The Senate advanced its version of a colossal package to authorize funding for the Pentagon on Thursday in the midst of the ongoing government shutdown.

The 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which had been gathering dust as lawmakers worked to break through holds on the bill for over a month, advanced in the upper chamber on a bipartisan vote. The legislation would authorize roughly $925 billion in defense spending.

However, successful advancement of the bill after a marathon Senate vote on amendments came as the government entered Day 9 of the government shutdown with no clear end in sight. Lawmakers in the upper chamber aren’t expected to return until Tuesday, all but guaranteeing that military service members won’t get their paychecks next week. 

Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker, R-Miss., formally announced the breakthrough on the Senate floor after Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., teased a possible vote Thursday morning. Wicker noted that in a particularly partisan moment in the upper chamber, the NDAA was able to sail through committee earlier this year on a near unanimous vote.

‘In this time, when we can’t seem to muster up a 60-vote majority to keep us in business as a federal government, we were able to pass the National Defense Authorization Act by a vote of 26-to-1,’ Wicker said.

Lawmakers were finally able to move on the legislative package after Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., dropped his hold on the measure.

Gallego had called for a vote on his amendment that would have prevented Ashli Babbitt, who was killed during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, from receiving military funeral honors. The Air Force extended an offer for military funeral honors for Babbitt in August.

Senators charged through over a dozen partisan amendments and a massive batch of roughly 50 add-ons to the legislative package before moving the bill. The House passed its own version last month.

Among the failed amendments was one from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., which would have blocked money to retrofit a Boeing 747 that President Donald Trump accepted from the Qatari government earlier this year.  

Another, from Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., would have prevented Trump and governors around the country from signing off on sending the National Guard from one state to another if a governor or mayor rejected the move. 

One successful amendment, from Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., would repeal the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force for Iraq, which, at the time, authorized President George W. Bush to use the U.S. military as he deemed ‘to be necessary and appropriate’ in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001.

It would also repeal a similar resolution passed in 1991 during the Gulf War. The House’s version of the bill included repeals of both authorizations, too. 

However, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., had vowed to block the package Thursday afternoon in an effort to ‘secure a hearing to investigate this gross abuse of our military’ in response to Trump sending the National Guard to Chicago and other cities across the country.

But she backed off her threat after Wicker promised a hearing on the matter ‘in the coming weeks.’

‘I look forward to asking tough questions of the Trump administration about their unconstitutional National Guard deployments to American cities against state and local officials’ objections,’ she said in a statement. 

When President Donald Trump and Finnish President Alexander Stubb sealed their latest trade agreement on Thursday, it wasn’t just a handshake for 11 rugged ships. 

It was another sign of a friendship that’s quickly turning into strategy.

Where other European leaders have tried to win Trump’s respect through policy and persuasion, Stubb chose the fairway. In March, the Finnish president — once a national golf team player — turned up at Mar-a-Lago not with briefing notes, but with clubs, challenging Trump to a round and earning something rarer than a trade deal: rapport.

Presentation matters to Trump, and Stubb — 6-foot-3, fit and sharply dressed in a double-breasted coat — seemed to meet the moment. When the two last met at the White House in August, Trump told him he ‘looked better than ever’ and introduced him as ‘a young, powerful man.’

That personal chemistry, maintained through frequent text exchanges, has quietly opened doors for the Finnish president, a longtime marathoner and triathlete with a competitive streak. What’s more, it’s translating into real policy — from defense contracts to Arctic cooperation — elevating the once-quiet Nordic nation to new prominence in Washington.

It’s an unlikely rise for a country better known for saunas and serenity than for summits. Stubb hails from a nation of 5.6 million that routinely tops the world’s happiness index, where forests blanket nearly 75% of the land and lakes glint by the hundreds of thousands.

Finland — slightly smaller than the state of Montana and wedged between Sweden and Russia — has long had its security outlook shaped by geography, a position that now places it on the front line of NATO and Arctic strategy.

The trade deal signed Thursday, for 11 ships valued at roughly $6.1 billion, is the latest sign of how that alignment is taking shape. Under the deal Trump approved, three of the ships will be built by Davie in Galveston, Texas, and four by Bollinger Shipyards in Houma, Louisiana, a setup that aligns with his ‘Made in America’ credo and emphasis on creating U.S. jobs, injecting billions of dollars into the maritime industrial base.

