The Latest: Trump targets ‘the enemy from within’

Although the military is designed to handle foreign threats, President Donald Trump emphasized his vision of using it for domestic purposes during a speech to top U.S. military officials on Tuesday.

“It’s the enemy from within and we have to handle it before it gets out of control,” the president said. His remarks referred to criminals and immigrants who are in the country illegally.

Trump was joined by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the unusual gathering of hundreds of U.S. military leaders who were abruptly summoned to Virginia from around the world for an unveiling of new directives to end “woke” culture in the military.

The president has already demonstrated an eagerness to deploy troops against U.S. citizens, having deployed the National Guard in Los Angeles over immigration enforcement protests earlier this year and most recently in Portland, despite objections from leaders in both states.

Here’s the latest:

Trump predicts more drug companies will cut deals with White House

As he announced a new partnership with Pfizer that would lead to more investments and lower prices, Trump said other drug manufacturers will follow suit.

And if they don’t, the president threatened to impose tariffs on those companies.

“Nobody wants to play that game. So they’re all gonna be good,” Trump said in response to a question from a reporter.

He said Pfizer was “right at the top,” while the Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly “has been fantastic also.” Other companies are coming to the White House next week and “we’re making deals with all of them.”

Democrats warn that Trump has already let go thousands of federal workers

Asked about the Democrats’ message to federal workers getting furloughs and layoffs in a shutdown, one said the Trump administration has already fired tens of thousands of employees — before any shutdown.

“They’re letting people go left and right,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, because “it’s working at dismantling the federal government.”

“We do not want to shut the government down,” she said. “The Republicans are in charge here. They need to come to the table.”

Ernst ‘not worried’ about Hegseth’s comments on women in military

Hegseth announced Tuesday an overhaul of military standards, saying that if women can’t meet the requirements, “it is what it is.”

Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, who served in the Iraq War, called Hegseth’s comments “appropriate.”

“I’m not worried about that,” Ernst said. “There should be a same set of standards for combat arms. I think that’s what he probably was referring to.”

Ernst had previously expressed misgivings about Hegseth’s nomination, citing his public opposition to women in combat roles. She ultimately voted to confirm him after raising the issue during a confirmation hearing.

“Our women that go through Ranger School, they’re subjected to the same standards as the men. If they’re going into the infantry, same standards as the men,” Ernst said Tuesday. “I think that’s appropriate.”

Federal judge finds Department of Energy’s new funding cap on state-run energy programs illegal, Connecticut attorney general says

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong says a federal judge ruled from the bench Tuesday that a new federal funding cap on state-run energy programs is illegal and violates reimbursement regulations for Department of Energy grants to states.

Tong, a Democrat, announced that U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai in Oregon granted a motion for summary judgement filed by 19 attorneys generals and two governors, finding the agency’s new cost-cutting policy violated the Administrative Procedure Act. The states argued the policy would have slashed long-covered reimbursements for staffing and administrative costs under the State Energy Program, jeopardizing states’ ability to keep them running.

“This was about Donald Trump trying to make it harder for states like Connecticut to drive down unaffordable energy costs and to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels,” Tong, a Democrat, said in a written statement.

An email seeking comment was sent to the Department of Energy.

House Democrats fill the chamber to show support for their funding bill

House Democrats filled the House chamber as they tried to show they were ready to take up government funding — as long as it is on their terms.

The House was holding a pro forma session — a session where the House chamber is quickly opened and closed without any legislative business — but Democrats, who are in Washington to show support for their government shutdown fight, filled their side of the chamber.

They took the opportunity to try to offer up their bill to fund the government while also funding their health care priorities.

Still, the session was closed without the Democrats gaining acknowledgement.

The lawmakers protested, some of them chanting “shame on you,” while others snapped photos of the crowd in the chamber.

CBO: 750,000 federal employees could be furloughed daily in shutdown

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that roughly 750,000 federal employees could be furloughed each day of a shutdown, with the total daily cost of their compensation at roughly $400 million, according to an analysis of federal agencies’ latest contingency plans and the Office of Personnel Management.

The estimate released Tuesday comes in response to Sen. Joni Ernst’s request for an analysis of the impact of what she calls a “Schumer Shutdown” which includes a series of questions about how much damage to the economy would be caused and the expected daily costs to the federal government in lost efficiencies.

