Closing summary
We have reached the end of another day’s live coverage of the second Trump administration. Thanks for reading. Here are the latest developments:
One day after Donald Trump said an unnamed “friend” had just sent “a check for $130m” to be used to pay military salaries during the government shutdown, a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed that the defense department “accepted an anonymous donation of $130m under its general gift acceptance authority”.
A federal appeals court paused a ruling by a three-judge panel issued earlier this week that paved the way for Trump to deploy troops to Portland, Oregon.
The justice department announced that it intends to send federal observers from its civil rights division to “monitor polling sites” in five California counties and one New Jersey county during “the upcoming November 4, 2025, general election”.
The conservative premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, said that he has decided to pause the advertising campaign that drew ire from Trump, but only after it plays during World Series games over the weekend.
New York attorney general Letitia James has pleaded not guilty to two felony charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution.
Despite Trump’s claims to the contrary, prices continued to rise in September, increasing at an annual rate of 3%, according to a government inflation report.
The US is sending the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier and its accompanying warships to waters off Latin America and the Caribbean.
Stephen Miller defended the unannounced demolition of the entire East Wing of the White House this week by arguing that the extension built nearly 125 years ago was not really part of the White House.
Comment by Zohran Mamdani about his odds of winning used in viral ad for wagering platform Kalshi
A recent comment from Zohran Mamdani, the candidate whose odds of being New York City’s next mayor have spiked on wagering platforms, has been turned into a viral ad by one of the platforms, Kalshi.
During an appearance on the podcast Flagrant this week, Mamdani was told by the host, Andrew Schulz, that his odds of winning the mayoral race were “93% on Kalshi.”
Over an hour later, near the end of the podcast appearance, Mamdani said that someone he hadn’t spoke with since their days in high school “texted me like five days before” the primary election he won earlier in the year. The text read: “Yo bro, I just put a thousand on you. Please don’t let me down.”
The Kalshi ad clipping those two parts of the interview together has more than 5 million views on X.
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Federal appeals court pauses ruling that gave Trump the green light to deploy troops to Portland
A federal appeals court on Friday paused a ruling by a three-judge panel issued earlier this week that paved the way for Donald Trump to deploy federalized national guard troops to Portland, Oregon.
The order, from the ninth circuit court of appeals, said that the panel’s 2-1 ruling in Trump’s favor was paused until next Tuesday, to give the court time to decide on a call from one of its own members to rehear the case before a full panel of 11 judges.
The formal name for a rehearing of that sort is called an “en banc review”, a term derived from the French for “on the bench”.
The ninth circuit, which is made up of judges in the western United States, in the nation’s largest, with 29 active judges and others in semi-retired senior status.
The decision on whether or not to rehear the case will be made by a vote of the active judges. The partisan make-up of the court is: 16 judges who were nominated by Democratic presidents (Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden) and 13 who were nominated by Republican presidents (George W Bush and Trump).
The three-judge panel that issued the initial ruling was made up of two Trump nominees (who voted to let him deploy troops based on his claims about out of control violence in Portland) and one Clinton nominee (who lives in Portland and voted against the deployment).
Stephen Miller insists the East Wing of the White House 'is not part of The White House'
In an appearance on Fox News on Friday, Stephen Miller defended the unannounced demolition of the entire East Wing of the White House this week by arguing that the extension built nearly 125 years ago was not really part of the White House.
“The East Wing, which importantly is not part of the White House, it is not part of the residence. It was a cheaply built add-on structure …[it] is badly in need of refurbishment, repair and renovation,” Miller argued, as images of the total demolition played on screen beside him, seeming to undermine the idea that what is taking place could be described as mere repair or renovation.
Miller appeared to make explicit the argument Donald Trump hinted at on Wednesday, when he said that the misleading images made it look like his construction of a new grand ballroom was “touching the White House. We don’t touch the White House.”
Miller was not challenged on the logic of his claim that the East Wing of the White House was not part of the White House, but he did have some trouble getting it straight in his own head. Trump, he said, deserved praise for “repairing, finally, an area of the White House that has been left in disrepair for decades”.
Among other things, the logic used by Trump and Miller to describe the East Wing as not part of the White House would seem to suggest that the West Wing, where Trump and Miller have their offices, is also not part of the White House and could be demolished by them without any explanation or warning.
During Trump’s first administration, however, his administration described Christmas decorations in the East Wing, directed by noted Christmas-lover Melania Trump, as an integral part of “Christmas at the White House.”
In 2018, a central feature of the holiday decorations was the Gold Star Family tree, decorated by Gold Star families, in the East Wing. That same year, a much-mocked image of Melania Trump inspecting rows of blood-red Christmas trees was taken in the East Colonnade, which connected the East Wing to the main residence, until it was demolished this week to make way for the ballroom.
Trump and his aides have reacted angrily this week to suggestions that the demolition of the East Wing was a surprise, despite the fact that Trump himself said, when plans were first released in July, that the ballroom “won’t interfere with the current building. It’ll be near it but not touching it.”
Still, they do have a point, in that the project description posted on the White House website in July did suggest, without mentioning any demolition, that the ballroom would be located where the East Wing stood from 1902 until this week.
This is how the site of the new ballroom was described, in a text that many reporters, officials and members of the public apparently read past:
The White House Ballroom will be substantially separated from the main building of the White House, but at the same time, it’s [sic] theme and architectural heritage will be almost identical. The site of the new ballroom will be where the small, heavily changed, and reconstructed East Wing currently sits. The East Wing was constructed in 1902 and has been renovated and changed many times, with a second story added in 1942.
