The Trump administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programmes, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that DOGE’s blind cost cutting will put communities at risk.

US officials said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to email before they’d learned they were fired and being locked out of their offices on Friday morning.