U.S. Shutdown Begins, and Trump Tells Military to Use U.S. Cities as ‘Training Grounds’

0:02From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today is Wednesday, October 1st. Here's what we're covering.

0:14Well, Mr. President, it looks like we're going to have a shutdown. At 12.01 a.m., the U.S. government shut down after the Senate deadlocked over spending. Democrats, as we know, are pushing us towards a government shutdown. Four million people are about to lose coverage, and our Republican colleagues want to do nothing about it. Lawmakers spent the last hours before the deadline in back-to-back votes. We only have 53 Republicans. Each party put forward their own measure to keep funding flowing. We need seven Democrats to join with us. And each party blocked the others. Democrats say they're holding out for a deal that will extend health care subsidies that are about to expire.

1:02Without that, 4 million people are projected to lose coverage starting next year, and insurance costs will go up for another 20 million. Republicans have accused the Democrats of holding government funding hostage. With no resolution in sight, the U.S. has now entered its first federal shutdown since 2019. Back then, parts of the government closed for just over a month in a dispute between Democrats and President Trump over his demands to fund a border wall. So when you shut it down, you have to do layoffs. So we'd be laying off a lot of people that are going to be very affected, and the Democrats, they're going to be Democrats.

1:40Yesterday, Trump told reporters a lot of good can come from shutdowns, saying it gave the White House an opportunity to lay off federal workers who are Democrats and cut programs Democrats support. The White House budget director has already told agencies to execute their plans for an orderly shutdown. Hundreds of thousands of federal employees have been furloughed. That includes more than 80 percent of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Education Department, and more than half the State Department. Still, there are many key services that will continue pretty much uninterrupted if they're considered mandatory or are funded through another mechanism.

2:18The post office, for example, will keep delivering mail. Social security benefits will keep going out. For now, flights are not expected to be affected, even though some FAA employees have been furloughed. And there's still access to national parks, though all of that could change the longer the shutdown goes on. Federal law enforcement officers, active duty troops, and air traffic controllers have been deemed essential, so many will work without pay until funding is restored. For a more complete list of what will be affected and how, go to nytimes.com. The Senate is expected to return to the Capitol today to vote again.

3:01In many ways, this speech is about fixing decades of decay. Foolish and reckless political leaders set the wrong compass heading, and we lost our way. We became the woke department, but not anymore. Hundreds of the country's top generals and admirals were brought to Quantico, Virginia yesterday for an address from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Trump. The highly unusual meeting, which was only called last week, had set off rumors in the military. Officers had wondered if it was going to be about mass firings, a declaration of war on Venezuela, or a loyalty pledge to the president.

3:39It ended up being a campaign-style event where both Hegseth and Trump criticized the state of the military and ticked through culture war talking points. No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship. As I've said before, and will say again, we are done with that shit. Hegseth lectured the group on fitness, grooming, and a, quote, war-fighting mentality. And without presenting any evidence, he said past leadership had lowered military standards to meet arbitrary racial and gender quotas. Hegseth said fixing that was a top priority, claiming the U.S. military had lost the ability to win wars.

4:27President Trump, meanwhile, gave a rambling and sometimes incoherent speech that returned to one of his frequent themes, crime in U.S. cities. What they've done to San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, they're very unsafe places, and we're going to straighten them out one by one. And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That's a war, too. It's a war from within. Trump said he told Hegseth the military should use U.S. cities as training grounds. In all, it was a highly politicized speech to a group of apolitical military commanders. Trump's comments were met with expressionless faces.

5:08Senior leadership at the Pentagon had warned the officers in attendance not to react or cheer in keeping with military norms. Some former military officers have criticized the event. One retired Army major general told The Times that he questioned the cost of gathering all of the military leaders together to hear Hegseth lecture on physical fitness and have Trump run through a list of partisan grievances.

5:38Now, three more updates on the Trump administration. The big winner of this deal clearly will be the American people. There is no doubt about it. They are the ones that will see significant impact in their ability to buy medicines. The CEO of the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer joined President Trump at the White House yesterday to announce that the company had agreed to lower the prices it charges state Medicaid programs for many of the medications it sells. Pfizer also said it will price new drugs released in the U.S. at levels comparable to what it charges countries in the EU. The announcement marks a step forward on Trump's goal of equalizing prescription drug prices between the U.S.

6:23and other wealthy nations, where brand-name drugs are on average three times cheaper. Senior administration officials said they'd reached similar agreements with other drug manufacturers, but did not name them. Also, the White House withdrew its nomination for the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, E.J. Antony. President Trump fired the previous economist who held the spot after claiming the data was rigged when the agency's reports showed weaker hiring numbers. Trump then tapped Antony, a conservative economist at the Heritage Foundation, as her replacement. But economists and other experts from across the political spectrum raise concerns about Antony's lack of experience and his history of distorting statistics to support political arguments.

7:10Last night, the White House confirmed it was withdrawing Antoni's nomination, but offered no reason for the sudden change. And a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration violated the First Amendment by using the threat of deportation to systematically silence foreign students in the U.S. who protested in support of Palestinians. The lawyers who brought the suit argued that the government detaining Mahmoud Khalil, Ramesa Ozturk, and others had ushered in panic on American college campuses, with a chilling effect on academia. In a scathing 161-page opinion, the judge called out the administration's attempts to, quote, strike fear into student protesters and criticized ICE agents who detained some of the students for wearing masks, which he said was a tactic to terrorize Americans into quiescence.

8:03Despite the finding, the judge did not immediately block the government from attempting further deportations. He said he would weigh in more after another hearing at a later date. In response to the ruling, a State Department spokesman repeated claims that it had initiated deportations against people who were committing anti-American acts or inciting violence, and said, we will continue to revoke the visas of those who put the safety of our citizens at risk.

8:34In California this week, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law some of the most comprehensive rules in the country for companies who are developing artificial intelligence. The new law requires large tech firms to report what safety protocols they use in building their AI products and to publicly disclose the greatest risks posed by their technologies. The bill also strengthens whistleblower protections for employees who warn about potential dangers of AI. A previous version of the legislation had required companies to build in a kill switch that would stop the technology, but that was stripped out after a fierce lobbying campaign from the tech industry.

9:15Around the country, AI regulations are gaining momentum. This year alone, 38 states passed or enacted their own rules. Major companies like Meta, OpenAI, and Google have tried to block that, saying the patchwork of state regulations puts too much of a burden on them. Last month, several Silicon Valley giants pledged up to$200 million to two new super PACs designed to help elect politicians friendly to AI and force out those they consider not supportive enough of the technology.

9:55And finally, for a century, Italian cooks have had a go-to secret weapon in the kitchen. It's a cookbook packed with more than 2 ,000 recipes titled The Talisman of Happiness. Basically, if you think about how many American kitchens have a copy of Joy of Cooking in there, same thing. People still remember their grandma's copies that got used so much they're held together with rubber bands. But until now, the masterwork had never been available in English, other than a watered-down, abridged version from 1950. The cookbook editor who finally made it happen told the Times, it took years of irrational behavior, and I guess what you might call pure mania.

10:38It involved tracking down the great-nephew of the original author, Adaboni. He gave his blessing, saying he grew up eating those dishes and remembered seeing his great aunt hunched over a typewriter working on the recipes. One of those standout dishes in the cookbook translates to sauce for the pope. Despite the lofty name, it comes together in about 15 minutes with just some butter, cheese and milk. Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, more on the government shutdown, including an interview with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. You can listen to that in the New York Times app or wherever you get your podcasts.

11:18I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.