President Donald Trump’s mass firings of permanent federal employees have already begun and are expected to accelerate over the next few weeks with tens of thousands more employees terminated. But the layoffs didn’t come out of nowhere.
This week, federal agencies face a deadline to provide Trump administration officials with plans for a reduction in force, a dramatic downsizing of the nation’s more than 2 million federal workers that will occur over the next few months. Along with layoffs, some agencies are expected to indefinitely extend their hiring freezes, eliminate currently vacant positions and consolidate offices as ways to reduce headcount.
Guided by billionaire Elon Musk and his Department Of Government Efficiency aides, Trump has spent his first eight weeks in office focused on dismantling the federal government, including shutting down and laying off the staff of the United States Agency for International Development and taking steps to do the same to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Trump has also begun dismantling the Department of Education with cuts to about half of its workforce.
After a buyout offer was accepted by fewer federal employees than expected, tens of thousands of probationary federal workers were laid off. Probationary workers include employees in their first year or two on the job, people who have recently moved between federal agencies and people who were recently promoted.
The firings have affected all 50 states and include employees at agencies that Americans frequently interact with, including the National Park Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, Internal Revenue Service, National Institutes of Health and many others.
The White House has not responded to repeated requests from USA TODAY for a precise number of fired employees. Here’s a timeline of how Trump’s workforce firings have taken shape, starting with Inauguration Day.
Among his first actions as president, Trump signed an executive order that revives a policy from the final days of his first administration known as Schedule F. The directive creates a new employment classification for tens of thousands of nonpartisan career civil servants, effectively stripping them of job protections by reclassifying them as at-will positions, meaning they can be dismissed for nearly any reason.
A separate executive order froze hiring of federal civilian employees in the executive branch. It stated that any federal civilian position vacant when Trump took office may not be filled, and no new position may be created – with rare exceptions.
Trump’s administration offered buyouts to nearly all 2.3 million federal employees. The offer came in a surprise email that hit inboxes at 6:04 p.m. on Jan. 28 with the subject line: “The Fork in the Road.”
In the email, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management offered all federal employees eight months of pay and benefits through September if they resigned by Feb. 6. Unions warned workers considering Trump’s offer that there is no guarantee the president can or will stick to it because Congress hasn’t approved funding for federal agencies beyond March 14.
Unions representing federal employees sued the Trump administration to block the schedule F executive order, alleging that it aimed to politicize the federal government by stripping federal workers of job protections.
About 10,000 employees of the United States Agency for International Development ‒ two-thirds of whom work overseas across 60 countries ‒ were notified that they will be placed on administrative leave at the end of the week as part of Trump’s move to dismantle the foreign aid agency.
The Trump administration warned federal employees that they could be furloughed if they did not accept the buyout offer, according to an email obtained by USA TODAY.
The email warned employees that many will be stripped of civil-service protections and suggested there may be loyalty tests for those who remain.
U.S. District Judge George O’Toole issued a temporary restraining order pausing the Trump administration’s deadline to accept the buyout in order to allow time for labor unions to challenge the plan’s legality. The American Federation of Government Employees and two other unions filed the lawsuit arguing that the administration lacks any statutory basis for the “unprecedented offer.”
The Trump administration’s lawyers had argued that extending the deadline on the very last day would “markedly disrupt the expectations of the federal workforce, inject tremendous uncertainty into a program that scores of federal employees have already availed themselves of, and hinder the administration’s efforts to reform the federal workforce.”
Also on Feb. 6, the administration ordered all federal department and agency heads to produce lists of their lowest-performing employees.
The order from OPM Acting Director Charles Ezell also asked departments and agencies to identify potential barriers to ensuring “the ability to swiftly terminate poor performing employees who cannot or will not improve.”
An aide to Trump fired Hampton Dellinger, who leads the Office of the Special Counsel, on the night of Feb. 7 in a one-sentence email. Dellinger sued, arguing that 1978 federal law creating his position states he can only be removed from his job because of inefficiency, neglect of duty, or malfeasance.
