What we covered here
• Trump meets with GOP senators: President Donald Trump called Democrats “obstructionists” as he reiterated his promise to cut Democrat-backed programs during the government shutdown. Multiple GOP leaders, however, left a meeting with Trump suggesting the president seemed open to talks — if Democrats were willing to put forward a substantive offer.
• Airport delays: A shortage of air traffic controllers has led to delays at Houston, Chicago and Newark airports tonight, according to the FAA. Since the shutdown, 192 staffing shortages have been reported, more than four times seen on the same days last year.
• Compensation claim: Meanwhile, Trump said he “could be” seeking $230 million from his Justice Department in connection with past investigations into him, though he professed to have little knowledge of the specifics.
Our live coverage of the Trump administration and the government shutdown has ended. Get the latest here.
Oregon's Democratic senator protests Trump in floor speech that is already more than 3 hours long
Oregon Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley has been speaking for more than three hours on the Senate floor tonight after announcing on social media that he was going to protest President Donald Trump’s “grave threats to democracy.”
Merkley began his floor remarks at 6:24 p.m. ET and was still going after more than 3 hours.
Merkley pointed to the Trump administration previous halting of research grants for universities in its battle over campus oversight as well as the recent indictments of several of Trump’s political foes and the deployment of National Guard troops to Portland.
“President Trump wants us to believe that Portland, Oregon, in my home state, is full of chaos and riots. Because if he can say to the American people that there are riots, he can say there’s a rebellion. And if there’s a rebellion, he can use that to strengthen his authoritarian grip on our nation,” Merkley said.
The senator’s remarks represent a symbolic show of Democratic resistance as the party has blocked Republican efforts to reopen the government 11 times, remaining in a standoff over health care subsidies. The shutdown is expected to continue into Wednesday as the impasse enters a fourth week, the second longest in history.
Remember: Earlier this year, Democratic Sen. Cory Booker spoke for 25 hours and 5 minutes, warning against the harms he said the administration was inflicting on the American public. The effort broke the record for the longest floor speech in modern history of the chamber.
Air traffic control staffing problems cause delays at major US airports
A shortage of air traffic controllers has led to delays at several US airports tonight, according to publicly available Federal Aviation Administration advisories.
Delays were reported at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, averaging 38 minutes at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday. The facility that handles flights approaching or departing Chicago is short staffed until 1 a.m. ET.
Flights to Houston Intercontinental airport are being held on the ground for an average of 79 minutes, the FAA said. Additionally, planes cannot take off going to Houston Hobby airport until they wait an average of 91 minutes and flights in the air may have to wait 30 minutes to land.
The problems originate from a shortage of controllers, expected to last until midnight ET, at the facility that deals with flights approaching or departing Houston.
Flights headed to Newark Liberty International Airport must wait on the ground for an average of 32 minutes, the FAA said. The facility in Philadelphia that handles flights approaching or departing Newark is short-staffed until 9 p.m. ET.
The center in Jacksonville which handles high altitude flights is also understaffed until 10 p.m. ET, but so far does not appear to have caused any delays.
The tracking site FlightAware noted more than 3,000 delayed flights in the US on Tuesday, for all reasons.
The cause of the staffing problems is not immediately clear, but Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said last week some workers are taking unscheduled time off to protest not currently being paid for the time they are working while the government is closed.
Some background: Since the start of the shutdown, 192 staffing shortages have been reported at FAA facilities, more than four times the number seen on the same days last year. Not every staffing shortage results in a delay, as flights can be rerouted to areas with more staffing, but sometimes flights must be slowed down to safely fly due to the limited number of working controllers.
This post was updated with more details on delays tonight at US airports.
Nominee for whistleblower office withdraws from confirmation hearing
President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel said he is withdrawing from his confirmation hearing on Thursday because he doesn’t have the Republican votes “at this time.”
“I will be withdrawing myself from Thursday’s HSGAC hearing to lead the Office of Special Counsel because unfortunately I do not have enough Republican votes at this time,” Paul Ingrassia posted on Truth Social Tuesday night.
“I appreciate the overwhelming support that I have received throughout this process and will continue to serve President Trump and this administration to Make America Great Again!” he added.