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Two Democratic congressmen, Jamie Raskin and Robert Garcia, announced on Friday, in a letter to Donald Trump, that they are opening an investigation into what they call his “blatantly illegal and unconstitutional effort to steal $230 million from the American people,” by demanding compensation through the Federal Tort Claims Act for the federal investigations into his conduct at the end of his first term, which were thwarted by the supreme court.
“The Founders feared presidents like you might one day be tempted to use their powers to steal U.S. taxpayer funds. That’s why they enshrined a very simple rule into the Constitution, which is called the Domestic Emoluments Clause. As President, you may not receive any payment from the federal government or any of the states, except for your salary, which is currently fixed by law at $400,000 per year,” the congressmen write.
They add:
Your plan to have your former criminal defense attorneys, including the Deputy Attorney General and the Associate Attorney General, sign off on your demand for an astronomical $230 million payout from the U.S. Treasury clearly violates this ban on additional payments under the Domestic Emoluments Clause. One of your bogus demands—formally an administrative claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA)—seeks $85 million in punitive damages from the federal government, damages which are expressly prohibited under the Act,2 and $15 million in compensatory damages for the cost of defending against the Special Counsel proceedings in court. Your other claim is not even public. If either of your claims had any merit, you could have taken them to court by now and litigated them publicly. You did not do that. Instead, you waited until you became President and installed your handpicked loyalists at DOJ, knowing that you could instruct them to co-sign your demand notes in secret behind closed doors, and then you could present the notes to the U.S. Treasury for cold hard cash courtesy of the American taxpayer. That isn’t justice, it is theft.
In an exchange on Friday with our colleague Shrai Popat, a budget expert says that the Pentagon cannot simply pay soldiers with private donations.
As we reported earlier, the defense department confirmed on Friday that it had received a donation of $130m from an unnamed “friend” of the president who wanted to it to towards paying soldiers during the government shutdown. That sum would be just 2% of what’s needed to cover even two weeks of payroll for the Pentagon’s employees.
However, Romina Boccia, director of budget and entitlement policy at the Cato Institute, suggests that the law seems to bar the Pentagon from paying troops with donations.
“The department is welcome to acknowledge this donor’s intent but that does not change the legal restrictions on Congress needing to appropriate funds to pay military salaries,” Boccia says. “Notice the careful couching the Pentagon notice includes which states that the money was received under ‘general gifts acceptance authority.’”
“The military may accept private donations only in two cases: to support institutions such as military schools, hospitals, libraries, museums, and cemeteries; and to provide aid to service members or civilian employees who are wounded or killed in the line of duty, along with their families,” she adds.
”Money is fungible but Congress still needs to authorize funds in order for US troops to get paid,” Boccia notes. “The only way to legally get around this restriction is if Congress decided to recategorize troop pay as mandatory or direct spending.”
Senate Democrats say National Park Service being used for 'influence peddling' by accepting donations for Trump's ballroom
Five Senate Democrats say a National Parks Service trust dedicated to preserving the White House grounds is now being used for “influence peddling,” by accepting donations to pay for Donald Trump’s “gold-plated $300m ballroom”.
The senators, Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, Ron Wyden, Chris Van Hollen, and Ed Markey put their allegations in a letter to the National Park Service comptroller and the president of the Trust for the National Mall.
“We are concerned about the risk of quid-pro-quo arrangements in which large corporations get backroom favors from the White House and President Trump gets his multimillion-dollar ballroom – all while American families face rising prices during a government shutdown”, the lawmakers wrote. “The American public deserves answers about the circumstances surrounding the demolition of the East Wing of the White House, about President Trump’s attempts to build a gold-plated $300m ballroom, and about whether the Trust is being used to facilitate corruption in the forms of corporate special interests’ insider access to the White House.”
The Trust was established in 2007 as a nonpartisan, nonprofit partner of the National Park Service. “However,” the senators write, “the scale of funds raised for President Trump’s ballroom, President Trump’s personal involvement in fundraising for the project, and the number of corporate donors with business before the Trump Administration raise new questions about whether the Trust is facilitating corrupt access to and favor-seeking from President Trump and his Administration.”
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Justice department to send federal monitors to polling sites in California and New Jersey
The justice department announced on Friday that it intends to send federal observers from its civil rights division to “monitor polling sites” in five California counties and one New Jersey county during “the upcoming November 4, 2025, general election to ensure transparency, ballot security, and compliance with federal law”.
The deployment of federal observers to ensure compliance with the federal voting rights laws was a key enforcement provision of the Voting Rights Act passed in 1965, but for decades the monitors were dispatched to counties where violations of the rights of Black voters and other racial minorities were observed or suspected.
Before a 2013 supreme court ruling, 153 counties and parishes in 11 states were certified by the attorney general for federal observers: Alabama (22 counties), Alaska (1) Arizona (4), Georgia (29), Louisiana (12), Mississippi (51), New York (3), North Carolina (1), South Carolina (11), South Dakota (1) and Texas (18).
By 2024, the number of states where federal observers were sent to monitor elections had widened to 27.
Thursday’s announcement that monitors will only be sent to six counties, none of which were under observation last year, is a marked departure.
The new counties where voting will be observed on election day this year are:
Passaic county, New Jersey
Los Angeles county, California
Orange county, California
Riverside county, California
Kern county, California
Fresno county, California
In both states, Republican leaders has requested the monitors.
Earlier this week, Republicans in Passaic, New Jersey, asked assistant US attorney general Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the civil rights division, to oversee the processing of mail-in ballots in the county.
Dhillon, a former vice chair of the California Republican party who ran unsuccessfully to be chair of the Republican National Committee in 2023, was asked to send monitors to the five counties the current chair of the California Republicans, Corrin Rankin. In a letter to Dhillon this week, Rankin wrote: “we have received reports of irregularities in these counties that we fear will undermine either the willingness of voters to participate in the election or their confidence in the announced results of the election.”
