Closing summary
We are shutting down our live coverage of the second Trump administration, but just for the day. We will be open for business again on Friday morning. Here are the latest developments:
Donald Trump told the pro-Trump network One American News that he had watched video that does not exist of mass arson in Portland, Oregon. “The governor says, ‘Oh, Portland is just fine,’ and then you turn on the television, you see the place is burning down to the ground,” Trump claimed, wildly exaggerating the hurling of a firework or two over the course of the past four months.
The White House is in talks with CBS News program 60 Minutes about conducting an interview with Trump, Semafor reports.
As the government shutdown drags on, the White House continues to use its official, taxpayer-funded social media accounts to insult and mock Democrats, treating the standoff more like a political campaign than a negotiation over policy.
The government shutdown will likely go into next week, with Senate majority leader John Thune telling Politico that it is “unlikely” senators will be in the Capitol voting this weekend.
The Trump administration is considering giving at least $10bn in aid to US farmers, as the agriculture industry begins to grapple with an economic fallout due to Trump’s tariffs, the Wall Street Journal reports.
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Trump claims to have seen TV images which do not exist of Portland 'burning down to the ground'
In an interview broadcast on Thursday by the pro-Trump network One American News, and posted in full by the White House, Donald Trump claimed to have seen something that does not exist: recent video of mass arson in the city of Portland, Oregon.
“Where do these people come from?” Trump told OAN’s White House correspondent Daniel Baldwin. “The governor says, ‘Oh, Portland is just fine,’ and then you turn on the television, you see the place is burning down to the ground, and it has been for a long time,” Trump claimed.
Baldwin, who is known for asking questions so flattering to Trump that the president frequently exclaims “I like this guy” during news conferences, nodded along, but the fact is that there is no such video, for the the good reason that Portland is not, in fact, burning.
While fireworks have been hurled on occasion during small protests outside one Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Portland’s south waterfront neighborhood over the past three months, there has been no arson anywhere in the city, which has largely returned to normal five years after the pandemic and mass protests for racial justice.
During the 2020 protests, there were instances of dumpsters set on fire by protesters, and some flag burning, but the idea that Portland was ever close to ‘burning to the ground’ that year, or at any time since, is a fever dream promoted by the conservative media channels the president consumes religiously.
Rather than explain this reality to the president, Baldwin followed up by asking Trump if Democratic governors, like Tina Kotek of Oregon, were “afraid” to let the president deploy troops because he had proven “that their policies have directly led to decline”.
“They’re either bad people,” Trump replied, “or they’re stupid.”
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The White House is in talks with CBS News program 60 Minutes about conducting an interview with Donald Trump, Semafor reports, citing four people with knowledge of the discussions.
News of the possible interview comes amid reports that CBS-parent Paramount Skydance will soon announce its takeover of center-right online news outlet, The Free Press, and hire its co-founder, Bari Weiss, as editor-in-chief of CBS News.
As David Klion reported for the Guardian media desk last month, Weiss, a former opinion editor and writer for the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, first made her name as a pro-Israel student activist who campaigned against pro-Palestinian faculty at Columbia University.
Paramount in July agreed to pay $16m to settle a lawsuit filed by Trump over his claim that CBS deceptively edited a 60 Minutes interview with his Democratic presidential opponent Kamala Harris last year. Trump had declined to sit for an interview at the time.
As the unedited video of the interview provided by CBS to the FCC showed, the editing of the interview with Harris for broadcast was routine and seemed to bear out the case made by legal experts that CBS would likely have won in court had the company chosen to resist Trump’s demands rather than give in to them to clear the way for the sale of Paramount to Skydance.
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With belligerent, mocking social media posts, White House treats shutdown like a political campaign
As the government shutdown drags on, the White House continues to use its official, taxpayer-funded social media accounts to insult and mock Democrats, treating the standoff more like a political campaign than a good-faith negotiation over policy.
On Thursday, for instance, the official White House accounts on X and Instagram shared an updated version of the racist deepfake video of Democratic congressional leaders first posted by Donald Trump on Monday, which depicts the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, with a fake mustache and sombrero, and uses fabricated audio to make it seem as if the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, called Democrats “woke pieces of shit”. The only update was to make the sombrero bigger, making good on a threat to make the sombrero “10x bigger” every day the shutdown goes on.
The sombrero, and a backdrop of Mexican mariachi music, is intended to drive home the false claim that, as another post on the same government-run account put it, “THE DEMOCRATS WANT TO GIVE YOUR HEALTHCARE MONEY TO ILLEGAL ALIENS.”
In fact, while the Democrats are fighting to extend government subsidies for health insurance to Americans who rely on policies offered at discount rates through Affordable Care Act exchanges, they are not calling for healthcare to be provided to immigrants without legal status.
Tina Smith, a Minnesota Democratic senator, responded to that false claim from the White House account, by writing on X: “TYPING SOMETHING IN ALL CAPS STILL DOESN’T MAKE IT TRUE.”
