Donald Trump threatens ‘irreversible’ cuts during US government shutdown

Russell Vought, Office of Management and Budget director, has been criticised (Evan Vucci/AP)

President Donald Trump has seized on the government shutdown as an opportunity to reshape the federal workforce and punish detractors, meeting with budget director Russ Vought to talk through “temporary or permanent” spending cuts.

He announced the meeting on social media on Thursday morning, saying he and Mr Vought would determine “which of the many Democrat Agencies” would be cut — continuing their efforts to slash federal spending by threatening mass firings of workers and suggesting “irreversible” cuts to Democratic priorities.

“I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity,” Mr Trump wrote on his social media account. “They are not stupid people, so maybe this is their way of wanting to, quietly and quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

The post was notable in its explicit embrace of Project 2025, a controversial policy blueprint drafted by the Heritage Foundation that Mr Trump distanced himself from during his reelection campaign.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, condemned the threats (Mariam Zuhaib/AP)

The effort aimed to reshape the federal government around right-wing policies, and Democrats repeatedly pointed to its goals to warn of the consequences of a second Trump administration.

Mr Vought on Wednesday offered an opening salvo of the pressure he hoped to put on Democrats. He announced he was withholding 18 billion dollars for the Hudson River rail tunnel and Second Avenue subway line in New York City that have been championed by Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries in their home state. Mr Vought is also cancelling 8 billion dollars in green energy projects in states with Democratic senators.

Meanwhile, the White House is preparing for mass firings of federal workers, rather than simply furloughing them as is the usual practice during a shutdown. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said earlier this week that lay-offs were “imminent”.

“If they don’t want further harm on their constituents back home, then they need to reopen the government,” Ms Leavitt said.

Mr Vought has emerged as a central figure in the shutdown — promising possible lay-offs of government workers that would be a show of strength by the Trump administration as well as a possible liability given the weakening job market and existing voter unhappiness over the economy.

The strategic goal is to increase the political pressure on Democratic lawmakers as agencies tasked with environmental protection, racial equity and addressing poverty could be gutted over the course of the shutdown.

But Democratic lawmakers also see Mr Vought as the architect of a strategy to refuse to spend congressionally approved funds, using a tool known as a “pocket rescission” in which the administration submits plans to return unspent money to Congress just before the end of the fiscal year, causing that money to lapse.

All of this means that Democratic spending priorities might be in jeopardy regardless of whether they want to keep the government open or partially closed.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt spoke to reporters (Evan Vucci/AP)

Ahead of the end of the fiscal year in September, Mr Vought used the pocket rescission to block the spending of 4.9 billion dollars in foreign aid.

White House officials refused to speculate on the future use of pocket rescissions after rolling them out in late August. But one of Mr Vought’s former colleagues said that future pocket rescissions could be 20 times higher.

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.

Mr Vought, in a private conference call with Republican lawmakers on Wednesday afternoon, told them of lay-offs starting in the next day or two. It is 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 20,” said House Democratic leader Mr Jeffries, referring to the president’s first day in office. “The cruelty is the point.”