Sean Spicer Reveals His Lost Court Case Is Huge Precedent for 47: 'On Day One, President Trump Can Go in and Fire Everyone'

Can President-elect Donald Trump overhaul the federal government by dismissing anyone he chooses on day one of his administration? Former Trump White House press secretary Sean Spicer believes so — and he credits Joe Biden for creating the precedent that allows it.

In 2021, Biden removed Spicer and two other Trump allies — Kellyanne Conway and Russ Vought — from their roles on the visitor boards at the Navy, Air Force, and Army academies. Despite still having time left in their three-year terms, Biden dismissed them without hesitation, as reported by the Washington Examiner.

Spicer and Vought challenged the decision in court, arguing their positions were protected by congressional mandates. However, the lawsuit was unsuccessful. The judge ruled that “[t]he Supreme Court has consistently held that ‘the power of removal from office is incident to the power of appointment’ ‘absent a specific provision to the contrary.’”

In essence, unless a position explicitly prevents firing, the president holds the authority to remove appointees.

In a recent interview, Spicer emphasized this ruling could empower Trump to act decisively against Biden appointees.

“What no one ever understood was this was not about actually getting back on the board, because my term had been expired for months,” Spicer explained to the Examiner. “It was forcing them to argue in the affirmative that they had the ultimate authority to fire anybody at any time, which they did. And the court accepted that. So the Biden administration is now on record in court, and the court agreed that the president had absolute authority to fire anyone he wants.”

“The whole point is now, on day one, President Trump can go in and fire everyone and say it was the Biden folks who told us that we could do this,” Spicer added.

For federal employees, that’s a less-than-cheery prospect during the holiday season.

Trump’s stance aligns with his recent criticism of a deal allowing Social Security Administration employees to work remotely through 2029. “If people don’t come back to work, come back into the office, they’re going to be dismissed,” Trump declared Monday, according to CBS News.

This approach is mirrored in one of Trump’s newer proposals, spearheaded by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The initiative, as outlined by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, aims to address inefficiencies in the federal workforce.

“Conventional wisdom holds that statutory civil-service protections stop the president or even his political appointees from firing federal workers,” Musk and Ramaswamy wrote. “The purpose of these protections is to protect employees from political retaliation. But the statute allows for ‘reductions in force’ that don’t target specific employees.”

Remote workers may be among the first to face scrutiny. “Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome: If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home,” Musk and Ramaswamy argued.

Beyond addressing remote work, Trump has advocated for “Schedule F,” a classification under the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978. This tool designates positions with policy-making or advocacy roles as exempt from civil service protections, potentially enabling a significant shake-up of the federal workforce, according to Axios.

Unsurprisingly, this has sparked anxiety among career government employees. “I would say there is a general feeling of dread among everyone,” a Department of Energy staffer anonymously told CNN.

For taxpayers, however, this could be seen as an opportunity for reform. And, as Spicer suggests, the groundwork for such a sweeping change may have been laid during Biden’s own administration.

Merry Christmas, permanent Washington!