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Office of Management and Budget (OMB) chief Russell Vought and President Donald Trump are in the midst of mapping out cuts to the federal government after lawmakers on Capitol Hill failed to reach a funding bill agreement early Wednesday morning. 

Trump set the stage in the lead-up to the shutdown that the federal government is set to likely see staffing and program cuts under the shutdown, adding in a Thursday message to Truth Social that many federal agencies are a “political SCAM.” 

“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,” Trump posted. 

HERE’S WHAT TRUMP WANTS TO DO TO RESHAPE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DURING THE SHUTDOWN

“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!” he added. 

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) chief Russell Vought and President Donald Trump are in the midst of mapping out cuts to the federal government after lawmakers on Capitol Hill failed to reach a funding bill agreement.  (Alex Brandon/The Associated Press )

Fox News Digital spoke with Heritage Foundation’s director of the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget, Richard Stern, Thursday morning to discuss which agencies the OMB chief would likely target for staffing cuts and if such cuts would be permanent. 

How a shutdown enables cuts 

Stern explained to Fox Digital that there are a pair of overlapping issues that lead to the government’s staffing size: agencies are required by various laws to provide certain services to citizens. And, separately, appropriation bills set funding floors on how much money an agency has available to spend on staff payroll. 

During a shutdown, however, there is a lapse in funding, meaning agencies do not have “payroll floors from the funding bill,” leaving the executive branch with discretion on how to continue providing required services to citizens, he explained.  

“Because the funding bills set effective floors per salary spending, that tends to dictate how many people work for the agencies. In the event of a shutdown, the only requirement on the administration is to ensure that the agencies provide the services and whatnot that are required by law. But those laws don’t say you need, you know, 100 staffers to write a grant or only one staffer,” Stern told Fox Digital in a phone interview. 

WHITE HOUSE PREPARES FOR ‘IMMINENT’ FEDERAL LAYOFFS AFTER DEMOCRATS FORCE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

“They simply say, you know, ‘There’s a grant program that has to go out the door under XYZ parameters.’ So in the event of a lapse in funding, it means that the administration … can lay out a plan saying, ‘Hey, look, you know, we think the Department of Education, for example, could do everything it is legally required to do, but do it with 10% of the workforce,’” he continued. 

If the administration determines that an agency can fulfill its legally required services to citizens with fewer people, it will subsequently send reduction in force notices, known as RIFs, to staffers.   (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

If the administration determines that an agency can fulfill its legally required services to citizens with fewer people, it will subsequently send reduction in force notices, known as RIFs, to staffers. 

“If the funding was there, and if the funding law required those staff levels, then you wouldn’t be able to RIF,” he said. “But in the lapse of funding, it gives the White House that opportunity.” 

Permanent changes to the government are in a gray zone, however, as RIFs would not be able to take effect until after 60 days. 

“Once the RIF notices go out, you … legally need to wait 60 days before the RIF notices can be enacted,” Stern continued. “Really the shutdown would have to last 60 days, beyond that, to actually act on the RIFs.” 

The Heritage Foundation expert, who also serves as the conservative think tank’s acting director of the Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies, stressed that any staffing cuts are not an example of government “downsizing.” 

TRUMP’S WHITE HOUSE DEMANDS AGENCIES MAP OUT MASS LAYOFFS AHEAD OF POTENTIAL SHUTDOWN

“It’s not downsizing the activities of agencies,” he said. “It’s not reducing what they make available, what services they provide. It’s simply reducing the workforce that’s providing the same level and the same amount of services.” 

Environmental Protection Agency Headquarters Building in Washington DC (Getty)

What agencies could be targeted for cuts? 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told a gaggle of reporters Thursday that “thousands” of federal employees could be laid off during the shutdown. 

“Look, it’s likely going to be in the thousands. It’s a very good question. And that’s something that the Office of Management and Budget and the entire team at the White House here, again, is unfortunately having to work on today,” Leavitt said.

Stern pointed to a handful of agencies that will likely be targeted for layoffs, citing agencies that have “mission creeped” their original purview into regulatory issues, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as other agencies, like the National Science Foundation, that handle grant writing for programs. 

“Probably the Department of Ed is, is kind of the poster child on this one,” he said. “They’ve been talking about, they quite literally only need 10% or so on the staff.” 

He also noted the EPA, Department of the Interior and the Department of Labor could face cuts due to the various agencies’ “mission creep into a lot of regulations that are quite harmful to the economy, that are quite harmful to just American families.”

WHITE HOUSE TELLS FEDERAL AGENCIES TO PREPARE LAYOFF PLANS AS GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN LOOMS

“EPA over … a decade or so, has mission creeped its jurisdiction into more and more regulatory affairs, that just simply, the EPA doesn’t have under a statutory capacity,” he said. “They’re regulating outside of the confines, the charge they were given by law, by Congress. So EPA is another one of those where that makes a lot of sense to cut a lot of the workforce there. Then, at HUD and Department of Labor you have similar things.” 

Stern said the administration likely is also eyeing agencies such as the National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, and certain aspects of the Department of Housing and Urban Development that are charged with “running programs that write grants where there’s an enormous amount of legal discretion on who gets the grant money.”

President Donald Trump said the shutdown presented him with the opportunity for the administration to carry out layoffs as part of a continued mission to slim down the federal government.  (Alex Brandon/The Associated Press )

“These grants are not serving some critical, or frankly, constitutional role,” he said, adding the grants often land in the hands of universities and promote “left-wing” ideology on topics, such as transgenderism and climate change. 

What has Trump said on federal cuts?

Trump said during various public remarks Tuesday, as the deadline clock began to run dry, the shutdown presented him with the opportunity for the administration to carry out layoffs as part of a continued mission to slim down the federal government, and snuff out overspending and fraud. Trump, however, repeatedly has stressed he does not support the shutdown, pinning blame on Democrats. 

WHITE HOUSE PREPARES FOR ‘IMMINENT’ FEDERAL LAYOFFS AFTER DEMOCRATS FORCE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

“We don’t want it to shut down because we have the greatest period of time ever,” Trump said from the Oval Office Tuesday. “I tell you, we have $17 trillion being invested. So the last person that wants it shut down is us.”

“Now, with that being said, we can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them, like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like,” he continued. 

Republicans have pinned the shutdown blame on Democrats, arguing they refused to fund the budget as an attempt to reinstate taxpayer-funded medical benefits for illegal immigrants. Democrats have countered that claim as a “lie” and cast blame for the shutdown on Republicans. 

“A lot of good can come down from shutdowns,” Trump added Tuesday. “We can get rid of a lot of things that we didn’t want, and they’d be Democrat things. But they want open borders. They want men playing in women’s sports. They want transgender for everybody. They never stop. They don’t learn. We won an election in a landslide.” 

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Trump’s second administration has spotlighted the size of the federal government as bloated since inauguration day, including the president launching the Department of Government Efficiency to weed out potential fraud, overspending and corruption, and offering federal employees voluntary buyouts in January to leave their posts before rolling out other RIF initiatives across various agencies. 

Fox News Digital reached out to OMB’s office for comment on the anticipated cuts but did not immediately receive a reply. 

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed an executive order on Thursday directing the Virginia Board of Health to draft regulations preventing biological males from participating in female sports and changing in their locker rooms.

The order follows controversy in a Washington-area county, where the school district will mark LGBTQ+ History Month in October – and at least one elementary school reportedly encouraged students to observe “National Coming Out Day” on Oct. 11.

Youngkin’s Executive Directive 14 aims to stop males from undressing and utilizing designated female spaces and keep biological men out of women’s-only athletic teams.

‘NONSENSE’: EARLE-SEARS BLASTS FAIRFAX TRANSGENDER BATHROOM RULES IN FIERY CAMPAIGN STOP

People gather to protest different issues, including the board’s handling of a sexual assault that happened in a school bathroom in May, vaccine mandates and critical race theory during a Loudoun County School Board meeting in Ashburn, Virginia. (Leah Mills/Reuters)

“Since day one, this administration has worked to protect the fundamental rights of all Virginians,” Youngkin said Thursday.

“These fundamental rights intrinsically require the assurance of health and safety for all individuals. Through collaboration with our federal partners, this administration is fighting tirelessly to prevent discrimination on the basis of sex and to protect the civil rights of our citizens under the constitutions of our commonwealth and nation…”

Youngkin’s directive also runs in line with President Donald Trump’s own executive order barring public schools from “indoctrinating” children into “radical” transgender ideology.

Trump ordered Education Secretary Linda McMahon to provide recommendations for elimination of federal support for “illegal or discriminatory treatment” or indoctrination based on “gender ideology or discriminatory equity ideology (like ‘unconscious bias’ and ‘White privilege’)” under the Civil Rights Act and other titles.

VIRGINIA SCHOOL DISTRICT VOTES TO KEEP GENDER BATHROOM POLICY, DEFYING DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION DIRECTIVE

Protesters for and against gender-affirming care for transgender minors demonstrate outside the Supreme Court on Dec. 4, 2024, in Washington.  (Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press file)

In that regard, Loudoun County Public School’s announcement it will celebrate LGBTQ+ History Month may run afoul of Trump and potentially now Youngkin, according to critics.

The board voted Wednesday to proclaim October as such, approving a motion from board member April Chandler of Algonkian.

The move “affirms [LCPS’] commitment to fostering equity, belonging and inclusion,” the board said in its minutes.

The school board did not respond to a request for further comment.

VIRGINIA LT. GOVERNOR ON WHY HER STATE IS AT RISK OF LOSING FEDERAL FUNDING OVER TRANSGENDER BATHROOMS

In Aldie, near Front Royal, an LCPS elementary school under LCPS’ auspices reportedly took the pronouncement a step further, after parents sent a purported letter from their children’s school to a reporter at ABC News’ Washington affiliate.

The reporter, Nick Minock, also posted on X that the LCPS livestream of the board meeting appeared to be inoperable Wednesday night.

The letter was reported to be from Henrietta Lacks Elementary and encouraged families to promote National Coming Out Day:

“There is also a special day called national coming out day to celebrate being yourself,” it read.

VIRGINIA SCHOOL DISTRICTS SUPPORT FOR TRANSGENDER STUDENTS’ RIGHTS IN GOVERNOR’S RACE SPOTLIGHT

John Reid, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor, slammed the letter and Loudoun’s posturing.

Virginia parents in Loudoun and beyond are tired of schools being “run by politics instead of putting kids first,” Reid told Fox News Digital.

“The vast majority of normal people would agree that conversations about sexuality have absolutely no place in elementary schools,” said Reid, who is gay.

“Unlike [Democratic opponent state Sen.] Ghazala Hashmi, I’ve been clear: we need to get back to academic excellence and parental involvement, not more political agendas in the classroom.”

TRANSGENDER POLICIES PUT VIRGINIA DEMS ON DEFENSE AS GOP CONTENDERS BACK FAMILIES: ‘SOMEBODY HAS TO STAND UP’

While GOP gubernatorial nominee Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears did not respond to a request for comment, she released a related ad campaign Thursday called “Zero,” which criticized opponent Abigail Spanberger and Democrats for “radical… gender ideology” policies.

“Our children deserve a governor who is going to keep them safe. This is about making sure young girls are not forced into spaces with grown men,” Earle-Sears said.

“And they shouldn’t be. My opponent continues to avoid giving a yes or no answer to the simple question: Do you support boys in girls’ bathrooms?”

The ad features a Virginia parent endorsing Earle-Sears whose son “shared urinals” with a “girl who claimed she’s a boy.”

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Spanberger recently told Roanoke’s ABC affiliate in response to such criticisms that Virginia “until very recently had a process in place where, on an individual… basis, schools, parents, teachers and coaches were making decisions based on fairness, competitiveness and safety.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Hashmi, Lacks and LCPS for comment.

EXCLUSIVE: As federal agencies hunker down for what could be a protracted government shutdown, Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., is introducing a bill to make sure that Americans’ flights can continue on schedule no matter how long the closure lasts.

With the busiest time of the year for air travel quickly approaching and tens of millions of Americans expected to fly in the coming months, an extended government shutdown could have catastrophic impacts on flight safety as well as Americans’ travel plans.

To combat this, Bean introduced a bill, the “Aviation Funding Stability Act of 2025,” which would ensure that America’s air traffic controllers and essential Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) personnel continue to be paid, even during a shutdown.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Bean’s office called the bill a “preemptive strike against chaos in the control tower, ensuring that the backbone of our aviation system doesn’t buckle under political gridlock.”

13 TIMES DEMOCRATS VOTED FOR A SHORT-TERM CONTINUING RESOLUTION UNDER BIDEN

Rep. Aaron Bean, R-Fla., is introducing a bill to make sure essential FAA workers continue to be paid during government shutdowns, protecting against massive flight delays that have occurred in the past. (Getty Images)

The statement explained, “This isn’t just about paychecks. It’s about keeping our skies safe, our flights on time, and our economy airborne.”

Air traffic controllers and other essential FAA personnel do not receive paychecks during government shutdowns despite being required to work to keep the nation’s flight schedules safe and on time. Though these federal workers are eventually paid when the government reopens, extended periods of time without a paycheck lead to stress on both the workers and the overall flight system.

In 2019, on the 35th day of a government shutdown, ten air traffic controllers called in sick in Virginia and Florida, triggering ground stops at LaGuardia Airport in New York and cascading delays at Newark, Philadelphia and Atlanta.

Bean’s bill is aimed at making sure something like that does not happen again.

WHITE HOUSE PREPARES FOR ‘IMMINENT’ FEDERAL LAYOFFS AFTER DEMOCRATS FORCE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

Travelers check their phones while navigating delays and flight cancellations at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport July 19, 2024, in Austin, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

If passed, the bill would make funds in the Airport and Airway Trust Fund not otherwise appropriated available for use to continue paying air traffic controllers and safety inspectors up to 30 days without Congress needing to act, according to a draft of the bill obtained by Fox News Digital. The funds used would then later be paid back by the official appropriation once it is passed by Congress.

By essentially borrowing funds from the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, which is funded by airline ticket and fuel taxes and other taxes, the FAA and Americans’ air travel would be shielded from the brunt of a government shutdown.

TRUMP TOUTS ‘REBUILDING AND MODERNIZATION’ OF US AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL, BLASTS BUTTIGIEG FOR HAVING ‘NO CLUE’

A Southwest plane lands at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Va., Dec. 30, 2022.  (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

“While Congress continues negotiations on funding the federal government, I hope we can all agree: The people who keep America’s skies running should be paid on time,” Bean told Fox News Digital.

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“We can’t afford to let a government shutdown disrupt the backbone of our aviation system,” he added. “That’s why I introduced legislation to ensure our air traffic controllers are paid, and the FAA operates with no interruptions. It’s about protecting public safety and standing up for the aviation professionals who keep our country moving.”

FIRST ON FOX: A new report warns the U.S. nuclear arsenal is dangerously outdated and too small to confront growing global threats — and recommends nearly tripling the number of deployed American warheads by 2050.

The report, first obtained by Fox News Digital, argues that America’s current force of about 1,750 deployed nuclear weapons leaves the nation vulnerable in an era when Moscow, Beijing, and Pyongyang are all expanding their arsenals at breakneck speed.

China alone is building 100 new nuclear weapons a year, according to the Pentagon, and is on track to reach strategic parity with the U.S. by the mid-2030s.

“The newest warhead that we have was built in 1989,” Robert Peters, author of the Heritage report, told Fox News Digital.

HOW US SHOULD RESPOND AFTER CHINA REJECTS TRUMP NUCLEAR TALKS, SHOWS OFF NEW WEAPONS AT PARADE

Russian military launches a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile during drills at an airfield in Russia (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP, File)

“The force size that we have now … That was a force design that came up when President Obama was in office in 2010, and the assumptions were in 2010 that there would be no more real competition between the United States and Russia, and China was not even a real player on the nuclear field.”

The report, authored by Robert Peters of Heritage’s Allison Center for National Security, proposes that Washington expand its force to roughly 4,625 operationally deployed nuclear weapons by 2050.

That number would include about 3,500 strategic warheads — carried by intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), ballistic missile submarines, and bombers — and about 1,125 non-strategic weapons, such as gravity bombs and theater-range missiles.

It comes amid warnings that Moscow maintains thousands of non-strategic nuclear weapons in Europe, outnumbering U.S. stocks by as much as ten to one, while China races to deploy stealth bombers, submarine-based missiles and even orbital strike systems. North Korea already possesses about 90 warheads and continues testing missiles that can reach the U.S. homeland.

“We’ve got an arsenal today that is decades beyond its planned life cycle, and a force construct that was designed for a very benign world.”

CHINA’S GROWING NUCLEAR ARSENAL AIMS TO BREAK US ALLIANCES AND DOMINATE ASIA, REPORT WARNS

Peters’ proposal envisions a modernized force including new Sentinel ICBMs, Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines, nuclear-capable B-21 stealth bombers, long-range cruise missiles, and theater-range hypersonic weapons. The plan would still keep U.S. forces below Cold War levels but significantly above today’s posture.

It lays out a plan for regional nuclear allocations in each theater, with the largest number of assets, 3,200 warheads, being placed under Northern Command and focused on homeland defense. Some 750 warheads would be placed in Europe and 675 in the Indo-Pacific region.

It calls for Sentinel ICBMs to replace Minuteman III and B-21 and B-52 jets with new long-range standoff cruise missiles.

During the Cold War, the U.S. fielded tens of thousands of warheads, deployed in Europe, Asia and at home. The new 2050 arsenal would still be far smaller than Cold War levels.

“A U.S. President with some regional nuclear options but only token damage-limiting capacity would quickly be confronted during a limited nuclear conflict with two unpalatable options: surrender or threaten widespread attacks on the adversary homeland, thus inviting an in-kind response, meaning suicide,” the report warns.

Skeptics often ask why nations need thousands of nuclear weapons when a single warhead can level a city. Peters argues that this is a misconception rooted in Cold War imagery of mushroom clouds over Manhattan.

North Korea possesses around 90 nuclear warheads.  ( KCNA via REUTERS)

In reality, most modern nuclear warheads are not designed for “city busting” but for striking enemy nuclear forces — silos, missile fields, and command-and-control centers. China, for example, is building up to 500 hardened ICBM silos in remote deserts. Military planners assume it could take at least two U.S. warheads to guarantee destruction of each site.

As Peters puts it, “the goal is never to get to this point. That’s why you have nuclear weapons, to make sure you never get to this point.”

It’s unclear whether the current political leadership would heed Peters’ recommendations. President Donald Trump has proposed “denuclearization” talks with U.S. adversaries.

“Trump very understandably doesn’t like nuclear weapons,” Peters said.

But, he added, “we tried [denuclearizing] under President Obama in 2009 and 2012 and no one followed.”

“Tremendous amounts of money are being spent on nuclear, and the destructive capacity is something we don’t even want to talk about today, because you don’t want to hear it,” Trump mused in remarks to the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, in February.

“I want to see if we can denuclearize, and I think it’s very possible,” suggesting talks on the issue between the U.S., Russia and China.

President Vladimir Putin announced Russia would suspend its participation in the New START treaty in 2023 over U.S. support for Ukraine. Russia had frequently been caught violating the terms of the deal. But China has never engaged in negotiations with the U.S. over arms reduction.

North Korea has rejected any suggestion of denuclearizing from the U.S.

Read the report below. App users: Click here

In September, Russia proposed a one-year extension of the New START treaty, which technically expires in 2026, but the White House has yet to respond to that proposal.

Expanding the arsenal won’t be cheap. But at around $56 billion, the U.S. only spends around seven percent of the defense budget on nuclear weapons, Peters argues.

The report also calls for nuclear capabilities to be deployed forward to Finland and Poland, a proposal that is certain to rattle the Kremlin and would cut strike times down from hours to minutes.

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Nuclear weapons are currently hosted in Italy, Germany and the Netherlands, — bases chosen in the Cold War when they sat just 150 miles from the Soviet front line. But Russia’s front line has now moved 800 miles east.

He made a similar call for nuclear capabilities to be placed in South Korea. Washington periodically deploys US nuclear-armed submarines to South Korea and involve Seoul in its nuclear planning operations in exchange for an agreement from Seoul not to develop its own nuclear weapons.

The government shutdown has become a litmus test in New York City’s mayoral race, as Zohran Mamdani and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo launched their first general election advertisements nearly one month before voters head to the polls.

Mamdani leaned into the national spotlight on Wednesday night in his new ad, first aired during ABC’s “The Golden Bachelor,” asking New Yorkers, “Will you accept this rose?” That morning, he blamed President Donald Trump for the government shutdown. 

Both candidates capitalized on their opening general election ads as an opportunity to showcase their competing priorities, with Mamdani preaching affordability and Cuomo touting his experience. 

Mamdani and Cuomo also chose different arguments against the government shutdown on Wednesday as the New York City mayoral election once again seeps onto the national stage. 

‘NEW YORK DESERVES BETTER:’ MAMDANI REACTS TO ERIC ADAMS EXIT FROM MAYORAL RACE

New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, left, and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo launched their first general election advertisements with almost a month until Election Day.  (AP Images)

“They shut it down because they’re determined to strip healthcare from millions of Americans, to enrich the billionaires they serve, to continue the assault on our rights. We must fight back,” Mamdani said, echoing the sentiment shared by fellow progressives Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., both of whom have endorsed his mayoral campaign. 

ERIC ADAMS DROPS OUT OF NYC MAYORAL RACE AS MAMDANI GAINS GROUND

Between social media posts about his high-profile ad, Mamdani reposted a video on X of Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders explaining why they don’t support Republicans’ continuing resolution (CR) to fund and reopen the government, as the New York Democrat argued that there is “nothing clean about” the CR because Americans are set to face healthcare shake-ups if Congress doesn’t act. 

