What we're covering
• Middle East trip: President Donald Trump said today that “the war is over” between Israel and Hamas as he left Washington for Tel Aviv. The president will speak at Israel’s parliament on Monday and meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as the families of the hostages. Leaders from more than 20 countries will then join Trump in Egypt for a summit on Gaza’s future.
• Stalemate continues: The government shutdown is on track to extend into a third week. Congress remains deadlocked on a funding plan, and the Senate isn’t scheduled to hold any votes until Tuesday. Top House leaders signaled today there’s virtually no appetite for their parties to cross the aisle and engage with the other side’s demands.
• Paychecks for troops: Trump said yesterday that “we have identified funds” to pay troops next week. It had seemed almost certain that military members wouldn’t get their next paychecks, which were scheduled to go out Wednesday.
"I think we’re going to be fine with China," Trump says amid trade tensions
President Donald Trump told reporters Sunday that China’s Xi Jinping is “a great leader” and they have “a great relationship” despite renewed trade tensions between the two global superpowers.
“I think we’re going to be fine with China,” Trump said on Air Force One as he headed to the Middle East.
The comments come after Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday afternoon that “it will all be fine!”
“Don’t worry about China, it will all be fine! Highly respected President Xi just had a bad moment. He doesn’t want Depression for his country, and neither do I. The U.S.A. wants to help China, not hurt it,” Trump wrote.
On Friday, Trump threatened to impose additional 100% tariffs “over and above” existing duties on Chinese imports. Beijing vowed countermeasures against Washington if Trump makes good on his threat to impose the duties on November 1.
When asked on Air Force One whether imposing the new tariffs next month is still the plan, Trump said: “Let’s see what happens. … November 1 is an eternity.”
Trump says Netanyahu was "the right person at this time”
President Donald Trump praised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, describing him as a “wartime president” who “was the right person at this time.”
“He’s a wartime president. He did a very good job. I had some disputes with him, and they were quickly settled,” Trump said when asked by a reporter whether Netanyahu has made any commitments to him personally about moving forward to the next phase of the Israel-Hamas peace deal.
“But as far as I’m concerned, I think he’s done a great job. I think he was the right person at this time,” he continued.
Some context: Netanyahu and Trump have had an at-times tumultuous relationship, with the US president often frustrated with the Israeli prime minister’s actions in Gaza, Syria and Qatar, which tested Trump’s patience as sought to bring an end to the war in Gaza.
Meanwhile, in Israel, Netanyahu has faced accusations from critics of prolonging the war and sabotaging negotiations to free the remaining hostages.
It’s unclear whether the peace deal will begin to shift public opinion of Netanyahu. When US special envoy Steve Witkoff mentioned his name on Saturday in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square, boos and jeers echoed from the crowd of thousands.
Trump says he's considering telling Putin to end the Ukraine war, or he'll provide Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv
President Donald Trump said Sunday he is considering telling Russian President Vladimir Putin that if the war in Ukraine doesn’t end, he will allow shipments of long-range Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv that would allow the country to penetrate deep into Russian territory.
Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed the Tomahawks in two phone calls this weekend.
The US leader suggested he hadn’t decided whether to provide the weapons. But he acknowledged it would amount to an escalation in the conflict.
“They’d like to have Tomahawks. That’s a step up,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One as he traveled to the Middle East.
“I might have to speak to Russia, to be honest with you, about Tomahawks,” he said, adding he told Zelensky that in their phone conversations.
“I might say, ‘Look, if this war is not going to get settled, I’m going to send them Tomahawks,’” Trump said. “The Tomahawk is an incredible weapon, very offensive weapon. And honestly, Russia does not need that.”
Zelensky has long requested Tomahawk missiles from the United States. The weapons’ 1,500 range could easily put Moscow in Ukraine’s targets.
Speaking as he was heading to Israel to preside over a ceasefire-for-hostages deal he helped broker, Trump said there was a lesson from the Gaza negotiations that could be applied to the stalled effort to end the Ukraine war.
