President Donald Trump on Thursday brazenly threatened to make use of the federal government shutdown to chop federal funding to Democratic-run states and cities, contradicting Vice President JD Vance who mentioned the day earlier than the White Home wouldn’t be concentrating on Democrats.
Trump was anticipated to fulfill with Workplace of Administration and Price range Director Russ Vought on Thursday to debate the cuts and made it clear in a social media publish and in latest interviews that he’s concentrating on “Democratic Businesses.”
In his publish, the president referred to Vought’s co-authoring Project 2025, the controversial conservative playbook that outlined methods the federal authorities may dismantle a number of federal companies and privatize others.
President Donald Trump solutions questions whereas childhood most cancers survivors and their households collect within the Oval Workplace on the White Home, September 30, 2025 in Washington.
Nathan Howard/Reuters
“I’ve a gathering right now with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to find out which of the numerous Democrat Businesses, most of that are a political SCAM, he recommends to be lower, and whether or not or not these cuts can be non permanent or everlasting,” the president wrote on social media.
He referred to as the shutdown an “unprecedented alternative” to make cuts after earlier saying he may save billions by clearing out “useless wooden.”
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Thursday couldn’t give extra specifics on what outlined “Democratic Businesses.”
“We’ll have a look at companies that do not align, align with the administration’s values that we really feel are a waste of the taxpayer greenback,” she advised reporters, saying the specter of mass firings is “very actual.”
Throughout a White Home press briefing on Wednesday, Vance was requested by reporters about Trump’s previous feedback indicating he would go after Democrats through the shutdown. Vance denied that the president was singling out that social gathering together with his risk.
Vice President JD Vance speaks with reporters within the James Brady Press Briefing Room on the White Home, Oct. 1, 2025, in Washington.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
“We’re not concentrating on federal companies based mostly on politics,” Vance mentioned. “We’re concentrating on the individuals’s authorities in order that it as a lot if doable of the important providers get to proceed to perform.”
Vance’s feedback got here hours after Vought introduced that he would finish hundreds of thousands of federal funds for New York and New Jersey infrastructure tasks championed by Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer of New York.
Authorized specialists, federal unions and a few Democrats argued the Constitution and federal law allow solely Congress to declare cuts to federal companies or take away them completely.
Speaker Mike Johnson, nonetheless, defended Trump’s transfer, saying Democrats had handed Trump “the keys to the dominion” by forcing a shutdown.
The highest Home Republican argued Trump and Vought are “going to look to see for the administration’s priorities first, certain that these are funded.”
Speaker of the Home Mike Johnson (speaks to reporters exterior of his workplace on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC on October 1, 2025.
Andrew Caballero-reynolds/AFP by way of Getty Photos
“And in order that’s some these are some very severe determinations that need to be made. We need to shield arduous working federal staff, and these are individuals who shield all the remainder of us,” Johnson mentioned.
He, nonetheless, insisted with out extra particulars that Trump’s potential firings had been inside his powers.
“Is it constitutional? Is it lawful? Is it a part of our system? In fact it’s. It all the time has been,” Johnson mentioned with out giving extra particulars.
The White Home has not supplied extra particulars on the legality of Trump’s threats nor has it responded to questions as to how firing people who find themselves not getting paid would lower down on waste.
-ABC Information’ Allison Pecorin, Karen Travers and Isabella Murray contributed to this report.
