Closing summary
It was election eve in many states across the country, which could be a test for how voters feel in the first year of Trump’s second administration. New York City saw mayoral candidates Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo and Curtis Sliwa traverse the city to drum up support, with progressive candidate Mamdani in the lead. Californians readied for a vote on Proposition 50 that would allow for redistricting in the state that would carve out five additional Democratic seats for Congress. And New Jersey and Virginia were focused on gubernatorial races. Meanwhile, it was day 34 for the government shutdown.
Here’s what else happened today:
Drama in New York City mayor’s race intensified as Donald Trump urged voters to back Cuomo. In a social media post on Monday afternoon, Trump threated to pull federal funding for the city if Mamdani won, repeatedly calling the democratic candidate a “communist”. Mamdani is the frontrunner in the race, much to the ire of the president. In a 60 Minutes interview, Trump said that he’s “not a fan of Cuomo one way or the other”, but he would rather see the former governor – who is running as an Independent – win against the progressive candidate. Mamdani shot back during a final campaign event saying: “The Maga movement’s embrace of Andrew Cuomo is reflective of Donald Trump’s understanding that this would be the best mayor for him – not the best mayor for New York City.”
The Trump administration has said in a court filing that it plans to partially fund food aid for millions of Americans after two judges ruled last week that it must use contingency funds to pay for the benefits in November during the government shutdown. The administration laid out the US Department of Agriculture’s plan in a filing in federal court in Rhode Island at the direction of a judge who had last week ordered it to use emergency funds to at least partially cover November’s Snap benefits. While the administration said it would fully deplete the $5.25bn in contingency funds, it would not use other funding that would allow it to fully fund Snap benefits for 42 million Americans, which cost $8bn to $9bn per month.
As the government shutdown continued on, Republican leaders maintained they have no plans to abolish the filibuster. Speaking to reporters on Monday, House speaker Mike Johnson said his colleagues in the Senate saw the 60-vote threshold needed in the Senate to end debate on a bill, as an “important safeguard” from the “Democrats’ worst impulses”. This, despite Trump decrying the measure on social media, and in a recent interview with 60 Minutes. Johnson said that the president is simply very “passionate” about this issue. “I think what you see in this debate – we’re having on our own side is a reflection of the anger that we feel, the real desperation that we feel, because we want the government to be reopened,” he added.
Updated
Voters in Huntington Beach, California, are no longer required to show photo identification at their polling locations after a California appeals court struck down the city’s law mandating such ID, saying it violates state law.
“The state must strike a careful balance between, on the one hand, ensuring that only eligible voters are able to vote in elections while, on the other hand, not discouraging or preventing disadvantaged voters and communities from participating in the political process,” the panel of three judges said in their 15-page ruling.
“Permitting the city to make its own rules, in violation of the state Elections Code, would upset the state’s delicate balance and could impugn the integrity of the city’s elections,” the panel added.
Earlier this year, two lawsuits were filed against Huntington Beach, including one from California attorney general, Rob Bonta, and secretary of state Shirley Weber, who applauded today’s decision.
“All along, Secretary of State Weber and I have maintained that Huntington Beach’s voter ID policy is unlawful,” Bonta said in a statement. “No city in our state, charter and non-charter alike, can make it more difficult for voters to cast their ballots.”
The judges agreed that “voter identification requirements may interfere with the ability of eligible voters to cast their ballots by placing a practical and financial hurdle between voters and the ballot box.”
Voter fraud is incredibly rare and voter ID laws have been shown to disproportionately impact minorities, low-income individuals and disabled voters.
Laura Loomer, a rightwing political activist known for spreading conspiracy theories and using hate speech, has gained credentials to cover the defense department, the Washington Post reports.
Loomer, a former congressional candidate in Florida, joins a new cohort of right-wing media outlets that have agreed to the Pentagon’s new restrictive press policy. Her addition comes amid a sweeping overhaul of the department’s media rules, which bars reporters from seeking information not explicitly made public by the government.
