Closing summary
This brings our live coverage of US politics during the second Trump administration to a close, but just for the day. We will be back at it on Friday. Here are the latest developments:
Donald Trump plans to meet Vladimir Putin again, this time in Budapest, a four-hour drive from the border with Ukraine, where the Russian president’s forces continue to kill civilians and occupy territory.
Federal charges were filed against John Bolton, a former national security to Trump who became a fierce Trump critic, for allegedly retaining classified documents. Trump was indicted for the same crime in 2023 before being gifted a get-out-of-jail-free card by federal judges he nominated.
Trump was one of the central focuses throughout much of the first 40 minutes of tonight’s New York City mayoral debate.
Federal prosecutors charged two alleged members of an “antifa cell” in Texas with “providing material support to terrorists” in relation to the shooting of a police officer at immigration detention center outside Dallas of the Fourth of July.
Republican members of Congress have taken to social media in recent days to spread the claim that George Soros – the billionaire that the GOP have frequently cast as a liberal puppet master – is funding the ‘No Kings’ protests that are taking place across the country.
Amid escalating tensions with Venezuela, and US military strikes on suspected drug smugglers in the Caribbean, the US admiral who commands military forces in Latin America will step down at the end of this year, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth announced on social media.
A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected the Trump administration’s request to lift a lower court’s order that temporarily blocks the deployment of national guard troops in Illinois during its appeal.
Federal terrorism charges filed against alleged members of 'antifa cell' in Texas shooting
Federal prosecutors charged two alleged members of an “antifa cell” in Texas with “providing material support to terrorists” in relation to the shooting of a police officer at an immigration detention center outside Dallas on the Fourth of July.
According to the indictment, the two men are accused of taking part in an attack on the Prairieland detention center in Alvarado, Texas, which began with a group of about 11 black-clad suspects shooting fireworks at the facility.
The fireworks caused detention center workers to call the police and when local police officers arrived, someone in a mask in the woods nearby opened fire, shooting one officer in the neck.
After the incident, 10 people were arrested who are now accused of being part of an anti-fascist terror cell by federal prosecutors.
The FBI director, Kash Patel, posted on social media that this was the “First time ever” that terrorism charges were brought against “Antifa-aligned anarchist violent extremists” for the detention center.
The indictment accuses two men, Cameron Arnold and Zachary Evetts, of multiple accounts of attempted murder and discharging a firearm, and a single count of providing material support to terrorists. Neither man is accused of actually firing the shot that hit the officer, however. According to the government, it was an unnamed “co-conspirator-1” who shot the officer.
Although the former FBI director Christopher Wray told Congress in 2020 that “antifa” is “more of an ideology or a movement than an organization”, the indictment calls the leftwing movement a “militant enterprise made up of networks of individuals and small groups, primarily ascribing to a revolutionary anarchist or autonomous Marxist ideology”.
One of the people arrested after the shooting, Meagan Morris, told KERA, a public radio station in Texas, that she was only at the facility to show her support for people detained in immigration raids.
“The original intent was just to show solidarity with the detainees who hopefully lift their spirits with a fun fireworks display and go home,” she said. “If the officer got shot by someone, that person was acting alone. But they want to punish all of us.”
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In an effort to end the New York City mayoral debate with some levity, candidates were asked two questions.
One pertained to their bodega breakfast sandwich orders and another on legalized marijuana.
Sliwa said his order was eggs and cheese on a roll with no salt, which Cuomo echoed, while Mamdani said his was an egg and cheese on a roll with jalapeños.
On marijuana, Mamdani was the sole candidate to admit to purchasing marijuana in a legal shop in New York. Cuomo said he never had, while Sliwa said that he had in fact used medical marijuana after being shot at in 1992.
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The second hour of tonight’s mayoral debate touched on a wide array of the many issues plaguing New York City residents.
On mass transit, Zohran Mamdani described his plans for “fast and free” buses while Andrew Cuomo pushed back to say that such a program would be subsidized by wealthy bus riders and effectively become mobile homeless shelters.
On taxes, Curtis Silwa noted that some of the largest property owners in the city, including Columbia University and New York University, are exempt from paying taxes on their properties because they are nonprofit universities. His proposal includes having those universities pay taxes and eliminating a tax break for Madison Square Garden, which he claims would send $1bn back into the city.
Mamdani stood out as the only one of the three candidates who could adequately identify what regular New Yorkers are actually concerned about. On 311, the city’s non-emergency number, the three men were asked what was the most common complaint. Sliwa said potholes and rats, Cuomo said homelessness and rats and Mamdani said housing and noise. After noise and illegal parking were revealed as the two correct answers, Mamdani pointed out that noise complaints have dropped in the congestion pricing zone and used the moment as an opportunity to mention his free bus plan again.
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After addressing Trump and the war in Gaza, among other topics, New York City-specific issues finally made their way to the forefront of the mayoral debate nearly halfway through.
Candidates were asked about the NYPD, grocery costs, rent prices and how they travel within their home town.
