Closing summary
The Guardian’s live blog is closing. Thank you for reading along today. Here are the top stories of the day in US politics.
The US Senate has passed a six-month spending bill on a 54-46 vote, narrowly avoiding a government shutdown. The bill is now headed to Donald Trump’s desk for signing.
The family of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian protests last year, has released a video of his arrest by plainclothes immigration officers. The video, recorded by his wife Noor Abdalla, who is eight months pregnant, shows immigration agents confronting Khalil and informing him that he is ‘going to be under arrest’ and ordering him to ‘stop resisting’.
The US Senate passed the Halt Fentanyl Act on Friday on a roll call vote of 84-16. The act would impose harsher penalties on people who traffic the drug and would reclassify fentanyl as a schedule one substance, a classification for drugs that have a high potential for abuse.
Donald Trump is cancelling the construction of a new FBI headquarters in Maryland. The FBI is currently based in downtown Washington DC, but has long been eyeing a move to the city’s suburbs.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with G7 foreign ministers in Canada, secretary of state Marco Rubio has warned that more visas of anti-war protesters who are on temporary status in the US will be revoked, Reuters reports.
Updated
The family of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian protests last year, has released a video of his arrest by plainclothes immigration officers. The video, recorded by his wife Noor Abdalla, who is eight months pregnant, shows immigration agents confronting Khalil and informing him that he is ‘going to be under arrest’ and ordering him to ‘stop resisting’.
The agents then handcuffed Khalil and took him into a car, refusing to give Abdalla their names when she asked for them. Khalil, a legal US resident and a green card holder, was sent to an immigration detention center in Louisiana and is being threatened with deportation over his participation in pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University.
In a statement, Abdalla described the video as “the most terrifying moment of my life.”
This felt like a kidnapping because it was: Officers in plainclothes — who refused to show us a warrant, speak with our attorney, or even tell us their names — forced my husband into an unmarked car and took him away from me. They threatened to take me too, even though we were calm and fully cooperating. For the next 38 hours after this video, neither I or our lawyers knew where Mahmoud was being held. Now, he’s over 1,000 miles from home, still being wrongfully detained by US immigration,” Abdalla said.
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Government shutdown averted
The US Senate has passed a six-month spending bill on a 54-46 vote, narrowly avoiding a government shutdown. The bill is now headed to Donald Trump’s desk for signing.
The ten Democrats who voted to advance the spending bill
Ten democrats just voted to advance the government spending bill, the Associated Press reports. They are:
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer
Sen Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second highest-ranking Senate Democrat
Sen Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with Democrats
Sen Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada
Sen John Fetterman of Pennsylvania
Sen Gary Peters of Michigan
Sen Kirsten Gillibrand of New York
Sen Brian Schatz of Hawaii
Sen Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire
Sen Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire
Updated
Spending bill clears key Senate hurdle
A spending bill to avert a partial government shutdown has narrowly cleared a key procedural hurdle in the Senate, paving the way for passage as a midnight deadline looms.
Ten Democrats joined with Republicans to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to advance the measure. Democrats confronted two painful options Friday as a midnight deadline loomed. They could allow the passage of a bill they believe gives President Donald Trump vast discretion on spending decisions.
Or they could vote no and let funding lapse. The top Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer, said Democrats really didn’t have a choice because a shutdown would have far worse consequences for Americans.
Updated
The US Senate passed the Halt Fentanyl Act on Friday on a roll call vote of 84-16. The act would impose harsher penalties on people who traffic the drug and would reclassify fentanyl as a schedule one substance, a classification for drugs that have a high potential for abuse.
Senator Chuck Grassley, who chairs the Senate judiciary committee, applauded the bill’s passage in a statement saying,
Together, we’ve taken steps to open the doors of research to permanently schedule the deadliest substances the United States has ever faced and to send a clear message that Congress is willing and ready to act.
Together, we’ve taken an important step to live up to our commitment to our constituents and to the loved ones lost – to put them first and to serve them.”
Updated
DoJ investigating whether Columbia University hid 'illegal aliens' on campus
The US Justice department is investigating whether Columbia University concealed “illegal aliens” on its campus, according to a top US justice department official. Agents with the Department of Homeland Security searched two university residences with a warrant Thursday evening.
No one was arrested, and it was unclear whom the authorities were searching for. But by Friday afternoon US officials had announced developments related to two people they had pursued in connection with the demonstrations.
A Columbia doctoral student from India whose visa was revoked by the Trump administration fled the US on an airliner. A Palestinian woman who had been arrested during the protests at the university last April was arrested by federal immigration authorities in Newark, New Jersey.
Updated
Donald Trump just made a little bit of local news: he’s cancelling the construction of a new FBI headquarters in Maryland.
The FBI is currently based in downtown Washington DC, but has long been eyeing a move to the city’s suburbs. After years of wrangling by the congressional delegations of Maryland and Virginia, the federal government selected the former as the site of the new HQ, but Trump says he’ll put a stop to that:
You have that big FBI building, and it’s a very big building, and they were going to build an FBI headquarters three hours away in Maryland, a liberal state, but that has no bearing on what I’m about to say. But we’re going to stop it, not going to let that happen. We’re going to build another big FBI building right where it is, which would have been the right place, because the FBI and the DoJ have to be near each other.
