Attachment 2577736

A SHUTDOWN LIKE NO OTHER

By Emptywheel

Yesterday, at 5:46PM, the Senate rejected a cloture vote on the Democratic continuing resolution, which in addition to funding government, would extend healthcare support and prohibit impoundment. It was a party line vote.

Yesterday, at 6:41PM, the Senate rejected a cloture vote on the Republican continuing resolution. Three Democrats voted with 52 Republicans in favor:

Catherine Cortez Masto
John Fetterman
Angus King

Rand Paul voted with Democrats against.

And so, at midnight, nonessential functions of the Federal government started to shut down.

Both NYT and WaPo have pieces explaining that polarization is at the core of the shutdown. That’s facile. Three Democrats, certainly moderates, already did vote with Republicans. The six who voted to let Republicans vote for the continuing resolution (and in Jeanne Shaheen’s case, also for the CR) in March — Dick Durbin, Kirsten Gillibrand, Maggie Hassan, Gary Peters, Brian Schatz, as well as Chuck Schumer — could well cave now, though several of these (at least Durbin and Schatz) did so from an institutionalist view rather than a centrist one. The truly radical edges of Senate which are, with perhaps only Bernie as the exception, on the far right, have always been the ones to push for a shutdown in the past.

One reason we don’t know how things will go is that the conventional wisdom about shutdowns may — may — no longer apply. In my opinion, a lot will depend on what becomes visible because of the shutdown, a lot will depend on how far public opinion deviates, and in which direction, from beltway conventional wisdom.

Seeing Russ Vought

Start with Russ Vought. To my mind, too few Democrats have framed their primary message — that this is a fight to actually return to existing funding levels before the Big Ugly Bill stripped healthcare from millions of Americans and from rural hospitals — to include the power of the purse. That is, almost no one is being told that the issue, and one of two main differences in the competing continuing resolutions, pertains to protecting Congress’ power of the purse.

The SCOTUS shadow docket opinion permitting Vought to usurp that power as the case moves forward has raised the stakes of this for Democrats and, as this Politico article lays out, made it easier for them to explain the stakes.

Now the Supreme Court’s brief but potent ruling last Friday giving Trump the thumbs up to withhold $4 billion is serving as lighter fluid for Democrats’ escalating rage.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), a senior appropriator, called the Supreme Court decision “an absurdity” and “a pile of garbage,” adding that the justices were in effect dabbling at “policymaking — not constitutional law.”

The battle to rein in Trump and White House budget director Russ Vought through a piece of must-pass legislation has been eclipsed by Democrats’ larger push to extend expanded Affordable Care Act tax credits that are due to expire at the end of the year.

But Democrats are seething about the Supreme Court’s “shadow docket” opinion, arguing that Trump and the high court are ignoring the intent of the 1974 law designed to prevent presidents from withholding federal cash. And they see themselves as the last line of defense.

“He is unchecked at this point,” Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), another senior appropriator, said of Trump in an interview. “We have to check him. No one should have that kind of power.”

Angus King’s feckless explanation for why he voted with Republicans unintentionally makes the political case why.

B]y shutting the government, we’re actually giving Donald Trump more power. And that was why I voted yes. I did not want to hand Donald Trump and Russell Vought and Stephen Miller additional power to decimate the federal government, to decimate the programs that are so important to so many people.

Here is what Donald Trump said just this afternoon: ‘We can do things during a shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them. He means the Democrats like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like. We can do things medically in other ways, including benefits we can cut numbers of people out.’

Maya Angelou once said, ‘If someone tells you who they are, you should believe them.’ Donald Trump, in this quote, tells us what he plans to do if there’s a shutdown and it will not be good for the American people. This was a difficult vote, but in the end, I could not, in good conscience, vote to shut the government down and hand even greater power to the trio of Donald Trump, Stephen Miller and Russell Vought. This was a vote of conscience on behalf of the State of Maine and the people of the United States.

It is absolutely true that Trump gets to decide which government functions are essential and non-essential. It is absolutely the case that ICE will be on the streets even while Courts will soon have to work at a slower pace, meaning it will be harder to get emergency orders preventing imminent harm, as the ACLU was able to do within hours of the March shutdown.

But King is failing basic civics if he thinks this shutdown gives Russ Vought any new power than he had yesterday, any more power than he was usurping yesterday, a point the American Prospect made yesterday.

That Supreme Court ruling involved $4 billion in foreign aid funding that the administration semi-formally tried to rescind; it doesn’t include the $410 billion that the White House has simply withheld from programs across the country. That represents close to half of all outlays in the fiscal year 2025 nondefense discretionary budget, which have simply vanished, perhaps permanently after the last day of the fiscal year, which is today. The Office of Management and Budget, as Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) has explained, has offered no explanation of how money is being spent or where withheld spending is going.

About 12 percent of the federal workforce has been terminated. Last week, we heard threats from OMB director Russ Vought that a shutdown will really allow the Office of Management and Budget to fire workers. A shutdown provides no actual legal authority to fire federal employees, but then again there was no legal authority to rescind or withhold appropriated spending without congressional approval, or put workers on extended administrative leave, as they did with the unauthorized buyout back in January.

As Daniel Schuman points out, Vought presented guidance to agencies in February that they should prepare for mass layoffs by today, September 30. Any allegedly shutdown-induced “mass layoff” should be seen as the continuation of an existing plan that has been public for seven months.

The larger point is that the government is already shut down, and has been for several months, as the Trump administration initiated an assault on this system of government. Activities deemed “essential” by the president—stalking immigrants, lobbing missiles at Iran, etc.—have gone on, but activities purported to conflict with the president’s policies, regardless of whether they have been authorized by the lawmaking body of the United States, have been stopped, interrupted only by occasional federal courts telling the president that doing so is illegal, which the Supreme Court subsequently brushes aside.

The shutdown can certainly be used rhetorically to justify more firings, but they’re just the same firings with a different rationale, one that is no more legal or legitimate than before. Of course, “legal” and “legitimate” are loaded words given the rubber-stampers at the Supreme Court.

What changes with Trump’s promise that he’s going to start retaliating against Democrats — on top of the fact that 40% of the workers he will be targeting are Trump voters and on top of the fact that the policies he will target are the ones that help average Americans and so are popular — is that to use this as leverage, Trump has to claim credit.

Trump has to make visible all the damage he’s doing to the services government offers.

That doesn’t change the legal reality (that, with SCOTUS’ blessing, Trump is usurping the constitutional powers of Congress). It has the ability to change the politics. It’ll be DOGE all over again, where Elon Musk’s loud bragging about the damage he was doing made him an easy political target.

Now it’s Russ Vought’s turn to become the villain in the popular understanding.

Live by healthcare and die without it

Progressives have hated the Democratic focus on healthcare (and it didn’t even keep all 47 Democratic Senators on board).

But now everyone is stuck with those terms and it is time to exploit it. The longer this shutdown goes, the more obvious the initial effects of the Big Ugly bill in terms of rural hospital shutdowns and expiring subsidies for ACA premiums will become.

It makes it easy to demonstrate — as Tammy Duckworth did here — how badly Republican members of Congress are screwing over their own constituents.

Every single Republican, starting from Trump’s Wormtongue, is claiming that the Americans who rely on ACA are “illegal.” It’s an atrocious claim, and those who do rely on ACA should easily be able to demonstrate how grotesque this is.

If you have a Republican member of Congress, either House or Senate, please take time to — as visibly as possible, whether on Xitter, a poster by their office, over a beer with your MAGAt brother, or at least in a call to their office — to push back on one of these claims. If you rely on ACA, post a picture of yourself with your military medals or your “I voted” sticker. You won’t convince them. You’ll raise the political price of this cynical bullshit.

Finally, if by some miracle Democrats do get enough leverage to force Republicans to negotiate , it could rupture the lockstep unity that Republicans have achieved this year, because right wingers don’t want healthcare subsidies in any case.

The year-end expiration of health insurance subsidies first created under the Affordable Care Act is already splitting the GOP, seeming to vindicate Democrats’ decision to predicate their shutdown messaging on extending the tax credits.

Republican leaders have been trying to punt the issue as they work to force Democratic senators to swallow a seven-week stopgap measure ahead of the midnight deadline, insisting they will not broach the subject while agencies are closed.

But top Democrats said they heard a different message Monday in their Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump, leaving the sitdown convinced he’s willing to negotiate on the expiring tax credits in the weeks ahead.

That is already raising alarms among conservative Republicans, who despise the 2010 Democratic health care law known as Obamacare and who would be more than happy to see a 2021 enhancement of the premium tax credits sunset cold turkey on Dec. 31.

“The right proposal is to let them expire,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said Tuesday. “It’s been a complete fraud. People don’t even know they have these policies. So the right thing is to let them expire.”

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a leader of the hard-right House GOP faction, urged party leaders not to cut an “11th hour” deal on “Covid-era inflationary subsidies” in an X post Sunday.

“We’ve never voted for them. We shouldn’t now,” he said. “Do. Not. Blink.”

