Trump and Democrats dig in as federal workers face furloughs

The Trump administration informed Congress in a confidential notice this week that Trump has “determined” that the United States is in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels and that members of the organizations can be targeted as unlawful combatants.

“The President determined these cartels are non-state armed groups, designated them as terrorist organizations, and determined that their actions constitute an armed attack against the United States,” the notice said.

“In response, based upon the cumulative effects of these hostile acts against the citizens and interests of United States and friendly foreign nations, the President determined that the United States is in a non-international armed conflict with these designated terrorist organizations,” it added.

The designation essentially puts drug cartels in the same legal category as terrorist groups like Al Qaeda or the Islamic State.

Read the full story here.

Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy, R-La., hammered the Food and Drug Administration's approval of a generic form of mifepristone, one of the two medications used in most U.S. abortions, as providing "one more tool to kill babies."

Calling the decision "a betrayal," Cassidy wrote today on X: “I fully support President Trump’s Pro-Life, Pro-Family agenda," but he said the approval was not what FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "indicated they would do in their confirmation hearings."

Kennedy was invited to testify before Cassidy’s HELP Committee; an exact date has not been set.

Cassidy, a physician who has been critical of Kennedy for his views on vaccines, will have the opportunity to press him about mifepristone, vaccines, the firing of former CDC Director Susan Monarez and more at the upcoming hearing. 

The Trump administration plans to provide additional intelligence to Ukraine to help Kyiv strike at oil and gas facilities inside Russia, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter.

It would be the first time the United States has expanded intelligence assistance to Ukraine since Trump returned to the White House in January.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the administration’s plans. 

Trump’s rhetoric on Russia has shifted over the past month. He has criticized Moscow, calling it a “paper tiger” that has proved unable to defeat its smaller neighbor.

Read the full story here.

This afternoon, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., shared two social media posts with altered content targeting Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. Cassidy’s posts join a trend of lawmakers posting fake or altered content to make fun of members of the opposing party.

The first post on X was a fake image of Schumer, smiling and holding up two sock puppets, with the caption: “Truly, nothing says ‘serious governing’ like cartoon kittens explaining fiscal policy. What’s next, sock puppets?” The post was attached to a repost of a video on @TheDemocrats’ page in which animated cats “explained” and acted out the steps of the government shutdown.

The second post was a video depicting a fake cat, with Schumer’s face imposed onto it, jumping into a flaming trash can. In the video, the cat was labeled as “The Radical Left” and the trash can as “Schumer shutdown.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has become a leading figure in the fight over government funding, but it’s not a role she has asked for. Rather, it’s a role Republicans have thrust upon her.

“Chuck Schumer is terrified he’s going to get a primary challenge from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,” Vice President JD Vance said yesterday. “The reason why the American people’s government is shut down is because Chuck Schumer is listening to the far-left radicals in his own party because he’s terrified of a primary challenge.”

Ocasio-Cortez says Democrats are ‘tremendously united’ in effort to end government shutdown

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Republican after Republican has used the progressive star as a foil in their argument that Democrats are going overboard in their demands to end the shutdown. They claim she and the left wing of the party are pressuring their more moderate leadership to hold firm.

Ocasio-Cortez made it clear in an interview with NBC News that Democratic leadership, not she, is driving the party’s strategy.

Read the full story here.

On the second day of the shutdown, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., called it “stupid” and said a negotiation with his Democratic counterpart, Sen. Chuck Schumer, is not “going to accomplish a lot.”

In an interview with NBC News’ Tom Llamas that will air tonight, Thune said Democrats will have another opportunity tomorrow afternoon to join Republicans in voting for a clean, short-term bill to reopen the government.

“I would suspect that we’ll probably cross paths on the floor; we’re both on the floor quite often. Our offices are not far apart. So if he wants to chat, he knows where to find me,” Thune said of Schumer, D-N.Y., the minority leader. “But I think at this point, right now, the issue ... is pretty straightforward. I don’t know that, you know, negotiation is going to accomplish a lot.”

Read the full story here.

A statue of two bronze-colored figures depicting Trump and the late financier Jeffrey Epstein reappeared on the National Mall near the Capitol today. 

The statue, which was placed on the Mall last week, was removed early Sept. 24, according to Park Police. 