Another official White House account, dedicated to campaign style “rapid response” and run by a former Trump campaign staffer named Jake Schneider, replied to Smith like this: “Are you unable to read, Tina, or just dumb? It’s in your bill. Publicly available. Hope this helps.”
The post was accompanied by screenshots of legislation proposed by Democrats in which the words “Alien Medicaid Eligibility” were highlighted in yellow.
However, by reading past that heading, the actual text of the Democratic proposal makes it clear that the non-citizen “aliens” the legislation refers to are not “illegal aliens” but either: lawful permanent residents, which is to say, green-card holders; Cuban or Haitian refugees with legal status; or someone who “lawfully resides in the United States” with other documentation.
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OpenAI asked a federal judge on Thursday to dismiss a lawsuit alleging it lured employees away from Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI to steal its trade secrets, calling the case part of Musk’s “ongoing harassment” of the company, Reuters reports.
OpenAI denied xAI’s allegations and said its claims were false and unsubstantiated.
“Under Musk’s leadership, talented xAI employees are leaving in droves, and some are coming to OpenAI to help advance OpenAI’s mission,” the filing said. “Those employees have every right to go where they choose, and OpenAI has the right to hire them.”
Spokespeople and an attorney for xAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the filings.
Senior officials inside Donald Trump’s administration have acknowledged the federal government shutdown, without an end in sight, could hurt the US economy. The damage could be worth billions of dollars each week, according to analysts.
“This isn’t the way to have a discussion, shutting down the government and lowering the GDP,” Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, told the CNBC financial news network. “We could see a hit to the GDP, a hit to growth and a hit to working America.”
A White House memo by the Council of Economic Advisers obtained by Politico suggested the economic hit could result in a $15bn loss in US gross domestic product every week the shutdown extends, with a monthlong shutdown resulting in an additional 43,000 unemployed workers.
White House officials already have a list of federal agencies they’re planning to target with firings, CNN reports. They might announce the firings as early as tomorrow, per CNN.
The White House has already compiled a list of agencies it’s planning on targeting with impending federal firings, which it’s expecting to announce as early as Friday, two WH officials tell me
— Alayna Treene (@alaynatreene) October 2, 2025
The administration is still ironing out some of the specifics, but the list was…
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Trump's goal for 2026, amid political violence: 'I want to survive'
When asked what role he might play in the 2026 midterm elections, Trump said he had “big plans”.
“I want to survive,” he said, again blaming Democrats for fomenting a rise in political violence that has hurt political leaders from both parties. “You look at what’s going on, it’s crazy. You know, the rhetoric that these crazy Democrats are using is very dangerous,” said Trump, who recently told the country’s top military brass that US troops should use “dangerous” American cities as “training grounds” in a fight against what he called the “enemy from within”.
The US president survived two assassination attempts and last month delivered a politically charged eulogy at the memorial of Charlie Kirk, a close political ally.
Trump has made several references to his own mortality of late. In August, Trump told Fox & Friends that his motivation for forging peace between Russia and Ukraine was a fear that he might not get into heaven when he dies.
During the interview with OAN, Trump bragged about having resolved numerous conflicts – seven, by his tally, a misleading and greatly embellished claim. “We put out seven wars,” Trump said. “Now it could be eight ... it looks like the Middle East could very well be solved after 3,000 years of conflict.”
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During his OAN interview, Trump fielded a series of soft-ball questions from the rightwing outlet that has long boosted the president and his agenda.
At the end of the interview, Daniel Baldwin, the reporter who heaped praise on the president and his accomplishments throughout, revealed that he was expecting his first child next year and asked Trump for some parenting advice.
“I always tell my kids. I always told them, no drugs, no alcohol, no cigarettes,” Trump said.
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In his OAN interview, which took place on Wednesday, Trump again said that the administration was planning to send troops to Memphis and Chicago, which he has been teasing for some time. Asked if he had a date for the Chicago deployment, Trump said: “Pretty soon.”
“We’ve been there for five months with the FBI, just getting it ready for what we’re going to be doing,” he said.
Chicago’s political leaders, including the mayor, and the governor of Illinois have implored the White House not to send troops into the Democratic-run city, arguing that military troops have no place on American streets.
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My colleage Lauren Gambino has another key line from the Donald Trump interview that aired today on One America News:
“A lot of people are saying Trump wanted this, that I wanted this closing, and I didn’t want it, but a lot of people are saying it because I’m allowed to cut things that should have never been approved in the first place, and I will probably do that,” Trump said.
Federal authorities refuse to release a Michigan man in a pending deportation case, despite his life-threatening leukemia and the inconsistent healthcare he’s received while in custody since August, his lawyer said Thursday, according to the Associated Press.
Jose Contreras-Cervantes, a 33-year-old married father of three who has been living in the US for about 20 years, without legal status, was arrested at a 5 August traffic stop in Macomb county, near Detroit. He had no criminal record beyond minor traffic offenses, said Miriam Aukerman, an ACLU lawyer.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan is now seeking a bond hearing for Contreras-Cervantes, which could allow him to return to his Detroit-area family and doctors while his case winds through immigration court. He’s currently being held at a detention center about three hours away.
