On Friday, a U.S. judge temporarily allowed around 2,700 employees of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), who had been placed on leave by President Donald Trump’s administration, to return to work, halting certain aspects of a plan to dismantle the agency.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington, who was nominated by Trump during his first term, partially granted a request from the largest U.S. government workers’ union and an association of foreign service workers who filed a lawsuit to stop the administration’s efforts to shut down the agency.
Nichols’s order, which will remain in effect until February 14, blocks the Trump administration from implementing plans to place about 2,200 USAID workers on paid leave starting Saturday and reinstates approximately 500 employees who had already been furloughed.
The order also prevents the administration from relocating USAID humanitarian workers stationed outside the United States.
Nichols will consider a request for a longer-term pause at a hearing scheduled for Wednesday. In his order, he stated that the unions had shown a “strong showing of irreparable harm” if the court did not intervene.
Nichols rejected other requests from the unions to reopen USAID buildings and restore funding for agency grants and contracts.
In a notice sent to the foreign aid agency’s workers on Thursday, the administration said it would keep 611 essential workers at USAID, out of a global workforce that exceeds 10,000.
Karla Gilbride, a lawyer for the unions, said in court, “The major reduction in force, as well as the closure of offices and the forced relocation of these individuals, were all done in excess of the executive’s authority in violation of the separation of powers.”
A Justice Department official, Brett Shumate, told Nichols that about 2,200 USAID employees would be placed on paid leave under the administration’s plans, adding that 500 had already been placed on leave.
“The president has decided there is corruption and fraud at USAID,” Shumate said.
On Friday, Trump posted on his social media platform accusing USAID—without evidence—of corruption and spending money fraudulently.
He said the corruption at USAID “IS AT LEVELS RARELY SEEN BEFORE. CLOSE IT DOWN!”
Hours after his inauguration on January 20, Trump ordered all U.S. foreign aid to be paused to ensure it aligned with his “America First” policy. Chaos has since engulfed USAID, which distributes billions of dollars in humanitarian aid worldwide.
Following the executive order, the State Department issued worldwide stop-work directives, effectively freezing all foreign aid except for emergency food assistance. This brought USAID programs, which cover lifesaving aid across the globe, to a halt, in a move experts warned could risk lives.
The gutting of the agency has largely been overseen by businessman Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a close Trump ally, who is spearheading the president’s efforts to shrink the federal bureaucracy.
In the 2023 fiscal year, the United States disbursed $72 billion in aid worldwide, partly through USAID, for everything from women’s health in conflict zones to access to clean water, HIV/AIDS treatments, energy security, and anti-corruption work.
It provided 42% of all humanitarian aid tracked by the United Nations in 2024, yet that represents less than 1% of its total budget.
