Trump admin asks Supreme Court to block reinstatement of fired probationary employees
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(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court for an emergency stay of a district court judge’s order that 16,000 terminated federal probationary employees across six agencies and departments be immediately reinstated.
The request is the latest challenge to a nationwide preliminary injunction issued by a federal district court judge in response to Trump’s executive actions reshaping the government.
Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris argues in the filing that the labor unions and nonprofit groups that challenged the mass firings lack standing, saying they have “hijacked the employment relationship between the federal government and its workforce.”
She claims the judge’s order also violates separation of powers.
“This Court should not allow a single district court to erase Congress’s handiwork and seize control over reviewing federal personnel decisions — much less do so by vastly exceeding the limits on the scope of its equitable authority and ordering reinstatements en masse,” Harris wrote.
Harris said the executive Office of Special Counsel and the Merit Systems Protection Board are the proper venues for plaintiffs challenging their terminations.
The Supreme Court is already weighing the administration’s request for emergency relief in three cases over Trump’s executive order ending Birthright Citizenship.
Disputes over the Alien Enemies Act and over the dissolution of U.S. Agency for International Development and freezing of aid payouts are also likely bound for the high court in the coming weeks and months.
(WASHINGTON) — As President Donald Trump’s administration guts the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), former federal workers are being told to say goodbye to their desks — and to do so quickly.
USAID leadership sent an email to agency staffers on Tuesday instructing them that they will have 15 minutes to enter their former offices at the Ronald Reagan Building in downtown Washington, D.C., to retrieve their personal belongings.
“This Thursday and Friday ONLY–on February 27 and 28, 2025 –USAID staff will have one opportunity to retrieve their personal belongings,” the message reads, which was also posted to USAID’s government website.
“Staff will be given approximately 15 minutes to complete this retrieval and must be finished removing items within their time slot only,” the message continues.
The email includes a timetable giving staff a window in which they can collect their belongings based on their bureau or independent office.
For some, the timeframe is as long as an hour and a half; for others, it’s just half an hour.
The email also contains a lengthy list of prohibited items that USAID staff are not allowed to bring onto the premises, including BB guns, drills, knives, sabers, swords, nunchucks, ski poles, chlorine and liquid bleach.
According to the message, the items referenced “are, and have always been, prohibited from entering the Ronald Reagan Building facility through a security screening post,” which is typically only used by uncredentialled visitors who are subject to additional rules and regulations.
Several USAID officials told ABC News that including this list illustrates how agency employees who dedicated their professional lives to foreign assistance are now being treated like violent criminals.
“It sounds like they think we’re going to try to stage a Jan. 6-style ‘peaceful protest’,” an official said.
The latest directive from USAID leadership comes as 1,600 workers in the humanitarian aid bureau received termination notices over the weekend and thousands more abroad were put on administrative leave.
Prior to Trump’s second administration, more than 10,000 people worked at USAID.
Former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon said in an exclusive interview on ABC News’ “This Week” Sunday that tech billionaires’ planned attendance at Monday’s inauguration is a sign of their “official surrender” to President-elect Donald Trump.
“As soon as [Mark] Zuckerberg said, ‘I’ve been invited. I’m going,’ the floodgates opened up and they were all there knocking, trying to be supplicants. So I look at this and I think most people in our movement look at this as President Trump broke the oligarchs, he broke them and they surrendered,” Bannon told “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl.
Meta’s Zuckerberg and Amazon boss Jeff Bezos are among the tech executives set to appear at the inauguration, alongside close Trump ally Elon Musk, the world’s richest man. Meta and Amazon are just two of the tech giants who have given money to President-Elect Trump’s inaugural fund.
In the wake of Trump’s victory in November a handful of tech’s most powerful executives have made trips to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Florida for meetings with the president-elect. But despite the show of support, Bannon remains skeptical of their allegiance to Trump and the MAGA movement, specifically citing Zuckerberg’s recent alignment with the right.
“Zuckerberg’s, you know, road to Damascus came a little late. It was after the Fifth of November,” Bannon told Karl. “It’s very, you know, now wants to be a bro. He Kung Fu fights. He’s going to UFC. He’s got his hair done differently. He’s, he’s cut. That doesn’t hack it with me. That guy will flip on President Trump and he’ll flip on us in the second. When it’s convenient for him. He will flip.”
Meta declined to comment on Bannon’s remarks.
Bannon, a stalwart of the MAGA movement and major influence in Trump’s sphere during the early days of his first administration, has been one of the strongest supporters of the 45th president throughout his political career.
He frequently echoed Trump’s false claims of election fraud in the 2020 presidential election and served four months in prison after defying a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
During his interview with Karl, Bannon insisted that Trump’s message during Monday’s inaugural address will be less dark than the first time around.
“I think he’s going to try to unify the country around a course of action that we have to take, I think he’ll lay out the challenges, and he’ll lay out the beginning in some sort of 65-, 60,000-foot level — what his policies and proposals are. But I think it’ll all be about unifying the country and going forward together.”
Bannon cited the broad coalition that led to Trump’s return to the White House as a reason for the shift in tone.
“It’s a whole ecosystem … You have working-class African Americans. You have South Texas in the Rio Grande Valley, people are now prepared not just to stop voting for Democrats, but to vote for him.”
Bannon, told Karl that Trump has the ability to hold that wide-ranging coalition together like few other figures in American history.
“If you had to have somebody to do it, he’s the guy to do it,” Bannon said. “That’s why he is at the level of Washington and Lincoln.”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Thursday released an assistance guide for those affected by the wildfires in the Los Angeles area.
FEMA said its disaster assistance can “jumpstart” the recovery process.
“FEMA disaster assistance is intended to meet the basic needs of your household for uninsured or underinsured necessary expenses and serious needs to jumpstart your recovery. If you have insurance and are applying for FEMA disaster assistance, you must file a claim with your insurance company first,” a release from the agency says. “By law, FEMA cannot duplicate benefits for losses covered by insurance. If insurance does not cover all your damage, you may be eligible for federal assistance.”
FEMA assistance can come in the form of many options, such as money for essential items like food, water, baby formula, breast feeding supplies, medication and other emergency supplies. Those affected by the fires also can apply for further relief funds, which could cover a stay in hotels if a home was impacted and residents are unable to return, according to the agency.
The White House said FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell is in Los Angeles and, according to a FEMA official, has been in regular contact with state and local leaders and is surveying the damage.
President Joe Biden is set to meet with senior White House and administration officials Thursday at 4:30 p.m. regarding the wildfires and the federal response. On Wednesday, the president declared a “Major Disaster Declaration” to aid in the recovery.
“Yesterday, President Biden approved a Major Disaster declaration for California, allowing impacted communities and survivors to immediately access funds and resources to get through the coming days and begin to recover from the devastation,” the White House said in a fact sheet earlier Thursday. “The Administration is in regular contact with state and local officials, including Governor Newsom, Mayor Bass, their teams, and other state and local officials throughout the impacted areas.”
To learn more about the types of assistance available, the agency says, the public can visit: fema.gov/assistance/individual/program.
