> - Why are these firings considered illegal? What is the legal argument? There's a lot here and you should really take the time to learn about it for yourself

> - Why are these firings considered illegal? What is the legal argument? There's a lot here and you should really take the time to learn about it for yourself than relying on random Internet comments to summarize, but in short: - Federal employees in general have protections about being fired without process - Most of the employees being fired are probationary employees who lack such protection. Note how the term is always "fired" not "laid off". There's a reason for that, these people are being fired "for cause", being told their performance is not up to par to avoid the beurocratic overhead of a structed layoff. Misusing for cause termination like this is not even legal for a private employer to do. - Congress controls spending, and the Executive is generally obligated to spend the funds Congress has allocated for the purposes they allocated them (see also: Impoundment). Attempting to shut down agencies Congress has setup by firing everyone is generally runs contra to this idea. - some agencies are setup specifically as independent agencies by Congress. Their heads can generally only be removed either by Congress, or by the President for some form of malfeasance. This sort of makes sense when you think about it. A agency responsible for protecting whistle blowers isn't much good if the president is just going to replace the head until he gets someone who won't protect the ones whistleblowing his malfeasance. > My understanding of how the U.S. government works is that the President functions as the CEO of all federal employees. This isn't correct. In a private company the CEO has tons of rule make power. The board doesn't generally set the rules directly instead controlling them by putting the right officers like the CEO in place. In the government however the primary rulemaking power rests with Congress. The Executive branch is doesn't have much (or isn't supposed to, this has been slipping for a long, long time) outside what is delegated by Congress. The Executive is simply charged with executing those laws and directives of the Legislative.