CNN has reached out the White House for clarity about whether Ingrassia is withdrawing his nomination and, if so, who will be nominated in his place.
Watch as hundreds of government workers line up for food donations due to shutdown
Capital Area Food Bank was prepared to hand out canned and dry goods to around 150 people today to support federal employees and contractors as the government is still shutdown.
The food bank, which services the Washington DC area, distributed goods to over 370 households.
Watch the video below:
Capital Area Food Bank distributed canned and dry goods to over 370 households of federal employees and contractors on Tuesday – they had been expecting around 150 people. The event was hosted by No Limits Outreach Ministries in Landover, Maryland and employees were required to present a government work ID to receive food.
Grijalva trying to schedule meeting with Johnson by Thursday: "This-back and-forth is not good"
Democratic Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva told CNN she is trying to schedule a meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson before she leaves town to go back to her district on Thursday to put an end to their back-and-forth and try to convince him to swear her in.
“I am going to try to schedule an appointment and just sort of sit down to say this back-and-forth is not good. It’s not healthy. It’s, you know, a clap back here and there. It’s not something that I want,” Grijalva told CNN in an office interview.
“I’m leaving Thursday morning at five o’clock. And so if I can get something between now and then, I will, but I understand if my schedule is pretty crazy, I’m sure his is too,” she added.
In the 28 days since winning her election, Grijalva said she has never spoken to Johnson.
She did mention that on Tuesday Johnson’s chief of staff did respond to her to affirm the speaker’s position that he will not swear her in until the House is back in session after the government is reopened.
Even though she has not spoken to Johnson, she suggested that the speaker was keeping tabs on her social media as she has been documenting her inability to do her job and perform constituent services without being sworn in.
“I do think that Speaker Johnson is watching all of our social media,” Grijalva told CNN. “Every time I say we don’t have phones or internet, all of a sudden, we’ll get knocks on the door saying, ‘hey, I hear you needed some help with your phone.’”
Schumer demands Trump meeting before Asia trip
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he plans to again press President Donald Trump for a meeting on the shutdown after Trump said publicly - though not directly to congressional Democrats - that he wouldn’t meet until after the government reopens.
Schumer said Trump has not directly responded to their ask for a meeting earlier today: “We haven’t heard a direct response and we’re going to follow up.”
He stressed that Trump needed to meet with top Democrats before his multi-day trip to Asia.
“The country is in a health care crisis unlike we’ve ever seen. And Donald Trump, instead of leaving the country, or before he leaves the country, should sit down and negotiate with us so we can address this horrible crisis,” Schumer said.
Schumer also insisted that his party would not be changing tactics ahead of the looming funding shortage for WIC and SNAP. Asked whether the prospect of those programs running dry would force his party to change their calculus, he said, “No it should change Republican calculus. They should sit down and negotiate a way to address this crisis. They caused it, they’re the ones maintaining it.”
Trump says Sliwa "not going to win" New York City mayoral race but stops short of calling for him to drop out
President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Republican Curtis Sliwa is not going to win next month’s New York City mayoral race, but he stopped short of calling for him to drop out to consolidate the field against Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.
“I don’t know, if he dropped out, maybe (Andrew) Cuomo would have a little bit of a chance, but not much,” Trump said in the Oval Office, saying it’s not looking good for the independent candidate. “So, you know, I don’t know that I want to get involved.”
Trump predicted a win for Mamdani, and said that if he does win, he’d be the leader of the Democratic Party, not Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
But Trump, who said he’d speak with Mamdani if he wins, reiterated his threat that the would-be mayor would have to deal with the White House.
“But here’s the good news, he’s got to go through the White House. Everything goes through the White House — at least this White House it does, and we’ll have to see what happens,” Trump said.
The president has previously threatened to withhold federal funds from New York City if Mamdani is elected.
White House official says Ingrassia's nomination is "under review"
Paul Ingrassia’s nomination to lead the Office of Special Counsel is “under review,” a White House official told CNN Tuesday.
