Trump says he’s ‘very confident’ a ceasefire deal can be reached as Netanyahu arrives at White House
Benjamin Netanyahu just arrived at the White House, where he was greeted by Donald Trump.
The two leaders shook hands and briefly exchanged a few words, and Trump answered a question shouted from a reporter before heading inside.
Asked if he was confident a ceasefire deal could be reached, the president said: “I am. I’m very confident.”
Netanyahu stood by smiling and didn’t respond when asked if he was on board.
Donald Trump welcomes Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
The two leaders give a thumbs-up before heading into a high-stakes meeting over the future of Gaza. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
Key events
House speaker Mike Johnson has “implored his Republican members on a private call this morning to stay unified in their position as the government barrels towards a shutdown and said he does not plan to bring the House back this week”, two sources on the call have told CNN.
The sources added that Johnson called on GOP lawmakers not to hold political events this week even though many will remain in their districts with the House not in session. He suggested he would bring the House back next week.
The orders from Johnson to the House GOP conference comes just hours before the top four congressional leaders will meet with Donald Trump at the White House in a last-ditch effort to avoid a shutdown before the government runs out of funding tomorrow night.
Johnson indicated that congressional GOP leaders are planning to hold a joint news conference on Wednesday – the first day of a would-be shutdown, the sources added.
UAE presses Netanyahu to accept Trump’s Gaza peace proposal and abandon plans to annex West Bank
The UAE is pressing Benjamin Netanyahu to accept Donald Trump’s Gaza peace proposal at their meeting today and to abandon any plan to annex the West Bank, a delegate with knowledge of the matter has told Reuters.
The United Arab Emirates, the most prominent Arab country to normalise ties with Israel under the Abraham Accords during the first Trump administration, warned Netanyahu that annexation would shut the door to further Israeli normalisation with leading Arab and Muslim nations, including Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, the delegate added.
The Israeli PM faces pressure to annex the occupied West Bank from far-right Israeli politicians who want to extend sovereignty over the area and snuff out hopes for a two-state solution.
We are waiting for Netanyahu to give Israel’s response to Trump’s Gaza peace proposal at his meeting with the US president today.
The UAE position on Trump’s plan was communicated to Netanyahu by its foreign minister sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed in a meeting with the Israeli leader on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York on Friday, the delegate told Reuters. He called on Netanyahu to engage seriously with the Trump administration to move the plan forward to implementation, the delegate said.
The uncertainty surrounding the meeting casts it as “one of the most critical” in the yearslong relationship between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, professor Eytan Gilboa, an expert on US-Israeli relations at Bar-Ilan and Reichman universities, has told the Associated Press.
“Netanyahu might have to choose between Trump and his coalition members,” a number of whom want the war to continue, Gilboa said. A move by Netanyahu to end the war would leave him on shaky political ground at home a year before elections.
Oded Ailam, a researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, agreed Trump is likely to demand a permanent ceasefire, leaving Netanyahu with few options.
Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed to continue the offensive until Hamas is destroyed, including only days ago in his defiant UN speech in which he declared he would “finish the job” in Gaza as scores of delegates walked out.
If Trump puts the pressure on, the Israeli leader would probably seek to include “red lines” in any deal, Ailam told AP. Netanyahu, he said, might demand that Hamas be dismantled. Netanyahu might also set a condition that if the militant group resumes fighting or returns to power, the Israeli military would have the right to operate freely in Gaza, he said.
In the upcoming discussions, Donald Trump will try to close the gap with an isolated Benjamin Netanyahu who Trump believes is losing his grip on power, two senior administration officials have told Politico.
“Bibi is on his own island. Not just from us, from his own government,” said one of the officials.
One of the officials also told the outlet that Trump’s emphatic articulation of his position on West Bank annexation was about “being very firm in public while leaving some room for negotiations in private”.
The president’s growing frustration with Netanyahu – particularly after Israel’s strikes on Doha earlier this month, which deeply angered Trump and forced him to apologize to a key ally – aside, “he is going to try to get him to agree to some terms that then they could take back to [Hamas] and finally get something done”.
But, the official added, “it could also go off the rails”. Stay tuned.
Trump says he’s ‘very confident’ a ceasefire deal can be reached as Netanyahu arrives at White House
Benjamin Netanyahu just arrived at the White House, where he was greeted by Donald Trump.
The two leaders shook hands and briefly exchanged a few words, and Trump answered a question shouted from a reporter before heading inside.
