Jocelyn Steward, a health insurance specialist with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said she thought it was the Trump administration that had lost the focus on the proper priorities.

Steward, who voted for Trump for president in three straight elections, said she believed job cuts would focus on early retirements and workers who underperformed. But she said she lost her job, helping military veterans and other understand their benefits, even though she was just in training and had met all her job requirements.

“Layoffs aren’t easy on anybody. But there has been zero compassion for anything or anyone in this process,” said Steward, who lives and works in Georgia. ”A lot of these federal workers are doing good work. Please just show a little empathy.”