Zohran Mamdani clarified that despite his previous calls for defunding the police, he no longer believed that should happen. He then touted his public safety plan, saying he would work to ensure that police don’t have to respond to mental health crises. Andrew Cuomo lauded the NYPD and declared that they are not racists or anti-queer and not a threat to public safety.
Curtis Sliwa pushed back on Cuomo’s remarks, alleging the former governor was responsible for the release from prison of 43 people convicted of killing police officers. (The claim appears to be a reference to reports that the state parole board in the last eight years had released 43 “cop killers”.)
On grocery costs, all three candidates claimed they spent between $120 and $175 a week.
The conversation then took a hard pivot to rent prices. Cuomo attacked Mamdani for living in a $2300/month rent-stabilized apartment, saying it should be given to a person with lower income. (Notably, rent-stabilized apartments in New York City usually have no income-requirements to inhabit; they are regulated to limit rent increases.)
Mamdani then volunteered his housing plan which includes a proposal to freeze rent for millions of rent-stabilized city residents, building more units and making it easier for the private sector to build housing. Sliwa said he wants to expand rent stabilization while Cuomo discussed his controversial proposal called “Zohran’s law,” which would make it so that many renters would have to spend at least 30% of their income on rent.
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New York City mayoral candidates discuss Trump
Donald Trump was one of the central focuses throughout much of the first 40 minutes of tonight’s New York City mayoral debate.
In response to the first question, which was for candidates to provide a headline on their legacy as mayor, Zohran Mamdani supplied: “Mamdani continues to take on Trump, delivers on affordability.”
Mamdani later criticized Trump’s deportation efforts, but aligned with Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa on saying he would work with Trump if elected.
The trio also agreed that they would each defend New York should Trump threaten the city. Asked about Trump potentially deploying the national guard to New York, there was mutual agreement that Trump should not do so.
Cuomo argued that he was the only candidate who could handle Trump, prompting Sliwa to say: “You think you’re the toughest guy alive. You lost your own primary.”
Sliwa continued: “You’re gonna stand up to Trump? You, Andrew Cuomo? You lost your own primary and you’re still here because you don’t know the meaning of the word ‘no’.”
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Texas governor says he is activating national guard for 'No Kings' protests
The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, said Thursday he had directed the Texas National Guard to “deploy all necessary law enforcement officials and resources” to Austin for “No Kings” anti-Trump protests planned for this weekend.
The Republican governor, a staunch ally of the president, said state troopers, special agents, Texas Rangers and national guard soldiers would be “surged” to the Austin area to “maintain law and order”.
The governor’s office called the protest a “planned antifa-linked demonstration”, without providing specific evidence of those links. “Antifa” refers to a decentralized antifascist movement, and while there is no formal “antifa” entity, Trump has labeled it a “domestic terrorist organization”.
New York City mayoral debate begins with Mamdani and Cuomo sparring
The first of the New York City mayoral debates has kicked off with Andrew Cuomo, Zohran Mamdani and Curtis Sliwa taking their respective podiums.
Sparring between Cuomo and Mamdani, the race’s two frontrunners, took off mere minutes after introductions. Cuomo was quickly questioned and criticized about his various controversies, and his character, while Mamdani was lambasted about his lack of experience.
In reference to the several credible reports that he sexually harassed various women, Cuomo claimed “there was no basis” for the reports. He immediately shifted gears by taking aim at Mamdani, saying: “If you look at the failed mayors, they are ones who have no management experience. Don’t do it again.”
Mamdani went on to accuse Cuomo of sending elderly people “to their deathbeds” during his tenure as New York governor during the Covid pandemic.
“Why would New Yorkers turn back to the governor who sent seniors to their death in nursing homes? What I don’t have in experience, I make up for an integrity. And what you don’t have in integrity, you can never make up for in experience,” Mamdani said to Cuomo.
John Bolton: 'I have become the latest target'
John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, who was federally indicted on Thursday, has issued a statement, saying he had become the “latest target” in the president’s weaponization of the Department of Justice.
Bolton, who was charged with mishandling and transmitting classified information, said:
For four decades, I have devoted my life to America’s foreign policy and national security. I would never compromise those goals. I tried to do that during my tenure in the first Trump administration but resigned when it became impossible to do so.
Donald Trump’s retribution against me began then, continued when he tried unsuccessfully to block the publication of my book, The Room Where It Happened, before the 2020 election, and became one of his rallying cries in his re-election campaign.
Now, I have become the latest target in weaponizing the Justice Department to charge those he deems to be his enemies with charges that were declined before or distort the facts.
The statement, published by CNN, went on to accuse Trump of an “abuse of power”, saying the president embodied “what Joseph Stalin’s head of secret police once said: ‘You show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime.’”
Trump told reporters on Thursday he was not aware of the charges, but claimed Bolton was a “bad guy”.
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Judge orders immigration agents to wear body cameras in Chicago
Federal immigration officers in the Chicago area have been ordered by a court to wear body cameras after they repeatedly deployed pepper balls, smoke grenades and tear gas against protesters and local police, seemingly in violation of a federal judge’s ruling from last week.
