Trump illegally withheld SNAP food assistance from millions of hungry citizens. Now he’s appealing a federal court order, refusing to provide a crumb of relief as parents struggle to keep their children fed. He’s not a king, but he behaves like Marie Antoinette.

Trump’s plan: over 15 million Americans with no access to a doctor and millions more paying astronomical premiums.

While pleased flights from Austin's airport aren't on the list, we'll still be impacted by Trump’s decision to stop flights rather than stop the shutdown. Americans are feeling the pain from Republicans' health care crisis, hunger crisis & potential air travel crisis due to GOP refusal to negotiate.

To enrich his fossil fuel friends at the expense of so many people and our planet, Trump bullies diplomats from small island countries. He threatens them personally to ignore the threat to their citizens from the climate crisis-induced rising sea levels, which can literally leave them underwater.

As Americans struggle with Trump’s unstable economy and some corporations exploit lax rules to outsource jobs abroad, I'm leading 100+ of my Dem colleagues in urging that environmental enforcement standards be strengthened in the renewal of USMCA to support job creation and clean manufacturing.

Trump has found a new way to persecute his critics: weaponizing their student debt. New restrictions on loan forgiveness discriminate against many nonprofit workers sacrificing higher wage jobs to serve our most vulnerable communities. I strongly support the lawsuits to stop this latest outrage.

The shutdown is a big negative for Republicans because it is a big negative for millions who will lose their access to a physician. For five weeks, Republicans have refused to discuss a bipartisan response to the health care crisis they have created. Only Trump can end his shutdown.

With the Trump regime’s daily disastrous march to authoritarianism, many ask me “Is there hope?” Yes. Yesterday was hope. Today and tomorrow can be hope too — if we come together, recognizing we can disagree but still respect each other.

Travelers to Austin continue to face delays because of a serious air traffic controller shortage that predates the government shutdown. Instead of continuing their shutdown, the GOP should sit down to resolve the health care crisis they’ve created before we experience a true air travel crisis.

Any deal to reopen the government without addressing the health care crisis which Republicans have created is not a deal; it is capitulation. This is who would be on the chopping block:

Halloween is over, but Trump continues trying to scare people. A 2019 bill he signed into law after his last government shutdown ensures ALL federal workers will receive back pay. We will not be intimidated by empty threats.

In his latest erratic move, contrary to what his minions advised yesterday, Trump appears to declare that he is defying two federal courts with more lies and a willingness to starve some citizens. This is illegal, cruel, and the courts must immediately intervene to force Trump’s compliance.

With millions of Americans facing higher premiums, I joined Foundation Communities, Central Health & The Health Alliance for Austin Musicians to help Texans get covered w/free help to find affordable coverage. Open Enrollment runs Nov 1–Jan 15. Make an appointment today: ProsperHealthCoverage.org

Following public outcry and intervention from the courts, Trump is being forced to do a little to stop the hunger crisis he tried to create. Meanwhile, Congressional GOP leaders refuse to permit a vote on a bill to fully fund SNAP through this Trump shutdown.

Libby and I enjoyed celebrating a bday milestone with friends, Sumit and Debasree Dasgupta. Whether building civic leadership through the Indian American Coalition of Central Texas or advancing innovation in semiconductors, Sumit’s lifelong service has spanned community and industry.

While I've long opposed the repressive Maduro regime, Trump waging an undeclared war on Venezuela, while consulting solely with his GOP enablers, is another illegal act that wrongly endangers our servicemembers and makes America less secure. A US-led regime change war is not in our interests.

A candy message this Halloween.

Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir must be held accountable for their violence in the West Bank. After settlers have uprooted their olive trees, cut water pipes, and tormented their families, Palestinians in Umm al-Khair have been issued demolition orders. They deserve, at the very least, to keep their homes.

Protecting the heartbeat of America means protecting healthcare for each family – deserving of investment, not indifference.

Finally, a president who runs our country like a business – his personal business, with family profiteering at every opportunity.

Paxton is so desperate to maintain the blessing of Trump and RFK Jr. that he pushes the unproven claim linking autism to Tylenol. Abandoning medical science for a conspiracy theory-driven agenda means Republican leaders are offering more distraction, more measles, and more harm to Texans.

Many of our South Asian neighbors were forced to celebrate Diwali this year at twice the cost of last year because of Trump’s tariff taxes. Instead of lowering costs for everyday Americans, Trump’s policies have cast a shadow over the festival of lights.

Contrary to Trump’s claim that he is the “world’s best dealmaker,” Netanyahu has broken the ceasefire twice in Gaza. Hamas’ evil does not justify 14 hours of strikes killing at least 100 Palestinians – nearly half of them children. Where is our Noble Peace Prize aspirant who declared this war over?

Trump is adding a hunger crisis to the health care crisis he already has underway. A President who claims power to do most anything could certainly intervene to protect SNAP benefits and prevent harm to many desperate families during this wholly unjustified GOP government shutdown.

It should come as no surprise that the Trump administration will not save SNAP or healthcare for millions of Americans. Hunger and diseases that stalk small children are already surging after he dismantled the agency that helps the world's poorest countries with food and care, killing thousands.

