Trump says ‘no choice’ but to cut federal workers if government shuts down as midnight deadline looms – live

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Senate rejects Democratic resolution to keep government funded

The Senate has rejected a stopgap funding bill, drawn up by congressional Democrats, that would keep the government funded until the end of October. The resolution failed 47-53.

This version of a short-term funding patch also included several healthcare provisions – including extending Affordable Care Act subsidies that are due to expire at the end of this year.

on Capitol Hill

Jeanne Shaheen, the Democratic Senator representing purple state New Hampshire, told reporters at the Capitol that she agreed with Democratic leaders’ insistence that compromising on government funding is up to the GOP.

“I think we need to get a resolution, and I think it’s doable, and I think that what’s been lacking has been a commitment from the President, who’s in charge of all three branches of government, and he doesn’t seem to be interested,” she said.

Asked if Democrats chose wisely by centering the government funding fight on healthcare, she said: “I think there are a number of fights we should be having.”

Shaheen is not running for re-election next year, leaving open a competitive Senate seat that Democrats will have to defend.

According to CNN and Punchbowl News, the Senate will continue votes on Wednesday 1 October, before breaking for Yom Kippur. Lawmakers will also return on Friday 3 October and Saturday 4 October, in the event that Congress fails to pass a resolution today. They cite confirmation from the Senate majority whip, John Barrasso.

Republicans will propose their original bill, which would keep the government funded until 21 November.

Right now, senators are voting on a version of a shortterm funding bill that Democratic lawmakers wrote to counter the original resolution, written by Republicans.

CNN’s Manu Raju has just shared a discussion he captured in a Capitol hallway with Democratic congresswoman Madeleine Dean, and Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson.

In the video, Dean calls on Johnson to say that a recent deepfake video Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, which shows House minority leader with a sombrero and several racist tropes and fabricated audio.

According to Raju’s video, Johnson tells Dean that the AI-generated video is “not my style”. Dean then replies: “Not your style? It’s disgraceful. It’s racist. You should call it out.”

It ends with Johnson saying that he “loves” and “respects” Dean and her insisting that’s why she is talking to him about the video.

On the Senate floor, Patty Murray – who serves as the senior senator from Washington, and vice-chair of the influential appropriations committee – just said that she hopes Republicans will “come to their senses and come to the table”.

“If Republicans want to avoid a shutdown like Democrats want to avoid a shutdown, then stop spending so much time saying you will sit down with us on healthcare later,” Murray said. “Spend that time working with us right now.”

Bondi to appear before Senate judiciary committee next week

Attorney general Pam Bondi is set to appear before the Senate judiciary committee on Tuesday, 7 October, as turmoil in the justice department continues.

Last week, federal prosecutors indicted former FBI director James Comey. This despite the US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, Erik Siebert, finding insufficient evidence to prosecute him.

The president, then moved to fire Siebert and installed White House staffer and his personal attorney, Lindsey Halligan.

'We have no choice': Trump says layoffs are inevitable if the government shuts down

When asked by a reporter during his executive order signing, why it’s necessary to cut more federal jobs in the event of a government shutdown, the president said it’s something you “have to do”.

“No country can afford to pay for illegal immigration, healthcare for everybody that comes into the country. And that’s what they [Democrats] are insisting,” Trump said. “They want open borders. They want men playing in women’s sports. They want transgender for everybody. They never stop. They don’t learn. We won an election in the landslide. They just don’t learn. So we have no choice. I have to do that for the country.”

Trump signs executive order to use AI in pediatric cancer research

The president signed an executive order today to “accelerate” pediatric cancer research by using artificial intelligence.

This includes doubling a $50m investment in the childhood cancer data initiative.

“For years, we’ve been amassing data about childhood cancer, but until now, we’ve been unable to fully exploit this trove of information and apply it to practical medicine,” Trump said.

It’s worth noting something that Donald Trump said earlier, during his announcement in the Oval Office.

“We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible. Like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like,” the president said, seemingly in reference to the memo sent out by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) last week that told federal agencies to prepare for layoffs in the event of a government shutdown. “And you all know Russell Vought. He’s become very popular recently because he can trim the budget to a level that you couldn’t do any other way.”

