Public sentiment regarding the potential government shutdown and mass firings is overwhelmingly negative, characterized by deep frustration towards political leadership, particularly towards President Trump and Congress. Commenters express significant concerns about job security and the economic implications of a shutdown, viewing the government's actions as harmful and manipulative. Many advocate for accountability and resist the perceived threats to federal employees, while some see layoffs as a potential opportunity to address government inefficiency.

Trump Administration

Congress

Republican Party

Just another con to force the dem to give in. Then RIF and Reorg happens anyway, then 6 months later you get a letter to return to your original position. Then repeat near the next fiscal year.

hellalg

Cute that they're publicizing this. Classic Mafia move.

Even dictatorships need a civil service. These guys are courting real blow back -- and not just at the ballot box.

EDIT: since this has already resulted in PMs asking me to join some kind of movement because my "anger is reaching a boiling point": let me be clear that I am not, and would not, advocate for violence of any kind. That's neither my wish nor my intentions.

New-Process9287

Prepare?! How exactly should that be done? 

Stop begging the last group of employees forced out to return?

What are they talking about?

Hillarious.

AcanthocephalaLive56

This game plan isn’t a surprise. However, It’s surprising that many still can’t believe it’s happening.

Front_Chip_9201

At this point, getting RIFed sounds kinda appealing.

SemiSemaTirzTurd

Well yeah, but Kamala is a black woman who has a weird laugh

Panem-et-circenses25

Don’t give in. Sign the letter to Congress

https://actionnetwork.org/forms/civil-servants-coalition

ZookeepergameFine936

It describes me and my cio exactly. Please shut it down I am so tired.

No-Cobbler6300

Cry’s in job required by law.    I just want to get fired allready

MostRepresentative77

This has been posted like 1,000 times in the last few hours.

mtnclimbingotter02

Bring it! We can take them to court and get our jobs back.

ScoutSpiritSam

“And so I come full circle on this response and just want to encourage you with some substance that we are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.” - Kevin Roberts


We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,” Vought said in a video revealed by ProPublica and the research group Documented in October. “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 their funding to be shut down … We want to put them in trauma.” - Russell Vought


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=d-qn_ArKlU4&amp;source_ve_path=OTY3MTQ&amp;embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.heritage.org%2F

Many-Lengthiness9779

Read the actual memo, they are only targeting programs the administration wants deleted. Nothing new there, just accelerated. 

See #3 is required.

"to use this opportunity to consider Reduction in Force (RIF) notices for all employees in programs, projects, or 
activities (PPAs) that satisfy ALL THREE of the following conditions: (1) discretionary funding lapses on 
October 1, 2025; (2) another source of funding, such as H.R. 1 (Public Law 119-21) is not currently 
available; and (3) the PPA is not consistent with the President’s priorities." 

Memo link:
https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000199-7e8f-ddde-a199-fedf6c5d0000

This isn't the whole gov. Just the parts they've already been vocal about deleting. The parts probably pending rif already.

Those people don't want to be fired more quickly, jobless and facing rent do they? Or do we just have a ton of young people on here living with their parents still.

kokoroshita

Doesn’t crime go up when unemployment goes up?

genXfed70

AdMysterious8343

Federal employees know what’s going on. Should RIFs actually happen, laid off workers will place blame on the GOP. This will have long lasting effects in future elections, for many years to come. Additionally, mass layoffs along with tariff-induced inflation will cause stagflation, which Jerome Powell already said is very possible. We haven’t had stagflation for decades, and this administration may be the first in many years to create one. This will be a very bad look for them.

HenryK81

It’s nothing more than furloughs if the shutdown happens….nothing new or scary compared to past shutdowns.

Ok-Flow-2474

OMB direct agencies to draft RIF plans.   Doesn’t sound good.

Shiba4777

I’ll take a DRP if it’s from Oct - Sept lol. I hope majority of us would as an F U.

Knicklejet89

Tmw you threaten to fire people while desperately trying to rehire the people you've already fired.

Burgdawg

Prepare deez nuts. OPM and OMB do not order or execute RIFs. Enough of this bullshit. The rank and file shouldn’t be preparing for anything

Longjumping-Buy-5994

It is a great play, got to give them credit for that.

