Trump signs order to make it easier to fire 8,000 highly paid federal workers

Order strips job protections from workers earning up to about $200,000 a year and deemed to be influencing' policy

Donald Trump has signed an executive order making it easier to fire thousands of the best-paid workers in the US government aspart of a broader drive by his administration to overhaul the federal workforce.

The order, released by the White House and the office of personnel management (OPM) on Wednesday, strips job protections from a mostly senior group of federal workers - about 8,000 employees - earning up to almost $200,000 a year, and who are deemed to be influencing" government policy.