Last month, journalists covering the Pentagon walked out en masse to protest the new policy, sparking widespread criticism from major outlets, including the Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN, among others.
The defense department has since presented what it calls the “next generation of the Pentagon press corps”, made up of roughly 60 journalists from far-right outlets, many of which have promoted conspiracy theories. The Gateway Pundit, the Post Millennial, and LindellTV (the streaming service founded by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell) as well as independent journalists and online influencers who have not previously covered the Pentagon in person, are among those who have agreed to the restrictive policies.
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Zohran Mamdani called out Donald Trump’s threat to withhold federal funding in New York City. The remarks came during a campaign event in Queens on Monday.
“I will address that threat for what it is: It is a threat. It is not the law,” Mamdani said, according to the New York Times. “And too often, we treat everything that comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth as if it is already legal, just by virtue of who is saying it.”
Trump had earlier posted on social media that if Mamdani was elected “it is highly unlikely that I will be contributing Federal Funds, other than the very minimum as required”. The president repeatedly called Mamdani a “communist” and urged voters to back Andrew Cuomo, who’s running as an independent, for mayor.
“The MAGA movement’s embrace of Andrew Cuomo is reflective of Donald Trump’s understanding that this would be the best mayor for him – not the best mayor for New York City, not the best mayor for New Yorkers, but the best mayor for Donald Trump and his administration,” Mamdani said at the campaign event.
“This funding is not something that Donald Trump is giving us here in New York City,” Mamdani added. “This is something that we are, in fact, owed in New York.”
Updated
Andrew Cuomo said that if he were in a one-on-one contest against Zohran Mamdani for New York City mayor he would win. The remark came shortly after Donald Trump urged voters to back Cuomo for mayor, saying a vote for republican candidate Curtis Sliwa is a “vote for Mamdani”.
In an interview on 77WABC radio, Cuomo, who’s a former democrat but is running as an independent, said “The president is right… A vote for Sliwa is a vote for Mamdani. That’s why this election is up to the Republicans.” In the interview, Cuomo suggested it was selfish of Sliwa to stay in the race.
Earlier in the day, Elon Musk – the once close ally and adviser to Trump – also told voters to back Cuomo saying: “Bear in mind that a vote for Curtis is really a vote for Mumdumi or whatever his name is.”
Trump told 60 Minutes in an interview on Sunday that he preferred a “bad Democrat” for New York City mayor, in reference to Cuomo. He said that was better than a “communist”, meaning Mamdani. Mamdani, who’s the democratic candidate for mayor, responded on X saying “Congratulations @AndrewCuomo. I know how hard you worked for this.”
Updated
Trump threatens to yank federal funds for New York City if Zohran Mamdani wins mayoral election
In a Truth Social post, Trump called Mamdani the “Communist Candidate” and said New York City is his “beloved first home” and that the city has “ZERO chance of success, or even survival” with a “Communist at the helm”.
This isn’t the first time Trump has levied such a threat. After Mamdani won the democratic primary for mayor last June, Trump said he’d cut New York City from federal funds. Mamdani has since been a topic of conversation on Truth Social, with Trump railing against the mayoral candidate calling him “terrible” and “not very smart”. In July, the Trump administration suggested stripping Mamdani of his citizenship.
In the final hours before Election Day in the city, polls show Mamdani is leading the race against independent Andrew Cuomo and republican Curtis Sliwa.
Trump reluctantly backed Cuomo, a former democrat, on Monday and said in his Truth Social post: “I would much rather see a Democrat, who has had a Record of Success, WIN, than a Communist with no experience and a Record of COMPLETE AND TOTAL FAILURE.”
Mamdani, not Cuomo, is the democratic candidate for mayor.
Updated
Two courts are ordering Immigration and Customs Enforcement not to deport a man who spent more than 40 years in prison and was recently exonerated.
Subramanyam Vedam, 64, had a murder conviction overturned last month and was released from Pennsylvania state prison. But then, he was immediately taken into immigration custody and was told he faced deportation to India. He’s currently being held in a short-term detention center in Louisiana.
