WASHINGTON, Feb 22, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - The US Defense Department will cut its civilian workforce by at least five percent starting next week, the Pentagon said Friday, as President Donald Trump continues slashing the government payroll.

Trump's administration has already begun firing thousands of other federal workers who are on probationary status, and the cuts at the Defense Department -- the largest employer in the United States -- will also focus on recently hired employees.

"We anticipate reducing the department's civilian workforce by 5-8 percent to produce efficiencies and refocus the department on the president's priorities and restoring readiness in the force," Darin Selnick, who is performing the duties of under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said in a statement.

"We expect approximately 5,400 probationary workers will be released beginning next week as part of this initial effort, after which we will implement a hiring freeze while we conduct a further analysis of our personnel needs," Selnick said.

The Defense Department employs more than 900,000 civilians, meaning that cuts of five percent would affect a total of more than 45,000 jobs.

A day before the announcement, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a video message that "it is simply not in the public interest to retain individuals whose contributions are not mission critical."

"Common sense would tell us where we should start, right -- we start with poor performers amongst our probationary employees," Hegseth said.

Promoting 'best and brightest'

"When you look at head count, we're going to be thoughtful, but we're also going to be aggressive, up and down the chain, to find the places where we can ensure the best and brightest are promoted based on merit."

Hegseth also said that Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) would have "broad access" to root out the previous administration's programs from the Pentagon.

DOGE will work to "find the redundancies and identify the last vestiges of Biden priorities -- the DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), the woke, the climate change BS -- that's not core to our mission, and we're going to get rid of it all," he said, referring to former president Joe Biden.

Musk -- the world's richest person and Trump's biggest donor -- has led the effort to fire swaths of the federal workforce, sparking various legal challenges.

A US judge on Tuesday declined a request to temporarily block Musk and DOGE from firing federal employees and accessing agency data after 14 Democratic-ruled states filed suit contesting the billionaire's legal authority.

Judge Tanya Chutkan said the plaintiffs had not sufficiently showed that they would suffer "imminent, irreparable harm" unless a temporary restraining order was issued.

And on Thursday, Judge Christopher Cooper denied a union bid to temporarily halt the sacking of federal workers, saying he lacked the jurisdiction to handle the complaint.