The president said he had discussed it with FBI director Kash Patel, who said he preferred a smaller building:
He said, I’m just going to take a old Department of Commerce building that’s about 25% the size, and that’s what I need. We’re going to have the best staff that you’ve ever seen, and that’s what I need. It’s in a nice location, but I don’t need that big building.
Updated
Trump accuses Biden administration of using justice department 'to terrorize the innocent and reward the wicked'
With the niceties out of the way, Donald Trump is laying into Joe Biden and his attorney general Merrick Garland, airing a mostly familiar list of grievances about their administration.
“There could be no more heinous betrayal of American values than to use the law to terrorize the innocent and reward the wicked. That’s what they were doing at a level that’s never been seen before, and it’s exactly what you saw with Joe Biden Merrick Garland and their cronies,” Trump said.
Turning to his familiar rhetoric over immigration, Trump said of Biden: “They imported illegal alien murderers, drug dealers and child predators from all over the world to come into our country, while putting elderly Christians and anti-abortion activists on trial for singing hymns and for saying prayers.”
While Biden did preside over large levels of undocumented border crossings, there’s no evidence they encouraged them to enter, and it was widely viewed as a political liability for the president.
And as he often does, Trump has also repeatedly referenced the long saga of Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Trump has thus far confined his remarks to recognizing the team at the justice department, including attorney general Pam Bondi and Emil Bove, who was previously his defense attorney and acted as deputy attorney general for the first few weeks of his term.
“We’re turning the page on four long years of corruption, weaponization and surrender to violent criminals, and we’re restoring fair, equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law. And you’re the people that are doing it,” Trump said.
Donald Trump’s event at the justice department is getting under way, with attorney general Pam Bondi introducing him and invited guests.
She mentioned that the parents of a child who was murdered by an undocumented immigrant are in attendance.
“Thanks to Donald Trump, they will all be deported very soon,” Bondi said.
Trump is coming onstage now.
Updated
Donald Trump is late to this speech at the justice department.
Back in the Senate, the big question of when the chamber will vote on the government funding bill, and if it will have enough Democratic support to pass, has not yet been answered.
All Republican senators are expected to vote for the bill, with the exception of Kentucky’s Rand Paul. He’s on the floor right now, raging against the legislation.
Here’s what he had to say:
The bill before us doesn’t change anything. The bill before us keeps the same Biden spending levels.
We were told, with relentless fury, that we would fight for the taxpayers come spring, and we are given a bill that doesn’t change … the course of accumulating $2tn in debt every year. The powers that be, I believe, waved the white flag of surrender when they presented the American people with this bill that fails to make the cuts that are necessary to slow down the accumulation of our debt.
Trump to outline priorities in speech from justice department
Donald Trump is set to take the stage at the justice department for a speech billed as outlining his crime-fighting agenda.
It’s a stark reversal of fortunes for the president when it comes to his relationship with the department, which was tasked with investigating and prosecuting him under Joe Biden.
The choice of venue is also unusual, as the department operates semi-independently from the White House and presidents rarely stop by its headquarters. Trump, however, has made clear that he intends all organs of the government, including its prosecutors, to answer directly to him:
Meanwhile, Canada today swore in Mark Carney as prime minister, and among his first tasks will be dealing with the trade war with the United States that has escalated over the past weeks. Here’s more on Carney’s new administration, from the Guardian’s Leyland Cecco:
Mark Carney has said Canada will never be part of the US, after being sworn in as the country’s 24th prime minister in a sudden rise to power.
“We will never, in any shape or form, be part of the US,” the former governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England told a crowd outside Rideau Hall in Ottawa, rejecting Donald Trump’s annexation threats. “We are very fundamentally a different country.”
Canada “expects respect” from the US, he added, while also voicing hope his government could find ways “to work together” with the Trump administration.
Less than a week ago, Carney beat the former finance minister Chrystia Freeland, the former government house leader Karina Gould and the former member of parliament Frank Baylis with a dominant 85.9% of the vote, in a closely watched leadership race. He has no prior elected experience and does not have a seat in the House of Commons, making him a rarity in Canadian history.
Carney is expected to announce an election in the coming days, reflecting both the urgency of Canada’s trade war with the US, and the awkward reality that as prime minister without a seat in parliament, he is unable to attend sessions of the House of Commons.
Nevada’s Democratic senator Catherine Cortez Masto says she will vote for the continuing resolution that prevents a government shutdown:
A government shutdown would be devastating for the American people. It would force tens of thousands of Nevada military personnel, union members, law enforcement agents and nurses to work without pay. Shutting down the government gives President Trump and Elon Musk even more power to cherry-pick who is an essential employee, who they want to fire, and what agencies they want to shutter. And a shutdown would force federal courts to slow work on lawsuits against this administration’s illegal actions. The last government shutdown cost the American economy $11 billion and thousands of hardworking Americans were harmed. I cannot vote for that.
She joins minority leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman as the only Democrats to have explicitly said they will support the bill. Several others, however, have not yet spoken out.
Fellow Nevada Democratic senator Jacky Rosen, who eked out re-election in November even as Donald Trump won her state’s electoral votes, says she will not support the spending bill:
Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress have complete control of the federal government, and they’re using their power to help Elon Musk continue to systematically dismantle basic government functions from veterans’ health care to aviation safety and cancer research
I cannot vote for an irresponsible and hyper-partisan bill that gives Trump and Musk even more power to hurt millions of Americans all while Congressional Republicans continue to push for cuts to Medicaid to pay for more tax breaks for the ultra-rich and giant corporations.
But the press really did try to get House Democratic leaders to reveal their true feelings about Chuck Schumer and other Senate colleagues who are ready to pass the spending bill they oppose.
“You keep engaging in these parlor games because you want to take the focus off the American people,” House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries replied to one particularly pushy reporter. “What we’re saying is we look forward to continuing to work with our Senate colleagues, all of them, in opposition to the extremism that’s being unleashed on the American people.”
Whip Katherine Clark put it this way:
Most American people, they can’t name us. They don’t know who Chuck Schumer is, but they do know what this administration and Elon Musk and the GOP are planning for them, and it’s why you’re seeing this uproar in town halls.
More about those town halls:
Top House Democrat Jeffries vows to oppose spending bill, declines to weigh in on Senate spat
House Democratic leaders told a press conference they remain firmly opposed to the government funding bill, but batted away questions about how Senate Democrats should vote on it.
“House Democrats remain strongly opposed to the partisan, Republican spending bill that will hurt families, hurt veterans, hurt seniors and hurt the American people. It is a false choice that Donald Trump, Elon Musk and House Republicans have been presenting between their reckless and partisan spending bill and a government shutdown,” said the minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries.
He demanded that the Republicans, who control both houses of Congress, return to the negotiating table to hammer out a bill that can attract bipartisan support:
We’re ready to pass a four week spending bill that keeps the government open and will allow the House and the Senate to negotiate an actual agreement that meets the needs of the American people, but we do not support A bill that is designed to hurt the American people.
Reporters wanted to know his thoughts on the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer’s argument that a government shutdown would be worse than the spending legislation.
“That’s a question that is best addressed by the Senate,” Jeffries replied.
Asked to elaborate on his recent conversations with Schumer, Jeffries replied:
He and I have had repeated and private conversations throughout the week, and those conversations will remain private.
Updated
Earlier in the day, the Associated Press reported that Raphael Warnock, Georgia’s Democratic senator, hinted that he would support Chuck Schumer stepping down as minority leader.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Warnock was actually referring to Democrats’ chances of retaking the White House and Senate over the next four years, not Schumer.
Nancy Pelosi’s statement against the government funding bill was a notable flareup of infighting within the Democratic party, and between the House and Senate.
Though she’s no longer House speaker or party leader, Pelosi remains a force in Democratic politics, and played a major role in the pressure campaign that pushed Joe Biden to end his bid for a second term. Now, she has urged Senate Democrats not to back a continuing resolution to keep the government open – a position that puts her at odds with minority leader Chuck Schumer, who views the bill’s passage as a necessary evil.
Pelosi has long put women’s rights at the center of her politics, and noted in her statement that senator Patty Murray and congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, two top appropriators, are both against the bill.
Here’s what Murray has said about it:
Good morning. I am a firm 100% NO on House Republicans’ slush fund CR.
I will NOT vote to let Elon and Trump pick winners and losers with your taxpayer dollars.
Senators were not elected to beg Trump for federal resources.
And DeLauro:
Last week, House Democrats opposed giving Elon Musk and Trump a blank check funding bill that would allow them to gut programs and services families rely on.
The Senate must pass a short-term spending bill so we can pass bipartisan bills that protect programs for our communities.
New York state Democrats have thrown their support behind Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer after the senator said he would vote for the Republican funding bill in order to avert a government shutdown.
In a statement on Friday, chair Jay S Jacobs said:
“Reading the angry comments directed toward Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer by fellow Democrats compels me to weigh in on this issue. Too many Democrats prefer the ‘circular firing squad’ and ‘eating our own’ to the more effective approach of finding the right long-term strategy. Once again, this is such a case.
Shutting down the government would lend legitimacy to President Trump’s efforts to cut funding from all of the departments and agencies of the government using the argument that he was forced – by the Democrats – to not spend the money that was not allocated. Every day that the government remains shut and on austerity would be another day of MAGA mayhem.
Senator Schumer is 100% correct. Anger about his reluctance to invoke the use of the filibuster – an arcane rule of the Senate that we regularly condemn when employed by the other side in order to thwart the wishes of the democratically elected majority in that body – as odious as it is to contemplate the reality of a Republican majority – may feel good giving vent to our frustration, but will work against our long-term desire to win back the Congress in 2026 and the Presidency in 2028.”
