Senate Democrats block vote to allow government funding as shutdown looms
Moments after Trump said ‘we’re getting close’ on a deal to avert a US government shutdown, Democrats voted to block legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security and several other agencies as they continued to negotiate with Republicans and the White House on new restrictions for Trump’s surge of immigration enforcement.
Thursday’s 45-55 test vote came as Democrats have threatened a partial government shutdown when money runs out on Friday.
As the country reels from the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis, Senate Democrats laid out a list of demands on Wednesday, including that officers take off their masks and identify themselves and obtain warrants for arrest.
If these demands are not met, Democrats say they are prepared to block the wide-ranging spending bill, denying Republicans the votes they need to pass it and triggering a shutdown.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has said that Democrats won’t provide the needed votes until the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is “reined in and overhauled” and that this is “a moment of truth.”
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Trump: Putin agrees to not fire on Kyiv for a week due to weather
Trump said that Russian president Vladimir Putin agreed to not fire on Kyiv for a week due to cold weather.
“I personally asked President Putin not to fire into Kyiv and various towns for a week, and he agreed to do that,” Trump said at the Cabinet meeting, citing “extraordinary cold” in the region.
“It was very nice. A lot of people said, ‘Don’t waste the call, you’re not going to get that.’ And he did it,” Trump added.
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Trump also said the US “had zero illegal aliens being admitted into our country for the last eight months”.
“That’s hard for even me to believe,” he quipped. According to the department of homeland security’s own 2025 year-end review, border crossings dropped by 93% year-over-year.
Trump claims 'we're getting close' on a deal to avert US government shutdown
Speaking on the possibility of a government shutdown, Trump said: “Hopefully we won’t have a shutdown and we’re working on that right now. I think we’re getting close. The Democrats, I don’t believe, want to see it either. So we’ll work in a very bipartisan way, I believe, not to have a shutdown. We don’t want to shut down.”
Talks of a government shutdown have been looming since Senate Democrats demanded a series of reforms on federal agents involved in Trump’s mass deportation campaign, including a prohibition on wearing masks, the imposition of a code of conduct and independent investigations of violations.
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Trump says airspace over Venezuela to reopen as US oil companies in country scouting locations to drill
Speaking on Venezuela, Trump said: “We have the major oil companies going to Venezuela now, scouting it out and picking their locations, and they’ll be bringing back tremendous wealth for Venezuela and for the United States. And the oil companies will do fine to Venezuela, will actually make for themselves more money than they’ve ever made before. And that’s a good thing.”
He continued: “I just spoke to the president of Venezuela, informed her that we’re going to be opening up all commercial airspace over Venezuela. American citizens will be very shortly able to go to Venezuela, and they’ll be safe there.” He also added that he has “instructed Sean Duffy and everybody else concerned, including the military, that if you would, by the end of today, I’d like you out of the airspace over Venezuela”.
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Trump holds Cabinet meeting amid looming shutdown and Minnesota crisis
Donald Trump has begun speaking at this afternoon’s Cabinet meeting. We will bring you lines from the meeting as they come.
Since returning to office, Trump has used his cabinet meetings to review his administration’s accomplishments and provide Cabinet members with an opportunity to shower him with compliments.
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There’s news of shifting sands in Florida, where Alex Vindman, a key player in Donald Trump’s first impeachment, announced Tuesday he was running as a Democrat for a US Senate seat.
The army veteran’s campaign says it raised a record $1.7m in the 24 hours after launching his candidacy, and it was given a further lift Thursday when Sabato’s Crystal Ball, the respected political forecasting arm of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, nudged the race in his favor.
Vindman still has a mountain to climb to topple the incumbent Republican, Ashley Moody, in November. But the shift from “safe” Republican to “likely” Republican is still a notable development in the former swing state that has become reliably red in recent election cycles.
It follows other small but significant Democratic advances during the second Trump administration, including pushing two Republican candidates close in a special congressional election in April, and Eileen Higgins’s stunning upset win in Miami’s mayoral run-off last month.
Vindman, a retired Lt Col, and his brother Eugene, now Democratic congressman for Virginia, served the national security council in Trump’s first term, and raised concerns that sparked an investigation into the president’s demands for Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden.
Florida has not elected a Democratic senator since Bill Nelson in 2012.
US defense secretary Pete Hegseth is not expected to attend a meeting of Nato defence ministers in Brussels next month, a US official and a Nato diplomat told Reuters.
