Judge blocks Trump from placing thousands of USAID workers on leave and giving them 30-day deadline

Federal judge blocks Trump administration orders affecting USAID workers, sparking legal battle over agency's future.

A federal judge ordered a temporary block on Friday (February 7, 2025) on Trump administration orders that would have placed thousands more workers of the U.S. Agency for International Development on leave, and would have given agency workers abroad just a 30-day deadline to return to the U.S.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, agreed with arguments by two government employee associations that both orders exposed U.S. aid and development workers abroad to unwarranted risk and hardship.

The judge declined to grant a temporary block on a Trump administration funding freeze that has shut down the six-decade-old agency’s aid and development work around the world, ahead of a fuller court review and arguments on the employees’ case.

“CLOSE IT DOWN,” Mr. Trump said on social media of USAID before the judge’s ruling.

The American Foreign Service Association and the American Federation of Government Employees argue that Mr. Trump lacks the authority to shut down the six-decade-old aid agency without approval from Congress. Democratic lawmakers have made the same argument.

Trump's administration moved quickly on Friday to literally erase the agency's name. Workers on a crane scrubbed the name from the stone front of its Washington headquarters. They used duct tape to block it out on a sign and took down USAID flags. Someone placed a bouquet of flowers outside the door.

The Trump administration and Nr. Musk, who is running a budget-cutting Department of Government Efficiency, have made USAID their biggest target so far in an unprecedented challenge of the federal government and many of its programs.