On Friday, the Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez condemned Schumer’s “acquiesce” to the Republican bill bill, saying: “We have time to correct course on this decision. Senate Democrats can vote no.”
Updated
Secretary of state Marco Rubio on anti-war protesters: 'Expect more visas will be revoked'
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with G7 foreign ministers in Canada, secretary of state Marco Rubio has warned that more visas of anti-war protesters who are on temporary status in the US will be revoked, Reuters reports.
“In the days to come, you should expect more visas will be revoked as we identify people that we should have never allowed in,” Rubio said, his comments following immigration authorities’ arrest and detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University student and green card holder whom Donald Trump’s administration is seeking to deport over his activism against Israel’s deadly war in Gaza.
Updated
Pelosi on government funding bill: 'A devastating assault on the wellbeing of working families'
California Democratic representative and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi has released a statement in response to the government funding bill that is now in the Senate.
Calling it a “devastating assault on the wellbeing of working-class families,” Pelosi said:
Donald Trump and Elon Musk have offered the Congress a false choice between a government shutdown or a blank check that makes a devastating assault on the wellbeing of working families across America. Let’s be clear: neither is a good option for the American people. But this false choice that some are buying instead of fighting is unacceptable. I salute leader Hakeem Jeffries for his courageous rejection of this false choice, and I am proud of my colleagues in the House Democratic caucus for their overwhelming vote against this bill.
“Democratic senators should listen to the women. Appropriations leaders Rosa DeLauro and Patty Murray have eloquently presented the case that we must have a better choice: a four-week funding extension to keep government open and negotiate a bipartisan agreement. America has experienced a Trump shutdown before – but this damaging legislation only makes matters worse. Democrats must not buy into this false choice. We must fight back for a better way. Listen to the women, For The People.”
Updated
Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer has argued that allowing the government to shut down would supercharge Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s efforts to gut federal agencies.
But the Federal Unionists Network, a group of federal employees that opposes the administration’s campaign to dramatically downsize government, disagrees. In a statement, spokesperson Chris Dols says the group believes the funding bill under consideration would make the situation worse:
Let us be clear: federal workers have been doing their best to provide services all while navigating a daily assault that has amounted to an effective shutdown of our government through an acceleration of mass firings, illegal agency closures, ending critical, life-saving programs and services to our communities. Americans want a government that works for them, not against them.
Once again, Congress is failing in its responsibility to the American people. If passed, this [continuing resolution] will give Trump and Musk the power to complete their assault on federal workers. That is why the solution must be to organize across industry, union, demographic and political affiliation to stop this corporate coup.
Updated
There’s definitely ire among Senate Democrats right now towards Chuck Schumer, their long-serving leader, over his plan to vote for the government funding bill.
Schumer’s support may give the measure enough votes for passage, though we still don’t know that for sure. Many other Democratic senators disagree with Schumer and see stopping the bill as an opportunity to stand up to the Trump administration, even if it sparks a shutdown.
The vibes are bad enough that the Associated Press reports the Democratic senator Raphael Warnock hinted he thinks its time for Schumer to go:
I think come ‘26, ‘28 we’ll get some new leadership.
He’s far from the only Democrat expressing such sentiment:
Updated
Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s much-vaunted department of “government efficiency” may not be all that popular with voters, the Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports:
Donald Trump and Elon Musk face increasing headwinds in their attempt to brutally slash federal budgets and staffing, after two judges ruled against the firing of probationary employees by Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) and public polling revealed strong disapproval of the Tesla billionaire’s work.
Nonetheless, the gathering effects of the cuts were illustrated by news that federal agencies will begin to vacate hundreds of offices across the country this summer.
Citing internal documents from the General Services Administration (GSA), the Associated Press reported that dozens of federal leases were expected to end by 30 June, with hundreds more ending in the following months.
The GSA did not comment. But the AP reported that some agencies and lawmakers have appealed to exempt specific buildings, as several face 20 or more lease cancellations, among them the Internal Revenue Service, Social Security Administration, Department of Agriculture and US Geological Survey.
Updated
In his remarks, Chuck Schumer also reflected on the difficult choice facing Senate Democrats.
When the government spending bill was up for a vote in the House, Democrats were near-unanimous in their opposition, including several lawmakers who occupy seats vulnerable to being reclaimed by Republicans. Schumer’s insistence on passing the bill through the Senate has left vulnerable House Democrats in a bit of a lurch, and also led to a split within the party’s lawmakers in the upper chamber.
Here’s what Schumer had to say about the choice the party was facing:
Our caucus members have been torn between two awful alternatives, and my colleagues and I have wrestled with which alternative would be worse for the American people. Different senators come down on different sides of this question. But that does not mean that any Senate Democrat supports a shutdown.
Whatever the outcome, our caucus will be united in our determination to continue the long term fight to stop Donald Trump’s dangerous war on our democracy and on America’s working families.
Updated
Schumer warns that if government shuts down, 'Doge has a plan in place to exploit the crisis for maximum destruction'
Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer just spoke on the Senate floor and reiterated his support for the government spending bill that will prevent a shutdown from beginning at midnight.
He warned that if government funding were to lapse, Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) would be free to make even more disruptive cuts to federal agencies.