Sara Ellis, a US district judge, who had previously required immigration agents to wear badges and banned them from using riot-control techniques such as tear gas without warning, railed on Thursday against the Department of Homeland Security’s continued aggressive tactics, many of which have been caught on camera, and which appear to violate her order.
Ellis said:
I live in Chicago if folks haven’t noticed. And I’m not blind, right? … I’m getting images and seeing images on the news, in the paper, reading reports where I’m having concerns about my order being followed.”
Trump blames failure to broker peace in Ukraine on 'terrible relationship' between Zelenskyy and Putin
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Thursday, Donald Trump once again shared his belief that international diplomacy is based on personal relationships.
“I’ll be meeting with President Putin,” Trump said of planned talks with the Russian leader in Budapest agreed during a call on Thursday. “Tomorrow I’m meeting with President Zelenskyy and I’ll be telling him about the call.”
“I mean, we have a problem: they don’t get along too well, those two, and it’s sometimes tough to have meetings, so we may do something where we’re separate, but separate but equal,” the president said.
“But this is a terrible relationship the two of them have,” Trump said, referring to the president of one country that launched an unprovoked invasion of its neighbor and the president of the country that was invaded, whose citizens have been massacred and territory occupied.
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Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the Democratic minority in the House, has written to the Republican House speaker Mike Johnson to insist that he swear in Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat whose signature on a petition would force a vote on releasing files from the federal investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender who socialized with Donald Trump for over a decade.
Jeffries wrote, in part:
I write to demand that you swear in Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva at the pro forma session scheduled to take place on Friday, October 17.
Her election has been officially certified by the state of Arizona. In fact, it was never in question. Yet, for more than three weeks House Republicans have denied the people of Arizona’s seventh district their rightful representation in Congress. The continued refusal to seat Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva for partisan advantage undermines the integrity of this institution.
In April, Republican representatives Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine were sworn in during a pro forma session less than 24 hours after their election. The decision to seat rightwing Republicans with record speed, while denying a newly elected Democrat the opportunity to serve, is an unacceptable disgrace.
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Republican lawmakers and allies spread claims that Soros is funding 'No Kings' protests
Republican members of Congress have taken to social media in recent days to spread the claim that George Soros – the billionaire that the GOP have frequently cast as a liberal puppet master – is funding the ‘No Kings’ protests that are taking place across the country.
“There’s considerable evidence that George Soros and his network are funding the “No Kings” rallies,” Republican senator Ted Cruz, of Texas, wrote on X.
Open Society Foundations, which is Soros’s philanthropic network, has previously donated to Indivisible – one of the progressive organizations behind this weekend’s protests.
Cruz’s colleague in the Senate, Mike Lee, also wrote on social media that “No Kings = King George Soros”.
Organizers say there are an estimated 2,500 demonstrations taking place throughout the US. They also say that this is a “people power funded movement”.
Republican lawmakers have sought to rebrand the mass protests this weekend as a “hate America rally” that will probably turn violent. Those coordinating the demonstrations say that they expect them to entirely peaceful.
Meanwhile, members of Trump’s own cabinet have suggested that politicians on the other side of the aisle have purposefully prolonged the government shutdown attend demonstrations.
“Are Democrats holding our government hostage to hold a ‘No Kings’ protest this weekend? Who is funding it? And which Democrats will participate? These are all questions the American people deserve to have answered,” said transportation secretary Sean Duffy.
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Appeals court declines to lift order blocking Trump from deploying national guard troops in Illinois
A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected the Trump administration’s request to lift a lower court’s order that temporarily blocks the deployment of national guard troops in Illinois during its appeal.
The ruling allows a temporary restraining order against the deployment issued by US district judge April Perry in Chicago last week to remain in place.
A three-judge panel of the Chicago-based seventh US circuit court of appeals, made up of judges nominated by George HW Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, concluded that that “the facts do not justify the president’s actions”.
Trump had asserted the power to deploy national guard troops in Illinois after claiming federal immigration enforcement officer had faced violent protests as they attempted to arrest people.
“Immigration arrests and deportations have proceeded apace in Illinois over the past year, and the administration has been proclaiming the success of its current efforts to enforce immigration laws in the Chicago area,” the court said.
The court said there had likely been a violation of Illinois’ constitutional right to sovereignty, made worse by the fact that Texas national guard troops were sent into the state.
The court did pause a portion of Perry’s order that had barred the federalization of Illinois national guard troops, allowing the troops to remain under federal control.
One of the judges on the panel, Ilana Diamond Rovner, 87, previously ruled against Trump’s effort, during his first term to crack down on sanctuary cities. In 2018, Rovner upheld a nationwide injunction against making federal funding contingent on cooperation with immigration enforcement.
Rovner herself arrived in the United States as a refugee during the second world war, when her Jewish family fled Riga in Latvia before the Nazi invasion.
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The Trump administration announced Thursday that it is urging US employers to create new fertility benefit options to cover in vitro fertilization and other infertility treatments.
In an announcement from the Oval Office, Donald Trump also said his administration had cut a deal with the drug manufacturer EMD Serono to lower the cost of one of its fertility drugs and list the drug on the government website TrumpRx.
