Morning Report is The Hill’s a.m. newsletter. Subscribe here.
In today’s issue:
▪ Shutdown enters third week
▪ Media outlets rebuff Hegseth policy
▪ Obama steps up political fight
▪ Rubio’s star rises
Wednesday marks two weeks since the government shut down, and lawmakers are increasingly bracing for the standoff to drag on as Republicans apply added pressure.
The Senate on Tuesday evening — for the eighth time — failed to advance the House-passed “clean” funding stopgap bill championed by congressional Republicans. The vote ended in a 49-45margin, with the only difference being Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who voted in favor of the resolution every other time it came to the floor, missing the vote.
But the vote marked a first since the shutdown began: Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) did not allow lawmakers to consider the Democrats’ alternative funding measure, which would permanently extend enhanced health insurance premium subsidies and restore nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts.
“There is only one choice: You either vote for the clean [continuing resolution] to reopen the government or you vote for the shutdown. They have no cover,” a Senate Republican aide told The Hill’s Alexander Bolton ahead of the vote.
Thune later remarked: “While military families and government workers may be deeply stressed, at least life is getting better every day for Senate Democrats.” The GOP leader was referencing Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer‘s (D-N.Y.) comments from last week that “every day gets better for us,” referring to Democrats. Republicans have lambasted the comments.
As the GOP rachets up pressure, Capitol Hill is increasingly signaling it’s ready for a prolonged shutdown, The Hill’s Al Weavers reports. The Trump administration has also taken steps to neutralize pressure points that otherwise could incentivize lawmakers to budge.
▪The Hill: Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.): ‘We’re barreling toward one of the longest shutdowns in American history’
President Trump over the weekend directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to use “all available funds” to avoid the possibility of military service members missing their first paychecks, which go out on Wednesday. The Department of Defense later said it found $8 billion in unspent funding to fulfill Trump’s demand, as Johnson holds firm in refusing to move a stand-alone bill to pay troops.
After some congressional Democrats questioned the legality of the administration repurposing previously appropriated funds to pay service members, the Speaker on Tuesday dared them to challenge the move in court.
“If the Democrats want to go to court and challenge troops being paid, bring it. OK,” Johnson said during a press conference at the Capitol.
▪The New York Times: “Air Traffic Controllers Reject Credit for Ending the Last Shutdown”
In an earlier move to ward off potential pressure over the shutdown, the White House last week said it would use money from tariff revenue to provide funding for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, commonly known as WIC, before it was set to lapse.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt described the move at the time as a “creative solution,” adding the administration would “not allow impoverished mothers and their babies to go hungry because of the Democrats’ political games.”
The White House, Senate and House GOP leadership all appear to be in lockstep on holding the line in the shutdown standoff, while Democrats refuse to back down on their demands regarding Affordable Care Act tax credits and Medicaid funding.
▪The Associated Press: Trump and White House budget chief Russell Vought are making this a government shutdown unlike any other.
Johnson, canceling previously scheduled votes in the lower chamber and keeping the House in an extended recess during the shutdown, has seemingly cosigned some hard-line stances long favored by the conservative House Freedom Caucus. The Hill’s Emily Brooks wrote in Tuesday’s The Movement newsletter that the caucus has urged House Republicans in the past to pass a “righteous bill,” then try to jam the Senate by leaving town.
House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) said on a recent press call with Johnson that the conservative group’s backing of his decisions “reflects how far we’ve come as a movement from a small group of conservatives … to a leading voice shaping the direction of the policy in the country.”
Democrats, meanwhile, appear unmoved by the GOP’s tactics.
Schumer — Trump and GOP lawmakers’ most frequent punching bag over the shutdown — on Tuesday shared on the social platform X an ABC News story about “vanishing” rural hospitals.
“Trump’s policies are devastating health care in rural communities,” Schumer wrote. “And now, Republicans have shut down the government instead of fixing the health care crisis they’ve created.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) echoed those words, writing on X that Democrats are “holding the line to save” health care on Day 14 of the “Trump-Republican Shutdown.” The House Democratic leader also told reporters following a press conference that the “American people have been clear that Republicans shut the government down.”
Recent polling is generally split on who deserves the most blame.
While Senate Democrats did not have a chance to vote on their stopgap proposal Tuesday — which would fund the government through Oct. 31, compared with Nov. 21 in the House bill — Schumer did file a procedural motion last week to reconsider the alternative. Bolton reports Democrats are planning to bring the measure up for another vote later.
3 Things to Know Today
1. The Supreme Court on Wednesday will hear arguments in a blockbuster case challenging a key provision of the Voting Rights Act on whether states can consider race in redistricting. The case stems from a battle over Louisiana’s congressional map.
2. Trump is set to turn his attention to the war in Ukraine, hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later this week on the heels of his whirlwind trip to the Middle East to tout a ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas.
