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A Trump official working in the department that demanded federal workers email five things they accomplished or be fired was posting fashion influencer content from her government office while thousands lost their jobs.
As federal workers were laid off in widespread cuts, McLaurine Pinover, a spokesperson for the Office of Personnel Management, was posting videos on Instagram about her outfits from the agency’s offices in Washington, D.C., according to CNN.
In one of the aspiring influencer’s posts on her now-deleted Instagram account, which had the handle @getdressedwithmc, Pinover shared a link to her 800 followers where they could buy her $475 purple midi-skirt.
In one video, Pinover reportedly blew a kiss to the camera and captioned her post, “work look” and “#dcinfluencer.” It was posted the same day that the office sent a memo to federal workers identifying barriers at work to “swiftly terminate poor performing employees,” according to CNN.
Former office staffers told the network that they were offended by the posts made on government property while the brutal cuts were ongoing.
Pinover, who started her job with the Trump administration in January, did not mention her Office of Personnel Management role in the social media posts, the network reports. The Independent has contacted the office for comment.
Several videos were posted during work hours, according to CNN, and filmed on the fifth floor of the Office of Personnel Management’s building, and across the hall from where Department of Government Efficiency staffers work.
Pinover’s name was also reportedly attributed to a statement dated February 22 regarding the email mandated by Elon Musk, demanding federal employees submit five things they accomplished at work that week. She posted another video on February 28 when the officec sent out the second email demanding employees summarize their achievements at work, CNN reports. DOGE mogul Musk was one of the forces behind the push.
The billionaire also posted on X in January: “Pretending to work while taking money from taxpayers is no longer acceptable.”
“While her team is getting axed, she’s twirling around in her office,” another former OPM staffer told CNN.
One of the most galling videos to staffers was shared the same day that theoffice reportedly held a call with other agencies instructing them to fire thousands of probationary employees, including 20 people on Pinover’s team, according to Jack Miller, the former OPM communications director under the Biden administration.
“To post that video the very day your entire team is getting laid off is ridiculous,” Miller told the outlet.
“I saw it, and I was like, ‘Are you kidding me, that’s my office,’” a former communications staffer, who remained anonymous, told CNN. “She’s the spokesperson for the agency that is advocating for the firing based on performance and efficiency of the rest of the government workforce, and she’s using government property as a backdrop for her videos.”
Some of Pinover’s links were “affiliate links” for clothing brands, according to CNN. Influencers sometimes receive a commission when customers buy the clothes via the link. CNN said it was “not clear” whether Pinover received a commission for the posts.
Watchdogs said the posts could violate federal regulations because employees should not use public property “for other than authorized purposes.”
“It is highly problematic that while dedicated civil servants who want to work for the government are being fired for all manner of dubious reasons, or are being forced out by this administration, that someone at the agency leading that attack on the civil service is using their government job for private gain,” chief counsel for the watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, Donald K. Sherman, told CNN.
