White House confident Supreme Court will overturn shutdown RIFs decision
The White House expressed confidence that the Supreme Court will overturn a federal judge’s temporary block on the Trump administration’s plan to lay off thousands of federal employees amid the ongoing government shutdown. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized Judge Susan Illston of California for ruling against the administration, calling her a partisan judge whose previous similar ruling had been overturned by the Supreme Court. Leavitt emphasized the president’s executive authority to manage federal employment and blamed Democrats for prolonging the shutdown, which has now lasted over two weeks.She highlighted the negative impacts of the shutdown on airports, TSA agents, and other federal workers, while praising President Trump’s efforts to find creative funding solutions to pay military personnel and support federal nutrition programs. Despite a court order halting many layoffs, White House officials indicated that the number of reduction-in-force notices could increase significantly. The administration maintains the legal right to proceed wiht these layoffs consequently of the shutdown caused by partisan gridlock.
White House confident Supreme Court will overturn lower ruling on shutdown RIFs
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt ripped the federal judge who has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from firing more federal employees amid the ongoing government shutdown.
In response to a question from the Washington Examiner, Leavitt criticized Judge Susan Illston, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, as “another far-left partisan judge who was smacked down by the Supreme Court in July for ruling on this exact same thing in May.”
“This judge tried to say that the president of the United States does not have the executive authority to hire and fire in the executive branch,” Leavitt said. “Literally, nobody would ever try to make that argument except for someone who is extremely partisan. And of course, the Supreme Court rejected that ruling in July, and they said, ‘No, the president does have the ability and the legal authority to fire people from the federal government. That is a responsibility of his job as the head of the executive branch.’”
Leavitt expressed confidence that the Trump administration would win on appeal before turning on Democrats for the shutdown, now in its 16th day.
“These layoffs are an unfortunate consequence of the government shutdown,” she said. “Democrats just voted again for the 10th time to keep the government closed and to keep the American people hostage, and we’re seeing the consequences of it every day.”
Leavitt cited the shutdown’s effects on airports for passengers, air traffic controllers, and Transportation Security Administration agents before praising Trump for finding “creative” solutions to ensure military service members are paid and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, a federal program that provides food stamps for women and children, is funded.
Trump has proposed redirecting War Department funds previously appropriated by Congress to pay service members, including $8 billion in unobligated research, development, test, and evaluation money, and tariff revenue to pay for WIC.
“Rather than congratulate the president for doing that, this unprecedented action to get our troops paid, the Democrats want to sue him for it,” Leavitt said. “They’re saying that it’s illegal. This just shows they don’t care about the people who are hurting. They are shutting down the government purely for partisan politics because they don’t like Donald Trump, and the only people that are suffering from that are federal government employees who are being laid off from their jobs, who are not being paid for their jobs, our military, our federal law enforcement, and the American people who can’t catch a plane with holiday season coming up because flights are being delayed and canceled.”
The press secretary added, “We hope a few moderate Democrats with some common sense will step up to the plate and do the right thing to vote to open the federal government.”
Illston ruled this week that the 4,000 reduction-in-force notices the Trump administration sent federal employees last Friday were “both illegal and in excess of authority,” granting a temporary restraining order to prevent most departments and agencies from firing the staff members.
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Regardless, White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought previewed more RIF notices on Wednesday during an appearance on The Charlie Kirk Show.
“I think it’ll get much higher,” he said. “I think we’ll probably end up being somewhere north of 10,000.”
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