'Pretty soon I'll be declaring the Hormuz strait a territory of the United States': Trump continues to tout success over Iran
Trump insisted that his administration is “bringing the prices way down” despite the fact that the latest data says that overall inflation is up 3.4%, compared to a year ago.
He repeated his frequent claims that Iran “is being very badly defeated”, despite the fact that a peace deal remains elusive. “Pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz strait a territory of the United States.”
The president also brushed off the hike in US gas prices while addressing law enforcement officers in Long Island: “So remember that when you have to pay a little bit more, you’re at $4, it’s OK … I mean, I’ll never apologize. I did the right thing.”
The president also touted his executive order that directs the justice department to the pursue the death penalty for anyone convicted of killing a law enforcement officer.
However, it’s worth noting that Donald Trump issued pardons for more than 1,500 people involved in the January 6 insurrection, including those who assaulted Capitol police officers.
When he returned to the White House last year, Trump also directed the justice department to dismiss all pending indictments against people related to the Capitol riots.
Fact-checking Trump's claims about DC crime
At his remarks in Long Island, Donald Trump said that Washington DC is now “one of the safest cities” in the country, claiming that “crime is down 81%”.
However, total crime in the nation’s capital is actually only down by 20% at the point in 2026, compared to last year, according to data compiled by the DC police department.
Digging in further – assault with a dangerous weapon increased by 40% compared to this time last year in Washington DC. And overall violent crime is actually up 4% compared to this point in 2025.
Trump has often taken credit for the crime reduction in DC, after a spike in 2023. But violent crime actually dropped by 29% between 2024 and 2025 – at the end of the Biden administration.
A reminder that Trump addressed law enforcement in Long Island back in 2017, in a now infamous speech.
At the time he talking about his crackdown on foreign gang members to an audience of police officers and the relatives of victims of crime in Brentwood.
The president spoke dismissively of arresting officers who protect suspects’ heads while putting them in police cars.
“And when you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon,” he said, “you just see ’em thrown in, rough.”
Trump added: “I said, ‘Please don’t be too nice.’ Like when you guys put somebody in the car and you’re protecting the head. You know? The way you put the hand over [the head], like ‘don’t hit their head’ and they’ve just killed somebody.”
“I said, ‘You can take the hand away,’ OK?”
Press secretary Karoline Levitt briefed reporters aboard Air Force One en route to New York, saying they expect thousands at today’s event and a heavy law‑enforcement presence. She noted that attorney general Todd Blanche and FBI director Kash Patel will attend.
Levitt declined to get ahead of treasury secretary Scott Bessent, but said the administration has “more tools” to “continue punishing Iran and crippling their economy.”
She also said keeping gas prices low and preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon are “equally important” to the president – a shift from Trump’s recent focus on ending Tehran’s nuclear ambitions even if prices at the pump rise temporarily.
“We want to keep gas prices low,” Levitt said. “But also ensuring Iran can never get a nuclear weapon is the president’s priority with respect to the ongoing conflict.”
The national average for a gallon of gas is now just over $4, per AAA – nearly a dollar higher than this time last year.
People detained at an overcrowded federal immigration camp in Mississippi were sickened by a mystery gas leak, then denied medical care when they complained of headaches and other symptoms, it has been alleged.
A lengthy power outage at Adams county detention center, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility run by the private operator CoreCivic, also left it without air conditioning for two days this week, according to one detainee who contacted the Guardian through his family.
As a result, he said, people detained there were forced to spend hours outside in near 100F heat in blazing sunshine and with no shade, or left to swelter inside in cramped cells.
Tensions at the center, he said, were rising, and more arguments and physical altercations were taking place between people there, leaving him and others fearful of violence that he said inadequate staffing levels would not be able to handle.
The allegations come as a third person who was held in ICE custody at the Delaney Hall detention center in New Jersey, run by the GEO Group, another government contractor, was reported to have died; and an inspection report of the Adams county facility in Natchez found 23 violations of use-of-force or restraint standards.
Read the full report here:
Here's a recap of the day so far
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The Trump administration has asked the US supreme court to allow construction of his controversial $400m White House ballroom to proceed after an appeals court ordered work to halt. In a case testing Donald Trump’s presidential authority, the Washington-based US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit ruled last week that the controversial project lacked the necessary approval from US Congress.
