House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) charged that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) allowed the government to shutdown Wednesday for "his own selfish reasons."

"Democrats have officially voted to CLOSE the government," Johnson wrote on X, in a message posted at the stroke of midnight, when federal funding officially lapsed.

"Results: Moms and kids now lose WIC nutrition. Veterans lose health care and suicide prevention programs. FEMA has shortfalls during hurricane season. Soldiers and TSA agents go UNPAID," the House speaker added. "The only question now: How long will Chuck Schumer let this pain go on — for his own selfish reasons?"

In a joint statement, Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) blamed President Trump and Republicans for the shutdown.

"After months of making life harder and more expensive, Donald Trump and Republicans have now shut down the federal government because they do not want to protect the healthcare of the American people," the Democratic leaders wrote.

"Democrats remain ready to find a bipartisan path forward to reopen the government in a way that lowers costs and addresses the Republican healthcare crisis. But we need a credible partner," they added.

"Over the last few days, President Trump's behavior has become more erratic and unhinged," Schumer and Jeffries continued. "Instead of negotiating a bipartisan agreement in good faith, he is obsessively posting crazed deepfake videos."

"The country is in desperate need of an intervention to get out of another Trump shutdown."

The federal government partially shut down at midnight Wednesday, hours after all but three Senate Democrats voted down a short-term funding bill. 

A House-passed bill to keep the government open with funding at current levels until Nov. 21 failed to clear the 60-vote legislative filibuster by five votes — with three Democrats voting in favor.

The Senate adjourned until Wednesday morning, when the chamber is expected to take up the measure once again.

The shutdown is the first since December 2018, which saw non-essential government operations cease and tens of thousands of federal employees furloughed or forced to work without pay for 35 days until lawmakers agreed on a stopgap funding measure. 

New Zealand’s strict anti-gun laws forced authorities to destroy inoperable, 3D-printed firearms that formed a display gifted to Kiwi officials by FBI Director Kash Patel.

The replica pistols were presented to New Zealand’s police commissioner and two senior intelligence officials during a July 31 meeting in Wellington, where Patel took part in a ceremony to mark the opening of the FBI’s first standalone office in the South Pacific island nation.

“To ensure compliance with firearms laws, I instructed Police to retain and destroy them,” New Zealand’s Police Commissioner Richard Chambers told the Associated Press on Tuesday.

Under New Zealand’s strict firearms laws, possessing a pistol requires an additional permit on top of a gun license. It’s unclear if the officials that met with Patel held such permits.

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WASHINGTON — President Trump said Tuesday that Harvard University has reached a tentative deal with his administration to restore $2.4 billion in frozen federal grants.

America’s oldest college will spend about $500 million to launch and operate trade schools, ending a clash over issues including discrimination against Jewish students and the use of race-based affirmative action, Trump said. 

“This would be a giant trade school, or series of trade schools. It would be run by Harvard,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office.

“Now, this is something that we’re close to finalizing. We haven’t done it yet, but they’d put up $500 million. Interest and everything else will go to that account, meaning, go to the trade school. And you know, it’s a big investment in trade schools done by very smart people, and then their sins are forgiven.”

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President Trump said a partial government shutdown is "probably likely" at midnight, but that "nothing is inevitable."

"Nothing is inevitable, but I would say it's probably likely, because [Senate Democrats] want to give health care to illegal immigrants," Trump said in response to a reporter's question in the Oval Office.

A different reporter asked Trump to respond to the contention that illegal immigrants do not qualify for the health insurance subsidies that Democrats are seeking to extend.

"They're all breaking the law, and they're coming into our country, and we, just as a country, cannot afford to take care of millions of people who have broken the law coming in," the president replied.

President Trump claimed that his just-announced deal with Pfizer to lower drug costs for Medicare to a "most favored nations" rate — while using a new "TrumpRx" website to directly sell discounted drugs to non-senior citizens — could influence government shutdown talks ahead of a possible funding lapse at midnight.

"This has a big, a big impact, even on the discussion that we'll have with [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer, who was here yesterday," Trump said when announcing the deal with Pfizer in the Oval Office, roughly 12 hours before the deadline for a deal with congressional Democrats.

"We're going to see what happens. But this has a huge impact on that."

Senate Democrats are blocking a House-passed government spending bill primarily over demands for a continuation of pandemic-era health insurance subsidies for an estimated 22 million people.

Trump said of his Monday meeting with Schumer: "I asked the Democrat representatives, 'What do you think about coming up with a better health care?' This actually allows you to do that because the, you know, the cost of prescription medicine is a big, I guess, a very big, more than 50% the cost of what we're talking about. So we might be able to do something like that."

President Trump said just now from the Oval Office that Americans will see price drops "of over 1,000%" for some medications because of the newly announced "TrumpRx" drug pricing deal with Pfizer.

Asked by a reporter when those lower costs are expected to kick in, the president promised they'll take effect "immediately."

WASHINGTON -- Food and Drug Administration chief Dr. Marty Makary told reporters in the Oval Office that President Trump's announcement of a drug pricing deal with Pfizer "marks the beginning of the end of the great American rip-off."

"The growth of drug spending, that is the increase in drug pricing, is the fastest and biggest-increasing area of health care spending. So today's announcement has incredible implications for health care spending in the United States," he said.

"It also marks the beginning of the end of a great American tragedy, something I've seen as a physician at the bedside, patients getting spun up into a financial rage [and] doing GoFundMe campaigns online."

In the Oval Office, President Trump announced that Pfizer has committed to investing $70 billion to shift drug manufacturing to the US from overseas, as well as fund research and development.

"We're working with other major pharmaceutical companies to secure similar agreements," Trump added.

WASHINGTON -- In the Oval Office, President Trump announces a drug price deal with Pfizer and the launch of the TrumpRx site for direct medication sales to Americans at reduced prices.

HHS Secretary RFK Jr. says the president "harangued and harassed" us to get the program up and running.

"At one point, [Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator] Dr. Oz told me, 'I can't take the president's calls anymore.'"

WASHINGTON — Upstate GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik has vowed to forgo a paycheck as the federal government careens toward a shutdown after 11:59:59 p.m. Tuesday.

"Until Democrats end their hypocritical and damaging shutdown hurting American families and workers, I have directed that my pay be withheld and have cosponsored legislation to ensure our servicemembers and law enforcement receive their pay," Stefanik posted on X Tuesday morning.

"Democrats own this shutdown lock, stock, and barrel."

President Trump is set to make an announcement about a new "Trump Rx" website, live from the Oval Office with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Dr. Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and others.

Watch live: