Donald Trump began his promised mass purge of federal workers Friday, as more than 4,100 people were laid off as the government shutdown rolls on.
The president previewed the pink slips in a press conference in the Oval Office earlier Friday, blaming them and the shutdown on the Democrats.
'It'll be a lot and it'll be Democrat-oriented because we figure they started this thing. It'll be a lot of people, all because of the Democrats,' Trump said.
It's the biggest set of firings in government since Elon Musk's DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) purge early in Trump's second term.
The White House budget office said Friday that mass firings of federal workers have started in an attempt to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown continues.
Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said on the social platform X that the 'RIFs have begun,' referring to reduction-in-force plans aimed at reducing the size of the federal government.
The White House previewed that it would pursue the aggressive layoff tactic shortly before the government shutdown began on Oct. 1, telling all federal agencies to submit their reduction-in-force plans to the budget office for its review.
It said reduction-in-force could apply for federal programs whose funding would lapse in a government shutdown, is otherwise not funded and is 'not consistent with the President´s priorities.'
In a court filing, the budget office said well over 4,000 employees would be fired, though it noted that the funding situation was 'fluid and rapidly evolving.'
The firings would hit the hardest at the departments of the Treasury, which would lose over 1,400 employees; Health and Human Services, with a loss of over 1,100; and Housing and Urban Development, set to lose over 400.
The departments of Commerce, Education, Energy, and Homeland Security and the Environmental Protection Agency were all set to fire hundreds of more employees. It was not clear which particular programs would be affected.
The aggressive move by Trump's budget office goes far beyond what usually happens in a government shutdown and escalates an already politically toxic dynamic between the White House and Congress.
Talks to end the shutdown are almost nonexistent.
Typically, federal workers are furloughed but restored to their jobs once the shutdown ends, traditionally with back pay.
Some 750,000 employees are expected to be furloughed during the shutdown, officials have said.
Trump said that, going forward, 'We´re going to make a determination, do we want a lot? And I must tell you, a lot of them happen to be Democrat oriented.'
'These are people that the Democrats wanted, that, in many cases, were not appropriate,' he said of federal employees, eventually adding, 'Many of them will be fired.'
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