“Never give up. Just never give up,” he said.
Trump says he thinks Gaza ceasefire will hold
President Donald Trump today expressed confidence when asked aboard Air Force One if the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas would hold, saying, “I think so, I think it’s going to hold.”
Trump added that there are a lot of reasons why he believes the deal will hold, including that people are “tired” of the conflict.
Trump declares the "war is over" as he flies to Israel
President Donald Trump definitively declared the Israel-Hamas war “over” as he flew to the Middle East on Sunday to preside over a ceasefire deal he helped broker.
“The war is over. The war is over, you understand that?” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One shortly after departing from Washington for his brief trip.
The president made the remark after being asked about Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comment earlier Sunday that suggested Israel’s military operations were not entirely over.
Netanyahu warned the “military campaign is not over” and that Israel’s enemies are “trying to recover in order to attack us again,” hours before the hostages were set to be released.
Trump, however, was more definitive, saying the conflict was at a certain end.
"This is going to be a very special time,” Trump says before departing for Israel
President Donald Trump said Sunday that “this is going to be a very special time” before he left Washington for Tel Aviv, Israel.
“Everybody’s very excited about this moment in time,” he told reporters as he prepared to board Air Force One.
Trump said hundreds of thousands of people have gathered in Israel over the last two days to celebrate the upcoming release of hostages in Gaza.
“Everybody’s cheering at one time; that’s never happened before,” Trump said.
The president added that it’s been an “honor to be involved” in the ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
Trump is expected to land Monday morning local time. Among those joining the president on Air Force One are:
- Secretary of State Marco Rubio
- Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
- Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine
- CIA Director John Ratcliffe
- White House chief of staff Susie Wiles
- Top White House aide Stephen Miller
- White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt
Tourists disappointed after Smithsonian museums close their doors amid government shutdown
Some tourists on the National Mall in Washington, DC, on Sunday were disappointed to discover they could not access Smithsonian Museums during their first day of closure amid the government shutdown.
Jeff Walsh walked up the steps of the National Museum of Natural History only to discover a sign taped to the door notifying visitors that the building was closed. Walsh, who was visiting the US from Canada for a work trip, had hoped to visit several of the museums.
“I didn’t realize the museums would be shut down today, especially because the internet says they’re open, so I took the trip out here and am walking,” he said. “It’s disappointing the government can shut down like this. It doesn’t happen like this in Canada.”
Other tourists were similarly surprised to discover the exhibits they’d traveled to see were unavailable. Deborah Silva flew up to the nation’s capital with fourth grader Luke Skopek from Alabama after he said he wanted to see the history he was learning in school up close.
“They’re out of school this week, so we went ahead and got everything together and came here,” Silva said. “To say that he’s highly disappointed is an understatement.”
Emily Macpherson, who flew from Sydney to DC for a work trip, said touring the museums was her only planned activity for the day.
“That’s sort of my plans for the afternoon gone, I guess,” she said. “I don’t know what I’m going to do now.”
Fact-checking JD Vance's reasoning for shutdown layoffs
Vice President JD Vance said Sunday that layoffs during the government shutdown are needed to continue critical federal assistance programs and pay the military, blaming Democrats for the firings.
He continued: “So, we don’t want to be in this situation, we don’t want to be laying off federal workers. But the Democrats have shut down the government. They have forced us to choose between American citizens and federal bureaucrats.”
However, laying off workers is separate from continuing essential services during a shutdown. Previous administrations did not take this step during an impasse.
A shutdown does not give the White House any additional power to downsize the federal workforce. The Trump administration is doing so by choice.
The vice president also appeared today on ABC’s “This Week,” CBS’ “Face the Nation” and “Fox News Sunday.”
