Nov. 5, 2025, 6:55 p.m. ETExports of Swiss goods, including Swiss Army knives, have dived ever since August, when President Trump imposed a 39 percent tariff on the country.Credit...Lea Meienberg for The New York TimesAmong the countries still reeling from high tariffs is Switzerland, which was blindsided in August when President Trump imposed a 39 percent duty on the country, the highest for any western nation.Afterward, the price of Swiss goods sold in the United States jumped, putting Swiss businesses at a disadvantage to their rivals in countries with lower tariffs. Last month, exports of Swiss luxury watches slumped by more than half, while precision machinery, as well as chocolates, cheeses and Swiss Army knives, have been hit.The tariff, which appeared to reflect the $39 billion trade deficit that Switzerland had with the United States, had baffled the Swiss, who were expecting a tariff closer to the 15 percent rate negotiated with the European Union. It spurred a flurry of efforts by Swiss diplomats and businessmen to persuade Mr. Trump to consider a better deal.On Tuesday, Mr. Trump said that he had met with executives from Switzerland and announced further trade talks. It was “my Great Honor to just meet with high level Representatives of Switzerland,” he wrote in a social media post. “We discussed many subjects including, and most importantly, Trade and Trade Imbalance.”He added that the U.S. trade representative, Jamieson Greer, would “discuss the subjects further with Switzerland’s Leaders.”In the meantime, Swiss businesses are struggling to adapt. The U.S. tariffs had clouded the outlook for the Swiss economy and were expected to slow growth this year and next, spurring a rise in unemployment, the economy ministry said in an assessment last month. Swiss companies say they are facing a double whammy: The weak dollar, which has plunged by 12 percent against the Swiss franc since Mr. Trump took office, has made the overall impact of the tariffs higher.“Uncertainty remains elevated,” the Swiss economy ministry said.Nov. 5, 2025, 5:47 p.m. ETKaroline Leavitt, the White House spokesperson, wrote on social media post that the State Department has revoked 80,000 non-immigrant visas since January. She did not give more details. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said throughout this year that he was ordering officials to revoke visas for a wide range of reasons, including ideological ones. A federal judge recently ruled that Rubio violated the First Amendment by trying to revoke the visas of pro-Palestinian activists. Rubio and his aides have also said the State Department has revoked visas of some foreign citizens based on public comments they made in the aftermath of the killing of Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist.Nov. 5, 2025, 5:17 p.m. ETSean Duffy, the transportation secretary, and Bryan Bedford, the administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, during a news conference on Wednesday.Credit...Tasos Katopodis/Getty ImagesThe Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it would cut 10 percent of air traffic in 40 of the nation’s busiest markets, in a move that analysts said would force airlines to cancel thousands of flights while the administration tries to force Democrats to end the government shutdown.Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the cancellations were an attempt to “alleviate the pressure” on air traffic controllers, who have not been paid since mid-October. He said the administration would announce the affected markets on Thursday, as the year’s busiest travel season approaches.The cuts would take effect on Friday, potentially forcing hundreds of thousands of travelers to suddenly change plans and pushing airlines to slash capacity across their routes.Cirium, an aviation data firm, estimated that the cuts could result in 1,800 canceled flights on Friday alone, said Mike Arnot, a spokesman.Mr. Duffy has been sounding an alarm about the pressures on the Federal Aviation Administration’s force of certified air traffic controllers, most of whom were already working overtime shifts to compensate for about 3,000 vacancies among its 14,000 positions before the shutdown. Controllers, who are required to work through the shutdown without salary, are facing their second missed paycheck on Tuesday.“We are going to proactively make decisions to keep the airspace safe,” Mr. Duffy said at a news conference.Mr. Duffy warned earlier this week that if the shutdown went on, the F.A.A. could close parts of the national airspace to traffic. His Wednesday announcement marked a step in that direction, as he and Bryan Bedford, the F.A.A. administrator, warned that if staffing issues worsened, more restrictions could be implemented.“We’re not going to wait for a safety problem to truly manifest itself when the early indicators tell us we can take action today,” Mr. Bedford said, adding that they planned to work with the airlines to draw back schedules over the next 48 hours.It was not immediately clear what had prompted the change in approach. Though controller absences led to a raft of significant delays on Halloween and affected operations in some large markets through the weekend, interruptions have been comparatively benign since the start of the work week. Mr. Duffy and Mr. Bedford said their decision had been driven by data.“We’re not going to wait for a safety problem to truly manifest itself when the early indicators tell us we can take action today to prevent things from deteriorating,” Mr. Bedford said, adding that the F.A.A. was working with the airline industry to determine which routes ought to be scaled back.The reductions will not affect just commercial travel. In certain markets, they will also include restrictions on space launches and aircraft operating under visual flight rules, Mr. Duffy and Mr. Bedford said, explaining that those operations complicated the already difficult jobs of air traffic controllers.Mr. Bedford, a 35-year veteran of the aviation industry, added that the moves were without precedent in his experience. But he said the situation — a shutdown that entered its 36th day on Wednesday, making it the longest on record — was also without precedent.