Democrats thought they could force Trump’s hand with their shutdown strategy.
But they didn’t count on his press secretary being ready to fight back.
And Karoline Leavitt dropped one truth bomb that sent Democrats into full panic mode.
Democrats force government shutdown to protect Obamacare handouts
The federal government officially shut down at midnight Tuesday after Senate Democrats and Republicans failed to reach agreement on a stopgap funding bill.
The sticking point? Democrats are demanding Republicans extend billions in Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of this year.
These enhanced premium tax credits make health insurance cheaper for 22 million Americans who buy coverage through Obamacare marketplaces.
But Republicans wanted to pass a clean funding bill now and discuss the health care subsidies later.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wasn’t about to let Democrats escape blame for forcing this crisis.
During her press briefing Wednesday, Leavitt made crystal clear who was responsible for this mess.
"Unfortunately, because the Democrats shut down the government, the president has directed his cabinet and the Office of Management and Budget is working with agencies across the board to identify where cuts can be made and we believe that layoffs are imminent," Leavitt told the Daily Caller.¹
She didn’t dance around it or use typical Washington double-speak.
She placed the blame exactly where it belongs.
Trump administration prepares to slash the federal workforce
Here’s where things get interesting for anyone who’s been waiting for Trump to actually drain the swamp.
Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought told House Republicans that reductions in force would begin "in a day or two."²
Trump’s team isn’t wasting any time using this shutdown as an opportunity to identify which federal positions are actually essential.
The enhanced subsidies at the heart of this fight were originally created as pandemic relief in 2021 under the American Rescue Plan Act.
They were temporarily extended in 2022 but are scheduled to expire at the end of 2025.
Democrats want to extend them for another decade, which the Congressional Budget Office estimates would cost $350 billion.³
That’s $350 billion in taxpayer money Democrats want to spend on subsidies that were supposed to be temporary pandemic relief.
Leavitt exposes the real villains behind government chaos
Leavitt wasn’t finished delivering hard truths about who’s really to blame for this shutdown.
"If the Democrats did not vote to shut down the government, we would not be talking about layoffs today," she said during her press briefing.⁴
That’s the kind of straight talk Americans have been waiting to hear from a White House press secretary.
No bureaucratic mumbling, no pointing fingers in twelve different directions.
Just the facts about which party decided to play politics with people’s paychecks.
Republicans tried to pass a clean funding bill that would keep the government running without the Obamacare extension attached.
But Democrats insisted that any deal had to include extending the enhanced premium tax credits.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said "any agreement" on health care in budget talks "has to be ironclad and in legislation."⁴
They essentially told Republicans: give us hundreds of billions in additional spending or we’ll shut everything down.
The Trump strategy that has Democrats sweating
Here’s what Democrats didn’t expect when they decided to force this shutdown.
Trump isn’t playing the usual Republican game of immediately caving and begging them to reopen the government.
Instead, his administration is using this as an opportunity to identify exactly which federal positions are actually necessary – and which ones can be eliminated permanently.
Essential workers like military personnel and federal law enforcement will keep working without pay until this gets resolved.
But all those non-essential federal employees Democrats love to protect?
They’re about to find out what "reduction in force" actually means.
Leavitt made it clear that layoffs are "imminent" as a direct result of the Democrat shutdown.
That’s not a threat – that’s just the reality of what happens when you force the government to figure out which jobs are actually important.
What this really means for draining the swamp
For folks who voted for Trump specifically to shrink the federal government, this shutdown might be the best thing that’s happened in years.
Every day this drags on, Trump’s team gets to identify more positions that the government can apparently function without.
And once those positions get eliminated during a shutdown, it’s a lot harder for Democrats to demand they get restored later.
This is exactly the kind of strategic thinking that separates Trump from typical Republican politicians who panic at the first sign of a government shutdown.
Democrats thought they were holding Trump hostage by shutting down the government over their precious Obamacare subsidies.
Instead, they handed him the perfect excuse to start the federal workforce reduction he’s been promising since 2016.
Karoline Leavitt’s blunt assessment of who’s responsible for this mess shows that Trump’s team isn’t backing down from this fight.
They’re ready to let Democrats explain to voters why protecting hundreds of billions in health care handouts was more important than keeping the government running.
¹ Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary, quoted in Daily Caller, "Karoline Leavitt Says Federal Layoffs Are ‘Imminent’ Amid Government Shutdown," October 1, 2025.
² Government Executive, "White House: Shutdown layoffs are just days away," October 2, 2025.
³ Congressional Budget Office estimate, reported in CNBC, "Government shutdown: The ACA, immigrants and health care," October 2, 2025.
⁴ Hakeem Jeffries, quoted in CNBC, "Democrats dig in on health care demands with government shutdown days away," September 25, 2025.