The government shut down at midnight on Wednesday as congressional Democrats refused to vote in favor of the CR without a commitment to extending Obamacare tax credits. Those credits, which millions of Americans rely on to reduce the costs of healthcare plans under Obamacare, are set to expire unless Congress acts.

Most Republicans oppose extending the credits, arguing that Democrats are seeking to provide taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal immigrants. 

New York City Democratic mayoral nominee, Zohran Mamdani, spoke to supporters at a canvass launch event in Prospect Park on Aug. 17, 2025.  (Deirdre Heavey/Fox News Digital)

Meanwhile, Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., on Tuesday sued Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, “following $187 million in cuts to critical counterterrorism funding in New York that directly impacts the safety and security of New Yorkers” as the Trump administration seizes on the government shutdown.

According to Hochul, DHS cut $187 million dollars in federal support funding for the New York City Police Department, New York City Fire Department (FDNY) and the New York State Police counterterrorism efforts.

On the campaign trail Wednesday, Cuomo criticized the Trump administration for the cuts and for freezing billions of dollars in federal funding for two infrastructure projects, including the Gateway Project, which would build a new train tunnel under the Hudson River connecting New Jersey and New York.

“I get politics,” Cuomo told reporters. “I get hardball politics, but it is disgraceful to cut off funding for counterterrorism efforts that literally puts Americans’ safety on the line and then to stop construction on vital transportation infrastructure that doesn’t just help New York; it’s the entire Northeast. This is way beyond the pale. It’s reckless. It is irresponsible, and it can’t be allowed to continue.”

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s comment request. 

Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks during a press conference on Aug. 21, 2025, in New York City.  (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Mamdani’s ad released Tuesday focused on affordability, the central theme of his campaign, as he urged voters, “You deserve better.”

“New Yorkers have stood up for a city they can afford. We’ll freeze the rent, make buses fast and free and deliver universal child care. We’re going to make this city one working people can love,” Mamdani said, touting his ambitious campaign promises.  

Cuomo also released his first general election ad this week, featuring artificial intelligence (AI) depictions of him trying various jobs in New York City. 

“Unlike dangerously inexperienced @ZohranKMamdani, who has never held a real job, I’m ready to lead on Day One,” Cuomo said. 

Mamdani replied on X, blasting the ad, writing, “In a city of world-class artists and production crew hunting for the next gig, Andrew Cuomo made a TV ad the same way he wrote his housing policy: with AI. Then again, maybe a fake Cuomo is better than the real one??”

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The latest Fox News survey among registered New York City voters found Mamdani leading with 45% support, Cuomo in second with 27%, Republican Party nominee Curtis Sliwa picking up 11% and New York City Mayor Eric Adams garnering 8%. 

Adams, who like Cuomo was running as an independent, dropped out of the race last week, heating up an already contentious mayoral election. 

Fox News Digital’s Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report. 

EXCLUSIVE: House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is accusing Democrats of lying in their denials that they’re pushing to give healthcare back to illegal immigrants.

“The idea that you would want illegal aliens to be paid benefits by U.S. taxpayers is unconscionable,” Johnson said Wednesday.

The top House Republican sat down with Fox News Digital for an interview on the first full day of the ongoing government shutdown, hours after Senate Democrats again rejected the GOP’s proposal to keep federal agencies funded at fiscal year (FY) 2025 levels through Nov. 21.

Republicans’ accusations that Democrats are trying to reverse GOP changes to the Medicaid system in favor of illegal immigrants has been a particularly significant flashpoint in the fight, with those on the left attacking that claim as a lie.

GOP ACCUSES DEMS OF RISKING SHUTDOWN TO RESTORE ‘ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT HEALTHCARE’

Republicans, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, and Democrats, led by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, are trading blame over the current government shutdown. (Evan Vucci/AP Photo; J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo)

But Johnson pointed out that Democrats’ own counter-proposal for a funding bill included a provision that would have entirely reversed Republicans’ recent Medicaid changes in the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” (OBBB) signed into law on July 4.

“What we’re trying to do is strengthen Medicaid, and one of the very important things we had to do is make sure that the more than 1 million illegal aliens who were collecting that were not allowed on the program,” Johnson said.

“So when they say they want to repeal the healthcare provisions of the OBBB, it’s that and it’s the rural hospital fund. We put $50 billion into a fund to prop up our rural hospitals, and that would do real damage [if ended].”

People in the U.S. without legal status are already barred on a federal level from accessing benefits like Medicaid.

And Democrats, who are also pushing for any funding deal to extend enhanced Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of this year, have insisted that they’re fighting to preserve healthcare for Americans.

Republicans’ bill installed a 20-hour-per-week work requirement for certain able-bodied people on Medicaid, even for U.S. citizens, which Democrats objected to.

President Donald Trump, joined by Republican lawmakers, signs the One, Big Beautiful Bill Act into law during an Independence Day military family picnic on the South Lawn of the White House on July 4, 2025, in Washington, D.C.  (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., meanwhile, told CNN on Wednesday of the illegal immigrants claim, “Taxpayer dollars cannot be spent on Medicaid or Medicare or the Affordable Care Act related to undocumented immigrants, and not a single Democrat has raised the issue of trying to reverse that federal law. What we are trying to do is save the healthcare of the American people, lower their costs and cancel these cuts.”

Yet 14 states and the District of Columbia, all of which use a mix of federal and state dollars to fund Medicaid, allow some level of state-funded healthcare coverage for residents without legal immigration status. Those programs are active in places that expanded their Medicaid populations under Obamacare, formally called the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

SHUTDOWN EXPLAINED: WHO WORKS, WHO DOESN’T AND HOW MUCH IT COSTS

Hospitals are also given federal dollars to cover Emergency Medicaid funding, which is available to people who meet all Medicaid eligibility requirements except for immigration status in cases of dire immediate need.

The OBBB reduces the amount of federal dollars those hospitals get, however.

The GOP policy bill also strengthens guardrails around who can get Medicaid coverage, barring certain groups of asylum-seekers and refugees who otherwise would have qualified for some level of coverage.

The government entered a partial shutdown after Congress failed to reach an agreement on federal funding. (Getty Images)

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Republicans argue that millions of people who entered the U.S. illegally were improperly granted at least temporary legal status under former President Joe Biden, and so should not qualify for the same benefits as other legal immigrants — a point Johnson suggested during his interview as well.

“President Biden added all those people onto the rolls, and he kept the border open for four years,” Johnson said. “They put them on taxpayer benefits.”

While Biden did enact significant restrictions on asylum and illegal entry across the border toward the end of his term, his loosening of Trump administration-era restrictions in 2021 is accused of helping precipitate a record number of illegal immigrants entering the U.S.

“Illegal aliens can’t get Medicaid, but that has only been true since July 4, and the reason that is a true statement is because we passed it into law and all the Democrats voted against it,” Johnson said. “So they want to reverse what we did. I mean, that’s just plain and simple.”

Rumors have swirled about “Squad” Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s political future since she joined Sen. Bernie Sanders’ high-profile “Fighting Oligarchy” tour earlier this year. 

The youngest woman ever elected to Congress has become a leading progressive voice in the Democratic Party, amassing millions of social media followers and sparking speculation about a potential U.S. Senate run or White House bid in 2028. Her rise to the national stage comes as Democrats look for fresh leadership after losing up and down the ballot last year. 

Ocasio-Cortez’s chief of staff and campaign manager are both alumni of the Sanders campaign. Mike Casca, her chief of staff, was formerly Sanders’ deputy chief of staff and a fixture of Sanders’ political operation, both on the presidential campaign trail and back on Capitol Hill. 

Her campaign manager, Oliver Hidalgo-Wohlleben, has worked in politics for over a decade. Prior to joining Ocasio-Cortez’s team in 2023, Hidalgo-Wohlleben was the political director of Sanders’ super PAC, Friends of Bernie Sanders, according to his LinkedIn. 

AOC STARS IN NEWSOM REDISTRICTING AD, URGING CALIFORNIANS TO ‘FIGHT’ TRUMP FOR DEMOCRACY

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., arrives at a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour event at Arizona State University, Thursday, March 20, 2025, in Tempe, Arizona. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Hidalgo-Wohlleben also worked on Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign before joining former President Joe Biden’s campaign in Iowa, Hidalgo-Wohlleben’s LinkedIn profile revealed. 

AOC ALLEGEDLY EYEING 2028 RUN AS DNC VICE CHAIR RALLIES PARTY NEEDS MAMDANI TO OCASIO-CORTEZ AS LEADERS

“AOC is a pretty savvy politician with a strong operation,” Democratic strategist Mike Nellis told Fox News Digital. “No matter what she decides to do, they’re setting her up for the future.”

A Sanders alumnus himself, Nellis cautioned against placing too much weight on what it means for former Sanders staffers to lead Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign. 

“I think that’s just who she knows and who she trusts,” Nellis, a former adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris, said, adding that Ocasio-Cortez has a “really good team around her.”

“It’s strategic in the sense that they have a lot of relationships already,” Democratic strategist Kaivan Shroff said, while emphasizing that it can be a “mistake to keep the old guard” when you are trying to build something new. 

“I don’t know that somebody is going to inherit the legacy of Bernie Sanders,” Shroff added. 

Axios recently reported that, according to people familiar with Ocasio-Cortez’s political operation, her team is positioning her to run for president or the U.S. Senate in 2028. 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., speaks during a rally in New York City on May 1, 2025.  (AP Photo/Angelina Katsanis)

Schumer is up for re-election in 2028. By then, he will have served 47 years in Congress. 

“AOC doesn’t need the Senate,” Republican strategist Matt Gorman told Fox News Digital. “The Senate, at this point, is too small for her. I would expect her to run for president 2028.”

Whether she chooses to run for president or the Senate, Nellis said Ocasio-Cortez has the potential to attract voters who don’t typically engage in the political process, much like the coalition President Donald Trump has built. 

“When you are an unconventional candidate outside the mainstream, outside the establishment, you can get a lot of people who will tune in and engage that maybe otherwise wouldn’t because you’re giving voice to them in a meaningful way,” Nellis said. 

But Shroff said that Ocasio-Cortez isn’t ready for a presidential campaign. 

“She absolutely should not run for president,” Shroff said. “It would be way too soon. I don’t think she’s really achieved enough to justify that.”

“For the Senate, I see that as more realistic, especially in a state like New York, that’s obviously more liberal,” Shroff added, arguing that “some very loyal base Democrats have lost their patience” with Schumer, so his vulnerability could boost Ocasio-Cortez’s chances of securing the Senate seat. 

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., greeted the crowd together during a “Fighting Oligarchy” tour event at Arizona State University, Thursday, March 20, 2025, in Tempe, Arizona.  (Ross D. Franklin)

Shroff said Ocasio-Cortez’s “media profile and personality and charisma” aren’t enough to win the presidency, especially when running against figures like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, long considered to harbor presidential aspirations. 

The New Yorker sparked more campaign buzz this month for participating in an advertisement directly challenging Trump and advocating in favor of California redistricting. 

Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders have both endorsed and campaigned this year for New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, a self-described Democratic socialist. 

If Mamdani wins the mayoral election in November, Shroff said it could be a litmus test for the modern progressive branch of the Democratic Party. 

“It will be challenging for him because I don’t think he can do a lot of the things that he said, and so how soon will that leftist ideology be debunked on a national level? The sooner that happens, the worse it is for AOC,” Shroff said. 

In April, Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign account posted a video on X that drove rumors she could be mulling a presidential run as the four-term Democrat from New York City and the progressive leader proclaimed, “We are one.”

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When asked later that month if she was harboring any presidential ambitions, the young Democrat did not rule out 2028 presidential aspirations to Fox News Digital. 

“Bernie and AOC, one thing they understand is that Democrats need to be more than just anti-Trump,” Gorman said, before adding, “I certainly disagree with Bernie and AOC’s strategy of how to lead the party and where to take America, but at least they have one. That’s more than just, ‘I hate Trump.'”

The Republican strategist said the Democratic Party’s “establishment is not going to be able to stop a united, far-left wing of the party this time,” Gorman said. 

Ocasio-Cortez’s and Schumer’s campaigns did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

President Donald Trump on Thursday said he’s working to determine which “Democrat Agencies” will face cuts after Democrats and Republicans failed to reach an agreement on a government funding package.

Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he was meeting with Russell Vought, director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, later Thursday to discuss which agencies “are a political SCAM.” The president said he wanted Vought to recommend which agencies should face cuts and whether those cuts should be temporary or permanent.

“I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity,” read Trump’s post. “They are not stupid people, so maybe this is their way of wanting to, quietly and quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

The federal government entered a partial shutdown Wednesday after the midnight funding deadline passed, with Democrats and Republicans failing to agree on a funding bill.

DEMOCRATS AT A BIG DISADVANTAGE IN SHUTDOWN AS TRUMP STARTS SLASHING THEIR PROGRAMS

President Donald Trump points to a reporter in the Oval Office of the White House on Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Trump has warned the administration could make “irreversible” changes to the federal workforce, most notably through a new wave of fresh layoffs. He has underscored that he and his allies did not want the government to shut down, but that it opened the door for some “good” that could come from it. 

Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday accused Democrats of forcing the shutdown over providing illegal immigrants with taxpayer-funded emergency health care and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y, fearing a primary challenge from progressive “Squad” member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

VANCE BRINGS RECEIPTS TO TARGET DEMS ON HEALTHCARE BENEFITS FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS

“But the reality here, and let’s be honest about the politics, is that Chuck Schumer is terrified he’s going to get a primary challenge from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,” Vance said. “The reason why the American people’s government is shut down is because Chuck Schumer is listening to the far-left radicals in his own party because he’s terrified of a primary challenge.”

Vice President JD Vance, left, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, right, while speaking with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also alleged Democrats engineered the shutdown to force taxpayers to fund health care for undocumented immigrants given a $37 trillion debt.

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“To put this all into perspective, the Democrats refused to keep the government open over health care to illegal aliens and now have jeopardized critical health care programs for American citizens,” she said. “Instead, the women, infants and children program, community health center funding, Medicare treatment options and other health programs are now all at risk because of the Democrats rejecting the clean C.R. [continuing resolution]. 

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton contributed to this report.

Florida officials on Tuesday paved the way for President Donald Trump’s presidential library to be built in a prime location in downtown Miami next to the city’s iconic Freedom Tower.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet voted to gift a 2.63-acre parcel on Biscayne Boulevard to the Trump Presidential Library Foundation on condition that construction must begin within five years, which would be about a year after the president completes his second term.

Trump’s son Eric, who is the president and one of three trustees at the foundation, hailed the announcement.

Aerial view shows Miami’s Freedom Tower and adjacent parking lot set aside for the Trump Presidential Library following a vote by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

OBAMA PRESIDENTIAL CENTER DEPOSITS JUST $1M INTO $470M RESERVE FUND AIMED TO PROTECT TAXPAYERS

“No monument can fully capture the scale of my father’s legacy, but this library will stand as a tribute to the leader who reshaped history and restored America’s strength,” Eric Trump said in a statement. 

No architectural plans have been released, but Eric Trump said it would not look like former President Barack Obama’s presidential center, which is slowly rising in Chicago. 

“Consistent with our family’s DNA, this will be one of the most beautiful buildings ever built, an icon on the Miami skyline — rest assured, it will not look like President Obama’s ‘prison-like structure,’” Eric Trump wrote on X, referring to the Obama Center’s 235-foot-tall concrete museum at the site. At 19.3 acres, the Obama Presidential Center sits on a site more than seven times larger than Trump’s. 

The Miami site is currently used as an employee parking lot for Miami Dade College’s Wolfson Campus and is adjacent to the historic Freedom Tower, which served as a resource center for hundreds of thousands of Cubans who fled communism in the 1960s and 1970s and sought asylum in the United States. The 100-year-old structure is considered a symbol of the city’s vibrant immigrant heritage.

The site is surrounded by luxury high-rise apartment buildings and has waterfront views, facing directly at the Kaseya Center, home to the NBA’s Miami Heat, as well as Dodge Island, where many of the world’s largest cruise liners dock. 

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the State Dining Room of the White House, Monday, Sept. 29, 2025, in Washington. Florida officials have paved the way for President Donald Trump’s presidential library to be built in downtown Miami next to the city’s Freedom Tower. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

OBAMA LIBRARY, BEGUN WITH LOFTY DEI GOALS, NOW PLAGUED BY $40M RACIALLY CHARGED SUIT, BALLOONING COSTS

The parcel was appraised at more than $66 million, according to media reports, but it could sell for at least $360 million, The New York Times reported, citing a real estate consultant.

Presidential libraries are part of a system administered by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), which preserves documents, records and other historical materials of U.S. presidents after they leave office.

According to the NARA website, the records of the Trump administration will remain in the capital region, which likely means the Miami site will function more like a museum and exhibit center akin to the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. Fox News Digital has sought clarification from the Trump Presidential Library Foundation.

The site selection comes just months after Trump carried Miami-Dade County by 13 points, the first Republican to carry it since 1988. 

DeSantis formally presented the plan and publicly backed it, stating ahead of the vote that Florida “would be honored” to house Trump’s presidential library and arguing it would provide a “greater benefit to the public” and “increase economic development activities.”

Under the state constitution, the gifting of certain state properties requires approval by a collective decision-making body comprised of the attorney general, the chief financial officer and the commissioner of agriculture as well as the governor.

The 2.63-acre parking lot in downtown Miami, seen beside the Freedom Tower, has been designated as the site of the future Trump Presidential Library. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

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Locations associated with Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton and Florida International University in suburban Miami had previously been floated as potential library sites. DeSantis signed a bill this year preempting local governments from blocking development of a presidential library, aiming to overrule potential opposition in liberal-leaning counties or municipalities.

The Trump Presidential Library Foundation’s other trustees are Tiffany Trump’s husband Michael Boulos and Trump attorney James Kiley.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. 

Three senators — Democrats Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, along with Independent Angus King of Maine — broke ranks Tuesday night to side with Republicans on a GOP spending bill that would have kept the government open. And now, they’re facing heat for it.

While Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer and nine other Democratic senators voted to advance a similar GOP spending bill in March, they are not helping their Republican colleagues get their latest appropriations bill past the finish line this time around, citing several concerns, including that the package will increase healthcare costs for Americans because it fails to extend Obamacare subsidies.

“This administration doesn’t care about Nevadans, but I do. That’s why I cannot support a costly shutdown that would hurt Nevada families and hand even more power to this reckless administration,” Cortez Masto said after voting in favor of the Republican appropriations bill Tuesday night. “We need a bipartisan solution to address this impending health care crisis, but we should not be swapping the pain of one group of Americans for another.”

BLAME GAME: GOP SPOTLIGHTS ‘SCHUMER SHUTDOWN’ WHILE DEMS LASH OUT AT REPUBLICANS AHEAD OF 2026 MIDTERMS

Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, Sen. John Fetterman, and Sen. Angus King broke with Democrats to support a Republican-led continuing resolution.  (Getty Images)

“I voted AYE to extend ACA tax credits because I support them—but I won’t vote for the chaos of shuttering our government,” Fetterman said after his Tuesday night vote supporting the GOP appropriations package. “My vote was for our country over my party. Together, we must find a better way forward.”

King called his decision to support the bill “one of the most difficult votes” he has taken during his tenure, but, like Cortez Masto, expressed fear that a government shutdown could embolden Trump, who has already hinted at using the shutdown as leverage for more government cuts.

“The irony of this vote is many feel that this was an opportunity to stand up to Donald Trump,” King said in a video he posted to social media after voting to support the GOP’s appropriations package. “The irony, the paradox is, by shutting the government we are actually giving Donald Trump more power, and that was why I voted ‘yes.’ I did not want to hand Donald Trump and Russell Vought, and Stephen Miller additional power to decimate the federal government.”     

The senators’ decision to support the Republican appropriations bill has garnered public criticism from at least one of their Democrat colleagues in Congress. Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., said he was “very upset” to see his Democratic Party colleagues in the Senate “already caving” to Republicans. 

Meanwhile, Goldman said Democrats in the House are “very united” in opposing the Trump-backed GOP appropriations package. 

SHUTDOWN EXPLAINED: WHO WORKS, WHO DOESN’T AND HOW MUCH IT COSTS  

Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, listens during a Senate Armed Services committee hearing on the nomination of Pete Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense on Jan. 14, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Jack Gruber-USA TODAY)

Fox News Digital reached out to Schumer for comment about the Democratic Party defections, but did not receive a response in time for publication.  

Republicans, meanwhile, have said that the defections represent Schumer’s dwindling political power within the Democratic Party. Ultimately, the GOP will need eight total Democrats to cross the aisle in order for their continuing resolution to pass.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., turns to an aide during a news conference in June on Capitol Hill.  (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

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Cortez Masto added that she has been working the phones since her Tuesday night vote, urging both Republicans and Democrats “to come together.”

Fox News’ Chad Pergram contributed to this report

The federal government will soon begin laying off workers if the government shutdown persists, Fox News Digital has learned.

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought held a call with House Republicans on Wednesday to discuss how the shutdown will affect the U.S. government.

He told lawmakers that reductions in force, or “RIFs,” meaning worker layoffs, were “imminent” and “likely a day or two out,” Fox News Digital was told.

SOCIAL SECURITY, AIRPORTS, FOOD STAMPS: HOW ARE YOU AFFECTED DURING A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN?

Director of the Office of Management and Budget Russ Vought speaks to reporters outside the West Wing of the White House July 17, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Getty Images)

Vought described the move as Democrats forcing the Trump administration’s hand after Senate Democrats rejected the GOP’s plan to keep federal agencies funded multiple times.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., also spoke up to defend Vought against left-wing attacks about the layoffs, Fox News Digital was told.

