The Guardian on Friday reported that several US federal agencies have begun circulating politically charged messages blaming Democrats for the ongoing government shutdown, a move that critics say reveals not only an abuse of authority but also the administration's growing fixation on a manufactured "radical left."

According to the report, departments including the Treasury, Agriculture, Education, and Justice have used official websites and automated email replies to accuse Democrats of causing the funding lapse. The messages, laced with partisan slogans, attempt to frame a routine budget impasse as an ideological battle against what officials describe as the "radical left."

"The radical left has chosen to shut down the United States government in the name of reckless spending and obstructionism," reads a notice posted on the Treasury Department's website. The Department of Agriculture reiterated this language, claiming its site will not be updated "due to the Radical Left Democrat shutdown."

At the Department of Education, employees discovered that their automated out-of-office messages had been altered without consent to include similar rhetoric. "This message is uniform and provided to us by the Department. We all enabled the auto-reply before logging off for the shutdown," one employee said anonymously. "However, the Department has gone in without our knowledge or approval and changed the message."

Politicizing Public Institutions

The repeated references to a "radical left", a label that hardly fits America's centrist, pro-market Democratic Party, have drawn ridicule and outrage alike. Legal experts warn that this partisan messaging may also violate the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from engaging in political activity on the job.

Representative Jamie Raskin, a constitutional lawyer, said the conduct amounts to turning federal institutions into campaign tools. "If any agency head under any previous Administration ever used official letterhead to promote their political views, they would have been instantly fired, if not prosecuted," Raskin told The Guardian. "Taxpayers cannot be forced to be a captive audience for propaganda against the Administration's opponents every time they inquire about their benefits and rights."

Donald Sherman, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), condemned the practice as a reckless politicization of public service. "Some of it, I think, is illegal. Some of it is not illegal, depending on the law that you're talking about, but it's extraordinarily irresponsible and inappropriate," he told The Guardian. He described the behavior as part of a "pattern and practice of politicizing and weaponizing the government in ways that we have not seen before."

Authoritarian Blame Game

For many observers, the administration's decision to plaster partisan language across government websites underscores the absurdity of its narrative, portraying moderate Democrats, many of whom support corporate-friendly economic policies, as extremists bent on destroying the nation. Critics argue that this rhetorical overreach reflects a broader Republican strategy of exaggerating threats to mobilize their base and deflect attention from their own failures to govern.

Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization, has filed a complaint against the Small Business Administration for labeling the shutdown "Democrat-led." Meanwhile, the Democracy Defenders Fund (DDF) has requested a Government Accountability Office investigation into what it described as the misuse of federal resources for partisan propaganda.

"This is how authoritarians operate: they blur the lines between the state and themselves," said Virginia Canter, DDF's chief counsel.

The Office of Special Counsel, tasked with enforcing Hatch Act violations, remains closed due to the shutdown. Earlier this year, Trump removed its head and replaced them with Jamieson Greer, a political loyalist and former trade official.

Read more: FT: Stephen Miller, the architect behind Trump's radical agenda

Manufactured Crisis

The shutdown began at midnight Wednesday after talks in Congress collapsed. Democrats, far from the "radical" image cast by the administration, have sought modest policy concessions on healthcare and public broadcasting. Republicans, meanwhile, have seized on the impasse as an opportunity to advance their long-running campaign to downsize the state.

On Thursday, Trump said he met with Russell Vought, a key figure behind Project 2025, to discuss cuts to agencies he deems politically hostile. "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," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "I can't believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity."

For critics, that statement perfectly encapsulates the administration's contradiction, decrying imaginary radicals while exploiting the crisis to advance its own radical agenda.