Today in one sentence: Trump threatened to permanently cut more “Democrat programs” as the government shutdown entered its third week; North Carolina’s Republican legislative leaders will vote next week to redraw the state’s U.S. House map to add a Republican-leaning seat; the Supreme Court will rehear a major voting rights case that could limit how race is used in drawing election maps; the U.S. military killed six more people in a strike on a boat off the coast of Venezuela; nearly every major U.S. news outlet refused to sign the Pentagon’s new press access policy, saying it “undermines the First Amendment”; Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the Fed would likely cut rates again this month as job growth continued to slow and key data remained unavailable during the shutdown; and Trump posthumously awarded Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

1/ Trump threatened to permanently cut more “Democrat programs” as the government shutdown entered its third week, promising to name the “most egregious, socialist, semi-communist” programs for elimination on Friday. He said Democrats are “getting killed” and that the targets would “never going to open again.” Speaker Mike Johnson backed Trump and dared Democrats to “bring it” and challenge the moves in court. Meanwhile, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, breaking with her party, called House Republicans “weak men” who mishandled the shutdown and were “afraid of strong Republican women.” She said Johnson and other Republican leaders had sidelined conservative women while “rewarding” men who refuse to challenge the leadership. The Office of Management and Budget said it would “batten down the hatches,” continue layoffs, and keep paying troops and law enforcement. (New York Times / Bloomberg / Politico / The Hill / Washington Post / Axios / Wall Street Journal / NBC News / Associated Press)

2/ North Carolina’s Republican legislative leaders will vote next week to redraw the state’s U.S. House map to add a Republican-leaning seat. State House Speaker Destin Hall said, “President Trump earned a clear mandate […] and we intend to defend it by drawing an additional Republican Congressional seat.” Republicans currently hold 10 of North Carolina’s 14 U.S. House seats. The move follows Texas’s passage of a map adding five Republican-leaning seats and California’s pending voter referendum on a Democratic-favored map, while Missouri’s revised map intended to help Republicans pick up an additional seat faces court challenges. (Washington Post / Associated Press / New York Times / NBC News / The Hill / Democracy Docket)

3/ The Supreme Court will rehear a major voting rights case that could limit how race is used in drawing election maps. The case, Louisiana v. Callais, asks whether Louisiana violated the 14th and 15th Amendments by creating a second majority-Black district to comply with the Voting Rights Act. Louisiana and the Trump administration argued that “race-based redistricting is fundamentally contrary to our Constitution” and claimed Section 2 of the law has become “electoral race-based affirmative action.” Courts had earlier ruled that Louisiana’s original map diluted the power of Black voters in violation of the Voting Rights Act and ordered lawmakers to draw a second majority-Black district. A federal court later blocked that new map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. (CNN / Washington Post / Bloomberg / New York Times / Associated Press / CBS News)

  • 🔎 What’s at Stake? If the Supreme Court weakens Section 2, the main federal check on maps that dilute minority votes would be rolled back. States could then stop drawing or preserving majority-Black and Latino districts, allowing legislatures to split those communities up, and reduce their ability to elect preferred candidates while leaving fewer federal tools to police racially biased maps.

4/ The U.S. military killed six more people in a strike on a boat off the coast of Venezuela – the fifth such operation since September. Trump claimed that the vessel was “affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization” and “intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics.” He said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the “lethal kinetic strike” in international waters and that no U.S. troops were harmed. Despite having killed at least 27 people so far, the Trump administration hasn’t provided evidence that the boats were carrying drugs or linked to terrorist groups. (The Hill / Wall Street Journal / New York Times / The Guardian / Bloomberg / Associated Press / ABC News / CNN / Washington Post)

5/ Nearly every major U.S. news outlet refused to sign the Pentagon’s new press access policy, saying it “undermines the First Amendment.” The Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN, Fox News, ABC, CBS, NBC, Reuters, the Associated Press, and Newsmax (!) said the rules would restrict their ability to report freely on the U.S. military. The 21-page policy requires journalists to acknowledge that they won’t seek or publish information not approved by the Defense Department, including unclassified material, or risk losing credentials. “The policy is without precedent and threatens core journalistic protections,” the five major broadcast networks said in a joint statement. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, meanwhile, defended the rules as “common sense” and posted a hand-waving emoji to several outlets on Twitter/X after their refusals. Only One America News said it had signed. (Washington Post / Bloomberg / NBC News / CNN / The Hill / New York Times / CBS News / Axios / Associated Press)

6/ Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the Fed would likely cut rates again this month as job growth continued to slow and key data remained unavailable during the shutdown. “There is no risk-free path for policy,” Powell said, admitting that the Fed “won’t be able to replace the data we’re not getting.” The International Monetary Fund, meanwhile, said Trump’s tariffs were weighing on global growth, warning of “increasing signs that the adverse effects of protectionist measures are starting to show.” (CNN / Wall Street Journal / Axios / New York Times / Bloomberg)

⏭️ Notably Next: Your government has been shut down for 14 days; “No Kings Day” is Oct. 18; the 2026 midterms are in 385 days.

✏️ Notables.

  1. Trump posthumously awarded Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom on what would have been the activist’s 32nd birthday, calling him a “fearless warrior for liberty” and “martyr for freedom.” The ceremony came a month after Kirk was fatally shot at a Utah college. Erika Kirk accepted the medal on behalf of her husband, saying the honor was “the best birthday gift he could ever have.” (Axios / Associated Press / CBS News)

  2. The State Department revoked visas for six foreigners accused of mocking or celebrating the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, saying the U.S. “has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans.” Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that “If you are here on a visa and cheering on the public assassination of a political figure, prepare to be deported.” (Associated Press / Wall Street Journal)

  3. Leaked group messages showed Young Republican leaders across several states using racist, antisemitic, and violent language, including “I love Hitler” and “everyone that votes no is going to the gas chamber.” The 2,900 pages of Telegram chats spanning more than seven months showed Young Republicans joking about rape, slavery, and the Holocaust while referring to Black people with racial slurs and mocking women and LGBTQ people. Some of the leaked messages also echoed Charlie Kirk’s past rhetoric, including a comment about a dark-skinned pilot that closely resembled Kirk’s own remark questioning the qualifications of Black pilots. (Politico / New Republic)

  4. House Republican leaders called Saturday’s planned “No Kings” protests a “hate America” rally and linked them to “antifa.” Tom Emmer said protesters “do not love this country,” and Mike Johnson called them “the pro-Hamas wing and the antifa people,” while Steve Scalise tied the demonstrations to Senate Democrats during the shutdown. Organizers have promoted nonviolent action at events planned in about 2,000 locations and urged participants to “seek to de-escalate” and to not bring weapons. (The Hill / New Republic)

  5. Trump attacked Time magazine for using what he called “the Worst of All Time” photo on its cover featuring his Gaza peace deal. He claimed editors “disappeared” his hair and made it look like a “floating crown,” saying the image “deserves to be called out.” Russia, meanwhile, also condemned the photo, calling the editors “unhealthy” and “freaks.” (Washington Post / Politico / Axios / The Hill)

Five years ago today: Day 1364: "Dr. Johnny Bananas."