WASHINGTON, D.C. – A record number of people are applying for jobs in federal law enforcement and border security positions in the Trump administration.
In the first four months of the administration, U.S. Border Patrol received 34,650 applications, representing a 44% increase over the same four-month period in 2024, The Center Square reported. Under U.S. Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks, Texas’ first border czar, the first quarter of 2025 marks “the most successful four-month recruitment stretch in the agency’s history.”
The U.S. Coast Guard also saw a massive spike of applications after failing to meet recruiting targets every year under the Biden administration.
Since January, the Coast Guard is on track to exceed its recruitment goals by 110%, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security says. So far this fiscal year, the Coast Guard has already recruited more than 4,700 new members, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said. Under Trump, the Coast Guard has surged resources to secure U.S. borders and is seizing record amounts of illicit drugs, The Center Square reported.
The U.S. Department of Defense is also seeing a record number of recruits. After failing to meet recruitment goals every year during the Biden administration, in February 2025, all five military services met their recruiting goals.
During an April 30, 2025, cabinet meeting, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth described what was happening as a “recruiting renaissance.”
“It’s been decades since we’ve seen this kind of recruiting in the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps and the Air Force,” he said. “We can barely absorb the volume and retention [is also up] – men and women in the military don’t want to get out.”
The surge came after the Trump administration announced it was ending so-called diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hiring and other policies and offering reinstatement to service members who were ousted because their religious accommodation requests were denied during the DOD’s COVID vaccine mandate. The DOD also began voluntary separation with roughly 1,000 service members diagnosed with gender dysphoria.
“Everything starts and ends with warriors, from training to the battlefield,” Hegseth said. “We are leaving wokeness and weakness behind. No more pronouns. No more climate change obsession. No more emergency vaccine mandates. No more dudes in dresses,” The Center Square reported.
The DOD is also streamlining its civilian workforce to “urgently rebuild our military, revive the warrior ethos and deliver maximum deterrence,” Hegseth said. In March, he began an initiative to reduce the DOD’s 900,000-plus civilian workforce.
A massive spike in applications to join the United States Secret Service (USSS) is also occurring under the Trump administration.
“From January 20, 2025, to May 1, 2025, USSS received over 22,000 applications to join its ranks,” DHS said, a 200% increase over the same period last year when only 7,000 applied.
The surge in applications is partially due to the administration ending DEI hiring and other policies, it said.
The Secret Service hit an historic low point after multiple failures were uncovered related to assassination attempts against Trump, both when he was running for president and after he was elected. After congressional investigations, the former USSS director was forced to resign. Questions remain about USSS failures regarding the president’s safety and other national security issues.
On Sunday, FBI Director Kash Patel said “a wave of transparency was coming” about a multi-layer investigation of DOJ weaponization against Trump and other Americans.
Patel said he and others in the agency can’t discuss ongoing prosecutions related to assassination attempts against Trump, however details will become public as trial evidence unfolds.
“For four years, the previous administration demoralized and denied resources to our brave men and women in law enforcement, including in the Secret Service,” a DHS spokesperson said. “We are reinvigorating the Secret Service and providing it with the resources our brave and women need to do their jobs. We are seeing a historic surge in applications. Americans want to protect and serve, and we simply must let them.”
USSS officers “are charged with a no-fail mission, and that mission demands only the best of the best. Further, by putting an end to the distractions imposed upon them by political operatives in the previous administration, we have freed up the Secret Service to once again focus on its core mission of protecting the President,” DHS said.
The Trump administration is encouraging Americans to apply to join federal law enforcement agencies dedicated to national security across multiple sectors.
