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.”

The Latest:

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.

Johnson said Trump’s federalizing of the national guard is “unconstitutional, it’s illegal and it’s dangerous.”

“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.”

“Every single furloughed federal employee is entitled to back pay. Period. Full stop,” Hakeem Jeffries said Tuesday, responding to a White House memo outlining a rationale it’s considering for denying back pay to federal workers during the shutdown.

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

Mark Carney came to Washington for his meeting with Trump, arriving shortly before noon on Tuesday.

The two leaders shook hands after Carney stepped out of his vehicle. They ignored shouted questions about the war in Gaza and trade before going inside.

▶ Read more about what’s at stake with Carney’s White House visit

“The frivolous argument that federal employees are not guaranteed backpay under the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act is an obvious misinterpretation of the law,” said Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, representing more than 820,000 workers.

“It is also inconsistent with the Trump administration’s own guidance from mere days ago, which clearly and correctly states that furloughed employees will receive retroactive pay for the time they were out of work as quickly as possible once the shutdown is over,” he said.

“The livelihoods of the patriotic Americans serving their country in the federal government are not bargaining chips in a political game,” Kelley added. “It’s long past time for these attacks on federal employees to stop and for Congress to come together, resolve their differences, and end this shutdown.”

Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, has said that some 300 of Illinois’ guard troops were to be federalized over his objections and sent to Chicago, along with 400 from Texas.

“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

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee are calling for a thorough probe at the Department of Justice, as well as congressional hearings, on how the FBI analyzed the phone records of more than half a dozen GOP lawmakers as part of an investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

During Bondi’s oversight hearing, both GOP senators and the attorney general pointed to the episode as proof that the department had become politicized under the Biden administration.

“We need a special prosecutor to be appointed whose sole responsibility will be to get to the bottom of what has happened,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, referring to the incident as well as others that he argued showed political bias.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley has said he is still deciding whether to hold hearings on this question.

A White House draft memo is threatening no backpay for furloughed workers. But that would have no effect on the president and members of Congress.

The Constitution forbids a reduction in salary for the sitting president, thus guaranteeing the president of compensation regardless of any shutdown action, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Similarly, members of Congress are not subject to furlough and the Constitution states that members of Congress “shall receive” compensation for their services. It says no law varying their compensation can take effect until after the next congressional election.

Still, many lawmakers have sent letters to the Treasury asking that their pay be withheld during the shutdown.

The attorney general is refusing to discuss any legal analysis that the Justice Department may have provided to the White House for a series of military strikes on Venezuelan boats that the president alleges were carrying drugs.

“I’m not going to discuss any legal advice that my department may or may not have given or issued at the direction of the president,” Bondi said.

Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, said he wanted to understand the government take on drug trafficking, and said this use of deadly military force is alarming.

“Due process is the cornerstone of our Constitution,” Coons said. “I’m deeply concerned about the authority our president seems to be asserting to summarily kill people suspected of criminal activity outside the law.”

Party leaders showed no signs of budging from their positions on Tuesday on the seventh day of the government shutdown.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said as he opened the Senate floor that “there’s only one viable path out of the mess that the Democrats have created,” and that is to pass the GOP bill to extend funding to Nov. 21.

“We’re not asking Democrats to support any Republican policies,” Thune said. “We’re just asking them to reopen the government. It’s that simple.”

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., criticized House Speaker Mike Johnson for keeping the House in recess while Democrats demand negotiations on health care.

“Democrats stand ready and willing to negotiate,” Schumer said. “We urge Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to do the same.”

The attorney general says she believes she’s carried out her promise from her January confirmation hearing, that she would not politicize the Justice Department.

Klobuchar reminded Bondi of that commitment at an oversight hearing on Tuesday.

Bondi replied that she believes she absolutely has upheld her pledge, and noted that she also pledged to end what she calls the weaponization of the Justice Department.

The indictment last week of former FBI Director James Comey has stirred concerns from Democrats that the department is being used as a political weapon.

The attorney general says she won’t answer any questions from Democratic senators on the dismissals of Department of Justice officials.

“I am not going to discuss personnel discussions,” Bondi replied to questions that Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota had on the dismissal of one career prosecutor.

“The personnel issue that I’m having right now is that all of my agents, all of my lawyers are working, my agents are on the street working without a paycheck because your party voted to shut down the federal government,” Bondi shot back.

The military assistance provided under the Biden and Trump administrations totals at least $21.7 billion since the Gaza war began on Oct. 7, 2023, according to a new academic study published Tuesday, the second anniversary of the Hamas attacks in Israel that provoked the conflict.

Another study, also published by the Costs of War project at Brown University’s Watson School of International and Public Affairs, says the U.S. has spent roughly $10 billion more on security aid and operations in the broader Middle East in the past two years.

The reports rely on open source material for most of their findings and offer some of the most comprehensive accountings of U.S. military aid to its close ally Israel as well as estimated costs of direct American military involvement in the Middle East.

▶ Read more about Israeli dependence on US funding