President Trump said Thursday that he would meet with his budget director, Russ Vought, about which "Democrat Agencies" to cut as the federal government has lurched into a shutdown.
The federal government's day-to-day operations are carried out by nonpartisan workers with some federal agencies led by political appointees. But the Trump administration is using the shutdown to take aim at the Democratic Party.
"I can't believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity," Trump wrote on Truth Social. He called on Republicans to use the shutdown to "clear out dead wood" and said billions of dollars can be saved "by eliminating waste and fraud," though did not give any examples.
While some call the Trump administration's threats a political "bluff" to force Democrats to come back to the negotiating table, Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, seems to be making good on that promise.
He announced Wednesday the cancellation of $8 billion in energy projects. He also promised to cancel $18 billion in infrastructure funding to New York City, targeting the home state of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Vought has also warned that layoffs of federal workers would begin within days — though any reductions-in-force would have to come from agencies themselves and follow certain procedures.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters on Thursday that Vought has no other choice. He blamed Senate Democrats for forcing the administration's hand, and said Vought is following a directive from the president.
"Russ has to sit down and decide because he's in charge of that office, which policies, personnel and which programs are essential and which are not. That is not a fun task. And he is not enjoying that responsibility," Johnson said. "It could end today if the Senate Democrats would come to their senses ... if they don't ... it's going to get more and more painful."
Executive power in a shutdown
The shutdown does not give Vought or the White House any extra powers, according to Bridget Dooling, a law professor at The Ohio State University who worked at OMB for over a decade.
She argues it's a clear misunderstanding of the differences between temporary lapses in appropriations, which is what a shutdown is, versus permanently laying off workers.
"This is a bluff," she said. "And this is the administration trying to use some leverage to basically force Democrats back to the table to negotiate, to get the government back open."
The White House says Democrats have left them no choice but to look for savings across the federal government. But they have not explained why permanent layoffs would be necessary and not just temporary furloughs.
And Vought's past statements and writings indicate he's less focused on working with Democrats and more focused on making the changes he's long advocated for.
Vought has long advocated for strict cuts
Vought was a key architect of the controversial Project 2025, a conservative playbook released in 2023 to guide a potential future Republican administration. Vought argued in it that the White House needed to take a more activist approach to cutting spending and overhauling the federal workforce.
Now, he's part of the administration, and working to carry out those goals.
He said with Republicans in full control of the federal government, it was time to contain spending regardless of whether they had the support of Democrats.
"The appropriations process has to be less bipartisan," Vought told reporters at a breakfast hosted this summer by the Christian Science Monitor.
On Tuesday, Vought told Fox Business that he saw the shutdown as an opportunity to carry out the administration's broader goals to overhaul the federal workforce.
"Let it be said there are all manners of authorities to be able to keep this administration's policy agenda moving forward, and that includes reducing the size and scope of the federal government, and we will be looking for opportunities to do that," Vought said.
Last week, he sent out a memo to federal agencies telling them to prepare for large-scale firings of federal workers if the government shuts down.
The move outraged leading Democrats.
Jeffries said the threat would not bend Democrats into supporting Republican spending plans that they say hurts public health.
"Listen Russ, you are a malignant political hack," Jeffries posted on X. "We will not be intimidated by your threat to engage in mass firings."
Republican leaders in Congress claim Democrats have tied their hands and essentially handed over the power of the purse to the executive branch.
The government typically decides which employees are "essential" vs "nonessential" for a temporary shutdown. But in this case, the White House may be using that concept for permanent cuts.
Hill Democrats say Vought is doing same thing he did before shutdown
Most Democrats on Capitol Hill say Vought's actions are no different than what he has been doing since the start of the administration, and that's a key reason they're determined to push back.
"This is increasing signs of our democracy evaporating before our eyes," Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told NPR. He said a wind project was canceled in his home state and there is a legal battle over it.
Multiple Democrats say Vought and the president were determined to use the shutdown as a pretense for inflicting further pain on political opponents.
"I think everybody should be worried," Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said about the news of Vought targeting blue states with cuts hours after the shutdown started. He said any deal to reopen the government would have to come with enforceable provisions that ensure money is distributed as specified in legislation.
"For me the most important thing about this budget negotiation is getting the president to agree that a deal is a deal, because he's just acting like a king unilaterally — go after enemies, go after cities I don't like," Kaine said.
Kaine noted that even before the shutdown the Trump administration canceled $40 million for an economic project in Norfolk, Va., and pulled back $400 million in public health money during an uptick in measles cases.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., stressed that to reopen the government, he needs five more Democrats to vote with the GOP on a stopgap bill. Three senators — Democrats Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, plus Independent Angus King of Maine — backed the GOP bill this week.
After Cortez Masto broke with her Democratic colleagues, she explained in a statement that she is concerned about her home state and the economic impact on the tourism industry, military installations and more.
"That's why I cannot support a costly shutdown that would hurt Nevada families and hand even more power to this reckless administration," she said.
When Vought posted on social media a list of energy projects in blue states that he was cancelling, Nevada — home to two Democratic senators — was not on the list. It's unclear if Cortez Masto's vote for the GOP bill influenced that omission.
Senate Appropriations Committee chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, made it clear on Wednesday that she opposed Vought's unilateral cuts. Collins has stressed that she is focused on working out bipartisan agreements on individual spending bills.
Another GOP appropriator, Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said Vought wouldn't be making these cuts or announcing federal firings if there weren't a lapse in federal funding. Referring to OMB, Rounds said, "When you shut down government, you provide them a perfect opportunity to have a reason to reduce costs on a permanent basis, and the executive branch is perfectly within their authority to do so, particularly when you have a government shutdown."
He said if Democrats want to make it more difficult for Vought to act, they need to vote for a short-term funding bill.
But Democrat Murphy says the more Vought pushes the legal envelope, the more Democrats should fight back.
"We would be suckers to sign onto a budget in which none of the funding ever gets spent in Democratic states and all the funding gets spent in Republican states. As they act more lawlessly, our spine should stiffen," Murphy said.
Labor unions fight back
Federal workers say the Trump administration has already exceeded its authority. On Tuesday, just hours before the shutdown, labor unions representing more than 800,000 federal employees sued Vought, along with Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Scott Kupor, over what it called unlawful threats to dismantle essential federal services and functions provided by federal personnel.
"It's an illegal abuse of power designed to punish patriotic civil servants and put pressure on Congress," Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), said in an NPR interview Wednesday morning.
AFGE, along with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, argue the OMB memo takes the "legally unsupportable position" that the lapse in appropriations eliminates federal agencies' statutory requirements to carry out programs Congress had previously funded.
In their complaint, the unions allege the budget office's memo unlawfully directs agencies to disregard their own authorizing statutes.
The unions have asked the court to declare that both OMB and OPM have exceeded their statutory authority and acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner, and to invalidate any actions that may come from the memos and guidance issued.
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NPR politics reporter Stephen Fowler contributed to this report.
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