Deep Reads: His wife was dying, his federal job crumbling. It tested his faith — in God and Trump.

Post Reports

The Washington Post

Daily News, Politics, News

4.4 • 5.1K Ratings

🗓️ 13 December 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the spring, Edward Brandon Becham was caring for his dying wife. He was also among hundreds of thousands of federal workers weighing whether to abandon public service. Donald Trump had taken office vowing to slash the federal bureaucracy, then entrusted the task to billionaire Elon Musk and a newly created cost-cutting team called the Department of Government Efficiency. In a matter of months, Musk and his U.S. DOGE Service wiped out hundreds of thousands of jobs, billions of dollars in spending and the job security that once distinguished government work.

Of America’s 2.4 million federal workers, nearly 4 in 10 registered to vote had, like Becham, cast ballots for Trump, according to a Washington Post-Ipsos poll. But as the days passed, Becham was becoming convinced that the Trump administration’s treatment of government employees — large-scale firings, emails he saw as harassing and strict return-to-office mandates — was wrongheaded and cruel. If he was unable to resign, Brandon would be required to report to a federal building in Las Vegas more than 70 miles away. Round-trip, it would cost him three hours a day with his three children, for whom he would soon be the only parent and sole provider.

Becham felt as though he was witnessing two painful deaths: his wife’s, of course, but also that of his career. In his darkest moments, Brandon turned to his Bible — and next to it, his leather-bound diary.

This story follows Becham and his family for a week as he navigated his feelings about his wife, family, his career and Trump.

Hannah Natanson reported and narrated the piece. Bishop Sand composed music and produced audio.

Subscribe to The Washington Post here.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, I'm Hannah Natinson. This is Post Reports weekend. This story is part of a Washington Post
0:06.2	series called Deep Reeds. It's part of our commitment to narrative journalism. I'm a reporter on the
0:11.8	politics and government team. And what you're going to hear in a moment is a story about one
0:16.8	federal worker, a Trump voter, who tried to take the Trump administration's resignation
0:21.1	offer four times as his wife was dying.
0:24.6	I'll be narrating it.
0:26.2	And instead of me just reading the quotes every time, you'll also hear some audio I gather
0:29.9	during my reporting in Perump, Nevada.
0:32.5	And you'll hear the subject of the story read aloud from his diary.
0:37.1	This story is really about a test of one man's
0:39.8	faith, in God and in Trump. Okay, here's the story. Edward Brandon Beckham looked at his dying wife, opened his computer to resign from the government,
0:59.1	and found he'd missed a deadline he never knew existed. Since December, Brandon, who goes by his middle name,
1:06.4	had been on leave to care for McKell, his wife of 21 years, who was sick with colon cancer.
1:12.6	Under the terms of his leave from the Federal Bureau of Land Management, he wasn't expected to check his work email.
1:18.6	So Brandon, 45, never saw the offer from the Trump administration saying federal workers like him could resign and get paid through September. But he heard
1:29.1	about the resignation program on the news. In mid-April, he decided to take it. Now, staring at his
1:36.7	computer, Brandon read that he was too late. The offer had closed three days before. Brandon looked at McKell across the living room in her hospital bed.
1:48.0	She was asleep.
1:49.8	Surely, he told himself, the new government run by President Donald Trump,
1:54.2	the man Brandon voted for, wouldn't penalize him for missing a message.
1:59.1	He composed an email to his bosses just after 5 p.m.
2:03.5	Quote, as my wife is continuing in hospice and I am her continuing caretaker, at this time,
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 27 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Washington Post, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Washington Post and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.