President Donald Trump says he is ready to make deep and permanent job cuts if the shutdown continues, bragging that Democrats have handed him a “silver platter” to reshape the federal government.

The president also confirmed that he’s considering denying federal employees billions of dollars in automatic back pay when the government finally reopens, suggesting that the move could be politically motivated.

“I would say it depends on who we’re talking about,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

“For the most part we’re going to take care of our people. But there are some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’ll take care of them in a different way.”

The comments came as the shutdown entered its seventh day, with no end in sight to the impasse.

But with not

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