Will the 2025 government shutdown herald the second coming of DOGE?
Even though Elon Musk is nowhere near the White House, Donald Trump appears to be plotting another slash-and-burn of the federal government.
The president openly threatened Democrats during an interview that aired Thursday on One America News, vowing to "permanently" cut programs popular with Democrats and begin mass layoffs if the shutdown continued.
"There could be firings — and that's their fault," Trump said, also adding: "We could cut projects that they wanted, favorite projects, and then they'd be permanently cut."
No longer under the guise of improving efficiency in Washington, Trump's press secretary told reporters that "thousands" of jobs could be permanently axed as the president seeks to exact political punishment on his enemies.
Leading the charge with the president on this effort is Russ Vought, the Project 2025 architect and fiscal hawk now leading the Office of Management and Budget.
Vought "has been dreaming about this moment, preparing this moment, since puberty," Sen. Mike Lee told Fox News.
More centrist members of the GOP are less gleeful than Lee, and see inherent political risk in the president's threat to go after whole "Democrat agencies", which, in reality, serve millions of people of all political stripes.
Speaker Mike Johnson tried to put a more solemn face on the matter, while other Republicans expressed outright skepticism in the plan.
"This is certainly the most moral high ground Republicans have had in a moment like this that I can recall, and I just don't like squandering that political capital when you have that kind of high ground," Sen. Kevin Cramer fretted to CNN.
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