Trump Administration Fires at Least 4,100 in Shutdown Purge (2)

The Trump administration cut at least 4,100 additional workers from the federal government during the current shutdown and may fire more soon, according to newly filed court documents.

The Friday filing in a California federal court offered the first concrete details of President Donald Trump’s shutdown cuts to major agencies, including the IRS and the departments of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, and Commerce. It shows how the administration followed through on a grave threat to keep downsizing agencies if the standoff with Democrats continued.

The deepest personnel cuts were at the departments of Health and Human Services, which shed between 1,100 and 1,200 employees, and Treasury, which terminated around 1,500. About 300 were let go at the Department of Commerce, and more than 400 were purged at the Department of Education as well as at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

President Donald Trump addressed the cuts on Friday during a briefing in the Oval Office.

“It’ll be a lot. We’ll announce the numbers over the next couple of days. But it’ll be a lot of people all because of the Democrats,” he said.

In the filing to the California court, the Department of Justice said other unnamed agencies were “actively considering” more layoffs. Some, it said, have made “predecisional assessments” on offices that may be cut in the near future.

The Environmental Protection Agency issued a notice of intent to potentially cut about 20-30 employees eventually, the filing said.

Federal-sector unions that are suing the White House Office of Management and Budget over worker terminations urged Judge Susan Illston of the Northern District of California to halt the layoffs immediately, ahead of a previously scheduled Oct. 16 hearing. Illston late Friday rescheduled the hearing in San Francisco for Oct. 15.

Opponents of Trump have said the removal of workers during a government shutdown violates federal law.

The Trump administration told the court that the unions shouldn’t be able to sue OMB, since the budget office merely plays an advisory role to agencies, which make the final call.

The administration’s move to permanently lay off workers—a step beyond the temporary furloughs of shutdowns past—comes as part of a pressure campaign against Democrats to end the budget standoff on Capitol Hill. OMB Director Russell Vought had threatened to cut workers in the days leading up to the shutdown, and carried it out when Democrats wouldn’t budge after 10 days.

An estimated 300,000 federal workers are expected to depart this year.

The case is AFGE v. OMB, N.D. Cal., No. 25-cv-08302, 10/10/25.