CNN
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Michael Graugnard said he voted for President Donald Trump in the 2024 election because he felt Trump was the best candidate to improve the economy.
But three months into his new role as an attorney advisor for the US Department of Agriculture, Graugnard was laid off along with thousands of other federal employees. The termination, Graugnard said, came as a surprise given his managers had assured him his job was safe.
“I was devastated,” Graugnard told CNN, adding this was his dream job and he had just moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, with his pregnant wife and toddler for the position. “I was expecting to spend the rest of my life doing it.”
Graugnard is among many federal workers who lost their jobs three months after casting their ballot for Trump. Former federal employees told CNN they believed Trump’s policies aligned with their values and would improve their lives, but now they have been left scrambling to find work.
The mass layoffs are part of Trump and Elon Musk’s plan to cut spending and reduce the size of the federal workforce. In recent weeks, the administration has laid off thousands of probationary federal workers, fired top officials and watchdogs, and convinced 77,000 workers to voluntarily leave their jobs through a deferred resignation offer.
Graugnard said while he supports government efficiency, he “didn’t vote for it to be implemented the way it’s being implemented.”
“I voted confidently with the intent that it was going to be done in a way that was technocratic and efficient and a bit more rational, and that’s not what happened,” Graugnard said.
Still, Graugnard said he does not regret voting for Trump.
“I still support all of the goals of the administration, and I think that I can respectfully disagree with the way those things are carried out,” he said.
Fired veteran who voted for Trump three times talks to CNN
James Diaz, a veteran recently fired from his job at the IRS, told CNN’s Laura Coates that while he stands by his vote for Trump, he disagrees with how the administration is handling the mass layoffs.
His performance reviews indicated he was meeting or exceeding expectations, Diaz said.
“I don’t think they are doing a very good job of finding out exactly what needs to be cut,” Diaz said. “I think they are just taking a chain saw to it instead of doing some critical thinking and doing some investigations to see what is good and what is bad.”
But some fired federal employees say they regret voting for Trump.
A former worker at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, who asked not to be named, said she was laid off just three weeks into her new job.
She said she hoped Trump would improve the economy by creating more job opportunities and reducing inflation, and did not expect his administration to go after probationary workers.
“If I’d known that I would never have voted for him,” she said.
“This is going to completely tarnish the presidency,” she said. “This isn’t the way that our democracy works, and I don’t understand why (Trump) thinks this is acceptable.”
Fired federal worker who voted for Trump speaks out
Ryleigh Cooper said she voted for Trump in November because he promised to make in vitro fertilization available for free.
Cooper said doctors had told her IVF might be her only option for conceiving a child.
“Going into the voting booth, the main thing on my mind was … I want to be a mom,” Cooper told CNN’s Laura Coates.
Last month, Cooper was laid off from her job at the US Forest Service. She told Coates she now regrets supporting Trump.
Trump, who last year called himself the “father of IVF,” has not made IVF free but instead signed an executive order last month to expand access to and affordability of in vitro fertilization.
“I made a decision that, looking back, I am not proud of,” Cooper said of her vote.
“When you’re voting on something that affects you so personally, it’s really easy to get tunnel vision.”
