The Department of Agriculture has announced plans to close its mammoth headquarters in Washington, lay off thousands of its nearly 100,000 employees, and relocate offices and many remaining workers to hubs across the country. The decision follows President Donald Trump’s executive order to transform “the Federal bureaucracy” by eliminating “waste, bloat, and insularity.”

This should come as no surprise. In 2023, Trump promised that if reelected, he would “continue the efforts launched by the Trump administration to move parts of the sprawling federal bureaucracy to new locations outside the Washington Swamp. Just as I moved the Bureau of Land Management to Colorado, as many as 100,000 government positions could be moved out, and I mean immediately, of Washington to places filled with patriots who love America, and they really do love America.”