President Donald Trump gave Democrats a deadline for when he would start making cuts to federal workers and other federal programs.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and the majority of his caucus again rejected a continuing resolution Monday, extending the government shutdown. Trump, who’s administration previously teased mass firings as a result of the shutdown, told reporters Tuesday that such could happen if the government shutdown continues for four to five days. (RELATED: Democrats Are Terrified Of Trump’s Shutdown Slasher — And They Should Be)
“How many permanent jobs are you talking about eliminating?” a reporter asked Trump.
“I’ll be able to tell you that in four or five days. If this keeps going on, it’ll be substantial, and a lot of those jobs will never come back,” Trump responded. “You’re going to have a lot closer to a balanced budget.”
The reporter also asked Trump if he had identified any programs he wanted to eliminate during the shutdown.
“Oh, sure. We have a lot, I’m not going to tell you, but we’ll be announcing it pretty soon. But we have a lot of things that we’re going to eliminate and permanently eliminate,” Trump said.
“You know, one of the things that we have as some advantage, you could say, but because of the shutdown, which I think they made a big mistake, we’re able to take out billions and billions of dollars of waste, fraud and abuse, and they’ve handed it, you know, to us on a silver platter,” the president continued.
Trump then told reporters he has been getting calls from Democrats who want to meet with him and are claiming to be the leader of the party. Some of the names he has never heard of, he said.
The shutdown battle has focused on healthcare, with Democrats demanding increased funding for Medicaid, such as reimbursements for state spending on illegal aliens, and Affordable Care Act subsidies.
Last week, Trump and his Office of Management and Budget Director met to discuss potential layoffs. Afterwards, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told the Daily Caller that layoffs were “imminent,” though none have occurred since.
“Unfortunately, because the Democrats shut down the government, the president has directed his cabinet and the Office of Management and Budget is working with agencies across the board to identify where cuts can be made and we believe that layoffs are imminent,” Leavitt said.
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