Reuters
[Photo Credit: Reuters]
U.S. President Donald Trump said he will meet with his budget director Russell Vought on Thursday to determine which “Democrat Agencies” to cut, as he looks to inflict pain on his political opposition in the second day of a government shutdown.
Trump has already frozen federal transit and green-energy funding, opens new tab for Democratic-leaning states and has threatened to fire more federal workers during the shutdown, which began on Wednesday due to a partisan standoff in Congress.
Trump is already on track to push out 300,000 federal workers by the end of the year.
In his post, Trump mentioned Vought’s involvement with Project 2025, a plan by the conservative Heritage Foundation that calls for radically downsizing the federal government. Trump’s administration has already pursued many aspects of that plan, such as dismantling the Department of Education and curtailing the government’s power to fight pollution.
White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Trump could fire thousands of workers, though she did not provide details. Several federal employee unions have filed a lawsuit to prevent that from happening, but federal courts have allowed layoffs to proceed while similar cases are being litigated.
Senator Patty Murray, top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, warned Trump that more firings would not help to end the legislative logjam that has shut the government.
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