() The Trump administration is warning of mass furloughs and firings during a government shutdown that began this morning.

President Donald Trump has threatened that the consequences of this could be irreversible as his administration tries to force Democrats to agree to a Republican-written bill that would end the shutdown.

Trump suggested trimming the budget to “a level that you couldn’t do any other way” and said “a lot of good could come from shutdowns.”

“We’re going to have to deal with it, we’re going to have to make sure that as much of the people’s government remains open or functional as possible; that’s what we’re going to do,” said Vice President JD Vance. “But there’s going to be some pain, and there’s necessarily going to be some pain, because Democrats refuse to reopen the government.”

Trump has promised firings of federal workers if the shutdown continues.

“The Democrats want to shut it down. So when you shut it down, you have to do layoffs. So we’d be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected, and the Democrats, they’re going to be Democrats,” Trump said.

Laying off federal workers is a major break from how government shutdowns are handled. Historically, presidents will furlough federal workers, who return to their jobs once the government reopens. Firing large numbers of federal workers in response to a shutdown is unprecedented.

In a statement, Office of Management and Budget Director Russel Vought said, “It is unclear how long Democrats will maintain their untenable posture, making the duration of the shutdown difficult to predict. Regardless, employees should report to work for their next regularly scheduled tour of duty to undertake orderly shutdown activities.”

That statement was issued last night, ahead of the midnight shutdown.

Vought is expected to hold a call today with Republicans to discuss what could come next, as threats to slash jobs could put pressure on Democrats to bring an end to this.

Hundreds of thousands of federal workers are furloughed as of today, with essential workers continuing to show up with no pay. Active-duty service members could also miss a paycheck if the shutdown continues.

Trump has suggested the layoffs could be a sort of DOGE 2.0 situation, with the Congressional Budget Office estimating that roughly 750,000 federal employees could be furloughed during a shutdown with an approximate daily compensation cost of $400 million.

The National Zoo in Washington, D.C., is closed, though the Smithsonian intends to keep museums open at least through Monday using prior years’ funding.

The postal service will remain unaffected by the shutdown, and veterans’ health care will continue, as will Social Security payments and Medicare.