Trump says Xi “just had a bad moment,” says the US wants to “help” China
President Donald Trump said Sunday that Chinese leader Xi Jinping “just had a moment” and that the US wants to “help” Beijing, contradicting comments he made last week saying that China was “becoming very hostile” over trade negotiations.
The post comes after Trump said Friday that he would impose a 100% tariff on China, “over and above” current rates, effective November 1.
Beijing on Thursday had escalated sweeping restrictions on rare earth exports after a previous agreement to free them up for US businesses. Tensions between the two countries have been increasing for months as both nations have tightened control on exports such as rare earths and AI chips.
The two leaders were scheduled to meet at the end of the month in South Korea. Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday that he has not spoken to Xi, and it is unclear whether their meeting will happen.
Following Trump’s Friday announcement to increase tariffs on China, the US stock market took a sharp turn downward. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq marked their worst day since April, and the Dow had its worst day since May.
Meanwhile, Trump says he hopes “necessary authorities” are looking into Sen. Adam Schiff
President Donald Trump said Sunday that he hopes “necessary authorities” are looking into Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff for being “dishonest and corrupt.”
During Trump’s first administration, Schiff was a member of the House of Representatives and led two investigations into Trump. The California lawmaker was also a member on the House committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
As the president has carried out a campaign of retribution against a wide swath of his perceived political enemies, the Justice Department recently indicted former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
CNN previously reported that the president is using the full force of the federal government to try to turn the tables on Schiff, his longtime nemesis.
The administration has accused Schiff of mortgage fraud, which he has denied. Trump has a long history of attacking Schiff, going back to 2017 and the investigation into Russian election interference. He’s accused the California Democrat of treason and called for his prosecution on numerous occasions.
Hundreds of CDC staffers recently fired by Trump administration are reinstated
Hundreds of staff fired from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention late Friday have been reinstated, according to the American Federation of Government Employees.
After a new round of layoff notices sent late Friday night to around 1,300 workers at the CDC, approximately 700 were reinstated on Saturday, while about 600 remain laid off, according to the union, which represents federal workers.
“The employees who received incorrect notifications were never separated from the agency and have all been notified that they are not subject to the reduction in force,” said Andrew Nixon, director of communications for the US Department of Health and Human Services.
Among reinstated employees are staff that publish the agency’s flagship journal, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, according to Dr. Debra Houry, who recently resigned as the agency’s chief medical officer and deputy director for program and science.
Athalia Christie, the incident commander for the measles response, was among hundreds of employees mistakenly fired on Friday. The annual total of measles cases in the US — now up to 1,563 cases since January — is the highest by a significant margin since measles was declared eliminated in America a quarter-century ago.
Read more about the CDC staffers here.
Vance says Schumer can “come to my house” to talk amid government shutdown
Vice President JD Vance said that Senate Minority Leader Chuck can come to the Oval Office or his house to talk about health care policy, the main issue that has been at the center of the government shutdown.
“If Chuck Schumer wants to come into the Oval Office or come to my house, he is welcome to talk about how to fix health care policy for Americans. Of course, we want to lower insurance premiums. We want to make sure that the skyrocketing health care costs of the Biden administration start to level off and hopefully come down,” Vance said on CBS’s Face the Nation.
Vance expressed frustration with Schumer, continuing to place the blame on him and other Democrats for the government remaining in a shutdown.
“We don’t negotiate with a person who has taken the entire federal government hostage over a health care policy dispute,” Vance said.
Smithsonian museums, National Zoo close as government shutdown drags on
Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo shuttered their doors Sunday as the government shutdown enters its third week, the Smithsonian Institution posted on its website.
The Smithsonian Institute’s 19 museums and the zoo had remained open since the government shut down on October 1 using budget funds from previous years.
The institution previewed its closing Friday, saying in a post on X: “Due to the government shutdown, Smithsonian museums are temporarily closed beginning on Sunday, Oct. 12, along with our research centers and the National Zoo.”
The zoo reassured the public on its website that the animals “will continue to be fed and cared for.” However, the zoo’s live animal cams will not be operating, according to the website.