Contreras-Cervantes was diagnosed last year with chronic myeloid leukemia, a life-threatening cancer of the bone marrow, said his wife, Lupita Contreras.
“The doctor said he has four to six years to live,” she said.
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Trump’s proposed “compact” with nine prestigious universities was offered to schools that were seen by Trump as “good actors”, May Mailman, a senior White House adviser told the Wall Street Journal yesterday, with a president or a board who were, in the Trump administration’s view, “reformer[s]” who have “really indicated they are committed to a higher-quality education.”
The “compact” requires universities to eliminate departments that are seen as hostile or dismissive to conservatives, limit the proportion of international students on campus, accept the Trump administration’s definition of gender, and restrict the political speech of employees.
Among the universities the Trump administration is wooing with promises of preferential federal funding in exchange for compliance with Trump’s values is the University of Southern California, a private research university with an $8.2 billion endowment.
And even putting academic freedom aside, some of Trump’s proposals would be economically challenging for the University of Southern California, the Los Angeles Times reported.
At USC, “26% of the fall 2025 freshman class is international,” the more than 50% of those students come from China or India, the Los Angeles Times reported. The Trump administration’s compact not only limits international student enrollment to 15% of students, but also requires that no more than 5% come from any one country.
“Full-fee tuition from international students is a major source of revenue at USC, which has undertaken hundreds of layoffs this year amid budget troubles,” the Los Angeles Times noted.
In threatening to cut state funding to any California university that cuts an ideological deal with Trump, California governor Gavin Newsom’s office called Trump’s proposed “compact” with nine leading American universities “nothing short of a hostile takeover of America’s universities.”
“It would impose strict government-mandated definitions of academic terms, erase diversity, and rip control away from campus leaders to install government-mandated conservative ideology in its place,” Newsom’s office said in a statement. “It even dictates how schools must spend their own endowments. Any institution that resists could be hit with crushing fines or stripped of federal research funding.”
Newsom: No state funding for CA universities who sign Trump's political pledge
Any California universities that sign the Trump administration’s proposed “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” will “instantly” lose their state funding, California governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement.
“If any California University signs this radical agreement, they’ll lose billions in state funding—including Cal Grants—instantly. California will not bankroll schools that sell out their students, professors, researchers, and surrender academic freedom,” Newsom said in a statement.
Trump offered nine prominent universities, including the University of Southern California, the chance to sign his “compact” yesterday, which asked that the universities close academic departments that “purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas,” limit the proportion of international undergraduate students to 15% , and ban the consideration of race or sex in hiring and admissions, in exchange for “substantial and meaningful federal grants”.
Newsom’s office said Trump’s offer to universities “ties access to federal funding to radical conservative ideological restrictions on colleges and universities.”
Trump promises firings, cuts to Democrats' 'favorite projects' if shutdown continues
Donald Trump on Thursday said firings of federal workers and cuts to projects could occur if a government shutdown that began Wednesday continues, Reuters reports.
“There could be firings, and that’s their fault,” Trump said of Democrats in Congress, when asked during an interview with OAN television network about a recent memo from the Office of Management and Budget that raised prospects of firings.
“We could cut projects that they wanted, favorite projects, and they’d be permanently cut,” he said, adding: “I am allowed to cut things that should have never been approved in the first place and I will probably do that.”
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Senate majority leader Thune says 'unlikely' shutdown will end this week
The government shutdown will likely go into next week, with Senate Majority Leader John Thune telling Politico that it is “unlikely” senators will be in the Capitol voting this weekend.
“They’ll have a fourth chance tomorrow to vote to open up the government, and if that fails, we’ll give them the weekend to think about it, and then we’ll come back and vote on Monday,” the Republican senator said.
Thune also reiterated he will not negotiate the Affordable Care Act tax credits, which has been the point of contention leading to the government shutdown.
Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer previously said that Republicans need to work with Democrats “to reach an agreement to reopen the government and lower healthcare costs.”
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The Trump administration is considering giving at least $10bn in aid to US farmers, as the agriculture industry begins to grapple with an economic fallout due to Trump’s tariffs, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The Journal reports that the Trump administration is considering using revenue from tariffs to fund the aid provided to US farmers and may start to be distributed in the coming months.
The deliberations are reportedly still ongoing and the deal to give billions for US farmers has not been finalized. A potential negotiation with China in the coming weeks may change Trump’s calculation to provide aid to the farmers.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said the Trump administration has done “nothing” to lower the high cost of living for people in the US, while at the same time giving the wealthy significant tax breaks.
“The Trump tariffs are actually making life more expensive,” Jeffries said. “And now Republicans refuse to do anything to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credit.”
Jeffries accuses White House and Republicans of wanting the shutdown
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries accused the Trump administration and Republicans of desiring a government shutdown.
“They want to inflict on the American people, they continue to engage in their retribution efforts,” Jeffries said. “And they have zero interest in providing high-quality, affordable and accessible care to everyday Americans.”
