President Donald Trump has said he and his budget director will work out which Democrat Agencies to cut as the US government shutdown approached its third day.
He suggested Republicans should seize the opportunity to clear out dead wood and gave no hint of concessions to Democratic demands that legislation funding the government should include healthcare insurance subsidies.
Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill, meanwhile, continued to blame each other for failing to keep federal agencies open. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers are staying home, while others worked without pay. Some federal attractions closed to visitors while others, including the Statue of Liberty, stayed open.
Analysts don't expect either side to budge without pressure from everyday Americans, most of whom have yet to feel direct impacts on their lives.
It was unclear exactly what Trump could decide in Thursday's meeting with Russell Vought, director of the US Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
On the first day of the shutdown, Vought said the White House had moved to pause or cancel billions of dollars in funding meant for Democratic states, including $18bn (£13.4bn) in infrastructure projects in New York - home of both Senator Chuck Schumer and the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries.
In duelling press conferences on Capitol Hill on Thursday, neither party appeared willing to give ground.
House Speaker Mike Johnson called Democrats selfish, dubbed it the Democrat shutdown, and said he would not negotiate on adding insurance subsidies – or other measures - to government funding.
Jeffries accused Republicans of not wanting to provide working-class Americans with healthcare and said Trump's threats to fire more federal workers were pointless. He noted: They have been firing federal employees all along.
As politicians traded barbs, US government services started to grind to a halt and thousands of federal workers stayed home. About 750,000 federal workers were expected to take unpaid leave, according to an estimate from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Federal employees deemed essential continued to work, though without pay. They include more than 200,000 law enforcement officers.
During the last shutdown these employees increasingly began to call in sick, leading to some delays at major airports.
Tourists were turned away from museums in Washington and New York, including at Federal Hall in Manhattan. A manager told the BBC the building was closed like other federal monuments. George Washington, the first US president, took the oath of office there in 1789.
But not all monuments are closed. Elsewhere in New York, the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island remained open, thanks to the leadership of President Donald J Trump, a Department of the Interior spokesperson told the BBC.
The Smithsonian, which includes more than a dozen museums and attractions that drew nearly 17 million visitors last year, told the BBC it had enough money to stay open for a week.
