Nancy Pelosi calls Republican funding bill ‘a devastating assault’ on working families as Schumer urges Democratic backing – live

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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 Guardian’s live blog is closing. Thank you for reading along today. Here are the top stories of the day in US politics.

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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.

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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’.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Ten democrats just voted to advance the government spending bill, the Associated Press reports. They are:

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Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer

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Sen Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second highest-ranking Senate Democrat

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Sen Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with Democrats

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Sen Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada

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Sen John Fetterman of Pennsylvania

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Sen Gary Peters of Michigan

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Sen Kirsten Gillibrand of New York

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Sen Brian Schatz of Hawaii

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Sen Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire

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Sen Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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“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.

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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.”

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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.

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And as he often does, Trump has also repeatedly referenced the long saga of Hunter Biden’s laptop.

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Donald Trump is set to take the stage at the justice department for a speech billed as outlining his crime-fighting agenda.

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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.

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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:

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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.

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“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.

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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:

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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.

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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.

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“That’s a question that is best addressed by the Senate,” Jeffries replied.

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Asked to elaborate on his recent conversations with Schumer, Jeffries replied:

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He and I have had repeated and private conversations throughout the week, and those conversations will remain private.

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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.

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“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.

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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.

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Calling it a “devastating assault on the wellbeing of working-class families,” Pelosi said:

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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.

n “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.”

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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.

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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.

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“If government were to shut down, Doge has a plan in place to exploit the crisis for maximum destruction,” Schumer said.

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He continued:

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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.

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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.

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In addition to talking to Vladimir Putin this morning, Donald Trumpposted 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:

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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For the latest on this breaking story, follow our Europe live blog:

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The Senate is scheduled to today convene at 10am with a range of business before it.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The looming midnight deadline for Congress to approve a government spending measure or cause a shutdown has left Democrats in a tough spot.

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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.

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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.

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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:

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n

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.

n 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.

n 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.

n

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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.

n “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.”

n 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.

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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.

n 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.

n 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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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.

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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”.

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Tesla said in the letter:

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n

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.”

n

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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.

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Tesla said:

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n

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.

n

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.”

n

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Trump has imposed significant tariffs that will affect vehicles and parts made around the world.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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“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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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.

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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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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:

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n

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.”

n

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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.

n 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-Corteztold 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.”

n 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.

n “While the CR still is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse,” Schumer said.

n 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.

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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.

n “A shutdown would give Donald Trump the keys to the city, the state and the country,” Schumer said.

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More on that in a moment, but first, here are some other key developments:

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n
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.

n
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.”

n
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.

n
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.

n
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.

n
Representative Raúl Grijalva died after a long battle with cancer, his office announced on Thursday. His seat will remain vacant until at least September.

n
In 1996 a federal judge found the legal provision now being used to target Mahmoud Khalil unconstitutional. She was Donald Trump’s sister.

n
The Trump administration has appealed to the supreme court to uphold the president’s executive order curtailing birthright citizenship.

n
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.

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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.

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.

Mahmoud Khalil’s lawyers release footage of his arrest – video

cha

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

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.

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.

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.”

DoJ investigating whether Columbia University hid ‘illegal aliens’ on campus

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.

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.

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.

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