Asked if he was confident a ceasefire deal could be reached, the president said: “I am. I’m very confident.”
Netanyahu stood by smiling and didn’t respond when asked if he was on board.
Donald Trump welcomes Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/ReutersThe two leaders give a thumbs-up before heading into a high-stakes meeting over the future of Gaza. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
Trump and Netanyahu to discuss postwar plans for Gaza at White House
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due to arrive at the White House any minute now for pivotal talks on the latest US-backed plans for postwar Gaza with Donald Trump.
The Trump administration’s 21-point peace plan has reportedly been largely well received by leaders from Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan and Indonesia. But it contains a number of “red lines” for Netanyahu’s far-right allies, who are propping up his government and pressuring him to take a hard line.
Though the Israeli prime minister signalled openness to the plan over the weekend, he has been long criticised for repeatedly prioritising his hardline allies over reaching a realistic cease-fire deal with Hamas to free the remaining hostages and end Israel’s assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 66,000 Palestinian people and left the territory all but uninhabitable. Netanyahu would no doubt dispute that charge over his priorities, but with Israel more isolated than ever on the world stage, we shall see how willing he is to finally reach an agreement shortly.
As a potential government shutdown looms and Trump is set to meet with the top four congressional leaders today, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said this morning: “We want the government to stay open. The president is giving Democrats one last chance to be reasonable today.”
Democrats are seeking concessions on healthcare in order to support a short-term spending bill. Leavitt said there was room for negotiations and that “important policy discussions that can be had” beyond the shutdown battle.
But, she added, “we are nearing a government shutdown.”
Trump also said details would be forthcoming on tariffs for furniture imports, after announcing levies of up to 50% last week.
“I will be imposing substantial Tariffs on any Country that does not make its furniture in the United States. Details to follow,” he said in a Truth Social post, noting lost business in North Carolina.
Trump already announced a 50% tariff on imported kitchen cabinets and vanities, along with a 30% levy on upholstered furniture, which are set to take effect on 1 October.
Reuters notes that the import duties will make it more challenging for companies to hold down prices, while executives in the industry have raised concerns over the lack of manufacturing capacity in the US, as the country relies heavily on imports from China, Mexico and Vietnam.
Chief executives at Williams-Sonoma and RH, formerly known as Restoration Hardware, have both raised concerns about higher tariffs in recent earnings calls.
Prices for everything from clothes to TVs have gone up in recent months as manufacturers and retailers struggle with the ever-changing tariff environment while also trying to offset rising commodity and supply-chain costs.
Trump says US to impose 100% tariff on movies made outside the country
The United States will impose a 100% tariff on all foreign-made movies, Donald Trump has said in a post on Truth Social this morning, an unprecedented move that threatens to upend Hollywood’s global business model.
The step signals Trump’s willingness to extend protectionist trade policies into cultural industries, raising uncertainty for studios that depend heavily on international box-office revenue and cross-border co-productions.
“Our movie making business has been stolen from the United States of America, by other Countries, just like stealing ‘candy from a baby’,” he wrote.
It was not immediately clear what legal authority Trump would use to impose a 100% tariff on foreign-made films. White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on how the tariffs would be implemented. Warner Bros Discovery, Comcast, Paramount Skydance and Netflix also did not immediately respond to requests.
Shares of Netflix were down 1.5% in early trading.
The president had threatened to impose such levies earlier in May but offered very few details, leadingtoconfusion among entertainment industry executives about whether it would apply to specific countries or all imports.
Studio executives told Reuters earlier this year that they were “flummoxed” by how a movie tariff might be enforced, given that modern films often use production, financing, post-production and visual effects spread across multiple countries.
The move has drawn skepticism from legal and trade analysts. Some argue films are a form of intellectual property and part of the global trade in services, an area where the US often runs a surplus, raising questions about the legal basis for tariffs.
Co-productions with foreign studios have also become more common, adding to doubts about how such films would be classified.
White House says ‘very close’ to deal on Gaza ahead of Trump-Netanyahu meeting
As I was writing that, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has told Fox and Friends that Israel and Hamas are “very close” to reaching an agreement on a framework deal to end the war in Gaza and ensure lasting peace in the Middle East.
Leavitt said Donald Trump would discuss the 21-point peace plan with Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House later today. The US president will also speak today with leaders in Qatar, who have served as intermediaries with Hamas, she said.
