The White House extends the calendar of massive federal dismissals while the republican party becomes disgusted in the fight against funding
The Trump administration strategy aimed at quickly making massive layoffs of federal workers during the government’s closure has changed in recent days, they have told CNN officials of the familiar administration with negotiations, while an increasing number of republican legislators and officials of the Trump administration recognize the potential political perils of this decision.
While the Democrats have not shown any sign of reluctance in their opposition to a measure of provisional financing which does not respond to their requests for health care and that an increasing number of republican legislators warn against a possible flame return, the White House now plans to wait at least a little longer before sending opinions of forces (Rif, as we generally call the redundancies of the government), while hoping that Democrats.
“There is an increasing awareness within the West wing that the rif policy, at a time when we know that our message on closure is the best, would be better later,” said one of the officials. It is “the idea that if we give it more time, it will be because the Democrats have really forced our hand and did not give us the choice”.
“And of course we don’t want to seem happy with the idea that people lose their jobs,” they added.
The White House initially planned layoffs immediately after closing, the managers said, the Budget and Management Office – led by Russell Vought – having made recommendations to agencies last week that should face the most important discounts.
On social networks, President Donald Trump himself described the closure of “unprecedented opportunity” to implement one of his main priorities: the reduction of federal workforce.
A large part of this speech has been largely considered within the administration as a threat to bring democrats to the negotiating table and to force their votes to reopen the government. A few Sources have noted that the Democrats have spent a large part of the first months of Trump’s presidency to be indignant by the layoffs of federal officials through the government’s Ministry of Elon Musk.
The president also seriously planned to use this opening to target what he and many preservatives have qualified as an booming federal bureaucracy, the officials said.
However, there is a large consensus among the president’s main employees in the event that in the end, Trump will have to carry out his threat if the negotiations to end the closure remain in the dead end.
“There will come a time when we will have to face reality. We must be good taxpayer money managers. But we hope we will not get there,” said a White House official.
The White House recalled to CNN the Monday remarks of the Karoline Leavitt press secretary, during which it said: “This conversation on layoffs would not take place at the moment if the Democrats were not voting to close the government. »»
Trump said on Tuesday that he would be able to say “in four or five days” which government programs he intended to eliminate definitively “if that continues”.
“We have a lot,” he told journalists in the oval office. “I’m not going to tell you, but we will announce it very soon. But we have a lot that we are going to eliminate and eliminate definitively.”
This change of strategy comes as several republican legislators are wary of the fact that the use of closing to dismiss federal workers could ultimately turn against them.
“It is a rhetoric that excites the base, but we are in a battle of messages to gain the happy medium. The speeches on the cup and the burning discourage them and reduce our influence,” said a republican of the room at CNN.
Another expressed it as follows: “We now have the heights, but we could lose them with massive shots. »»
Some legislators have expressed their concerns directly to the White House, two republican sources informed of conversations told CNN. An official of the White House did not dispute the existence of such discussions.
The administration also seemed to deploy another threat to try to force the democrats on Tuesday after the media reported a white house note project suggesting that federal leaves on leave could not be returned their salary during the government’s closure, further aggravating the problem. Trump was quick to seize the new threat, while refusing to commit to doing so.
“I would say that it depends on who we are talking about. I can tell you, the Democrats have put many people in danger, but it really depends on who you are talking about,” said Trump at a meeting in the oval office with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Such a decision would constitute a major break with the previous one.
The president of the room, Mike Johnson, said on Tuesday that he and the president both wanted that the unemployed federal workers receive wages once the closure is over. Trump, on the other hand, argued that “it depends” on each individual.
“For the most part, we are going to take care of our people. There are people who really do not deserve to be dealing with them, and we are going to take care of them in a different way,” he told journalists.
On the first day of the government closure, Vought warned the Républicains de la Chambre during a private call that a massive wave of federal layoffs arrived quickly, providing that they would be deployed in a few days.
The next day, Trump boasted that he met Vought to discuss the necessary cuts and underlined the bonds of his head of the budget with the 2025 project – a conservative project which advocated important cuts in government spending, the dismantling of the independence of government agencies and the expansion of the president’s executive.
“I cannot believe that the radical left -wing democrats have given me this unprecedented opportunity,” Trump said on his social social platform on the second day of closure.
Since then, the White House, in coordination with the OMB, draws up a list of the agencies which it intends to target and discusses it with the chiefs who supervise them.
But while the White House officials said the discounts could be announced on October 3, the layoffs have not yet succeeded. This is good news for some legislators worried about the impact – such as the Republican representative Austin Scott of Georgia, which represents a large base of the Air Force where workers are on leave and of which many voters no longer receive a rescue funds in the event of a disaster.
Screening federal employees, argued the Republican of Georgia, could play the game of Democrats. “I have not heard a single republican in the House Express the desire to make massive layoffs of federal employees,” said Scott.
Senator Thom Tillis also warned that not to guarantee the arrears of wages to unemployed federal employees would be a bad political strategy.
“I think it is a strategic error to let these people know or to let them think that they could potentially not recover their salary. If I were them, I would start looking for another job. And there are a lot of good people who work hard,” he said.
When asked if there was a viable outing path with the Democrats to end the confinement this week, the North Carolina Republican was not optimistic.
“No, I don’t think so,” he said.