And when it comes to icebreakers, Helsinki is firmly in its element: Finnish companies design roughly 80% of the world’s fleet.

Finland’s expertise has made it more than just a supplier. It’s turned Helsinki into a trusted player in Trump’s Arctic strategy, a region increasingly defined by military competition with Russia and China, melting sea routes and access to critical minerals.

That partnership cuts both ways. For Finland, the agreement deepens defense cooperation with the U.S. and elevates it from NATO newcomer to strategic partner, a bridge linking Washington to the fast-changing Arctic frontier.

‘We are very pleased with the fact that we have so much training going on with American soldiers right now. They are getting experience from our Arctic conditions, and we are integrating our militaries together,’ Stubb said during a meeting in the Oval Office Thursday. 

For now, Stubb’s rapport with Trump has turned the fairway into a diplomatic fast track. Whether that personal chemistry endures amid shifting politics remains to be seen, but, for Finland, the gains are already tangible. 

Stubb has learned what some other global counterparts haven’t. With Trump, a well-timed drive can travel farther than any policy memo. And, so far, that lesson is paying off for both men.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., appears to be holding firm on his strategy for pressuring Senate Democrats to agree to end the government shutdown, he indicated in both public and private comments Thursday. 

But even as he and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., continue with their plans, some House GOP lawmakers are growing nervous about the potential fallout.

House Republicans held a private call Thursday where Johnson briefed them on the current state of play. And while GOP lawmakers were largely unified behind their leader, Fox News Digital was told, several did express concerns about optics coming from the House and Senate as the shutdown is poised to enter a tenth day.

Johnson had previously canceled House votes this week to keep national attention on Democrats’ resistance to the GOP’s plan to fund the government. 

The speaker told House Republicans he would give them 48 hours’ notice before the next House votes were called but did not say when that would be, Fox News Digital was told — after publicly stating multiple times that their return would depend on Senate Democrats.

He said on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ on Wednesday: ‘As soon as [Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.] decides to stop playing games, we’ll bring everybody back here and get right back to regular session.’

But at least three House Republicans are advocating for the chamber to return next week whether the shutdown is resolved or not, including two on the Thursday call.

Reps. Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., and Julie Fedorchak, R-N.D., both spoke up in favor of returning next week, sources told Fox News Digital.

Obernolte told Johnson the House had more work to do beyond spending bills, adding, ‘None of that is getting done,’ Fox News Digital was told.

‘I think we’re going to get to a point where it’s damaging to continue to keep the House out of session. I think we’ve gotten to that point,’ Obernolte said, Fox News Digital was told.

Fedorchak said she believed House Republicans would be in a better strategic position if they were in D.C., sources said.

But Johnson reiterated his 48-hour pledge and said a recess next week was not a ‘final call’ but pointed out that most House Republicans thought it was the right decision, sources said.

Meanwhile, Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., made his concerns public on Wednesday, writing on X, ‘What the House has done is pass a 7-week Continuing Resolution. The entire reason a CR is necessary is that Congress has not done its job in passing a timely budget. The Speaker shouldn’t even think about canceling session for a third straight week.’

On the Thursday call, Johnson also indicated he would not hold a standalone vote on keeping the military paid during the shutdown, sources said.

The speaker argued it was a push led by Democrats who were seeking political cover despite rejecting the GOP’s funding plan — which would keep the military paid and the entire government open through at least Nov. 21.

As it stands, service members on active duty are deemed ‘essential’ and must keep working, but they could miss their next paychecks on Oct. 15 if the shutdown is ongoing.

‘The entire government has to be reopened simultaneously,’ Johnson said, sources told Fox News Digital.

But that’s also been met with some concern by House lawmakers.

Rep. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., who is leading a bill to ensure troops are paid during a shutdown, wrote on X Wednesday, ‘The President has made it clear: we must pay our troops. I’m urging the Speaker and our House leadership to immediately pass my bill to ensure our service members, many of whom live paycheck to paycheck while supporting their families, receive the pay they’ve earned.’

