Federal court suspends Trump administration's decision, 2,200 USAID employees temporarily continue working

A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked President Trump's administration from sending 2,200 United States Agency for International Development (USAID) employees on forced leave.

Judge Carl Nichols in Washington, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, granted a request from two federal employee associations and agreed to suspend plans to send employees on furlough, effective midnight Friday.

Federal employee associations filed a lawsuit asking a federal court to stop the closure of USAID, arguing that President Donald Trump lacks the authority to close an agency created by congressional legislation.

"Shut it up," President Trump wrote on social media on Friday, referring to USAID.

On Friday, the agency's name on a sign outside USAID headquarters in Washington was covered with masking tape. A flag was also removed from the building.

Someone had placed a bouquet of flowers at the entrance to the headquarters.

A group of fewer than six USAID officials, speaking to reporters on Friday, disagreed with Secretary of State Marco Rubio's statements that exceptions were being made and continued for key, vital programs abroad.

With hundreds of employees forced to leave and funding cut off, the agency "has ceased to exist," an official said.

President Trump's administration and his ally Elon Musk, who heads the Department of Government Efficiency to cut the budget, have focused most of their attention so far on USAID, in an unprecedented challenge for the federal government and many of its programs.

The administration told remaining USAID officials Thursday afternoon that it planned to cut staff, leaving fewer than 300 of its thousands of employees around the world on the job.

Later on Thursday, a list of 611 employees who would continue to be on the job was finalized, many of them to manage the repatriation of personnel, contractors and their families abroad, officials said.

During the court hearing, Justice Department attorney Brett Shumate confirmed the number of 611 employees who would remain on the job./VOA