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It’s worth noting that the appeals court ruling blocks the above-ground construction of the ballroom, but would allow the work on the underground security structure to continue. However, the government argues that “every part” of the project is “an integrated whole geared toward remedying security deficiencies and bringing critical improvements to the White House”. The administration add in its filing to the court: “The entire ballroom structure is designed to shield the military installation beneath it.”
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Also today, Trump dismissed the reports about the mental health crisis and living conditions on board USS Abraham Lincoln. When he was asked by reporters whether family members were worried about the situation, the president said “no, they’re not.”The vessel has now been on a record-breaking deployment for more than 250 days, but Trump said that it had not been at sea for too long. “Not nearly enough,” he said. The president also confirmed that the USS Abraham Lincoln would now be replaced by another aircraft carrier.
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A woman was arrested on Friday morning in connection with the vandalization of the second world war memorial on the National Mall in Washington DC, the capital’s federal prosecutor announced. Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, announced mid-morning that a suspect was in custody and the justice department is filing two felony charges against her. The memorial had graffiti scrawled on it and the pool polluted with soapy bubbles. The woman accused appears to have live streamed the incident on Facebook. More here
Trump is now en route to New York, where he’ll deliver remarks on public safety in Long Island at 3pm ET.
The reporters traveling with the president today note that his outgoing press secretary Karoline Leavitt is on board Air Force One today. Trump has yet to announce Leavitt’s replacement.
Trump dismisses concerns about conditions on USS Abraham Lincoln, confirms replacement carrier
As he left Washington, Donald Trump dismissed the reports about the mental health crisis and living conditions on board USS Abraham Lincoln.
When he was asked by reporters whether family members were worried about the situation, the president said “no, they’re not.”
The vessel has now been on a record-breaking deployment for more than 250 days, but Trump said that it had not been at sea for too long. “Not nearly enough,” he said.
The president also confirmed that the USS Abraham Lincoln would now be replaced by another aircraft carrier. On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the USS George Washington would be sent to relieve the Abraham Lincoln, after it was redirected to help with the military operation in Iran.
“That ship is moving right now or very shortly and it’s being replaced with another very similar ship,” Trump said.
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A progressive group has endorsed a 27-year-old substitute teacher who overcame childhood homelessness in his bid to unseat the veteran Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz in Florida.
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) said it was backing Elijah Manley in next week’s primary election in Florida’s newly drawn 20th congressional district, casting the race as a contest between a young economic populist and a stalwart of the Democratic party establishment.
Wasserman Schultz, 59, an 11-term congresswoman and former chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), has faced criticism from African American leaders over her decision to run as the sole white candidate in a majority-minority district where she is not a resident.
This followed the creation of gerrymandered congressional maps by Florida Republicans that broke Wasserman Schultz’s current seat into five shards. She decided against running in the 22nd district, where she lives, and chose instead to compete in the deep blue 20th, which has been represented by Black Democrats for more than 30 years.
Yvette Clarke, chair of the Congressional Black caucus, told the Politico website on Friday: “It’s a painful situation. To have a beloved colleague who made a decision basically to run in a district where historically there’s been CBC representation, and I know that the community has been really disrupted by it.”
Other candidates in the primary include former congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who resigned in April over allegations of misusing $5m in federal funds, which she denies; former Broward County mayor Dale Holness; and community activist Luther “Uncle Luke” Campbell, a rapper best known for his role in 2 Live Crew.
Hands Off the Arts, an artist and worker advocacy coalition, have released a statement in response to the Kennedy Center’s vote to once again to move forward with Donald Trump’s controversial plan to temporarily shutter the building for substantial renovations, which includes inscribing Trump’s name on the facade.
“The Kennedy Center belongs to the American people – not one man,” the statement reads. “This vote is fatally flawed for a simple reason: To our knowledge, the board vote proceeded without figures showing how much money the institution currently has or any analysis of how a closure of this scale would affect its operation. The Center consistently has refused to release the full financial picture of profit and loss to the board or the public.”
“This paves the way for more corruption,” it continues. “The President is using the Kennedy Center as another lure for people to influence him openly. The more projects that he can ‘create’ that need private donations—Freedom250, the Ballroom, FIFA events—the more avenues he has to accept gifts from people who have government interests.”
