What to know today
- SNAP DEADLINE: The Trump administration told a federal judge that it will partially fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in November, using more than $4.6 billion from a contingency fund to cover about half of the allotment recipients would normally get for the month. However, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said it will take "several weeks" to deliver the partial payments.
- NYC MAYOR'S RACE: President Donald Trump this evening urged New York City voters to cast their ballots for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as a third-party candidate, over Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. He said in a Truth Social post that a vote for Sliwa is a vote for Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.
- ELECTION WEEK: Candidates in New Jersey, Virginia, as well as New York City, are making their final pushes ahead of tomorrow's election. Several congressional special elections are also taking place tomorrow, in addition to local contests.
Coverage of this live blog has ended. For the latest news, click here.
A Fox News report prompted Trump to post about Nigeria, setting off White House scramble
A Fox News report prompted Trump to call out Nigeria over the killing of Christians and then threaten military action, setting off a scramble in the White House over the weekend, according to multiple U.S. officials.
It’s still unclear what — if anything — the administration will do to counter Islamic militants in Nigeria, but precision drone strikes are among the preliminary options being considered, two U.S. officials said.
A White House spokesperson declined today to offer any details on the plans under consideration.
“At President Trump’s direction, the administration is planning options for possible action to stop the killing of Christians in Nigeria,” the spokeswoman, Anna Kelly, said in a statement. “Any announcements will come from the President directly.”
Full WIC benefits for November will be disbursed to states today, agriculture secretary says
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a social media post tonight that full benefits for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) will be disbursed to states today.
The program provides free, healthy food to low-income pregnant women, new moms and children under 5.
Agriculture secretary says it will take 'several weeks' to deliver partial SNAP benefits
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said tonight that it will take "several weeks" to deliver partial SNAP benefits for November.
She called the partial payments a stopgap measure, saying they create “unnecessary chaos.” Rollins added that when the government reopens, “FULL benefits can get to families without delay.”
Her post came several hours after the Trump administration said it would partially fund SNAP benefits this month using contingency funds.
Sen. Susan Collins is 'cautiously hopeful' the shutdown will be resolved this week
Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, said today that she's "very cautiously hopeful" that the government shutdown will be resolved by the end of the week after bipartisan conversations among both House and Senate lawmakers.
“There have been a lot of conversations on both sides of the aisle and across the aisle, and across the chambers, and I do believe that we are finally making progress,” Collins told reporters this afternoon, adding that earlier negotiations had lacked a certain level of “specificity."
Still, she acknowledged that “it’s too soon to declare that this nightmare of a shutdown is over.”
Some Senate Democrats who have been a part of the negotiations expressed a degree of optimism about the direction of the talks.
Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., who voted to keep the government open in March but has consistently been a no vote amid the shutdown, said: “There is progress being made. I’ll leave it at that.”
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., who has been voting in favor of the House-passed GOP stopgap bill, said the talks have "been constructive, yes," while also declining to provide specific details on the negotiations.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., meanwhile, said that he believes voters “want us to fight.”
“I think it’s pretty clear, and I think tomorrow’s results may confirm this, that the American people want us to fight for them,” Murphy said, referring to elections in New York City, New Jersey and Virginia.
Trump hosts tele-rallies for Virginia and New Jersey candidates on election eve
Trump made a last-minute push to boost Republican turnout in tomorrow's races for governor in New Jersey and Virginia, but he only mentioned one GOP hopeful by name.
While Trump talked up Jack Ciattarelli, his preferred candidate for governor in New Jersey, he did not name the Republican nominee for governor in Virginia: Winsome Earle-Sears. Instead, he broadly urged supporters to vote for the entire GOP ticket.
Trump endorsed Ciattarelli earlier this year, but has not endorsed Earle-Sears, the state’s lieutenant governor. The president also signaled Monday that he believes Ciattarelli has a better shot at winning on Election Day.
