A number of former Trump administration staffers report they’re at risk of missing rent payments because they don’t have jobs and haven’t yet received lump-sum payouts for vacation time they accrued when they worked for the government, Politico reports.
People who worked for Trump and implemented his unpopular agenda have had difficulty finding jobs with a paycheck from an established company. Some, such as former communications staffer Alyssa Farah, had to set up their own companies. Others, like Kayleigh McEnany, took up the few available jobs at traditional right-wing organizations like Fox News.
But for lower level staffers, the job search continues–as does the uncertainty of not having a secure source of income like a federal job.
“I’m sitting here going, how do I pay my rent? How do I pay my cellphone bill?” one former Trump Commerce Department appointee said in an interview with Politico.
Another said: “I have enough money to make it a month, but when rent’s due next month, what happens then? Rent in D.C. isn’t cheap.”
It’s unclear what’s causing the delay in getting the payments for unused vacation time out to the ex-officials. It could be caused by employees working from home, misfiled paperwork or the failure of the Trump administration to participate in the transition to the Biden team.
“A lot of the politicals are not getting jobs, so a lot of them were relying on the lump-sum payments to get them through the next few months,” a third former Trump appointee said.