The Trump administration has proposed eliminating 15 percent of the Department of Veterans Affairs workforce.

Abby Vesoulis
June 6, 2025

"On Friday afternoon, thousands of veterans who fought wars on behalf of the United States descended on the National Mall in Washington, DC, to fight something else: cuts proposed by the Trump administration.

Since his inauguration in January, President Donald Trump has moved to slash and burn the federal workforce—and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is no exception. Already, the sprawling agency serving America’s 16 million military veterans has fired 2,400 probationary workers and proposed eliminating an additional 15 percent of its workforce—about 80,000 people.">

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
      3·
      7 days ago

      If they voted for Trump, or abstained…sure. No vet should’ve voted for Trump, he made it very clear on numerous occasions that he has no respect for them. Idiots voting for Trump because he had an R next to his name, despite the fact that he hates your guts…sure. Have at it.

      Military used to be a good career choice, particularly if you came from limited means and had even more limited options.

      But they don’t take good care of the vets…and even worse, there’s still plenty of vets who were drafted and didn’t even volunteer for service.

    • gatorgato@lemmy.world
      8·
      7 days ago

      Burial services are provided by the National Cemetery Administration which is a part of the VA. That service has not (yet) been cut. Hopefully your metaphor is not prescient.

      I get that people should not be surprised when the face eating leapord they voted for eats their face. But not everyone voted for him and less voted for these cuts to VA.

      If not sympathy, try empathy. I hope we do not wind up in a future where Veteran are responsible for digging their own graves.

      • booly@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        6 days ago

        That’s a misleading picture. Yes, the population of veterans did support Trump over Harris, but the population of veterans skews overwhelmingly male, white, and old.

        Look at Pew’s 2023 survey. Among veterans:

        • 28% are under 50, 36% are between 50-69, and 37% are over 70.
        • 74% are white non-Hispanic.
        • 89% are men.

        Meanwhile, Biden probably won among active duty in 2020.

        I suspect that if you surveyed veterans under the age of 50, you’d get a very different result. Or, if you surveyed the general non population but weighted it to be as old, white, or male as the veteran population, would the results be very different from veterans generally?

      • FlexibleToast@lemmy.worldEnglish
        16·
        7 days ago

        As a veteran I can’t understand that they did. We swore to defend the constitution and then they vote for someone who incited an insurrection.

        • Boddhisatva@lemmy.worldEnglish
          5·
          7 days ago

          Honestly, voting for Trump violated their oath to defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. As you say, he staged an insurrection. He tried to overthrow the peaceful transfer of power and overturn the results of a legitimate election. No matter what Trump’s pet SCOTUS says, we all saw it on television. He is a domestic enemy.

    • Placebonickname@lemmy.world
      4·
      7 days ago

      There are people who voted for Trump in the military, but I don’t think it’s significantly higher than the number of veterans who just would’ve voted Republican, white for any of our Republican candidate. I think the military going heavy on support for Trump is a stereotype.