Trump meeting Russ Vought to discuss cutting ‘Democrat agencies’ and whether cuts will be permanent
Donald Trump is up and truthing as the White House presses on with seizing the opportunity provided by the shutdown to axe federal jobs and Democratic spending priorities. “I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity,” Trump writes this morning.
He said he has a meeting today with Russell Vought, “of Project 2025 fame” who is now the head of the office for management and budget, “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”.
Vought was central to the Project 2025 blueprint – which Trump sought to distance himself from during his campaign – and has been on a years-long quest to dismantle the federal workforce and consolidate power for the president. Since Trump took office in January, he has worked alongside the so-called “department of government efficiency” to implement many aspects of the plan including slashing through the federal government.
As we reported yesterday – day one of the shutdown – he’s already started slashing blue state infrastructure spending, cancelling $8bn in climate-related funding to 16 blue states and freezing $18bn for two huge New York City construction projects. And he told a call with House Republicans that mass firings would begin either today or tomorrow and would target agencies that don’t align with the president’s priorities.
Here’s Trump’s Truth Social post:
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. 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! President DJT
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Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Leavitt said the office of management and budget is working today to figure out where those cuts will happen. As the bipartisan blame game rages on, she added:
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These discussions and these conversations, these meetings would not be happening if the Democrats had voted to keep the government open.
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House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks to reporters outside the West Wing.”,”caption”:”White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks to reporters outside the West Wing.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1759415357000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”10.29 EDT”,”blockLastUpdated”:1759416110000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”10.41 EDT”,”blockFirstPublished”:1759415707000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”10.35 EDT”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”10.35″,”title”:”US government layoffs could be in the thousands, says White House”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Thu 2 Oct 2025 10.41 EDT”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Thu 2 Oct 2025 07.54 EDT”},{“id”:”68de8ae98f08f91f2eb5e507″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
The Trump administration hopes and expects Hamas to approve its plan for Gaza and Donald Trump will draw a red line for any response from the group, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt has said.
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“It’s a red line that the president of the United States is going to have to draw, and I’m confident that he will,” Leavitt said in an interv