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The White House is embracing the fight over the first government shutdown since 2019, viewing it as a political loser for Democrats and an opening to unilaterally advance its own policy interests.
President Trump and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought have signaled they plan to use the shutdown to further slash the federal workforce and potentially pare back government programs and benefits.
While some polling has shown many Americans will hold Republicans — who control both chambers of Congress and the White House — responsible for the shutdown, administration officials and their allies have spent weeks framing Democratic demands around additional health care spending as unreasonable and out of step with the public.
“It’s obviously a Democratic shutdown, just look at the vote totals in the House, look at the vote totals in the Senate and look at the president of the United States’s own action and conduct throughout this crisis,” Vice President Vance said in a rare appearance in the White House briefing room, blaming the result on the “Chuck Schumer-AOC wing” of the Democratic Party, referencing the Senate’s Democratic leader and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Wednesday that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) had “walked right into” a trap.
“He’s handed President Trump the keys to the kingdom,” Johnson said on “The Moon Griffon Show,” adding that the shutdown could allow Republicans and the White House to “eliminate bloated, unnecessary federal programs that we would like to vote down, but we never had the votes in the Senate to do. Now we have the moment.”
Vought announced Wednesday plans to cut billions in funding in transportation projects in New York City and energy projects in 16 mostly Democratic-led states.
Vought also held a call with Republican lawmakers Wednesday afternoon, where they coordinated on messaging and Vought made clear layoffs were coming in the next day or two, according to sources on the call.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the layoffs of federal workers during the government shutdown will be in “two days, imminent, very soon.”
“It’s not unclear, all of those things are very synonymous with one another. These [reduction in forces] are unfortunately going to have to happen very soon,” she said when pressed on the timeline.
Trump had suggested Tuesday that his administration could make cuts to programs during a potential government shutdown, warning that Democrats are taking a risk by not voting for the GOP continuing resolution.
“We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them. Like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like,” he said. “So, they’re taking a risk by having a shutdown. Because of the shutdown, we can do things medically and other ways, including benefits, we can cut large numbers of people out.”
He also warned there may be “a lot” of layoffs in the federal government during a shutdown after his budget office directed agencies to prepare for mass firings.
The Trump administration this week used numerous outlets to go on offense and blame Democrats for the shutdown, including by emailing federal employees themselves through official government addresses.
Multiple agencies emailed employees Tuesday to describe the impending shutdown as being “forced” by congressional Democrats, an unusual use of government communications that typically steer clear of political comments.
Screens in the White House press briefing room played a video on a loop late Tuesday into Wednesday morning of Democrats in past years warning of the consequences of shutting down the government. An automatic response from the White House press office said it was dealing with staffing shortages, blaming delays on “the Democrat shutdown.”
Throughout the day Wednesday, the White House shared its message on social platform X about the Democrats being at fault.
“They can’t spin it any other way … It’s a Democrat shutdown,” it said.
The White House shared headlines from various media outlets and wrote, “Pretty clear whose fault this is.”
Vance did a media blitz Wednesday morning, hours after the shutdown became official. He appeared on CBS and Fox News, and he sat for an interview with conservative commentator Ben Shapiro.
Vance suggested that the White House and Democratic leadership can negotiate health care access after the government reopens, arguing that the shutdown is instead being used as a “hostage taking tactic.”
“What we’ve learned through many cycles of government shutdowns is they never work, they cause a lot of damage, we should take that wisdom, open up the government and then talk about how to ensure that people have access to health care. We want that,” Vance said on CBS. “We want people to have access to health care. We just don’t want to shut down the government as part of a hostage taking tactic.”
Trump and other White House officials have insisted that Democrats want to give health care to immigrants in the country without legal permission. Democratic demands were centered on an extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies to U.S. citizens that are set to expire at year’s end and could cause premiums to spike if they lapse.
When asked about his message Tuesday, considering that immigrants here illegally are not eligible for Affordable Care Act subsidies, Trump said “we just, as a country, cannot afford to take care of millions of people.”
While the White House has expressed near-certainty that Democrats will bear the blame for the shutdown, polling has indicated it’s not an open and shut case.
A poll from NPR/PBS News/Marist, conducted last week, found that 38 percent of respondents would blame Republicans, while 27 percent would blame Democrats and 31 percent would fault both sides.
A Morning Consult poll found 45 percent of voters were more likely to blame Republicans if there’s a shutdown, compared to 32 percent who said they would blame Democrats.
A New York Times/Siena poll released Tuesday showed 65 percent of registered voters agreed with the statement that “Democrats should not shut down the government, even if their demands are not met.” The poll also found 59 percent of independents opposed shutting down the government.
