President Trump said on Thursday that he would meet with his budget chief to determine which “Democratic agencies” he could try to cut, relishing the government shutdown as an “unprecedented opportunity” to achieve his agenda.
Mr. Trump did not specify in a post on social media whether he sought to slash spending or lay off federal workers, both of which he has threatened following the lapse in federal funding. Rather, the president said his discussion with Russell T. Vought, the White House budge director, would touch on “whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent.”
Mr. Trump’s comments reinforced his view that he sees political advantage in the governmentwide closure, which began at midnight on Wednesday, one that would allow him to carry out his preferred reconfiguration of Washington while inflicting pain on his political adversaries.
On the first day of the shutdown, Mr. Trump and his top aides halted about $26 billion in previously approved funding for infrastructure and green energy projects primarily in Democratic-run states. Mr. Vought also told lawmakers on Wednesday that mass layoffs targeting federal workers were imminent.
The White House budget office did not respond to a request for comment.
For the president and Mr. Vought, their tactics marked an escalation in a cost-cutting campaign that began at the start of Mr. Trump’s second term and the early work of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.
Through more than eight months, they have dismissed droves of civil servants, closed agencies and canceled billions of dollars in spending, sometimes in ways that have tested the law and defied Congress. By December, the federal government is expected to employ 300,000 fewer workers than it did in January, a reflection of the administration’s massed firings and induced resignations.
And Mr. Trump and Mr. Vought have pursued a dramatic retrenchment in government spending, proposing a budget that would slash about $163 billion in the 2026 fiscal year, largely by eliminating a vast set of climate, education, health and housing programs, including some that benefit the poor
In his social media post, Mr. Trump on Thursday referenced Mr. Vought’s work on Project 2025, the right-wing blueprint that similarly called for an overhaul of the federal government. In that document, Mr. Vought opined on the “existential need for aggressive use of the vast powers of the executive branch.”
Tony Romm is a reporter covering economic policy and the Trump administration for The Times, based in Washington.
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