As Trump’s shutdown strategy turns crueler, only one NC Republican speaks up | Opinion
As the government shutdown drags on, the White House seems determined to maximize the pain it’s causing to ordinary Americans, while North Carolina Republicans sit idly by.
That cruelty reached a new peak this week as the White House signaled it may try to deny back pay for the hundreds of thousands of federal workers that have been furloughed for the duration of the shutdown.
A memo circulated by the White House Office of Management and Budget earlier this week suggested that furloughed workers are not necessarily entitled to back pay once the shutdown ends.
When asked about it, Trump said, “For the most part, we’re going to take care of our people. 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.”
That flies in the face of precedent, and it also may be illegal, given that it violates a federal law that Trump himself signed in 2019. But the only North Carolina Republican willing to push back on it is U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, who rightly called it “bad strategy” and a “horrible message” to send to federal workers who may struggle to pay their bills.
“I think it’s a horrible message to send to people who are basically hostages right now to the Democrats shutting down the government,” Tillis told reporters. “I think it’s bad strategy.”
But that’s the type of strategy that Trump, who views the shutdown as an opportunity to “get rid of a lot of things that we didn’t want,” seems to have adopted. Ironically enough, GOP concerns about the “weaponization” of the federal government seemed to have vanished now that Trump is in charge. Trump and his administration have chosen to use the shutdown as a weapon, particularly against blue cities and states whose representatives they blame for the shutdown. That includes cutting and freezing funding for energy and infrastructure projects in states like New York, which is represented by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
Tillis spoke out against that, too, saying it could “create a toxic environment” that jeopardizes a potential bipartisan deal to end the shutdown.
“Quite honestly, if I’m a Democrat, and I negotiated something … and it gets tanked, I’m not going to have any faith that you can deliver on your promises in this administration,” Tillis said. “That’s just the reality.”
It’s not like Tillis has completely abandoned his party, despite the concerns he’s expressed about the president’s shutdown strategy. Like Trump and other Republicans, he’s still blaming the shutdown on Democrats, who he says do not have a “rational basis” for “performative shutdown political games.”
That’s not switching sides. It’s just acting like someone with common sense — and a moral compass. So why can’t other Republicans do the same?
Tillis’ Senate counterpart, Ted Budd, who recently took a rare stand against the administration, has fallen back into his usual deferential role. In a post on X Thursday, Budd pointed out that 140,000 North Carolinians will not receive paychecks during the shutdown, and slammed Democrats for allowing their livelihoods to “hang in the balance.”
But he’s said nothing about the fact that they might not receive paychecks at all. Trump said this week that if the shutdown continues, “substantial” pain may be coming, including the elimination of jobs that may “never come back.” What happens if he follows through on that threat? Are Republicans like Budd still willing to stay silent?
That pain already seems to be on its way, as the administration announced more layoffs of federal workers on Friday. And as much as the GOP blames Democrats for the shutdown, North Carolina has only two senators, and they’re both Republican. Only one of them seems willing to use their voice to advocate for what is — or isn’t — best.
