Donald Trump’s administration is still advertising jobs with a controversial question about “loyalty” to the president even after a court blocked its use.
An investigation by the Daily Beast’s sister Substack, PunchUp, has found the question in almost 40 distinct placements spanning at least four separate departments, despite a federal judge last week ordering the government to stop using it.
The decision centered on one of four essay questions introduced under Trump’s Merit Hiring Plan. Question 3 asked: “How would you help advance the President’s Executive Orders and policy priorities in this role?” The administration claimed it intended to highlight candidates’ “dedication to public service.”
Applicants were also encouraged to identify Trump initiatives that were personally “significant” to them—and explain how they would put them into effect if handed the roles.
Federal worker unions who had sued to block Question 3—describing it as a “loyalty” test that injected “partisan” politics into merit-based hiring—were handed a preliminary injunction by U.S. District Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. on Friday.
Yet it was still displayed in at least 38 distinct job adverts spanning four separate departments that were live or current at the time of publication, four days after O’Toole’s ruling and three days after PunchUp alerted the administration.
They include Justice, Health, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The jobs include armed federal agents, senior government attorneys, and an economist earning up to $197,200.
Among the postings still carrying Question 3 on Tuesday was a Justice Department human resources specialist responsible for interpreting OPM regulations and executive orders. The vacancy was posted Sept. 11—the same day O’Toole issued his injunction.
Even OPM—the agency responsible for the disputed hiring policy and a defendant in the lawsuit—is still soliciting Question 3 responses from applicants for a senior job in its own legal department.
The administration has insisted the essays are not formally scored. But a live GS-14 contracting vacancy at ODNI’s National Counterintelligence and Security Center demanded that “all applicants must answer” the question. Numerous Health Department listings stated responses could be reviewed by “hiring managers and agency leadership.”
When informed of PunchUp’s findings, an OPM spokeswoman said: “We don’t respond to ongoing litigation.” The Justice Department, Health Department, ODNI and FCC did not respond to a request for comment.
Patrick Moran, president of plaintiff union AFSCME, called the questions a “blatantly illegal attempt to hire partisan cronies” who would put “politics before people.”
In granting a preliminary injunction blocking the administration from continuing to use Question 3, Judge O’Toole Jr., a Clinton appointee, found the federal worker unions challenging the policy were likely to succeed on their claims that its use violated the First Amendment and Administrative Procedure Act.
The judge declined, at this stage, to prohibit agencies from considering answers—or non-answers—to Question 3 that had already been collected.
Tom Latchem exposes the secrets, scandals, and stories that powerful people and institutions want to keep under wraps. Follow all of his reporting at PunchUp on Substack.