While it’s unclear if the White House will ultimately pull Ingrassia from being considered, the embattled nominee does not appear to have the support to pass through the Senate.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune hinted earlier today that that White House was likely to pull Ingrassia. On Monday, after Politico reported on racist text messages allegedly sent by Ingrassia to a group chat, Thune said Trump’s pick was “not going to pass” through the Senate.
Ingrassia’s confirmation hearing is scheduled for Thursday before the Senate Homeland Security Committee. GOP Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, who sits on the committee, has said he, too, does not support Ingrassia. If every Democrat on the committee opposed Ingrassia, and Scott joined them, that would be enough to block the nomination.
The text messages that sparked the latest controversy, obtained by Politico, allegedly included Ingrassia saying he has “a Nazi streak,” and arguing that Martin Luther King Jr. Day “should be ended and tossed into the seventh circle of hell where it belongs.” Ingrassia’s lawyer, Edward Andrew Paltzik, wouldn’t confirm to Politico if the texts were authentic and suggested the messages “clearly read as self-deprecating and satirical humor.”
Education Dept. considering moving special education programs to other agencies
The Education Department said Tuesday that it is looking into putting other federal agencies in control of its special education programs, the latest effort from the Trump administration to wind down the department’s operations.
The Washington Post was first to report on the consideration.
Last week, CNN reported that the Education Department cut nearly all of its staff that handles special education, according to multiple sources within the agency. The layoffs largely hit the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), with the exception of a small contingent of mainly top officials, the sources told CNN. The office supports programs that serve millions of children, youth and adults with disabilities nationwide.
The Department of Education provides more than $15 billion annually to help serve 7.4 million students through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which guarantees free public education for disabled children and protects Individualized Education Programs, tailored to their unique needs.
The Education Department announced earlier this year that it would like the Department of Health and Human Services to handle special education services. President Donald Trump has also said some of the department’s programs could be moved to other federal agencies if the department was abolished.
Trump weighs in on shutdown and other topics at White House. Catch up on what he said
Multiple GOP leaders left today’s meeting at the White House suggesting President Donald Trump seemed open to shutdown talks with Democrats if they were willing to put forward a substantive offer.
Here’s what he told reporters later in the Oval Office:
One caveat: Trump said that he would “love to meet” Democrats, but he wants to reopen the government first. Democrats want to “jeopardize the health care of other people,” he said.
National Guard: Trump said he feels empowered to send troops into any city he sees fit on the heels of a ruling by an appeals court yesterday that endorsed his deployment into Portland, Oregon. Today, the administration urged the Supreme Court to allow a similar move in Chicago.
Compensation claim: Trump said that the Justice Department would owe him a lot of money, when asked about the New York Times reporting that his legal team is demanding $230 million in compensation from the Justice Department for federal investigations into him.
US-Russia meeting: Trump suggested that a meeting with President Vladimir Putin might be a waste of his time after planning for an upcoming encounter with the Russian leader was put on hold.
Talks with India: Trump said he had a “great conversation” today with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Trump said Sunday that India would continue paying tariffs if it continues purchasing Russian oil, something he’s claimed the country agreed to stop.
Upcoming meeting: The US president plans to meet NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the White House tomorrow as Europe looks to continue working with the administration to bring an end to the Ukraine war.
CNN’s Elise Hammond, Kit Maher, Kevin Liptak and Kylie Atwood contributed to this post.
Trump says he "could be" seeking $230 million from Justice Department
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he “could be” seeking $230 million from his own Justice Department in connection with past investigations into him, though he professed to have little knowledge of the specifics and said he would give the money to charity.
“It could be,” Trump responded when asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins about a New York Times report that he was seeking the money in connection with complaints he had filed about past DOJ investigations.
“I don’t know about the numbers. I don’t even talk to them about it. All I know is that they would owe me a lot of money. But I’m not looking for money. I’d give it to charity or something,” Trump said.
Acknowledging the strangeness of potentially “paying himself” in damages, Trump said, “With the country, it’s interesting, because I’m the one that makes the decision.”
Trump went on to argue that he was damaged by the investigations into him, but he’d give away the money or use it to renovate the White House.
“As far as all of the litigation, everything that’s been about, yeah, they probably owe me a lot of money, but if I get money from our country, I’ll do something nice with it, like give it to charity, or give it to the White House, where we restore the White House,” Trump continued.
