Cleaned up
Donald Trump’s destruction of the public service is a disaster not only for the approximately 300,000 workers who have been fired, but for the entire nation. Franklin Foer wrote in the February issue.
Discover the June 2026 Edition
Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.
I read “The Purged” by Franklin Foer in one breath. Here’s how to measure the stakes of our political moment—one life at a time. No statistic can adequately describe America’s loss. Each of the 50 people mentioned in Foer’s essay is so gifted and generous, so important to what America means—or at least to what it used to mean. I applaud Foer for having the courage to tell the story straight. His journalistic writing allows us to see each other as a whole.
Rita Charon
New York, NY
There but for the grace of God went I. I never worked directly for the federal government, but I did research and consulting as a contractor for the Department of Energy’s National Laboratories, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. I am a meteorologist, atmospheric physicist, and environmental economist, now retired. I covered major issues, including air quality, acid deposition, and liquefied gas safety. I developed methods for simulating the release of toxic chemicals by accident. I don’t know the people in the article personally, but I know them to know they-I know their value. Their personal loss is our nation’s loss.
Daniel J. McNaughton
Newport, RI
I worked in state government for 29 years. Franklin Foer’s 50 biography is an important reminder that we will feel the effects of Donald Trump’s purge for decades. I tend to think of government work as one of quiet competence. When we travel the interstate highways, we don’t think about the work that goes into finding the right place for the road, building it, and then maintaining it. When we fly, we hope the plane meets safety standards but don’t think less of the federal workers who designed those standards and enforce them for our benefit.
I was reminded of the importance of federal expertise last year, when the remnants of Hurricane Helene swept through the mountains and left behind staggering damage to public and private infrastructure. The Mitchell News-JournalA local newspaper in rural Mitchell County, North Carolina, has repeatedly reported on confusion among Federal Emergency Management Agency employees about how to follow the agency’s own internal guidelines. I am convinced that FEMA can and should be made better. But destroying morale and fueling chaos with yet another layoff is definitely not the way to do it.
John Dorney
Durham, NC
I am a retired civil servant and a disabled veteran. I worked for the US Postal Service for many years. I was always very proud of my desire to go above and beyond to help others get what they wanted or needed. On behalf of millions of current and former federal government employees, I am very grateful for Franklin Foer’s research and reporting in this article.
In my 32-year career, the other civil service and military personnel I worked with were dedicated, honest, and hardworking professionals. When I started hearing claims that federal employees were overpaid under-executives, or that they supported some political agenda that undermined governance, or that they amounted to an unelected, overly partisan bureaucracy, I was shocked. These claims were so contrary to my own experience that I thought surely anyone who heard them would dismiss them as false.
Nyleen Mullally
Rapid City, SD
I was very moved by the detail of the reporting in Franklin Foer’s story on the purged government employees. The biography helped fill in the picture—that these are real people, and that their absence will be felt for a very long time. The destruction of our culture and our progress as a nation is greater than most people realize. Thank you for helping us keep that truth front of mind, now and in the future. I hope some of these forces can be rebuilt—but first we will need to rebuild the government’s reputation.
Evelyn Luengas
Fort Worth, Texas
from memory
“I was holding on, but barely,” Sherry Winfield admits in “Dina’s hat,” a new short story by Stephen King. Sherry and her friend Morris have just walked from their trailer park to the beach with Dinah, the mysterious child Morris is looking after; there, they encounter a group of rowdy teenagers.
“Dina’s Hat” is not the first work of fairy tale that King has written Atlantic. In the May 2011 issue of the magazine, he published “Herman Wouk Is Still Alive,” a short story told from the perspective of two aging poets, Phil and Pauline, taking pictures at a rest stop in Maine, and two mothers, Brenda and Jasmine, eager to take their children on a road trip up I-95. Compared to many of King’s other works, the horrors of “Herman Wouk Is Still Alive” are life-and-death. Depression The story, however, builds to a tragic conclusion.
In 2011 interview with AtlanticJames ParkerKing explained that the story grew out of a bet with his son Owen at that year’s NCAA basketball tournament: The winner would name the short story; the loser would have to write. Owen, the winner, uttered the words “Herman Wouk Still Lives,” inspired by news he read that Wouk, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. War and Memory and Caine Rebellionhe was still writing well into his 90s. In King’s final story, Phil and Pauline read a fictional story New York Times an article that testifies to Wouk’s long life. “Thoughts don’t stop because one is old,” Wouk tells his interviewer. “The body weakens, but words never do.” His feelings inspire the two poets, both in their 70s—until, moments later, tragedy renders language impotent.
Wouk himself was asked about King’s story in a Q&A published with his 2012 novel, Lawgiver. “I read Mr. King’s short story and enjoyed it,” Wouk said. “As to long life, I share his evident astonishment, and much gratitude to my ancestors and my Creator.” He continued, “It helps to have a job I love, and a lot of work still to do by His grace.” Wouk died in 2019, just 10 days before his 104th birthday.
– Andrew Aoyama, Deputy Executive Editor
Back Cover
In this month’s cover story, “Men Who Don’t Want Women to VoteHelen Lewis argues that “masculinity”—the movement that seeks to oppose the advancement of feminism and place men back in the center of public life—has been the most important unifying force in the American right.” Many men are attracted to masculinity, writes Lewis, because they feel that they have lost dignity to women. the spectator, looking over his shoulder with a thoughtful threat.
– Liz HartArt Director
This article appears in June 2026 print with the headline “The Commons.” When you buy a book using a link on this page, we receive a commission. Thank you for your support Atlantic.
