Many Democratic lawmakers continued to express deep frustration at Senator Chuck Schumer on Sunday for having broken with most of his party to allow a Republican spending bill to pass, as the Democratic base increasingly demands stauncher resistance to President Trump’s far-reaching agenda.
Mr. Schumer, a New York Democrat and the Senate minority leader, joined nine other Democrats in allowing the bill to come to a vote, which averted a government shutdown. It was an abrupt reversal from Wednesday, when he said he would oppose the bill.
Explaining his sudden shift in position, Mr. Schumer argued that a shutdown would empower Mr. Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. “A shutdown would shut down all government agencies, and it would solely be up to Trump and DOGE and Musk what to open again, because they could determine what was essential,” he told The New York Times in an interview. “So their goal of decimating the whole federal government, of cutting agency after agency after agency, would occur under a shutdown.”
But to critics within his own party, he had squandered the leverage provided by the standoff to negotiate a bipartisan spending bill that would reclaim some of Congress’s power.
“He is absolutely wrong,” Representative Jasmine Crockett, Democrat of Texas, told CNN on Sunday. “The idea that Chuck Schumer is the only one that’s got a brain in the room and the only one that can think through all of the pros and cons is absolutely ridiculous.”
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The stream of criticism that Mr. Schumer has faced since his vote comes as the Democratic Party is divided on how best to oppose Mr. Trump’s agenda while facing dismal polling numbers. An NBC poll released on Sunday showed that just 27 percent of voters had positive views of the party, while a majority of its base expressed disappointment at the Democrats’ fractured response.
Ms. Crockett has called on her Senate colleagues to consider ousting Mr. Schumer as minority leader, suggesting that “a younger, fresher leadership” is what “many Americans may be looking for.”
Representative James E. Clyburn, Democrat of South Carolina, told MSNBC that the House minority leader, Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, “got blindsided” by Mr. Schumer. House Democrats — all but one opposed the bill — had voted against giving Mr. Trump “a blank check,” Mr. Clyburn said. On Friday, Mr. Jeffries dodged repeated questions on whether he still supported Mr. Schumer as the leader of Senate Democrats.
Another House Democrat, Representative Debbie Dingell of Michigan, was a little more understanding, saying that Mr. Schumer had “sent out mixed signals.” But she stressed that even the American Federation of Government Employees, the largest labor union representing federal workers, whose members would be furloughed during a government shutdown, opposed the stopgap bill.
“People are scared, and they want us to do something,” Ms. Dingell said on CBS. “They want to see Democrats fighting back.”
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Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, did not denounce Mr. Schumer but pleaded for a change in tactics and for a more steadfast resistance against the Trump administration.
“The way the president is acting using law enforcement to target dissidents, harassing TV stations and radio stations that criticize him, endorsing political violence, puts our democracy at immediate risk,” Mr. Murphy said on NBC. Over the past few weeks, Mr. Trump has revoked security clearances of lawyers who argued against him, dismantled congressionally funded news agencies and pardoned those convicted of attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Mr. Murphy added, “If you are a Democrat in the Senate or in the House you have to start acting with urgency.”
Prominent House Democrats, including Representative Nancy Pelosi, had pressed their Senate colleagues to block the bill. But more than a handful of Democratic senators joined Mr. Schumer in helping Republicans bring the bill to a vote: Dick Durbin of Illinois, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, as well as two who have announced plans to retire, Gary Peters of Michigan and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire. Senator Angus King, the Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats, also voted yes.
Some Democrats, including Representatives Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts and Haley Stevens of Michigan, refrained from openly criticizing Mr. Schumer’s shift. They said Democratic infighting after the bill’s passage would only emphasize the divisions within the party. They warned that it would also draw voters’ attention away from Trump trade policies that have dampened the stock market and imbued uncertainty into the broader economy — developments that Democrats said could play to their advantage.
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Ashley Etienne, a former communications director for Vice President Kamala Harris, told CNN that Democrats should not save Mr. Trump and Republicans from themselves. “Get out of the way,” she said. “Donald Trump said he was better for the economy. Let him prove it.”
Your investigation of these allegations is consistent with the IG’s mission to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse in federal agencies, and can help determine if politically connected crypto interests are undermining our national security. As Congress considers legislation on the market structure for digital assets, we must ensure that cryptocurrencies like USD1 are not providing the President and senior officials with the ability to line their pockets at the expense of the public interest.
The following facts have been reported in multiple outlets regarding Mr. Witkoff:
• Mr. Witkoff’s son Zach Witkoff is the CEO of World Liberty Financial (WLF), which the President’s family owns a majority stake in.³
• Beginning in January, one of Sheikh Tahnoon’s employees, Fiacc Larkin, joined WLF as the “chief strategic advisor” while continuing to work at G42, an AI investment firm owned by Sheikh Tahnoon that, according to the U.S. intelligence community, works closely with Chinese military companies.4
●
On May 1, 2025, Zach Witkoff announced that MGX, a state-owned investment firm controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon, had agreed to use a WLF-issued stablecoin, USD1, to make a $2 billion investment in Binance. As a result of this deal, WLF stands to reap hundreds of millions of dollars in transaction fees from MGX, and more from the returns on any investments it makes with the $2 billion deposit.³
As of August, Mr. Witkoff maintained a financial interest in WLF and thus stands to personally benefit from his son’s business dealings with the UAE.6 Nevertheless, he did not recuse himself from deliberations regarding the UAE, which may violate federal ethics law.
The following facts have been reported about Mr. Sacks:
●
•
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He is a special government employee who continues to serve as a “general partner” at his venture capital fund, Craft Ventures.
8
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, an Emirati sovereign wealth fund controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon, was an early investor in Craft Ventures and continues to hold an investment in the fund.
In addition, Craft Ventures is invested in BitGo, which has partnered with WLF to provide the technical infrastructure for USD1. If BitGo’s valuation grows, based on the UAE’s investment into USD1, Mr. Sacks and his firm stand to benefit.
3 Yahoo Finance, “Trump family reportedly has a 60% stake in the World Liberty Financial,” Anand Sinha, March 31, 2025,
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-family-reportedly-60-stake-172742661.html.
4 New York Times, “Inside U.S. Efforts to Untangle an A.I. Giant’s Ties to China,” Mark Mazzetti and Edward
Wong, Nov. 27, 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/11/27/us/politics/ai-us-uae-china-security-g42.html.
5 New York Times, “At a Dubai Conference, Trump’s Conflicts Take Center Stage,” David Yaffe-Bellany, May 1, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/01/us/politics/trump-cryptocurrency-usd1-dubai-conference-
announcement.html.
6U.S Office of Government Ethics, Form 278e for Steven C. Witkoff, August 13, 2025, p. 23, https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/090d0de07e1d2fdf/bbf02867-full.pdf.
18 U.S.C. § 208.
8 White House, “Limited Waiver Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 208(b)(1) Regarding A.I. Assets,” June 2025,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/David-Sacks.pdf.
Nigel Farage has refused to criticise Donald Trump’s claims that paracetamol, sold in the US as Tylenol, could cause autism, insisting “science is never settled” and he would never “side with” medical experts.
The Reform UK leader said he had “no idea” if the US president was right to tell pregnant women to avoid taking acetaminophen, also known as Tylenol and paracetamol, and suggesting that those who could not “tough it out” should limit their intake.
Scientists and global health agencies including the World Health Organization have strongly dismissed Trump’s false claims, calling them misguided and saying the evidence linking paracetamol use in pregnancy and autism was “inconsistent”.
The UK’s health secretary, Wes Streeting, told the British public they should not “pay any attention whatsoever to what Donald Trump says about medicine”, adding: “I trust doctors over President Trump frankly, on this.”
But in a wide-ranging interview with LBC’s Nick Ferrari, Farage was asked directly if Trump was right to share those unproven claims. He said: “I have no idea, I’ve no idea. You know we were told thalidomide was a very safe drug and it wasn’t. Who knows Nick, I don’t know.
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“He [Trump] has a particular thing about autism. I think because there’s been some in his family, he feels it very personally. I’ve no idea.”
When Farage was asked if he would side with medical experts who say it is dangerous to make the link, he added: “I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t. When it comes to science, I don’t side with anybody, right? You know? I don’t side with anybody, because science is never settled. We should remember that.”
Yet when challenged over whether it was irresponsible for Trump to make such an unproven claim, Farage said: “That’s an opinion he’s [Trump’s] got. It’s not one that I necessarily share.”
Farage’s refusal to condemn Trump’s claims comes weeks after a controversial doctor, Aseem Malhotra, was given top billing at Reform UK’s party conference and used his main-stage speech to claim the Covid vaccine caused cancer in the royal family. Malhotra is an adviser to Trump’s health secretary, Robert F Kennedy.
In the same interview, Farage said Trump was “right to say” that sharia law “is an issue in London”.
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“Never take what he [Trump] says literally, ever on anything. But always take everything he says seriously,” Farage said, adding: Trump “has a point.”
“So is he right to say that sharia is an issue in London? Yes. Is it an overwhelming issue at this stage? No. Has the mayor of London directly linked himself to it? No.”
Labour MPs have urged Keir Starmer to reprimand Trump’s administration after the US president falsely claimed in a speech to the United Nations: “I look at London, where you have a terrible mayor, terrible, terrible mayor, and it’s been changed, it’s been so changed.
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“Now they want to go to sharia law. But you are in a different country, you can’t do that.”
Trump has been publicly attacking the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, since 2015 when the Labour politician criticised Trump, the then presidential candidate, for suggesting that Muslims should be banned from travelling to the US.
A spokesperson for Khan said: “We are not going to dignify his appalling and bigoted comments with a response. London is the greatest city in the world, safer than major US cities and we’re delighted to welcome the record number of US citizens moving here.”
During the LBC phone-in, Farage also said Reform’s plan to ban anyone who was not a UK citizen from claiming benefits would not apply to Ukrainians and Hongkongers.
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“No, because they come for different reasons,” Farage said, adding those who had lived in the UK on indefinite leave to remain and had not worked or paid into the system would be told their benefits would be cut.
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Alphabet’s market capitalisation surged above $3tn for the first time on Monday on the back of a sharp rally for the search giant’s shares over the past few weeks.
Shares in Google’s parent company have climbed more than 30 per cent to a record high of $252 since the group posted double-digit growth in revenue and profit in quarterly results out in late July.
The rally means Alphabet joins Nvidia, Microsoft and Apple as the only US companies valued above $3tn. Chipmaker Nvidia in July became the first company to hit a $4tn market value.
