President Donald Trump put an end to remote work for federal workers and also issued a hiring freeze on new government employees, part of the flurry of executive orders he signed Monday after assuming the presidency.

Under the Biden administration, the House Oversight Committee issued a report last week that said more than half of the 2.2 million federal civilian employees “were either teleworking or fully remote” as of May 2024.

Trump put an end to that, ordering department and agency heads to “take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person” as soon as practical, barring exceptions.

The hiring freeze applies to the executive branch, shutting down hires on any position that was vacant as of noon on Monday. The order does not apply to the military or “positions related to immigration enforcement, national security, or public safety.”

Trump’s freeze expires in 90 days, at which time the Office of Management and Budget along with the Department of Government Efficiency, soon to be solely headed up by Elon Musk, have been tasked with submitting a plan to reduce the federal workforce through efficiency and attrition.

Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who's expected to forego his appointment to DOGE in order to run for governor of Ohio in 2026, wrote in a guest column in November that requiring in-person work would force many to quit, “voluntary terminations that we welcome.”

An exception is that the freeze on the IRS will remain in place past the 90 days until such time that the Treasury Secretary determines "it is in the national interest to lift the freeze."

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