US starts firing employees after 10 days

“We are not in a good mood here at the Capitol, it is a dark day. Today marks the first day that federal workers will receive a partial pay check,” said Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson at a press conference.

“Let’s be clear: no one is forcing Trump and Vought to do this. They don’t have to do it, they want to do it”, reacted the leader of the Democratic minority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer.

Republicans consider that certain areas of the federal government are dominated by administrative officials who use public money to promote left-wing ideological projects.

Democrats, in turn, accuse Trump’s party, which has a narrow majority in both chambers of Congress, of wanting to diminish the structure of the welfare state built over decades.

One of the agencies that is the subject of this dispute, the Department of Education, should, in principle, close its doors during Trump’s second term, on direct orders from the president.

Sources in that Department confirmed to AFP that layoffs have begun, as well as in the Treasury Department.