Just hours before it was scheduled to take effect, a judge temporarily halted President Donald Trump's plan to put 2,200 US Agency for International Development (USAID) employees on paid vacation.

In response to a lawsuit brought by unions contesting the plan to put thousands of employees on leave starting at midnight on Friday, Judge Carl Nichols stated that he would give a "very limited" temporary restraining order.

Two-thirds of the approximately 10,000 employees of USAID, the primary overseas development agency of the US government, are employed abroad. The status of the remaining employees' jobs is unknown.

Approximately 611 workers would have been retained at the agency under Trump's proposal. The decision was made when staff at USAID's headquarters in Washington, DC, took down and covered the organization's signs.

Trump has argued that USAID is not a valuable use of taxpayer money. It is one of many federal agencies his administration is targeting as it works to slash federal spending in the US.

The Republican campaigned on overhauling the government and formed an advisory body named the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) - led by tech billionaire Elon Musk - to slash the budget.

Friday's ruling by Judge Nichols came in response to an emergency petition by the American Foreign Service Association and American Federation of Government Employees - two unions representing employees of the agency.

The complete order will be issued later and provide more details, according to Judge Nichols, who was nominated by Trump during his first administration. The organizations that filed the lawsuit informed the BBC that they were awaiting the court order's language to determine the impact on all USAID personnel.

However, Lauren Bateman, an attorney with Public Citizen, an advocacy group that filed the complaint, said that for the time being, it seemed that the more than 2,000 direct hires at the agency who are members of the unions would be safe.

About 500 USAID staff have already been placed on leave by the Trump administration.

During the hearing, the judge did not seem likely to grant other requests as part of the lawsuit, including to restore grants and contracts or reopen USAID buildings.

The legal action argued that the president was violating the US Constitution and federal law by attempting to dismantle the agency.

"Not a single one of defendants' actions to dismantle USAID were taken pursuant to congressional authorization," it said.

"And pursuant to federal statute, Congress is the only entity that may lawfully dismantle the agency."

Representing the Trump administration, justice department official Brett Shumate told the judge that the president "has decided there is corruption and fraud at USAID".

Trump issued an executive order freezing all foreign aid until it was examined and in line with his "America First" philosophy just hours after taking office on January 20.

As a result, USAID issued a stop work order, which has caused hundreds of programs in various nations to be suspended, upending the global aid system.

On Friday, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform: "USAID IS DRIVING THE RADICAL LEFT CRAZY.

"THE CORRUPTION IS AT LEVELS RARELY SEEN BEFORE. CLOSE IT DOWN!"

The United States is the world's largest single supplier of humanitarian aid. Its contractors handle a large portion of its work, and it has bases in over 60 countries in addition to working in dozens more.

The United States spent $68 billion (£55 billion) on foreign aid in 2023, according to government figures.

Although that sum is distributed among a number of departments and organizations, USAID's budget accounts for over half of it, at around $40 billion, or roughly 0.6% of the $6.75 trillion in annual US federal spending.

The head of the United Nations' programme for tackling HIV/AIDS told the BBC that the cuts would have dire impacts across the globe.

"AIDS related deaths in the next 5 years will increase by 6.3 million" if funding is not restored, UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima said.

Former USAID chiefs have criticised the reported cutback plan. One of them, Gayle Smith, stressed to the BBC that the US had always been the fastest to arrive during humanitarian crises around the world.

"When you pull all of that out, you send some very dangerous messages," said Smith. "The US is signalling that we don't frankly care whether people live or die and that we're not a reliable partner."