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House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries called Trump’s behavior “unserious and unhinged.”
Ahead of the looming shutdown, Trump shared a racist video on his Truth Social account on Tuesday, depicting Jeffries wearing a sombrero and mustache, while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke in a fake, AI-generated voice.
Jeffries says Republicans 'have shown zero interest' in talks to find funding deal
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said “Republicans have shown zero interest in even having a conversation” to come to a government funding agreement.
Jeffries added Democrats are willing to meet with Republicans, including Trump and vice-president JD Vance, to come to an agreement.
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House minority leader Jeffries says Republicans shut down government because they 'don't want to provide healthcare' to Americans
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries blamed Republicans for the government shutdown during a press conference.
“This is day two of Donald Trump’s shutdown, but it’s day 256 of the chaos that the Trump presidency has unleashed on the American people,” Jeffries said. “Republicans have shut the government down because they don’t want to provide healthcare to working class Americans.”
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The Trump administration is seeking to strike deals with companies across 30 different industries deemed critical to national or economic security, Reuters reports, in a concerted push before next year’s midterm elections. In some cases, the Trump administration is offering tariff relief in exchange for concessions.
Reuters reports that pharmaceutical companies have been contacted by the White House and top Trump administration officials to strike potential deals. For example, Eli Lilly was asked to produce more insulin, Pfizer was asked to produce more cancer and cholesterol medications and AstraZeneca was asked to consider moving its headquarters from London to the US.
The administration’s plan to strike deals with companies is an effort to push companies to further Trump’s goal of moving manufacturing to the United States, reducing dependence on China, strengthening supply chains for critical products and contributing to the government’s coffers, according to Reuters. It is an all-out effort to secure wins before next year’s midterms.
The administration has reached out to companies working in the pharmaceutical, semiconductor, AI, mining, energy and other industries.
This week, Trump announced a deal with Pfizer to cut drug prices in exchange for relief from looming tariffs on imported pharmaceuticals.
WIC, the federal program that provides free, healthy food to low-income pregnant women, new mothers and children under five, could run out of funds if the government shutdown persists, NBC News reports.
The program serves some 6.8 million people. According to the National WIC Association, “devastating disruptions” may deny millions of moms and children access to nutritious foods if the government remains closed for longer than a week or two, as contingency funds from the USDA will have dried up by then.
“Historically, when there has been a shutdown, WIC has remained open for business, but because this one falls at the start of the fiscal year, there are some risks,” Georgia Machell, president of the National WIC Association, told NBC. She called on Congress to pass a funding bill that protects the program and keeps it running without interruption.
A USDA spokesperson told the outlet that WIC’s continued operation will depend on “state choice and the length of a shutdown”.
Meanwhile, some administration officials are privately warning agencies against mass firings during the shutdown, the Washington Post (paywall) reports.
Senior federal officials are telling agencies not to fire employees en masse, warning that it may violate appropriations law and be vulnerable to challenges from labor unions, the Post reports citing two anonymous sources.
Senate majority leader John Thune told Politico last night that Democrats folding is the only way he sees the shutdown ending.
His comments were echoed House speaker Mike Johnson, who earlier told reporters this morning, “I have quite literally nothing to negotiate,” and insisted that Democrats should support the “clean” continuing resolution.
Per Politico’s report, Thune “insisted he would not negotiate on the substance of an extension [to Obamacare subsidies] while the government is closed. But pressed on whether he was open to discussions with Democrats about how the health care negotiations might work post-shutdown or how to advance full-year appropriations bills, he said, ‘We are.’”
Some of those conversations are happening. With our members and their members there’s a lot of back-and-forth going on right now about some of the things they would like to see happen.
Thune also said it’s “unlikely” that there will be Senate votes this weekend, meaning the shutdown is likely to last for at least six days. He told Semafor this morning:
They’ll have a fourth chance tomorrow to open up the government. If that fails, we’ll give them the weekend to think about it. We’ll come back vote again Monday.
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Venezuela’s defense minister General Vladimir Padrino said on Thursday that five combat planes had been detected near country’s coast, in what he characterized as a threat by the United States.
“They are imperialist combat planes that have dared to come close to the Venezuelan coast” Padrino said at an air base, in comments broadcast on state television, saying information about the planes had been reported to a control tower by an airline. “The presence of these planes flying close to our Caribbean Sea is a vulgarity, a provocation, a threat to the security of the nation.”
The US has deployed a fleet of warships through the Caribbean, which Washington says is to combat drug trafficking, and has also struck several boats it claims were carrying drugs from Venezuela, killing those aboard. Experts have questioned the legality of the strikes.
Earlier, we reported that Trump has declared drug cartels operating in the Caribbean are unlawful combatants and said the US is now in a “non-international armed conflict”, according to a memo obtained by the Associated Press.
The US military last month carried out three deadly strikes against alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean. At least two of those operations were carried out on vessels that originated from Venezuela.
On Monday, Venezuela’s vice-president said Nicolás Maduro was ready to declare a state of emergency in the event of a US military attack on the country, and warned of “catastrophic” consequences if such an onslaught materializes.
