The Latest: Trump hosts GOP senators at White House as shutdown drags on

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Senate Republicans projected a unified front at the White House Rose Garden Tuesday, arriving at President Donald Trump ’s invitation as they refuse to yield to Democratic demands for health care funds into the fourth week of the government shutdown.

While hosting, Trump praised the GOP leadership, singling out senators by name, trashed former President Joe Biden and previewed his own upcoming foreign travel and tariff policies.

“We’re a wealthy nation again,” he said.

The country, meanwhile, is feeling the financial hit of the shutdown, which is on track to become among the longest in U.S. history. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers are going without pay, Head Start programs for preschoolers nationwide are scrambling for funds, and economists warn of curbed economic growth.

Still, there are few signs of any end to the stalemate.

The Latest:

He was surrounded by tech CEOs and several members of his own administration who celebrate the “Festival of Lights,” which is observed by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains.

In front of his desk was a traditional, brass five-wick lamp set on a table decorated with flowers. Trump read a message about the significance of Diwali, saying that the lamp is lit to “symbolize the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance and good over evil.”

The gathering included FBI director Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard, U.S. director of national intelligence.

After asking several tech CEOs to spell out how much they’ve invested in the U.S., Trump invited IBM’s CEO Arvind Krishna to light the lamp. At Krishna’s request, Trump lit one of the lamp’s five wicks.

The president’s comments followed Chuck Schumer, the leader of Senate Democrats, saying he and Hakeem Jeffries, leader of the House Democrats, reached out to Trump and urged him “to sit down and negotiate with us” to end the government shutdown.

Schumer said they suggested such a meeting happen before Trump leaves for a trip to Asia on Friday.

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, “I would love to meet, I would like to meet with both of them. But I set one little caveat: I will only meet if they let the country open.”

“So, I’ll do it as soon as they open up the country,” he added.

Asked about a New York Times report that he’s demanding that the Justice Department pay him about $230 million in compensation for federal investigations brought against him before his second term, Trump responded “could be.”

He said he didn’t know the numbers involved, and suggested he’d not spoken to officials about it.

But he added: “All I know is that, they would owe me a lot of money.”

Trump said he could collect repayment for things like investigations into his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, and then donate it to charity. Or, he said, he could use it to help pay for a ballroom he’s building at the White House.

Trump said that, when it comes to federal matters, “It’s interesting, cause I’m the one that makes the decision, right?”

“That decision would have to go across my desk,” the president said.

“I don’t want to have a wasted meeting,” Trump said of holding off on plans to meet with the Russian leader in Hungary in the coming weeks. “I don’t want to have a waste of time — so we’ll see what happens.”

The decision to hold off on the meeting, which Trump had announced last week, was made following a call earlier on Tuesday between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

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This item has been updated to correct the date of the call between Rubio and Lavrov to Monday, not Tuesday.

At an event celebrating the Hindu holiday Diwali, Trump said he spoke with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about trade and “a lot of things.”

Trump has put a 25% tariff on goods from India because of its buying of Russian oil, putting the combined tax rate that the U.S. president has placed on imports from the country this year at 50%.

The U.S. president described the situation with India on trade as “interesting.”

President Donald Trump has nominated Lt. Gen. Christopher LaNeve to serve as the Army’s second highest-ranking officer, according to congressional records.

Gen. James Mingus is currently vice chief of staff and hasn’t publicly said he plans to step aside. He’s been in the job less than two years, and it’s typically a tenure that lasts at least three years.

The move posted in congressional records Monday is the latest in a series of surprise and unexplained firings, reassignments and promotions that have been transforming the senior ranks of the military under Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Officials in the Army and Hegseth’s office wouldn’t offer any details on Mingus’ apparent ouster and the promotion of LaNeve, who is now Hegseth’s top military aide.

Several GOP senators representing agriculture-rich states are pushing back at the president’s stated plans to buy Argentine beef in order to make beef cheaper for U.S. consumers.

Trump floated the idea to reporters when traveling back from south Florida on Sunday evening.

But that’s prompted concerns from Senate Republicans who say the move would ultimately hurt American ranchers.

North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven said he spoke with Trump, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer about the issue when the president hosted Senate Republicans for lunch at the White House on Tuesday.

“It’s very important that we support our cattle ranchers,” Hoeven said, adding that he expects the administration to say more about the issue.

Montana Sen. Steve Daines also raised his objections to Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, he said.

“I’m more concerned about the Argentine beef coming in that’s undercutting our Made in America cattle,” Daines said.

The White House has started tearing down part of the East Wing to build the ballroom President Donald Trump wants added to the building. Demolition started Monday.

The White House on Monday started tearing down part of the East Wing, the traditional base of operations for the first lady, to build President Donald Trump’s $250 million ballroom despite lacking approval for construction from the federal agency that oversees such projects.

