Government shutdown updates: Leavitt says Trump exploring cutting aid to Portland

On day two of the government shutdown, President Donald Trump said he has a meeting scheduled Thursday with OMB Director Russ Vought to determine which agencies he "recommends" be cut-- either temporarily or permanently.

In his post, Trump references Vought through the lens of 'PROJECT 2025 Fame' — suggesting that the director, who was a key architect of the controversial federal policy agenda, could take inspiration from that blueprint, which had a vision for mass federal layoffs.

"I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent," Trump wrote on his social media platform.

He called the shutdown an "unprecedented opportunity."

--ABC News' Isabella Murray

The Senate will be out in observance of Yom Kippur on Thursday after it adjourned Wednesday without reaching a deal to end the shutdown.

The next votes scheduled for Friday afternoon, when the Senate is expected to once again take up two bills related to government funding: the Democratic proposal that includes health care provisions and the Republican stopgap bill.

-ABC News' Allison Pecorin

President Donald Trump on Wednesday evening called on Republicans to use the first shutdown in almost 7 years to cull potential "dead wood" from within the federal government.

"Republicans must use this opportunity of Democrat forced closure to clear out dead wood, waste, and fraud," Trump said on social media, a quote later shared by official White House accounts.

"Billions of Dollars can be saved," Trump added.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt earlier on Wednesday told reporters that layoffs of some federal employees were "imminent."

"These are unfortunate consequences to a government shutdown," Leavitt said on Wednesday.

OMB Director Russell Vought warned Republican lawmakers on a conference call Wednesday that the Trump administration will start firing federal workers in the next "day or two," multiple sources who were on the call told ABC News.

The firings would be part of the administration’s effort to initiate a reduction in force, or RIF, targeting furloughed federal employees.

Vought issued a memo last week warning of possible cuts in the event of a shutdown.

The congressional sources on the call told ABC News Vought did not provide any additional details on which departments and agencies could be impacted, or how deep a new round of RIFs may cut into the federal workforce.

The sources said Vought also acknowledged that the WIC nutrition program -- providing funds to help feed women, infants and children -- will run out soon.

-ABC News' John Parkinson