Vought, who is the director of the OMB, was standing beside the president during today’s announcement.

In response, top Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer said the president “admitted himself that he is using Americans as political pawns”.

“He is admitting that he is doing the firing of people, if god forbid it [the shutdown] happens,” Schumer added. “Democrats do not want to shut down. We stand ready to work with Republicans to find a bipartisan compromise.”

In terms of who stands to be affected if Congress fails to pass a funding extension today, my colleague Lauren Gambino notes that approximately 750,000 federal employees will be furloughed each day of a government shutdown, according to an estimate by the Congressional Budget Office released on Tuesday.

Operations deemed essential – such as social security, military duties, immigration enforcement, and air traffic control – continue, but other services may be disrupted or delayed. Mail delivery and post office operations will continue without interruption.

Agencies have been releasing updated contingency plans in the event of a shutdown. The Department of Education said nearly all its federal employees would be furloughed, while most of the Department of Homeland Security workforce would remain on the job.

The effect can be wide-ranging and potentially long-lasting. Previous shutdowns have closed national parks and the Smithsonian museums in Washington; slowed air travel; delayed food safety inspections and postponed immigration hearings.

Lauren notes that while the broader economy may not feel the effects immediately, analysts warn that a prolonged shutdown could slow growth, disrupt markets, and erode public trust.

Read Lauren’s full primer on the looming shutdown below.

Qatar, Egypt and Turkey urge Hamas to accept Trump's Gaza proposal – report

Qatar, Egypt and Turkey are urging Hamas to give a positive response to Donald Trump’s proposal for ending Israel’s war in Gaza, Axios is reporting, citing two sources with knowledge of the talks.

Trump said earlier this morning that he was giving the group “three or four days” to respond. “We have one signature that we need, and that signature will pay in hell if they don’t sign,” Trump told US generals and admirals in Quantico, Virginia. Yesterday the president made clear that he would support Israel continuing the war if Hamas rejects the proposal, or reneges on the deal at any stage.

According to Axios’s source, while Trump presented the plan at a press conference yesterday alongside Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, Qatari PM Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani and Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad were presenting it to Hamas leaders in Doha – and both urged Hamas to accept.

Per Axios’s report: “Al-Thani advised the Hamas leaders that this was the best deal he was able to get for them and it won’t get much better, the source told the news agency. He also stressed that based on his conversations with Trump, he was confident the US president was seriously committed to ending the war. He said that was a strong enough guarantee for Hamas. The Hamas leaders told al-Thani they would study the proposal in good faith.”

They met again on Tuesday, this time along with Turkish intelligence director Ebrahim Kalin, the source told Axios. Ahead of that meeting, al-Thani told Al-Jazeera he hopes “everyone looks at the plan constructively and seizes the chance to end the war”. He said Hamas needs to get to a consensus with all other Palestinian factions in Gaza before issuing an official response. “We and Egypt explained to Hamas during yesterday’s meeting that our main goal is stopping the war. Trump’s plan achieves the main goal of ending the war, though some issues in it need clarification and negotiation,” the Qatari PM added.

The US is set to deport some 400 Iranian people back to Iran in the coming months as part of a deal with the Iranian government, the New York Times (paywall) reports.

Iranian officials have told the paper that a US-chartered flight carrying about 100 people departed Louisiana last night and will arrive in Iran via Qatar in the next few days.

The deportation to Iran, which has one of the harshest human rights records in the world, marks “one of the starkest efforts yet by the Trump administration to deport migrants no matter the human rights conditions in countries on the receiving end”, the NYT’s report reads.

“The identities of the Iranians on the plane and their reasons for trying to immigrate to the United States were not immediately clear,” it notes. But Iranian officials add “that in nearly every case, asylum requests had been denied or the [deportees] had not yet appeared before a judge for an asylum hearing”.

Michael Sainato

Earlier today, the homepage of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (Hud) was changed to a message in bold, claiming “the Radical Left are going to shut down the government and inflict massive pain on the American people unless they get their $1.5 trillion wish list of demands. The Trump administration wants to keep the government open for the American people.”

The partisan message comes after whistleblowers at the agency claimed they were fired for raising concerns about the agency dismantling efforts to enforce fair housing laws.