Senate to vote on legislation to stop unauthorized war against Venezuela – US politics live

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Donald Trump appeared to be sharing everything on his mind all at once on Wednesday as he posted more than 30 Truth Social posts in less than three hours.

The posts, of which there were 33 between 4.17pm and 6.40pm ET, came a day after Democrats won in a series of elections across the United States in New York, California, Virginia, and New Jersey.

Trump’s posts ranged in subject matter. In a handful of missives, Trump made recommendations to his followers to buy books written by former FBI special agent Nicole Parker, Fox News political analyst Gianno Caldwell, Georgia congressman Barry Loudermilk, senior counselor for trade and manufacturing Peter Navarro, and his own former lawyer, Christina Bobb. Most notably, Trump penned the foreword for Bobb’s book.

Other posts included videos of Trump appearing to read nearly verbatim from his own previously posted Truth Social text posts. They appeared to be artificially generated, but the Guardian could not independently confirm. Users on social media platform X asked Grok about their authenticity and Grok noted they were indeed AI.

Upon asking the White House for more information, the Guardian received an automated response that read in part: “Due to staff shortages resulting from the Democrat Shutdown, the typical 24/7 monitoring of this press inbox may experience delays.”

The videos feature Trump standing in front of a podium in an unknown room and covered topics such as his recent meeting with the prime minister of Japan, his G2 meeting with China’s president Xi Jinping, Walmart allegedly lowering its prices, and more.

Cy Neff

The transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, and the FAA administrator, Bryan Bedford, said on Wednesday the federal government would be reducing airline traffic by 10% at 40 “high volume markets” beginning on Friday if the government shutdown does not end by then.

The announcement did not specify which 40 airports would see the reduction and said that a complete list would be announced on Thursday with cuts likely at the nation’s 30 busiest airports, including those serving New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Dallas. The reduction will affect cargo, private and passenger traffic.

Reuters reported that the cuts would begin at 4% on Friday, escalate to 5% Saturday and 6% at Sunday, before reaching 10% next week, and that international flights were to be exempted from the initial cuts. Aviaion analytics firm Cirium estimated that the cuts would reduce as many as 1,800 flights and over 268,000 airline seats.

The comments come after Duffy warned earlier this week that the US may close portions of its airspace if the shutdown, now on its record-breaking 36th day, does not end.

Duffy and Bedford repeatedly framed the decision as a pre-emptive, safety and data-driven measure. Bedford said that air traffic was currently operating safely, but that the FAA was concerned about widespread reports of fatigue from flight controllers.

“As we slice the data more granularly, we are seeing pressures build in a way that we don’t feel, if we allow it to go unchecked, will allow us to continue to tell the public that we operate the safest airline system in the world” Bedford said.

“Many of these employees, they’re the head of household,” Duffy said. “When they lose income they are confronted with real-world difficulties on how they pay their bills.”

Senate to vote on bipartisan legislation to stop unauthorized war against Venezuela

Good morning and welcome to our coverage of US politics as the record-breaking government shutdown drags on and president Donald Trump continues to rail against various targets following Democrat electoral successes on Tuesday.

But first, let’s look at the Senate vote today on bipartisan legislation to stop an unauthorized war against Venezuela.

The proposals from Democrats Tim Kaine and Adam Schiff along with independently-minded Republican senator Rand Paul would block the use of the US armed forces to engage in hostilities within or against Venezuela, unless that action has been authorized by Congress. This follows reports that the Trump administration is considering land strikes inside the country.

It also follows yet another deadly strike on a boat accused of ferrying drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean and as an aircraft carrier began heading to the region in a new expansion of military firepower.

The attack on Tuesday killed two people aboard the vessel, defence secretary Pete Hegseth said, bringing the death toll from the Trump administration’s campaign in South American waters up to at least 66 people in at least 16 strikes.

A similar vote which would have blocked such strikes failed in Congress last month.

Meanwhile, Schiff said on X:

The Trump admin is laying the groundwork for potential military action inside Venezuela. Tomorrow, on a bipartisan basis, we will force a vote to block this unauthorized use of military force. Congress must assert its authority to stop America from being dragged into a new war.

In other developments:

• Democrats took a victory lap after Tuesday’s election day wins with the chair of Democratic National Committee saying the party “is all gas, no brakes” and “this is not your grandfather’s Democratic party”. Despite that, Jared Golden, a democratic representative for Maine, announced Wednesday that he wouldn’t seek re-election, which could pose a challenge for democrats in the highly contested seat.

• A federal judge in Chicago issued a temporary restraining order that requires an immigration facility to improve its conditions. The ruling came after detainees sued the government over what they say are “inhumane”, unsanitary and crowded conditions.

• Transportation secretary Sean Duffy said that if a deal isn’t reached in the government shutdown, the Federal Aviation Administration will cut 10% of flights in 40 major airports across the country. The announcement did not specify which 40 airports would see the reduction, but Duffy said it will affect cargo, private and passenger traffic.

• The US supreme court appeared skeptical of the legal basis of the Trump administration’s sweeping global tariff regime on Wednesday after justices questioned the president’s authority to impose the levies. The question at the heart of the case is whether the Trump administration’s tariffs violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), a 1977 law which only gives the president authority to “regulate or prohibit international transactions during a national emergency”.

• As he hosted Republican senators at the White House, Donald Trump offered some initial thoughts on the Democratic victories across the country on election night. “Last night, it was not expected to be a victory, it was very Democrat areas. But I don’t think it was good for Republicans,” the president said.

• On Capitol Hill, amid the government shutdown (now the longest on record), Republicans continued to rebuke Democrats for failing to pass a stopgap funding bill. House speaker Mike Johnson also used his daily press conference to both downplay and foreshadow what Tuesday’s election results suggest going forward.