India, Sept. 17 -- The administration of US President Donald Trump spent a staggering $9.5 billion on paid administrative leave for civil servants in 2025, an unprecedented expenditure driven primarily by the trump deferred resignation program federal workers accepted in massive numbers.

Spearheaded by the newly formed department of government efficiency as a mechanism to rapidly shrink the federal workforce, the initiative allowed over 140,000 employees to resign from their posts while continuing to collect their full salaries and benefits for up to eight months.

According to a new Government Accountability Office report released on Tuesday, this triggered a historic sixfold increase in paid absences, prompting fierce debate over the t...