{"id":13092,"date":"2025-10-08T11:49:36","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T03:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=13092"},"modified":"2025-10-08T11:49:40","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T03:49:40","slug":"white-house-draws-out-mass-federal-firings-timeline-as-gop-grows-squeamish-in-funding-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=13092","title":{"rendered":"White House draws out mass federal firings timeline as GOP grows squeamish in funding fight"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
People walk along the National Mall in Washington, DC, on October 1, 2025.\u00a9\u00a0Mark Schiefelbein\/AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Trump administration\u2019s strategy to swiftly roll out\u00a0mass layoffs<\/a>\u00a0of federal workers during the government shutdown has shifted in recent days, administration officials familiar with the talks told CNN, as an increasing number of Republican lawmakers and Trump administration officials acknowledge the potential political perils of the move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Democrats having shown no signs of budging in their opposition to a stopgap funding measure that doesn\u2019t address their health care demands and a growing number of Republican lawmakers warning about potential blowback, the White House is now planning to hold off at least a little longer on sending out notices of Reductions in Force (RIFs, as the government firings are typically referred to), despite hoping the threat will still motivate Democrats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an increasing acknowledgment within the West Wing that the politics of RIFs, at a moment when we know our message on the shutdown is the better one, would be better later,\u201d one of the officials said. It\u2019s \u201cthe idea that if we give it more time, it\u2019ll be because the Democrats truly forced our hand and left us no choice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd we do not want to appear gleeful about people losing their jobs, of course,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The White House initially planned for layoffs in the immediate aftermath of the shutdown, the officials said, with the Office of Budget and Management \u2014 led by Russell Vought<\/a> \u2014 having made recommendations for agencies that should face the steepest cuts last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On social media, President Donald Trump himself called the shutdown an \u201cunprecedented opportunity\u201d to carry out one of his key priorities: shrinking the federal workforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A large part of that rhetoric was widely viewed within the administration as a threat to try to usher Democrats to the table and force their votes to reopen the government. Some sources have noted that Democrats spent much of the first months of Trump\u2019s presidency outraged over the firings of federal workers<\/a> through the Department of Government Efficiency, then led by Elon Musk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The president had also been serious about using that opening to target what he and many conservatives have characterized as burgeoning federal bureaucracy, the officials said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is, however, broad agreement among the president\u2019s top aides that, eventually, Trump will need to make good on the threat if negotiations on ending the shutdown remain deadlocked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere will come a point when we have to face reality. We need to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. But we hope it doesn\u2019t come to that,\u201d a White House official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The White House pointed CNN to press secretary Karoline Leavitt\u2019s Monday remarks, during which she declared: \u201cThis conversation about layoffs would not be happening right now if the Democrats did not vote to shut the government down.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump said Tuesday that he\u2019ll be able to say \u201cin four or five days\u201d which government programs he intends to permanently eliminate \u201cif this keeps going on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have a lot,\u201d he told reporters in the Oval Office. \u201cI\u2019m not going to tell you, but we\u2019ll be announcing it pretty soon. But we have a lot of things that we\u2019re going to eliminate and permanently eliminate.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wary lawmakers warn against losing \u2018high ground\u2019<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The shifting strategy comes as several Republican lawmakers have grown wary that using the shutdown to lay off federal workers en masse could ultimately backfire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s rhetoric that excites the base, but we\u2019re in a messaging battle to win the middle. \u2018Slash and burn\u2019 talk turns them off, and is reducing our leverage,\u201d one House Republican told CNN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another put it this way: \u201cWe have the high ground now, but could lose it with mass firings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some lawmakers have brought concerns directly to the White House, two Republican sources with knowledge of the conversations told CNN. A White House official did not dispute that there have been such discussions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The administration also seemed to deploy another threat to try to force Democrats\u2019 hand on Tuesday after news outlets reported on a draft White House memo suggesting<\/a> that furloughed federal employees may not be given back pay during the government shutdown, further exacerbating the issue. Trump was quick to seize on the new threat, while refusing to commit to doing so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would say it depends on who we\u2019re talking about. I can tell you this, the Democrats have put a lot of people in great risk and jeopardy, but it really depends on who you\u2019re talking about,\u201d Trump said during an Oval Office meeting<\/a> with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Such a move would be a major break from precedent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that he and the president both want furloughed federal workers to receive back pay once the shutdown ends. Trump, meanwhile, argued that \u201cit depends\u201d on the individual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor the most part, we\u2019re going to take care of our people. There are some people that really don\u2019t deserve to be taken care of, and we\u2019ll take care of them in a different way,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mass layoffs yet to materialize<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

On the first day of the government shutdown, Vought warned House Republicans on a private call that a massive wave of federal layoffs was coming quickly, anticipating they\u2019d be rolled out in a few days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next day, Trump touted<\/a> that he was meeting with Vought to discuss which cuts were necessary and nodded to his budget chief\u2019s ties to Project 2025 \u2014 a conservative blueprint that had advocated for major cuts to government spending, dismantling the independence of government agencies and expanding the president\u2019s executive authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can\u2019t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity,\u201d Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on the shutdown\u2019s second day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, the White House, in coordination with OMB, has been compiling a list of agencies it\u2019s planning on targeting and discussing them with the Cabinet leaders who oversee them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But while White House officials had said the cuts could be announced as early as October 3, the firings have yet to come to fruition. It comes as welcome news for some lawmakers worried about the impact \u2014 such as GOP Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia, who represents a large Air Force base where workers are furloughed and has many constituents who are no longer receiving disaster relief funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firing federal workers, the Georgia Republican argued, could play right into the hands of Democrats. \u201cI have not heard a single Republican in the House express the desire to have mass layoffs of federal employees,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Thom Tillis similarly cautioned that not guaranteeing back pay for furloughed federal employees would be poor political strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI believe it\u2019s a strategic mistake to now let those folks know or let them think that they could potentially not get back pay. If I were them, I\u2019d start looking for another job. And there\u2019s a lot of good, hard-working people out there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked whether there was a viable off-ramp with Democrats to end the shutdown this week, the North Carolina Republican was not optimistic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo, I don\u2019t think so,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Trump administration\u2019s strategy to swiftly roll out\u00a0mass layoffs\u00a0of federal workers during the government shutdown has shifted in recent days, administration officials familiar with the talks told CNN, as an increasing number of Republican lawmakers and Trump administration officials acknowledge the potential political perils of the move. With Democrats having shown no signs of budging […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":13093,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[1744,1592,2222],"class_list":["post-13092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-usa","tag-federal","tag-mass","tag-out"],"yoast_head":"\nWhite House draws out mass federal firings timeline as GOP grows squeamish in funding fight - LISTEN WORLD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=13092\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"White House draws out mass federal firings timeline as GOP grows squeamish in funding fight - LISTEN WORLD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Trump administration\u2019s strategy to swiftly roll out\u00a0mass layoffs\u00a0of federal workers during the government shutdown has shifted in recent days, administration officials familiar with the talks told CNN, as an increasing number of Republican lawmakers and Trump administration officials acknowledge the potential political perils of the move. 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