President Donald Trump has blessed an emerging deal to stave off a partial government shutdown at 12:00 a.m. Saturday, handing Democrats a potential victory in their fight to clamp down on federal immigration agents they say are breaking the law and sewing chaos in American cities.
Senate Republican leaders were circulating the deal among senators, according to two sources familiar with the matter. It provides for the passage of five spending bills covering a full year, and temporarily funds the Department of Homeland Security for two weeks while lawmakers continue negotiating.
If agreed to, the Senate could approve the deal as early as Thursday night. But the compromise would still require passage by the House, meaning there could still be a shutdown, albeit of shorter length.
“Republicans and Democrats in Congress have come together to get the vast majority of the Government funded until September, while at the same time providing an extension to the Department of Homeland Security (including the very important Coast Guard, which we are expanding and rebuilding like never before). Hopefully, both Republicans and Democrats will give a very much needed Bipartisan “YES” Vote,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Earlier Thursday, senators failed to clear a procedural hurdle for a vote to pass all six funding bills. But negotiations continued between Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
Schumer had urged Republicans to pass five of the six bills, while keeping negotiations going on policy changes at federal immigration agencies. Some Republicans, feeling pressure after federal officers shot and killed 37-year-old intensive care nurse Alex Prettisaid it would be a good idea to decouple Homeland Security talks from the rest of the funding package. In addition to DHS, the larger package supported the Departments of Defense, Health and Human Services, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury and others.
Schumer and Democrats had demanded serious changes to how Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducts itself. ICE is part of DHS, along with the Customs and Border Protection agency. Agents from those entities were responsible for fatal shootings of Renee Good and Prettyboth American citizens, this month in Minnesota.
“What ICE is doing outside the law is state-sanctioned thuggery, and it must stop,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer. “And Congress has the authority and the moral obligation to act.”
Senate Democrats have formally laid out three demands they must receive in exchange for their vote on permanent DHS funding: End roving patrols and tighten rules about the use of warrants, create a uniform code of conduct for federal agents, and implement a “masks off, body cameras on” policy, as Schumer put it.
“This is a moment of truth for the United States of America,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.
“What ICE is doing outside the law is state-sanctioned thuggery, and it must stop,” he continued. “And Congress has the authority and the moral obligation to act.”
There is evidence that the public is souring on ICE and Trump’s immigration tactics, and the president is not only negotiating with Democrats to forestall a shutdown – something he did not do during the last one — but has sought to de-escalate the rhetoric in Minnesota.
To some, like Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., that’s a sign of the politics underpinning the issue.
“Even this White House understands public sentiment, that the public in this country is overwhelmingly against ICE being unleashed on the American public,” Warner told MS NOW.
As with most legislative items over the last year, Senate Republicans have suggested they’ll follow Trump’s lead.
“My hope and expectation is that the White House and the Senate Democrats, they work this out and they’ll be able to produce the votes that are necessary to pass,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters before the vote.
Other key Republicans held out hope for a deal. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, told MS NOW that she wants “a bipartisan, bicameral solution.”
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said passing five of the six bills would be a good outcome.
“We should take a win,” Tillis said. “If we’re going to be able to get four or five bills done through regular order, I mean, that’s a great win for Susan Collins. That stuff doesn’t happen around here very often.”
The uneven pace of negotiations throughout this week has almost guaranteed at least a short, partial shutdown for many agencies. With only a day and a half before the deadline, senators would need unanimous agreement in order to hold a passage vote in time. And if senators make any changes to the six-bill package — including splitting off one of the bills — the House would have to approve those changes. House members are on recess and don’t plan to return until Monday, sources have told MS NOW.
Senators maintained hope that the talks between Trump and Schumer could yield a deal.
“I think there’s a path forward with — probably not no chance of a shutdown, but a very limited shutdown, just in terms of getting the House back and accepting any modifications that might be made in the six-bill package,” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told reporters on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, a number of key hurdles remained.
First, Democrats still have to recruit at least 13 Republicans to join them in voting to strip the DHS funding bill from the package to clear the 60-vote threshold, a high bar they failed to scale on Thursday.
At least five Republicans — Rounds and Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, John Kennedy of Louisiana, Steve Daines of Montana and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia — had publicly said they’d support such an effort. Kennedy, however, insists there are more quietly waiting in the wings.
“It’s a better alternative than shutting down the government,” Daines said Thursday.
