Explainer
Trump
administration briefing: Democrats divided as funding bill passes; president
rails against justice department
Democrats
dismayed after some help Republicans avert government shutdown; Trump vents
about prosecutions while taking DoJ victory lap – key US politics stories from
Friday at a glance
Guardian
staff
Sat 15 Mar
2025 02.56 CET
The US
Senate averted a government shutdown just hours before a Friday night deadline
after 10 Senate Democrats joined nearly all Republicans to clear a key hurdle
that advanced the six-month stopgap bill.
The vote
deeply dismayed Democratic activists and House Democrats who had urged their
Senate counterparts to block the bill, which they fear would embolden Donald
Trump and Elon Musk’s overhaul of the US government.
Meanwhile,
the US president used a speech at the Department of Justice – billed as a
policy address for the administration to tout its focus on combating illegal
immigration and drug trafficking – to focus on his personal grievances with
that department.
Here’s more
on the key US politics news of the day:
Senate
averts shutdown but Democrats dismayed
The US
Senate on Friday approved a Republican bill to fund federal agencies through
September, averting a government shutdown hours before the midnight deadline
after Democrats relented.
The bill
passed the Senate in a 54-46 vote, overcoming steep Democratic opposition. It
next goes to Donald Trump to be signed into law.
Trump vents
fury about criminal cases in DoJ ‘victory lap’
Taking over
the justice department headquarters for what amounted to a political event,
Donald Trump railed against the criminal cases he defeated by virtue of
returning to the presidency in an extraordinary victory lap the department has
perhaps never before seen.
Putin
praises Trump, likely raising alarm bells in Ukraine and Europe
Vladimir
Putin has praised Donald Trump for “doing everything” to improve relations
between Moscow and Washington, after Trump said the US has had “very good and
productive discussions” with Putin in recent days.
The exchange
of warm words between Trump and Putin is likely to cause further alarm in Kyiv
and European capitals, already spooked by signs of the new US administration
cosying up to Moscow while exerting pressure on Ukraine.
Vance booed
at classical concert
JD Vance,
the US vice-president, was booed by the audience as he took his seat at a
National Symphony Orchestra concert at Washington’s Kennedy Center on Thursday
evening.
Exclusive
Guardian footage shows the vice-presidential party filing into the box tier.
Booing and jeering erupted in the hall as Vance and his wife, Usha, took their
seats.
Newsom under
fire for Bannon podcast
Gavin
Newsom, the governor of California, was criticised for welcoming far-right
provocateur Steve Bannon on to his podcast.
Fellow
potential future Democratic presidential candidate Andy Beshear, the governor
of Kentucky, said “Bannon espouses hatred” and added “I don’t think we should
give him oxygen on any platform, ever, anywhere”.
Mark Carney
says Canada will never be part of US
Mark Carney
has said Canada will never be part of the US, after being sworn in as the
country’s 24th prime minister in a sudden rise to power.
“We will
never, in any shape or form, be part of the US,” the former governor of the
Bank of Canada and the Bank of England told a crowd outside Rideau Hall in
Ottawa, rejecting Donald Trump’s annexation threats. “We are very fundamentally
a different country.”
Pro-Israel
group touts US ‘deportation list’ of ‘thousands’ of names
A far-right
group that claimed credit for the arrest of a Palestinian activist and
permanent US resident who the Trump administration is seeking to deport claims
it has submitted “thousands of names” for similar treatment.
Mahmoud
Khalil, an activist who recently completed his graduate studies at New York’s
Columbia University, was detained this week and Donald Trump has said his
arrest was the “first of many”. Betar US quickly claimed credit on social media
for providing Khalil’s name to the government, adding that it had “been working
on deportations and will continue to do so”.
Democratic
senator ditches his Tesla over Musk cuts
The Arizona
Democratic senator Mark Kelly announced he was ditching his Tesla car, because
of brand owner Elon Musk’s role in slashing federal budgets and staffing and
attendant threats to social benefits programs.
“Every time
I get in this car in the last 60 days or so, it reminds me of just how much
damage Elon Musk and Donald Trump is doing to our country,” the former navy
pilot said, in video posted to X.
60% of US
voters disapprove of Musk cost-cutting
Donald Trump
and Elon Musk face increasing headwinds in their attempt to slash federal
budgets and staffing, after two judges ruled against the firing of probationary
employees and public polling revealed strong disapproval of the Tesla
billionaire’s work. A new Quinnipiac University poll found 60% of voters
disapprove of how Musk and his so-called department of government efficiency
are dealing with federal workers, while 35% approve.
What else
happened today:
Marco Rubio
told reporters that more visas of anti-war protesters who are on temporary
status in the US will be revoked, Reuters reported.
Former
Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi released a statement in response to the
government funding bill, calling it a “devastating assault on the wellbeing of
working-class families”.
Elon Musk’s
Tesla has warned that Trump’s trade war could expose the electric carmaker to
retaliatory tariffs that would also affect other automotive manufacturers in
the US. The company said it “supports fair trade” but that the US
administration should ensure it did not “inadvertently harm US companies”
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