Thousands of federal jobs on the chopping block as Trump and Musk rethink government

President Donald Trump’s administration targeted bank regulators, rocket scientists, and tax enforcers for dismissal on Tuesday, after a federal court gave him the go-ahead to continue the extraordinary reshaping of the US civil service - at least for the time being.

With Trump’s support and acclaim, tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or Doge, has stormed through federal departments, eliminating thousands of positions since Trump took office last month and appointed Musk, his largest campaign donor, to lead a massive makeover of government.

On Tuesday, Trump asserted without proof that the endeavour will save “hundreds of billions of dollars” and praised Musk as a hero. Musk’s team claims to have saved $55 billion so far, which is less than 1% of the yearly $6.7 trillion government budget.

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Republicans have praised the effort for reducing a federal workforce that they see as bloated, corrupt, and insufficiently loyal to Trump, as well as targeting government agencies that oversee big business and collect tax revenue.

Democratic critics have expressed worry that Trump is exceeding his constitutional power and undermining popular and important government services at the expense of millions of middle-class households. They claim Musk has acted as an unregulated freelance operator, gaining access to sensitive government data.

On Tuesday the downsizing extended to NASA, where 1,000 new hires including rocket scientists were expected to be laid off, according to two people familiar with the U.S. space agency’s plans. More cuts were deemed possible.

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“People are scared and not speaking up to voice dissent or disagreement,” said one employee at the 18,000-person agency who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The White House has not said how many people it plans to fire and has given no numbers on the mass layoffs so far. The information to date has come from employees of federal agencies.

The Office of Personnel Management, the government agency that manages the civil service, set a deadline of 8 p.m. Tuesday (0100 GMT Wednesday) for all government departments to provide a list of probationary employees who have been terminated so far and those they want to retain, according to an OPM spokesperson.

It remained unclear whether the numbers would be disclosed.

Court battles

Around 20 lawsuits have been filed in various federal courts challenging Musk’s authority, leading to mixed results.

In one of the more consequential cases, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Tuesday denied a request by state attorneys general from across the country to place a temporary hold on Doge. She instead allowed the campaign to continue while underlying litigation plays out.

But Chutkan raised flags about Musk’s authority as an independent operator while ruling that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate they would suffer irreparable harm, the standard for issuing a temporary restraining order.

“Plaintiffs legitimately call into question what appears to be the unchecked authority of an unelected individual and an entity that was not created by Congress and over which it has no oversight,” Chutkan said in her ruling, referring to Musk.

Congressional Democrats said oversight committee requests for information have gone unanswered, calls to agency officials are not being returned, and granular details for new administrative policies - essential for constituent casework - difficult to come by.

“This is not normal, at all,” one Senate committee aide said about the unresponsiveness.

Meanwhile, Trump asserted even more executive authority on Tuesday, issuing an order to rein in independent agencies within the government and claiming presidential supervision and control of the entire executive branch except for the Federal Reserve.

The job-cutting continued apace.

Senior officials at the IRS identified at least 7,500 employees for dismissal, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which oversees banks, said it has fired an unknown number of new hires, according to an email seen by Reuters.

Layoffs were also expected at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which handles flood insurance and disaster response, as well as its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, sources said.

The Trump administration plans to fire hundreds of senior DHS employees this week, according to an administration official and a second source familiar with the matter. The planned firings would target people viewed as not aligned with Trump, the sources said.

Among the workers swept up in the overhaul of dozens of agencies are those reviewing Musk’s brain implant company Neuralink.

Musk’s role has raised questions about the fate of at least 20 federal investigations and regulatory actions affecting his business empire, Reuters reported last month.

Trump said on Tuesday he will not let Musk take part in any space-related government decisions, while also addressing the attorneys general court filing claiming that Musk was not a government employee and thus lacked decision-making authority,

“Elon is, to me, a patriot,” Trump said. “So you know, you could call him an employee, you could call him a consultant. You could call him whatever you want, but he’s a patriot.”