By JOSH FUNK, AP Business Writer

The Agriculture Department will reopen about 2,100 county offices all across the country Thursday despite the ongoing government shutdown to help farmers and ranchers get access to $3 billion of aid from existing programs.

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The USDA said each Farm Service Agency office will have two workers who will be paid even though the government remains shutdown. These offices help farmers apply for farm loans, crop insurance, disaster aid and other programs. Thousands of other federal employees like air traffic controllers are working without pay during the shutdown.

A USDA spokesperson said this move reflects President Trump’s commitment to helping farmers and ranchers, who are traditionally some of his strongest supporters. Recently, some of them have been unhappy with Trump’s latest moves although his support remains strong across rural America.

Just this week, ranchers were unhappy with Trump’s idea to import more beef from Argentina because that could hurt their profits, and earlier this month soybean farmers complained that a $20 billion aid package for Argentina allowed that country to sell soybeans to China. Farmers are also still waiting on details of an aid package Trump promised to help them survive his trade war with China, but that aid has been put on hold because of the shutdown.

“President Trump will not let the radical left Democrat shutdown impact critical USDA services while harvest is underway across the country,” the USDA spokesman said. A White House official said the administration is using funds from the Commodity Credit Corporation, a USDA agency that addresses agricultural prices.

Republicans like Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven and farm groups like the National Corn Growers Association and Illinois Soybean Association praised the move while Democrats accused the administration of using farmers as political pawns in the shutdown fight. Both parties have been unable to reach an agreement to fund the government and end the shutdown that began Oct. 1.

“With farm country being in the middle of harvest season, producers cannot afford delays in these programs,” Hoeven said. “They are essential to help producers maintain their operations, especially when facing challenging markets.”

Kenneth Hartman Jr., who is chairman of the Corn Growers Association, said this is a crucial time because farmers are getting ready to place orders for next year’s seed and fertilizer right now as well as settling up with the bankers for this year’s operating loans. And farmers are grappling with soaring costs.

“Because of the inflation factor, the farm economy is really in a critical situation here. So anything that the farmers can get when it comes to support from the farm programs from the farm bill of last year, we need to get that open and get that money out to them,” said Hartman, who is in the middle of harvesting his crop near Waterloo, Illinois.

The House Agriculture Committee Democrats said on X that this shows that Trump and Agriculture Secretary Brook Rollins “could have supported farmers all along, but you chose not to because you’d rather use farmers’ pain to score cheap political points while increasing the cost of living for ordinary Americans by making food and health care more expensive.”

Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim contributed to this story from Washington.

By BEN FINLEY and KONSTANTIN TOROPIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Leaders at the Pentagon have significantly altered how military officials will speak with Congress after a pair of new memos issued last week.

In an Oct. 15 memo, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his deputy, Steve Feinberg, ordered Pentagon officials — including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — to obtain permission from the department’s main legislative affairs office before they have any communication with Capitol Hill.

The memo was issued the same day the vast majority of Pentagon reporters exited the building rather than agree to the Defense Department’s new restrictions on their work, and it appears to be part of a broader effort by Hegseth to exert tighter control over what the department communicates to the outside world.

According to the memo, a copy of which was authenticated by a Pentagon official, “unauthorized engagements with Congress by (Pentagon) personnel acting in their official capacity, no matter how well-intentioned, may undermine Department-wide priorities critical to achieving our legislative objectives.”

Sean Parnell, the top Pentagon spokesman, called the move a “pragmatic step” that’s part of an effort “to improve accuracy and responsiveness in communicating with the Congress to facilitate increased transparency.”

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Previously, individual agencies and military branches within the Pentagon were able to manage their own communications with Congress.

A second memo, issued Oct. 17, directed a “working group to further define the guidance on legislative engagements.”

The memos were first reported by the website Breaking Defense.

By MATTHEW LEE, AP Diplomatic Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s administration is preparing for a visit to the United States by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman next month, in what could be the first state visit to the U.S. by a foreign leader in Trump’s second term, according to several people familiar with the planning.

