US Politics

Subterms

    More stories

    • 113 Shares97 Views

      in US Politics

      Pentagon review reportedly confirms Aukus submarines pact is safe

      by

      The Aukus submarine deal will proceed as planned after reportedly surviving the Pentagon’s review of the security pact.The Japan-based Nikkei Asia reported the Trump administration would retain the original timeline for the $368bn program, which includes the US selling three Virginia-class nuclear-powered submarines to Australia from 2032.A US Department of Defense official would not confirm the report when contacted by Guardian Australia.“The Aukus initiative is still under review. We have no further Aukus updates to announce at this time,” the official said.Sign up: AU Breaking News emailThe prime minister, Anthony Albanese, acknowledged the review was still under way but was confident Aukus had the support of the US and the UK – the third partner in the pact.“We know that Aukus is in the interests of Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States,” Albanese said from Abu Dhabi, the last stop in an overseas trip that has included visits to the two Aukus allies.“It is about a partnership which is in the interest of all three nations which will make peace and security in our region so much stronger.”The review will be wrapped up before Albanese’s first scheduled face-to-face meeting with Donald Trump in the US on 20 October, Nikkei Asia reported.The future of Aukus has been under a cloud since the Pentagon launched an appraisal of the deal to determine if it aligned with Trump’s “America-first” agenda.The review has been conducted by the US under secretary of defense for policy, Elbridge Colby, who has previously expressed scepticism about any deal that could weaken the US navy.One of the most significant concerns over Aukus in the US is its capacity to spare any nuclear-powered submarines to sell to Australia as it struggles to build enough for its own needs.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThere has also been speculation the US has wanted clarity from Australia about how it respond in a potential US-China war over Taiwan.The federal government has already handed over $1.6bn to the US to support America’s shipbuilding capacity, with delivery of the first Virginia-class submarines to Australia in the early 2030s contingent on the US ramping up production.Australia’s government has never publicly expressed concern about the Pentagon review, arguing that it was standard procedure for a new administration to examine such an agreement, just as the UK did after a change of government.Earlier on Tuesday, Australia’s defence minister, Richard Marles, would not pre-empt the outcome of the Pentagon review but again expressed confidence that the deal was secure.“Aukus is happening – that’s not in question,” the acting prime minister told ABC Melbourne on Tuesday morning.“We’re very confident about the deal and we’ve been saying that all the way through, as we have also been saying that we welcome this review and will participate in it,” Marles said on Tuesday.“I’ve repeatedly said Aukus is going well; Aukus is happening at a pace; it is meeting all the milestones that it’s meant to be meeting and we are confident about this being the pathway for Australia acquiring its future submarine capability.”The US has also been pushing Australia to raise its overall defence spending to 3.5% of GDP, up from its current level of roughly 2%.Albanese has publicly resisted that pressure, insisting Australia will determine the nature and volume of its military spending.The federal government has made several new defence spending commitments while the review was under way, including $12bn to upgrade a Western Australian shipyard that will be used by the Aukus submarines.Albanese and Marles have confirmed the US navy will be able to use the Henderson defence precinct to dock and maintain its own ships. More

    • 113 Shares97 Views

      in US Politics

      US justice department sues Minnesota over sanctuary city policies

      by

      The justice department has sued the state of Minnesota over its sanctuary city immigration policies, making it the latest locality to face legal threats as the Trump administration attempts to carry out the president’s campaign promise of mass deportations.“Minnesota officials are jeopardizing the safety of their own citizens by allowing illegal aliens to circumvent the legal process,” Pamela Bondi, the attorney general, said in a statement.The justice department added that Minnesota’s policies of refusing to cooperate with immigration authorities are illegal under federal law and have resulted in the release of so-called “dangerous criminals”. Immigrants with no criminal record are now the largest group in US immigration detention.The Minnesota cities of Minneapolis, St Paul and Hennepin county join the ranks of Los Angeles, New York, Boston, and the states of New Jersey and Colorado: Democratic led jurisdictions which are facing similar lawsuits over their sanctuary city policies.A Trump administration court filing in June – amid demonstrations against immigration raids – called Los Angeles’s sanctuary city ordinance “illegal” and asked that it be blocked from being enforced to allow the White House to crack down on what it calls a “crisis of illegal immigration”.Over the summer, the justice department sent letters to 13 states it classified as “sanctuary jurisdictions”, including California and Rhode Island, and 22 local governments, from Boston to Seattle, informing their leaders that they could face prosecution or lose federal funding for “undermining” and “obstructing” federal immigration agents.Last month, a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from cutting off federal funding to 34 “sanctuary cities” and counties, according to an executive order Donald Trump signed at the beginning of his second term.Trump campaigned for the presidency on a promise of deporting millions of immigrants from the US. His administration has argued that sanctuary city laws, which limit a locality’s participation with federal immigration agents, violate federal law. Brett Shumate, an assistant attorney general at the justice department’s civil division, said in a statement that “shielding illegal aliens from federal law enforcement is a blatant violation of the law that carries dangerous consequences”.Representatives from Minnesota’s governor and attorney general’s offices, the Hennepin sheriff’s office, and the mayors’ offices for St Paul and Minneapolis had not immediately responded to Reuters’ requests for comment. More

