Federal Govt. Employee Who Criticized Pres. Trump During The Shutdown Now Put on Leave: NPR

'She criticized President Trump during the shutdown. Now she's been put on leave,' NPR, Nov. 14, 2025.
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Jenna Norton, a program director at the National Institutes of Health, says she has been put on paid leave following the end of the government shutdown. "I was not given a reason for being put on leave, but I strongly suspect it is because I have been speaking up in my personal capacity about the harms that I have been witnessing inside the National Institutes of Health," she said in a video posted to TikTok.

The notice Norton received from human resources stated that the leave "is not being done for any disciplinary purpose." She is among a number of federal employees who have been openly critical of the Trump administration, both before and during the 43-day shutdown. Norton first spoke out in June, when she helped organize a call to action by hundreds of NIH scientists, pushing back against cuts and changes at the agency.

They warned the Trump administration was politicizing research and canceling studies, putting the health of participants at risk.

In an interview with NPR in early October, Norton said she believed the Trump administration's deep funding and staffing cuts have created a situation inside NIH that is far worse than the public realizes. "I feel like I have this front row seat to the destruction of our democracy," she said. "We are seeing it in real time with a president who is asking us to do things that are illegal and harmful to the American public."

The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees NIH, did not respond to NPR's questions about why Norton was placed on leave and instead issued a statement calling her a "radical leftist" who "chooses to constantly criticize this administration, even when she is supposed to be working." Norton responded on TikTok, saying "If it is radically leftist to believe that NIH policies should not be actively harming research participants, then I will wear the radical left label proudly."...
https://www.npr.org/2025/11/14/nx-s1-5608969/federal-employees-shutdown-trump-leave