An immigration judge stayed his deportation last week until the Bureau of Immigration Appeals decides whether to pick up his case, according to the Associated Press. US District Court in Pennsylvania also stayed Vedam’s case late last week. Vedam legally immigrated to the US from India as an infant.
He was convicted for murder in 1980 and given a life sentence. Vedam maintained his innocence and four decades later he was exonerated for the crime and set free. ICE says that a separate drug charge against Vedam, for delivering LSD when he was 20, is grounds for his deportation.
Vedam’s sister told the Associated Press on Monday that the family is relieved about the judges’ rulings. “We’re also hopeful that Board of Immigration Appeals will ultimately agree that Subu’s deportation would represent another untenable injustice,” Saraswathi Vedam said, “inflicted on a man who not only endured 43 years in a maximum-security prison for a crime he didn’t commit, but has also lived in the U.S. since he was 9-months-old.”
After receiving complaints from lawmakers, Donald Trump is reportedly aiming to brief more members of Congress about his hardline anti-narcotics strategy in the Caribbean and Pacific. According to Axios, the president told his staff to reach out to members of Congress and provide an overview of the intelligence the administration has gathered.
The move comes as the US military has struck and sunk 15 boats off the coast of Venezuela, killing at least 64 unarmed individuals.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reportedly already given a briefing to Intelligence committee chairs and vice-chairs, along with the “Gang of Eight”, a bipartisan group of leaders from both chambers of Congress, according to Axios. Rubio and Pentagon lawyers are reportedly slated to give more briefings on Wednesday.
Nearly two dozen states have sued the Trump administration over its new rule that limits student loan forgiveness for people who work for non-profits or the government. The lawsuit is being led by New York Attorney General Letitia James and has been joined by 20 attorneys general in states including Arizona, Illinois and Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia’s attorney general.
The US Department of Education issued the final rule last week, which changes the definition of “qualifying employer” and excludes organizations “that engage in unlawful activities” such as “supporting terrorism and aiding and abetting illegal immigration”. The Public Service Loan Forgiveness law was signed into force by George W Bush in 2007.
“Public Service Loan Forgiveness was created as a promise to teachers, nurses, firefighters, and social workers that their service to our communities would be honored,” James said in a statement. “Instead, this administration has created a political loyalty test disguised as a regulation.”
Donald Trump has long criticized student loan forgiveness programs and has aimed to roll back debt relief bolstered during the Biden administration, which included making it easier for people to qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
Updated
Here's a recap of the day so far
The Trump administration has said in a court filing that it plans to partially fund food aid for millions of Americans after two judges ruled last week that it must use contingency funds to pay for the benefits in November during the government shutdown. The administration laid out the US Department of Agriculture’s plan in a filing in federal court in Rhode Island at the direction of a judge who had last week ordered it to use emergency funds to at least partially cover November’s Snap benefits. While the administration said it would fully deplete the $5.25bn in contingency funds, it would not use other funding that would allow it to fully fund Snap benefits for 42 million Americans, which cost $8bn to $9bn per month.
As the ongoing government shutdown enters its 34th day, Republican leaders maintain they have no plans to abolish the filibuster. Speaking to reporters today, House speaker Mike Johnson said his colleagues in the Senate saw the 60-vote threshold needed in the Senate to end debate on a bill, as an “important safeguard” from the “Democrats’ worst impulses”. This, despite Donald Trump decrying the measure on social media, and in a recent interview with 60 Minutes. Johnson said today that the president is simply very “passionate” about this issue. “I think what you see in this debate – we’re having on our own side is a reflection of the anger that we feel, the real desperation that we feel, because we want the government to be reopened,” he added.
As election day inches closer, candidates to be New York City’s next mayor spent the day traversing the city with eleventh-hour pitches to voters. Early voting in the closely watched mayoral race ended on Sunday. More than 735,000 New Yorkers cast their ballots ahead of Tuesday’s election. The Democratic nominee, Zohran Mamdani, is still the frontrunner in the race, much to the ire of the president. In his 60 Minutes interview, Trump said that he’s “not a fan of Cuomo one way or the other”, but he would rather see the former governor – who is running as an Independent – win against the progressive assemblyman leading the polls. “If it’s gonna be between a bad Democrat and a communist, I’m gonna pick the bad Democrat all the time, to be honest with you,” Trump said.
