President Trump says he and his staff are preparing to “permanently eliminate” billions of dollars in spending prioritized by Democrats during the government shutdown, now in its seventh day. Democrats, meanwhile, say they are not budging until they get an extension of Biden-era enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies. 

Mr. Trump on Monday afternoon signaled an openness to meeting with Democrats, saying he would make a deal with them if the opposition party came to him with a reasonable offer. Within hours, he walked back that statement, demanding that the government be opened before any negotiations take place. 

During a meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada on Tuesday, Mr. Trump promised retribution for the shutdown. He has already frozen $18 billion in infrastructure funds for New York City — the hometown of both the Senate and House minority leaders. 

“We have a lot of things that we’re gonna eliminate and permanently eliminate,” Mr. Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “Because of the shutdown — which I think they made a big mistake — we’re able to take out billions and billions of dollars of waste, fraud, and abuse, and they’ve handed it on a silver platter.”

He specifically mentioned his Office of Management and Budget director, Russ Vought, who has been behind the president’s impoundment and rescissions efforts. Those processes allow the administration to either unilaterally cut funding or claw back funds approved by Congress via party-line votes in Congress. 

“You know Russell Vought. He’s a serious person — very serious person” Mr. Trump said. “He’s sitting there and he’s getting ready to cut things.”

The most recent threat issued by the White House in an effort to cajole moderate Senate Democrats to pass the funding bill was disclosed in a report by Axios on Tuesday morning. The OMB is now trying to interpret a 2019 law that states all furloughed federal employees must receive back pay if the government shuts down in such a way that allows the White House to deny future paychecks to those employees. 

The House minority leader, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, and other Democrats have said that any attempt to deny that back pay would be plainly illegal. “The law is clear: Every single furloughed federal employee is entitled to back pay. Period, full stop. The law is clear,” Mr. Jeffries said at a press conference on Tuesday. 

Mr. Trump says he does not see Democrats bending to his demands, which he says is acceptable because he can now shut down certain programs, cut funding, and fire people without issue. He says Democrats are engaged in a “kamikaze attack” against him.

“They have nothing to lose. They’ve lost the elections, they’ve lost the presidential election,” Mr. Trump told reporters. “It was a mandate to do what we’re doing.”

So far, 750,000 federal employees have been furloughed and more government services are set to face disruptions in the coming days. The Women, Infants, and Children supplemental nutrition program is set to run out of funds as soon as the end of this week. 

“Congress must act with urgency to pass legislation that fully funds WIC, keeps the federal government open, and ensures that federal appropriations law cannot be undermined by administrative actions. Every day of inaction brings us closer to a crisis,” the National WIC Association, a nonprofit group representing nutrition assistance providers, said in a statement on September 30. 

On Tuesday, NBC News reported that a number of airports across the country are already facing staff shortages, leading to delayed flight times. Secretary Sean Duffy told reporters at Newark International Airport that a number of air traffic controllers are calling in sick instead of working without pay. 

“Our priorities are safety,” Mr. Duffy said, ensuring passengers that they will “reduce the flow” of the number of airplanes in the sky if they do not believe they have an adequate number of air traffic controllers working.