Extortion!

Trump is trying to extort the Democrats to pass the budget!

Do you remember how Trump swore on a pile of Bibles that he knew nothing about Project 2025... well this is what both of them are planning!

Trump’s shutdown architect: Russ Vought’s plan to deconstruct the government was years in the making

CNN

By PhilMattingly and Jeremy Herb

October 2, 2025

The Trump administration memo that landed in federal agency in-boxes last week wasn’t subtle.

As Washington careened toward a government shutdown, there would be nothing normal about the agency contingency planning which has become commonplace in more than a decade of partisan warfare that’s consumed government funding deadlines.

Instead, Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought’s 622-word directive dramatically raised the stakes: Every federal agency would now be required to submit detailed plans for mass layoffs.

Those plans would be triggered in the event of a shutdown — and would only be shelved if Democrats agreed to a Republican funding measure they’d already rejected.

Extortion... you do it my way or else!

Vought has managed to use its expansive suite of bureaucratic tools in a way that almost reverse-engineers its authorities: OMB’s guidance documents are no longer filled with benign instructions and updates. Instead, the more than two dozen memos signed by Vought since his return atop the agency track the full scale of the authority he’s leveraged in pursuit of Trump’s agenda, including eliminating longstanding foundations of agency independence and laying the groundwork for actions explicitly intended to break a law designed to ensure congressionally appropriated funds are spent as required.

Here in Connecticut we have an agency like OMB and it is fierily independent... but Trump has the politized the federal OMB!

But Vought wasted little time when the shutdown started Wednesday, announcing on X that the government was freezing $18 billion in New York City transit projects in a not-so-thinly-veiled shot at Democratic congressional leaders, both from New York. A few hours later, he announced another $8 billion in cuts to green energy projects in 16 states represented by Democrats in the Senate.

As I said at the beginning Trump vowed he knew nothing about Project 2025

On Thursday morning, Trump said he was meeting with Vought to follow through on plans for mass layoffs, taunting Democrats by referencing his role as a co-author of Project 2025, the conservative policy blueprint Trump disowned in the campaign but that his administration has often turned to.

“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,” Trump wrote on Truth social.

Trump is the Lair-In-Chief! You cannot trust a word that comes out of Trump he will lie if it is to his advantage! Right now the guy who wrote Project 2025 is in charge of the hen house!

Trump eyes cuts to 'Democrat Agencies' in government shutdown

Reuters

By Andy Sullivan and Doina Chiacu

October 3, 2025

U.S. President Donald Trump said he will meet with his budget director Russell Vought on Thursday to determine which "Democrat Agencies" to cut, as he looks to inflict pain on his political opposition in the second day of a government shutdown.

"I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity," Trump said in a social media post.

Trump has already frozen federal transit and green-energy funding for Democratic-leaning states and has threatened to fire more federal workers during the shutdown, which began on Wednesday due to a partisan standoff in Congress.

[...]

In the meantime, Trump has made clear he will pile pressure on his opponents by targeting government programs they favor. Democrats have said this amounts to hostage-taking that throws regular Americans out of work and also violates Congress' constitutional authority over federal spending.

However there is some rumbling from the Republicans! In another CNN article they report,

Why some Republicans are getting cold feet about Trump’s shutdown layoff threats

by Aaron Blake

October 2, 2025

Republican Sen. Mike Lee offered some colorful commentary Wednesday night about Democrats and the government shutdown.

“It’s going to harm them,” the Utah senator said. “Because Russ Vought, the OMB director, has been dreaming about this moment, preparing this moment, since puberty.”

He added: “This is going to be the Democrats’ worst nightmare.”

This is about what is good for the country... this is for what is good for Trump!

Fears that Trump would use a shutdown to cut things that “don’t align with the president’s values,” as press secretary Karoline Leavitt previewed Thursday, were a big reason Democrats caved during the last shutdown debate earlier this year.

But this time Democrats decided to try and call the administration’s bluff. And there are signs some Republicans are getting cold feet about the administration making good on its threats.

Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota has been especially blunt.

[...]

“There’s the political ramifications that could cause backlash,” Cramer told CNN’s Manu Raju, adding: “I just don’t like squandering that political capital.”

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine called the administration’s targeting of $18 billion in infrastructure projects in New York – home to the top Democrats in both the House and the Senate – “totally unacceptable.”

[...]

Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina told Reuters that the administration needs to be “really careful with that, because they can create a toxic environment here.”

And even Senate Majority Leader John Thune has seemed to throw up a caution flag.

Asked Thursday by Politico whether Vought’s efforts were muddying the political waters, the South Dakota Republican responded: “The only thing I would say about that is yes, and we don’t control what he’s going to do.”

You know when you hitch your wagon to a wandering star sometimes it drags you where you do not want to go! WHEC writes...

But now, Paul of Kentucky has been the lone Republican to join Senate Democrats in opposing a short-term funding measure backed by GOP leaders that would keep government funding generally at current levels through Nov. 21. In explaining his vote, Paul said the measure “continues Biden spending levels” which Trump had previously pledged to roll back.

Can you say, "Two faced"

Trump’s budget director, Russ Vought, has also taken a new tack now that he is back in the White House. While Joe Biden was president, Vought directed a conservative organization called The Center for Renewing America and counseled Republicans in Congress to use the prospect of a shutdown to gain policy concessions.

Yet this week, he charged that Democrats were “hostage taking” as they demanded that Congress take up health care policy.

[...]

Some Republicans are sympathetic to the Democratic demands for an extension of the tax credits. If they allowed to expire, there will be large rate increases for many people who purchase their health care coverage on the marketplace. It would add financial stress to key Republican constituencies like small business owners, contractors, farmers and ranchers.

When Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican, floated a one-year extension to the health care subsidies during a Senate floor vote Wednesday, it attracted attention from Democrats and Republicans alike.

[...]

There’s also a growing unease with how the Trump administration is leading Republicans through the shutdown. GOP lawmakers feel they hold the political advantage in the fight, but some are beginning to express doubts as the president and his budget director prepare to unleash mass layoffs and permanent program cuts.

It should be an interesting next couple of weeks! If the shutdown goes another week or two we will be in this for the long haul.