What to know today
- TIKTOK DEAL: President Donald Trump is expected to sign a deal tomorrow facilitating the sale of China-based TikTok to a group of U.S. investors, according to two senior White House officials.
- TYLENOL ADVICE: Vice President JD Vance said women should "follow" their doctors' advice on taking Tylenol during pregnancy. Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made unsubstantiated claims linking the drug to autism this week.
- PLACING BLAME: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer blamed Trump and congressional Republicans in a statement for the possibility that the government could shut down next week without a bipartisan spending agreement.
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White House lays groundwork for mass government firings if there’s a shutdown
The White House is raising the stakes of a potential government shutdown by drafting a request for federal agencies to prepare “reduction in force” plans in case Congress doesn’t pass a spending bill before Oct. 1.
In a memo from the Office of Management and Budget, obtained by NBC News tonight, the Trump administration indicated it’s prepared to go beyond the traditional furloughing of some government employees during a shutdown and fire federal employees.
“With respect to those Federal programs whose funding would lapse and which are otherwise unfunded, such programs are no longer statutorily required to be carried out,” the memo says. “RIF notices will be in addition to any furlough notices provided due to the lapse in appropriation.”
The memo, first reported by Politico, points to job losses for certain federal employees if the government shuts down next week.
Statue of Trump and Jeffrey Epstein holding hands is removed from the National Mall
U.S. Park Police said today they’ve removed statues from the National Mall that depicted Trump and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein holding hands and skipping.
The artwork, titled “Best Friends Forever,” was installed near the Capitol yesterday morning and quickly became a tourist attraction.
“In honor of friendship month, we celebrate the long-standing bond between President Donald J. Trump and his closest friend Jeffrey Epstein,” a plaque between the two statues read.
Trump’s rhetoric on Ukraine changes, while his actions so far remain the same
Trump is suddenly bullish when it comes to Ukraine’s chances of repelling Russia’s invasion and regaining all its territory, yet the shift in rhetoric means little unless he is prepared to ramp up pressure on the Kremlin, diplomats and foreign officials say.
Thus far, Trump hasn’t taken those essential steps, they added.
Trump’s social media post yesterday upended the conventional thinking about his view of the war, now in its fourth year. In February, he told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that he didn’t have the “cards” in a peace negotiation and that his country was in “big trouble.”
Now, Trump says that Russia is the one that is in “big economic trouble” and that its failure to swiftly conquer its smaller neighbor has revealed it to be a “paper tiger.”
Trump says U.N. escalator incident was 'absolutely sabotage'
Trump wrote this evening on Truth Social that he had faced "sabotage" yesterday when an escalator at the United Nations "stopped on a dime" when he and first lady Melania Trump stepped onto it.
"It’s amazing that Melania and I didn’t fall forward onto the sharp edges of these steel steps, face first. It was only that we were each holding the handrail tightly or, it would have been a disaster. This was absolutely sabotage," Trump wrote. “The people that did it should be arrested!"
U.N. secretary-general spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said in a note to reporters yesterday that a White House videographer may have "inadvertently triggered" a built-in safety mechanism at the top of the escalator.
Trump, who referred to the escalator's malfunctioning yesterday in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly, used tonight's Truth Social post to highlight reporting in The Sunday Times that said "UN staff members have joked that they may turn off the escalators and elevators and simply tell him they ran out of money, so he has to walk up the stairs."
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a Fox News interview yesterday that the incident "doesn’t look like a coincidence to me."
“I know that we have people, including the United States Secret Service, who are looking into this to try to get to the bottom of it,” Leavitt she told host Jesse Watters.
A Secret Service official confirmed that the agency is looking into the incident, saying "we're working just to corroborate" the U.N.'s statement.
Vance says pregnant women should ‘follow your doctor’ when it comes to Tylenol
Vance said today that pregnant women should follow physicians' advice in deciding whether or not to take Tylenol, striking a different tone after Trump strongly discouraged its use.
“What I took from the president’s announcement and also the CDC’s recommendations here is we just have to be careful,” Vance said in a NewsNation interview. “We know that some of these medications have side effects. We know that even despite those side effects, sometimes they’re necessary. So my guidance to pregnant women would be very simple, which is: Follow your doctor.”
“Ultimately, whether you should take something is very context-specific, and that’s why I think you should lean on your doctor,” he added.
Trump on Monday advised pregnant women against using Tylenol, which contains the active ingredient acetaminophen, citing unproven claims about the painkiller’s being linked to autism in children. He made the remarks at a White House press event alongside Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Justice Department weighing whether to charge former FBI Director James Comey, sources say
The Justice Department is weighing whether to charge former FBI Director James Comey with lying to Congress, two Justice Department officials and a person familiar with the matter told NBC News today.