Bolton charged with retaining classified information, the crime Trump was indicted for
The justice department says that Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, John Bolton, has been charged with 10 counts of unlawful retention of national defense information and eight counts of transmission of that information.
The indictment alleges that Bolton used personal email and messaging app accounts to send documents classified as high as top secret.
The documents contained intelligence about what the government terms “future attacks, foreign adversaries, and foreign-policy relations”.
The indictment also alleges that Bolton, like Trump after he left office in 2021, kept secret documents in his home. The documents Bolton kept included “intelligence on an adversary’s leaders as well as information revealing sources and collections used to obtain statements on a foreign adversary”, the government alleges.
“Anyone who abuses a position of power and jeopardizes our national security will be held accountable,” Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, said. “No one is above the law.”
When Donald Trump was indicted for the same crime by special counsel Jack Smith in 2023, in an indictment that cited evidence that Trump showed a ghostwriter working for his former chief of staff Mark Meadows “a four-page report” detailing US plans for striking Iran.
According to audio of the conversation obtained by CNN, Trump even acknowledged that the document he showed the writer was “highly confidential, secret information” he could not make public because it was “still a secret”.
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John Bolton indicted on charges of mishandling and transmitting classified information
A federal grand jury has indicted John Bolton, the former national security adviser in Donald Trump’s first term, on charges of mishandling and transmitting classified information.
The indictment, filed in Maryland, appears to ultimately have had signoff from career prosecutors in the US attorney’s office there despite initial reluctance to bring a case before the end of the year.
The 18-count indictment against Bolton involves eight counts of unlawfully transmitting national defense information and 10 counts of retaining classified information under the Espionage Act, according to the 26-page indictment.
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John Bolton, Trump ally turned critic, reportedly indicted in Maryland
John Bolton, who served as Donald Trump’s national security advisor during his first term, but turned into a fierce Trump critic, has reportedly been indicted on federal charges by a grand jury in Maryland, officials tell MSNBC and CNN.
At the White House a reporter asked Trump for his reaction to the news that Bolton was just indicted by a grand jury in Maryland.
The president said: “I didn’t know that. You’re telling me for the first time, but I think he’s a bad person. I think he’s a bad guy.”
“That’s the way it goes, right? That’s the way it goes,” said the president who vowed retribution on his political enemies while campaigning to be restored to office last year.
Bolton becomes the third Trump critic to be indicted by his justice department in the past month, along with James Comey, the former FBI director, and Letitia James, the New York attorney general.
Bolton has reportedly been under investigation for retaining classified information after leaving office, and showing it to associates.
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The United States is “on a trajectory” toward authoritarian rule, according to a stark new intelligence-style assessment by former US intelligence and national security officials, who warn that democratic backsliding is accelerating under the Trump administration – and may soon become entrenched without organized resistance.
The report, titled Accelerating Authoritarian Dynamics: Assessment of Democratic Decline, was released on Thursday by the Steady State, a network of more than 340 former officers of the CIA, NSA, state department, and other national-security agencies.
“These are people who have seen these indicators develop in countries that shifted dramatically away from democracy towards authoritarianism,” Larry Pfeiffer, a former senior intelligence official who spent two decades at the NSA, told reporters on Thursday. “And we’re seeing those things happening in our country today.”
The analysts conclude with “moderate to high confidence” that the US is moving toward what scholars call “competitive authoritarianism”, a system in which elections and courts continue to function, but are “systematically manipulated” to consolidate executive power and weaken checks and balances. According to the assessment, these trends are increasingly visible in the US, as part of a broader effort by Donald Trump in his second term to “ensure loyalty and ideological conformity” across the federal government.
US admiral leading forces in Latin America to retire early, Hegseth says
Amid escalating tensions with Venezuela, and US military strikes on suspected drug smugglers in the Caribbean, the US admiral who commands military forces in Latin America will step down at the end of this year, the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth announced on social media.
The admiral, Alvin Holsey, just took over the US military’s Southern Command late last year for a position that normally lasts three years.
A source told Reuters that there had been tension between him and Hegseth and questions about whether he would be fired in the days leading up to the announcement.
The New York Times reports that an unnamed US official said that Holsey “had raised concerns about the mission and the attacks on the alleged drug boats.”
Hegseth, in his social media post, did not disclose the reason for Holsey’s plan “to retire at year’s end.”
Hegseth’s post noted that Holsey began his career “through the NROTC program at Morehouse College in 1988.” Morehouse is a private, historically black college in Atlanta.
In February, Donald Trump abruptly fired the air force general CQ Brown Jr as chair of the joint chiefs of staff, sidelining a history-making Black fighter pilot and respected officer as part of a campaign to purge the military of leaders who support diversity and equity in the ranks.
In 2021, Holsey recorded a public service announcement urging Black Americans to take the covid-19 vaccine.
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Trump on his social media site said he’s “outraged” by a vote planned on Friday by the International Maritime Organization to impose a global fee on the carbon emissions produced by container ships.