“We’re in new territory in terms of government shutdowns,” he said. But he added that after a January midair crash outside Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, surveillance of the national airspace had changed from what it had been even a year ago.“These are unusual times, and we look forward to a time when we can get back to business as usual,” Mr. Bedford said.Christine Chung contributed reporting.Nov. 5, 2025, 5:10 p.m. ETJurors went home without reaching a verdict in the trial of Sean Dunn, the man charged with misdemeanor assault for hitting a federal agent with a Subway sandwich. The jury had just over an hour and a half to deliberate today, after both sides delivered closing arguments and rested earlier this afternoon.Nov. 5, 2025, 5:05 p.m. ETPhotographers and reporters have spotted a new sign labelling the Oval Office at the White House. The sign, printed in gold, cursive lettering, echoes the visual brand of President Trump’s hotels and clubs. It is unclear if the fixture is temporary or part of a larger effort to renovate the West Wing. The president oversaw a rapid, surprise demolition of the East Wing last month.Nov. 5, 2025, 4:42 p.m. ETBryan Bedford, the F.A.A. administrator and a 35-year veteran of the aviation industry, said that the restrictions that would take effect on Friday would be unprecedented in his experience — but also said the situation was unprecedented, for a variety of reasons.“We’re in new territory in terms of government shutdowns,” he said. But he added that in the wake of the January midair crash outside Ronald Reagan National Airport, surveillance of the national airspace had also changed from what it was even a year ago.“These are unusual times and we look forward to a time when we can get back to business as usual,” Bedford said.Credit...Tasos Katopodis/Getty ImagesNov. 5, 2025, 4:33 p.m. ETIf there is no resolution to the government shutdown by Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration will reduce air traffic in 40 key markets by 10 percent, Sean Duffy, the secretary of transportation, and Bryan Bedford, the administrator of the F.A.A., just announced.They framed the reduction as a proactive measure to preserve the safety of air travel, adding that they were going to work with airlines over the next 48 hours to reduce schedules, which would likely result in some cancellations.“We’re not going to wait for a safety problem to truly manifest itself when the early indicators tell us we can take action today,” Bedford said.The 40 markets will be announced Thursday, Bedford said. Planned reductions would also include space launches and aircraft operating under visual flight rules.Nov. 5, 2025, 4:30 p.m. ETDespite the apparent skepticism of Supreme Court justices as they heard the administration’s arguments about President Trump’s tariff powers, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a Fox Business Network interview that he was “very optimistic” that the White House would prevail. Bessent said that the plaintiffs had “embarrassed” themselves by failing to understand economics and trade policy.Credit...Haiyun Jiang/The New York TimesNov. 5, 2025, 3:40 p.m. ETSecretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth briefed a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Capitol Hill ahead of a Senate vote this week on whether to block possible military action against Venezuela. The White House has shared additional information this week with lawmakers on strikes against boats that the Pentagon said were trafficking narcotics into the United States. That came after some within the president’s party voiced concern about the lack of transparency into the attacks and their legal justification.House Speaker Mike Johnson and Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader, were both in attendance, along with lawmakers from the House and Senate foreign affairs, defense and intelligence committees.Credit...Haiyun Jiang/The New York TimesNov. 5, 2025, 3:26 p.m. ETAfter California voters approved redrawing the state’s congressional map to favor Democrats, there will be a high-profile contest between two incumbents from the same party. Representative Ken Calvert, a veteran Republican, said he planned to run again in the newly drawn 40th District, a seat currently represented by Representative Young Kim, who also said she will seek re-election. Kim’s announcement said California needs “proven fighters who will stand with President Trump,” while Calvert’s noted he already represents “the majority of this district in Congress.”Four other Republican seats — those held by held by Representatives Doug LaMalfa, Darrell Issa, Kevin Kiley and David Valadao — are also expected to be affected by the redistricting effort, which could pit longtime allies against each other.Nov. 5, 2025, 3:00 p.m. ETPresident Trump at the White House on Wednesday.Credit...Haiyun Jiang/The New York TimesPresident Trump on Wednesday said the continuing government shutdown was to blame for the large Democratic victories in Tuesday’s New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial elections, while arguing that voters did not reject him personally.Speaking at a breakfast of Senate Republicans, Mr. Trump, citing unidentified “pollsters,” called the government shutdown a “big factor, negative for the Republicans.”Mr. Trump also noted that he wasn’t on the ballot, suggesting that Republican voters turn out in larger numbers to vote for him, but not necessarily for other Republican candidates.Speaking later on Wednesday in Miami at the America Business Forum, Mr. Trump continued to rail against New York City and Democrats for electing a “communist” to the mayor’s office. He suggested that the victory by Zohran Mamdani — who is a democratic socialist, not a communist — was a warning for the country. Mr. Trump endorsed Mr. Mamdani’s main opponent, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who ran as an independent after losing the Democratic nomination to Mr. Mamdani.