By Alayna Treene, Annie Grayer

(CNN) — The Trump administration’s strategy to swiftly roll out mass layoffs of federal workers during the government shutdown has shifted in recent days, administration officials familiar with the talks told CNN, as an increasing number of Republican lawmakers and Trump administration officials acknowledge the potential political perils of the move.

With Democrats having shown no signs of budging in their opposition to a stopgap funding measure that doesn’t address their health care demands and a growing number of Republican lawmakers warning about potential blowback, the White House is now planning to hold off at least a little longer on sending out notices of Reductions in Force (RIFs, as the government firings are typically referred to), despite hoping the threat will still motivate Democrats.

“There’s an increasing acknowledgment within the West Wing that the politics of RIFs, at a moment when we know our message on the shutdown is the better one, would be better later,” one of the officials said. It’s “the idea that if we give it more time, it’ll be because the Democrats truly forced our hand and left us no choice.”

“And we do not want to appear gleeful about people losing their jobs, of course,” they added.

The White House initially planned for layoffs in the immediate aftermath of the shutdown, the officials said, with the Office of Budget and Management — led by Russell Vought — having made recommendations for agencies that should face the steepest cuts last week.

On social media, President Donald Trump himself called the shutdown an “unprecedented opportunity” to carry out one of his key priorities: shrinking the federal workforce.

A large part of that rhetoric was widely viewed within the administration as a threat to try to usher Democrats to the table and force their votes to reopen the government. Some sources have noted that Democrats spent much of the first months of Trump’s presidency outraged over the firings of federal workers through the Department of Government Efficiency, then led by Elon Musk.

The president had also been serious about using that opening to target what he and many conservatives have characterized as burgeoning federal bureaucracy, the officials said.

There is, however, broad agreement among the president’s top aides that, eventually, Trump will need to make good on the threat if negotiations on ending the shutdown remain deadlocked.

“There will come a point when we have to face reality. We need to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. But we hope it doesn’t come to that,” a White House official said.

The White House pointed CNN to press secretary Karoline Leavitt’s Monday remarks, during which she declared: “This conversation about layoffs would not be happening right now if the Democrats did not vote to shut the government down.”

Trump said Tuesday that he’ll be able to say “in four or five days” which government programs he intends to permanently eliminate “if this keeps going on.”

“We have a lot,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “I’m not going to tell you, but we’ll be announcing it pretty soon. But we have a lot of things that we’re going to eliminate and permanently eliminate.”

Wary lawmakers warn against losing ‘high ground’

The shifting strategy comes as several Republican lawmakers have grown wary that using the shutdown to lay off federal workers en masse could ultimately backfire.

“It’s rhetoric that excites the base, but we’re in a messaging battle to win the middle. ‘Slash and burn’ talk turns them off, and is reducing our leverage,” one House Republican told CNN.

Another put it this way: “We have the high ground now, but could lose it with mass firings.”

Some lawmakers have brought concerns directly to the White House, two Republican sources with knowledge of the conversations told CNN. A White House official did not dispute that there have been such discussions.

The administration also seemed to deploy another threat to try to force Democrats’ hand on Tuesday after news outlets reported on a draft White House memo suggesting that furloughed federal employees may not be given back pay during the government shutdown, further exacerbating the issue. Trump was quick to seize on the new threat, while refusing to commit to doing so.

“I would say it depends on who we’re talking about. I can tell you this, the Democrats have put a lot of people in great risk and jeopardy, but it really depends on who you’re talking about,” Trump said during an Oval Office meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Such a move would be a major break from precedent.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that he and the president both want furloughed federal workers to receive back pay once the shutdown ends. Trump, meanwhile, argued that “it depends” on the individual.

“For the most part, we’re going to take care of our people. There are some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’ll take care of them in a different way,” he told reporters.

Mass layoffs yet to materialize

On the first day of the government shutdown, Vought warned House Republicans on a private call that a massive wave of federal layoffs was coming quickly, anticipating they’d be rolled out in a few days.

The next day, Trump touted that he was meeting with Vought to discuss which cuts were necessary and nodded to his budget chief’s ties to Project 2025 — a conservative blueprint that had advocated for major cuts to government spending, dismantling the independence of government agencies and expanding the president’s executive authority.

“I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on the shutdown’s second day.

Since then, the White House, in coordination with OMB, has been compiling a list of agencies it’s planning on targeting and discussing them with the Cabinet leaders who oversee them.

But while White House officials had said the cuts could be announced as early as October 3, the firings have yet to come to fruition. It comes as welcome news for some lawmakers worried about the impact — such as GOP Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia, who represents a large Air Force base where workers are furloughed and has many constituents who are no longer receiving disaster relief funds.

Firing federal workers, the Georgia Republican argued, could play right into the hands of Democrats. “I have not heard a single Republican in the House express the desire to have mass layoffs of federal employees,” Scott said.

Sen. Thom Tillis similarly cautioned that not guaranteeing back pay for furloughed federal employees would be poor political strategy.

“I believe it’s a strategic mistake to now let those folks know or let them think that they could potentially not get back pay. If I were them, I’d start looking for another job. And there’s a lot of good, hard-working people out there,” he said.

Asked whether there was a viable off-ramp with Democrats to end the shutdown this week, the North Carolina Republican was not optimistic.

“No, I don’t think so,” he said.

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