“You need to go out and vote for Jack Ciattarelli, who’s a great guy, a friend of mine, a great guy, a very successful man, who wants to put all of his efforts now into really saving New Jersey, making it great again, saving it,” Trump said on the New Jersey call, where he spoke for just under 9 minutes. “And he’s going to do it. He’ll be able to do it. The polls are looking really good.”
Treasury Dept. says inflation is running ‘above target’ as Trump insists there is ‘no inflation’
The Treasury Department said today that inflation “remained above the target of 2 percent in the third quarter,” even as Trump and administration officials continue to assert that there is “no inflation.”
Speaking on CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” in an interview that aired last night, Trump said “we have no inflation. We have no inflation.”
Trump claimed that he had “already taken care of” inflation, calling 2% “the perfect inflation.”
But inflation came in at 3% on an annual basis in September, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Trump endorses Andrew Cuomo over the Republican candidate in NYC mayoral race
Trump endorsed former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent, in tomorrow's election for mayor of New York City.
“Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “You must vote for him, and hope he does a fantastic job. He is capable of it, Mamdani is not!”
Trump suggested voters should not cast a ballot for Curtis Sliwa — the Republican in the race — saying doing so “is a vote for Mamdani.”
Pro-Andrew Cuomo super PAC depicts Zohran Mamdani in front of Twin Towers attack in late ad
A super PAC supporting former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the New York mayoral election is running a late ad that depicts Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani in front of video of the Twin Towers crashing down on 9/11.
The ad quotes liberal streamer Hasan Piker, with whom Mamdani appeared earlier this year, saying “America deserved 9/11” during a 2019 livestream. Alongside Piker’s stream, the ad includes video of one of the World Trade Center towers bursting into flames during the 2001 terror attack, with Mamdani superimposed on top of the video for a moment.
“That’s Zohran’s buddy, Hasan Piker, saying we deserve 9/11. It’s a disgrace to every life lost,” the narrator says in the ad.
“Zohran went on Piker’s show, and now Piker was just spotted at Zohran’s event. Mamdani is wrong for New York.”
Trump formally endorses Ed Gallrein in GOP primary against Rep. Thomas Massie
Trump today formally endorsed Ed Gallrein, who is challenging Rep. Thomas Massie for his House seat in Kentucky.
In a post on social media, Trump said Gallrein had his “Complete and Total Endorsement against Massie” and that Massie should be “thrown out of office, ASAP.”
Trump’s endorsement comes two weeks after he urged Gallrein to challenge Massie in the GOP primary, saying Gallrein would have his endorsement.
Massie has become increasingly outspoken against Trump this year. He criticized Trump's decision to strike Iranian nuclear facilities in June, and more recently filed a discharge petition with Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna that would force the Justice Department to release all of its files tied to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The petition is one vote short of passing.
Massie ran uncontested in 2024 after beating primary challengers by a large margin. Two key Trump advisers launched a group in June to unseat Massie.
John Thune and Dick Durbin say they think the Senate is getting close to a shutdown off-ramp
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., expressed optimism about soon reaching a resolution to reopen the government, but without providing specifics.
“I just think, based on, sort of, my gut of how these things operate, I think we’re getting close to an off-ramp here," Thune told reporters today on Capitol Hill.
Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., echoed those sentiments.
“I sense that, too,” Durbin said when NBC News asked about Thune’s "off-ramp" comments. “And I guess maybe I’m reading a lot into it, but I’ve talked to a couple of my colleagues on the Democratic side who are in conversation, and they tried before and it didn’t work, and now they’re trying again, and they seem more optimistic.”
Thune declined to provide details about ending the shutdown. "I can’t talk about specifics, but I think there are a number of things that we have made available to Democrats in terms of the path forward on appropriations."
Durbin said he did not know what the off-ramp might be, but said: “You know, after you’ve been around here forever, as I have been, you kind of sense the ebb and flow of this place. And I sense that people are tired of this shutdown and all that flows from it. But we’re still stuck with this premise of what we’re going to do about health care costs.”
Thune said on the Senate floor this afternoon that the chamber would vote again tomorrow on a short-term spending bill.