If Hegseth does not attend the regular gathering, he will be the second US cabinet secretary in a row to skip a Nato ministerial meeting. Secretary of state Marco Rubio did not attend the last Nato foreign ministers’ meeting in December.
The US standing in Nato has been on shaky ground since Trump set aggressive sights on obtaining Greenland. Earlier this month, Trump rattled Nato allies after threatening to impose tariffs on a group of European members of the alliance that opposed his bid for Greenland, prompting outrage from EU leaders.
Moderate Democrat Matt Mahan announces bid for California governor
Matt Mahan, the moderate Democrat and mayor of San Jose, California, announced on Thursday that he would run for governor, joining a sprawling but stagnant field to succeed Gavin Newsom.
In a series of interviews on Thursday, Mahan suggested he saw an opening as a candidate focused less on the national politics dominated by Donald Trump and more on the problems facing the state, including homelessness and the soaring cost-of-living.
“We have a lot of candidates following a tired playbook,” Mahan told Politico. “They’re either running against Trump or they’re running in his image. I’m running for the future of California.”
Mahan, 43, is a former tech entrepreneur who was first elected mayor of Silicon Valley’s largest city in 2022. Since then, he has drawn support for his pragmatic approach that he touts for helping make San Jose the safest big city in the nation.
For weeks, he has signaled an interest in running for governor. His entrance into the race, months before the June primary, reflects the unsettled nature of the field, which has so far failed to produce a front-runner.
Mahan is a frequent critic of Newsom, who is term-limited and cannot run again, over the governor’s approach to homelessness, crime reduction and even his social media taunting of the president.
The Democrats running for governor include former congresswoman Katie Porter, congressman Eric Swalwell, former health and human services secretary Xavier Becerra, former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer.
Welcoming Mahan to the race, Steyer said in a statement: “California needs a governor who will stand up to powerful interests, not carry their water.”
Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum said today she had a “productive and cordial” conversation with her US counterpart Donald Trump.
“We continue to make progress on trade issues and the bilateral relationship. We agreed that both teams will continue working together,” Sheinbaum said in a post on X.
To stave off the threat of tariffs, the Mexican government has already helped the Trump administration with aspects of its security agenda – the US-Mexico border – by suppressing the number of migrants arriving there and receiving deportees. Earlier this month, Sheinbaum defended the transfer of 37 Mexican cartel operatives to the US as a “sovereign decision”, as her government strives to alleviate pressure from the Trump administration to do more against drug-trafficking groups.
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Homan: undocumented immigrants are ‘never off the table’ as enforcement surge continues
Earlier, Homan said that the immigration enforcement surge in the Twin Cities is “targeted”.
“We know exactly who we’re looking for,” Trump’s border czar said, despite many people who have minor or no criminal convictions being caught in the dragnet.
When a reporter asked whether undocumented immigrants — who have not committed a crime — would be affected by the ongoing operation, Homan was resolute.
“If you’re in the country illegally, you’re never off the table,” he said.
A reminder that living in the US without legal status is a civil offense.
Homan said if the “message” that the Trump administration sends to undocumented immigrants is “don’t worry, unless you commit a serious crime, you’re good to go” they are “never going to fix this problem”.
A man attempted to raise the American flag in Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, on Wednesday and was stopped by bystanders, according to Danish television channel TV 2.
When police later questioned the person, he identified himself with a German satire program called Extra 3, broadcast on the German television station Norddeutscher Rundfunk. Extra 3 is working on a satirical film about the U.S. posture toward Greenland, the station said.
A fine was issued “on the spot” for the act.
Officials in Springfield, Ohio, are bracing for an immigration enforcement surge next week as Temporary Protected Status for Haitian immigrants expires.
Reporting by the Springfield News-Sun cited messages within the city’s school system expecting that a federal immigration enforcement operation may begin in Springfield lasting at least 30 days.
”Federal authorities signaled an enforcement window of at least 30 days,” said an email obtained by the News-Sun from Springfield City School District Superintendent Bob Hill, citing a meeting with Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine. “A federal list of individual removal orders has been identified in Springfield as an initial focal point for enforcement activity, with discretion to detain additional individuals encountered who lack lawful status.”
Donald Trump falsely claimed that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating residents’ pets during a 2024 debate. The fabrication had been pushed by a neo-Nazi group in Ohio. Trump’s amplification of the lie made the city a focal point for national immigration debates and threats against immigrants there.
