Park Ranger Goes Viral After Posting About Being Laid off During Trump Cuts

Valentine's Day should've been another day of love and celebration for Effigy Mound National Monument park ranger Brian Gibbs. Instead, the soon-to-be father-of-two was mourning after being abruptly terminated from his job.

The 41-year-old is just one of thousands of federal employees getting the axe since President Donald Trump was inaugurated a second time.

While there are many others out there with a similar story, Gibbs is going viral thanks to an emotional post he made about the firing, asking people to "know and share this truth widely."

Continue reading to learn more about the viral post, including how many of Gibbs' co-workers are sharing a similar pain as Trump and Elon Musk work to terminate the bulk of the federal workforce.

Gibbs shared his post on Feb. 14, 2025, telling his followers that he was "heartbroken" to share the news that he lost his "dream job" as an Education Park Ranger. Gibbs was employed by the National Parks Service in Iowa, and he worked at the Effigy Mounds National Park. He taught visitors about the park and was responsible for raising the flag each day and lowering it each evening.

Tragically, all of that changed in an instant. "Access to my government email was denied mid-afternoon and my position was ripped out from out under my feet after my shift was over at 3:45 p.m. on a cold snowy Friday," he wrote in his post. "Additionally, before I could fully print off my government records, I was also locked out of my electronic personal file that contained my secure professional records."

His heartfelt post continued to list off all of the things he considered himself, which included lines like:

• "I am a work evaluation that reads 'exceeds expectations'"
• "I am a college kid’s dream job"
• "I am the protector of 2500 year old American Indian burial and ceremonial mounds"
• "I am the one who told your child that they belong on this planet. That their unique gifts and existence matters"
• "I am an invocation for peace"
• "I am gone from the office"
• "I am the resistance"

Sadly, Gibbs ended his post by saying he was "tired," especially when it came to "being bullied and censored by billionaires." The billionaire in question is likely a reference to Elon Musk, who is spearheading the DOGE initiative, which is slashing and burning the contracts of many federal workers like Gibbs.

According to a post from the Associated Press on Feb. 19, 2025, an estimated 1,000 National Park Service employees have been terminated.

Most of these employees were in the middle of a mandatory one-year probationary period, which seems to be partly why they were able to be let go on such short notice and without following the traditional protocols.

According to Gibbs, there hasn't been anything traditional about his firings or the firings of the rest of his co-workers. In an interview with Today, Gibbs said he had been fired via a text message from his manager at the end of his shift.

Sadly, without people like Gibbs and the other National Park Service employees, the future of all of our national parks remains uncertain.

Unfortunately, that uncertainty doesn't seem like it will be clearing up anytime soon, as Trump and Musk continue to gut different federal agencies in the name of efficiency without considering the real-life impacts these changes will have on the people who rely on these jobs, and the parks that need protecting.