The Trump administration has initiated sweeping layoffs across multiple federal agencies as the government shutdown enters its second week, marking an unprecedented escalation in the standoff between the White House and congressional Democrats.
White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought confirmed the move on Friday, writing on X, “The RIFs have begun,” using the acronym for “reductions in force.” A spokesperson for his office later described the layoffs as “substantial,” affecting more than 4,000 federal employees across seven agencies.
The cuts appear to be part of President Donald Trump’s long-standing goal to shrink the size of the federal workforce — and a calculated attempt to pressure Democrats to end the shutdown. Federal law requires agencies to provide at least 30 days’ notice before dismissing employees, but major departments including Treasury and Health and Human Services (HHS) confirmed they had already begun issuing layoff notices. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also began cuts at its Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, though the full scope remains unclear.
Court filings later revealed that roughly 4,600 employees are set to receive RIF notices. Treasury faces the largest hit with about 1,446 employees affected, followed by HHS with up to 1,200. Other departments, including Education, Housing and Urban Development, Commerce, and Energy, are expected to lose hundreds more.
The move prompted swift legal action from major unions. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and the AFL-CIO filed an emergency motion in a California federal court seeking to block the layoffs, calling them unlawful during a shutdown. “It is disgraceful that the Trump administration has used the shutdown as an excuse to illegally fire thousands of workers who provide critical services,” AFGE President Everett Kelley said.
Government lawyers defended the decision, arguing that agencies must be free to “optimize their workforces” and that halting the process would “irreparably harm the government.”
Unlike previous shutdowns, when furloughed employees were reinstated and paid retroactively, the administration has hinted that back pay may not be guaranteed this time. The shutdown, now ten days old, has left about 750,000 federal workers — roughly 40% of the workforce — either furloughed or working without pay.
Democrats have accused Trump of manufacturing “deliberate chaos,” with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer blaming the president for turning the shutdown into a political weapon. Republicans, meanwhile, insist Democrats are responsible for the funding impasse by refusing to back a GOP spending bill.
The layoffs mark a new phase in a standoff that has already crippled federal operations — and could reshape the government workforce for years to come.