Dhillon was previously a legal adviser to Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign and told Fox News on 5 November that year, two days before Joe Biden’s victory was confirmed, that the campaign hoped the supreme court would halt the counting of votes in areas without Republican party monitors. “We’re waiting for the United States supreme court – of which the president has nominated three justices – to step in and do something,” Dhillon said. “And hopefully Amy Coney Barrett will come through.”
Voters in California will be considering a redistricting proposal supported by the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, which would counter new gerrymandered congressional maps drawn to favor Texas Republicans by temporarily redrawing California’s maps to tilt the field in favor of Democrats.
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Pentagon confirms it received $130m check from anonymous donor to pay military salaries during government shutdown
One day after Donald Trump said an unnamed “friend” had just sent “a check for $130m” to be used to pay military salaries during the government shutdown, a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed that the defense department “accepted an anonymous donation of $130m under its general gift acceptance authority”.
“The donation was made on the condition that it be used to offset the cost of Service members’ salaries and benefits,” the Pentagon spokesperson, Sean Parnell, said in a statement. “We are grateful for this donor’s assistance after Democrats opted to withhold pay from troops.”
Although Trump referred to the $130m gift as enough to cover “any shortfall” in funds available to pay military personnel during the government shutdown, the administration told Congress last week that it used $6.5bn in funds allocated for research to pay troops for the first half of October. That means the donation will cover just 2% of the money needed to pay troops for the second half of the month.
It remains unclear what, if any, ethics review was carried out before the donation was accepted.
Pentagon policy says officials “must consult with their appropriate Ethics Official before accepting such a gift valued in excess of $10,000 to determine whether the donor is involved in any claims, procurement actions, litigation, or other particular matters involving the Department that must be considered prior to gift acceptance”.
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My colleague, Eric Berger, has been covering the effect of funding for the government’s food stamp program running out, as the shutdown enters its 24th day.
Federal dollars for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) are set to run on 1 November if the government doesn’t reopen, affecting the ability of 42 million people around the country to put food on the table.
As Eric reports, the Department of Agriculture recently sent a letter to regional Snap directors warning them that funding for Snap will run out at the end of the month and directing them to hold payments “until further notice”.
More than 200 Democratic representatives have urged the USDA to use contingency funds to continue paying for Snap benefits.
Read his full report below.
Here's a recap of the day so far
The premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, said that he has spoken with Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and decided to pause the advertising campaign that drew ire from Donald Trump effective Monday, so that trade talks can resume. “Our intention was always to initiate a conversation about the kind of economy that Americans want to build and the impact of tariffs on workers and businesses,” Ford said in a post on X. The Ontario government paid for and produced the advert which uses archival footage of a speech by Ronald Reagan in 1987 denouncing tariffs. In response, Trump has halted all trade talks with Canada, while White House officials said today that the negotiating process so far had been “difficult”.
Earlier, Donald Trump continued his criticism over the advertisement, accusing the country of trying to influence the US supreme court. “Canada is trying to illegally influence the United States Supreme Court in one of the most important rulings in the history of our Country,” the president wrote in a Truth Social post. The court set a date of 5 November for arguments it will hear concerning the legality of Trump’s sweeping global tariffs.
Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, has endorsed Zohran Mamdani, the frontrunner in the New York mayoral race. Until now, the top Democrat, who represents a section of Brooklyn in Congress, had not officially backed Mamdani, much to the frustration of progressives within the party. Jeffries said in his statement that he and Mamdani will have “areas of principled disagreement” but emphasized that the party needed to unite in the face of an “existential” threat from Donald Trump.
New York attorney general Letitia James has pleaded not guilty to two felony charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution. She was arraigned at a federal court in Norfolk, Virginia. “This isn’t about me. It’s about all of us,” she said, adding that the justice system had been “used as a tool for revenge” in a statement after her appearance in court. “My faith is strong. I have belief in the justice system and the rule of law,” she added.
The US is sending the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier and its accompanying warships to waters off Latin America and the Caribbean, the Pentagon said. Defense department spokesperson, Sean Parnell, said that the move supports the Trump administration’s goal of combating international drug-trafficking networks. The enhanced force will bolster US capacity to “detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere”. The added military presence is a major escalation in Donald Trump’s recent campaign of targeting alleged drug-carrying vessels in a series of strikes in recent weeks.
On that note, US has carried out its 10th strike on an alleged drug-carrying vessel, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said on Friday. The Pentagon chief added that six people were killed in the attack, asserting that they were all members of the Venezuelan gang known as Tren de Aragua.
Prices continued to rise in September, increasing at an annual rate of 3%, according to the latest government inflation report. In September alone, prices rose by 0.3%, a slight slowdown after rising 0.4% in August. The data had been delayed by the ongoing US government shutdown. Meanwhile, the White House said today that the ongoing government shutdown, will “likely result in no October inflation report” – continuing to blame Democratic lawmakers for the lapse in funding.
A federal judge in Portland, Oregon, on Friday rejected the Trump administration’s request to immediately lift her order blocking the deployment of federalized national guard troops to the city, saying that she would decide the matter by Monday.
The district court judge, Karin Immergut, who is based in the city, had previously issued two temporary restraining orders blocking the deployment of national guard troops there, in response to a persistent but small protest outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office.
Her first order, blocking the deployment of 200 troops from the Oregon national guard, said that Donald Trump has exceeded his authority by taking federal control of the troops based on his claim that the city was in a state of war-like rebellion. Trump’s assessment, Immergut ruled, was “simply untethered to the facts”.