3. The jury pools Trump adversaries James Comey and Letitia James will face are vastly different, The Hill’s Zach Schonfeld and Ella Lee report in The Gavel newsletter. Click here to sign up and get it in your inbox later today.
Leading the Day
TRUMP CONDITIONS ARGENTINA AID: Just a day after returning from his Middle East trip, the president welcomed Argentinian President Javier Milei, a strong ally who attended Trump’s inauguration in January, for a bilateral lunch at the White House.
Trump further doubled down on supporting the Argentinian leader by saying his administration’s plans to provide billions of dollars in economic assistance to the country are contingent on whether Milei, an admirer of the president’s, remains in power.
“If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina,” Trump said Tuesday. “If he does win, we’re going to be very helpful.”
Milei is not up for reelection until 2027, but he will oversee a midterm election later this month that could test his power.
▪BBC: How Milei’s ‘Thatcherite’ economics divided his nation — but won over Trump.
The administration recently finalized a $20 billion currency swap with Argentina’s central bank, which Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent defended alongside Trump and Milei on Tuesday, saying the U.S. is “not going to ignore our allies.”
The comments come as the White House is facing bipartisan blowback over its approach to Argentina amid the ongoing U.S. government shutdown.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) recently expressed frustration that Argentina is selling soybeans to China, which he argued is hurting American farmers in the process. Trump, for his part, said on Tuesday that China “likes to draw wedges.”
▪ Time: Javier Milei Is Losing His Grip on Argentina.
SCOTUS SLAMS DOOR ON ALEX JONES: The Supreme Court on Tuesday dealt a blow to conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, denying his appeal of a roughly $1.4 billion defamation judgment he owes for falsely claiming the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax.
It’s unclear, however, how much of that figure — among the largest defamation judgments in American history — the Sandy Hook shooting victims’ families will see. Jones is in bankruptcy, and the families have attempted recently to sell assets owned by the Infowars host’s company, The Hill’s Zach Schonfeld reports.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to weigh in on two cases tied to claims about the 2020 presidential election.
The court will not consider an appeal from a Michigan Republican who signed a document falsely claiming Trump won the state’s 2020 presidential race. Clifford James Frost is one of 16 “fake electors” in Michigan who saw criminal charges brought against them by the state’s Democratic attorney general.
The Supreme Court also declined to take up a conservative legal group’s bid to revive its lawsuit against California over its secretary of state’s removal of a “misleading” video in the lead-up to the 2020 election, according to The Hill’s Ella Lee.
▪ The New York Times: Will the Supreme Court Use a Louisiana Case to Gut the Voting Rights Act?
SOME AIRPORTS SAY ‘NO’ TO NOEM: Add airport officials to the list of those lobbing Hatch Act violation claims at the Trump administration amid the government shutdown.
Airports from Seattle to Buffalo, N.Y. — at least seven in total so far — have refused to play a video requested by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) featuring Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem blaming Democrats for the shutdown.
In the video, Noem warns travelers about potential changes to airport operations due to staffing limitations and TSA workers not receiving pay during the Capitol Hill standoff. She also says, “Our hope is that Democrats will soon recognize the importance of opening the government.”
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and Portland International Airport in Oregon both confirmed to The Hill that they will not play the video, Ryan Mancini reports.
“We did not consent to playing the video in its current form, as we believe the Hatch Act clearly prohibits use of public assets for political purposes and messaging,” a spokesperson with the Port of Portland said in a Tuesday statement.
Boston Logan International Airport is also on the list of those not playing Noem’s video, but for different reasons. A Massachusetts Port Authority spokesperson told The Hill that TSA had not requested the video be played there and noted “there are no video screens at TSA checkpoints” in the Boston airport.
▪ Newsweek: Full List of Airports Refusing To Show Kristi Noem’s Shutdown Video.
RUBIO ENTERS THE SPOTLIGHT: Secretary of State Marco Rubio was once a fierce critic of his current boss. Now, Trump and the former Florida GOP senator are thick as thieves, most recently having teamed up to get an Israel-Hamas ceasefire across the finish line.
“I have a prediction that Marco will go down — I mean this — as the greatest secretary of State in the history of the United States. I believe that,” Trump said Monday at the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. “Who the hell thought this was going to happen, Marco?”
The Hill’s Brett Samuels writes about Rubio’s rising stock, with the Middle East peace victory having cemented the secretary’s status in Trump’s inner circle and the likelihood that he’ll be a contender for the 2028 Republican presidential ticket alongside Vice President Vance.
▪ The Associated Press: AP photos show Rubio’s urgent note to Trump before announcement of Mideast peace deal.
▪ The New York Times: The White House disapproved of María Corina Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize win; Rubio as a GOP senator signed a letter backing her nomination.