Meanwhile, two other House Republicans — Reps. John Rutherford, R-Fla., and Tom Barrett, R-Mich. — spoke up during lawmakers’ call on Thursday with concerns about the Senate GOP not moving to bypass Democrats altogether to reopen the government.

Under current Senate rules, most legislation needs to meet a 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster and allow for debate.

But there have been several exceptions made in modern times, triggered by the Senate majority leader, in which rules have been changed to lower the threshold to 51 votes for certain issues. Senate Republicans most recently used it earlier this year to overcome Democrats’ blockade on President Donald Trump’s nominees.

However, Federal funding legislation still needs 60 votes, something Rutherford and Barrett said the Senate should consider changing.

Rutherford specifically warned he was concerned it could open Republicans up to ‘bad messaging’ if the Senate did not use the so-called ‘nuclear option’ to ensure the military was paid on time when it was used so recently for presidential nominees.

Johnson, as leader of the House of Representatives, does not have a say over what the Senate does. But he addressed a similar query during a Q&A with Americans on C-SPAN Thursday morning.

‘The filibuster is a tradition there that people on both sides cherish, and the reason is if you blow that up, and you go nuclear on something like a CR, their argument is you would open a Pandora’s box,’ Johnson said.

‘What if the socialists take over the Senate, and Democrat socialists are in charge, and they want to grow government to take over the means of production, and they don’t have any safeguard there, and they could do it with a bare-minimum majority next time?’

The government shutdown is poised to roll into a tenth day on Friday after Senate Democrats rejected the GOP’s funding plan a seventh time.

Republicans are pushing a short-term extension of fiscal year (FY) 2025 funding levels, called a continuing resolution (CR), to give lawmakers more time to reach a deal on FY2026 spending levels.

But Democrats, infuriated at being sidelined in the discussions, are demanding serious concessions on healthcare provisions in exchange for their support for a spending deal.

A House GOP lawmaker is tapping President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize after he announced a landmark agreement to end the Israel-Hamas war.

Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., told Fox News Digital that he would be introducing a resolution to nominate Trump for the honor.

The president announced the first phase of a peace agreement between the two sides on his Truth Social app on Wednesday evening, writing, ‘This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their Troops to an agreed upon line as the first steps toward a Strong, Durable, and Everlasting Peace.’

The news was lauded by both Democrat and Republican officials.

‘No one deserves the Nobel Peace Prize more than Donald J. Trump, the Peace President. In nine short months, he’s negotiated seven peace deals, not including the recent announcement of a historic agreement between Israel and Hamas to release the hostages and end hostilities,’ Carter told Fox News Digital.

‘He has already saved countless lives, and the globe is forever indebted to him for his courageous pursuit of world peace.’

The Nobel Prizes, awarded every year, are being announced this week. The winner of the Nobel Peace Prize is expected to be announced Friday.

Fox News Digital was told that Carter, who is running for U.S. Senate in Georgia, intends to move on a mechanism aimed at forcing a vote on his resolution if Trump does not win on Friday.

The mechanism, known as a discharge petition, would require House leaders to hold a vote on a measure if the petition behind it garners a majority of signatures in the chamber — which would occur if all Republicans signed on.

Carter is one of several House Republicans to nominate Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize since he took office in January.

The last U.S. commander in chief to win a Nobel Peace Prize was President Barack Obama in 2009.

The sudden announcement that Israel and Hamas had agreed to a U.S.-brokered ceasefire Wednesday night reignited a once-far-fetched question in world politics: could President Donald Trump win the Nobel Peace Prize?

If the ceasefire holds, it would signify a landmark achievement months in the making for a president who has branded himself a global peacemaker. Trump has long insisted he deserves the prize but doubts the committee would ever give it to him.

‘I’m not politicking for it,’ Trump said when asked about the prospect during the Aug. 8 signing of a peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan at the White House. ‘I have a lot of people that are.’

Indeed, many have nominated him — often with public fanfare.

Nominations and deadlines

The deadline for this year’s nominations was January 31. Some proposals for Trump came in before then, but many arrived after the cutoff date. If he does not win when the prize is announced Friday, he could be considered again next year.

Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., said she nominated Trump, along with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, for their work on the 2020 Abraham Accords between Israel and Arab states.

According to the Nobel Committee, 338 candidates were nominated this year — 244 individuals and 94 organizations.