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Work is underway to prepare a package of agreements that Trump and the crown prince could sign or witness during the visit, U.S. officials familiar with the plans for the trip said. The trip is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 17-19, but the timing and status of the visit could change, according to two people familiar with the planning.

Those people and the officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the trip before it has been announced.

The planned visit will be the first to the United States by the crown prince since the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul during Trump’s first term in office in 2018.

U.S. intelligence agencies said Prince Mohammed likely directed the killing, resulting in U.S. sanctions against several Saudi officials. He denies his involvement. But in the years since, both the Trump and Biden administrations have tried to mend ties with Saudi Arabia.

The opening major foreign trip of Trump’s second term was to Saudi Arabia.

The first Trump administration unsuccessfully sought to have Saudi Arabia join the Abraham Accords, the agreements that normalized relations between Israel and Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Sudan.

The Biden administration sought to negotiate a similar deal, but those attempts were derailed by the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks in Israel that sparked the war in Gaza. A tenuous ceasefire in Gaza that Trump negotiated has given the administration new hope for the possibility that Saudi Arabia could be brought into the Abraham Accords.

Details of the agreements to be signed during the planned visit were not immediately clear, but many are expected to be commercial and trade deals under the framework of a Strategic Economic Partnership that Trump signed with the crown prince during the Republican president’s visit to Saudi Arabia in May.

A bilateral security deal, long sought by the Saudis, is also under discussion, according to the officials. Trump signed an executive order last month offering Saudi Arabia’s fellow Gulf state neighbor Qatar security assurances in the wake of Israel’s attack on Hamas leadership in Doha.

The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment, and the Saudi Embassy declined to comment. Bloomberg first reported the expected visit.

Associated Press writers Aamer Madhani and Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

By KIMBERLEE KRUESI and PATRICK WHITTLE, Associated Press

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — His U.S. Senate campaign under fire, Maine Democrat Graham Platner said Wednesday that a tattoo on his chest has been covered to no longer reflect an image widely recognized as a Nazi symbol.

The first-time political candidate said he got the skull and crossbones tattoo in 2007, when he was in his 20s and in the Marine Corps. It happened during a night of drinking while he was on leave in Croatia, he said, adding he was unaware until recently that the image has been associated with Nazi police.

Platner, in an Associated Press interview, said that while his campaign initially said he would remove the tattoo, he chose to cover it up with another tattoo due to the limited options where he lives in rural Maine.

“Going to a tattoo removal place is going to take a while,” he said. “I wanted this thing off my body.”

The initial tattoo image resembled a specific symbol of Hitler’s paramilitary Schutzstaffel, or SS, which was responsible for the systematic murders of millions of Jews and others in Europe during World War II. Platner didn’t offer details about the new tattoo, but offered to send the AP a photo later Wednesday.

The oyster farmer is mounting a progressive campaign against Republican Susan Collins, who has held the Senate seat for 30 years. The crowded Democratic primary field includes two-term Gov. Janet Mills.

Platner said he had never been questioned about the tattoo’s connections to Nazi symbols in the 20 years he has had it. He said it was there when he enlisted in the Army, which requires an examination for tattoos of hate symbols.

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“I also passed a full background check to receive a security clearance to join the Ambassador to Afghanistan’s security detail,” Platner said.

Questions about the tattoo come after the recent discovery of Platner’s now-deleted online statements that included dismissing military sexual assaults, questioning Black patrons’ gratuity habits and criticizing police officers and rural Americans.

Platner has apologized for those comments, saying they were made after he left the Army in 2012, when he was struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

He has resisted calls to drop out of the race and has the backing of Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who has described Platner as a stronger candidate for the seat than Mills.

Platner said he was not ashamed to confront his past comments and actions because it reflects the lessons he needed to take to get where he is today.

“I don’t look at this as a liability,” he told the AP. “I look at this as is a life that I have lived, a journey that has been difficult, that has been full of struggle, that has also gotten me to where I am today. And I’m very proud of who I am.”

Platner planned a town hall Wednesday in Ogunquit, Maine.

Kruesi reported from Providence, Rhode Island.