When & Where
The president will hold a press conference with FBI Director Kash Patel at 3 p.m. in the Oval Office and host a “ballroom dinner” at 7:30 p.m. at the White House.
The Senate will meet today, the House is out.
At 8:15 a.m. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent speaks at CNBC’s “Invest in America Forum” followed by Federal Reserve board member Stephen Miran at 9:30 a.m.
At 8 p.m. NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo hosts a town hall with Bill O’Reilly and Stephen A. Smith at the Kennedy Center.
Zoom In
MEDIA BOYCOTTS HEGSETH POLICY: Pete Hegseth is getting hardly any takers for the Pentagon’s new press rules.
The newly minted secretary of War issued a new policy requiring reporters to sign to keep their access to the Pentagon, but hardly any news organizations are agreeing to the terms.
Just before a 5 p.m. Tuesday deadline for news organizations to comply, the heavily conservative One America News Network was the only outlet known to have agreed to the policy.
News organizations that said they would not have their workers sign the policy included major news organizations such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Associated Press.
ABC, CBS, NBC News, CNN and Fox News issued a joint statement saying they wouldn’t have their reporters sign the policy.
“We will continue to cover the U.S. military as each of our organizations has done for many decades, upholding the principles of a free and independent press,” they said in an exceedingly rare statement.
Fox News’s decision not to sign the policy, which was not surprising, was notable nonetheless since it had not so long ago employed Hegseth.
But it was far from the only conservative outlet to boycott the policy. Newsmax, another conservative outlet, said it would not sign the policy. The Washington Examiner also declined to sign it.
(For the record, The Hill and its sister network NewsNation are not signing the policy.)
It’s not clear how much the unity among the news media against the policy will mean to Hegseth, who has cast himself as a disrupter within the Pentagon and who has a testy relationship with the press.
On Monday, he derided outlets that said their reporters would not sign the policy, using a hand-wave emoji to apparently wave goodbye to media coverage.
The new policy will not prevent journalists from doing investigative journalism on the Pentagon or the military, but it would require those with a permanent pass to the Pentagon to sign a document saying they could be deemed “a security or safety risk” if they ask Defense Department workers for information that is not classified but deemed sensitive.
A reporter who solicited a call for tips or who encouraged military personnel to share information that is not public could be deemed a security risk under the policy.
Solicitations are hardly unusual in reporting; and often are used to provide the public with useful information on what its government — including the military — is up to.
It’s difficult to tell just how big of a difference the new policy will make for reporters, partly because Hegseth and his aides already have taken steps to make covering the Pentagon difficult.
Hegseth’s office removed four outlets from their Pentagon workspaces in late January, replacing them with rivals that give favorable coverage to the Trump administration, including One America News Network.
When reporters from the organizations removed from those workspaces complained, the Pentagon reacted by removing four additional news outlets, including The Hill, from their desks.
Hegseth’s team also restricted access to the Pentagon’s press briefing room, previously one of the few places at the Pentagon with wireless internet. For some reporters, deskless and with no internet access, filing stories from the Pentagon was made exceedingly difficult.
A few months later, Hegseth banned reporters from most hallways within the Pentagon without an official escort, a measure widely seen as being extreme since reporters had had such access for decades — including after the 9/11 attack in 2001.
What all of this means is that even before the new policy, Hegseth had done everything in his power to crack down on the ability to report from within the Pentagon.
The steps are unlikely to prevent workers who want to be heard from talking to reporters.
But it is a deeply chilling environment, and one not completely in line with the approach taken by Hegseth’s boss, President Trump.
Trump’s insults of the media pose their own threats to the press, and the White House has taken steps to curtail access to the presidential pool over reporting it dislikes, including banning the AP over its refusal to use the name “Gulf of America” for the Gulf of Mexico.
At the same time, it’s difficult to argue the president avoids reporters. He holds regular events where reporters get to ask questions, he stops outside the White House to take questions and he has been known to talk to reporters on Air Force One.
Trump, who defended Hegseth over the restrictions on Tuesday, is combative with the press, perhaps vindictive about coverage he doesn’t like. But he does not appear to be afraid of the press.
Hegseth’s new policy comes as he seeks to reshape everything about the military, from its leadership to the Department of Defense name. It was recently given a secondary name — the Department of War — under Hegseth.
Whether Hegseth can truly reshape his coverage, even with the new policies, may be more difficult to predict.
Longtime Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr, who is retired from CNN, predicted Hegseth’s actions will lead to more pointed coverage.
“Pete Hegseth genuinely seems to believe that confiscating Pentagon access passes for journalists who don’t sign up for his new rules will stop the flow of news he doesn’t like,” Starr wrote in a post on Substack on Monday. “Well think again. Journalists, and the news organizations they work for, are professionally and mentally tougher than he can even imagine. So buckle up.”