When Trump responded to that order by sending 200 troops from California’s national guard to Oregon, and threatened to send 400 more from Texas, Immergut determined it was an attempt to evade her order, and issued a second order barring the deployment of troops from anywhere in the country to Portland.
Immergut’s first order was lifted on Monday by a three-judge panel of the ninth circuit court of appeals, over the strong dissent of the only judge on the panel who lives in Portland. But because the government never appealed Immergut’s second order, it remains in effect and the deployment of troops remains blocked until she decides whether or not to lift or modify it in response to the appeals court ruling.
At a virtual hearing on Friday, Immergut cited two reasons for her to delay lifting the second injunction. The first was that the appeals court did not address a central fact in her second order: that she had issued it in part because the government responded to her first order by attempting to evade it. The second was that the ninth circuit appeals court is currently considering a call from one of its judges to rehear the appeal of Immergut’s first order before a larger panel of 11 judges.
At the end of the hearing, Immergut said that she would decide by Monday, if not earlier.
Updated
US deploys aircraft carrier to waters off Latin America, amid escalating anti-drug trafficking efforts
The US is sending the Gerald Ford aircraft carrier and its accompanying warships to Caribbean waters off Latin America, the Pentagon said.
The defense department spokesperson, Sean Parnell, said that the move supports the Trump administration’s goal of combating international drug-trafficking networks. The enhanced force will bolster US capacity to “detect, monitor, and disrupt illicit actors and activities that compromise the safety and prosperity of the United States homeland and our security in the Western Hemisphere,” Parnell said in a statement. He did not say exactly when the Ford carrier would be stationed in the region.
The added military presence is a major escalation in Donald Trump’s recent campaign of targeting alleged drug-carrying vessels in a series of strikes in recent weeks. The most recent of which killed six suspected members of the Venezuelan gang known as Tren de Aragua.
Updated
Ontario premier issues pause of advert criticizing Trump tariffs
Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, said that he has spoken with Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and has decided to pause the advertising campaign that drew ire from Donald Trump effective Monday, so that trade talks can resume.
“Our intention was always to initiate a conversation about the kind of economy that Americans want to build and the impact of tariffs on workers and businesses,” Ford said in a post on X.
The Ontario government paid for and produced the advert which uses archival footage of a speech by Ronald Reagan in 1987 denouncing tariffs. In response, Trump has halted all trade talks with Canada, while White House officials said today that the negotiating process so far had been “difficult”.
Ford said that before the anti-tariff ad is taken off the air, he has directed his team “to keep putting our message in front of Americans over the weekend” by playing the commercial during the first two World Series games.
Updated
'Pure electoral poison': GOP groups slam Jeffries endorsement of Mamdani
Since Hakeem Jeffries, the top House Democrat, endorsed Zohran Mamdani in a statement to the New York Times, both state and national Republican organizations have slammed the move, often with misleading and untrue claims.
“In an act of supreme cowardice and capitulation, Democrats’ Minority Leader in Congress just threw his lot in with an openly Communist, anti-Semitic, defund-the-police, globalize-the-intifada extremist,” said NYGOP chair Ed Cox in a statement.
Meanwhile, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), said that Jeffries had “officially surrendered to Zohran Mamdani and the socialist mob now running the Democrat Party”.
“Their far-left takeover has torched Democrats’ hopes of retaking the House and turned their agenda into pure electoral poison. Every single Democrat is a willing accomplice to their own party’s collapse,” said Mike Marinella, a spokesperson for the NRRC.
Top House Democrat offers long-awaited endorsement of Mamdani
Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, has endorsed Zohran Mamdani, the frontrunner in the New York mayoral race, in a statement.
Until now, the top Democrat, who represents a section of Brooklyn in Congress, had not officially backed Mamdani, much to the frustration of progressives within the party. Early voting in New York begins on Saturday 25 October.
Jeffries said in his statement that he and Mamdani will have “areas of principled disagreement” but the state assemblyman won “a free and fair election” in the Democratic primary. Jeffries emphasized that the party needed to unite in the face of an “existential” threat from Donald Trump.
“I support our nominee’s strong commitment to building a City where everyday New Yorkers can afford to live. By necessity, this must involve a meaningful partnership with the private sector to dramatically increase the supply of affordable homes,” Jeffries wrote.
For his part, Mamdani welcomed Jeffries’ endorsement, and said he looks forward “to delivering a city government, and building a Democratic Party, relentlessly committed to our affordability agenda – and to fighting Trump’s authoritarianism”.
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Letitia James says justice system has been 'used as a tool of revenge' following arraignment
New York attorney general Letitia James said that the “justice system had been weaponized” in a statement following her arraignment at a federal court in Virginia. She pleaded not guilty on two charges of bank fraud and providing misleading statements to a financial institution.
“This isn’t about me. It’s about all of us,” she said, adding that the justice system had been “used as a tool for revenge”.
“My faith is strong. I have belief in the justice system and the rule of law,” she added.
Updated
Pope Leo says US and Canada experience 'great difficulties'
Pope Leo, the first American pope, said on Friday that the US and Canada were experiencing “great difficulties” in their relations, in a likely reference to Donald Trump’s decision to cut off trade talks.
“Canada and the United States … as we are sitting here, are experiencing great difficulties,” Leo told a meeting at the Vatican, according to Reuters.
“Two countries that were once considered the closest allies at times have become separated from one another,” he said.
Updated
Chris Sands, the director of the Center for Canadian Studies at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, suggested the collapse in talks simply formalizes a dead-end process.
“Can we stop trade talks? Yes, you can stop talks about steel, aluminum, energy, all of it,” he said. “But there was no evidence we were going anywhere anyway.”
