Trump administration live updates: Senate fails to advance stopgap bill; judge blocks federal layoffs for now

The Senate will vote tomorrow for a 10th time on the House-passed clean stopgap funding bill, a vote to move forward with the bill, which will need 60 votes to pass and is expected to fail again. 

But the Senate will also vote tomorrow on a procedural motion related to the Defense Department appropriations Bill, which would start the Senate on the process to pass a bill to fully fund the military. That motion, which will also need 60 votes to pass, will be a key test of whether Democrats want to block even normal appropriations government funding bills as a part of their protest to get negotiations started surrounding an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies.

If tomorrow’s procedural vote passes, the Senate could pass the bill in the coming weeks, and if the House were to also pass the same version and Trump were to sign it into law, the military’s not being paid during a shutdown would no longer be an issue (if the shutdown has continued that long).

The votes will be at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. The Senate is also expected to leave town for the weekend after votes tomorrow, most likely meaning the government shutdown will last until Monday.

Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee in the New York mayoral race, said today that it was “too early” to give Trump credit for negotiating a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, saying he would be willing to do so if the ceasefire is “lasting” and “durable.”

“When it comes to the ceasefire, I am thankful, and I have hope that it will actually endure and that it will be lasting,” Mamdani told Fox News’ Martha MacCallum.

Asked by MacCallum about whether he credits Trump, whose administration negotiated the first phase of a peace plan with Israel and Hamas, Mamdani said, “I think it’s too early to do so.”

Read the full story here.

The Pentagon Press Association sharply criticized the Defense Department's move to confiscate the badges of the Pentagon reporters who refused to sign the Pentagon’s new media policy yesterday.

"It did this because reporters would not sign onto a new media policy over its implicit threat of criminalizing national security reporting and exposing those who sign it to potential prosecution," the group said.

NBC News and five other major broadcast news networks yesterday joined other media outlets in opposing the new rules, which bar Pentagon reporters from reporting on information the government hasn't authorized for release even if it is unclassified.

The CIA’s operations abroad are usually shrouded in secrecy, but Trump said today he had authorized it to take unspecified action in Venezuela, an extraordinary and unprecedented acknowledgment from a commander in chief.

“Why did you authorize the CIA to go into Venezuela?” a reporter asked Trump at the White House.

“I authorized for two reasons, really,” Trump said. “No. 1, they have emptied their prisons into the United States of America.”

The second reason, he said, is narcotics trafficking.

Trump suggested this afternoon that he could be playing a bigger role in efforts to prosecute his perceived political foes when a reporter asked him in the Oval Office about claims that he has weaponized the Justice Department to seek political retribution.

"If anything, I think this Justice Department has been so respectful of the law,” Trump said.

Trump also suggested that the Justice Department under former President Joe Biden had targeted him unfairly.

A Republican congressman from Ohio condemned the display of an altered American flag that included a swastika in his office, calling it “a vile and deeply inappropriate symbol” that his office is investigating.

“I am aware of an image that appears to depict a vile and deeply inappropriate symbol near an employee in my office. The content of that image does not reflect the values or standards of this office, my staff, or myself, and I condemn it in the strongest terms,” Rep. Dave Taylor said in a statement.

Politico first reported the existence of the flag, which was spotted pinned to a bulletin board behind one of Taylor’s staffers during a virtual meeting. A picture of the flag obtained by Politico shows the stripes in the American flag forming the Nazi symbol.

Read the full story here.

Trump said in the Oval Office this afternoon that his administration is considering strikes on land in his crackdown on drug cartels after his administration authorized military strikes on boats in the Caribbean in recent weeks.

"Well, I don’t want to tell you exactly, but we are certainly looking at land now because we’ve got the sea very well under control," he said in response to a reporter's question about whether he was considering land strikes.

Trump has directed at least five military strikes in the Caribbean that officials say have killed 27 people. After a second strike last month, Trump said it targeted “narcoterrorists” who were poised to bring “illegal narcotics” to the United States.

