Former Trump administration officials are launching a program to review federal employees to ensure they align with an “America First agenda.”
Personnel Policy Operations (PPO) is launching a database aimed at bringing “transparency to all federal employees,” a spokesperson for the group told The Dallas Express. The plan is headed by the group’s president, Troup Hemenway, who worked several jobs in the Trump administration and initial 2016 campaign.
“[PPO] will pioneer a groundbreaking database, a first-of-its-kind initiative, aimed at reviewing and bringing transparency to all federal employees, irrespective of their political affiliations,” the spokesperson told DX. “Our goal is to address concerns surrounding an unelected fourth branch of government, created by what some refer to as the ‘deep state,’ which remains unaccountable to the American people. Our aim is to empower citizens with knowledge about those who serve them.”
Internal documents on the program obtained by DX provide further insight into the goal of this potential federal employee review. PPO writes that a comprehensive review of career senior executive employees in the federal government is “essential to ensuring the next administration is not sabotaged.”
“Given the vast majority of careerists are in policy-making positions (roughly 88% by estimates during the Trump Administration) — what kind of influence can be expected for them to weigh on personnel and budgets?” the document asks. “And is it important for an incoming administration to know who these people are so they are mindful of who is going to be inherently antagonistic to an America First agenda?”
Hemenway also works as the associate director of Project 2025 at the Heritage Foundation, a coalition of organizations mapping the policy goals of a potential Trump administration. Josh Whitehouse, the chief operating officer of PPO, worked in the Trump administration and, as a member of the New Hampshire legislature, was the first elected official to endorse Trump in 2015.
“Both PPO and Heritage Project 2025 operate outside of the government, aiming to address the longstanding issue of career bureaucrats exerting undue influence,” a PPO spokesperson told DX. “Our focus is on providing accessible information to support government decision-making regarding personnel.”
In recent years, PPO worked to increase transparency within the Biden administration. It launched insidebidensbasement.org, which published more than 10,000 records on Biden’s appointees, many focusing on federal officials’ financial holdings. The group also maintains the Courage Under Fire Legal Defense Fund to provide individuals with “support from attacks on the First Amendment and Constitutionally-protected speech.”