    • 188 Shares118 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump news at a glance: UK and French leaders back president’s peace plan for Gaza

      by

      Some of America’s key allies have backed Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, after the president and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, delivered an ultimatum to Hamas, warning the militant group to accept their 20-point plan or face the consequences.UK prime minister Keir Starmer has called on Hamas, to “agree to the plan and end the misery, by laying down their arms and releasing all remaining hostages”. French president Emmanuel Macron said “France stands ready to contribute” to the efforts to end the war.Trump and Netanyahu have hailed their proposal as a historic breakthrough and new chapter for the Middle East, but it was clear that Hamas had not been consulted and its position on the terms remained uncertain.Trump and Netanyahu to Hamas: accept Gaza peace plan or face consequencesBoth Trump and Netanyahu made clear that they were not offering Hamas a choice in the matter. If the group refused, Trump told reporters, “Israel would have my full backing to finish the job of destroying the threat of Hamas”.The Israeli prime minister said ominously: “If Hamas rejects your plan, Mr President, or if they supposedly accept it and then do everything to counter it, then Israel will finish the job by itself. This can be done the easy way or it can be done the hard way, but it will be done.”Read the full storyTrump talks with Democrats fail to yield breakthrough as US shutdown nearsA high-stakes meeting between Donald Trump and top congressional Democrats on Monday resulted in no apparent breakthrough in negotiations to keep the government open, with JD Vance declaring afterwards: “I think we are headed into a shutdown.”Democrats, who are refusing to support the GOP’s legislation to continue funding beyond Tuesday unless it includes several healthcare provisions, struck a more optimistic tone after the Oval Office encounter, which also included the Republican leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives.Read the full storyPortland braces for deployment of 200 national guard troops to cityPortland is bracing for the deployment of 200 national guard troops as Donald Trump moves ahead with plans to bring the US military into another Democratic-run city. Oregon filed a lawsuit to block the deployment, which the state has warned will escalate tensions and lead to unrest when there is “no need or legal justification” to bring federal troops into Portland.Read the full storyMormon church shooting suspect had Trump sign outside home, records showA gunman who killed at least four worshippers, wounded eight and was shot to death by police Sunday at a Mormon church in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, had a sign emblazoned with the last name of Donald Trump outside his house, public records show.The president responded to the church shooting on Sunday by saying “there is still a lot to learn” about the deceased suspect, identified as 40-year-old Thomas Jacob Sanford. “This appears to be yet another targeted attack on Christians in the United States of America,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.Read the full storyDes Moines revokes education license of school superintendent arrested by IceThe superintendent of Iowa’s largest school district has had his education licence revoked by state education officials after his arrest last week by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents.Read the full storyStephen Miller takes leading role in strikes on alleged Venezuelan drug boatsStephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, has played a leading role in directing US strikes against suspected Venezuelan drug boats, according to three people familiar with the situation. At times, his role has superseded that of Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and national security adviser.The Trump administration has turned the heat up on Caracas in recent weeks, with a major naval deployment in the Caribbean Sea. Venezuela’s vice-president has said the country is ready to declare a state of emergency in the event of a US military attack, warning of “catastrophic” consequences if such an onslaught materialises.Read the full storyTrump administration spending $625m to revive dying coal industryThe White House will open 13.1m acres (5.3m hectares) of public land to coal mining while providing $625m for coal-fired power plants, the Trump administration has announced. The efforts came as part of a suite of initiatives from the Department of the Interior, Department of Energy, and Environmental Protection Agency, aimed at reviving the flagging coal sector.Read the full storyCannabis stocks soar after Trump shares video promoting drug’s use for seniorsCannabis stocks are on a high after Donald Trump shared a video on Sunday promoting cannabis use for seniors and Medicaid coverage of CBD products. The nearly three-minute-long video, posted on the president’s Truth Social platform, touts the usage of hemp-derived CBD as a “gamechanger” that is a pain and stress reliever for seniors.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      Elon Musk has accused the Anti-Defamation League, one of the most prominent Jewish organizations in the US, of being a “hate group” against Christians, suggesting that it encourages murder.

