A handful of Republican voters who lost their federal jobs joined Democrats for a rally of more than 100 people protesting the cuts near the two [Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS)] office buildings in Parkersburg last week, cheering on a local union leader as he criticized Trump and Musk while standing next to a large “Fat Cat” balloon.
Support for Trump’s shrinking of government can, however, be heard in places around Parkersburg [West Virginia]- a middle-aged couple singing DOGE’s praises over breakfast at a local diner; a hotel patron saying remote workers deserved to be fired; a young bartender lamenting federal workers’ relatively high pay.
In interviews with three dozen workers, business owners and politicians in Parkersburg, which sits at the convergence of two rivers including the mighty Ohio, nearly all said Trump’s focus on cutting government spending was a worthy goal. But most said they knew BFS employees to be hard-working and didn’t see them as the right target if the aim was to eliminate waste.
“Nobody that I’ve talked to understood the devastation that having this administration in office would do to our lives,” [Jennifer] Piggott, 47, told Reuters in an interview, saying she would not have supported Trump if she knew then what she knows now.
“As much as I think that President Trump is doing wonderful things for the country in some regards, I don’t understand this at all,” she said.
Piggott worked at BFS for five years and had recently been promoted. That promotion made her a target as the Trump administration began firing thousands of probationary federal workers — a group that includes new hires but also existing workers moving from one internal position to another.
West Virginia ranks third among the contiguous 48 states in the percentage of its total workforce — 3.7% — in federal jobs, Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows. That’s about double the national average. Only Virginia and Maryland, the two states closest to Washington, are higher at 4.6% and 5.9%.
Meanwhile Piggott, who like other fired probationary employees received no severance, faces an uncertain future. She said she and her husband, a disabled military veteran, have been discussing ways to make ends meet including selling their home.
She teared up when talking about how many veterans, who make up about 30% of the federal workforce, had lost their jobs at BFS and other agencies.
One veteran caught up in the BFS layoffs was Chauncy James, who was promoted twice during his 18 months at BFS, the second time to building maintenance.
James, 42, said he too worries about making his mortgage payment and feeding his five children. At last week’s rally he marched with a sign criticizing Musk and said he regretted voting for Trump.
“They are pretty much just coming here, chopping heads off, without really doing their homework,” James said. “He got elected president and he’s doing a lot of things that people never even imagined that he was going to do to us.”
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