President Donald Trump assembles his Cabinet as the government shutdown continues and a peace deal in Gaza takes shape, candidates in the New Jersey governor’s race clash, and wait times for emergency rooms have exploded nationwide.
It’s Friday, October 10, 2025, and this is the news you need to know to start your day.
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Trump Assembles Cabinet
Topline: President Trump assembled his Cabinet on Thursday as the government shutdown entered its ninth day, and as his Middle East peace proposal passed a major hurdle.
Columbus Day returns: At the top of Thursday’s meeting, Trump signed an executive order to bring back Columbus Day on October 13. “Columbus Day, we’re back. We’re back, Italians,” the president said.
Middle East peace: According to the president, the rest of the hostages still alive in Gaza, 20 in all, should be returned to Israel on either Monday or Tuesday.
The hostage crisis has been a major focus of the administration, and of Israel, which has been plastered with posters of the hostages emblazoned with the call to “Bring Them Home Now” since the war began. Yellow ribbons to represent the hostages, dead and alive, are more common in Israel than kippahs.
That shows why Trump has been invited to speak in front of the Knesset. It’s a rare privilege. The last U.S. president to receive the honor was George Bush in 2008.
Shutdown: President Trump seems intent on hammering Democrats over the shutdown, not just rhetorically but with cuts to what the president calls “Democrat programs.”
“We’ll be making cuts that will be permanent, and we’re only gonna cut Democrat programs,” the president said at Thursday’s meeting. “They wanted to do this, so they’ll get a little taste of their own medicine.”
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NJ Governor’s Race A Toss-Up
Topline: Less than four weeks from Election Day, the New Jersey gubernatorial election is a toss-up, with Republican Jack Ciattarelli surging in the polls. Ciattarelli spoke to Morning Wire about his efforts to turn deep-blue New Jersey red this November. (The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.)
Morning Wire: A lot of folks who maybe don’t follow state politics as closely hear that there is an exceedingly close race in New Jersey. And they might be surprised by that, thinking of the history of New Jersey as a more blue state. Four months ago, polls were showing you trailing by more than 20 points. This week, you are essentially tied in every poll that is coming out. What changed over the course of this election?
Ciattarelli: People want change across the state. They’re very frustrated with Phil Murphy’s failed policies – and they have failed us. The taxes, they’ve increased every single year he’s been in office. The exorbitant spending in our state government, I mean, our state budget’s gone from $36 billion to almost $60 billion, a 64% increase. Housing, we’ve got an overdevelopment crisis in our suburban communities, but yet an acute housing shortage in our urban areas. Public safety has gone, you know, we don’t have public safety in Jersey. Nonviolent crime has spiked because we don’t let our local police do their job. The break-ins, the car thefts, the flash mobs, public education – people aren’t happy with what’s going on there, and we’ve slipped from two to 12 on an actual report card. Your electricity bill is going through the roof. These are all things that people are really pissed off about, and when they’re pissed, they want change.
Morning Wire: A lot of Republicans who have success at the state level in blue states take a more moderate approach. I’m thinking of the, you know, Charlie Bakers or Larry Hogans of the world, considered more moderate, keeping their distance from Donald Trump. You have not shied away from the president, it seems. He’s endorsed you. He said that you’re “all in on the MAGA movement.” And that is unique in a blue state. Walk us through that relationship with the president.
Ciattarelli: All my opponent wants to talk about is Trump because of her disdain for Trump. I mean, her whole campaign is based on a stack of lies about me, disdain for Trump, and she can fly a helicopter. Is that going to fix New Jersey? And by the way, what does Donald Trump have to do with our property taxes? What does he have to do with public safety in this state, public education, your monthly electric bill, overdevelopment in our suburban communities? He’s got nothing to do with that. The party that’s controlled Trenton for the last 25 years has everything to do with that. So listen, I think that you can be friends with the president and support his policies while making it clear that you’re all about fixing New Jersey.
Morning Wire: If elected, what sort of approach would you take when it comes to working with federal agencies like ICE, DEA, ATF operating within your state? We’ve seen a number of attempts to handicap them. How would you approach those agencies?
Ciattarelli: Number one, there will be no sanctuary cities in New Jersey. When I’m governor, we will not be a sanctuary state. I’m reversing that policy on day one. I can do that by executive order. And I’m never going to tell a local mayor or police chief they can’t work in partnership with a federal agency to keep their community safe. If that’s what they want to do, that’s a local decision. And I would support it 100% whatever it is that the mayor and police chief decide to do to keep their community safe. But the other thing I have to do is get rid of cashless bail. Cashless bail in New Jersey has created a professional criminal who’s learned how to game the system. And you talk to your local cops, arrest, release, repeat is real. And it’s demoralizing to our local cops to have to arrest the same person over and over again.
ER Wait Times Explode
Topline: For the last decade, emergency room wait times have continued to rise, threatening Americans’ overall health. ER wait times started to increase around 2012, spiked during the pandemic, and are now higher than ever.
A new study published in the journal Health Affairs looked at data from 46 million emergency visits across all 50 states since 2017. It found a national increase in wait times, with the average being over four hours, and 5% of patients waiting more than 24 hours to get assistance. Notably, this doesn’t even factor in people leaving the ER before they get care, commonly referred to as the “abandonment” rate.
Why? The nursing shortage is certainly a factor. But according to Niklas Kleinworth from the Paragon Health Institute, one of the major factors is that, since expansion under Obamacare, there is no financial incentive for many people to wait to see their physician when they can go to the ER and receive same-day care:
“We’ve seen that a lot of the financial incentives for people to take care of themselves and go see their regular physician haven’t come to fruition,” Kleinworth told Morning Wire. “And so now, people are going to the emergency room to get routine care instead.”
Another issue is the increased rate of rural hospital closings. Kleinworth said programs coming out of Washington actually “encourage consolidation” – and we’re seeing large urban hospitals buy up small rural hospitals to eat up incentives meant for rural areas.
The White House has also blamed long ER wait times on illegal aliens.