But Trump — who has veered the GOP away from anti-entitlement rhetoric on programs like Social Security and Medicaid — has not publicly ruled out an extension of the expanded tax credits, which benefit about 20 million Americans. Instead, in recent days, he has kept his public comments focused on purported Democratic efforts to benefit undocumented immigrants, who are already barred from receiving the

We’re all stuck with healthcare being the focus of this shutdown. And, like it or not, it provides a number of points of leverage, both for members of Congress but — just as importantly — for citizens to pressure their own members of Congress.

Building malaise

And all this happens on top of building malaise that has — finally!! — led some MAGAts to start souring on Donald Trump. WaPo unpacked some of the reasons why in this profile of two MAGA voters that explores why 25% of Trump voters are angry about his economy. Much of it stems from the way tariffs are making it impossible for these two to run their small businesses, a florist and a funeral parlor.

A quarter of conservative voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy, polling shows, as tariffs upend business and lower-income Americans cut back their spending. And a recent outcry from MAGA voters and influencers over the Epstein files demonstrates the pressure Trump is under to deliver for his base — which the GOP needs to energize and turn out in the 2026 midterms and beyond.

Jessie said she planned to oppose her local congressman in next year’s GOP primary, upset by his stance on the Epstein files, and she wasn’t sure she could trust Trump’s vice president, JD Vance, who many believe will run to succeed Trump.

Carter, 37, who runs the local funeral home, also voted for Trump last year, believing he would be good for the economy. Now tariffs are pushing up prices for one of his suppliers, and Carter isn’t sure how long he can hold off raising his own rates. The tariffs, he said, “seemed unplanned and childish.”

“I’m not an economist,” he added. “Probably going to hurt before it gets better.”

“But we also really don’t have a suggestion on how to fix that,” Jessie interjected. “We don’t understand enough about it.”


But Epstein and Trump’s dangerous foreign policy is another.

But Carter felt sometimes that Trump was too focused on immigration. Jessie listened to influencers such as Joe Rogan, Theo Von and Tucker Carlson, who often aligned with Trump but sometimes voiced concerns: Was it really “America First” for Trump to bomb Iran? Why hadn’t the Trump administration released the full Epstein files? (Officials released some files this year, but critics called them underwhelming.)
Jessie and Carter were sitting in the living room one day in July when Jessie saw a reference on Facebook to Trump’s latest Truth Social post. Republicans and Democrats alike were pressing for more information on Epstein, and Trump was furious.

“Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker,” Trump wrote.

“Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success,” the presidentcontinued, “because I don’t want their support anymore!”

Jessie turned to her husband.

“It’s gotta be fake,” she said.

For as long as the shutdown lasts, Democrats will be able to point to Mike Johnson’s efforts to delay the swearing in of Adelita Grijalva, who would have been the final signature on the dispatch petition to force the government to release their files, as part of his effort to cover up for a sex trafficker.

And during the shutdown, there will continue to be disclosures, such as the recent news that Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Steve Bannon are all in the Epstein files. Todd Blanche asked Ghislaine Maxwell about Musk (who in any case denies he traveled to Epstein’s island), but did not ask about Thiel and Bannon, suggesting that Thiel’s funding of the sex trafficker may be among the things the Trump Administration is trying to hide. And Tara Palmeri just revealed that the deciding vote in the Senate against releasing the files, Lisa Murkowski, may implicate ties Murkowski has to Ghislaine’s spouse. Just today, WSJ described how many more banks were happy to do business with a convicted sex trafficker after Epstein was convicted.

Then there’s the Argentine bailout. While Treasury has not yet released guidelines on the bailout (it has, however, posted Todd Bessent’s positively craven speech to explain why Javier Milei warranted an Atlantic Council global citizenship award), when Bessent announced the bailout on Xitter, he described that Argentina was “a systemically important U.S. ally,” the kind of language that suggests he can orchestrate this bailout (ahead of an election in 25 days) even in spite of the shutdown.

This is the kind of story that can fester.

As Politico described, Republicans are already outraged that Trump is bailing out Argentina even as Argentina poaches America’s soybean markets

[P]owerful agriculture groups and their Republican allies in Congress are also sounding alarms about the deal.

“Why would USA help bail out Argentina while they take American soybean producers’ biggest market??? We shld use leverage at every turn to help hurting farm economy Family farmers shld be top of mind in negotiations by representatives of USA,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said on X Thursday.

Grassley said farmers were “very upset” about Argentina “selling soybeans to China right after USA bail out.”

The American Soybean Association said Argentina, a major agricultural producer, sold 20 shiploads of soybeans to China around the same time Bessent announced the U.S. was exploring a financial package. The transaction was eased by Buenos Aires waiving taxes on its soybean exports. China has turned to other major soybean exporters, such as Argentina and Brazil amid a trade war with the U.S.

The White House directed POLITICO to Trump’s comments in the Oval Office on Thursday, where he said he’d use some of the windfall from tariffs to support U.S. farmers. The White House added that the administration believes an Argentine economic collapse would hurt U.S. farmers more by lowering the price of Argentine agricultural commodities. Treasury did not comment.

A person familiar with the discussions within the Trump administration about Argentina, indicated Milei’s star has dimmed in some corners in the administration. The person, who was granted anonymity to speak freely about the administration’s evolving approach to Argentina, said this policy is being mainly pursued by Treasury and expressed concerns about Milei’s ability to actually lift his country out of its economic doldrums.

“Milei is done politically, his sister is corrupt, his finance minister is an insider trader, and they have pissed away $15 billion in IMF money and $15 billion in central bank reserves propping up a crap currency, and now Treasury wants American taxpayers to double down on stupid,” the person said. The person added that Milei “was a fraud. Came in, betrayed all the conservatives and libertarians that supported him … it’s all a wash.”

Democrats are not letting this one slide. Not only did Elizabeth Warren (predictably) start the pushback on it, but fourteen Democrats, including Schumer, wrote a letter to Bessent making a stink about about it.

American farmers are confronting unprecedented challenges under your sweeping and uncertain trade policies. Across-the-board tariffs are increasing the cost of critical inputs farmers need to produce a crop, like fertilizer and equipment, at the same time retaliatory tariffs are making U.S. agricultural products less competitive and putting key export markets at risk. Nearly 20 percent of U.S. farm production is typically sold to customers abroad. With those markets in jeopardy, farmers and businesses across the agricultural supply chain are now facing falling commodity prices and shrinking profit margins, while farm debt, bankruptcy rates, and distressed operations are rising across the country. Soybean producers have been particularly affected, as China – historically our largest agricultural export market – has purchased no U.S. soybeans since May and bought 51 percent less through July compared to the same period last year.

Despite the crisis facing our farmers, your attention appears to be elsewhere: last Monday, September 22, your Administration announced it “stands ready to do what is needed” to bail out Argentina amidst the country’s economic turmoil. Argentina’s President, Javier Milei, is notably one of your close personal friends and ideological allies and faces a crucial midterm election on October 26.

Immediately following your Administration’s announcement regarding potential U.S. financial support for Argentina, Argentina suspended export taxes on soybeans, corn, wheat, and other agricultural commodities. Argentina’s policy change had immediate consequences for American farmers. Argentine agricultural products are now significantly more competitive on global markets, and Chinese buyers have reportedly purchased up to 40 cargoes of soybeans from Argentina in just one week. Now, even after Argentina suspended its export duties, your Administration is moving full steam ahead with its plans to offer financial assistance to the tune of $20 billion – rewarding a country that has implemented policies that directly disadvantage American farmers in favor of our competitors.

It is unclear why you are choosing to use taxpayer dollars to bolster the reelection campaign of a foreign president while they take steps to undermine U.S. farmers. As the American Soybean Association put it last week: “U.S. soybean prices are falling; harvest is underway; and farmers read headlines not about securing a trade agreement with China, but that the U.S. government is extending $20 billion in economic support to Argentina.”

Rather than reversing course on tariffs or abandoning your plans to bail out Argentina, you are reportedly planning to provide American farmers with an aid package, nominally paid for with tariff revenues. Farmers want fair trade and steady markets, not tariff uncertainty and short-term aid payments. The best way to support American producers would be to end your chaotic tariff policies that are hamstringing farmers in the first place. Meanwhile, your Administration has failed to reach any trade deal with China that would restore market access for U.S. soybean farmers.
Even Ruben Gallego, who didn’t sign the letter, is willing to shittalk about it.

All that’s before anyone looks closely at Bessent’s own personal stake in this bailout, which Judd Legum explained.

Bessent’s announcement had massive economic benefits for one American: billionaire hedge fund manager Rob Citrone, who has placed large bets on the future of the Argentine economy. Citrone, the co-founder of Discovery Capital Management, is also a friend and former colleague of Bessent—a fact that has not been previously reported in American media outlets. Citrone, by his own account, helped make Bessent very wealthy.

Since Javier Milei, a right-wing populist, became president of Argentina in December 2023, Citrone has invested heavily in Argentina. Citrone has bought Argentine debt and purchased equity in numerous Argentine companies that are closely tied to the performance of the overall economy. Due to Argentina’s massive debt load and chaotic economic history — in 2023, Argentina’s inflation rate was over 200% — Citrone purchased Argentine bonds with an interest rate of nearly 20%. (Citrone has declined to detail exactly “how much of the $2.8 billion he manages is invested“ in Argentina.)