“If government were to shut down, Doge has a plan in place to exploit the crisis for maximum destruction,” Schumer said.
He continued:
A shutdown will allow Doge to shift into overdrive. It would give Donald Trump and Doge the keys to the city, state and country. Donald Trump and Elon Musk would be free to destroy vital government services at a much faster rate than they can right now and over a much broader field of destruction that they would render.
In a shutdown, Donald Trump and Doge will have the power to determine what is considered essential and what is not, and their views on what is not essential would be mean and vicious, and would decimate vital services and cause unimaginable harm to the American people.
Updated
Reporters in the Capitol heard from Republican Senate majority leader John Thune, who said a few things about the struggle to pass a continuing resolution and prevent a government shutdown.
According to Punchbowl News, Thune said he has not yet spoken to Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer today, who has backed the bill even as much of the rest of his party has not.
Thune also said he may allow some amendment votes on the legislation, which could potentially offer a way to assuage Democrats’ concerns.
Trump praises Chuck Schumer for backing government spending bill
In addition to talking to Vladimir Putin this morning, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social a note of congratulations for Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate minority leader who said yesterday he will vote to advance a bill to fund the government:
Congratulations to Chuck Schumer for doing the right thing — Took “guts” and courage! The big Tax Cuts, L.A. fire fix, Debt Ceiling Bill, and so much more, is coming. We should all work together on that very dangerous situation. A non pass would be a Country destroyer, approval will lead us to new heights. Again, really good and smart move by Senator Schumer. This could lead to something big for the USA, a whole new direction and beginning! DJT
Schumer’s support may – emphasis on may – attract the Democratic votes necessary to move the bill, which will prevent a shutdown that is set to begin at midnight.
Trump says 'very good chance' war in Ukraine can end after call with Putin
Donald Trump says he had a “very good and productive” phone call with Vladimir Putin and thinks “there is a very good chance” that the war in Ukraine can end.
The president’s comments come days after Ukraine said it would accept a 30-day ceasefire in the conflict, and Washington agreed to restart military and intelligence sharing.
For the latest on this breaking story, follow our Europe live blog:
JD Vance may have thought he’d receive a warm welcome at the Kennedy Center after Donald Trump moved to take the Washington DC arts center over. Not the case, as the Guardian’s Charlotte Higgins and Andrew Roth report:
JD Vance, the US vice-president, was booed by the audience as he took his seat at a National Symphony Orchestra concert at Washington’s Kennedy Center on Thursday evening.
As the normal pre-concert announcements got under way, the vice-presidential party filed into the box tier. Booing and jeering erupted in the hall, drowning out the announcements, as Vance and his wife, Usha, took their seats.
Such a vocal, impassioned political protest was a highly unusual event in the normally polite and restrained world of classical music.
Vance ironically acknowledged the yelling and shouts of “You ruined this place!” with a smile and a wave.
Audience members had undergone a full Secret Service security check as Vance’s motorcade drew up at the US’s national performing arts centre, delaying the start of the concert by 25 minutes.
After news of the reaction to Vance at the concert emerged, Richard Grenell, interim director of the Kennedy Center who was recently appointed by Trump, said the crowd was “intolerant”.
We expect to have multiple opportunities to see and hear from Donald Trump today.
He’s signing executive orders at 12pm, which the White House lists as closed to press, but they’ve been known to let them in to the Oval Office with short notice.
Trump is then scheduled to make his unusual speech to the justice department at 3pm, before heading straight to Joint Base Andrews to fly to Mar-a-Lago.
Updated
When he announced his support for the continuing resolution, top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said he feared that allowing a shutdown would further empower Donald Trump and Elon Musk to disrupt and eliminate federal government operations.
“Under a shutdown, the Trump administration would have full authority to deem whole agencies, programs and personnel non-essential, furloughing staff with no promise that would ever be rehired,” the Senate minority leader said.
And indeed, that is a potential outcome, as Republican senator Markwayne Mullin hinted to Politico:
The Democrats have A or B: Keep the government open or yield the authority to the president.
Here’s more on Schumer’s controversial reasoning for backing the spending bill:
Senate GOP expected to need eight Democratic votes to pass government spending bill
The Senate is scheduled to today convene at 10am with a range of business before it.
Consideration of the continuing resolution, which is the bill to fund the government through September and head off a shutdown that will otherwise begin at midnight, will come no earlier than 1.15pm, when the chamber is scheduled to begin voting.
But with Democrats split over whether to supply the necessary eight votes to advance the legislation, don’t be surprised if the chamber stays in session into the night figuring this out.
Also, a note on the math: the GOP controls the chamber, with 53 seats to the Democrats and their allies’ 47. But the minority party can filibuster most legislation, including this continuing resolution, which requires 60 votes to overcome – essentially seven Democratic votes.
However, Republican senator Rand Paul says he will not vote for the bill, so, in this case, the GOP needs eight Democratic votes to get it through.
Updated
House Democratic leaders reiterate opposition to government funding bill amid split in party
The looming midnight deadline for Congress to approve a government spending measure or cause a shutdown has left Democrats in a tough spot.
