WASHINGTON — The White House still employs 45 staffers for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency despite the Tesla Inc. CEO’s departure in May — and they’re exempt from being furloughed during the government shutdown.
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The arrangement was revealed in a memo released Thursday from the White House Office of Administration detailing the staffing plan while funding from Congress remains in limbo.
The White House shutdown plan also highlights a pattern of shifting definitions of essential and non-essential workers under President Donald Trump, who has furloughed 514 fewer White House staffers than he did during the last government shutdown under his watch in 2018.
Under the earlier plan, which former President Joe Biden also adopted but never had to implement, about 61% of staff in the Executive Office of the President were temporarily laid off. The current plan furloughs only 32% of the staff.
Despite keeping more of the White House staff on-the-job during the shutdown, Trump has said he is looking to lay off federal workers, instead of just furloughing them. The White House has said the cuts could number in the “thousands.”
Among the offices fully open despite the shutdown is DOGE, the government cost-cutting operation once led by Musk before he and Trump had a falling out over the president’s support of a deficit-expanding tax cut bill.
After Musk’s departure in May, the White House said DOGE had been decentralized, and that its teams throughout the government would report to their presidentially appointed agency heads. But the shutdown plan reveals that 45 DOGE staffers still work in the US DOGE Service, a component within the Executive Office of the President.
The memo from Joshua Fisher, the director of the White House Office of Administration, did not explain why the DOGE staffers were exempt from furloughs. But DOGE’s predecessor office, the US Digital Service, was able to function through previous shutdowns because it had a separate source of funding from fees it charged other government agencies for its work.
Other parts of the White House are also seeing fewer furloughs this time. The Office of Management and Budget keeps 437 employees on duty, compared with 161 under the 2018 plan. The tax cut law — dubbed the One Big Beautiful Bill — provided $100 million in long-term funding for the budget office.
The White House Office itself — the president’s immediate staff — holds on to 175 aides, slightly more than the 156 in the last shutdown. And Trump has almost doubled the number of retained workers in the executive residence to 40.
At the same time, Trump officials have signaled they will use the lapse in funding to pare back or shutter programs they oppose — especially in states that voted for his opponent last year. And the White House has threatened to permanently fire thousands of federal employees in the coming days, citing the lack of congressional funding.
The White House press office did not respond to a request for comment on the shutdown plan, but instead sent an automated out-of-office reply echoing the administration’s political talking points.
“Due to staff shortages resulting from the Democrat Shutdown, the typical 24/7 monitoring of this press inbox may experience delays,” the message said. “Thank you for your attention to this matter.”
McALLEN, Texas — The Trump administration said Friday that it would pay migrant children $2,500 to voluntarily return to their home countries, dangling a new incentive in efforts to persuade people to self-deport.
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement didn’t say how much migrants would get or when the offer would take effect, but The Associated Press obtained an email to migrant shelters saying children 14 years of age and older would get $2,500 each. Children were given 24 hours to respond.
The notice to shelters from the U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s Administration for Families and Children did not indicate any consequences for children who decline the offer. It asked shelter directors to acknowledge the offer within four hours.
ICE said in a statement that the offer would initially be for 17-year-olds.
“Any payment to support a return home would be provided after an immigration judge grants the request and the individual arrives in their country of origin,” ICE said. “Access to financial support when returning home would assist should they choose that option.”
ICE, the Department of Homeland Security and the Health and Human Services Department did not immediately respond to questions about the amount of the payment and age eligibility.
ICE dismissed widespread reports among immigration lawyers and advocates that it was launching a much broader crackdown Friday to deport migrant children who entered the country without their parents, called “Freaky Friday.”
The administration has also offered $1,000 to adults who voluntarily leave the country. Advocates said $2,500 may prevent children from making informed decisions.
“For a child, $2,500 might be the most money they’ve ever seen in their life, and that may make it very, very difficult for them to accurately weigh the long-term risks of taking voluntary departure versus trying to stay in the United States and going through the immigration court process to get relief that they may be legally entitled to,” said Melissa Adamson, senior attorney at the National Center for Youth Law.
