A federal judge ruled Thursday the Trump administration’s mass firing of probationary government workers was probably illegal, according to multiple outlets, ordering the Office of Personnel Management to rescind directives that triggered the layoffs after the Trump administration recently indicated the largest round of layoffs to several federal agencies yet is forthcoming.
The Trump administration has laid off thousands amid cost-cutting efforts.
USAID: Thousands of employees were reportedly given 15-minute windows Thursday and Friday to clear their office spaces as the Trump administration has sought to virtually shut down the agency, firing or placing on leave 5,600 workers and freezing foreign assistance from USAID—a directive the Supreme Court has allowed to temporarily continue while it assesses the issue.
Internal Revenue Service: More than 110 IRS offices that handle taxpayer assistance will be closed, according to a plan from the U.S. General Services Administration obtained by The Washington Post, as the Trump administration began layoffs of about 7,000 workers in mid-February, at the peak of tax season, multiple outlets reported.
Social Security Administration: The administration has been instructed to cut its workforce in half, according to The Washington Post, citing unnamed sources who work at the agency.
Labor Department: The agency plans to reduce staff in an office that handles equal employment opportunity laws by 90%, The Washington Post reported.
Environmental Protection Agency: Trump told reporters during his first Cabinet meeting that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin has expressed a desire to cut 65% of the EPA’s 18,000-some employees, as the Trump administration seeks to roll back Biden-era environmental protections—but the White House later said the comments were instead referring to a 65% cut in spending.
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: A spokesperson confirmed the agency—which has open safety investigations into Musk’s Tesla company—laid off 4% of its staff in a statement that said the agency grew by 30% during President Joe Biden’s administration, noting it “retained positions critical to the mission of saving lives, preventing injuries, and reducing economic costs due to road traffic crashes.”
Federal Emergency Management Agency: The Trump administration has directed senior officials in the FEMA resilience office, which helps communities prepare for potential disasters and mitigate risk, to identify employees who work or worked on “climate, environmental justice, equity and DEIA” initiatives for potential firings, CNN reported, citing an email sent to the resilience office officials that said the directive could “impact the majority” of staff, as Trump has suggested previously he wants to eliminate FEMA entirely and DOGE is conducting a review of FEMA operations.
TSA: More than 240 employees were fired in February “due to performance and conduct issues during their probationary period,” TSA spokesperson Robert Langston told Bloomberg, which noted it’s commonplace for TSA employees to be terminated during the time frame immediately after they’re hired when it’s easier to fire them.
Office of Community Planning and Development: The Trump administration is aiming to cut the office, an arm of the department of Housing and Urban Development, from 936 staffers to 150, or 84%, the New York Times reported, citing a document it obtained detailing the plans.
Department of Defense: The Pentagon said it began laying off approximately 5,400 probationary workers, or 5% to 8% of its civilian staff, in late February and has implemented a hiring freeze to comply with DOGE’s workforce reduction plan.
Health agencies: Some 5,200 probationary employees across the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are being targeted for layoffs, according to multiple outlets, with Bloomberg reporting that employees at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Food and Drug Administration were also laid off.
Department of Energy: As many as 2,000 probationary employees at the agency have been fired, according to Politico, citing anonymous sources—though Bloomberg reports some department staff who work on nuclear security were asked back.
Department of Education: Some probationary employees at the agency—including those from the general counsel’s office, office of Special Education and Rehabilitation and Federal Student Aid office—were notified of their terminations via a letter that cited their “performance,” an unnamed union source who claimed “dozens” of employees were let go told CNN.
Department of Veterans Affairs: More than 1,000 employees were dismissed, including some probationary employees, the agency announced in mid-February, claiming the personnel changes would save the department more than $98 million annually.
U.S. Forest Service: More than 3,400 employees have been fired, two people familiar with the firings told Politico.
Small Business Administration: Some probationary employees at the agency received emails notifying them of their terminations, before another email said the initial notices were a mistake, only to be notified in a third email days later confirming their firings, Bloomberg reported.
Office of Personnel Management: Probationary employees at the office who did not take the Trump administration’s buyout offer were let go in early February, a union official with the American Federation of Government Employees told NPR.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: The union that represents workers at the financial agency said about 73 of its members had been terminated, after the agency—which has drawn ire from Trump’s tech allies—was ordered to stop all work, though union leaders and the Trump administration reached a deal in mid-February to prevent more agency employees from being terminated while litigation challenging the dismantling of the agency is pending.