“After last night’s results, the decision facing all Americans could not be more clear,” he said. “We have a choice between communism and common sense.”Representative Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey and Abigail Spanberger, a former member of Congress from Virginia with a similar national security background, won decisive victories in governors’ races Tuesday, a major test of the mood of the electorate in Mr. Trump’s second term.Recent polling has shown that support for Mr. Trump’s agenda was weakening and many voters believed the country was on the wrong path.During his remarks, Mr. Trump lamented that there had been little backlash against Democrats, who initiated the government shutdown to try to force Republicans to extend health care subsidies.“I don’t think they’re getting really the blame that they should,” he said.Mr. Trump said Tuesday’s elections were “not expected to be a victory” for Republicans because they were in heavily Democratic areas, but he acknowledged that it was not a positive outcome for his party.“I don’t think it was good for Republicans. I’m not sure it was good for anybody,” Mr. Trump said. “But we had an interesting evening, and we learned a lot, and we’re going to talk about that.”At the Capitol, Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that Tuesday’s Republican defeats should not be read as a broader repudiation of the party.“I don’t think the loss last night was any reflection about Republicans at all. I think people are frustrated and angry, as we are, I am, the president is,” Mr. Johnson said. “We’re looking forward to a great election running on our record.”Catie Edmondson and Robert Jimison contributed reporting.Nov. 5, 2025, 2:17 p.m. ETTariq PanjaTariq Panja has reported on FIFA for 20 years.Gianni Infantino, the president of FIFA, has cultivated a close relationship with President Trump, visiting the White House several times this year and presenting him with gifts.Credit...Haiyun Jiang for The New York TimesPresident Trump has groused about not winning a Nobel Peace Prize, but he could have the inside track to secure a new and similarly named honor that will be handed out next month by international soccer’s governing body, FIFA.The association said on Wednesday that it would bestow the award, officially called FIFA Peace Prize - Football Unites the World, next month in Washington. It will be bestowed during the draw for next year’s World Cup at the Kennedy Center on Dec. 5, which Mr. Trump — who has built an unusually close relationship with FIFA and its leader, Gianni Infantino — said he planned to attend.The award is meant to “reward individuals who have taken exceptional and extraordinary actions for peace and by doing so have united people across the world,” FIFA said in a statement.White House officials did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.The announcement of FIFA’s new prize came just a month after Mr. Trump fell short in his bid for the Nobel Prize, which he and his supporters have frequently suggested he deserves, particularly for his part in securing a peace agreement between Israel and Hamas. Steven Cheung, the White House’s director of communications, said that the Nobel Prize committee had “proved they place politics over peace” after the award was given to a Venezuelan politician.Mr. Infantino, who has previously bestowed various baubles and tributes on Mr. Trump, raised eyebrows when he was invited by the White House to Mr. Trump’s visit to Egypt after the Gaza cease-fire deal took effect. The two men have grown increasingly close, with Mr. Infantino acting as support for Mr. Trump on other trips, including a summit with Asian leaders in Malaysia last week.Mr. Infantino has also been a frequent visitor to the White House. During one trip, he gave Mr. Trump one of just three official replicas of the trophy for the men’s World Cup, which the United States is co-hosting with Canada and Mexico next year.It was during that visit, in August, that Mr. Trump announced that the tournament draw — during which qualified teams find out their playing schedule for the group stage of the tournament — would happen in Washington. It was an abrupt change of course: FIFA had spent months planning on staging the draw in Las Vegas.Mr. Infantino has called his close relationship with Mr. Trump “absolutely crucial” to FIFA’s World Cup plans. It has stretched beyond soccer and dates back to landmark moments of Mr. Trump’s first term, including the signing of the Abraham Accords that established diplomatic ties between Israel and multiple Arab nations, which Mr. Infantino attended. He also attended Mr. Trump’s inauguration in January.But Mr. Infantino’s proximity to the president has also raised questions about whether FIFA is adhering to its own rules on political neutrality. FIFA has on several occasions issued penalties, including suspensions, to member soccer federations over perceived government influence in their affairs.Nov. 5, 2025, 1:07 p.m. ETThe Everglades National Park in Florida last month. National parks, which are overseen by the Interior Department, are suffering damage and illegal activity during the government shutdown because of low staffing levels.Credit...Rebecca Blackwell/Associated PressThe Interior Department has paused its plans to lay off more than 2,000 employees during the government shutdown, a top agency official wrote in a court filing late Tuesday.The filing was the clearest indication yet that the Interior Department planned to comply with a federal judge’s order blocking the Trump administration from conducting mass layoffs during the shutdown. Trump officials previously have suggested a willingness to ignore court orders to fulfill President Trump’s agenda.The Interior Department is a sprawling agency that includes the National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service and numerous other bureaus. One of its main responsibilities is oversight of national parks, which are suffering damage and illegal activity during the shutdown because of low staffing levels.Rachel Borra, the Interior Department’s chief human capital officer, wrote in the court filing that the agency had no “imminent” plans to pursue the layoffs, known in government terminology as reductions in force, or RIFs. “Interior has no plans to, and therefore will not be issuing RIF notices to any employees during this lapse in appropriations,” Ms. Borra wrote.Judge Susan Illston, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, issued the order last