Politics
What Does a Shutdown Have to Do With the Budget or Elon Musk? Here’s a Guide.
Republicans in government are hard at work refashioning federal spending through three major efforts, proceeding along parallel tracks. They may seem to be all the same story — and they do relate to each other — but they each have their own goals, deadlines and constraints. Here, a guide to all three.
Effort 1: Avoiding a shutdown
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Potential changes: The bill would fund a portion of the budget — hundreds of billions of dollars — for the rest of the fiscal year.
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Deadline: Saturday at 12:01 a.m.
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Status: A House vote is scheduled for Tuesday.
If Congress doesn’t pass a bill to fund ongoing government programs by the end of Friday, there could be a shutdown.
Congress is supposed to pass yearlong spending bills before a fiscal year begins, through a process known as regular appropriations. That process often breaks down, so Congress frequently passes shorter-term spending bills every few months instead to keep the government funded. The latest such “continuing resolution” expires this week, and a new one, which would fund the government through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, is on the table.
The appropriations process deals with only a portion of all federal spending — often called discretionary. It doesn’t affect “mandatory” programs like Social Security, which pay out benefits on a kind of autopilot, based on a formula. The resolution is also subject to a filibuster in the Senate, which means that at least seven Democrats will need to vote for it even if every Senate Republican supports it.
The current bill mostly allows the government to spend the same amount on most government agencies it has been spending all year, with a few key exceptions, including cuts to programs earmarked by lawmakers for their home districts, and an increase in military spending. Compared with last year’s funding, it reduces the amount allowed by around $7 billion — roughly 0.1 percent of the estimated $7 trillion in annual government spending.
Effort 2: Passing Trump’s agenda in one big bill
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Potential changes: Trillions of dollars in changes to both tax revenue and spending, over 10 years.
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Deadline: Oct. 1, or the process must start over.
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Status: The budget resolution passed the House. The timing of next steps is unclear.
The House adopted a budget outline for what the government should spend and raise over the next decade. That budget is the very first part of a process that could help Republicans cut taxes and reshape large government programs. Republicans have chosen this route, known as reconciliation, so they can pass their policies without needing any Democratic votes in the Senate.
The reconciliation process still has many steps left to go. Republicans in the Senate would need to adopt a matching budget resolution, and many have expressed reservations about the House approach (the Senate has passed its own, smaller budget plan). Then both chambers will have to write and pass legislation that carries out the cuts and increases in spending outlined in the budget.
By design, budget reconciliation mostly addresses the parts of federal spending that are not part of the appropriations process. This includes mandatory programs like Medicare, Medicaid, food assistance, student loans and farm aid that get automatically funded unless Congress makes changes to their structure.
The budget adopted by the House would also allow tax cuts of around $4.5 trillion over a decade, partly offset by around $2 trillion in spending reductions. It also includes a few spending increases, for the military and border security. The combination could increase deficits by an estimated $3.4 trillion, including interest on federal debt.
Because the budget process affects a decade at a time, the numbers above are 10-year changes. That’s part of why they are so much larger than the numbers used to describe the continuing resolution, which covers only about half a year’s worth of spending.
Effort 3: Using Elon Musk’s team to cut the budget
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Potential changes: The stated goal is to cut around 15 percent of next year’s budget.
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Deadline: That fiscal year ends in October 2027.
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Status: The cuts from Mr. Musk’s team are continuing, with new layoffs and contract cancellations announced this week.
Mr. Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur, is leading his own effort to trim government spending, and it’s unclear exactly how it will come to intersect with the work of Congress. He has pledged to use a team called the Department of Government Efficiency to reduce federal spending by $1 trillion in the next fiscal year, an ambitious target that would be hard to achieve without legislation.
So far, Mr. Musk’s team has been directing agencies to fire workers and cancel government contracts, grants and leases. The majority of those changes affect the discretionary part of the budget — the smaller portion of government spending that Congress is also trying to address this week.
