McKay, who leads a county of 1.1 million people, the most populous locality in Virginia, told Youngkin in a letter on Tuesday that the regional and state economy would be devastated if Trump follows through with his threat to force federal agencies to move outside the National Capital Region , which includes Northern Virginia, suburban Maryland and the District of Columbia.

After outlining the threat and the county's efforts to prepare for it, the board chairman challenged the governor to change his public message on Trump's sweeping efforts to slash the federal workforce and move federal agencies.

At Capital One in McLean on Feb. 24, Gov. Glenn Youngkin offers a helping hand to displaced federal workers while standing behind President Donald Trump's effort to eliminate their jobs. He was joined by (from left) Secretary of Health and Human Resources Janet Kelly, Secretary of Commerce and Trade Caren Merrick and Secretary of Labor Bryan Slater.

"We urge you to call on ... President Trump to halt these reckless relocations and to stand with Virginia's workforce in protecting the economic stability of our region," McKay said in the two-page letter. "You must tell the president that he is wrong, as past governors have done when Virginia's economy is threatened."

"We also request that you brief our board on your efforts, to date and planned, to support Virginians as they face unprecedented assault," he said.

Youngkin, who owns a home in the Great Falls area of Fairfax, responded, through his chief of staff, with a two-page letter to McKay on Thursday that touted Youngkin's own record of job creation. Youngkin Chief of Staff John Littel suggested that the Fairfax chairman focus on the county's own budget challenges instead of national politics.

"While other counties in Virginia are growing and attracting new residents and tax revenue, Fairfax County is losing both," Littel told McKay. "Focusing on your $292.7 million budget shortfall without raising taxes on your constituents should take priority over partisan theatrics."

He added: "You should reverse the mandatory union labor agreements that will cost your taxpayers millions. You should improve your commercial real estate crisis and support local business by demanding that employees return to the office."

Littel did not address Trump's cuts to the federal workforce or push to move federal agencies out of the region, but suggested that the new administration "represents a real opportunity" to reverse a decision made by President Joe Biden's administration to award a new FBI headquarters to Maryland instead of the Springfield area of Fairfax.

With Republicans hostile to the FBI under Biden, the governor played a less prominent role in the push to win the project for Virginia than Democrats in the state's congressional delegation.

The Republican governor has publicly supported Trump's efforts to cut the federal workforce and spending as part of the government efficiency initiative Elon Musk is leading.

Youngkin has expressed sympathy for affected workers and launched an online initiative to match them with private sector jobs in Virginia. On Wednesday, the governor's administration sponsored an online job fair with an estimated 300 private employers as part of the "Virginia Has Jobs" initiative.

But McKay told Youngkin, "your statements — telling people they are getting what America voted for, that downsizing isn't wrong, calling the process painful but necessary — are doing harm to our shared constituents."

Last week, federal budget director Russell Vought ordered federal agencies to produce reorganization plans by March 13 that carry out Trump's executive order to prepare for "large-scale reductions in force," or layoffs, by consolidating their operations and eliminating bureaus and offices that are not essential to serving the public.

In February 2023, Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., at microphone, draws a laugh from Virginia colleagues arrayed to back Springfield as the site of the FBI's new headquarters. In the foreground are Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., from left, Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Jeff McKay, chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.

Vought faced fierce opposition to his Senate confirmation by Virginia's Democratic senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, partly because of his past statement that he wants federal workers to be "traumatically affected" by the new administration's sweeping plans to cut the government. The Project 2025 blueprint that he helped write for the new administration to follow outlined those plans in detail.

In the second phase of the reorganization plan, due April 14, agencies must include "proposed relocations of agency bureaus and offices from Washington, D.C., and the National Capital Region to less-costly parts of the country."

During the presidential campaign last year, Trump vowed to cut the federal workforce and move up to 100,000 government employees out of the region.

McKay estimated that more than 175,000 federal employees and contractors live in Northern Virginia.

"Relocating federal agencies from our region would impact not only the employees working at those agencies, but the private sector contractors who are the backbone of our economy," he said.

Virginia received $108 billion in federal contracts last year — second only to California — and Fairfax alone received $41 billion in federal funding, McKay said.

"These investments fuel our local economies, sustain small businesses, and provide critical employment opportunities across the Commonwealth," he added. "If agencies relocated from the region, many contractors will likely do the same."

McKay also contended that forcing agencies to move "would not only disrupt the lives of thousands of Virginia residents but also weaken the agencies themselves by stripping them of the institutional knowledge and expertise concentrated in this region."

"History has shown that previous agency relocations have resulted in workforce attrition and operational challenges that ultimately cost taxpayers more in the long run," he said.