month blocking the layoffs, siding with unions that had argued that the firings were illegal. She expanded the order two days later to spare a wider array of civil servants from being dismissed while many are furloughed or working without pay.Judge Illston, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, delivered a sharp rebuke of the Trump administration, saying it had “taken advantage of the lapse in government spending and government functioning to assume that all bets are off, that the laws don’t apply to them anymore.”It was not immediately clear if other government agencies would follow the Interior Department’s lead and also halt job reductions. The White House Office of Management and Budget did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The Interior Department’s layoff plans, detailed in earlier court filings, had called for eliminating 770 positions in the office of the secretary, 474 positions at the Bureau of Land Management, 335 positions at the U.S. Geological Survey, 272 roles at the National Park Service and 143 roles at the Fish and Wildlife Service.Environmental groups applauded the latest court filing.“These proposed layoffs have never been about fiscal responsibility — they are calculated cruelty against the workers who keep our shared national public lands preserved and welcoming,” Athan Manuel, director of the Sierra Club’s Lands Protection Program, said in a statement.Bobby McEnaney, director of land conservation at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in an email that “standing down is the right call — and the only legal one.”Nov. 5, 2025, 1:06 p.m. ETIn San Antonio, where nearly 20 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, the loss of SNAP benefits has hit people especially hard. The city’s mayor, Gina Ortiz Jones, said she helped raised about $1.6 million in 72 hours for a citywide effort called the Feeding San Antonio Fund.On Wednesday, she arrived at a senior center to hand out grocery gift cards. “I wanted to minimize the suffering” she said. “People aren’t sure whether they can put food on their tables.” Some seniors said the extra help was essential. “La hielera is empty,” said Tony Gonzales, 69, using the informal Spanish word for refrigerator. “I was afraid I was not going to eat this month.”Credit...Edgar Sandoval/The New York TimesNov. 5, 2025, 12:34 p.m. ETSpeaker Mike Johnson took issue with Trump’s interpretation of the election results, telling reporters at the Capitol that Republican defeats should not be read as a broader repudiation of the party or its message ahead of midterm contests next year. “I don’t think the loss last night was any reflection about Republicans at all. I think people are frustrated and angry, as we are, I am, the president is,” he said. “We’re looking forward to a great election running on our record.”Nov. 5, 2025, 11:26 a.m. ETThe extent and reach of the looming cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program became apparent in a series of court documents and policy memos.Credit...Mark Markela/ReutersMillions of low-income Americans will see staggering cuts and delays to their food stamps this month — with some receiving potentially nothing at all — because of the way that the White House has chosen to pay partial benefits during the government shutdown.For many people enrolled in the program, the losses may soon prove to be far greater and more severe than the Trump administration has publicly acknowledged, underscoring the magnitude of its refusal to fully finance the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the largest federal anti-hunger initiative.The problem stems from the way in which the administration has opted to fund benefits, and the intricate rules it has foisted on states this week to calculate aid amounts for the 42 million people enrolled in SNAP.For nearly 1.2 million households, or almost five million people, the changes may result in benefits of $0 in November, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-leaning group, which analyzed the government’s public filings and shared its findings early with The New York Times.“Some households are not going to get any benefits under this,” said Dottie Rosenbaum, who oversees SNAP research for the organization.As a result, groups of cities, states, nonprofits, religious organizations and others have recently returned to federal court, where they have raised fresh concerns that the White House is not complying with court orders that require the government to provide food stamps swiftly this month.Initially, the government sought to stop supplying any benefits in November, prompting two judges to order the administration to explore ways to issue either partial or full SNAP benefits. Late Tuesday, a coalition of about two dozen states told a federal judge in Massachusetts that the administration had interpreted that directive in a manner that would “seriously delay the issuance of benefits to those in need, and will create risks of errors.”The White House did not respond to a request for comment. On Tuesday, President Trump suggested he would violate a court order by halting SNAP payments until the shutdown concluded, though officials later walked back those comments. By Wednesday, the president blamed the interruption to food stamps on Democrats.The Agriculture Department, which oversees SNAP, declined to answer questions. The agency pointed only to past comments from Brooke Rollins, the agriculture secretary, who described partial payments as a “STOPGAP” that would “create unnecessary chaos in State systems and distribution of benefits.”The extent and reach of the looming cuts became apparent in a series of court documents and policy memos, all filed in the wake of a judge’s order that the government must fund food stamps even though federal agencies remain closed.To comply with that directive, the Agriculture Department said it would source money from an emergency account that Congress had previously established for SNAP. That would be enough to provide partial payments to low-income Americans, which would “cover 50 percent of eligible households’” November benefit amounts, an administration official said in a court filing on Monday.While the Trump administration acknowledged that