The Trump administration has commenced mass layoffs of federal workers in a bid to ramp up pressure on Democrats as the government shutdown drags on over stalled funding negotiations.
White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought announced the move in a post on X (formerly Twitter), writing, “The RIFs have begun,” — using the acronym for “reductions in force.”
A spokesperson for OMB confirmed that the layoffs were “substantial” and had already begun across multiple federal agencies. By Friday evening, the administration disclosed that over 4,000 employees had been affected across seven departments.
President Donald Trump has long signaled his intention to shrink the federal workforce, and sources suggest the ongoing shutdown has given the administration leverage to advance that goal.
“Those RIFs are a snapshot in time and represent only where things were at the time of the court filing,” a senior administration official told NBC News, implying that the number could still change.
According to a Justice Department filing, the largest number of layoffs were within the Treasury Department and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) — which together accounted for more than half of the total.
Other affected agencies include:
- Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
- Department of Education
- Department of Energy
- Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
- Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Detailed figures from the filing show:
- Treasury Department: 1,446 layoffs
- HHS: 1,100–1,200 layoffs
- Education Department: 466 layoffs
- Commerce Department: 315 layoffs
- Energy Department: 187 layoffs
- DHS: 176 layoffs
- EPA: 20–30 employees received notices of possible future layoffs
Additionally, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, part of the Commerce Department, had already sent notices to 126 employees following the initial shutdown on October 1.
Democrats have sharply criticized the move, accusing the administration of weaponizing the shutdown to carry out political vendettas. They argue that the president has no new authority to fire workers during a funding lapse.
At DHS, a spokesperson confirmed that layoffs were concentrated in the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) — an agency Trump has publicly targeted since it affirmed that he lost the 2020 election.
“During the last administration, CISA was focused on censorship, branding, and electioneering,” the spokesperson said. “This is part of getting CISA back on mission.”
An HHS spokesperson, Andrew Nixon, defended the layoffs as part of an effort to eliminate bureaucratic waste, saying the department was working to dismantle entities that conflicted with the administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda.
However, union leaders have condemned the firings as illegal and vindictive. AFSCME President Lee Saunders warned that the move would devastate families and vowed to fight the layoffs in court.
“These mass firings are illegal and will hurt families. We will pursue every available legal avenue to stop this action,” Saunders said.
Federal employee unions — including the American Federation of Government Employees and the AFL-CIO — have already filed lawsuits against the administration. On Friday, they submitted a supplementary motion seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent further layoffs, citing Vought’s online declaration that “The RIFs have begun.”
As the shutdown stretches on with no funding agreement in sight, tensions between the White House and congressional Democrats continue to mount — with thousands of federal workers now caught in the political crossfire.