TMtoss4

JollyPower2883

Please shut us down and get this fixed.  SES should be overseeing 500-1000 people, not 9 support staff like my agency.  Eliminate all chart makers. Eliminate all assistants and deputies.  Cap overhead support at say 7 percent

Googs1080

We really need all government functions to be carried out by private businesses. It would be more efficient, and we would make a profit. We can lease our military equipment and associated assets. Roads and highways could be named after the companies that own them. Social security should be invested in the stock and bitcoin markets.

Mariodee3

Powerful_Concern_915

Tens of thousands of people got fired when the government was open, so really how this is meant to intimidate anyone?

CressNo8841

How do we, the federal employees get these OMB/OPM memos? You would think we would receive them.

Busy-Presence5958

This is why I chose not to buy a house when RTO forced me back to the DMV.

SnooComics7744

This is 100% on Republicans. Utterly to blame.

ChampionshipBrave615

They have cut so deep already, I don’t think they can get away with widespread RIFs with severely impacting programs. This is more than likely a scare tactic aimed at getting Chuck Schumer to fold. It will probably work, Chuck’s spine has been snatched away.

nozamy

This is 100% guaranteed an intimidation tactic to get Dems to play ball.

And I'm about 99% confident that Schumer is going to fold in record time right before Trump fires them all anyway.

jdoeinboston

They're going to fire them regardless. It's just a matter of when. Might as well not give in.

Snoo-57077

I feel at this point there is no more leverage.  Even if you agree to a budget the maga republicans will RIF, cut, downsize, cheat, impound, and manipulate so fu&amp;$ them.  I would not agree to their budget.  Let them RIF us as thats their plan anyway.

Apprehensive-Cup-912

Well, they’ve already figured out the mass firings. They’ve been working on shutting the government down since inauguration so it shouldn’t be a big leap honestly.

EastSoftware9501

Whenever you see something like this proposed, the first thing you should do is ask yourself: who benefits? At this point in time, I see basically zero agencies that would want to do this, and I see (as happened last time) a bunch of agencies moving to reclassify everybody as excepted, and what’s OMB going to do about it? 

Then consider the position of marginal house members and senators. No benefit there. Trump might want it until he finds out how staggeringly unpopular it is. And then there’ll be a shitstorm of lawsuits. 

I guess you can’t rule anything out these days, but this seems wildly unlikely to unfold as described.

Throwaway_bicycling

With the economy in terrible shape, I doubt they RIF anybody else again.  Empty threats.  Inflation a big problem.  The economy is not adding many jobs. 
If this RIF does occur, democrats will simply need to shut it down for months if necessary.

According_Belt_8634

If they do, all federal workers and our supporters should stage a mass walkoff, take to the streets and protest. No airport security, no mail service, no emergency passports, no VA doctors. Enough is enough! We have dedicated our careers and lives to serving our country, and we deserve respect and dignity, not half-assed threats and psychological abuse.

Wrong_Extension2950

These fuckers are single handedly knocking America down to an afterthought in the world pecking order. Just to get some rich guys richer. Fuck this administration.

kjlcm

Firing everyone except ICE was really the plan all along. 

NicePlanetWeHad

Look for a loophole and go for it. They dismantle the parts of government that help people and only focus on what gives the president authority to attack enemies. It is crazy. The government will become less and less efficient and nearly impossible to rebuild. 

The disturbing thin to me is that the system is going to fail overall because the executive has gone rogue and the other branches do nothing or do not see a problem despite the oversteps. 

The firings, to be frank, are going to happen either way. That is their goal, the scale just varies and the excuse that they will use to get there. Hurting people working in government is a plus to them, those are the enemies that don't do anything of value. At least in their mind. Alot of things are really going to start to suffer, its not like these programs and individuals did nothing or had no impact. The systems in place were there for a reason.

bd2999

They really want American citizens to just die.

RiptideEberron

Mmmm, can't imagine how this could possibly go badly.