Probationary employees largely rely on the special counsel to back them when challenging a dismissal through the proper government channels, rather than suing.
Within a matter of minutes, Trump fired the leaders of two other boards that federal workers can turn to as an avenue to contest their firing. Union challenges to the firings have been rejected because they have not first gone through these boards.
Trump fired Merit Systems Protection Board chair Cathy Harris, just before 11 p.m., leaving the board with two members – Raymond Limon, a Democrat whose term expired on March 1, and Henry Kerner, a Republican. A court temporarily reinstated Harris, whose term doesn’t expire until 2028, after she sued. The Merit Systems Protection Board is tasked with protecting federal workers against partisan politics and illegal employment practices. It cannot operate without a quorum.
Trump also fired the Federal Labor Relations Authority board chair, Susan Grundmann, three and a half minutes before he fired Cathy Harris. The authority handles certain complaints with federal workers’ labor unions.
Grundmann sued to be reinstated, but for the time being, Trump named Colleen Kiko, a Republican member, as chair, presiding over only one other member, Democrat Anne Wagner.
Also on Feb. 10, a court temporarily reinstated Dellinger, who promptly asked the Merit Systems Protection Board to pause the terminations of six probationary employees at six agencies, and reinstate them while he investigated their cases.
Trump signed an executive order Feb. 11 that seeks to significantly reduce the size of the government by instructing heads of federal departments and agencies to undertake plans for “large-scale reductions in force.”
A White House summary of the order said agency heads were ordered to “coordinate and consult with DOGE to shrink the size of the federal workforce and limit hiring to essential positions.”
Under the order, federal agencies aren’t allowed to hire more than one employee for every four employees who depart. It also instructed the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to create new rules to ensure future federal hires are subject to additional conduct standards, such as U.S. citizenship and filing federal tax returns on time.
O’Toole, the Boston-based federal judge, restored Trump’s buyout project, deciding federal employees unions that sued to stop the program lacked standing to bring their challenge and that his court does not have jurisdiction to hear their complaint.
In total, about 75,000 federal employees accepted President Donald Trump’s buyout offer. That equaled about 3.3% of the federal government’s 2.3 million workers, coming in below the White House’s projections that 5% to 10% of the workforce would accept. Congress has not yet approved spending for the next year or said spending for buyouts would be included.
Thousands of recently-hired federal workers received notice that they had been fired.
Probationary workers are easier to fire because they lack the bargaining rights that career employees have to appeal their terminations. Firings were government-wide: from the Department of Education and Small Business Administration to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Forest Service, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the agency that oversees the nation’s fleet of nuclear weapons.
The firings have continued in the weeks since, including more than 880 probationary employees of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – which forecasts the nation’s weather and protects ocean species – on Thursday.
A coalition of federal employee unions sued the administration, alleging that officials misused the probationary period to eliminate staff and that the Office of Personnel Management directed federal agencies to use a standardized termination notice falsely claiming performance issues in firing tens of thousands of employees.
“OPM, the federal agency charged with implementing this nation’s employment laws, in one fell swoop has perpetrated one of the most massive employment frauds in the history of this country, telling tens of thousands of workers that they are being fired for performance reasons, when they most certainly were not,” the unions argued in court documents.
Musk took to his social media site, X, to instruct federal workers to report their work accomplishments via email or resign.
“Consistent with President @realDonaldTrump’s instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week,” said the post. “Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.”
The email that employees received did not mention termination or disciplinary action for employees failing to respond promptly, but sent shockwaves as employees got conflicting instructions from agencies about whether or not to respond.
“What did you do last week?” the emails read. “Please reply to this email with approx. 5 bullets of what you accomplished last week and cc your manager.”
Dellinger, who leads the Office of the Special Counsel, said firing probationary employees was illegal because it used boilerplate language blaming their performance rather than specific concerns and asked the Merit Systems Protection Board to decide whether to reinstate six employees while he investigates further.
