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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) revealed new details of his private meeting with President Donald Trump on Saturday, details that he alleged proved that the Republican position amid the ongoing government shutdown is based on a “fake issue.”

Jeffries met with Trump alongside Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) this week in the hopes of averting a government shutdown. The meeting proved fruitless, however, with lawmakers failing to come to an agreement by an Oct. 1 deadline, and disagreements largely centered around health care policy.

Anthony Salisbury, the second in command at the Department of Homeland Security, issued FBI Director Kash Patel a brutal nickname in messages to high-ranking Trump administration officials, according to a series of leaked text messages obtained by the Minnesota Star Tribune and repotted on Friday.

A source provided the outlet with a series of images of Salisbury's alleged text messages that he wrote while attending a private event in Minnesota, which the White House said was his uncle’s funeral. The messages, the source said, were written “in clear view of others,” and among them included remarks about Patel that suggested Salisbury wasn’t fond of the FBI’s leader.

Top Trump administration officials were discussing plans to deploy an elite military division to Portland, Oregon, according to leaked text messages reviewed and reported on by the Minnesota Star Tribune late Friday.

“Between you and I, I think [Defense Secretary] Pete [Hegseth] just wants the top cover from the boss if anything goes sideways with the troops there,” wrote Patrick Weaver, Hegseth’s advisor, in a text message on the encrypted messaging app Signal, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune.

GOP strategist Scott Jennings was promptly shut down Saturday during an appearance on CNN after attempting to downplay the blowback from President Donald Trump’s trade policy and its impact on American farmers.

Trump has imposed tariffs on hundreds of nations, perhaps most notably China, which was slapped with a 125% tariff rate in April before being reduced as part of a temporary tariff truce, a truce that is currently ongoing. However, China has responded in kind by boycotting American soybeans, which, given China is the largest importer of the crop, has left American soybean farmers enraged.

President Donald Trump issued what appeared to be a final warning to the Palestinian government and military organization Hamas to accept his peace plan, and “quickly,” otherwise “all bets will be off.”

Trump unveiled on Tuesday a peace plan to bring about an end to Israel’s siege on Gaza and a return of the Israeli hostages, a plan that, despite last-minute changes from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was received mostly favorably by Hamas. On Friday, Trump demanded Israel halt its siege on Gaza, but was quickly rebuked as the nation continued its military campaign, killing at least 20 people through Saturday morning.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson fired off at Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem Saturday in response to what he called her “delusional” claims that protesters in Illinois’ most-populated city were threatening to harm federal agents and their families.

On Friday, Kristi Noem was filmed in Chicago prepping federal agents for President Donald Trump’s crackdown on Chicago, telling them “we’re going to hammer these guys that are advocating for violence against the American people!” She went on to allege Chicago protesters of advocating to harm federal agents and their families, dox them online, and claimed that they “[victimize] people every day by the way that they’re talking.”

Documentary filmmaker and producer Alex Gibney issued a chilling warning Saturday over what he described as the United States’ “slow slide” into authoritarianism, drawing a telling comparison between Trump administration policies and those of the Russian government under President Vladimir Putin.

Appearing on MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” Gibney was promoting his new film, “Orwell: 2+2=5,” which follows the life of English novelist George Orwell, and draws comparisons to his warnings of authoritarianism with the American government under President Donald Trump.

President Donald Trump is being torched online after being openly defied by Israeli leadership in his call Friday for the Middle Eastern nation to “immediately stop the bombing of Gaza,” with 20 Gazans killed in Israeli strikes over the past 12 hours according to CNN.

“Mr. Trump, it has been one hour since you order Netanyahu to stop bombing Gaza and he didn’t listen to you,” wrote X user “The Palestinian,” who describes themselves as a Palestinian living in Gaza and has amassed nearly 120,000 followers. “Do [you’re] job with him!”

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) ripped President Donald Trump's White House on Friday over his targeting of blue states.

Budget chief Russ Vought aggressively targeted blue states last year over Trump. The Trump administration suspended or canceled billions in federal funding for infrastructure and energy projects, including freezing $18 billion in transit and tunnel projects in New York City, withholding about $2 billion for Chicago rail improvements, and eliminating nearly $8 billion in Department of Energy funding for clean energy initiatives across 16 states that voted Democratic in the 2024 election.

New, disturbing details have emerged about an incident that got a Kansas sheriff's deputy charged with second-degree murder for the death of a Black man in custody, reported The Guardian on Friday — with the death bearing a striking resemblance to the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis five years ago.

According to the report, "Richard Fatherly was charged last month with second-degree murder and an alternative count of involuntary manslaughter in Charles Adair’s 5 July death in the Wyandotte county detention center in Kansas City, Kansas. Adair had been arrested one day before his death on misdemeanor warrants for failure to appear on multiple traffic violations."

President Donald Trump's desire to force a public "perp-walk" of former FBI Director James Comey is an astounding low of immaturity, MSNBC anchor and former Republican Party chairman Michael Steele said on Friday's edition of "The Weeknight."

Comey, whom Trump has long resented for refusing to terminate the Russia investigation on his behalf as soon as he took office, is being charged with false statements and obstruction of justice, based on testimony he gave to the Senate years ago. Legal experts have panned the case as baseless, with some pointing out that the indictment doesn't correctly quote his statements.

A Democratic Chicago City Council member was handcuffed Friday by federal agents while at a hospital in her district as she insisted that a man who suffered serious injuries during a chase with immigration authorities had due process rights.

Chicago Alderperson Jessie Fuentes told reporters she was handcuffed at Humboldt Park Hospital after advocating for a man who suffered a broken leg during a chase with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. In comments flagged by The New Republic, Fuentes said the agents refused to let the man speak to an attorney.

The Trump administration's controversial offer to nine major universities this week was met with derision by The Washington Post's editorial board, which railed that "no serious university" could ever agree to such a "doomed" deal.

The universities were asked to commit to conservative-aligned policies in exchange for preferential access to federal funding. Key points of the offer included, freezing tuition rates for five years, banning the use of race, sex, or gender identity as factors in admissions, financial aid, and faculty recruitment, capping undergraduate international student enrollment to 15% of the student body and enforcing "academic freedom" for conservative viewpoints and abolishing campus units that supposedly punish or belittle conservative ideas.