'Betrayal': Veteran fired by Trump condemns mass layoffs as 'broken promises' to vets

President Donald Trump's administration has been firing tens of thousands of workers across multiple agencies, and military veterans make up a significant portion of the federal workforce. Now, one of those fired veterans is directly speaking out against Trump's mass firings as a "betrayal" of those who served their country.

On Monday, CNN host Brianna Keilar spoke with Chris Wicker — an Air Force veteran who was recently fired from his job as deputy district director of the Small Business Administration's (SBA) Minnesota office — about Trump's mass layoffs. Wicker was fired not once, but twice, both times by email, and disputed that his firing was for "performance" reasons. He described the layoff process as "a lot of chaos."

"I spoke to my supervisor. He had not conveyed any performance issues, but there it was, two weeks because of my probationary status. Only two days later, I was in a management call with senior leadership at the agency and we were all told, 'if you received this message, you are not being terminated. It was sent in error,' and I very quickly afterwards received an email that said as much,"
Wicker told Keilar. "24 hours later I once again received another email — the same as the one before from an automated robot —saying please see the attachment. And here again, it was a signed letter telling me I was being terminated for my performance. Only this time it was effective immediately."

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Keilar then asked Wicker what he thought of Republicans' characterization of the civil service as "a bloated workforce of bureaucrats." Wicker bristled at that description, and pointed out that many veterans viewed their jobs in federal agencies as a continuation of the oath they took as members of the U.S. military.

"Veterans have made promises twice. They have made a promise to join the military in uniform, to serve their country. And then after fulfilling that service, they've made a second commitment to their country, making the very same oath in front of the very same flag that as part of the federal workforce, as long as they do their job well, the government will return the favor with job security," he said. "And both times we have betrayed those veterans."

Wicker also noted that the Department of Veterans Affairs is expected to fire tens of thousands of workers whose jobs are dedicated to providing military veterans with healthcare services. And he pointed out that the government cutting jobs like his at the SBA could also be harmful to veterans looking for federal help in setting up a small business.

"So for our veterans, this has been promise after promise, followed by a lot of betrayals and broken promises," Wicker said. "The government makes a promise to its veterans that in return for their service, they will receive preferential consideration in the hiring process. They also promise veterans that in what's called a reduction in force, they will also receive some special considerations in the drawdown process. But when you fire a probationary worker, which is what's happened here in the thousands, none of that special consideration is happening. And so here again, we're talking about a betrayal where we've said, 'we'll take care of you.' But apparently that only means on the front end because there was no consideration, using my case as an example, on the back end."

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Watch Wicker's segment below, or by clicking this link.