Global push for Trump’s nomination

International support for Trump’s candidacy has come from a range of leaders. On June 20, Pakistani officials said they would recommend him for ‘decisive diplomatic intervention and pivotal leadership’ during a U.S.-brokered ceasefire between India and Pakistan.

A trio of Republican lawmakers nominated him after the Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, though that has not yet produced a ceasefire in Ukraine. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., quipped that he would be ‘the Democrat leading’ the charge for Trump to win if he could broker peace in that conflict as well.

Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., nominated Trump in June following the Israel-Iran ceasefire agreement. Netanyahu said he submitted his own nomination in July, while Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet announced their nominations after separate U.S.-brokered peace agreements in their regions.

According to Oddspedia, Trump currently leads betting markets for the prize, followed by Sudan’s emergency response rooms and Russian opposition figure Yulia Navalnaya, widow of the late Alexei Navalny. Other contenders — such as Greta Thunberg, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and the International Criminal Court — represent causes often at odds with Trump’s policies.

Trump: ‘The people know’

Trump has expressed little faith that the Nobel Committee will recognize him, despite his flurry of diplomatic initiatives.

‘No, I won’t get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do — including Russia/Ukraine and Israel/Iran, whatever those outcomes may be,’ he wrote on Truth Social in June. ‘But the people know, and that’s all that matters to me.’

Inside the Nobel Committee

The Oslo-based Norwegian Nobel Committee is made up of five members appointed by Norway’s parliament to uphold Alfred Nobel’s will, awarding the prize to whoever has done ‘the most or the best work for fraternity between nations.’

The current committee includes Jørgen Watne Frydnes, secretary general of the Utøya Foundation; Asle Toje, a foreign-policy scholar linked to the right-leaning Progress Party; Anne Enger, a former Centre Party leader; Kristin Clemet, head of Civita, a center-right think tank that promotes free-market and democratic values; and Gry Larsen, secretary general of CARE Norway.

The panel’s composition suggests long odds for Trump. With most members rooted in Norway’s center-left and centrist traditions — and only Toje aligned with the right-leaning Progress Party — the committee tends to favor humanitarian, consensus-driven peace efforts over Trump’s deal-oriented diplomacy. It is generally seen as cautious and establishment-leaning, unlikely to reward his unconventional style even amid short-term progress in Gaza.

The Obama precedent

The Nobel Committee last faced this level of scrutiny when it awarded President Barack Obama the Peace Prize just nine months into his first term in 2009, citing his promotion of nuclear nonproliferation and a ‘new climate’ in international relations.

Obama was deeply popular in Europe at the time, but by the end of his presidency U.S.-Russia relations had sunk to a post-Cold War low, and American forces were still fighting in Afghanistan and Syria — a reminder that the Nobel Peace Prize can be as politically fraught as it is symbolic.

‘Trump derangement syndrome’ has spiraled to pathological levels, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during the White House’s monthly Cabinet meeting Thursday, pointing to a recent trend of pregnant moms protesting President Donald Trump by taking Tylenol — despite warnings the medicine could be tied to autism. 

‘The level of Trump derangement syndrome has now left political landscapes, and it is now a pathology,’ Kennedy said. ‘That a mother could overwhelm millions of years of maternal instinct to put her baby at risk.’ 

Kennedy explained to his colleagues and the media that he watched a video of a pregnant Columbia medical professor ingesting Tylenol on TikTok to protest Trump ahead of the meeting, and was startled that any mom would willingly ingest the over-the-counter pain medication following reports it’s allegedly tied to skyrocketing autism trends. 

‘Any mother who is taking this up during pregnancy just to get back into Donald Trump is doing something that is, it is pathological,’ he said. ‘And we’re seeing that across the board.’ 

Trump announced in September while flanked by U.S. health leaders that Tylenol taken during pregnancy ‘can be associated with a very increased risk of autism.’ 

Kennedy said during the same event that the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are ‘turning over every stone to identify the ideology of the autism epidemic and how patients and parents can prevent and reverse this alarming trend.’

‘We have broken down the traditional silos that have long separated these agencies, and we have fast-tracked research and guidance,’ said Kennedy. ‘Historically, NIH has focused on almost solely on politically safe and entirely fruitless research about the genetic drivers of autism. And that would be like studying the genetic drivers of lung cancer without looking at cigarettes, and that’s what NIH has been doing for 20 years.’