Citrone, who is also a minority owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers, is effectively betting on Milei’s right-wing economic program, which emphasizes deregulation and sharply reduced government spending. Citrone viewed “the probability of default as minuscule,” even though Argentina has defaulted on its debts many times in the past.

In the short term, this appeared to be a savvy investment. After taking office, Milei fired tens of thousands of government workers, cut spending on welfare and research, and achieved fiscal balance. Inflation was reduced to around 40%, which spurred economic growth and foreign investment. Argentina’s economic rebound contributed to Discovery Capital’s 52% return in 2024.

Then it all came crashing down.

[snip]

In early September, days before Bessent’s announcement, Citrone purchased more Argentine bonds.

Bessent’s personal and professional relationship with Citrone has spanned decades. In a May 14 appearance on the “Goldman Sachs Exchanges” podcast, Citrone revealed how he delivered a financial windfall for Bessent. They were both working for investor George Soros in 2013 when Citrone convinced Bessent and Soros to bet on the U.S. dollar against the Japanese yen.

[snip]

When Argentina’s economy began to falter in April, it was Citrone who “intervened before Scott Bessent…to advocate for an IMF agreement with Argentina,” CE Noticias Financieras reported. Bessent subsequently played a key role in convincing the IMF to extend a separate $20 billion currency stabilization package. (That package ultimately proved insufficient to stabilize the Argentine peso.)

As Legum describes, there’s also a tie with the much more visible CPAC.

As Gallego made clear: Donald Trump is paying for Argentines to have better healthcare than Americans even while Americans start to go without basic food support. It’s the kind of sell-out that will infuriate Trump’s base.

Finally, consider how a longer shutdown will work.

ICE is funded. Not only would Trump declare ICE essential in any case, many of their operations were funded by the very same Big Ugly bill that cut healthcare.

And so ICE goons will still be wandering the streets, kidnapping people’s grannies, hospitalizing journalists, with their butt cracks and beer bellies creating a spectacle that sours people on ICE. And that will be happening even as people start losing essential benefits.

Nothing will demonstrate more starkly Trump’s — Stephen Miller’s, really — promise of government. Miller wants government to do nothing but kidnap brown people, even as working white people lose their safety net and pay higher prices.

No one knows how this shutdown will go. It truly is unlike any shutdown that has gone before.

But it will serve to make the reality of Trump’s abuse of power visible in a way that has not fully happened yet.

Attachment 2577735

Ty Cobb, who was a White House lawyer during Trump's first term as president, left this comment under an acquaintance's private Facebook post.

By Anna Rascouët-Paz

Claim:

In early July 2025, former Trump White House lawyer Ty Cobb said Trump was "worse than anyone in our history."

Rating: Correct Attribution

During the summer of 2025, a claim spread that attorney Ty Cobb, former counsel at the White House during U.S. President Donald Trump's first term, said that the president was "worse than anyone in our history."

For example, a post on Facebook shared the supposed quote:

[Trump] is worse than anyone in our history in my experience and opinion. As people seem to have forgotten, I was very critical of Biden and despite knowing him and his family well, I spent 4 years writing about his cognitive decline and weak foreign policy. He had competent advisors though including very decent men as AG and head of the FBI. While you could fairly question their effectiveness you couldn't doubt their character. Trump has real contempt for the country, appoints wholly unqualified people to key positions and just kicked 12 million people off Medicaid, eliminated child food support and killed worldwide healthcare efforts monitoring pandemic producing diseases including Ebola (among countless other dangerous things).

Other Facebook posts relayed the alleged quote, and it also appeared on X and Reddit. The rumor seemingly first appeared in a July 5, 2025.

Cobb confirmed the quote was correctly attributed. "I didn't realize it was being so widely circulated," he said in an email.

Cobb added that he had written these words in response to an acquaintance's private post on Facebook. While he asked Snopes not to publish the exchange to respect the person's privacy, Snopes was able to see the original comment and verified that the text internet users reproduced and shared matched what Cobb wrote almost word for word — except for the first word. In his original comment, Cobb had written "He," referring to Trump, as the president had been one of the topics of the exchange.

Attachment 2577734


Citadel CEO Ken Griffin said it was "anti-American" for Trump to favor big companies with tariff relief.

He said when the state gets involved, "picking winners and losers," the US as a whole loses.

Trump has offered tariff relief to companies like Apple that have pledged to invest heavily in the US.

By Aditi Bharade

Citadel's CEO said it was "anti-American" for President Donald Trump to give big companies tariff relief.

Ken Griffin, the billionaire CEO and founder of the hedge fund, criticized Trump during a Thursday CNBC interview.

"Is that our country, that we're going to favor the big and the connected? That's not the American story," Griffin said to CNBC.

"When the state becomes involved in picking winners and losers, there's only one way this game ends: All of us lose," he said.

His comments come after Trump said in August that he would impose a 100% tariff on the import of semiconductors, but companies that promised to invest in the US would be exempt from it.

In the same month, Apple announced that it would invest $100 billion in its US facilities, in addition to the $500 billion it pledged in February.

Trump also allowed American chip giants like Nvidia and AMD to sell some chips to China if they agreed to grant the US government a 15% cut of their China revenue.

"The line outside the White House of every business arguing why they should be exempt from paying tariffs on what they import into their products is nauseating," Griffin said to CNBC.

Griffin has previously weighed in on the Trump administration's economic policies.

In September, Griffin co-authored an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal, in which he criticized Trump's attacks on the Federal Reserve's independence. Trump has been pressuring Fed chair Jerome Powell to lower interest rates for months.

"Congress has a duty to oversee the Fed, and this oversight must be free of undue interference from the executive branch," Griffin wrote in the opinion piece.

Attachment 2577733

The Trump administration suffered two legal defeats within hours on Friday, with a federal judge in Rhode Island ruling the president's executive order on "gender ideology" can't be applied to National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grantees.

By James Bickerton

Separately in California, a panel of Ninth Circuit judges affirmed the administration must hand over documents related to the firing of federal workers.

Newsweek contacted the White House and Department of Justice for comment via email and press inquiry form on Saturday, outside of regular office hours.

Why It Matters

With Republicans controlling both the Senate and House of Representatives the courts have emerged as one of the main impediments to Trump administration policy in recent months.

The administration has suffered legal defeats on subjects including the imposition of punitive measures against law firms involved in proceedings against Trump, a bid to strip Haitan migrants of legal protection and sanctions on International Criminal Court employees.

What To Know

In Rhode Island on Friday Senior District Judge William Smith, a federal judge, ruled that President Trump's January 20 executive order titled "Defending woman from gender ideology extremism" couldn't be applied to those given grants by the NEA.

The executive order said the U.S. government only recognizes two genders, male and female, and stated federal funds "shall not be used to promote gender ideology."

In his conclusion, Judge Smith agreed that the NEA disfavoring grant applicants that "promote gender ideology," based on the executive order, would violate the First Amendment and thus can't go ahead.

Friday also saw a panel of Ninth Circuit judges in California rule 2-1 to affirm a lower court decision demanding the Trump administration hand over documents related to the firing of thousands of federal workers.

In April, a coalition of labor groups, non-profits, cities and a Texas county sued the federal government arguing job cuts imposed by Trump were outside his authority according to the Constitution, and also needed Congressional approval.

Sweeping layoffs took place across the federal government following Trump's second presidential inauguration in January, spearheaded by the newly created and Elon Musk led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

What People Are Saying

In his ruling Judge Smith said: "Defendants are therefore enjoined from applying a viewpoint-based standard of review to Plaintiffs that disfavor applications deemed 'to promote gender ideology,' and the Court vacates and sets aside Defendants' current plans to implement the Executive Order."

Writing for the majority in the Ninth Circuit ruling Judge William Fletcher, a President Clinton appointee, said: "We nowhere find clear error by the district court nor a clear entitlement to relief on the part of the government.

"Our denial of mandamus accords with the longstanding presumption that district courts have broad latitude to control discovery matters. Far from abusing its discretion, the district court has exercised care and restraint in managing discovery, affording 'careful consideration' to the government's assertion of privilege."

Plaintiff attorney Elena Goldstein said: "The Trump-Vance administration tried to hide its sweeping plans to dismiss civil servants and dismantle the programs Americans depend on. The court made it clear that these documents—and the truth about what the administration is doing—are essential to this case."

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MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough Puts Wife Mika Brzezinski in Her Place After She Tries to Blame Republicans for Government Shutdown

Joe Scarborough shuts down his wife Mika Brzezinski live on MSNBC after she tries to blame Republicans for the government shutdown.

by Jim Hᴏft
Oct. 1, 2025

It was the clash nobody expected.

Mika Brzezinski thought she could get away with the usual Democrat talking points, pinning the government shutdown on “Republican lies.”

But her husband and co-host, Joe Scarborough, wasn’t having it.

In a brutal on-air smackdown, Joe absolutely STEAMROLLED Mika, reminding her, and the entire Democrat machine, that whining isn’t a strategy.


The clash began when Brzezinski unloaded on Republicans, accusing them of spreading “violent lies” through TV networks.