“The United States will NOT stand for this Global Green New Scam Tax on Shipping, and will not adhere to it in any way, shape, or form,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
He added: “We will not tolerate increased prices on American Consumers OR, the creation of a Green New Scam Bureaucracy to spend YOUR money on their Green dreams. Stand with the United States, and vote NO in London tomorrow!”
The US Chamber of Commerce is suing the Trump administration over the $100,000 fee imposed on H-1B visa petitions.
The country’s biggest business lobbying group argues that the new fee is unlawful because it overrides provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act that govern the H-1B program, including the requirement that fees be based on the costs incurred by the government in processing visas.
Neil Bradley, the Chamber’s chief policy officer, said in a statement:
“The new $100,000 visa fee will make it cost-prohibitive for US employers, especially start-ups and small and midsize businesses, to utilize the H-1B program, which was created by Congress expressly to ensure that American businesses of all sizes can access the global talent they need to grow their operations here in the U.S.”
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University of Pennsylvania rejects White House funding compact
The University of Pennsylvania has become the latest educational institution to reject the White House’s proposed preferential funding compact, according to an email to the University community.
“Earlier today, I informed the US Department of Education that Penn respectfully declines to sign the proposed Compact,” President J Larry Jameson wrote in a message to the Penn community Thursday, adding that his university did provide feedback to the department on the proposal.
The “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” is a proposed agreement from the Trump administration that would impose restrictions on diversity, equity and inclusion programs and limits on international student enrolment.
Penn’s refusal makes it the third of the nine institutions that had initially been offered the deal to publicly turn it down. No institution has agreed to sign the compact so far.
Brown University announced it had rejected the offer Wednesday, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) did the same last Friday. After MIT’s rejection, the Trump administration said the compact was open to all colleges and universities that want to sign it.
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Democrats block defense spending bill as shutdown tensions rise and bipartisan trust deteriorates
Senate Democrats blocked debate on a defense appropriations bill on the floor earlier this afternoon, which was seen as a test for whether regular individual bipartisan funding bills can gain any traction despite the shutdown, now dragging into its third week.
The bill, which passed out of committee with strong bipartisan support earlier this year, needed 60 votes to advance, but the final vote was 50 to 44. Several Democrats including Jeanne Shaheen voted to advance the bill.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer objected to considering the bill without also voting on the annual labor, health and human services appropriations bill.
“Right now, the only thing that is on the floor is just the defense bill. [John] Thune needs unanimous consent to add anything else to it. We don’t even know if he’ll get that,” Schumer told reporters earlier ahead of the vote.
It’s always been unacceptable to Democrats to do the defense bill without other bills that have so many things that are important to the American people, in terms of healthcare, in terms of housing, in terms of safety.
Senate majority leader John Thune expressed frustration that they couldn’t take that first step and said the optics were bad for the Democrats.
If they want to stop the defense bill, I don’t think it’s very good optics for them. Particularly since this is just getting on it, and they would have multiple opportunities after this to block it if they want to.
“I believe it is critical that the Senate and Congress return to a bipartisan appropriations approach and try to begin rebuilding trust,” Shaheen said in a statement after voting. “This vote would allow us to consider Senate appropriations bills which were passed out of committee with overwhelming bipartisan support.”
The other Democratic senators who voted with Republicans were Catherine Cortez Masto and John Fetterman. Majority leader John Thune changed his vote to “no” so that procedurally he can bring the bill up for consideration again.
Cortez Masto and Fetterman have previously voted for the GOP’s House-passed bill to reopen the government while Shaheen has been at the heart of talks with GOP colleagues about finding a way to end the shutdown.
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Kremlin says Putin told Trump supplying Tomahawks to Ukraine would harm peace chances and US-Russia ties
Vladimir Putin told Donald Trump in their phone call today that supplying US Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine would harm the peace process and damage US-Russia ties, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
As I said earlier, this comes a day before Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s meeting with Trump at the White House tomorrow in which he is set to push for more US military support, including the crucial long-range offensive missiles.
Ushakov said the planned new summit between the two presidents will be preceded by a phone call between US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in the coming days.
The Putin-Trump call took place at Russia’s initiative, Ushakov added.
Trump warns Hamas not to kill people in Gaza or 'we will have no choice but to go in and kill them'
In a post on Truth Social, Donald Trump has just said:
If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the Deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them.
It comes after Hamas fighters have been captured on video in recent days ramping up their presence and reasserting the group’s authority by executing members of rival groups on the streets of Gaza.
This is Trump’s clearest indication on the matter yet, after giving mixed messages in recent days, initially saying the violence “didn’t bother me much” as Hamas was clearing up “gangs”. Yesterday he appeared to concede that it could be “gangs plus” when asked if there was a possibility that Hamas was killing innocent civilians.
“They will disarm, and if they don’t do so, we will disarm them, and it’ll happen quickly and perhaps violently,” Trump also said yesterday, though, as with the statement today, he hasn’t specified how he would follow through on his threat.
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A reminder that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is heading to the White House tomorrow to push for more US military support, including potential long-range offensive missiles. He will no doubt be nervous by Trump’s positive tone following his call with Putin.