The Kennedy Center board – mostly handpicked, staunch allies of the president – voted “to close the Kennedy Center’s main building” for renovations despite a federal order for Trump’s name to be removed from the signage.
In May, the US district judge Christopher Cooper ordered Trump’s name to be removed from the building’s facade after the president had it added last year. Cooper ruled that the addition had been illegal, as only Congress had the authority to change the institution’s name. The center removed Trump’s name in June, but is appealing the decision.
Donald Trump has confirmed that Kevin Rideout, an American missionary who was kidnapped in Niger in October, has been released back to the US.
“I am proud to announce that Kevin Rideout, a wonderful Christian Missionary, is back in United States Custody,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Friday. “Kevin, the United States of America looks forward to welcoming you HOME. Glad to have helped!”
Rideout, a 50-year-old missionary pilot, was kidnapped in the west African country’s capital, Niamey, on 21 October by three armed individuals and was probably driven out of town, according to a security official at the time. No armed group claimed responsibility for the abduction.
Serving in Mission International, Rideout’s organization, said earlier that he “is in good health in the care of US officials” and would soon be reunited with his extended family. Rideout had been working in Niger for 19 years as a missionary before the incident.
Read more:
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The woman accused of vandalizing the World War II memorial in Washington DC appears to have live streamed the incident on Facebook.
A Facebook account under the name of the suspect, Melissa L Farris, currently hosts an over 30-minute video apparently live streamed on Thursday. The video shows a woman with a can of spray paint who proceeds to spray the memorial.
“It was me, I’m doing it, I did it, it’s on camera,” the woman can be heard saying in the video around the 9-minute mark.
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This week, Donald Trump admitted that he took a military jet to leave Turkey after the Nato summit in July, despite leading the press and public to believe he was on Air Force One.
Reports also emerged that the deception included smuggling the president, and some of his closest aides, on to a catering truck to avoid suspicion. In this week’s episode of Politics Weekly America, Jonathan Freedland talks with Tara Setmayer of the Seneca Project about why the White House felt the need to come up with such an elaborate lie to protect Trump.
It’s worth noting that Miller’s Pac has donated to several Republicans in competitive House races this midterm cycle. Politico was first to report on the filings.
These representatives include Tom Barrett, who is fighting to hold on to Michigan’s seventh congressional district. Meanwhile, Bryan Fitzpatrick, Ryan Mackenzie and Rob Bresnehan all received thousands from the Dependable Conservative Leadership Pac as they defend their central Pennsylvania House seats. The latter two congressman flipped their districts red in 2024.
Republican congressman says he will not return thousands from Max Miller's Pac in wake of domestic abuse allegations
Mike Lawler, the Republican congressman who represents a purple district in upstate New York, said that he does not plan to return the $10,000 his campaign received from the Max Miller’s Dependable Conservative Leadership Pac. Miller is facing several domestic abuse allegations from his ex-wife, and has faced calls from both parties to end his re-election bid and resign from Congress.
In an interview on Thursday on CNN, Lawler defended his decision to keep the funds, when pushed by anchor Dana Bash.
“I know Max very well. I’ve talked to him personally over the last two years about this very difficult family situation. It’s tragic. I don’t think anybody disagrees about that. But this is something that should play out in family court,” Lawler said. “Max has been accused. Max has also made accusations against his ex-wife. It is tragic, and obviously I don’t condone any level of abuse. But ultimately, there has been nothing that has been corroborated here.”
According to Lawler’s most recent campaign finance reports he has more than $4.8m cash on hand. When asked why he wouldn’t return the Pac funding, given that it makes up a fraction of his available funds, Lawler said “the allegations have not been verified”.
He added: “If there’s evidence that Max did something, then obviously there should be a thorough investigation of that, but thus far there’s been nothing to verify any of the claims that have been leveled.”
Donald Trump also decried the vandalism on the World War II memorial in Washington DC. “THERE CAN BE NO GREATER INSULT TO THOSE AMERICAN HEROES ,” Trump wrote in an all-caps missive on Truth Social.
However, the president repeated his claim that another monument, the reflecting pool, was subject to vandalism. This, despite the justice department dropping the charges against David Hearn, the former Olympian accused of ripping part of the pool’s lining off. Jeanine Pirro’s office said in a court filing that the actual cause of the damage was a “botched” renovation as opposed to vandalism.