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Hamas to demand key revisions to Trump Gaza plan before accepting, sources say
Hamas will demand key revisions to Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire proposal but is likely to accept the plan in coming days as a basis for renewed negotiations, analysts and sources close to the group have told my colleague and Guardian international security correspondent Jason Burke.
Trump imposed a deadline of “three or four days” from Tuesday for Hamas to give its response to his 20-point plan, which aims to bring the two-year war in Gaza to a close and allow an apparently indefinite international administration of the devastated territory, or “pay in hell”.
Mkhaimar Abusada, a political scientist from Gaza based in Cairo, said Hamas now had to “choose between the bad and the worst”. “If they say ‘no’, as Trump has made clear, that will not be good and will allow Israel to do whatever it takes to finish this. They will say “yes, but we need this and that”, Abusada said.
Hamas leaders are divided between Istanbul, Doha and Gaza, which complicates discussions on the group’s response. Turkey and Qatar are putting pressure on Hamas to make concessions.
One sticking point is the plan’s demand that Hamas disarm, a source close to the organisation said. The surrender of all weapons would be very difficult for Hamas to accept, especially without any political process or substantial progress towards a two-state solution.
Another concern for Hamas is the vague promise of Israeli withdrawals, though the clear statement that there will be no annexation or occupation of Gaza by Israel was welcomed by one source close to Hamas.
Hugh Lovatt, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said it would be very difficult for Hamas to accept the terms unconditionally. “That is understandable. The text lacks details. But then anything other than total and final acceptance will be used against Hamas by Israel, the Trump administration and possibly the Europeans,” he said.
You can read Jason’s full piece here:
Trump’s declaration that drug cartels in the Caribbean are unlawful combatants also comes amid a report that the US justice department is closing a task force that took on drug cartels and an office that aimed to ease racial tensions, in a reorganization that drops a plan to merge the nation’s top drug and gun law enforcement agencies, reports Reuters.
The most sweeping reorganization of the DOJ in two decades, which attorney general Pam Bondi approved in September, will cut about 275 positions, leading to the elimination of or involuntary re-assignment of about 140 employees.
“Reduction in force” letters to employees whose roles will be affected in the units that are to be closed were due to be sent out earlier this week, other government documents seen by Reuters showed.
The DOJ said the changes are designed to “promote efficiencies and effective governance,” according to the documents. The plan has drawn criticism from congressional Democrats and from former department employees, who say it could hurt critical work.
Donald Trump declares that US is in 'non-international armed conflict' with drug cartels operating in the Caribbean
Trump has declared drug cartels operating in the Caribbean are unlawful combatants and says the US is now in a “non-international armed conflict,” according to a Trump administration memo obtained by the Associated Press on Thursday.
A US official familiar with the matter who was not authorized to comment publicly told the AP that Congress was notified about the designation by Pentagon officials on Wednesday.
The move comes after the US military last month carried out three deadly strikes against alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean. At least two of those operations were carried out on vessels that originated from Venezuela.
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Speaker Mike Johnson downplayed the use of AI-generated videos by Trump that mocked senator Chuck Schumer and representative Hakeem Jeffries. Speaking to reporters, Johnson said the Democrats were “overreacting to a joke” and argued that the focus should remain on ending the shutdown on Republican terms.
The videos, posted by Trump on his social media platform on Monday and have since played on a loop in the White House briefing room for hours on Wednesday, use fabricated audio to make it seem as if the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, called Democrats “woke pieces of shit”, and showed the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, with a fake mustache and sombrero.
JD Vance also made light of the videos, saying earlier: “I think it’s funny. The president’s joking and we’re having a good time. You can negotiate in good faith while also making a little bit of fun at some of the absurdities of the Democrats’ positions, and even poking some fun at the absurdity of themselves.”
Senate to vote again on Friday on reopening government, says majority leader John Thune
Senate majority leader John Thune says that the Senate will come back on Friday to vote once again on reopening the government, but adds that weekend votes to reopen the government are unlikely.
“If that fails, then we’ll give them the weekend to think about it. We’ll come back and we’ll go again on Monday,” the South Dakota Republican said.
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Judge denies Kilmar Ábrego García’s bid for asylum in the US
An immigration judge in Baltimore has denied Kilmar Ábrego García’s bid for asylum, but he has 30 days to appeal.
Ábrego’s case has drawn national attention since the 30-year-old was wrongfully deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador in March. The Salvadorian national has an American wife and children and has lived in Maryland for years, but he originally immigrated to the US illegally as a teenager. According to court documents, he was fleeing gang violence.
Following widespread pressure, the Trump administration returned him to the US in June. Upon his return, however, he immediately faced criminal charges related to human smuggling, allegations that his lawyers have rejected.
Ábrego was released from criminal custody in Tennessee on Friday while awaiting trial. But the Trump administration announced new plans to deport him to Uganda and then Eswatini.
Then Ábrego was taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) during a scheduled immigration check-in in Baltimore, which was one of the conditions of his release.
