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Friday, October 3, 2025

Trump vows to take an axe to the government if shutdown continues

Will the 2025 government shutdown herald the second coming of DOGE?

Even though Elon Musk is nowhere near the White House, Donald Trump appears to be plotting another slash-and-burn of the federal government.

The president openly threatened Democrats during an interview that aired Thursday on One America News, vowing to "permanently" cut programs popular with Democrats and begin mass layoffs if the shutdown continued.

"There could be firings — and that's their fault," Trump said, also adding: “We could cut projects that they wanted, favorite projects, and then they'd be permanently cut."

No longer under the guise of improving efficiency in Washington, Trump's press secretary told reporters that "thousands" of jobs could be permanently axed as the president seeks to exact political punishment on his enemies.

Leading the charge with the president on this effort is Russ Vought, the Project 2025 architect and fiscal hawk now leading the Office of Management and Budget.

Vought "has been dreaming about this moment, preparing this moment, since puberty," Sen. Mike Lee told Fox News.

More centrist members of the GOP are less gleeful than Lee, and see inherent political risk in the president's threat to go after whole "Democrat agencies", which, in reality, serve millions of people of all political stripes.

Speaker Mike Johnson tried to put a more solemn face on the matter, while other Republicans expressed outright skepticism in the plan.

“This is certainly the most moral high ground Republicans have had in a moment like this that I can recall, and I just don’t like squandering that political capital when you have that kind of high ground,” Sen. Kevin Cramer fretted to CNN.

Read more here.

By John Bowden

Reading list

Daily briefing

Trump adviser says ICE agents will attend Super Bowl after Bad Bunny announced as half-time act

As the selection of the Puerto Rican-born artist for this year's halftime show enrages MAGA fans, one senior adviser to Donald Trump had a chilling warning for attendees of the upcoming Super Bowl, reports Josh Marcus.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

A shutdown gives Trump and his minions keys to the city and the country.

Chuck Schumer's prescient warning about a government shutdown earlier this year.

What else you need to know

RFK rocks the right: After enraging Democrats and public health experts by halting his agency's support for new mRNA vaccine research, RFK Jr. has now angered conservatives by not blocking FDA approval of a new abortion drug. Mike Bedigan reports how the secretary can't seem to catch a break.
When they go low: Speaker Mike Johnson offered some advice to his Democratic counterpart, Hakeem Jeffries, after the White House posted a racist AI-generated video of the Democratic House leader. Justin Baragona is following this story.

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