The Latest: National Guard deploys as ICE uses increasingly combative tactics in US cities

The Latest:

Democratic Minority Leader challenges GOP House Speaker to ‘prime time’ debate

Hakeem Jeffries said he and Mike Johnson should go head-to-head on the House floor.

Jeffries dared Johnson to debate the impasse over a government funding plan “any day this week in primetime, broadcast live to the American people.”

The Democrat blamed the shutdown on the unwillingness of Trump and congressional Republicans to negotiate a bipartisan deal on healthcare programs.

Republicans, who need the votes of Senate Democrats to reopen the government, argue that healthcare talks can only happen later, when their majorities will again enable them to pass laws without any Democratic input.

A televised debate, Jeffries said, would allow Johnson to “explain your ‘my way or the highway’ approach to shutting the government down, when Democratic votes are needed to resolve the impasse that exists.”

Stephen Miller envisaged using National Guard to arrest people in ‘unfriendly’ states

Sending the National Guard to a states despite a governor’s objections is not a new idea in Trump’s inner circle.

Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, said in November 2023 that a second Trump administration would order the Guard from sympathetic Republican-led states deployed to Democrat-run states that refuse to cooperate with his drive for mass deportations.

“The Alabama National Guard is going to arrest illegal aliens in Alabama and the Virginia National Guard in Virginia. And if you’re going to go into an unfriendly state like Maryland, well, there would just be Virginia doing the arrest in Maryland, right, very close, very nearby,” Miller said on “The Charlie Kirk Show.”

This is an uncertain economic moment for a shutdown

While the U.S. economy has continued to grow this year, hiring has slowed and inflation remains elevated as the Republican president’s import taxes have created a series of disruptions for businesses and hurt confidence in his leadership. At the same time, there is a recognition that the nearly $2 trillion annual budget deficit is financially unsustainable.

The Trump administration sees the shutdown as an opening to wield greater power over the budget, with multiple officials saying they will save money as workers are furloughed by imposing permanent job cuts on thousands of government workers, a tactic that has never been used before.

Even though it would be Trump’s choice to cut jobs, he believes he can put the blame on the Democrats.

Supreme Court rejects appeal from Ghislaine Maxwell

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from Ghislaine Maxwell, the imprisoned former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein. As is their custom, the justices did not explain why.

On the first day of their new term, the justices declined to take up a case that would have drawn renewed attention to the sordid sexual-abuse saga after the Trump administration sought to tamp down criticism over its refusal to publicly release more of its investigative files.

Lawyers for Maxwell, a British socialite, argued that she never should have been tried or convicted for her role in luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein, a New York financier. She is serving a 20-year prison term, though she was moved from a low-security federal prison in Florida to a minimum-security prison camp in Texas after she was interviewed in July by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

CBS buys The Free Press website and installs founder Bari Weiss as CBS News editor-in-chief

Paramount said Monday that it has bought the commentary website The Free Press and installed its founder, Bari Weiss, as the editor-in-chief of CBS News.

The announcement is a bold move for the venerable television news network, initiated by new corporate leader David Ellison, who said “I am confident her entrepreneurial drive and editorial vision will invigorate CBS News.”

Weiss’ experience is in print journalism, particularly in commentary. Ellison said in the news release that the move fits Paramount’s vision to modernize “the way it connects — directly and passionately — to audiences around the world.”

No purchase price was announced for The Free Press. Some at CBS News have been concerned it is a sign that the news division was moving in a direction more friendly to President Donald Trump.

Treasury Secretary names SSA Commissioner as CEO of the IRS

Scott Bessent named Frank Bisginano, the current commissioner of the Social Security Administration, as the new CEO of the IRS.

Bessent made Monday’s announcement of the unusual decision on the social media site X.

It is a newly created position at the IRS and Bisignano will remain head of SSA in addition to his new role at the federal tax collection agency.

Bessent said Bisignano will bring his expertise to the IRS “as we sharpen our focus on collections, privacy, and customer service.”

Shutdown negotiations? This is a blame game

The House is not expected to be in session this week, focusing attention on the Senate to take the lead on any deal in the Republican-led Congress. Both Republican and Democratic leaders have been holding almost daily briefings as they frame their arguments and seek to shift blame for the shutdown.

Democrats insist on extending the subsidies that have enabled millions of households to afford health insurance. Otherwise they will be eliminated at the end of the year, spiking premiums for millions.

Trump wants to preserve the budget changes Republicans made, and figures Democrats will fold under his pressure to end federal infrastructure and energy projects.

Protests have grown in response to deployments

Police and Federal officers stand guard an area by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland, Ore. on Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)

Portland has reduced crime under a new mayor and police chief, with fewer homeless camps and livelier foot traffic downtown. But protests have increased in size since Sept. 28, when the Trump administration mobilized the Oregon National Guard over Gov. Tina Kotek’s wishes. About 400 people gathered outside the ICE facility Saturday before federal agents shot tear-gas canisters into the crowd.

This weekend, about 200 federalized members of the California National Guard who had been on duty around Los Angeles landed in Portland on Sunday, a Pentagon spokesperson said. The state of Oregon also submitted a memo written by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordering up to 400 Texas National Guard personnel activated for deployment to Oregon, Illinois and possibly elsewhere.

Trump’s ‘war zone’ image of Portland may be based on years-old video

Small protests have been going on outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility since Trump’s second term began in January, with occasional flareups, but the nightly demonstrations have attracted only a few dozen people on one city block, far from downtown, in a city that covers 45 square miles (376 square kilometers).

Trump has turned his attention to the city calling Portland “war ravaged,” and “burning down” and like “living in hell.”

Local officials say many of his claims and social media posts appear to rely on images from 2020, when unrest that grew out of the Black Lives Matter protests roiled the city for several months.

Judge granted California and Oregon’s request to temporarily restrain deployments

U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, who was appointed by President Trump in his first term, seemed incredulous that the president moved to send National Guard troops to Oregon from neighboring California and then from Texas on Sunday, just hours after she had ruled the first time.

She ultimately blocked the Trump administration from deploying any National Guard units to Oregon at all.

“How could bringing in federalized National Guard from California not be in direct contravention to the temporary restraining order I issued yesterday?” she questioned the federal government’s attorney during a hastily called evening telephone hearing. “Aren’t defendants simply circumventing my order?” she said later. “Why is this appropriate?”

The White House did not immediately comment on the judge’s decision.

The Supreme Court begins new term with high stakes for presidential power

The high court has begun its new term Monday with a sharp focus on Trump’s robust assertion of executive power.

The judges will hear pivotal cases on the president’s restrictions on birthright citizenship, the legality of many of his sweeping tariffs, and his power to fire independent agency members at will.

Israel and Hamas meet in Egypt

The Israeli and Hamas officials hope their meeting Monday will lead to a potential ceasefire in Gaza on the eve of the devastating war’s second anniversary.

This latest push for peace comes after Hamas accepted some elements of the U.S. peace plan, a move welcomed by Trump. Israel has said it supported the new U.S. effort.