President Donald Trump said Thursday that he would hold discussions on which “Democrat Agencies” should be cut amid the ongoing government shutdown.
Trump said he will meet with Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, who oversees the allocation of federal funds. The shutdown started on Wednesday after the Senate failed to pass a temporary government funding bill backed by Republicans.
“I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity. They are not stupid people, so maybe this is their way of wanting to, quietly and quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
The meeting follows Trump’s call Wednesday night for Republicans to take advantage of the shutdown as an opportunity “to clear out dead wood, waste, and fraud. Billions of Dollars can be saved.”
Vought has already moved to suspend or cancel billions of dollars of federal funding following the shutdown. He announced Tuesday that nearly $8 billion in “Green New Scam” funding spent on “the Left’s climate agenda” was being cancelled.
The terminated projects were mainly in blue states like California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington.
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Following Vought’s announcement, the Department of Energy said that it had terminated 321 financial awards worth $7.65 billion supporting 223 projects. The department said the projects were not economically viable, did not advance the nation’s energy needs, and would not yield a positive return on taxpayer investment.
“On day one, the Energy Department began the critical task of reviewing billions of dollars in financial awards, many rushed through in the final months of the Biden administration with inadequate documentation by any reasonable business standard,” said Energy Secretary Chris Wright. “President Trump promised to protect taxpayer dollars and expand America’s supply of affordable, reliable, and secure energy. Today’s cancellations deliver on that commitment. Rest assured, the Energy Department will continue reviewing awards to ensure that every dollar works for the American people.”
About one quarter of the awards were distributed between Election Day 2024 and Trump’s inauguration, the Energy Department said.
Vought also said Wednesday that $18 billion in funds for New York infrastructure projects was being frozen. New York Democrats Sen. Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have spearheaded Democratic resistance to Trump’s government funding proposal.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that Vought had been tasked with reviewing the federal bureaucracy amid the shutdown.
“There are unfortunate consequences to a government shutdown, and the federal government is not receiving any cash at the moment,” she said. “The Office of Management and Budget has been tasked with looking over the receipts and looking over the budget of the entire federal bureaucracy.”