The White House budget office announced Friday that mass layoffs of federal employees have begun, as US President Donald Trump’s administration increases pressure on Democrats amid a government shutdown entering its 10th day.Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought confirmed on X that “RIFs have begun,” referring to reduction-in-force plans to shrink the federal workforce. In a related court filing, the office said more than 4,000 employees would be terminated, though it added that the funding situation remains “fluid and rapidly evolving.”Trump on Friday blamed Democrats for the layoffs, saying many would lose their jobs and hinting the cuts would target “Democrat-oriented areas.”“They started this thing,” Trump told reporters during an Oval Office event, describing the job cuts as “democrat-oriented.”“It’ll be a lot, and we’ll announce the numbers over the next couple of days,” Trump said. “But it’ll be a lot of people.”“These are people that the Democrats wanted, that, in many cases, were not appropriate,” Trump said of federal employees, adding, “many of them will be fired.”Job cuts were underway across several agencies, including the Treasury Department, the Department of Health and Human Services, the IRS, and the departments of Education, Commerce, and Homeland Security’s cybersecurity division, officials said.The full scale of the layoffs remains unclear, though about 300,000 federal civilian workers were already expected to depart this year as part of Trump’s broader downsizing initiative, as cited by Reuters.Trump has also ordered a freeze on at least $28 billion in infrastructure funding for New York, California, and Illinois, states with large Democratic constituencies and vocal critics of his administration.According to a Justice Department court filing, more than 4,200 federal employees across seven agencies have received layoff notices, including over 1,400 at the Treasury Department and at least 1,100 at the Department of Health and Human Services.The Education Department confirmed on Friday that it was among the agencies hit by new layoffs. A labor union said nearly all staff below the director level at the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education were being dismissed, while fewer than 10 employees were cut from the Office of Communications and Outreach.Layoff notices were also issued at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), part of the Department of Homeland Security, which said the move was aimed at “getting CISA back on mission.” CISA has previously drawn Trump’s criticism for challenging misinformation about the 2020 election and the Covid-19 pandemic, as reported by AP. Earlier this week, Trump hinted that layoffs could arrive in “four or five days.”“If this keeps going on, it’ll be substantial, and a lot of those jobs will never come back,” he said on Tuesday.
