A group of five labor unions had argued that President Trump's effort to shrink the size of the federal workforce were illegal.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper decided Thursday he could not grant a motion from unions representing the workers to stop the layoffs, though he acknowledged chaos caused by Trump's blitz of second-term executive actions.

The Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) is not an official government department, but Musk's team has exacted wide-ranging changes to the US federal infrastructure with approval from the White House.

Billionaire Elon Musk issued an ultimatum to federal employees Saturday, saying in a post on his social media platform X that employees must respond to an email justifying the work they completed this week or resign. Federal employees have already began receiving the email, sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.

Billionaire and government efficiency leader Elon Musk announced in a post on X Saturday afternoon all federal employees will receive an email asking them to explain the work they’ve done over the past week, and employees who fail to respond will be forced to resign.