Donald Trump, president of the United States, announced on social media that he wanted to cut what he called “Democrat agencies” and used the shutdown to reform the federal workforce.
Trump made the announcement via his Truth Social post on Thursday that he would meet with Russ Vought to discuss “temporary or permanent” spending cuts that might cause Democratic lawmakers to experience a lose-lose situation.
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He claimed that he and Vought would decide “which of the numerous Democratic Agencies” would be cut, continuing their efforts to reduce federal spending by threatening widespread employee layoffs and making “irreversible” cuts to Democratic priorities.
Trump remarked, “I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity.” They are not stupid, so perhaps this is their intention to quietly and quickly restore America’s greatness once more.
Trump’s re-election campaign, which included the controversial Heritage Foundation, was one of the highlights of the post’s explicit support of Project 2025, which the conservative Foundation had drafted.
Democrats repeatedly cited the effort’s objectives as warning of the repercussions of a second Trump administration, saying that it was intended to reshape the federal government around right-wing policies.
Vought outlined the pressure he hoped to apply to Democrats in his opening statement on Wednesday. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and his House counterpart Hakeem Jeffries’ campaign pledged to withhold $ 18 billion from the state’s top taxpayers for the Hudson River rail tunnel and the Second Avenue subway line in New York City.
Additionally, Vought is terminating $ 8 billion worth of Democratic Senators-related green energy projects in states.
Instead of simply furloughing federal employees as is customary during a shutdown, the White House is getting ready for mass firings. Early this week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that layoffs were “imminent.”
Leavitt, a member of the Democratic Party, said on Thursday, “If they don’t want their constituents to suffer further harm,” they need to reopen the government.
Trump’s announcement on his Truth Social website coincided with the government’s second day of a pay-sipping stoppage, which is expected to result in 750, 000 employees being fired from their positions across a variety of organizations.
Leavitt stated to reporters on Thursday that there were likely to be “in the thousands” of job cuts.
Meanwhile, Schumer and Jeffries have said the frequent firings would not be tolerated in court and that the job cuts threat was an attempt at intimidation.
According to Jeffries, “the Trump administration has been doing these things since January 20th,” in reference to the president’s first day in office. The point is “the cruelty,” he says.
Due to the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday, the Senate won’t vote on Thursday; instead, it will vote on Friday and most days until the standoff is resolved.
To approve a bill that the House passed in September, it would require five more Democratic votes to pass the 100-member Senate.
Republicans were reportedly considering sending their senators home after the vote, effectively guaranteeing the shutdown drags into the next week because Democrats were anticipated to again block the Republican reopening plan.
However, House Speaker Mike Johnson stated to reporters that Senate leaders must adhere to an initial plan to work through the weekend in Washington despite members being away all week.
Johnson stated in a press conference at the US Capitol that “the House is coming back next week, hoping that they will send us something to work on so that we can get back to work and do the people’s business.”
He attributed it to Democrats, who “handed it over to the president” and “effectively turned the legislative branch off.”
Democrats are obliging themselves to support a bill that doesn’t pass, warning of price increases for millions of Americans across the country. They are still pressing their demands to maintain healthcare funding.
The standoff runs the risk of dragging even further into October, when federal employees who are still employed will start to lose pay checks. During the shutdown, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), roughly 750, 000 federal employees would be furloughed on any given day, or $400 million in daily wages.
The wider economy might experience the same economic effects. The CBO reported that “reduced aggregate demand in the private sector for goods and services, pushing down GDP.”
According to the statement, “Stalled federal spending on goods and services resulted in a decline in private sector income that further decreased the economy’s demand for other goods and services.”
Overall, according to CBO, there was a “dampening of economic output,” but it subsided once workers resumed their jobs.
On Thursday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also stated to CNBC that the government shutdown might hinder economic growth in the US.