Murad Awawdeh, president of the New York Immigration Coalition, echoed concerns about the offer, saying it “pressures children to abandon their legal claims and return to a life of fear and danger without ever receiving a fair hearing.”
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U.S. border authorities have arrested children crossing the border without parents more than 400,000 times since October 2021. A 2008 law requires them to appear before an immigration judge before being returned to their countries.
Children have been spending more time in government-run shelters since the Trump administration put them under closer scrutiny before releasing them to family in the United States to pursue their immigration cases.
The additional scrutiny includes fingerprinting, DNA testing and home visits by immigration officers. Over the summer, immigration officers started showing up and arresting parents.
The average length of stay at government-run shelters for those released in the U.S. was 171 days in July, down from a peak of 217 days in April but well above 37 days in January, when Trump took office.
PORTLAND, Ore. — Five years after protests roiled Portland, Oregon, the city known for its history of civil disobedience is again at the center of a political maelstrom as it braces for the arrival of federal troops being deployed by President Donald Trump.
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Months of demonstrations outside Portland’s immigration detention facility have escalated after conservative influencer Nick Sortor was arrested late Thursday on a disorderly conduct charge by Portland Police.
On Friday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the agency would send additional federal agents and the Justice Department was launching a civil rights investigation into the circumstances surrounding Sortor’s arrest, and whether Portland Police engage in viewpoint discrimination.
Meanwhile, a federal judge heard arguments Friday — but did not immediately rule — on whether to temporarily block Trump’s call-up of 200 Oregon National Guard members to protect the ICE facility and other federal buildings.
The escalation of federal law enforcement in Portland, population 636,000 and Oregon’s largest city, follows similar crackdowns to combat crime in other cities, including Chicago, Baltimore and Memphis. He deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles over the summer and as part of his law enforcement takeover in Washington, D.C.
A conservative influencer arrested in Portland
Sortor, 27, who’s a regular guest on Fox News and whose X profile has more than 1 million followers, was arrested Thursday night with two other people outside the city’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement building. He is set to be arraigned on Monday.
What exactly led up to the arrests was not immediately clear. Portland police said in a news release that officers observed two men fighting and one of the men was knocked to the ground. Neither of the men wanted to file a police report. Police moved in about three hours later, as fights continued to break out, and arrested Sorter and two others.
All three were charged with second-degree disorderly conduct. Sorter was released Friday on his own recognizance, according to Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office’s online records. An email seeking comment from Sortor sent Friday went unanswered and no one answered phone numbers listed for him.
In a post on X on Friday morning, Sortor said his arrest proved that Portland Police are corrupt and controlled by “vioIent Antifa thugs who terrorize the streets.”
“You thought arresting me would make me shut up and go away,” he wrote.
Sortor also said that Attorney General Pam Bondi had ordered an investigation into the circumstances of his arrest and of the Portland Police Bureau.
A history of Portland protests led to this moment
Portland famously erupted in more than 100 days of sustained, nightly protests in 2020 during the Black Lives Matter movement. In his first term, Trump sent federal law enforcement to the city to protect the U.S. District Courthouse in the heart of Portland after protests attracted thousands of people following George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police.
The presence of the federal agents further inflamed the situation, with federal officers repeatedly firing rubber bullets and teargassing protestors. Viral videos captured militarized federal officers, often unidentified, arresting people and hustling them into unmarked vehicles.
At the same time, Portland police were unable to keep ahead of splinter groups of black-clad protesters who broke off and roamed the downtown area, at times breaking windows, spraying graffiti and setting small fires in moments that were also captured on video and shared widely on social media.
A report by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general found that while the federal government had legal authority to deploy the officers, many of them lacked the training and equipment needed to carry out the mission.
The tensions reached a peak in September 2020 when a self-identified member of the far-left anti-fascist movement fatally shot 39-year-old Aaron “Jay” Danielson in the chest. Danielson and a friend were seen heading downtown to protect a flag-waving caravan of Trump supporters shortly before the shooting.
The shooter, Michael Forest Reinoehl, was himself later shot and killed when he pulled a gun as a federal task force attempted to apprehend him near Lacey, Washington.
