Trump, Zelenskyy meet at White House to discuss Russia-Ukraine war
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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump greeted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday, with Zelenskyy in Washington to make his case for procuring American Tomahawk cruise missiles and other military assets.
Trump and Zelenskyy, wearing a dark suit, shook hands when the Ukrainian president arrived at the West Wing entrance.
The two men are having a working lunch in the Cabinet Room.
“We want to see if we can get this done,” Trump said.
Zelenskyy said he thinks there is a “momentum to finish” Russia’s invasion, which is now nearing the four-year mark.
“We want peace. Putin doesn’t want. That’s why we need pressure on him,” Zelenskyy said.
Trump appeared bullish days ago about potentially selling the long-range weapons to Ukraine as he expressed disappointment in Moscow’s onslaught as the war drags on three-and-a-half years later.
But after a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, Trump seemed more cautious and began to express concern about depleting the U.S. supply.
“That’s a problem. We need tomahawks and we need a lot of other things that we’ve been sending over the past four years to Ukraine,” Trump told reporters as he and Zelenskyy took questions from reporters on Friday.
Trump acknowledged it would be an “escalation” to sell the weapons to Kyiv, but said he and Zelenskyy would discuss it.
Trump said he and Putin are planning to meet again soon, this time in Hungary, to discuss the war. The president said he would tell Zelenskyy what he and Putin spoke about on Thursday.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Speaker Mike Johnson delivers remarks to reporters on November 10, 2025 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. (Tom Brenner/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The longest government shutdown in U.S. history appears to be nearing its end, after senators suddenly advanced a funding deal over the weekend after 40 days of little progress.
The agreement still needs to pass the Senate and the House before going to President Donald Trump’s desk. In the meantime, pain continues to grow for Americans on everything from food assistance to air travel.
Here’s a timeline of major developments from the weekslong impasse.
Oct. 1: The federal government shut down at 12:01 a.m. after competing Republican and Democratic proposals that would have funded the government failed in the Senate at the eleventh hour. The Democrat bill included extensions for health care subsidies under the Affordable Care Act while the Republicans’ “clean” bill would have funded the government at current levels until Nov. 1.
Oct. 10: The Trump administration begins to lay off thousands of federal workers. Agencies impacted include the Commerce, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Homeland Security and Treasury departments.
Oct. 14: Two weeks into the shutdown with virtually no progress, House Speaker Mike Johnson predicts they are headed toward “one of the longest shutdowns in American history.” The House has remained out of session the entire shutdown after Republican members passed a clean, seven-week funding bill in mid-September.
Oct. 15: The Pentagon says that troops have been paid and will not miss a paycheck due to the shutdown after shifting existing funds.
Oct. 24: More than 500,000 federal employees miss their first full paycheck. Days later, the president of the country’s largest union representing federal workers called on lawmakers to pass a short-term spending bill to end the shutdown, a statement seized on by Republicans to ramp up pressure on Democrats.
Oct. 30: President Trump, after weeklong overseas trip, inserts himself in the shutdown showdown by calling on Senate Republicans to terminate the filibuster in order to unilaterally reopen the government. But Senate Majority Leader John Thune quickly rejected Trump’s demand.
Nov. 1: Funds run dry for SNAP benefits, leaving 42 million Americans vulnerable — and setting off a complex legal fight between the administration and states. Plus, open enrollment begins for Affordable Care Act recipients with prices for insurance premiums skyrocketing next year.
Nov. 4: The Senate fails for the 14th time to advance a clean, short-term funding bill.
Nov. 5: The shutdown becomes the longest in U.S. history. Trump brings Senate Republicans to the White House to talk shutdown, after Republican losses in key elections across the country. Democrats capitalize on election wins to argue Republicans should negotiate with them on health care.
Nov. 7: Air travel is even more heavily impacted as the Federal Aviation Administration begins to reduce flight capacity at major airports across the country. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer put on the table a Democratic proposal for a short-term extension of government funding that includes a one-year extension of ACA subsidies. Republicans quickly rejected the offer.
Nov. 8: Thune said he plans to keep the Senate in session until the government is funded, and said Republicans will push forward with a plan to advance a short-term funding bill with a “mini-bus” of three, full-year funding bills for SNAP benefits and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, as well as veterans programs. Schumer calls it a “terrible mistake” for Republicans to have rebuffed Democrats’ offer.