A woman was arrested on Friday morning in connection with the vandalization of the second world war memorial on the National Mall in Washington DC, the capital’s federal prosecutor announced.
Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, announced mid-morning that a suspect was in custody and had been charged with federal crimes.
The memorial had graffiti scrawled on it and the pool polluted with soapy bubbles.
Pirro added that the justice department is filing two felony charges against the suspect, who is now in custody. “Offenses that carry penalties of up to ten years in prison,” Pirro posted on X, showing two images of a middle-aged woman, one of her with what appears to be a can of spray-paint at the scene.
“Vandalizing our World War II Memorial is a despicable attack on a sacred monument honoring the Americans who fought and died for our freedom. Those Americans include my father and grandfather,” Pirro added in the post.
US Park Police had been investigating who graffitied the words “Clean hands dirty $” in red paint on the memorial on Washington DC’s National Mall for the second world war and vandalized the fountain with soapy bubbles.
The US interior department said: “The public should know we will find the person responsible for this disgusting act” and the non-profit Friends of the National World War II Memorial said the site should not be used for political expression.
The government’s lawyer added that given the recent attempts on Donald Trump’s life – which include a shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner in April – stalling the “vital construction” of the ballroom will leave Trump “much less safe” and ultimately risk “future presidents’ safety”.
The Trump administration, in its appeal to the supreme court today, said that “this case involves an extraordinary and unlawful injunction that will halt the ongoing construction of the integrated military complex including a totally secure ballroom space, at the East Wing of the White House, which is vitally required by national security.”
It’s worth noting that the appeals court ruling blocks the above-ground construction of the ballroom, but would allow the work on the underground security structure to continue.
However, the government argues that “every part” of the project is “an integrated whole geared toward remedying security deficiencies and bringing critical improvements to the White House”.
The administration add in the filing: “The entire ballroom structure is designed to shield the military installation beneath it.”
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Trump administration asks supreme court to allow White House ballroom construction to continue
The Trump administration has asked the US supreme court to allow construction of his controversial $400m White House ballroom to proceed after an appeals court ordered work to halt.
In a case testing Donald Trump’s presidential authority, the Washington-based US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit ruled last week that the controversial project lacked the necessary approval from US Congress.
In a filing, Trump’s administration asked the supreme court justices to keep the decision by the US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit on hold while it prepares a full appeal.
The government has appealed a number of lower court decisions to the supreme court this week, in the wake of temporary injunctions over the president’s attempts to curb mail-in voting.
USS George Washington reportedly en route to replace USS Abraham Lincoln after accounts of mental health crises and food shortages
The USS George Washington is en route to the Middle East to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln, according to reports. This comes after accounts about mental health crises onboard the Lincoln, including attempts from service members to jump overboard and chronic food shortages.
The vessel has been on a record-breaking deployment for more than 250 days, after it was redirected to assist with the military operation in Iran.
Democrats have been demanding answers from the Pentagon in recent days to glean the extent of the issues on board and what is being done to address them. Defense secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday that the reports are “completely misrepresented”.
In response, Democratic lawmakers have pushed back. Senator Ruben Gallego of Arizona, a marine veteran, said that he is in communication with the wife of a service member who has forwarded her husband’s text messages about the conditions on board. “Stop lying and fix the problem,” Gallego wrote on social media, in response to Hegseth’s recent comments.
Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat and navy veteran, told MS NOW on Thursday that he spoke with a woman who is concerned about her grandson, who works as an electrician on board the USS Abraham Lincoln. “He’s lost 20 to 25 pounds and is struggling with depression. And so-called leaders like Pete Hegseth aren’t doing a thing about it,” Kelly said, while repeating calls for an investigation.
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Trump will be in Washington for closed-press meetings until he heads to New York, to deliver his remarks in Garden City at 3pm ET. We’ll bring you the latest as that gets under way.
The United States wants Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to publicly condemn a siege imposed by Jewish settlers in a Palestinian village, US and Israeli officials said on Friday, as settlers pressured residents by pitching a new tent before Israeli soldiers arrived and it was taken down.
Settlers have been besieging homes in Qusra in the occupied West Bank for almost a week, trapping Palestinians in an area where rights groups say settlers are mounting a concerted effort to seize more land, further eating into territory where Palestinians aim to establish a state.