— Ian Swanson.
▪ The Hill: 5 takeaways as Hegseth changes Pentagon press policy.
Elsewhere
HERE COMES OBAMA: Former President Obama is increasingly weighing in on political issues surrounding the administration, seeking to throw his weight behind efforts to resist Trump and his agenda — and generally admonish his behavior.
Obama rebuked Trump’s recent Tylenol claims as “violence against the truth.”
He condemned the president for celebrating after comedian Jimmy Kimmel was briefly removed from the airwaves.
And he criticized Trump’s National Guard deployments in U.S. cities while chastising law firms and businesses that have bowed to pressure from the administration.
Now, he’s cutting an ad backing California Democrats in their push to redraw the state’s congressional districts to temporarily gain five seats to neutralize GOP gains in Texas.
The actions are not necessarily a surprise.
Earlier in the year, Obama headlined a fundraiser on Martha’s Vineyard aimed at boosting Democrats’ redistricting efforts, and he backed California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) proposal in August to respond to the GOP mapmaking campaign.
But the moves are nonetheless notable, underscoring how norms surrounding former commanders in chief weighing in on — or actively seeking to avoid — hot-button political issues involving others who have held the office have been upended in the Trump era.
The public rebukes have escalated since July, when a spokesperson for Obama issued a rare statement responding to “bizarre allegations” from the Trump administration involving the investigation into Russia’s efforts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election. The Trump administration accused Obama-era officials of manipulating intelligence, alleging former officials engaged in a “treasonous conspiracy.”
“Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response,” Obama’s spokesperson said at the time. “But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one.”
The former president’s vocal pushback has been further contrasted by the relatively low profile kept by the most recent Democratic occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Former President Biden, who is undergoing radiation therapy to treat an aggressive form of prostate cancer, has given only a few major interviews since leaving office in January, including to the BBC in May and by phone with The New York Times in July.
Biden strongly criticized Trump in the BBC interview, particularly over foreign policy and Trump’s expressed desire to acquire other countries, remarking, “What the hell’s going on?”
Still, it’s the Democrat who exited office nearly nine years ago making the most waves as the elder party voice chiefly opposing Trump’s agenda during the first year of his second term.
Newsom, a likely contender for the 2028 Democratic nomination who has daily gone after Trump, acknowledged in a fundraising pitch Tuesday “there is no better messenger” for Democrats than Obama.
The party has struggled to find areas where it can fight back against Trump and unified GOP control in Washington. And at the very least, Obama’s star power helps punch through the various news cycles.
Republicans have taken notice.
CNN conservative political commentator Scott Jennings called Obama “the most hyperpolitical and hyperpartisan post-president we’ve ever had” and cast Trump’s political rise as a direct response to Obama’s and Biden’s presidencies.
“Democrats from Obama on down are having a heck of a time understanding where they went wrong and how Donald Trump has captivated a nation and now the entire world,” Jennings saidthis week.
HE PRAYED ‘FOR HIS ENEMIES’: Erika Kirk, the widow of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk, told attendees at a White House event Tuesday honoring her late husband that he prayed for his enemies, after Trump sharply broke with her sentiment last month.
“Surprisingly enough, he did pray for his enemies,” Erika Kirk said Tuesday, turning to smile at Trump. “Which is very hard, but he did,” she added.
The president shrugged as some attendees laughed.
Trump and Erika Kirk offered contrasting messages at a memorial service for Charlie Kirk last month, with Erika Kirk quoting Jesus on the cross calling for forgiveness for those who crucified him.
“The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the Gospel is love and always love,” Erika Kirk told the thousands gathered in the stadium in Arizona.
Trump, speaking immediately after her, stated, “[Charlie Kirk] did not hate his opponents. He wanted the best for them. That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent and I don’t want the best for them, I’m sorry.”
The president praised Charlie Kirk on Tuesday, posthumously awarding him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Opinions
Trump can still win the Nobel Prize if he helps liberate Ukraine, Joseph Bosco writes in The Hill.
Congress can rein in executive power, William A. Galston writes in The Wall Street Journal.
The Closer
And finally … The betting markets are predicting a major shift among voters following perhaps the biggest October surprise this election cycle.
Major online prediction markets have all seen a surge in bets that Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) will hold on to his seat over Democratic challenger Jay Jones.
Jones has been embroiled in controversy after text messages revealed him wishing violence against Virginia’s former Republican state House Speaker in 2022. The Democratic candidate has since apologized while rebuffing calls to drop out of the race.
For several months earlier this year Jones was viewed as a lock in the race in betting markets. His stock has since cratered after the texting scandal was revealed. Miyares is now favored in more than 60 percent of bets on Polymarket, Kalshi and PredictIt.
The pair are set to square off in their only debate in Richmond on Thursday night.
