This week, Donald Trump sat down with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo for some insight on the shutdown.
The president was very forthcoming early on in stating that if the government did indeed shut down, he would use the opportunity to trim the government payroll.
Trump says that Democrats made a big mistake in shutting the government down, but the president may be hurting himself with voters when it comes to his plans to slash the ranks of government workers.
Trump told Democrats repeatedly that if the shutdown went on for any significant amount of time, cuts to the federal workforce were coming in a big way.
Last week, White House Office of Management Director Russell Vought announced that the cuts had started, and nearly 4,000 government workers were laid off.
American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) president Everett Kelley was furious, responding, "It is disgraceful that the Trump administration has used the government shutdown as an excuse to illegally fire thousands of workers who provide critical services to communities across the country.”
But are the cuts illegal, or does Trump have the authority to make such reductions during a shutdown?
That question is now poised to be answered, but it may take some time.
After a suit was filed on behalf of the government workers in California (Dems clearly went judge shopping again), U.S. District Judge Susan Illston blocked the layoffs, stating, "It's very much ready, fire, aim on most of these programs, and it has a human cost. It's a human cost that cannot be tolerated."
My question would be whether Illston even has jurisdiction over this controversy.
Based on previous rulings from the Supreme Court, the cases would have to be filed where the layoffs took place. While I am sure there are some government workers in California, it seems far more likely that the majority of workers are situated in the D.C. area, so I would imagine that her ruling will eventually be disregarded ,and the cases will have to be filed in the proper jurisdiction.
Trump seems confident that he possesses the power to make these cuts, telling Fox News, "I think they could just stay out forever, I mean, to be honest with you. Now, what we're doing is we're cutting Democrat programs that we didn't want because... I mean, they made one mistake.”
The president then added, “They didn't realize that that gives me the right to cut programs that Republicans never wanted. You know, giveaways, welfare programs, et cetera. And we're doing that, and we're cutting them permanently.”
That, in my opinion, was a huge mistake and may have torpedoed the president's case.
The one thing all courts have been clear about is that these decisions cannot be politically motivated, and Trump just admitted that politics was the driving force behind the recent cuts. Due to those remarks, even if this case is taken to the U.S. Supreme Court, I think that statement dooms this effort to failure.