A GOP government shutdown is spiking health insurance premiums for millions of Americans, forcing families to go hungry, and requiring federal employees to work without pay. Republicans must join Democrats in negotiating for a reasonable solution that serves Americans' best interests, not Trump's.

DACA recipients serve our communities as nurses, teachers, small business owners, and more. It's unconscionable that a pediatric nurse in Austin, who cares for sick children, must live in fear because Republicans refuse to earnestly work with Democrats on comprehensive immigration reform.

More ground stops of up to 90 minutes for our Austin airport means more inconvenience and more evidence of our need for more air traffic controllers, since we have less than half of those needed to meet FAA recommendations.

As Trump takes a wrecking ball to our White House, more and more of our neighbors are expressing concern that he’s doing the very same thing to their health insurance policies. Our families deserve steady leadership, not shutdowns and self-serving stunts.

The well-justified concerns of the Daily Texan Editorial Board are amplified by Greg Abbott’s removal of the senior vice provost for academic affairs, a 27-year UT employee, for “ideological differences." UT's duty should be towards its students & faculty, not the Republican indoctrination agenda.

In 2023, the founder of the crypto exchange Binance pled guilty to money laundering, helping Hamas, Al Qaeda and ISIS finance terrorist activities. This year, he and his pals in the Middle East invested $2B in Trump’s crypto firm World Liberty Financial. The President’s corruption knows no bounds.

The Republican government shutdown is driving up health care costs, with premiums soaring by as much as $20,000 more a year for some families. The GOP agenda: more tax cuts for billionaires, more medical debt for more working families.

Trump is adding a hunger crisis to the health care crisis he created. On Monday until the end of Nov, 3.7M Texans, who rely on SNAP, will lose assistance. Trump can prevent this by using his contingency funding & transfer authority—moving as quickly as he did to give Argentina a $40B bailout.

With Trump’s second term, there has rarely been a better time to be a billionaire. He will cut Medicaid to lower your taxes, exempt your business from tariffs for your WH ballroom donation & cut aid for starving children in Africa to bail out your investment in Argentina. Everyone else can suffer.

Some Trump priorities.

Health emergencies occur at all ages, but young adults are less likely to have the funds to pay for care as they struggle with student debt, a housing crisis, and inflation. Republicans are worsening the economic crisis for young people as they take away health coverage for millions.

Another half step will not stop Putin’s strikes on Ukraine. All Putin will understand is when Trump begins delivering Ukraine much-needed weapons/air defense, and when he finally permits his GOP Congress to approve broad sanctions legislation on which they have been awaiting his blessing for months.

Sen. Rand Paul is justified in complaining that he’s the only Republican who has “any guts to stand up and tell the president the truth.” Truth is the first casualty during a Trump regime. Most GOP members seem to have forgotten they swore an oath to the Constitution, not a wannabe king.

Under the guise of "waste, fraud and abuse," Republicans took a chainsaw to government services upon which Americans depend, with mass-firing of thousands. Meanwhile, Trump's Secretary of Homeland Security is spending $172 million for not one but TWO private jets.

Important insights on Trump/ Abbott’s dismantling of UT, which has powered our economy for nearly 150 years. “Those who see higher education as a threat are intervening directly — breaking norms, rules and even constitutional protections — to suppress and punish controversial opinions.”

An estimated 7-8 million people from all walks of life made their voices heard this weekend to ensure our democracy is not undermined by a wannabe King. Trump’s disrespect of Americans with his disgusting video will not deter our commitment to our country. Joined CNN to discuss what’s at stake.

While Republicans spewed lies about No Kings Day, designed to discourage participation, millions of Americans peacefully and safely made their voices heard against harmful Trump-GOP policies. Austin, like many cities across the country, had zero arrests, zero violence.

“Only the best people.” - Trump Trump nominee to be his special counsel concedes he personally does have “a Nazi streak." What better choice for a president who says he wants his generals to be more like Hitler’s.

Every state should have a nonpartisan redistricting, but no justice can come from doing this if it only happens in Democratic states, while Trump and his Republican enablers force crooked maps that leave communities without responsive representation.

The GOP gov shutdown doesn't give Trump new powers. He's been abusing his authority and acting unlawfully since day one w/his slash-and-burn approach to federal services Americans rely upon. Democrats refuse to be intimidated and will continue standing up to stop health care premium price spikes.

Trump displays weakness when conferring with a war criminal. Putin promises peace while relentlessly bombing civilians. We cannot stop the daily slaughter of Ukrainians so long as the US president is more susceptible to lavish praise of his ego than to responding to Putin's heinous crimes.

The corporatization of health care is killing people. Once again, researchers find that private equity takeovers result in more patient deaths, staff layoffs, and lower wages.

I’ll be joining CNN at 7:30am CT to discuss the successful and peaceful No Kings Day at more than 2,500 locations, as well as the latest on the Trump-GOP government shutdown.

In our great country, the first No Kings Day is better known as the American Revolution. 250 years later, we respond to Trump’s revolting conduct with the power of non-violence. As Thomas Paine wrote in “Common Sense,” in a free republic, only “the law is king.” (1/2)

Trump consistently follows the dictator’s playbook for his justice system: protect your guilty friends, persecute your innocent opponents. Santos is special, since his principal wrongs related to repeated, outlandish lying—certainly not viewed by Trump as an offense.