The Trump administration told a federal judge it had given the axe to 24,500 recently hired workers, in the first accounting of the fate of 'probationary' employees.

The government is now rushing to put the workers on leave and find ways to bring them back after the judge ruled that the firings, just part of a massive purge of the bureaucracy, were illegal. 

Federal agencies provided data on just how many probationary workers got fired. They are considered easier to fire because they lack some of the worker protections of long tenured employees. 

President Trump’s widespread firings of federal employees has reached every level of government, but critics say his selection of who to axe is hardly arbitrary.

In just a few weeks on the job, President Trump has fired numerous inspectors general, forced out top FBI officials and overseen a purge of federal employees.

Some of the removals have targeted a series of officials sure to conduct oversight of Trump’s actions.

Federal workers are slated to receive a second email Saturday asking them for a bullet-point description of what they did in the past week — only this time, a new strategy from the Trump administration means they might have to respond, according to two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private talks.

The fallout from Musk’s demand for government workers to justify their work in a bullet-point list continues.

The US Office of Personnel Management (OPM), which manages the federal workforce, walked back on an ultimatum issued by Elon Musk at the weekend that would have forced its workers to resign if they did not submit the requested list of their recent accomplishments.

It marks one of the first signs of internal pushback to the Tesla billionaire’s campaign to downsize the federal workforce.

Several federal agencies have advised employees not to respond to Elon Musk’s email demanding federal workers list five accomplishments from the past week or risk losing their jobs.

The email instructs federal workers to respond to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) by 11:59 p.m. EST Monday. But a growing list of agencies, including the Pentagon, FBI, State Department and intelligence community, on Sunday had told their employees to hold off.

President Donald Trump made the exaggerated claim that federal office space is “occupied by 4%” of federal workers to bolster his argument for dramatically downsizing the federal workforce and demanding that most workers return to the office full time.

The Trump administration on Friday moved to fire more than 400 employees at the Department of Homeland Security, the latest effort in a government-wide campaign to dramatically reduce the federal workforce.

A federal judge is allowing the Trump administration to move forward with its plan to downsize the federal workforce by offering employees the option to resign now but stay on the payroll through September.

U.S. District Judge George O’Toole, an appointee of Bill Clinton, did not address whether the deferred-resignation program is legal. Instead, the judge ruled Wednesday that several unions that sued over the program lack legal standing to pursue the issue in court.

In its early days, the second Trump administration is delivering a clear message: The United States is full of the wrong kind of people.

A federal judge in Boston on Monday heard arguments over whether to extend a nationwide pause in the Trump administration's bid to offer "deferred resignations" to federal workers who voluntarily leave government service.