WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is creating a government shutdown the likes of which the country has never seen, giving his budget office occasional power to pick winners and losers — who gets paid or fired, which programs get cut or survive — in an unprecedented shakeup of the entire federal workforce.
As the shutdown enters its third week, the Office of Management and Budget said Tuesday that it is preparing to “batten down the hatches” as more cuts will take effect. The president calls budget chief Russ Vought the “Grim Reaper,” and Vought has seized the opportunity to fund Trump’s priorities by paying off the military while cutting jobs in health care, education, the sciences and other fields, in moves that have been criticized as illegal and are being challenged in court.
Trump said programs favored by Democrats are being targeted and “in many cases they will never come back.”
During an event at the White House, Trump added: “We are able to do things we couldn’t do before.”
With Congress at a standstill — the Republican-led House refused to return to session and the Senate stuck in a cycle of failed votes to reopen the government while Democrats demand health care funding — the budget office quickly filled the void.
From Project 2025 to the White House
Vought, a key architect of the conservative policy book Project 2025, is reshaping the size and scope of the federal government in a manner similar to that envisioned in the draft. It’s exactly what certain lawmakers, particularly Democrats, feared would happen if Congress didn’t fund the government.
Trump’s priorities — supporting the military and pursuing his mass deportation agenda — remained largely uninterrupted despite the closures. The administration determined that tariff revenue was left over to ensure that the food assistance program for women, infants and children was not terminated.
But the Trump administration is closing numerous other programs, laying off staff who oversee special education and after-school programs and those who protect the nation’s infrastructure from cyberattacks. More than 4,100 federal employees received layoff notices over the weekend.
“This shutdown is different from previous ones because Donald Trump and Russ Vought and all their cronies are using this moment to terrorize these patriotic federal workers,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., standing with federal workers outside the White House Budget Office on Tuesday.
Van Hollen said it’s “a big, fat lie” for Trump and his budget director to say the shutdown is causing them to lay off federal workers. “It is also illegal and we will see them in court,” he said.
The shutdown is entering its third week
Now in its 14th day, the federal shutdown is quickly becoming one of the longest government shutdowns. Congress failed to meet the Oct. 1 deadline to pass annual appropriations bills needed to fund the government as Democrats demanded a deal to preserve expiring health care funds that provide subsidies for purchasing insurance under the Affordable Care Act.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday he has nothing to negotiate with Democrats until they vote to reopen the government. But so far there is no sign that will happen, as Senate Democrats have rejected a GOP bill to reopen the government eight times, most recently on Monday night.
The Republican speaker welcomed OMB’s recent actions to pay some workers and lay off others.
“You have every right to move the funds,” Johnson said at a news conference at the Capitol. If Democrats want to challenge the Trump administration in court, Johnson said, “bring it.”
Typically, federal employees are furloughed during a funding shortfall, traditionally with back pay once federal funding is restored. But Vought’s budget office announced behind schedule last week that troop reductions had begun. Around 750,000 employees will be furloughed.
Military pay, deportations on track
At the same time, Trump directed the military to find money to ensure military personnel don’t miss their paychecks this week. The Pentagon said over the weekend it would be able to operate $8 billion in unused research and development funds for payroll.
On Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said her agency is relying on Trump’s sweeping tax cut law for funding to ensure Coast Guard members also get paid.
“We at DHS have developed 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 U.S. Coast Guard will not miss a paycheck this week.”
In previous closures, OMB has monitored agencies’ plans during the loss of federal funding and ensured which workers were indispensable and remained on the job. However, Vought has expanded his role even further by speaking openly about his plans to take action against federal employees.
As agencies began developing their shutdown plans, Vought’s OMB encouraged department heads to consider force reductions, an unprecedented measure. Budget Office General Counsel Mark Paoletta suggested in a draft memo that the workforce may not automatically be eligible for back pay once the government reopens.
“Grim Reaper” replaces Elon Musk’s chainsaw
Last week, Trump released an AI-generated video showing Vought in a cape and carrying a scythe against the backdrop of the rock classic “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.”
“Every authoritarian leader has had his grim reaper. Russell Vought belongs to Donald Trump,” said Rep. Steny Hoyer, the ranking Democrat from Maryland.
Hoyer compared the budget chief to billionaire Elon Musk, who wielded a chainsaw during the Department of Government Efficiency’s downsizing earlier this year. “Vought swings his scythe through the federal government just as thoughtlessly,” he said.
In many ways, Trump’s tax cut law gave the White House a huge modern allocation of federal funds for its priority projects, independent of the regular appropriations process in Congress.
The package freed up about $175 billion for the Pentagon, including for the Golden Dome missile shield and other priority projects, and another $175 million for homeland security, largely for Trump’s mass deportation agenda. This also included additional funding for Vought’s work at OMB.
Certain funds in the bill are available for operate during the shutdown, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
“The government could also decide to use the mandatory appropriations provided for in the Reconciliation Law 2025 or other mandatory funding sources to continue activities funded by these direct appropriations at various agencies,” CBO said.
The CBO named the departments of Defense, Treasury and Homeland Security, and the Office of Management and Budget as those receiving funds under the law.
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Associated Press writers Will Weissert, Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.
