President Donald Trump met on Monday with Senate Majority Leader Sen. John Thune (R-SC), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) to negotiate a funding bill to avoid a government shutdown.
The meeting was unsuccessful, and the rancorous aftermath featured the President of the United States sharing an AI-generated video mocking the Democrats and a response from Jeffries that emphasized Trump’s once-close relationship with the late child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
The Democrats are pushing for an extension of enhanced premium subsidies for the Affordable Care Act and a reversal of some of the deep Medicaid cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in exchange for their votes on the funding bill. Without the ACA extension, there is broad agreement that millions of Americans will see the cost of their healthcare premiums soar, making insurance unaffordable while potentially also hobbling the larger health insurance market by winnowing the payer base.
While Republicans including Rep. Johnson and Vice President JD Vance continue to blame the Democrats for the looming government shutdown — even though Republicans control the Executive Branch, the House, and the Senate — Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) is reminding Americans that Trump will retain broad authority during a shutdown.
President Trump has the authority to hire and fire members of the executive branch. We’ve seen it numerous times, and the courts have sided with him in those instances. I believe the same thing would happen again if mass cuts result from a government shutdown. pic.twitter.com/sTRzWmugl9
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) September 29, 2025
On CBS News’ Face the Nation, Rand was asked if he thinks it’s appropriate and legal for the Executive to carry out the kind of mass firings during a shutdown that the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Russ Vought, laid out in a memo last week.
In the memo, Vought instructed federal agencies to prepare “reduction-in-force” (RIF) plans for mass firings if the government shuts down on October 1. Vought encouraged the agencies to “use this opportunity” to consider RIF notices for all employees in programs, projects, or activities that are “not consistent with the President’s priorities.”
Senator Paul said: “I think this is understandable because in the Executive Branch, if the President can’t fire them than who can?”
[Note: Under the Executive Branch are 15 departments including Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs.]
When asked “Without consulting Congress?” Paul replied: “For hiring and firing people in the Executive Branch, I think he has a great deal of leeway, the court has upheld this repeatedly.”
Paul added: “President Trump has the authority to hire and fire members of the executive branch. We’ve seen it numerous times, and the courts have sided with him in those instances. I believe the same thing would happen again if mass cuts result from a government shutdown.”
Note: Lawfare Media reports that this approach to RIFs “marks a sharp departure from the historical practice that has governed agency management during lapses in appropriations,” and asserts that the Trump administration’s effort “to use a shutdown as a springboard for permanent workforce cuts tests the limits of both law and politics.”