Washington DC - A judge paused a scheme masterminded by billionaire Elon Musk to slash the US government by encouraging federal workers to quit through a mass buyout by midnight Thursday.

The federal judge in Massachusetts ordered a temporary injunction on the deadline given by Musk for the country's more than two million government employees to quit with eight months' pay or risk being fired.

The deadline is now extended to Monday when US District Judge George O'Toole will hold a hearing on the merits of the case brought by labor unions, US media reported.

Musk, the world's richest person and President Donald Trump's biggest donor, is in charge of a free-ranging Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) that aims to radically downsize federal agencies.

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According to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, more than 40,000 staff have so far accepted the buyout deal – a relatively small number.

Unions representing some 800,000 civil servants and Democratic members of Congress are resisting the scheme and have challenged the legality of threats to fire civil servants.

But the campaign – fanned by anti-government-worker invective from Trump and his aides – has already severely disrupted the huge departments and agencies that for decades have run everything from education to national intelligence.