March 14: President Donald Trump's administration is expected on Friday to move ahead with a second wave of mass firings and budget cuts across the US federal government even as two federal judges ordered it to reinstate thousands of federal workers.
Before those rulings on Thursday, federal agencies faced a Thursday deadline to submit large-scale downsizing plans as part of Trump's push to radically remake the federal bureaucracy, a task he has largely left to Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.
So far, DOGE has overseen potential cuts of more than 100,000 jobs across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian workforce, the freezing of foreign aid, and the cancelling of thousands of programmes and contracts.
Federal agencies faced a Thursday deadline to submit reorganisation blueprints for what Trump last month termed "large-scale reductions in force."
Opponents of Trump's radical remaking of government have tried to slow him with lawsuits. Court rulings in California and Maryland on Thursday ordered agencies to reinstate thousands of probationary employees who had been dismissed in recent weeks, setting up a test of whether Trump may defy the judiciary.
The prospect for further job losses comes with financial markets already rattled about the economic risks posed by Trump's global trade war. Stock markets have fallen dramatically over the past two weeks, wiping out more than $5 trillion in value over concerns that Trump's policies could lead to a recession.
With the tech billionaire Musk at his side, Trump signed an executive order on February 11 directing all agencies to "promptly undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force," using a legal term commonly referred to as RIF to denote mass layoffs.
A subsequent memo from US Office of Personnel Management said plans should include "a significant reduction" of full-time staff, cuts to real estate, a smaller budget, and the elimination of functions not mandated by law. �"Reuters
