Donald Trump’s administration froze $26bn for Democratic-leaning states, following through on a threat to use the government shutdown to target Democratic priorities.
The targeted programs included $18bn for transit projects in New York, home to Congress’s top two Democrats, and $8bn for green-energy projects in 16 Democratic-run states, including California and Illinois. Vice-president JD Vance, meanwhile, warned that the administration might extend its purge of federal workers if the shutdown lasts more than a few days.
The moves made clear that Trump would carry out his threat to take advantage of the shutdown to punish his political opponents and extend his control over the $7tn federal budget.
Vance said at a White House briefing that the administration would be forced to resort to layoffs if the shutdown lasts more than a few days, adding to the 300,000 who will be pushed out by December. Previous shutdowns have not resulted in permanent layoffs.
Vance uses false claims to pin shutdown blame on Democrats as White House warns of layoffs
Vance used false claims to blame Democrats for the government shutdown. Making a rare appearance in the White House briefing room, Vance told reporters: “We are going to have to lay some people off if the shutdown continues.”
Vance denied workers would be targeted because of their political allegiance but acknowledged there was still uncertainty over who might be laid off or furloughed.
Vance said “the Chuck Schumer-AOC wing of the Democratic party shut down the government because they said to us, we will open the government only if you give billions of dollars of funding to healthcare for illegal aliens. That’s a ridiculous proposition.”
It is also a false claim.
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Democrats and Republicans play blame game over shutdown
National Democratic leaders vowed to take their message to the American people that the blame for the shutdown crisis lies solely with Donald Trump and the Republicans and their attacks on healthcare provisions, as the US entered the first government shutdown in almost seven years. Republicans squarely blamed their political opponents.
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$18bn New York transit project on hold due to shutdown
The Trump administration said that it was putting a hold on roughly $18bn to fund a new rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River between New York City and New Jersey and the city’s expanded Second Avenue subway project – because of the government shutdown.
Trump falsely claims that national guard troops are ‘in place’ in Portland
Donald Trump once again shared misinformation about Portland, Oregon, on social media on Wednesday, when he announced that the national guard troops he called up in response to a small protest outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) office in the otherwise tranquil city are “now in place”.
However, Portland’s NBC News affiliate KGW reported 90 minutes after Trump’s social media post that no members of the guard were yet in place around the Ice field office where dozens of protesters have demonstrated against immigration sweeps since June.
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Federal Reserve governor will keep job – for now
Lisa Cook, the US Federal Reserve governor, will keep her job for now, despite Donald Trump’s extraordinary bid to remove her from the central bank’s board with immediate effect.
The US supreme court deferred action on the Department of Justice’s request to allow the president to fire Cook, at least until it hears oral arguments on the case in January.
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Veterans react to Hegseth’s ‘insulting’ military address
Pete Hegseth’s military address touching on physical fitness, the doctrine of lethality and the perils of DEI certainly drew more attention than a policy memo might have. But the attention came at the cost of respect, said Dana Pittard, a retired army general who commanded soldiers in Iraq.
“I thought it was insulting,” Pittard said of the address, rejecting Hegseth’s assertion that senior officers of color – like himself – had benefited from a nonexistent quota system for promotions.
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Democrats liken Trump to Putin after military speech
A leading Democrat has compared Donald Trump to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin after the US president told military leaders that the armed forces should use US cities as “training grounds”. JB Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, which is bracing for Trump to deploy national guard troops to his state, questioned the president’s mental health and accused him of behaving like an autocrat.
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What else happened today:
Catching up? Here’s what happened 30 September 2025.