it had the funds in a secondary account to provide full SNAP payments, it declined to do so, raising the risk that the roughly one in eight Americans who participate in the program could still find themselves in imminent financial distress.By Tuesday, officials at the Agriculture Department issued more intricate guidance, which appeared to suggest some families could lose SNAP benefits entirely.The agency essentially required states to recalculate benefits for SNAP beneficiaries, using a new rubric to determine payment amounts. The extent of those changes alarmed anti-hunger groups and angered state officials, some of whom described the revisions as unnecessary, punitive and burdensome at a perilous time for many poor families.The analysis from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimated that the new shutdown policy could cut average SNAP benefits by about 61 percent this month, more than the Trump administration initially suggested in court. For roughly 5.4 million households, the resulting benefit may total about $12 in November, according to the organization.Other local leaders and anti-hunger groups said they had found similarly in their own early analysis of the administration’s actions. One state official, who requested anonymity to describe private conversations, said the Agriculture Department had indicated it may still update the guidance.Gina Plata-Nino, the director for SNAP at the Food Research and Action Center, said that the policies put in place at the Agriculture Department would “really complicate” the work of calculating benefits. “Some of them may not even get any benefits at all because of the way you have to implement it,” she said.Separately, many state leaders began to warn that it could take weeks for them to update their systems to pay the partial benefits, resulting in significant delays for families.In Pennsylvania, Valerie A. Arkoosh, the secretary of the state’s Department of Human Services, said in a letter on Tuesday viewed by The Times that the Trump administration’s actions would require her state to start “completely restructuring” its systems for paying benefits. That, she said, would require “10,000 hours of work” or more just to reprogram the state’s benefits.“Any continued delay jeopardizes the health and well-being of the Pennsylvanians who depend on SNAP’s critical support,” the secretary wrote in a letter to the Agriculture Department.In other states, governors and local lawmakers had scrambled in recent days to try to finance food stamps on their own, fearing there would be no federal funding at all. By Wednesday, some of those states appeared to be struggling to interpret the Trump administration’s guidance about providing partial benefits.In Louisiana, for example, a spokeswoman for the Health Department, which administers food stamps, confirmed that the state had stopped supplying its own money to provide benefits for elderly and disabled recipients. It had done so for the first four days of November, while federal funding was in jeopardy.But the local television station WBRZ reported that some recipients had their balances abruptly withdrawn. The spokeswoman said that occurred because benefits were paid out early by the state’s payment vendor, and were pulled back to give recipients a higher amount in federal benefits by Friday.The confusion fueled a renewed push by a coalition of cities, religious groups and other nonprofits to would force the Trump administration to pay full benefits in November by tapping other funds at the Agriculture Department. A hearing in that case is scheduled for Thursday.Skye Perryman, the president of Democracy Forward, a legal group representing those organizations, accused the president this week of “using people’s lives as a pawn.” She said that SNAP “is an entitlement and this needs to happen expeditiously.”The administration, for its part, contends it cannot legally use other money at the Agriculture Department to fund SNAP, even though the government has repeatedly transferred funds from that same account to help pay for another federal nutrition program during the shutdown. The agency previously warned that partial SNAP payments could take weeks or months to deliver.“When the court said pay the benefits, they didn’t say pay half a hamburger,” said Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, who leads her party on the chamber’s top agriculture committee.“All of this to me sounds very in opposition to what the court has ordered them to do,” she said.Emily Cochrane contributed reporting.Nov. 5, 2025, 10:22 a.m. ETSenator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, the majority leader, threw cold water on President Trump’s entreaties this morning to abolish the legislative filibuster. “The votes aren’t there,” Thune told reporters at the Capitol.Credit...Haiyun Jiang/The New York TimesNov. 5, 2025, 9:19 a.m. ETPresident Trump said that he believed that the government shutdown, which he has blamed on Democrats, hurt Republicans in Tuesday’s elections. “I think if you read the pollsters, the shutdown was a big factor,” he said. He also said pollsters had noted the fact that Trump wasn’t on the ballot.The president said that he and the Republican senators would have a more extensive discussion about Tuesday’s election results after the press leaves the White House event on Wednesday morning. They’ll talk about “what last night represented and what we should do about it,” he said.Nov. 5, 2025, 9:16 a.m. ETPresident Trump, addressing Republican senators, said that Tuesday’s elections were “not expected to be a victory” for Republicans because they were in heavily Democratic areas, but acknowledged that it was not a positive outcome for his party. “I don’t think it was good for Republicans. I’m not sure it was good for anybody,” he said. “But we had an interesting evening, and we learned a lot, and we’re going to talk about that.”Credit...Haiyun Jiang/The New York TimesNov. 