OMB director Russell Vought said Wednesday that more than 10,000 federal workers could end up getting fired during the shutdown.
Why it matters: That's more than twice as many terminations as the White House said it was conducting just last week in court filings.
Catch up quick: In court filings last week, the White House said it planned to lay off at least 4,100 federal workers.
Where it stands: "Much of the reporting has been based on kind of court snapshots," Vought said Wednesday on the Charlie Kirk Show, broadcast from the White House.
- "I think it'll get much higher," he added. "I think we'll probably end up being somewhere north of 10,000."
Zoom in: Vought also highlighted what he's done to close down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, or CFPB.
- "We don't have anyone working there except our Republican appointees and a few careers that are doing statutory responsibilities while we close down the agency."
- Vought acknowledged that consumer protection, the mission of the CFPB, is important, but added: "This agency wasn't doing it. It had the DNA of Elizabeth Warren."
- Kirk show producer Andrew Kolvet responded, "OK, that's it. You've convinced me."
Friction point: The unions that represent federal workers have gone to court to stop the shutdown layoffs.
- During a federal court hearing in San Francisco on Wednesday, Judge Susan Illston said she was inclined to rule in their favor and block these layoffs, at least temporarily.
- "It's very much ready, fire, aim on most of these programs, and it has a human cost," she said, according to the APs report. "It's a human cost that cannot be tolerated."
- Some of the firing notices that went on Friday have already been rescinded at the Department of Health and Human Services.
The big picture: Hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been either fired or pushed out of their jobs this year by the Trump administration — pushing the unemployment rate in Washington, D.C., to the highest levels in the country.
Of note: Vice President JD Vance and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also appeared on the show, the day after Trump posthumously awarded Kirk the presidential Medal of Freedom.
Editor's note: This is a breaking news story.
