The Trump administration turned up the heat on congressional Democrats on Thursday, the second day of the first total government shutdown in 12 years, pressing the opposition to approve a stopgap funding measure or risk widespread cuts to the federal workforce.
White House officials suggested to lawmakers and reporters on Wednesday that layoffs were “imminent” and would increase in concert with the length of the shutdown.
President Donald Trump posted to social media Thursday morning that he would meet with Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought to “determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent.”
“I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “They are not stupid people, so maybe this is their way of wanting to, quietly and quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Trump’s post marks another escalation from the White House, as it aggressively pressures Democrats into caving and voting for a stopgap resolution to fund the federal government after funding ran out on Wednesday.
Before the shutdown began, Vought directed federal agencies in a memorandum to prepare for reduction-in-force notices to eligible employees to help trim the federal workforce even more. This week, several prominent members of the Trump administration insisted that layoffs are inevitable.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested to reporters ahead of Trump’s meeting on Thursday that the administration will lay off thousands of federal workers.
“It’s likely going to be in the thousands,” she said. “That’s something that the Office of Management and Budget and the entire team at the White House here again, is unfortunately having to work on today. These discussions and these conversations, these meetings, would not be happening if the Democrats had voted to keep the government.”
Trump’s barbs followed more than 24 hours of digital mockery from the White House press office, the bulk of which was furloughed like other federal workers.
Emails sent to furloughed White House aides received an automatic response blaming Democrats for the “delays.”
“Due to staff shortages resulting from the Democrat Shutdown, the typical 24/7 monitoring of this press inbox may experience delays,” the bounceback message reads. “We ask for your patience as our staff work to field your requests in a timely manner. As you await a response, please remember this could have been avoided if the Democrats voted for the clean Continuing Resolution to keep the government open. The press office also cannot accommodate waves requests or escorts at this time. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
On Wednesday afternoon, the White House also began looping parody videos, previously posted to social media by Trump, on the briefing room’s television screens. The clips began playing after Vice President JD Vance was forced to defend the president’s original post, which displayed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) speaking at the White House the day prior, with edited cartoon sombreros and moustaches on Jeffries’s face. Jeffries called the video racist.
“I’ll tell Hakeem Jeffries right now, I make this solid promise that if you help us reopen the government, the sombrero memes will stop,” Vance joked during Wednesday’s press briefing.
Still, some Republicans have expressed concerns about the reported cuts directly to the White House. According to Politico, Reps. Blake Moore (R-UT) and Brian Babin (R-TX) both raised the matter during a call with Vought on Wednesday afternoon.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told Semafor that the White House’s decision to cut funding for transportation construction in New York is “totally unacceptable.”
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) told CNN that he isn’t “nuts” about Trump’s hinted mass firings.
“There’s the political ramifications that could cause backlash,” he said in an interview on Wednesday. “It makes everything going forward more difficult for us.”
Polling over which party could be held responsible for the shutdown remains complicated.
An NPR-PBS News-Marist poll released before the shutdown began showed Republicans getting the blame over Democrats by a 38%-27% margin. However, 31% of respondents said both parties should shoulder the blame.
Another Washington Post poll, conducted on Wednesday, showed that 47% of respondents held Trump and GOP lawmakers accountable, compared to 30% who blamed Democrats and 23% who said they weren’t sure.
However, at least one Republican has pushed both parties to eschew the blame game and work on reopening the government, possibly through reaching a deal to extend the Obamacare income-based subsidies.
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“I don’t think that the focus should be on trying to blame one side or the other right now,” Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) said. “The focus should be on actually getting the government working again for the American people.
“I think there are issues where there’s room to negotiate, there’s a lot of people who want to reach some sort of deal on the ACA subsidies, so if doing that now will help us get the government open sooner, then that’s worth exploring. But I think it’s absolutely unacceptable that the government is shut down.”
Barnini Chakraborty contributed to this report.