Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, reportedly said Sunday that the administration is preparing for federal layoffs if President Trump determines that negotiations with Democrats have stalled, underscoring the administration’s resolve amid an intensifying government shutdown.
Speaking on CNN’s State of the Union, Hassett made clear that while the White House still hopes for compromise, patience is wearing thin. “I think that if the president decides that the negotiations are absolutely going nowhere, then there will start to be layoffs,” he said.
The remark marked one of the administration’s most direct warnings yet that the partial government shutdown could soon have lasting personnel consequences. Hassett suggested that the ball was squarely in Democrats’ court, saying he believed there was “a chance that they’ll be reasonable once they get back into town on Monday.”
He emphasized that the president’s goal remained to protect both taxpayers and federal workers from prolonged disruption. “It’s just common sense to avoid layoffs like that, to avoid the $15 billion a week that the Council of Economic Advisers says will harm GDP if we have a shutdown,” Hassett said. “And also just all the rent payments and so on that people won’t be able to make because they’re not getting paid.”
The comments came as President Trump met Thursday with Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought to review contingency plans for federal cuts and restructuring. The president called the situation an “unprecedented opportunity” to reexamine spending across government agencies and to identify inefficiencies that have long burdened the federal workforce.
“It’s likely going to be in the thousands,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters ahead of the meeting, referring to the potential scale of layoffs. “It’s a very good question, and that’s something that the Office of Management and Budget and the entire team at the White House here again, is unfortunately having to work on today.”
Leavitt placed responsibility for the deepening impasse squarely on congressional Democrats. “These discussions and these conversations, these meetings, would not be happening if the Democrats had voted to keep the government open,” she said.
The administration has sought to frame the standoff as a matter of fiscal discipline and good governance. Trump and senior aides have repeatedly argued that the current moment offers an opportunity to streamline government operations and eliminate what they describe as wasteful spending that has accumulated under successive administrations.
For Hassett, the economic stakes are clear. He noted that a prolonged shutdown would slow growth and ripple through local economies, even as the White House insists its proposals are intended to minimize damage. “Everybody’s still hopeful,” he said, “that when we get a fresh start at the beginning of the week we can get the Democrats to see that it’s just common sense.”
As negotiations resume, the administration faces a delicate balance—pressuring Democrats to reach a deal while signaling to the public that it is prepared for the consequences if they refuse. “If the president decides the negotiations are absolutely going nowhere,” Hassett said plainly, “then there will start to be layoffs.”
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