Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought said Wednesday that the Trump administration plans to eliminate more than 10,000 federal positions during the ongoing government shutdown.
Vought, long branded by Trump as the “Grim Reaper,” spent years crafting a sweeping blueprint to dismantle large parts of the federal bureaucracy, a plan allies say should terrify Democrats. Appearing on “The Charlie Kirk Show,” Vought said the administration plans to be “very aggressive” in shuttering government agencies.
“We want to be very aggressive where we can be in shuttering the bureaucracy, not just the funding but the bureaucracy, [so] that we now have an opportunity to do that, and that’s where we’re going to be looking for our opportunities,” Vought said.
Vought said several agencies could face reductions or closures, including environmental programs linked to the Green New Deal at the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency’s environmental justice initiatives, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
“We’re gonna keep those rips rolling throughout this shutdown because we think it’s important to stay on offense for the American taxpayer and the American people in getting a government that, if there’s an opportunity to have less bureaucracy,” Vought said.
“Think of Green New Deal programs at the Department of Energy. Think [of] the minority business development agency at Commerce that divvies up business grants on the basis of race. Think environmental justice at EPA. Think about CISA. CISA was an area that we riffed which was participating in censorship [of] the American people.”
WATCH:
Hours after Vought’s remarks, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston issued a temporary restraining order blocking the administration from proceeding with layoffs, saying the firings appeared to violate federal law.
“It’s very much ready, fire, aim on most of these programs, and it has a human cost,” Illston said, as reported by The Associated Press. “It’s a human cost that cannot be tolerated.”
The White House had already issued reduction-in-force notices to roughly 4,200 federal workers, with Vought predicting that number would rise.
“It could grow higher,” Vought said. “I think we’ll probably end up being north of 10,000.”
The layoffs come as the shutdown enters its third week, with thousands of government employees furloughed or working without pay. President Donald Trump on Wednesday directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to use remaining congressional funds to continue paying active-duty military personnel.
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