Overview
- Applicants are asked to describe how they would advance the President’s executive orders and policy priorities, including identifying specific orders or initiatives.
- Stars and Stripes leadership learned of the prompt after a Washington Post inquiry, and ombudsman Jacqueline Smith said the Office of Personnel Management added it on USAJobs.
- Publisher Max Lederer said OPM did not notify the outlet, the response appears optional, and it is not a qualification criterion, adding that no applicants have raised the issue so far.
- Smith and several current and former staff members say the question conflicts with the paper’s congressionally mandated independence and standard journalism ethics.
- OPM Director Scott Kupor said hiring decisions should not include ideological tests, and Editor in Chief Erik Slavin reiterated the outlet’s commitment to objectivity and noted USAJobs was not designed with Stars and Stripes in mind.