  
So long, and thanks for all the ~~fish~~ racism .

enduir

Mass firings? Or is this just the go home and wait for the budget to pass? I've heard a few gov't people in my field say they're looking forward to the PTO

shottylaw

It doesn’t matter anymore. They fired so much people already. The only people left are the people that are already working with required funds.

Fun_Ice_2035

I’m pretty sure recent court rulings made it clear specific agencies are in charge of personnel issues, not OMB or OPM.

All_Hail_Hynotoad

If they do RIF, I wonder if they will ask if ppl want to retire.....

Important-Engineer58

Well, the money for expanding ICE and paying for the tax cuts has to come from somewhere, right?

RascalsM0m

Not to worry.  Podcast Jay and MAGA Matt will push back hard and save our jobs.

saccatore

 Cool. Do it. I am so over it and have no more effs to give.  We all know what agency they hate the most and so I’m sure we will get the brunt of it. I am so ready. My job functions have been stripped away as have my purpose and my commitment to the American people. It would be a welcome respite.

Stay strong everyone.  Dems don’t back down.  All this admin does is TACO threats.

HomemadeSandwiches

Does anyone have the lapse of appropriation funding document for internal revenue service that shows the breakdown for each department like taxpayer of service and compliance? I’d like to see that and I cannot find it online.

Safe_Exam_814

Just fire me already if you want to bro I don’t even care anymore 🤷‍♀️

Low_Suit_8300

This is pure theater. They are proposing this as a scare tactic to force democrats to agree to the CR. Same angle was used earlier this year. 

Automatic-Rice2985

NeedleworkerFar3372

This is insane. It's just sheer lawlessness, taking an axe to the civil service out of spite.


I don't think the average American has any idea how profoundly the USG has been broken. It's not getting fixed in the midterms, it's not getting fixed in 2028. The damage these monsters have done is going to take a generation to undo, and it's going to show up in a million little ways from "oops nobody was around to trace that strain of deadly bacteria in your vegetables" to "yeah we can't test for that kind of cancer anymore."

berniecratbrocialist

Sounds like the administration is expecting the shutdown to be at least 30 days and perhaps over 60 days.

blackhorse15A

Couldn't they do this exact thing without a shutdown? 

JohnnyRyde

RIFs are going to happen regardless of the shutdown. Dems voted last time to keep the government open and they still want to town on agencies like HHS, USAID, and Education. It is just a threat that is going to happen regardless.

paleomaniac3

bluemola

If they would RIF feds during a shutdown, they'd RIF them anyway. The admin has proven that they need no excuse to illegally fire us - they want to fire us all anyway. This isn't a threat, they're just reminding us of their original promise. Dems have to shut this shit down.

Dapper-Survey1964

Not sure what their angle is here - nobody gets paid during a shutdown, including Law Enforcement and the military. No new O&amp;M funds to be put on contracts will hamstring programs and operations. I guess they can drag it out and try to use it as an excuse to execute even more RIF's, but quite rapidly this will impact things they care about. It's not like they've held back on RIF's already.

frameddummy

so the memo says agencies should “consider” RIF plans and then “revise” them if/when FY2026 funding passes. performative horseshit at its finest

rocky2814

Why do republicans hate the United States? Would Trump “show his love” for Mar a lago by firing most of its staff?

Gladukame

FWIW the memo directs “agencies to use this opportunity to CONSIDER RIF notices to all employees”that meet the 3 conditions and acknowledges that some agencies have yet to submit their original RIF plans.  That’s how I’d read it…but I’m rational and the principal actors (depending on agency) are not.

hl6407a

Whether you like it or not but the general public will like the idea of mass federal RIFs. I don't think the general public can't sleep thinking about the future of federal employees. Time to be serious and without illusions.

President1988

I wanna see them fire over a million people.

BlueAces2002

DOD coworker came up to me today and was complaining about how the Democrats need to stop messing around and negotiate. My jaw might still be on the floor

fruitl00ps19

Well that's not good...