Then the parties would have to agree on the length for a stopgap bill to keep DHS funded. Democrats pushed for a short timespan to keep the pressure on GOP lawmakers. Republicans, meanwhile, wanted a lengthier measure to allow time for substantive talks.
“We’d prefer longer to actually have time to work through this,” a GOP aide told MS NOW. “Short-term doesn’t provide that much runway.”
Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., said the ultimate length will be up to Schumer and Trump.
Finally, there’s toughest lift of all: Democrats and Republicans will have to negotiate a new DHS funding bill palatable to both parties, tackling an issue that has historically been one of the most difficult on which to find a bipartisan consensus.
Thune insists those policy changes won’t be written into the current, six-bill package. But splitting off DHS funds from the other bills could allow negotiations to continue without threatening a lengthy shutdown for roughly 80% of the federal government.
“That’s not going to happen in this bill,” Thune said of the Democrats’ policy proposals. “But there are — I mean, there’s a path to consider some of those things and negotiate that out between Republicans, Democrats, House, Senate and White House.”
“But that’s not going to happen in these bills,” he said.
Jack Fitzpatrick covers Congress for MS NOW. He previously reported for Bloomberg Government, Morning Consult and National Journal. He has bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Arizona State University.
Mychael Schnell is a reporter for MS NOW.
Ali Vitali is MS NOW’s senior congressional correspondent and the host of “Way Too Early.” She is the author of “Electable: Why America Hasn’t Put a Woman in the White House … Yet.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee postponed a vote on acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination, a spokesperson said late Wednesday, as two retiring Republicans on the panel dug in over President Donald Trump’s personal “anti-weaponization” deal with the government he runs.
Sen. Chuck Grassley’s decision to delay the committee vote that had been set for Thursday marks a setback for one of Trump’s highest-profile Cabinet nominees, at the hands of Texas Sen. John Cornyn and Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, a pair of Republicans set to leave the chamber next year.
“Chairman Grassley works to set President Trump’s nominees up for success in committee, not failure. Senators Cornyn and Tillis want written assurances from the Department of Justice regarding the Trump-IRS settlement,” the committee spokesperson said.
Blanche’s nomination to permanently head the Department of Justice needs the support of either Cornyn or Tillis to make it out of the committee to a vote by the full Senate, assuming all Democrats remain opposed.
“Why don’t you call over the Department of Justice and tell them they have one hour and 50 minutes to get me what I asked for,” Cornyn told reporters Wednesday afternoon amid the hardening standoff over his demand that Blanche and the DOJ put in writing a commitment never to pursue the president’s prized “anti-weaponization” fund, and to clarify the terms of Trump’s personal deal with the Internal Revenue Service.
Tillis told MS NOW that the conversations were complicated by the need for the Justice Department to get “several parties” to agree on the language of the statement Cornyn and Tillis are seeking.
“What I’ve advised the chair, and I would assume Senator Cornyn said something similar, is that we’re not prepared to vote yes yet,” he added.
“The Department has been in regular communication with Committee members for weeks, and we look forward to continuing to work productively with Senators to address any concerns,” a Justice Department spokesperson said in response to the decision to postpone the committee vote.
Cornyn was set to meet with Blanche on Wednesday morning, but the meeting was called off after Blanche failed to meet the senator’s demand for written proposals to modify the controversial settlement agreement he brokered between Trump and the IRS. The Republican senator is set to leave Congress when his term ends in January after a bruising May primary loss to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Trump’s chosen candidate.
“Maybe John Cornyn’s upset with me because I didn’t endorse him,” Trump told reporters Wednesday afternoon in the Oval Office. “I don’t know what it is, but I haven’t heard that there’s a problem. I heard (Blanche) is going through quite nicely.”
Cornyn made clear to Blanche during his confirmation hearing that he will not get his support until he agrees to reopen and modify the settlement. Due to the committee’s narrow Republican majority, one GOP “no” vote is enough to sink Blanche’s nomination.
The senator has asked Blanche to provide proof that the proposed nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund established as part of the deal between Trump and the IRS is formally dead, and he has also demanded Blanche narrow the tax audit immunity provisions the settlement afforded to Trump and his family.
Blanche has publicly stated that his department has dropped the fund, but he and the DOJ have dodged requests from Cornyn and a federal judge to put that in writing.
