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The federal government partially shut down early Wednesday after Democrats and Republicans failed to reach an agreement on a funding package.
In the lead-up to the midnight deadline to pass a budget package, President Donald Trump warned the administration could make “irreversible” changes to the federal workforce, most notably through a new wave of fresh layoffs. The president has underscored that he and his allies did not want the government to shut down, but that it opened the door for some “good” that could come from it.
Senate lawmakers failed to reach a spending agreement in time for the end of fiscal year 2025 Tuesday, after a short-term extension of fiscal year 2025 funding, aimed at keeping the government open through Nov. 21, passed the House mainly along party lines earlier in September.
GOVERNMENT SHUTS DOWN AFTER CONGRESS DEADLOCKS ON SPENDING DEAL
Democrats expressed frustration at being shut out of spending negotiations and over the GOP bill’s exclusion of enhanced Obamacare subsidies that were first enacted in 2021 under President Joe Biden. Those subsidies, a COVID-19-era measure, are set to lapse at the end of 2025 unless Congress takes action, Fox News Digital has reported.
Republicans have since pinned the shutdown blame on Democrats, arguing they refused to fund the budget as an attempt to reinstate taxpayer-funded medical benefits for illegal immigrants through Democrat lawmakers’ continuing resolution, which would include extending the expiring Obamacare tax credits.
Democrat leadership have balked at the claims, throwing their own jabs at Trump and Republican lawmakers as the culprits behind the shutdown and squashing claims they want to provide healthcare to illegal immigrants.
TRUMP’S WHITE HOUSE DEMANDS AGENCIES MAP OUT MASS LAYOFFS AHEAD OF POTENTIAL SHUTDOWN
“They say that undocumented people are going to get these credits,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday. “That is absolutely false. That is one of the big lies that they tell.”
Trump warns layoffs on the horizon
Trump said during various public remarks Tuesday, as the countdown to the midnight deadline dwindled, that though he did not want a shutdown, it presents him with the opportunity for the administration to carry out layoffs as part of a continued mission to slim down the federal government and snuff out overspending and fraud.
“We don’t want it to shut down because we have the greatest period of time ever,” Trump said from the Oval Office Tuesday. “I tell you, we have $17 trillion being invested. So the last person that wants it shut down is us.”
“Now, with that being said, we can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them, like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like,” he continued.
A shutdown does not hand a president new powers, but instead concentrates discretion to the White House and Office of Management and Budget over what the executive branch continues operating or ending.
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Under the Antideficiency Act, a federal law that guides the government through shutdowns, federal agencies are not permitted to spend funds, the Government Accountability Office outlines, except for a limited set of missions, such as performing constitutional duties. The executive branch is charged with interpreting those exceptions.
Office of Management and Budget Director “Russell Vought become very popular recently because he can trim the budget to a level that you couldn’t do any other way,” Trump continued Tuesday. “So they’re taking a risk by having a shutdown because, because of the shutdown, we can do things medically and other ways, including benefits. We can cut large numbers of people.”
Later that day, Trump again said that he did not want a shutdown to unfold, but that “a lot of good” could come from it in order to weed out government overspending, noting “we’d be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected.”
“A lot of good can come down from shutdowns,” he said. “We can get rid of a lot of things that we didn’t want, and they’d be Democrat things. But they want open borders. They want men playing in women’s sports. They want transgender for everybody. They never stop. They don’t learn. We won an election in a landslide.”
SHUTDOWN EXPLAINED: WHO WORKS, WHO DOESN’T AND HOW MUCH IT COSTS
Vought declared an imminent government shutdown Tuesday evening ahead of the deadline, pinning blame on “Democrats’ insane policy demands, which include $1 trillion in new spending.”
“It is unclear how long Democrats will maintain their untenable posture, making the duration of the shutdown difficult to predict,” he wrote in a memo Tuesday. “Regardless, employees should report to work for their next regularly scheduled tour of duty to undertake orderly shutdown activities.”
Vice President JD Vance joined the White House press briefing Wednesday and predicted that it wasn’t “going to be that long of a shutdown,” but that people will need to be laid off.
“We’re going to have to make things work,” he said. “And that means that we’re going to have to triage some certain things, that means certain people are going to have to get laid off. And we’re going to try to make sure that the American people suffer as little as possible from the shutdown.”
Vance added that the administration was “not targeting federal agencies based on politics” for layoffs.
“We’re in a shutdown, that causes some problems,” he said. “The troops aren’t getting paid. There’s nothing that we can do about that while the government is shut down. But there are essential services that we want to make sure as, as much as possible, they still continue to function. That is the principle that’s driving us forward during the shutdown.”
DOGE and vows to slim government
Anticipated layoffs and program cuts amid the shutdown follow Trump’s ongoing mission to gut the federal government of fraud, corruption and overspending, which first hit the nation’s radar in the early days of the administration when Trump launched the Department of Government Efficiency, as well as previous mass layoffs initiatives.
Back in January, the administration offered federal employees voluntary buyouts to leave their posts before rolling out reduction in force initiatives across various agencies to slim down the government.
“We have hundreds of thousands of federal workers who have not been showing up to work,” Trump said during his joint address to Congress in March. “My administration will reclaim power from this unaccountable bureaucracy, and we will restore true democracy to America again.”
SHUTDOWN FIGHT CASTS A SHADOW OVER JOBS AS TRUMP PREPARES FOR LARGEST FEDERAL RESIGNATION IN US HISTORY
“And any federal bureaucrat who resists this change will be removed from office immediately, because we are draining the swamp,” he added. “It’s very simple. And the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over.”
Simultaneous to reduction in force efforts and buyouts, tech billionaire Elon Musk was charged with leading DOGE as investigators scrutinized federal agencies in an effort to curb government overspending and stamp out fraud. DOGE’s work became a lightning rod for criticism among Democratic lawmakers and government employees, who filed a number of lawsuits attempting to end the investigations and audits.
Trump repeatedly has celebrated DOGE’s work during his first few months in office, including frequently listing off the various “flagrant scams” that the government was funding before DOGE’s investigations.
“Twenty-five million dollars to promote biodiversity conservation and socially responsible behavior in Colombia. This is Colombia, South America, not Columbia University. Of course, that might be worse,” Trump said in February during CPAC, rattling off different examples. “Forty million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants.”
“Forty-two million for social and behavior change in Uganda,” Trump continued. “Ten million for Mozambique medical male circumcisions. Why are we going to Mozambique to do circumcisions?”
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House Wednesday morning for additional comment on the shutdown and Trump’s plans but did not immediately receive a reply.
Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind, Alex Miller and Deirdre Heavey contributed to this report.
