On Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump announced he had ordered the payment of military salaries next week despite the ongoing government shutdown.

Trump said he instructed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to “use all available funds to pay our armed forces on October 15,” blaming the Democrats once again for the funding crisis entering its second week.

He wrote on his platform Truth Social, “I will not allow the Democrats to hold our military and national security hostage through their dangerous government shutdown.”

With no end in sight to the shutdown, Republicans and Democrats continue to exchange accusations over the crisis, and Trump’s message about the military has intensified the political dispute.

This confrontation has led to hundreds of thousands of government employees being placed on temporary unpaid leave or deemed essential and ordered to work without pay.

The shutdown threatens to halt pay for about 1.3 million active-duty military personnel next Wednesday, something unprecedented in any previous U.S. government shutdown.

Trump’s directive to ensure military pay came after the White House announced on Friday the start of mass layoffs of federal employees, as the president seeks to increase pressure on the Democrats.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer accused the Republicans of “preferring to see thousands of Americans lose their jobs rather than sit down and negotiate with Democrats to reopen the government.”

Unions representing 800,000 government workers have asked a federal judge in San Francisco to issue an emergency order to halt the layoffs, ahead of a hearing scheduled for October 16 on the legality of these actions.

Republicans propose extending the current budget at the same spending levels, while Democrats call for extending health insurance support for low-income families.

Passing the budget requires several Democratic votes despite the Republican majority in Congress.