Washington, DC — The Trump administration has adopted blatantly illegal selection criteria for federal job applicants, according to a complaint filed today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The newly mandated, ironically named “Merit Hiring Plan” is designed to advance Trump loyalists and reject everyone else.

On May 29, 2025, the White House and the Office of Personnel Management jointly announced a new policy requiring that “each job application graded GS-05 or above” must respond to “four short, free-response essay questions,” including the following:

“How would you help advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role? Identify one or two relevant Executive Orders or policy initiatives that are significant to you, and explain how you would help implement them if hired.”

“This is a not very subtle way to impose an impermissible political loyalty test on virtually all federal job applicants,” stated PEER Executive Director Tim Whitehouse, who today filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC), which is supposed to safeguard the non-partisan merit system. “We should not select air traffic controllers, scientists, or park rangers on whether they own MAGA hats.”

Asking job applicants how they would “help advance” and “help implement” the Trump agenda is an unprecedented step that runs contrary to nearly 150 years of civil service practice. The PEER complaint cites statutory prohibitions against job selection standards based on factors other than competence, as well as a ban against inserting political considerations into civil service hiring and promotional decisions.

The Hiring Plan lists 135 positions currently posted on the USA Hire website, most of which are entry-level slots, almost none of which have policy responsibilities. The prospects for action by the OSC are uncertain. Trump has summarily fired the head of OSC, leaving an acting official temporarily in charge, and he has nominated a 30-year-old ultra-conservative podcaster and Trump acolyte to serve as the new Special Counsel, a position which requires Senate confirmation.

Ironically, one of the other mandatory essay questions asks –

“How has your commitment to the Constitution and the founding principles of the United States inspired you to pursue this role within the federal government?”

“Any job applicant who feels that Trump himself is a threat to the Constitution need not bother to apply,” Whitehouse added, “Trump apparently aims to replace the Deep State with a MAGA Mafia.”

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Look at the Trump loyalty test

Read the PEER complaint

See the entire so-called Merit Hiring Plan