‘Get Lost’: Democrats Refuse to Back Down in Shutdown Standoff as the White House Threatens Mass Firings

Democratic leaders said they would not be intimidated by the White House’s threat to carry out another round of mass layoffs if the government shuts down next week, signaling they will stand firm in their negotiations with Republicans ahead of the looming deadline to extend federal funding. “This is an attempt at intimidation. Donald Trump has been firing federal workers since day one—not to govern, but to scare,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in response to a memo from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) instructing agencies to plan for large-scale firings in the case of a shutdown. Schumer added that the move by the White House budget office had “nothing to do with funding the government” and said the potential layoffs would “either be overturned in court or the administration will end up hiring the workers back, just like they did as recently as this week.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries sounded a similar note, saying Democrats “will not be intimidated by your threat to engage in mass firings” and calling Russell Vought, the head of the OMB, “a malignant political hack.” “Get lost,” he wrote on X. With the Sept. 30 deadline for Democrats and Republicans to reach a funding deal and avoid a government shutdown closing in, the OMB told federal agencies in its Wednesday night memo to consider cutting employees working for programs whose funding would lapse next week, don’t have another source of funding available, or are “not consistent with the President’s priorities.” “Programs that did not benefit from an infusion of mandatory appropriations will bear the brunt of a shutdown, and we must continue our planning efforts in the event Democrats decide to shut down the government,” says the memo, which was first reported by Politico. Read more: A Government Shutdown Could Start Wednesday. Here’s How It Could Affect Your Life The permanent job cuts to federal employees the memo directs agencies to begin planning for differ from the furloughs of previous government shutdowns, after which affected employees have returned to work once Congress agreed on measures to restore funding. Democrats have blocked a GOP stop-gap bill to extend government funding through Nov. 21 that passed the House and refused to support a measure to extend funding unless it reverses billions in cuts to Medicaid enacted by the “Big Beautiful Bill,” among other demands. Senate Republicans, in turn, have rejected Democrats’ plan. Trump was scheduled to meet with top Democrats this week with the aim of averting a shutdown, but announced his cancellation in a social media post, saying Democrats’ demands barred any productive meeting.  “After reviewing the details of the unserious and ridiculous demands being made by the Minority Radical Left Democrats in return for their Votes to keep our thriving Country open, I have decided that no meeting with their Congressional Leaders could possibly be productive,” Trump said on Truth Social.  Amid the apparent deadlock in negotiations, both parties are seeking to put blame for a potential shutdown on their opponents. “This is all caused by the Democrats,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday. “They asked us to do something that’s totally unreasonable. They never change.” Earlier in the day, Rep. Katherine Clark, the Democratic whip in the House, pointed the finger at Trump in an interview on CNN. “We have a president who claims he loves to make deals, but he will never fight for the American people,” she said. “When he is closing the door on us, he’s closing the door on them,” Clark said. “And we are here to say these cuts to health care are unsustainable for American families who are already struggling to provide the basics for their family … We have laid out how dangerous these cuts are, the damage they will do to families, to our overall economy. And so let’s come and have that negotiation.” Further layoffs would add to the federal employment decline of 97,000 already recorded by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics this year as the Trump Administration has sought to slash the federal budget and workforce.. “Federal employees are not bargaining chips. They are veterans, caregivers, law enforcement officers, and neighbors who serve their country and fellow Americans every day,” said American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley on Thursday. “They deserve stability and respect, not pink slips and political games.”