The statue, which shows the two men holding hands, each with one leg in the air, is titled “Best Friends Forever.” A plaque between the two reads: “In honor of friendship month, we celebrate the long-standing bond between President Donald J. Trump and his closest friend Jeffrey Epstein.”

The watchdog group Public Citizen filed numerous complaints with the Office of Special Counsel today alleging the White House and numerous federal agencies are violating the Hatch Act by blaming Democrats for the shutdown on their websites.

"This is using taxpayer money to advertise in favor of Donald Trump and against the Democratic party to the voting public. While the president is exempt from the Hatch Act, the White House staff is not exempt," says the complaint about the White House site, which greets visitors with a message that says, "Democrats have shut down the government."

“Even for an administration that flouts ethics guidelines regularly, these messages are a particularly egregious and clear-cut sign that Trump and his cabinet see themselves as above the law," Public Citizen’s Craig Holman said in a statement.

A top national security prosecutor in a key federal office was fired after a pro-Trump writer, without evidence, linked him to internal pushback over the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey last week.

Michael Ben’Ary, a veteran prosecutor who was serving as chief of the national security unit for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, was fired yesterday, three sources familiar with the situation told NBC News.

The firing came hours after Julie Kelly, a writer who advocated for Jan. 6 defendants and is deeply connected to the Trump administration, had written on X that the public “can only assume” that Ben-Ary “was a big part of the internal resistance” to indicting Comey.

Read the full story here.

The federal government entered a shutdown at midnight on Oct. 1 when lawmakers failed to pass new funding bills. It’s unclear how long the stalemate will last, and lawmakers do not appear to be any closer to coming to an agreement that could reopen the government.

After the shutdown began, certain programs and services went dark and federal workers faced furloughs. More programs are expected to be affected by a longer shutdown, and administration officials have suggested that federal workers could be fired.

NBC News is tracking the key dates and events of the ongoing shutdown in this graphic, which will be updated daily.

Read the full story here.

A group representing FBI agents warned today that a prolonged shutdown could wind up hampering investigations and case work.

"If the shutdown continues, the Bureau will inevitably be forced to curtail travel, training, hiring, and other essential operations. These restrictions will slow investigations, delay forensic analysis, and weaken coordination with state, local, and international law enforcement partners," the FBI Agents Association said in a statement.

The group noted its members will be working without pay, and said it "strongly urges Congress to act now to restore funding and end the shutdown."

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said today that he would “welcome” an endorsement of his mayoral campaign from incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who dropped out of the race earlier this week.

“I would welcome his support. You know, this is a general election, it’s Democrats, Republicans, independents,” Cuomo, who is running as an third-party candidate, told NBC News' “Meet the Press NOW.” 

“I would welcome the mayor’s support. I’d welcome big tent support,” Cuomo added.

But the former Democratic governor said that he would not accept an endorsement from Trump, who has been outspoken about his opposition to Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani’s candidacy.

Read the full story here.

Nonprofit groups with disparate missions are banding together in an alliance aimed at protecting one another if they become targets of President Trump’s ire, people involved in the initiative said.

Referring to the effort colloquially as a kind of “NATO for nonprofits,” the groups plan to rally behind an embattled nonprofit by offering strategic and legal support, issuing supportive statements and loaning staff who would help keep it afloat until the crisis passes.

Just as the NATO military alliance views an attack on one member state as an attack on all, the network of nonprofits would serve as a bulwark against Trump administration actions that disrupt the work of groups that are providing lawful services and exercising free speech, supporters of the effort said.

Read the full story here.

Education Department employees furloughed this week discovered their email accounts had been manipulated while they were out of office to include partisan talking points that blamed a government shutdown on Democrats.

Five employees who spoke with NBC News and provided copies of their out-of-office messages said the wording was altered from how they originally had composed them. All of them are civil servants, not political appointees. Education officials had initially sent employees templates of nonpartisan out-of-office wording to use in their emails. Several employees said they used the language provided by department officials earlier in the week only to find that while they were furloughed, someone had changed it.

Read the full story here.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters today that the White House is looking at laying off "thousands" of federal workers.

"It’s likely going to be in the thousands," Leavitt said. "[T]hat’s something that the Office of Management and Budget and the entire team at the White House here, again, is unfortunately having to work on today," she added.

