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riversedge

(78,066 posts) Thu Oct 2, 2025, 12:51 PM 22 hrs ago

Trump uses government shutdown to dole out firings and political punishment

Source: AP

LISA MASCARO, JOSH BOAK and SEUNG MIN KIM Updated 11:11 AM CDT, October 2, 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has seized on the government shutdown as an opportunity to reshape the federal workforce and punish detractors, meeting with budget director Russ Vought on Thursday to talk through “temporary or permanent” spending cuts that could set up a lose-lose dynamic for Democratic lawmakers.

Trump announced the meeting on social media Thursday morning, saying he and Vought would determine “which of the many Democrat Agencies” would be cut — continuing their efforts to slash federal spending by threatening mass firings of workers and suggesting “irreversible” cuts to Democratic priorities.

“I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity,” Trump wrote on his social media account. “They are not stupid people, so maybe this is their way of wanting to, quietly and quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

The post was notable in its explicit embrace of Project 2025, a controversial policy blueprint drafted by the Heritage Foundation that Trump distanced himself from during his reelection campaign. The effort aimed to reshape the federal government around right-wing policies, and Democrats repeatedly pointed to its goals to warn of the consequences of a second Trump administration.
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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/trump-government-shutdown-firings-layoffs-vought-1fd57313272ec4db5984f653b095be33?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

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Highlight:

Trump uses government shutdown to dole out firings and political punishment (Original Post) riversedge 22 hrs ago OP

Instead of keeping the economy afloat..... Lovie777 22 hrs ago #1

DU keeps speculating that Trump has dementia, maxsolomon 21 hrs ago #2

"an opportunity to reshape the federal workforce and punish detractors" PSPS 20 hrs ago #3

Team Trump isn't just targeting individual foes; it's also using the government shutdown to seek revenge against program LetMyPeopleVote 20 hrs ago #4

Lovie777

(20,532 posts)

1. Instead of keeping the economy afloat.....

Reply to riversedge (Original post)

Thu Oct 2, 2025, 01:08 PM

22 hrs ago

and strengthen it the GQP is destroying it and surely I blame the Republican Party.

maxsolomon

(37,454 posts)

2. DU keeps speculating that Trump has dementia,

Reply to riversedge (Original post)

Thu Oct 2, 2025, 01:10 PM

21 hrs ago

as if that could explain why he's such a relentless asshole.

He's simply a Sociopath.

PSPS

(14,985 posts)

3. "an opportunity to reshape the federal workforce and punish detractors"

Reply to riversedge (Original post)

Thu Oct 2, 2025, 02:52 PM

20 hrs ago

Just promoting the false narrative. trump was already doing this and was going to continue doing it whether or not the budget was passed. And, even if it were passed, he'd just continue to illegally (but approved by the corrupt supreme court) "rescind" or "impound" congress-approved funds anyway.

If we're lucky, the shutdown will continue until the next congress in '26.

LetMyPeopleVote

(170,588 posts)

4. Team Trump isn't just targeting individual foes; it's also using the government shutdown to seek revenge against program

Reply to riversedge (Original post)

Thu Oct 2, 2025, 03:07 PM

20 hrs ago

Team Trump isn't just targeting individual foes; it's also using the government shutdown to seek revenge against programs and entire states.

Before the shutdown, Team Trump used government power to retaliate against individuals.

During the shutdown, Team Trump is using government power to retaliate against whole states.

No wonder a Democratic senator condemned the â€œmafioso tactics.â€ www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...
— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2025-10-02T13:04:01.033Z

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/white-house-targets-blue-states-democratic-senator-condemns-mafioso-ta-rcna235126

Things are different in his second term. As The New York Times summarized:

The Trump administration took steps on Wednesday to maximize the pain of the government shutdown, halting billions of dollars in funds for Democratic-led states while readying a plan to lay off potentially droves of civil servants imminently. The moves by the White House appeared both unprecedented and punitive, underscoring the risks of a fiscal stalemate that had no end in sight. It also evinced how President Trump might try to leverage the governmentwide closure to achieve his agenda, slash the budget and exact revenge on his political enemies.

Americans have been confronted with an avalanche of examples in recent months of the Trump administration using the levers of power to exact revenge on the president’s perceived political foes, but most of these instances have involved campaigns against individuals (see, for example, James Comey, Fani Willis, Letitia James, Adam Schiff, John Brennan, John Bolton and, of course, Joe Biden)....

But with the federal government shut down, the Republican White House is pursuing more expansive abuses, targeting programs and entire states.

The Times’ report added, “In a series of social media posts, Russell T. Vought, the White House budget director, said the administration had paused or moved to cancel the delivery of about $26 billion in previously approved funds across a range of programs, describing the money as wasteful or in need of further review.”

In an especially glaring example, Vought used social media to declare, “Nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda is being cancelled.”

......Vice President JD Vance treated the developments like a joke.

DOOCY: Does the timing of this indicate you going to squeeze Schumer's home state until he blinks?

JD VANCE: I'm sure that Russ Vought is heartbroken about the fact that he's unable to give certain things to certain constituencies
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-10-01T17:38:37.099Z

Democrats were not amused. In fact, one Democratic senator drew a parallel between the White House’s moves and an organized crime syndicate.

“We’re less than a day into this shutdown, and Trump [and] Vought are illegally punishing Democrat-led states,” Sen. Patty Murray of Washington wrote online. “This administration is clearly salivating at the opportunity to hurt people and using the shutdown they caused as the pretext to do it. These mafioso tactics will not work.”

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