One of the inspectors general fired late Friday by President Donald Trump shared the brutal way he learned he was out of a job. 

Mark Greenblatt was one of more than a dozen inspectors general who were axed by the president heading into the weekend.

The move set off alarms for Trump critics who warned it eliminates independent oversight of multiple government agencies as the president moves to install loyalists across the board for his second term.

Greenblatt was the inspector general of the Interior Department, having served since he was appointed by Trump during his first term in 2019. 

He revealed on Monday that he learned he was fired when he received an email. 

‘So Friday night I got an email on my work phone, and I checked it, and there was a said White House notification, and I knew that can’t be good,’ Greenblatt said in an interview on Monday with CNN. 

Mark Greenblatt was one of more than a dozen inspectors general who were fired by President Trump on Friday. He told CNN he learned he was being fired from an email sent at 7:30pm. He called the move ‘troubling’ as Trump critics sound the alarm on the president purging independent oversight less than a week into his second term

Greenblatt said the email came in at 7:30pm and contained just two sentences from the director of presidential personnel. 

It stated that in light of changing priorities he was terminated from the position effective immediately. 

Greenblatt noted he knew it was not good news before he even opened the email because during the first Trump term, the president removed two inspectors general also on Friday nights.

He said that he didn’t even know how he would get his things from the office as his email was also cut off. 

Greenblatt said he did not know why he was on the list of inspectors general fired and the only reason he was given was the ‘changing priorities’ indicated in the email.  

 ‘As far as I know all of us got essentially the same email that said changing priorities,’ Greenblatt said of the 18 fired.

‘We do fair, objective, independent oversight,’ Greenblatt said. ‘I’ve been doing that for five and a half years, and I’m very proud of the work that my team has done during my tenure as inspector general.’

Greenblatt warned that the removal of inspectors general is ‘troubling.’

‘These removals should be sending of alarm bells for a number of different reasons, but the primary one in my view is the independence of these positions,’ he told CNN.

‘The whole construct of inspectors general, it’s based on us being independent, that we’re not beholden to a political party of any stripe,’ Greenblatt said. 

President Trump did not give Congress the required 30-day notice before he fired at least 18 inspectors general on Friday night

Inspectors general are officials who serve as independent government watchdogs tasked with investigating numerous agencies for waste, fraud and abuse of power. 

Greenblatt described his role as the ‘taxpayers’ representative inside the Department of Interior.’ 

He raised questions over whether the president would nominate watchdogs or ‘lapdogs.’ 

Trump defended the firings on Saturday, telling reporters ‘it’s a very common thing to do’ and suggested that some of them were ‘unfair.’

He did not say how he would fill the positions going forward or with whom. 

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Other inspectors general fired included those who have conducted oversight of the departments of Defense, State, Transportation, Energy, Commerce and Agriculture as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, Small Business Administration, and Social Security Administration. 

‘It is a brazen attempt to rig these offices to look the other way when violations of law take place,’ warned Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) in a statement after the purge. 

Democratic lawmakers over the weekend also slammed the 78-year-old for breaking the law which requires the president to give Congress 30-days notice before removing an inspector general.

But Republicans signaled they were ok with him violating the law requiring notice.

‘I’m not overly worried about that,’ Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Meet the Press.

‘It’s not the first time people have come in and put their team in,’ he claimed. 

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