By CHRIS MEGERIAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is preparing to make one of the controversial personnel changes laid out in the conservative Project 2025 blueprint for his second term.

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He plans to reclassify 50,000 federal employees under what’s known as Schedule F, which means they’ll have less civil service protection. The proposal follows an executive order signed at the beginning of his term, and it’s expected to be published in the Federal Register on Friday afternoon.

Trump announced the move on social media before the rule was published Friday.

“If these government workers refuse to advance the policy interests of the President, or are engaging in corrupt behavior, they should no longer have a job,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform. “This is common sense, and will allow the federal government to finally be ‘run like a business.’”

Administration officials argue that it’s necessary to increase accountability in the workforce. The change is expected to make it easier to replace career employees who have “important policy-determining, policy-making, policy-advocating, or confidential duties,” according to a White House fact sheet. Details were first reported by Axios.

Once the rule is finalized, the president plans to sign another executive order to conclude the process.

It’s the latest step in Trump’s battle against what he describes as “the deep state,” which frustrated his goals in his first term. Now he’s moving more swiftly to fire people and reshape the government bureaucracy, steps that have alarmed labor unions and political opponents who worry about him consolidating power and violating worker rights.

The fact sheet said the plan “empowers federal agencies to swiftly remove employees in policy-influencing roles for poor performance, misconduct, corruption, or subversion of presidential directives, without lengthy procedural hurdles.”

Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, criticized the move.

“President Trump’s action to politicize the work of tens of thousands of career federal employees will erode the government’s merit-based hiring system and undermine the professional civil service that Americans rely on,” he said in a statement.

While gathering outside a West Side clinic in St. Paul on Friday, clerical workers at HealthPartners and their union representatives with the Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 12 announced that they are prepared to go on strike starting May 5.

More than 1,000 Local 12 members work at HealthPartners around the metro in clerical roles including clinic assistants, administrative workers, claims staff and more, according to the union.

Issues that have recently stalled contract negotiations, according to union officials and members, include an allegedly disrespectful work environment for some, disagreements over fair wages, affordable health care benefits and more.

“HealthPartners has lost its way,” said Cesar Montufar, co-lead negotiator/union representative, outside the HealthPartners Clinic on Wabasha Street in St. Paul.

As one example, they cite that some clerical workers have been turning to food banks in the face of inflation while their current contract ended in November and negotiations recently stalled.

Union members shared other experiences and stories, including those of an increasingly hostile work environment for some. A union sign at the event urged: “End Harassment and Discrimination.” About 20 people were in attendance on Friday, including union officials, union members and current and past employees and supporters.

On Friday, as the strike date looms, Montufar said union members are open to continuing negotiations.

The Pioneer Press reached out to HealthPartners for comment; a spokesman replied in an email: “Our colleagues represented by OPEIU Local 12 work in various office and administrative positions in our organization, and they are a valuable part of our team. We remain committed to reaching a fair and financially responsible agreement with the union and hope to avoid a strike. If Local 12 representatives choose to proceed with a work stoppage, we will continue to support our patients and communicate with them directly as needed.”

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A federal website that used to feature information on vaccines, testing and treatment for COVID-19 has been transformed into a page supporting the theory that the pandemic originated with a lab leak.

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The covid.gov website shows a photo of President Donald Trump walking between the words “lab” and “leak” under a White House heading. It mentions that Wuhan, China, where the coronavirus first began spreading, is home to a research lab with a history of conducting virus research with “inadequate biosafety levels.”

The web page also accuses Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, of pushing a “preferred narrative” that COVID-19 originated in nature.

The origins of COVID have never been proven. Scientists are unsure whether the virus jumped from an animal, as many other viruses have, or came from a laboratory accident. A U.S. intelligence analysis released in 2023 said there is insufficient evidence to prove either theory.

It’s common for government websites to get a makeover from one administration to the next, but the latest overhaul has been more extensive than usual. Public health data was scrubbed, particularly any information involving transgender people. The Pentagon also removed photos that were believed to celebrate diversity, equity and inclusion.

The covid.gov site used to include information on how to order free COVID tests and described how to stay up to date with your COVID-19 vaccine, saying it’s “the best way you can protect you and your loved ones.” It advised people how to get treatment right away if they get sick and added links to learn more information about long COVID.

About 325 Americans have died from COVID per week on average over the past four weeks, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of April 5, less than a quarter of adults in the U.S. have gotten an updated COVID vaccine. Millions worldwide have had long COVID, with dozens of widely varying symptoms, including fatigue and brain fog.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By FATIMA HUSSEIN and CHRIS MEGERIAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Just days after being promoted to acting IRS commissioner, the whistleblower who testified publicly about investigations into Hunter Biden’s taxes is out again, according to three people familiar with the decision.

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Gary Shapley, who previously testified to Congress as Republicans reviewed the business dealings of Joe Biden’s son, will be replaced by Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender, according to the three people, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the move and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.

Faulkender will be the fourth IRS leader since President Donald Trump took office in January, a sign of the turmoil within the agency in the early months of the president’s second time in the White House.

Shapley’s short-lived tenure comes as a stream of high-ranking officials have exited the federal tax collection agency via a mix of resignations over Trump’s policy decisions, layoffs and demotions.

Shapley’s ouster and subsequent replacement were first reported by The New York Times, which said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had complained to Trump that Shapley had been installed without his knowledge and at the behest of Trump adviser Elon Musk, who has butted heads with Cabinet officials in his role spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency.

Late Thursday night, Musk shared an X post from Laura Loomer, a far-right activist who has criticized certain administration officials for a lack of loyalty to Trump, a Republican.

Loomer accused Bessent of inviting a “Trump hater” to work with him on financial literacy efforts. “I am going to personally tell President Trump and personally show him these receipts,” Loomer wrote, adding “shame on” Bessent.

Musk responded, “troubling.”

FILE – Michael Faulkender, President Donald Trump’s pick to be Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, listens during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Finance on Capitol Hill, March 6, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

Bessent said in an emailed statement that “trust must be brought back to the IRS” and that he is confident that Faulkender “is the right man for the moment.” He added that Shapley “remains among my most important senior advisors at the U.S. Treasury as we work together to rethink and reform the IRS.”

As a result of the latest upheaval, the IRS has put a temporary pause on its reduction in force plan, according to two of the people also familiar with Shapley’s ouster. The pause in layoffs is due to the whiplash changes in leadership at the tax collection agency, the people said.

Earlier this month, the IRS began layoffs that could end up cutting as many as 20,000 staffers — up to 25% of the total workforce.

Shapley had been installed to replace Melanie Krause, who resigned from her role as acting IRS commissioner over a deal between the IRS and the Department of Homeland Security to share immigrants’ tax data with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to help it identify and deport people illegally in the U.S.

Krause had replaced acting Commissioner Douglas O’Donnell, who announced his retirement from the agency after roughly 40 years of service in February as furor spread over DOGE gaining access to IRS taxpayer data.

Trump’s nominee to head the IRS, former U.S. Rep. Billy Long of Missouri, has not yet been confirmed.