Democrats Push AOC to Take Schumer’s Seat After Shutdown Surrender

Senator Chuck Schumer’s decision Thursday to vote for the House GOP funding bill seems to have been the final straw for House Democrats—many of whom are now urging Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to mount a primary challenge against the Senate minority leader.

The New York congresswoman is in Leesburg, Virginia, with her Democratic colleagues for a policy retreat, and has been urging Senate counterparts to fight against the GOP continuing resolution.

“I think there is a deep sense of outrage and betrayal,” Ocasio-Cortez told reporters, saying she and other House Democrats are “texting, calling, sending carrier pigeons” to get the Democratic base to rally against Schumer’s plan to support the Republican bill.

“We have time to correct course on this decision. Senate Democrats can vote no. We can correct course, and that is the most important thing in front of us right now,” added Ocasio-Cortez, calling out Democratic senators for deciding to “completely roll over and give up on protecting the Constitution.”

And privately, House Democrats, angry with Schumer, are telling her that she should run against Schumer when he is up for reelection in 2028, CNN reports, citing an unnamed member of Congress. Several Democrats in the Congressional Progressive Caucus, as well as others encouraged Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday night to run against Schumer.

According to the unnamed representative, even centrist Democrats were “so mad” that they were “ready to write checks for AOC for Senate.” Ocasio-Cortez declined to comment on challenging Schumer, saying she was focused on getting Democrats in the Senate to vote no. She noted that all but one House Democrat opposed the GOP bill, unlike in the Senate.

“There are members of Congress who have won Trump-held districts in some of the most difficult territory in the United States who walked the plank and took innumerable risks in order to defend the American people, in order to defend Social Security and Medicaid and Medicare,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “Just to see Senate Democrats even consider acquiescing to Elon Musk, I think is a huge slap in the face. And I think there is a wide sense of betrayal if things proceed as currently planned.”

Ocasio-Cortez has been vocal and effective in criticizing President Trump and Elon Musk, calling out everything from Trump’s attempt to deport activist Mahmoud Khalil to the president’s lies about January’s deadly D.C. plane crash. While 2028 is still three years away, the New York congresswoman is visibly fighting against the Trump and Republican agenda, and drawing support from unusual places.

Donald Trump and his Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought plan to impound federal spending after Congress passes a budget to avoid government shutdown, setting up a major legal fight with Congress.

Trump and Vought, a Project 2025 alum, plan to impound some of the funds Congress allocates before the government shutdown deadline on Friday, Fox News reports. The move would violate the Impoundment Control Act of 1974, which Trump and his supporters have called unconstitutional, as it prevents the president from spending money appropriated by Congress in a different way.

A direct challenge to the law would prompt a legal fight that would very likely be decided by the Supreme Court and threaten the separation of powers outlined in the Constitution. If the executive branch gains impoundment power, Trump and future presidents would have much more power, with Congress significantly weakened.

Right now, the Senate is at a standstill over budget discussions, with Democrats standing in the way of Republicans’ attempts to pass a continuing resolution. The GOP needs eight Democrats to join them to pass it, and they are having trouble convincing enough to do so.

Vought’s role in Trump’s plans raises serious questions as he was one of the authors of the conservative Project 2025 manifesto, which seeks to completely remake the federal government, and by extension the country as a whole, to serve right-wing cultural and business interests. Impounding funds has worrying short-term consequences, but in the long term, could be part of an even more sinister strategy.

Donald Trump suggested Thursday that NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte could be “very instrumental” in helping him carry out his imperialist fantasy of wresting Greenland from Denmark.

During a meeting in the Oval Office, Trump was asked about the “potential annexation” of Greenland, the sparsely populated, mineral-rich island that the president has repeatedly insisted is very important for the U.S. to control.

“Well, I think it will happen. And, I’m just thinking, uh, I didn’t give it much thought before, but I’m sitting with a man that could be very instrumental,” Trump said.

“You know Mark, we need that for international security, not just security.”

Rutte replied diplomatically, saying that he should be left “outside” the discussions of the U.S. acquiring Greenland.

“I don’t want to drag NATO in that,” Rutte said. “But when it comes to the high north and the Arctic, you are totally right. The Chinese are using these routes. We know that the Russians are rearming.”

Trump continued to press that NATO might need to “get involved” on behalf of America’s national security.

“What do you think about that?” he pressed Rutte, quickly adding, “Don’t answer that.”

Trump then noted the U.S. already has “a couple bases” on Greenland (there is one U.S. military base on the island) and “quite a few soldiers there.”