Mika Brzezinski:
“I also just don’t understand why we’re blaming the Democrats for Republicans lying at the highest level of office. They have the biggest microphone. They have TV networks that repeat the lies and say things on those networks with no consequence.

And the things they say are violent, okay? So they’re not only repeating the lies but adding to this coarseness. And there’s no consequence to it. And we’re blaming the Democrats? We’re blaming the Democrats for this? What exactly are the Democrats supposed to do?”


Joe Scarborough, a former GOP congressman who has long since drifted left, suddenly found himself sounding like the adult in the room.

What was supposed to be Mika’s attack on Republicans turned into a humiliating scolding from her own husband. The split-screen showed Mika stewing as Joe continued to lecture her.

Joe Scarborough:
You keep repeating… they’re supposed to fight back. They’re supposed to, no, they’re supposed to do like…

Mika Brzezinski:
And lie as well? What exactly?

Joe Scarborough:
No! no! Bill Clinton just completely abused and used Republicans in every government shutdown. I know—I was there. He was smart enough politically to do it.

Barack Obama knew how to always get the best of Republicans. We’re not blaming Democrats for Republicans’ lies. We’re saying that Democrats, at some point, have to figure out how to answer those lies. And that’s not whining.

The whining comes from Democratic leaders that still don’t have an answer to Republican lies ten years into Donald Trump’s terms.


WATCH:

Mika Brzezinski just got STEAMROLLED live on MSNBC—by her own husband.

Brzezinski was attempting to pin the government shutdown on “Republican lies” — but Joe Scarborough wasn’t having it.

Within seconds, the back-and-forth turned into a full-blown shouting match.

Joe enters… pic.twitter.com/RNfsJxjKL6

Mika Brzezinski just got STEAMROLLED live on MSNBC—by her own husband.

Brzezinski was attempting to pin the government shutdown on “Republican lies” — but Joe Scarborough wasn’t having it.

Within seconds, the back-and-forth turned into a full-blown shouting match.

Joe enters… pic.twitter.com/RNfsJxjKL6

— Overton (@overton_news) October 1, 2025

— Overton (@overton_news) October 1, 2025


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From The Gateway Pundit
Link: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/202...rzezinski-her/





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OMB Director Russ Vought Strikes Again: Eliminates $8 Billion in Green New Scam Funding to Liberal States

Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought

by Jim Hoft
Oct. 1, 2025

Russ Vought, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), stripped $8 billion in funding for green new scam projects in numerous far left states.

The projects are in the following states: CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, MD, MA, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OR, VT, and WA.


BREAKING: OMB Director Russ Vought just CANCELED $8 BILLION in Green New Scam climate funding during the government shutdown for the following states

CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, MD, MA, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OR, VT, WA

LMAO!

Democrats screwed themselves over now! pic.twitter.com/9MdAHuygfz

🚨 BREAKING: OMB Director Russ Vought just CANCELED $8 BILLION in Green New Scam climate funding during the government shutdown for the following states

CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, MD, MA, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OR, VT, WA

LMAO!

Democrats screwed themselves over now! pic.twitter.com/9MdAHuygfz

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 1, 2025

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 1, 2025



This comes after Vought announced this morning on X that he had frozen about $18 BILLION in infrastructure projects for New York City, saying he was trying to ensure such funding would not go to fund DEI projects.

“Roughly $18 billion in New York City infrastructure projects have been put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing based on unconstitutional DEI principles,” Vought wrote.

“More info to come soon from @USDOT.”


As The Gateway Pundit reported, the Schumer Shutdown took effect at 12:01 am after two measures to avert the government shutdown failed in the Senate.

The measures needed 60 votes to pass. The GOP-backed measure failed to pass in a 55-45 vote – Rand Paul voted with the Democrats.

The Democrat Party and Paul decided to put the welfare of illegal aliens, surgeries for transgender minors, and more garbage ahead of keeping the government running.


Nearly $8 billion in Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left's climate agenda is being cancelled. More info to come from @ENERGY.

The projects are in the following states: CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IL, MD, MA, MN, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OR, VT, WA

— Russ Vought (@russvought) October 1, 2025


Thanks to Democrats, the Trump administration has already saved American taxpayers $24 billion dollars!

This is shaping up to be the greatest government shutdown of all time!


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From The Gateway Pundit
Link: https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/202...-eliminates-8/





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Democrats Double Down On Shutdown Despite Americans’ Healthcare Programs Lapsing







by Daily Caller News Foundation
October 1, 2025

Democrats are justifying shutting down the government to fight for lower healthcare costs, but do not appear to be changing course despite some Americans losing access to healthcare services during the funding lapse.

Telehealth and home care coverage for millions of Medicare beneficiaries expired on Wednesday at midnight due to Democrats tanking a government funding bill that would have extended certain healthcare programs. The Daily Caller News Foundation on Wednesday spoke to more than ten Democrats who signaled they would not relent their hardball tactics despite some seniors losing access to healthcare services and argued that fighting the president was more important.

“It’s really hard,” Democratic Vermont Sen. Peter Welch told the DCNF when asked about millions of Americans losing coverage to certain healthcare services. “Trump has put us in this horrible position. Where do we appease him when there’s no end to his demands or do we have a shutdown?”

“We’ve chosen to stand and fight,” Welch continued. “But [it’s a] very, very difficult situation for the country.”

Democratic Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego made a similar argument while defending his party’s effort to shut down the government over various healthcare priorities.

“It’s tough obviously,” Gallego told the DCNF when asked about certain Americans losing access to healthcare services during the shutdown. “It’s just really — it’s hard.”

A handful of Senate Democrats have sharply criticized their colleagues for letting Americans lose certain benefits during a shutdown.

“Our goal is to do our jobs. It is not to have trade-offs,” Democratic Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto told the DCNF when asked about members of her caucus appearing torn over Medicare recipients’ benefits lapsing.

“And what I mean by this is to harm some Americans so that we can help others,” Cortez Masto continued. “Our goal should be avoiding that and helping everyone.”

Cortez Masto is one of three Democratic caucus members who has broken with her party to fund the government. She has argued that a funding lapse would be “costly” for her constituents.

Gallego and Welch have taken a different approach, voting with Schumer to keep the government shutdown — and certain government healthcare programs frozen — on Wednesday.

Democrats’ $1.5 trillion counter-proposal that Republicans have declared dead-on-arrival also reauthorized the programs.

Advocates of extending telehealth coverage for Medicare beneficiaries slammed lawmakers for failing to meet the Sept. 30 deadline and reauthorize the program.

“Medicare patients woke up this morning without telehealth coverage for the first time since the pandemic, five years ago,” Kyle Zebley, executive director, American Telehealth Association (ATA) Action and senior vice president, public policy at the ATA, said in a statement on Wednesday. “Our healthcare services are regressing, falling woefully short for millions of patients in need.”

The Acute Care Hospital at Home initiative, which allows certain Medicare recipients to receive in-patient level care at home, also lapsed Wednesday at midnight. The lapse in the program’s authorization could disrupt care for many Medicare recipients with more than 400 facilities across 39 states are enrolled in the program

A major hospital system in Boston, Massachusetts, halted admissions into its hospital at home program on Saturday in preparation for Congress failing to extend the program, Stat News first reported.

Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren blamed Republicans for certain Medicare benefits expiring when asked by the DCNF.

“We understand how badly the healthcare system is working, but it’s going to be so much worse if the Republicans continue on this path of cutting healthcare for millions of Americans,” Warren said.

Other Democratic lawmakers’ sought to blame Republicans for certain healthcare programs expiring despite repeatedly voting against a stopgap measure that would have extended them.

“Let’s be clear: the reason we’re here is because Republicans refuse to negotiate with Democrats to keep the government open and address these increased healthcare costs for families,” Democratic California Sen. Alex Padilla told the DCNF.

Padilla has voted against a bipartisan spending bill to fund the government three times.

Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy told the DCNF that he had not seen reporting that healthcare services were being frozen due to the shutdown and could not speak to the issue.

“I haven’t seen any list of, you know, services they’re cutting,” Murphy said. The Connecticut Democrat blamed the Trump administration for telehealth and home care coverage lapsing despite the services being frozen due to the Democrats’ votes for a shutdown.

Democratic California Sen. Adam Schiff did not speak after hearing the DCNF’s question about healthcare services lapsing during the shutdown.

A spokesperson for Schiff did not respond to a request for comment before publication.

Senate Republicans have argued that the political fallout for Democrats shutting down the government will ultimately become so overwhelming that the party will cave and restore government funding.

The New York Times published a survey on Tuesday that found 65% of Americans oppose Democrats’ shutting down the government if all of their policy “demands are not met.”

“Ultimately, members are going to see the damage that their shutdown is causing to the American people, whether it’s veterans who aren’t getting health care, whether it’s [the] military who aren’t going to get paychecks, and they’re going to see that it’s time to reopen the government,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, the second-ranking Senate Republican, told reporters on Wednesday.


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From Daily Caller News Foundation
Link: https://ijr.com/no-one-seems-to-be-w...-for-shutdown/






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Majority Of Americans Do Not Want Democrat Government Shutdown: POLL









By Daily Caller News Foundation
Oct. 01, 2025

The majority of Americans do not support Democrats shutting down the government, according to a New York Times/Siena University poll released Tuesday.

