The Latest: Trump administration threatens no back pay for federal workers in shutdown

President Donald Trump’s administration is warning Tuesday of no guaranteed back pay for federal workers during a government shutdown, reversing what has been longstanding policy for some 750,000 furloughed employees, according to a memo being circulated by the White House.

The move was widely seen as a strongarm tactic to pressure lawmakers to reopen government, as party leaders remain seemingly at an impasse on day 7 of the shutdown. Democrats are conditioning their support for a short-term funding patch on extending the health subsidies that lessen the cost of plans offered under the Affordable Care Act.

After the longest government shutdown in 2019, Trump signed legislation into law that ensures federal workers receive back pay during any federal funding lapse. But in the new memo, his Office of Management and Budget says back pay must be provided by Congress, if it chooses to do so, as part of any bill to fund government.

The president during an Oval Office meeting Tuesday suggested he’ll “ follow the law ” on back pay for federal workers, minutes after saying the compensation “ depends on who we’re talking about ” and that some workers would be taken care of “in a different way.”

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Democratic Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said she met with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for about 20 minutes upon Noem’s arrival at the Portland airport on Tuesday. Kotek reached out to Noem after hearing through “unofficial channels” that Noem might be visiting.

“Today, in my meeting with Secretary Noem, I reiterated again that there is no insurrection in Oregon. Twice now, a federal judge has affirmed that there is no legal basis for military deployment in Portland,” Kotek said in a statement.

Noem then went to the city’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building. News crews and some protesters lined up behind yellow police tape that cordoned off the blocks in front of the building.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a post on X that Trump has “identified a creative solution to transfer resources” from tariffs the administration has imposed on U.S. trading partners to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.

Also known as WIC, the program provides vouchers to buy infant formula as well as fresh fruits and vegetables, low-fat milk and other healthy staples but was threatened by the government shutdown.

Leavitt did not provide details of how such funding transfers might work. But she wrote that the Trump White House “will not allow impoverished mothers and their babies to go hungry.”

Trump has met with an American hostage freed from Gaza, and with the family of an American-Israeli soldier who was killed there but whose remains have yet to be recovered.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted a photo online of Trump meeting in the Oval Office with Edan Alexander. He was taken hostage by Hamas in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack that led to the Israel-Hamas war.

The meeting wasn’t public. But the picture also showed Trump with the family of Omer Neutra, whose body is still in Gaza. Peace talks are being held in Egypt over Trump’s plan to end fighting between Hamas and Israel.

Trump also met this summer with Alexander, who was the last living American hostage in Gaza and released from captivity in May.

Adelita Grijalva won a special election for a House seat on Sept. 24, but has been unable to actually represent her district in Congress until the speaker officially swears her into office. Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, has so far refused to accommodate her request to officially take office while the House is not conducting legislative business during the government shutdown.

Johnson did not elaborate on what he meant Tuesday by saying he would swear her into office as soon as she wants. However, Grijalva could be sworn in during one of the House’s pro-forma sessions. The next one is Wednesday.

Once she officially takes office, Grijalva has said she will join a legislative maneuver to force a vote in the House on a bill that would require the Department of Justice to release the case files on the late financier Jeffrey Epstein.

A judge Tuesday blocked the Trump’s administration from requiring recipients of federal teen pregnancy prevention grants to comply with Trump’s orders aimed at curtailing “radical indoctrination” and “gender ideology.”

The ruling is a victory for three Planned Parenthood affiliates that sued to try to block enforcement of a Department of Human Services policy document issued in July that they contend contradict the requirements of the grants as established by Congress.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, an Obama appointee, blasted the administration’s policy change in her written ruling, saying it was “motivated solely by political concerns, devoid of any considered process or analysis, and ignorant of the statutory emphasis on evidence-based programming.”

A federal grand jury in Atlanta has indicted two men after authorities said they made online threats against an ICE officer and his wife.

Frank Andrew Waszut and Anthony Patrick Noto are charged with knowingly making interstate threats of violence. Both men were indicted last month, and the indictments were unsealed Monday. They were both in custody and online court records did not show either man having a lawyer who could comment on the charges.

Federal prosecutors said in a news release Tuesday that Waszut posted a video on Instagram that identified and showed photos of the officer, who lives and works in Georgia. Waszut is accused of encouraging people to “make him famous” and urging anyone who sees the officer to “give him the cell block one treatment,” which prosecutors said means subjecting him to violence.

Noto posted a comment on Instagram under a photo of the officer’s wife that called her a “pretty good target” for anyone wanting to test out a semiautomatic rifle.