Tylenol manufacturer Kenvue said it strongly disagreed with the administration’s assessment in comment to Fox Digital in September. 

‘We believe independent, sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism,’ a company spokesperson said at the time. ‘We strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned with the health risk this poses for expecting mothers.’

Fox News Digital reached out to Kenvue Thursday afternoon for additional comment on Kennedy’s and Trump’s most recent Tylenol remarks but did not immediately receive a reply.

Following the September announcement, liberal pregnant moms began filming themselves taking Tylenol and posting the videos to X and TikTok as a way to protest Trump. Critics have balked at the claims that the common over-the-counter pain medicine is tied to autism. 

‘It is so suggestive that anybody who takes this stuff during pregnancy, unless they have to, is irresponsible,’ Kennedy continued Thursday.

Kennedy told Trump that, back in 1970, researchers in Wisconsin determined that roughly one in 20,000 eight-year-olds in the state had autism before skyrocketing in the following decades. Kennedy called the increasing autism rates a ‘national security issue.’ 

‘Now, it’s 1 in 12 for boys, 1 in 18, 19 for girls. So obviously there’s something, there’s something that’s artificially, I think, (inducing) something,’ Trump added. 

Kennedy continued that there are a handful of studies pointing to Tylenol’s alleged links to autism, including among male babies who are circumcised. 

‘There’s two studies that show children who are circumcised early have double the rate of autism,’ he said. ‘It’s highly likely it’s because they’re given Tylenol.’ 

Trump added that ‘there’s a tremendous amount of proof’ surrounding the claims linking Tylenol to autism, and remarked that he has discussed the increasing autism rate with Kennedy going back 20 years. 

‘I’ve studied this a long time ago,’ Trump said, noting he himself is not a doctor. ‘You know, I met Bobby in my office 20 years ago. We were talking about the same thing 20 years ago. And, I was a real estate developer, it bothered me that it seemed to be getting worse. But it’s so bad now when you hear these numbers, it’s not even really sustainable.’

Fox News Digital’s Diana Stancy contributed to this report. 

Senate Democrats blocked Republicans’ plan to reopen the government for a seventh time on Thursday as payday deadlines fast approach for the military.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and most of his caucus have so far shown no signs of breaking from their position as the shutdown entered its ninth day. Republicans are also similarly unwilling to relent, further solidifying the stalemate in the upper chamber.

But a key deadline that lawmakers must hit to ensure that service members get their paychecks is fast approaching and will likely be missed unless a deal is struck.

Lawmakers have until Oct. 13, the deadline to process payments for the military’s payroll, to fund the government, or service members will miss their first paycheck. Senate staff members are soon after, with their next expected payday coming Oct. 20.

Those looming deadlines have not made either side flinch, however.

‘I’m concerned about everybody going without pay. We need to open the government back up, and I think people need to sit down and talk to each other,’ Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., said. ‘And so far, the president has been unwilling to talk, leadership in both houses have been unwilling to talk, and this is Day 19 of the speaker not being willing to bring the House back.’

The Senate is also scheduled for a recess starting next week, which is expected to be canceled. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said whether lawmakers are in town is up to Senate Democrats. 

‘Well, it depends on the Democrats, but at the moment, it’s looking that way,’ Thune said. 

Both party’s positions have remained the same. Senate Democrats want an extension to expiring Obamacare tax credits, and they want an ironclad deal addressing those subsidies first before giving Thune the votes he needs to reopen the government.

‘We Democrats want to end this shutdown as quickly as we can,’ Schumer said on the Senate floor. ‘But Donald Trump and Republicans need to negotiate with us in a serious way to fix the healthcare premiums crisis.’

But Senate Republicans are adamant that those conversations and negotiations can happen only after the government is reopened. They also want reforms to the COVID-19 era program, which they charge has been inflationary and helped lead to an increase in healthcare premium prices.

Both Shaheen and Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., have been heavily involved in bipartisan talks that have gone on throughout the shutdown. Those chats have been little more than informal conversations, however, and have yet to make the leap to full-blown negotiations.

