Former CIA Director William Burns delivered a forceful criticism of the Trump administration’s sweeping dismissals of federal employees, warning that the effort undermines public service and poses risks to U.S. national security.
In a piece published Wednesday in The Atlantic, titled Letter to America’s Discarded Public Servants, Burns accused the administration of disguising retaliation as reform.
“Under the guise of reform, you all got caught in the crossfire of a retribution campaign — of a war on public service and expertise,” Burns wrote.
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Burns, a longtime diplomat who served under both Republican and Democratic presidents, was appointed CIA director by President Joe Biden. Over his distinguished career, he held senior posts including U.S. ambassador to Russia and deputy secretary of state.
Addressing President Donald Trump’s large-scale dismissals of federal workers — including State Department officials and intelligence officers — Burns argued that civil servants understand the need for reform but rejected the administration’s approach.
“But there is a smart way and a dumb way to tackle reform, a humane way and an intentionally traumatizing way,” he said. “This is not about reform. It’s about retribution. It’s about breaking people and breaking institutions by sowing fear and mistrust throughout our government.”
He further warned that such tactics mirror authoritarian governance.
“That’s what autocrats do,” Burns said. “They cow public servants into submission, and in doing so, they create a closed system that is free of opposing views and inconvenient concerns.”
Burns pointed to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine as a case study in the dangers of silencing dissent, calling it a “foolish decision” that produced “catastrophic” consequences for the Kremlin.
According to Burns, the real danger facing the United States is not an alleged conspiracy within government ranks but the erosion of democratic capacity.
The threat to the U.S. “is not from an imaginary ‘deep state’ bent on” undermining Trump, he wrote, but “a weak state… no longer able to uphold the guardrails of our democracy or help the United States compete in an unforgiving world.”
