Trump’s USAID Staff Plan has been suspended by a federal judge

A federal judge on Friday said he would temporarily suspend the Trump administration’s plan to deploy thousands of workers at the international development agency on administrative leave.

Approximately 2,200 USAID employees were scheduled to take leave as part of the president at 11:59pm on Friday night. Donald TrumpEfforts to close independent government agencies.

A U.S. Department of Justice lawyer told the court that 500 USAID workers were already on administrative leave.

Trump’s appointee, Judge Carl Nichols, filed the ruling after hearing discussions from two groups representing federal workers in the Trump administration and the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

The Workers Group, the U.S. Foreign Office Association and the Federation of American Government Employees, have asked Nichols to order the Trump administration to “stop action to shut down the USAID operations.”

They argued that USAID “suffered by an onslaught of unconstitutional and illegal attacks, and that workers, contractors, grantees and beneficiaries have been abandoned in a disappointment and global humanitarian crisis.”

The Trump administration “deliberately dismantled the USAID infrastructure,” they wrote.

Nichols said he would enter a “very limited” temporary restraining order by midnight, directed at 2,200 at-risk USAID workers on Friday afternoon.

The judge said his ruling has not yet decided whether to withdraw the Trump administration’s take-leave order for the 500 employees who have already received it.

During the hearing, Nichols asked DOJ lawyer Brett Schmate why the Trump administration needs to quickly deploy 2,200 USAID workers to the departure.

“What is the urgency of this?” the judge asked.

“The president has determined that USAID has corruption and fraud,” Schmate replied.

USAID was founded in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy after the passage of the Foreign Aid Act. It manages foreign aid and implements various other field missions around the world.

Foreign aid in recent years consists of approximately 1% of the federal budget and less than 0.33% of GDP. Brookings Facilities Report from September.

But despite this, USAID has become a major target for Trump Elon Muskdenounced the agency as an immeasurable magnet for fraud and corruption.

“There’s a level where corruption is rarely seen. Close it!” Trump wrote Truth social on Friday morning.

Musk, who makes drastic efforts to significantly reduce the size of the government in the White House, or through Doge, praises the dismantling of USAID.

“We fed USAID to Wood Chipper over the weekend,” Musk wrote on his social media platform X.