PRESSING PAUSE

Judge Deals Blow to Musk’s DOGE Buyout Offer

The world’s richest man had wanted to shrink the federal workforce by 20 percent with his so-called “fork in the road” offer.

Elon Musk’s buyout offer for federal workers has hit a snag.

A judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the billionaire from implementing his so-called “fork in the road” buyout offer for federal employees—a blow to Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and Donald Trump, who has endorsed the deal.

The offer, which had a deadline of midnight on Thursday, has been extended until at least Monday, Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. ruled. That’s when a follow-up hearing will be held to determine if the controversial buyout should be blocked outright.

The extension is sure to peeve the Trump Administration, which blasted out a mass email Thursday morning that warned federal workers the midnight deadline would not be extended.

Reports claim upwards of 60,000 federal workers—about three percent of its total workforce—have already opted into the offer, despite there being uncertainty about how it would go into effect. Musk has said he wants to cut the federal workforce by 20 percent.

O’Toole, a federal judge from Massachusetts, said he will listen to arguments on Monday from employee unions who filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of the buyout offer.

Those opposing the offer allege its missing “basic information” about how a buyout of that scale would be rolled out. Critics of the president have said the same, claiming Congress must have a say in where the funds that back the offer should come from.

If implemented as planned, workers who accept the offer would stop working immediately but continue being paid through the end of September.

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There has been mass panic amid federal workers as rumors swirl that Trump’s team will layoff many who do not take the buyout.

Some agencies have also had to contend with Musk’s group of young DOGE staffers—one as young as 19—poking around their workplace, with some asking employees to justify why they should keep their job.

Mass layoffs were expected to begin “soon” after Thursday’s deadline passed, CNN reported. It is unclear what the Trump Administration will do now that a wrench has been thrown in their plans.

Postal workers, military servicemembers, ICE agents, and air traffic controllers are not permitted to take a buyout. Nearly every other civilian federal worker, including CIA agents—who were initially exempt, is being offered a way out.

Musk and Trump did not immediately react to the judge’s decision.

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