“We have to take care of this little gnat that’s on our shoulder called the Democrats.”

— President Trump, speaking to U.S. Navy recruits.

“A federal judge in Oregon temporarily blocked the deployment of any National Guard under the Trump administration’s control inside Oregon in an emergency hearing Sunday night,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Judge Karin Immergut had said on Saturday that the Trump administration had overstepped its authority and couldn’t deploy Oregon’s National Guard to Portland. She said the same reasoning held for Sunday’s order, which came after the administration sent to Oregon 200 California National Guard troops that were under its command.”

“The Trump administration also authorized the mobilization of up to 400 members of the Texas National Guard for federal protection missions in cities including Portland and Chicago.”

Playbook: “This is fast becoming one of the totemic struggles of the Trump presidency. While Trump’s earlier military deployments to Los Angeles and Washington D.C. had an air of theatrics about them, it’s now become clear the president hopes to normalize the use of the military on American streets to quell protests and enforce his policy agenda.”

The Trump administration sent 300 federalized members of the California National Guard to Oregon early Sunday, after being blocked by a federal court from deploying the Oregon National Guard in that state, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom of California. Mr. Newsom denounced the move as a “breathtaking abuse of power” and said California would sue, the New York Times reports.

Washington Post: Tensions spike in Chicago, Portland as Trump faces legal challenges over troop use.

“President Trump confidante Laura Loomer has successfully campaigned for the ouster of more than a dozen national security officials and others she has accused of secretly working against the president’s ‘Make America Great Again’ agenda,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Now she is training her considerable firepower inside the MAGA tent.”

“The 32-year-old, self-styled journalist with 1.8 million followers on X and a twice-weekly podcast ‘Loomer Unleashed,’ has emerged as a powerful figure in Trump’s second term, speaking to the president in the evening when she calls, and telling him who she thinks is disloyal to him.”

“A federal judge on Saturday blocked the Trump administration from using Oregon National Guard soldiers to help quell nightly protests at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland, Oregon,” the New York Times reports.

“Judge Karin Immergut, of the U.S. District Court in Oregon, sided with Democrats who run the state government when she issued a temporary restraining order blocking the mobilization. President Trump and the Defense Department had ordered 200 Oregon soldiers for a 60-day deployment.”

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) warned that President Trump plans to federalize 300 members of the Illinois National Guard. 

Pritzker said he would be defying the order: “I will not call up our National Guard to further Trump’s acts of aggression against our people. Illinois, we will do everything within our power to look out for our neighbors, uphold the Constitution, and defend the rule of law.”

CNN: “The memo symbolized Vought’s methodical march to accumulate power within the executive branch — and the outsized role he has played in getting to this moment. Vought’s vision for how to deconstruct Washington’s sprawling federal bureaucracy, shaped by his years toiling in Republican circles, is now being enacted.”

“Vought has transformed a role typically focused on the weeds of congressional appropriations into the Trump administration’s primary instrument to dismantle, piece by piece, federal agencies and spending plans.”

“The White House has increasingly made Vice President JD Vance the face of the government-shutdown fight, turning to a messenger who so far has taken a lighter touch — and more discipline — than President Donald Trump,” Bloomberg reports.

“Vance’s expanded role was evident from the start, with the vice president attending negotiations Monday between Trump and congressional leaders before the shutdown and then taking the lead role, ahead of House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, in briefing reporters after the meeting.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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?

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.”

“I have big plans, I want to survive.”

— President Trump, on the One American News Network, talking about the 2026 midterm election campaign. 

“Vice President Vance is getting a moment in the spotlight amid the ongoing government shutdown, putting the potential 2028 GOP nominee front-and-center as a top messenger and attack dog for the administration,” NewsNation reports.

“President Donald Trump’s victory last year was fueled in part by improvement among young voters,” NBC News reports.

“But new focus groups reveal why some young voters who backed Trump are beginning to sour on his administration’s approach to immigration and the economy.”

“President Trump is seizing on the government shutdown as an ‘unprecedented opportunity’ to consolidate control in the Oval Office, accelerating a trend toward unchecked power,” Axios reports.

“Many Democrats see the shutdown as a necessary evil to halt — or at least slow — Trump’s steamrolling of democratic norms and independent institutions. So far, the standoff is only emboldening the White House.”

“President Trump and top aides are enlisting powerful business and labor groups to push Senate Democrats to end the government shutdown,” Axios reports.

“Trump, while threatening mass firings of government workers, is also playing an inside game by cultivating support from influential D.C. interests — a tactic he typically dismissed during his first administration.”