It’s about time Washington remembered who it works for—and it’s not the woke bureaucrats trying to social-engineer your neighborhood into something out of a San Francisco fever dream. On Friday, more than 400 employees at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) got pink slips, and not a moment too soon. The biggest chunk of those layoffs hit the so-called Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity office—the same office that, under Biden, tried to bulldoze the suburbs in the name of “equity.”
Now, let’s be clear: this isn’t just about saving money or trimming fat. This is about cutting out the ideological rot that’s infected federal agencies for years. You might remember the grand Democratic plan to “Affirmatively Further Fair Housing”—a mouthful of bureaucratic nonsense that basically meant forcing towns across America to build high-density housing in your suburban backyard. Why? Because according to the left, it’s racist to have zoning laws. Yep, they really tried to argue that Americans—black, white, Asian, Hispanic—who choose to live in peaceful, single-family communities are somehow part of a grand conspiracy against fairness.
The office pushing this nonsense ballooned under Biden, growing its budget by 20% while employing nearly 600 people. But instead of dealing with real housing discrimination—like helping a double-amputee who was blocked from widening his driveway for wheelchair access—they obsessed over whether appraisers were racist for following standard pricing formulas. Spoiler alert: appraisers don’t know the race of the homeowner. They crunch numbers, not identities.
According to a 2024 inspector general report, this office failed to meet the legal deadline for processing discrimination complaints more than 70% of the time. You read that right. Seventy percent. While they were busy lecturing cities about “environmental racism” for building recycling centers in the wrong zip code, real Americans with real problems were left hanging.
And don’t think this was just about housing. Under Biden, this office got tangled up in every cultural fad of the left. Transgender issues? Check. Language barriers? Check. Fighting “systemic racism” through zoning codes? Absolutely. The Trump administration is now doing what should have been done years ago—refocusing the mission on actual civil rights law, not the latest MSNBC talking points.
Here’s the kicker: these layoffs aren’t a knee-jerk reaction to the current government shutdown. HUD had been planning this for months. The shutdown just made it easier to finally move forward. Alongside HUD, layoffs also hit 1,400 employees at the IRS—yes, the same IRS Biden wanted to expand with 87,000 new agents to snoop into your Venmo account. Another 466 got the axe at the Department of Education, and 187 at the Department of Energy. Translation? The Trump administration is cleaning house across the board, targeting the bloated corners of the federal machine that have been weaponized for political agendas instead of public service.
And the cherry on top? HUD communications will now be in English only. That’s not discrimination, that’s common sense. If you live in America, you should expect to deal with your government in English. That’s not racist; it’s reality.
Let’s not forget what was really at stake here: the Democrats’ dream of abolishing the suburbs, of using federal dollars to blackmail your town into turning every cul-de-sac into a stack of government-subsidized apartment complexes. They tried to do it quietly, buried under mountains of regulations and “equity” mandates. But President Trump saw it coming, and now that he’s back, their little scheme is being torn out by the root.
These layoffs are more than budget cuts. They are a message. A declaration that the days of using federal agencies as ideological playgrounds are over. The people are back in charge—and that’s bad news for the bureaucrats who thought they could reshape America without asking permission.
Next up: the midterms. Let’s keep the momentum going. The swamp may be draining, but it’s not empty yet.