President-elect Donald Trump has announced the return of James Sherk, a senior White House official who played a key role in the first-term efforts to streamline the process of firing civil servants. Sherk, who previously served as a special assistant on domestic policy in the Trump administration, will now join the White House Domestic Policy Council. During the Biden administration, Sherk worked at the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-aligned organization.
One of Sherk’s notable initiatives during his time in the Trump administration was the push to create a new classification called Schedule F, which aimed to make it easier to dismiss certain federal employees. This move faced backlash from civil servants and was ultimately reversed by the Biden administration. However, Sherk believes that such efforts could be revisited by future administrations, as he expressed in a 2022 op-ed for the Wall Street Journal titled “The President Needs the Power to Fire Bureaucrats.”
The incoming Trump administration has made it clear that it intends to implement significant reforms within the federal workforce, with a focus on making it easier to remove what they refer to as “rogue bureaucrats” and “shattering the deep state.” Sherk is expected to play a central role in these efforts.
During his time in the Biden administration, Sherk was involved in filing Freedom of Information Act requests with various agencies in search of emails from career staffers that mentioned either Trump or President Joe Biden during the 2020 election and the 2021 inauguration. He emphasized the importance of understanding the political views of federal employees, stating that while it is acceptable for them to hold their own beliefs, the extent to which those views differ from the general electorate is of interest.
As the Trump administration gears up for a renewed focus on reforming the federal workforce, James Sherk’s return to the White House is seen as a strategic move to drive these efforts forward. With a commitment to challenging the status quo and implementing changes to the civil service system, Sherk’s expertise and experience are expected to be invaluable in achieving the administration’s goals.
