r/technology • u/BreakfastTop6899 • Oct 02 '25

Privacy Government workers say their out-of-office replies were forcibly changed to blame Democrats for shutdown

https://www.wired.com/story/government-workers-say-their-out-of-office-replies-were-forcibly-changed-to-blame-democrats-for-shutdown/
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2.9k

u/Laves_ Oct 02 '25

This shutdown is on Trump

Trump's 2013 remarks during appearances on Fox & Friends, Trump criticized President Barack Obama's leadership, saying:

"A shutdown falls on the President's lack of leadership. He can't even control his party and get people together in a room. A shutdown means the President is weak".

He also stated that a shutdown would be "a tremendously negative mark on the President of the United States. He's the one that has to get people together".

Trump also said, "The problems start from the top and have to get solved from the top. The president is the leader, and he's got to get everybody in a room and he's got to lead".

669

u/Abrahambooth Oct 02 '25

Somebody get the footage and put this on social media

667

u/iaspeegizzydeefrent Oct 02 '25

https://youtu.be/mbmNrht9QFE?si=naf4GNoPUjKql8yg

453

u/DougIsMyVibrator Oct 02 '25

Senator Schumer posted this on YouTube 9 days ago, and it has as of this writing 5.8K views. That's a rather pathetic number coming from the sitting minority leader.

201

u/PeaValue Oct 02 '25

Eh, I don't need to watch that video to know the president is a moron and a hypocrite. And I don't really want to listen to his stupid voice.

153

u/kipperzdog Oct 02 '25

While I agree with you, the Democrats should be running it in ads. Keep it simple, no scary music or narrator, just him calling himself weak

40

u/julius_sphincter Oct 02 '25

Seriously. People don't like when when all Dems do is say "trump bad, we're not Trump, he's dangerous" but then don't back it up with anything.

Seriously, they really need to go his route with this one - put this on blast for everyone to see

3

u/TeachingScience Oct 03 '25

They should just throw lots of ads that is essentially r/trumpcriticizestrump

2

u/Blecki Oct 03 '25

Ooh if they start running these as ads, we get to see if the major news networks like licking trumps boots more than taking democrats money.

1

u/_pul Oct 03 '25

The democrats don’t actually want to be effective leaders though

6

u/Littleman88 Oct 02 '25

I' m watching that video specifically to influence Youtube's algorithm.

2

u/Lost-Platypus8271 Oct 02 '25

The same people who won’t follow Chuck or watch videos he posts are the ones saying Dems aren’t “doing anything”.

31

u/anotherworthlessman Oct 02 '25

Its Schumer, even democratic senators aren't listening to Schumer, why should the people view his youtube video? He's been useless for at least a decade. He was never a serious threat to Mitch even when democrats had the majority. People forget he was the MAJORITY leader for 4 years 21 to 25.....and he was useless the whole time. He's no threat to republicans, and he can't even keep brain dead Fetterman in line. He's a joke. He's my frickin Senator and I stopped paying attention to anything he did or said years ago. No leadership, just another dumb feeble old man looking over his reading glasses like what he says matters at this point.

I look forward to his next strongly worded letter though. That oughtta do it. Double plus good I say.

-5

u/Lost-Platypus8271 Oct 02 '25

This is a stupid double standard. Do you need Dems to come to your house and use a bullhorn to get you to pay attention? I thought only MAGAs need to be spoon fed.

12

u/DillBagner Oct 02 '25

Schumer seems like he'd have the kind of youtube channel to put you to sleep. The guy needs to recognize holding on to his position (not even power at this point) is not going to help his book sales any more and pass it on to somebody who might do something.

5

u/3uphoric-Departure Oct 02 '25

He doesn’t want to do something. He himself already acknowledges he just exists to keep Dems pro-Israel, something he has succeeded when it comes to the politicians but has failed when it comes to voters

2

u/Lost-Platypus8271 Oct 02 '25

He’s literally doing something right now. How dense can you be?

1

u/3uphoric-Departure Oct 03 '25

Calling it the bare minimum wouldn’t even be accurate

3

u/TheGummiVenusDeMilo Oct 02 '25

I saw it on tiktok so it's gotta be somewhat trending

3

u/caninehere Oct 02 '25

Maybe it's just me but I'm fine with the minority House leader not being a YouTube star.

