US President Donald Trump said on Saturday his administration has found a way to pay troops during the federal government shutdown and that he has ordered Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth to do so.
"I am using my authority, as Commander in Chief, to direct our Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to use all available funds to get our Troops PAID on October 15th," the president said in a post on the Truth Social media site.
"We have identified funds to do this, and Secretary Hegseth will use them to PAY OUR TROOPS," Trump said.
The Trump administration has laid off dozens of employees at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its latest round of cuts, including "disease detectives," high-ranking scientists and the entire Washington office, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
The White House and the CDC did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Affected workers were sent layoff notices via email shortly before 9 p.m. ET (0100 GMT) on Friday, informing them that their duties were now deemed unnecessary or "virtually identical" to those being performed elsewhere in the agency, the newspaper said.
The exact number of affected CDC workers is yet to be confirmed, it said.
The ongoing US government shutdown has sent hundreds of thousands of federal workers home, with staff at the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the CDC, affected.