Nov. 9: A sudden breakthrough moment on Capitol Hill as senators reach a bipartisan deal to end the shutdown. Eight Democrats vote with Republicans to advance the measure in a 60-40 vote.
The bill does not include any of the Democratic demands on health care, but sources told ABC News that Republican leadership promised to allow a vote on a bill of Democrats’ choosing related to the ACA in December.
It also includes a new government funding extension of Jan. 30, 2026; language to reverse Trump administration firings during the shutdown; and to ensure furlough workers receive backpay.
Nov. 10: Senate reconvenes to move ahead on the deal, with questions remaining on how fast they can get it done. Speaker Johnson tells House members to start returning to Washington immediately, and says the House will vote as quickly as possible on the funding bill once it clears the Senate to send it to President Trump’s desk.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said Friday that he will send National Guard troops to Memphis, Tennessee, as part of his push to combat crime.
The president said on “Fox & Friends” that he wanted to replicate the results of his deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C.
“Memphis is deeply troubled,” he said during the interview. “We’re going to fix that, just like we did in Washington.”
Trump said part of the crime crackdown could include federal forces, National Guard and even “the military, too,” if needed into Memphis.
“And anybody else we need,” Trump said of the forces he planned to send into Memphis.
Trump has said that local leaders across the country should ask for federal help and indicated that he has such backing from Tennessee officials.
“The mayor is happy. He’s a Democrat mayor, the mayor is happy. And the governor, Tennessee, the governor is happy,” he said.
Representatives for the Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s office and Democratic Memphis Mayor Paul Young’s office didn’t immediately return messages to ABC News for comment.
Memphis has seen a drop in crime over the last year, according to data from the city.
There have been 29,978 reported crime incidents in Memphis in 2025 as of Sept. 11, a roughly 44% drop from the same period in 2024 when there were 53,805 reported incidents, according to the data.
Homicides in the city dropped nearly 30% during the year with 182 reported incidents in 2025 so far compared to 261 during the same period last year, the data showed.
Trump’s comments on Friday come amid his push to crack down on crime nationwide — including his federal law enforcement surge in Washington, D.C.
However, before Trump began his deployment, the city had seen a two-year decline in crimes, according to police data. As of Friday, there have been 17,806 reported crime incidents in the city so far this year, compared to 19,501 during the same period last year — a nearly 8% drop, the data showed.
Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb filed a lawsuit last week that sought to end the D.C. Guard deployment arguing it was a “military occupation.”
Critics have noted that the president has focused his threats of federal deployments on cities that are led by Democratic mayors.
For the last few weeks, Trump has made threats that he was going to send National Guard troops to Chicago, citing its crime rate, and was met with vocal protests from Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson.
“I want to help people, not hurt them,’ says the guy who just threatened an American city with the Department of War,” Pritzker wrote on X on Monday
The president continued to argue that federal intervention was needed in Chicago.
“You’re about to lose Chicago,” Trump said Friday. “I can fix Chicago, much bigger than D.C., but we can bring in the military. We can bring in the National Guard. We’ll do what we have to do.”
ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.
Ken Martin, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, speaks during a press conference with Texas Democrats at the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades union hall on August 05, 2025 in Aurora, Illinois. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Democrats are in a tough stretch. Their fundraising and voter registration lags Republicans. And polls show American voters find the party generally unfavorable.
But at this week’s Democratic National Committee summer meeting in Minneapolis, members are desperate to turn a page, shed a rudderless reputation, and more clearly define their platform as they look to deliver wins in upcoming governor’s races and the midterms next year.
In fact, at least a half dozen members who spoke to ABC News say that they are eager to start fighting back more aggressively against President Donald Trump and feel like some of the problems the party finds itself in is due to compounding factors, rather than the direct fault of Chair Ken Martin, who was elected in early February.
One of the ways Democrats believe they can get their footing back is leaning into the recent outrage around Republican efforts to pursue mid-decade redistricting and take a page out of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s playbook to give Trump a taste of his own rhetoric. Many members also believe they can resonate with voters as they push back against the impacts Trump’s spending and policy bill have on health care and costs.
“We all know that this is going to be an uphill battle. We all know that there’s tremendous challenges ahead, but we also know that the American people are not happy with the way things are turning out, and you see it in the polling,” said Maria Cardona, a member from Washington, D.C., who brushed off anxieties about Democrats in disarray as “b——t.”
“All of this internal b——t is exactly that — it’s b——t,” Cardona said.
This week’s meeting is the first major gathering of Martin’s tenure — and an early litmus test of his popularity and trust in his leadership, as his first few months have been mired in growing pains.