Sands noted the irony of Trump citing Reagan while reversing his trade legacy. “Reagan loved the country – he loved free trade. Maybe Donald Trump believes that, but it’s not what he’s selling now.”
Washington imposed 25% tariffs on Canadian imports this spring, prompting retaliation from Ottawa before Trump raised duties to 35% in August. Ontario, heavily dependent on cross-border manufacturing and automotive trade, has been particularly affected. The breakdown ultimately leaves Carney navigating domestic pressure with a minority government.
“Carney’s trying to keep all the provinces together,” Sands said. “He’s walking a tightrope between angry Canadians, an angry Trump, and premiers who are going off-script.”
Marco Rubio confirmed on Friday that all trade negotiations with Canada had been suspended. Rubio, the secretary of state, on Friday told reporters that the premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, had aired commercials in the US that “took President Reagan’s words out of context”, adding that the Reagan Foundation had criticized the effort, too.
“The President made his announcement that he suspended any trade talks with Canada for now,” Rubio said.
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Schumer says Senate Democrats will force vote on Trump's tariffs on Canada
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer says Democrats will force the chamber to vote on Trump’s “damaging” tariffs on Canada and other countries. In a post on X, the New York Democrat called the levies “one of the driving forces behind higher prices”.
“Americans cannot afford Donald Trump’s price-spiking tariff temper tantrums. These constant tantrums end up costing Americans real money,” Schumer said in a statement reported by Politico. “Refusing to negotiate with Canada to alleviate the tariffs will ensure that Americans continue to pay an average of $1,300 due to higher prices on everything from lumber to beef.”
Updated
Reagan foundation reviewing legal options over Canada's anti-tariff ad
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation said in a statement seen by Reuters that it was exploring its legal options over the controversial Ontario tariff ad that uses “selective audio and video” of the former president.
The ad consists of Reagan voiceover criticizing tariffs on foreign goods while saying they cause job losses and trade wars. According to Reuters, the video uses five complete sentences from the five-minute weekly address, spliced together out of sequence.
“The ad misrepresents the Presidential Radio Address (by Reagan in 1987), and the Government of Ontario did not seek nor receive permission to use and edit the remarks,” the foundation statement said.
The ad does not mention that Reagan was using the address to explain that tariffs imposed on Japan by his administration should be seen as a sadly unavoidable exception to his basic belief in free trade as the key to prosperity.
Updated
The East Wing of the White House has now been completely destroyed to pave way for Donald Trump’s $300m planned gilded ballroom, just days after the administration announced it would happen and contradicting Trump’s earlier promise that the existing building would not be touched.
Satellite images on Friday showed the historic building’s eastern section reduced to rubble, to the outrage of historians, former White House officials and much of the public.
The demolition marked a reversal of Trump’s earlier promise in July that none of the White House’s existing infrastructure would be torn down during construction of the ballroom.
Trump went ahead despite not first sending plans to the National Capital Planning Commission, the federal agency that oversees construction and renovations to government buildings across the region.
On Thursday, a White House official told Reuters that construction plans “will be soon” submitted. A White House official also told the Guardian that “The National [Capital] Planning Commission does not require permits for demolition, only for vertical construction. Permits will be submitted to the NPC at the appropriate time.”
Earlier this week, however, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a non-profit established by Congress, sent a letter to the White House stating that the demolition plans are “legally required” to undergo public review.
A federal judge in Virginia has tentatively set a trial date in Letitia James’s bank fraud case for 26 January 2026.
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Carney says Canada 'stands ready' to continue trade talks with US
Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, said today that Canadian officials have been working with their American counterparts on “detailed, constructive negotiations” on “specific transactions, specific sectors, steel, aluminum and energy”.
Speaking to reporters before flying to Malaysia for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit, he added:
We stand ready to pick up on that progress and build on that progress when the Americans are ready to have those discussions, because it will be for the benefit of workers in the United States, workers in Canada’s and families in both of our countries.
This, amid the Trump administration’s about-turn on trade discussions, after the release of a Canadian television advertisement that criticizes the president’s tariff policy.
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Letitia James pleads not guilty to charges of bank fraud
New York attorney general Letitia James has pleaded not guilty to two felony charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution.
She was arraigned at a federal court in Norfolk, Virginia, in the latest example of what has been described a retribution campaign by Donald Trump against many of his political adversaries.
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White House economic adviser says it has been 'difficult to negotiate' with Canada
White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett just gaggled with reporters. He said that the president’s decision to terminate trade talks with Canada was indicative of his “frustration” with the country after month of negotiations.
“The Canadians have been very difficult to negotiate with,” Hassett added. “You look at all the countries around the world that we’ve made deals with, and the fact that we’re now negotiating Mexico separately, reveals that it’s not just about what one ad, there’s frustration that’s built up.”
Hassett said he didn’t have any information about whether Trump would speak with Canadian prime minister Mark Carney while they’re both attending the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit this week.
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New York attorney general and Trump adversary, Letitia James, to make first appearance in federal court
Letitia James, the New York attorney general and noted adversary of Donald Trump, will make her first appearance at a federal court in Virginia today.
James was indicted on charges of bank fraud and false statements, after Trump launched a public campaign for the justice department to pursue her. My collegaue, Hugo Lowell, reports that James is expected to plead not guilty.
The five-page indictment against the attorney general accuses her of falsely claiming in loan documents that she would use a home she bought in Norfolk, Virginia, as a secondary residence in order to get more favorable loan terms, when she in fact used it as an investment property.
We’ll bring you the latest as it happens.
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White House says there will probably be no October inflation report
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said today that the ongoing government shutdown, will “likely result in no October inflation report”.
