WASHINGTON — 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.”
Speaking to reporters on the White House lawn, Habba was asked about fired workers whom Democrats have invited to President Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress on Tuesday night. Habba defended the cuts and said she had no sympathy for the thousands of people who have lost their jobs.
“I really don’t feel sorry for them,” Habba said. “They should get back to work for the American people, like President Trump and this administration.”
A reporter then noted 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,” she 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.”
Habba, who previously served as Trump’s personal lawyer, said the president planned to highlight the cuts, spearheaded by the Department of Government Efficiency, in his speech Tuesday night.
The Department of Veterans Affairs and VA Secretary Doug Collins didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
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Habba’s remarks drew swift backlash from some veterans.
Emily Erroa, an Army veteran who was fired from the Department of Energy last month alongside other employees who did not yet have full civil service protections, called Habba’s statement “ridiculous.”
“The narrative that remote/teleworkers do not work is not accurate and insulting,” Erroa, who had recently taken a job at the Energy Department after spending three years at the Department of Veterans Affairs, said. “Especially when it comes to veterans that have [a] specific diagnosis due to fighting and serving the country.”
Jesus Tony Ruiz, an Army veteran who was laid off from the VA last month, also criticized Habba’s remarks.
“I lost my job in the VA thanks to Donald Trump,” said Ruiz, who was invited to speak to lawmakers on Capitol Hill Tuesday by the progressive group VoteVets. “So what did I do for my country? I served my country, and now they fired me. So no, they’re not helping me out whatsoever.”
The Trump administration has fired thousands of federal workers over the last several weeks as part of the Elon Musk and DOGE-driven effort to find waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government and drastically cut federal funding across departments and agencies. The largest cuts were of probationary employees — people who were generally in their roles for less than two years, although some had much more experience in the federal government.
The heads of the White House budget and personnel offices informed federal agencies last week that they should start preparing for large-scale layoffs in the coming weeks and months.
Former workers, as well as a number of groups representing federal employees, have filed several lawsuits over the layoffs. A federal judge last week said that a memo from the Office of Personnel Management directing agencies to plan for mass layoffs was “illegal.” The ruling did not reinstate the fired employees, though.
Military veterans work across the federal government and many work for the Department of Veterans Affairs. In February, the VA fired more than 2,400 employees, though it’s unclear how many served in the military. On Monday, the VA terminated 585 “non-mission-critical or duplicative contracts.”
Jonathan Allen contributed.
