Politics

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Monday called on Republicans to “take over” and “nationalize” voting as he continued to make false claims about the electoral process in the U.S. with the 2026 midterm elections on the horizon.

Trump made the comments in an interview with former FBI Director Dan Bongino, who resigned from his post in December and returned to podcasting.

Trump alleged noncitizen voting was improperly influencing election outcomes, though experts insist such instances are incredibly rare and already illegal, and told Bongino it was “amazing that the Republicans aren’t tougher on it.”

“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over,'” Trump said. “We should take over the voting … in at least many, 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting. We have states that are so crooked and they’re counting votes.”

The Constitution gives states the authority to conduct federal elections, subject to laws passed by Congress. The elections clause states, in part, that “state legislatures will establish the times, places, and manner of holding elections for the House of Representatives and the Senate.”

Trump didn’t elaborate on how he wanted Republicans to “nationalize” voting.

Asked by ABC News for specifics on what Trump meant, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson responded, “President Trump cares deeply about the safety and security of our elections — that’s why he’s urged Congress to pass the SAVE Act and other legislative proposals that would establish a uniform standard of photo ID for voting, prohibit no-excuse mail-in voting, and end the practice of ballot harvesting.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the chamber’s top Democrat, slammed Trump over his comments to Bongino.

“Just a few hours ago, Donald Trump said he wants to nationalize elections around the country. That’s what Trump said. You think he believes in democracy? He said, ‘We want to take over, the Republicans ought to nationalize the voting,'” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “Does Donald Trump need a copy of the Constitution? What he is saying is outlandishly illegal.” 

Trump’s agenda is at stake in this year’s elections, where all seats in the House and 35 in the Senate will be up for grabs. Currently, Republicans hold narrow margins in both chambers — but midterm cycles are historically unkind to the sitting president’s party.

Last year, Trump and other Republicans pushed for mid-decade redistricting in order to gain additional House seats. The president warned Republicans last month that they have to win the midterms or he will get “impeached.”

Trump also continues to litigate his 2020 election loss, spreading false claims of fraud.

Last week, the FBI searched and seized original 2020 voting records from the Fulton County Elections and Operations Hub in Georgia, a swing state that went blue in 2020 and helped secure Joe Biden’s victory.

“Now you’re going to see something in Georgia where they were able to get, with a court order, the ballots. You’re going to see some interesting things come out,” Trump said on Bongino’s podcast.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump’s cryptocurrency firm, World Liberty Financial, sold a $500 million stake to a member of the Emirati royal family shortly before his inauguration last January, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, sparking concerns over a potential conflict of interest. 

According to the Journal, which reviewed undisclosed corporate documents, a firm associated with Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, an Abu Dhabi royal who operates an enormous state investment fund, purchased a 49% stake in World Liberty, which is co-owned by Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and his family, just four days before the Trump administration swept into office.

Months later, the Trump administration agreed to supply the UAE with highly coveted American-made AI chips despite the prior administration’s concern that they may fall into the hands of the Chinese.

David Wachsman, a spokesperson for World Liberty Financial, acknowledged the existence of the deal in a statement to ABC News, but insisted that “neither President Trump nor Steve Witkoff had any involvement whatsoever in this transaction” and that “any claim that this deal had anything to do with the Administration’s actions on chips is 100% false.”

“We made the deal in question because we strongly believe that it was what was best for our company as we continue to grow. The idea that, when raising capital, a privately-held American company should be held to some unique standard that no other similar company would be held is both ridiculous and un-American,” the statement continued.

David Warrington, the White House counsel, told ABC News in a statement that “the President has no involvement in business deals that would implicate his constitutional responsibilities,” and that “President Trump performs his constitutional duties in an ethically sound manner and to suggest so otherwise is either ill-informed or malicious.”

But the Journal’s report adds yet another wrinkle to the U.S. decision to sell highly coveted advanced chips to the Emiratis.

As ABC News previously reported, shortly before the chips deal was announced, a UAE-backed investment firm called MGX announced last May that it would use a digital token minted by World Liberty Financial to finance a $2 billion investment in a crypto exchange Binance, a major boon for the firm.

Shiekh Tahnoon, who is the brother of the UAE’s president, also serves as MGX’s chairman. 

The Biden administration declined to provide the UAE with the chips, which power some of the most sophisticated weapons on the planet, for fear they might be redirected into China. 

