Six federal employees who were fired as part of President Donald Trump’s aggressive cost-cutting measures will be temporarily reinstated following a ruling by the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). While the left is celebrating this as a blow to Trump’s efficiency mandate, in reality, it’s just another example of how entrenched the D.C. bureaucracy fights tooth and nail to protect itself at all costs.

The firings were part of a much larger effort led by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to slash wasteful government spending and eliminate redundant and politically entrenched employees. But, as expected, the swamp didn’t take it lying down. The Office of Special Counsel (OSC), which has made it clear it’s no fan of Trump’s reforms, rushed in to claim that the firings violated so-called “merit-based” principles, despite the fact that these were probationary employees who had yet to establish full civil service protections.

On Tuesday, the MSPB granted a 45-day stay, meaning these six bureaucrats will temporarily return to their desks while the OSC investigates whether any “prohibited personnel practices” were involved. In reality, this is nothing more than an attempt to gum up the works and slow down Trump’s long-overdue shake-up of the federal workforce. The agencies that fired these employees did so in line with DOGE’s mission to cut unnecessary jobs, but now, thanks to the swamp’s stalling tactics, taxpayers are once again footing the bill for bureaucrats they don’t need.

Special Counsel Hampton Dellinger, a staunch opponent of Trump’s agenda, wasted no time grandstanding about the decision, saying he was “grateful” for the ruling and vowed to keep pushing for even more reinstatements. This is the same deep-state mentality that protects incompetence and rewards inefficiency.

While the left is desperate to spin this as a major setback for Trump, the reality is that his administration remains committed to shrinking the bloated federal workforce. The 45-day stay only buys time for bureaucrats hoping to cling to their cushy government jobs. But if Trump and DOGE have proven anything, it’s that they’re playing the long game—and they intend to win.