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Pluralities in Germany and France — and a majority of Canadians — say the US is a negative force globally, new POLITICO-Public First polling finds.

YouTube video by BBC News

President Donald Trump celebrated his meeting with Syrian President Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa, calling it "an honor" to meet with the former al-Qaeda jihadist.

Fresh from the party’s victories in off-year elections across the map, top congressional Democrats are insisting on a meeting with President Donald Trump to discuss the shutdown. “We write to demand a bipartisan meeting of legislative leaders to end the GOP shutdown of the federal government and decisively address the Republican health care crisis,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote Wednesday in a letter to Trump. In addition to Trump, Democrats want Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson to participate. Top Democrats have been asking for such a meeting for months — and got one just before the shutdown started more than a month ago. “Democrats stand ready to meet with you face to face, anytime and anyplace,” Schumer and Jeffries said Wednesday. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The letter comes as Democrats are facing their own internal divisions over how to end the record-breaking funding lapse — or if it’s even the right time to stand down without extracting more policy concessions from the GOP. Roughly a dozen Senate Democrats are viewed as ready to end the shutdown and turn the party’s focus toward hammering Republicans over health care ahead of a vote to extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies following the reopening of government, according to four people granted anonymity to discuss caucus dynamics. But major wins Tuesday night, especially the gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, are giving fresh fuel to calls from other corners of the Senate Democratic Caucus for the party to dig in and fight until they get a deal with Republicans on the ACA tax credits.

"These are folks that have been here for decades, have long standing ties to the community, family members, employment, businesses that are all being torn apart," said one attorney

It’s bad enough that Trump wants—and DOJ will likely fork over—this tribute payment. Now, get this: It can probably be done at first without even being revealed publicly.

We’ve written before about how Trump is spending money without congressional authorization, with the open support of the corrupt Republican hacks on the Supreme Court. Now, with the government formally shut down, Trump has ramped up this practice.