Waszut, who lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, was in jail in Texas, where he’s accused of making separate threats against Republican lawmakers. Noto, who lives in Ronkonkoma, New York, was in federal custody.

Thune is responding as President Trump’s administration has suggested that workers who have been furloughed during the government shutdown won’t be paid at all.

Still, he said “the answer to everything is to open up the government” as Democrats are demanding an extension of health care benefits.

National Guard members from Texas are at an Army training center in Illinois. It’s the most visible sign yet of the Trump administration’s plan to send troops to the Chicago area despite a lawsuit and vigorous opposition from Democratic elected leaders.

The Associated Press saw military personnel in uniforms with the Texas National Guard patch at the U.S. Army Reserve Center in Elwood, 55 miles (88 kilometers) southwest of Chicago. On Monday, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott posted a picture on social media showing National Guard members from his state boarding a plane, but he didn’t specify where they were going.

-By Erin Hooley and Christine Fernando

Customs and Border Protection said Tuesday that authorities made 237,565 arrests at the border with Mexico during the government’s fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. That’s down 84% from more than 1.5 million during the previous 12-month period and the lowest tally since 1970.

There were more than 2 million arrests in 2022 and 2023.

The latest number includes nearly four months of the Biden administration. Arrests fell sharply after the Biden administration imposed severe asylum restrictions in June 2024. They plummeted more after the Trump administration virtually eliminated asylum access and dispatched thousands of miliary troops to the border.

During September, authorities averaged 279 arrests a day. That’s up from 204 arrests a day in August but down from nearly 1,800 a day in September 2024.

As Attorney General Pam Bondi faced a Senate panel, Democrats time and again asked her what happened to $50,000 that White House “border czar” Tom Homan accepted last year from undercover agents posting as businesspeople.

The investigation into Homan was shut down by the Trump administration, but Democrats repeatedly questioned whether the money was recovered or whether Homan kept the money and reported it as income on his taxes.

“Do you know sitting here whether he took the money?” Sen. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, asked Bondi during one particularly combative exchange with the attorney general.

Bondi said the decision to clear Homan of wrongdoing was made before she was sworn in as attorney general and defended Homan. She repeatedly refused to say what actually happened to the $50,000, though.

“You think you got a gotcha with Tom Homan our border czar who has been out there fighting for our country since Donald Trump took office,” Bondi replied to Schiff.

Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina is suggesting that National Guard troops are not the best equipped to address crime in cities and that instead accountability for policing should remain with local officials.

“Is this deployment of the National Guard a part of an emerging best practice that I just don’t get yet?” Tillis asked Attorney General Pam Bondi during a Senate oversight hearing.

It was a bit of indirect criticism from Tillis, who is not seeking reelection next year, on how President Donald Trump is deploying National Guard troops to major cities as part of his crime and immigration agenda.

The Supreme Court ’s conservative majority seems likely to side with a Christian counselor challenging bans on LGBTQ+ “conversion therapy” for kids as a violation of her First Amendment rights.

Most justices on the high court didn’t seem convinced that states can restrict voluntary talk therapy aimed at potentially changing feelings or behavior for kids who identify as gay or transgender.

Justice Samuel Alito said the Colorado law being challenged “looks like blatant viewpoint discrimination.”

Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina is suggesting that National Guard troops are not the best equipped to address crime in cities and that instead accountability for policing should remain with local officials.

“Is this deployment of the National Guard a part of an emerging best practice that I just don’t get yet?” Tillis asked Attorney General Pam Bondi during a Senate oversight hearing.

It was a bit of indirect criticism from Tillis, who is not seeking reelection next year, on how President Donald Trump is deploying National Guard troops to major cities as part of his crime and immigration agenda.

The city and police department confirmed her visit in a joint statement after conservative podcaster and influencer Benny Johnson said on social media that Noem was going to Portland on Tuesday.

The city said it received notice of her visit to the Portland area but did not have full details about her agenda. Portland police “will provide the same routine support they would for any visiting dignitary.”

Her trip comes as local and state officials continue to fight the Trump administration’s efforts to deploy the National Guard to the city.

A federal judge issued two restraining orders over the weekend blocking the deployment, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has scheduled oral arguments in the case for Thursday morning. The court indicated the arguments could be canceled if judges determine they aren’t needed.

The president said of his Canadian counterpart that he is “a great prime minister,” and added: “He could represent me anytime.”

But, Trump said: “He’s a nice man but he can be nasty.”

