--- title: Democrats Hit Back After White House Mass Layoffs Threat description: As a potential shutdown looms, Democratic leaders signaled they will stand firm in negotiations over government funding. canonical: https://time.com/7320568/government-shutdown-democrats-layoffs-threat/ author: Connor Greene article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-09-25T19:29:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:50:06.586Z article:section: Politics og:title: Democrats Hit Back After White House Mass Layoffs Threat og:description: As a potential shutdown looms, Democratic leaders signaled they will stand firm in negotiations over government funding. og:url: https://time.com/7320568/government-shutdown-democrats-layoffs-threat/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c72ad0a730c3b55/6998ca1583ec37030ac7af58/GettyImages-2235691720.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Shutdown Countdown Goes On With More Cards Turned og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Democrats Hit Back After White House Mass Layoffs Threat twitter:description: As a potential shutdown looms, Democratic leaders signaled they will stand firm in negotiations over government funding. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9c72ad0a730c3b55/6998ca1583ec37030ac7af58/GettyImages-2235691720.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # ‘Get Lost’: Democrats Refuse to Back Down in Shutdown Standoff as the White House Threatens Mass Firings > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: White House Says Layoffs Are Likely 'To Be in the Thousands' as Shutdown Hits Day Two [Watch (HLS stream): White House Says Layoffs Are Likely 'To Be in the Thousands' as Shutdown Hits Day Two](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/XbSQQxsX.m3u8) (1:36)  _Published 2025-10-02. President Donald Trump has seized on the government shutdown as an opportunity to reshape the federal workforce and punish detractors, by threatening mass firings of workers and suggesting irreversible cuts to programs important to Democrats._ by [Connor Greene](https://time.com/author/connor-greene/) ## Connor Greene Editorial Fellow Sep 25, 2025 7:29 PM UTC  The Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Sept. 19, 2025. The Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Sept. 19, 2025. Daniel Heuer—Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Connor Greene](https://time.com/author/connor-greene/) ## Connor Greene Editorial Fellow Sep 25, 2025 7:29 PM UTC Democratic leaders said they would not be intimidated by the White House’s threat to carry out another round of mass layoffs if [the government shuts](https://time.com/7320516/government-shutdown-impact-federal-workers-airports-parks-mail/) down next week, signaling they will stand firm in their negotiations with Republicans ahead of the looming deadline to extend federal funding. “This is an attempt at intimidation. Donald Trump has been firing federal workers since day one—not to govern, but to scare,” [said](https://x.com/SenSchumer/status/1971231651712860609) Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in response to a [memo](https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000199-7e8f-ddde-a199-fedf6c5d0000) from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) instructing agencies to plan for large-scale firings in the case of a shutdown. Schumer added that the move by the White House budget office had “nothing to do with funding the government” and said the potential layoffs would “either be overturned in court or the administration will end up hiring the workers back, just like they did as recently as this week.” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries sounded a similar note, saying Democrats “will not be intimidated by your threat to engage in mass firings” and calling Russell Vought, the head of the OMB, “a malignant political hack.” “Get lost,” he [wrote](https://x.com/RepJeffries/status/1971041739948556371) on X. With the Sept. 30 deadline for Democrats and Republicans to reach a funding deal and avoid a government shutdown closing in, the OMB told federal agencies in its Wednesday night memo to consider cutting employees working for programs whose funding would lapse next week, don’t have another source of funding available, or are “not consistent with the President’s priorities.” “Programs that did not benefit from an infusion of mandatory appropriations will bear the brunt of a shutdown, and we must continue our planning efforts in the event Democrats decide to shut down the government,” says the memo, which was first [reported](https://www.politico.com/news/2025/09/24/white-house-firings-shutdown-00579909) by Politico. **Read more**: [_A Government Shutdown Could Start Wednesday. Here’s How It Could Affect Your Life_](https://time.com/7320516/government-shutdown-impact-federal-workers-airports-parks-mail/) The permanent job cuts to federal employees the memo directs agencies to begin planning for differ from the furloughs of previous government shutdowns, after which affected employees have returned to work once Congress agreed on measures to restore funding. Democrats have [blocked](https://time.com/7318900/house-republicans-pass-shutdown-bill/) a GOP stop-gap bill to extend government funding through Nov. 21 that passed the House and refused to support a measure to extend funding unless it reverses billions in cuts to Medicaid enacted by the “[Big Beautiful Bill](https://time.com/7299256/big-beautiful-bill-polling-takeaways/),” among other [demands](https://time.com/7318900/house-republicans-pass-shutdown-bill/). Senate Republicans, in turn, have rejected Democrats’ plan. Trump was scheduled to meet with top Democrats this week with the aim of averting a shutdown, but announced his cancellation in a social media post, saying Democrats’ demands barred any productive meeting. “After reviewing the details of the unserious and ridiculous demands being made by the Minority Radical Left Democrats in return for their Votes to keep our thriving Country open, I have decided that no meeting with their Congressional Leaders could possibly be productive,” Trump said on Truth Social. Amid the apparent deadlock in negotiations, both parties are seeking to put blame for a potential shutdown on their opponents. “This is all caused by the Democrats,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday. “They asked us to do something that’s totally unreasonable. They never change.” Earlier in the day, Rep. Katherine Clark, the Democratic whip in the House, pointed the finger at Trump in an interview on CNN. “We have a president who claims he loves to make deals, but he will never fight for the American people," she said. “When he is closing the door on us, he's closing the door on them,” Clark said. “And we are here to say these cuts to health care are unsustainable for American families who are already struggling to provide the basics for their family … We have laid out how dangerous these cuts are, the damage they will do to families, to our overall economy. And so let's come and have that negotiation.” Further layoffs would add to the federal employment decline of 97,000 already recorded by [the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics](https://www.bls.gov/eag/eag.dc.htm) this year as the Trump Administration has sought to slash the federal budget and workforce.. “Federal employees are not bargaining chips. They are veterans, caregivers, law enforcement officers, and neighbors who serve their country and fellow Americans every day,” said American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley on Thursday. “They deserve stability and respect, not pink slips and political games.” ## Transcript We're on day two, unfortunately, of a government shutdown. President. The vice president. The entire team here will continue to work and talk to members on the Hill to try and come to a resolution to try to encourage Democrats to muster up the courage to do the right thing. And we believe there will be a vote taking place tomorrow, and we hope that vote will lead to the government reopening. That's what the president wants to see, and that's what we're working on today. John. Yesterday, the vice president in the briefing room by your side, expressed his optimism that he thinks this shutdown is going to be a short shutdown. Do you share that optimism? Does the president share that optimism? I do. I think we all that's our hope and that's our expectation. We know Democrats know they are doing the wrong thing by shutting the government down. You can see it when they're answering questions. You can hear it in their voice. There is zero good reason for them to vote to shut the government down right now. They are doing it for political reasons. They are doing it because they want to give taxpayer funded health care benefits to illegal aliens, which is something the American people resoundingly rejected ahead of the election last year. That's why they reelected President Trump in a large part. And so Democrats know what the right thing to do is, and it's to reopen the federal government. Can you give us an estimate on the amount of federal workers that the Trump administration wants to fire during the government shutdown? I will talk hundreds. Are we talking thousands? Look, it's likely going to be in the thousands. It's a very good question. And that's something that the Office of Management and Budget and the entire team at the white House here again, is unfortunately having to work on today. 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