Trump Is Using Government Websites to Blame Democrats for the Shutdown

As the Trump administration uses federal resources to blame Democrats for the government shutdown, President Donald Trump suggested this week that he may use the shutdown to unilaterally carry out more of his authoritarian agenda.

Trump indicated to reporters on Tuesday that he views the shutdown as an opportunity to fire federal workers and eliminate government programs.

“We can get rid of a lot of things that we didn’t want and they’d be Democrat things,” Trump said.

He has previously said that his administration would be “laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected” by the shutdown.

“They’re Democrats, they’re going to be Democrats,” Trump said when discussing who would be targeted.

After negotiations between congressional Democrats and Republicans on a continuing resolution to fund the federal government faltered, a partial shutdown of some federal services began on Wednesday morning.

Though the House passed a version of the continuing resolution, it was blocked by a filibuster from some Democrats in the Senate. Senate versions of the resolution from both parties have also failed to pass in that chamber.

At issue is a number of health care cuts that were passed in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Democrats are attempting to use their leverage to reverse the bill’s Medicaid cuts and to restore expiring tax credits for those receiving insurance through the exchange established by the Affordable Care Act. A permanent extension on those subsidies would save $350 billion in health costs for around 3.8 million people over the next decade.

Republicans, on the other hand, want to pass a “clean” continuing resolution bill — one that doesn’t make changes to the current status quo when it comes to health care — and have reportedly refused to indicate whether they’re willing to consider some of the Democrats’ proposals.

The president has compounded tensions between the parties by demeaning Democratic leaders on social media — including, in one instance, by using AI technology to create a deep fake video that included racist imagery attached to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York).

Both Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) said Trump’s messages have made the negotiation process harder to navigate, describing the president’s posts as “erratic and unhinged” in a joint press release.

“Democrats remain ready to find a bipartisan path forward to reopen the government in a way that lowers costs and addresses the Republican healthcare crisis. But we need a credible partner,” the duo added.

Democrats now lack a forum for negotiation in the House of Representatives. On Tuesday, House Republican leadership gaveled out the current session, making negotiations or the passage of an agreed-upon bill unlikely until the House returns a week from now.

Meanwhile, Trump and the GOP are flooding social media with false and misleading claims about the cause of the shutdown — and the White House is using government resources to convince federal workers and Americans overall that Democrats are at fault.

An email sent to government workers, for example, claimed that “Democrats are blocking this Continuing Resolution in the U.S. Senate due to unrelated policy demands.”

Executive branch-managed websites are also informing visitors that Democrats are to blame for the shutdown. The site for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), for example, now features a deeply partisan message: “The Radical Left in Congress shut down the government. HUD will use available resources to help Americans in need.”

Peddling such messages using government resources may run afoul of ethics laws such as the Hatch Act, experts have warned.

“The code of ethics requires that federal employees serve the American public impartially, without regard to their political views,” Donald Sherman, executive director and chief counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), told NPR. “This message may not technically violate the Hatch Act, since it does not advocate for particular candidates or weigh in on elections, but it certainly violates the spirit of that law.”

There’s no indication that the shutdown will end anytime soon, particularly given that Trump has expressed a desire to use the situation to advance his agenda. In the meantime, Democrats appear to be digging their heels in on their demands to restore health care funding.

“I have never seen Democratic senators more unified and resolute,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) said earlier this week. “We are absolutely determined that this ticking clock will not deter us from saving American health care.”

Progressive organizations are encouraging Democrats to hold firm.

In a press release shared with Truthout, Ravi Mangla, National Press Secretary for the Working Families Party, said: “Trump and the Republicans are choosing to shut down the government and withhold paychecks from federal workers, all so they can take away money for health care and give it to billionaires. If Republicans get their way, tens of millions will lose their care, premiums will explode, and funding for life-saving cancer research will go away.”

“Democrats need to stand firm and fight for a funding bill that keeps families on their health care,” Mangla added.

Polling shows that a larger proportion of the American public blames Republicans for the shutdown than Democrats.

According to a recent NPR/PBS News/Marist survey, just 27 percent of voters say Democratic lawmakers are solely at fault, while 38 percent say Republicans are responsible for the shutdown. Another 31 percent of respondents blamed both parties equally.