Current Affairs Of Pakistan & World: Layoffs loom as Vought turns the screw in shutdown standoff

Layoffs loom as Vought turns the screw in shutdown standoff

Oct 10, 2025

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THE CATCH-UP

Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought speaks with reporters after a meeting at the White House.

“The RIFs have begun,” OMB Director Russ Vought said on X. | Francis Chung/POLITICO

SHUTDOWN FIGHT HEATS UP: “The RIFs have begun,” OMB Director Russ Vought — whom President Donald Trump recently held up as the grim reaper for government employees — ominously posted on X this afternoon, signaling that he was about to make good on layoff threats from the White House and significantly raising the stakes of the shutdown showdown as Democrats and Republicans remain dug in on Day 10.

The details: Though it’s unclear exactly how many people are receiving reduction-in-force notices, the figures are expected to be “substantial,” and an administration official granted anonymity to discuss the layoffs said they hit agencies including: Interior, DHS, Treasury, EPA, Commerce, Education, Energy, HHS and HUD, POLITICO’s Irie Sentner and Jennifer Sholtes report. The administration has a 6 p.m. deadline to explain in court its legal rationale for the mass layoffs and which specific agencies are getting reduction orders, NOTUS’ Oriana Gonzalez notes. And a new lawsuit has been filed by the union representing federal workers, the AFGE announced on X.

The start of mass layoffs across federal agencies comes as GOP leadership appears to be losing patience with Democrats, who have continued to shoot down Republicans’ “clean” stopgap funding bill and largely held the line asking for an extension of Obamacare subsidies set to expire in December. The frustration was evident on the faces of Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune during their news conference today, when the usually mild-mannered pair traded their sharpest criticisms yet of their Democratic opponents.

“We don’t get upset a lot. We don't get our feathers ruffled. This is so outrageous,” Johnson told reporters. “Every Senate Democrat is going along with this. You lack the moral fortitude to do the right thing," Johnson later added.

Feeling the heat: Federal workers were already due to start missing paychecks today, and the added element of RIF orders across agencies will only exacerbate the amount of workers who will start feeling the pinch of the shutdown in the coming hours, per AP. This goes past the normal furloughs of a government shutdown. “I think they held off as long as they could,” Thune said.

On top of the layoffs, Johnson held a rare joint press call with the House Freedom Caucus this morning and telegraphed that more rescissions could be coming down the pike in the future, POLITICO’s Meredith Lee Hill reports. “We worked on rescissions, and there'll be more of that, we expect, in the days ahead,” Johnson said on the call.

The way out of the shutdown is still unclear. House GOP leadership canceled Tuesday’s votes and noticed the rest of the week as a district work period, with plans to keep the House out for as long as the shutdown continues, per Meredith. Meanwhile, House Democrats will have an in-person caucus meeting on Tuesday, per NOTUS’ Daniella Diaz.

Where things stand: Senate Republicans informally discussed the possibility yesterday of committing to extend the Obamacare subsidies if Democrats supported reopening the government, but those talks fell apart by the end of the day, per Punchbowl. Johnson threw another bucket of cold water on the idea of a deal today during his call with the House Freedom Caucus, saying “it will take a lot of work to build consensus” to address the tax credits before they expire, “if there is even any version of a reform that could find consensus and pass,” Meredith reports.

Another factor weighing on the shutdown is the Oct. 15 deadline for paying military troops — another moment that will test the Democrats’ resistance as a caucus to the stopgap measure. The Senate failed to act on legislation yesterday that would have secured troop pay, and the Democrat-led effort to pass legislation in the House today also failed, POLITICO’s Nick Wu writes.

As GOP leadership waits for Democrats to fold, Democratic campaigning on the shutdown is in full force. The DCCC is running a digital ad praising Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) for her comments on addressing health care, with the ad slated to run only on conservative news sites. The DNC is running ads across battleground districts, on social media and on billboards and bus shelter ads, focusing on the notices health providers will send by the end of this month and blaming the GOP, Roll Call’s Mary Ellen McIntire reports.