She said those conversations would "not be happening if the Democrats had voted to keep the government open."

Leavitt then indicated the White House isn't interested in negotiating with Democrats. "We haven’t wanted to negotiate. We just want to keep the government open. That’s been the Republican and the Trump White House position since the very beginning," she said. 

Jenna Norton drove out of the parking lot of the National Institutes of Health office in Maryland yesterday morning with a lump in her throat, leaving behind her research on kidney disease patients and not knowing when she’d see her colleagues or a paycheck again.

“I feel really sad,” said Norton, who is among the roughly 750,000 federal employees furloughed this week as part of a government shutdown. “It was weird walking out the door and saying goodbye to everyone and not knowing when I’ll see them again.”

Those furloughed employees won’t be paid until Congress passes legislation to fund the government, with neither side showing signs of budging as the shutdown entered its second day. While most of the furloughed employees won’t be allowed to work during the shutdown, others who are deemed essential — such as members of the military and airport security screeners — will have to continue working without pay.

Read the full story here.

While millions of federal workers go without pay during the government shutdown, lawmakers will continue to receive paychecks on a regular basis. 

Several senators on both sides of the aisle are requesting that their salary be withheld for the duration of the shutdown, including Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., who said that going without pay could “put some pressure on” lawmakers to reach a deal faster. 

“I think that just shows the inconsistencies right now that really frustrate people, because it makes it feel like the leaders in government, that they’re playing with other people’s chips, that they don’t understand the struggles that rest of the American people are facing,” Kim told NBC News. 

“I’m not going to take $1 as long as this shutdown goes forward,” he said. 

Other lawmakers are not requesting their pay ​be withheld, like Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., who dismissed the move as “just gimmicks.”

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Trump has the authority to lay off federal workers and withhold funding for approved projects that are already in the works, saying Democrats handed “the keys of the kingdom to the president.” 

“So in that situation, when Congress turns off the funding, and the funding runs out, is up to the commander in chief, the president United States, to determine how those resources will be spent,” Johnson said in response to a question NBC News during a news conference this morning. “He has that responsibility given to him by the Democrats in the Senate. They can’t complain about it, and he doesn’t want to do it.” 

Asked about the welcome page message on the website of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which says “Radical Left in Congress shut down the government,” Johnson said: “I think what the HUD website says is the objective truth that we’re telling you right now.” 

At the end of the press conference, Johnson brought up Trump’s posts that have depicted House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., in a sombrero. 

The U.S. government is shut down, and Americans are more inclined to blame Trump and Republicans for it, according to four independent, national polls conducted just before or during the funding lapse.

But there is fluidity in the political fight, as the surveys show a significant share of voters aren’t sure whom to blame. The shutdown is only in its second day, as Republicans and Democrats sharpen their messages, and it’s not clear how long the impasse will last.

Read the full story here.

On a typical Thursday morning, the Marriage Bureau in the Superior Court building in Washington, D.C., is bustling with long lines of young couples smiling ear to ear as they fill out forms and obtain their marriage licenses. 

But today, the waiting room is empty, and the staff sitting at computers are able to provide certified copies of already-issued licenses, but not much else because of the government shutdown — something they tried to make clear before even speaking to arrivals.

“Due to the govt. shutdown, we are not processing marriage applications or issuing marriage licenses,” a sign on the door reads. 

“Happy furlough!” a staffer wished an arriving member of her team like she would intone a birthday greeting. The staff members on site said they missed seeing the smiling faces of their visitors, and they weren’t quite sure why they couldn't issue these licenses. They were still at work, after all. 

Current and former police leaders, citing rising threats of violence, are expressing alarm over a “disturbing rise in rhetoric” in the U.S. and calling for the criminal prosecution of “individuals, including elected and public figures, who incite violence or contribute to a climate that fosters targeted attacks.”

In an unusual step, the International Association of Chiefs of Police, one of the country’s largest police associations, recently passed a resolution condemning the “incitement of violence.”

“There has been a disturbing rise in rhetoric from political and community leaders that has contributed to acts of violence against law enforcement officers, elected officials, and members of the public,” the association states in the document. “The IACP urges political and community leaders to exercise restraint, responsibility, and thoughtfulness in their public statements, recognizing the influence their words have on public behavior and safety.”

