Trump uses government shutdown to dole out firings and political
punishment
[October 02, 2025]
By LISA MASCARO
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has seized on the government
shutdown as an opportunity to reshape the federal workforce and punish
detractors, by threatening mass firings of workers and suggesting
“irreversible” cuts to programs important to Democrats.
Rather than simply furlough employees, as is usually done during any
lapse of funds, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said
layoffs were “imminent.” The Office of Management and Budget announced
it was putting on hold roughly $18 billion of infrastructure funds for
New York's subway and Hudson Tunnel projects — in the hometown of the
Democratic leaders of the U.S. House and Senate.
Trump has marveled over the handiwork of his budget director.
“He can trim the budget to a level that you couldn’t do any other way,"
the president said at the start of the week of OMB Director Russ Vought,
who was also a chief architect of the Project 2025 conservative policy
book.
"So they're taking a risk by having a shutdown,” Trump said during an
event at the White House.
Thursday is day two of the shutdown, and already the dial is turned
high. The aggressive approach coming from the Trump administration is
what certain lawmakers and budget observers feared if Congress, which
has the responsibility to pass legislation to fund government, failed to
do its work and relinquished control to the White House.
Vought, in a private conference call with House GOP lawmakers Wednesday
afternoon, told them of layoffs starting in the next day or two. It’s an
extension of the Department of Government Efficiency work under Elon
Musk that slashed through the federal government at the start of the
year.
“These are all things that the Trump administration has been doing since
January 20th,” said House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, referring
to the president’s first day in office. “The cruelty is the point.”
With no easy endgame at hand, 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.
The economic effects could spill over into the broader economy. Past
shutdowns saw “reduced aggregate demand in the private sector for goods
and services, pushing down GDP,” the CBO said.
"Stalled federal spending on goods and services led to a loss of
private-sector income that further reduced demand for other goods and
services in the economy," it said. Overall CBO said there was a
“dampening of economic output,” but that reversed once people returned
to work.
“The longer this goes on, the more pain will be inflicted,” said House
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., “because it is inevitable when the
government shuts down.”
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President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House,
Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Trump and the congressional leaders are not expected to meet again
soon. Congress has no action scheduled Thursday in observance of the
Jewish holy day, with senators due back Friday. The House is set to
resume session next week.
The Democrats are holding fast to their demands to preserve health
care funding, and refusing to back a bill that fails to do so,
warning of price spikes for millions of Americans nationwide. The
Kaiser Family Foundation estimates insurance premiums will more than
double for people who buy policies on the Affordable Care Act
exchanges.
The Republicans have opened a door to negotiating the health care
issue, but GOP leaders say it can wait, since the subsidies that
help people purchase private insurance don’t expire until year’s
end.
“We’re willing to have a conversation about ensuring that Americans
continue to have access to health care,” Vice President JD Vance
said Wednesday at the White House.
With Congress as a standstill, the Trump administration has taken
advantage of new levers to determine how to shape the federal
government.
The Trump administration can tap into funds to pay workers at the
Defense Department and Homeland Security from what’s commonly called
the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that was signed into law this summer,
according to CBO.
That would ensure Trump's immigration enforcement and mass
deportation agenda is uninterrupted. But employees who remain on the
job at many other agencies will have to wait for government to
reopen before they get a paycheck.
Already Vought, from the budget office, has challenged the authority
of Congress this year by trying to claw back and rescind funds
lawmakers had already approved — for Head Start, clean energy
infrastructure projects, overseas aid and public radio and
television.
The Government Accountability Office has issued a series of rare
notices of instance where the administration's actions have violated
the law. But the Supreme Court in a ruling late last week allowed
the administration's so-called “pocket rescission” of nearly $5
billion in foreign aid to stand.
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Associated Press writers Stephen Groves, Joey Cappelletti, Matt
Brown, Kevin Freking and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this
report.
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