{"id":213,"date":"2026-06-01T11:14:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T11:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=213"},"modified":"2026-06-01T11:14:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T11:14:17","slug":"the-trump-administration-wants-to-frighten-would-be-whistleblowers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=213","title":{"rendered":"The Trump Administration Wants to Frighten Would-Be Whistleblowers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Early in Donald Trump\u2019s second term in office, the White House declared itself \u201cthe most transparent administration in history.\u201d The federal government has continued to insist on this slogan, even as it has barred journalists from the Pentagon, administered polygraph tests in an effort to ferret out leakers, and fired independent inspectors general tasked with hunting down corruption and mismanagement. Now the administration has announced yet another effort to stem the free flow of information\u2014a plan that would push all federal workers to sign a nondisclosure agreement.<\/p>\n

Read more Is Socialism the Answer to D.C.\u2019s Woes?<\/a><\/p>\n

Last week, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management published a draft proposal for rolling out NDAs across the executive branch. The NDAs would ostensibly forbid federal workers from sharing \u201cnon-public, confidential, or proprietary information\u201d outside the government, including with the press. Exactly what constitutes such information remains unclear, as does the proposal\u2019s legal validity. The draft NDA itself acknowledges that the administration cannot go beyond the restrictions of existing law. And to the extent that the government seeks to add new constraints anyway, the proposed NDA would be a clear violation of First Amendment protections. Legal or not, though, the NDA will likely further intimidate federal workers, many of whom are already demoralized by the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to torment the civil service and drive government employees to quit.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I see it, the goal of the NDA is to chill employees who would otherwise whistleblow on unlawful activity or mismanagement,\u201d Nick Bednar, a law professor at the University of Minnesota who studies the civil service, told me. The proposal, in his view, is \u201can additional threat on top of dozens of other threats\u201d to federal workers who have already suffered from mass layoffs and reductions in civil-service protections.<\/p>\n

The proposal frames the draft NDA as a necessary response to recent \u201cunauthorized disclosures\u201d to the press, pointing to reporting by The<\/i> New York Times <\/i>and The<\/i> Washington Post <\/i>about the U.S. raid on Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro, which it claims could have endangered U.S. forces if published before Maduro\u2019s capture. (The Times<\/i>\u2019 executive editor, Joe Kahn, has said that the paper did not receive operation details ahead of time.) It also cites the leak of the Supreme Court\u2019s opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization<\/i>\u2014a strange choice, given that this leak involved a branch of government not under the OPM\u2019s control. If the proposed rule were adopted, agencies across the government would have the option of requiring their employees to sign the agreement as \u201ca certification that the employee understands and agrees to comply with applicable nondisclosure requirements associated with Federal service.\u201d But, the rule emphasizes, \u201cthe proposed NDA does not create new substantive restrictions on employee speech or disclosure rights.\u201d Even on its own terms, then, the NDA is largely redundant.<\/p>\n

Until now, the government has never implemented a blanket NDA like what Trump is proposing. This is, in part, because it has little reason to do so: The United States already has plenty of laws on the books governing what information can and can\u2019t be disclosed. Federal employees who work with classified information already sign a binding agreement, known as SF-312, to never share sensitive material, and anyone who reveals such information can be subject to criminal prosecution. Outside the realm of national security, other laws prohibit federal workers from sharing material such as trade secrets and personal information contained in government databases. These restrictions are balanced by statutory whistleblower protections, which exist to safeguard government employees\u2019 ability to reveal misconduct, including to the press and Congress, in an effort to bring before the public information about government abuse that might otherwise remain hidden.<\/p>\n

Apparently, however, the right balance has not been struck. Trump has long leaned on NDAs as a tool to prevent unflattering information from becoming public. Prior to his presidency, he pushed NDAs on Trump Organization employees, Miss Universe contestants, business partners, family members, the adult-film actor Stormy Daniels, campaign employees and volunteers, and, according to the Associated Press, a manufacturer of red MAGA hats. During his first term, beset by leaks to the press, Trump demanded that senior White House staff be required to sign the agreements. In 2020, the Justice Department sued Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former aide to Melania Trump, seeking to seize the profits from Wolkoff\u2019s book on the grounds that an NDA prohibited her from speaking publicly about her time with the first lady. (The Biden administration later dropped the case.)<\/p>\n

Read more Memories of Green<\/a><\/p>\n

This love affair with NDAs has continued into the second Trump administration\u2014especially as, once again, the government struggles to prevent journalists from uncovering some of what is going on behind closed doors. Last year, CNN reported, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth began requiring that officials sign an NDA before accessing certain nonclassified information.<\/p>\n

Supposedly, the new NDA would be voluntary, but the proposal states that workers could be fired and barred from future government employment if they refused to sign. And for those who do sign, the draft NDA warns that breaking the agreement could result in discipline, firing, and ominously unspecified \u201ccivil or criminal penalties\u201d\u2014although there is no broad criminal prohibition against sharing unclassified information. The only statute that the Office of Personnel Management cites has to do with destruction or theft of government material, not leaks of it. \u201cThat provision has no obvious relevance or application to an NDA seeking to restrict unauthorized dissemination of unclassified information,\u201d Bradley P. Moss, an attorney who specializes in national-security law and federal employment law, explained to me in an email. Perhaps the OPM was simply sloppy in throwing the draft together. Or perhaps the idea was just to sound threatening and make a bet that few federal workers would want to risk being prosecuted.<\/p>\n