The museums and the zoo will remain closed until Democrats and Republicans pass an agreement to reopen the government. However, the issue of health care subsidies continues to be a sticking point 12 days into the shutdown.
Roughly 1.4 million federal employees have been furloughed or are working without pay, according to a Bipartisan Policy Center review of the major agencies’ shutdown contingency plans. On Friday, more than 4,000 federal workers received layoff notices.
During the 2018-2019 funding lapse, the museums and the zoo were also open for 11 days at the start of the five-week shutdown.
Democratic Sen. Fetterman: Shutdown shouldn't be about which party is “getting more of the blame”
Sen. John Fetterman — one of only two Democrats in his chamber to have voted in favor of a stopgap spending measure to avert the government shutdown — today said lawmakers shouldn’t be focused on who’s to blame for the shutdown.
“It’s not about who’s losing or who’s getting more of the blame or anything,” Fetterman told Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.” “What I really care about is it’s a core responsibility for me as a US Senator to vote to make sure to keep our government open, and then we can figure out all these other priorities.”
Fetterman has broken with his party on a number of key issues in recent years, including the shutdown.
“I can’t ever, or will never, vote to shut our government down,” Fetterman said. “It was wrong if the Republicans did these things, and I led that charge back in March saying it’s wrong to shut us down, and we kept it open.”
Fetterman said he agrees with the principle of extending the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, but disagrees with Democrats for demanding Republicans agree to do so in exchange for votes to reopen the government.
“You know, (extending the subsidies is) a priority for us, and (Republicans) might agree. But let’s have our government open and have that conversation so people can get paid and we can’t have this kinds of chaos,” Fetterman said.
Jeffries and Johnson reject each other's positions in shutdown standoff as stalemate drags into third week
Top House leaders signaled on Sunday there’s virtually no appetite for their parties to cross the aisle and engage with the other side’s demands to pass a bill to reopen the government for a few more weeks, as the shutdown continues.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told “Fox News Sunday” that Democrats view a stopgap bill to fund the government through November 21 as a “partisan Republican spending bill.”
Though the bill would extend current Biden-era spending levels, Jeffries said the legislation was “unacceptable” to Democrats because it also includes “massive cuts” codified by President Donald Trump’s domestic policy package.
Democrats are demanding a rollback in Trump’s cuts to Medicaid, as well as an extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, an issue that Republicans have said they’re only willing to engage once the government reopens.
“They’re trying their best to distract the American people from the simple fact that they’ve chosen a partisan fight so that they can prove to their Marxist rising base in the Democrat Party that they’re willing to fight Trump and Republicans,” Speaker Mike Johnson said in a subsequent interview on Fox News.
While Jeffries argued that his caucus wants to have a “broader” bipartisan conversation about fixing America’s “broken healthcare system,” Johnson fired back that Democrats are “eating up the clock in the month of October” to conduct such talks as the shutdown drags on.
Johnson also said he spoke on the phone recently with GOP Rep.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has been vocal about her concerns that Republicans could shoulder the blame for their constituents’ skyrocketing health insurance premiums.
He said he told the Georgia congresswoman that Republicans have been working “around the clock” on addressing the issue and offered to include her in those conversations with the relevant committees.
Swing-district Republican says GOP leaders need to "explore all avenues" to open government
GOP Rep. Kevin Kiley told CNN on Sunday he thinks that Republican leadership needs to “explore all avenues” to reopen the government as the parties stand at a stalemate and the shutdown is set to drag into a third week.
Kiley told CNN’s Manu Raju that he wished the Senate would pass the short-term bill to fund the government through November 21, which he called the “lesser of two evils,” adding, “I don’t agree with what Chuck Schumer is doing. I think he’s being unreasonable. But this is politics.”
“Sometimes you have to work with people that you believe are being unreasonable in order to find the common ground that is best for the country, and so long as the House isn’t even there, that’s going to be very hard for us,” he said.
He said he shares concerns with Democrats who are calling for an extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies and suggested that Republicans should at least keep a door open to negotiating the issue, something that Democrats are demanding in exchange for their votes to open the government.
The swing district Republican said he thinks Speaker Mike Johnson has “no justification” for keeping the House out of session since September 19, as lawmakers have “ordinary business” to carry out.
He also broke with Johnson over the delay in swearing in Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva, who won her seat in a special election last month.
“There’s a duly elected member of Congress from that district, and she should be sworn in. I don’t know why this is an issue. The constituents in that district deserve to have a representative,” Kiley said, adding that Johnson should swear in Grijalva during a pro-forma session, as he recently has for Republican members.
Trump to meet Netanyahu and families of Gaza hostages in Israel tomorrow
President Donald Trump will depart for the Middle East later today following his announcement that Israel and Hamas have agreed the first phase of his Gaza ceasefire plan.
He will speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and meet the families of the Israeli hostages tomorrow, according to an itinerary released by the Israeli leader’s office. The remaining hostages held in Gaza are expected to be freed Monday morning local time.
Their timings show the US president will meet with Netanyahu in his office at the Knesset at 10:15am local time (3:15am ET).
Later that hour, at 10:45am (3:45am ET), also at the Knesset, Trump is due to meet with families of the hostages.
Trump is then set to deliver a speech to the Knesset during a plenary session, at 11am local time (4am ET). Netanyahu, the Speaker of the Knesset, and Israel’s opposition leader are also expected to give speeches during this session, the Israeli statement said.
Trump will depart Israel at 1pm local time (6am ET), Netanyahu’s office said.
This itinerary largely aligns with Trump’s official schedule of the visit, which was released overnight.
Trump will then travel to Egypt, where he is due to co-chair a summit on Gaza alongside Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. According to the US President’s schedule, he is set to land in Egypt at 1:45pm local time (6:45am ET).
"The damage is beyond repair": CDC faces deep staff cuts
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suffered a round of deep staff cuts late Friday night, with disease detectives, outbreak forecasters, policy and data offices among those impacted, according to four sources with knowledge of the layoffs.
“The administration did not like that CDC data did not support their narrative, so they got rid of them. They didn’t like that CDC policy groups would not rubber stamp their unscientific ideas, so they got rid of them,” said an agency official who asked not to be named for fear of losing their job.
The notices were emailed shortly after 9 p.m. The exact number of cuts is still being assessed.
The CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service, which trains the agency’s celebrated “disease detectives,” lost at least 30 of the staff who coordinate the program, and 40 EIS officers who were in their second year of training, according to a second agency official who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation.
More than 130 employees were laid off from the office of the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, which coordinated activities for the entire center, said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, who recently resigned as the director of the NCIRD.
The layoffs come as the country is heading into the winter respiratory virus season.
All the staff at the agency’s the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a journal known as the MMWR that has published surveillance data on the nation’s health for over a century, were also fired, according to Houry.
Trump says administration has "identified funds" to pay troops next week
President Donald Trump said yesterday that “we have identified funds” to pay military troops on October 15 as the government shutdown is headed into a third week.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he will “direct our Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, to use all available funds to get our Troops PAID on October 15th.”
“We have identified funds to do this, and Secretary Hegseth will use them to PAY OUR TROOPS,” he wrote.
The funds for military pay will come from the Pentagon’s research and development money that’s available for two years, according to a spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget.
Some context: As service members were in danger of missing their first paychecks, congressional GOP leaders had rejected the idea of voting on a standalone bill for military pay, marking the most dramatic step yet to attempt to force Democrats to end the shutdown.
Trump had previously promised that service members would still be paid despite the government shutdown.
“We will get our service members every last penny. Don’t worry about it,” Trump said at a Navy event in Norfolk, Virginia, last weekend.