Sixty-five percent of Americans said Democrats should not shut down the government even if “their demands are not met,” according to the survey. Meanwhile, 27% of respondents said they supported Democrats shutting down the government, while 7% said they did not know or refused to answer, the poll found.

New York Times Poll:

65% of Americans say, “the Democrats should not shut down the government, even if their demands are not met.” pic.twitter.com/x3CFjzqgm6

— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) September 30, 2025

Moreover, 43% of Democrats said that they agreed members of their own party should not shut down the government, compared with 92% of Republicans and 59% of independents who said they did not back a Democratic-supported shutdown, according to the poll. The survey conversely found that 47% — a plurality — of Democrats would support the Democratic Party shutting down the government, while 32% of independent voters would support a shutdown and just 5% of Republicans said the same.

🚨 POLL: 65% of Americans say Democrats SHOULD NOT shut down the government pic.twitter.com/9schOzvYfV

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) September 30, 2025

President Donald Trump’s overall approval rating was 43%, according to the poll.

The newly-released poll comes shortly before the government is barreling towards a shutdown on Wednesday if Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats do not approve a stopgap funding plan which would temporarily fund government operations until Nov. 21. The clean GOP spending bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), was notably opposed by almost all Democrats on Sept. 19.

Senate Democrats instead put forth their own spending plan including a spate of left-wing policies, which the GOP-controlled Senate rejected on the same day.

“The clean, nonpartisan, House-passed CR is sitting at the desk in the Senate right now. It could be picked up and passed, and the government would stay open,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune wrote Tuesday in a post to X. “The ball is in the Democrats’ court. But Chuck Schumer wants a Schumer shutdown.”

Similarly, Thune wrote Monday in an op-ed for the Washington Post that “there is no reason” a government shutdown “needs to happen.”

Though, Schumer has continued to insist that Trump and the GOP would be to blame if a government shutdown occurs. Schumer wrote in a Monday X post that if the government shuts down, it is because “Republicans would rather shut it down rather than help people afford health care.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Tuesday that Democrats “are in this fight until we win this fight,” in reference to the ongoing government funding battle.

“The lunatics on the left are running the Democrat Party, and they’re running our country straight into a shutdown,” National Republican Congressional Committee Spokesman Mike Marinella said Tuesday in a statement provided to the DCNF. “It’s clear their ‘leaders’ will side with their radical base over hardworking Americans any chance they get.”


The NYT/Siena University survey of 1,313 voters across the U.S. was conducted in English and Spanish by live operators on cell phones and landline telephones and online via text message from Sept. 22 to 27. The poll’s margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points among registered voters.


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From Daily Caller News Foundation
Link: https://dailycaller.com/2025/09/30/g...wn-siena-poll/






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Sole House Democrat Who Voted To Keep Government Open Blames Far-Left Groups For Shutdown










by Daily Caller News Foundation
October 1, 2025

Democratic Maine Rep. Jared Golden said Wednesday that the government shutdown has been “driven” by the “demands” of “far-left groups.”

Golden was the sole Democrat to vote in favor of House Republicans’ stopgap funding plan on Sept. 19. The congressman’s comments come after Senate Democrats blocked a GOP spending bill to fund the government late Tuesday evening, kicking off a government shutdown on Wednesday.

“This government shutdown is the result of hardball politics driven by the demands far-left groups are making for Democratic Party leaders to put on a show of their opposition to President [Donald] Trump,” Golden wrote in a statement posted to X. “The shutdown is hurting Americans and our economy, and the irony is it has only handed more power to the president.”

This government shutdown is the result of hardball politics driven by the demands far-left groups are making for Democratic Party leaders to put on a show of their opposition to President Trump.

The shutdown is hurting Americans and our economy, and the irony is it has only…

— Congressman Jared Golden (@RepGolden) October 1, 2025

“This fight is ostensibly about health care, so let me be clear: I opposed the GOP’s Medicaid cuts and I want to extend the ACA tax credits. But some of my colleagues in the majority party have reasonable concerns about tax credits going to high-income households. There’s room and time to negotiate. But normal policy disagreements are no reason to subject our constituents to the continued harm of this shutdown,” the congressman’s post continued.

Golden represents a seat which Trump won by nine points in the 2024 presidential election.

The Democratic lawmaker wrote in part of a statement following the vote that “there’s a lot of important work to be done in Congress, none of which will be any easier if Mainers are suffering the harms of a government shutdown.”

“Even Democrats admit it: the shutdown is THEIR fault. Rep. Jared Golden says it’s driven by far-left demands & political games,” Republican Michigan Rep. Lisa McClain said Wednesday in a post to X. “Families suffer while Hakeem, Schumer and Dems play politics.”

Several analysts and Republican lawmakers previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer chose to bring on a government shutdown as part of an effort to appease the wishes of far-left Democrats.

Indivisible, a left-wing group that has received millions in grants from the George Soros-founded Open Society Foundations, made headlines for running a campaign to pressure Democratic senators to not vote for a GOP-backed funding proposal to avert a shutdown. As of Wednesday afternoon, Indivisible has a landing page on its website titled, “STOP THE TRUMP SHUTDOWN.”

Just three Democratic Caucus members voted alongside Republicans to prevent a government shutdown on Tuesday evening: Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Angus King of Maine.

On Tuesday, Fetterman said in part of a statement that his vote “was for our country over my party,” while Cortez Masto said in a press release that she “cannot support a costly shutdown that would hurt Nevada families and hand even more power to this reckless administration.” Meanwhile, King — an independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats — claimed in a Tuesday statement that “by shutting the government,” Democrats are “actually giving [President] Donald Trump more power.”

A New York Times/Siena University survey released Tuesday found that 65% of respondents said Democrats should not plunge the nation into a government shutdown even if “their demands are not met.”


Additionally, House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday in an X post that “Democrats are holding the American government HOSTAGE with wild partisan demands.”

This morning @HouseGOP and @SenateGOP STOOD UNITED for the American people as the Democrat-led government shutdown begins.

Democrats are holding the American government HOSTAGE with wild partisan demands — including giving taxpayer-funded benefits to illegal aliens.

Senate… pic.twitter.com/IJ2unMZ8lw

— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) October 1, 2025

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From Daily Caller News Foundation
Link: https://ijr.com/sole-house-democrat-...-for-shutdown/






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Hung Cao, Navy Vet And Former Republican Candidate, Confirmed As Undersecretary Of Navy









by Daily Caller News Foundation
October 1, 2025

The Senate voted Wednesday to confirm retired Navy captain and former Republican Senate candidate in Virginia Hung Cao as the Undersecretary of the Navy.

The vote went along party lines, 52 in favor and 45 against, with Republican Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski being the only GOP dissenter, according to the official tally. Cao has long advocated for reforming the military to focus on lethality and rebuilding the lagging U.S. Navy amid a massive Chinese naval buildup threatening Indo-pacific security.

The confirmation comes amid the first day of a government shutdown caused by congressional Democrats refusing to authorize a continuing resolution to fund the government. The shutdown is the first since 2019.

The Undersecretary of the Navy is the number two office in the branch’s secretariat, serving under Navy Secretary John Phelan.

“Years of neglect and mismanagement have resulted in ships that cannot get underway, aircrafts that cannot fly and submarines that cannot dive because we have deferred maintenance requirements as a cost cutting tool,” Cao said during his confirmation hearing in June. “We cannot solve the problems of tomorrow with the solutions of the yesterday.”

The Secretary of the Navy’s office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.


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From Daily Caller News Foundation
Link: https://ijr.com/hung-cao-navy-vet-an...etary-of-navy/





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Attachment 2577603

Labor unions representing hundreds of thousands of government employees sued the Trump administration over its threats to fire federal workers during the government shutdown.

By Avery Lotz

The American Federation of Government Employees and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees argue that the White House’s directives are unlawful and politically motivated.

The shutdown began after the Senate failed to pass a funding bill Tuesday. No compromise is currently in sight. The lawsuit names the Office of Management and Budget, led by Russell Vought, and the Office of Personnel Management, led by Scott Kupor, as defendants. It challenges an OMB memorandum urging agencies to issue “Reduction in Force” notices to employees in programs not aligned with the president’s priorities.

Union lawyers say the guidance is an attempt to punish federal workers and pressure Congress, citing partisan language on agency websites. The case has been assigned to District Judge Vince Chhabria.

During shutdowns, agencies decide which staff are “excepted” from furloughs. Updated OPM guidance authorizes work to proceed on RIF notices, which unions argue violates federal law. President Donald Trump has said “a lot” of employees could lose their jobs.

Attachment 2577602

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House Republican leaders refused requests from Democrats to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) on Tuesday, saying she will be sworn in when the House returns to regular session.

By Emily Brooks and Mike Lillis

The move deprives a petition of the last signature it needs to force a vote on a bill to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein, a push that Republican leaders and President Trump oppose.

Grijalva, who was elected last week in a special contest to replace her father, the late Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), has already vowed to sign the discharge petition as soon as she’s sworn in, and the bipartisan lawmakers pushing to release the Epstein files had hoped to launch the process as quickly as possible.