An initial deadly strike last month blew up a Venezuelan boat and killed 11 people. Trump claimed at the time that the Tren de Aragua gang was responsible for the boat, which he said was carrying drugs.

Cyndi Greening has a distinct memory of when Trump won the presidency in November. It’s from her living room floor.

Greening, a former college professor from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, said she cried there for days until her 37-year-old son interjected: “Get up and do something. What’s the matter with you?”

That’s when the Chippewa Valley Indivisible group was created. At the first meeting in January, 28 people showed up. At the next, it was 68. It then grew to 124.

Today, membership is nearing 1,900. On Saturday, they’ll be among the millions of people marching in nationwide “No Kings” protests, which organizers expect to far surpass the 5 million demonstrators who turned out for June’s “No Kings” day.

Read the full story here.

The Senate has failed for the ninth time to advance the House-passed spending bill supported by Republicans to fund the government.

The motion to invoke cloture failed, 51-44.

New York Mayor Eric Adams said today he's "in conversation" with former Gov. Andrew Cuomo's mayoral campaign about a potential endorsement.

Adams, a Democrat who launched an independent re-election campaign this year and then dropped out in September, told "The Reset Talk Show": "I’m in conversation with Andrew. I think it’s important that we can’t succumb to the far-left agenda in this city."

With less than a month to Election Day, Cuomo faces an uphill battle against state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, who beat him in the Democratic primary this year.

In an interview this month with NBC News' "Meet the Press NOW," Cuomo said he would "welcome" Adams' endorsement, as they've both criticized Mamdani's progressive policy agenda.

A federal judge in California today issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from laying off federal workers during the ongoing government shutdown.

Two unions sued the Trump administration last month ahead of the shutdown after it signaled a plan to issue reductions in force (RIF) procedures to federal agencies. The suit argued "the decision to implement RIFs during the federal shutdown, and the actions taken to implement it, are contrary to federal law."

U.S. District Judge Susan Yvonne Illston said she was "inclined to grant" the unions' request because it appears the “activities that are being undertaken here are contrary to the laws."

The Senate is now voting on advancing the House-passed funding bill for the ninth time.

Republicans need 60 votes for it to advance to a final vote.

The director of the White House's budget office, Russell Vought, predicted today that the administration will cut more than 10,000 jobs during the government shutdown.

In an interview on "The Charlie Kirk Show," he confirmed that 4,000 jobs have already been cut, and when he was asked whether that number could increase, he said: "It could grow higher. I think will probably end up being north of 10,000."

The administration began laying off the first 4,000-plus people last week. The layoffs involved jobs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some of which were ultimately reversed.

Federal workers are typically furloughed during government shutdowns, not fired, but the Trump administration said, even before the government shutdown, that people would be laid off. Trump and other officials have said they would target programs favored by Democrats.

Tensions are running high in multiple cities in response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids, with clashes on the streets of Chicago getting heated between protesters and federal agents who deployed tear gas, exposing some in the crowd. Homeland Security officials say Mexican drug cartels are offering cash bounties to target ICE officers and other high-ranking officials. NBC News’ Shaquille Brewster reports for "TODAY."

The conservative-majority Supreme Court today appeared open to again undermining the Voting Rights Act in a congressional redistricting case from Louisiana.

The justices, who expanded the scope of the case over the summer, heard oral arguments on whether states can ever consider race in drawing new districts while seeking to comply with Section 2 of the 1965 law, which was enacted against a backdrop of historic racial discrimination to protect minority voters.

The Voting Rights Act has long been a target of conservative legal attacks, with the Supreme Court weakening it in two major rulings in 2013 and 2021.

The long-running dispute concerns the congressional map that Louisiana was required to redraw last year after being sued under the Voting Rights Act to ensure that there were two majority-Black districts. The original map only had one such district in a state where a third of the population is Black.

Read the full story here.