Trump has said he could supply the long-range weapons to Ukraine if Putin fails to come to the negotiating table. In its latest barrage, Russia launched more than 300 drones and 37 missiles to target infrastructure across Ukraine in overnight attacks, Zelenskyy said. Kyiv has ramped up its own attacks on Russian targets, including an oil refinery in the Saratov region today.
Russia has been hitting Ukraine’s energy and power facilities for consecutive winters as the war drags into its fourth year.
In the latest warnings to Russia, Trump said yesterday that Indian PM Narendra Modi had pledged to stop buying oil from Russia, and that the administration would push China to do the same. India has not confirmed any such commitment, though Reuters reported some Indian refiners are preparing to cut Russian oil imports, with expectations of a gradual reduction.
US defense secretary Pete Hegseth said yesterday that Washington would “impose costs on Russia for its continued aggression” unless the war ends.
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The last time Trump and Putin met in person was in Alaska in August, which failed to produce a peace agreement but as my colleague Justin McCurry wrote at the time was “a PR victory for Putin”.
Trump not only allowed Putin to speak to reporters first and gave the Russian president – who is wanted by the international criminal court for alleged war crimes – a ride in his presidential limousine “the Beast”, he came away from the summit repeating key Moscow talking points including Putin’s maximalist position that a ceasefire must be preceded by a comprehensive peace agreement that addresses the so-called “root causes” of the war. Trump – romanced by Putin’s talk of stolen elections and mail-in voting - alarmingly came away talking about “land-swapping”, where Ukraine would have to cede its land occupied by Russia including parts of the Donbas region.
You will remember that it was all so alarming that Volodymyr Zelenskyy flanked by European leaders rallying behind Ukraine flew swiftly to Washington to remind Trump that Putin was the aggressor and that Kyiv should not have to give up any territory.
With that in mind, we will no doubt learn more of Trump’s current position tomorrow when he meets with Zelenskyy.
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Trump says he will meet Putin again in Budapest after 'productive' call
Donald Trump has said that his call with Vladimir Putin – which lasted more than two hours – was “good and productive” and that they agreed to convene a meeting of high-level staff, including secretary of state Marco Rubio, next week in an undetermined location.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he and Putin would then also meet again in Budapest “to see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end”. Trump said he would be discussing the call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House tomorrow, but he believed “great progress was made” today.
Trump also said he believed “the Success in the Middle East will help in our negotiation in attaining an end to the War with Russia/Ukraine”. He said Putin thanked Melania Trump “for her involvement with children … and said that this will continue” and that the two leaders had also discussed trade between Russia and the US for when the war is over.
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Trump set to announce plan to make IVF more accessible – report
Donald Trump plans to announce a policy proposal this afternoon to make IVF more accessible, the New York Times is reporting, citing several administration officials.
A White House official familiar with the matter told the NYT that the administration “will issue guidance on what it is calling an employer benefit option to encourage employers to offer IVF and broader infertility coverage directly to workers, in the same way they would with vision or dental coverage”.
The NYT’s report adds: “It is unclear whether the new guidance will substantively affect how many employers will choose to offer such benefits. IVF typically costs $15,000 to $20,000 for a single cycle. The White House will not be providing any subsidies for employers that offer the coverage, and there will be no mandate that they participate.”
IVF is an issue that Trump repeatedly promised to address on the campaign trail but one that also highlights tensions within his support base. The NYT notes that today’s announcement follows months of deliberations in the Trump administration and meetings with leading proponents of IVF as well as Christian conservatives, who have moral and ethical concerns with the procedure.
Trump issued an executive order soon after taking office promising to lower costs and make the procedure more accessible, but no specifics were given and a report promised by May hasn’t materialised.
We’ll bring you more detail on the announcement as we get it later today.
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Senator Mitch McConnell, 83, had a fall this morning on the way to vote in the Senate.
A video shows volunteers from the Sunrise Movement asking the Kentucky Republican questions about Ice and deportations when he fell to the ground. He can be seen reaching for his security detail’s arm as he falls and the two men quickly help him back to his feet. McConnell then turns back to wave and smile before walking off holding on to his detail’s arms.
McConnell, who has fallen several times in the last year, is set to retire in January 2027.
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Schumer says Thune hasn't offered him any proposal to end the shutdown
On that subject, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer also just told reporters this morning that majority leader John Thune hasn’t offered him a proposal that would end the government shutdown.
“Leader Thune has not come to me with any proposal at this point,” Schumer told reporters during a press conference with House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, contradicting House speaker Mike Johnson’s earlier claim that Thune “offered to Chuck Schumer a vote on Obamacare subsidies, and Schumer said no”.
Johnson had also said that Schumer wanted “a guaranteed outcome”, which is in line with Jeffries’ sentiments in my last post. Thune had earlier said he could guarantee a vote but not that it would pass.
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Jeffries says GOP 'can't be trusted on a wing and a prayer' and ACA commitments must be 'ironclad' to end shutdown
Earlier this morning, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said Senate majority leader John Thune’s offer of a vote on extending Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies wasn’t firm enough to move Democrats to end the government shutdown.
