President Donald Trump said Thursday he is meeting with Russ Vought, director of the United States Office of Management and Budget and “of Project 2025 fame,” to discuss eliminating what he called Democrats’ “scam” agencies and weighing whether the cuts should be temporary or permanent.
“I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent,” he posted on Truth Social. “I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity. They are not stupid people, so maybe this is their way of wanting to, quietly and quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DJT.”
Project 2025 was a Heritage Foundation Project blueprint that outlined plans for Trump’s second administration, featuring input from Vought and other members of his first term in office. Last year, the Trump campaign repeatedly disavowed the outline, saying it had no involvement with it.
Trump late Wednesday called on Republicans to use the government shutdown to save “billions of dollars” through federal cutbacks.
“Republicans must use this opportunity of Democrat forced closure to clear out dead wood, waste, and fraud. Billions of Dollars can be saved. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump also early Thursday, while blaming the shutdown on Democrats, accused the lawmakers of wanting to give healthcare benefits to illegal immigrants and of opening the nation’s borders.
“THE DEMOCRATS WANT TO GIVE YOUR HEALTHCARE MONEY TO ILLEGAL ALIENS AND OPEN OUR BORDERS TO THE CRIMINALS OF THE WORLD, A DEADLY COMBINATION BECAUSE EVERYBODY WILL COME!” he said in an all-caps post on Truth Social.
Rather than following the traditional path of furloughing employees during a lapse in funding, the White House is signaling deeper cuts.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday that layoffs were “imminent,” and the Office of Management and Budget announced it was freezing roughly $18 billion in infrastructure funds for New York’s subway and Hudson Tunnel projects, a move targeting the home state of top Democrat congressional leaders.
OMB Director Russell Vought told Republicans on Wednesday that the administration will start firing federal employees in the next “one to two” days.
Trump has praised him for pursuing the aggressive approach.
“He can trim the budget to a level that you couldn’t do any other way,” Trump said earlier this week of Vought.
On a call with GOP lawmakers Wednesday, Vought said layoffs could begin within days, extending the administration’s broader campaign to shrink the federal government.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., meanwhile, accused Trump of inflicting pain intentionally, saying, “The cruelty is the point.”
The shutdown, now in its second day, has raised fears of wider economic consequences if it drags on.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates about 750,000 federal workers would be furloughed daily, resulting in $400 million in lost wages.
The standoff risks dragging deeper into October, when workers who remain on the job will begin missing paychecks.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.