      West Africans deported by the US to Ghana are now fending for themselves in Togo after being dumped in the country without documents, according to lawyers and deportees.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened Sunday 28 September. More

    • 263 Shares69 Views

      in US Politics

      ‘I think we’re headed to a shutdown,’ says JD Vance as Mike Johnson calls for more time for negotiations – live

      by

      More reactions from Congressional leaders’ meeting with Trump on the government shutdown.House speaker Mike Johnson said he wants to allow more time for negotiations, Reuters reports.Meanwhile, vice-president JD Vance is blaming Democrats, saying Congress is heading towards a shutdown because Democrats “won’t do” the right thing, per Reuters.“I think we’re headed to a shutdown,” Vance said, Semafor reports.The impending shutdown will be different from past government closures because the Trump administration has threatened mass firings of federal staff, adding that it could use the lapse in funding to downsize the federal government, Reuters reports.The Office of Personnel Management in a Monday memo said while training and onboarding of new federal employees is not allowed under the law dictating the parameters of a shutdown, the employees who oversee any firings are to continue their work. Unlike in past shutdowns, furloughed federal employees will also be allowed to use their government-issued computers to check for layoff notices in their email, according to OPM.“This outrageous plan threatens to cause lasting damage to the country and the safety of the American people by mass firing nonpartisan, expert civil servants and potentially even eliminating government agencies,” Senator Gary Peters of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Senate committee that oversees shutdown operations, said in a letter to the administration.British prime minister Keir Starmer on Monday welcomed Donald Trump’s efforts to end the war in Gaza with a new plan, Reuters reports.“We call on all sides to come together and to work with the US administration to finalise this agreement and bring it into reality,” Starmer said. “Hamas should now agree to the plan and end the misery, by laying down their arms and releasing all remaining hostages.”Vice president JD Vance just argued that it was “preposterous” that Democrats were continuing to demand an extension of healthcare funding subsidies during negotiations over a looming government shutdown.“Now they come in here and say: ‘if you don’t give us everything we want we’re going to shut down the government.’ It’s preposterous,” Vance said after a White House meeting with Democratic congressional leaders, Semafor reported.But Vance himself previously campaigned on exactly this kind of “preposterous” negotiating tactic, Semafor’s congressional bureau chief noted.At today’s meeting on the government shutdown, Trump was more interested in negotiating than Republican leaders, PunchbowlNews reports:Meanwhile, this was Democratic leaders’ message to reporters:Democratic advocacy groups are not keen on the idea of a one-week continuing resolution to temporarily keep the government open for more negotiations, HuffPost reports:A group representing major US airlines warned on Monday that a partial federal government shutdown could strain American aviation and slow flights, as air traffic controllers and security officers would be forced to work without pay and other functions would be halted, Reuters reports.Airline trade group Airlines for America, which represents United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and others, warned that if funding lapses “the system may need to slow down, reducing efficiency” and impacting travelers.Nicolás Maduro is ready to declare a state of emergency in the event of a US military attack on Venezuela, the country’s vice-president has said, warning of “catastrophic” consequences if such an onslaught materializes.Washington claims its attacks are part of an offensive against Latin American drug cartels who are smuggling cocaine and fentanyl into the US. But many suspect they could be a prelude to a broader military intervention designed to end Maduro’s 12-year rule.Read the full story here:More reactions from Congressional leaders’ meeting with Trump on the government shutdown.House speaker Mike Johnson said he wants to allow more time for negotiations, Reuters reports.Meanwhile, vice-president JD Vance is blaming Democrats, saying Congress is heading towards a shutdown because Democrats “won’t do” the right thing, per Reuters.“I think we’re headed to a shutdown,” Vance said, Semafor reports.The upshot of Schumer’s meeting with Trump over the government shutdown, the senate minority leaders said: “We have very large differences,” the Huffington Post reports.My colleague David Smith has a recap of Trump and Netanyahu’s peace proposal “press conference,” at which the leaders did not answer questions from the press:
      Donald Trump and the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu have delivered an ultimatum to Hamas, warning the militant group to accept their 20-point peace plan for Gaza or face the consequences.
      The two leaders met at the White House in Washington on Monday then held a joint press briefing in which they hailed their proposal as a historic breakthrough and new chapter for the Middle East.
      But it was clear that Hamas had not been consulted and its position on the terms remained uncertain.
      Both Trump and Netanyahu made clear that they were not offering Hamas a choice in the matter. If the group refused, Trump told reporters, “Israel would have my full backing to finish the job of destroying the threat of Hamas.
      Qatar’s prime minister and Egypt’s intelligence chief presented Trump’s proposal to Hamas negotiators, who are now reviewing it in “good faith,” according to a person familiar with the matter, the Associated Press reports. The person was not authorized to comment and spoke on the condition of anonymity.Two attorneys in the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) anti-discrimination division said they were fired on Monday, a week after going public with a whistleblower report alleging that the Trump administration had dismantled efforts to combat residential segregation, my colleague Chris Stein reports.As Trump heads to a meeting with Congressional leaders over the looming government shutdown, Axios has reported on one potential deal under discussion:How does Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza stands out from previous ceasefire proposals? For the first time, it tries to outline the key question of how the territory will be ruled after the war, the Associated Press explains:

