From one battle to another, eh?
While Donald Trump wraps up his efforts to bring peace to the Middle East, J.D. Vance focused his efforts on the Battle of the Schumer Shutdown Stars. The Vice President warned over the weekend that Russ Vought's efforts to trim the federal bureaucracies would pick up the pace this week in the absence of the clean continuing resolution that Chuck Schumer continues to block in the Senate. As money runs thin, so will Vought's patience, now that the "reductions in force" (RIFs) have already begun, Vance warned:
Vice President JD Vance on Sunday said there will be deeper cuts to the federal workforce the longer the government shutdown goes on, adding to the uncertainty facing hundreds of thousands who are already furloughed without pay amid the stubborn stalemate in Congress.
Vance warned that as the federal shutdown entered its 12th day, the new cuts would be “painful,” even as he said the Trump administration worked to ensure that the military is paid this week and some services would be preserved for low-income Americans, including food assistance. ...
“The longer this goes on, the deeper the cuts are going to be,” Vance said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “To be clear, some of these cuts are going to be painful. This is not a situation that we relish. This is not something that we’re looking forward to, but the Democrats have dealt us a pretty difficult set of cards.”
In response, Democrats became oddly ... silent. The drama unfolding in the Middle East stole all of the thunder from Schumer's shutdown stunt, and not just in terms of attention. Trump's massive accomplishment in ending one of the most intractable wars in recent memory -- and the potential for a comprehensive peace for the world's most intractable region -- has sent the president's prestige soaring. As Trump returns this evening to the White House, Schumer and his petulant stunt seem small indeed.
Right now, the RIFs have not had a direct, practical impact. Thanks to the regulatory mess that is The Swamp, an RIF requires a review process for determining whether eliminated personnel have an option to shift to other jobs, and whether the eliminations are legitimate:
When an agency must abolish positions, the RIF regulations determine whether an employee keeps his or her present position, or whether the employee has a right to a different position. The regulatory requirements governing reduction in force are contained in Title 5, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 351. Federal agencies must follow the procedures contained in the Code of Federal Regulations when conducting a RIF. The law provides that OPM's RIF regulations must give effect to four factors in releasing employees:
- tenure of employment (e.g., type of appointment);
- veterans' preference;
- length of service; and
- performance ratings.
An agency is required to use the RIF procedures when an employee is faced with separation or downgrading for a reason such as reorganization, lack of work, shortage of funds, insufficient personnel ceiling, or the exercise of certain reemployment or restoration rights. A furlough of more than 30 calendar days, or of more than 22 discontinuous work days, is also a RIF action. (A furlough of 30 or fewer calendar days, or of 22 or fewer discontinuous work days, is an adverse action.)
No one has lost a job yet, but Vought's RIFs have started the process for thousands of federal employees. Vance is warning that RIFs are easy to start, and may not be easy to stop even if funding gets restored. The longer Schumer and Senate Democrats hold out, the VP says, the harder it will be to hold Vought back. (That assumes Trump and Vought are interested in holding back or rescinding RIFs in the first place, of course.)
Even if the RIFs have not had a direct practical impact on the federal workforce, the threat has not gone unnoticed. The WSJ takes a peek at the "side hustles" bureaucrats are now adopting, just in case:
A government job used to be as stable as it gets. Now it is the opposite, and federal workers are turning to side hustles to stay afloat.
Some of them picked up gig work earlier this year as the Trump administration moved to slim the federal workforce with widespread job cuts and buyouts. With hundreds of thousands now on furlough and the White House initiating new, mass layoffs on Friday, others are signing up to work for online platforms or leaning into existing side jobs to fortify their household income. ...
More than 3% of employed Americans worked for online platforms such as Uber Technologies or DoorDash in 2022, up from below 1% in 2017, according to an analysis of federal tax data from economists including University of Chicago Prof. Dmitri Koustas. During the Covid-19 pandemic, government workers were among those least likely to take on these side gigs, the analysis found.
That might be changing now that many furloughed employees have time on their hands and are worried about back pay. The Trump administration has asserted that some federal workers might not be guaranteed back pay, which is required by law. Republican congressional leaders have said the workers will be owed back pay.
Sounds like success! Trump is converting the federal workforce to the private sector. Yay, capitalism!
However, I suspect that the side hustles have been going on for longer than the Schumer Shutdown. Many of these same bureaucrats spent the last four-plus years resisting a return to offices after the pandemic shutdowns, demanding that work-from-home arrangements remain in place. How many of these refuseniks were protecting "side hustles"? How many of them had in fact basically changed jobs but kept their federal employment as their actual side hustle?
Anyway, Vance has taken the lead on the administration's messaging on the Schumer Shutdown while Trump delivered Middle East peace over the weekend. He's doing such a good job on it, in fact, that perhaps Trump will keep him on that mission even after Trump's return from Egypt tonight. Vance rhetorically battered George Stephanopoulos so badly yesterday morning over ABC News' editorial priorities that This Week cut Vance off rather than let it continue:
🚨 BREAKING: JD Vance destroyed ABC's George Stephanopolous so hard they CUT HIS FEED and went to break 🤣
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 12, 2025
VANCE: "Here's, George, why fewer and fewer people watch your program and why you're losing CREDIBILITY, because you're talking for now 5 minutes with the Vice President of… pic.twitter.com/zeQ10DUz1r
Brutal.
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