Happy Friday afternoon. Programming note: Playbook PM will be off on Monday but will be back in your inboxes on Tuesday afternoon. Thanks for reading. Send us your thoughts at abianco@politico.com and rumansky-castro@politico.com.

SNEAK PEEK: Playbook got an early look at the first episode of C-SPAN’s “Ceasefire,” debuting tonight at 7 p.m. hosted by our own Dasha Burns, featuring two duos from each side of the political divide. On tonight’s episode: Mike Pence and Rahm Emanuel, and Sean Spicer and Faiz Shakir.

Pence praised Emanuel’s capacity for reasoned political debate, saying “at the end of the day, we’re all Americans and we really have large challenges facing the country.” Emanuel returned the sentiment. “What the Republican Party is missing is more Mike Pence,” Emanuel said, later adding: “What scares me about the future is division in America, and the fact that we see each other as enemies and not as Americans.” Watch the clip

MEA CULPA: Due to a production error, this morning’s Playbook mistakenly left off NBC’s “Meet the Press” from the Sunday show lineup. Kristen Welker will have interviews with VP JD Vance, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), plus a panel comprising Lanhee Chen, Ashley Etienne, Amna Nawaz and Kelly O’Donnell.

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9 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

1. INCOMING: Trump’s 5 p.m. announcement in the Oval Office will highlight his administration’s efforts to lower pharmaceutical drug prices and a new “most favored nation” deal, CBS’ Jennifer Jacobs reports. The deal is a new agreement with pharma giant AstraZeneca, MSNBC’s Jake Traylor scoops. It follows the “most favored nation” model intended to make prescription drugs more available for low-income Americans via the TrumpRx website. “AstraZeneca, which is based in the U.K., has also agreed to invest $50 billion in its drug manufacturing and research and development in the United States,” an official told MSNBC.

2. NO NOBEL FOR TRUMP: Trump didn’t nab the Nobel Peace Prize this morning, despite a long stretch of jockeying for the honor and an eleventh-hour appeal from some world leaders following Trump’s efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, WSJ’s Brett Forrest writes. But the Nobel laureate, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, dedicated her award “to the suffering people of Venezuela and to President Trump for his decisive support of our cause!” Trump called Machado to congratulate her on the recognition, per Bloomberg.

The reactions: White House comms director Steven Cheung took to X, saying “The Nobel Committee proved they place politics over peace.” And many in MAGA world are accusing the committee of favoritism, per POLITICO’s Greg Svirnovskiy. Meanwhile, Norwegians are anxiously waiting to see how Trump responds. Norwegian media wondered whether the decision by the independent committee would be interpreted as a “a jab at Trump” that could have political repercussions for the country, WaPo’s Victoria Craw reports.

Thought bubble: Machado’s recognition comes during a tense time for U.S. policy toward Venezuela. With reports that Trump told U.S. envoy Richard Grenell to cease all diplomatic communications with Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, and the numerous recent strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats from Venezuela, Machado’s win comes as the Trump administration hasn’t shied away from making clear that they also are putting pressure on Maduro.

The view from South Florida: “My phone is blowing off the hook,” GOP Florida Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar told your Playbook author following the news. “This is a glorious moment, and at the same time a very important one … [Machado] is untouchable, not just because of the Nobel … She’s still the George Washington of this time for the Venezuelans.” As for what comes next in Venezuela under the Maduro regime, Salazar said: “Roaches never want to die, and the big exterminator called Donald Trump is out with a very thick bottle.”

3. WAR AND PEACE: “Israel Says Cease-Fire Has Begun, Troops Withdraw From Parts of Gaza,” by WSJ’s Omar Abdel-Baqui and colleagues: “Israeli troops on Friday morning withdrew from parts of the Gaza Strip as part of the cease-fire deal, Israeli and Arab officials said. … Officials involved in the negotiations said final details are still being smoothed out between Israel and Hamas in Egypt, including the precise demarcation of the withdrawal lines, the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and control of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza.”