“Maybe you’ll see more and more soldiers go there, I don’t know,” he mused.

Greenland’s parliamentary elections this week saw the victory of a center-right party that is set on a slower course toward independence and has already pushed back on Trump’s hopes of making Greenlanders American. The U.S. president has threatened to use tariffs to squeeze Denmark into relinquishing its claim on the world’s largest island.

Luckily, Trump has plenty of imperialist fantasies to keep him busy. His administration reportedly ordered the U.S. military to begin drawing up plans to take over the Panama Canal.

Even though they won’t come right out and say it, Republicans are proving increasingly unhappy with Donald Trump’s trade war.

A new Reuters-Ipsos poll out Thursday indicates that three in 10 Republicans believe the president has been “too erratic” in carrying out his economic agenda. Meanwhile, only Trump’s most ardent supporters opposed the language, with three in 10 Republicans telling the pollster that they “strongly disagreed” that Trump was too erratic.

And a CNN poll published Wednesday showed that one in five people who voted for Trump in 2024 disapproved of how the 78-year-old has implemented his tariff plan, as did 24 percent of Republican-leaning voters.

Another study by Center Forward, a nonpartisan nonprofit, found that some Trump voters felt the president was ignoring key issues such as the economy.

“What’s striking is that voters from across the political spectrum—Republicans, Democrats and independents alike—are all demanding that the administration tackle inflation and rising living costs. Many feel these kitchen-table issues aren’t getting the attention they deserve,” Bob Torongo, executive vice president of the Democratic research firm Breakthrough Campaigns, told The Washington Post Thursday.

Trump has admitted that his tariffs will destabilize the economy. ​​During an interview with Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo that aired Sunday, Trump dodged a question on whether the country would dive headlong into a recession, sending stock indexes reeling.

He also floated that the “little disruption” caused by his aggressive trade policies could go on for quite a bit longer, suggesting that Americans should model their economic projections on a 100-year-model—like China—rather than assess his performance on a quarterly basis.

The market, in turn, has tumbled as Trump’s trade war sparks fears of a forthcoming recession. Last week, the Dow dropped 670 points. This week, the slump continued, reacting to Trump’s 25 percent levy on all steel and aluminum imports, and the retaliatory tariffs slapped on American goods by countries around the globe in protest.

Trump further failed to assuage economic fears during a press conference at the White House on Thursday, offering no clear path forward for small businesses amid his whiplash tariff proposals.

Donald Trump is once again rewriting history to make it seem like Russian President Vladimir Putin never invaded Ukraine.

During an appearance Thursday in the Oval Office with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Trump seemed unsure whether Russia would forfeit its seized territory.

“I don’t know if they would have to give anything back. I guess … Crimea?” Trump said, sounding confused. That’s probably because it’s clear that Trump does not intend to force Russia to relinquish any of its seized territory now—and Russia has previously refused to do so.

“You know, uh, I said it last time: Crimea was given by Obama. Biden gave ’em the whole thing. And Bush gave ’em Georgia. And Trump didn’t give ’em them anything.”

Trump once again managed to rewrite the story of Russia’s illegal seizure of other territories, but in his version, Putin wasn’t responsible for any of it.

Putin seized Crimea in 2014, and as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy noted when he visited the White House last month, “nobody stopped him.” After Trump’s first term, the situation was the same, Zelenskiy said—but pointing this out got him scolded and tossed from the premises.

Cut to 2025, and Russia now controls roughly 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory. But the U.S. president is still content to play dumb about the role that his administration has played in Russia’s illegal occupation.

Trump’s support for Putin during his first term in the White House, and his lack of support for Zelenskiy, emboldened Moscow and weakened Kyiv, making way for Russia to launch its deadly multiyear ground offensive in Ukraine in 2022.

Trump’s continued rhetoric now serves to normalize Russian aggression and put the onus on anyone else for the ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

When the U.S. temporarily paused military and intelligence aid to Ukraine last month, Russia moved forward with its efforts to push Ukrainian forces out of Kursk—an area that Ukraine had hoped to use as a bargaining chip in peace negotiations. The flow of aid restarted this week after Zelenskiy said that he agreed to Trump’s 30-day ceasefire agreement. But Zelenskiy added that his country would not recognize any occupied Ukrainian territory as Russia.

Putin said, “We definitely support” the deal but that several questions still remained. He warned that Ukrainian forces in Kursk would need to “surrender or die.” He added that Moscow would wish to retain at a minimum 18 percent of the Ukrainian territory it had stolen.