How do Trump and Budget Chief Foot make this government shutdown unlike any other?

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is making this government shutdown unlike anything the country has ever seen, giving his budget office rare power to pick winners and losers — who gets paid or fired, what programs get cut or stay on — in an unprecedented restructuring across the federal workforce.

Watch live: The Senate is in session as the Trump administration threatens more firings due to the federal shutdown

As the shutdown enters its third week, the Office of Management and Budget said Tuesday it is preparing to “close the floodgates” with more cuts in effect in the future. The president calls Budget Secretary Ross Vought a “grim reaper,” and Vaught has seized the opportunity to fund Trump’s priorities, paying the military while cutting jobs in health, education, science and other fields through actions that have been criticized as illegal and are facing challenges in court.

Trump said programs favored by Democrats are being targeted and “will never come back, in many cases.”

Trump added, during an event at the White House: “We have become able to do things that we could not do before.”

With Congress at a standstill — the Republican-led House has refused to return to session and the Senate is stuck in a loop of failed votes to reopen the government while Democrats demand health care funding — the CBO quickly filled the void.

From Project 2025 to the White House

Vaught, the chief architect of the conservative policy book The 2025 Project, is working to reshape the size and scope of the federal government in ways similar to those envisioned in the blueprint. This is exactly what some lawmakers, especially Democrats, fear if Congress fails to fund the government.

Read more: “RIFs have started.” Vought announces the start of mass layoffs during the government shutdown

Trump’s priorities — supporting the military and pursuing his mass deportation agenda — have remained largely uninterrupted, despite the lockdowns. The administration found remaining tariff revenue to ensure the Women, Infants, and Children food assistance program would not close.

But the Trump administration has closed dozens of other programs, firing workers who run special education and after-school programs and those who guard the country’s infrastructure from cyberattacks. More than 4,100 federal workers received layoff notices over the weekend.

“This shutdown is different from previous shutdowns because Donald Trump and Ross Vaught and all their cronies are using this moment to terrorize these patriotic federal employees,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., standing with federal employees Tuesday outside the White House Budget Office.

Van Hollen said it’s a “big lie” when Trump and his budget director say a shutdown makes them fire federal employees. “It is also illegal and we will see them in court,” he added.

The lockdown grinds into the third week

Now in its 15th day, the federal shutdown has quickly become one of the longest in government. Congress failed to meet an Oct. 1 deadline to pass annual appropriations bills needed to fund the government as Democrats demanded a deal to preserve expiring health care funds that provide support for people to buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that he has nothing to negotiate with Democrats until they vote to reopen the government. But there is no sign yet of that happening as Senate Democrats have rejected the GOP bill to reopen the government eight times, most recently on Monday evening.

He watches: How the latest round of federal layoffs could affect public health

The Republican spokesman welcomed recent actions taken by the Office of Management and Budget to pay some workers and fire others.

“They have every right to move the money,” Johnson said at a news conference at the Capitol. Johnson said that if Democrats want to challenge the Trump administration in court, let them do so.

Typically, federal workers are furloughed during funding outages, and typically receive back wages once government funding is restored. But Vought’s budget office announced late last week that force reductions had begun. About 750,000 employees will be furloughed.

Military salaries and deportation are on track

Meanwhile, Trump has instructed the military to find money to ensure service members do not miss their paychecks this week. The Pentagon said over the weekend that it was able to tap $8 billion in unused research and development funds to pay salaries.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Tuesday that her agency is relying on Trump’s big tax cuts law for funding to make sure Coast Guard members get paid, too.

Read more: At the heart of the shutdown battle, health care is one of the most difficult issues in Congress

“We at the Department of Homeland Security have come up with an innovative solution,” Noem said in a statement. She said that thanks to Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” “the brave men and women of the US Coast Guard will not miss their paychecks this week.”

In previous shutdowns, the Office of Management and Budget oversaw the agency’s plans during interruptions in federal funding, ensuring essential workers were identified and remained on the job. However, Vaught took his role further by speaking openly about his plans to go after the federal workforce.

As agencies began making their closure plans, Vought’s Office of Management and Budget encouraged department heads to consider force reductions, a previously unheard-of measure. CBO General Counsel Mark Paoletta suggested in a draft memo that the workforce may not automatically qualify for back pay once the government reopens.

“Grim Reaper” replaces Elon Musk’s chainsaw

Trump posted an AI-generated video last week depicting Bigfoot wearing a cape and carrying a scythe, set to the backdrop of the classic rock song “(Don’t Be Afraid) The Reaper.”

“Every authoritarian leader has had their own deadly reaper,” said Rep. Steny Hoyer, the ranking Democrat from Maryland. “Russell Vaught is Donald Trump’s.”

Hoyer compared the budget chief to billionaire Elon Musk wielding a chainsaw earlier this year as the government’s Department of Efficiency cut its workforce. “Voit swung his machete across the federal government without thinking,” he said.

In many ways, Trump’s tax cuts gave the White House a significant new allocation of federal funding for its priority projects, separate from the regular appropriations process in Congress.

The package unleashed about $175 billion for the Pentagon, including the Golden Dome missile shield and other priority projects, and about $170 billion for homeland security, largely for Trump’s mass deportation agenda. It also included additional funds for Vought’s work at OMB.

Certain funds from the bill are available for use during the shutdown, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

“The Administration could also decide to use mandatory funding provided in the Reconciliation Act of 2025 or other mandatory funding sources to continue activities funded by those direct appropriations at various agencies,” according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The Congressional Budget Office cited the Departments of Defense, Treasury, Homeland Security and the Office of Management and Budget as among those that received money under the law.

Associated Press writers Will Weisert, Kevin Freking, Stephen Groves and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.