Trump and budget chief Vought are making this a government shutdown
unlike any other
[October 15, 2025]
By LISA MASCARO
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is making this government
shutdown unlike any the nation has ever seen, giving his budget office
rare authority to pick winners and losers — who gets paid or fired,
which programs are cut or survive — in an unprecedented restructuring
across the federal workforce.
As the shutdown enters its third week, the Office and Management and
Budget said Tuesday it's preparing to “batten down the hatches” with
more reductions in force to come. The president calls budget chief Russ
Vought the “grim reaper,” and Vought has seized on the opportunity to
fund Trump's priorities, paying the military while slashing jobs in
health, education, the sciences and other areas with actions that have
been criticized as illegal and are facing court challenges.
Trump said programs favored by Democrats are being targeted and “they’re
never going to come back, in many cases.”
Speaking during an event at the White House, Trump added, “We’re being
able to do things that we were unable to do before."
With Congress at a standstill — the Republican-led House refusing to
return to session and the Senate stuck in a loop of failed votes to
reopen government as Democrats demand health care funding — the budget
office quickly filled the void.
From Project 2025 to the White House
Vought, a chief architect of the conservative Project 2025 policy book,
is reshaping the size and scope of federal government in ways similar to
those envisioned in the blueprint. It is exactly what certain lawmakers,
particularly Democrats, feared if Congress failed to fund the
government.
Trump's priorities — supporting the military and pursuing his mass
deportation agenda — have been largely uninterrupted, despite the
closures. The administration found leftover tariff revenues to ensure
the Women, Infants and Children food aid program did not shutter.
But the Trump administration is shuttering scores of other programs,
firing workers handling special education and after-school programs and
those guarding the nation's infrastructure from cyber attacks. More than
4,100 federal workers received layoff notices over the weekend.
“This shutdown is different from earlier ones because Donald Trump and
Russ Vought and all of their cronies are using this moment to terrorize
these patriotic federal employees,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.,
standing with federal workers Tuesday outside the White House budget
office.
Van Hollen said it's "a big fat lie” when Trump and his budget director
say the shutdown is making them fire federal workers. “It is also
illegal and we will see them in court,” he said.
Shutdown grinds into a third week
Now on its 14th day, the federal closure is quickly becoming one of the
longest government shutdowns. Congress failed to meet the Oct. 1
deadline to pass the annual appropriations bills needed to fund the
government as the Democrats demanded a deal to preserve expiring health
care funds that provide subsidies for people to purchase insurance
through the Affordable Care Act.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday he has nothing to negotiate with
the Democrats until they vote to reopen the government. But there are no
signs so far of that happening as Senate Democrats have rejected a GOP
bill to reopen the government eight times, most recently on Monday
evening.
The Republican speaker welcomed OMB’s latest actions to pay some workers
and fire others.
“They have every right to move the funds around,” Johnson said at a
press conference at the Capitol. If the Democrats want to challenge the
Trump administration in court, Johnson said, “bring it."
Typically, federal workers are furloughed during a lapse in funding,
traditionally with back pay once government funding is restored. But
Vought's budget office announced late last week that the reductions in
forces had begun. Some 750,000 employees are being furloughed.
[to top of second column]
|
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., flanked by Rep. Virginia
Foxx, R-N.C., chair of the House Rules Committee, left, and Rep.
Lisa McClain, R-Mich., tells reporters he is starting a project
along with the speaker of the Israeli Knesset to rally global
leaders to support President Donald Trump's nomination for next
year's Nobel Peace Prize, as the government shutdown enters its
third week, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025.
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Military pay, deportations on track
At the same time, Trump instructed the military to find money to
ensure service personnel wouldn't miss paychecks this week. The
Pentagon said over the weekend it was able to tap $8 billion in
unused research and development funds to make payroll.
On Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said her agency
was relying on Trump's big tax cuts law for funding to make sure
members of the Coast Guard are also paid.
“We at DHS worked out an innovative solution,” Noem said in a
statement. Thanks to Trump's “One Big Beautiful Bill,” she said,
"the brave men and women of the US Coast Guard will not miss a
paycheck this week.”
In past shutdowns, the OMB has overseen agency plans during the
lapse in federal fundings, ensuring which workers are essential and
remain on the job. Vought, however, has taken his role further by
speaking openly about his plans to go after the federal workforce.
As agencies started making their shutdown plans, Vought's OMB
encouraged department heads to consider reductions in force, an
unheard-of action. The budget office's general counsel, Mark
Paoletta, suggested in a draft memo that the workforce may not be
automatically eligible for back pay once government reopens.
‘Grim reaper’ replaces Elon Musk's chainsaw
Trump posted an AI-generated video last week that portrayed Vought
wearing a cloak and carrying a scythe, against the backdrop of the
classic rock staple “(Don't Fear) The Reaper.”
“Every authoritarian leader has had his grim reaper. Russell Vought
is Donald Trump’s," said Rep. Steny Hoyer, the senior Democrat from
Maryland.
Hoyer compared the budget chief to billionaire Elon Musk wielding a
chainsaw earlier this year during the Department of Government
Efficiency's slashing of the workforce. “Vought swings his scythe
through the federal government as thoughtlessly," he said.
In many ways, Trump’s tax cuts law gave the White House a vast new
allotment of federal funding for its priority projects, separate
from the regular appropriations process in Congress.
The package unleashed some $175 billion for the Pentagon, including
for the “Golden Dome” missile shield and other priority projects,
and nearly $170 billion for Homeland Security, largely for Trump's
mass deportation agenda. It also included extra funds for Vought's
work at OMB.
Certain funds from the bill are available to be used during the
shutdown, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
“The Administration also could decide to use mandatory funding
provided in the 2025 reconciliation act or other sources of
mandatory funding to continue activities financed by those direct
appropriations at various agencies,” according to CBO.
The CBO cited the departments of Defense, Treasury and Homeland
Security and the Office of Management and Budget as among those that
received funds under the law.
___
Associated Press writers Will Weissert, Kevin Freking, Stephen
Groves and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
