Trump threatens to retake Panama Canal while daughter-in-law Lara abandons Senate bid: Live updates
Trump reeled off a lengthy Truth Social post about retaking control of the Panama Canal
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Your support makes all the difference.After a chaotic week in Congress over the stopgap spending bill, Trump threatened to retake the Panama Canal in a lengthy post on Truth Social on Saturday night.
Trump accused Panama of charging American vessels “exorbitant prices” to use the vital waterway that acts as a shortcut linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
“The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama by the U.S.,” Trump vented.
“If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question,” he stridently added, referring to a 1977 treaty.
Earlier his daughter-in-law Lara Trump announced she was no longer running for the Senate.
“After an incredible amount of thought, contemplation, and encouragement from so many, I have decided to remove my name from consideration for the United States Senate,” she said.
“I do have a big announcement that I’m excited to share in January, so, stay tuned.”
President Joe Biden, meanwhile, signed the stopgap spending bill into law, averting a government shutdown and putting an end to a dramatic week.
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Vote passes 366 - 34
House members voted 366-34, with one member voting present.
Those 34 votes were all Republicans.
A bill to fund the government through mid-March marked a third attempt within two days to avert a shutdown, after Donald Trump and Elon Musk commanded Congress to ditch the original bipartisan framework and left congressional Democrats and even some Republicans exhausted with the growing political influence of the world’s wealthiest person.
The funding battle glimpsed how Democrats are approaching the incoming Trump-Musk administration and how they will navigate Trump’s agenda with an extremely slim Republican majority.
Full story here:
House narrowly averts government shutdown — and rejects Trump’s debt ceiling commands
House lawmakers overwhelmingly approve a third attempt at a short-term funding bill to keep the government running before Christmas
Latest package resembles bipartisan plan that failed earlier in the week
The latest package resembled a bipartisan plan that was abandoned earlier this week after an online fusillade from Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk, who said it contained too many unrelated provisions.
That bill would have kept the government agencies operating at current levels, provided an additional $100 billion in disaster aid for storm-hit states and another $10 billion for farmers. It also would extend farm and food aid programs due to expire at the end of the year.
Trump demanded a rewrite to also lift the nation’s debt ceiling, but that was resoundingly rejected by the House - including 38 Republicans - on Thursday.
BREAKING: House passes government funding bill hours before shutdown deadline
Just in: The House has just approved the three-month government funding bill, sending to Senate with just hours left before shutdown deadline.
Elon Musk praises Speaker Mike Johnson after torpedoing first bill
Elon Musk has praised Speaker Mike Johnson tonight after the tech billionaire torpedoed Johnson’s first bipartisan deal.
“The Speaker did a good job here, given the circumstances,” Musk posted on X.
“It went from a bill that weighed pounds to a bill that weighed ounces. Ball should now be in the Dem court.”
Voting underway
Voting is underway on the short-term agreement to avert a government shutdown.
The bill is 188 pages long, down from the 1,500-plus pages of the first bipartisan spending bill that failed earlier this week.
Democratic leadership isn’t whipping votes to support the latest bill.
It needs a two-thirds majority to pass.
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