Supreme Court arguments have concluded in a Louisiana redistricting case that includes a challenge to a key provision of the Voting Rights Act.

Janai Nelson, who is supporting the majority-Black districts in Louisiana, pointed to court precedent in her rebuttal to the challenges to the state map, arguing that her opponents are raising issues that have already been answered by the Supreme Court in other cases.

Nelson also argued that placing limits that effectively neuter Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act would lead to a resurgence of electoral discrimination.

The top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., is demanding an investigation into Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem for violating the Hatch Act by airing a “partisan video featuring her” at TSA airport screening locations across the country. 

In a letter to acting Special Counsel Jamieson Greer, Cantwell wrote, “When viewed in its totality, Secretary Noem’s video can only be reasonably interpreted as a partisan message intended to misleadingly malign the Trump Administration’s political opponents, convince Americans to blame ‘Democrats in Congress’ for the ongoing government shutdown, and influence their future votes—all while omitting the fact that Republicans currently control the White House, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House of Representatives.”

Some airports have refused to play the video, saying its political content goes against their policies.

Leaders in both parties are locked in competition to encourage tech giants to establish sprawling data centers in their states, looking for an economic leg up and an innovation edge in the early days of the artificial intelligence boom.

Now, those same leaders are dealing with a downside that’s more apparent by the month: Those electricity-hungry data centers are a major contributor to rising utility bills for cost-conscious residents who have been concerned about rising prices for years.

“Voters are mad as hell about energy prices increasing,” Virginia state Del. Shelly Simonds, a Democrat, said. “And they’re mad about affordability in general. And anybody who ignores these issues does so at their peril. It’s definitely going to be an issue during the midterms.”

Read the full story here.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., rebuked Democratic lawmakers who showed up at his office last night demanding the swearing-in of Democratic Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva of Arizona.

Speaking this morning at a press conference marking the 15th day of the government shutdown, Johnson accused Democrats of playing games. 

“They berated a Capitol Police officer, screamed at him,” Johnson said. “He was just merely standing his post. Shows again, their disdain for law enforcement, as we see all around the country.”

Johnson has refused to seat Grijalva in the House because of the government shutdown. The congresswoman-elect said yesterday, “I have not had one word from Speaker Johnson, not one word,” Grijalva said. “We sent a letter. Now our attorney general is getting involved, because this is taxation without representation.”

Democrats have accused Johnson of not seating her because she could sign onto a bipartisan discharge petition that would require the Justice Department to hand over Jeffrey Epstein-related records to Congress.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pressed Edward Greim, who is challenging the interpretation of aspects of the Voting Rights Act, on whether he was suggesting that it was only a state's intentional discrimination that needed to be remedied.

Greim said that if a race-based remedy is involved, it must be in response to "intentional discrimination."

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said that the 15th Amendment is not limited to "intentional" discrimination, prompting Greim to argue that the court has never held that the amendment addresses anything other than discrimination that is intentional.

But Sotomayor pushed back, arguing his assertion was not true and that the court has evaluated whether the effect of something is discrimination, regardless of whether that was the intent.

Jackson also pointed to the Americans with Disabilities Act. She noted that the effect of inaccessible buildings was discriminatory because people with disabilities could not access them — an effect that happened whether or not the person who built or owned the building intended to be exclusionary.

Greim argued, however, that the difference between the remedy under that act and other anti-discrimination laws was that it was not race-based and did not "stereotype" people.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pressed Louisiana Solicitor General Ben Aguiñaga on his perception of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

Jackson emphasized that Section 2 is about identifying a problem of unequal election opportunity, and then identifying a remedy. She pushed back on Aguiñaga's previous comments, asking him why it would not be in the state's interest to identify areas where discrimination is happening.

Jackson argued that the state "obviously" has an interest in remedying the effects of racial discrimination that are identified.

Ahead of the Senate's ninth attempt to pass the House version of the government funding stopgap bill this afternoon, Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in floor remarks that Republicans need just a handful more Democrats to vote in favor.