More details: “In the afternoon, droves of Palestinians used a major coastal road to head north on foot toward Gaza City, from where Israel ordered hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to leave after it launched a large, renewed military offensive in the area in recent months. Palestinians in Gaza are worried that a breakdown in the deal will lead to a resumption of strikes, as has happened twice before.”

Meanwhile, on Russia: First lady Melania Trump said in the past three months she has participated in an “open channel of communication” with Russian President Vladimir Putin in hopes of bringing back children to families that were separated during the war in Ukraine,POLITICO’s Sophia Cai and Diana Nerozzi report. “We have agreed to cooperate with each other for the benefit of all people involved.”

4. DANCE OF THE SUPERPOWERS: Trump said there “seems to be no reason” to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month during his upcoming Asia trip in light of China’s latest move to restrict exports of rare earth magnets and raw materials, POLITICO’s Doug Palmer reports. Trump said in his post on Truth Social that China’s moves caught him by surprise and that the administration is still weighing how to respond — though he floated further tariffs as an option. “One of the Policies that we are calculating at this moment is a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States of America. There are many other countermeasures that are, likewise, under serious consideration,” Trump wrote.

More in China: China has launched an antitrust investigation into Qualcomm’s acquisition of Israeli firm Autotalk, intensifying its broader crackdown on U.S. tech companies amid escalating trade tensions, per WSJ’s Yoko Kubota. China will also begin charging U.S.-owned or affiliated ships new port fees, starting Oct. 14, in direct response to similar fees the U.S. plans to impose on Chinese vessels, AP’s Chan Ho-Him reports.

Global Security is POLITICO’s new weekly briefing on the policies and industrial forces reshaping transatlantic defense. From Washington to Brussels and beyond, we track how decisions ripple across borders — redefining the future of security and industry. Sign up for the free preview edition.

5. FOR YOUR RADAR: POLITICO’s Daniel Lippman has a must-read on an episode that’s been “the talk of the upper echelons” of the Department of Homeland Security in recent weeks. It started when a female Trump DHS appointee showed up at the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando for a work trip, only to learn she didn’t have a hotel room. She was then informed by Paul Ingrassia — a higher-ranking Trump appointee in the department, and the president’s nominee to head the Office of Special Counsel — that she would be staying in his room, according to five administration officials with knowledge of the matter.

Eventually the woman discovered that Ingrassia had arranged ahead of time to have her room canceled so she would have to stay with him. She would later file a formal harassment complaint, before withdrawing it, fearing retaliation. A DHS investigation ensued. The events come as the nomination of Ingrassia, 30, is on the rocks after Republican senators raised concerns about his background and amount of experience, as well as possible antisemitism, which the administration has disputed.

In a statement, the woman said she “never felt uncomfortable” by Ingrassia’s conduct and there was no wrongdoing. Ingrassia’s attorney wrote in a letter to POLITICO that his client didn’t have her hotel reservation canceled and “has never harassed any coworkers — female or otherwise, sexually or otherwise — in connection with any employment.” This morning, Ingrassia posted a statement from his attorney on X reiterating the denial and demanding a retraction.

6. WEAPONIZATION WATCH: U.S. attorney Lindsey Halligan secured the grand jury indictment against New York AG Letitia James without notifying AG Pam Bondi or DOJ leadership before presenting the case of bank fraud and false statement charges, despite internal skepticism about its strength, CNN’s Kristen Holmes and colleagues report. Halligan didn’t coordinate with the DOJ or inform leadership of the timing, leaving Bondi caught off guard.

