Now that the government shutdown has persisted for more than two weeks, members of the federal workforce are beginning to feel the effects, ranging from missed paychecks to potentially permanent job loss.

Blasting Democrats for their refusal to help reopen the government, President Donald Trump took the decisive step of issuing an order ensuring that America’s military members will continue to be paid, as the Daily Mail reports.

Trump stands firm on troop pay

On Wednesday, the president signed a directive requiring the Pentagon to continue paying active-duty military personnel amid the ongoing shutdown that continues to plague Washington.

As Reuters explained, Trump ordered Secretary of War Pete Hegseth “to use for the purpose of pay and allowances any funds appropriated by the Congress that remain available for expenditure in Fiscal Year 2026 to accomplish the scheduled disbursement of military pay and allowances for active duty military personnel.”

Absent Trump’s action, 1.3 million service members were in danger of missing their mid-month salary disbursement.

The troops remain on the job despite the shutdown due to the critical national security nature of their work, and over the weekend, the White House indicated that unspent research and development monies from the War Department’s coffers would be used to bridge the gap for the time being.

It remained unclear, however, from where the administration might pull funds to pay the troops if the shutdown continues through the end of the month.

Vought-led cuts continue

Though Trump is taking steps to keep the troops paid, Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought is showing no signs of slowing his plans to continue slashing the federal workforce.

As Fox News reports, Vought appeared on the Charlie Kirk Show on Wednesday and revealed that he anticipates the total number of federal layoffs to grow “much higher” in the days to come.

A court filing from Tuesday revealed that roughly 4,000 government employees have received reduction-in-force (RIF) notices amid the shutdown, signifying permanent, not temporary job losses.

That number represents just a portion of those Vought expects to be impacted, with the OMB chief stating, “We’re definitely talking thousands of people,” and adding, “We want to be very aggressive where we can be in shuttering the bureaucracy -- not just the funding, but the bureaucracy -- that we now have an opportunity to do that.”

Ultimately, according to Vought, the total number of employees cut during the current round of administration actions could approach 10,000.

Court challenge ensues

Despite the zeal with which Vought is working to slash staff ranks, his push has not gone unchallenged in the courts, and on Wednesday, a federal judge in San Francisco put a temporary block on the administration’s latest wave of layoffs, as the Associated Press reports.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston opined, “It’s very much ready, fire, aim on most of these programs, and it has a human cost. It’s a human cost that cannot be tolerated,” though it seems all but certain that the Trump administration will continue its fight -- in the courts and elsewhere -- to shrink the size of government and to fulfill one of the key promises on which the president campaigned.