Moss, who described the draft NDA as \u201cridiculous on its face,\u201d found one aspect particularly troubling: The agreement purports to bind government workers from sharing information not just during their employment, but even after they leave federal service. This is \u201cunequivocally unlawful,\u201d Moss said. Under well-established law, the First Amendment limits the government\u2019s ability to block former employees from sharing unclassified information. (This is the argument that Wolkoff was making before her case was dismissed.) As an employer, the government retains some power to tell its workers what they can and can\u2019t say, but it cannot force people to sign away their rights to free speech even after they leave public service just because that speech might be annoying or inconvenient. If the OPM goes forward with the draft NDA as currently written, the administration would almost certainly face a wave of court challenges under the First Amendment.<\/p>\n

Then again, Trump is no stranger to NDAs that don\u2019t hold up in court. According to The New York Times<\/i>,White House lawyers explained to Trump during his first term that the NDAs he wanted aides to sign would be impossible to enforce. Years later, in 2021, a federal judge in New York ruled that the NDAs signed by Trump-campaign workers in 2016 were so broad as to be legally void. The effect, the judge wrote, was to \u201cchill the speech\u201d of campaign employees \u201cabout matters of public interest.\u201d Over the next year, two additional private arbitrators found the campaign\u2019s NDAs to be unlawfully broad. The Trump family\u2019s effort to invoke an NDA to block publication of a memoir by Mary Trump, the president\u2019s niece, likewise failed. Speaking with The<\/i> Washington Post<\/i>,Mary Trump characterized her uncle\u2019s legal strategy as wielding \u201chis power, his position and his money and his apparently endless supply of lawyers to run out the clock\u201d and \u201coutspend people who can\u2019t afford it.\u201d In that sense, even if those previous NDAs were legally worthless, they achieved their true purpose of extracting pain. Now Trump\u2019s administration is applying that same logic to silence public servants.<\/p>\n

The NDA proposal is only in its beginning stages. Under the typical process for adopting regulations, the OPM will allow members of the public to submit their thoughts on the plan. Perhaps the administration will soften the language of the draft NDA as the process goes on in order to avoid the risk of litigation. Either way, the message from Trump to federal workers is clear: Shut up, or else.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump\u2019s 250th Celebration Is a Fiasco<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A proposal to push federal workers to sign nondisclosure agreements is part of a bigger effort to hide government secrets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ideas"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Trump Administration Wants to Frighten Would-Be Whistleblowers - Commercial Relocation Pros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=213\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Trump Administration Wants to Frighten Would-Be Whistleblowers - Commercial Relocation Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A proposal to push federal workers to sign nondisclosure agreements is part of a bigger effort to hide government secrets.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=213\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Commercial Relocation Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-01T11:14:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=213#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=213\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a\"},\"headline\":\"The Trump Administration Wants to Frighten Would-Be Whistleblowers\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-01T11:14:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=213\"},\"wordCount\":1423,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=213#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/1cafe07c10b38d7d643b623123d89485.avif\",\"articleSection\":[\"Ideas\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=213#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=213\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=213\",\"name\":\"The Trump Administration Wants to Frighten Would-Be Whistleblowers - Commercial Relocation Pros\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=213#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=213#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/1cafe07c10b38d7d643b623123d89485.avif\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-01T11:14:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=213#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=213\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=213#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/1cafe07c10b38d7d643b623123d89485.avif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/1cafe07c10b38d7d643b623123d89485.avif\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":625},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?p=213#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Trump Administration Wants to Frighten Would-Be Whistleblowers\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Commercial Relocation Pros\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/commercialrelocationpros.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Trump Administration Wants to Frighten Would-Be Whistleblowers - Commercial Relocation Pros","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=213","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Trump Administration Wants to Frighten Would-Be Whistleblowers - Commercial Relocation Pros","og_description":"A proposal to push federal workers to sign nondisclosure agreements is part of a bigger effort to hide government secrets.","og_url":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=213","og_site_name":"Commercial Relocation Pros","article_published_time":"2026-06-01T11:14:17+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=213#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=213"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a"},"headline":"The Trump Administration Wants to Frighten Would-Be Whistleblowers","datePublished":"2026-06-01T11:14:17+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=213"},"wordCount":1423,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=213#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1cafe07c10b38d7d643b623123d89485.avif","articleSection":["Ideas"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=213#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=213","url":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=213","name":"The Trump Administration Wants to Frighten Would-Be Whistleblowers - Commercial Relocation Pros","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=213#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=213#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1cafe07c10b38d7d643b623123d89485.avif","datePublished":"2026-06-01T11:14:17+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=213#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=213"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=213#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1cafe07c10b38d7d643b623123d89485.avif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1cafe07c10b38d7d643b623123d89485.avif","width":1200,"height":625},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=213#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Trump Administration Wants to Frighten Would-Be Whistleblowers"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/","name":"Commercial Relocation Pros","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/3a3374a445f1b5d4852b1d7c15b9fe3a","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com"],"url":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}