President Donald Trump wants to freeze pay for most federal workers next year despite rising inflation, while giving raises to immigration officers and other law enforcement personnel that he favors.

The president informed House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) of his “alternative pay plan” in a letter last week, claiming routine raises for the federal workforce in 2027 would be “irresponsible.” Unless Congress legislates otherwise, the White House recommendations could go into effect with an executive order later in the year.

Trump, who has ballooned the national debt with expensive tax cuts and pursued a costly war with Iran, argued that withholding pay hikes from civil servants would help put the country “on a fiscally sustainable course.”

“I have therefore decided to set at zero the pay adjustment to be made for the 2027 pay year,” he wrote. “This decision will maintain fiscal responsibility without harming the Government’s ability to recruit and retain well qualified employees.”

But his plan includes an exception that would give 3.8% annual raises to law enforcement personnel, in order to “increase recruitment and retention in critical” roles, while members of the military would get pay hikes as high as 7%.

“For years, wages for federal employees haven’t kept pace with rising costs for housing, food, utilities, and other essentials.”

The carve-out is reminiscent of the White House’s treatment of federal workers during the government shutdown last year, when Trump found a way to pay Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents while most government employees went without paychecks.

Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest federal employee union, called the proposal “a slap in the face to the dedicated civil servants who keep our nation running.”

“For years, wages for federal employees haven’t kept pace with rising costs for housing, food, utilities, and other essentials,” Kelley said in a statement. “Making sure they earn a fair wage isn’t just good for them — it’s good for the quality of government services and the people we all serve.”

Elevated inflation has been eating into the buying power of workers’ wages, making annual raises crucial to keeping up with the rising cost of living. The administration’s war in Iran has pushed up energy prices throughout the world in recent months, burdening the average U.S. household with an estimated $400 in additional gasoline costs since late February. Inflation gauges remain well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.

Trump raised the issue of inflation in his letter to Johnson — only to once again foist blame for it on his predecessor, and to use higher costs as a justification for withholding pay hikes.

“[A] large raise for Federal employees while most Americans still struggle with the consequences of the Biden Administration’s giant inflation spree is unacceptable and would be unfair,” he claimed.

Trump has appeared determined to make the federal workforce as miserable as possible since returning to office in January 2025, unilaterally wrecking entire agencies while laying off or pushing into early retirement thousands of employees. His budget director, Russ Vought, infamously said he wanted to put federal workers “in trauma” and make them “not want to go to work.”

Rep. Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat who represents more than 70,000 federal employees, said Trump’s pay freeze proposal was another indication the president was delivering on Vought’s pledge.

“Once again, this administration is trying to drive hardworking public servants out of government,” Hoyer said in a statement.

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