Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, was a typical winter day in Maine. It was the day of my wedding anniversary. It was also the day I was illegally fired from my federal job by the Trump administration.

On June 17, 2024, I began my federal career when I was hired to serve as the Region 1 director for the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). As the Region 1 director, I served as the federal mental health authority responsible for the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, along with the 10 federally recognized tribes. I was proud to be the first Mainer to ever serve in this leadership position at SAMHSA.

Maine receives funding from SAMHSA through various grants to address the addiction and mental health challenges in our state. As the federal mental health leader in the region, I worked with state leaders to promote initiatives that advanced effective behavioral health services in the region. In other words, I helped the Region 1 states be effective and efficient with their SAMHSA dollars.

I took this job to serve my country and my state. I am a lifelong Mainer, growing up in Aroostook County before moving to Southern Maine to start my career in addiction prevention. I am a husband, a father of three and a son of a mom and dad who were extremely proud of my work. It was after their unexpected passings, and in a moment of self-reflection, that I made the decision to devote the remainder of my working years to federal service, to help address the critical issues of addiction and mental health in Maine and New England. It was a huge honor to be chosen for the role.

I stated that my termination was illegal. There is a misunderstanding by some that because I and many of my fellow terminated federal workers were on probationary status, we were essentially “at will” employees and could be dismissed without cause. This is false. Probationary employees are protected from improper termination procedures, including firings based on partisan politics. The head of the Office of Management and Budget is on the record stating he wanted to impose “trauma” upon the federal workforce, establishing a clear partisan and political basis for our firings.

Along with this, the administration is simply lying about us as they fire us. In the termination letter I received from HHS, it was stated I was being fired for a lack of knowledge, skills and abilities for my position, and for issues with performance. Both statements are provable lies. I received an exceptional rating in my 2024 performance evaluation, of which I have documented proof. I was specifically recruited to apply for this job precisely because of the national reputation I have for my knowledge, skills and abilities in the addiction field. In fact, I received the 2024 National Prevention Specialist of the Year award while I was in my regional director role. This is the case with so many of my fellow fired feds, to a person, all with exceptional performance ratings and individuals with very impressive resumes.

This is just my story. There are many more stories in Maine, New England and the rest of the nation. This shameful war on the federal workforce will have serious implications for many government programs. The indiscriminate nature of these firings is leaving offices with skeleton staff, or in some cases, no staff at all.

The Musk-Trump war on the federal workforce will have the opposite effect of what was stated. It will make government more ineffective and more inefficient. But it is probable, if not likely, that this was their true goal all along. It’s time for Mainers to come together and speak out against this assault upon the country.