Trump says he would "love to meet" Democrats but "we want the country open first"
President Donald Trump said today that he would “love to meet” Democrats, but he wants to reopen the government first.
“I set one little caveat: I will only meet if they let the country open,” he told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins in the Oval Office, adding that Democrats want to “jeopardize the health care of other people. We’re not going to do that.”
Some context: The government shutdown is now in its 21st day with lawmakers still at odds over health care subsidies.
Democrats are trying to force Republicans to extend expiring enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, but Republicans want Democrats to vote to open the government before they negotiate on health care.
Trump suggests meeting Putin may be a waste of his time
US President Donald Trump suggested today that a meeting with President Vladimir Putin might be a waste of his time after planning for an upcoming encounter with the Russian leader was put on hold.
The president reiterated his stance that the Russia-Ukraine war should stop along current battle lines, and seemed to bemoan that the sides aren’t willing to agree on terms to end the conflict.
“Go to the line of battle, the battlefield lines. And you pull back and you go home, and everybody takes some time off, because you got two countries that are killing each other,” he said.
He may still meet with Putin, Trump implied, but indicated it was no longer a top priority. He said later: “We’ll be notifying you over the next two days as to what we’re doing.”
After green light from appeals court, Trump says he feels empowered to send National Guard to cities
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he feels empowered to send the National Guard into any city he sees fit, on the heels of a ruling by an appeals court yesterday that endorsed his deployment into Portland, Oregon.
“That was the decision. I can send the National Guard if I see problems,” Trump told reporters after a Diwali event in the Oval Office.
Trump called the ruling a “very strong opinion that we have the right to use the National Guard,” and one that he could apply to other cities moving forward.
“You would think that would be common sense: We have the right to use the National Guard to put out trouble. Well, that’s how I got elected — one of the reasons I got elected,” he said.
Today, the Trump administration urged the Supreme Court to allow a similar move to Portland to be carried out in Chicago. The justices are reviewing whether lower federal courts were correct to block Trump from deploying hundreds of National Guard members to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the city’s suburbs.
CNN’s John Fritze contributed reporting to this post.
Trump says he spoke to India's prime minister about trade today
President Donald Trump said he had a “great conversation” today with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“I just spoke to your prime minister today; we had a great conversation. We talked about trade. We talked about a lot of things, but mostly the world of trade. He’s very interested in that,” Trump said at an event celebrating Diwali inside the Oval Office.
Trump said Sunday that India would continue paying tariffs if it continues purchasing Russian oil, something he’s claimed the country agreed to stop.
Last week, when Trump first claimed that India was going to stop buying Russian oil, a spokesperson for the Indian Foreign Ministry said they were “unaware” of any conversations between Trump and Modi on Russian oil.
Trump on Tuesday called Modi “a great person” and said “he’s become a great friend of mine over the years,” without mentioning Russian oil.
Trump has for months been calling on India to cease purchasing Russian oil, citing India’s continued purchases of cheap Russian oil in escalating his trade war. In August, Trump announced a 25% tariff on India as a penalty for importing Russian oil and gas, building on a previously announced 25% tariff rate.
Trump scheduled to meet with NATO Secretary General Rutte tomorrow
President Donald Trump plans to meet NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the White House on Wednesday as Europe looks to continue working with the administration to bring an end to the Ukraine war.
The meeting comes as the Trump administration reversed course on a near-term summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying there are no plans for a meeting in the “immediate future.” The change in posture came after Trump said the two would meet “within two weeks or so, pretty quick” following a Thursday phone call.
A White House official said Trump would meet with Rutte on Wednesday, and NATO said in a news release that Rutte would meet with the president.
Some background: Trump’s initial plan to meet Putin came after their phone call last week, the day before he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House. Europeans were told that meeting did not go well for Kyiv, with Trump insisting Ukraine make territorial concessions to Russia to end the war, CNN previously reported.
European leaders and Ukraine put out a joint statement Tuesday saying they support Trump’s position “that the current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations,” after the president said over the weekend that the two sides should “stop at the lines where they are, the battle lines.” The Europeans added that pressure on Russia must increase and that “international borders must not be changed by force.”