Federal law generally requires 60 days’ notice for a reduction in force (what the federal government calls layoffs) and prohibits probationary employees from being fired for reasons unrelated to performance or conduct.
The Merit Systems Protection Board ordered six fired federal employees to be rehired at least through April 10, while Dellinger’s office investigates.
“I find that there are reasonable grounds to believe that each of the six agencies engaged in a prohibited personnel practice,” stated the order. The Office of Special Counsel has said it is considering ways to seek relief for a broader group of federal employees similarly fired in recent weeks.
The Trump administration ordered heads of federal departments and agencies to prepare plans to initiate “large-scale reductions in force” by March 13.
A memo sent by the offices of Personnel Management and Management and Budget also instructed federal departments to eliminate and consolidate duplicative positions, reduce their property footprints and produce reorganization plans for their agencies.
Federal employees with full civil service protections are expected to be targeted. U.S. Postal Service workers, positions deemed necessary for law enforcement, national security and border and immigration obligations, as well as military personnel in the armed forces are exempted.
The memo also instructs federal departments to submit new organizational charts by April 14 as well as any proposed relocations of agency offices or headquarters from Washington to “less-costly parts of the country.”
Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern California District temporarily blocked the Trump administration from its mass firing of probationary federal employees.
Alsup said the mass firings were likely unlawful and ordered the Office of Personnel Management to halt the action, saying the agency acted out of bounds by telling other agencies – including the Education Department, the Small Business Administration and the Energy Department – to fire employees.
“OPM does not have any authority whatsoever, under any statute in the history of the universe, to hire or fire any employees, but its own,” Alsup said. The judge did not order the rehiring of anyone who had been terminated.
The administration sent a second round of emails to federal workers instructing them to list what they’ve accomplished that week. The new directive came from agency leaders instead of DOGE.
In response to Alsup’s ruling, the Trump administration informed federal departments that any firings of their probationary workers are up to the agencies themselves.
The revised guidance from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management states that “OPM is not directing agencies to take any specific performance-based actions regarding probationary employees,” adding that “agencies have ultimate decision making authority over, and responsibility for, such personnel actions.”
That same day, the Merit Systems Protection Board ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to reinstate a fired worker, as well as “numerous” other probationary employees who were fired Feb. 13 and later.
The ruling at the request of the Office of Special Counsel who argued the firings violated federal laws related to probationary employees and reductions in force because they used a form letter that the Department of Agriculture also sent to nearly 6,000 other probationary employees.
A federal appeals court ruled that Trump did have authority to fire Dellinger, the Office of the Special Counsel leader who said firing probationary employees was illegal because agencies used boilerplate language. Dellinger said he would not appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Trump administration has said it will replace Dellinger with Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins. His agency is laying off workers whose main avenue to contest their firing is to turn to the Office of the Special Counsel for help.
U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan reversed Trump’s Feb. 10 removal of Grundmann, a Democratic member from the Federal Labor Relations Authority, by issuing a permanent injunction requiring the rest of the board to treat Grundmann as if she had not been removed.
The authority hears disputes between federal agencies and their employees’ union and could play a significant role in expected legal fights over the mass layoffs.
Heads of federal departments and agencies have until Thursday to prepare and present plans to initiate “large-scale reductions in force” as Trump shifts to a more aggressive phase of cutting the federal workforce beyond recently hired or promoted employees.
Among the planned reductions, reported by USA TODAY, are terminations of 76,000 workers from the Department of Veterans Affairs, 1,300 workers from the Department of Education, and more than 1,000 workers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Trump has also openly discussed cuts of 65% to the Environmental Protection Agency’s workforce.
Layoffs are not immediate. Agencies must give employees 30 or 60 days notice.
USA TODAY reporters Joey Garrison, Bart Jansen, Maureen Groppe, Kayla Jimenez, Erin Mansfield and Tom Vanden Brook contributed.
