U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he departs the White House for Florida, in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 20, 2026. REUTERS Nathan Howard
Social media pounced the Trump administration’s proposal to force all employees to sign non-disclosure agreements to prevent leaks to media organizations.
The new requirement proposed by President Donald Trump in a Tuesdy draft notice, states that “federal employees do not have discretion to disclose Confidential Government Information,” and that unauthorized disclosure of such information disrupts agency operations and “erodes public trust.”
The agreement, if successful, would make “written permission from an authorized agency official” a requirement before an employee could speak about information the Trump administration declares confidential — regardless of the seriousness or the alleged harm the government action is doing.
The NDA is designed to bring financial pain to the whistleblower by demanding financial restitution, and it even applies to employees after they leave federal service.
Social media critics whaled on the proposal, with the Freedom of the Press Foundation calling it “not just absurd, it’s unnecessary and dangerously secretive.”
“This policy would kneecap whistleblower protections, undermine the First Amendment, and wrongly inhibit the public’s right to know,” the association added on Bluesky.
Washington D.C. attorney Bradley Moss also blasted the proposal on Bluesky: “Federal employees operate under an array of statutory, regulatory and policy restrictions on the unauthorized disclosure of unclassified information. The only reason to add this NDA would be to undercut lawful … disclosures to the media that SCOTUS approved.”
Former U.S. diplomat William Gill pointed out on X that “This obviously begs the question, what are they trying to hide now? Federal employees are barred from unauthorized disclosures of classified information but they’re also covered by whistleblower protections regarding waste, fraud and abuse. That’s the likely area being targeted.”
Other critics took a more biting turn, with one heckler complaining on Bluesky that “Fed workers are not the ones needing to be gagged.”
Another blasted “absolutely breathtaking authoritarian s—— from this admin and that’s saying something.”