Grijalva is in Washington this week along with a host of House Democrats who returned to the Capitol during a recess to pressure GOP leaders to negotiate a bipartisan government funding bill. Although there are no votes scheduled, the House floor opened up briefly at noon on Tuesday for a pro forma session, a routine procedure allowing one chamber to pause floor activities for long stretches without the consent of the other.

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) presided over Tuesday’s pro forma session, gaveling out and refusing to recognize Democrats shouting on the floor as they attempted to force a vote on a Democratic proposal to keep the government open. He did not swear in Grijalva.

“Historically, you do it when the House is in session other than pro forma,” Griffith said after the session when asked about not swearing in Grijalva.

Grijalva noted that Florida Republicans were sworn in during a pro forma session earlier this year, on April 2, the day after their special elections. The House had been in session the day before.

“There’s no reason why I couldn’t have been sworn in, and it’s very problematic, because we’re facing a government shutdown. We’re going to have constituents who have questions, and there is nobody there to answer questions,” Grijalva said.

She said she has not had any direct communication with the Speaker’s office on when she will be sworn in.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Grijalva said on the timing.

A spokesperson for the Speaker’s office, though, indicated that Grijalva will be sworn in when the House returns to regular session — currently scheduled for Oct. 7.

“As is standard practice, with the House now having received the appropriate paperwork from the state, the Speaker’s Office intends to schedule a swearing in for the Representative-elect when the House returns to session,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

The House was previously scheduled to be in session on Monday and Tuesday, but Republican leaders canceled those voting days as they aim to pressure Senate Democrats to accept a GOP-crafted stopgap funding measure.

A shutdown would not prevent Grijalva from being sworn in. The full House was sworn in during a government shutdown when a new Congress started in January 2019.

Highlighting Grijalva’s arrival, the Democratic Women’s Caucus wrote a letter to Johnson on Tuesday morning urging her immediate swearing in.

“It is common practice in the House of Representatives that Representatives-elect are sworn in immediately following their decisive election, with some being sworn in as little as 24 hours after they have won,” wrote Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.), who chairs the group.

“This instance should be no different.”

Johnson’s decision to refuse the Democrats’ entreaties has no bearing on the current shutdown debate, because it doesn’t change the House voting math for passing bills. The chamber currently has 219 Republicans and 213 Democrats, and the Republicans’ small cushion will be the same even if the Democrats add a seat. On any party-line vote, Republicans can afford just two defections, assuming all members are present and voting.

But Grijalva’s swearing-in would be a major development for the discharge petition to force a vote on the Epstein files, led by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.). It is just one signature away from reaching 218 names, the number needed to bypass Republican leadership and force action on the House floor.

Just three Republicans in addition to Massie — Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Nancy Mace (S.C.), and Lauren Boebert (Colo.) — have signed the petition. Republican leaders argue that the bill doesn’t adequately protect victims and that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is already investigating the Epstein matter.

Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-Va.), who was elected earlier this month to the seat that was held by the late Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), had successfully exerted similar pressure on GOP leadership by driving to the Capitol the day after he was elected and demanding to be sworn in so he could sign the discharge petition. Walkinshaw was sworn in on a day the House was voting, not in a pro forma session.

Attachment 2577601

The administration’s abrupt effort to repurpose the funds mere days before the end of the fiscal year appears to be illegal, the judge said.

By Kyle Cheney

A federal judge blocked the Trump administration on Tuesday from permanently steering $233 million in FEMA disaster relief funds away from 12 blue states, issuing a restraining order just hours before a deadline that would have seen the funds lost for good.

U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy, a Trump appointee to a Rhode Island-based court, said the administration’s abrupt decision to repurpose the funds from those states — just days before the Sept. 30 end of the current fiscal year — seemed to be plainly illegal. Her ruling ensures that the funds remain available while the states continue to litigate to reclaim them.

It’s “yet another case where the administration is saying … I’m going to do what I want to do and not what the law says and make the court make me,” McElroy said at a hastily convened court hearing Tuesday.

Earlier this month, McElroy similarly barred the Trump administration from attempting to coerce homelessness organizations to adopt gender-related policies.

Her new decision ensures that when the fiscal year ends at midnight Tuesday, the funds will still be available in case the states win their legal battle.

An attorney for Illinois, which is leading the multistate lawsuit, said the administration offered just a four-word explanation for rescinding the FEMA funding from the 12 states: “Adjusted per DHS directive.”

The states say the Trump administration’s last-second decision to pull the funding seemed intended to punish states that the Trump administration has deemed to be uncooperative with its immigration enforcement priorities.

That’s notable, they say, because another federal judge in Rhode Island, George W. Bush appointee William Smith, ruled last week that the administration’s bid to coerce states to comply with its immigration enforcement priorities was illegal.

McElroy said the administration’s decision to pull the funds so quickly after Smith’s decision was “of great concern.”

“This sort of last minute changing of the way the funding happens, and especially when it happens right in the wake of Judge Smith’s decision, is concerning,” McElroy said.

A Justice Department lawyer had urged McElroy to reject the states’ emergency effort to preserve the funding, saying it would deprive other states where the Department of Homeland Security had intended to reallocate the funds.

But McElroy said she wanted to “preserve the status quo” and ensure that the funds would still be there if the states prevail in their lawsuit.

Attachment 2577600

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Windsor Republican, is one of just four Republicans in Congress supporting efforts to force a floor vote on releasing U.S. Department of Justice case files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

By Lindsey Toomer

Legislators leading the effort have said a petition that would force a vote on a resolution requiring the full release of the Epstein case files has enough signatures to pass, but allies of President Donald Trump continue to oppose a floor vote on the issue.

The resolution, led by U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, was introduced before Congress went into recess, but House Speaker Mike Johnson let the members go early to avoid a vote on the resolution.

Boebert, the only Colorado Republican to sign the petition, has long sought an aggressive Epstein investigation and called for a special counsel to take the case this summer. The four Republicans who signed the discharge petition are Boebert, Massie, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina.

All four Colorado Democrats in the House — U.S. Reps. Jason Crow of Centennial, Diana DeGette of Denver, Joe Neguse of Lafayette and Brittany Pettersen of Lakewood — signed the petition.

The government’s investigation into Epstein’s sexual abuse has dogged and splintered House Republicans since July, when Trump’s administration declared it would not share any further information on the powerful and well-connected financier, with whom Trump was friends. Epstein died in 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial on federal charges of sex trafficking minors.

Boebert’s office did not respond to a Newsline request for comment.

Attachment 2577598

Speeches by national leaders at the opening of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) have multiple goals and various audiences. Leaders of small countries hope to raise concerns with large countries in a setting where they can be the center of attention, if only for 15 minutes. Leaders of ostracized countries often seek to justify the behavior that got them ostracized in the first place. Some speeches are aimed at the leaders in the room, while others are aimed at the folks back home. Some are aimed at allied leaders, and others at competitors and still others at enemies.

By Peterr

Under normal circumstances, preparation for the US president’s speech is probably on par with preparing the State of the Union address to Congress. Both speeches utilize folks from multiple agencies and both are subject to weeks and months of internal debates about what will and will not get into the speech. While the SOTU address is as long as the President wants to make it, the UN politely asks that UNGA addresses be kept to 15 minutes or less, because so many leaders will be speaking. The UNGA speech is primarily foreign policy, while the SOTU is more domestic, but both are critical to laying out the president’s – and by extension, the USA’s – positions on all kinds of things.

For UNGA, the State Department takes the lead (broadly speaking) in preparing drafts and posing options to the final decisionmakers in the White House. Other agencies like DOD, Treasury, Commerce, and DHS, as well as folks like the Director of National Intelligence, all weigh in and put their requests into the funnel out of which the final draft emerges.

While all the prep work on the speech is under way, so too is the prep work for listening to the speeches delivered by other leaders. Is it more of the same, are there new policy nuances, or even major changes of direction being conveyed? Different analysts at State, DOD, and the Intelligence community will prepare a list of “what to listen for” points as they get ready to listen to the UNGA speeches from the countries within their purview. Once the speeches have been made, these same folks will then be sharing their analysis with their superiors and the White House. “Here’s what we heard . . . , here’s what it means . . . , and here’s how it may affect our own policies and responses . . .”

Meanwhile, every other foreign ministry and intelligence service in the world does the same with the UNGA speech of the President of the United States of America. Especially when that president is Donald J. Trump.

So what will these folks notice about Trump’s speech, and what will their analysis of his speech lead them to think or do?

First, they will notice the absolute dichotomy between policy prescriptions and petty personal grievances. Yes, the speechwriting team and the professionals behind them put a lot of substantive stuff into the draft of the speech that went on the teleprompter, but Trump went off-script so much that it was easy for that stuff to get lost in the verbal flood of whining about his domestic political enemies alternated with his own personal self-promotion. If the substance was prepared to fill the 15 minute time slot, the whining and boasting filled another 45 minutes or so. That 3:1 ratio speaks volumes about what matters to Trump: “Three parts me, and one part everyone else. And that ratio is me being generous to everyone else.”