Peter Wildeford, the head of policy at the AI Policy Network, a nonpartisan advocacy group, warned that could close the U.S.’s advantage in the AI race and compromise American security. 

“If China gets their hands on these chips at scale, they would be able to launch cyberattacks against the U.S., they could build autonomous weapons that could find and sink our Navy ships — they could close the military technology gap that’s currently keeping us safe,” he said. 

World Liberty has emerged as perhaps the most lucrative of the Trump family’s various business ventures, either in cryptocurrency or real estate. ABC News reported last year that the Trump family secured a roughly $5 billion windfall when trading of World Liberty’s digital token opened. 

According to the Journal, Shiekh Tahnoon agreed to pay half of his investment in World Liberty up front. Based on the ownership structure of the company at the time, that meant a payment of as much as $187 million into the Trump family’s coffers on the eve of his return to office. 

Ethics experts said the concept of a foreign government official secretly directing hundreds of millions of dollars to a company owned in part by the president has no known precedent — and raises a host of ethical and national security concerns.

“Maybe the President would have reached the same decision over the transfer of high techn [chips] to UAE if he wasn’t also getting money from them,” said Robert Weissman, the co-president of the advocacy group Public Citizen. “But we’ve got no way to know that, and we do know there was a lot of opposition inside the government to do exactly what he has OK’d.”

White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly maintained that the president “only acts in the best interests of the American public,” and said that no conflict of interest exists in part because the president’s assets are held in a blind trust managed by his children. Typically, a blind trust would operate with an independent trustee.

“President Trump’s assets are in a trust managed by his children,” Kelly added. “There are no conflicts of interest.”

The Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Congressional Democrats leapt at new details in the report, characterizing the transaction as further evidence of alleged pay-for-play. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., alleged “mind blowing corruption,” in a post to X.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., issued a statement calling the deal “corruption, plain and simple.”

“Foreign countries are bribing our president to sell out the American people,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., claimed in a post to X.

Shortly before the chips deal was announced last May, a UAE-backed investment firm called MGX said it would use a digital token minted by World Liberty Financial to finance a $2 billion investment in a crypto exchange Binance. Tahnoon also serves as MGX’s chairman.

MGX is also one of the few companies with a major ownership stake in the new TikTok U.S. joint venture, with a 15% stake in the new entity.

ABC News’ Selina Wang contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — President Donald Trump took to social media to show his support for two of his administration leaders amid the leadership shakeup following last week’s fatal shooting in Minneapolis.

The president praised the work of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who came under fire following the deaths of Minneapolis residents Alex Pretti and Renee Good at the hands of federal agents, and thanked Border Czar Tom Homan, who he sent to Minneapolis this week to smooth over boiling tensions. 

Despite several videos showing the 37-year-old Pretti did not have a firearm in his hands when he encountered federal agents on Jan 24, Noem initially claimed, without evidence, that the nurse brandished a weapon, was “wishing to inflict harm” and the officers were “attacked.”

Multiple videos of the incident taken by civilians show that Pretti, a licensed gun owner, was disarmed by a law enforcement officer just before the first shot rang out.

The FBI is leading the investigation into Good’s shooting on Jan. 7. DHS said that Good was allegedly attempting to run over law enforcement officers when an ICE agent shot her, which local leaders and her family have disputed.

Trump, who has backed Noem all of this week, lashed out at her critics in a social media post posted early Saturday.

“The Radical Left Lunatics, Insurrectionists, Agitators, and Thugs, are going after Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, because she is a woman, and has done a really GREAT JOB!,” he said.

Noem walked back her initial comments on the shooting of Pretti later in the week, contending that DHS were getting information from “what we knew to be true on the ground.”

Homan was sent to Minneapolis this week and Border Patrol Commander Greg Bovino was ordered by the administration to return to California, sources told ABC News.

Although Homan said he had “productive” discussions with Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, he criticized sanctuary city laws and called on local leaders to assist with federal immigration law enforcement. Homan announced a “draw down” of federal agents in Minneapolis later in the week.

“Border Czar (Plus!) Tom Homan is doing a FANTASTIC JOB. He is one of a kind. Thank you Tom!!!,” Trump said in another post.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Senate on Friday is one step closer to passing a funding package after Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham ended his blockade — still a partial government shutdown is all but certain to happen.

After intense negotiations proceeded throughout the day, an 11th-hour deal struck by Senate Democrats and White House, which would see the Department of Homeland Security funding bill separated from a package of five other funding bills, obtained the consent of all 100 senators to advance ahead of Friday night’s deadline.

