Judge blocks Trump, Musk's shutdown of USAID

• A federal judge blocked Trump's attempt to dismantle the US Agency for International Development.
• The Friday ruling followed a lawsuit by government employee unions against USAID cuts.
• USAID spent $32.5 billion in 2024 on global humanitarian aid.

A federal judge has partially blocked the Trump administration's attempt to dismantle the US Agency for International Development.

Judge Carl Nichols said in a Friday order he would temporarily block the Trump administration from placing 2,200 USAID employees on paid leave until midnight on February 14.

"Many USAID personnel work in 'high-risk environments where access to security resources is critical.' No future lawsuit could undo the physical harm that might result if USAID employees are not informed of imminent security threats occurring in the countries to which they have relocated in the course of their service to the United States," Nichols wrote in his order, preventing the layoffs from taking place.

"The government argued at the TRO hearing that placing employees on paid administrative leave is a garden-variety personnel action unworthy of court intervention. But administrative leave in Syria is not the same as administrative leave in Bethesda: simply being paid cannot change that fact," the judge's order added.

The judge's order partially grants a temporary restraining order requested by two labor groups representing federal workers in a lawsuit against the Trump administration filed Thursday. In their initial request, the labor groups asked the judge to block the Trump administration from placing any additional USAID workers on leave or from firing any additional workers, court records showed.

They also asked the administration be blocked from "taking further actions to shut down USAID's operations in a manner not authorized by Congress until further order of this Court." Nichols' order on Friday did not grant the labor groups' request to block a funding freeze implemented by the Trump administration, allowing the freeze to go into effect.

Prior to the judge's order, many USAID workers were set to be placed on leave Friday just before midnight.

The judge's ruling comes one day after the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Foreign Service Association filed a lawsuit against the administration's cuts to USAID.

"These actions have generated a global humanitarian crisis by abruptly halting the crucial work of USAID employees, grantees, and contractors. They have cost thousands of American jobs. And they have imperiled US national security interests," their lawyers wrote.

The lawsuit, filed on Thursday, named President Donald Trump, State Secretary Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the State Department, the Treasury Department, and USAID as defendants.

"Not a single one of defendants' actions to dismantle USAID were taken pursuant to congressional authorization. And pursuant to federal statute, Congress is the only entity that may lawfully dismantle the agency," the lawsuit argued.

The humanitarian aid agency has been under fire since Trump took office. Elon Musk said in an X post on Monday that he "spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper."

On Tuesday, USAID said nearly all staff would be placed on administrative leave starting on February 7 at midnight. The announcement came just a day after the agency shut down its headquarters on Monday and told staff to work remotely.

"With regards to the USAID stuff, I went over it in detail, and he agreed that we should shut it down," Musk said of a conversation he had with President Donald Trump during an X Spaces conversation on Monday.

Established in 1961 by then-President John F. Kennedy, USAID oversees the US's aid programs worldwide.

The agency spent nearly $32.5 billion in fiscal year 2024, channeling aid to countries like Ukraine, Jordan, and Ethiopia. The US is the world's largest provider of humanitarian aid.

The turmoil surrounding USAID occurs amid a wider upending of the federal bureaucracy during Trump's second term, with the federal judiciary increasingly stepping in.

Last month, the Trump administration gave federal employees from January 28 to February 6 to accept a buyout offer and resign from their jobs, but a judge extended the deadline to Monday.

The Trump administration's freeze on federal grants and loans was announced on January 28 and rolled by within days, with a federal judge issuing a restraining order on January 31.

A federal judge also issued an injunction against Trump's executive orders on ending birthright citizenship, calling them "flatly unconstitutional."

A spokesperson for the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees the federal workforce, said on Thursday that over 40,000 employees have accepted the offer. The federal government employs more than 2 million people.