President Donald Trump is facing heavy criticism after he ordered federal agencies to send out emails to furloughed workers blaming Democrats in Congress for the government shutdown Tuesday night—a move that's been called out for violating ethics guidelines.
The federal government shut down early Wednesday after the White House and Congress failed to reach an agreement on federal spending. While Senate Democrats are in the minority, they hold enough seats to filibuster and are insisting that Republicans agree to extend federal subsidies for people insured under the Affordable Care Act.
The Trump administration sees this as an opportunity—White House budget chief Russell Vought issued a memo outlining how the the administration plans to use a government shutdown to implement long-term cuts in federal spending and staffing. Trump himself told reporters "we [can] get rid of a lot of things that we didn’t want, and they’d be Democrat things."
And even though Republicans control all three branches of government, Trump has made it very clear he blames Democrats for the shutdown, ordering leaders at several federal agencies to send emails to their workers saying just that.
Employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Social Security Administration received emails, news outlets confirmed.
The emails, titled "Potential Lapse in Funding," say that Trump "opposes a government shutdown" but "Democrats are blocking this Continuing Resolution in the U.S. Senate due to unrelated policy demands."
They add:
"If Congressional Democrats maintain their current posture and refuse to pass a clean Continuing Resolution to keep the government funded before midnight on September 30, 2025, federal appropriated funding will lapse." ...
"The agency has contingency plans in place for executing an orderly shutdown of activities that would be affected by any lapse in appropriations forced by Congressional Democrats. Further information about those plans will be distributed should a lapse occur.
You can see it below.
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While it’s standard for government agencies to prepare employees for the possibility of a shutdown, it is unusual for agency leaders to single out one party or another in official communications, since federal employees are restricted from engaging in political activity.
Many have condemned the move.
Ethics watchdog groups say these emails and similar banners on the webpages of federal agencies blaming Democrats for the shutdown are a “blatant violation” of the Hatch Act.
The consumer advocacy group Public Citizen quickly filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, arguing the banner was “highly partisan” and intended to “idolize the Trump administration … without attributing any blame for the lack of compromise causing the shutdown.”
The Hatch Act, first enacted in 1939, restricts certain political activities by federal employees and those working with federally funded programs. According to the Office of Special Counsel, its core purpose is to ensure that federal programs are run in a nonpartisan manner.
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