In less than a month in office the Trump administration has simultaneously dismantled foreign aid programs that support fragile democracies abroad and put on leave federal workers who protect US elections at home in a move that current and former officials say abandons decades of American commitments to democracy.

The Trump administration is intensifying its sweeping efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce by ordering agencies to lay off all probationary employees who had not yet gained civil service protection.

The Trump administration’s move to fire thousands of federal employees could have a swift and severe impact on public services, staffers warned Friday, making it harder for veterans to get mental health care and hampering electric service to some rural residents as a beleaguered workforce struggles to cover for lost colleagues.

The Trump administration broadened its effort to terminate thousands of probationary workers on Thursday, instructing agencies on a call to move forward with the layoffs.

Some 2,300 people have been laid off at the U.S. Interior Department as part of the Trump administration's sweeping government job cuts, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

Nearly 1,300 probationary employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are being forced out under the Trump administration's move to get rid of all probationary employees, the Associated Press reported on Friday,