      The proposal would effectively put the territory and its more than 2 million people under international control. It calls for deploying an international security force and installing a “Board of Peace” headed by Trump and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to oversee Gaza’s administration and reconstruction.Hamas faces a bitter tradeoff — the proposal demands it effectively surrender in return for uncertain gains. The militant group would have to disarm in return for an end to fighting, humanitarian aid for Palestinians, and the promise of reconstruction in Gaza – all desperately hoped for by its population.But the proposal has only a vague promise that some day, perhaps, Palestinian statehood might be possible. For the foreseeable future, Gaza would stay under a sort of international tutelage and would remain surrounded by Israeli troops.
      Senate majority leader John Thune told reporters before heading to the White House that he believes “there will be multiple opportunities to vote on keeping the government open” if they can’t do so tomorrow.“I would expect additional opportunities,” he said. More

    • 138 Shares118 Views

      in US Politics

      US whistleblowers say they were fired for raising fair housing concerns

      by

      Two attorneys in the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) anti-discrimination division said they were fired on Monday, a week after going public with a whistleblower report alleging that the Trump administration had dismantled efforts to combat residential segregation.Paul Osadebe and Palmer Heenan worked in Hud’s Office of Fair Housing (OFH), which is tasked with bringing cases against parties accused of discriminating against tenants and homebuyers under a landmark civil rights law. In a report sent last month to Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren, Heenan, Osadebe and two anonymous colleagues wrote that fighting discrimination under the Fair Housing Act of 1968 was “not a priority” for the administration, and that their office had been targeted for downsizing because it presented an “optics problem”.On Monday, Osadebe was called into a meeting with HUD managers, who informed him he was being placed on leave in anticipation of firing. A document he was given cited interviews he had given to the New York Times and Washington Post as violating department policy.“This was purely for whistleblowing activity. There was nothing about conduct, performance, any of that,” Osadebe said in an interview. “They said, this is why we’re firing you, because you spoke out. They are as blatant as can be about it.”Heenan, who was in the probationary phase of his employment, was fired in a similar meeting for “the disclosure of non-public information”, according to a letter he was given by HUD.The department’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate committee on banking, housing, and urban affairs, said in a statement following the firings: “Donald Trump doesn’t want Americans to know that his administration is engaged in a systemic attack on their rights.“So the Trump administration is silencing those who are speaking out about how Donald Trump and Scott Turner [the HUD secretary] are turning their backs on the American people, including women experiencing domestic violence, families being denied mortgages because of the color of their skin, and older folks who need extra help getting down the stairs.”Heenan and Osadebe were recently told they would be moved out of the OFH, which had already lost several staff members and was poised to shrink further through a series of reassignments. Last week, they and three other colleagues sued Turner to prevent the transfers, arguing they were part of the effort to undermine enforcement of the law.“Although we knew we were taking a risk, I am still surprised that this administration would violate the whistleblower statute so blatantly,” Heenan said, referring to federal law intended to protect employees who make reports like theirs.“I’m not going to stop speaking out. I’m not going to stop fighting because these rights are just too damn important.” More

