York Times reported, “Veterans, who make up a disproportionate share of federal employees, are feeling the brunt of the Trump administration’s rapid push to downsize the work force, generating discord in a reliable political base for Republicans.”
The same report added, “Nearly 30 percent of civil service employees in the federal government are veterans, according to data as of September from the Office of Personnel Management, the government’s human resources arm.”
It’s difficult to say with certainty precisely how many veterans have been fired as part of the White House’s push, but Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee put the number at roughly 6,000 as of late February.
It was against this backdrop that NBC News reported on the latest rhetoric from Alina Habba, a counselor to the president.
White House adviser Alina Habba said Tuesday that military veterans affected by the DOGE-led layoffs of federal workers may not be ‘fit to have a job at this moment.’
As part of her comments, Habba (who was part of Donald Trump’s legal team before joining his White House operation) said she had no sympathy for the thousands of Americans who have lost their jobs. “I really don’t feel sorry for them,” she said.
Habba’s rhetoric shifted when a reporter reminded her that some military veterans have been part of that group.
“That’s something the president has always cared about — anybody in blue, anybody that serves this country. But at the same time, we have taxpayer dollars, we have a fiscal responsibility to use taxpayer dollars to pay people that actually work,” she said.
“That doesn’t mean that we forget our veterans by any means,” Habba added. “We are going to care for them in the right way, but perhaps they’re not fit to have a job at this moment, or not willing to come to work. And we can’t, you know, I wouldn’t take money from you and pay somebody and say, ‘Sorry, you know, they’re not going to come to work.’ It’s just not acceptable.”
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia has accused the White House of waging “a war on veterans,” and Habba’s comments probably won’t help with the administration’s rebuttal.
As for the president, Trump told reporters last week that his team is keeping track of the number of military veterans who are losing their jobs as a result of his administration’s policies. “We hope it’s going to be as small a number as possible,” the Republican said.
Trump didn’t elaborate as to how the White House would try to limit layoffs among veterans, his “hopes” notwithstanding.