In a staggering reversal, Mike Bloomberg announced on Friday that he will not launch a super PAC or other new independent political group to help defeat President Donald Trump as he promised. Instead, he transferred $18 million from his presidential campaign committee to the Democratic National Committee and announced some state offices would be moved to state Democratic parties.

The billionaire ex-New York City mayor had previously promised to spend whatever it takes to defeat Trump in November, and his top staffers regularly promised to mount a massive, unprecedentedly well-funded effort to defeat Trump even if Bloombergs presidential bid failed. Staffers were encouraged to join the campaign with a promise they would remain employed through the general election.

Either it is going to be the best primary campaign in American history, or the greatest IE that has ever been created, Bloombergs campaign manager, Kevin Sheekey, told The Washington Post in January. The Bloomberg campaign boasted its staffers would be paid through November, with the campaigns massive field operation generating enthusiasm and turning out voters for the Democratic nominee.

Fridays announcement appears to be a massive backtrack. Although $18 million is a huge sum, it is just 4% of the more than $500 million Bloomberg spent on his own unsuccessful bid for the nomination. That bid involved setting up unprecedented numbers of field offices and blanketing the airwaves with television ads attacking Trump and boosting his campaign.

Staffers who remained employed with the campaign in the swing states of Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin received word on Friday that their jobs were ending. Some of these staff will be transferred to state Democratic parties for the month of April.

A former Bloomberg 2020 staffer, whose roles included hiring manager, said the campaign told him to stress the job guarantee to potential candidates.

They were very specific about what we can and cant say and when, and the job guarantee was one of the things we were encouraged to emphasize to everyone but especially to any wavering candidates: As long as youre willing to move, you have a guaranteed job through November, he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity so as not to jeopardize future employment.

The former staffer shared a copy of an interview template sent out by the Bloomberg 2020 headquarters. Under a list of benefits, it reads: Employment through November 2020 with Team Bloomberg (not guaranteed location you are at now). The job guarantee was again listed as a benefit in the hiring paperwork, right alongside things like health care and dental insurance.

This staffers office, in a northeastern state, hired staff from as far away as Ohio, North Carolina and Texas. One staffer who came from far away lived in his car so he could put his paycheck toward paying his considerable student debt.

It is bewildering that one of the richest men in the world, whose net worth is well above $50 billion, at least before this crisis greater than many countries GDPs put together is unwilling to provide for and live up to a promise he made to the people who uprooted their lives, the former staffer said. They committed to him, and he wont commit to them at a time of global pandemic.

People were really bamboozled into taking these jobs, when they would have been far better off taking another one, he added.

Ex-Bloomberg campaign staffers are now encouraged to fill out a Google form if they are interested in a DNC campaign job. The list of names compiled from these forms will be passed on to the DNC as it makes hiring decisions in swing states ahead of the general election. These new jobs will not pay the cushy salaries Bloomberg had promised would last through the election.

There was little indication Bloomberg had immediate plans for substantial donations to other major Democratic super PACs including Priorities USA, the partys largest super PAC, or Unite The Country, which has backed former Vice President Joe Biden throughout the primaries or organizations, though the billionaire didnt cut major checks to Democratic groups until late summer during the 2018 election cycle.