You can’t tell it from the headlines from traditional media, but President Trump’s announcement that he is going to fire thousands of civil servants during the government shutdown is not a done deal. It’s illegal (there is a process for firing civil servants); a law he signed in his first term provides back pay during the shutdown (he had two); and a federal judge “demanded details on the administration’s layoffs plans by Friday afternoon.”
Unsurprisingly, the move to fire civil service employees on shutdown is unique to Trump.
No previous shutdown has triggered such action. Typically, as in the current lapse, shutdowns lead to large numbers of employees being sent home on furlough, who are then recalled when the government reopens. Under a provision Trump signed into law in his first term, those employees are now guaranteed back pay—though the administration has also threatened to circumvent that statute.
Moreover, these threatened firings are probably not immediate and may be reversed:
Any RIF notices issued in the coming days will likely come with a 60-day notice period before employees are actually terminated. While administration officials have suggested the layoffs represent a permanent action, OMB has advised agencies they may revise their layoff plans once the government is reopened.
“These are largely people that the Democrats want,” Trump told reporters this week.
In other words, it’s theater. And it’s designed deliberately to lay siege to some programs associated with the Democratic Party: Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Homeland Security and Treasury.
From The Washington Post (near the bottom of a story headlined, Trump administration begins laying off federal workers amid shutdown):
A federal judge in the Northern District of California this week ordered the administration to provide by Friday the “status of any currently planned or in progress RIF notices to be issued during/because of the government shutdown, including the earliest date that those RIF notices will go out.”
The government had not provided that information by the time Vought announced the dismissals, but it later furnished it. Shortly after Vought’s social post, the lawyers for the unions requested an immediate halt to any layoffs pending an upcoming hearing. The government said it opposed that motion (emphasis added).
The lawsuit was filed September 30 when the threats of firings and layoffs began, according to the Post. The Trump Administration continues to ignore court orders at will, with no obvious negative repercussions.
“A shutdown does not give Trump or Vought new, special powers to cause more chaos or permanently weaken more basic services for the American people, and the simple fact is this administration has been recklessly firing—and rehiring—essential workers all year. This is nothing new, and no one should be intimidated by these crooks,” according to Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, quoted in Government Executive.
That includes tapping money from one budget (research and development funds) in order to meet military payroll during the shutdown. From author Kevin Elliott:
Unconstitutionally taking money that the law says must be spent on one purpose & using it for something else—when it’s to establish personalist control over the … MILITARY—is about as dangerous a constitutional crisis/failure as you can imagine.
Sen. Murray continues:
Once again: if President Trump & Russ Vought decide to do more mass firings, they are CHOOSING to inflict more pain on people. “Reductions in force” are not a new power these bozos get in a shutdown.
We can’t be intimidated by these crooks.
— Senator Patty Murray (@murray.senate.gov) October 10, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Not surprising, flip-flopping Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said: “Arbitrary layoffs result in a lack of sufficient personnel needed to conduct the mission of the agency and to deliver essential programs, and cause harm to families in Maine and throughout our country.”
Look beyond the headlines and first graph. Look beyond the NYT, WaPost and CNN. For certain, skip FOX et al. If you have a friend who is a news nerd, ask them what to read instead. Here’s my main Bluesky politics list. Happy to chat.
Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles. @kegill (Twitter and Mastodon.social); wiredpen.com