Trump Threatens 'A Lot' Of Firings In Event Of Government Shutdown

The US government is moving toward another shutdown with the fiscal year set to end at midnight Tuesday, and President Donald Trump has escalated tensions by suggesting that widespread layoffs and program cuts could follow if Congress fails to strike a midnight funding deal, Bloomberg reported.

Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump said “a lot of good” could come out of a shutdown and warned that federal programs backed by Democrats could be eliminated as part of the standoff. “We can get rid of a lot of things that we didn’t want and they’d be Democrat things,” he told reporters. “They just don’t learn. So we have no choice. I have to do that for the country," Bloomberg reported.

If no funding bill is passed before the deadline, large parts of the federal government would suspend or scale back operations until Congress agrees on a new spending plan, a disruption that could stretch for seven weeks. The impasse chiefly centers on health-care provisions, with Democrats and the White House unwilling to yield ground.

Meanwhile, unions representing federal workers filed suit in San Francisco on Tuesday, arguing that the Trump administration’s threats of mass firings violate the law. The legal challenge came just hours before the shutdown deadline, as agencies prepared for the possibility of furloughs and service disruptions, Bloomberg said.

 Trump, when asked about potential dismissals, signaled that sweeping actions were under consideration. “We may do a lot,” he remarked. 

 According to Bloomberg, the president also suggested that in the event of a prolonged shutdown, his administration might move to permanently dismiss “a lot” of federal employees — a stance that ratchets up pressure on Congress but also heightens concerns among government workers whose jobs and paychecks hang in the balance.