Since Day One of his second administration, President Donald Trump has been looking for ways to reduce the bloated size of the federal bureaucracy, and he has signaled his intent to take full advantage of the current government shutdown for exactly that purpose.

On Thursday, Trump held a meeting with one of his administration's top budget officials, Russ Vought, to discuss which federal agencies should face cuts, how big those cuts should be, and whether those cuts will be temporary or permanent, according to Breitbart.

Trump also mocked the Democrats, who caused the shutdown by blocking a short-term funding bill in the Senate, for providing him with the "unprecedented opportunity" he wouldn't otherwise have to slash the federal workforce.

An "unprecedented opportunity"

In a Truth Social post on Thursday, President Trump trolled Democrats and the media with his announcement of a meeting with Office of Management and Budget Director Vought, along with an acknowledgement of the Project 2025 policy blueprint authored by Vought that Trump and his campaign had denied and distanced themselves from during last year's election.

Trump wrote, "I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent."

"I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity. They are not stupid people, so maybe this is their way of wanting to, quietly and quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" he added.

The fact that Trump wants to use the shutdown to reduce the size and cost of the government should come as no surprise to anybody, as he's been unmistakably clear about his intentions over the past several days and weeks leading up to the shuttering of non-essential government services.

Indeed, on the first night of the shutdown, he posted, "Republicans must use this opportunity of Democrat forced closure to clear out dead wood, waste, and fraud. Billions of Dollars can be saved. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

Cuts targeted toward Democrats

It is not yet known what all will be cut by President Trump's administration during this shutdown, but he previously indicated his intent to make things as painful as possible for the Democrats, and Vought himself has already announced a few initial cuts that are clearly targeted toward blue states and Democrat-favored programs and projects.

Wasting no time, in an X post on Wednesday morning, Vought wrote, "Roughly $18 billion in New York City infrastructure projects have been put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing based on unconstitutional DEI principles. More info to come soon from @USDOT."

Later that afternoon, he also posted, "Nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left's climate agenda is being cancelled. More info to come from @ENERGY. The projects are in the following states: CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, MD, MA, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OR, VT, WA."

Vought wasn't done yet, though, as he announced on Friday morning, "$2.1 billion in Chicago infrastructure projects -- specifically the Red Line Extension and the Red and Purple Modernization Project -- have been put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting. More info to come soon from @USDOT."

Federal workforce set to shrink

Meanwhile, according to Breitbart, concurrent with those and other impending cuts -- likely as well as additional firings and layoffs -- the start of the shutdown on Wednesday also marked the largest mass resignation of federal workers in decades, as an estimated 154,000 federal workers formally ended their employment with the government.

Those now-former government workers had previously accepted a workforce reduction offer of deferred resignation, in which they agreed to stop working and go on administrative leave several months ago, but they continued to receive their full salary and benefits through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.