The Latest: Trump readies layoffs and cuts as the Senate votes on government funding

Hopes for a quick end to the government shutdown were fading Friday as Republicans and Democrats dug in for a prolonged fight and President Donald Trump readied plans to unleash layoffs and cuts across the federal government.

Senators will return to the Capitol for another vote on government funding on the third day of the shutdown, but there has been no sign of any real progress toward ending their standoff.

“Until they have eight or hopefully more – 10 or more – people who want to, decide they want to end the government shutdown, I’m not sure this goes anywhere,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday.

Although Republicans control the White House and both chambers of Congress, the Senate’s filibuster rules make it necessary for the government funding legislation to gain support from at least 60 of the 100 senators. That’s given Democrats a rare opportunity to use their 47 Senate seats to hold out in exchange for policy concessions. The party has chosen to rally on the issue of health care, believing it could be key to their path back to power in Washington.

The latest:

The White House said Friday that the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of a generic form of mifepristone was just following the law and not a sign of support for the abortion pill.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt noted that the FDA and Health and Human Services was merely following the law.

The decision is “not an endorsement of this drug by any means,” Leavitt said.

The approval has drawn fire from conservatives. Mike Pence, Trump’s vice president from his first term, said the approval was a “complete betrayal of the pro-life movement that elected President Trump.”

Leavitt said Sortor was “defending himself” from left-wing protestors in Portland, and she criticized police for arresting “a journalist who was there to document the chaos.”

She said there would be a “full investigation” by the Department of Justice, and Trump asked advisers to review wants to cut federal funding for the Democratic-run city.

The White House began its press briefing on Friday by rattling off the various consequences of the shutdown that were already hitting Americans.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt discussed a report that said military families are already seeking food aid as troops go without a paycheck.

Leavitt said Trump supports the idea of making sure they’re cared for, and “if Democrats believe in this very simple premise too, they should end this shutdown immediately.”

Other impacts Leavitt discussed were the halting of nutrition assistance for women, infants and children, air traffic controllers working without pay, and a lapsing federal flood insurance program.

“This madness must end,” Leavitt said.

Drafts of the design were confirmed by the U.S. Treasury.

The $1 coin would be minted to commemorate the country’s 250th anniversary.

The design shows the side of Trump’s face on the front and another image of him raising his fist with an American flag on the back.

“Argentina gets $20 billion and the South Side gets nothing. What happened to America First?” Brandon Johnson said in a statement.

He was responding to what he called a “politically motivated decision” by Trump’s budget office to withhold $2.1 billion in federal funding for transit improvements in Chicago.

Johnson said the Red Line extension of the city’s famous elevated train line had promised 25,000 jobs, and that it was something residents in disadvantaged and predominantly Black communities had been awaiting for more than 50 years.

“We are calling for these cuts to be immediately reversed, and we will use every tool at our disposal to restore this funding,” Johnson said. “Chicagoans have waited far too long to turn back now.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Friday he ordered a fourth strike on a small boat in the waters off Venezuela, according to a social media post.

In his post, Hegseth said “our intelligence, without a doubt, confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics, the people onboard were narco-terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route.”

The strike comes less than a day after it was revealed that President Trump declared drug cartels to be unlawful combatants and declared that the United States is now in an “armed conflict” with them, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune says that he’s open to talking with Democrats about their demand to extend tax credits for Affordable Care Act health plans, but he’s not making commitments until they vote to open the government back up.

“That’s not something that we can guarantee that there are the votes there to do,” Thune, a South Dakota Republican, said during a news conference at the Capitol.

The Senate is headed towards another vote on funding the government Friday, but Thune did not sound optimistic that there would be a breakthrough with Democrats.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Monday that Republicans have “more reforms coming to try to fix Obamacare” as Democrats are demanding that they extend health care subsidies that expire at the end of the year.

Johnson, R-La., said the insurance that millions of people receive through the Affordable Care Act, Obama’s signature law, “are not working for the people. But you need common sense, responsible Republican who are serious about policy to fix that for the people.”

Democrats say they won’t vote to reopen the government until the subsidies are extended. Republicans who want to cut back the subsidies say they will only negotiate once the government is reopened.

Health insurance premiums will spike for millions of people at the end of the year if the expanded subsidies, which were first put in place in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, are allowed to expire.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is saying that he won’t negotiate with Democrats on their health care demands as the government shutdown enters its third day.

Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said,”I don’t have anything to negotiate” when it comes to the funding bill before the Senate because it keeps government funding mostly at current levels.

Democrats are demanding that Congress take up tax credits for health plans offered under the Affordable Care Act, but Johnson says that’s not an issue until the end of the year when the tax credits are set to expire.

Vice President JD Vance made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room as he led a tour group into the space.

He asked a White House staffer who was testing the podium microphone if press secretary Karoline Leavitt was planning to brief reporters Friday. (She is.)

Vance took a photo of one of the members of his small group standing behind the podium and asked her, “Alrighty, Donna, what do you think about the government shutdown?”

Donna replied, “I can’t say yet. Not in this crowd.”

Afterwards Vance said, “Let’s get these guys out of here before they say something too controversial.”

Vance ignored shouted questions as he left the room, including one from an Associated Press reporter about whether President Donald Trump had met with White House budget director Russell Vought on Thursday about the lapse in government funding.

The Trump administration is canceling $7.6 billion in grants that supported hundreds of clean energy projects in 16 states, all of which voted for Democrat Kamala Harris in last year’s presidential election.

The move comes as Trump threatens deep cuts in his fight with congressional Democrats over the government shutdown.

The Energy Department said in a statement Thursday that 223 projects were terminated after a review determined they did not adequately advance the nation’s energy needs or were not economically viable.

Officials did not provide details about which projects are being cut, but said funding came from the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and other DOE bureaus.

The cuts are likely to affect battery plants, hydrogen technology projects, upgrades to the electric grid and carbon-capture efforts, among many others, according to the environmental nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council.

‘This is literally a war on United States cities’ says Chicago congressman

Illinois Rep. Mike Quigley, a Chicago Democrat, criticized the White House’s announcement Friday to withhold $2.1 billion in funding for an extension of the city’s Red Line train, calling it “a very bad day for public transit in the country when it becomes weaponized.”

“This was our prized baby and they know it,” Quigley said in a phone interview with the Associated Press. “This was the most important new transit project in Chicago in 50 years.”

“Trump won some areas of Chicago. There are Republicans living here too. He’s punishing everybody – Democrats, Republicans – just because they don’t care,” said Quigley.

Quigley also criticized escalating immigration enforcement in Chicago.

“This is literally a war on United States cities,” Quigley said. “I’ve been to food pantries, shelters, doctor’s offices, health clinics. People with brown skin are afraid to show up in public.”

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will visit U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House next week, it was announced on Friday.

The meeting comes ahead of a review of a free trade agreement and as Trump is engaging in 51st state talk again as Canada asks to be included in Trump’s future Golden Dome missile defense program.

In a statement, Carney’s office said the prime minister will travel to Washington on Monday before meeting Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday.

Carney won Canada’s election earlier this year fueled by Trump’s annexation threats and trade war, but he has tried to improve relations ahead of a review of the free trade deal next year.

More than 75% of Canada’s exports go to the U.S. and Canada recently dropped many of its retaliatory tariffs to match U.S. tariff exemptions for goods covered under the United States-Mexico-Canada trade pact, or USMCA.

The Supreme Court said Friday it will consider overturning a Hawaii law that imposes strict regulations on where people can carry guns.

The Trump administration had urged the justices to take the case, arguing the law violates the court’s 2022 ruling that found people have a right to carry firearms in public under the Second Amendment.

The Hawaii law bans guns on private property unless the owner has specifically allowed them. It also prohibits firearms in places like beaches, parks, bars and restaurants that serve alcohol.

State attorneys argue that they’ve already loosened its concealed-carry permit regulations to align with the high court’s 2022 ruling. They say its new restrictions strike a reasonable balance between gun rights and public safety.

A judge blocked the Hawaii law after it was challenged in court by a gun rights group and three people from Maui. But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals largely reversed that decision and allowed Hawaii to enforce the law.

White House budget director Russ Vought said the Trump administration will withhold $2.1 billion for Chicago infrastructure projects, expanding funding fights that have targeted Democratic areas during the government shutdown.

The pause affects a long-awaited plan to extend the city’s Red Line train. Vought wrote on social media Friday that the money was “put on hold to ensure funding is not flowing via race-based contracting.”

He made a similar announcement earlier this week involving New York, where Vought said $18 billion for infrastructure would be paused, including funding for a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River.

Trump is openly embracing the conservative blueprint he tried to distance himself from during the 2024 presidential campaign.

In a post on his Truth Social site Trump announced he would be meeting with his budget chief, “Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent.”

The comments, posted on Thursday, represented an about-face for Trump, who spent much of last year denouncing Project 2025, The Heritage Foundation’s massive proposed overhaul of the federal government, which was drafted by many of his longtime allies and current and former administration officials.

The federal government was thrown into a shutdown Wednesday, as Democrats held firm to their demands to salvage health care subsidies that Trump and Republicans in Congress have dismissed as something to possibly discuss later.

Trump has seized on the government shutdown as an opportunity to reshape the federal workforce, threatening mass firings of workers and suggesting “irreversible” cuts to programs important to Democrats.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s bid to win the Nobel Peace Prize has drawn added attention to the annual guessing game over who its next laureate will be.

Longtime Nobel watchers say Trump’s prospects remain remote despite a flurry of high-profile nominations and some notable foreign policy interventions for which he has taken personal credit.

Experts say the Norwegian Nobel Committee typically focuses on the durability of peace, the promotion of international fraternity and the quiet work of institutions that strengthen those goals. Trump’s own record might even work against him, they said, citing his apparent disdain for multilateral institutions and his disregard for global climate change concerns.

Still, the U.S. leader has repeatedly sought the Nobel spotlight since his first term, most recently telling United Nations delegates late last month “everyone says that I should get the Nobel Peace Prize.”

A person cannot nominate themselves.