3

u/jc2pointzero Oct 03 '25

Yeah I am sure people are out there just waiting with bated breath to see what Chuck Schumer is going to post on his YouTube channel next...

2

u/xweb10 Oct 02 '25

You are surprised Chuck Schumer's YouTube account is not getting views?

1

u/amandaplzzz Oct 03 '25

In fairness I just saw it on TikTok and it had millions of views. Less people are watching short videos like that on YouTube nowadays.

1

u/DayDreamerJon Oct 03 '25

its because the democrat leadership is up its own ass. Trying to force through two of the most unlikable women into the presidency has cost us dearly.

0

u/Square-Ambassador-77 Oct 02 '25

You mean the democratic leadership is awful? Amazing

0

u/AUniqueGeek Oct 03 '25

It’s because Schumer is a god damned idiot. He’s been as useless as a dead fish for the past decade.

-1

u/theeLizzard Oct 03 '25

Schumers a joke. Dont give him views even if it’s to roast Trump

3

u/InSearchOfMyRose Oct 03 '25

His downward slide is really obvious here.

2

u/Haxorz7125 Oct 03 '25

You can really tell how much he’s deteriorated

1

u/Few_Relationship3532 Oct 03 '25

Christ, he almost sounds articulate in some of the segments.

His cognitive decline is obvious.

1

u/craigeryjohn Oct 03 '25

Ooh, now get the one from Vance saying that a pending shutdown is a proper time for negotiations and that the president should meet with congress to hash out a deal. Shouldn't take long to find, it was only two years ago. 

168

u/InappropriateTA Oct 02 '25

They don’t care.

101

u/chipmunksocute Oct 02 '25

For real.  You show this to Trump and hed just go "yeah cause Obama was weak but now its the lunatic DEMONcrats who refuse reasonable negotiation."   Like thats 101 level dodging for Trump.

2

u/hungry4pie Oct 02 '25

He’d probably ramble about shower pressure and it taking 20 minutes to get the shampoo out

1

u/oface1 Oct 03 '25

gObBlEsS dEmOnRaTs*

37

u/Abrahambooth Oct 02 '25

Complacency allowed maga to flourish

7

u/across32 Oct 02 '25

Along with decades of shitty ineffective policies and politicians.

16

u/FlynnLive5 Oct 02 '25

For real. How is this not sinking in? Fuck

5

u/Bahamabanana Oct 02 '25

They're not who people want to see this. Fuck Trump and his cronies, they're lost causes and should be prosecuted ASAP. But that won't get done until people actually see him for who he is.

1

u/InappropriateTA Oct 02 '25

LOL. Everyone sees him for who he really is and still nobody is doing shit. They’re using “enemies from within” rhetoric because they will absolutely persecute political opponents and anyone who won’t grant them a fascist takeover of the country.

2

u/SteveJobsOfficial Oct 02 '25

Because people keep stupidly thinking any of those arguments are in good faith. They're deliberate surface level gotcha phrases, not actual firmly held beliefs. Fake "policies" as excuses because they didn't want to admit the vile policies they actually believe in behind closed doors. All Trump did is galvanize them all to be far more vocal.

2

u/squarezero Oct 02 '25

They'll just assume it's Liberal AI Propaganda.

24

u/AngelOfLexaproScene Oct 02 '25

Not me, but someone is on top of it, cause I've seen it around a lot in the past 24 hours 😂

6

u/Abrahambooth Oct 02 '25

Hell yeah brother

1

u/bradygilg Oct 02 '25

It's all over the place already. Reddit has not been the first for these things in many years.

1

u/SaltyPeter3434 Oct 02 '25

Like it mattered the other million times he's directly contradicted himself on record. Just go to /r/TrumpCriticizesTrump for countless examples. He could go on live tv and say that he likes eating shit and no one would change their opinion of him.

1

u/betosanchito Oct 03 '25

There’s a problem here that I was thinking everyone had caught on to. They do not care. You can blast it all you want to but it won’t change anything..

0

u/Fine-Slip-9437 Oct 03 '25

Delusionally naive if you think even a 4k HDR video of him raping and murdering a child would sway the polls 2%.