Trump administration officials have waged a relentless public relations campaign against Ábrego, repeatedly referring to him as a member of the MS-13 gang, among other things, despite the fact that he has not been convicted of any crimes.
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Here is my colleague Chris Stein’s report detailing the US government shutdown stretching into its second day and Donald Trump hailing the funding lapse as an “unprecedented opportunity” to further his campaign of firing federal workers and downsizing departments.
'It's going to get more and more painful,' says Mike Johnson, as he claims Trump and Vought making cuts 'reluctantly'
Speaking to reporters this morning, House speaker Mike Johnson has indicated that lawmakers are no closer to a deal on government funding and, standing at a podium emblazoned with the words, “The Democrat shutdown”, continued to lay blame for the shutdown squarely on the opposition.
He continued to insist that the Republicans had nothing to negotiate over because they’re pushing for a “clean” continuing resolution, which doesn’t include any new GOP provisions and would just maintain government funding at the current levels.
Johnson reiterated his point yesterday that Chuck Schumer had “handed the keys to the kingdom” to the executive. The White House said today that federal layoffs will probably be “in the thousands”. Johnson said:
The president takes no pleasure in this … When Congress turns off the funding and the funding runs out, it is up to the commander in chief, the president of the United States, to determine how these resources will be spent … He doesn’t want to do it.
Johnson also claimed the White House’s budget director, Russell Vought, is making cuts to the federal government “reluctantly”. (A reminder that Trump said earlier this morning that he couldn’t believe the Democrats had given him ‘this unprecedented opportunity’ to – with Vought – cut ‘many Democrat agencies’ perhaps permanently). Back to Johnson, who said:
Russ does this reluctantly … He takes no pleasure in this, because he has to sit down and decide, because he’s in charge of that office, which policies, personnel, and which programs are essential and which are not. That’s not a fun task and he’s not enjoying that responsibility.
He added this warning regarding the longer the government stays shut down:
It’s going to get more and more painful. Because the resources run out and more and more things have to be reduced and eliminated.
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'A tactic to punish': Trump revives family separations amid drive to deport millions
The Trump administration has revived the practice of separating families in order to coerce immigrants and asylum seekers to leave the US, attorneys and former immigration officials allege.
In several cases, officials have retaliated against immigrants who challenged deportation orders by forcibly separating them from their children, a Guardian investigation found. The officials misclassified the children as “unaccompanied minors” before placing them in government-run shelters or foster care.
The new practice has taken effect as the administration has also issued stringent new limits on who can take custody of unaccompanied minors – which advocates say keep thousands of children away from their relatives.
“This is a tactic to punish people for not acquiescing,” said Faisal Al-Juburi, head of external affairs at the legal aid group Raíces.
It’s a tactic to get immigrants to relent, to agree to self-deport.
The recent separations echo the “zero tolerance” policy of the first Trump administration, when the US systematically separated more than 5,600 children from their parents and caregivers at the US-Mexico border. Images of agents pulling children from their parents’ arms and placing them in overcrowded metal cages sparked domestic and international outrage, and Donald Trump ended the policy.
But seven years later, hundreds of parents have still been unable to reunify with their children; the administration lost track of many of the families it tore apart. Though the new separations so far appear less pervasive than the original policy, experts and attorneys said that it could result in another crisis of prolonged, permanent separations.
“I would say that the main difference is just that the separations are now happening all over the country, as opposed to at the border, concentrated in areas where you could visibly go see it,” said Michelle Brané, a former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official who served under the Biden administration. “But the rest of it is not that different. The objective is still to be cruel and send a message that people should not come to the US – that they should leave.”
You can read Maanvi’s full, harrowing piece here:
White House asks universities to commit to Trump's priorities in exchange for preferential access to funding
The White House has asked nine top universities to sign a 10-point agreement, aligning with the administration’s priorities, to gain preferential access to federal funds, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Key measures outlined in the memo, dubbed the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education”, include commitments to make create a “more welcoming environment for conservatives” on campus, cap international enrollment, accept the government’s definition of gender and apply it to campus bathrooms, locker rooms and women’s sports teams, and to end “the use of race or sex in hiring and admissions”.
Signing on would give universities priority access to some federal grants, but government money would not be limited solely to those schools, a White House official told the Associated Press. Colleges that agree would also have priority access to White House events and discussions with officials.
The 10-page proposed agreement was sent yesterday to some of the country’s most selective public and private universities: Vanderbilt, the University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College, the University of Southern California, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Texas, the University of Arizona, Brown University and the University of Virginia. It was not clear how these schools were selected or why, and whether similar offers might go out to other colleges.
The administration has used its control of federal funding as leverage at several other colleges, cutting off research money at schools including Harvard and Columbia as it has sought changes to the schools’ governance and policies.
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Russell Vought, who also headed the office of management and budget during Trump’s first term, has worked alongside the “department of government efficiency” to dramatically slash through federal agencies and purge employees since Trump took office again in January.