ICE agents have been instructed not to engage with “agitators” following the arrival of Tom Homan amid the fallout after federal agents shot two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis, Reuters reports.
The new orders instruct agents to focus on “targeted enforcement,” as Homan described in a press conference this morning, while refraining from random seizures in street stops in Minneapolis.
“DO NOT COMMUNICATE OR ENGAGE WITH AGITATORS,” said an email disseminated by a top ICE official. “It serves no purpose other than inflaming the situation. No one is going to convince the other. The only communication should be the officers issuing commands.”
ICE officers will receive megaphones so that they can issue commands to the public and “need to verbalize every step of the arrest process”, Reuters reported.
Homan says that immigration crackdown in Minnesota could ease up with ‘cooperation’ from local officials
Homan didn’t answer a reporter’s question about the specific number of federal immigration agents that are currently in Minneapolis.
“There’s been some rotations,” he said.
This comes after reports that, after Gregory Bovino left the state, a number of border patrol officers were also directed to leave.
Homan also noted that “cooperation” from local officials in Minnesota, specifically access to jails, could lead to the federal immigration crackdown easing up, and a reduction of agents throughout the state.
“As we see that cooperation happen, then redeployment will happen,” he said.
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Homan doesn’t specify ‘improvements’ to be made in federal immigration crackdown
During Thursday’s press conference, Tom Homan noted that the administration has “recognized that certain improvements could and should be made” in the ongoing immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota, but didn’t specify what those looked like or when they would be implemented.
The border czar also refused to comment on the newly published video footage of Alex Pretti earlier this month, which appears to show officers grabbing Pretti and bringing him to the ground during intense protests that have gripped Minneapolis.
“We’ll let the investigation play out and let it go where it goes,” Homan added.
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Tom Homan, border czar for the Trump Administration, is appealing for politicians and the public for a shift in tone.
“The hostile rhetoric and dangerous threats must stop,” Homan said. “I said in March that if the rhetoric didn’t stop, there would be bloodshed. I wish I wasn’t right. … “If you want certain laws reformed, take it up with Congress.”
“God bless Minnesota. We can do better,” he said.
Trump’s border czar says that ‘no agency is perfect’ but doesn’t mention fatal shootings of US citizens in Minneapolis
“I do not want to hear that “everything that’s been done here has been perfect”, Homan said, without referring specifically to the fatal shooting of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
Homan noted that while no “agency is perfect” he did not come to Minneapolis to create “headlines”. The federal immigration enforcement surge is “going to improve because of changes we’re making”, he said.
Homan kicked off his press conference saying that he’s been in the Twin cities for fewer than three days. “I’m staying until the problem’s gone,” he said.
In his time on the ground, Homan noted his meeting with state and city officials, including governor Time Walz, attorney general Keith Ellison, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey, as well as a number of police chiefs.
“I’ve heard many people want to know why we’re talking to people that they don’t consider friends of the administration. Bottom line is you can’t fix problems if you don’t have discussions,” Homan added.
Notably, during his meeting with Ellison, Homan confirmed that the attorney general promised that county jails would notify federal immigration authorities about the release dates of criminals that post a “public safety risk”.
Homan says 'improvements' to be made to Trump's immigration enforcement
Tom Homan acknowledges in remarks in Minneapolis that there are “improvements” that should be made in how the federal government has carried out immigration enforcement in Minnesota.
“ICE is enforcing laws enacted by Congress through a federal statute,” he said. “That said, I’m not here because of the federal government has carried this mission out perfectly.”
Homan went on to say, “President Trump and I, along with others in administration, have recognized that certain improvements could and should be made. That’s exactly what I’m doing here.”
Trump’s border czar also vowed to say in Minnesota “until the problem’s gone.”
“We will conduct targeted enforcement operations targeting what we’ve done for decades,” he said. “When we hit the street, we know exactly who we’re looking for.”
The border czar also acknowledged people’s right to protest, but urged the public to “keep it peaceful.”
Trump border czar Tom Homan speaks in Minneapolis
In Minneapolis, Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan is set to address reporters shortly.
A reminder that Homan took over the federal immigration surge in the North Star state this week, after top border patrol official, Gregory Bovino, was reassigned in the days following the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti.
I’ll bring you the latest lines from the press conference.
