Trump Legal Advisor Declares Fired Veterans May Not Be 'Fit to Have a Job at This Moment' in Defense of DOGE Cuts

Top Trump counselor Alina Habba stated that military veterans who have found themselves unemployed as a result of the Trump administration's employment cuts in federal departments may not be "fit to have a job at this moment."

While speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Habba was asked about how veterans working for the federal government were impacted by cuts conducted largely through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by billionaire Trump-ally Elon Musk.

"You know, we care about veterans tremendously," Habba told reporters. "But at the same time, we have taxpayer dollars, we have a fiscal responsibility to use taxpayer dollars to pay people that actually work.

"We're 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," she added. "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."

Since Trump's inauguration in January, his administration has terminated thousands of federal employees, including many heads of agencies such as chairs of the Office of the Special Counsel, the Merit Systems Protection Board and the Federal Labor Relations Authority board.

As much as 30% of the federal workforce consists of veterans, according to the Office of Personnel Management, which has resulted in backlash from the public.

Habba's statements came just hours before Trump was set to deliver remarks to a joint session of Congress, the audience of which, Senate Democrats pointed out in a press release on Tuesday, would also "include veterans indiscriminately fired as part of the Trump Administration's mass terminations of federal government employees."