Mr. Musk and Congress seem to be clashing. The current continuing resolution mostly leaves agencies funded at their current level, and does not take account of the changes by Mr. Musk’s group. But there has been some discussion about codifying some of Mr. Musk’s cuts using a process called rescission.
The effort by his team has also mostly ignored the military, which makes up more than half of discretionary spending.
Some of the group’s changes could affect federal revenues, too. His team is enacting large staff reductions at the Internal Revenue Service, which collects taxes and investigates tax fraud. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that a smaller I.R.S. staff generally means fewer taxes are collected.
P.S. Don’t forget about the debt limit
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Potential changes: Without legislation, the U.S. could fail to pay its obligations and default.
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Deadline: Sometime this summer.
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Status: The Treasury Department is already using “extraordinary measures” to prevent a default for as long as possible.
As federal debt rises, Congress has to periodically pass legislation that allows the Treasury Department to keep issuing bonds. It’s unclear when the country will run out of options to prevent a default, but many budget experts believe it will be as soon as this summer.
If Congress fails to increase the debt limit, the country will begin defaulting on its debt, an action likely to have negative and cascading consequences for the U.S. economy. Payments to Social Security beneficiaries, medical providers and government workers could stop.
House Republicans have folded this increase in borrowing authority into their big budget bill. But if the reconciliation process isn’t finished in time, Congress may have to pass an increase to the debt limit some other way.
By Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Gilad Thaler, Jon Miller, Stephanie Swart, Rafaela Balster, Whitney Shefte and Nikolay Nikolov
May 29, 2026
Politics
Federal judge orders Trump’s name removed from Kennedy Center, says only Congress can rename it
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A federal judge on Friday ordered that President Donald Trump’s name be removed from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama appointee, said the iconic venue cannot be renamed without an act of Congress, ruling that the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees overstepped its “statutory bounds by unilaterally renaming” the building.
As part of his ruling, the Trump administration will be required to take down all physical signage bearing Trump’s name and eliminate any references to a “Trump-Kennedy Center” from official materials.
TRUMP KENNEDY CENTER’S BOARD VOTES UNANIMOUSLY TO APPROVE $257M RENOVATIONS AND TWO-YEAR CLOSURE
A sign is displayed on the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts building. (Getty Images)
“The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so,” Cooper wrote. “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”
Roma Daravi, the Trump Kennedy Center vice president of public relations, said the board plans to appeal the decision.
“We will review the decision carefully though the reality remains — the Center requires an urgent and significant restoration – a truth that even the plaintiff acknowledges,” Daravi said. “With $257 million secured by President Trump and approved by Congress, the resources are in place and we remain committed to pursuing every lawful avenue to ensure the Trump Kennedy Center is restored as a national cultural landmark for all Americans to enjoy.”
The ruling was part of a lawsuit filed by U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
BOARD VOTES KENNEDY CENTER TO BE RENAMED ‘TRUMP-KENNEDY CENTER,’ LEAVITT SAYS
President Donald Trump stands in the presidential box during a tour of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., on March 17, 2025. On Friday, a federal judge ruled that Trump’s name must be removed from he iconic venue. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)
Cooper previously denied a request for a preliminary injunction filed by a preservation group to block the planned two-year closure of the Kennedy Center for a rehabilitation project.
Trump secured $257 million from Congress as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to address disrepair and deferred maintenance of the Kennedy Center, which critics say has been neglected and mismanaged before Trump intervened.
The funds appropriated by Congress are spent on maintenance, repairs, security, and capital projects related to the building and site.
Beatty, who serves as an ex officio member of the board, praised Friday’s ruling.
“Today’s ruling rightly affirms that this administration’s efforts to rename and close the Center have no basis in law,” Beatty said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. “The Kennedy Center is an institution that belongs to the American people, not to Donald Trump. He has desecrated this sacred memorial for his own vanity. I am proud to have fought for the rule of law and to protect this sacred institution.”
Workers install Donald J. Trump signage above the existing Kennedy Center sign in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 19, 2025. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
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Trump’s name was added to the venue last December following a unanimous decision by the board. In February 2025, Trump was elected chairman of the Kennedy Center board after removing 18 trustees appointed by former President Joe Biden.
WASHINGTON — A framework agreement to end the U.S. war with Iran is all but settled, pending sign-off from the presidents of the two warring sides, President Trump said Friday, projecting optimism that a deal could finally be at hand.
Yet doubt cast a shadow over the diplomatic process entering the weekend as Trump faced a politically fraught decision to enter an agreement that would invariably require significant concessions to Tehran.
The negotiations have faced severe headwinds in recent days, with both sides accusing the other of violating a fragile ceasefire that has largely stopped the fighting since April.
On his Truth Social site, Trump said he had summoned his top aides to the White House Situation Room to decide on the deal.
The agreement would see an end to the U.S. naval blockade on Iranian ports and the removal of Iranian mines from the Strait of Hormuz, an international waterway through which 20% of the world’s energy supply passes each day. The strait, Trump wrote, will reopen with “no tolls” for “unrestricted shipping traffic, in both directions.”
And “Iran must agree that they will never have a Nuclear Weapon or Bomb,” Trump wrote, noting that Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, the key ingredient for nuclear weapons, “will be unearthed by the United States (which, it is agreed, is the only Country, along with China, with the mechanical capability of doing so!), in close coordination and conjunction with the Islamic Republic of Iran, plus the International Atomic Energy Agency, and DESTROYED.”
“No money will be exchanged, until further notice,” he added.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent also said the deal would require Iran to disavow the continuation of its domestic nuclear program — a diplomatic feat never before achieved throughout a quarter-century of international negotiations over Iran’s nuclear work.
It is unclear whether Tehran would go that far. And Iran’s negotiators expressed defiance on Friday, stating that there was “no trust in guarantees or words” from the American side.
“No step will be taken before the other side acts first,” said Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament. “We do not gain concessions through dialogue, but through missiles.”
It remains unclear when the Trump administration would ease sanctions on Iran, how extensive that relief would be, or what form it would take — questions that fueled Republican criticism of the Obama-era nuclear deal more than a decade ago.
The working diplomatic document would formally extend the existing ceasefire for 60 days, allowing for a more detailed negotiation to take place over Iran’s nuclear program. But the truce as it currently stands is on perilous ground. Iran launched a ballistic missile on Thursday at Kuwait, a close U.S. ally, after American forces took “defensive” actions against Iranian missile launchers and mine-laying boats it had launched in the strait.
The war has proved historically unpopular with the American public, and has seen oil prices soar since the U.S. military, in partnership with Israel, launched its first strikes against Iran in February.
Bessent said he is hopeful that oil prices would drop quickly once an agreement is signed. But industry analysts say the effects of the war on the oil market could last for months, if not years, with the stability of traffic through the Strait of Hormuz now in question for commercial shippers.
While oil has dropped to under $100 a barrel, markets appeared skittish on Friday over the prospects for a deal, with mixed messages appearing to emerge out of the region.
It is also unclear whether a U.S. agreement with Iran would in any way bind Israel’s hands in its military operations, either in Iran or in Lebanon, where an Iranian proxy militia, Hezbollah, has vowed to keep up the fight.
Israel has ramped up strikes against Hezbollah targets in recent days, jeopardizing a delicate ceasefire negotiated with the Lebanese government, a deal encouraged by the Trump administration in order to grease the wheels for its talks with Tehran.
Trump has been uncharacteristically silent on the prospects of an agreement in recent days, expressing cautious optimism in limited exchanges with reporters.
“It’s hard to say exactly when or if the president’s going to sign,” Vice President JD Vance, who has led the U.S. diplomatic team, told reporters, noting that “the nuclear stuff” is still subject to negotiation. “We’re going back and forth on a couple of language points.”
“I do think that we’ve made a lot of progress here,” Vance added. “Hopefully we’ll continue to make progress, and the president will be in a position where he can endorse the agreement. But obviously, that’s still TBD.”
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