{"id":14148,"date":"2025-10-07T08:47:58","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T08:47:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/mass-firing-threats-dont-faze-democrats\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T08:47:58","modified_gmt":"2025-10-07T08:47:58","slug":"mass-firing-threats-dont-faze-democrats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/mass-firing-threats-dont-faze-democrats\/","title":{"rendered":"Mass firing threats don\u2019t faze Democrats"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

President Donald Trump said Monday he\u2019s on the verge of enacting mass firings of federal workers. But Democrats say it won\u2019t make them budge in the increasingly rancorous shutdown standoff.<\/p>\n

The mass layoffs, dreamed up by White House budget director Russ Vought, would be the most significant pressure point yet as the shutdown enters a seventh day Tuesday \u2014 if Trump follows through. Already he has blown past Vought\u2019s own prediction<\/a> that firings would start by the end of last week, and no action was taken in the immediate aftermath of a fifth failed Senate vote<\/a> Monday to reopen the government.<\/p>\n

But ahead of that vote<\/a>, Democrats projected defiance and argued the White House threats are hollow \u2014 not because they don\u2019t believe the administration won\u2019t follow through, but because they think it would be swinging the meat-axe regardless.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were firing people right and left before the government shutdown,\u201d said Sen. Dick Durbin<\/a> of Illinois, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, when asked about the threats.<\/p>\n

Proceeding with \u201creductions in force,\u201d as Vought has threatened, would go well beyond the typical shutdown furloughs, where federal workers are hired back once the government reopens. But they would be in keeping with the Trump administration\u2019s sledgehammer approach to the federal bureaucracy since January.<\/p>\n

Trump officials have made no secret they are using the threats as a cudgel in the shutdown fight: One of his top economic advisers, Kevin Hassett, said Sunday the administration was closely watching how Democrats voted Monday night \u2014 in effect, daring them to risk their own constituents\u2019 livelihoods.<\/p>\n

More than 20 percent of the federal workforce<\/a> resides in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia. But even Democrats representing the capital\u2019s suburbs shrugged off the threat.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Federal workers] know that he’s going to move forward with firing as many federal government employees as he possibly can,\u201d Rep. Glenn Ivey<\/a> (D-Md.) told reporters. \u201cAnd this is a threat that they don’t think is any different from what he’s been doing before, and I think they’re right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Chris Van Hollen<\/a> (D-Md.) was more direct in a gaggle with reporters last week, calling Trump\u2019s plans \u201cMafia-style threats and blackmail.\u201d<\/p>\n

They have backing from federal worker unions, who have generally encouraged Democrats to keep up their fight against Trump as lawmakers urge Republicans to come to the negotiating table on health care. Democrats also believe that the threat of a steep premium hike for Affordable Care Act insurance plans will resonate with voters in the midterms.<\/p>\n

Two of the biggest unions, the American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, filed a federal lawsuit last week seeking to block Vought from proceeding with any layoffs during a shutdown \u2014 arguing that mass firings are among the nonessential activities that must be curtailed during an appropriations lapse.<\/p>\n

Asked about the threats Monday, Trump said if the shutdown continues, “It could, at some point it will” trigger layoffs<\/p>\n

The firings aren\u2019t the only pressure point bearing down on lawmakers and the administration. Most civilian federal workers will miss their first payback Friday, while active duty military members could go without pay starting Oct. 15.<\/p>\n

Durbin acknowledged that there might be a \u201ctripping point\u201d where the fallout from a shutdown forces a resolution but could not say what it might be.<\/p>\n

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer<\/a> told reporters shortly after Monday night\u2019s vote that if there are layoffs \u201cit falls on Donald Trump’s shoulders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s doing it, not Democrats,\u201d the New York Democrat said. \u201cAnd the American people know that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats have been buoyed by polling that shows voters holding Trump and Republicans more responsible for the shutdown than Democrats \u2014 for now. That has given Democrats confidence in their positions, with some saying they have been emboldened by the mass-firing threats.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving been in many budget negotiations, I know that the person to make the first threat is usually the one with the least leverage,\u201d said Rep. Sarah Elfreth<\/a> (D-Md.).<\/p>\n

Trump suggested Monday<\/a> he was already in talks with Democrats about their health care demands, but top Democratic leaders quickly batted down that claim while emphasizing that they stand ready to negotiate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not know of any Democrats who have spoken to President Trump or members of his administration on this issue of reopening the government, enacting a bipartisan spending agreement, and addressing the Republican health care crisis,\u201d House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries<\/a> told reporters Monday, while Schumer similarly told reporters that it was his \u201cunderstanding\u201d that Trump had not spoken to any Democrats.<\/p>\n

Some Republicans, like Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville<\/a>, have defended Trump and Vought\u2019s threats, saying layoffs are necessary to address a \u201cbloated\u201d federal bureaucracy. \u201cWe’ve got to find some way to cut back on the debt we have,\u201d Tuberville added.<\/p>\n

But others have reacted to the mass firing threats with unease. They worry that the Trump administration\u2019s bald attempts to focus political pain on Democrats and their constituencies muddles their attempt to keep the shutdown blame game focused solely on Schumer and Senate Democrats \u2014 and makes a solution to the standoff harder to find.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that digs us a deeper hole,\u201d Sen. Thom Tillis<\/a> (R-N.C.) said last week in reference to Vought\u2019s campaign targeting blue states. \u201cI think if you do that, you\u2019re going to create a bad faith environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump said Monday he\u2019s on the verge of enacting mass firings of federal workers. But Democrats say it won\u2019t make them budge in the increasingly rancorous shutdown standoff. The mass layoffs, dreamed up by White House budget director Russ Vought, would be the most significant pressure point yet as the shutdown enters a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14148\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}