It's not vandalism either. And the goal isn't that the government not function, per se. It's that all government function must be for the benefit of the rulers. 18F was popular, effective, and not remotely beholden to the Trump administration (in fact they were most closely associated with the Obama administration). They had to go, not because we want them to do a bad job but because them doing a good job undermined the administration.

To wit, we already had a word for this: this is a purge.