Trump threatens to lay off "a lot of people" if gov't shutdown occurs

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that if a government shutdown were to occur, the administration would be laying off "a lot of people," blaming the Democrats for the current stalemate in funding negotiations.

"Well, the Democrats want to shut it down. So when you shut it down, you have to do layoffs. So we'd be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected, and the Democrats, they're going to be Democrats," Trump told reporters at the White House.

Funding for the government is set to run out at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. With just hours to go, a government shutdown appears imminent. However, both the Democratic and Republican parties have remained unwilling to signal compromises, with their respective positions growing increasingly firm.

On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune urged Democrats during his speech to vote in favor of the Republican temporary funding bill, so that it could pass and be signed into law by President Trump.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, however, said that the country was standing on the edge of a government shutdown because Republicans were not taking government operations seriously.

Schumer said that Republicans wanted a shutdown, were unwilling to negotiate, and were forcing Democrats to accept the Republican bill.

Earlier, the House of Representatives had narrowly passed a temporary funding bill drafted by Republicans in an attempt to keep the government funded through late November, but the Senate failed to pass it afterward, leading to a stalemate between the two parties. Democrats criticized the Republican-proposed stopgap bill for neglecting healthcare priorities, while Republicans argued that the bill would buy time for further negotiations.

The federal government will shut down at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday unless the U.S. Congress approves a federal spending bill in the next few hours. Republicans, who currently hold 53 seats in the Senate, need at least seven Democrats in the upper chamber to join them to pass the bill.

The death toll in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip has risen to 71,441 since the conflict between Hamas and Israel erupted on Oct 7, 2023, with the number of injuries reaching 171,329, said Gaza's health authorities on Thursday.

In the past 24 hours, hospitals in Gaza received two bodies, according to the health authorities.

Since the ceasefire agreement took effect on Oct 11, 2025, Israeli attacks have killed 451 people and wounded 1,251 others in the Gaza Strip.