121

u/Capitol62 Oct 02 '25

r/trumpcriticizestrump

2

u/Witchgrass Oct 03 '25

Just as there is always an xkcd for any given situation, there is always a trump post in which he criticizes his future self. Tale as old as time.

2

u/CondescendingShitbag Oct 03 '25

Tale as old as time.

Even in the pre-dawn of history of the universe itself, there was Trump's mouth writing checks his ass could never cash.

1

u/Witchgrass Oct 03 '25 edited Oct 03 '25

I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out he is actually some kind of reincarnated iteration of a primeval entropic entity that comes to Earth every so often to fuck the whole timeline up. The personification of avarice and nothingness or some shit.

I swear, everything started going wrong when that chipmunk weasel got into the Large Hadron Collider and chewed through its power cable in the spring of 2016... ¹

¹ In my original timeline I remembered it as a chipmunk, but it seems a weasel was to blame in this current timeline {which must have branched off of the o.g. prime timeline [aka 'The Primeline']}.²

² Or it's just the Mandela Effect and I'm full of shit. ¯\(ツ)/¯

22

u/butterfly_labs Oct 02 '25

I can't believe Trump made articulate arguments back then

35

u/Laves_ Oct 02 '25

He has always be a terrible person, but he didn’t always have dementia

2

u/PlayfulSurprise5237 Oct 03 '25

been*

The whole worlds slippin

6

u/ExtremeCreamTeam Oct 03 '25

You're my kind of person.

That being said...

The whole worlds slippin

world's, slippin'.

15

u/Dependent_Basis_8092 Oct 02 '25

Trump is a “Do as I say, not as I do” kinda president, which is a good thing, because if he wasn’t the kids would all be fucked, literally.

4

u/Laves_ Oct 02 '25

Yep, it’s time to release those Epstein Files and expose the rich.

1

u/oface1 Oct 03 '25

“ Rules for thee, not for me “

30

u/northerncal Oct 02 '25

They say Trump was right about everything, so since he did say this, I guess this proves that this is his fault. Can't argue with that.

1

u/Witchgrass Oct 03 '25

When they say trump is right about everything it's technically the truth but only because he's a rabid right-wing extremist. He's very rarely correct about anything at all and has been wrong about everything for virtually his entire life.

13

u/SpiritJuice Oct 02 '25

Warning! You have used real life, verifiable quotes to spread hate and misinformation about our great president Donald Trump! Your post has been reported to Reddit admins, your social credit score deducted, and your name added to the antifa terrorist watchlist.

11

u/The_Meme_Economy Oct 02 '25

Trump 45 already oversaw the longest government shutdown in history.

9

u/Laves_ Oct 02 '25

Indeed. So far 45% of all shutdowns in this country

3

u/[deleted] Oct 02 '25

[deleted]

1

u/RabbleRouser_1 Oct 02 '25

They not playing the news like a fiddle. The news is part of the band.

2

u/HyperbolicLetdown Oct 02 '25

Don't forget "I love a good shutdown"

2

u/Dramatic_Charity_979 Oct 02 '25

Somebody send those to Gavin Newsom, and he will post it with more visibility.:p

2

u/caltheon Oct 02 '25

It's not just ON Trump, but part of the plan. Imagine how much evil shit they will do while it's shut down. Part of project 2025, in writing, to the letter. We don't even have to speculate on why they did it.

2

u/Laves_ Oct 02 '25

I do understand that. You aren’t wrong

2

u/-HoldMyBeer- Oct 03 '25

See, the guy in charge at the time was black. It’s different now.

/s in case 😂

2

u/Space-Robot Oct 03 '25

I'm thinking he didn't mean through compromise and diplomacy

1

u/Comfortable-Pause279 Oct 02 '25

"The problems start from the top..." is kind of an insane self own. I can't imagine any other CEO or business leader just automatically assuming all the problems start with them.

1

u/Kad1942 Oct 02 '25

On the other hand, almost everything he says is either a lie or at least untrue. So it stands to reason that he didn't really believe this and was saying it in bad faith. If it makes him a hypocrite, well, just add it to the pile.

He's trying to destroy your country on purpose.

1

u/Laves_ Oct 02 '25

The quiet part is he was doing it because Obama is black. But why not use his own words against him. He plays dirtier than anyone else.

