White House lays off thousands of US government workers, blaming shutdown

President Donald Trump on Friday blamed Democrats for his decision to lay off thousands of workers across the U.S. government as he followed through on his threat to cut the federal workforce during the government shutdown.

Job cuts were under way at the Treasury Department, the U.S. health agency, the Internal Revenue Service and the departments of education, commerce, and Homeland Security’s cybersecurity division, spokespeople said, but the total extent