EPA staff fear Trump will destroy how it protects Americans from pollution

Workers face being targets in what could be Environmental Protection Agency's biggest upheaval since its founding

After several years of recovery after the tumult of Donald Trump's last administration, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now bracing itself for even deeper cuts to staff numbers and to work protecting Americans from pollution and the climate crisis as Trump prepares to return to the White House.

When he was last president, Trump gutted more than 100 environmental rules and vowed to only leave a little bit of the EPA" left because you can't destroy business", prompting hundreds of agency staff to leave amid a firestorm of political interference and retaliation against civil servants. An even greater exodus is expected this time, with staff fearing they are frontline targets in what could be the biggest upheaval in the agency's 50-year history.