But it is likely that even if the Senate passes the bills, there will still be a short partial shutdown as the legislation would need to go back to the House for reconsideration.

Sen. Graham earlier Friday had outlined his demands for lifting his blockade: a promise of a vote at a later date on his bill to end so-called sanctuary cities that resist the administration’s immigration policies, and a vote related to controversial Arctic Frost provisions, which allow members of Congress to sue the government if federal investigators gain access to their phone records without their knowledge. Those provisions were stripped out of the funding package passed by the House.

In a statement on Friday afternoon, Graham said Senate Majority Leader John Thune was supportive of his stipulations.

“I will lift my hold and vote for the package,” Graham said.

Thune said the Senate is set to vote on the slate of amendments Friday evening.

Meanwhile, the House is in recess until Monday, and Speaker Mike Johnson told ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Selina Wang on Thursday night that bringing lawmakers back before then “may not be possible.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the chamber’s top Democrat, earlier Friday would not say whether he supported the spending agreement reached between Senate Democrats and the White House.

“There’s no agreement that’s been before us,” Jeffries said. “Right now, Lindsey Graham apparently is holding up the agreement, threatening to shut down the government, because apparently Senate Republicans still support using taxpayer dollars to brutalize American citizens and on top of it to make matters worse.”

The agreement announced Thursday would see most of the federal government funded through September, while DHS would be funded for two additional weeks at current spending levels to allow lawmakers to negotiate on other provisions in the package. 

The funding fight over DHS erupted in the aftermath of the death of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, who was killed in a shooting involving federal law enforcement in Minneapolis over the weekend.

Jeffries insisted Democrats will not back down on their demands for reform at the department, including obtaining judicial warrants — rather than the lower bar of administrative warrants, barring Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel from wearing masks and mandating that body-worn cameras be turned on, and ending roving raids by ICE. 

“Democrats in the Senate, led by Chuck Schumer, supported by the House, made a clear demand: Separate out the five bills that clearly have bipartisan support, and then separately we can deal with making sure that ICE is brought under control in a variety of different ways, including our demand, which we will not walk away from, which is that judicial warrants should be required before ICE can storm homes and rip people out of their cars,” Jeffries said.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday to hold an IndyCar street race in Washington this summer, as part of his “America 250” push to commemorate the nation’s birthday. 

Trump, joined in the Oval Office by auto racing legend Roger Penske, announced the Freedom 250 Grand Prix will be held Aug. 21 through Aug. 23.

“We’re celebrating greatness with American motor racing,” Trump said.

“And I said, pick our best site. It’s very important. Pick the best site. Don’t go for second or third because there are a lot of different routes. I said pick, even if it’s more difficult to get approved, pick the absolute best site,” the president continued. 

The U.S. Department of the Interior and Transportation Department will be officially charged with designing a race route along the National Mall, home to iconic monuments, the U.S. Capitol and the White House. The race is free and open to the public and will be broadcast live on FOX, according to the Transportation Department.  

“To think, 190 miles an hour down Pennsylvania Avenue, this is going to be wild,” said Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

But in order to hold the race, Trump could need congressional approval due to a ban on advertising on Capitol grounds.

Last week, during an interview with the New York Post, Trump said that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was opposed to his racing plans.

“We can’t get Schumer. Schumer is making it very difficult,” Trump told The Post. “What’s wrong with him? Everybody wants to. Schumer doesn’t because he doesn’t want to see advertising near the Capitol,” the president added. “The cars have ads. If you didn’t, they wouldn’t look as good, right? That’s the only reason.”

ABC News has asked Schumer’s office for a response to Trump’s order on Friday and whether he’d work to block the race from occurring. 

Still, Trump and Penske touted the upcoming festivities.

“We’re excited. The areas for people to see most of the grounds will be free. So, it’s going to be an economic benefit to the area, to the city,” Penske said. “So, thank you, Mr. President, for allowing us to come into your city.”

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, told ABC affiliate WJLA she was “thrilled” to welcome the racing event.

“Soon-to-be the home of every major sports franchise, Washington, D.C. is the undisputed Sports Capital,” Bowser said. “But we don’t stop there and work to attract major events. That’s why I am thrilled to welcome the Freedom 250 to the Nation’s Capital this August. The race weekend will rev up the economic engine of DC by filling our hotels and restaurants and by showing visitors, residents and the sports world that there’s no better city, people and backdrop for major sports events. I invite all sports fans to come enjoy the Freedom 250 and all that Washington, DC has to offer.”