Democratic senator Amy Klobuchar announces run for Minnesota governor
Amy Klobuchar, the Democratic US senator and one-time presidential candidate, announced she will run for governor of Minnesota, an expected move after the incumbent governor, Tim Walz, dropped out of the race in early January.
“Minnesota, we’ve been through a lot,” Klobuchar said in a video posted on X on Thursday morning, calling out political violence across the state including the recent killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.
She continued: “We cannot sugar coat how hard this is, but in these moments of enormous difficulty, we find strength in our Minnesota values of hard work, freedom and simple decency and good will. These times call for leaders who can stand up and not be rubber stamps of this administration.”
She also emphasised: “I’m running for every one … for every Minnesotan who wants ICE and its abusive tactics out of the state we love.”
Under Donald Trump, the White House has filled its social media with AI-generated memes, wishcasting, nostalgia and deepfakes. Here are some of the photos of the ‘slopaganda era’:
The first AI image posted by the White House X account sets the tone for Trump’s second presidency – marking a turning point in which the shitposting that had been associated with the far-right online culture that brought Trump to power moved from fringe message boards, such as 4chan and Reddit, to mainstream platforms.
In another post on Truth Social in October, the president posted an AI video depicting himself as a president-king, crown on head, flying over “No Kings” protesters in a jet fighter and dumping faeces on them. The House speaker, Mike Johnson, defended the post, saying: “The president uses social media to make a point. You can argue that he’s probably the most effective person who’s ever used social media for that. He is using satire to make a point.”
“It’s not going to be on Twitter,” said the agent filming the Minneapolis civil rights lawyer Nekima Levy Armstrong, one of the city’s most prominent activists, as she was arrested last Thursday. Within hours, though, it was: the homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem posted a still from the video, in which Armstrong seems composed and shows little emotion.
Half an hour later, the White House X account posted a significantly altered version of the same image: this time, Armstrong is exaggeratedly upset, tears streaming down her face. Her skin tone also appears to have been darkened. The image was captioned: “Arrested: far-left agitator Nekima Levy Armstrong for orchestrating church riots in Minnesota.” In fact, Armstrong was demonstrating at a church service led by an allegedly ICE-affiliated pastor, and was later released without charge.
Until this moment, the White House’s AI-generated output had been conspicuously outlandish: there was little danger of mistaking it for reality. This image purports to be an authentic photograph – or at least omits to mention that it is not. It is not so much AI-generated trolling as an AI-assisted deepfake.
WATCH: Federal officers clash with Alex Pretti 11 days before his killing
Officers appeared to grab Pretti and bring him to the ground during intense community protests against the federal crackdown in Minneapolis.
About two minutes of an exclusive video, published on Wednesday by The News Movement, a digital news outlet, shows Pretti yelling at agents in an unmarked vehicle and kicking the tail light of the car as they move away. Soon after, a heavily armed agent in tactical gear is seen exiting the car.
A family representative confirmed to the Guardian that it was Pretti in the footage published on Wednesday. A representative also said they had been aware of the incident and that Pretti sustained injuries, but did not get medical care.
Steve Schleicher, an attorney representing Pretti’s family, said in a statement: “A week before Alex was gunned down in the street – despite posing no threat to anyone – he was violently assaulted by a group of ICE agents. Nothing that happened a full week before could possibly have justified Alex’s killing.”
ICE halts its 'enhanced activities' in Maine
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has ended its “enhanced operations” in the state of Maine, according to senator Susan Collins. Collins said this morning in a post on X that the move came after multiple discussions between her and homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Collins wrote on X:
There are currently no ongoing or planned large-scale ICE operations here. I have been urging Secretary Noem and others in the Administration to get ICE to reconsider its approach to immigration enforcement in the state. I appreciate the Secretary’s willingness to listen to and consider my recommendations and her personal attention to the situation in Maine. ICE and Customs and Border Patrol will continue their normal operations that have been ongoing here for many years.
‘Nothing has changed’: Minneapolis on edge despite Trump’s de-escalation vow
In the days after the killing of 37‑year‑old ICU nurse Alex Pretti, signs emerged that the Trump administration understood how quickly anger at federal immigration agents could ignite across Minnesota and the nation.
Early in the week, the president touted “very good” phone calls with Minnesota governor Tim Walz – whom Trump routinely disparages – and Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey.
