An independent federal oversight agency has declared efforts by Elon Musk’s DOGE operation to fire thousands of probationary period employees to be unlawful, paving the way for them to be rehired. Hampton Dellinger, who leads the Office of Special Counsel, said he would ask the Merit Systems Protection Board to pause the firings for 45 days. Earlier this month, Trump fired Dellinger, but a federal court reversed his termination, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to overturn his reinstatement.

On Monday, the Department of Veterans Affairs said it had fired another 1,400 employees, after about a thousand other workers were fired from the VA earlier this month. Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports the Trump administration plans to slash the Department of Housing and Urban Development in half — from about 8,300 workers to just over 4,000. Current and former employees said the cuts are likely to upend housing markets, make homes less affordable and roil mortgage transactions. On Monday, TV screens throughout HUD’s headquarters were apparently hacked to show a looped AI-generated video portraying President Trump kissing the feet of Elon Musk. The video was labeled “long live the real king.”