Trump’s administration has already begun firing thousands of other federal workers who are on probationary status, and the cuts at the defence department – the largest employer in the US – will also focus on recently hired employees.

“We anticipate reducing the department’s civilian workforce by 5-8% 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.

A day before the announcement, defence 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.