President Trump on Tuesday renewed his threat to punish Democrats during the ongoing government shutdown, promising that he would release on Friday a list of “Democrat programs” slated for permanent cuts.
The comments marked the latest escalation in Mr. Trump’s attempts to weaponize the lapse in federal funding, two weeks into the fiscal stalemate. His administration has already moved to lay off thousands of federal workers and block billions of dollars in aid, all in a bid to harm Democrats.
Mr. Trump did not detail the agencies or programs he had in mind, or say whether he would look to cull staff or slash spending. But he appeared to delight in the opportunity afforded by the shutdown to achieve a set of budget cuts that he has long sought, but that have not yet been ratified by Congress.
“The Democrats are getting killed in the shutdown, because we’re closing up programs that are Democrat programs that we’re opposed to,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House. “And they’re never going to come back, in many cases.”
He added that the shutdown had enabled his administration “to do things that we were unable to do before.” He also called attention to the political animus motivating his threats, explaining that he was “not closing up Republican programs, because we think they work.”
“We are closing up Democrat programs that we disagree with, and they’re never going to open again,” the president said.
For Mr. Trump, the recriminations offered the clearest view of his intention to use the shutdown as a political tool. Rather than mediate a spending truce, the president has instead taken extraordinary steps to ease the pain of the closure for some — and maximize it for others.
Since the shutdown began, the administration has either paused or canceled nearly $28 billion in funding that primarily benefited Democratic-leaning cities and states, including New York, the home state of the party’s congressional leaders.
Across government, the Trump administration also began the process last week to conduct another round of federal layoffs, targeting more than 4,000 employees in a move that unions have challenged in federal court. A judge will convene a hearing in the case on Wednesday.
But Mr. Trump has behaved much differently with agencies and programs he supports, and for constituencies that matter to his political agenda. In these cases, Mr. Trump has stretched the limits of his budgetary powers to ameliorate the blow of a crisis he helped to cause.
The administration moved around money collected from customs duties to fund the federal nutrition aid program known as W.I.C., and worked to release funds to rural airports that at one point seemed at risk of disruption during the shutdown.
Over the weekend, Mr. Trump and his aides also took the unusual step of tapping unspent research money at the Pentagon to pay military service members, who typically do not receive checks when federal funding lapses.
The administration adopted a similar approach with the Coast Guard, paying its military members using funds in the president’s recently passed tax cut package, according to congressional aides. The White House is exploring other budgetary maneuvers to sustain additional federal operations, including restarting pay for federal law enforcement.
Tony Romm is a reporter covering economic policy and the Trump administration for The Times, based in Washington.
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