Handfuls of agencies posted statements to their websites Wednesday, alerting Americans that the government has officially shut down and that the “radical left” is responsibl
Agencies across the federal government are explicitly blaming Democrats for the government shutdown — from banners on top of public websites to suggested out-of-office messages for federal employees — in an unusually overt show of partisan messaging that some ethics experts say may violate federal law.
The deluge of statements bashing Democrats began hours before the shutdown Tuesday with a single red pop-up posted to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s website. “The radical left are going to shut down the government,” the page read.
The shutdown would “inflict massive pain on the American people unless they get their $1.5 trillion wish list of demands,” the website stated. “The Trump administration wants to keep the government open for the American people.”
By Wednesday morning, handfuls of other agencies had already followed suit — alerting Americans that the government had officially shut down — and that President Donald Trump’s political rivals were responsible.
“Democrats have shut down the government,” reads a banner lining the top of the Department of Justice’s website.
“President Trump has made it clear he wants to keep the government open and support those who feed, fuel, and clothe the American people,” a message on the Department of Agriculture’s website says, but that the government was closed “due to the Radical Left Democrat shutdown.”
And in an email obtained by POLITICO, the Small Business Administration circulated a template for automated out-of-office emails for furloughed employees, encouraging workers to adopt the messaging placing responsibility for the shutdown on Democrats.
“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 that is preventing the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) from serving America’s 36 million small businesses,” the template states.
Government agencies informing the public of a shutdown is not unusual, but the overtly partisan blame-game from federal agencies is. The flood of statements is the most concerted push from the Trump administration to admonish Democratic lawmakers for opposing a GOP continuing resolution that Republicans saw as the final off-ramp to avoid a shutdown.
Democrats have argued that they were left out of negotiations, and that they would vote to fund the government if Republicans agreed to extending Affordable Care Act subsidies.
Democrats have argued that they were left out of negotiations, and that they would vote to fund the government if Republicans agreed to extending Affordable Care Act subsidies.
The White House did not initially return a request for comment on the messaging but sent an automatic reply warning of delays to press inquiries due to “staff shortages resulting from the Democrat Shutdown.”
“As you await a response, please remember this could have been avoided if the Democrats voted for the clean Continuing Resolution to keep the government open,” the White House press team wrote in the automated response.
In a later statement Wednesday night, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson continued to blame Democrats, saying “it’s an objective fact that Democrats are responsible for the government shutdown, the Trump Administration is simply sharing the truth with the American people.”
Government ethics experts are sounding the alarm on the flood of finger-pointing, saying the explicit blaming of Democrats violates laws prohibiting partisan messaging or political lobbying within federal agencies.
“It’s a coordinated effort in the executive branch to have all the agencies push Congress to get the Democrats to cave, and they’re using their employees and putting pressure on their employees,” said Richard Painter, a longtime critic of Trump and a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School who studies government ethics. “They’re not telling the employees to call the Democrats in Congress and stop the shutdown, but this appears to be a lobbying effort targeting Congress.”
Painter specifically pointed to the Anti-Lobbying Act, which prohibits the use of appropriated funds for lobbying activities designed to “support or defeat legislation pending before Congress.” He said the messages also “push the boundaries” on the Hatch Act, which limits political activities of federal employees who work with federally funded programs, but stops short of an overt violation.
He said the administration’s statements could violate the Hatch Act if they start referring to campaigns or the 2026 election.
Donald Sherman, the executive director and chief counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington — which has also regularly been critical of the Trump administration — said while the messages don’t “technically” violate the Hatch Act, they overstep a legal obligation for agency employees to “provide nonpartisan service to their constituents.”
“A government shutdown causes stress for the public regardless of political affiliation; it is wildly inappropriate for agency leadership to politicize the situation and blame political enemies,” he wrote in a statement.
After seeing the messages posted to HUD’s website Tuesday, Craig Holman — a lobbyist on government ethics with nonprofit Public Citizen, which also has clashed with Trump — said he filed a Hatch Act complaint against HUD Secretary Scott Turner, and plans to file similar complaints against each agency who has posted partisan messages.
“Each agency that participates and promotes this political game is in violation of the Hatch Act,” he said in an email.
A spokesperson for the Office of Special Counsel, the agency that enforces the Hatch Act, replied with an automated response to a request for comment. The spokeperson’s email did not mention the Democratic Party: “I am out of the office due to a lapse in appropriations and will respond upon return.”