Watchdog for federal housing regulator set to be ousted - report
The inspector general for the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) is being removed from his role, according to Reuters. Citing three unnamed people familiar with the matter, the outlet reports that Joe Allen is being removed from his role overseeing the office responsible for rooting out waste, fraud and abuse at the FHFA.
Reuters also noted that the website for the FHFA’s Office of Inspector General listed the position as “currently vacant”. It was unclear when the website was updated.
In recent weeks, the agency’s leader, Bill Pulte, has made himself known as a loyal supporter of Donald Trump’s efforts to target those he sees as political adversaries. He’s accused Federal Reserve governor, Lisa Cook, of mortgage fraud, and pushed the justice department to investigate New York attorney general Letitia James – who recently plead not guilty after being indicted on two charges of bank fraud, and making false statements to a financial institution.
In response, Elizabeth Warren – the top Democratic senator on the banking committee – issued a statement today.
“What happened to the watchdog overseeing his agency? What does Pulte have to hide as he continues to use his role to investigate President Trump’s perceived political enemies while failing to lower housing costs for the American people?,” the lawmaker representing Massachusetts said.
On election eve, New York mayoral candidates traverse the city
As election day inches closer, candidates to be New York City’s next mayor spent the day traversing the city with eleventh-hour pitches to voters.
Democratic nominee, and frontrunner, Zohran Mamdani, former governor Andrew Cuomo who is running as an Independent, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, all spent a jam-packed weekend attending campaign events and getting as much face time with New Yorkers as possible. A reminder that early voting, which ended on Sunday, saw a record high turn out throughout the city.
My colleague, Anna Betts, has been covering the latest on the ground. You can read more of her reporting below.
Updated
The city of Miami’s mayor Francis Suarez is weighing in on Tuesday’s mayoral race in New York, with none-too-complimentary comments about Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate and frontrunner.
Suarez, a Republican, was speaking to reporters this lunchtime ahead of the two-day America Business Forum in Miami on Wednesday and Thursday, which Donald Trump will attend.
“New York seems to be on the precipice of electing a Democratic socialist, a young charismatic leader. But we’ve been to that movie before, here in Miami,” said Suarez, the termed-out, eight-year mayor whose successor will also be elected on Tuesday.
“In this city we’ve had young charismatic leaders that promised us, you know, ‘Give us all your businesses, give us all your property, we’ll make everybody equal’. And they did. They made everybody equally poor, equally miserable and equally repressed,” he said.
Suarez says the impact on Miami if Mamdani is elected will be significant, and he predicts an exodus from New York. “There’s going to be a 20, 30, maybe even 40% spike in demand and in real estate prices here in Miami, it’s an inevitable consequence,” he added. “I don’t have a border, you know, I can’t prevent people from coming.”
Trump is the headline speaker at the conference, which features luminaries from the worlds of politics, business and sport. They include sports stars Lionel Messi, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams; Javier Milei, the far-right president of Argentina; Steve Witkoff, Trump adviser and Middle East envoy; and María Corina Machado, winner of the 2025 Nobel peace prize that Trump was angling for.
Updated
As is customary during these dueling press conferences throughout the shutdown, each party continues to blame the other for failing to reopen the government.
Jeffries just called Donald Trump the “puppet master” of the Republican party, and said that GOP lawmakers refuse to negotiate due to their ongoing deference to the president.
Top House Democrat holds press conference on day 34 of government shutdown
Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, is now speaking to reporters at the US Capitol. A reminder that the lower chamber is still out of session as the government shutdown enters its 34th day.
Further to that, the Trump administration said $600m would be used to fund states’ administrative costs in administering Snap benefits, leaving $4.65bn that will be obligated to cover 50% of eligible households’ current allotments.
