Trump Says Admin Will Release List of Democrat-Backed Programs That Will Be Cut Soon

President Donald Trump said at a meeting on Tuesday that his administration will soon release a list of what he called “Democrat programs” and signaled the cuts would be permanent as a two-week-long government shutdown grinds on.

During a White House lunch event with Argentine President Javier Milei, Trump said his administration will not be closing Republican programs “because we think they work.” His comments come after shutdown-related layoffs were initiated late last week by Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought.

“We are closing up Democrat programs that we think that we disagree with, and they’re never going to open again,” the president said. He did not elaborate on which programs are being cut and which will stay open.

The president further stated that the White House will release “a list of them on Friday, closing up some of the most egregious socialist, semi-communist” programs. “We’re being able to do things that we were unable to do before,” Trump said.

Both Trump and Vought launched their previously forewarned “reductions in force” on Oct. 10, with government lawyers confirming that about 4,100 workers were terminated in court papers submitted on that same day.

Aside from the terminations, the White House slashed $8 billion in climate funding to several Democratic-run states and paused roughly $18 billion in infrastructure projects in New York City, Vought confirmed in several social media posts earlier this month.

Last week, Trump said at a Cabinet meeting that some programs would be targeted that “aren’t popular with Republicans.” Democrats, he said, “wanted to do this so we will give them a little taste of their own medicine.”

On Tuesday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) told CNN that Democrats are not going to put a new offer on the table to initiate new negotiations to reopen the government and reiterated that his party is willing to negotiate.

“We’re open to sitting down any time, any place with anyone,” Jeffries told the media outlet, adding, “There has to be a willingness among Republicans to actually have a conversation.”

Jeffries said that he agreed with Trump’s plan to redirect some federal funds in order to pay members of the military during the shutdown. But he said that federal workers and Capitol Police officers also should be paid.

“I agree with making sure our men and women in uniform, our active duty troops, are paid,” he said. “We also need to make sure that we take care all of our hardworking civil servants.”

His remarks came after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), in a news conference Monday, accused Democrats of voting “eight times to block their paychecks,” referring to federal workers and military members.

“Republicans have voted in Congress eight times now, between House and Senate, to fund the troops and pay federal workers in all these essential jobs and agencies, because we understand the necessity of that,” Johnson said. He was referring to the votes on a GOP-backed stopgap bill to fund the government at existing level before the shutdown.

Earlier Tuesday, the OMB stated in a post on X that it would continue to “ride out” the shutdown and initiate more layoffs, suggesting that more terminations will occur.

At the center of the shutdown is a congressional dispute over whether to extend Obamacare subsidies, which expire at the end of the year. Democrats say that any measure that would fund the government needs to include an extension of the subsidies, while Republicans say that the shutdown and health care should be handled separately and that the subsidies should be discussed after the government reopens.

The Office of Management and Budget did not immediately respond to an Epoch Times request for comment.