On President Donald Trump's first day in office, he created the Department of Government Efficiency, placed tech billionaire Elon Musk in charge, and unleashed it to root out inefficiencies, waste, fraud, and abuse throughout the federal government.

Among the first targets of DOGE was the U.S. Agency for International Development, but a federal judge just temporarily blocked the Trump administration from making its desired changes to that agency, the New York Post reported.

The judge issued a temporary restraining order to halt any downsizing at USAID for at least one week and will consider arguments in the coming days about whether or not to issue a preliminary injunction.

DOGE exposes USAID's outrageous spending

President Trump issued an executive order on Jan. 20 about "Reevaluating and Realigning U.S. Foreign Aid" and stated that it would be the policy of his administration that "no further United States foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States."

With virtually all foreign aid effectively paused for 90 days, Trump then transformed an existing but largely defunct office on digital services into DOGE and swiftly turned Musk and his team loose to begin the task of exposing, halting, and eventually correcting or ending examples of government waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer funds.

Some of the most egregious examples of such were soon found within USAID and publicized, much to the chagrin and outrage of the agency's employees and leaders, who were backed by Democrats and much of the media.

The findings resulted in immediate efforts to slim down and reorganize USAID as part of the State Department, which involved placing hundreds of employees on administrative leave and recalling hundreds more from overseas posts, the first steps in a broader plan to reduce the agency's workforce from more than 10,000 to just a few hundred.

It also led President Trump to issue a memo ordering all department heads to immediately conduct reviews of how taxpayer funds were being provided to and spent by non-governmental organizations to ensure that it was all aligned with his administration's overarching "America First" policy.

Temporary restraining order issued

While all of that was occurring over the past few weeks, a pair of federal workers' unions, the American Foreign Service Organization and the American Federation of Government Employees, filed a joint lawsuit to stop President Trump, Musk, and DOGE from continuing their efforts against USAID, according to ABC News.

Following an initial hearing on Friday, D.C. District Judge Carl Nichols, a prior appointee of Trump during his first term, issued a requested temporary restraining order that effectively halted everything with respect to USAID.

Per the judge's order, no more employees could be placed on leave, no employees based in foreign nations could be recalled, and roughly 500 workers who'd already been placed on leave had to be reinstated.

Nichols said during the hearing, "This is about how employees are harmed in their capacity as employees -- in the employee/employer relationship -- and it seems to me that, for reasons I will discuss in this order, that I will enter there, the plaintiffs have established at least that there is irreparable harm as it relates to that relationship."

Fight isn't over yet

Depending upon how the judge rules following another hearing next week, Friday's order could be the first step in permanently blocking seemingly necessary changes at USAID or it could ultimately be little more than a minor delay in DOGE's mission.

That said, regardless of how the judge rules, the matter will almost certainly be appealed by the losing side, meaning this legal battle over DOGE and USAID has likely just begun and is far from being settled.