Dramatic photos of the demolition work showed construction equipment tearing into the East Wing façade and windows and other building parts in tatters on the ground. Some reporters watched from a park near the Treasury Department, which is next to the East Wing.

▶ Read more about the demolition here

A federal judge overseeing the Trump administration’s prosecution of U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver on charges she assaulted immigration officers outside a New Jersey detention center told the government to remove social media posts he called “prejudicial” to the congresswoman.

U.S. District Judge Jamel Semper on Tuesday heard arguments in the case brought by Republican President Donald Trump’s Justice Department against the Democratic congresswoman representing Newark, the state’s biggest city. Semper didn’t issue a ruling from the bench but told the government’s attorneys nine social media posts should be removed.

The posts, which came from the Department of Homeland Security’s X account as well as the account for one of its spokespeople, referred to the May 9 visit by McIver and other members of Congress as “a reckless stunt by sanctuary politicians.”

A message seeking a response from Homeland Security was sent Tuesday. McIver, a Democrat, was charged following the May 9 visit to Newark’s Delaney Hall. Immigration and Customs Enforcement use the privately owned, 1,000-bed facility as a detention center.

She has pleaded not guilty.

The meeting is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, according to the official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

NATO in a statement announced that Rutte will be in Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday and planned to hold private talks with Trump but did not offer further details.

The official did not provide any detail about Trump’s agenda for his talks with Rutte. But the conversation comes on the heels of Trump last week calling on Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to “stop where they are” in the more than three-year war.

On Sunday, Trump said the industrial Donbas region of eastern Ukraine should be “cut up,” leaving most of it in Russian hands.

Earlier Tuesday, the official said that Trump was putting on hold plans to meet with Putin in Budapest, Hungary, in the coming weeks.

A team of independent experts commissioned by the United Nations’ Human Rights Council blasted the “covert actions and threats” the U.S is using against Venezuela, saying that the attacks are taking place without proper legal basis.

“These actions also violate the fundamental international obligations not to intervene in the domestic affairs or threaten to use armed force against another country,” the experts said in a statement. “These moves are an extremely dangerous escalation with grave implications for peace and security in the Caribbean region.”

The statement said that experts have relayed their concerns to U.S. officials.

Attorneys representing the Trump administration agreed Tuesday to a potential 30-day extension of an order temporarily blocking the deployment of National Guard troops in the Chicago area.

This comes ahead of U.S. District Judge April Perry’s hearing scheduled Wednesday to decide if her two-week order should be extended.

Trump administration lawyers also say they want to wait until the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in before discussing next steps, according to Tuesday court filings.

Lawyers representing Chicago and Illinois also on Monday asked the U.S. Supreme to block the Trump administration’s request to allow the deployment of National Guard troops in the Chicago area, calling it a “dramatic step.”

Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries says the U.S. is experiencing a “moment of extreme political violence, and that impacts every single person in public service.”

“But we will not be intimidated,” Jeffries said.

Jeffries is speaking at the Capitol following the arrest of a man charged with threating to kill him. The suspect had also been part of President Trump’s mass pardon of those convicted of storming the U.S. Capitol.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., arrives to speak to reporters on the House steps on day 16 of the government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

“When it comes to these extremists out there, you better watch how you talk when you talk about me,” Jeffries said.

Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said he had warned on the day of the mass pardons “that President Trump and his administration would be responsible for whatever happens with these people. “

“They’ve got a responsibility to rein them in,” Raskin said.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., listens as President Donald Trump speaks as he hosts a lunch with Republican Senators on the Rose Garden patio at the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Senate Majority Leader John Thune says Republicans are a “united team” amid the government shutdown.

Thune made the remarks after GOP senators dined with President Donald Trump at the White House.

The South Dakota Republican reiterated said he believes Trump wants to sit down and negotiate health care subsidies with Democrats who are demanding they be extended. But not until they vote to reopen the government, he said.

“Senate Republicans, House Republicans and the president of the United States are all in favor of reopening the federal government,” Thune said.

The president noted that, historically, the sitting president’s party often loses seats in Congress during the midterms.

“Statistically, when you look, a president gets elected and for some reason … you lose the midterms. I don’t know why,” he said, adding that no could really explain why such a historical norm usually holds.

“We have to win the midterms,” Trump continued. “Otherwise, all of the things that we’ve done, so many of them, are going to be taken away by the radical left lunatics.”

The party that wins the presidency usually does struggle in the next electoral cycle -- which could bode well for congressional Democrats in 2026.

An exception was 2022, however, when Democrats defied historical odds in congressional races -- even after Joe Biden’s 2020 election.

Usually during a shutdown, all non-essential federal government activities are on hold.

