The White House is using the government shutdown as an opportunity to fire thousands of people — furthering the aims of Elon Musk's DOGE effort earlier this year.

Why it matters: This time the stated focus isn't efficiency or eliminating fraud. It's all about shrinking the federal government — and doing away with programs that run counter to the administration's ideologies.

The big picture: This is the first time an administration has used a shutdown to terminate federal workers. • The firings appear to be in line with the overall goal of bringing the federal government under the president's control and shrinking its size, as OMB Director Russell Vought laid out in Project 2025.

Zoom in: On "The Charlie Kirk Show" last week, Vought said: "We want to be very aggressive where we can be

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