Trump, Musk demand termination of federal office leases through GSA

Regional managers for GSA received a message from the agency's Washington headquarters to begin terminating leases on all of the roughly 7,500 federal offices nationwide

One of the next moves in President Donald Trump and Elon Musk's sweeping effort to fire government employees and curtail operations is using the agency that manages thousands of federal employee worksites around the country to cut down on office space.

Last week, regional managers for the General Services Administration, or GSA, received a message from the agency's Washington headquarters to begin terminating leases on all of the roughly 7,500 federal offices nationwide, according to an email shared with The Associated Press by a GSA employee.

The order seems to contradict Trump's own return-to-office mandate for federal employees, adding confusion to what was already a scramble by the GSA to find workspace, internet connections and office building security credentials for employees who had been working remotely for years.

But it may reflect the Trump administration's belief that it won't need as many offices due to its efforts to fire employees or encourage them to resign.

Here's what to know about the GSA and how Trump's Republican administration is using it in its pursuit of changes with other federal agencies:

What is the General Services Administration?

An independent agency, the GSA in essence acts like the federal government's real estate broker, managing federal property for various agencies. President Harry S Truman established the GSA in 1949, streamlining administrative duties of procuring workplaces for federal employees that had to that point been handled by a variety of entities.

Initially, in the wake of World War II, the GSA was tasked with disposing of war surplus goods and stockpiling strategic supplies for use in wartime. These days, it handles the acquisition of workplaces for more than 1 million federal civilian workers, oversees preservation of hundreds of historic buildings and manages government purchases from commercial vendors.

As of last fall, the GSA owned and leased more than 363 million square feet of space in 8,397 buildings in more than 2,200 communities nationwide, according to the agency's website. Those properties include courthouses, post offices and data processing centres.

What does Trump want the GSA to do?

Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency have homed in on the GSA.

An email sent last week from GSA headquarters in Washington instructed regional managers to begin terminating leases on roughly 7,500 federal offices nationwide.

Lease terminations are the clear priority at this time, according to a Jan 29 email from a senior GSA manager, a copy of which was provided to the AP by a GSA employee.

In a follow-up meeting, GSA regional managers were told the goal is to terminate as many as 300 leases per day, according to the employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Who is leading Trump's moves concerning the GSA?

According to the employee who spoke to the AP, the initiative is being led by Nicole Hollander, who has been embedded in the GSA's headquarters in recent days.

On her LinkedIn profile, Hollander describes herself as an X employee with a background in real estate, in the Washington area. Hollander's X account which shows that she joined in March 2015 but where posts date only to September 2023 is full of posts related to X's real estate acquisitions, as well as information about auctions of items from Twitter's former offices after Musk purchased the platform.

Trump has ordered the GSA to make sure it promotes beautiful federal civic architecture as the president dislikes styles that are less traditional.

Has Trump had a dustup with the GSA before?

Yes. During the transition period following his November win, Trump declined to sign an agreement with the GSA that would have given his team access to secure government offices and email accounts. That refusal came in part because it would have required that the then-president-elect limit contributions to $5,000 and reveal who was donating to his transition effort.

In late November, nearly two months past the deadline, Trump did reach an agreement with President Joe Biden's White House to allow transition staff to coordinate with the existing federal workforce before taking office on Jan 20.