&gt;In the memo, OMB told agencies to identify programs, projects and activities where discretionary funding will lapse on Oct. 1 and no alternative funding source is available. For those areas, OMB directed agencies to begin drafting RIF plans that would go beyond standard furloughs, permanently eliminating jobs in programs not consistent with President Donald Trump’s priorities in the event of a shutdown.

jojojawn

here is the memo [https://punchbowl.news/file\_8690/](https://punchbowl.news/file_8690/)

amew86

Vought is salivating for a shutdown to mass RIF.

504Supra

Religious conservatives love using people's lives and jobs as poliical weapons.

abgry_krakow87

pinkelephant0040

Cautious_Notice_3565

There is no way the Dems don’t cave.  They had way more leverage and cover before and they caved.   I just don’t see them making a significant stand.

strangedaze23

This administration acts like the Mafia. The boss runs everything, threatens everyone, lies and crass stories are the news, bullies people, uses extortion on a regular basis, and it runs on fear. You don't give in to bullies, you stand your ground. 
It's fucking time to stand out ground.

Where_art_thou70

mischiefera

The 30 day furlough for RIF purposes isn’t the same as a shutdown furlough. Nice try, though. Russ Vought looks like he’s about to have a myocardial infarction in that pic. 

Ivehaditfedup

The people that voted for this nonsense should be the 1st issued then compare the numbers and efficiency.

4ndril

If Trump and his lackeys do this, every federal worker and our supporters should stage a mass walkoff and take to the streets and protest. No services for the public, no mail, no airport security, no VA doctors, no air traffic controllers. We’ve dedicated our lives and careers to our country and we deserve respect and dignity, not half-assed threats and psychological abuse. Enough is enough!!!

So close all the national parks? This is just a scare tactic.

No_Industry6811

The democrats came to Trump to have a meeting about the shutdown.  Trump sent them away! He wants a shutdown!

Justrelax520

Well I guess the IRS is all going to be fired.....

Infamous_Teach_1189

TSA wasn't named essential in this article.

mydogharry2019

SlySlickWicked

If the Democrats given, then the Republicans will always hold this over their head. For every issue. Ergo, they have to hold their ground.

Repulsive-Ladder1611

Many of you may not agree, but Schumer was and is right. Whether he caves or not again is another story, but he has been thinking like that scum Vought

AwesomeSnake_2025

Cuahucahuate22

Why should House or Senate Dems sign the CR. If they sign this time, the GOP will do every single time. Shut it down Chuck!

30to50feralcats

I think Democrats need to act rather than give useless speeches. The rules no longer apply when dealing with MAGApublicans. They go and break government even more. At some point, the public will wake up...if not, other solutions will arise.

electronlove

Let’s be honest. Russ isn’t bluffing here and it’s been the plan since the EO: find a reason to nuke everything and put it back together as we want.

At this point, just rip off the bandaid. Rather know next week I don’t have a job than several weeks or months. 

PetrolGator

Regardless they were most likely already intending more RIFs come new FY anyway. A lot of people have been expecting that regardless. If they aren’t going to deflate our budgets they’ll toss aside more people

Only-Tough-1212

Aren't they already doing it? DOI as a test drive. 

BuyerOk9535

This would have a hell of a lot more teeth if there weren’t reports that they’re asking people to come back.

Trademeister88

They haven't bluffed yet.  Every single threat, no matter how insane, they have followed through.

Fickle-Juggernaut-97

SOMEONE TELL THIS MAN TO FUCK OFF! We are not pawns and what will be will be!!!!!!

ctrl_alt_delete3

Fuck it, shut it down anyways. If this is how I lose my dream job, then it’s alright by me to see what comes from a shutdown

WilstonMotion

So does lessen the odds of a shutdown ? Pretty severe thing to put out there 

Spoolin_80

Perhaps if enough air traffic controllers or other excepted personnel call in sick during a shutdown, where the American people will truly feel the full effects of these misguided bullying tactics? One can dream.

VintageEarflapPouch7

The White House has ordered federal agencies to prepare for mass firings in anticipation of a potential government shutdown if Congress cannot reach an agreement by the September 30 deadline. This directive involves drafting plans for significant layoffs of nonessential federal programs that do not align with President Trump's priorities.

US Government Shutdown and Mass Firings

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