Trump calls for Senate to scrap filibuster in order to force end to month-long government shutdown – US politics live

Snap food benefits are set to run out this weekend as shutdown comes close to matching the record of 2018-2019President Donald Trump is calling on the Senate to scrap the filibuster, so that the Republican majority can bypass Democrats and reopen the federal government.
Trump posted Thursday night on his social media site, Truth Social:THE CHOICE IS CLEAR – INITIATE THE ‘NUCLEAR OPTION,’ GET RID OF THE FILIBUSTER.It is now time for the Republicans to play their “TRUMP CARD,” and go for what is called the Nuclear Option – Get rid of the Filibuster, and get rid of it, NOW!A (small) handful of US Senate Republicans issued a legislative rebuke to president Donald Trump’s world-rattling trade tariffs in a rare alignment with their Democratic counterparts. Four Republicans – Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska – joined the opposition party, voting 51-47 on a resolution to end the base-level tariffs on more than 100 nations that the president put into place via executive order.The Trump administration is going to restrict the number of refugees it admits into the United States next year to the token level of just 7,500 – and those spots will mostly be filled by white South Africans. The low number represents a dramatic drop after the US previously allowed in hundreds of thousands of people fleeing war and persecution from around the world.New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, on Thursday declared a state of emergency to free up funds so that she could issue $65m in assistance to food banks because federal funding for the national food stamp program is set to lapse on 1 November. Oregon and Virginia have also issued emergency declarations to release state cash to go towards emergency food assistance as the federal government shutdown imperils Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) benefits for nearly 42 million Americans.More than half of Americans disapprove of Trump’s demolition of the White House’s East Wing and the construction of a new ballroom, according to a new poll from the Washington Post, ABC News and Ipsos. The survey was conducted between 24 and 28 October and indicates 56% of the respondents disagree with Trump’s recent move while 28% are in favor of it. Most of the survey’s respondents were white, one-third of them voted for Donald Trump and another third for Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.JB Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, has urged the Trump administration to suspend its immigration crackdown in his state from Friday to Sunday, to allow children to “spend Halloween weekend without fear”. Continue reading...