Former police leaders expressed alarm in interviews, warning that the number of threats to the public, schools, political leaders and law enforcement was the highest they had seen in their careers.

Read the full story here.

Since the shutdown started, Trump has posted different pictures on his social media site from his unsuccessful Monday meeting with Democratic leaders showing "Trump 2028" hats sitting on his Oval Office desk.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has said the hats just "appeared" at some point during the White House sitdown with Trump, where the two sides failed to reach an agreement to keep the government running.

House Republican leadership indicated this morning that lawmakers were not any closer to a deal on government funding, with Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., insisting his side had nothing to negotiate over and laying blame for the shutdown on Democrats.

Johnson argued Republicans didn't have anything to negotiate because they were pushing for what's known as a "clean" continuing resolution, which does not include any new GOP provisions and would simply maintain government funding at the current levels.

The speaker also pointed out what he said were the contradictory comments from Democrats opposing shutdowns during past government funding fights, arguing Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has changed his tune this time because he is afraid of being primaried by popular progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., in 2028.

Schumer has said he and Democratic leaders want an extension of Obamacare subsidies that are expiring at the end of the year to be included in any shorter-term government funding bill.

As the government shutdown enters its second day, Republicans and Democrats are digging in rather than searching for common ground. Trump’s budget chief, Russel Vought, told House Republicans yesterday that firing of federal workers could start in the next one to two days. NBC’s Ryan Nobles reports for "TODAY."

Government shutdown Day 2: White House says layoffs are 'imminent'

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FBI Director Kash Patel — who previously criticized its intelligence work and who moved resources out of domestic extremism — told bureau employees that he’s bringing “strong leaders” back to headquarters and conducting an “in-depth internal study” to improve its intelligence work, according to an email seen by NBC News.

The FBI’s most infamous intelligence failure in recent years came at the tail end of Trump’s first term, when the bureau missed all the warning signs ahead of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. A Justice Department inspector general report found last year that the bureau missed the “basic step” of canvassing field offices for intelligence ahead of the attack.

The Jan. 6 committee leaned away from a deeper examination of the FBI’s failures, instead focusing its report on Trump, but a top investigator to the committee told NBC News in 2023 that “what happened at the Capitol was also affected by law enforcement failures to operationalize the ample intelligence that was present before Jan. 6, about the threats of violence.”

Patel said before he became director that intel shops were the “biggest problem the FBI has had” and that he would take FBI employees out of headquarters to return to the field to “chase down criminals.” Now, he says, the FBI’s mission “all starts and ends with intelligence.” 

CNN first reported on the email.

Government workers, from the military to food inspectors, are paying the price for dysfunction in Washington. NBC’s Tom Costello reports for "TODAY" on the impact of the government shutdown and who is not getting a paycheck.

Here are the workers not getting paid during the shutdown

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Your Medicare, Medicaid or Affordable Care Act coverage won’t vanish during the government shutdown, but changes to some benefits and fewer government workers to help could still disrupt care for millions.

At the heart of the shutdown fight is whether Republican leaders accept a demand from Democrats to extend Obamacare subsidies before they expire at the end of the year and premiums start skyrocketing. Democrats also sought to undo Trump’s Medicaid cuts, but the GOP has shown no interest.

Fortunately for everyday people, core programs such as Medicare and Medicaid will keep running because their funding is built into law. But a popular Medicare benefit — telehealth — has already ended for many, and so-called discretionary programs, such as Community Health Centers (CHCs), may be at risk unless Congress acts soon.

Here’s what the shutdown means for health care coverage.

Read the full story here.

Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he would meet today with Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought "to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut."

He said they would discuss whether the cuts would be "temporary or permanent."

"I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity," he added.

Trump also noted in the post that Vought was "of PROJECT 2025 Fame." Vought was a top author of the controversial conservative blueprint for reshaping the federal government, which Trump sought to distance himself from during his campaign.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview with CNBC this morning that he could "guarantee" Republicans will not meet Democratic leaders' demands to extend Obamacare subsidies as a way to end the government shutdown.

Bessent also warned that shutting down the government could lead to "a hit to the GDP," although most economists have downplayed the impact of the shutdown. They have noted that the longest lapse in government funding, which occurred in Trump's first term, shaved only 0.4% off of the country's economic output.

