The Latest: Trump hosts GOP senators at White House as shutdown drags on

Senate Republicans projected a unified front at the White House Rose Garden Tuesday, arriving at President Donald Trump ’s invitation as they refuse to yield to Democratic demands for health care funds into the fourth week of the government shutdown.

While hosting, Trump praised the GOP leadership, singling out senators by name, trashed former President Joe Biden and previewed his own upcoming foreign travel and tariff policies.

“We’re a wealthy nation again,” he said.

The country, meanwhile, is feeling the financial hit of the shutdown, which is on track to become among the longest in U.S. history. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers are going without pay, Head Start programs for preschoolers nationwide are scrambling for funds, and economists warn of curbed economic growth.

Still, there are few signs of any end to the stalemate.

The Latest:

Sen. Jeff Merkley plans to speak as long as he’s able

The Oregon Democrat is going to hold the Senate floor tonight as long as he’s able to keep speaking and standing behind a poster that says, “Ring the alarm bells: authoritarianism is here now!”

Merkley, who is 68, is warning that Trump’s moves since taking office amount to an authoritarian seizure of power. He has also criticized the Supreme Court for not putting more limits on presidential power.

“We are in the most perilous moment for our Constitution, the biggest threat to our republic since the Civil War,” Merkley said.

Since Trump became president this year, Senate Democrats have engaged in several marathon speeches to protest his actions.

Immigration agents conducting sweep on NYC’s famed Canal Street confronted by protesters

An immigration enforcement sweep targeting vendors on Manhattan’s famed Canal Street turned chaotic on Tuesday after droves of angry New Yorkers surrounded federal agents and attempted to block them from driving off, prompting arrests and fierce stand-offs along a bustling downtown corridor.

The confrontation began shortly after 4 p.m., as federal agents fanned out across a section of Chinatown that has long served as a not-so-underground market for knock-off designer handbags, watches, perfumes, electronics and other goods.

An Associated Press reporter observed dozens of agents as they detained a street vendor selling bedazzled smartphone cases, one of a number of arrests in the area.

A contingent of protesters, many of whom appeared to be on their way home from work, then surrounded the masked officers, attempting to block their vehicle as they shouted “ICE out of New York” and called on other pedestrians to join them.

Trump pick to lead federal watchdog agency withdraws after offensive text messages were revealed

Paul Ingrassia, who was nominated to lead the Office of Special Counsel, had been scheduled to have his confirmation hearing this week.

But after the texts came to light, several Republican senators said they would not support his nomination. They included some of the most conservative and stalwart Trump allies in the Senate.

“I will be withdrawing myself from Thursday’s HSGAC hearing to lead the Office of Special Counsel because unfortunately I do not have enough Republican votes at this time,” Ingrassia posted in an online message.

The post came after Senate Majority Leader John Thune had said he hoped the White House would withdraw the nomination.

The growing opposition to Paul Ingrassia comes after a Politico report of a text chat that showed him saying the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday should be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell.” Ingrassia also described himself in the chat as having “a Nazi streak” at times.

Senate Democrats plan to speak through the night

Senators are planning to hold the Senate floor all night in a show of resolve on their demands on health care in the shutdown fight and opposition to Trump.

Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, started off the relay of speeches by charging that Republicans are “unwilling to clean up this mess” created by enacting legislation that will lead to millions of people losing Medicaid coverage.

“Colleagues, I’m coming tonight to ring alarm bells because we have become an authoritarian nation over the last nine months,” he said. “We are deep into an authoritarian takeover.”

Senate Democrats have voted repeatedly over the 21-day shutdown against a Republican-backed bill to reopen the government as they demand that Congress extend subsidies for health plans under the Affordable Care Act.

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This item has been updated to correct Sen. Merkley’s political party. He is a Democrat, not a Republican.

Trump commemorates Diwali in Oval Office

He was surrounded by tech CEOs and several members of his own administration who celebrate the “Festival of Lights,” which is observed by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains.

In front of his desk was a traditional, brass five-wick lamp set on a table decorated with flowers. Trump read a message about the significance of Diwali, saying that the lamp is lit to “symbolize the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance and good over evil.”

The gathering included FBI director Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard, U.S. director of national intelligence.

After asking several tech CEOs to spell out how much they’ve invested in the U.S., Trump invited IBM’s CEO Arvind Krishna to light the lamp. At Krishna’s request, Trump lit one of the lamp’s five wicks.

Trump says he’d ‘love’ to meet with Congress’ Democratic leaders but ‘the government has to be open’

The president’s comments followed Chuck Schumer, the leader of Senate Democrats, saying he and Hakeem Jeffries, leader of the House Democrats, reached out to Trump and urged him “to sit down and negotiate with us” to end the government shutdown.

Schumer said they suggested such a meeting happen before Trump leaves for a trip to Asia on Friday.

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, “I would love to meet, I would like to meet with both of them. But I set one little caveat: I will only meet if they let the country open.”

“So, I’ll do it as soon as they open up the country,” he added.

Trump says he’d be the one to decide if federal officials should pay him back for past probes

Asked about a New York Times report that he’s demanding that the Justice Department pay him about $230 million in compensation for federal investigations brought against him before his second term, Trump responded “could be.”

He said he didn’t know the numbers involved, and suggested he’d not spoken to officials about it.

But he added: “All I know is that, they would owe me a lot of money.”

Trump said he could collect repayment for things like investigations into his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, and then donate it to charity. Or, he said, he could use it to help pay for a ballroom he’s building at the White House.

Trump said that, when it comes to federal matters, “It’s interesting, cause I’m the one that makes the decision, right?”

“That decision would have to go across my desk,” the president said.

Trump says he doesn’t want ‘wasted meeting’ as he confirms Budapest talks with Putin are off for now

“I don’t want to have a wasted meeting,” Trump said of holding off on plans to meet with the Russian leader in Hungary in the coming weeks. “I don’t want to have a waste of time — so we’ll see what happens.”

The decision to hold off on the meeting, which Trump had announced last week, was made following a call earlier on Tuesday between Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.