HOUSTON — With the first U.S. government shutdown in almost seven years looming, the Trump administration is using official government communications to blame Democrats and promote the president’s policies.

At least one agency has posted a public warning blaming “the massive pain” of any shutdown on “The Radical Left,” provoking questions about potential violations of the Hatch Act, which restricts partisan political activity by U.S. federal employees.

While furloughs of employees have been part of previous shutdowns, federal agencies under President Donald Trump have also been urged to consider more permanent reductions in force for programs “not consistent with the President’s priorities.”

Here’s a look at the shutdown messaging coming from the federal government:

Housing and Urban Development website

Visitors to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s website on Tuesday were greeted with a pop-up message warning that “The Radical Left are going to shut down the government and inflict massive pain on the American people unless they get their $1.5 trillion wish list of demands.”

“The Trump administration wants to keep the government open for the American people,” the rest of the message read.

Asked about the banner on HUD’s website that accuses Democrats of trying to shut down the government, agency spokesperson Kasey Lovett said in a statement that “the Far Left is barreling our country toward a shut down, which will hurt all Americans.”

Some internet users suggested the message would violate the Hatch Act, an 80-year-old law that restricts partisan political activity by U.S. federal employees. HUD officials pushed back on those claims, noting the banner did not refer to an election, and did not mention any party or politician by name.

Messages to federal employees

Employees across the federal government have reported receiving messages noting Trump’s general opposition to a shutdown.

Employees at the Departments of Interior, the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Justice received a message noting that Trump “opposes a government shutdown, and strongly supports the enactment of HR 5371,” the GOP-backed bill to fund the government through Nov. 21.

“Unfortunately Democrats are blocking the resolution in the Senate due to unrelated policy demands,” the message went on. “If Congressional Democrats maintain their current posture and refuse to pass a clean continuing resolution to keep the government funded before midnight on Sept. 30, 2025, federal funding will lapse.”

Some agencies, like the Securities and Exchange Commission, posted more informational notices online, detailing planning for operating status changes “concurrently with the rest of the federal government.”

Furloughs and layoffs

Some federal employees would be furloughed during a shutdown, and the White House’s budget office has warned agencies to consider permanently cutting staff in some of the areas that would be affected, a new twist on the situation.

In a memo released last week, the Office of Management and Budget said agencies should consider a reduction in force for federal programs whose funding would lapse this week, are not otherwise funded and are “not consistent with the President’s priorities.” That would be a much more aggressive step than in previous shutdowns, when federal workers not deemed essential were furloughed but returned to their jobs once Congress approved government spending.

A reduction in force would not only lay off employees but eliminate their positions. That would trigger another massive upheaval in a federal workforce that has already faced major rounds of cuts this year due to efforts from the Department of Government Efficiency and elsewhere in the Trump administration.

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Ali Swenson in New York contributed reporting.

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By SEUNG MIN KIM and JOSH BOAK

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is withdrawing the nomination of E.J. Antoni to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, according to an AP source who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the White House action, which hasn’t been publicly announced.

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The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Senate received paperwork formally withdrawing Antoni’s nomination on Tuesday, the person said.

Antoni’s nomination was an attempt by Trump to gain greater control over the federal agency responsible for producing key economic data, including the monthly jobs report and consumer price index, which is used to measure inflation. The chief economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation was a major critic of the BLS. Yet most economists saw him as overtly partisan and warned that his basic misreads on recessions, import prices and other measures made him a risk to lead the federal agency.

Trump fired Erika McEntarfer as BLS commissioner on Aug. 1 after the July jobs report showed a rapid slowdown in hiring, with job gains in May and June revised much lower than initially estimated.

The White House has maintained that it wants accurate figures after a series of downward revisions to the jobs report, but Trump has said on his social media site that the numbers were rigged to undermine him politically.

In the four months after Trump initially announced his country-by-country tariffs, job gains have averaged less than 27,000 a month. The slowdown was severe enough for the Federal Reserve in September to cut its benchmark rate in hopes of stabilizing the job market.

The White House also on Tuesday withdrew the nomination of Brian Quintenz to join the Commodity Futures Trading Commission as chairman.

CNN first reported the withdrawal of Antoni’s nomination.

Omar Jamal, a Somali community advocate and Ramsey County sheriff civilian officer, has been released from federal custody about a month after he was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Jamal, 52, was released from the Freeborn County jail in Albert Lea after federal officials agreed to restore “the prior legal status quo” and “implicitly acknowledging that there is no current legal basis for his removal from the United States,” his attorneys Abdiqani Jabane and Nico Ratkowski said Tuesday in a statement, which didn’t give a date he was set free.

Omar Jamal speaks at a news conference at the state Capitol in St. Paul on Jan. 27, 2005. (John Doman / Pioneer Press)

Jamal was picked up by ICE agents on Aug. 29 in Minneapolis, 20 years after he was convicted in federal court in Tennessee on immigration fraud and sentenced to a year of probation.

Jamal’s attorneys filed a federal lawsuit against the ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Sept. 21, asking a judge to immediately review the legality of Jamal’s detention. They contend an immigration judge in 2005 granted Jamal withholding of removal to Somalia after finding his life or freedom would be threatened there.

The court file shows that U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, the chief judge for the district of Minnesota, issued an order on Monday dismissing the lawsuit without prejudice and remanding the matter to ICE.

“While we maintain that Mr. Jamal should not have been arrested in the first place,” his attorneys’ statement read, “we commend and thank the U.S. Attorney’s Office and ICE for their cooperation in swiftly correcting the error and facilitating his release.”

Jamal joined the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office as a civilian community service officer in 2020 and had the support of Sheriff Bob Fletcher, who provided an affidavit in which he said Jamal “has played an integral role in helping liaison with the Somali community in Minnesota.”

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By NICOLE WINFIELD

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Arnold Schwarzenegger downplayed the Trump administration’s climate skepticism Tuesday and threw his weight behind the Vatican’s environmental initiative, saying individual choice, local regulations and the Catholic Church’s moral leadership were far more important to “terminate” global warming.

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Schwarzenegger was at the Vatican to headline a three-day climate conference marking the 10th anniversary of Pope Francis’ landmark 2015 environmental encyclical, Laudato Si (Praised Be). The document, one of Francis’ main legacies, cast saving God’s creation as an urgent moral imperative and launched a broad, grassroots movement that Pope Leo XIV has fully embraced and made his own.

Schwarzenegger, the former Republican governor of California, has devoted time to environmental causes since leaving political office in 2011. His Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative is one of the backers of the Vatican conference, which is being held at the Holy See’s newly inaugurated environmental educational center in Castel Gandolfo south of Rome.

At a news conference, Schwarzenegger was asked about President Donald Trump’s recent comments to the U.N. General Assembly, where he falsely said that climate change was a “con job.” Trump has long been a critic of climate science and policies aimed at helping the world transition to green energies like wind and solar. His administration has rolled back landmark regulations, withdrawn climate project funding and instead bolstered support for oil and gas production in the name of an “American energy dominance” agenda.

“Don’t use the federal government as an excuse,” Schwarzenegger told the Vatican briefing. “It’s an easy way out.”

He recalled his legal battles with the Bush administration over California’s environmental regulations when he was governor, and a particular victory where “we said ‘Hasta la vista, baby,’” Schwarzenegger said, quoting his famous line from “Terminator 2.”

Schwarzenegger said far more important were individual choices about turning off lights when you leave a room and state policies promoting solar power. With its 1.4 billion people, 400,000 priests the Catholic Church also has a critical mass of people who can back environmental initiatives, he said.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.