The partial payments are unprecedented in the program’s history. A USDA official warned in a court filing that at least some states, which administer Snap benefits on a day-to-day basis, would need weeks to months to make system changes that would allow them to provide the reduced benefits.
US district judge in Rhode Island John McConnell and another judge in Boston, US district judge Indira Talwani, said on Friday the administration had the discretion to also tap a separate fund holding about $23bn.
Patrick Penn, deputy under secretary for food, nutrition, and consumer services at the USDA, said in a court filing the agency was carefully considering using those funds but determined they must remain available for child nutrition programs instead of Snap.
Updated
Per my last post, the administration laid out the US Department of Agriculture’s plan in a filing in federal court in Rhode Island at the direction of a judge who had last week ordered it to use emergency funds to at least partially cover November’s Snap benefits.
The justice department said the USDA is complying with US district judge John McConnell’s order and “will fulfill its obligation to expend the full amount of Snap contingency funds today”.
But while the administration said it would fully deplete the $5.25bn in contingency funds, it would not use other funding that would allow it to fully fund Snap benefits for 42 million Americans, which cost $8bn to $9bn per month.
Trump administration to use emergency funds to pay partial food aid benefits
The Trump administration has said in a court filing that it plans to partially fund food aid for millions of Americans after two judges ruled last week that it must use contingency funds to pay for the benefits in November during the government shutdown.
This is per a snap updated from the Reuters news agency and I’ll bring you more on this as we get it.
Updated
Per that last post, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer quipped on social media today.
“Maybe I should file a complaint with the FCC against the Trump White House for editing his unhinged 60 Minutes interview,” the top Democrat wrote on X. “It will use the exact same language Trump lodged against Vice President Harris.”
The CBS News program 60 Minutes heavily edited down an interview with Donald Trump that aired on Sunday night, his first sit-down with the show in five years.
Trump sat down with correspondent Norah O’Donnell for 90 minutes, but only about 28 minutes were broadcast. A full transcript of the interview was later published, along with a 73-minute-long extended version online.
The edits are notable because, exactly one year before Trump was interviewed by O’Donnell at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Friday he had sued CBS over the editing of a 60 Minutes interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, which he alleged had been deceptively edited to help her chances in the presidential election.
While many legal experts widely dismissed the lawsuit as “meritless” and unlikely to hold up under the first amendment, CBS settled with Trump for $16m in July. As part of the settlement, the network had agreed that it would release transcripts of future interviews of presidential candidates.
At the beginning of Sunday’s show, O’Donnell reminded viewers that Paramount settled Trump’s lawsuit, but noted that “the settlement did not include an apology or admission of wrongdoing”.
Updated
Ahead of election day across the country, my colleague Carter Sherman, has been covering how reproductive rights will be back on the ballot in this off-cycle year.
Carter notes the gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia could have sweeping consequences for abortion access in two states that have become havens for women fleeing abortion bans. In Pennsylvania, what should have been a relatively sleepy judicial-retention election has evolved into the most expensive race of its kind in nearly 50 years, largely due to heated fighting over abortion. With voters weighing whether to keep three Democratic justices on the state supreme court, advocates fear that liberals may lose control of the bench and, ultimately, lose abortion access in the purple state.
Read more of her reporting here.
As Trump decries filibuster, Johnson continues to defend it as important 'safeguard'
When asked by reporters about the president’s insistence for lawmakers to abolish the filibuster, Mike Johnson said that he had spoken to Donald Trump over the weekend and shared his thoughts with him.
“I hear my Senate Republican colleagues, some of the most conservative people in Congress, who say it’s an important safeguard. It prevents us, it holds us back from the Democrats’ worst impulses,” Johnson said. “What would the Democrats do if they had no filibuster impediment, no speed bump at all?”
The House speaker added that he speaks “frankly and honestly” with the president and noted that he was very “passionate” about this issue. “I think what you see in this, this, this debate we’re having on our own side is a reflection of the anger that we feel, the real desperation that we feel, because we want the government to be reopened,” Johnson said.