After announcing his meeting with Blanche would not take place Wednesday morning, Cornyn told reporters that changes from Blanche “in a modified release form” would be acceptable, but that “for some reason … they simply refuse to do it,” referring to the DOJ.
Shortly after the meeting was called off, a Justice Department official told MS NOW that the department “provided a written proposal to Senator Cornyn’s staff yesterday following ongoing discussion with both the Committee and the Senator’s office.”
Cornyn said that proposal was “not responsive” to his demands because it did not address the tax audit immunity provisions in the settlement, one of his key demands.
In May, Blanche signed an addendum as part of the deal that granted Trump, his family and his businesses immunity from pending IRS tax audits. That agreement, which has been decried by former IRS officials and legal experts as unlawful self-dealing, is being contested in federal court.
Cornyn noted that Blanche testified under oath that he could meet the request during his confirmation hearing.
“Maybe they think I’m just going to give up or you know, go along, but they’re mistaken,” Cornyn said when asked why he thinks the DOJ could be slow-walking his request.
Kevin Frey contributed to this report.
Sydney Carruth is a breaking news reporter covering national politics and policy for MS NOW. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at SydneyCarruth.46 or follow her work on X and Bluesky.
Mychael Schnell is a reporter for MS NOW.
Ebony Davis is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked at BLN as a campaign reporter covering elections and politics.
When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived this week for his tour of Washington, he may have had a mission in mind.
Netanyahu needed to overcome his newly diminished stature and waning influence over his once close friend President Donald Trump as both leaders grapple with the unpopularity of a war they started together and is escaping their control.
His meeting at the White House with Trump on Tuesday, which was closed to the press, was the first face-to-face encounter between the two allies since the U.S. and Israel launched a joint attack against Iran on Feb. 28.
Trump gave him a muted welcome and afterwards simply described the meeting as “very good.” “Obviously, many important subjects were discussed,” the president wrote on Truth Social.
Rather than an intimate one-on-one setting, the Oval Office was full of top U.S. officials — Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, and special envoy Steve Witkoff.
But Netanyahu continued the full court press on the Trump administration.
Over the course of two days, in addition to seeing Trump and attending Sen. Lindsey Graham’s funeral at the Capitol, Netanyahu also met separately with Vance, Hegseth, and Rubio, White House and Israeli officials confirmed to MS NOW.
The Israeli prime minister’s slate of meetings with key U.S. national security officials comes at a pivotal moment in the Iran conflict as tensions escalate in the region and Americans increasingly sour on the war. A recent Quinnipiac poll shows 60% of American voters opposing U.S. military action against Iran and 74% against sending U.S. ground troops into Iran.
Not only does Trump face pressure as Republicans face an uphill battle to retain congressional control in this fall’s midterms, Netanyahu’s fate as prime minister is at stake in Israel’s upcoming September elections – and he can’t afford to lose Trump’s favor.
The talks largely focused on what to do next as Iran continues to menace shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and retaliate against American bases in the region and launch attacks on Gulf allies.
According to a senior Israeli official who was granted anonymity to describe the closed-door meeting, President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu did not come to a final decision after discussing three paths forward: get a “good deal” focused on Iran’s nuclear program and enriched material, have no deal and instead continue the blockade and economic pressure, or take escalated military action.
But Netanyahu did not tell Trump what he should do – nor did he express a preference.
The senior Israeli official noted Netanyahu has not ruled out diplomacy – as long as it is coupled with “very strong pressures,” calling the push to dismantle Iran’s nuclear program “a contest of will and a contest of force.”
“There are ways of squeezing them and squeezing them and squeezing them and negotiating at the same time,” the official said.
Netanyahu did not present President Trump with new intelligence regarding the underground Iranian nuclear facility Pickaxe Mountain, per the senior Israeli official, noting the U.S. and Israel already are constantly sharing intelligence – and know where Iran’s highly enriched material is. “We don’t think it’s moved, and I think we have a pretty good grasp on that,” the official said.
During their meeting on Tuesday, Trump and Netanyahu discussed ways Israel and the U.S. can work together to stop Iran’s nuclear program and get the Strait of Hormuz open to maritime trade, the senior Israeli official said.
The two leaders also discussed a third goal: to continue to undermine the Iranian regime and “possibly create future conditions for a change in that area.” U.S. officials have backed away from pursuing paths that would overthrow the current leadership, but Netanyahu still believes that could happen.
“The chasm that has been created between the people and the regime is not about to be closed,” the senior Israeli official said of Netanyahu’s thinking.
