"We're closing up Democrat programs," Trump says amid ongoing shutdown

Washington [US], October 15 : US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced that his administration is using the ongoing government shutdown to permanently eliminate federal programs backed by Democrats, adding that a list of those set to be closed will be released on Friday.

"The Democrats are getting killed on the shutdown, because we're closing up programs that are Democrat programs that we were opposed to ... and they're never going to come back in many cases," Trump remarked.

"So we're being able to do things that we were unable to do before. So we're closing up programs that are Democrat programs that we wanted to close up or that we never wanted to happen, and now we're closing them up, and we're not going to let them come back," he added.

Speaking from the White House, Trump said the list will include several programs he described as "socialist" and "semi-communist."

"We're going to have a list of them on Friday, closing up some of the most egregious socialist, semi-communist - probably not full communist, we're saving that for New York - but semi-communist programs, and we're closing them up. We're not closing up Republican programs because we think they work," he stated.

Earlier on Tuesday, the White House Office of Management and Budget said it would continue to "ride out" the shutdown with additional reductions in force, or RIFs.

The move indicates that the Trump administration plans to continue with federal workforce cuts, following last week's notification to thousands of employees across seven federal agencies that they would be losing their jobs.

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