“I feel like the cruelty is the point, if I am being honest,” a federal worker, terminated on Thursday, told CNN. “There has been so much indication from the new OPM director and Elon Musk and from DOGE that the whole point of this is to scare people away from working in federal government or those who are still there, to want to leave.”

U.S. government employees who lose their jobs in President Donald Trump's ongoing purge of the federal workforce and bring legal challenges face an uphill battle, with potentially little recourse even for those who prevail.