A protestor reacts after getting sprayed by Department of Homeland Security officers outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)
A protester makes bubbles as officials watch from a ledge at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)
Army veteran and Portland City Council member Mitch Green, second from left, stands with protesters outside a federal courthouse on Friday, Oct. 3, 2025, in Portland, Ore., before a federal court hearing on Oregon’s bid to temporarily block President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Portland is held inside. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)
People protest outside a federal courthouse on Friday, Oct. 3, 2025, in Portland, Ore., before a federal court hearing on Oregon’s bid to temporarily block President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Portland is held inside. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)
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A protestor reacts after getting sprayed by Department of Homeland Security officers outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on Thursday, Oct. 2, 2025, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)
There’s been a sustained and low-level protest outside the Portland ICE facility — far from the downtown clashes of 2020 — since Trump took office in January. Those protests flared in June, during the national protests surrounding Trump’s military parade, but have rarely attracted more than a few dozen people in the past two months.
Trump has once more turned his attention to the city, calling Portland “war ravaged,” and a “war zone” that is “burning down” and like “living in hell.” But local officials have suggested that many of his claims and social media posts appear to rely on images from 2020. Under a new mayor, the city has reduced crime, and the downtown has seen a decrease in homeless encampments and increased foot traffic.
Most violent crime around the country has actually declined in recent years, including in Portland, where a recent report from the Major Cities Chiefs Association found that homicides from January through June decreased by 51% this year compared to the same period in 2024.
City leaders have urged restraint and told residents not to “take the bait” this week after the announcement that the National Guard would be sent to Portland.
Oregon seeks to block National Guard deployment by Trump
On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Karin J. Immergut heard arguments on whether to block the deployment of National Guard troops in Portland, where they would defend federal buildings such as the ICE facility from vandalism.
Oregon sued to stop the deployment on Sept. 28 after Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek failed to convince Trump to call off the deployment in a 10-minute phone call on Sept. 27.
Immergut did not immediately issue a ruling Friday after a short hearing and said she would issue an order later that day or over the weekend.
Meanwhile, the National Guard troops — from communities not too far from Portland — were training on the Oregon Coast in anticipation of deployment.
Thursday’s arrest of Sortor, however, likely means more federal law enforcement presence in Portland.
In an X post, which reposted a video from the protest and a photo of Sortor being detained, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said there would be an immediate increase in federal resources to the city with enhanced Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement resources.
“This violence will end under @POTUS Trump,” McLaughlin wrote.
3M Co. is considering selling billions of dollars of assets from its industrials operations as it looks to carve out low-growth businesses, according to people familiar with the matter.
William Brown
The conglomerate has been speaking with Goldman Sachs as it reviews potential divestments, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
3M’s safety and industrials unit, which generated about $11 billion in revenue last year, encompasses businesses such as aftermarket auto products, personal safety equipment and industrial adhesives and tapes, among others.
A final decision to pursue a separation of the assets hasn’t been made and 3M could opt to move forward with its current structure, the people added.
Representatives for Maplewood-based 3M and Goldman Sachs declined to comment.
Shares of 3M closed flat Friday at $158.66, giving the company a market value of about $84 billion. The stock has gained about 18% in the past year.
Since taking the reins last year, 3M Chief Executive Officer William Brown has spoken on earnings calls about looking at asset sales “where appropriate.”
Earlier moves by 3M have included spinning off its health care arm into a new public company called Solventum Corp. last year. Solventum’s shares have since rebounded from a low in July 2024, giving the St. Paul-based company a market value of almost $13 billion.
“3M’s leadership has reset priorities to reinvigorate growth by shifting RD toward product development and improved commercialization,” Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Mustafa Okur and Karen Ubelhart said in a research note this week. “Product pruning is underway, but bigger portfolio changes may be needed.”
Brown has also tried to push 3M back into organic sales growth, with all of its three business groups having grown during the past three quarters. Brown has also had to contend with the Trump Administration’s tariffs, deploying mitigation measures such as shifting production and pricing changes.
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