Trump threatens to lay off "a lot of people" if government shutdown occurs

Alsharq Tribune-Otaify 

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday that if a government shutdown were to occur, the administration would be laying off "a lot of people," blaming the Democrats for the current stalemate in funding negotiations.

"Well, the Democrats want to shut it down. So when you shut it down, you have to do layoffs. So we'd be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected, and the Democrats, they're going to be Democrats," Trump told reporters at the White House.

"This is Donald Trump's shutdown. He owns it," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on X when reposting Trump's video.

Trump on Tuesday also blamed the Democrats for insisting on providing free health care for illegal immigrants, a message repeated by Vice President JD Vance, House Speaker Mike Johnson, as well as Senate Republicans.

In a Senate floor speech earlier Tuesday, Schumer said that too many Republicans are lying about Democrats' stance.

"The law prohibits undocumented immigrants from getting payments from Medicare, Medicaid or the ACA (Affordable Care Act). There's no money, not a penny of federal dollars, that are going there," said Schumer.

The federal government will shut down at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday unless the U.S. Congress approves a federal spending bill in the next few hours. Republicans, who currently hold 53 seats in the Senate, need at least seven Democrats in the upper chamber to join them to pass the bill.