The soon-to-be owners of Us Weekly are sharpening the ax.

On Thursday, 38 editorial people, including Us Weekly editor-in-chief Michael Steele, were told they are getting the old heave-ho, sources tell Media Ink.

But they have to keep working for the next few weeks until the deal officially closes and American Media Inc. delivers the $100 million check to Jann Wenner.

Meanwhile, AMI boss David Pecker and National Enquirer editor-in-chief Dylan Howard are inviting the 42 editorial people who survived the ax to lunch at swanky Le Bernardin on Friday to meet their new bosses.

Steele — aware of the anger directed at Wenner and his son, Gus Wenner, for never addressing the full staff after the sale was announced — made sure he called each staffer individually into his office Thursday to deliver the news on whether he or she was being let go or offered a job.

“A class act,” one of the laid-off staffers said of Steele.

The soon-to-be-pink-slipped Us team did put out this week’s cover — and it is likely to give Trump-supporting Pecker some agita.

“Separate Bedrooms” — the headline screams: MELANIA’S SECRETS. The story claims the first couple are leading largely separate lives.

One insider said he did not think the anti-Trump cover this week caused their demise. “We were all gone anyway,” said the staffer.

Among the senior staff facing the ax with Steele: editorial director Jaimee Zanzinger, creative director Victor Thompson, deputy editor April Bernard, photography director Jennifer Halper, entertainment director Ian Drew, West Coast bureau chief Rebecca Bienstock, deputy editor Mara Reinstein and senior writer Eric Andersson.

As Media Ink predicted, publisher Vicci Lasdon Rose and all of her ad staff are being invited to join AMI. So is most of the digital staff.

In all, about 80 people are being asked to join AMI.