Employees at the U.S. Agency for International Development were clearing out desks at the agency’s headquarters on Thursday, as President Trump’s efforts to curtail foreign assistance spending took hold.

Supporters gathered outside the Ronald Reagan building to cheer the tearful employees as heroes.

“I felt like we made a difference,” Juliane Alfen said as she carried out a small bag. “To see everything disappearing before our eyes in a matter of weeks is very scary to me, and depressing.”

USAID scheduled the departures, giving employees a time slot for Thursday or Friday when they would be “escorted” to their desks — and told to hurry.

“Staff will be given approximately 15 minutes to complete this retrieval and must be finished removing items within their time slot only. Staff with a significant amount of personal belongings to retrieve must be cognizant of time; however, flexibility may be granted in select circumstances with the approval of the Office of Security,” the agency told its workers in a notice this week.

The notice included a specific warning not to bring weapons or chemicals with them.

Staff were also specifically forbidden from bringing their children to help them clear their space.

Those who couldn’t — or didn’t want to — make it were told they could have another staffer collect their things. Otherwise, everything would be warehoused “for collection at a later date and time.”

Mr. Trump has singled out USAID as a particularly egregious agency amid the federal bureaucracy, saying its spending of taxpayer money strayed far from what Congress intended — and from the president’s own priorities.

He has pushed for USAID staff abroad to be brought back home.

And Mr. Trump has pushed for a broader pause on foreign assistance spending.

The president won a brief reprieve Wednesday when Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. blocked a lower court order directing the administration to immediately release $2 billion in foreign assistance grant money to organizations.

The organizations said the money was reimbursement for work that took place before the Jan. 24 pause and they were entitled to it.

The Justice Department told the Supreme Court it intends to make good on all legitimate claims, but for a court to order an immediate disbursement violates the separation of powers and could lead to fraud.

The administration, in its filing with the Supreme Court Wednesday, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio had decided to “terminate” 5,800 USAID funding assistance awards. He was retaining more than 500 others.

And for the main State Department, he decided to shut down 4,100 grants or awards, and to retain 2,700 others.

Mr. Trump’s actions against USAID have sparked legal questions.

The agency, though initially set up by executive order, has since been established in law by Congress. Abolishing it, therefore, would need an act of Congress, legal experts suggest.

But that leaves open the question of how much room Mr. Trump has to curtail it.

USAID employees leaving the Reagan Building expressed their confidence that they had made a difference with their work and the agency’s $40 billion budget.

Supporters held signs that read “USAID American Heroes” and “Thanks USAID Public Servants.”

Well-wishers also offered the fired staffers hugs and flowers.

USAID delivers food, economic and cultural assistance to foreign nations.

Some specific spending items, though, have sparked controversy, such as the roughly $10 million in meal kits a USAID contractor is alleged to have siphoned off to go to terrorists in Syria, economic assistance to pet manufacturers in Ukraine or a drag show in Ecuador.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.