Trump Plans to Use Shutdown to Fire Federal Workers This Week
White House Budget Director Russell Vought is planning to swiftly dismiss federal workers, a sign that Republicans will lean into hardball tactics to pressure Democrats to cave to end a government shutdown.
Vought told House lawmakers Wednesday that some federal agencies will move to terminate workers within one to two days, according to people familiar with the remarks, who requested anonymity to discuss a private meeting.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that layoffs would happen within “two days, imminent, very soon” but declined to give any details about what agencies or positions would be targeted.
President Donald Trump and his team have moved quickly to capitalize on the shutdown to shrink the size of the federal government.
The administration earlier Wednesday halted $18 billion in federal funding for infrastructure projects in New York City, including for the Second Avenue Subway project and Hudson Tunnel Project.
Vought cited concerns over diversity and equity practices rather than the shutdown but the action directly hit constituents of Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, both of whom represent New York in Congress. He also said he will cut $8 billion from renewable energy projects in more than a dozen states that voted for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
Trump warned earlier this week he would use a funding lapse to target “Democrat things.”
Vought’s Office of Management and Budget has called for federal agencies to craft plans for mass firings of government workers beyond traditional furloughs, advancing its goal of slashing the federal bureaucracy. So far, agency shutdown plans haven’t outlined any specific layoffs.
The shutdown gives Republicans an opening to “do some things that we would not otherwise be able to do, because we would never get Democrat votes for them,” Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox Business on Wednesday.
The White House “gets to decide now what services are essential, what programs and policies should be continued, and which would not be a priority,” he said.
Vice President JD Vance, however, downplayed plans to use the shutdown to slash services, saying Republicans don’t want to “lay anybody off” but said, without explaining his reasoning, that the administration could be forced to dismiss workers to save money during a shutdown. In previous shutdowns, many federal workers were furloughed without mass firings.
With federal agencies and departments closed down, Trump and his allies have pointed fingers at Democrats, with the idea that voters will blame them in the midterm elections next year.
“There’s necessarily going to be some pain because Senate Democrats refuse to reopen the government,” Vance told CBS News Wednesday. “What we do want to do is make sure that as much of the essential services of government remain functional as possible.”
Source : Bloomberg.com
