The National Park Service has long been a source of pride for the country, but a leaked recording suggests the Trump administration may have been quietly working to push staff out by demoralizing them.
In audio obtained by The Intercept, Don Striker, a longtime National Park Service official and leader for Alaska parks, said a controversial change in employee evaluations was driven by top-level Trump appointees.
“To the extent that they continue to do things that many of us feel are the reign of terror, that deliberately impact our morale in hopes that they’ll drive us out, that’s OMB, and that’s OPM, right?” Striker said, referring to the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management.
“And that’s what the performance thing came under.”
Scores Capped, Reviews Shortened
In late 2025, the NPS began telling supervisors to limit how many top marks they could give employees on a five-point scale.
At the same time, the evaluation period was slashed to just 90 days, the shortest time allowed under law.
Many workers had already received their annual performance ratings, but some of those scores were downgraded after the new guidance was issued.
In Alaska and California, some supervisors responded by simply giving all their staff a 3 out of 5.
“It’s just another method of trying to bring morale down,” one NPS employee told The Intercept, requesting anonymity out of fear of retaliation.
“A lot of people came into the government to do good work. They didn’t come into the government to compete with others on who is the best across multiple parks with different missions.”
The National Park Service issued a statement defending the changes, saying, “Consistent with OPM’s government-wide performance management guidance, we are working to normalize ratings across the agency. The goal of this effort is to ensure fair, consistent performance evaluations across all of our parks and programs.”
Cuts, Resignations, and a “Reign of Terror”
The directive followed a year marked by mass layoffs and departures.
Around 1,000 NPS employees on probationary status were cut, according to estimates by the National Parks Conservation Association.
The U.S. Forest Service lost about 3,400 staff as well.
These cuts were part of a broader downsizing effort under the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk.
Striker said the performance review changes were part of the same larger strategy.
He told employees during a town hall in Anchorage, “Ultimately, it was not in the hands anymore even of the National Park Service political leadership or the Department of the Interior political leadership.”
The idea, Striker said, was to baseline ratings across all workgroups to create consistency.
But many employees felt it was more about making it easier to justify layoffs.
“Willing to Shoot Hostages”
When staff challenged the changes, Striker warned them against pushing back too hard.
“People back in D.C. are willing to shoot hostages,” he said.
“That’s a phrase that I’ve heard. Let’s not put ourselves in that breach. It’s just not worth it. It’s just not worth it.”
He also added, “Literally, I do not want to sugarcoat this. You can either do the job, or don’t let the door hit you in the butt. That’s where we are as an organization.”
That message didn’t land well with everyone. One employee described the town hall as tense, noting there were interruptions and frustrated reactions from the staff.
Warning Signs of Broader Government Changes
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management had already instructed agencies to avoid handing out too many top ratings, citing concerns about “grade inflation.”
In Decemberreported that OPM was planning to formally limit the number of top scores.
Critics of President Donald Trump’s administration believe the NPS changes are part of a wider attempt to hollow out the civil service.
“The National Park Service is enforcing this with great vigor, which is surprising and disappointing given how many staff the National Park Service has lost in the last year, and how overworked the staff currently are,” said Tim Whitehouse, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.
“The idea that people can only get basically satisfactory performance reviews is bad management. It’s not true, and it’s terrible for morale.”
The fallout is still ongoing, but for many career employees in the parks system, the message seems clear: do more with less, and don’t expect appreciation for it.