In the Oval Office executive order signing, Bud Denker, the president of the Penske Corporation, extended thanks to Bowser.

“She has been a great partner in this process as well too,” Denker said.

President Trump’s announced a number of events to mark the nation’s 250th birthday, including a UFC fight on the South Lawn and the construction of a “Triumphal Arch.”

ABC News’ Ayesha Ali contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump announced conservative policymaker and former Fed governor Kevin Warsh as his pick to be the new Federal Reserve chairman.

In a post on Truth Social early Friday morning, Trump said that he has “known Kevin for a long period of time, and have no doubt that he will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best.”

“He will never let you down,” Trump continued.

Warsh previously served on the Fed’s board of governors from 2006 to 2011. He was a top adviser to then-Fed chairman Ben Bernanke during the 2008 financial crisis, serving as a liaison between the central bank and Wall Street. During that time, he was an inflation “hawk” — skeptical of the Fed’s ultra-low interest rate policy. But in more recent interviews, Warsh has heaped praise on Trump and called for “regime change” at the Fed, while also supporting lower interest rates.

On Thursday, Trump said that he had “chosen a very good person” while walking the carpet at the Kennedy Center ahead of the premiere of the documentary about first lady Melania Trump. 

Trump said his pick to replace current Chairman Jerome Powell is an “outstanding person and a person that won’t be too surprising to people.”

 “A lot of people think that this is somebody that could have been there a few years ago,” Trump went on. “It’s going to be somebody that is very respected, somebody that’s known to everybody in the financial world. And I think it’s going to be a very good choice.”

Trump has repeatedly attacked Powell over the past year for his cautious approach to lowering interest rates. 

Powell’s term as chairman expires in May. 

Earlier this month, in an extraordinary escalation of the months-long attack on the independence of the Federal Reserve, Powell announced that federal prosecutors had launched a criminal investigation related to a multi-year renovation of the Fed’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. 

Earlier this week, at its first meeting since news of the investigation surfaced, the Federal Reserve voted to hold interest rates steady. 

Trump said that the Fed governors who voted earlier this week to pause interest rates will change their minds once there is a new chair. 

“If they respect the Fed chairman, they’ll be with us all the way,” Trump said. “They want to see the country be great.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump announced conservative economist and former Fed governor Kevin Warsh as his pick to be the new Federal Reserve chairman.

In a post on Truth Social early Friday morning, Trump said that he has “known Kevin for a long period of time, and have no doubt that he will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best.”

“He will never let you down,” Trump continued.

Warsh previously served on the Fed’s board of governors from 2006 to 2011. He was a top adviser to then-Fed chairman Ben Bernanke during the 2008 financial crisis, serving as a liaison between the central bank and Wall Street. During that time, he was an inflation “hawk” — skeptical of the Fed’s ultra-low interest rate policy. But in more recent interviews, Warsh has heaped praise on Trump and called for “regime change” at the Fed.

On Thursday, Trump said that he had “chosen a very good person” while walking the carpet at the Kennedy Center ahead of the premiere of the documentary about first lady Melania Trump. 

Trump said his pick to replace current Chairman Jerome Powell is an “outstanding person and a person that won’t be too surprising to people.”

“A lot of people think that this is somebody that could have been there a few years ago,” Trump went on. “It’s going to be somebody that is very respected, somebody that’s known to everybody in the financial world. And I think it’s going to be a very good choice.”

Trump has repeatedly attacked Powell over the past year for his cautious approach to lowering interest rates. 

Powell’s term as chairman expires in May. 

Earlier this month, in an extraordinary escalation of the months-long attack on the independence of the Federal Reserve, Powell announced that federal prosecutors had launched a criminal investigation related to a multi-year renovation of the Fed’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. 

Earlier this week, at its first meeting since news of the investigation surfaced, the Federal Reserve voted to hold interest rates steady. 

Trump said that the Fed governors who voted earlier this week to pause interest rates will change their minds once there is a new chair. 

“If they respect the Fed chairman, they’ll be with us all the way,” Trump said. “They want to see the country be great.”

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(WASHINGTON) — The Senate, now facing an impasse in negotiations, did not cast votes on a government funding deal on Thursday, sending the government ever closer to a partial shutdown with a little more than 24 hours until funding runs out.