The DNC reported having around only $14 million cash on hand as of the end of July — far less than the Republican National Committee, which reported having $84.3 million cash on hand. The DNC also fundraised less than the RNC in July.
The news is better for Democrats’ official U.S. House campaign arm. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee reported having $40.4 million cash on hand by the end of July, while its GOP counterpart, the National Republican Congressional Committee, reported having $37.6 million cash on hand. The DCCC also outpaced the NRCC in fundraising in July.
Martin has faced increased scrutiny and criticism over infighting surrounding Gen Z activist David Hogg, who resigned from his role as vice chair after he promised to support primary challenges of incumbent Democrats he saw as complacent. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten also stepped away from the DNC in June, writing in her resignation letter she is “out of step” with new party leadership. Weingarten endorsed Martin’s most prominent chair challenger, Ben Wikler, the former Wisconsin Democratic Party chair.
When asked by ABC News about Democratic voter registration lagging as reported by The New York Times last week, Martin said the party has “work to do, for sure,” and pointed to the committee’s new organizing summer project, a volunteer training and voter registration initiative that sets to train Democrats to engage — and ideally convert voters — in non-political spaces in battleground areas and online as proof of concept.
“We’ve got to get back to registering voters — that’s what the DNC has already started this year with our summer organizing program. We are doing that with our state parties now,” Martin said during an event at the Minnesota State Fair.
Shasti Conrad, a DNC member from Washington state, said that grief over the election loss has permeated several conversations with fellow members, but has felt a recent energy shift, particularly after Texas House Democrats denied a quorum to delay the passage of new congressional district maps — which now await the signature of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
“When you lose an election like we did last year, you’re going to feel people’s rage, their sadness, their despair, all of that, and that is very much, has been what has been reverberating through every conversation that I’ve had,” Conrad said. “I think we’re all trying to move through this.”
Conrad continued: “We are starting to really get on solid footing, and that’s my hope with this meeting, is that we’ll be able to walk out of here feeling ‘Ok, we’re settled.'”
Conrad finds some of the handwringing about fundraising and voter registration “slightly overblown” and feels like the organization is in a solid place and has room to grow.
That doesn’t mean internal concerns have evaporated — but members feel concern is finally resulting in consensus.
“This is the crows coming home to roost. We’ve abandoned partisan voter registration for a very long time and it’s no surprise that we’re not only losing elections, but we’re also losing voters,” said progressive DNC member Michael Kapp from California. Kapp says he is “so happy” that Martin, in his view, is focused on righting the wrong.
Kapp said he believes it’s a “new day at the DNC” and that many members are frustrated with national Democratic top brass — like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — for not doing enough. He also suggested that some members are galvanized to be a more active resistance.
“I see anger. I see willingness to stand up and defend the communities that are being impacted by this administration. I see frustration that we can’t move fast enough, and I know that that’s a frustration that Chair Martin himself feels, but he’s working like crazy,” Kapp said.
“A number of members arrived concerned about the direction of the party, but the focus on unity and messaging has been well received,” North Dakota member Jamie Selzler said. Selzler added that while he expects conversations about the fundraising figures to keep coming up, “There’s a sense that standing up against Republican overreach over the next few years and winning in Virginia and New Jersey this year will be an important factor in proving we can fight back.”
Andre Treiber, a Texas DNC member and youth council chair, feels like the committee is nearing the end of a “rebuild phase.”
“This is going to be repouring the final cement,” Trieber said. “The Democratic Party definitely has a brand issue, and I think that is what so many people here this week care a lot about fixing.”
For John Verdejo, a DNC member from North Carolina, the next step for the party is to keep things simple — focus on core issues like affordability, for instance — and stop feeling sorry for yourself.
“We need to get our message straight,” said Verdejo, who stressed the party should keep things simple: focus on core issues like affordability, for instance.
Verdejo understands why some members of the party may be licking their wounds post-loss, but believes the complaining should wrap as the committee reaches a critical transition point. Internally, there’s a desire for more fighters, Verdejo said, which he does see reflected in Martin, who he and other Democrats who spoke to ABC maintain is broadly well-liked despite the early challenges of his tenure.
“We need to, we need to think differently, strategically, dirty even, take the gloves off. Never mind the polling, never mind what the stats say. Never mind what the numbers say … people want to see that fire in us. Let’s give it to them. This is life or death out here,” Verdejo added.
