Closing summary
This brings our live coverage of what the second Trump presidency has wrought to a close for the day, but we will return on Friday. Here are the latest developments:
A federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the Trump administration to pay the full amount of monthly Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) benefits to states within 24 hours.
The Senate voted 51-49 against a bipartisan war powers resolution that would have block the use of the US military to launch strikes “within or against Venezuela,” unless that action has been authorized by Congress.
The former House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, announced she will not seek re-election to Congress in 2026, when she will be 86.
On day 37 of the record-breaking government shutdown, Donald Trump continued to urge GOP lawmakers to eliminate the filibuster.
Trump announced that the Muslim-majority nation of Kazakhstan will be signing the Abraham Accords to normalize relations with Israel. Although the president described this decision as a major advance for peace, Kazakhstan has already had full diplomatic relations with Israel since 1992 and is not in the Middle East.
Trump later announced what he called “an incredible Trade and Economic Deal between the United States and Uzbekistan”. At a White House dinner, the Uzbek president told Trump that he is the “President of the World”.
Sean Dunn, a former Justice Department employee who was arrested with great fanfare by federal agents in August, told reporters after he was acquitted on Thursday that he “was protecting the rights of immigrants” when he tossed his sandwich into the chest of a federal Border Protection agent.
Trump adds gold to the White House exterior for his 'Presidential Walk of Fame'
While the increasing spread of gold features across the interior walls of the White House has been well documented in recent months, Donald Trump has apparently expanded his campaign to include at least one exterior wall.
Recent news photographs reveal that Trump has had the words “Presidential Walk of Fame” affixed to the exterior of the residence, in large gold letters, above still more gold and a row of framed portraits of 44 of the 45 man to have served as president. The framed image of Joe Biden is, in this installation unlikely to survive long beyond 20 January 2029, not the former’s president’s face, but a robotic auto-pen signing his name.
A self-congratulatory social media video Trump posted on his Truth Social platform this week, in the aftermath of the crushing electoral losses suffered by his party, showed Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader in the Senate, looking at the display recently.