    • 113 Shares97 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump administration spending $625m to revive dying coal industry

      by

      The White House will open 13.1m acres (5.3m hectares) of public land to coal mining while providing $625m for coal-fired power plants, the Trump administration has announced.The efforts came as part of a suite of initiatives from the Department of the Interior, Department of Energy, and Environmental Protection Agency, aimed at reviving the flagging coal sector. Coal, the most polluting and costly fossil fuel, has been on a rapid decline over the past 30 years, with the US halving its production between 2008 and 2023, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).“This is an industry that matters to our country,” interior secretary Doug Burgum said in a livestreamed press conference on Monday morning, alongside representatives from the other two departments. “It matters to the world, and it’s going to continue to matter for a long time.”Coal plants provided about 15% of US electricity in 2024 – a steep fall from 50% in 2000 – the EIA found, with the growth of gas and green power displacing its use. Last year, wind and solar produced more electricity than coal in the US for the first time in history, according to the International Energy Agency, which predicts that could happen at the global level by the end of 2026.Despite its dwindling role, Trump has made the reviving the coal sector a priority of his second term amid increasing energy demand due to the proliferation of artificial intelligence data centers.“The Trump administration is hell-bent on supporting the oldest, dirtiest energy source. It’s handing our hard-earned tax dollars over to the owners of coal plants that cost more to run than new, clean energy,” said Amanda Levin, director of policy analysis at the national environmental non-profit Natural Resources Defense Council. “This is a colossal waste of our money at a time when the federal government should be spurring along the new energy sources that can power the AI boom and help bring down electricity bills for struggling families.”The administration’s new $625m investment includes $350m to “modernize” coal plants, $175m for coal projects it claims will provide affordable and reliable energy to rural communities, and $50m to upgrade wastewater management systems to extend the lifespan of coal plants.The efforts follow previous coal-focused initiatives from the Trump administration, which has greenlit mining leases while fast-tracking mining permits. It has also prolonged the life of some coal plants, exempted some coal plants from EPA rules, and falsely claimed that emissions from those plants are “not significant”.The moves have sparked outrage from environmental advocates who note that coal pollution has been linked to hundreds of thousands of deaths across the past two decades. One study estimated that emissions from coal costs Americans $13-$26bn a year in additional ER visits, strokes and cardiac events, and a greater prevalence and severity of childhood asthma events. More

    • 150 Shares146 Views

      in US Politics

      West Africans deported from US to Ghana ‘dumped without documents in Togo’