By Tuesday, Gregory Bovino – the senior border patrol official initially tasked with running the immigration crackdown in Minnesota – was replaced by Trump’s so‑called “border czar,” Tom Homan. Homan, who served as acting director of ICE during Trump’s first administration, and as a senior official of removal operations under Barack Obama, also had meetings with Walz and Frey to discuss the federal immigration operation. “While we don’t agree on everything, these meetings were a productive starting point and I look forward to more conversations with key stakeholders in the days ahead,” he wrote on X.
But the Twin Cities remain on edge following Pretti’s death – and the killing of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent just three weeks earlier – as federal officers continue targeting scores of people regardless of immigration status.
Despite Trump’s claims that he would “de‑escalate” the situation with a “more relaxed” operation, raids have persisted. Just two days after his supposedly cordial call with Frey, Trump lashed out at the mayor on Truth Social, accusing him of “playing with fire”, after Frey reiterated that local police should not enforce federal immigration laws.
Read the rest of the dispatch:
Video emerges of previous clash between Alex Pretti and federal officers; Homan to speak in Minnesota
Videos emerged on Wednesday of a previous confrontation between Alex Pretti and federal agents, 11 days before the ICU nurse was fatally shot by federal officers in Minneapolis. About two minutes of video, published on Wednesday by The News Movement, a digital news outlet, shows an incident on 13 January in Minneapolis in which officers appeared to grab Pretti and bring him to the ground during intense community protests against the federal crackdown in the city.
Sahan Journal, a nonprofit news site that reports on immigrants and communities of color in Minnesota, reported that day that dozens of residents had showed up to protest and observe a federal immigration sweep in the area. On the same morning, just two blocks away, a young woman named Aliya Rahman was violently pulled from her car while trying to drive past federal immigration agents and roughly treated in an image that prompted widespread outrage.
Steve Schleicher, an attorney representing Pretti’s family, said in a statement, “A week before Alex was gunned down in the street – despite posing no threat to anyone – he was violently assaulted by a group of ICE agents. Nothing that happened a full week before could possibly have justified Alex’s killing.”
In other news:
White House Border czar Tom Homan is expected to address the press in Minneapolis after being sent to take the reins on the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota. ICE officers in the state were directed to avoid engaging with “agitators,” and only target “aliens with a criminal history,” according to an internal memo reviewed by Reuters.
Senate Democrats have threatened to block legislation that would fund the Department of Homeland Security and several other agencies, potentially bringing the government a step closer to a partial shutdown if Republicans and the White House do not agree to new restrictions on President Donald Trump’s surge of immigration enforcement. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that Democrats won’t provide needed votes until US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is “reined in and overhauled.” In posts on X, Schumer also ramped up the pressure for DHS secretary Kristi Noem and top Trump aide Stephen Miller to go, and repeated calls for the president to pull ICE agents out of Minnesota.
A federal judge in Minnesota blocked the Trump administration from arresting and detaining the 5,600 refugees living in the state. In a ruling issued on Wednesday, US district judge John R Tunheim granted the Advocates for Human Rights, which represents midwesterners seeking asylum, a temporary restraining order blocking Operation Post-Admission Refugee Reverification and Integrity Strengthening (“Operation Parris”). He also ordered the Department of Homeland Security to release and return to Minnesota anyone already detained by the administration under the operation.
The parents of Alexi Pretti retained a former federal prosecutor who helped Minnesota’s attorney general convict police officer Derek Chauvin of the murder of George Floyd. Pretti’s family has retained Steve Schleicher, a partner at the Minneapolis firm Maslon, who served as a special prosecutor in the 2021 trial over Floyd’s murder. Schleicher has taken on the case pro bono, PBS News reports. Earlier this month, the family of Renee Good, who was also killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, retained another lawyer involved in the George Floyd case – the Chicago-based firm Romanucci & Blandin, which represented Floyd’s family.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed that the two officers involved in the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti on Saturday have been placed on administrative leave as “is the standard protocol”. But it’s currently unclear exactly when they were placed on leave. Federal law enforcement officers who have been involved in a shooting are typically placed on administrative leave for the course of the investigation.
The confirmation is also in direct contradiction to what border patrol commander Greg Bovino said in the aftermath of the shooting. On Sunday, he told a press conference that “all agents that were involved in that scene are working, not in Minneapolis, but in other locations, that’s for their safety.”
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