Over 10,000 federal workers have been fired as part of the Trump administration‘s plans for “large-scale reductions” in the government workforce, and thanks to the executive order signed by President Donald Trump, more are expected to be laid off in the coming hours.

The firings and layoffs come as Trump and Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency, continue to slash agency budgets and overhaul entire departments as a cost-cutting method to reduce spending within the federal government — a campaign promise the president has leaned heavily on since taking office almost a month ago.

The Office of Personal Management ordered agencies to issue layoff notices to probationary employees who have yet to qualify for civil service protections by 8 p.m. Tuesday. Some employees who received a layoff notice had accepted the Trump administration’s deferred resignation offer, which allowed them to be paid until Sept. 30 if they agreed to quit.

The layoff notices are the next step taken by the administration to downsize the workforce after only 75,000 workers accepted the deferred resignation offer. The total job cuts amount to nearly 4% of the federal government’s 2.3 million workers, and around 220,000 federal workers had less than one year’s experience, according to March 2024 data from the OPM.

Among those laid off include employees who worked in the Veterans Affairs, Energy, Interior, and Education departments, as well as workers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.

Around 1,200 to 2,000 workers in the Energy Department, including those at the National Nuclear Security Administration, were terminated. Less than 0.5% of the NNSA workforce was dismissed, a spokesperson for the department told USA Today. Roughly 1,300 probational workers at the CDC, around 10% of the agency’s workforce, were fired Friday. At least 2,300 federal workers within the Interior Department were terminated.

Over 1,000 employees were dismissed from the VA. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) claimed that these included researchers studying mental health, cancer treatments, alcohol and opioid withdrawal, and more.

“This move will effectively mean the end of VA research as we know it in red and blue states,” Murray said in a statement last week. “Trump and Elon need to reverse course on this elimination of VA research positions immediately—this callous across-the-board firing threatens to decimate so much of the lifesaving research our veterans depend on.”

The layoffs are affecting all states, from red Kansas to purple Michigan. Nicholas Detter, a probationary employee at the Agriculture Department, told ABC News he accepted the deferred resignation offer but still received a layoff notice effective immediately.

Multiple outlets have reported that dozens of employees have also been put on administrative leave as Trump and Musk seek to cull out any positions related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Musk has called for the Trump administration to “delete” entire agencies.

Lawmakers and citizens have expressed concerns over Musk and DOGE’s level of involvement in the federal government. Several states and groups of employees have filed lawsuits against Musk personally or the Justice Department claiming unconstitutional overreach, either with firings or access to data.

Democrats have leaned heavily into attacking Musk since the GOP trifecta took effect on Jan. 20, pitching the Tesla and SpaceX mogul as an unelected billionaire allowed too close to people’s personal data. Musk is classified as a special government employee.

While most Republicans have fallen in line behind Trump and praised Musk for his unflinching slashing of budgets and workforce, some have expressed concern over the rapid pace of firings and layoffs.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) posted to X that “indiscriminate workforce cuts aren’t efficient and won’t fix the federal budget,” adding that her office has attempted to get answers but “the response so far has been evasive and inadequate.”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

The OPM did not respond to a request for comment by press time. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to offer a specific number of federal employees who were terminated, but she told reporters on Tuesday that DOGE is not making decisions and “any cuts, any firings, any hirings, are at the discretion of the secretaries of these agencies.”

“Ultimately, President Trump is delivering on the promise he made to the American people to make this government more efficient and to cut back on the wasteful spending that we’ve seen for far too long from our federal bureaucracy,” Leavitt said.

Mabinty Quarshie and Haisten Willis contributed to this report.