Democrat Shutdown: Thousands of Federal Bureaucrats Are Fired

Democrats are calling it a “Friday Night Massacre” in Washington, DC, after multiple federal agencies were notified that thousands of bureaucrats are being terminated.

Democrats hoisted on their own petard.

JUST IN: Democrats are referring to last night as a “Friday Night Massacre” in DC after a swaths of federal agencies were informed that in total, thousands of their bureaucrats were being fired.

I voted for this.

Democrats asked for it by shutting the government down. pic.twitter.com/65s6HKCNF0

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 11, 2025

BREAKING: A Friday night massacre is reportedly underway at the CDC. Dozens of “disease detectives,” senior scientists, the entire Washington staff, and editors of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) have been RIFed and issued termination notices. pic.twitter.com/c2gYWup8eP

— SARS‑CoV‑2 (COVID-19) (@COVID19_disease) October 11, 2025

White House to begin ‘substantial’ shutdown layoffs of federal workers

By: Brett Samuels, The Hill, October 10, 2025:

The White House said Friday it had started laying off federal workers, following through on a threat to carry out reductions in force (RIFs) amid an ongoing government shutdown.

“The RIFs have begun,” Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought posted on social platform X.

An OMB spokesperson confirmed the layoffs had started “and they are substantial.” But they did not provide information on how many employees or which agencies were impacted.

President Trump suggested on Friday evening that his administration was specifically targeting Democrats with the layoffs.

“It’ll be a lot. And it’ll be Democrat-oriented, because we figure, you know, they started this thing,” Trump told reporters.

The White House had previously suggested the number of employees targeted for layoffs could be in the thousands. An administration official confirmed the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Housing and Urban Development were among the agencies affected.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said in a statement that employees “across multiple divisions” had received notices about reductions in force “as a direct consequence of the Democrat-led shutdown.”

“All HHS employees receiving reduction-in-force notices were designated non-essential by their respective divisions,” the department said. “HHS continues to close wasteful and duplicative entities, including those that are at odds with the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda.”

Education Department also confirmed some employees will be affected by layoffs, but wouldn’t say how many.

The layoffs were likely to trigger legal challenges.

“America’s unions will see you in court,” the AFL-CIO posted on X.

The White House has for more than a week wielded the prospect of layoffs of federal workers and cuts to government programs as a threat if Democrats did not vote with Republicans to reopen the government.

In previous shutdowns, federal workers have been furloughed until the government reopened, but workers have not been fired.

“If this keeps going on, it will be substantial,” President Trump said Tuesday of layoffs. “And a lot of those jobs will never come back.”

On Thursday, Trump said his administration was looking to cut “Democrat programs.”

“That’s the way it works. They wanted this,” Trump said.

Democrats and unions representing government workers had criticized the administration for using federal employees as a negotiating tactic. Even some Republicans had welcomed the White House’s decision to hold off on layoffs despite the threats.

“I think, to their credit, the White House has, now for 10 days, laid off doing anything in hopes that enough Senate Democrats would come to their senses and do the right thing and fund the government,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Friday, minutes before Vought’s announcement.
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