US President Donald Trump said he will meet his budget director Russell Vought to determine which “Democrat Agencies” to cut, as he looks to inflict pain on his political opposition in the second day of a government shutdown.
“I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity,” Trump said in a social media post. Trump has already frozen federal transit and green-energy funding for Democratic-leaning states and has threatened to fire more federal workers during the shutdown, which began on Wednesday due to a partisan standoff in Congress.
Trump is already on track to push out 300,000 federal workers by the end of the year.
In his post, Trump mentioned Vought’s involvement with Project 2025, a plan by the conservative Heritage Foundation that calls for radically downsizing the federal government. Trump’s administration has already pursued many aspects of that plan, such as dismantling the Department of Education and curtailing the government’s power to fight pollution.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Trump could fire thousands of workers, though she did not provide details. Several federal employee unions have filed a lawsuit to prevent that from happening, but federal courts have allowed layoffs to proceed while similar cases are being litigated.
Senator Patty Murray, top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, warned Trump that more firings would not help to end the legislative logjam that has shut the government.
“If the president fires a bunch of people, it’s not because of his shutdown – it’s because HE decided to fire them,” Murray, of Washington state, said on social media. “People aren’t negotiating tools and it’s sick that the president is treating federal workers like pawns. Making threats and choosing to hurt people won’t win my vote.”
The government shutdown, the 15th since 1981, has suspended scientific research, financial oversight, economic data reports, and a wide range of other activities. Major benefit programmes, like Social Security, will continue to send out payments.
A standoff in Congress has frozen about $1.7 trillion in funds for agency operations, which amounts to roughly one-quarter of annual federal spending. Much of the remainder goes to health and retirement programmes and interest payments on the growing $37.5trn debt.
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