When the bill was up for a vote in the House, every single Democrat voted against it save one. It’s now in the Senate, where many Democrats say they are ready to vote it down, citing cuts it would make to non-defense spending. But the minority leader Chuck Schumer made the shock decision yesterday to announce he would vote to advance the measure, a sign that enough Democratic votes exist for it to clear the 60-vote threshold needed for passage in the Senate.
That’s sparked not an insignificant amount of tension in the party, which is reeling from its underperformance in the November election but split over whether voters will blame them for a shutdown, or instead focus their ire on Donald Trump and the Republicans, who control both the House and Senate.
Not longer after Schumer announced his support for the measure, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, whip Katherine Clark and caucus chair Pete Aguilar released a statement reiterating their opposition to the funding bill – the subtext being that Democratic senators should hold firm against its passage:
Instead of working with Democrats in a bipartisan way to prevent a government shutdown, House Republicans left town in order to jam their extreme partisan legislation down the throats of the American people. The far-right Republican funding bill will unleash havoc on everyday Americans, giving Donald Trump and Elon Musk even more power to continue dismantling the federal government.
House Democrats are ready to vote for a four-week continuing resolution that keeps the government open and returns all parties to the negotiating table. That is the best way forward.
Donald Trump and Republicans are crashing the economy. They plan to take a chainsaw to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans benefits and public schools – all in order to give massive tax cuts to their billionaire donors and wealthy corporations. House Democrats will not be complicit. We remain strongly opposed to the partisan spending bill under consideration in the Senate.
Updated
Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick on Friday signaled that next month’s US tariffs could be imposed on cars from all countries, including South Korea, Japan and Germany, according to Reuters.
Asked if president Donald Trump’s planned 2 April tariffs would impact automobiles coming from countries such as South Korea, Japan and Germany, he told Fox Business:
That would be fair, right? If you’re going to tariff cars from anywhere, it’s got to be tariffing cars from everywhere.”
Donald Trump has threatened a 200% tariff on wine and champagne from European Union countries, in the latest threat of escalation in the global trade war started by the US president against the country’s biggest trading partners.
Trump said in a post on Thursday on his Truth Social platform that the tariffs on all alcoholic products from the bloc would be retaliation for a “nasty” 50% levy on American bourbon whiskey announced by the EU.
The EU’s action against bourbon whiskey – due to come into force on 1 April – was itself part of a €26bn ($28bn) response to Trump’s 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, which came into effect on Wednesday.
Trump claims the US’s trading partners have taken advantage of the US and that tariffs will help him to bring back jobs – a theory that is roundly rejected by most mainstream economists.
The tariffs on the EU, Canada, Mexico and China – and those imposed in retaliation – threaten to tip the US economy into recession, and Trump has admitted there may be a “period of transition” while businesses start producing more in the US.
The White House has so far shrugged off the concerns of investors, after his tariff announcements were greeted with heavy stock market sell-offs that have wiped out all of the share price gains since his election in November.
Despite starting the trade war, Trump appeared to be infuriated by the EU’s retaliatory measures.
He wrote:
If this Tariff is not removed immediately, the U.S. will shortly place a 200% Tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER E.U. REPRESENTED COUNTRIES.
This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the U.S.”
The US already circumvents the protected geographical origin rules on European products – American supermarkets are full of US-made imitations of champagne and other delicacies such as parmesan and gorgonzola.
Trump to visit justice department to rally support for crime agenda
President Donald Trump is to visit the justice department on Friday to rally support for his administration’s tough-on-crime agenda, an appearance expected to double as a victory lap after he emerged legally and politically unscathed from two federal prosecutions that were dismissed after his election win last fall, reports the Associated Press.
“I’m going to set out my vision,” the Republican president said on Thursday about the purpose for a visit the White House is billing as “historic.”
The venue selection for the speech underscores Trump’s keen interest in the department and desire to exert influence over it after criminal investigations that shadowed his first four years in office and subsequent campaign.
The visit, the first by Trump and the first by any president in a decade, brings him into the belly of an institution he has disparaged in searing terms for years but one that he has sought to reshape by installing loyalists and members of his personal defence team in top leadership positions, reports the AP.
Although there’s some precedent for presidents to speak to the justice department workforce from the building’s ceremonial great hall, Trump’s trip two months into his second term is particularly striking. That’s because of his unique status as a onetime criminal defendant indicted by the agency he is now poised to address and because his remarks are likely to feature an airing of grievances over his exposure to the criminal justice system – including an FBI search in 2022 of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, for classified documents.
Trump’s visit also comes at a time when attorney general Pam Bondi has asserted that the department needs to be depoliticised even as critics assert agency leadership is injecting politics into the decision-making process.
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Here’s a bit more detail, via Reuters, on the Axios report that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has warned Congress has a funding shortfall of $2bn for this fiscal year.
Congress will send Ice an extra $500m as part of the stopgap spending bill, although that will not cover the funding it needs to continue work till end of September, the report said, citing two sources familiar with the communications.
