Pentagon to fire 5,400 employees

The layoffs, which are set to take place in the coming days, are a small part of the 50,000 job cuts expected at the US Department of Defense, but they may not be the last.

A senior Pentagon official, Darin Selnick, said the Pentagon will halt hiring and could ultimately reduce its civilian workforce of 950,000 by between 5% and 8%.

The cuts are part of a sweeping overhaul led by Elon Musk that has already laid off more than 20,000 employees and cut programs across the US government, from foreign aid to financial oversight.

A number of federal judges have refused to halt the layoffs.

A federal judge on Friday granted Trump permission to furlough more than 2,000 employees at the U.S. Agency for International Development. However, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked Trump from immediately firing the head of the Office of Special Counsel, an independent watchdog agency.

Also on Friday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) ordered 1,500 employees to be relocated from its Washington headquarters to offices across the country. Nearly one in four FBI employees works in Washington, according to government figures.