I‘ve been warning for some time that, if Trump is re-elected, he’ll work to politicize the civil service and set America on a path back to the 19th century, when the spoils system made Feds loyal to political patrons. That‘s bad if you don’t like corruption and abuses of power. https://twitter.com/andrewfeinberg/status/1319051104294928387

This is dangerous stuff. If you politicize the civil service, you make its members loyal to politicians instead of the Constitution and the rule of law. That makes it easier to fire anyone who would disobey an illegal lesser.

This could also be an effort by the Trump administration to have its political appointees “burrow in” the civil service so they don’t have to quit if Trump loses (depending on how fast the administration moves to implement the order).