      by

      West Africans deported by the US to Ghana are now fending for themselves in Togo after being dumped in the country without documents, according to lawyers and deportees.The latest chapter in Donald Trump’s deportation programme, their saga became public earlier this month when the Ghanaian president, John Mahama, disclosed that his country had struck a deal to accept deportees from the region.Eight to 10 west African nationals have since been forcibly sent by Ghana to Togo, bypassing a formal border crossing, and then left on the street without passports.“The situation is terrible,” said Benjamin, a Nigerian national, who said over the weekend he was staying in a hotel room with three other deportees and only one bed, living on money sent from their families in the US.Benjamin – who is using a pseudonym to protect his identity, as he fears persecution from the Nigerian government – said an immigration judge had ruled in June that he couldn’t be deported to Nigeria, citing risks to his life because of his past involvement in politics. He had expected to be released to his wife and children, who are US citizens.He said he was beaten by immigration and customs enforcement (Ice) agents when he refused to board a US military plane headed to an unspecified location, which turned out to be Ghana.Ice did not respond to a request for comment.View image in fullscreenUp to 28 people have arrived in the west African nation from the US so far in the deportation programme.Accra disclosed an initial batch of 14, and Meredyth Yoon, a US-based lawyer, said a second plane that could carry the same amount had since landed, though it was unclear how many people were on it.The initial 14 deportees had won protections in US immigration courts preventing their removal to their home countries for fear of persecution, their lawyers said.But Washington was sending them to Ghana as a loophole, Yoon said – with Accra making it clear people would be forwarded on to their home countries.One deportee, a bisexual man from the Gambia, was immediately sent home by Ghanaian authorities and is living in hiding because same-sex relations are criminalised in the socially conservative country, according to court filings.Two Togolese nationals were deported to the Togo border with Benjamin. They were crying and repeating “It’s over, it’s over”, he said, adding that they had since gone into hiding.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionBenjamin and another deportee, Emmanuel – also a pseudonym – said they had spent more than two weeks under military guard in Ghana’s Dema camp, a detention facility in Bundase, 70km (43 miles) outside Accra, with nine other deportees who suffered from exposure to heat, mosquitoes and unsanitary water.The Ghanaian military eventually told them they were taking them to a hotel. Instead, they were driven to the Aflao border crossing on the outskirts of the Togolese capital, Lomé. With the cooperation of Togolese border officials, they were taken “through the back door” of the facility and left on the other side.“We are in hiding right now because we have no type of documents, ID, whatsoever,” said Emmanuel, a Liberian national who arrived in the US in the 1990s during the first Liberian civil war and was granted asylum.Emmanuel and Benjamin had been green card holders, and are married to US citizens. Both were sent to Ice detention after serving prison sentences for separate fraud charges.Emmanuel was fighting his removal in court when he was deported, Yoon said.The UN human rights office has called on Ghana to stop deporting those sent by the US “to Nigeria, the Gambia, Togo, Mali, Liberia or any other third country where there are substantial grounds for believing that they would be in danger of being subjected to torture”.The US state department said: “We will pursue all appropriate options to remove aliens who should not be in the United States.” More

    • 188 Shares132 Views

      in US Politics

      Tensions expected as Trump meets with top Democrats and Republicans in effort to avoid shutdown

      by

      Democrats and Republicans are gearing up for a crunch White House meeting with Donald Trump in an 11th-hour bid to avert a potentially damaging federal government shutdown.Monday’s gathering is aimed at reaching an agreement over funding the government and largely hinges on Democrat demands for an extension of funding subsidies for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, beyond the end of the year, when they are due to expire.Hakeem Jeffries, the Democrat leader in the House of Representatives, and Chuck Schumer, the party’s leader in the Senate, will meet Trump along with their Republican counterparts, Mike Johnson, the House speaker, and John Thune, the Senate majority leader, for talks that are expected to be tense if not confrontational.It will be Trump’s first meeting with the two Democrats since his return to the White House in January. Jeffries and Trump have never previously met in person.Expectations for the encounter are low, with failure likely to result in large swathes of the federal government shutting down from 1 October.Trump and the Republicans have signaled that they are unfazed at that prospect, calculating that the public will blame Democrat intransigence.The White House office of management and budget (OMB) has also indicated that it will exploit a shutdown to carry out more mass firings as part of its crusade to slash government bureaucracy.An OMB memorandum said government agencies have been instructed “use this opportunity to consider reduction in force (RIF) notices for all employees in programs, projects, or activities”, The Hill reported.Republicans have also warned that Trump could make a shutdown politically costly by targeting spending programmes that are disproportionately used by Democrat-run states and cities.CBS, citing a source close to Trump, reported that he privately welcomes the prospect of a shutdown because it would “enable him to wield executive power to slash some government programs and salaries”.“I just don’t know how we are going to solve this issue,” Trump told the network in a telephone interview. “They [the Democrats] are not interested in waste, fraud and abuse.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionSome Democrats have acknowledged that they have “no good options” in trying to end the standoff.“It’s doubly made no good because it’s very clear that Republicans want [a shutdown]. Trump wants it. He’s fine with that, happy to have it,” The Hill quoted a Democratic Senate aide as saying.. “I don’t really know what your good option here is when they want one.”However, Schumer is under pressure to be seen taking a more actively confrontational stance after being fiercely criticized by fellow Democrats for backing a Republican funding packing in March to avert an earlier government shutdown.With Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican senator, likely to vote against the funding package, it would need the support of eight Democrats to overcome a Senate filibuster. More