Trump's shutdown pay plan prioritizes security personnel over civilian workers
Source: Reuters
October 23, 2025 9:26 AM EDT Updated 4 hours ago
Oct 23 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump has ensured that federal immigration agents, U.S. Border Patrol officers, FBI special agents and active-duty military personnel continue receiving paychecks during the government shutdown, even as hundreds of thousands of civilian federal workers are furloughed or are working without pay. This selective funding strategy offers a revealing glimpse into Trump's governing philosophy as the shutdown enters its fourth week - one that prioritizes jobs that advance his core national security and immigration goals.
Political analysts and eight federal employees interviewed by Reuters said this approach risks creating a two-tiered federal workforce divided by function, potentially undermining public services handled by civilians as the shutdown continues. The employees said the tactic could also erode morale across the government at a time when Trump's wholesale overhaul of the federal workforce has posed huge challenges for historically non-partisan agencies.
Illustrating the administration's partisan stance, Vice President JD Vance told Marines at an event in California on Saturday that Trump was doing all he could to compensate them, while casting congressional Democrats as indifferent to a shutdown that could delay troops' pay.
Julian Zelizer, a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, said more than any other modern president, Trump is using a shutdown to prioritize pay to a subset of workers to advance his agenda. His attempt to fire workers during a shutdown was also a first, he said. "It's like a really fine-tuned partisan response to the shutdown that's different than in previous years," said Zelizer.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/trumps-shutdown-pay-plan-prioritizes-security-personnel-over-civilian-workers-2025-10-23/