CNN’s Jennifer Hansler contributed to this report.
Here’s what Democratic and Republican lawmakers are saying as the shutdown drags on without an end in sight
If you’re just joining us, we are covering lawmaker reactions on day 21 of the government shutdown.
President Donald Trump called Democrats “obstructionists” during remarks at the White House and urged them to “stop the madness” and vote for the GOP funding bill. The president also reiterated his promise to cut Democrat-backed programs during the shutdown.
Meanwhile, congressional Democrats and Republicans remain at an impasse.
Here’s what some lawmakers are saying:
- Senate Majority Leader John Thune said that the president would be willing to get more involved in negotiations with Democrats — on the condition that the government reopens.
- Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he and the House minority leader have reached out to Trump to urge him to sit down and negotiate an end to the shutdown.
- Democratic Sen. Corey Booker said Trump has a responsibility to end the shutdown. “He’s getting ready to do another trip overseas to negotiate on foreign policy issues. What he should be doing is calling Democrats to the White House and negotiating with us.”
- Democratic Sen. John Fetterman went after his own party’s strategy on the shutdown, declaring that “America’s losing” and that their refusal to pass Republicans’ funding bill was like a “sh*tty” Groundhog Day.
- Republican Sen. Rand Paul posted on X that he was snubbed by Trump and not invited to a White House luncheon, which several GOP lawmakers attended today. Paul has voted with Democrats and against the GOP plan to reopen the government 11 times.
- House Speaker Mike Johnson reiterated that GOP leaders would not negotiate with Democrats on health care, insisting that Republicans have “nothing to offer” those “who are using this for their own selfish political purposes.”
- House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries urged Republicans to reach across the aisle and negotiate with Democrats as he criticized the party for not having “a clue” of what “needs to be done to address the health care crisis that they’ve created.”
Separately, a group of 13 House Republicans sent a letter to Johnson today, calling on him to “immediately turn our focus” to health care costs .
As this unfolds, Democratic Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Gary Peters are working on an alternative measure to pay essential federal workers.
CNN’s Ellis Kim, Manu Raju, Casey Riddle, Sarah Ferris, Kit Maher, Elise Hammond, Donald Judd, Aditi Sangal and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.
Trump and GOP lawmakers talked over cheeseburgers at today's White House lunch
President Donald Trump met with Republican senators today over cheeseburgers, the echoes of East Wing construction and signed Make America Great Again hats.
But multiple lawmakers told CNN that no new, tangible developments were made as a stalemate with Democrats over the government shutdown drags on.
GOP Sen. John Kennedy said Trump emphasized he would negotiate with Democrats once the government reopens. Kennedy said Trump didn’t mention the request from top congressional Democrats for a sitdown.
“He’s always said he’s open to negotiate with Democrats. They’ve got to stop being unreasonable,” Kennedy said.
Although senators said they could not see the demolition of the White House’s East Wing, some remarked that they could hear the bangs of construction during the lunch.
GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham flashed his two MAGA hats with Trump’s signature and told reporters “never invite senators over for free stuff. The room was picked clean.”
GOP senators suggest Trump's willing to meet with Dems: "He’s ready to get this over with"
Multiple GOP leaders left today’s meeting at the White House suggesting President Donald Trump seemed open to shutdown talks with Democrats if they were willing to put forward a substantive offer.
“He basically said this needs to end. He wants it to end. And I think he’s willing to talk to the Democrats about ending it, but I think it’s got to be constructive conversations,” said Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley.
Hawley — who has been a vocal proponent of negotiating with Democrats on a health care fix once the government reopens — said Trump, too, is interested in addressing the issue of the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies.
Trump, though, was firm that there would be no talks before the government reopens.
Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota said of the president: “My perception is that he’s open to a conversation if there’s something substantive they have to offer, but the idea that they can hold the government hostage in a shutdown is not going to work.”
Hoeven added that “one of the things [Trump] pointed out is that between the president, Leader Thune, Speaker Johnson, they are absolutely on the same page. And he commented about how well the three of them worked together, and how much he appreciated it.”
Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville said Trump’s message in the meeting was: “We all just need to stick together.”