Updated
House speaker says that issuing Snap contingency funds is 'not as easy as hitting go send on a computer'
Mike Johnson has said that issuing payments to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) beneficiaries in the midst of the shutdown is “not as easy as hitting go send on a computer”.
In recent days, two federal judges ordered the administration to use the program’s contingency funds to pay to Snap recipients. Today, Johnson said this was more complicated than it looked.
“It costs over $9bn to fund Snap for a month, and we only have, I think it’s $5.2bn in the contingency fund. So you have a big shortfall,” he said. “You got to go through and recalculate partial payments to the 42 million recipients of the program.”
Johnson noted that the president was not appealing against the rulings from the respective judges. “He wants that to be done,” Johnson said. “But he doesn’t see the mechanism to do it. So you have treasury, you have USDA, you have the other agencies involved that are working overtime, literally around the clock over the weekend, trying to figure out how to do this. But everybody needs to know, it’s not the full amount, assuming they could get this done and processed.”
Updated
Johnson says 'extremism on the left' is the direct cause of American suffering
Throughout today’s press conference, Mike Johnson has continued to blame Senate Democrats for shuttering the government for 34 days. He, and many congressional Republicans, have claimed that the reason that lawmakers on the left have consistently rejected the House-passed funding bill is due to pressure from the progressive wing of the Democratic party.
“They fear that personally for their own political future,” Johnson said today. “And they care more about that than they care about Snap benefits flow into hungry families, about air traffic controllers being paid so they can keep the skies safe, border patrol, troops and all the rest … It is extremism on the left that is the direct cause of American suffering right now.”
In a short while, Republican House speaker Mike Johnson will hold a press conference, on the 34th day of the government shutdown.
We’ll bring you the latest lines, particularly when it comes to reopening the lower chamber, as the shutdown is poised to be the longest on record (likely to beat the 35 days during Donald Trump’s first administration).
Trump says that he would reluctantly prefer Cuomo to win NY mayoral race
In an interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes, Trump said that he’s “not a fan of Cuomo one way or the other”, but he would rather see the former governor win against the progressive frontrunner and state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani to be the next mayor of New York City.
“If it’s gonna be between a bad Democrat and a communist, I’m gonna pick the bad Democrat all the time, to be honest with you,” Trump said.
Early voting in the closely watched mayoral race ended on Sunday. More than 735,000 New Yorkers cast their ballots ahead of Tuesday’s election.
Updated
Supreme court set to decide whether Trump's sweeping tariffs are legal
Looking ahead, on Wednesday, the supreme court will hear arguments on whether Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on dozens of countries are legal. It’s set to be one of the most consequential rulings on the expanse of Trump’s presidential power in his second term.
My colleague, Eduardo Porter, has this helpful breakdown on the question at the heart of this case. A dozen states have challenged the president’s contention that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977 gives him the power to impose tariffs on imports from every country in the world to defend the nation from a several “threats” facing the US.
Eduardo notes:
Justices will focus much of their attention on whether IEEPA authorizes the president to levy a tariff – a word that is not mentioned in the text of the law and is, moreover, a form of taxation, over which, per the constitution, Congress has exclusive power.
IEEPA gives the president authority “to deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States, if the president declares a national emergency with respect to such threat”.
Yet as the plaintiffs noted, using this “to impose immense and ever-changing tariffs on whatever goods entering the US he chooses, for whatever reason he finds convenient to declare an emergency, the president has upended the constitutional order and brought chaos to the American economy”. Rather than solving national emergencies, Trump is using emergency powers to manufacture one.
Read Eduardos’ full analysis here.
Trump continues to push for eliminating filibuster, despite Republican pushback
The president has, once again, called for lawmakers to abolish the filibuster, as the government shutdown continues, and is set to enter its 34th day.
A reminder that this is the 60-vote threshold needed in the Senate to end debate on a bill, and a bring the legislation to the floor for a vote.
“TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER, NOT JUST FOR THE SHUTDOWN, BUT FOR EVERYTHING ELSE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social late Sunday. “REMEMBER, THE DEMOCRATS WILL DO IT IMMEDIATELY, AS SOON AS THEY GET THE CHANCE. OUR DOING IT WILL NOT GIVE THEM THE CHANCE.”
