Many Democrats believe the White House is bluffing and insist Republicans will bear responsibility for a shutdown in the public eye because the GOP controls the government.
The Trump administration is expecting a government shutdown come Wednesday and there are no current plans to negotiate with Democratic leadership, according to a senior White House official.
“We’re going to extract maximum pain,” said the official, granted anonymity to discuss political strategy, adding that Democrats “will pay a huge price for this.”
The comments underscore the White House’s belief that Democrats will be blamed for a shutdown and its ripple effects, which could include mass layoffs across the federal government.
Trump is using more layoffs during the shutdown as a threat to get rid of employees that don’t “align with his political agenda“.
But this isn’t much of a threat to the Democrats, especially because they all know he’s gonna do some bullshit like that anyway, and appeasing him now will just embolden him.
Yeah, he’s already played the mass RIF hand. He’s going to try to make it happen with/without a shutdown.
Also, anyone slightly aware of things knows a shutdown doesn’t cause mass layoffs, that’s all Republicans.