President Trump escalated his control over the federal workforce Wednesday, signing an executive order to make it easier to fire government officials in senior positions. The order reclassifies close to 8,000 federal workers in “confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating” positions to at-will employees, allowing them to be fired without any stated reason. Most of these positions are at GS-15, the highest pay grade for federal civilian employees, coming with salaries