The president repeated his wishes in an interview with CBS News’ 60 Minutes. “The Republicans have to get tougher. If we end the filibuster, we can do exactly what we want. We’re not gonna lose power,” he told Norah O’Donnell. Congressional Republican leaders have said there is no intention to scrap the procedural measure. House Speaker Mike Johnson called it the “safeguard” in the upper chamber.
Donald Trump has no public events scheduled today, per the official White House schedule.
However, he’ll take part in two virtual campaign events for the gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, in an attempt to assert some influence over these pivotal elections while the Democratic candidates push ahead in the polls (although the race looks tighter in New Jersey).
On Sunday, the president weighed in on Truth Social, questioning why residents in either state would vote for either Mikie Sherill or Abigail Spanberger.
“They want transgender for everybody, men playing in women’s sports, High Crime, and the most expensive Energy prices almost anywhere in the World? VOTE REPUBLICAN for massive Energy Cost reductions, large scale Tax Cuts, and basic Common Sense! Under President Trump, ME, Gasoline will come down to approximately $2 a Gallon, very soon,” he wrote.
My colleague Lauren Gambino has filed this report on the California proposition to redraw its congressional district boundaries. Here is an extract from her story:
California’s Proposition 50 began as a warning from the nation’s largest blue state to its largest red one: don’t poke the bear. But when Texas moved ahead with a rare, mid-decade gerrymander, pushed by Donald Trump as Republicans seek to shore up their fragile House majority in the midterm elections, California made good on its threat.
Now, California voters appear poised to approve a redistricting measure placed on the ballot in August by Democrats and the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, who have cast it as a chance to check Trump’s power …
Proposition 50 asks voters to temporarily scrap the state’s independently-drawn congressional district lines in favor of new maps carved up to help Democrats win five additional safe seats – a tit-for-tat response to Texas, where Republicans secured five new, friendlier districts earlier this year …
Early returns and polling suggest the ballot measure is on track for a comfortable victory. Though it can be difficult to predict turnout in an off-year special election, several recent surveys showed it passing by more than 20 points.
Updated
Tuesday is election day in several states. It will be an early indication of how voters feel in the first year of the second Trump administration.
Both Democrats and Republicans will be carefully watching the outcomes in the gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, the high-profile mayoral contest in New York and the electorally significant redistricting referendum in California, where Democrats have asked voters to approve redrawing the state’s congressional map.
Updated
Trump says Maduro’s days are numbered but ‘doubts’ US will go to war with Venezuela
Donald Trump has sent mixed signals about potential US intervention in Venezuela, playing down concerns of imminent war against the South American nation but saying its leader Nicolás Maduro’s days were numbered.
The president’s remarks, made during a CBS interview released on Sunday, come as the US amasses military units in the Caribbean and has conducted multiple strikes on alleged drug-trafficking vessels, killing dozens.
Asked during the 60 Minutes program if the US was going to war against Venezuela, Trump said: “I doubt it. I don’t think so.” However, when asked if Maduro’s days as president were numbered, he replied: “I would say yeah. I think so, yeah.”
Maduro, who faces indictment on drug charges in the US, has accused Washington of using drug trafficking as a pretext for “imposing regime change” in Caracas to seize Venezuelan oil.
More than 15 US strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific have killed at least 65 people in recent weeks, with the latest taking place on Saturday, prompting criticism from governments in the region.
Washington has yet to make public any evidence that its targets were smuggling narcotics or posed a threat to the US.
You can read the full story here:
Donald Trump has said he feels bad for the British royal family after King Charles stripped his brother Andrew of his title as prince amid the continuing fallout over Andrew’s connections with the late, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One on Sunday evening, Trump was asked about King Charles’s decision to strip his brother of his peerages and the title of prince.
“It’s a terrible thing that’s happened to the (royal) family,” the US president said. “That’s been a tragic situation. It’s too bad. I feel badly for the family.”
