The US government may lose more than 100,000 federal workers on Tuesday week as a government shutdown looms increasingly closer. The Donald Trump government released a memo on Wednesday asking agencies to prepare large-scale layoffs if the partisan fight over spending plans fails to reach a conclusion. Thousands of federal workers now appear set to quit under a deferred resignation program — the largest mass exit in US history.
Trump is no stranger to the crisis — having been President during the last government shutdown in 2018. It had lasted a record-setting 35 days and led to significant disruptions and economic costs. Approximately 380,000 federal employees were furloughed during this time while an additional 420,000 workers were required to continue working without pay. But the latest announcements indicate a major shift from previous government policy — part of a broader effort to drastically reduce the federal workforce.
The development comes even as hundreds of federal employees fired earlier this year were asked to return. These workers were laid off earlier in 2025 as Elon Musk led aggressive cost-cutting measures under the Department of Government Efficiency.
Is a government shutdown likely to happen?
US President Donald Trump has insisted for most of this week that a shutdown was imminent “because the Democrats are crazed”. Legislators across the spectrum have so far failed to reach an agreement on funding the government once the new fiscal year starts on Wednesday. The POTUS had previously scrapped a high-stakes meeting with the top Congressional Democrats — insisting that no such meeting “could possibly be productive”.
“The radical left Democrats want to shut it down…If it has to shut down, it’ll have to shut down. But they’re the ones that are shutting down government,” he reiterated on Friday.
White House officials later confirmed that Trump would meet with the top Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress on Monday to discuss government funding ahead of the September 30 deadline.
‘Backdoor’ funding cuts possible by Trump govt
With three days to go before a US government shutdown, an advocacy group that tracks federal spending warned that about $8 billion approved by Congress for healthcare and education is at risk of going unused, held back by President Donald Trump’s administration. The potential “backdoor cuts” identified by the litigation-focused group Protect Democracy are an example of the way the White House, in pushing to remake the government, is setting aside agreements reached by Congress, which the U.S. Constitution gives authority over spending.