United States | News & Politics

WASHINGTON ‒ President Donald Trump on Friday followed through on his long-standing threat to fire federal workers during the government shutdown, taking aggressive action to downsize the government in a dramatic break from past shutdowns.

“The RIFs have begun,” Russell Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget said in a post on X, referring to “reductions in force," or RIFs, of federal departments and agencies.

An OMB spokeswoman would not say how many federal workers are affected, or which agencies were targeted, but described the layoffs as "substantial."