Continuing to blame Democratic lawmakers for the lapse in funding, she said that the lack of data “will leave businesses, markets, families, and the Federal Reserve in disarray”.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), which produces the consumer price index report had to delay their September findings due to the shutdown. BLS has also suspended data collection during the government shutdown, affecting future economic forecasting.
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US carries out 10th strike on alleged drug-carrying vessel, killing six people
The US has carried out its 10th strike on an alleged drug-carrying vessel, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, said on Friday. The Pentagon chief added that six people were killed in the attack.
“The vessel was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking route, and carrying narcotics,” Hegseth wrote on social media, asserting that the vessel was operated by the Venezeualan gang known as Tren de Aragua.
Former top Trump adviser says 'there's a plan' for a third term
Steve Bannon, one of Donald Trump’s top advisors during his first administration, has said that the president will seek and likely win a third term in office, despite the fact that this would violate the 22nd amendment of the US constitution.
“Trump is going to be president in ’28, and people ought to just get accommodated with that,” Bannon said in a video interview with the Economist.
When Zanny Minton Beddoes, the outlet’s editor, pushed back on the legality of the move, Bannon said: “At the appropriate time we’ll lay out what the plan is. But there’s a plan. We had longer odds in ’16 and longer odds in ’24 than we’ve got in ’28.”
The 22nd amendment, which was ratified in 1951, limits a US president to two elected terms in office.
A reminder that Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, was held in contempt of Congress, after he refused to comply with a subpoena from the January 6 House select committee. He served four months in federal prison in 2024.
Updated
Ontario premier doubles down on ad criticizing tariffs
The premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, has responded to Donald Trump’s move to terminate trade talks with Canada.
In a post on social media, Ford re-shared the advertisement – which his province’s government paid for and drew Trump’s ire.
“Canada and the United States are friends, neighbours and allies. President Ronald Reagan knew that we are stronger together,” Ford wrote, referencing the speech where the former president said that “trade barriers hurt every American worker” and is used prominently in the advertisement.
My colleague, Graeme Wearden, is covering the latest developments out of today’s consumer price index report.
He notes that core inflation across the US has fallen, in a boost for households. Adding that today’s inflation report shows that the “all items less food and energy index” rose by 3% in the year to September, down from 3.1% in August.
That is an encouraging sign that inflationary pressures are not accelerating, as the US economy responds to the Trump’s escalating trade war, Graeme notes.
US inflation rises to 3%, less than expected
US inflation has risen, but not as much as expected, new delayed economic data shows.
The annual US consumer prices index rose to 3% in September, up from 2.9% in August, but lower than the 3.1% which economists had forecast.
That means the cost of living is continuing to rise faster than the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, as the US central bank comes under pressure from the White House to cut interest rates faster.
In September alone, prices rose by 0.3%, a slight slowdown after rising 0.4% in August.
The data, which had been delayed by the ongoing US government shutdown, also shows that gasoline prices rose by 4.1% in September, while food was up 0.2%.
My colleagues are covering the latest developments at our dedicated blog.
Government shutdown enters day 24, with no end in sight
Neither the House nor the Senate are in session today, as the shutdown drags on for its 24th day.
A reminder that, so far, there have been 12 failed votes in the upper chamber to pass a funding extension to reopen the government. Democrats and Republicans remain at a bitter impasse, with both parties blaming the other for the lapse in funding.
On Thursday, the Senate also failed to pass a bill, introduced by Republicans, to keep federal workers deemed essential, as well as active-duty troops, paid throughout the shutdown.
The legislation didn’t meet the 60-vote threshold to advance, with Democrats arguing that it would just give Donald Trump more power by letting him choose which employees receive pay. They offered two counterproposals, one of which out guarantee pay to all furloughed federal workers. Republicans, for their part, rejected these.
Donald Trump is preparing to leave for a multi-stop trip across Asia, which will culminate in a pivotal meeting with China’s Xi Jinping next week. He kicks things off in Malaysia, where he’ll take part in a bilateral meeting with the country’s prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim.
Trump will leave the White House at 10.40pm ET today, and he’s not expected to make any public appearances until then.
Updated
The US secretary of state has confirmed Donald Trump’s announcement that all trade negotiations with Canada have been suspended.
Marco Rubio spoke during a visit to a civil-military coordination centre in southern Israel.
Trump accuses Canada of attempting to influence US supreme court with anti-tariff Reagan ad
Donald Trump continued his criticism of Canada on Friday over an advertisement that featured Republican icon Ronald Reagan extolling the virtue of free trade, accusing the country of trying to influence the US supreme court.
“Canada is trying to illegally influence the United States Supreme Court in one of the most important rulings in the history of our Country,” the US president wrote in a Truth Social post.
The US high court set a date of 5 November for arguments it will hear concerning the legality of Trump’s sweeping global tariffs.
Updated
A Republican member of the Georgia state election board is accepting anonymous donations via an online fundraising campaign established by a local election board member with ties to the “election integrity” movement.
Janice Johnston, the state board’s vice-chair and one of the three Republican board members praised by name by Donald Trump last year, is the beneficiary of a GiveSendGo fundraising campaign established by Salleigh Grubbs, who serves on the Cobb county board of registration and elections and is first vice-chair of the Georgia Republican party.
The funds are being raised for Johnston’s defense against a lawsuit filed by American Oversight, a watchdog non-profit that has gone after state and federal officials for evading open-records laws. The group sued the state election board and Johnston individually, accusing her of withholding emails from her private email account after discovering from other Open Records Act results that her address had been on email chains.