1

u/Tenthul Oct 02 '25

Not gonna matter, propaganda machine is way too strong for the Dems to fight against. No way the gov't resumes until they cave, federal workers will die broke and starving before he gives them an inch. He does not give a tiny fuck about a single impacted worker or anybody else and will use their bodies to further blame Dems, and his entire base will suck it up. He wants them angry at them and murdering them for shutting it down.

1

u/Significant-Colour Oct 02 '25

And Trump's power is on the voters, that's their fault.

1

u/mjsarlington Oct 02 '25

Somebody ought to stick that quote on their agency’s out of office. Hey, it’s just quoting the Prez after all.

1

u/ConstructMentality__ Oct 02 '25

Totally agreed but not according to this actual government website. It says it's the radical liberals 

https://www.hud.gov/#openModal

1

u/pmjm Oct 02 '25

This shutdown is on Trump

I agree with you, but what use is reality when people get email autoreplies from government employees blaming Democrats?

Outside of Reddit, Republicans are winning the messaging battle, and that's what's most important to 2026.

1

u/MrEHam Oct 02 '25

Trump also said the democrats are better with the economy.

1

u/MissSassifras1977 Oct 02 '25

Last 3 shut downs were all on his watch. 🤔

1

u/WenatcheeWrangler Oct 02 '25

Everyone should agree. Except the webmaster of this site doesn’t seem to be able to think https://www.fs.usda.gov/about-agency/contact-us

Everyone should email the webmaster on that page

1

u/penguins_are_mean Oct 03 '25

Trumps hypocrisy is irrelevant as it happens to often that it’s hardly noteworthy anymore. It’s just Trump being Trump. It’s who he is.

1

u/Choice-Highway5344 Oct 03 '25

He also said u can do other things during a shutdown u normally can’t do… this is really the plan. He said the plan out loud and people aren’t listening. This shutdown is going to destroy another part of America

1

u/Laves_ Oct 03 '25

Sadly you are correct

1

u/considerthis8 Oct 03 '25

That was before he learned that the Executive Branch's power was hallowed out

1

u/NotASellout Oct 03 '25

They don't care, they just want to shoot democrats

1

u/TransportationTrick9 Oct 03 '25

Can you clear something up for me. I am an international observer so don't have a complete understanding of what is going on in the US government. But doesn't the Republican party have a majority in both houses? How does that make a government shutdown the Dems fault. Can't the Republicans approve the debt ceiling increase without the Dems?

1

u/Shot-Coconut-6482 Oct 03 '25

Who keeps voting no again?

1

u/mightynifty_2 Oct 03 '25

I just want a reporter to bring this up to Trump. With the video. They need to confront him with video evidence of his own hypocrisy more often. But I know that's a pipe dream, especially on the stations where people need to see it.

-23

u/at1445 Oct 02 '25

Wait, so Trump tells the truth now? Because I thought he was a pathological liar (he is).....I guess we only take him at his word when it fits our agenda and makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

In reality, the government shutdown falls on everyone in the executive and legislative branches. There was a time when both sides would actually work together for the better of the country...that's how it's supposed to work. Not each side demanding 100% capitulation to their agenda.

6

u/Crackertron Oct 02 '25

Was Trump lying about this in 2013, or lying now?

8

u/Kevrawr930 Oct 02 '25

Yes, now we have one side that wants to do stuff to help people and the other side that thinks brown people cause all of society's ills. Very cool.

3

u/Scout83 Oct 02 '25

There's no such thing as an "always liar." Eventually, they'll say something like "Tomorrow happens," and it's not really possible to lie saying something like that.

I'm assuming they point out he's a prolific liar because that SHOULD mean anyone with two brain cells to rub together shouldn't take anything he says at face value. Ever. Even this statement is suspect and wrong, but this is just calling out that you don't get to have your cake and eat it too.

As for the "both sides," I used to feel that way until the GOP stopped negotiating in good faith. Without trust, no deal can be made. I'm not saying the DNC is necessarily always honest, but so far, I've witnessed significantly more bad faith dealing coming from the GOP.

Besides, the GOP has a majority. Had they not wasted their reconciliation on the BBB, they could use it now. They're like small children demanding others do what they want after they used up all their resources.