Second, even in the substantive parts of the speech, the presentation was arrogant and insulting. (Why yes, I do think Stephen Miller had a large role in shaping the speech. Why do you ask?) Trump’s “I alone can fix it” from campaigns gone by was echoed in Trump’s declaration at UNGA that he has always been right about everything. From immigration to energy to wars to peacemaking to cultural issues to history, Trump’s assertion that he is always right and that the world would be better off if everyone just bowed down and did what he said was at the center of his speech. The prepared draft of the speech might have been more polite about it, but the message was the same. All the world could see how Trump views them — little kids who need to listen to Daddy, and then do what Daddy says so that they don’t get punished.

Third, Trump’s UNGA speech was a confirmation and distillation of something these folks have seen since 2015 from Trump: facts are optional to Donald Trump. They will see that science takes a back seat to whatever Trump’s particular views and preferences are. Signed agreements, especially those signed by someone other that Trump, are optional, not binding. Historical facts that do not fit with Trump’s worldview are overlooked, ignored, or blithely dismissed as irrelevant. Leaders and nations who seek to move Trump and US policies with fact-based arguments will have a very difficult, if not impossible task if they follow this route.

Fourth, Trump has no use for the opinions of other leaders, unless they comport with his own opinions. Dozens of nations call what Israel is doing in Gaza “genocide” but Trump does not give a damn. Countries of all political stripes recognize the reality of climate change (even as they might differ in how it should be addressed), but not Donald Trump.

Fifth, this speech confirms yet again that what Trump desperately seeks is validation. In his head, he dreams of giving his own version of Sally Field’s academy award acceptance speech — “I haven’t had an orthodox career and I’ve wanted more than anything to have your respect. The first time [I won] I didn’t feel it, but this time I feel it. And I can’t deny the fact that you like me. Right now, you like me! Thank you.”

Sixth, these analysts from other nations regularly ask themselves “How long will Trump hold to a given position?” He renegotiated the NAFTA treaty with Canada and Mexico in 2019 and finalized it in 2020, only to come back in 2025 and ask “who would have ever sign a thing like this?” Grudges over personal slights he will carry with him for decades, but agreements with other leaders and other nations are much less predictable.

The danger to all of this is one basic thing: the world is learning –again — not to listen to the United States.


When Trump and RFK Jr. issued their untethered-to-scientific-analysis declaration that Tylenol should not be used by pregnant women, not only did the US medical community loudly shout “NO!” but so did medical leaders around the world (UK, Spain, India, Australia, etc.). The US has a long record of leadership in medical research and treatment — think of the elimination of smallpox and the work to do the same with polio — but now? Around the world, folks are asking what used to be an unimaginable question: Should we listen to anything medical coming out of the CDC?

When Trump made his big Liberation Day announcements and sought to put tariffs on almost every nation, he followed up on this with all kinds of exceptions, adjustments, and incoherent statements. Today the tariffs might look like this, but next week they went down, then a month later some of them went higher than before . . . and what the hell will they look like next year?

When NGOs and other leaders around the world found the rug yanked out from under them when Trump used DOGE to cancel grants for things like malaria prevention and anti-AIDS programs, as well as letting US food aid funneled through USAID rot in warehouses rather than be delivered to those who feed the hungry, they had to ask if the word of the US is worth anything any more. “We had a five year agreement – you put up this and we’ll handle that — and after 3 years, you reneged. Why should we trust you the next time you want to make a deal?”

Trump and his lackeys can laugh at the world all they want, but if the financial world follows the lead of the medical world and the scientific world, and ceases to trust that the word of the US is good, the US will be in a world of hurt. A non-trivial portion of US debt is held by foreign governments. When the Canadian public decided not to travel to the US or buy US bourbon, that hit the US hospitality industry hard. If foreign governments decide that rather than buying US treasury bonds, they’d prefer bonds from Germany or France or Australia, that will mean the US government would have to offer higher rates of return in order to get the money needed to pay for tax breaks for the rich run the US government.

In the world of international affairs, trust matters, and Donald Trump is pissing away what it took decades to earn. Good luck with that, Secretary of State/National Security Advisor/Archivist of the United States Marco Rubio.

Attachment 2577597

Senate Republicans, led by Majority Leader John Thune, are trying to keep the message simple: The GOP wants to keep agencies open for a few more weeks while negotiations continue while Democrats are asking for unreasonable concessions.

Speaker Mike Johnson and the House GOP are all in on a message focusing on how the Democratic wish list would undo Republican-passed provisions barring undocumented immigrants from accessing public services.

And then there’s President Donald Trump, who delved even deeper into the culture wars Tuesday when he accused the other party of seeking to “force Taxpayers to fund Transgender surgery for minors” as part of the negotiations — an accusation that has puzzled even some fellow Republicans.

The diverging messages from GOP leaders comes after Trump reversed his decision to hold a White House meeting with top Democratic leaders — an about-face that came after Johnson and Thune privately warned him that it would undercut the party’s negotiating position.

Taken together, the visible cracks in the GOP front are raising internal concerns as party leaders face off against Democrats who are largely united behind a plan to focus on health care — particularly an extension of expiring insurance subsidies.

“There have been some unforced errors, clearly,” said one senior House GOP aide granted anonymity to speak candidly about Republicans’ strategy so far.

The silly intervention from Russ Vought merits just a short mention.

The White House further scrambled the GOP strategy late Wednesday when it circulated a draft memo instructing agencies to create plans for mass firings of federal workers if Democrats don’t relent and a shutdown occurs. That alarmed some Hill Republicans who saw it as an unnecessary provocation that, in the words of one, “would give Democrats an excuse to vote against” the GOP-led stopgap — and muddy their message that it was Democrats, not Republicans, who were unreasonable hostage-takers.

What Vought succeeded in doing by threatening to do what he has already done — mass unlawful firings — is get a lot of press coverage. A number of outlets took the bait, claiming without any apparent rational thought that this would increase the pressure on Dems.

Most, when quoting Chuck Schumer’s response, are excising a key bit: Just yesterday, GSA had to order a bunch of workers back on the job.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) says a new memo from the White House budget office warning that mass firings could be on the table if there’s a government shutdown is “an attempt at intimidation.”

Schumer, who was scheduled to meet with Trump at the White House Thursday to discuss a funding deal before Trump cancelled the meeting, predicted that federal courts would overturn any attempt by the administration to use a shutdown as a justification to fire thousands of federal workers.

“Donald Trump has been firing federal workers since day one — not to govern, but to scare. This is nothing new and has nothing to do with funding the government. These unnecessary firings will either be overturned in court or the administration will end up hiring the workers back, just like they did as recently as today,” Schumer said in a statement late Wednesday. [my emphasis]

GSA just admitted that you can’t simply fire masses of people without incurring more costs down the road.

Hundreds of federal employees who lost their jobs in Elon Musk’s cost-cutting blitz are being asked to return to work.

The General Services Administration has given the employees — who managed government workspaces — until the end of the week to accept or decline reinstatement, according to an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press. Those who accept must report for duty on Oct. 6 after what amounts to a seven-month paid vacation, during which time the GSA in some cases racked up high costs — passed along to taxpayers — to stay in dozens of properties whose leases it had slated for termination or were allowed to expire.

“Ultimately, the outcome was the agency was left broken and understaffed,” said Chad Becker, a former GSA real estate official. “They didn’t have the people they needed to carry out basic functions.”

Becker, who represents owners with government leases at Arco Real Estate Solutions, said GSA has been in a “triage mode” for months. He said the sudden reversal of the downsizing reflects how Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency had gone too far, too fast.

And as Schumer noted, Vought is doing this whether or not there’s a shutdown. It is, in fact, one of the core reasons why Dems can’t simply pass a continuing resolution, because Vought has already usurped Congress’ authority.

How did the both-sides media not see this? How did they not understand that this makes Vought threat look like a desperate attempt to regain some advantage that Trump pissed away by scheduling a meeting but then — at Mike Johnson and John Thune’s request — canceling?

Mike Lawler appears to understand it. He just talked over CNN’s John Berman for 45 seconds to dodge a question about mass firings.

I remain agnostic about whether Dems can win this shutdown. This report, about how the courts would have to shut down most business in a matter of days, not weeks, cause me grave concern, for reasons I laid out here.

But thus far, Republicans seem intent on using the shutdown to demonstrate in more visible fashion the need for it.

If that’s what you want to do, bring it!

Attachment 2577596

Budget chief Russ Vought proposed cutting $72 million for universities after promising lawmakers the funding would remain untouched.

By Marcia Brown

The White House is canceling millions of dollars that dozens of universities use to research food production, despite budget chief Russ Vought’s promise to leave that money untouched.

Using a controversial loophole to cancel federal cash at the end of the fiscal year — which comes to a close at midnight Tuesday — President Donald Trump has targeted $4 billion in federal spending on international aid and development. That includes $72 million for USAID’s Feed the Future Innovation labs, which is popular with Republicans.

Vought’s reversal is the latest example of how Trump’s sweeping attempt to claim authority over the federal budget without congressional approval is running into his own party’s priorities.

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), whose state hosts the Fish Innovation Lab through Mississippi State University, sought assurance from Vought at a congressional hearing earlier this year that the funding would be preserved.