National Nuclear Safety Administration: An employee at the agency—which oversees nuclear weapons in the U.S.—told NPR the agency would fire about 300 of the agency’s 1,800 staff, though the Trump administration is now reportedly trying to rehire some of those employees.
General Services Administration: More than 100 people were affected by layoffs at the agency responsible for the federal government’s real estate portfolio, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Federal Aviation Administration: About 400 FAA were terminated in mid-February—just weeks after the fatal collision over the Potomac River that killed 67 people—with the layoffs including some in safety-specific roles, the Associated Press reported, though the Department of Transportation said roles that “are critical to safety” were spared and the layoffs targeted probationary employees.
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The Trump administration ordered agency leaders in a Feb. 26 memo to submit plans for reducing their workforces by March 13, indicating the most sweeping layoffs are forthcoming.
It’s not immediately clear how many staff have been affected by widespread layoffs across the Trump administration, which are separate from voluntary buyout deals offered to more than 2 million federal workers. Trump’s administration has reportedly made a number of other high-profile terminations: At least 17 inspectors general, the chief financial officer at the Federal Emergency Management Agency plus three other FEMA workers, U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Linda Fagan, more than a dozen prosecutors who worked on cases against Trump, multiple senior FBI officials, the director of the Office of Government Ethics, and several high-ranking military officials, including Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown.
Mostly new employees who have been in the federal workforce for less than a year and are not afforded some job protections, including a right to appeal terminations. Probationary employees are the target of the Trump administration’s layoffs, according to multiple reports. More than 200,000 federal workers are probationary employees.
The Trump administration separately offered all federal civilian workers pay with benefits through September if they choose to voluntarily resign, an offer 75,000 federal workers reportedly accepted. The administration has suggested employees who don’t participate in the program could be subject to the mass terminations.
At least for many probationary employees, probably not, according to U.S. District Judge William Alsup, who ordered the Office of Personnel Management to rescind firing directives at the heart of the probationary government employee layoffs, The Wall Street Journal reported. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is facing multiple lawsuits over some of the more high-profile firings. A judge temporarily reinstated the head of the Office of Special Counsel, Hampton Dellinger, whose office protects government whistleblowers. Dellinger filed a lawsuit arguing Trump can’t fire him without evidence of neglect or misconduct. Dellinger’s office also filed a lawsuit to block Trump from firing probationary employees, arguing the mass terminations are in violation of federal protocol that only allows probationary employees to be fired for “individualized cause.” Several labor unions have also sued the Trump administration over the mass firings, and at least two judges have sided with the Trump administration, ruling the unions didn’t show necessary harm to justify the lawsuits. Eight inspectors general also argued in a lawsuit filed in mid-February their terminations violated federal rules that require the executive branch to give Congress 30 days notice before firing them, plus a justification for the terminations. The administration is also facing lawsuits from former National Labor Relations Board Chair Gwynne Wilcox, who was fired by Trump on Jan. 27, and former Merit Systems Protection Board member Cathy Harris, who was fired Feb. 10.
Federal regulations of mass layoffs, known as “reduction in force,” require the government to give 60 days advance notice of a layoff. The job must also be eliminated entirely—not an attempt to replace a worker, according to the Wall Street Journal. Employees who believe the administration broke protocol in terminating them can file complaints with the Merit Systems Protection Board. There are also protections in place for independent boards and commissions, such as the NLRB. Presidents can only fire members of the board for “malfeasance” or “neglect of duty,” according to the Wall Street Journal.
Trump is aiming for budget cuts between 30% and 40%, on average, across all government agencies, with staffing reductions serving as a major area for spending rollbacks, the Washington Post reported, citing two anonymous sources. Many of the spending cuts are led by billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency.
Trump signed an executive order to reinstate a policy from his first term that reclassified tens of thousands of federal civilian employees to at-will employees, making it easier for him to fire them by ridding them of their job protections. Several unions, including the American Federation of Government Employees, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union have filed lawsuits to block Schedule F from taking effect. Schedule F is unrelated to the mass layoffs of probationary employees, but is widely viewed as another tool Trump can use to exert outsized power over the makeup of the federal workforce.
Some Republicans have begun to speak out about the widespread job cuts, with Musk’s email to federal employees asking them to detail five accomplishments sparking a new round of criticism and . Multiple Republicans called for Musk to exercise more “compassion” in his effort to reduce the federal workforce. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, gave some of the sharpest criticism of her Republican colleagues, calling the email “absurd” and likening the directive to “intimidation,” while others have expressed concerns that Congress doesn’t have enough information about DOGE’s activities.
Correction: This article has been updated to reflect the Labor Department's reported layoff plans.
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