White House Confirms Over 10,000 Federal Layoffs Amid Government Shutdown
In a striking revelation from the White House, Budget Director Russ Vought announced that more than 10,000 federal employees are expected to lose their jobs as a result of the ongoing government shutdown.
Vought confirmed that agencies have already begun issuing reduction-in-force (RIF) notifications to employees, marking the start of large-scale terminations across federal departments. “We want to be very aggressive where we can be in shuttering the bureaucracy—not just the funding, but the bureaucracy—and we now have an opportunity to do that,” Vought said during an appearance on The Charlie Kirk Show, his first live interview since the shutdown began.
The budget director emphasized that the layoffs would primarily target agencies and programs seen as inconsistent with President Trump’s policy goals, including environmental justice initiatives within the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Minority Business Development Agency, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
While approximately 4,000 employees have already been terminated, Vought told Politico that he expects the total to exceed 10,000 once all agency cuts are finalized.
However, the administration’s plan hit a legal snag after a federal judge in California issued an injunction temporarily blocking the layoffs associated with the shutdown. The Trump administration has vowed to appeal the ruling.
The announcement came just one day after President Donald Trump pledged to release a new list of federal programs slated for elimination if the shutdown extends through the end of the week.
“We’re closing up programs that are Democrat programs that we were opposed to,” Trump said Tuesday. “And they’re never going to come back in many cases.”
Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson cautioned that the administration’s stopgap efforts to protect military families from the impact of the shutdown are not sustainable.
Speaking at a press conference on Capitol Hill, Johnson explained that the Trump administration’s move to redirect unspent Pentagon research and development funds to cover active-duty military pay is only a temporary fix. “The problem we have right now is that, in spite of President Trump’s heroic efforts to make sure they get paid, that is a temporary fix,” he said. “The executive branch, his help, is not permanent. It can’t be.”
Johnson warned that without congressional action, service members could soon miss a full paycheck. “If the Democrats continue to vote to keep the government closed as they have done so many times, then we know U.S. troops are going to risk missing a full paycheck at the end of this month,” he added.
The administration’s emergency authorization to the Department of Defense, which allows the reallocation of existing research funds to pay active-duty personnel, offered short-term relief for military families bracing for financial strain.
Johnson praised the move but underscored its limitations. “The reason they were able to get the troops paid for this paycheck—and as I said, this is not an enduring solution, because we will run out of the funds—but there were some unspent funds in, effectively, R&D accounts in defense,” he said. “They moved that over to prioritize payment of those who are putting their lives on the line today and who have families in serious situations.”
As the shutdown continues, thousands of federal workers remain furloughed or temporarily laid off. Essential employees—including active-duty military and federal law enforcement officers—are still required to report for duty, often without pay until the government reopens.
Earlier this month, the House passed a short-term funding measure, known as a continuing resolution, to keep the government operating through November 21. The measure, intended to give lawmakers additional time to finalize a full-year spending deal for fiscal 2026, now awaits Senate approval, where it requires 60 votes to advance.
So far, only three Senate Democrats have joined Republicans in supporting efforts to end the shutdown, leaving Washington gridlocked as federal employees, agencies, and military families brace for deepening consequences.