The US President has signed an executive order aimed at “remaking America’s federal workforce,” but the implementation has already run into major issues.

Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) workforce optimization initiative is now scrambling to reinstate workers who were mistakenly fired—including those responsible for overseeing the country’s nuclear stockpile.

Trump’s executive order, intended to “reform the federal workforce to better serve Americans,” has not gone as smoothly as planned. In fact, officials dismissed a number of employees from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) without allegedly realizing they were overseeing the nation’s nuclear arsenal.

A fact sheet published online by the White House on February 11 outlined the administration’s strategy for “reforming the federal workforce to better serve Americans.” One key component involved consulting with DOGE to “shrink the size of the federal workforce and limit hiring to essential positions,” with the goal of “significantly reducing the size of the government.”

However, just days later, Reuters reported that over 300 employees at the NNSA received termination notices on February 13. A spokesperson for the Energy Department disputed that figure, telling CNN that the actual number of dismissed employees was “less than 50” and that they were primarily in “administrative and clerical roles.”