‘They just simply want a guaranteed outcome, which we can’t guarantee,’ Rounds told Fox News Digital. ‘Everything’s got to work its way through the process. If they end the shutdown, then we can get back to work on actually doing a process that might be, you know, something that they would feel good about. But at this stage of the game, until they end the shutdown, there’s not much we can do.’

While positions remain unchanged, the talking points on Capitol Hill have begun to morph. Republicans are now alleging that Senate Democrats are holding out their votes to reopen the government until an Oct. 18 ‘No Kings’ rally in Washington, D.C.

‘The most frustrating part is the fact that there’s clearly some movement on their side, among their leadership team to keep this going through until this left-wing protest occurs a week from this Saturday,’ Rounds said.

Republican leadership in both chambers have pounced on that date, too, and it has become a common talking point among the GOP in recent days. Democrats have rejected the new messaging strategy.

‘They all got instructed, they’re losing. They are losing this fight,’ Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said. ‘The people know that they’re to blame. They’re worried about their premium increases, and so Republicans are desperate for a new narrative.’

Still, Republicans are hopeful that more than the same consistent trio of Democratic caucus members will join them to reopen the government as Thune continues his war of attrition style plan of bringing the same bill back again and again to the Senate floor.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said there are plenty of Senate Democrats not up for re-election to ‘walk the plank like I have multiple times’ to help the GOP and fund the government.

‘And then the discussions start, that simple,’ he said. ‘And why on earth should we give them any kind of political cover or leverage, when they should have never — Chuck Schumer should have never led this conference into this sort of quagmire, when all we were asking that they do is fund the government at current levels and basically do what they’ve done before, because they voted for these funding levels before.’

President Donald Trump said that he expects Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., will retire because he doesn’t believe the senator can win in a primary. 

Trump’s comments come as he’s sparred with Schumer and other Democratic leaders like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., over a partial government shutdown that has continued into its ninth day Thursday. 

As a result, Trump said that Schumer and Jeffries are ‘holding the entire federal government hostage.’ However, Trump noted other Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said just before the shutdown that Republicans can come to her office and negotiate anytime. 

‘She’s taking Hakeem Jeffries’ place, and Schumer’s afraid that she’s gonna run against him. And right now, I don’t know, it can change. Life is crazy, right?’ Trump said during a Cabinet meeting Thursday. ‘But, right now, I don’t think he can beat anybody. So he’ll lose in a primary. I would say he’ll retire before he loses in a primary. I think Schumer is going to retire, because he can’t beat anybody, his polls are so bad.’ 

Trump’s comments also come just after Axios reported in September that Ocasio-Cortez is laying the groundwork for a Senate or presidential run in 2028. 

Schumer’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

Meanwhile, the White House has been at odds with Congressional Democrats over the lapse in funding leading to a government shutdown. While Republicans claim that Democrats were the ones who started the shutdown because they’ve failed to back a stopgap funding bill, Democrats have pinned the blame on Republicans who control both the House and Senate. 

Schumer, in particular, has come under fire from the White House, especially after Schumer told Punchbowl News that conditions improve for Democrats each day the shutdown continues. 

‘Every day gets better for us,’ Schumer told the outlet Wednesday.

In response, Trump said that Schumer was not acting on behalf of the American people. 

‘This is a confession that he’s acting not to serve the people, but to serve the partisan interests of his party,’ Trump said at the Cabinet meeting. 

President Donald Trump’s Cabinet and others at the White House broke out into applause Thursday afternoon when Trump signed a proclamation honoring Italian explorer Christopher Columbus. 

‘Today we have your Columbus Day proclamation for Monday, which we’re signing a bit early,’ White House staff secretary Will Scharf told Trump Thursday ahead of the monthly Cabinet meeting. 

‘Columbus, obviously, discovered the new world in 1492. He was a great Italian explorer. He sailed his three ships, the Nina, the Pinto and Santa Maria, across the Atlantic Ocean, and landed in what’s today the Caribbean. And this is a particularly important holiday for Italian Americans who celebrate the legacy of Christopher Columbus, and the innovation and explorer zeal that he represented,’ he continued. 

Applause was heard breaking out in the room as Trump added: ‘In other words, we’re calling it Columbus Day.’

Trump continued in his remarks Thursday saying, ‘We’re back, Italians,’ as applause continued.

