Trump administration uses taxpayer dollars to blame Democrats for government shutdown
The Trump administration is blaming Democrats for the government shutdown in internal federal agency communications as well as public agency websites, in what experts say could be a violation of federal ethics laws.
A bright red banner and pop-up message first appeared Tuesday on the Department of Housing and Urban Development's website. It was updated early Wednesday morning and warns: "The Radical Left in Congress shut down the government. HUD will use available resources to help Americans in need."
Wednesday morning, a banner added to the top of Department of Justice websites reads "Democrats have shut down the government" with a link to its shutdown plans.
Also on Wednesday morning, employees at the Small Business Administration were provided "suggested" language to include in their out of office automatic replies mirroring the partisan accusations made by OMB before the shutdown. In an email blast to the entire agency, the SBA suggested employees write that "I am out of office for the foreseeable future because Senate Democrats voted to block a clean federal funding bill (H.R.5371) leading to a government shutdown," and that "as soon as the shutdown is over, we are prepared to immediately return to the record-breaking services we are providing under the leadership of the Trump administration," according to a screenshot shared with NPR.
https://www.npr.org/2025/09/30/nx-s1-5558393/government-shutdown-trump-ethics-hatch-act
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