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The White House budget office said Friday that mass firings of federal workers have started in an attempt to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown continues.
In a court filing, the Office of Management and Budget said well over 4,000 federal employees would be fired in conjunction with the shutdown, though it noted that the funding situation was “fluid and rapidly evolving.”
Employees at the departments of Education, Treasury, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency, were set to receive the notices, according to spokespeople for the agencies and union representatives for federal workers.
The aggressive move by President Donald Trump’s budget office goes far beyond what usually happens in a government shutdown and escalates an already politically toxic dynamic between the White House and Congress. Talks to end the shutdown are almost nonexistent.
Other news we’re following:
Trump threatens new 100% tariff on Chinese imports: Trump’s announcement came Friday and risked throwing the global economy into turmoil. The president said on his social media site that he is imposing these tariffs because of export controls placed on rare earth elements by China. The new tariffs built on an earlier post Friday on Truth Social in which Trump said that “there seems to be no reason” to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as part of an upcoming trip to South Korea.Trump’s quest for the Nobel Peace Prize falls short: Trump was passed over for the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday despite jockeying from his fellow Republicans, various world leaders and — most vocally — Trump himself. The White House responded bitterly, with communications director Steven Cheung saying members of “the Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace” because they didn’t recognize Trump. Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado won the prize for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in Venezuela. Senate unanimously endorses repeal of 2002 Iraq war resolution: The Senate voted Thursday to repeal the resolution that authorized the 2003 U.S. invasion, following a House vote last month that would return the basic war power to Congress. The amendment by Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, and Indiana Sen. Todd Young, a Republican, was approved by voice vote to an annual defense authorization bill that passed the Senate late Thursday — a unanimous endorsement for ending the war that many now view as a mistake. Iraqi deaths were estimated in the hundreds of thousands, and nearly 5,000 U.S. troops were killed after President George W. Bush’s administration falsely claimed that then-President Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.