A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to halt efforts to lay off 4,100 workers during an ongoing government shutdown, a political impasse with no end in sight.
The ruling — which the White House has said it will appeal — pushes back against a wider campaign to reduce the number of government employees, with some departments already significantly reduced: A quarter of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 12,000 staff have departed, with around a thousand terminated during the shutdown. The White House is plotting further cuts, Reuters reported.
Democrats and even some Republicans are now pinning hopes on the president himself intervening to broker a deal, or risk the row extending into November, Semafor reported.
