The Trump administration has begun implementing widespread layoffs of federal employees, with more than 4,000 workers receiving termination notices as the government shutdown enters its second week.

Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought on Friday announced the action on social media, posting “The RIFs have begun.” The acronym refers to reduction-in-force procedures designed to permanently cut government positions.

President Trump addressed the layoffs during a press conference, saying he intends to target employees he perceives as politically aligned with Democrats.

“We figure they started this thing, so they should be Democrat-oriented,” Mr. Trump said. “It’ll be a lot and it’ll be Democrat-oriented because we figure they started this thing. It’ll be a lot of people, all because of the Democrats.”

According to court documents filed Friday, the layoffs have affected multiple federal departments. The Treasury Department received the largest number of termination notices with more than 1,400 employees, followed by Health and Human Services with more than 1,100 workers affected. Housing and Urban Development is set to lose more than 400 positions.

Additional cuts have been implemented across the departments of Commerce, Education, Energy, Homeland Security, and the Environmental Protection Agency. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office also issued layoff notices to employees last week.

An HHS spokesman confirmed the reductions to CNN, saying, “HHS employees across multiple divisions have received reduction-in-force notices as a direct consequence of the Democrat-led government shutdown. All HHS employees receiving reduction-in-force notices were designated non-essential by their respective divisions.”

The American Federation of Government Employees and another federal worker union have filed a lawsuit to halt the layoffs, calling them illegal. AFGE President Everett Kelley criticized the administration’s actions, saying: “In AFGE’s 93 years of existence under several presidential administrations – including during Trump’s first term – no president has ever decided to fire thousands of furloughed workers during a government shutdown.”

The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, condemned the layoffs as unnecessary. “Let’s be blunt: nobody’s forcing Trump and Vought to do this,” the New York Democrat said. “They don’t have to do it; they want to. They’re callously choosing to hurt people – the workers who protect our country, inspect our food, respond when disasters strike. This is deliberate chaos.”

Some Republican lawmakers also expressed opposition to the mass firings. Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who serves as the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said: “I strongly oppose OMB Director Russ Vought’s attempt to permanently lay off federal workers who have been furloughed due to a completely unnecessary government shutdown.”

Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska called the announcement “poorly timed” and “yet another example of this administration’s punitive actions toward the federal workforce.”

The layoffs represent an unusual escalation of typical government shutdown procedures. While federal workers are normally furloughed and later reinstated with back pay once funding resumes, these terminations are intended to be permanent.

The administration has been planning workforce reductions since taking office, with more than 201,000 civil servants already having left federal service as of September. Mr. Trump signed an executive order in February directing agencies to prepare for sweeping layoffs as part of his campaign promise to overhaul the federal government.

The current government shutdown began on October 1, with approximately 750,000 employees expected to be furloughed. Affected workers are being notified through the U.S. Postal Service, which continues operating during the shutdown.