Trump shelves infrastructure projects in Democrat-led cities as shutdown slogs on

President Donald Trump's White House says the Army Corps of Engineers will be immediately pausing over $11 billion in infrastructure projects in several cities led by Democrats as the federal government shutdown heads into its third week.

The freeze will affect “lower-priority projects” in New York, San Francisco, Boston and Baltimore. All of the projects also will be considered for cancellation, Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote in a post on X.

Like Trump and Republicans in Congress, Vought blamed Democrats for the government shutdown now on its 17th day with no end in sight. He added that the funding crisis "has drained the Army Corps of Engineers' ability to manage billions of dollars in projects."

The Trump administration has already paused billions of dollars of federal funding otherwise headed toward Democrat-led cities and states since the shutdown began on Oct. 1. On Oct. 3, for example, Vought said he'd paused $2.1 billion in promised federal funds for Chicago's transit system.

He earlier announced that $18 billion in infrastructure funds for New York, the home state of Democratic congressional leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, had been put on hold. Another $8 billion in Department of Energy projects slated for 16 blue states were also cut.

Congress remains at a standstill over reopening the government, with Democrats demanding any negotiations for their much-needed votes would address the expiration of health insurance subsidies at the end of the year. Earlier this week, the Senate voted unsuccessfully for a tenth time on legislation that could turn the lights back on.

The longest government shutdown in U.S. history lasted 35 days in 2019, during President Donald Trump’s first term in office.

Zach Schermele contributed to this report.