“Democrats show no sign that they’re ready for it to end. Not even the prospect of military families going without a paycheck was enough for Democrats to reopen the government," Thune said.

“We need five more Democrats to say enough is enough to put the American people ahead of the far left and to support this clean, nonpartisan continuing resolution sitting right there at the Senate desk, ready to be picked up and passed today, put on the president’s desk signed into law and the government reopens,” Thune said. “If just five more Democrats would show some courage, we could do just that.”

Liberal justices are defending Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in their questioning, speaking in defense of race-based considerations in redistricting.

Justice Elena Kagan said that Section 2 determines that, when effects are discriminatory, like Black voters not having the same opportunities as white voters, "then a remedy is appropriate."

"That remedy doesn't have to be race-based, but sometimes it is race-based in order to correct the racially discriminatory situation that exists in the state right now," she said, emphasizing the last two words.

Later, Kagan told Louisiana Solicitor General Ben Aguiñaga that the state's arguments for restricting Section 2 are reusing points that have already been rejected by the court.

Conservative members of the Supreme Court, including Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, are asking questions related to limits on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

Gorsuch pressed Janai Nelson, who is representing Black voters in Louisiana, on whether it would be OK for a court to intentionally discriminate on the basis of race as part of a remedy for the dilution of the minority vote.

Nelson said there could be a circumstance in which the only possible remedy involves the limited use of race, though she said those circumstances would be bound by strict scrutiny. The lawyer said she did not endorse the concept of race-based discrimination if that is established under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

Louisiana's solicitor general, Benjamin Aguiñaga, is now being questioned by the court.

Conservative Supreme Court justices are pressing Janai Nelson, the director of the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund, who is representing Black voters in Louisiana, over the time frame for race-based remedies to the potential dilution of the power of minority voters, a central issue in the case being heard this morning.

The case could see the Supreme Court reinterpret part of the Voting Rights Act as part of the challenge to the state's congressional redistricting proposals.

Nelson spoke in favor of Louisiana being able to maintain a map with majority-Black districts.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh said that the court has said that race-based remedies are permissible for a period of time, but should not be indefinite.

Asked what the end point for the remedies should be, Nelson said that while a race-based remedy can and should have a time limit, an entire law should not be dissolved because race might be considered as part of a "remedy" for violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

A body Hamas returned to Israel as part of the ceasefire deal is not that of any of the hostages, the Israel Defense Forces said today, as the already-fragile truce in Gaza faced renewed pressure.

“Following the completion of examinations at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine, the fourth body handed over to Israel by Hamas does not match any of the hostages,” the IDF said.

The bodies of Tamir Nimrodi, 20, Eitan Levy, 53, and Uriel Baruch, 35, were part of Hamas’ latest return yesterday, the Hostages Families Forum said, after four other bodies were handed over Monday. 

So far, seven hostages’ bodies are confirmed to have been sent back from Gaza out of the 28 deceased that were thought to remain in the enclave.

Read the full story here.

The conservative-majority Supreme Court today will consider whether to eviscerate a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act in a congressional redistricting case from Louisiana.

Trump is set to participate in a news conference with FBI Director Kash Patel in the Oval Office this afternoon.

The White House has not released details about the subject of the news conference. In recent weeks, Patel has faced criticism from lawmakers over his handling of Charlie Kirk's assassination and his firing of FBI leaders. Just days ago, NBC News reported that the FBI moved to fire special agents who worked on former special counsel Jack Smith's probe of Trump.

After the news conference, the president will host a ballroom dinner at the White House.

Members of Congress are growing concerned over a lack of information from the Trump administration about the intelligence and strategy underlying its strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean, six sources told NBC News.

Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill have left briefings about the strikes frustrated with the lack of information, said these people: five congressional sources and an additional source with knowledge of the matter. Some have asked for unedited video of the strikes, reflecting the kind of basic information they seek, but the administration has so far refused to provide it.

