President Trump Thursday vowed to take advantage of the government shutdown to permanently shutter federal agencies that he brands “a political scam” and taunted Democrats for giving him the authority to act unilaterally by not voting to keep the government funded.
With no end to the shutdown in sight, Trump said he would meet with budget chief Russ Vought, the architect of the far right-wing Project 2025 policy blueprint, to identify which federal agencies could be put on the chopping block during the shutdown and beyond.
“(We will) determine which of the many Democrat agencies, most of which are a political scam, (should) be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent,” Trump wrote on his social media site. “I can’t believe the … Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity.”
He derided federal workers as “dead wood” who could be laid off en masse during the shutdown.
“Republicans must use this opportunity … to clear out dead wood, waste, and fraud,” he added.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said layoffs of government workers would begin “imminently” in coming days.
In previous shutdowns, workers were furloughed and agencies returned to normal operations once a deal was reached and the government reopened.
The shutdown does bestow additional powers on the White House to act without congressional approval to slash spending during a lapse in funding, a loophole that Vought has already shown he is eager to exploit to permanently downsize the federal government.
The White House has already moved to slash millions in anti-terrorism funding to New York and other blue states, although a federal judge temporarily put the cuts on hold.
It also cut funding for the Second Avenue subway and the Hudson River rail tunnel in what Democrats say is political retaliation against the home state of Democratic congressional leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries.
The standoff risks dragging deeper into October, when federal workers who remain on the job will begin missing paychecks. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated roughly 750,000 federal workers would be furloughed on any given day during the shutdown, a loss of $400 million daily in wages that will impact other economic activity too.
The shutdown was set to extend until at least Friday with no talks expected on Thursday due to the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.
A vote to end the government shutdown failed earlier Wednesday, as Democrats in the Senate held firm to the party’s demands to fund health care subsidies that Trump and Republicans refuse to extend.
At issue are tax credits that have made health insurance through the Affordable Care Act more affordable for millions of people since the COVID-19 pandemic. The credits are set to expire at the end of the year if Congress doesn’t extend them, which would more than double what up to 22 million Americans pay for health insurance premiums, with notices going out soon for 2026 plans.
