Trump is trying to use the shutdown to lay off workers
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 15 October 2025
⏱️ 23 minutes
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Summary
As the federal government shutdown stretches into its third week, its effects are starting to ripple across the country. National parks are closed, flights are delayed, and this week, some federal workers will miss their first paychecks.
For some of those workers, things are even more stressful: President Donald Trump is making good on his threat to use the shutdown to shutter government programs and offices he disagrees with. Thousands of workers have received notices that they may lose their jobs.
The Trump administration has claimed the cuts will help them keep the lights on during the shutdown. But experts say that’s not true – and the action may not be legal.
Host Colby Itkowitz speaks with reporter Hannah Natanson about Trump’s attempt to close swaths of the federal government – permanently.
Today’s show was produced by Emma Talkoff. It was edited by Reena Flores and mixed by Sean Carter.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We are in the third week of the government shutdown. |
| 0:05.8 | It is already having real impact. |
| 0:08.2 | It's caused flight delays, shuttered national parks, federal workers aren't getting paid, |
| 0:13.2 | and some of those workers got even more bad news over the weekend. |
| 0:17.5 | My phone began exploding with messages from folks across agencies saying they'd been Rift or colleagues |
| 0:25.8 | have been Rift. Rift is the federal form of a layoff. |
| 0:31.2 | Since the beginning of this administration, Hannah Natinson has covered President Trump's |
| 0:35.6 | efforts to shrink the federal government. |
| 0:43.3 | She says Trump is using this shutdown now to cut even more, targeting, quote, Democrat programs. |
| 0:54.7 | And it sort of emerged ultimately that Trump had targeted different offices, but many of which shared a similar mission, which was to help the nation's most vulnerable populations. |
| 0:59.1 | And the effects of those cuts could extend well beyond this shutdown. |
| 1:05.8 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post reports. |
| 1:09.6 | I'm Kolby Ekowitz. It's Wednesday, October 15th. |
| 1:13.4 | The federal government has been shut down for 15 days. Today, Hannah shares her reporting on the impact of that and how Trump is using the shutdown |
| 1:18.9 | to further slash the government. |
| 1:21.4 | Hannah, thank you so much for joining me. |
| 1:25.3 | Thank you for having me. |
| 1:26.4 | So before we get into these layoffs, let's start with kind of where the shutdown is right now. |
| 1:31.6 | What effects are we starting to see as the shutdown enters its third week? |
| 1:36.9 | So we are starting to see this go beyond federal workers who are already affected, of course, by either not having to work |
| 1:47.0 | or they're being forced to work without pay, their missed paychecks are starting to hit. |
| 1:52.5 | We're now seeing the shutdown reverberate out, though. |
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