Fact check: Did other presidents also require a federal employee loyalty pledge?

1. Summary of the results

Yes, other presidents have required federal employee loyalty pledges, most notably President Harry Truman. In 1947, Truman issued Executive Order 9835, which established a sweeping loyalty investigation program for federal employees and ensured that government workers could be subject to investigation for potential involvement in "subversive" organizations ^{[1] [2]}. This historical precedent demonstrates that loyalty requirements for federal employees predate recent administrations by decades.

The analyses reveal that while loyalty oaths have been used historically, the current Trump administration's approach represents a significant departure from traditional practices. The Trump administration has implemented unprecedented measures including essay questions requiring applicants to explain how they would implement Trump's policy priorities ^[3] and efforts to prioritize personal loyalty to the President in federal hiring ^[4].

2. Missing context/alternative viewpoints

The original question lacks crucial historical context about the fundamental difference between loyalty to the Constitution versus loyalty to an individual president. Federal workers traditionally take an oath to "support and defend the Constitution, not the President" ^[5], which represents a critical distinction missing from the framing.

Key missing historical context:

• The Pendleton Act of 1883 made it illegal to fire or demote government officials for political reasons and required merit-based examinations for federal workers ^[4]
• Truman's loyalty program was focused on national security concerns during the Cold War era, targeting potential communist infiltration rather than personal loyalty to the president
• The concept of loyalty oaths has been controversial throughout U.S. history, as evidenced by UC Berkeley's loyalty oath controversy ^[2]

Alternative viewpoints on who benefits:

• Political appointees and administration officials benefit from increased loyalty requirements as it consolidates executive power and ensures policy implementation
• Career civil servants and good government advocates oppose such measures as they undermine merit-based hiring and constitutional principles
• Future administrations could exploit precedents set by loyalty requirements to further politicize the federal workforce

3. Potential misinformation/bias in the original statement

The original question, while factually neutral, contains an implicit bias by suggesting equivalency between different types of loyalty requirements across presidencies. This framing obscures the unprecedented nature of requiring personal loyalty to an individual president rather than institutional loyalty to the Constitution and rule of law ^{[5] [3]}.

The question fails to distinguish between:

• Security-based loyalty investigations (like Truman's anti-communist measures)
• Constitutional oath requirements (standard for all federal employees)
• Personal loyalty pledges to individual presidents (the current unprecedented approach)

This lack of distinction could mislead readers into believing that all loyalty requirements are equivalent, when the analyses clearly show that Trump's approach to "reward loyalty in federal workforce" ^[3] and implement "loyalty tests for prospective federal employees" ^[5] represents a significant departure from historical norms and constitutional principles.