Trump Weighs Cutting Agencies as Government Shutdown Enters Day 2

The president called on the GOP to use it as an ‘opportunity’ to ‘clear out dead wood, waste, and fraud’ in the federal government.

President Donald Trump in Quantico, Va., on Sept. 30, 2025. Alex Wong/Getty Images

President Donald Trump on Oct. 2 touted the ongoing government shutdown as an opportunity to target various federal agencies, saying he will meet with the head of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to determine the next steps.

Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he will soon meet with OMB Director Russ Vought to determine which agencies “he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent,” noting that Democrats had given him an “unprecedented opportunity” by not voting in favor of a stopgap measure to fund the government.

The shutdown started in the early morning on Oct. 1, causing a number of federal employees to be furloughed.

In another post on the platform, the president urged his fellow Republicans to “use this opportunity” during the shutdown “to clear out dead wood, waste, and fraud,” noting that “billions of dollars can be saved” as a result.

The president’s remarks appear to build on an earlier announcement from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt about layoffs amid the shutdown.

On Oct. 1, Leavitt told reporters that Trump had told his Cabinet and OMB “to identify where cuts can be made,” noting that the administration believes “that layoffs are imminent.”

The White House’s key policy priorities, including the administration’s deportation agenda, may continue with few disruptions. It is possible that some education, environmental, and other services may eventually sputter. There also could be economic fallout due to the shutdown, and the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) could take a hit, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.

“This isn’t the way to have a discussion, shutting down the government and lowering the GDP,” Bessent said in a CNBC “Squawk Box” interview on Oct. 2. “We could see a hit to the GDP, a hit to growth, and a hit to working America.”

When asked whether Trump would permanently lay off 750,000 federal workers, the secretary said it was a “talking point” amid negotiations. He then blamed the Democratic leadership in Congress for not taking action to avert the shutdown, a strategy that Trump and other White House officials have employed.

Both House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) have similarly blamed Republicans in Congress and the Trump administration for what they have said is a lack of willingness to negotiate in good faith.

Democrats said any deal on reopening the government is contingent on their health care policy proposals, namely tax credits that were introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic that are slated to expire at the end of the year.

“Republicans shut down the government because they can’t be bothered to protect health care for Americans across this country,” Schumer wrote in a statement posted to X. “Premiums are set to more than double! Americans cannot afford this.”

Jeffries issued a similar comment on X, accusing Republicans of wanting to “take ... healthcare away.”

Republicans have said that the health care tax credits must be addressed separately. Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said that the Democratic leadership effectively gave a mandate to Trump.

“He’s handed President Trump the keys to the kingdom,” Johnson said on “The Moon Griffon Show” podcast on Oct. 1, saying that the shutdown could allow the GOP to “eliminate bloated, unnecessary federal programs that [Republicans] would like to vote down, but ... never had the votes in the Senate to do.”

“Now we have the moment,” he said.