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A Total Breakdown in Trust
“Between 2013 and 2019, three government shutdowns were caused by Sen. Ted Cruz’s stand against the Affordable Care Act, Sen. Chuck Schumer’s push on children of immigrants and President Trump’s demand for border wall money,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The 2025 shutdown is about something deeper: a complete breakdown in trust.”
“Democrats don’t trust that the White House will take any spending agreement and adhere to it. The White House has for months routinely ignored congressional appropriations, keeping government funds from flowing as directed by Congress.”
Trump Seizes On Shutdown to Punish Political Foes
“President Trump has embarked on a legally dubious campaign to weaponize the federal budget during a contentious government shutdown, halting more than $27 billion in approved funding in a bid to punish Democratic-led cities and states,” the New York Times reports.
“Rather than broker a legislative truce or seek to ameliorate the fallout of a costly fiscal stalemate, the president has leveraged the crisis to exact revenge on rivals, slash federal spending and pressure Democrats into accepting his political demands.”
Trump to Cut Refugee Admissions to a Record Low
The Trump administration plans to slash refugee admissions to a record low level in the upcoming year, reserving a bulk of the limited slots for white Afrikaners from South Africa and others facing “unjust discrimination,” the New York Times reports.
Quiet Concerns Emerge in Trump’s Orbit Over Shutdown
“President Donald Trump believed the government shutdown would deliver Republicans a swift and decisive political victory. But with the stalemate now likely to spill into a second week, that calculation is looking increasingly shaky,” CNN reports.
Said a White House adviser: “I’m supposed to say this is killing the Democrats. But I don’t think it helps either side, to be honest with you.”
New York Times: The White House can’t decide: Is the shutdown bad or good?
Marjorie Taylor Greene Criticizes Senate Republicans
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right Georgia Republican who has grown increasingly disillusioned with the GOP and President Trump, said that her own party was at least partly to blame for the government shutdown, and that it had the power to unilaterally reopen the government, the New York Times reports.
Said Greene: “If Republican Senators wanted to pass the C.R. and reopen the government they could, by using the nuclear option.”
‘Fuck You, Make Me’
John Oliver: “Look, at some point you’re going to have to draw a line. So I’d argue, why not draw it right here? And when they come to you with stupid, ridiculous demands, picking fights that you know you could win in court, instead of rolling over, why not stand up and use four key words they don’t tend to teach you in business school?”
“Not, ‘OK, you’re the boss.’ Not, ‘Whatever you say goes.’ But instead, the only phrase that can genuinely make a weak bully go away. And that is, ‘Fuck you. Make me.’”
John Gruber: “‘Fuck you, make me’ is, to me, the founding principle of this nation.”
Mike Johnson Says He Won’t Consider Compromise Bill
Speaker Mike Johnson (R) told Scripps News that he is “right now” ruling out putting any future bipartisan Senate compromise to reopen the government on the House floor.
Catherine Cortez Masto Draws Democratic Ire
“Nevada’s Catherine Cortez Masto, celebrated for her narrow victory three years ago that secured Democrats’ control of the Senate, is now being cast as a traitor by members of her own party,” Politico reports.
“She is one of three senators who broke ranks this week, voting with Republicans on the spending bill and robbing Democrats of a united front. Independent Angus King and maverick Democrat John Fetterman joined her in backing the GOP funding measure to keep the government open. But Cortez Masto — a member of Senate leadership — seems to have backing in her home state.”
ICE Agents Handcuffed Chicago Alderperson
Chicago Alderperson Jessie Fuentes was hancuffed by federal immigration agents while she was questioning them why they were at a local medical center, WLS reports.
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“I have big plans, I want to survive.”
— President Trump, on the One American News Network, talking about the 2026 midterm election campaign.
Director of Eisenhower Library Ousted
President Trump wanted to give King Charles one of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s swords during his state visit to the U.K., the New York Times reports.
The Eisenhower presidential library said it could not provide one because it is government property and illegal to give away. Now the library director has been fired.
Republican Leaders Double Down
“The top two congressional Republicans doubled down Friday that they won’t cede to Democratic demands to put in writing any agreement to begin talks on extending expiring Obamacare subsidies — something many Democrats say they need as part of a deal to end the government shutdown,” Politico reports.
Said Sen. John Thune (R-SD): “There is nothing to negotiate.”
Journalists in Alaska Quit Over Charlie Kirk Story
“Several journalists resigned this week from three newspapers in Alaska after the publications’ corporate owner made significant edits to an article about Charlie Kirk’s death, appearing to yield to pressure from a Republican state lawmaker who had criticized the coverage,” the New York Times reports.
Hamas Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details, Reuters reports.
Chart of the Day
The poorest countries are also the most religious. And the countries with higher GDP are more secular.
However, there’s a pretty big outlier: The United States.
House Will Not Be Back Next Week
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) decided to not bring the House of Representatives back next week as the government shutdown continues.
Politico: “The move came after the Senate voted a fourth time Friday to reject a House-passed continuing resolution that would break the ongoing government shutdown. Johnson and House GOP leaders have argued that measure, which would extend federal funding through Nov. 21, is the only viable path out of the standoff.”
RFK Jr. Fires Vaccine Whistleblower
“Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has fired a top official with the National Institutes of Health who blew the whistle on internal clashes over vaccine research in the early months of the Trump administration,” CBS News reports.
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