‘That was the press that broke out in applause,’ Trump quipped of the warm reception to the proclamation. ‘I’ve never seen that happen. The press actually broke out in applause. Good. Columbus Day. We’re back. Columbus Day. We’re back, Italians. We love the Italians.’

Columbus Day has been a federal holiday since 1971, following decades of the Italian American community already celebrating the explorer and previous presidents recognizing the holiday with their own proclamations.

Activists in recent years, however, have worked to disassociate the day from Columbus — claiming it celebrates colonialism and genocide of indigenous people — in favor of celebrating Native Americans. Activists also have worked to remove Columbus statues from cities, including toppling such statues during the riots of 2020. 

Former Vice President Kamala Harris was among political leaders who favored celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead of Columbus Day, and called on Americans in 2021 to ‘not shy away’ from its ‘shameful past’ of European explorers. 

‘Those explorers ushered in a wave of devastation for Tribal nations — perpetrating violence, stealing land and spreading disease,’ she said just one day after Columbus Day 2021. ‘We must not shy away from this shameful past, and we must shed light on it and do everything we can to address the impact of the past on Native communities today.’

Trump also signed another proclamation Thursday honoring Viking explorer Leif Erikson on Oct. 9. Erikson is credited with discovering the coast of Newfoundland in Canada more than 1,000 years ago and is considered the first European to step foot on North America. 

The White House slammed Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for making a ‘disgusting and revealing’ comment about the ongoing shutdown.

Schumer spoke with Punchbowl News, an outlet based in Washington, D.C., and said that as the shutdown continues, things keep getting ‘better’ for the Democrats.

‘Every day gets better for us,’ Schumer reportedly told Punchbowl News. ‘It’s because we’ve thought about this long in advance, and we knew that health care would be the focal point on Sept. 30, and we prepared for it… Their whole theory was — threaten us, bamboozle us, and we would submit in a day or two.’

Republicans have blamed Schumer for the shutdown, saying it was meant to appease the Democrat Party’s progressive wing, particularly in his home state as Zohran Mamdani maintains the lead in New York City’s mayoral race and buzz swirls regarding Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., potentially challenging Schumer in the next primary. She has not formally declared a Senate bid.

‘Chuck Schumer just said the quiet part out loud: Democrats are gleefully inflicting pain on the American people over their push to give illegal aliens free health care,’ White House deputy press secretary Abigail Jackson said in a statement provided exclusively to Fox News Digital. 

‘Workers are missing paychecks; travelers are missing flights; businesses are struggling; military families are forced to rely on food pantries; but to Chuck Schumer that means ‘every day gets better.’ No matter what Chuck Schumer thinks, Americans struggling is not good and the Democrats must stop inflicting this pain on them and reopen the government now,’ Jackson added.

In response to Fox News Digital’s request for comment, Schumer’s office sent an excerpt from his remarks on the Senate floor.

‘Every day that Republicans refuse to negotiate to end this shutdown, the worse it gets for Americans — and the clearer it becomes who’s fighting for them. Each day our case to fix healthcare and end this shutdown gets better and better, stronger and stronger because families are opening their letters showing how high their premiums will climb if Republicans get their way. They’re seeing why this fight matters — it’s about protecting their healthcare, their bank accounts and their futures,’ Schumer said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also took issue with Schumer saying that the shutdown was good for the Democrats.

‘While federal workers stress over missed paychecks, military families turn to food pantries, and airports around the country face delays — Chuck Schumer and the Democrats are bragging that ‘every day gets better’ for them,’ Leavitt wrote on X. ‘What a disgusting and revealing statement. Democrats are gleeful about inflicting pain on the American people.’

On Wednesday, the White House said it would be ramping up consequences for the shutdown.

The White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) floated plans that would not guarantee that federal workers currently furloughed from the shutdown would receive backpay — upending a 2019 law from President Donald Trump’s first administration in the aftermath of a 35-day shutdown, Fox News Digital learned.

The threat of furloughed workers failing to receive backpay increases the stakes every day that Congress fails to pass a funding measure — and puts greater pressure on Democrats as Trump continues to accuse them of creating the crisis.

Fox News Digital’s Diana Stancy, Deirdre Heavey and Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.