The funding shortfall comes as Ice has stepped arrests since president Donald Trump took office in January. He has vowed to deport record numbers of people who migrated to the US illegally.
Ice detention facilities are filled to capacity at 47,600 detainees and the agency has been expanding its bed count – the number of beds available for detainees – with support from the US defence department, the US Marshals Service and the Bureau of Prisons (BoP).
The agency has an annual budget of approximately $8bn, according to its website, reports Reuters. The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a stopgap bill to keep federal agencies funded. The bill would extend government funding until the end of the fiscal year on 30 September. Increases in defence, veterans’ care and border security would be offset by cuts to some domestic programmes.
Ice was working with US lawmakers to secure more detention funding, an official from the agency told reporters on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
The White House and Ice did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
Tesla tells US government Trump trade war could ‘harm’ EV companies
Elon Musk’s Tesla has warned that Donald Trump’s trade war could expose the electric carmaker to retaliatory tariffs that would also affect other automotive manufacturers in the US.
In an unsigned letter to Jamieson Greer, the US trade representative, Tesla said it “supports fair trade” but that the US administration should ensure it did not “inadvertently harm US companies”.
Tesla said in the letter:
As a US manufacturer and exporter, Tesla encourages the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to consider the downstream impacts of certain proposed actions taken to address unfair trade practices.”
The company, led by Musk, a close ally of Trump who is leading efforts to downsize the federal government, said it wanted to avoid a similar impact to previous trade disputes that resulted in increased tariffs on electric vehicles imported into countries targeted by the US.
Tesla said:
US exporters are inherently exposed to disproportionate impacts when other countries respond to US trade actions. The assessment undertaken by USTR of potential actions to rectify unfair trade should also take into account exports from the United States.
For example, past trade actions by the United States have resulted in immediate reactions by the targeted countries, including increased tariffs on electric vehicles imported into those countries.”
Trump has imposed significant tariffs that will affect vehicles and parts made around the world.
The EU and Canada have announced large-scale retaliations for tariffs on steel and aluminium imports into the US, while the UK has so far held off on announcing any countermeasures.
Tesla’s share price has fallen by more than a third over the last month over concerns about a potential buyer backlash against Musk, who has shown support for Germany’s far-right Alternative für Deutschland party, theatrically brandished a chainsaw at a conservative conference, and accused Keir Starmer and other senior politicians of covering up a scandal over grooming gangs.
This week Trump said he was buying a “brand new Tesla” and blamed “radical left lunatics” for “illegally” boycotting the EV company – a day after Tesla’s worst share price fall in almost five years.
Danish foreign minister responds to Trump: 'Greenland is not open to annexation'
Danish foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen rejected on Friday president Donald Trump’s latest remarks about annexing Greenland, saying the Danish autonomous island could not be taken over by another country.
“If you look at the Nato treaty, the UN charter or international law, Greenland is not open to annexation,” he told reporters, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
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Johns Hopkins University announced it was planning to cut more than 2,000 jobs after the Trump administration slashed $800m in grants to the renowned academic institution.
The funding for the positions had come from the US Agency for International Development, which the administration has gutted with massive cuts. A total of 247 domestic US workers and another 1,975 positions abroad in 44 countries will be affected by what amounts to the largest layoff in the history of the university.
The job losses will affect the university’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, its medical school and its affiliated non-profit for international health, Jhpiego. The school of public health includes over 80 research institutions that focus on issues such as gun violence, maternal health, and the economic impacts of Alzheimer’s disease.
The grant elimination announcement comes on the same day that hundreds of professors, researchers and other staff with the school of public health held a rally meant to show support for “American scientists and science amid federal layoffs and cuts to research funding”, according to the Hub, a publication of the public health school.
“This is a difficult day for our entire community. The termination of more than $800m in USAid funding is now forcing us to wind down critical work here in Baltimore and internationally,” the university said in a statement shared with media.
Johns Hopkins receives the most federal research funding, and is the largest private employer, in both Maryland and Baltimore and employs more than 150,000 people, the university said in a statement to the Guardian.
Those who lost their jobs due to the most recent grant funding cuts will be given 60 days’ advance notice before they are laid off or furloughed, the statement continued.
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The Kremlin said on Friday that Russian president Vladimir Putin had sent president Donald Trump a message about his proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine via Trump’s special envoy and that there were grounds for “cautious optimism”.
According to Reuters, Putin held late night talks with Steve Witkoff, Trump’s envoy, in Moscow, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. Peskov said Putin was “in overall solidarity” with Trump on Ukraine, but that there was a lot of work to do.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) has warned Congress has a funding shortfall of $2bn for this fiscal year, Axios reported on Friday, citing two people familiar with the matter.
EU has the resources to respond to Trump's tariff threats, French central bank chief says
The European Union has the resources to respond to president Donald Trump’s threats to levy more tariffs on the European Union, French central bank governor and European Central Bank (ECB) board member François Villeroy de Galhau said on Friday.
According to Reuters, he added that he wanted to see the escalations in a possible spiraling trade war cease. Villeroy de Galhau added that Trump’s view of the economy is a “losing” view.
