Judge blocks Trump’s bid to deploy national guard to Oregon – US politics live

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Edward Helmore

US forces on Saturday evening struck another vessel illegally carrying drugs off the coast of Venezuela, Donald Trump said on Sunday to thousands of sailors at a ceremony celebrating the US navy’s 250th anniversary.

He added that the US would also start looking at drug trafficking happening on land.

Trump made the comment during a speech at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia, next to the Harry S Truman aircraft carrier. It was not immediately clear if he was referencing a strike announced on Friday by defense secretary Pete Hegseth.

During his speech, Trump said the navy had supported the mission “to blow the cartel terrorists the hell out of the water. There are no boats in the water anymore. You can’t find them.”

The navy has also been utilized to join an armed conflict with drug cartels, leading to four strikes in the Caribbean on what the administration says are fast-boats engaged in drug trafficking.

Trump added that if drug smugglers were not coming in by sea, “we’ll have to start looking about the land because they’ll be forced to go by land. And let me tell you that’s not going to work out out well for them either.”

The United Nations has condemned the US strikes – which the US defends as countering “narco-terrorist” members of Tren de Aragua, designated a foreign terrorist organization, in international waters – as extrajudicial executions.

Edward Helmore

The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, accused Democrats of being “not serious” in negotiations to end the federal government shutdown, while the Democratic leader accused Republicans of driving the shutdown, now on its fifth day and expected to last at least through next week.

Talks between the opposing political parties stalled over the weekend, with no votes anticipated to end the standoff. A CBS poll found just 28% of Democratic voters and 23% of Republicans consider their party’s positions worth shutting down the government.

In his comments to NBC’s Meet the Press, Johnson said his body had done its work in passing a measure to keep the government financed but now it was up to the Senate “to turn the lights back on so that everyone can do their work”. He accused Democrats of failing to engage “in a serious negotiation”.

“They’re doing this to get political cover because Chuck Schumer is afraid that he won’t win his next re-election bid in the Senate because he’s going to be challenged by a Marxist in New York, because that’s the new popular thing out there,” he said, referring to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Bronx representative who may be looking to challenge Schumer for his Senate seat next year.

But Johnson’s counterpart, minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, told the same show JD Vance lied last week when he claimed Democrats were themselves being dishonest claiming they are not trying to give healthcare benefits to undocumented immigrants.

“Republicans are lying because they’re losing in the court of public opinion,” Jeffries said, and added his party was “standing up for the healthcare of hard-working American taxpayers, of working-class Americans, of middle-class Americans”.

Opening summary

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. My name is Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you the latest news lines over the next few hours.

We start with the news that a federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deploying any national guard units to Oregon a few hours after the California governor, Gavin Newsom, announced he would sue the president over the planned deployment of his state’s troops.

Both states sought the temporary restraining order after the president sent guard members from California to Oregon earlier in the day. On Saturday, the same judge temporarily blocked the administration from deploying Oregon’s national guard troops to Portland.

The ruling by US District Judge Karin Immergut said there was no evidence that recent protests necessitated the presence of national guard troops, no matter where they came from. Immergut asked a Trump administration lawyer during a hearing on Sunday night:

How could bringing in federalised national guard from California not be in direct contravention of the [decision] I issued yesterday?

Immergut’s ruling on Sunday, which will remain in effect until at least 19 October, blocks the Trump administration from sending any national guard troops to Portland while Oregon and California seek a longer-term ruling in court.

Earlier on Sunday, Newsom had said national guard troops were already on their way to Oregon. “The Trump administration is unapologetically attacking the rule of law itself and putting into action their dangerous words – ignoring court orders and treating judges, even those appointed by the president himself, as political opponents.”

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced the deployment on Sunday:

At the direction of the president, approximately 200 federalized members of the California national guard are being reassigned from duty in the greater Los Angeles area to Portland, Oregon to support US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal personnel performing official duties, including the enforcement of federal law, and to protect federal property.

Read the full story here:

In other developments:

• The Trump administration will start mass layoffs of federal workers if the president decides negotiations to end the government shutdown are “absolutely going nowhere,” a senior White House official has said. Kevin Hassett told CNN he still saw a chance that Democrats would back down, but added that Trump was “getting ready to act” if he has to.

• The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, accused Democrats of being “not serious” in negotiations to end the federal government shutdown, while the Democratic leader accused Republicans of driving the shutdown, now on its fifth day and expected to last at least through next week.

• US forces on Saturday evening struck another vessel illegally carrying drugs off the coast of Venezuela, Donald Trump said on Sunday to thousands of sailors at a ceremony celebrating the US navy’s 250th anniversary. The United Nations has condemned the US strikes – which the US defends as countering “narco-terrorist” members of Tren de Aragua, designated a foreign terrorist organization, in international waters – as extrajudicial executions.

• Kristi Noem, Donald Trump’s homeland security secretary, called Chicago “a war zone” on Sunday after federal agents shot a woman and the governor of Illinois accused the administration of fueling the crisis rather than resolving it.

• Negotiators have arrived in Cairo before talks on Monday expected to focus on the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and a broader end to the war, as Israel continued strikes on the Palestinian territory, killing 63 people in the last 24 hours. The US envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to join the talks, according to Israeli media, in addition to Israel’s negotiators and a Palestinian delegation headed by Khalil al-Hayya, the deputy head of the political bureau of Hamas.

• Trump is intensifying his attacks on George Soros little more than a year before the midterm elections for Congress, in what’s been described as a “chilling message to other donors”. The billionaire reportedly contributed more than $170m to help Democrats during the 2022 midterm cycle.

• The Trump administration is targeting 100m acres of forest across the country for logging. One critical wilderness area – Ohio’s sole national forest – could be wiped out.