Andrew was accused by Virginia Giuffre of sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager and claims she was trafficked by Epstein to have sex with the former prince. Andrew has strenuously denied the allegations.
Pressure is building on Andrew to give evidence before a powerful US congressional committee. Members of the House Oversight Committee have called for the former prince to reveal what he knew about the actions of Epstein.
Updated
Trump's planned weapons tests won't include 'nuclear explosions', US energy secretary says
The US energy secretary, Chris Wright, has said the weapons testing that Donald Trump ordered last week will not include nuclear explosions.
“I think the tests we’re talking about right now are system tests. These are not nuclear explosions. These are what we call noncritical explosions,” Wright told Fox News yesterday.
“So you’re testing all the other parts of a nuclear weapon to make sure they deliver the appropriate geometry, and they set up the nuclear explosion,” Wright added.
Wright, whose agency is responsible for testing, said the planned testing involves “all the other parts of a nuclear weapon to make sure they deliver the appropriate geometry and they set up the nuclear explosion.”
The confusion over Trump’s intention started minutes before he held a critical meeting in South Korea with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump took to his Truth Social platform and appeared to suggest he was preparing to discard a decades-old US prohibition on testing the nation’s nuclear weapons.
Updated
As we mentioned in the opening summary, two federal judges have ruled that the government cannot suspend food aid used by about 42 million low-income Americans during the shutdown.
Here is more on the story, courtesy of my colleague Lauren Gambino:
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has said insufficient funds exist to pay full benefits, as issuing food stamps costs the public purse between $8.5bn and $9bn every month.
The Trump administration contends the agency lacks authority to pay them until Congress passes a spending bill that will ending the enduring government shutdown, which began on 1 October.
Trump lambasted the decisions on Friday, writing on Truth Social that he does “NOT want Americans to go hungry just because the Radical Democrats refuse to do the right thing and REOPEN THE GOVERNMENT”.
“I have instructed our lawyers to ask the Court to clarify how we can legally fund SNAP as soon as possible. It is already delayed enough due to the Democrats keeping the Government closed through the monthly payment date and, even if we get immediate guidance, it will unfortunately be delayed while States get the money out,” he wrote.
“If we are given the appropriate legal direction by the Court, it will BE MY HONOR to provide the funding, just like I did with Military and Law Enforcement Pay.”
US government shutdown nearing record for the longest in history as Trump delays food benefits to millions
Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage of US politics.
Republicans are claiming that the US president, Donald Trump, is “desperate” to end the government shutdown, which has now entered its 33rd day, as lawmakers struggle to find common ground on previously bipartisan issues such as food aid and health care.
The last shutdown, which started in December 2018 and was brought about by disagreements over money to fund a wall along the US-Mexico border, lasted 35 days – the longest in American history.
Republicans have only 53 Senate seats, meaning they need at least seven Democrats or independents to reopen the federal government. But in repeated votes since federal agencies shut on 1 October, just three Democrats have been willing to support funding legislation.
Trump continues to exert an iron grip on the shutdown, which sees Democrats and Republicans stuck over passing a spending plan that would reopen federal agencies. He is resisting political and even federal court pressure to ease the burden on vulnerable Americans while protesting that he has no power to end the impasse.
“I mean, the Republicans are voting almost unanimously to end it, and the Democrats keep voting against ending it,” Trump told 60 Minutes in an interview on Sunday. “You know, they’ve never had this. This has happened like 18 times before. The Democrats always voted for an extension, always saying, ‘Give us an extension, we’ll work it out.’”
Two federal court judges ruled on Friday that the Trump administration must use $5bn in contingency funds to keep paying food assistance Snap benefits for up to 42 million low-income Americans. The payments stopped Saturday under the shutdown, posing the risk of hunger for millions of people.
As my colleague Ed Pilkington reports in this story, despite the two court orders, it remains unclear when or whether the administration will restart the payments. Trump has said he is waiting for clarification from the federal judges on where the money should come from.
Stay with us as we bring you the latest developments from Washington.
