As the government’s closure enters its second day on Thursday, there is no end in sight, with the Trump administration potentially dismissing some federal workers the next day and the Republican senators who seek to take off the Democrats to support the Financing Law of the Government of the Republican Party.
The Senate will not have votes on Thursday. After the failure of government financing bill on Wednesday, the Senate postponed for Yom Kippur. The next votes are scheduled for Friday.
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are working to recruit more Democrats to support their seven -week Stopgap financing measure backed by the Republican party that would allow the government to operate.
The majority leader, John Thune, said he believes that rank democrats will eventually break with the minority leader Chuck Schumer to approve a short -term financing bill to reopen the government.
The American flag on the Capitol is illuminated by the morning light on the first day of a government closure, in Washington, on October 1, 2025.
J. Scott Applewhite / AP
“I think there are many basic democrats who regret letting Schumer enclose them in this rat hole,” Thune said in a Fox News “Hannity” on Wednesday night.
The Democrats hung together on Wednesday afternoon to block, for the third time, a Stopgap financing bill offered by Republicans. Democrats insist that any solution addresses their demands on medical care before voting to move forward.
The White House Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told the White House journalists that Trump’s administration, including President Donald Trump, continues to speak with Capitol Hill legislators with the aim of “encouraging democrats” to accept and support the short -term republican party.
A sign outside the main door announces that the John F. Kennedy presidential museum is closed, the first day of a partial closure of the United States government, in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 1, 2025.
Brian Snyder/Reuters
“The president, vice president, the entire team will continue to work and talking with members of the hill to try to reach a resolution to try to encourage Democrats to gather courage to do the right thing,” Leavitt said.
In Fox News on Thursday morning, Leavitt said that these discussions were specifically happening with “moderate Democrats and also with the Republicans of the Allied Senate who have good relations with these moderate.”
Even so, Finger’s note continues while Democrats and Republicans change by closing.
The president of the Mike Johnson Chamber Chamber, a Louisiana Republican, speaks during a press conference outside his office at the United States Capitol on the second day of the United States government closure in Washington, on October 2, 2025.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
On Thursday morning, President Mike Johnson criticized the Democrats and Schumer for the ongoing closure, calling for his “selfish” and “rebuke” position.
“I have nothing to negotiate,” said Johnson, after saying that the Chamber sent a continuous resolution clean to the Senate that finances the government for seven weeks.
The senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, talks to journalists at Capitol, on October 1, 2025, in Washington.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
Democrats are hitting Schumer saying In a publication on social networks that “Republicans close the government because they cannot bother to protect medical care for Americans in this country.”
The fault also extends online. In addition to public statements on federal websites that blame the “radical left” for the closure of the government, the Office of Management and Budget encouraged federal employees to create email messages outside the office that denounce the “Democratic senators” for causing the closure of the government, sources told ABC News.
Trump said he has a scheduled meeting for the director of OMB, Russ Vought on Thursday to determine which agencies “recommend” being cut, either temporarily or permanently.
Last week, the Trump administration threatened the mass layoffs of some federal workers during closing. Vought warned the Republicans of the House of Representatives on Wednesday that the Administration will begin to fire federal workers in the next “day or two,” multiple sources told ABC News.
Leavitt told White House journalists on Thursday morning that The threat of mass shooting and final federal programs is “very real” And there will probably be “thousands” of federal workers dismissed During the closure of the government.
It was not yet clear what departments and agencies could be affected for the first time, although the Trump administration has said that it would seek projects in democratic states, including the suspension of $ 18 billion in infrastructure funds for New York City and canceling $ 8 billion for energy projects in 16 states that voted with the Democrats in the last presidential elections.
“We are going to see the agencies that do not align … with the values of the administration that we believe are a waste of the taxpayer’s dollar,” Leavitt said Thursday morning.
The president of the Mike Johnson Chamber joined the left by Senator John Barraso, the Senate Republican whip, arrives for an event with the main Republicans at the closure of the Government, in the Capitol in Washington, on October 1, 2025.
J. Scott Applewhite / AP
Trump wrote on social networks on Wednesday night that he wants Republicans to use closure as an “opportunity” to save billions of dollars when cleaning “dead Wood, waste and fraud. “
“I cannot believe that the Democrats on the radical left have given me this unprecedented opportunity,” Trump said in a publication on Thursday’s social networks about cuts during closing.
Karen Travers of ABC News and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.