The siege has drawn public US criticism: the US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee – a strong supporter of Jewish settlement in the West Bank – on Thursday condemned settlers besieging a Palestinian home as “Israeli terrorists”.
A US official and an Israeli official said on Friday White House officials are pressing Netanyahu to publicly condemn the siege.
This week’s Politics Weekly America looks at Trump’s plane ruse. The President departed on a secret military flight from Turkey to Britain last month, prompted by an Iranian assassination threat. Almost everyone believed he was on Air Force One, turns out he wasn’t.
You can hear all about the elaborate scheme to protect the President here.
US firms that kept DEI policies despite ‘go woke, go broke’ threats thrived
Conservative backlash was supposed to put an end to the diversity, inclusion and equity (DEI) movement as companies were warned “go woke, go broke”.
In January 2025, Donald Trump delivered a death knell, ending DEI within the federal government with executive orders and threatening to target companies that still supported it. Companies including Google, Goldman Sachs, McDonald’s and Walmart that had embraced DEI years earlier fell into line and announced an end to their policies.
But new research published Friday and shared exclusively with the Guardian found that companies that resisted the pressure and kept their DEI practices, including Costco, Apple and Delta Air Lines, performed just as well as their competitors who pulled back.
You can read the full story here.
American special operations forces are ready to step up warfighting-readiness exercises with counterparts in the Philippines and other countries in Asia to further strengthen a security alliance and help deter a major conflict in the region, a US military official said Thursday.
Admiral Frank Bradley, commander of the US Special Operations Command, is in the Philippines after a trip to South Korea. He will then head to Japan for talks with military officials.
He is the latest American military top brass to visit key Asian allies in recent weeks to reassure them of Washington’s commitment to the region given the US preoccupation with the war in Iran .
Bradley’s command, which has about 80,000 personnel and is based at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, undertakes the US military’s most sensitive and dangerous covert operations. The majority of his forces are deployed in more than 80 countries worldwide, Bradley said.
Russia believes the United States is deeply involved in Ukrainian attacks against it and has raised the issue with Washington, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in comments broadcast on Friday.
He said that the alleged US support included the supply of intelligence.
“We have submitted a series of questions to the State Department requesting comment, including on the matter of intelligence data and the fact that the U.S. is far more deeply involved in organizing and executing strikes deep within Russian territory against civilian targets. We await a response,” Lavrov told state TV.
No immediate comment was available from the US.
Donald Trump to give speech on crime and safety during New York visit
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
President Donald Trump plans to highlight his record on crime and safety during a visit to New York on Friday, pivoting to one of his strongest issues as he looks to boost Republicans in battleground races ahead of the November midterms.
Trump is visiting the Nassau County Police Academy in suburban Long Island, where the White House said he will release new FBI crime statistics showing a decrease in violent crime for 2025.
“President Trump promised to make America safe again and the data proves he has done just that,” White House spokesperson Lauren Bis said. “Unlike Defund-the-Police Democrats, President Trump will always stand with our law enforcement officers and deliver safer American neighborhoods.”
Trump’s visit is aimed at boosting Republican candidates in closely contested races across his home state, but just how much his presence will help is in question as he faces lagging approval ratings and a deeply unpopular war in Iran with no end in sight.
Trump narrowly won Nassau County in 2024, flipping it for Republicans for the first time in more than two decades. It’s home to two Democratic House seats that Republicans now see as winnable this fall, and it’s home turf for Nassau County executive Bruce Blakeman, the Trump-endorsed Republican challenging Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul.
In other developments:
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Luigi Mangione, the man accused of gunning down a health insurance executive, is due in federal court on Friday for a hearing where he is expected to plead guilty to stalking or similar charges. There is more on the story here.
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The battle over the Kennedy Center’s future escalated Thursday as President Donald Trump’s allies on the board took new steps to commemorate him with physical changes to the iconic performing arts institution that could defy a federal court order.
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The Pacific-based aircraft carrier USS George Washington began heading toward the Middle East, according to reports. This comes as Democratic lawmakers have demanded answers of about mental health crises and supply issues aboard the long-deployed USS Abraham Lincoln.
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White House deputy national security adviser Andy Baker is leaving the Trump administration in the coming weeks, Axios reported on Friday. The White House did not respond to a request for comment outside business hours. The report has not been independently verified.
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