This is a script for a segment that appeared on Velshi March 8, 2025. You can watch it here.

Welcome back.

((VO — TRUMP IN OVAL WITH ANDREW JACKSON PORTRAIT)

The president pictured here has fired more federal workers than all of his predecessors COMBINED, filling the federal government instead with his own loyalists…

No, not that one. The *other one*

Look above President Trump’s shoulder, at the portrait on the wall: I’m talking about 7th President of the United States, Andrew Jackson.

((ON CAM))

In his first year, Jackson fired 20 percent of the federal workforce, which was around 11 thousand people at the time – and replaced many high-ranking officials with his own biggest supporters, just as he promised on the campaign trail.

Jackson was not the first president to put his own people in positions of power, but the scale and scope of his moves shocked others at the time.

Senator John Holmes of Maine challenged Jackson’s authority to fire so many, saying in a speech to Congress in 1830, quote,

((FS — SEN. HOLMES QUOTE))

“This is a crisis in our affairs – it is a state of things unparalleled in our history. Look at the consequences. … The public interest is put in jeopardy, by displacing experience and fidelity, and substituting mere partisans, without regard to qualifications.”

((FS — SEN. MARCH QUOTE))

In an attempt to defend Jackson, New York Senator William Marcy coined the term “spoils system” when he declared quote, “To the victor belongs the spoils.”

((ON CAM))

And so it was. The Spoils System became *THE* way government officials were hired. If you were a good party member, collected some money and swung some votes, you could expect a nice cushy government job at the end of the campaign season.

((VO — TAMMANY HALL)

For much of the 19th century, this was the norm. Party machines operating on the spoils system sprouted in major cities – like the famous Democratic Party system run out of Tammany Hall here in New York City.

((ON CAM))

The thing about filling the government with cronies, though, is that people notice.

Following a number of high-profile corruption scandals in the 1860s and 70s, the American people had had enough of the spoils system.

((VO — MARK TWAIN))

Even Mark Twain – who had never campaigned for a politician before – was so tired of the corruption that he stumped for Rutherford B. Hayes’ presidential campaign, which promised civil service reform.

((FS — TWAIN QUOTE))

Twain said in an 1876 speech, quote, “We will not hire a blacksmith who never lifted a sledge. We will not hire a schoolteacher who does not know the alphabet… But when you come to our civil service, we serenely fill great numbers of our minor public offices with ignoramuses.”

((VO — GARFIELD & ARTHUR CAMPAIGN IMAGERY))

But the many politicians who thrived off the spoils system made it difficult to enact reform. James A. Garfield, elected president in 1880, was pro-reform. So the Republican party bosses made sure his Vice President, Chester A. Arthur, was a quote “Stalwart.” A supporter of the spoils system.

((VO — GUITAEU STILLS))

Change was only spurred by tragedy: In July 1881, a man named Charles Guiteau snuck up behind President Garfield and shot him twice. Garfield would die of these wounds, marking the second presidential assassination in our history.

Guiteau had volunteered for Garfield’s 1880 campaign; he’d written some pamphlets and donated some money. After Garfield won, Guiteau —overestimating his impact on the race — assumed this meant he’d get his pick of a top diplomatic job, maybe in Paris or Vienna. But when the administration rejected his request, he resorted to violence.   

((ON CAM))

When he was arrested, he plainly said quote, “I am a Stalwart, and Arthur will be President.”

Chester A. Arthur, Garfield’s Vice President, was a product of New York’s political machine, and Guiteau hoped he would keep the system in place. Instead, Arthur was so horrified by Garfield’s killing that he became an even more out-and-out reformer than his predecessor.

((FS — PENDLETON ACT))

In 1883, Arthur signed the Pendleton Act, which established a professional civil service and required employees be hired based on competency tests and merit. Initially, it only covered a small percentage of federal jobs, but its scope grew over time.

((ON CAM))

Since then, the civil service has been increasingly professionalized and insulated from politics.

That is, until now.

((FS — CIVIL SERVICE HEADLINE))

On day one of his second term, Donald Trump signed an executive order removing civil service protections for some federal employees, making it easier to fire them. Since then, his administration has swept through agency after agency, firing nonpartisan experts, even breaking the law to do so.

((ON CAM))

And he’s giving out spoils too.

((FS — TOP DONORS IN TOP JOBS))

His commerce secretary donated more than 9 million dollars to his campaign.

His secretary of Education donated more than 20 million dollars to his campaign.

And his special government employee – the one entrusted with gutting the civil service – spent more than 260 million dollars on Trump’s campaign.

((ON CAM))

They were always looking to get something out of it, and Trump was always going to give them something for it. As an old Tammany Hall boss said, quote,

“Men ain’t in politics for nothin’.”