President Donald Trump gestures during a lunch with Argentina’s President Javier Milei in the Cabinet Room of the White House on October 14, 2025. Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

The Trump White House is treating spending laws more like suggestions as it tries to mute the effects of the government shutdown and attack programs it considers to be Democratic priorities as it digs in for a long shutdown.

Moving money. Money earmarked by Congress for research at the Pentagon will instead be used to pay troops.

The Coast Guard, according to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, will be paid with money borrowed from the tax and spending legislation Republicans passed into law. She did not elaborate on exactly how the cash would be rerouted.

Reinterpreting a law Trump signed. Furloughed

See Full Page