(AFP) – President Donald Trump said Saturday he had issued an order for the military to be paid next week despite the ongoing government shutdown during which many civil servants are working without salaries. Trump said he had ordered Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth “to use all available funds to get our Troops PAID on October 15th,” as he again blamed Democrats for the funding deadlock now in its second week.
“I will not allow the Democrats to hold our Military, and the entire Security of our Nation, HOSTAGE, with their dangerous Government Shutdown,” he wrote on his Truth Social platform. With no end in sight for the shutdown, both political parties are blaming the other for the crisis, and Trump’s message Saturday was another salvo in the political feud.
The standoff means that hundreds of thousands of government workers have been put on temporary unpaid leave or deemed essential and ordered to work without pay. About 1.3 million active-duty military personnel had been set to miss their pay next Wednesday — something that has not happened in any of the US government shutdowns through modern history. Trump’s announcement on ensuring military pay came after the White House said Friday it had begun mass layoffs of federal workers, as the president sought to amp up pressure on Democrats.
Trump’s budget chief Russ Vought said the administration was following through on threats to fire some of the 750,000 public servants placed on enforced leave. It plans to lay off some 4,000 workers across several government agencies, according to a court filing seeking to block the action. “Republicans would rather see thousands of Americans lose their jobs than sit down and negotiate with Democrats to reopen the government,” top US Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said.
Unions representing 800,000 government employees asked a federal judge in San Francisco for an emergency order to halt the firings, ahead of a hearing set for October 16 on their legality. Nonessential government work stopped after the September 30 deadline for Congress to pass a new funding bill, with Senate Democrats repeatedly blocking a Republican resolution to reopen federal agencies since then.
Republicans are proposing an extension of the current budget, with the same spending levels, while Democrats are calling for an extension of subsidies for health insurance for low-income households. Several Democratic votes are required to pass a budget, despite the Republican majority. But Trump has rejected any negotiations with the opposition on health issues without reopening the federal government as a prerequisite.
With a prolonged shutdown looking more likely each day, members of Congress have been looking to Trump to step in and break the deadlock. But the president has been largely tuned out, with his focus on the Gaza ceasefire deal and sending federal troops to bolster his mass deportation drive in Democratic-led cities such as Chicago and Portland.
– Robin LEGRAND
© 2024 AFP