5, 2025, 9:03 a.m. ETPresident Trump also called for the termination of the Senate’s “blue slip” tradition, which gives home-state senators virtual veto power over whether certain justice-related nominees can advance, forcing the White House to seek their consent. He has grown increasingly frustrated that he can’t win confirmation of U.S. attorneys.Trump said that the administration was “going to go to court” over the matter. “It takes away the right of the president to pick people to serve on the court and to serve as U.S. attorneys, which is very important,” he said. It was not clear how the “blue slip” tradition could be challenged in court, as it is not a rule or law. While the influence of “blue slips” has been diluted on appeals court judges, the practice remains for district court judges, federal prosecutors and U.S. marshals — personnel matters where senators like to play a role.Nov. 5, 2025, 8:45 a.m. ETAt the event with Republican senators, Trump also renewed his calls to get rid of the filibuster, which he has maintained will help to reopen the government. “It’s time for Republicans to do what they have to do, and that’s terminate the filibuster,” he told the senators. “It’s the only way you can do it. And if you don’t terminate the filibuster, you’ll be in bad shape. We won’t pass any legislation.”Senate Republicans almost uniformly oppose such a move, fearful that Democrats would be able to get everything they want approved when they return to power.VideoNov. 5, 2025, 8:35 a.m. ETPresident Trump is addressing Republican senators at a breakfast event at the White House. He blamed Democrats for the government shutdown — which became the longest in American history today — but lamented that “I don’t think they’re getting really the blame that they should.”Trump tacitly acknowledged on Tuesday night that the government shutdown had potentially hurt Republicans, after the Democratic victories in elections across the country. As results rolled in, he posted on his social media website an analysis that he attributed to unnamed “pollsters,” saying that they concluded that two of the reasons Republicans lost were the government shutdown and the fact that he was not on the ballot.Nov. 5, 2025, 8:01 a.m. ETSenator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, on Tuesday.Credit...Tierney L. Cross/The New York TimesPresident Trump on Wednesday demanded that Republican senators act as soon as this afternoon to abolish the filibuster to force passage of legislation to reopen the government, as the federal shutdown stretched into a record 36th day with no deal in sight to resolve the impasse.At a breakfast with the senators at the White House the morning after Democratic victories in key statewide elections, Mr. Trump lamented that his party was shouldering the brunt of the blame for the shutdown and said it was imperative to “get the government back open soon — and really, immediately.”He said eliminating the filibuster was “the only way” for Republicans to get anything done, though Senate Republicans almost uniformly oppose such a move, fearful that Democrats would be able to get everything they want approved when they return to power.“If you don’t terminate the filibuster, you’ll be in bad shape,” Mr. Trump told the senators. “We won’t pass any legislation.” He acknowledged the resistance within his own party to getting rid of the Senate precedent, which effectively requires 60 votes to move forward with most major legislation. He said he would defer to the lawmakers’ wishes, but called the failure to end it “a tragic mistake.”Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, quickly threw cold water on the idea, telling reporters at the Capitol that, “The votes aren’t there.”The back and forth came as Senate Democrats were expected to continue a series of tense internal discussions over whether and how they might be willing to broker a deal with Republicans to reopen the government. A clutch of moderate Democrats has been privately meeting with a handful of centrist Republicans, mostly to discuss spending legislation that would fund the government.Less clear is how Democrats might be willing to address what has become their chief demand for ending the shutdown: extending health insurance subsidies their party expanded during the pandemic. Senate Democrats discussed potential paths forward on Tuesday in a closed-door luncheon that lasted nearly three hours.“We had a very good caucus and we’re exploring all the options,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, told reporters on Tuesday after the meeting.Republicans have repeatedly said they are willing to hold a vote on extending the health insurance tax credits, but only after the government is reopened. Democrats have so far rejected that approach, saying they must have assurances that the subsidies will be addressed before they vote for any stopgap spending measure.But the pain of the shutdown has worn down the patience of members of both parties, with federal workers furloughed, Americans losing nutrition benefits and air travel snarled. Several lawmakers have expressed optimism in recent days that a breakthrough could come this week.Erica L. Green contributed reporting.Nov. 5, 2025, 5:03 a.m. ETRobert JimisonRobert Jimison, who covers Congress, reported from Georgia’s Third, 10th and 14th Congressional Districts.“To choose between feeding hungry families and my health care — I’m going to feed the family,” said Cyndie Story, a 60-year-old self-employed school nutrition consultant in Zebulon, Ga.Credit...Nicole Craine for The New York TimesThe partisan standoff that has shut down the government became personal for Cyndie Story in late October, when she logged in to her health insurance portal to find that her premium was about to nearly double.“I just can’t swing $2,200 a month,” Ms. Story, a 60-year-old self-employed school nutrition consultant in Zebulon, Ga., said of her expected rate starting in January.Ms. Story is just the kind of person Democrats say they are fighting for as they refuse to fund the government until Republicans agree to negotiate an extension of federal health care tax credits that are on track to expire at the end of the year, sending premiums soaring.But with the shutdown entering its sixth week, she has grown alarmed by its impacts and eager for it to end. To Ms. Story, a Democrat whose small business helps feed hungry children whose families could be affected by a lapse in federal nutrition benefits, the impasse feels like “being asked to choose which arm to cut off.”