FACT CHECK: Did 1,500 IRS Agents Resign After Trump Threatened Them With ‘Border Duty?’

Christine Sellers | Fact Check Reporter

A post shared on Facebook claims that 1,500 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents purportedly resigned after President Donald Trump threatened them with “border duty.”

Verdict: False

The claim is false and originally stems from a Jan. 28 article published on the satire site “Real Raw News.”

Fact Check:

Trump is offering federal workers the opportunity to participate in a “deferred resignation program” following the end of work-from-home practices, according to CBS News. Employees have a deadline of Feb. 6 to decide if they want to resign in September when work-from-home practices expire, the outlet reported.

The Facebook post claims 1,500 IRS agents purportedly resigned after Trump threatened them with “border duty.” According to the same post, the 1,500 IRS agents “tendered letters of resignation, writing that their training was incompatible with border duty” after Trump “announced his intent to send 90,000 superfluous IRS agents to the border.”

The claim is false and originally stems from a Jan. 28 article published on the satire site “Real Raw News.” A “Disclaimer” included on the site’s “About Us” page indicates its content is not meant to be taken literally. “Information on this website is for informational and educational and entertainment purposes. This website contains humor, parody, and satire. We have included this disclaimer for our protection, on the advice [of] legal counsel,” the disclaimer reads.

Likewise, Check Your Fact did not find the claim referenced on the website for the IRS or its verified social media accounts. Neither Trump nor the White House has publicly commented on the claim. In addition, Check Your Fact found no credible news reports to support the claim. (RELATED: Viral X Post Makes False Claim About Taxes, Child Support)

Although the claim is false, Trump has publicly considered moving 90,000 IRS agents to the border, Fox News reported.

“On day one, I immediately halted the hiring of any new IRS agents. [The Biden administration] hired, or tried to hire, 88,000 new workers to go after you. And we’re in the process of developing a plan to either terminate all of them or maybe we’ll move them to the border. And I think we’re going to move them to the border,” Trump said during a recent rally in Las Vegas, the outlet indicated.

Check Your Fact has contacted the IRS for comment.

Christine Sellers

Fact Check Reporter

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