White House mass firing memo signals Trump would accelerate priorities in a shutdown. Democrats aren’t backing down

President Donald Trump speaks to the press after signing executive orders in the Oval Office of the White House on September 25, 2025. Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

A memo from the White House budget office telling federal agencies to prepare plans for mass firings should the government shut down signaled a dramatic escalation in a funding staredown with fewer potential off-ramps as next week’s deadline nears.

But it also provided the first glimpse of the Trump administration’s internal operational planning that, up to Wednesday night, had been shrouded in a level of secrecy that broke from the approach of past administrations of both parties.

Those efforts center on the agency contingency plans that make up the bespoke guidance documents for the federal workforce in the event of a fundi