Good morning. President Trump is demolishing most of the east side of the White House. You may be asking: Can he do that? The answer is yes. We explain what’s happening below, and then we look at how Congress is struggling during the government shutdown. Then, we have news on Trump’s strikes on boats, the New York mayoral debate and embroidery that is back in style. A total teardown
When Trump first announced his plans for his $300 million White House ballroom, he pledged to leave the East Wing alone. “It won’t interfere with the current building. It’ll be near it but not touching it,” Trump said. “And pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of.” Yesterday, The Times reported that Trump now plans to demolish the entire East Wing for the project. The White House determined razing the structure would be cheaper and more structurally sound than building Trump’s 90,000-square-foot ballroom as an addition, an administration official said. The teardown could be finished as soon as this weekend. It would be a swift farewell to a structure built at the turn of the 20th century, during administration of Theodore Roosevelt, and which for decades has housed the offices of the first lady and her staff.
The abdication
By almost any measure, Congress is failing. And flailing. The government is shut down for the 23rd day; many federal workers aren’t getting paid, agencies and museums are closed, and top lawmakers are making no serious effort to resolve the impasse. Congressional staff members have begun referring to themselves as volunteers. The House has not voted since Sept. 19, and Speaker Mike Johnson won’t call members back. He has refused to seat a new Democratic member from Arizona one month after her election victory. As the Trump administration shifts billions of dollars around to take care of its priorities during the shutdown with scant input from lawmakers, ignoring Congress’s clear constitutional supremacy over the power of the purse, Republicans in control have done nothing to push back. Nor have they exercised oversight of President Trump’s legally questionable military moves off the coast of Venezuela, his imposition of tariffs or anything else that has challenged the authority of their beleaguered institution. “The Congress is adrift,” said Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska. “It’s like we have given up. And that’s not a good signal to the American public.” No leverageTrump and his aides have usurped congressional power with little G.O.P. resistance. In many instances, House and Senate leaders have willingly ceded their prerogatives and cheered on the president. The Constitution gives Congress responsibility for levying tariffs, and Trump’s may hurt rural America, but the Republicans who represent it have been mainly silent. The same goes for the administration’s operations against alleged drug runners from South America. Despite bipartisan support for sanctions on Russia, Republicans reversed course and delayed action because of mixed signals from Trump. He seemed willing to restrain Moscow, then pulled back, then finally imposed sanctions unilaterally yesterday. Trump himself suggested this week that Congress had little left to do after passing its sweeping domestic policy and tax measure. “We don’t need to pass any more bills,” he told Senate Republicans at the White House on Tuesday. “We got everything in that bill.”
Trump and his Republican allies have steamrolled Democrats this year. Now Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, is employing what little leverage Democrats have by denying Republicans the 60 votes they need to pass a short-term spending bill to fund the government. They want Republicans to extend health insurance subsidies and help millions avoid big premium increases. But Republican leaders have made it clear that they view their role as subordinate to the president, saying they won’t open talks with their Democratic counterparts unless Trump allows them to do so. And he’ll sign off “as soon as Schumer reopens the government,” the speaker wrote on social media. Balance of powersThere are evidently some limits to what Congress will swallow. Republicans this week pressed the White House to withdraw the nomination of Paul Ingrassia to head the Office of Special Counsel after Politico disclosed racist texts he had sent. Senate Republicans also raised the alarm on behalf of cattle ranchers after Trump suggested that he might increase imports of Argentine beef to bolster markets there. The administration showed signs of heeding their calls. But the funding impasse now has top Republicans talking about a yearlong extension of current federal spending, instead of a new budget. That would further undermine Congress’s authority, shifting the power to shape spending from the once formidable Appropriations Committees to the White House and its budget director, Russell Vought.
At a White House luncheon with G.O.P. members of Congress on Tuesday, Trump celebrated Vought as “Darth Vader,” for the fear provoked by the man behind the administration’s drive to strip spending power from Congress. “You’re doing a great job, I have to tell you,” Trump told Vought. Then Senate Republicans applauded the man eager to render them irrelevant.
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Syria’s new government promised to end sectarian violence after more than a decade of civil war. Instead, gunmen aligned with — or part of — the new government have massacred religious minorities. About 2,000 combatants and civilians, a vast majority from the Druse religious minority, have been killed since this summer. Fighters filmed themselves as they carried out murders and other atrocities. Many posted trophy videos on social media. The Times documented at least five episodes in which men in military fatigues executed Druse civilians. One video shows fighters ordering three members of a Druse family onto an apartment balcony and forcing them to jump to their deaths. Another shows unarmed Druse men marching down the street to their deaths by firing squads. The Syrian government has condemned the violence and promised to investigate. But our reporting raises questions about the government’s involvement in the massacres. The Times is not showing videos of the deaths, but you can see verified clips from the incidents here.
The government should make public its legal justifications for attacking boats in the Caribbean. There is no good reason for keeping Americans in the dark, Jameel Jaffer writes. The war on terror was an era when Americans were sheltered from the military’s vigilante misconduct. We’re now in an era where it is not ashamed of it, David Wallace-Wells writes. Here are columns by Nicholas Kristof on the Argentina bailout and Lydia Polgreen on the death toll in Gaza. Morning readers: Save on the complete Times experience. Experience all of The Times, all in one subscription — all with this introductory offer. You’ll gain unlimited access to news and analysis, plus games, recipes, product reviews and more.
A beach divided: Two stretches of near-identical coastline in Egypt are distinguished mainly by money, bikinis and booze. One is called “Good,” and the other is called “Evil.” Poached pears: This dessert actually changed her life. Luigi Mangione’s missing months: A backpacking trip through Asia seems to have been pivotal for his worldview. The Times spoke with people who encountered him along the way. Ask Well: Should you really “feed a cold and starve a fever?” Your pick: The most-clicked link in The Morning yesterday was a video about New York City’s new benches. “The female face of punk”: With two tufts of hair on either side of her shaved head and long tendrils of eyeliner swiped across her lids, Susan Lucas turned herself into Soo Catwoman — a fashion icon of London’s 1970s punk movement. She died at 70.
Golf: A college golfer hit a hole in one at an invitational. One round later, he did it again. N.F.L.: Gerald McCoy, a former defensive tackle, has had five former teammates die before age 40. The latest was Doug Martin, who died in police custody last week. |
