The Trump administration has published a list of more than 440 federal properties to be closed or sold after deeming them ‘not core to government operations.’
Hours later, however, the administration issued a revised list with only 320 entries – none in Washington, D.C.
The General Services Administration, which published the list, did not explain the change and why some properties had been removed.
The initial list had included some of the country’s most recognizable buildings, along with courthouses, offices and even parking garage and spanned nearly every state.
The potential sell-off appears to be part of Trump’s effort to slash the size of the federal government, led by tech billionaire Elon Musk. The downsizing drive has already led to 100,000 workers taking buyouts or being fired.
Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has claimed that it has saved $105 billion so far, in part by cancelling leases on government properties. Budget experts have cast doubt on the reliability of DOGE’s data.
In Washington, D.C., the list includes the Old Post Office, which formerly housed the Trump International Hotel and is newly renovated.
The Trump administration plans to sell or close the FBI headquarters in Washington D.C.
The administration wants to sell the main Department of Justice building, after deeming it ‘not core to government operations’
Others, such as the FBI’s crumbling J. Edgar Hoover Building, are widely seen as outdated. The GSA said in 2023 it would build a new FBI headquarters in Maryland.
The Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building and the American Red Cross HQ are also on the list.
The list includes the headquarters for several major government agencies, including the Veterans Administration, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy, the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Federal Aviation Administration.
GSA’s own headquarters were also on the list.
Elsewhere in the country, the administration targeted the enormous Major General Emmett J. Bean Federal Center in Indiana, the Sam Nunn Atlanta Federal Center, the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building in San Francisco and the U.S. mission’s United Nation headquarters in New York.
The list includes skyscrapers in Chicago, Atlanta and Cleveland, as well as several Internal Revenue Service hubs that process tax returns.
The IRS said in an internal memo last week that it would sell those buildings starting in June, after the April tax filing season is complete.
It was not clear how many of the buildings on GSA’s list will eventually be put up for sale, or what sort of price they might bring.
The American Red Cross HQ in Washington D.C. is also on the list
In Washington, D.C., the list includes the Old Post Office, which formerly housed the Trump International Hotel and is newly renovated
A cyclist rolls past the Thomas P. O’Neill Jr. Federal Building in Boston which the administration hopes to sell off
Roughly 80 percent of the country’s 2.4 million federal workers are based outside of metropolitan Washington, D.C.
‘We are identifying buildings and facilities that are not core to government operations, or non-core properties for disposal,’ the GSA said of the list of 443 properties.
Selling the properties ‘ensures that taxpayer dollars are no longer spent on vacant or underutilized federal space,’ it said, and ‘helps eliminate costly maintenance and allows us to reinvest in high-quality work environments that support agency missions.’
The designations are part of Trump and billionaire Elon Musk’s unprecedented effort to slash the size of the federal workforce and shrink government spending.
Selling the designated buildings could save the federal government hundreds of millions of dollars, they claim, while also dramatically reshaping how major Cabinet agencies funded by Congress operate.
The Trump administration has also demanded that federal workers report to the office every day.
The Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building in San Francisco is among 440 federal properties the government wants to offload
The Martin Luther King Jr., Federal Building in Atlanta could also be on the chopping block
The Martin Luther King Jr., Federal Building is seen on Tuesday in Atlanta, Georgia
Several of the buildings on the initial chopping block house agencies that Trump has long criticized and targeted, notably the FBI and Justice Department.
The FBI and HUD headquarters are also prime examples of the brutalist architectural style that Trump has tried for years to eliminate, preferring traditional, neo-classical architecture instead.
Eliminating federal office space has been a top priority of the new administration.
Last month, GSA regional managers received a message from the agency’s Washington headquarters ordering them to begin terminating leases on all of the roughly 7,500 federal offices nationwide.
In a follow-up meeting, GSA regional managers were told that their goal is to terminate as many as 300 leases per day, according to the employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has listed scores of canceled office leases on DOGE’s official website, raising questions around the country about what will happen to services provided from those offices.
Among the properties on the list released on Tuesday are a large federal building and courthouse in Los Angeles; a federal building in Oklahoma City that replaced one destroyed in a 1995 bombing; an IRS computing center in West Virginia and IRS service centers in Ogden, Utah; Memphis, Tennessee; Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Andover, Massachusetts; and Holtsville, New York.
The General Services Administration which published the list also included the John F. Kennedy Federal Building in Boston
A pedestrian walks by the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building in San Francisco
The administration is also seeking to offload federal buildings bearing the names of civil rights icons Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta and Rosa Parks in Detroit, and the Montgomery, Alabama bus station that was pivotal in the civil rights movement and now serves as the Freedom Rides Museum.
In a statement, the GSA´s Public Buildings Service said the bulk of properties it has classified as unnecessary are office spaces.
‘Decades of funding deficiencies have resulted in many of these buildings becoming functionally obsolete and unsuitable for use by our federal workforce,’ they wrote.
The GSA said in a statement it could ‘no longer hope’ to secure the money to bring the properties up to date and said a sale could potentially save more than $430 million in annual operating costs.
The 443 buildings, which are currently owned and maintained by GSA, span almost 80 million rentable square feet, the agency says.