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The Trump administration has called on the Pentagon to provide military options to ensure the country has full access to the Panama canal, two US officials told Reuters on Thursday.
Donald Trump has said repeatedly he wants to “take back” the Panama canal, which is located at the narrowest part of the isthmus between North and South America and is considered one of the world’s most strategically important waterways, but he has not offered specifics about how he would do so, or if military action might be required.
One US official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said a document, described as interim national security guidance by the new administration, asked the military to look at options to ensure “unfettered” access to the Panama canal.
A second official said the US military had a wide array of potential options to guarantee access, including ensuring a close partnership with Panama’s military.
The Pentagon last published a national defense strategy in 2022, laying out the priorities for the military. An interim document sets out broad policy guidance, much like Trump’s executive orders and public remarks, before a more considered policy document like a formal NDS.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
BMW said it does not expect newly imposed US tariffs to remain in place until the end of the year, adding that if the situation changed, so would its outlook, reports Reuters.
BMW forecast a 5-7% earnings margin for its automotive segment in 2025, but that calculation was based on the assumption that the tariffs imposed so far would remain in place until the end of the year, which the carmaker does not expect to be the case, executives Oliver Zipse and Walter Mertl said. “If the situation changes, we will need to adjust the outlook,” chief financial officer Mertl added.
This week on the Guardian’s Politics Weekly America, Jonathan Freedland speaks to Heather Boushey, an economist and former adviser to Joe Biden, about what Donald Trump’s long game is with his trade war, and how voters will view his handling of the economy should there be a “Trumpcession”. You can listen to the podcast at the link below:
'Betrayal': AOC condemns Schumer's 'slap in the face' decision to support Republican funding bill
Here’s a little more on the comments to reporters by congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. According to a post on X by Kadia Goba, political reporter at Semafor, Ocasio-Cortez said:
There are members of Congress who have won Trump held districts in some of the most difficult territories in the United States; who walked the plank and took innumerable risks in order to defend the American people … just to see some Senate Democrats even consider acquiescing to Elon Musk. I think it is a huge slap in the face, and I think that there’s a wide sense of betrayal.”
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Schumer decision to vote for Republican funding bill a betrayal and ‘huge slap in the face’, says AOC
The Senate finds itself on Friday in a familiar position, working to avoid a partial government shutdown with just hours to spare as Democrats confront two painful options: allowing passage of a bill they believe gives president Donald Trump vast discretion on spending decisions or voting no and letting a funding lapse ensue.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer gave members of his caucus days to vent their frustration about the options before them, but late on Thursday made clear he will not allow a government shutdown. His move gives Democrats room to side with Republicans and allow the continuing resolution, often described as a CR, to come up for a vote as soon as Friday, reports the Associated Press. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told reporters that Senator Chuck Schumer’s statement was “a huge slap in the face, and I think that there’s a wide sense of betrayal.”
A procedural vote on Friday will provide a first test of whether the package has the 60 votes needed to advance, before final voting likely later in the day. At least eight Democrats will need to join with Republicans to move the funding package forward.
“While the CR still is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse,” Schumer said.
Senate majority leader John Thune and others used their floor time on Thursday to make the case that any blame for a shutdown would fall squarely on Democrats.
Schumer said Trump would seize more power during a shutdown, because it would give the administration the ability to deem whole agencies, programmess and personnel non-essential, furloughing staff with no promise they would ever be rehired.
“A shutdown would give Donald Trump the keys to the city, the state and the country,” Schumer said.
More on that in a moment, but first, here are some other key developments:
Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader in the Senate, said that he will vote to allow the deeply partisan Republican spending bill become law because a government shutdown would do more harm.
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told reporters that Senator Chuck Schumer’s statement was “a huge slap in the face, and I think that there’s a wide sense of betrayal.”
Stocks plunged again after Trump’s threat to impose a 200% tariff “on all wines, Champagnes, and alcoholic products” from European Union countries if the trading bloc makes good on its threat to retaliate for steel and aluminum tariffs announced by the US president by adding a 50% tariff on American products, including Kentucky bourbon.
In a letter sent to the president of Columbia University and the co-chairs of its board of trustees on Thursday, the Trump administration’s antisemitism taskforce demanded nine specific changes to university policies and structures before negotiations over federal funding would begin.
Columbia announced the same day it received the letter that it had complied with item one on the list of demands: expelling and suspending pro-Palestinian student protesters who occupied a campus building last year or took part in a Gaza Solidarity encampment.
Representative Raúl Grijalva died after a long battle with cancer, his office announced on Thursday. His seat will remain vacant until at least September.
In 1996 a federal judge found the legal provision now being used to target Mahmoud Khalil unconstitutional. She was Donald Trump’s sister.
The Trump administration has appealed to the supreme court to uphold the president’s executive order curtailing birthright citizenship.
The US Postal Service will reduce its staff by 10,000 through early retirements, and has signed an agreement with Elon Musk’s department of government efficiency (Doge) to streamline its operations, postmaster general Louis DeJoy announced.
