Trump says he’ll take a ‘good hard look’ at federal pay raises ‘over the weekend’

President Trump has promised to re-examine the issue of pay raises for federal employees over Labor Day weekend.

During remarks he gave in North Carolina on Friday, he said: “As we head into Labor Day, our nation pays its gratitude to the hardworking men and women who make our country run. And I’m going to be doing a little work over the weekend. I’m going to be studying, you know, the federal workers in Washington that you’ve been reading so much about. People don’t want to give them any increase. They haven’t had one in a long time.”

“I’m going to study that over the weekend,” Trump added. “It’s a good time to study it — Labor Day. Let’s see how they do next week. But a lot of people were against it. I’m going to take a good hard look over the weekend.”

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This consideration comes amid backlash from even some conservatives who criticized the decision which Trump announced in a letter to Congressional leaders Thursday, stating, “We must maintain efforts to put our Nation on a fiscally sustainable course, and Federal agency budgets cannot sustain such increases.”

According to CNN, Republican Senate candidate Corey Stewart of Virginia said in response to the move, “I almost never differ with President Trump, but in this case, I do. Federal employees in Virginia wake up early, face punishing traffic and work hard to serve their nation and support their families. These workers need and deserve a pay raise. I encourage President Trump to reconsider his position.”

Critics are also pointing out that one of the reasons the federal deficit has soared is because of the tax cuts and other spending measures the administration has passed.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Trump nixed “a 2.1% across-the-board raise for most workers as well as separate locality pay increases averaging 25.7%.”