“To choose between feeding hungry families and my health care,” Ms. Story said on Monday, “I’m going to feed the family.”As the shutdown stretched into Wednesday and became the longest in history, the partisan divisions in Washington appeared as deep as ever.Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said that it would be a “betrayal” for Democrats to back down now. “It would be a sellout of a working class that is struggling to survive in very difficult economic times,” he wrote in an essay for The Guardian last weekend.Recent polling suggests that Republicans are bearing the brunt of the blame for the shutdown.Among registered voters, 46 percent blamed Republicans while 37 percent blamed Democrats, according to a Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll. Those figures were mirrored in another poll conducted by Newsweek and NBC News, which found that 52 percent of voters say Republicans and the president are more responsible for the impasse, compared with 42 percent who blame Democrats.But in some pockets of the country, as Americans experience the effects of the closure firsthand, the calls for an end to the dysfunction and a swift reopening of the government defy party lines.In conversations with voters in Georgia in recent days, many said that while they shared Democrats’ sense of urgency about addressing rising health care costs, they had grown impatient for the shutdown to end.In Paulding County, frustration with both parties was easy to find. Jon Smalling, 40, a Democrat who voted in local elections this week, said: “You’ve got to blame everybody.”“I think both sides have got to give a little,” he said.Mr. Smalling said he sympathized with Democrats’ focus on health care costs and was bracing for his health insurance costs to rise next year. Still, he said, “it’s gone on long enough.”“At some point,” he added, “both parties need to sit down and figure a way out.”His congresswoman, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, has been among the very few members of Congress denouncing both sides in the stalemate. Ms. Greene, a right-wing Republican, has criticized Democrats for shutting down the government, but also rebuked her party for failing to negotiate a solution that would insulate Americans against the looming premium hikes or to offer a plan to make health care more affordable.“People are beyond outraged, and they’re terrified,” she said Tuesday on the ABC program “The View.”The growing impatience for an end to the shutdown may be driving events in Washington, where Republicans and Democrats have both expressed optimism in recent days that a breakthrough after weeks of gridlock could be close at hand.“Finances are becoming dire for the more than 750,000 government workers who have been going without pay now for a full month,” Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, said on the Senate floor on Tuesday.“The list of people begging Democrats to pass a clean government extension is long and it’s growing longer,” Mr. Thune said, citing calls from a growing list of labor unions and business groups. “All of these organizations are begging Democrats to take yes for an answer.”Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, was not budging.“We’re not asking for anything radical,” he said. “Lowering people’s health care costs is the definition of common sense and what Americans want all across the spectrum.”Ms. Story said she agreed, and even left her congressman, Representative Brian Jack, a Republican and former Trump White House aide, a voice mail message pleading for a better solution.But she still wants to see Democrats relent and reopen the government.“If it was up to me personally, I’d bite the bullet,” she said, quickly adding that she still wanted Congress to address health care costs.Chad Hahn, a Paulding County resident who declined to share his party affiliation, voiced similar frustration.“Both sides need to figure out a solution,” he said.In Athens, Erin Barger, the chief executive of the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia, said that even before the shutdown began, residents across the 15 counties her organization serves were experiencing “unprecedented levels of nutritional need.”She said her team was working quickly to confront an emergency as many families they serve have already missed scheduled Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program payments after the Trump administration said it would cover only a portion of them.“We still know that neighbors will not have SNAP benefits on time, no matter what happens now, which we consider an emergency,” she said. “We firmly believe that food insecurity and hunger are not just bipartisan — they’re nonpartisan issues.”Nov. 4, 2025, 7:31 p.m. ETPresident Trump leaving West Palm Beach to return to Washington on Sunday. For weeks, the Trump administration has played a game of winners and losers with the shutdown.Credit...Anna Rose Layden for The New York TimesEven as the government shutdown stretched into Wednesday and surpassed the record for the longest in American history, President Trump showed no interest in negotiating with Democrats.Instead, as the two sides entered their 36th day at an impasse, the administration signaled it planned to ramp up the pain.The president threatened on social media on Tuesday to deny food subsidy payments for 42 million Americans until the end of the government shutdown, in apparent defiance of a court order. (The White House press secretary later said the administration would comply with the court.)Mr. Trump’s transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, warned he might have to close parts of the national airspace next week because of the potential “mass chaos” with air traffic controller shortages.And the White House again left open the possibility it might not follow its legal obligation to restore back pay to furloughed workers who have missed paychecks during the shutdown.Taken together, the administration’s message was simple: Either Democrats back down from their demand to extend expiring health care subsidies, or the fallout of the shutdown will get worse.Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, said on Tuesday Democrats were exploring all options to end the shutdown. Credit...Tierney L. Cross/The New York TimesOn Wednesday after midnight, this year’s fiscal impasse pushed past 35 full days, breaking the ignominious record for the longest shutdown in U.S. history, which was previously set by the 34-day shutdown of Mr. Trump’s first term.Unlike that standoff, the president has not involved himself in negotiations to end the current dilemma. Instead, the White House is betting that Democrats’ key constituencies will turn on them the longer they continue to refuse to support the G.O.P. plan for a short-term spending extension at current funding levels.The administration has pointed to the calls by some union leaders for Congress to reopen the government under the Republican plan and then negotiate over health care costs.“The Democrats’ obstructionism will break the record for the longest government shutdown in American history tonight,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said at a news conference. “The Democrats are intentionally hurting American families, workers and businesses with this shutdown.”When asked what Mr. Trump was doing to end the government shutdown, Ms. Leavitt said he was “pushing Republicans to keep voting” on a funding bill. Mr. Trump has invited all Republican senators for a discussion at the White House Wednesday.Sept.30,2025TrumpSept.30,2025Trump35Dec.21,2018TrumpDec.21,2018Trump34Dec.15,1995ClintonDec.15,1995Clinton21Sept.30,1978CarterSept.30,1978Carter17Sept.30,2013ObamaSept.30,2013Obama16Sept.30,1977CarterSept.30,1977Carter12Sept.30,1979CarterSept.30,1979Carter11Sept.30,1976FordSept.30,1976Ford10Oct.31,1977CarterOct.31,1977Carter8Nov.30,1977CarterNov.30,1977Carter8Nov.13,1995ClintonNov.13,1995Clinton5Dec.17,1982ReaganDec.17,1982Reagan3Nov.10,1983ReaganNov.10,1983Reagan3Oct.5,1990BushOct.5,1990Bush3Nov.20,1981ReaganNov.20,1981Reagan2Sept.30,1984ReaganSept.30,1984Reagan2Jan.19,2018TrumpJan.19,2018Trump2Sept.30,1982ReaganSept.30,1982Reagan1Oct.3,1984ReaganOct.3,1984Reagan1Oct.16,1986ReaganOct.16,1986Reagan1Dec.18,1987ReaganDec.18,1987Reagan1 Note: Start dates are the final dates of budget authority. Funding gaps actually commenced on the following day. Only shutdowns of at least one full day are included. It remains to be seen which party Americans will hold ultimately accountable for the paralysis in Washington. But recent public surveys show a larger share currently put the responsibility on Republicans.“I really try to avoid making this an issue out of what the polls say, or who’s winning or losing, because nobody wins,” Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the top Republican in the Senate, told reporters. “Shutdowns are stupid. I’ve been here long enough to have been through a few of them. Nobody wins.”Democrats say the president’s refusal to engage in discussions means Mr. Trump is responsible for the impact on Americans.Speaking to reporters, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the top Democrat in the Senate, said Tuesday that some informal talks were underway and that Democrats were “exploring all the options.”But he said Mr. Trump has not involved himself.“The fault of this shutdown falls on his shoulders,” Mr. Schumer said. “He’s refused to discuss anything with us.”Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the top Democrat in the House, said Democrats would not back down until they secured a deal to improve health care benefits.“Donald Trump is unlawfully withholding billions of dollars in SNAP benefits from 42 million Americans and 16 million children,” said Mr. Jeffries, referring to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. “There’s nothing to be optimistic about relative to the cruelty and the pain that Donald Trump and Republicans continue to inflict on the American people.”He suggested Democrats could gain more political momentum for their position with wins in governor elections in Virginia and New Jersey Tuesday night.“It’s over for these people,” he said of Republicans before polls closed, “and we’re going to see it today, and we’re going to see it during the midterm elections.”For weeks the Trump administration has played a game of winners and losers with the shutdown, aiming to mitigate the harm to the military and law enforcement, while ramping up the pressure on Democratic constituencies. Mr. Trump has used the fiscal impasse to halt funding to Democratic jurisdictions, and tried to lay off thousands of federal workers.On Tuesday, Mr. Trump said the pain would intensify.In a post on Truth Social, the president said that food stamp benefits under SNAP “will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!”Hours after that ultimatum, Ms. Leavitt appeared to walk back the president’s comments. She told reporters at a news briefing that the administration was “fully complying” with the court and would provide partial food stamp payments in November.The White House declined to elaborate on Mr. Trump’s plans. The Agriculture Department which administers the program, did not respond to a request for comment.For his part, Mr. Duffy, the transportation secretary, warned of “mass chaos” in the skies.“You will see mass chaos, you will see mass flight delays, you will see mass cancellations,” he said during a news conference, accusing Democrats of perpetuating what he called a “senseless shutdown.”“And you may see us close certain parts of the airspace because we just cannot manage it because we don’t have the air traffic controllers,” he said.The most recent notifications from agencies to federal workers about the shutdown omitted any language that furloughed employees would receive back pay, which is guaranteed under a law that Mr. Trump signed in 2019.Ms. Leavitt would not commit to the administration’s complying with the law, saying Tuesday that the matter was the subject of negotiations.“This is something we are very much open to discussing with Democrats as part of the discussions about the continuing resolution to keep the government open,” she said.Mr. Trump has previously threatened to withhold back pay for some federal workers, saying that were “some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’ll take care of them in a different way.”Tony Romm, Karoun Demirjian, Erica L. Green and Eileen Sullivan contributed reporting.