'Lot of good can come from shutdowns': Trump threatens Democrats with layoffs

With the United States undergoing its first government shutdown in nearly seven years, President Donald Trump has threatened that he would use this as an opportunity to lay off Democrats. The shutdown comes as Senate Democrats late Tuesday (Sep 30) rejected a Republican stopgap funding bill, demanding concessions on healthcare. With funding set to expire at midnight Wednesday, the White House’s budget office has ordered federal agencies to prepare for an “orderly shutdown.”

Trump to strip away "Democrat things" under the guise of a shutdown?

President Donald Trump, who had earlier predicted the deadlock, blamed Democrats and warned that the stoppage would be used to slash public sector jobs and strip away “Democrat things.”

“So we’d be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected. And they’re Democrats, they’re going to be Democrats,” Trump said at a White House event earlier. He added that “a lot of good can come from shutdowns” and suggested that his administration would use it to “get rid of a lot of things we didn’t want, and they’d be Democrat things”.

The shutdown threatens hundreds of thousands of federal employees with furloughs and could disrupt key government services. It follows earlier mass layoffs under Elon Musk’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency, which slashed federal payrolls this year.

Republican bill to keep funding the government fails

Senate Republicans, who control the chamber but fell short of the 60 votes needed, accused Democrats of staging a showdown for political gain. Democrats countered that Republicans refused to negotiate over skyrocketing healthcare costs.

In a memo released after the damning vote, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget directed the affected agencies to “execute their plans for an orderly shutdown.”

If no breakthrough comes, the government will begin shutting down at midnight — with both parties racing to assign blame.