At a briefing a few weeks ago, Republican lawmakers were clearly upset with the answers they received, one of the congressional sources said.

Read the fulls story here.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, demanded that House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., swear in Adelita Grijalva, who was elected to Congress last month in a special election.

In a letter to Johnson, Mayes said if he did not provide "assurances" within two days that Grijalva would be immediately sworn in, she would "seek judicial relief" — in effect, threatening a lawsuit.

"You and your staff have provided ever-shifting, unsatisfactory, and sometimes absurd stories as to why Ms. Grijalva has not been sworn in," Mayes said in the letter, dated yesterday.

Reached for comment, Johnson said in a statement provided by his spokesperson, “As I have said repeatedly, the House will follow customary practice by swearing in Rep.-elect Grijalva when the House is in legislative session.”

The conservative-majority Supreme Court will consider whether to eviscerate a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act in a congressional redistricting case from Louisiana.

The justices will hear oral arguments this morning on whether states can ever consider race in drawing new districts while seeking to comply with Section 2 of the 1965 law, which was enacted against a backdrop of historic racial discrimination to protect minority voters.

Read the full story here.

A Florida judge issued a restraining order yesterday against Republican Rep. Cory Mills of Florida for “protection against dating violence” after his ex-girlfriend accused him of threatening and harassing her.

In a petition filed in August, Lindsey Langston alleged that after they broke up, Mills threatened to blackmail her using nude images and videos and to physically harm anyone she dated.

“Cory continued to message me on Instagram accounts I run after blocking him and asking him to not contact me. The messages progressively got more threatening over time,” wrote Langston, a Republican state committeewoman and Miss United States 2024.

A Florida judge has temporarily blocked the planned transfer of prime downtown Miami land for Trump’s future presidential library.

The move by Circuit Judge Mavel Ruiz came after a Miami activist alleged that officials at a local college violated Florida’s open government law when they gifted the sizable plot of real estate to the state, which then voted to transfer it to the foundation for the planned library.

“This is not an easy decision,” Mavel said yesterday when explaining her ruling from the bench, finding that the college didn’t give the public reasonable notice ahead of the vote last month.

Read the full story here.

Republicans and Democrats are bracing for a long government shutdown as it goes into its third week, with both parties seeing more upside in persisting with their conflicting demands.

As a result, neither side is willing to give an inch in the standoff, now the fifth-longest shutdown in the country’s history.

Republicans say their message is simple: Senate Democrats should vote for the short-term funding bill to reopen the government that passed the House last month and pursue their policy demands separately. They accuse Democrats of holding the government “hostage” to their goals.

But Democrats are eager to continue a national debate they’ve forced about a looming health care cliff, by demanding any funding bill be tied to addressing expiring Obamacare subsidies. The health care money is popular, even among self-described MAGA supporters, and has divided Republicans — although they are unified in saying it must be dealt with separately, outside the context of a government funding bill.

Read the full story here.

The Trump administration said it had revoked the visas of six foreign nationals “who celebrated the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk.”

The announcement yesterday came as Kirk, the conservative activist who was shot and killed last month while speaking at a Utah college campus, was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor.

“Aliens who take advantage of America’s hospitality while celebrating the assassination of our citizens will be removed,” the State Department said in a post on X.

The six foreign nationals whose visas were revoked, who were not identified, were from Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Mexico, Paraguay and South Africa.

The U.S. and China yesterday began charging additional port fees on ocean shipping firms that move everything from holiday toys to crude oil, making the high seas a key front in the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

A return to an all-out trade war appeared imminent last week, after China announced a major expansion of its rare earths export controls and Trump threatened to raise tariffs on Chinese goods to triple digits.

But after the weekend, both sides sought to reassure traders and investors, highlighting cooperation between their negotiating teams and the possibility that they could find a way forward.

China said it had started to collect the special charges on U.S.-owned, operated, built or flagged vessels but clarified that Chinese-built ships would be exempted from the levies.

Read the full story here.