A Donald Trump supporter from Texas who appeared to enjoy national security workers being “sent packing” by the president pleaded with GOP Senator Ted Cruz to help his wife after she was caught up in the federal hiring freeze that Trump imposed after he was sworn in on Monday.
John Basham, a former city council member in Reno, Texas, posted on his X account on Tuesday urging Trump, Cruz and his 93,000 followers to contact the White House to “fix this error.”
In the posting, Basham said his wife was recently hired as a nurse by Veterans Affairs and they were set to move their family from Fort Worth to Waco. But then Trump signed an executive order implementing a temporary hiring freeze with some exclusions for the military and immigration enforcement.
“After Trump’s hiring freeze EO, the VA rescinded her job offer! My wife is crying and inconsolable and my family is devastated!”, Basham wrote.
“It has been my wife’s dream to work with disabled veterans in need,” he said.
He added that he believes what happened to his wife was an “unintended consequence,” and that medical professionals at the VA “were not the target of this EO!”
In another posting, he blamed “bureaucrats” for his wife’s plight.
“I’ve been told the Department of Defense and medical professionals should have been exempt, but bureaucrats are enforcing the EO to ‘hurt Trump,'” he said.
Along with the hiring freeze, the president signed several executive orders this week, including reclassifying federal employees as political appointees and ending remote work arrangements for all federal departments.
Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz sent home about 160 National Security Council aides on Wednesday while the White House determines whether they are in line with the administration’s goals and policies.
In a posting on X titled “BREAKING: Trump sends Deep State and Biden National Security holdovers home!” Basham expressed his delight at the development, noting that they were “sent packing.”
“Career federal employees, commonly referred to as detailees but notoriously known as the Deep State, were summoned to an all-staff call and told they were expected to be available to the senior directors of the WHNSC, but not to report for work at the White House until notified to do so!” he said.
Online, there wasn’t much sympathy for Basham among Trump opponents.
“I’m so sorry this is happening to you and so many others; but, why is it that we saw it coming and you didn’t?” Lynne Irwin said. “It’s not that we don’t care; because we do care. I’m very hopeful that he’ll prove us wrong; but, it’s doubtful,” Irwin said on X.