Thune has said he is willing to guarantee a vote on extending the ObamaCare subsidies extensions, though he said reforms to the program were needed and he couldn’t assure the outcome of the vote.
“I can’t guarantee it’s going to pass. I can guarantee you that there will be a process and you will get a vote,” he had told MSNBC earlier.
Jeffries later told MSNBC’s Morning Joe that he hadn’t confirmed that Thune had an “actual offer” and that GOP leaders “can’t be trusted on a wing and a prayer”.
“We need a real path forward to address the crisis that Republicans have visited upon the American people in terms of healthcare, the cost of living and affordability,” he said, pointing to a pattern of Republicans attempting to repeal ACA subsidies “more than 70 different times since 2010”.
GOP commitments to extending ACA subsidies must be “ironclad”, Jeffries added.
“We need this corrected for the American people,” he said, as opposed to holding “some vote without an assured outcome”. He added:
For so many people, their healthcare is running toward a cliff, and if we don’t fix this, it’s going to go right over it.
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Prosecutors expected to ask grand jury to indict Trump critic John Bolton
Federal prosecutors are expected to ask a grand jury on Thursday afternoon to indict John Bolton, the former national security adviser in Donald Trump’s first term, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Details of what prosecutors in the US attorney’s office in Maryland will seek remains unknown, but previous case activity, including the search warrant for Bolton’s home, has pointed at charges related to mishandling classified information.
Bolton’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, has said the former national security adviser did nothing inappropriate with classified records.
The potential indictment against Bolton comes at a particularly fraught moment for the justice department, which has been rocked by extraordinary pressure from Trump to expand a vendetta campaign to pursue criminal cases against his political enemies.
Trump says he's speaking with Putin, will disclose details of the call
Donald Trump has said he’s currently speaking with Russian president Vladimir Putin on the phone.
“The conversation is ongoing, a lengthy one, and I will report the contents, as will President Putin, at its conclusion,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Ahead of the demonstrations across the country this weekend, dubbed ‘No Kings’ in protest of the Trump administration, leaders of the movement are addressing questions from the press.
Organizers estimate there will be more than 2,500 local demonstrations throughout the US. “We do not expect there to be any need for the National Guard to be deployed, but if the Trump administration attempts to do that as a way to intimidate peaceful protests, we are prepared for that,” they added.
Leaders of the coalition also said that they don’t anticipate anything other than a peaceful protest, and don’t currently have any information that would suggest any outside agitator groups are planning to disrupt the coordinated demonstrations.
Senate fails to pass funding bill to reopen government for 10th time
The Senate has rejected a House-passed funding bill that would reopen the federal government, which has been shutdown for 16 days.
In a 51-45 vote, this is the tenth time that the continuing resolution has failed to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to clear the upper chamber.
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A reminder that my colleagues are covering the latest developments out of the Middle East, as Israel and Hamas continue to carry out various aspects of the US brokered ceasefire deal.
This includes the news today that Israel returned the bodies of 30 Palestinians to Gaza, bringing the total number handed over to 120, according the Gaza health ministry and Nasser hospital in Khan Younis.
Under a ceasefire deal brokered by US president Donald Trump, Israel was to turn over the bodies of 15 Palestinians for every deceased Israeli returned.
Johnson says Schumer declined a vote on Obamacare subsidies and says extension is not 'appropriate' to be part of stopgap funding bill
Mike Johnson said that he spoke with John Thune, the Senate’s top Republican, on Wednesday.
“He offered to Chuck Schumer a vote on Obamacare subsidies, and Schumer said no,” Johnson revealed, saying that Schumer wanted “a guaranteed outcome”.
More broadly, Johnson said the issue of extending Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits is a “very complicated issue”, and not something “that four people can go into a back room and guarantee an outcome on”.
He re-affirmed that adding the extension to a stopgap funding bill was not “appropriate”.
As has been the case in most of the recent press conferences that House Republicans have held during the government shutdown, Mike Johnson has become visibly more agitated throughout.
“I don’t like being mad Mike, I want to be happy Mike. I want to be the happy warrior,” he said before wrapping up questions from reporters.
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Johnson condemns Young Republicans group chat messages
The House speaker has condemned racist, sexist and homophobic messages from a Young Republicans group chat that were leaked this week.
“We roundly condemn any of that nonsense,” Johnson said, while underscoring that he didn’t know the members of the chat accused of sending the messages. “Somebody posted a photo of me standing next to these guys wearing tuxedos. Obviously, I think it was at the inauguration, and people are just coming up and asking for selfies … I’ve never heard of that person in my life.”
Johnson also said he couldn’t comment on the ongoing investigation into an image of American flag with a digitally altered swastika symbol seen in congressman Dave Taylor’s legislative office. The Republican lawmaker representing Ohio referred the matter to Capitol police and said that “the content of that image does not reflect the values or standards of this office, my staff, or myself, and I condemn it in the strongest terms” in a statement.
“Anybody in any party who espouses it, we’re opposing that,” Johnson said plainly today.