“The effects of a shutdown depend on its duration and on an Administration’s decisions about how to proceed,” the CBO says in its Tuesday analysis, largely using work CBO published in 2019 after the five-week partial shutdown from December 22, 2018, until January 25, 2019.

The government will shut down at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday if the Senate does not pass a House measure that would extend federal funding for seven weeks while lawmakers finish their work on annual spending bills.

EPA memo says agency would retain more than 10% staffing in a government shutdown

The Environmental Protection Agency says a contingency plan for a possible government shutdown would leave more than 10% of its staff in place to handle “significant agency activities” that are required by law or necessary to protect life and property.

Activities that would continue include protection of EPA land, buildings, equipment and ongoing research, as well as law enforcement and criminal investigations and emergency and disaster assistance, according to a contingency plan obtained by The Associated Press.

Response work on certain Superfund clean-up sites also would continue, especially in cases where a failure to maintain operations would pose an imminent threat to human life, the memo says.

More than 1,700 employees would be required to go to work if a shutdown begins on Wednesday, the memo said. The agency had about 15,000 employees when Trump began his second term in January but has laid off hundreds of employees and offered voluntary retirement or deferred resignations to thousands more as part of a broader effort by Trump and billionaire Elon Musk to downsize the federal workforce.

Trump’s proposed budget for EPA says 12,856 employees are expected in the budget year that starts Wednesday.

Trump says Pfizer will invest $70 billion in the US and charge lower prices for pharmaceutical drugs

The president said that Pfizer would only charge Medicaid what he called “Most Favored Nation” prices for its pharmaceutical drugs, which means that the cost would match the lowest prices charged in other developed nations.

Trump said that going forward “all new medications introduced by Pfizer” would be sold using the same price structure.

The president also said that Pfizer would invest $70 billion in domestic manufacturing facilities, though it’s unclear what the timeline of that would be or how it compares to previous investment commitments.

Trump’s claim on prescription drug prices is mathematically impossible

Trump claimed — as he has done repeatedly during his second term — that there will be “14, 15, 1,600 percent reductions” to prescription drug prices.

But this is impossible. Cutting drug prices by more than 100% would theoretically mean that people are being paid to take medications.

Geoffrey Joyce, director of health policy at the University of Southern California’s Schaeffer Center, told the AP in August that Trump’s prediction would amount to drug companies paying customers, rather than the other way around.

The full fact-check.

Democrats gathering in protest at the House

It’s just a routine “pro forma” session of the House — gavel in, gavel out — no business to be conducted.

But not if House Democrats have their say.

Democrats are gathering at the House chamber in protest as they push their demands to save health care funds as part of any deal to avert a federal government shutdown.

VA says medical centers and benefit delivery will stay open in shutdown, but some offices will close

The Department of Veterans Affairs says about 97% of its workforce will continue to work if there’s a government shutdown and its medical centers, clinics and vet centers will stay open.

But some programs, such as transition program assistance, career counseling and benefits regional offices, won’t be available, according to the federal agency’s contingency plans. The agency will continue to deliver benefits, perform burials at VA cemeteries and operate suicide prevention programs.

In an unusually partisan statement, the agency blamed “radical liberals in Congress” for a shutdown and said, “If they succeed, they will stop critical Veterans care and assistance programs.”

Democratic attorneys general sue to get back federal disaster money

A coalition of 12 attorneys general has filed a lawsuit to stop the Trump administration’s recent decision to reallocate federal homeland security funding away from their states.

According to the lawsuit filed in Rhode Island’s federal court late Monday, the attorneys general argue that the funds were reduced due to their states’ “sanctuary” jurisdictions. In total, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency reduced more than $233 million from Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.

The funding decision and the new lawsuit come just days after a federal judge ruled in a separate legal challenge that it was unconstitutional for the federal government to require states to cooperate on immigration enforcement actions to get FEMA disaster funding.

Emails seeking comment were sent to the DHS and FEMA.

Trump huddles with Cabinet secretaries upon White House return

After flying back from his speech at Quantico, Trump talked with his administration’s health chief, Robert F. Kennedy Jr, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on the colonnade outside the White House.