Grubbs is a former chair of the Cobb county Republican party, who successfully petitioned the state election board to adopt a rule that gives county election officials more power to refuse to certify election results. Grubbs has since been appointed to the county’s election board. When election conspiracy theories ran rampant in Georgia in 2020, Grubbs once chased a refuse truck she believed was carrying shredded paper ballots, the Atlantic reported. There is no evidence paper ballots were discarded in that incident, election authorities have said.
She also has business before the board: she is a co-author of a proposed rule that would indemnify election board members such as herself and Johnston and allow defenses against lawsuits to be paid for with public funds.
On Wednesday morning, as the state election board (SEB) met at the Georgia capitol, $29,300 in donations had been made to the GiveSendGo campaign, including one anonymous donation of $10,000.
“To say this is a potential conflict of interest and a potential violation of Georgia’s ethics policy is, in my opinion, a laughable understatement,” said Marisa Pyle, senior democracy defense manager with All Voting Is Local Georgia. “A SEB member is considering a rule proposed by someone who has raised tens of thousands of dollars for her direct use. At the last SEB meeting, attendees distributed flyers advertising the fundraiser.”
As Donald Trump continues to slap tariffs on major trading partners, polling from a Democratic campaign arm finds that a majority of voters in districts likely to decide the majority in the House of Representatives blame the president’s trade policies for increasing their cost of living.
The survey, shared exclusively with the Guardian, also confirms that many voters are sour on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the GOP’s signature legislative accomplishment passed earlier this year that enacts Trump’s tax policies, pays for his immigration crackdown, and downsizes the Medicaid health insurance program for poor and disabled Americans.
“The public is turning on House Republicans and tired of their broken promises. Costs are rising, the GOP healthcare crisis is hurting millions of Americans and the public hates their disastrous economic agenda. Voters are ready for change and eager to give House Democrats back the majority in 2026,” said Viet Shelton, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), which conducted the poll.
The committee surveyed 1,000 likely voters earlier this month in 61 battleground districts, and found that 61% of respondents blamed Trump’s tariffs for raising prices, while a 52% majority of voters opposed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Trump last year won the districts surveyed by an average of 4%, but Democrats nonetheless led on the generic ballot ahead of the 2026 midterm elections by 47%, to the GOP’s 43%. The DCCC said the four-point split is higher than a similar poll of battleground districts it conducted in November 2017, ahead of the 2018 midterms in which Democrats gained 41 seats in the House and retook the majority.
The poll was conducted between 2 and 6 October – right after the government shut down following Democratic and Republican lawmakers failing to agree on legislation to continue funding. The DCCC found 43% of those surveyed blamed Trump and Republican lawmakers for the lapse in operations.
Letitia James expected to plead not guilty in mortgage fraud case
The New York state attorney general, Letitia James, is expected to plead not guilty on Friday to charges of bank fraud and false statements brought after Donald Trump publicly called for her to be prosecuted in a move widely seen as political retribution.
James is scheduled to made her first appearance in the case and be arraigned in federal district court in Virginia before US magistrate judge Jamar Walker at 11am ET, according to court documents.
The five-page indictment against James accused her of falsely claiming in loan documents that she would use a home she bought in Norfolk, Virginia, as a secondary residence in order to get more favorable loan terms, when she in fact used it as an investment property.
But the charges, which were filed by Trump’s hand-picked US attorney Lindsey Halligan, came over the objections of career prosecutors who believed there was insufficient evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt and said that James did not materially profit from the loan.
James is also expected to soon submit a motion to dismiss the indictment, according to court filings, on grounds that Halligan was improperly appointed and since she alone filed the charges, the entire case should be thrown out.
The prosecution comes at a turbulent time for the justice department, which has found itself itself buffeted by constant pressure from Trump and other administration officials to pursue cases against their perceived political enemies regardless of the strength underlying evidence.
Before Halligan obtained an indictment against James, she also brought charges against former FBI director James Comey after the president publicly demanded it. And the department has opened investigations into California senator Adam Schiff and former CIA director John Brennan.
Top House Democrats have accused Donald Trump of orchestrating an illegal scheme to pay himself $230m in taxpayer money, demanding he immediately abandon claims they say violate the constitution.
The representative Jamie Raskin, ranking member on the House judiciary committee, and the representative Robert Garcia, ranking member of the oversight committee, sent a letter to the president on Thursday condemning his plan to use a confidential administrative process to direct treasury funds into his own pocket.
“Your plan to have your obedient underlings at the Department of Justice instruct the US Treasury to pay you, personally, hundreds of millions of dollars – especially at a time when most Americans are struggling to pay rent, put food on the table, and afford health care – is an outrageous and shocking attempt to shake down the American people,” the lawmakers wrote.
The letter also comes as Democracy Forward, a leading legal advocacy group, filed a public records request on Wednesday seeking documents related to Trump’s claims for restitution over those same earlier Department of Justice cases against him.
While in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump insisted to reporters that the government owes him “a lot of money” for past justice department investigations, including the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago search and the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The president claimed personal authority over the decision, saying: “It’s interesting, ’cause I’m the one that makes the decision, right?”
This week, Raskin said his staff’s analysis suggests that Trump could receive the money without immediately disclosing it.
“Our reading is that, even though this is a private settlement, it doesn’t have to be disclosed anywhere until there is an accounting of where all the money has gone at the end of the year,” Raskin said in an interview with the New Republic.
Donald Trump picked Kristi Noem as homeland security secretary as a personal favour to his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski despite objections that she was “obviously unqualified”, according to a new book.
The factional infighting behind Trump’s cabinet selection, where inexperience was no barrier to success, is detailed by journalist Jonathan Karl in Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign That Changed America. The Guardian obtained a copy.
Soon after his election victory last November, the book recounts, Trump picked Noem to run the Department of Homeland Security, central to fulfilling his campaign promise of the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.
