Donald Trump is planning to fire thousands of civil servants if the US is plunged into a “government shutdown”.
The White House told government agencies to prepare for mass redundancies if Congress fails to pass a funding bill by the Sept 30 deadline, in a hardball negotiating tactic.
Under US law, Congress must pass 12 bills a year to keep the government funded. When it fails to do so, federal agencies end all non-essential functions until senators and representatives can finally strike a deal.
In most of the previous shutdowns, federal workers have been temporarily furloughed and returned to work once Congress voted to restore funding.
But Mr Trump is striking an uncompromising stance with Democrats, warning that they will become the face of mass redundancies as they try to reverse cuts to healthcare programmes as part of the negotiations.
The US president was scheduled to meet with Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the Democrat leaders in the Senate and House of Representatives, on Tuesday, but shortly before the shutdown, said he had changed his mind.
“After reviewing the details of the unserious and ridiculous demands… I have decided that no meeting with their Congressional leaders could possibly be productive,” Mr Trump said.
According to a memo from the Office of Management and Budget, the government will sack workers in federal programmes that are “not consistent with the president’s priorities”.
“We remain hopeful that Democrats in Congress will not trigger a shutdown and the steps outlined above will not be necessary,” it added.
Democrats have accused Mr Trump of using intimidation tactics in an attempt to force through his spending plans.
“Donald Trump has been firing federal workers since day one — not to govern, but to scare,” Mr Schumer said. “This is nothing new and has nothing to do with funding the government.”
Last week, Senate Democrats blocked a bill that passed by the Republican majority in the House of Representatives, which would have passed a short-term measure to continue funding until Nov 20.
Instead, they proposed a plan which would restore $1 trillion in funding to Medicaid, the insurance programme used by disabled and low-income Americans, that had been cut in Mr Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” earlier this year.
Many in the Democrat caucus appear to be digging in, seeing healthcare cuts as a key weakness for Republicans in the mid-term elections next year, in which they hope to regain control of the House.
Chris Van Hollen, the Maryland senator, accused Mr Trump of “mafia-style blackmail” and suggested the mass layoffs would be illegal, while Patty Murray, a Washington Senator, labelled the US president a “petty wannabe tyrant”.
Mr Schumer appears to have been emboldened by his previous experience in a shutdown row, when in March he vowed to vote against a funding bill before blinking at the last minute.
The Democrat, who faced calls for his resignation in the ensuing fallout, has now said he believes the president will take a hatchet to federal agencies regardless of a shutdown because “Trump is lawless”.