House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sees a silver lining for President Donald Trump as the federal government shut down overnight.
The government officially shuttered at midnight amid a tense partisan standoff, as Republicans and Democrats in Washington have blamed each other for failing to reach an agreement on how to extend federal funding. It marks the first government shutdown since 2018, under Trump’s first term.
During an appearance on Fox Business early Wednesday, Johnson was presented with comments from Trump, who suggested on Tuesday that his administration could use a shutdown as an opportunity to take major action against Democrats — while insisting that Republicans wanted to keep the government running.
“…Like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like,” Trump told reporters, adding that “large numbers of people” could lose out on government benefits.
“We don’t want to do that, but we don’t want fraud, waste and abuse,” he then pivoted.
Host Maria Bartiromo directly asked Johnson to assess job cuts and “how severe they could be.” Due to the federal shutdown, roughly 750,000 federal workers are expected to be furloughed each day, starting Wednesday, according to an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office, while some could become permanent firings.
“The president and I talked about this at great length. While a shutdown is very damaging for real American people who depend upon government services, it can provide an opportunity to downsize the scope and the scale of government, which is something that we’ve all always wanted to do,” Johnson said on “Mornings with Maria.”
“And so in a way, [House Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer has now handed the keys to the kingdom to the executive branch under President Trump to do some things that we would not otherwise be able to do because we would never get Democrat votes for them,” he continued.
Johnson pointed to Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, saying it is his responsibility to “look at all of this and make very difficult choices.”
“He gets to decide now — what services are essential? What programs and policies should be continued, and which would not be a priority for taxpayers?” Johnson said.
Late Tuesday, the Senate rejected separate Republican and Democratic proposals, just hours before the funding lapse deadline — making it clear a shutdown was on the horizon.
The impasse mainly centered on health care, with Democratic leadership pushing for an extension of tax credits under the Affordable Care Act that are set to expire at the end of the year, as well as a reversal of Medicaid cuts in Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” signed into law this summer. Meanwhile, Republicans aimed to extend funding for seven weeks to allow more time to continue working on annual spending bills.
Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries met with Trump for an eleventh-hour Oval Office meeting on Monday to come to a deal ahead of the current government shutdown. In a joint statement released Wednesday, the two Democratic leaders took aim at the president, pinning blame on him and the Republican Party for causing the situation.
“…They do not want to protect the healthcare of the American people,” the lawmakers said in the statement. “Democrats remain ready to find a bipartisan path forward to reopen the government in a way that lowers costs and addresses the Republican healthcare crisis. But we need a credible partner.”
In a post on X on Wednesday, the official White House account said that Democrats are “holding the nation HOSTAGE to appease their radical left base.”