Trump sees ‘unprecedented opportunity’ to punish Democrats as shutdown enters day two

The government shut down on Wednesday at midnight, after Democrats refused to support a Republican plan to continue funding unless it included a series of healthcare-focused concessions. Vought has threatened to use the shutdown to conduct further layoffs of federal workers, and on Wednesday announced the cancellation of billions of dollars in federal funding for projects tied to Democrats.

_{Read the full story}

Trump declares that drug cartels operating in the Caribbean are ‘unlawful combatants’

Donald Trump has declared that drug cartels operating in the Caribbean are “unlawful combatants” and says the United States is now in a “non-international armed conflict”, according to a White House memo obtained by the Associated Press on Thursday.

_{Read the full story}

Hamas to demand key revisions to Trump Gaza plan before accepting, sources say

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/03/trump-administration-news-updates-today?utm_source=chatgpt.com#img-1

Hamas is likely to provisionally accept Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire proposal in the coming days – but only on condition there are significant revisions of some of its key elements, analysts and sources close to the group say.

_{Read the full story}

California vows to ‘instantly’ cut funding to universities that cave to Trump ‘compact’

Any California universities that sign the Trump administration’s proposed “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” will “instantly” lose their state funding, California governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement.

The Trump administration on Wednesday offered nine prominent universities, including the University of Southern California, the chance to sign a “compact” that asks the universities to close academic departments that “purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas”, limit the proportion of international undergraduate students to 15%, accept the administration’s definition of gender and ban the consideration of race or sex in hiring and admissions, in exchange for “substantial and meaningful federal grants”.

_{Read the full story}

Judge denies Kilmar Ábrego García’s bid for asylum in the US

An immigration judge in Baltimore has denied Kilmar Ábrego García’s bid for asylum on Thursday, but he has 30 days to appeal.

Ábrego’s case has drawn national attention since the 30-year-old was wrongfully deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador in March. The Salvadorian national has an American wife and children and has lived in Maryland for years, but he originally immigrated to the US illegally as a teenager.

_{Read the full story}

What else happened today:

• Elon Musk, the multibillionaire and self-proclaimed “free speech absolutist”, has in recent days trained his attention on getting people to cancel their Netflix subscriptions in protest of what he claims is the company’s “woke bias” and inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters.

• The White House recently issued a press release with links to scientific studies to back up Trump’s claim that use of acetaminophen, commonly referred to as Tylenol, during pregnancy causes autism, but those studies provided only “weak” and “inconclusive” evidence, according to physicians with expertise in reviewing medical research who spoke to the Guardian.

• Trump sees ‘unprecedented opportunity’ to punish Democrats as shutdown enters day two

  Republicans and Democrats engage in war of words as White House also uses impasse to cut government spending

  As the US government shutdown stretched into its second day, Donald Trump on Thursday hailed the funding lapse as an “unprecedented opportunity” to further his campaign of firing federal workers and downsizing departments.

  The president announced on social media that he would sit down with Russell Vought, the White House office of management and budget chief and architect of the mass firings and buyouts of federal workers.

  “I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

  “I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity.”

  The government shutdown on Wednesday at midnight, after Democrats refused to support a Republican plan to continue funding unless it included a series of healthcare-focused concessions. Vought has threatened to use the shutdown to conduct further layoffs of federal workers, and on Wednesday announced the cancellation of billions of dollars in federal funding for projects tied to Democrats.

  About $18bn was frozen for infrastructure projects in and around New York City over “unconstitutional DEI principles”, Vought said, referring to the diversity, equity, and inclusion policies that Trump has sought to stamp out from the federal government. The projects for which money was held include the Second Avenue subway line in Manhattan and the Hudson River tunnel project connecting the city to New Jersey.

  The cancellations sparked a furious reaction from Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrats in the Senate and House of Representatives, respectively, both of whom are New Yorkers.

  “Donald Trump is once again treating working people as collateral damage in his endless campaign of chaos and revenge,” they said in a joint statement.

  Vought also announced that around $8bn in funds for 16 states – all of which are run by Democrats – was put on hold. Vought did not specify the projects, but called it “Green New Scam funding to fuel the Left’s climate agenda”.

  The Democratic senator Adam Schiff, who represents California, one of the states for which funding was slashed, responded: “Our democracy is badly broken when a president can illegally suspend projects for Blue states in order to punish his political enemies. They continue to break the law, and expect us to go along. Hell no.”

  Ron Wyden, a Democratic senator representing Oregon, another state that lost funding, said: “Ripping funding away from only blue states will raise utility bills for EVERYONE. It’s not rocket science. Vought is unfit to serve in this or any administration.”

  At the White House on Wednesday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt warned that “layoffs are imminent”, but gave no further details. That’s a shift from past shutdowns, when federal workers were furloughed or told to work unpaid, with back pay coming once funding is restored.

  Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate appropriations committee, on X replied: “If the president fires a bunch of people, it’s not because of his shutdown–it’s because HE decided to fire them. People aren’t negotiating tools & it’s sick that the president is treating federal workers like pawns.”

  Some Republicans signaled they were uncomfortable with using a shutdown as an opportunity to further slash the federal workforce, which has already lost hundreds of thousands of workers through firings and buyouts.

  “This is certainly the most moral high ground Republicans have had in a moment like this that I can recall, and I just don’t like squandering that political capital when you have that kind of high ground,” Kevin Cramer, a Republican senator of North Dakota, told CNN, when asked about the layoff threats.

  The broader effects of this shutdown remain to be seen. Many national parks have remained open, but with reduced services, as have the Smithsonian museums in Washington DC.

  

  Travel, national parks and housing: what does the US government shutdown mean for everyday people?

  Read more

  There has been no indication of a breakthrough in the funding dispute in Congress, where both parties have refused to back down from their demands in the day since the shutdown began.

  “I quite literally have nothing to negotiate,” Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, said on Thursday. The Republican-controlled chamber has passed a bill to fund the government through 21 November, but it needs at least some Democratic support to clear the 60-vote threshold for advancements in the Senate.

  On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of senators was seen huddling on the Senate floor, but it is unclear if that brought the two sides any closer to a deal.

  The House remains out of session, with no vote planned in the Senate today due to the Yom Kippur holiday.