7. MILITARY MATTERS: National Guard troops were seen patrolling in Memphis, Tennessee, today, marking their first appearance in the city, AP’s Adrian Sainz reports. “Wearing Guard fatigues and protective vests labeled ‘military police,’ they were being escorted by a local police officer and posed for photos with visitors. It was unclear how many Guard members were on the ground or were expected to arrive later.”

And back to D.C.: More than half the states that deployed National Guard troops to Washington plan to withdraw them this fall, with several setting end dates in October and November, signaling “that the surge of troops into the nation’s capital may head toward a drawdown or a change in scope,” AP’s Gary Fields writes. “But roughly 2,300 Guard members from eight states, as well as D.C., and hundreds of federal law enforcement officers remained in the city. According to official figures, more than 4,000 people have been arrested as part of the campaign since August.”

8. SCHOOL DAZE: “MIT rejects Trump administration deal for priority federal funding,” by WaPo’s Susan Svrluga: MIT President Sally Kornbluth “turned down the Trump administration’s offer of priority access for federal funding Friday, publicly releasing a letter that emphasized the elite university’s values including free expression and ‘the core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.’ … In it, she wrote that she appreciated the chance to meet with [Education Secretary Linda] McMahon earlier this year ‘to discuss the priorities we share for American higher education.’ MIT’s clear values put excellence above all and MIT prides itself on rewarding merit, she wrote.”

9. YOU’VE (NOT) GOT MAIL: “UPS is ‘disposing of’ U.S.-bound packages over customs paperwork problems,” by NBC’s Kayla Steinberg: “Thousands of U.S.-bound packages shipped by UPS are trapped at hubs across the country, unable to clear the maze of new customs requirements imposed by the Trump administration. As packages flagged for customs issues pile up in UPS warehouses, the company told NBC News it has begun ‘disposing of’ some shipments. Frustrated UPS customers describe waiting for weeks and trying to make sense of scores of conflicting tracking updates from the world’s largest courier.”

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TALK OF THE TOWN

FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Trump is set to appear as a featured guest speaker at a MAGA Inc. candlelight dinner at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, next Friday, Oct. 17, according to a copy of the invitation obtained by Playbook. The cost to attend the exclusive dinner is $1,000,000 per person, according to the invite.

AND THE AWARD GOES TO — The Washingtonian Association of Black Journalists announced its 2025 special honors award recipients today. The awards: Michel Martin receives a Lifetime Achievement award, Eugene Daniels and Jonathan Capehart receive the Legacy award, Geoff Bennett is Journalist of the Year, Jasper Smith is the Young Journalist of Excellence, Natalie Wilson receives excellence in communication, Doxie McCoy receives the President's Award, Ron Moten receives the President's Award in honor of the Freedom of Expression, POLITICO’s John Yearwood receives the Dorothy Butler Gilliam Trailblazer Award and University of Florida’s Jonelle Henry receives the Dr. Sheila Brooks Community Impact Award. The group’s 50th anniversary gala and scholarship fundraising will take place at the French Embassy on Nov. 8.

K STREET FILES — American Growth Partnership, the new Trump-aligned business group, hosted White House deputy chief of staff James Blair yesterday for a briefing with their member companies. Those in attendance included CEOs and senior representatives from Charter, Lilly Company, United Healthcare, Amgen, Teva, BlinkRx, PhRMA, Boeing, BNSF, Coupang, Cigna, and Walmart. The group is set to host U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) in November. AGP was founded by Republican consultants Richard Walters, Garrett Ventry, Jason Thielman, Josh Helton and Jim McCray.

OUT AND ABOUT — CEPA hosted its annual Tech & Security Conference yesterday to examine the intersections of technology and security, where remarks were delivered by Swedish Ambassador Urban Ahlin, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.), Christian Brose and Alina Polyakova. SPOTTED: ARobert Geckle, Ari Giovenco, Jennifer Stewart, Gen. (Ret.) Stephen Twitty, Craig Singleton, Glenn Parham, Christopher Walker, James Lewis, Catherine Sendak and Ronan Murphy.

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