Trump’s shocker to US tax officials says he will move new employees to the border with Mexico

Days after enacting a government hiring freeze, US President Donald Trump said he plans to redeploy nearly 90,000 federal tax officials to guard the southern border with Mexico.

The ominous announcement indicates that Trump is applying to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), a federal agency under the Treasury Department that administers and enforces tax laws. In recent years, the IRS has faced steep budget cuts, with some Republican lawmakers even calling for it to be shut down.

“They hired or tried to hire 88,000 workers to go after you, and we’re in the process of developing a plan to either fire them all, or maybe we’ll move them to the border,” Trump said, ending a tumultuous first week in the White House with a speech at a Las Vegas casino.

He went on to suggest that IRS agents, some of whom are authorized to carry firearms, would be a good fit at the US-Mexico border, where he has declared a national emergency to crack down on illegal immigration.

“You know, they’re so strong on guns. But these people are allowed to carry guns. So we’re probably going to move them to the border,” he said.

The proposal comes on the heels of Trump signing an executive order to freeze federal hiring “until (his) administration can determine that it is in the national interest to do so.”

The president detailed broader plans to overhaul the federal government, including the creation of an “External Revenue Service” to handle foreign revenue, such as tariffs. It’s worth noting that these functions are already administered by agencies such as the Commerce Department and US Customs and Border Protection.

The move is in line with Trump’s ‘Save America’ agenda, which focuses on reducing the size of the federal government. He had tapped billionaire Elon Musk to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a non-government task force aimed at cutting federal jobs, slashing regulations and streamlining bureaucratic functions.

“I will immediately begin the overhaul of our trading system to protect American workers and families,” Trump said in his opening remarks at the Capitol on Monday. “Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens.”

The proposed tariffs include a 25 percent tax on Mexico and Canada starting Feb. 1 if they fail to comply with U.S. immigration policies.

“It’s going to be enormous amounts of money flowing into our treasury — coming from foreign sources,” Trump said earlier. “The American Dream will soon be back and thriving like never before.”

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