Johnson: Trump will stop firing federal workers when the government reopens

Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday defended the administration’s Friday night firing of thousands of federal employees, contending that President Trump and Budget Director Russ Vought were compelled by the shutdown to act, and alleged firing federal workers will end when the shutdown does — explanations experts widely reject as unfounded.

Asked about the terminations, Speaker Mike Johnson claimed to have little knowledge of them, despite widespread reporting. He suggested the layoffs were a consequence of the shutdown, telling reporters that “the executive branch, the Office of Management and Budget, has to determine what are the most efficient and effective programs.”

“It’s a difficult task,” Johnson told reporters. “It’s not one that they relish. They don’t want to do it. Listen, the president’s own words, and the Russ Vought’s own words, and everybody who’s involved. They want the government to be opened. They’re begging Chuck Schumer and the Democrats. That’s how to make all this stop. They want this to end immediately, and they want it at the end before it started.”

Vought, some felt, had appeared to celebrate the layoffs when he announced them on Friday. Politico noted that “Vought’s post appears to follow through on a threat to inflict more political pain on Democrats.”

“The RIFs have begun,” the OMB director had written on social media, referring to his reduction-in-force plans. Politico reported he had sounded the “layoff siren.” Initial estimates were that about 4,200 employees had lost their jobs across at least nine government agencies.

U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), the vice chair of the Appropriations Committee, reportedly blasted Trump and Vought:

“Once again, when President Trump and his self-described ‘grim reaper’ decide to ignore the pleas of congressional Republicans and conduct more mass firings, they are choosing to inflict more pain on the American people.”

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“No one is making Trump and Vought hurt American workers—they just want to,” she added.

U.S. Senator Andy Kim (D-NJ) responded to Vought, writing: “A reminder that Russell Vought previously said he wanted Gov workers ‘to be traumatically affected. When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains…We want to put them in trauma.'”

Experts denied the legality and condemned the perceived motivations for the firings.

Brendan Duke of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities wrote: “Firing federal employees during a shutdown is not only illegal but must be seen for what it is: blatant extortion. The Trump Administration is using working people and their families as pawns in a power play with no concern for who gets hurt.”

“Claims that the shutdown has forced their hand are false,” Duke added. “Nothing about a shutdown justifies these firings or makes them necessary. That’s why they haven’t happened in past shutdowns – including in the first Trump admin.”

“Russ Vought is now officially using the government shutdown as a pretext for his continued attempts to permanently gut the civil service,” wrote Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). “The executive branch cannot unilaterally reduce agency funding that Congress has allocated: This is a serious separation of powers issue.”