Johnson said Democratic lawmakers put Vought in a “terrible situation” in having to move forward with layoffs by rejecting the GOP’s spending plan and encouraged House Republicans to defend him against those attacks.

REPUBLICANS ERUPT OVER SHUTDOWN CHAOS, ACCUSE DEMS OF HOLDING GOVERNMENT ‘HOSTAGE’

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson speaks as U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune looks on during a press conference on the first day of a partial government shutdown in Washington, D.C., Oct. 1, 2025.  (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Vought later described the layoffs as decisions that will be made by agency heads based on what roles are appropriate under current spending levels and under the Trump administration’s budget priorities, Fox News Digital was told.

His new guidance comes after the OMB issued a memo earlier this month directing agencies to consider plans for layoffs should the government shut down.

Senate Democrats have now rejected the GOP’s funding plan twice in the last 24 hours, both before and after the federal government entered into a partial shutdown.

It’s not immediately clear if the layoffs will begin if there is a breakthrough in bipartisan talks, but the Senate will likely not vote again on the measure until Friday at the earliest, with Congress out of session Thursday for the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.

President Donald Trump said the government shutdown that took effect on Oct. 1 would likely include mass layoffs and program cuts.  (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

The bill, which would have given Congress until Nov. 21 to set fiscal year 2026 funding priorities, passed the House largely along party lines on Sept. 19. 

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The measure would keep the government funded largely on current levels for that period but with an added $88 million in security dollars for lawmakers, the White House and the judicial branch.

Democrats, furious at being largely sidelined in funding discussions, have signaled they would not accept any bill that does not also extend Obamacare tax subsidies that were enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those enhanced subsidies are due to expire at the end of this year.

MADISON, N.J. – EXCLUSIVE – The nation’s capital isn’t the only battlefield in the blame game between Democrats and Republicans over the first federal government shutdown in seven years.

The verbal crossfire is also playing out on the campaign trail in New Jersey, which is home to one of only two elections for governor across the nation this year.

Republican gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli, in an exclusive national interview with Fox News Digital, pointed fingers at his Democratic rival, Rep. Mikie Sherrill.

After Sherrill, a four-term congresswoman, charged in a statement that “Washington Republicans have once again shown they’re willing to turn their backs on the American people in order to blindly follow Donald Trump’s demands,” Ciattarelli criticized his opponent in the combustible, competitive, and high-profile ballot box showdown.

FIVE RACES TO WATCH WITH FIVE WEEKS TO GO UNTIL ELECTION DAY 2025

Jack Ciattarelli, the Republican nominee for governor in New Jersey, takes part at a candidate forum at Fairleigh Dickinson University, on Oct. 1, 2025 in Madison, N.J.  (Paul Steinhauser – Fox News)

“There’s nothing my opponent won’t blame on President Trump. As I like to say, if you get a flat [tire] today, it’s President Trump’s fault,” Ciattarelli argued, in a sitdown interview after taking part in a candidate forum hosted by Fairleigh Dickinson University.

With neither Trump and the Republican majority in Congress, nor congressional Democrats willing to lower the temperature, the government shutdown at midnight Tuesday.

BLAME GAME OVER SHUTDOWN INTENSIFIES 

Democrats insisted that any agreement to prevent a government shutdown, or now to end the shutdown, must extend tax credits for the popular Affordable Care Act (ACA) beyond the end of this year. Those credits, which millions of Americans rely on to reduce the costs of health care plans under the ACA, which was once known as Obamacare, are set to expire unless Congress acts.

But most Republicans oppose the extension of the credits and argue that the Democrats’ demands would lead to a huge increase in taxpayer-funded healthcare for immigrants who entered the country illegally.

Sherrill, along with every other House Democrat except Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, voted against a GOP stopgap measure that would have temporarily averted the shutdown.

A closed sign stands in front of the National Archives on the first day of a government shutdown, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025, in Washington.  (Julia Demaree Nikhinson – AP Photo)

Ciattarelli, pointing to his rival’s vote in Congress, said, “I do know that there’s a bipartisan group of congresspeople that are trying to keep the government open. My opponent has decided not to be part of that bipartisan group, and she voted no. And so here we are.”

Sherrill, who has repeatedly linked Ciattarrelli to Trump, placed the shutdown blame squarely on Trump’s shoulders, writing in a social media post, “This is precisely the extreme MAGA agenda that @Jack4NJ wants to bring to NJ.”

TRUMP LOOMS LARGE OVER THIS CRUCIAL RACE FOR GOVERNOR

And taking aim at congressional Republicans in a statement from her House office, Sherrill argued that “instead of working with Democrats to lower costs, protect health care, and support working people, Washington Republicans bent the knee to Donald Trump, shutting down the government in the process.”

Democratic gubernatorial nominee Rep. Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey responds to questions during the first general election debate with Republican opponent Jack Ciattarelli. Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025, in Lawrenceville, N.J.  (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)

With just over one month to go until Election Day in New Jersey — and early voting taking place Oct. 25-Nov. 2 — a new Fox News poll indicated Sherrill holding an upper single-digit lead over Ciattarelli.

But Ciattarelli, a former state lawmaker and a certified public accountant who started a medical publishing company before getting into politics, touted that “the energy is off the charts, and the fact that I’m being endorsed by Democratic mayors around the state says a whole lot about people wanting change here in the state of New Jersey.”

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The two candidates will face off next week in their second and final debate before voters head to the polls in the election to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy.

Asked about his debate game plan, Ciattarelli said he would “be very, very specific with policy proposals that fix our problems here in New Jersey, and point out every single time she doesn’t answer the questions.”

Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli, left, shake hands with Democratic candidate for governor Mikie Sherrill, right, before a debate on Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025, in Lawrenceville, N.J.  (AP Photo/Noah K. Murray)

Gubernatorial candidates in New Jersey run on a party ticket, and Democrats on Wednesday were spotlighting a comment by the GOP lieutenant governor nominee Jim Gannon, the Morris County Sheriff, in a debate earlier this week that “taxes are on the table.”

Asked about his running mate’s comment, Ciattarelli emphasized that “there will be no tax increases under Governor Ciattarelli. And I would put forth a very specific plan on how to decrease the income tax and the property tax here in New Jersey.”

The race was rocked last week after a New Jersey Globe report revealed that Sherrill’s military records indicated that the United States Naval Academy blocked her from taking part in her 1994 graduation amid the cheating scandal.

Sherrill claims that Ciattarelli is going on a “witch hunt” over her improperly released military records, which raised questions about her possible involvement in a cheating scandal that rocked the U.S. Naval Academy three decades ago.

“He has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, if you will. He’s now trying to divert from that,” Sherrill told reporters on Tuesday following a campaign event in Wildwood Crest, New Jersey.

Ciattarelli and his campaign are calling on Sherrill, who went on to pilot helicopters during her military career after graduating from the Naval Academy, to release her military records to explain why she was prevented from attending her graduation ceremony.

But a separate report from CBS News revealed that the National Personnel Records Center, which is a branch of the National Archives and Records Administration, mistakenly released Sherrill’s improperly redacted military personnel files, which included private information like her Social Security number, to a Ciattarelli ally. 

“To have a guy I’m running against, it will stop at nothing, it will stop at nothing, who will illegally obtain records. It’s just beyond the pale,” Sherrill, who served as a federal prosecutor before winning election to Congress, charged last week.

The National Archives, in a letter last week, apologized to Sherrill, saying the improper release was due to a government worker’s error over a legal records request.

Following the breach of the records, Sherrill’s campaign sent cease-and-desist letters to the National Archives and to Ciattarelli’s campaign, as well as to Ciattarelli’s top strategist, Chris Russell and Nicholas De Gregorio, who is described by Sherrill’s team as “an agent of the campaign working at the direction of” Russell.

The Sherrill campaign on Monday launched a digital ad taking aim at Ciattarelli.

“They broke the law to attack a veteran,” the narrator in the spot charged.

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Asked about the ad, Ciattarelli charged in his Fox News Digital interview that Sherrill “did something at the Naval Academy that caused them to punish her. She wasn’t allowed to participate in the graduation. Her name is not listed in the commencement exercise program. She was, in fact, punished. She needs to come clean on what she did to be punished by the Naval Academy.”

And asked about the release of her military files and criticism from Democrats of possible dirty tricks, Ciattarelli said “somebody filed a Freedom of Information Act request, and it was fulfilled by the National Archives. And so it’s all a smokescreen. The information that came out of there is what the National Archives provided, but this is a smokescreen and spin on what really took place at the Naval Academy, and that’s her punishment.”

FIRST ON FOX: Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares criticized his Democratic opponent and a county prosecutor, arguing their actions allowed repeat sex offender Richard Cox to “hunt little girls” and engage in further pedophilic behavior.

Cox, who has a sex-offender rap sheet dating back to the George H.W. Bush administration, reportedly recently identified as transgender and was subject to a complaint from a woman at a Fairfax gym alleging indecent exposure in a locker room.

But in comments to Fox News Digital, Miyares claimed some of Cox’s recent alleged transgressions may have been prevented if then-Del. Jerrauld “Jay” Jones had not supported a bill to allow drivers license applicants to choose their own sex.

BOYS BRANDED SEXUAL HARASSERS FOR COMPLAINTS ABOUT TRANS CLASSMATE USING THEIR LOCKER ROOM GO TO FEDERAL COURT

Attorney General of Virginia Jason Miyares speaks on the Donald Trump hosts a campaign rally at Salem Civic Center in Salem, Virginia, Nov. 2, 2024. (Hannah McKay/Reuters)

“Jay Jones is complicit, allowing the scarring of the countless victims who watched as Richard Cox repeatedly exposed himself under the protection of a bill he voted for,” Miyares said.

Jones – Miyares’ Democratic opponent in November — was as state delegate representing Norfolk when he voted in 2020 to amend the Code of Virginia as such through SB 246.

Then-Gov. Ralph Northam signed the legislation, which was coincidentally introduced by a Fairfax County lawmaker, Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, D-Mount Vernon.

“The failure to protect these women and young girls falls directly on those who advocated for this bill,” Miyares said.

VIRGINIA AG RELEASES FINDINGS OF INVESTIGATION INTO ROANOKE COLLEGE TRANS SWIMMER INCIDENT

“This bill has begun to bear its bitter fruits, leading directly to the tragedies committed by Tier III sex offender Richard Cox,” he added, remarking that Republicans warned the law would give wrongdoers the ability to “use their gender on their state-issued I.D. as a bypass to the understanding that women’s spaces are sacred and reserved for them.”

“Richard Cox should have never been able to access a female space.”

When women in a Fairfax gym complained about Cox’s nude presence in their locker room, Cox claimed he was transgender, as Miyares said he used his Virginia state ID that had been marked “female” to gain access to such facilities on June 6, 2024.

“The Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney refused to prosecute this case,” he said.

MAN FREED FROM JAIL 3 DAYS BEFORE ALLEGED TODDLER ABDUCTION IN VIRGINIA, YOUNGKIN SAYS

More recently, Cox was charged in Arlington County for allegedly exposing himself in a recreation center and high school locker rooms,  but prosecutors in neighboring Fairfax County have not pursued similar allegations.

Miyares told Washington’s ABC affiliate that Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano continues to “refused to initiate proceedings against Cox… despite multiple exposure incidents.”

Miyares also disclosed that Cox allegedly sought out young girls in public parks, to the point he purportedly created schedules on his phone to encounter a girls’ swim team as they traveled the region.

“Let’s be clear — Richard Cox was hunting little girls in Fairfax County – What is it going to take for Steve Descano to do his job?”

Descano, an elected Democrat, has been under fire for purportedly lax prosecutorial discretion, including in cases involving transgender people and including an abduction by a different sex offender at the Fair Oaks Mall near John Foster Dulles International Airport.

VIRGINIA AG CALLS DEM PROSECUTOR’S ACTIONS ‘WEAPONIZED INCOMPETENCE’ IN SCATHING REPORT

In that case, Caceres Jaldin allegedly scooped up a 3-year-old girl who got separated from her parents at the mall’s playground, before the guardians caught up with him on another floor of the complex.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin lambasted Fairfax officials and separately asked Miyares to investigate their handling of Jaldin, who had just been released from prison. Jaldin has been charged in 30 instances since 2016, according to local outlet FairfaxNow, which also reported Descano dropped two charges of “malicious wounding” last year.

Officials in Democratic-leaning Arlington County, however, are moving forward with their case against Cox, after prosecutors said they found child pornography and Fairfax County swim class schedules on his phone, according to the local ABC affiliate.

When reached for comment, a representative for Descano directed Fox News Digital to a separate statement from the Fairfax County Police Department:

SEARS DEMANDS RECALL OF FAIRFAX PROSECUTOR AFTER ATTEMPTED KIDNAPPING CASE

“FCPD conducted a full criminal investigation into Richard Cox’s actions and there is no probable cause to support charges in Fairfax County at this time.”

But, the lone Republican on the 10-member Fairfax County Board slammed the prosecutor in comments to the ABC affiliate.

“Finding children’s swim class schedules on Richard Cox’s phone is both alarming and frightening,” said Pat Herrity of Springfield.

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“It was the Board of Supervisors’ policy that allowed this to happen and continues to allow it to happen today,” said Herrity, who briefly ran this cycle for lieutenant governor.

Miyares listed out other allegations against Cox, including a claim he exposed himself to a mother and child at Washington-Liberty High School in Arlington, and repeated visits to children’s locker rooms at high school pools and women’s locker rooms at local gyms.

He also referred Descano’s office to the Justice Department over 17 prior lax or nonprosecution cases, according to Fox News’ Alexandria Hoff.

The Democrats are taking a big gamble by going along with a government shutdown, one that they will probably lose.

The most important reason is that President Trump has a giant megaphone. Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer simply can’t compete in drawing media attention.

What’s more, while some Americans may blame both sides – can’t they act like adults and work out these budget fights? – the Republicans are blaming the “Democrat Party” for triggering the shutdown.

At yesterday’s White House briefing, itself a key advantage, JD Vance and Karoline Leavitt kept repeating, like a mantra, that the Democrats support “healthcare for illegal aliens.” That is bunk. They aren’t eligible. It’s already against the law, except in emergency situations. But Trump is pounding that message home through sheer repetition.

VANCE BLAMES SCHUMER’S FEAR OF AOC PRIMARY CHALLENGE AS SHUTDOWN CAUSE

Democratic leadership sits at a sizable disadvantage when it comes to government shutdown-related messaging. (J. Scott Applewhite, file/AP Photo)

A Washington Post editorial yesterday says “Democrats just marched into a shutdown trap … Progressives embraced the same disastrous mentality that led the House Freedom Caucus to believe it could come out ahead in previous government funding standoffs: They wrongly assumed their political leverage would withstand the ensuing fallout.”

A few minutes after the briefing, Hakeem Jeffries stepped before the microphones to declare that Republicans don’t want to provide healthcare “to working-class Americans.”

The minority leader said the administration is trying to “jam their extreme right-wing agenda down the throats of the American people … The Republican healthcare crisis is immoral.”

Frankly, it just didn’t sound as forceful or have the same impact.

Vice President JD Vance suggested Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is pivoting left for fear of a primary challenge by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (Alex Brandon, Pool/AP Photo)

Whatever the immediate toll of the shutdown – military people and hundreds of thousands of civilians not getting paid, food stamps on hold – Vance and Leavitt blamed it on Democratic intransigence. (Those laid off will get back pay once the shutdown ends.)

The vice president said Schumer is moving left because he’s terrified of a primary challenge by AOC. She says her only goal is to “stop this madness.”

The president has been more candid, telling reporters: “We can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them. Like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like.” Now that’s transparency.

The Dems don’t hold the moral high ground when it comes to kick-the-can votes to delay a shutdown, having frequently used the tactic when they were in charge. While Vance says they’d be happy to talk about healthcare during a seven-week delay, the other party feels they would lose whatever leverage they have, and it would be politically humiliating.

The Democrats are making a more complicated argument about healthcare, and that’s a tougher sell for the many millions who don’t follow the news closely.

KFF, which is Kaiser, says those on Obamacare would get socked if tax credits are allowed to expire at year’s end. Average premiums next year would be $888, but without the tax credits, would jump to $1,593 – a 114 percent increase.

That would really cripple the Affordable Care Act and knock millions off the rolls.

SOCIAL SECURITY, AIRPORTS, FOOD STAMPS: HOW ARE YOU AFFECTED DURING A GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN?

The Dems’ other objection is to deep cuts in Medicaid, despite Trump’s promise to protect the program. But that’s why we have elections. Having lost the House, Senate and White House, the party can’t expect the GOP to make sweeping changes to its preferred budget.

It just so happens – a coincidence, I’m sure – that the administration yesterday halted $18 billion in funding for two major transportation projects in New York City, expansion of the Second Avenue subway and new train tunnels under the Hudson River.

A shot at Schumer’s hometown? Vance says this is a question of “triage,” saving money on such projects to preserve essential services.

But it’s really a case of Trump going after Democratic priorities, as he said he would, since he preserved funding for one of his pet projects, the mission of returning to the moon, which seems less than vital at the moment.

SUBSCRIBE TO HOWIE’S MEDIA BUZZMETER PODCAST, A RIFF ON THE DAY’S HOTTEST STORIES

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., appeared outraged by an AI image of him shared online by the president. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu/Getty Images)

What really got Jeffries mad after Monday’s unsuccessful White House meeting was a fake AI image posted by the president. It depicted him as having a handlebar mustache and wearing a huge sombrero, with mariachi music in the background.

Jeffries called the parody “racist” and demanded that the president “say it to my face.”

The bottom line, given the atmosphere of mutual distrust, is that this government closure could drag on for awhile. That would gradually boost the pain level, and the Democrats are already at a disadvantage.

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At this point the opposition party is trying to show the public that it can fight, and that, beyond the healthcare battle, may be its main message.

Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday blamed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for the government shutdown, saying Schumer listened to far-left members of the Democratic Party over his fear of a primary challenge from fellow New York lawmaker and progressive “Squad” member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Vance criticized Schumer and congressional Democrats in remarks about the shutdown during a White House press briefing, saying there were “a lot of different answers” about why the Democrats shutdown the government before he laid out the “reality.”

“But the reality here, and let’s be honest about the politics, is that Chuck Schumer is terrified he’s going to get a primary challenge from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez,” Vance said. “The reason why the American people’s government is shut down is because Chuck Schumer is listening to the far-left radicals in his own party because he’s terrified of a primary challenge.”

Vance further excoriated Schumer, saying if the shutdown persists, the senator’s wing of the Democratic Party is responsible for the fallout.

VANCE SAYS SENATE DEMOCRATS TOOK GOVERNMENT ‘HOSTAGE’ WITH SHUTDOWN

Vice President JD Vance speaking with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

“Our troops are not getting paid starting today because of the Chuck Schumer wing of the Democratic Party,” the vice president said. “We have people who require food assistance, low-income Americans who require food assistance, who will not get it unless we reopen the government, thanks to Chuck Schumer and his wing of the Democratic Party. 

“We have flood insurance as we start hurricane season in the southeastern part of our country. That flood insurance is going to disappear because of Chuck Schumer and the far left of the Democratic Party.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., attends a news conference about the government shutdown Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2025, on Capitol Hill, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Vance reiterated lawmakers’ need to reopen the government, which entered a partial shutdown Wednesday after the midnight funding deadline passed with Democrats and Republicans failing to agree on a funding bill.

Another reason the Democrats forced a shutdown, according to Vance, was that Democrats want to reinstate Biden-era federal funding for emergency healthcare for illegal immigrants that was ended under the Trump administration.

REPUBLICANS ERUPT OVER SHUTDOWN CHAOS, ACCUSE DEMS OF HOLDING GOVERNMENT ‘HOSTAGE’

“So, I’d invite Chuck Schumer to join the moderate Democrats and 52 Senate Republicans, do the right thing, open up the people’s government and then let’s fix health care policy for the American people,” Vance said.

The White House responded to a separate question following up on Vance’s remarks about Schumer and Ocasio-Cortez. 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., gives a tour of the Capitol to a group of students from New York after their previously scheduled tour was canceled due to the government shutdown Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

“I think that certainly Sen. Schumer was not expecting three moderates to break with him last night,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “In fact, last night you heard Sen. Schumer say he can’t guarantee that he will be able to hold his caucus together.”

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Leavitt said the White House encourages Democrats to have “the courage to do the right thing” and vote on the resolution to keep the government funded.

Democrats are accusing Republicans of wanting to inflate Affordable Care Act premiums amid the ongoing federal government shutdown debate as critics argue it’s proof that the program was not sustainable to begin with. 

One reason for the shutdown centers around the “enhanced” tax credits for Affordable Care Act premiums as the subsidies, which started in 2021, are set to end this year, according to KFF.

“If you live in these states, your ACA premiums are about to jump: SD – Up 235% LA – Up 150% WV – Up 387% WY – Up 382% TN – Up 320% MS – Up 314% AK – Up 346%,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., posted on X.

GOP ACCUSES DEMS OF RISKING SHUTDOWN TO RESTORE ‘ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT HEALTHCARE’

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., from left, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Vice President JD Vance speak to members of the media outside the West Wing at the White House in Washington, Monday, Sept. 29, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

“Republicans are fighting to make sure this happens to their own constituents,” she added.

“If Congress doesn’t extend ACA enhanced premium tax credits, 20 million Americans will see a dramatic rise in premium costs, and another 4 million people will lose their coverage completely,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-New Hampshire, posted on X. 

“My Republican colleagues need to come to the table so that we can prevent this disaster,” she added.

However, subsidies being used to lower costs sparks concerns about the longevity of the Obama-era policy.

Brian Blase, the president of the Paragon Health Institute and a former advisor on the White House’s National Economic Council, countered a claim made in a post from Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., that “Republicans are intentionally skyrocketing your premiums.”

“1. Premiums went up because of the ACA 2. Large subsidies were put in place to offset enrollees’ costs. 3. During COVID, there were subsidy add-ons. Democrats scheduled them to expire after 2025. 4. The original large subsidies will still be in place,” Blase explained.

“The premium increase will hit regardless of what Congress does. That is an unfortunate feature of how Obamacare is working. The question is the share that should be paid by taxpayers,” he continued in another X post. “Pouring more subsidies on insurers entrenches the status quo & means higher premiums & prices.”

HOUSE DEMOCRATS THREATEN SHUTDOWN FIGHT TO PROTECT OBAMACARE PERKS

House Democrats, led by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, are warning their party is rejecting any government shutdown deal that does not extend expiring Obamacare subsidies. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Debra L Rothenberg/WireImage)

“Subsidizing phantom enrollees, people with high incomes, people enrolled in several programs, outright fraud, and insurance companies, thereby raising the costs for *everyone* to cover the fact that every predicted problem with Obamacare was realized,” conservative commentator Mary Katharine Ham posted.

The government shutdown began Wednesday at midnight and a GOP-backed attempt to temporarily reopen the government failed in the Senate later in the day. 

“Democrats are fighting to extend expiring COVID-era Obamacare subsidies they passed under Joe Biden with zero Republican support,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, posted in an X thread on Wednesday. “These subsidies are responsible for tens of billions in improper and fraudulent payments.”

“The pool of people eligible for Obamacare subsidies vastly increased, with insurance companies being the ultimate beneficiaries. Dishonest brokers were incentivized to recruit—or invent—as many people as possible, each new signup bringing with it thousands in taxpayer dollars,” the senator continued.

DEMS NOT BUDGING ON GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN DEMANDS AHEAD OF HIGH-STAKES TRUMP MEETING, JEFFRIES SUGGESTS

Medicare healthcare card (iStock)

Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday told “Fox and Friends” that he will work with Democrats on extending insurance subsidies for Obamacare “after they’ve reopened the government.”

 “You can’t reward this exercise in hostage taking, which is what we would be doing if we allow the government opening to be conditional on the Democrats’ policy disagreement,” Vance said.

“That premium support program doesn’t even expire until next year. So why are you shutting down the government on October 1 because of a program that doesn’t even expire for another few months,” he continued. “Let’s talk about it, let’s negotiate, let’s do what you do in Washington, D.C.”

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“The government shutdown has occurred because Senator Chuck Schumer is holding the funding process hostage. The continuing resolution would have allowed the government to function while we finish the appropriations process in a bipartisan way,” Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., posted on Wednesday. “The longer Senator Schumer plays games, the greater the damage to national security, service members, and veterans. I urge my Democrat colleagues to adopt the House-passed bill, which would immediately reopen the government.”

Bipartisan talks on reopening the government began to materialize less than a day into the shutdown, with Republicans and Democrats trying to find a middle ground on expiring Obamacare tax credits.

The federal government entered its first full day of a shutdown on Wednesday, and so far neither side of the aisle is willing to buckle as the hours ticked by.

Still, in the middle of Senate Republicans’ third attempt to pass the House GOP’s short-term funding extension, a group of nearly a dozen senators huddled on the floor in the first public display of negotiations so far.

“There are glimmers of hope, and I think they’re bipartisan,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who was in the huddle.

WHITE HOUSE MEMO SAYS DEMOCRATS’ PLAN COULD SPEND $200B ON HEALTHCARE FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The conversations on the floor came as Republicans demanded that Democrats yield and provide the votes to reopen the government, while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., doubled down on his position that Democrats wouldn’t budge without “serious” movement on Obamacare premium subsidies.

“Donald Trump and Republicans have barreled us into a shutdown because they refuse to protect Americans’ healthcare,” Schumer said. “It’s clear that the way out of this shutdown is to sit down and negotiate with Democrats to address the looming healthcare crisis that faces tens of millions of American families.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., appears willing to slowly chip away at Senate Democrats through a de facto war of attrition and plans to bring House Republicans’ bill to the floor for a vote again and again.

The Senate will be out on Thursday to observe Yom Kippur but is expected to return Friday and possibly vote into the weekend on the continuing resolution (CR) that would reopen the government until Nov. 21 to give lawmakers more time to finish work on the dozen spending bills needed to fund the government.

Thune told Fox News Digital that he expected to talk to Schumer “in the next day or two.”

GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN CONTINUES AS SENATE DEMS BLOCK GOP FUNDING BILL FOR 3RD TIME

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is interviewed by Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier outside the West Wing of the White House on Sept. 29, 2025, in Washington. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo)

“He’s indicated that he’s interested in doing that,” Thune said. “I’m not sure what we’ll achieve by that, but I think there are, I mean, things seem to be moving on their side. We just keep telling them to ‘give us — open up the government, and we’ll get on with regular business.’”

Thune and Senate Republicans have argued that Senate Democrats’ rejection of the GOP’s CR is hypocritical, given that when former President Joe Biden was in office, Schumer and his caucus routinely voted for “clean” extensions — like the GOP’s current proposal.

But the issue for Democrats was multifaceted. 

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., was among the many lawmakers holding a confab on the Senate floor, and while he didn’t divulge full details of the private talks, he said a major issue for him was about ensuring that a “deal is a deal.”

GOVERNMENT SHUTS DOWN AFTER CONGRESS DEADLOCKS ON SPENDING DEAL

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., speaks during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., on March 13, 2025.  (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“Anything we agree to, because it’s not a clean CR if the president will tear it up tomorrow,” he said. “In the past, we voted for clean CRs, but the president has shown that he’ll take the money back.”

Among the options tossed around in the huddle were a 10-day funding extension once floated by Schumer, which he quickly shot down earlier this week, or passing the Republican plan to actually give lawmakers time to negotiate a solution to the expiring tax credits.

Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said there were no high-level discussions quite yet, but that any path forward had to be “enforceable.”

“The bottom line here is that I sense real concern among my Republican colleagues about what happens to the people they represent if we go off the cliff on the Affordable Care Act,” he said, referring to Obamacare.

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And Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., who helped facilitate the conversation, said it’d be “great” if lawmakers were able to get something figured out before the Nov. 21 deadline in the GOP’s bill, but that he and other Republicans were still pushing Democrats to support their legislation.

“It’s not like there’s anything that they should be objecting to with regard to what’s in the existing bill,” he said. “This is their hostage, and we’re just telling them, ‘Look, we’ve got support on the other side to fix the issues that you have a concern about, but it’s going to take time to negotiate those through.'” 

The federal government partially shut down early Wednesday after Democrats and Republicans failed to reach an agreement on a funding package. 

In the lead-up to the midnight deadline to pass a budget package, President Donald Trump warned the administration could make “irreversible” changes to the federal workforce, most notably through a new wave of fresh layoffs. The president has underscored that he and his allies did not want the government to shut down, but that it opened the door for some “good” that could come from it. 

Senate lawmakers failed to reach a spending agreement in time for the end of fiscal year 2025 Tuesday, after a short-term extension of fiscal year 2025 funding, aimed at keeping the government open through Nov. 21, passed the House mainly along party lines earlier in September. 

GOVERNMENT SHUTS DOWN AFTER CONGRESS DEADLOCKS ON SPENDING DEAL

The federal government partially shut down Oct. 1, 2025, after Democrats and Republicans failed to reach an agreement on a funding package.  (@realDonaldTrump via Truth Social)

Democrats expressed frustration at being shut out of spending negotiations and over the GOP bill’s exclusion of enhanced Obamacare subsidies that were first enacted in 2021 under President Joe Biden. Those subsidies, a COVID-19-era measure, are set to lapse at the end of 2025 unless Congress takes action, Fox News Digital has reported.

Republicans have since pinned the shutdown blame on Democrats, arguing they refused to fund the budget as an attempt to reinstate taxpayer-funded medical benefits for illegal immigrants through Democrat lawmakers’ continuing resolution, which would include extending the expiring Obamacare tax credits. 

Democrat leadership have balked at the claims, throwing their own jabs at Trump and Republican lawmakers as the culprits behind the shutdown and squashing claims they want to provide healthcare to illegal immigrants. 

TRUMP’S WHITE HOUSE DEMANDS AGENCIES MAP OUT MASS LAYOFFS AHEAD OF POTENTIAL SHUTDOWN

“They say that undocumented people are going to get these credits,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday. “That is absolutely false. That is one of the big lies that they tell.”

President Donald Trump said the government shutdown that took effect Oct. 1, 2025, will likely include mass layoffs and program cuts.  (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Trump warns layoffs on the horizon

Trump said during various public remarks Tuesday, as the countdown to the midnight deadline dwindled, that though he did not want a shutdown, it presents him with the opportunity for the administration to carry out layoffs as part of a continued mission to slim down the federal government and snuff out overspending and fraud. 

“We don’t want it to shut down because we have the greatest period of time ever,” Trump said from the Oval Office Tuesday. “I tell you, we have $17 trillion being invested. So the last person that wants it shut down is us.”

“Now, with that being said, we can do things during the shutdown that are irreversible, that are bad for them and irreversible by them, like cutting vast numbers of people out, cutting things that they like, cutting programs that they like,” he continued. 

A shutdown does not hand a president new powers, but instead concentrates discretion to the White House and Office of Management and Budget over what the executive branch continues operating or ending. 

SPEAKER JOHNSON FLIPS SCRIPT ON DEM LEADERS WITH STAUNCH WARNING AGAINST GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

Under the Antideficiency Act, a federal law that guides the government through shutdowns, federal agencies are not permitted to spend funds, the Government Accountability Office outlines, except for a limited set of missions, such as performing constitutional duties. The executive branch is charged with interpreting those exceptions.

Office of Management and Budget Director “Russell Vought become very popular recently because he can trim the budget to a level that you couldn’t do any other way,” Trump continued Tuesday. “So they’re taking a risk by having a shutdown because, because of the shutdown, we can do things medically and other ways, including benefits. We can cut large numbers of people.” 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks alongside Russell Vought, Office of Management and Budget director, from left, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Vice President JD Vance, as they address members of the media in Washington, Sept. 29, 2025. (Evan Vucci/AP Photo )

Later that day, Trump again said that he did not want a shutdown to unfold, but that “a lot of good” could come from it in order to weed out government overspending, noting “we’d be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected.”

“A lot of good can come down from shutdowns,” he said. “We can get rid of a lot of things that we didn’t want, and they’d be Democrat things. But they want open borders. They want men playing in women’s sports. They want transgender for everybody. They never stop. They don’t learn. We won an election in a landslide.” 

SHUTDOWN EXPLAINED: WHO WORKS, WHO DOESN’T AND HOW MUCH IT COSTS

Vought declared an imminent government shutdown Tuesday evening ahead of the deadline, pinning blame on “Democrats’ insane policy demands, which include $1 trillion in new spending.”

“It is unclear how long Democrats will maintain their untenable posture, making the duration of the shutdown difficult to predict,” he wrote in a memo Tuesday. “Regardless, employees should report to work for their next regularly scheduled tour of duty to undertake orderly shutdown activities.” 

President Donald Trump speaks to a gathering of top U.S. military commanders at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, Sept. 30, 2025.  (Evan Vucci/The Associated Press )

Vice President JD Vance joined the White House press briefing Wednesday and predicted that it wasn’t “going to be that long of a shutdown,” but that people will need to be laid off. 

“We’re going to have to make things work,” he said. “And that means that we’re going to have to triage some certain things, that means certain people are going to have to get laid off. And we’re going to try to make sure that the American people suffer as little as possible from the shutdown.” 

Vance added that the administration was “not targeting federal agencies based on politics” for layoffs. 

“We’re in a shutdown, that causes some problems,” he said. “The troops aren’t getting paid. There’s nothing that we can do about that while the government is shut down. But there are essential services that we want to make sure as, as much as possible, they still continue to function. That is the principle that’s driving us forward during the shutdown.” 

DOGE and vows to slim government 

Anticipated layoffs and program cuts amid the shutdown follow Trump’s ongoing mission to gut the federal government of fraud, corruption and overspending, which first hit the nation’s radar in the early days of the administration when Trump launched the Department of Government Efficiency, as well as previous mass layoffs initiatives. 

Back in January, the administration offered federal employees voluntary buyouts to leave their posts before rolling out reduction in force initiatives across various agencies to slim down the government. 

“We have hundreds of thousands of federal workers who have not been showing up to work,” Trump said during his joint address to Congress in March. “My administration will reclaim power from this unaccountable bureaucracy, and we will restore true democracy to America again.” 

SHUTDOWN FIGHT CASTS A SHADOW OVER JOBS AS TRUMP PREPARES FOR LARGEST FEDERAL RESIGNATION IN US HISTORY

“And any federal bureaucrat who resists this change will be removed from office immediately, because we are draining the swamp,” he added. “It’s very simple. And the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over.” 

Simultaneous to reduction in force efforts and buyouts, tech billionaire Elon Musk was charged with leading DOGE as investigators scrutinized federal agencies in an effort to curb government overspending and stamp out fraud. DOGE’s work became a lightning rod for criticism among Democratic lawmakers and government employees, who filed a number of lawsuits attempting to end the investigations and audits. 

Trump repeatedly has celebrated DOGE’s work during his first few months in office, including frequently listing off the various “flagrant scams” that the government was funding before DOGE‘s investigations. 

“Twenty-five million dollars to promote biodiversity conservation and socially responsible behavior in Colombia. This is Colombia, South America, not Columbia University. Of course, that might be worse,” Trump said in February during CPAC, rattling off different examples. “Forty million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants.” 

“Forty-two million for social and behavior change in Uganda,” Trump continued. “Ten million for Mozambique medical male circumcisions. Why are we going to Mozambique to do circumcisions?” 

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Fox News Digital reached out to the White House Wednesday morning for additional comment on the shutdown and Trump’s plans but did not immediately receive a reply. 

Fox News Digital’s Elizabeth Elkind, Alex Miller and Deirdre Heavey contributed to this report. 

Rejecting reports of a split with the brass, the Department of War says the National Defense Strategy was “seamlessly coordinated” with senior civilian and uniform leaders — and that “any narrative to the contrary is false.”

On Monday, The Washington Post reported that multiple senior officers had raised concerns about the forthcoming strategy, pointing to a divide between political leadership.

Deputy Secretary of War Steve Feinberg pushed back on Wednesday, in an on-the-record statement to Fox News Digital.

“The Department’s National Defense Strategy has been seamlessly coordinated with all senior civilian and military leadership with total collaboration — any narrative to the contrary is false,” Feinberg said.

RENAMED DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE COMING ‘SOON,’ TRUMP SAYS

The Pentagon in Arlington, Va., where War Department officials, pushed back on claims of a civil-military rift and said the National Defense Strategy was fully coordinated. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

A senior War Department official said the strategy was the product of “extensive and intensive” collaboration across the department.

The drafting team included a policy lead, a Joint Staff deputy and representatives from the military services who consulted widely with civilian and uniformed offices.

Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby and the acting deputy under-secretary for policy, Austin Dahmer, met with leaders from every group. The official called that level of policy-shop engagement “unprecedented.”

SUPPORTERS HAIL TRUMP’S PENTAGON REBRAND AS ‘HONEST,’ CRITICS CALL IT RECKLESS

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provided feedback to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, who chairs the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provided feedback directly to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Colby, the official said, and both assured him his input would be reflected in the final draft.

The Post report said political appointees in the Pentagon policy office led the drafting and described unusually sharp pushback from some commanders over priorities and tone. 

The War Department disputes that characterization and says the document was coordinated at the principal level and aligned closely with the National Security Strategy.

The pushback comes a day after Hegseth addressed hundreds of commanders at Marine Corps Base Quantico.

War Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a meeting of senior military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Tuesday, in Quantico, Va. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

TOP US MILITARY BRASS TO HOLD SECRETIVE MEETING WITH HEGSETH AS TRUMP RAMPS UP RUSSIA CRITICISM

In a 45-minute speech, he argued the force needs tougher standards and a tighter focus on warfighting. He has recalled one-star and above officers from around the world to brief in person and has removed several senior general officers as part of a broader overhaul.

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Hegseth says new directives will restore rigorous physical, grooming and leadership standards and require combat roles to meet one set of physical benchmarks.

The Washington Post did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr and Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.

New Jersey gubernatorial hopeful Mikie Sherrill has become one of the Garden State’s richest lawmakers in Congress six years after getting elected to Washington — buoyed by a portfolio of luxe properties, millions in stock and a banker husband who earns more than $2 million per year.

Republican Jack Ciattarelli and his allies have pummeled Sherrill (D-NJ) over her finances — accusing her of “flipping stocks and cashing in” since being elected to high office.

“In the seven years that she’s been in Congress, she’s tripled her net worth!” Ciattarelli said during their fiery clash at last week’s debate.

SHERRILL FIRES BACK AT GOP RIVAL AS QUESTIONS SWIRL OVER HER MILITARY RECORDS: ‘HAND IN THE COOKIE JAR’

“While you were sitting on the House Armed Services Committee, you were trading defense stocks,” he went on.

Sherrill has denied that claim, saying she does not own individual stocks — though a mealy-mouthed response to the question about her net worth from “The Breakfast Club” host Charlamagne tha God has only fanned the flames.

A peek at Sherrill’s financial disclosures contradicts some of the attacks Ciattarelli and his allies have made on the campaign trail about her net worth — and suggests her impressive wealth growth comes from a variety of sources.

“Mikie does not own or trade individual stocks, and has gone ‘above and beyond’ releasing the exact values of her finances to the dollar,” Sherrill campaign communications director Sean Higgins told The Post.

Representative Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat from New Jersey, during a news conference about a Signal messaging chat used by Trump administration officials, at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, March 25, 2025.  (Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“New Jerseyans have zero insight into Jack Ciattarelli’s net worth, they do know he made $15 million in profits off opioid misinformation and investments linked to the Chinese Communist Party.”

The frequently cited $7 million figure stems from a Washington Free Beacon analysis that used the average of a range of values provided in congressional financial disclosures.

In 2019, Sherrill’s net worth would’ve been between $730,000 and $4.3 million, per her House financial disclosure records. By 2024, it jumped to between $4.8 million and $14 million.

DEM GUBERNATORIAL NOMINEE HIT WITH ACCUSATIONS OF NEPOTISM OVER CHILDREN’S ACCEPTANCE INTO NAVAL ACADEMY

Additionally, that analysis looked at all her assets, not just stocks. And a key reason why her net worth jumped so sharply in that analysis is that she added a Washington, DC, townhouse, purchased in a tony neighborhood in 2021 for $1.5 million.

As Ciattarelli noted, Sherrill was forced to pay a $400 fee in 2021 for STOCK Act violations, after blowing past a 45-day deadline to disclose her husband’s stock trades — something that is not uncommon in Congress.

What is Mikie Sherrill’s net worth?

The Garden State Democrat’s net worth is somewhere between $9.4 million and $14.61 million.

Quiver Quantitative, which provides estimates for most members of Congress, pegged Sherrill’s fortune at $14.61 million, which would place her just behind Rep. Josh Gottheimer’s (D-NJ) $42.19 million net worth as the second-richest Garden State pol in Washington.

An August analysis by the New Jersey Globe pegged her and her husband’s net worth at $9.4 million.

Democrat Mikie Sherrill responds to questions during the first general election gubernatorial debate with Republican opponent Jack Ciattarelli. Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025, in Lawrenceville, N.J.  (Noah K. Murray/AP Photo)

How did Mikie Sherrill get so rich?

Most of Sherrill’s fortune stems from her banker husband, Jason Hedberg.

Hedberg gets partially compensated through stocks from UBS, which they frequently sell off, according to financial disclosures.

He has raked in more than $2.6 million each year since 2021 — topping out at $2.9 million last year. For comparison, Sherrill’s congressional salary is $174,000.

Shortly after taking office, Sherrill began offloading individual stocks in favor of exchange-traded funds to mitigate conflict-of-interest concerns.

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She had $4.4 million in her brokerage account, and her husband reportedly had $1.9 million in unvested stocks. The pair also had about $1.5 million between their checking accounts, retirement accounts and life insurance policies.

The New Jersey Democrat’s investment portfolio fared 1.9% worse than the S&P 500, according to insider trading watchdog Unusual Whales.

Luxe properties

Sherrill and her husband also own three homes: a large mansion in wealthy Montclair, a vacation home in Vermont, and the Washington, DC, townhouse.

Zillow records indicate that her Montclair home is worth about $3 million, her vacation home is about $780,000, and her DC home, which she once rented to former Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), was pegged at $1.6 million.

Records indicate those three homes have mortgages on them.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., speaks during an interview in New York City on Friday, May 2, 2025. Sherrill is the New Jersey Democratic nominee for governor.  (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

At least two of her children went to the tony Montclair Kimberly Academy, which has tuition as high as $53,340 annually.

Ciattarelli’s wealth

Following pressure from Sherrill’s allies to release more of his tax documentation, the Ciattarelli campaign let media outlets examine 13 years of his tax returns.

While his net worth isn’t fully clear, tax records show that he has raked in close to $14.9 million since 2012 and paid at least $4 million in taxes, the New Jersey Monitor reported.

Ciattarelli, a former state assemblyman, had made his fortune off two medical publication businesses, one of which he sold in 2017, the same year he made $7.1 million in total income, per the outlet.

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Tax records showed that his income fluctuated throughout the years, from $600,946 in 2014 to $854,966 in 2018 and $168,433 in 2022, according to the report.

Additional reporting by Steven Vago and Isabel Vincent