By Jack Phillips
Contributing Writer
President Donald Trump on Thursday touted the ongoing government shutdown as an opportunity to target various federal agencies, while saying that he will meet with the head of the Office of Management and Budget to determine the next steps.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he will soon meet with OMB Director Russ Vought to determine which agencies “he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent,” adding that Democrats had given him “this unprecedented opportunity” by not voting in favor of a stopgap measure to fund the government.
The shutdown started in the early morning on Wednesday, causing a number of federal employees to be furloughed.
In another post on the platform, the president urged his fellow Republicans to “use this opportunity” during the shutdown “to clear out dead wood, waste, and fraud,” adding that “billions of dollars can be saved” as a result.
The president’s remarks appear to build on an announcement from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt a day earlier to reporters about layoffs amid the shutdown.
On Wednesday, Leavitt said that Trump has told his Cabinet and OMB “to identify where cuts can be made,” adding that “we believe that layoffs are imminent.”
The White House’s key policy priorities, including the administration’s deportation agenda, may continue with few disruptions. It’s possible that some education, environmental, and other services may eventually sputter. There also could be economic fallout due to the shutdown, with the United States’ gross domestic product taking a hit, warned Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
“This isn’t the way to have a discussion, shutting down the government and lowering the GDP,” Bessent said in a CNBC “Squawk Box” interview on Thursday. “We could see a hit to the GDP, a hit to growth, and a hit to working America.”
When asked whether Trump would permanently lay off 750,000 federal workers, the secretary said it was a “talking point” amid negotiations. He then blamed the Democratic leadership in Congress for not taking action to avert the shutdown, a strategy that Trump and other White House officials have employed.
Both House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have similarly blamed Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration for what they said is a lack of willingness to negotiate in good faith.
Democrats said that any deal on reopening the government is contingent on their health care policy proposals, namely, tax credits that were introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic that are slated to expire at the end of the year.
“Republicans shut down the government because they can’t be bothered to protect health care for Americans across this country. Premiums are set to more than double! Americans cannot afford this,” Schumer wrote in a statement posted to X.
Jeffries issued a similar comment on that platform, accusing Republicans of wanting to “take your health care away.”
Republicans have said that the health care tax credits must be addressed separately. Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said that the Democratic leadership effectively gave a mandate to Trump.
“He’s handed President Trump the keys to the kingdom,” Johnson told the “Moon Griffon Show” on Wednesday, saying that the shutdown could allow the GOP to “eliminate bloated, unnecessary federal programs that we would like to vote down, but we never had the votes in the Senate to do. Now we have the moment.”