“There are still internal matters being sorted out,” one of the officials said.
A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on any matters relating to Comey.
Trump posted on social media Saturday that Attorney General Pam Bondi should take action against Comey and two of his other political foes: Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Trump assures Arab leaders he won't let Israel annex the West Bank
Trump promised Arab leaders at a meeting in New York yesterday that he will not let Israel annex the West Bank, according to two sources who were in the room.
Politico first reported Trump's remarks.
Two powerful right-wing coalition members in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have advocated for annexing the West Bank, and observers expect an announcement from Netanyahu about the issue when he addresses the United Nations on Friday.
Leaders of the United Arab Emirates have said that annexing the West Bank would cross a red line and that it could undermine the U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and the UAE.
Trump’s promise to the Arab leaders was the first time his administration has declared a position on the issue.
Palestinians argue that the West Bank is the only viable territory where they could establish a state. Israel has already taken preliminary steps to make a future state impossible by voting to build an Israeli settlement in a key area of the West Bank, effectively separating major Palestinian cities in the south from Ramallah in the north.
Vance says FCC chair was 'making a joke' about Kimmel
Vance said today that Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr was "making a joke" about taking action against Jimmy Kimmel's show and that the Trump administration has made "zero" moves to keep him off the air, despite remarks to the contrary from Carr and Trump.
Vance was asked at an event in North Carolina how the the federal government's conduct aligned with previous remarks he has made about the importance of free speech. "I’m pretty sure Jimmy Kimmel was back on the air last night," Vance said, saying Carr had just been "making a joke on social media."
Carr told podcaster Benny Johnson last week that Kimmel had engaged in "the sickest conduct possible" with a remark about Charlie Kirk's assassin and that this “is a very, very serious issue right now for Disney.”
“We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” he said. “These companies can find ways to change conduct and take action, frankly, on Kimmel, or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”
He then suggested ABC affiliates could face fines or have their federal broadcast licenses revoked if they continued airing Kimmel's show. He tried to walk back the remarks days later.
Trump had praised Carr's actions, and he also lauded ABC when it announced it was temporarily taking Kimmel's show off the air. When the network said it was returning him to its airwaves, Trump took to social media to call Kimmel's show an arm of the Democratic Party and a "major illegal campaign contribution."
"I think we’re going to test ABC out on this. Let’s see how we do," he wrote.
Obama on Trump's Tylenol claims: 'Violence against the truth'
Former President Barack Obama said at an event in North Carolina that Trump's linking use of Tylenol during pregnancy to autism was "violence against public health."
"The degree to which that can do harm to women who are pregnant," he told historian David Olusoga. "The degree to which that creates anxiety for parents who do have children who are autistic, which, by the way, itself, is subject to a spectrum."
"All of that is violence against the truth. And that’s why, by the way, it is important for those who believe in the truth and believe in science to also examine truth when it is inconvenient for us," Obama added.
Progressive group launches pressure campaign against TV station owners who refused to air Kimmel
A progressive advocacy group is launching a pressure campaign focused on two major TV station owners who are refusing to air Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show amid criticism of his on-air comments about the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
In plans first reported by NBC News, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee is calling on people to "voice their frustration" to broadcast channels owned by Nexstar and Sinclair, including stations in Nashville, Tennessee; New Orleans; Portland, Oregon; Salt Lake City; Seattle; and Washington, D.C.
Kimmel’s late-night talk show returned yesterday after he was suspended for what Disney, the owner of ABC, characterized as “ill-timed and thus insensitive” remarks about the killing of Kirk, a prominent conservative activist. However, Nexstar and Sinclair have said they will continue to keep the show off their airwaves until further notice.
"We are engaged in productive discussions with executives at The Walt Disney Company, with a focus on ensuring the program reflects and respects the diverse interests of the communities we serve," Nexstar said in a news release today.
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee said the Nexstar and Sinclair blackouts are "an extension of Donald Trump's attack on free speech in America."
"As long as Sinclair and Nexstar affiliates continue to act like state-controlled media, free speech is under attack and this fight isn’t over," said Sydney Register, a spokesperson for the committee.
"Jimmy Kimmel directly called out ABC affiliates owned by the right-wing Nexstar and Sinclair corporations in specific cities," Register added, "and we are giving the public in those areas the tools to pressure these parent companies to put Kimmel on the air and stop attacking free speech."
Nexstar and Sinclair representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
