If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like when the grown-ups finally take the car keys away from the drunk drivers in D.C., look no further than President Trump’s masterclass in using a government shutdown to clean house. While Democrats are still throwing tantrums over losing funding for their pet projects and green boondoggles, Trump is doing what he does best: cutting waste, flexing leverage, and putting America first.
This shutdown didn’t happen out of nowhere. It happened because Democrats once again thought they could hold the country hostage to get more money for their woke wish list — healthcare subsidies for illegal aliens, funding for leftist media outlets, and taxpayer-funded abortions. But instead of caving, Trump saw a golden opportunity: use the shutdown to start trimming the fat from the federal government — and not just any fat, but the parts Democrats love the most.
On Truth Social, Trump confirmed he’s working with budget director Russ Vought to decide which bloated government departments get the axe — and whether those cuts will be temporary or permanent. And boy, it’s about time. These are the same bureaucracies that have spent years pushing leftist ideology, weaponizing regulations, and torching tax dollars with nothing to show for it but climate lectures and pronoun pamphlets.
Vought wasted no time drawing blood: $18 billion already pulled from the Hudson River rail tunnel and Second Avenue subway — Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries’ pet projects — plus another $8 billion in blue-state green energy schemes. That’s just the appetizer.
According to budget hawks, several bloated agencies are on the chopping block:
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Department of Education: Could meet its legal obligations with as little as 10% of its current workforce. Thousands of layoffs may be on the way for bureaucrats who’ve turned classrooms into social laboratories.
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Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): After years of regulating outside its mandate and strangling businesses, the EPA is a prime target for deep staff cuts.
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Department of Labor & Interior: Flagged for costly “equity” enforcement schemes and mission creep.
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National Science Foundation (NSF): Billions in grants flow to universities for left-wing pet causes like climate activism and gender ideology.
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National Endowment for the Arts & Humanities: Longtime slush funds for progressive projects.
And unlike the old D.C. game of furloughs and back pay, the Trump administration is preparing reduction in force (RIF) notices — real layoffs, not temporary pauses. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the number will likely be “in the thousands.” With no appropriations bill setting payroll floors, the White House can decide how many staffers an agency actually needs to fulfill its legal duties.
Democrats are sputtering in disbelief, accusing Trump of “weaponizing” the shutdown. Well, yeah. That’s what happens when you run the government like a business and not a taxpayer-funded jobs program. They wanted a showdown — Trump gave them one, and now their sacred cows are on the butcher’s block.
The media is already fearmongering with numbers from the Congressional Budget Office — $400 million a day in lost wages, a “dampened GDP.” What they won’t say: most of those wages belong to paper-pushers whose jobs consist of slow-walking permits and dreaming up new regulations. Cut them loose, and you cut loose the red tape choking small businesses.
Trump said it himself: the shutdown lets him make “irreversible” changes. Not just delays, not just belt-tightening, but permanent cuts to programs Democrats rely on to bankroll their agenda.
The left calls it sabotage. We call it leadership. And if Democrats are squealing this loud, that means Trump is finally cutting in the right place.