U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, United States, October 9, 2025.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
President Donald Trump said Thursday his administration plans to use the current government shutdown to permanently kill government programs popular with Democrats, his latest threat amid financial impasse.
“We’re just killing Democrats’ agendas,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting at the White House.
It was not immediately clear what programs Trump had in mind, but he clarified that they were “very popular Democratic programs that are not popular with Republicans, frankly.”
“They wanted to do this,” Trump said, doubling down on blaming Democrats for the shutdown.
They will have “a little taste of their own medicine,” he added.
The president’s threat to target Democratic priorities came a week after he initially floated the idea of inflicting pain on his political opponents during the shutdown, now in its ninth day.
He said in a Truth Social article last Thursday that Congress’ lack of funding gave him an “unprecedented opportunity” to gut what he described as “Democratic agencies.”
He also wrote that he would meet with Russell Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, to determine what cuts to make.
On the first day of the shutdown, Vought announced that the administration was freezing about $18 billion in funding for New York City infrastructure projects and canceling about $8 billion more in climate-related funding for Democratic-leaning states.
Two days later, Vought said $2.1 billion in funding for the Chicago transit project had also been suspended.
The administration is considering canceling another $12 billion earmarked for clean energy projects, Semafor reported Tuesday.
The shutdown began Oct. 1 after Republican and Democratic congressional leaders were unable to pass appropriations bills to keep the government funded beyond the end of the fiscal year.
Republicans want to pass a stopgap measure to resume funding largely at current levels until November 21. Democrats say any funding bill should include additional health care protections, including extending the Affordable Care Act’s premium tax credits before they expire at the end of the year.
The dueling proposals repeatedly failed in the Senate.