But the Trump administration has found ways to ensure troops get a paycheck and minimize other impacts of a shutdown.

Now, Trump is hinting at easing another casualty of the shutdown.

“We should probably just open them,” Trump said of museums closed during the shutdown.

The Smithsonian museums, research centers and the National Zoo are shuttered because of the shutdown -- at least for now

The president says he’s been watching the anti-tariff ads paid for by Canada’s Ontario province, saying he’d do the same thing if he was Canadian.

Still, Trump doesn’t think the ads are convincing to his supporters watching TV in the U.S.

“I do believe that everybody’s too smart for that,” Trump told senators who were gathered for lunch at the Rose Garden.

Trump credited his tariffs for generating what he claims will be $20 trillion worth of investments in America.

The White House has been unable to verify the sum is anywhere close to the level claimed by the president. Trump is traveling in the next several days to Japan and South Korea, in part, to finalize the terms of investments from those countries as part of an agreement to minimize the tariff rates Trump is charging on foreign goods.

In the middle of complimentary shoutouts to various GOP senators, Trump paused to note that one of their own was not attending the lunch.

“We have everybody one but person,” Trump said. “You’ll never guess who that is.”

It was an easy guess — the uninvited was Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a constant thorn in the side of the White House who, as Trump said, “automatically votes no on everything.”

If Paul had asked, Trump said he would “begrudgingly” allow him to come.

Earlier this year, Paul was told that he and his family would not be invited to the big congressional picnic that the president hosts for members of Congress every summer.

After Paul called it a petty move, Trump issued an invite on his social media account, saying “of course” Paul and his family were invited to the South Lawn event.

The president is spending part of his Tuesday playing host, having Senate Republicans over for lunch at the Rose Garden.

“The incredible Rose Garden, it’s just an incredible place,” Trump said in remarks that opened up the lunch.

Dozens of GOP senators and senior administration officials are in attendance on the patio, which was decked out with yellow umbrella-covered tables for the occasion.

Cheeseburgers and fries are on the menu, as well as “Rose Garden chocolates” for dessert.

Plans are on hold for President Trump to sit down with Russian leader Vladimir Putin to talk about resolving the war in Ukraine, according to a U.S. official.

The meeting had been announced last week. It was supposed to take place in Budapest, although a date had not been set.

The decision was made following a call between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The official requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.

The back-and-forth over Trump’s plans are the latest bout of whiplash caused by his stutter-step efforts to resolve a conflict that has persisted for nearly four years.

-By Matthew Lee and Chris Megerian

Trump on Tuesday received the Richard Nixon Foundation’s Architect of Peace Award, inviting surviving members of the former president’s family to the Oval Office.

White House aide Margo Martin posted pictures of the event, which was closed to the news media, on the social media site X.

Trump took Nixon family members to the West Wing colonnade to see his Presidential Walk of Fame and a picture of Nixon, who resigned in 1974 following the Watergate scandal.

Past winners of the award include former President George W. Bush, Henry Kissinger, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and George H.W. Bush. Kissinger has twice won the award, which was established in 1995.

Vance, making his first trip to Israel as vice president, said he came to the country once before, but only “for about 36 hours.”

This time, his plans include visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. It contains the site of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, as well as the believed location of his burial tomb.

“I think the world’s Christians will know that this country, that this region of the world means a great deal to me,” Vance said.

Mahmoud Khalil appeared Tuesday in a federal appeals court in Philadelphia as he challenges Trump administration efforts to deport him over his pro-Palestinian activism at Columbia University.

The government wants to overturn a lower court order granting Khalil’s June release from a Louisiana immigration jail. Its attorney, Drew Ensign, said the case belongs before an immigration judge in Louisiana who ruled that Khalil could be deported. “All of this is being conducted in an improper forum,” Ensign said. “So that should be a full stop.”

Khalil’s attorneys asked the three-judge panel of the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm the order, which prevents his detention and deportation.

Khalil, a legal U.S. resident married to an American citizen, issued a statement after the hearing: “I’m stating unequivocally: I will continue my legal fight in federal courts for my rights, and for everyone’s right, to free speech.”

▶ Read more about Khalil’s efforts to block his deportation

More than 100 U.S. Census Bureau workers have been told they will be laid off in December due to a lack of funding from the federal government shutdown.

The 101 employees work at the Census Bureau’s call center in Tucson, Arizona, according to a mass layoff notice filed earlier this month with the state of Arizona. These workers help conduct surveys and answer questions about the statistical agency’s surveys. The bureau has another call center in Jeffersonville, Indiana.

Earlier this year, around 1,300 Census Bureau employees took deferred resignations, voluntary separations or early retirement in recent months as part of the DOGE efforts to cut federal government spending.