‘Democrats Have Shutdown the Government’: White House webpage says
The US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025.
Graeme Sloan | Bloomberg | Getty Images
“Democrats Have Shutdown the Government,” a White House webpage said right after midnight, featuring a clock detailing the time that has passed since the shutdown began.
But California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said on X, “Donald Trump just shut down the government,” underscoring the fact that both parties blame the other for the dramatic pause in federal services and functions.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris posted on X: “President Trump and Congressional Republicans just shut down the government because they refused to stop your health care costs from rising. Let me be clear: Republicans are in charge of the White House, House, and Senate. This is their shutdown.”
— Dan Mangan, Riya Bhattacharjee
How many workers could be furloughed?
WASHINGTON, MARCH 4:
U.S. Capitol Police close a security gate along 1st Street Northeast on Capitol Hill in Washington, on March 4, 2025.
The Washington Post | The Washington Post | Getty Images
During the last full government shutdown in 2013, about 850,000 federal employees were furloughed, meaning they were required to take unpaid leave, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated Tuesday that the current shutdown would lead to about 750,000 employees being furloughed.
“The total daily cost of their compensation would be roughly $400 million,” the CBO told Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, in response to her request for information on the impact of a shutdown.
The agency’s estimate noted that the number of furloughed employees could vary from day to day “because some agencies might furlough more employees the longer a shutdown persists and others might recall some initially furloughed employees.”
Furloughed workers will get back pay upon their return.
But Trump’s Office of Management and Budget has threatened to make some of those job cuts permanent, by warning federal agencies in a recent memo to prepare for mass firings in the event of a shutdown.
— Kevin Breuninger
Government shutdown history: The longest was under Trump
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office, on the day he signs an executive order on AI and pediatric cancer research, at the White House, Washington, D.C., U.S., Sept. 30, 2025.
Nathan Howard | Reuters
The full shutdown began at midnight Wednesday after Democratic and Republican leaders failed to agree on even a short-term deal to keep the government fully funded past the current fiscal year.
It is unclear just how long the shutdown will last, or how widespread its impacts will be.
The federal government has either shut down or experienced funding gaps 14 times since 1980.
The longest shutdown on record started in late 2018, when the government partially shuttered for about five weeks amid disputes over funding Trump’s proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall.
— Kevin Breuninger
