Furious US President Donald Trump threatened to make « irreversible » cuts after the “radical left” opposed his hardline agenda and forced a government shutdown. He said « vast numbers” of federal workers could lose their jobs after Republicans and Democrats clashed over spending.
It comes after the Republican-controlled Senate failed to pass a government bill. The move will leave hundreds of thousands of workers on unpaid leave and see a slew of government services grind to a halt.
President Trump said: « We’ll be laying off a lot of people.”
About 750,000 federal workers could be furloughed amid the shutdown. Many offices will be shut, possibly permanently, as President Trump vows to “do things that are irreversible, that are bad” as retribution.
Tens of thousands of government employees have already been laid off this year, in part because President Trump’s former right-hand-man Elon Musk’s purge through his short-lived stint as head of The Department of Government Efficiency to cut excess regulations and spending within the federal government.
In a message on its website the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) said: “The radical left in Congress shut the government down. HUD will use available resources to help Americans in need.”
It is the first government shutdown since 2018.
Federal workers deemed non-essential for protecting people or property – could be furloughed or laid off.
Services include food assistance programmes, federally-funded pre-schools, food inspections, and operations at national parks and museums.
Immigration enforcement, air-traffic control, military operations, social security and law enforcement are among services that will continue.
President Trump warned there would be « irreversible » cuts and blamed the Democrats
The move came after rival Democrat and Republicans refused to budge in their stand-off over healthcare spending.
The opposition party wants to reverse cuts to the government’s health insurance programme, Medicaid, which were passed earlier this summer.
In a joint statement Democratic leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer blamed Donald Trump and Republicans for the shutdown, saying they “do not want to protect the healthcare of the American people”.
They said: “After months of making life harder and more expensive (Trump and Republicans) have now shut down the federal government because they do not want to protect the healthcare of the American people.
“Democrats remain ready to find a bipartisan path forward to reopen the government in a way that lowers costs and addresses the Republican healthcare crisis. But we need a credible partner.
“Over the last few days, President Trump’s behaviour has become more erratic and unhinged. Instead of negotiating a bipartisan agreement in good faith, he is obsessively posting crazed deepfake videos.
“The country is in desperate need of an intervention to get out of another Trump shutdown.”
During President Trump’s first term in the White House there were three shutdowns including the longest in American history, lasting 35 days.
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