The Trump administration will use a government shutdown to gut the Democratic Party’s favorite federal agencies.

Or at least, this is what the president wants Democrats to believe, as they negotiate over a bill to prevent federal funding from lapsing on October 1.

Last week, White House budget director Russell Vought instructed federal agencies to consider mass firings, in the event of a shutdown. Vought specified that such downsizing should be confined to departments that President Donald Trump does not care much about: Agencies vital to the president’s agenda — such as Homeland Security and Defense — should be spared.

This led the Washington Post to declare that a shutdown may yield “a federal government dramatically reoriented to defense, immigration and law enforcement — and not much else.” Building such a streamlined administrative state has long been an objective of conservative hardliners, one they touted in their infamous “Project 2025” agenda. According to the Post, Vought and his allies believe a shutdown would give them an opening to realize those ambitions.

Six months ago, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer thought the same. In March, Schumer decided to help Republicans keep the government open, precisely because a shutdown would abet their war on the federal bureaucracy. “Under a shutdown, the Trump administration would have full authority to deem whole agencies, programs, and personnel ‘non-essential,’ furloughing staff with no promise they would ever be rehired,” Schumer said. “In short, a shutdown would give Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and DOGE, and Russell Vought the keys to the city, state and country.”

Schumer has evidently changed his mind.

Republicans........

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