President Donald Trump’s administration has upped the stakes of a potential government shutdown by threatening mass firings in federal agencies if the shutdown were to occur.
Whereas usually federal workers would be furloughed in the event of a shutdown and re-hired once Congress reopens the government, this order from the White House budget office—first reported Wednesday night by Politico—instructs agencies to permanently eliminate jobs that aren’t consistent with the president’s priorities if the government shuts down.
The Trump administration decision to use the threat of firings as leverage ups the ante in negotiations with congressional Democrats over government funding.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the move an “attempt at intimidation” but didn’t seem swayed by the threat. He said earlier this month when talking about shutdown negotiations that the Trump administration’s attacks on federal agencies “will get worse with or without [a shutdown], because Trump is lawless.”
Schumer also believes that the firings likely aren’t as permanent as they seem—that they’ll likely be overturned in court, or that the administration will just end up hiring workers back, as they’re aiming to do with employees fired during DOGE cuts.
“Donald Trump has been firing federal workers since day one—not to govern, but to scare. This is nothing new and has nothing to do with funding the government,” Schumer said in a statement.
The post Trump Has Deranged Plan to Force Dems to Cave on Government Shutdown appeared first on New Republic.
