Blue states pay the price of Trump’s shutdown

Russell Vought, Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, announced that due to the continued shutdown, the Trump administration will freeze an additional $11 billion worth of infrastructure projects in Democratic states.

Vought stated on social media that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will halt work on low-priority projects in cities such as New York, San Francisco, Boston, and Baltimore, and that these projects may ultimately be canceled.

According to the Office of Management and Budget, Trump seeks to redefine how the federal government prioritizes Army projects.

So far, the Trump administration has blocked at least $28 billion in transportation and energy projects in Democratic-controlled cities and states, as the president pressures his congressional opponents to end the shutdown that began on October 1.

Trump has also pledged to downsize Democratic-led agencies and is pursuing the elimination of 4,100 federal jobs.

The budget office said other affected projects are located in Illinois, Maryland, Oregon, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Delaware—all of which voted against Trump in the 2024 presidential election.

Many of these projects are in so-called “sanctuary jurisdictions,” which have resisted Trump’s crackdown on immigration.

Meanwhile, the administration is reportedly working to lay off staff in the Department of Education and transfer certain operations to other departments, as part of Trump’s broader effort to shut down the Education Department.

The prolonged federal government shutdown gives Trump an opportunity to advance his long-standing goal of dismantling the Department of Education—a move long championed by conservatives but one that Congressional Republicans have repeatedly failed to achieve.