The group then spent several minutes looking at portraits of himself and past presidents that Trump has ordered hung along the colonnade.

The president is already well behind schedule for a planned Oval Office announcement unveiling the ‘TrumpRx’ direct-to-consumer website. Yet the group seemed in no hurry.

Sen. Schumer blasts AI video posted by Trump

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer says President Trump’s post of an AI-generated video mocking House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries and himself was offensive.

The video impersonated Schumer’s voice and included Jeffries wearing a sombrero and a mustache after their meeting with Trump and Republican leaders at the White House.

“Listen to this America, hours away from a shutdown, which we don’t want, the American people don’t want, the president is busy trolling away on the internet like a 10-year-old,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.

He said the video is a “proof-point” that Americans will blame Trump for the shutdown that’s expected to begin with the start of a new budget year on Wednesday.

Rights groups in New Orleans wary of the National Guard

Rights groups in New Orleans warned that bringing National Guard troops into the city would lead to the targeting and harassment of Black and immigrant communities. They were already organizing protests for what they described as a “military occupation.”

“The use of the our nation’s military for ‘law enforcement’ is not only immoral and unnecessary, it is illegal,” said Clare Leavy, chair of the group Indivisible New Orleans. “People of conscience must do everything possible to protect our communities from persecution and abuse.”

“We demand our elected officials who side with democracy to stand up alongside us with some real backbone in this fight,” said Toni Jones, chairwoman of the New Orleans Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. “We say ‘No Trump, No Troops!’ and we will be in the streets to make our voices heard.”

New Orleans Mayor recycles old statement welcoming federal intervention

Most New Orleans officials have bristled at the prospect of the National Guard roaming the city’s streets. But Mayor LaToya Cantrell, a Democrat who faces federal corruption charges, responded placidly after Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry requested Monday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth activate National Guard troops in the state’s major cities.

Terry Davis, a spokesperson for Cantrell, referred to a previous statement in which the city and the New Orleans Police Department expressed gratitude for the federal government’s role in improving public safety in the city.

“Our federal and state partnerships have played a significant role in ensuring public safety, particularly during special events for a world-class city,” the Sept. 3 statement said. “The City of New Orleans and NOPD remain committed to sustaining this momentum, ensuring that every neighborhood continues to feel the impact of these combined efforts.”

HUD website accuses ‘radical left’ of trying to shut down government, spurring Hatch Act questions

Internet users on Tuesday spotted a banner on the website for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that some argue breaches a law designed to limit political activity by federal employees.

The banner, which pops up when navigating to the website’s homepage, includes political messaging about the congressional standoff that will lead to a government shutdown at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday if the two sides can’t agree.

“The Radical Left are going to shut down the government and inflict massive pain on the American people unless they get their $1.5 trillion wish list of demands,” the banner reads. “The Trump administration wants to keep the government open for the American people.”

Some internet users suggested this would violate the Hatch Act, an 80-year-old law that restricts partisan political activity by U.S. federal employees. The department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Federal appeals court rules against reporter in contempt fight

A three-judge panel of Washington’s federal appeals court ruled veteran investigative reporter Catherine Herridge must testify about her source for a series of Fox News stories about a Chinese American scientist who was investigated by the FBI but never charged.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper held Herridge in civil contempt in 2024 after she refused to answer questions about her source in a deposition with the scientist’s lawyers. The judge imposed a fine of $800 a day until she reveals her source, through that has been on hold while she fought the case on appeal.

The appeals court panel rejected Herridge’s bid to reverse the contempt order and quash the subpoena, though it’s giving Herridge’s lawyers time to petition the full court to hear the case. After Fox, Herridge later worked for CBS but she now works as an independent investigative journalist.

The case has been being closely watched by media advocates, who say forcing journalists to betray a promise of confidentiality could make sources think twice before providing information to reporters that could expose government wrongdoing.

Senate leaders debate shutdown live on chamber floor

Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer clashed publicly Tuesday as tensions over a potential government shutdown spilled onto the Senate floor.

After Thune delivered his opening remarks, Schumer followed as Thune watched. Schumer accused Republicans of “trying to bully us,” and said “Thune did not come once to me and say is this bill acceptable.”

“That is not how you negotiate,” Schumer added, directly addressing Thune.