Mike Johnson said that Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic congresswoman from New York, said the “quiet part out loud” during a televised CNN town hall on Wednesday.
“They don’t know what they want to end the shutdown. They couldn’t provide a single viable solution for the mess that they themselves have gleefully created,” Johnson said.
However, both lawmakers were resolute in their demands during the event. Ocasio-Cortez said she would not accept a short-term extension of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies.
“What we will not accept is the doubling of these premiums. And what we will not accept is allowing the teetering of this system to collapse right before everyone’s eyes,” she added.
Ocasio-Cortez also rebuked any suggestion from Republicans that Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s top Democrat, was refusing to advance the House-passed funding bill for fear of a 2026 primary challenge from the New York congresswoman.
“They are saying this because they are refusing to do their job, they are grasping for straws, they’re trying to make this about political tabloids and political intrigue and horse races,” she said.
Johnson repeated the claim that Schumer is being manipulated by the progressive wing of his party. “It truly has become the far-left Marxist left that are running that whole operation,” he said.
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Johnson says Republicans have 'no idea' how shutdown ends and continues to blame Democrats
Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House, said that Democrats have offered no plan or strategy to end the government shutdown, which is now on day 16.
“Many of you have asked all of us: how will it end? We have no idea,” Johnson said. “It’s up to the Democrats, and they have to decide.”
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We’re due to hear from House Republicans at 10am ET, as the government shutdown enters its 16th day.
Earlier today, House speaker Mike Johnson continued to blame Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, for the continued lapse of funding.
“He’s hurting the American people – and he knows it’s wrong,” Johnson said.
Pennsylvania Democrats launch plans to oust Fetterman – report
Top Pennsylvania Democrats are plotting to run against Senator John Fetterman, according to an exclusive report by Axios.
According to the news outlet, some Democratic officials are openly contemplating running against Fetterman or “keeping the door open” to a Senate bid in the event he retires.
A reminder that Fetterman has broken ranks with the Democratic party on several occasions since winning his Senate seat in 2022. Most recently, he’s voted to advance the House-passed continuing resolution to keep the government funded, while the rest of the party has continued to reject the bill. “I follow country, then party,” Fetterman said earlier this week. “I can’t vote for shutting the government down.”
According to multiple political insiders that Axios spoke to in the Keystone state, Democrats who could run against Fetterman include House representatives Brendan Boyle and Chris Deluzio, as well as former congressman Conor Lamb.
Fetterman did not respond to Axios’s question about whether he would run for re-election to the Senate or president in 2028.
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Schumer criticizes Vance's comments over Young Republicans group chat leak
The Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, has criticized Vice-President JD Vance’s over his comments following the leak of young messages from various Young Republican group chats.
“The reality is that kids do stupid things, especially young boys,” Vance said in a new episode of the Charlie Kirk Show. “They tell edgy, offensive jokes. That’s what kids do.”
Schumer pushed back against the comments: “Leave it to @JDVance to preach about the dangers of violent political rhetoric only when it serves his interests, and then ignore or excuse it when it comes from his own side.”
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Donald Trump is at the White House today, per his official schedule.
He will receive his intelligence briefing at 11am ET, but we won’t hear from him until 3pm ET – when he’s set to make an announcement in the Oval Office.
We’ll bring you the latest as soon as we hear more.
Top Senate Republican says he can 'guarantee' vote on key healthcare provision as government shutdown enters day 16
Hello, and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Shrai Popat, and I’ll be bringing you the latest from Washington and beyond.
The Senate’s majority leader, Republican John Thune, said today that he has told congressional Democrats that he can “guarantee” a scheduled vote on extending Affordable Care Act (ACA) Subsidies.
“I can’t guarantee it’s going to pass. I can guarantee you that there will be a process and you will get a vote,” he said in an interview with MSNBC earlier.
For their part, Democrats have been resolute, without a negotiation on several healthcare provisions, they’re unwilling to advance a House-passed short-term funding measure that has stalled in the Senate nine times. That will be up for another (read: 10th) vote at 11am today.
Also on the table, Thune is planning to bring a full-year appropriations bill to fund the Pentagon through 2026 to the Senate floor today. “If we’re sitting around here voting every day and they keep voting to keep the government shut down, we need to be trying to move the needle on some of the other stuff that we need to get done,” Thune told the Hill in an interview on Wednesday.
To catch you up on other developments:
Americans say their monthly costs have risen by between $100 and $749, according to an exclusive new poll conducted for the Guardian. When asked to estimate how much their regular monthly household costs have increased from last year, 74% of those surveyed said they had seen increases of at least $100, according to the poll.
Vice-President JD Vance sought to downplay the revelation that leaders of a group called the Young Republicans exchanged hundreds of racist, sexist text messages. “The reality is that kids do stupid things, especially young boys,” Vance said in a new episode of the Charlie Kirk Show. “They tell edgy, offensive jokes. That’s what kids do.”
Donald Trump suggested on Wednesday that San Francisco could be the next city he targets with federal troops, threatening a deployment that local and state officials have said is unnecessary and unwelcome.
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