Donald Trump could be heading into the weekend with his tail between his legs after federal judges ordered him to rehire thousands of workers he recently sacked.
It seems like the US president still gets a lot of use out of his catchphrase on The Apprentice, as he's told a huge amount of people 'you're fired' since returning to office.
But his attempt to free up money by overhauling the government workforce has now been branded a 'sham' by judges in California and Maryland.
Trump didn't waste any time when he resumed the role of president in January, as he publicly sacked four White House staff just two days after he was sworn in.
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But this was just the tip of the iceberg, as he and Elon Musk then began a mass exodus of federal workers.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which is headed up by Tesla boss Musk, let go of thousands of 'probationary employees' earlier this year.
This term typically describes people who have held their position for two years or less.
Now, these staff from the Departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Energy, Agriculture, Interior and other agencies are set to be vindicated.
That's because US District Judge William Alsup has ordered that these employees should immediately get their jobs back.
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The court in San Francisco was told that at least 30,000 workers were wrongfully fired for 'poor performance', with Judge Alsup branding this narrative 'a lie'.
Alsup demanded that the six government agencies reinstate the staff, having previously ruled that the sackings were 'illegal' because the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) did not have the authority to order them.
The judge also extended a temporary injunction which forbids the OPM from sharing guidance about terminating staff.
"The reason that OPM wanted to put this based on performance was at least in part in my judgment a gimmick to avoid the Reductions in Force Act," the judge said.
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"Because the law always allows you to fire somebody for performance. It is a sad day when our government would fire some good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that’s a lie.
"That should not have been done in our country. It was a sham in order to try to avoid statutory requirements."
He also directed the departments to report back within seven days with a list of probationary employees and an explanation of how the agencies complied with his order as to each person.
Hours later, another judge in Baltimore, Maryland followed suit with a similar ruling which ordered that employees who were fired across 18 agencies must be reinstated for at least 14 days.
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US District Judge James Bredar said that sacked staff - from departments including Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Transportation, Treasury and Veterans Affairs - have to be brought back, at least temporarily.
"In this case, the government conducted massive layoffs, but it gave no advance notice," Judge Bredar said in his ruling.
"It claims it wasn’t required to because, it says, it dismissed each one of these thousands of probationary employees for 'performance' or other individualised reasons.
"On the record before the court, this isn’t true. There were no individualised assessments of employees. They were all just fired. Collectively."
Judge Bredar - who suggested the mass firings were 'an illegal scheme spanning broad swaths of the federal workforce' - provided a deadline to reinstate the affected employees, which is 17 March.
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt slammed the rulings, saying that the Trump administration will 'fight back against this absurd and unconstitutional order' in a statement.
"The President has the authority to exercise the power of the entire executive branch - singular district court judges cannot abuse the power of the entire judiciary to thwart the President’s agenda," she said in the wake of the first ruling.
"If a federal district court judge would like executive powers, they can try and run for President themselves. The Trump Administration will immediately fight back against this absurd and unconstitutional order."
LADbible has contacted the White House for further comment.
Topics: Donald Trump, Politics, US News, Elon Musk, Jobs
Olivia Burke