WASHINGTON ‒ The Trump administration expects to lay off more than 10,000 federal workers during the government shutdown, a top White House official said Oct. 15, as a federal judge delivered an initial blow to those plans.
"I think we’ll probably end up being north of 10,000," Russell Vought, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said in an interview on "The Charlie Kirk Show," the podcast of the late conservative activist.
Vought's comments came shortly before a federal judge in California ‒ on the 15th day of the shutdown ‒ halted the administration’s layoffs for now in a case brought by two labor unions. Judge Susan Illston granted the request from the plaintiffs while she considers claims that the firings were illegal.
Government shutdown live updates: Judge blocks mass layoffs; Senate rejects spending deal
The Trump administration began laying off federal workers amid the shutdown last Friday, Oct. 10 after repeated threats from Trump. In all, about 4,000 federal workers were fired during this initial wave of layoffs, but the OMB said Monday it will "continue the RIFs," or reductions in force, during the shutdown.
