A federal judge temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s buyout offer to federal civilian employees from taking effect Thursday, hours before the deadline the administration set for more than 2 million employees to decide whether to take resignation packages with pay through September.

Plus: President Trump signs an executive order targeting 'anti-Christian bias.' | The U.S. Treasury temporarily agrees to limit DOGE access.

By midnight today, federal workers must decide whether to accept or reject Trump’s buyout offer. What will happen to those who reject the offer and decide not to resign?

The CIA confirmed Wednesday that it offered buyouts to employees who volunteer to resign, the latest group of federal workers to receive such a proposal as President Trump pushes to transform the federal government. A CIA spokesperson declined to say how many people received the offers or whether they face any deadline to decide.

A judge temporarily halted the Trump administration's federal buyout program. MSNBC legal correspondent Lisa Rubin breaks it down. Author of "Why Presidents Fail and How They Can Succeed Again" Elaine Kamarck and the Atlantic staff writer Tom Nichols join Katy Tur to weigh in.

Wes Battle has been glued to the phone at his financial-planning office in Maryland for days, endlessly fielding calls from clients, most of whom work for the federal government. They all want to know the same thing in a hurry: Is the U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s “fork in the road” offer a good deal financially?

More than 60,000 workers have already accepted the offer which would allow them to resign and be paid through September.

The Trump administration is offering what amounts to buyouts for federal workers who don’t want to return to the office as part of the president’s breakneck efforts to reshape the government in

Undergirding a fight formed in group texts and between cubicles is a conviction that nonpartisan civil servants provide a necessary check on Trump’s power.