A key architect of Project 2025, the controversial conservative manifesto to guide a second Trump term, has a Christian nationalist world view and a deep distaste for civil servants, seeking to reshape the federal government in line with his ideological vision – to dismantle the federal workforce, appoint Trump loyalists who will not block his agenda, and consolidate power for the president.
You can read more about him here:
Karoline Leavitt also spoke on Fox News this morning, where she was asked whether Donald Trump’s threats of cuts were just a negotiating tactic. “Oh, it’s very real,” she replied.
“The Democrats should know that they put the White House and the president in this position,” she went on. “And if they don’t want further harm on their constituents back home, then they need to reopen the government. It’s very simple. Pass the clean continuing resolution and all of this goes away.
“We would not be having these discussions here at the White House today [about mass layoffs and agency cuts] if not for the Democrats voting to shut the government down. This is an unfortunate consequence.”
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US government layoffs 'likely to be in the thousands', says White House
US government layoffs could be in the thousands, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said, as the federal government entered the second day of the shutdown. She did not provide details.
Look, it’s likely going to be in the thousands. And that’s something that the Office of Management and Budget and the entire team at the White House here, again, is unfortunately having to work on today.
Speaking to reporters outside the White House and as the bipartisan blame game rages on, she added:
These discussions and these conversations, these meetings would not be happening if the Democrats had voted to keep the government open.
Asked specifically which agencies would be targeted, Leavitt said: “We’re looking at agencies that don’t align with the president’s values” and “that we feel are a waste of the taxpayer dollar”.
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Trump will draw red line for any Hamas response, says White House
The Trump administration hopes and expects Hamas to approve its plan for Gaza and Donald Trump will draw a red line for any response from the group, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt has said.
“It’s a red line that the president of the United States is going to have to draw, and I’m confident that he will,” Leavitt said in an interview with Fox News when asked about Hamas potentially walking away from the plan.
Trump gave Hamas “three or four days” on Tuesday to accept his peace plan for Gaza. Should they reject the plan, Trump has said Israel has his full backing to “finish the job” in Gaza, where Israel’s assault has already killed well over 66,000 Palestinian people.
AFP has reported that some Hamas officials want amendments, including on the plan’s requirement for the group to disarm, while others want to accept the deal because, as one source tells the agency, “the important thing is to have a ceasefire guaranteed by Trump”.
The US is not putting money into Argentina but only providing a credit swap line, treasury secretary Scott Bessent also told CNBC this morning.
What the US is doing, just to be clear: We are giving them a swap line. We are not putting money into Argentina, OK?
Donald Trump will meet with Argentina’s president Javier Milei in two weeks, Argentina said on Tuesday, as Milei seeks to secure the credit swap line from the US that has rankled some Republicans as Argentina offloaded billions of dollars in soy to China.
Earlier, Bessent said in an X post that he was looking forward to meeting Argentine economy minister Luis Caputo’s team in Washington to advance discussions on options for financial support.
“The @USTreasury is fully prepared to do what is necessary, and we will continue to watch developments closely,” Bessent said in his post.
The US did not maintain strategic interests in the western hemisphere in recent decades and now has a chance to support Argentina, Bessent said.
He praised Milei as having done a “fantastic job” and said he was sure the right-wing leader would do well in upcoming elections.
“Now Argentina is a beacon down there. And there’s a chance now for many other countries to come along - Bolivia, Ecuador, I think Colombia - after the elections. So what you don’t want are these failed economic models,” Bessent said.
Argentina votes on 26 October in legislative midterm elections, in which Milei’s party aims to gain seats to strengthen its minority position.
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In his interview this morning with CNBC Scott Bessent also said that he could “guarantee” there wouldn’t be an agreement between Republicans and Democrats to extend Obamacare subsidies as a way to end the government shutdown. But he said there could be an agreement to talks.
Democrats are negotiating “like terrorists”, the treasury secretary claimed, adding: “They want to say, ‘This is what we have to have, and if we don’t get it, we’re going to close down the government.’”
He then called Senate Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries “weak” and “discombobulated”, and accused them of using the shutdown as an opportunity.
President Trump, in the first nine months now, has been unstoppable. They’ve tried to stop him in the courts, they tried to stop him in the press, and now they’re trying to stop him with the shutdown.
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Since the US government shut down at midnight on Wednesday, tens of thousands of federal workers have been furloughed (told not to work), while others must work without pay until Congress passes a budget. The shutdown will have a wide range of effects on government services and programs as well as the US economy, from national parks to travel and housing.
My colleague Marina Dunbar explains what it means for everyday people:
Treasury secretary Bessent says GDP could take a hit from government shutdown
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has been speaking on CNBC this morning, and said that US GDP could take a hit from the government shutdown, which is one day two with no end in sight. He told CNBC Squawk Box:
This isn’t the way to have a discussion, shutting down the government and lowering the GDP. We could see a hit to the GDP, a hit to growth and a hit to working America.
Government shutdowns usually have little economic impact, but many commentators have pointed out that this one could be different due to Donald Trump’s threats to make some federal government furloughs permanent. Asked by CNBC about whether Trump was considering that, Bessent called it a “talking point” (though Trump has confirmed that himself).