“To reach a reasonable deal for both sides, both sides have to give up a little bit and might leave the table a little bit unhappy, but that is ultimately how we are going to end this conflict,” she said.
Donald Trump is due to host Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House (his fourth visit since January) at 11am ET this morning, with a bilateral discussion and lunch to follow, culminating in a must-watch press conference at 1.15pm ET.
Trump claimed again on Sunday to be on the brink of a breakthrough in negotiations for a ceasefire in the devastated Gaza Strip, even as Israel presses on with its offensive.
The US president has floated a 21-point proposal for an immediate and permanent ceasefire that includes the release of all hostages within 48 hours, the disarmament of Hamas, freedom for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, an immediate end to military operations in Gaza and a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces, no Israeli annexation of the West Bank, and an international trusteeship for Gaza, with an Arab and Muslim international security force.
“I hope … we can make it a go,” Netanyahu told Fox News yesterday, though he reiterated that any role for the Palestinian Authority in Gaza was still a “red line” for him (one of the points in Trump’s plan includes some involvement of the PA in Gaza’s new governing mechanism). ABC News also reported that on Sunday afternoon, Netanyahu met again with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and signaled an openness to the proposal.
But at the end of the day, the terms of the White House’s plan are politically problematic for Netanyahu, whose far-right allies – who are propping his government – oppose any negotiation with Hamas and are pushing for the permanent occupation of Gaza. We’ll bring you all the latest from the high-stakes meetings as the morning progresses.
As we’ve been reporting, Donald Trump has reversed course and will host a bipartisan gathering of the top four US congressional leaders at the White House this afternoon in a last-ditch effort to avoid a looming government shutdown.
Government funding will lapse and a shutdown will begin at the end of the day tomorrow, on 1 October, with the White House telling agencies to prepare to furlough or fire scores of workers, unless a temporary spending fix can be agreed upon.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries are expected to press for an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies that expire at the end of this year. Trump, House speaker Mike Johnson and Senate majority leader John Thune are expected to dig their heels in, even as open enrollment is due to begin on 1 November.
“If we don’t extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, more than 20 million Americans are going to experience dramatically increased premiums, copays, deductibles, in an environment where the cost of living in America is already too high,” Jeffries told CNN yesterday.
“We’ve made clear that we’re ready, willing and able to sit down with anyone, at any time and at any place, in order to make sure that we can actually fund the government, avoid a painful Republican caused shutdown, and address the healthcare crisis that Republicans have caused that’s [affecting] everyday Americans.”
Also yesterday, Thune told NBC News that “fundamentally, nothing has changed, though, and the choice remains the same” as the one facing lawmakers on the brink of the last looming shutdown. He accused Democrats of “hijacking” the process for ideological reasons and taking the federal government “hostage”. He said he was open to discussing an extension of the Obamacare subsidies, but not as part of this government funding bill, and only if there are new limitations placed on who can access those tax credits.
Republicans have warned that “Trump will make a shutdown politically painful, given his latitude over what agencies and programs stay open,” Politico notes. “I’d be much more worried if I was a blue state,” Republican senator Roger Marshall said. A source close to Trump has also told CBS News that “the president privately welcomes the prospect of a shutdown because it will enable him to wield executive power to slash some government programs and salaries”.
Three Trump officials told Politico that the administration hasn’t yet finalized closure plans for agencies. One ominously told the outlet: “I think it all hinges on [Monday’s] meeting.” We’ll bring you all the latest out of the meeting later today as we get it.
Earlier we brought you the news that the state of Oregon filed a lawsuit in federal court on Sunday seeking to block the deployment of 200 national guard troops to Portland.
Speaking to Politico last night, the state’s attorney general, Dan Rayfield, said: “I think part of what we’re seeing in America right now is a normalization about using the US military in ways that we just haven’t used them before – in ways that we believe to be unlawful. This, for us, truly is something [on which] you can’t stay quiet.”
He argued that the conditions on the ground do not merit the deployment of military force. “This is not an invasion,” he said. “This is not a rebellion, and there are no facts at all that indicate that there’s an inability to execute the laws of the United States.”
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Politico: “President Trump is using his lawful authority to direct the National Guard to protect federal assets and personnel in Portland following months of violent riots where officers have been assaulted and doxxed by left-wing rioters. The president’s lawful actions will make Portland safer.”
Here’s my colleague Robert Mackey’s story from last night:
