President Donald Trump is delaying a decision regarding how many federal employees his administration will permanently fire amid the government shutdown.

“I’ll be able to tell you that in four or five days,” Trump told reporters Tuesday at the White House. “If this keeps going on, it’ll be substantial, and a lot of those jobs will never come back, but you’re going to have a lot closer to a balanced budget.”

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Trump’s new deadline comes after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters last week that “mass firings” were “imminent.”

“Two days, imminent, very soon. You will expect more announcements right now,” Leavitt said when asked about different deadlines provided by Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and herself. “No, it is not unclear. All of those things are very synonymous with one another.”

The White House first announced the prospect of more federal employee terminations during the shutdown last month in a memo from the Office of Management and Budget that directed federal departments and agencies “to use the opportunity” of the shutdown to “consider Reduction in Force (RIF) notices for all employees in programs, projects, or activities” without funding and “not consistent with the President’s priorities.”

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Trump was also asked Tuesday what federal government programs his administration would cut if the shutdown continues, after saying last week he would identify “Democrat agencies.” OMB has already announced federal funding cuts of $20 billion for New York and Illinois infrastructure projects and $8 billion for what OMB Director Russell Vought has called “Green New Scam” spending. 

“Oh sure,” Trump said on Tuesday. “A lot. I’m not going to tell you, but we’ll be announcing it pretty soon. But we have a lot of things that we’re going to eliminate and permanently eliminate.”