Senate Democrats announced earlier Thursday they had struck an agreement with the White House to move forward with a plan that would see the Department of Homeland Security funding bill separated from a package of five other bills. Programs funded by the five-bill package would be funded until the end of September. DHS would be funded for two additional weeks to allow lawmakers to negotiate on other provisions in the package. 

The Senate must get unanimous agreement to move forward with this plan if it wants to hold votes before Friday night’s deadline. As it stood Thursday night, there seemed to be objections by senators on both sides of the aisle gumming up the works. 

“Tomorrow’s another day, and hopefully people will be in a spirit to try and get this done tomorrow,” Majority Leader John Thune said as he was leaving the Capitol late Thursday.

If Senators can’t win over the objectors by Friday, they’ll force the government into a partial shutdown. The Senate will reconvene at 11 a.m. Friday to see if they can reach an agreement. Any agreement they do reach would still need to be approved by the House, so at least a brief partial shutdown is, at this stage, highly likely. 

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is the Senate’s most vocal objector to the deal. He stormed into Republican Leader John Thune’s office earlier tonight calling the agreement stuck between Democrats and the White House a “bad deal” and telling reporters he was objecting to its advancement.

Graham called the treatment of ICE officers “unconscionable” as he was asked about his objections to proceeding.

“From a Republican point of view, the cops need us right now. They are being demonized. They’re being spat upon. They can’t sleep at night,” Graham said. “Are they right to want to change some ICE procedures? Absolutely. But I’m not going to lead this debate for two weeks before I can explain to the American people what I think the problem is. The problem is, structurally, for four years, the country was ruined.” 

Graham also seems to be opposed to the deal because it would strip a controversial provision, passed in a stopgap funding bill earlier this year, that allows senators to file lawsuits if their phone records are accessed without notice. Graham was one of seven Republican senators whose phone toll data were accessed by Special Counsel Jack Smith during his investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. 

“I am not going to ignore what happened,” Graham said. “If you were abused, your phone records were illegally seized, you should have your day in court.

It seems there may be other senators who have separate challenges with the funding bill plan as well, but it’s not yet clear who those senators are. 

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer placed blame on Republicans for the stall in votes tonight.

“Republicans need to get their act together,” he said as he left the Capitol. 

But when pushed on whether any Democrats had outstanding objections to the bill that might stall things, Schumer didn’t give a clear answer.

Thune said there remains “snags on both sides” stopping the bill from advancing but wouldn’t give details about Democratic objections.

“They’ve got a couple issues on their side they’ve got to clear them up, we’ve got some things we’ve got to work on. But hopefully by sometime tomorrow we’ll be in a better spot,” Thune said. 

It is likely that even if the Senate passes the bills, there will still be a short partial shutdown — the bills would need to go back to the House for consideration. It seems unlikely the House, which is in recess until Monday, could pass any of these bills before Friday night’s funding deadline.

Earlier Thursday, House Speaker Mike Johnson told ABC News’ Selina Wang that bringing the House back before Monday “may not be possible.”

“So, we have got some logistical challenges, but we’ll do it as quickly as we can and get everybody back,” Johnson said at the premiere of the “Melania” film. “And if there is a short-term shutdown, I think we’ll get it reopened quickly.”

Asked earlier Thursday if he was on board with the deal struck by Democrats in the Senate, Johnson said he had not yet seen details of the bill. But when asked if he supports Democrats’ demands to reign in federal agents — including prohibiting face masks and requiring body cameras — Johnson said “No.”

Democrats called to separate the DHS funding following the deaths of Renee Good, a mother of three who was fatally shot by an immigration enforcement officer in Minneapolis earlier this month, and became more urgent after the death of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, who was killed in a shooting involving federal law enforcement over the weekend.

After Democratic urging, a critical mass of Republicans seemed prepared Thursday afternoon to support an agreement.

Earlier Thursday, Senate Democrats voted unanimously to block the package of six funding bills, with it failing to advance by a vote of 45-55. It would have needed at least 60 votes to proceed. Multiple Republicans also cast votes against the package.

Coming into the negotiations, Senate Democrats laid out a list of additional demands including: ending roving patrols, ensuring federal agents are held to the same use of force policies that apply to state and local law enforcement, preventing agents from wearing masks and requiring body cameras.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump struck an optimistic tone about averting a shutdown.

“Hopefully we won’t have a shutdown and we’re working on that right now. I think we’re getting close,” Trump said during his Cabinet meeting. “The Democrats, I don’t believe want to see it either, so we’ll work in a very bipartisan way.”