Thune pushed back during Schumer’s remarks, interjecting at one point: “The way we’ve done it, it’s a different business model than the one he used.”

White House to unveil ‘TrumpRx,’ a direct-to-consumer drug website

Trump’s administration is launching a website for consumers to buy drugs directly instead of going through insurance, his press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed Tuesday.

The White House will also announce that drugmaker Pfizer will lower prices on several medications in the U.S., she said on X. The news was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The announcements come as Trump’s deadline imposed on drug companies to effectively lower their prices for Americans expired Monday. Some pharmaceutical trade groups have said they’re taking steps to invest in American manufacturing and address the causes of high drug costs, but it’s unclear if those commitments satisfy Trump’s demands.

Though the Biden administration inked deals with pharmaceutical companies to knock prices for some of Medicare’s costliest drugs, White House spokesperson Kush Desai argued only Trump is “actually walking the walk.”

“President Trump is doing more to lower healthcare costs than anyone else in Washington, D.C.,” he said in a statement.

Jeffries says spending bill must address health care concerns

Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said he would continue to try and have conversations Tuesday with the Trump administration and Republican counterparts on avoiding a government shutdown at the end of the day.

“But what we’re not going to do is be part of essentially a my way or the highway approach,” Jeffries said on CNBC as congressional leaders hit the airwaves in advance of a potential shutdown.

Democrats are demanding that Republicans include in the spending bill an extension of enhanced tax credits that are set to expire at the end of the year for those who purchase coverage through the marketplaces established by the Affordable Care Act.

Republicans have said that’s a policy issue that can be dealt with in later months, but Jeffries said Democrats weren’t going to support a bill that “continues to gut the health care of the American people.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson voices skepticism about averting a government shutdown

And Johnson said whether it shuts down after midnight is up to two people — Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer in the Senate and Hakeem Jeffries in the House.

Johnson made his comments on a CNBC interview as congressional leaders hit the airwaves Tuesday morning to shape the messaging battles going into a likely shutdown.

Johnson said there are no partisan policy riders in the short-term funding patch that has failed to advance in the Senate after passing the House. He noted that Democrats routinely supported such resolutions during Joe Biden’s presidency.

“They don’t want to do it because they want to fight Trump,” Johnson said. “A lot of good people are going to be hurt because of this.”

Trump expounds on the art of presidential stair walking

About an hour into the speech, Trump got onto the subject of walking down stairs.

He said he goes “very slowly” because he doesn’t want to fall the way some other presidents have and have it become part of his legacy, too.

“I just try not to fall because it doesn’t work out well,” Trump said.

He mentioned former President Joe Biden, who stumbled a few times on the stairs to Air Force One. Trump said he had “zero respect” for former President Barack Obama but liked how the former president went quickly up and down the stairs.

Trump has had his own issues with the Air Force One stairs, too.

House Democrats highlight beneficiaries of health programs

As Democrats dig into their position in the government funding fight, they’re emphasizing the stories of people who depend on health care programs for their families.

Standing behind a lectern with a sign that says “Save healthcare,” Democrats were joined by a mother who depends on Medicaid to care for her sons with autism, a college professor who uses tax credits to afford health insurance and a nurse who warned that cuts to health care would endanger her patients.

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries says their stance is simple: “Cancel the cuts. Lower the cost. Save health care. That’s what this fight is all about.”

Jeffries calls Trump’s video ‘racist and fake’

“Mr. President, allow me to re-introduce myself,” Jeffries said outside the Capitol. “I’m the House Democratic leader.”

Jeffries called the online video Trump released last night that dressed the leader up in cartoonish garb, a sombrero and faux mustache, “racist and fake.”

He was surrounded by lawmakers and said he represents a more than 200-strong Democratic caucus in the U.S. House.

Trump had posted the video the evening after their first-ever meeting at the White House.

Jeffries then said: Next time I’m in the Oval Office, “say it to my face.”

Trump targets ‘the enemy from within’

Although the military is designed to handle foreign threats, the president emphasized his vision of using it for domestic purposes.

“It’s the enemy from within and we have to handle it before it gets out of control,” he said.

Trump’s remarks referred to criminals and immigrants who are in the country illegally. He also complained about “insurrectionists” who are funded by “the radical left.”

“Many of our leaders used our military to keep peace,” he said.