Democrats are negotiating "like terrorists," Bessent said, adding, "They want to say, 'This is what we have to have, and if we don't get it, we're going to close down the government.'"

The treasury secretary also downplayed the threat of layoffs or permanent cuts to the federal workforce, calling the concerns a Democratic "talking point." He then called Senate Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, both of New York, "weak" and "discombobulated," saying they were using the shutdown as an opportunity.

"President Trump, in the first nine months now, has been unstoppable," Bessent said. "They've tried to stop him in the courts, they tried to stop him in the press, and now they're trying to stop him with the shutdown."

Trump said in a clip of an interview with One America News Network set to air today that he could make permanent cuts to projects favored by Democrats during the government shutdown.

Asked whether he thought federal workers would be fired during the funding lapse, Trump blamed Democrats, saying, “Well, there could be firings and that’s their fault, and it could also be other things. I mean, we could cut projects that they wanted, favorite projects, and they’d be permanently cut."

"A lot of people are saying Trump wanted this closing — I wanted this — and I didn't want it," the president continued. "But a lot of people are saying it because I’m allowed to cut things that should have never been approved in the first place, and I will probably do that.”

E.J. Antoni, who was withdrawn this week as Trump’s nominee to be the next Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner, thanked senators who met with him after his nomination in a statement, but called it “unfortunate” that some “lack the courage” to back change. 

“I want to thank the President and the Treasury Secretary, all the senators who took the time to meet with me, and many others for their endorsements and faith in my abilities and commitment to the very reforms the American people asked this administration to deliver,” he said in a statement.

“It is unfortunate that there are other elected officials who lack the courage to support this commonsense agenda of real change in Washington,” he added.

Antoni, the chief economist at the Heritage Foundation, said he would continue working the conservative think tank and "advocate for the reforms BLS so desperately needs.”

“The American people deserve nothing less than for these improvements to be implemented immediately as part of a larger agenda to make government more efficient and make the American Dream more attainable,” he said.

Because yesterday marked the start of the 2026 fiscal year, the WIC program — which provides free, healthy food to low-income pregnant women, new moms and children under 5 — was due for an influx of funding.

Instead came the government shutdown.

If it persists, access to the federal program, known in full as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, could be jeopardized. A U.S. Department of Agriculture letter to WIC state agency directors yesterday confirmed that states would not receive their next quarterly allocation of funds during the shutdown.

According to the National WIC Association, a nonprofit advocacy organization that represents state and local WIC agencies, “devastating disruptions” may deny millions of moms and children access to nutritious foods if the government remains closed for longer than a week or two.

Read the full story here.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters yesterday that layoffs of federal workers because of the government shutdown are “imminent.”

“Unfortunately, because the Democrats shut down the government, the president has directed his Cabinet and the Office of Management and Budget is working with agencies across the board to identify where cuts can be made. And we believe that layoffs are imminent. They are, unfortunately, a consequence of this government shutdown,” Leavitt said.

She didn’t give specifics on the extent of the workforce reductions.

OMB Director Russell Vought told House Republicans on a conference call yesterday afternoon that the firing of federal employees would begin in “one to two” days, GOP sources on the call said. Vought didn’t outline the specifics of the plans.

The Senate will return at noon today, but will not hold any votes in observance of Yom Kippur.

Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said yesterday that while the floor will be open for speeches, "it will be fairly quiet around here, but I’m sure there’ll be a lot of conversations going on.”

Tomorrow, the Senate will again vote on whether to take up the same partisan short-term funding bills that have already failed three times. The chamber will also vote a bloc of 108 Trump nominees.

What happens after that depends on how discussions with Democrats go and whether more of them vote with Republicans to pass the House-passed stopgap bill, which retains the status quo in government spending.

The political arm of Everytown for Gun Safety launched a $1 million ad buy in Virginia to boost Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger ahead of the November election. 

As part of the buy, first reported by NBC News, the group will begin running two digital ads across the state that tout Spanberger’s biography and her time in Congress. The ads will target independent and moderate voters in the state with a message focused on public safety.

One 30-second ad focuses on Spanberger’s career before Congress as a CIA officer. A narrator in the ad says Spanberger is running for governor “to keep you and your family safe.”