US government shutdown: Democrats hold firm on healthcare demands amid Trump’s layoff threats – live

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Trump meeting Russ Vought to discuss cutting 'Democrat agencies' and whether cuts will be permanent

Donald Trump is up and truthing as the White House presses on with seizing the opportunity provided by the shutdown to axe federal jobs and Democratic spending priorities. “I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity,” Trump writes this morning.

He said he has a meeting today with Russell Vought, “of Project 2025 fame” who is now the head of the office for management and budget, “to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent”.

Vought was central to the Project 2025 blueprint and has been on a years-long quest to dismantle the federal workforce and consolidate power for the president. Since Trump took office in January, he has worked alongside the so-called “department of government efficiency” to slash through the federal government.

As we reported yesterday – day one of the shutdown – he’s already started slashing blue state infrastructure spending, cancelling $8bn in climate-related funding to 16 blue states and freezing $18bn for two huge New York City construction projects.

Here’s the post:

I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent. I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity. They are not stupid people, so maybe this is their way of wanting to, quietly and quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DJT

Russ Vought speaks during a press conference on Monday. Photograph: Nathan Posner/Shutterstock

Trump tells Republicans to 'clear out dead wood, waste, and fraud'

As congressional Democrats hold out for healthcare subsidies, the Trump administration has repeatedly stated that federal workers will face layoffs while the government is shut down.

Late last night, president Donald Trump posted on Truth Social:

Republicans must use this opportunity of Democrat forced closure to clear out dead wood, waste, and fraud. Billions of Dollars can be saved. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

Democrats hold firm on healthcare demands as US government remains shut

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. We will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.

We start with news that a vote to end the government shutdown hours after it began failed on Wednesday, as Democrats in the Senate held firm to the party’s demands to fund healthcare subsidies that president Donald Trump and Republicans refuse to extend.

The tally showed cracks in the Democrats’ resolve, but the outcome also left no breakthrough, AP reported. Blame was being cast on all sides on the first day of the shutdown.

The White House and Congress failed to strike an agreement to keep programs and services open, throwing the country into a new cycle of uncertainty.

At the heart of the issue are tax credits that have made health insurance through the Affordable Care Act more affordable for millions of people since the coronavirus pandemic.

The credits are set to expire at the end of the year if Congress doesn’t extend them, which would more than double what subsidized enrollees currently pay for health insurance premiums, according to analysis.

Meanwhile, as the Trump administration insists it is serious about negotiating an end to the government shutdown, a pair of racist deepfake videos mocking Democratic leaders played on a loop in the White House briefing room for hours on Wednesday.

The videos, posted by Trump on his social media platform on Monday, use fabricated audio to make it seem as if the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, called Democrats “woke pieces of shit”, and showed the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, with a fake mustache and sombrero.

JD Vance, the US vice-president, made light of the tactic during a rare appearance in the briefing room. “I think it’s funny. The president’s joking and we’re having a good time. You can negotiate in good faith while also making a little bit of fun at some of the absurdities of the Democrats’ positions, and even poking some fun at the absurdity of themselves.

“I’ll tell Hakeem Jeffries right now, I make the solemn promise to you that if you help us reopen the government, the sombrero memes will stop. I’ve talked to the president of the United States about that.”

Jeffries has denounced the memes as racist. Vance retorted: “I honestly don’t even know what that means. Like, is he a Mexican American that is offended by having a sombrero meme?”

Read the full story here:

In other developments:

• JD Vance, the vice-president, used false claims to blame Democrats for the government shutdown as the White House warned that worker layoffs were imminent.

• Donald Trump quietly signed an executive order on Monday in which he promised that the United States will defend the nation of Qatar by treating “any armed attack on the territory, sovereignty, or critical infrastructure” of the energy-rich Persian Gulf monarchy “as a threat to the peace and security of the United States”.

• Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, the top Democrats in the House of Representatives and Senate, respectively, and both New Yorkers, accused the Trump administration of retaliating against their constituents by putting billions of dollars to revamp transportation infrastructure on hold.

• Oregon’s governor, Tina Kotek, said in a statement on Wednesday that “Donald Trump’s unlawful federalization of members of the Oregon National Guard could cost taxpayers up to $10m”.

• The Trump administration said that it was putting a hold on roughly $18bn to fund a new rail tunnel beneath the Hudson River between New York City and New Jersey and the city’s expanded Second Avenue subway project – because of the government shutdown.

• Donald Trump once again shared misinformation about Portland, Oregon, on social media on Wednesday, when he announced that the national guard troops he called up in response to a small protest outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) office in the otherwise tranquil city are “now in place”.

• Lisa Cook, the US Federal Reserve governor, will keep her job for now, despite Donald Trump’s extraordinary bid to remove her from the central bank’s board with immediate effect.