Facing repeated questions about the timing and extent of the layoffs that the administration could carry out in the coming days, Bessent said only, “I don’t think it’s unreasonable for the president to use all the levers” available to him.
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Trump meeting Russ Vought to discuss cutting 'Democrat agencies' and whether cuts will be permanent
Donald Trump is up and truthing as the White House presses on with seizing the opportunity provided by the shutdown to axe federal jobs and Democratic spending priorities. “I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity,” Trump writes this morning.
He said he has a meeting today with Russell Vought, “of Project 2025 fame” who is now the head of the office for management and budget, “to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent”.
Vought was central to the Project 2025 blueprint - which Trump sought to distance himself from during his campaign - and has been on a years-long quest to dismantle the federal workforce and consolidate power for the president. Since Trump took office in January, he has worked alongside the so-called “department of government efficiency” to implement many aspects of the plan including slashing through the federal government.
As we reported yesterday – day one of the shutdown – he’s already started slashing blue state infrastructure spending, cancelling $8bn in climate-related funding to 16 blue states and freezing $18bn for two huge New York City construction projects. And he told a call with House Republicans that mass firings would begin either today or tomorrow and would target agencies that don’t align with the president’s priorities.
Here’s Trump’s Truth Social post:
I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent. I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity. They are not stupid people, so maybe this is their way of wanting to, quietly and quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DJT
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Trump tells Republicans to 'clear out dead wood, waste, and fraud'
As congressional Democrats hold out for healthcare subsidies, the Trump administration has repeatedly stated that federal workers will face layoffs while the government is shut down.
Late last night, president Donald Trump posted on Truth Social:
Republicans must use this opportunity of Democrat forced closure to clear out dead wood, waste, and fraud. Billions of Dollars can be saved. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
Democrats hold firm on healthcare demands as US government remains shut
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. We will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with news that a vote to end the government shutdown hours after it began failed on Wednesday, as Democrats in the Senate held firm to the party’s demands to fund healthcare subsidies that president Donald Trump and Republicans refuse to extend.
The tally showed cracks in the Democrats’ resolve, but the outcome also left no breakthrough, AP reported. Blame was being cast on all sides on the first day of the shutdown.
The White House and Congress failed to strike an agreement to keep programs and services open, throwing the country into a new cycle of uncertainty.
At the heart of the issue are tax credits that have made health insurance through the Affordable Care Act more affordable for millions of people since the coronavirus pandemic.
The credits are set to expire at the end of the year if Congress doesn’t extend them, which would more than double what subsidized enrollees currently pay for health insurance premiums, according to analysis.
Meanwhile, as the Trump administration insists it is serious about negotiating an end to the government shutdown, a pair of racist deepfake videos mocking Democratic leaders played on a loop in the White House briefing room for hours on Wednesday.
The videos, posted by Trump on his social media platform on Monday, use fabricated audio to make it seem as if the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, called Democrats “woke pieces of shit”, and showed the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, with a fake mustache and sombrero.
JD Vance, the US vice-president, made light of the tactic during a rare appearance in the briefing room. “I think it’s funny. The president’s joking and we’re having a good time. You can negotiate in good faith while also making a little bit of fun at some of the absurdities of the Democrats’ positions, and even poking some fun at the absurdity of themselves.
“I’ll tell Hakeem Jeffries right now, I make the solemn promise to you that if you help us reopen the government, the sombrero memes will stop. I’ve talked to the president of the United States about that.”
Jeffries has denounced the memes as racist. Vance retorted: “I honestly don’t even know what that means. Like, is he a Mexican American that is offended by having a sombrero meme?”
Read the full story here:
In other developments:
JD Vance, the vice-president, used false claims to blame Democrats for the government shutdown as the White House warned that worker layoffs were imminent.
Donald Trump quietly signed an executive order on Monday in which he promised that the United States will defend the nation of Qatar by treating “any armed attack on the territory, sovereignty, or critical infrastructure” of the energy-rich Persian Gulf monarchy “as a threat to the peace and security of the United States”.
Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, the top Democrats in the House of Representatives and Senate, respectively, and both New Yorkers, accused the Trump administration of retaliating against their constituents by putting billions of dollars to revamp transportation infrastructure on hold.
Oregon’s governor, Tina Kotek, said in a statement on Wednesday that “Donald Trump’s unlawful federalization of members of the Oregon National Guard could cost taxpayers up to $10m”.
The Trump administration said that it was putting a hold on roughly $18bn to fund a new rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River between New York City and New Jersey and the city’s expanded Second Avenue subway project – because of the government shutdown.
Donald Trump once again shared misinformation about Portland, Oregon, on social media on Wednesday, when he announced that the national guard troops he called up in response to a small protest outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) office in the otherwise tranquil city are “now in place”.
Lisa Cook, the US Federal Reserve governor, will keep her job for now, despite Donald Trump’s extraordinary bid to remove her from the central bank’s board with immediate effect.