Netanyahu advised Trump in February that Israeli intelligence indicated launching strikes against Iran would lead to the toppling of the Islamic Republic’s regime – and five months later, the slain ayatollah’s son retains power with a close circle of hardliners, calling into question the accuracy of Israel’s intelligence apparatus.
But the senior Israeli official said at the time, Netanyahu did not promise the Iranian people would take fate into their own hands following a coordinated attack. Rather, he chose his words carefully and said that an attack could create conditions to “advance the probability or the possibility that that would happen.”
The conditions needed for the Iranian regime to fall, “did not materialize,” the official told MS NOW, adding, “not for lack of insight, but for either operational failure or decisions that were made.”
Despite Netanyahu insisting Israel and the U.S. are on the same page, differences still remain: the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey and the Saudi nuclear arrangement did not come up during Wednesday’s White House meeting, according to a second Israeli official granted anonymity to describe sensitive discussions.
Meanwhile, the conflict continues to spread, with an Iranian drone attacking a U.S. gas storage tanker off the coast of Egypt on Wednesday.
Trump indicated he would not let Iran’s latest action slide, telling reporters on Wednesday that the U.S. would retaliate against Iran even as he leaves room for diplomatic talks to resume.
“It’s our turn, and we’ll see if we get there with an agreement at some point,” Trump said. “But we’re going to hit them very hard.”
As for what it would take for Israel to join the U.S. strikes, the senior Israeli official said that if Israel is attacked by Iran, “We will respond very, very forcefully and very quickly. And I think Iran would make a great mistake.”
Julia Jester covers politics for MS NOW and is based in Washington, D.C.
International rage over FIFA’s close ties to President Donald Trump has reached a fever pitch after soccer’s governing body announced a plan to sell a significant stake to an investor group led by Joshua Kushner, the brother of Trump’s son-in-law.
FIFA has announced plans to sell a large minority stake in a new company that will run its main events, including the World Cup and Club World Cup, as part of a plan to triple the amount of development money it dishes out to its 211 member associations.
Under the proposals — which are subject to approval by a majority of those national associations and FIFA’s 37-member council — a new entity called FIFA Forward Enterprises (FFE) will take over all commercial operations, while FIFA remains the game’s global governing body and retains a majority stake in FFE.
A press release from FIFA confirmed the plans and said Thrive Eternal, which was launched by Joshua Kushner, is expected to lead the investment group that would control FIFA Forward Enterprise. FIFA did not clarify why Thrive Eternal was selected, and Kushner was already dabbling in sports.
Joshua Kushner reportedly has been a major donor to Democrats. But, predictably, the idea of another Kushner becoming financially entwined with the World Cup — the world’s most popular sporting event — and basically being dropped into a position of global significance isn’t going over well. Several other soccer governing bodies have expressed concerns, including Europe’s UEFA.
“This crosses a line that football’s governing institutions should never cross,” UEFA said in a statement about The Athletic’s report, adding: “The soul and governance of football are not assets to trade — especially with zero transparency as to who gains financially. None of us are the owners of football. It is not FIFA’s to sell.”
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee also rebuked the plan, writing on X: “Apparently the fake Peace Prize and giant lease with Trump Tower weren’t enough — now Infantino performs a kickback hat trick by pursuing a multibillion-dollar deal with Jared Kushner’s brother to sell ownership stakes in the World Cup to private investors.”
FIFA, Donald Trump’s favorite corrupt racketeering enterprise in world sports, is now going directly into business with the Trump family!
Apparently the fake Peace Prize and giant lease with Trump Tower weren’t enough—now Infantino performs a kickback hat trick by pursuing a… https://t.co/knSZibuMea
— House Judiciary Dems (@HouseJudiciary) July 28, 2026
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., has already launched an investigation into the FIFA leader’s relationship with the Trump administration, while dozens of European lawmakers — citing concerns about “potential breaches of political neutrality” — have called for the FIFA Ethics Committee to investigate Infantino. This new proposal seems unlikely to assuage those concerns.
This post on X basically sums up the foul stench around FIFA’s latest proposal.
Sepp Blatter was Infantino’s predecessor as FIFA president and oversaw the organization amid some of its many scandals. When heof all people, is warning about how Trump and Infantino’s relationship is “deeply damaging” soccer, it’s a sign of how far FIFA has descended into the gutter.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.
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