Washington’s bureaucratic empire doesn’t build itself. It grows one taxpayer-funded training program at a time. Each year, millions of dollars flow into programs designed to create more government managers, more administrative complexity, and more layers between citizens and their government.
These programs hide in plain sight. They operate under bland, official-sounding names. They claim to serve the public interest. But their real purpose is simple: creating more bureaucrats to manage other bureaucrats.
President Donald Trump has now eliminated one of the oldest and most entrenched of these institutions. With a single executive order, he shut down the Federal Executive Institute (FEI), ending its 55-year mission of training federal bureaucrats in “leadership.”
From The Post Millennial:
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday to “eliminate the Federal Executive Institute” which is an organization in the federal government that is “purportedly designed to provide bureaucratic leadership training.”…
“Bureaucratic leadership over the past half-century has led to Federal policies that enlarge and entrench the Washington, DC, managerial class, a development that has not benefited the American family.”
The Price of Bureaucratic Bloat
Since 1968, the FEI has processed more than 30,000 federal executives through its programs. Each graduate returned to their agency armed with theories about government management.
Each one cost taxpayers thousands in training fees, travel expenses, and paid time away from actual work.
The institute partnered with elite institutions like Harvard’s Kennedy School and Georgetown University. It created a revolving door between academic theory and government practice. The result? An ever-expanding administrative state that serves itself first and citizens second.
A New Era of Government Efficiency
Working alongside newly appointed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) head Elon Musk, Trump’s administration has launched a systematic cleanup of federal waste.
The FEI elimination follows recent executive actions that shut down DEI programs and trimmed climate change offices at both the EPA and DOJ.
“The question is what is their plan for senior career leadership?” asked Jason Briefel from the Senior Executives Association. The answer is clear: return government to its constitutional foundations. America thrived for nearly two centuries without a federal leadership training academy.
America First, Bureaucrats Last
This isn’t just about closing one office. It’s about fundamentally transforming how government serves Americans. Every dollar spent training bureaucrats is a dollar not spent serving citizens.
Every hour spent in leadership seminars is an hour lost to actual public service.
The message from the Trump administration rings clear: the era of self-serving bureaucratic expansion is over. Government exists to serve the American people, not to perpetuate its own existence.
The elimination of the Federal Executive Institute marks another victory in the battle to restore government to its proper role.