Like Pete Hegseth, who landed the job of defense secretary, Noem, then the governor of South Dakota – who faced an outcry over her admission in a book that she once shot a pet dog – had not been on the transition team’s list of possible candidates and had not gone through vetting for the job, Karl writes in Retribution.
“When a surprised Trump advisor asked the president-elect why he had decided to nominate Noem to be secretary of Homeland Security, he had a simple answer. ‘I did it for Corey,’ he said. ‘It’s the only thing Corey asked me for.’”
Lewandowski was Trump’s campaign manager until he was fired in June 2016 after a string of controversies that included being accused of forcibly yanking the arm of a female reporter. Rumours of an affair between Lewandowski and Noem have swirled in Washington for years, though both deny the relationship.
Karl notes that even some of Trump’s closest allies were uncomfortable with putting Noem in charge of a sprawling department that includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema).
The White House has revealed that major companies in the tech, defense and crypto industries are helping Donald Trump fund his $300m ballroom at the White House, where work is under way to demolish the entire East Wing.
The list of donors includes tech companies Apple, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Google; the defense contractors Booz Allen Hamilton, Lockheed Martin and Palantir; and the communication companies T-Mobile and Comcast, according to CNN.
Billionaire Trump supporters who were major donors to his campaign last year are also featured on the list, including Miriam Adelson, the widow of the casino magnate Sheldon Adelson; the Blackstone CEO, Stephen Schwarzman; the oil tycoon Harold Hamm; and the cryptocurrency billionaires Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary and former CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, is also on the list.
Some donors last week were invited to a White House dinner celebrating their contribution to the ballroom project, including representatives from Google, Amazon and Lockheed Martin.
“Chief executives throughout history have contributed to making the White House special, and nothing of this magnitude has been done,” Trump told the donors at the start of the dinner, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Wednesday, Trump said the ballroom “is being paid for 100% by me and some friends of mine”. While the president initially said the 90,000 sq ft ballroom would cost $200m, he upped the figure to $300m on Wednesday.
Trump backs down on sending federal troops to San Francisco for immigration crackdown
Donald Trump canceled plans for a deployment of federal troops to San Francisco that had sparked widespread condemnation from California leaders and sent protesters flooding into the streets.
The Bay Area region had been on edge after reports emerged on Wednesday that the Trump administration was poised to send more than 100 Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and other federal agents to the US Coast Guard base in Alameda, a city in the East Bay, as part of a large-scale immigration-enforcement plan. By early Thursday morning, hundreds of protesters had gathered outside the Coast Guard base, holding signs with slogans such as “No ICE or Troops in the Bay!”.
But just hours later, the president said he would not move forward with a “surge” of federal forces in the area after speaking with the mayor, Daniel Lurie, and Silicon Valley leaders including Marc Benioff, the Salesforce CEO who recently apologized for saying Trump should send national guard troops, and Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia.
Lurie said he spoke with the president on Wednesday night, and that Trump told him he would call off the deployment.
“In that conversation, the president told me clearly that he was calling off any plans for a federal deployment in San Francisco. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, reaffirmed that direction in our conversation this morning,” Lurie said in a statement.
Trump confirmed the conversation on his Truth Social platform, saying: “I spoke to Mayor Lurie last night and he asked, very nicely, that I give him a chance to see if he can turn it around.”
Trump says all Canada trade talks ‘terminated’ over ad criticising tariffs
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I am Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with the news that president Donald Trump said on Thursday all trade talks with Canada were terminated following what he called a fraudulent advertisement from Canada in which former and late US president Ronald Reagan spoke negatively about tariffs.
“Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
The Thursday night post on Trump’s social media site came after Canadian prime minister Mark Carney said he aims to double his country’s exports to countries outside the US because of the threat posed by Trump’s tariffs.
Trump posted: “The Ronald Reagan Foundation has just announced that Canada has fraudulently used an advertisement, which is fake, featuring Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about tariffs.”
The president wrote: “They only did this to interfere with the decision of the US supreme court, and other courts”. He added: “Tariffs are very important to the national security, and economy, of the USA. Based on their egregious behaviour, all trade negotiations with Canada are hereby terminated.”
Carney’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday night. The prime minister was set to leave on Friday morning for a summit in Asia, while Trump is set to do the same on Friday evening.
Earlier on Thursday, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation + Institute posted on X that the ad created by the government of Ontario “misrepresents the ‘Presidential Radio Address to the Nation on Free and Fair Trade’ dated April 25, 1987.” It added that Ontario did not receive foundation permission “to use and edit the remarks”.
The foundation said it is “reviewing legal options in this matter” and invited the public to watch the unedited video of Reagan’s address.
Read our full story here:
In other developments:
The federal government remains shut down.
Donald Trump canceled plans for a federal deployment to San Francisco at the request of two billionaire supporters, but he reiterated threats to Chicago.
Trump said that he does not plan to ask Congress to declare war on Venezuela, ahead of possible strikes targeting suspected drug cartels as “we’re just gonna kill people”.
Trump said an unnamed “friend” had just sent him “a check for $130m” to be used to pay military salaries during the government shutdown.
A federal judge in Texas on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Republican congressman who argued that California’s redistricting proposal would cause him personal injury and should be blocked.
Trump claimed his militarized war on drugs was a huge improvement over the Biden administration’s effort, but a government database shows drug seizures are down from 2022.
The White House has revealed that major companies in the tech, defense and crypto industries are helping Trump fund his $300m ballroom at the White House, where work is under way to demolish the entire East Wing.
Top House Democrats have accused Donald Trump of orchestrating an illegal scheme to pay himself $230m in taxpayer money, demanding he immediately abandon claims they say violate the constitution.
