Government Shutdown
Senator Chuck Schumer said he and a group of Democrats would support a Republican-written spending bill to prevent the government from shutting down tonight.
“A shutdown would give Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk permission to destroy vital government services at a significantly faster rate than they can right now,” Schumer wrote in a Times Opinion guest essay.
Democrats who oppose the bill say that it, too, gives the Trump administration wide latitude to slash government employees and programs.
Government Cuts
A federal judge said the government must rehire thousands of probationary workers across six agencies. The judge called the Trump administration’s rationale for the firings a “sham.”
A federal judge ordered Elon Musk and his cost-cutting operatives to provide documents and answer questions about their role in directing mass firings and dismantling government programs.
Musk’s team said it would disclose its savings and cuts transparently. These graphics show how its website has inflated and deleted claims.
The Left Appears to be upset
It was supposed to be a moment of celebration: Vice President JD Vance was attending a concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington on Thursday evening for the first time since President Trump’s stunning takeover of the institution.
Instead, as Mr. Vance took his seat in the box tier with the second lady, Usha Vance, loud boos broke out in the auditorium, lasting roughly 30 seconds, according to audience members and a video posted on social media. Mr. Vance was shown in the video waving to the audience as he settled into his seat.
The incident put on display the outcry over Mr. Trump’s decision last month to purge the Kennedy Center’s once-bipartisan board of its Biden appointees and have himself elected its chairman. (The president, who broke with tradition during his first term by not attending the Kennedy Center Honors after some of the artists being celebrated criticized him, complained that the center had become too “wokey.”)
Mr. Vance attended Thursday’s performance by the National Symphony Orchestra, one of the Kennedy Center’s flagship groups. The ensemble, under the baton of its music director, Gianandrea Noseda, performed Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 2, with Leonidas Kavakos as the soloist. After an intermission, the orchestra played Stravinsky’s “Petrushka.”
The Vances stayed for the entire concert, audience members said. Ms. Vance was recently appointed by Mr. Trump to serve as a board member at the Kennedy Center, alongside other Trump allies like Susie Wiles, the White House chief of staff; and Laura Ingraham, the Fox News host.
The concert started about 20 minutes late because of added security measures, audience members said.
