US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that the ongoing government shutdown presented an opportunity to permanently eliminate what he called “Democratic programs” and said a list of programs to be shut down would be announced on Friday.
“Democrats are being killed in the shutdown because we’re shutting down programs that are Democratic programs that we were against,” Trump said when asked about the effort to end the impasse, according to an ABC News report. “So we’re able to do things that we couldn’t do before… And now we’re shutting them down and not letting them come back.”
There are no details yet on which programs will be eliminated
Trump added that a list of programs to be cut should come on Friday, the news outlet reported.
The president, who later clarified his remarks, said the Democratic agenda included “things we don’t agree with,” according to the report, though he did not specify which agencies or initiatives would be affected. “Republican programs,” he emphasized, will not be ended.
Focus on unnecessary spending
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also declined to name specific targets earlier this month, but said the administration was “looking for agencies that are not aligned with the administration’s values.”
“We will look at agencies that we believe are a waste of taxpayer dollars,” Leavitt told reporters. “The president wants to be a good steward of the American taxpayer dollar at a time when our balance sheet looks very grim because Democrats have decided to shut everything down.”
Trump and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought have repeatedly indicated that the shutdown could be used to restructure programs.
