Gov. Glenn Youngkin is catching heat for suggesting that the roughly 150,000 federal government employees in Virginia whose jobs are threatened by Donald Trump’s Project 2025 scheme could just find jobs elsewhere.
“We can sit around and play ‘what if’ games on both sides on what they’re going to propose and what they’re not going to propose, and the reality of this is, it is all speculative,” Youngkin told reporters at a press gaggle on Wednesday, dismissing out of hand the reality of the scope of Project 2025, a cornerstone plan for the remaking of the federal government in a presumptive second Trump presidential term.
“Second of all, to think that there should be any movement in the workforce, that there aren’t enough jobs in Virginia to absorb those talented workers, is a complete mischaracterization,” Youngkin said.
Oof, right?
The Democratic Party of Virginia highlighted this misstep on the part of Youngkin, who is both covering for Trump on the Project 2025 story, and also showing how out of touch he must be to think that 150,000 people in Northern Virginia can just up and find new jobs with no problem and not have it disrupt their standard of living, and for that matter, devastate the Virginia economy.
Roughly 17 percent of Virginia’s GDP is tied to the federal government; government services is our largest industry, an uncomfortable fact for politicians on both sides of the aisle who like to tout their efforts to bring in technology and manufacturing investments.
From a DPV press release on this sent out on Wednesday:
“So not only does Glenn Youngkin oppose the movement of 150,000 jobs out of Virginia, he believes that skilled workers, some of whom have spent their entire careers in the federal government, can find a new job in a week. That they can afford to live comfortably without an income or benefits until they’re able to find a new job.
“He even said that people worried about it are merely playing a “what if” game. To Glenn, that single parent worrying about losing their healthcare benefits for themselves and their children are playing silly “what if” games. To Glenn, the career civil servant worried about losing their retirement benefits is playing silly “what if” games. To Glenn, Virginians worried about their state’s economy are playing silly “what if” games.
“Glenn, Virginians’ livelihoods aren’t a game.”
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Chris Graham