When asked by a reporter what is holding up trade talks with Carney if he’s such a great man, Trump said: “Because I want to be a great man too.”

“I’ll be meeting him in South Korea,” Trump said, referencing a summit that he’s expected to attend there at the end of the month.

A meeting between the two leaders has not been formally announced.

The president appeared to dismiss a key achievement of his first term, replacing the North American Free Trade Agreement with the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement.

Trump says he’ll negotiate trade deals on Tuesday with the visiting Canadian prime minister.

But asked about USMCA -- which took effect in 2020, replacing NAFTA -- he offered a surprise. “We could renegotiate it or we could create a different deal,” Trump said.

He offered no further details.

The president said the Democrats “started” the shutdown fight and that the minority party was taking such aggressive tactics because “they have nothing to lose.”

“Well, they’re the ones that started it,” Trump said in response to a question about his message to Democrats. “They’re the ones that have it, and it’s almost like a kamikaze attack by them. You want to know the truth, this is like a kamikaze attack. They, they almost, you know, they have nothing to lose.”

Asked a second time about backpay for furloughed federal workers given that the requirement is spelled out in law, Trump said: “I follow the law, and what the law says is correct.”

But asked about what he meant previously about dealing with workers in “a different way” than backpay, the president ducked the question, suggesting reporters would have to find that out for themselves.

The Canadian prime minister pushed back at Trump’s characterization of the two nations being in “natural conflict.”

Carney pointed out that Canada is the United States’ second-largest trading partner and is also a major foreign investor. He said the relationship between the U.S. and Canada are “maybe not so much conflict” but that they “compete.”

“There are areas where we compete, and it’s in those areas where we have to come to an agreement that works,” Carney said. “But there are more areas where we are stronger together, and that’s what we’re focused on”

Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, is suggesting that the FBI look into comments that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick made during a recent interview in which he called the late financier Jeffrey Epstein the “greatest blackmailer ever.”

During a Senate hearing, Attorney General Pam Bondi reiterated her previous stance that the Department of Justice has not uncovered evidence that could be used in relation to Epstein’s sex trafficking of teenage girls. But Kennedy said that the comments from Lutnick, who was formerly a neighbor with Epstein, suggested others were involved.

“Don’t you think that you ought to talk to him after this interview?” Kennedy asked Bondi.

The attorney general responded that Lutnick had not been interviewed and she was noncommittal about any future interviews.

The president said there’s a “natural business conflict” between the U.S. and its northern neighbor but said there’s also “mutual love.”

“There’s still great love between the two countries,” Trump said.

The president didn’t dismiss back pay for all workers, but added, “There are some people that don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’ll take care of them in a different way” without elaborating.

He also blamed Democrats for putting “a lot of people in great risk and jeopardy.”

Trump’s comments came as his administration threatened no back pay for federal workers in a memo Tuesday. That’s despite a 2019 bill Trump signed into law guaranteeing back pay.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said the Trump administration has not told him where the National Guard is, when it may arrive in Chicago or what its task will be.

“None of that has been made clear,” Johnson said at a Tuesday news conference. “That is what is so difficult about this moment, you have an administration that is refusing to cooperate with a local authority.”

The City of Chicago and state of Illinois sued Trump on Monday, seeking to stop the sending of National Guard troops to Chicago. The legal challenge came hours after a judge blocked the Guard’s deployment in Portland, Oregon.

“The law is clear,” Jeffries added. “And we will make sure that law is followed.”

“The federal government is out of control,” Johnson said. “This is one of the most dangerous times in our nation’s history.” Johnson said Trump is “unchecked” and “If Congress is not going to hold the president of the United States of America accountable, then I will.”

“He wants to justify and normalize the presence of armed soldiers under his direct command,” Pritzker said, accusing the president of using troops as “political props” and “pawns.”

A federal judge in Chicago scheduled a hearing for Thursday on a legal challenge that describes Trump’s military mobilization plan for Illinois as unlawful and dangerous. A federal judge in Oregon blocked the Guard’s deployment to Portland.

▶ Read more about National Guard deployments in American cities

“He wants to justify and normalize the presence of armed soldiers under his direct command,” Pritzker said, accusing the president of using troops as “political props” and “pawns.”

A federal judge in Chicago scheduled a hearing for Thursday on a legal challenge that describes Trump’s military mobilization plan for Illinois as unlawful and dangerous. A federal judge in Oregon blocked the Guard’s deployment to Portland.

Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott posted a picture on social media Monday showing Texas National Guard members boarding a plane, without saying their destination.

▶ Read more about National Guard deployments in American cities