ABC News’ Selina Wang contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump’s use of federalized National Guard troops in U.S. cities is projected to have cost roughly $496 million last year, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

If current troop levels are maintained, the deployments could cost as much as $1.1 billion this year, according to CBO estimates.

Monthly costs vary widely by location and troop levels, according to the estimate for 2026, ranging from about $6 million for roughly 350 Guard members in New Orleans, to $28 million for 1,500 troops in Memphis, and $55 million for nearly 2,950 personnel in Washington, D.C., though the precise number of troops fluctuates. Some 200 Guardsmen mobilized in Texas are estimated to cost about $4 million a month.

Sen. Jeff Merkley, the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, requested the analysis in October.

“The American people deserve to know how many hundreds of millions of their hard-earned dollars have been and are being wasted on Trump’s reckless and haphazard deployment of National Guard troops to Portland and cities across the country,” Merkley said in a statement.

Last year, the largest share stemmed from operations in Washington, D.C., at about $223 million, followed by deployments to Los Angeles at $193 million, which included active-duty Marines, and smaller missions in Memphis ($33 million), Portland, Oregon ($26 million), and Chicago ($21 million), according to the CBO.

The estimates include troop pay, hotel lodging and meals. They do not account for longer-term costs, such as education benefits, disability compensation that service members may accrue during the missions, and the use of equipment and military vehicles.

The estimates are further complicated by uncertainty over both the duration and scale of the deployments, according to the CBO report.

“The costs of those or other deployments in the future are highly uncertain, mainly because the scale, length, and location of such deployments are difficult to predict accurately,” the report said. “That uncertainty is compounded by legal challenges, which have stopped deployments to some cities, and by changes in the Administration’s policies.”

Last summer, Trump deployed federalized troops into several Democratic cities. They were later pulled from cities including Los Angeles and Chicago after the Supreme Court ruled the president lacked sufficient legal justification for the deployments.

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(WASHINGTON) — Senate Democrats on Thursday voted unanimously to block a package of six funding bills that would fund large portions of the government through the end of September — meaning a partial government shutdown could still happen in the coming days.

The bill failed to advance by a vote of 45-55. It would have needed at least 60 votes to proceed. Multiple Republicans also cast votes against the package.

The vote came amid news that talks are ongoing between Democrats and the White House over funding for the Department of Homeland Security ahead of the partial government shutdown that would begin at midnight Friday.

Those talks are intensifying in the final hours between the White House and Senate Democrats to reach an agreement over how to advance a package of bills necessary to fund the government — including Democrats’ request to separate the bill that funds DHS.

Democrats want DHS removed from a package that includes five other government funding bills so that changes to the DHS bill aimed at reining in Immigration and Customs Enforcement can be made without affecting the other agencies that still need to be funded.

There were Democratic calls to separate the DHS funding following the deaths of Renee Good, a mother of three who was fatally shot by an immigration enforcement officer in Minneapolis earlier this month, and became more urgent after the death of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, who was killed in a shooting involving federal agents over the weekend.

If a deal is locked, Democrats would eventually need to vote yes on advancing this six-bill package. It is the first procedural step in allowing them to vote to modify it. 

Although Democrats blocked this bill from moving forward, that doesn’t necessarily mean negotiations have fallen apart.

Majority Leader John Thune retained the right to call up this same vote later Thursday or Friday if he thinks a deal is locked in.

Negotiations are centered around that request from Democrats, sources told ABC News. This would allow the military and critical programs like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Head Start — a federal program run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that provides early childhood education, health, nutrition and family support services to low-income children and families — to be funded through September.

A deal would temporarily extend funding for DHS through a short-term bill, which would give Democrats and the White House more time to discuss any possible policy changes.

Coming into the negotiations, Senate Democrats laid out a list of demands including: ending roving patrols, ensuring federal agents are held to the same use of force policies that apply to state and local law enforcement, preventing agents from wearing masks and requiring body cameras.

Republicans need the support of at least seven Democrats in the Senate to avert a partial shutdown.

The White House has not yet commented on the ongoing negotiations.

While sources indicate Democratic leadership is optimistic that things are headed in their direction, that same level of optimism has not been shared from the White House, sources told ABC News.

It is likely that even if a deal is reached, there will still be a short partial shutdown. Any changes to the government funding bill passed in the Senate would have to go back to the House, which is currently in recess until Monday.

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