“The lab’s work truly illustrates the proverb, ‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime,’” Hyde-Smith said. “Rather than giving other countries food, we are teaching them how to feed themselves through modern aquaculture practices.”

Vought assured her at the time he didn’t intend to target the labs’ funding.

“We will still have $5 billion nearly in this funding for priorities and programs like this, of which this will be protected,” he said. “We have no desire in this rescission package to touch that funding that seems to be so successful.”

Then, in August, Vought declared the unilateral cancellation of every dollar in the account that funds the labs, in an end-run around Congress. The Supreme Court has since ruled that Trump can withhold billions of dollars in question, effectively blessing the gambit the president is using to cancel federal cash without Congress’ consent.

The Office of Management and Budget and Hyde-Smith didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.

Vought has repeatedly disputed assertions by lawmakers from both parties, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office and legal experts that the maneuver — a so-called pocket recession — is illegal.

One person who formerly worked on Feed the Future programming said that the labs’ research didn’t just help other countries, but also the U.S. It has helped develop ways to counter a pest abroad, which can in turn set the U.S. up for success when the pest arrives on American shores.

“Climate change, weather extremes, pressure from pests, all of that stuff is just increasing and we’re really just shooting ourselves in the foot,” said the person, who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. “Those are things that are not going to stop just because we decide to take funding away from it.”

Attachment 2577595

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed Lisa Cook to remain as a Federal Reserve governor for now, declining to act on the Trump administration’s effort to immediately remove her from the central bank.

By MARK SHERMAN

In a brief unsigned order, the high court said it would hear arguments in January over Republican President Donald Trump’s effort to force Cook off the Fed board.

The court will consider whether to block a lower-court ruling in Cook’s favor while her challenge to her firing by Trump continues.

The high-court order was a rare instance of Trump not quickly getting everything he wants from the justices in an emergency appeal.

Separately, the justices are hearing arguments in December in a separate but related legal fight over Trump’s actions to fire members of the boards that oversee other independent federal agencies. The case concerns whether Trump can fire those officials at will.

But a second issue in the case could bear directly on Cook’s fate: whether federal judges have the authority to prevent the firings or instead may only order back pay for officials who were wrongly dismissed.

Trump had sought to oust Cook before the September meeting of the Fed’s interest rate-setting committee. But a judge ruled that the firing was illegal, and a divided appeals court rejected the Trumps administration’s emergency appeal.

A day after the meeting concluded with a one-quarter of a percentage point reduction in a key interest rate, the administration turned to the Supreme Court in a new emergency appeal.

The White House campaign to unseat Cook marks an unprecedented bid to reshape the Fed board, which was designed to be largely independent from day-to-day politics. No president has fired a sitting Fed governor in the Fed’s 112-year history.

Cook, who was appointed to the Fed board by Democratic President Joe Biden, has said she will not leave her job and won’t be “bullied” by Trump. One of her lawyers, Abbe Lowell, has said she “will continue to carry out her sworn duties as a Senate-confirmed Board Governor.”

Separately, Senate Republicans recently confirmed Stephen Miran, Trump’s nominee to an open spot on the Fed’s board. Both Cook and Miran took part in the Fed’s recent meeting. Miran was the sole dissenting vote, preferring a larger cut.

The next opportunity for Cook to cast a vote will be at the meeting of the Fed’s interest rate setting committee, scheduled for Oct. 28-29.

Trump has accused Cook of mortgage fraud because she appeared to claim two properties, in Michigan and Georgia, as “primary residences” in June and July 2021, before she joined the Fed board. Such claims can lead to a lower mortgage rate and smaller down payment than if one of them was declared as a rental property or second home.

“Put simply, the President may reasonably determine that interest rates paid by the American people should not be set by a Governor who appears to have lied about facts material to the interest rates she secured for herself — and refuses to explain the apparent misrepresentations,” Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in his Supreme Court filing.

Cook has denied any wrongdoing and has not been charged with a crime. According to documents obtained by The Associated Press, Cook specified that her Atlanta condo would be a “vacation home,” according to a loan estimate she obtained in May 2021. In a form seeking a security clearance, she described it as a “2nd home.” Both documents appear to undercut the administration’s claims of fraud.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb ruled that the administration had not satisfied a legal requirement that Fed governors can only be fired “for cause,” which she said was limited to misconduct while in office. Cook joined the Fed’s board in 2022.

Cobb also held that Trump’s firing would have deprived Cook of her due process, or legal right, to contest the firing.

By a 2-1 vote, a panel of the federal appeals court in Washington rejected the administration’s request to let Cook’s firing proceed.

Attachment 2577594

NEW YORK (AP) — On this, at least, the Democrats agree: It’s time to fight.

By STEVE PEOPLES

Whether far-left activists, Washington moderates or rural conservatives, Democratic leaders across the political spectrum are shrugging off the risks and embracing a government shutdown they say is needed to push back against President Donald Trump and his Republican allies in Congress.

For Democrats, the shutdown fight marks a line in the sand born from months of frustration with their inability to stop Trump’s norm-busting leadership. And they will continue to fight, regardless of the practical or political consequences, they say.

“It’s a rare point of unification,” said Jim Kessler, of the moderate Democratic group Third Way.

“Absolutely there are risks,” he said. “But you’re hearing it from all wings of the Democratic Party: The fight is the victory. They want a fight. And they’re going to get one.”

As the shutdown begins, there are few signs of cracks across the Democratic Party’s diverse coalition.

Even progressive critics from the party’s activist wing are applauding Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, who are insisting that any government spending package must extend health care subsidies that are set to expire at the year’s end. Trump, backed by the Republicans who control Congress, insists on supporting only a “clean” spending package that excludes the health care measure.

Trump blames ‘radical left’

The fight is already ugly as Trump uses his presidential bully pulpit — and taxpayer-funded government resources — to cast blame on the Democrats.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s website on Tuesday welcomed all visitors with this message: “The Radical Left are going to shut down the government and inflict massive pain on the American people unless they get their $1.5 trillion wish list of demands. The Trump administration wants to keep the government open for the American people.”

The president himself posted on social media a deepfake video of Schumer implying that Democrats are fighting to give free health care to immigrants in the country illegally. The fake video, widely condemned as racist, depicted Jeffries with a Mexican sombrero and fake mustache.

In a press conference, Jeffries offered a harsh message to the president.

“The next time you have something to say about me, don’t cop out through a racist and fake AI video. When I’m back in the Oval Office, say it to my face,” the top House Democrat said.

‘I’d rather be us than them’

Privately, political operatives from both sides concede that government shutdowns are bad for both parties. But with Democrats dug in, the Trump administration appeared almost eager to shut down the government this time — having already threatened the mass firing of federal workers in the event of a shutdown.

And as the GOP blames its rivals in the other party, Democrats say they are confident voters understand that Trump’s party controls the White House and both chambers of Congress — and, therefore, Republicans will suffer more political consequences for the chaos in Washington.

“I think I’d rather be us than them in this fight,” veteran Democratic strategist James Carville said. “The incumbent party will suffer more.”

And yet Carville acknowledged that Democratic leadership in Washington had little choice but to take a hard line in the budget negotiations with Trump’s GOP. The party’s activist base, he said, demanded it.

Frustrated progressives have been screaming for months at Democratic leaders, who have limited power in Washington as the minority party, to use more creative tactics to stop Trump. They are getting their wish this week.

“They’re finally not just rolling over and playing dead,” said Ezra Levin, co-founder of the progressive activist group Indivisible. “Indivisible leaders are cheering them on.”

Attachment 2577593

After Jeffries accused Trump of “bigotry” for an AI-generated video, Trump posted a similar video belittling his response.

By Aaron Pellish

President Donald Trump posted another deepfake AI-generated video of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Tuesday hours before the federal government is expected to shut down, further signaling the significant divide between the two parties.

On Monday, Trump posted a vulgar AI-generated video of Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer speaking outside the White House. The video portrayed Jeffries wearing a mustache and a sombrero while mariachi music plays in the background.

Jeffries condemned the deepfake as “bigotry” in a social media response and called it a “disgusting video” in an MSNBC interview later Monday evening.

On Tuesday, Trump shared a clip of Jeffries’ MSNBC interview criticizing the original video, again adding an AI-generated mustache and sombrero. The latest video features four depictions of the president playing mariachi music as Jeffries speaks.

Trump’s repeated antagonization of Jeffries sets the tone for what may be difficult and drawn-out negotiations over a government-funding solution as lawmakers on both sides continue to dig into their positions.

During a House Democratic conference presser on Tuesday, Jeffries dared Trump to confront him personally rather than “cop out” through the AI-generated videos.

Later, in an interview on MSNBC, Jeffries sought to downplay the videos.

“We need from the president of the United States an individual who actually is focused on doing his job, as opposed to engaging in racist or bigoted stereotypes designed to try to distract or throw us off as Democrats from what we need to do on behalf of the American people,” Jeffries said.

Trump also posted several photos of his Oval Office meeting on Monday with Jeffries, Schumer, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson. Two images shared by Trump show the four Congressional leaders in conversation. A third shows Trump pointing at Jeffries with a sneer. All three images feature “Trump 2028” hats on the president’s desk.

The government is expected to shut down just after 12 a.m. Wednesday.