Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day. Here’s the latest:
Amid questions about whether or not Cole Allen, who is accused of trying to storm the White House Correspondent’s dinner on Saturday to kill Donald Trump, fired his weapon before being subdued, the top federal prosecutor in Washington DC, Jeanine Pirro released edited security-camera video of the incident. While the video does show four muzzles flashes from the agent’s gun as he fired at Allen, it was not immediately clear that it does show Allen discharging his weapon after he pointed it at the agent.
Sean Curran, the director of the US Secret Service, told Pirro’s former employer, Fox News that Allen was stopped not by secret service gunfire, but by a box used to transport a metal detector, which he tripped over.
The US Congress has passed a 45-day extension of a law that grants US intelligence agencies warrantless spying powers.
US defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s attempt to put a positive spin on the ongoing US war on Iran was immediately challenged, first by the ranking Democrat on the armed services committee, senator Jack Reed, who lambasted his “dangerously exaggerated” claims, and then by a protester who shouted, “you’re a war criminal!”
Maga White House correspondents gush over Trump's new black granite walkway he claims will last for a million years
The impact of the Trump White House seizing control last year over which news outlets are allowed to cover his Oval Office open-mic sessions was on full display Thursday, when the president responded to a rightwing correspondent’s praise for the new black granite walkway he installed in the colonnade outside by stopping the press pack from leaving, so he could deliver a hymn of praise to his own design sense.
As the president wrapped up the event, after boasting about the strikes on Iran’s nuclear enrichment facility he ordered last year, Sarah Roderick-Fitch of the rightwing Center Square told him, “the tile looks beautiful, Mr President; the tile looks gorgeous.”
Trump immediately held up his hands to ask the rest of the reporters and Republican lawmakers in the room: “How do you like the new floor?”
He then launched into a lengthy monologue on his skills as a master builder.
“What I do best is build. That’s what I do best. I think, I say to people, ‘Am I a better builder or politician?’ And most of them say, ‘Politician’, but that’s okay. What I do best is I build. The ballroom will be just like that.
So I went out and I have a special black granite. Granite is the most powerful stone there is. Marble is much weaker than granite. I like marble more because marble can be more beautiful, but it’s a much weaker stone. When you look at gravesites and you look at a marble plaque a hundred years old, you’ll see oftentimes you can almost not read it. When you look at a granite plaque a hundred years old, it looks like it just got put there yesterday. You know that’s a test.
But we have the finest granite anyone’s ever seen. It’s called flawless granite. There’s very little of it, and I replaced broken slate that was put here many years ago. I saved the ramp because it’s in honor of FDR. FDR, right out there. He had that built as a ramp. They said, ‘Oh, sir, we’ll straighten it.’ I said, ‘No, you have to leave the ramp.’ It was built, that ramp was built for FDR with the wheelchair, because you know it’s not, it’s a pretty good slope. A lot of people say, ‘Why is it a ramp?’ I say, ‘because of FDR.’ They say, ‘Ah, I get it.’ But we saved that.
But we replaced the broken slate. And it’s slate, by the way, is meant for a roof, it’s not meant for a sidewalk. And we replaced it with granite, the highest grade granite, it’s valued at, you know, they value stones in terms of, that’s valued at 1 million plus. That means 1 million plus years. A marble will oftentimes be valued at 200 years, 300 years. This gives you a little lesson in stones. Somebody will say he went off on a tangent.”
The president then instructed his aides to have the reporters, many of whom were from partisan, pro-Trump outlets, leave through the colonnade outside, so they could see the granite.
That led to the spectacle of many of them filming themselves gushing over the granite, and repeating Trump’s claim that it was expected to last over a million years and he had not even walked on it yet.
“It’s rated to a million years” Peter Doocy of Fox News told his social media followers.
In the background, Brian Glenn, of the even more pro-Trump Real America’s Voice, could be heard shouting into his own phone that he had been granted “an exclusive look at this special flooring, this granite flooring that has a million year rating.”
Behind them, Roderick-Fitch, recorded her own gushing appraisal of the granite. “Wow!” she said. “We are the first to walk on this! This is historical!”
Daniel Baldwin of the fringe, far-right cable outlet One American News recorded his own inspection of the colonnade flooring, passing Glenn as the Maga correspondent told his social media followers: “we’re finding out that the president has not even walked on this floor yet!”
In fact, granite paving stones are expected to last more than 100 years, and, earlier on Thursday, Trump was photographed walking along the new granite floor of the colonnade to the Oval Office with an aide who was indicted along with him in the classified documents case that was dropped once he won reelection.
Minnesota's governor, Tim Walz, to campaign for Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner
Tim Walz, the Democratic governor of Minnesota who was his parry’s nominee for vice-president in 2024, announced on Thursday that he is traveling to Maine to campaign for Graham Platner, the military veteran and oysterman who is running to unseat Republican Susan Collins in the November Senate race.
“I’ll be in Portland tomorrow with Graham Platner to kick off his campaign to retire Susan Collins,” Walz posted on Facebook. “Let’s go win this thing.”
Platner earned the backing of the Democratic party’s establishment on Thursday, after his rival, Maine governor Janet Mills, dropped out of the race, citing a shortage of money.
Despite questions over his lack of experience, past social media posts that have been called racist and sexist, his work as a private military contractor and a now-covered tattoo he claims he had for nearly 20 years before learning it was a Nazi symbol, Platner has led in the polls and won the support of progressive Democrats like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
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Baited by rightwing reporter, Trump says he would consider pulling US troops from Spain and Italy as well as Germany
During an Oval Office event on Thursday, where correspondents for partisan, rightwing outlets seemed to be competing to see who could heap the most praise on the president, Donald Trump was asked if he would consider withdrawing US troops from bases in Spain and Italy, over their unwillingness to get involved in his ruinous war on Iran.
“You’ve talked about possibly pulling some troops out of Germany, would you be considering the same thing for Spain and Italy? I mean they haven’t been exactly on board,” Sarah Roderick-Fitch of the rightwing Center Square asked Trump.
“Yeah, probably,” the president replied to the suggestion from the reporter whose outlet is run by the Franklin News Foundation, a conservative non-profit that has received substantial funding from Donors Trust, Leonard Leo’s primary dark-money vehicle, and that is part of the State Policy Network of rightwing thinktanks backed by the Koch family.
“Why shouldn’t I? Italy has not been of any help to us and Spain has been horrible, absolutely horrible,” Trump continued.
“When we needed them, they were not there, We have to remember that,” the president added.
He then seemed to immediately contradict himself. “We didn’t need any help with Iran. We had Iran, right from the first day, it was over.”
“We didn’t need their help, but to a certain extent I asked them- I didn’t need their help but I said, ‘Yeah, we’d love to have you help’, because I wanted to see if they’d do it. And they, in all cases, they said, ‘We don’t want to get involved’. And you know the amazing thing is, they use the strait of Hormuz. We don’t use it. We don’t need it,” Trump said. “You would’ve thought they would have said, ‘We would love to help you,’ but they didn’t.”
The president then again attacked the chancellor of Germany, who pointed out on Monday that “the Americans clearly have no strategy” for ending the war in Iran. In response, Trump threatened to withdraw US troops from bases in Germany.
“He criticized me for doing the whole thing with Iran. But I said, ‘Would you like to have a nuclear weapon in the hands of Iran?’ He said, ‘No I don’t.’ I said, ‘Well, then I guess I’m right.’”
Trump has repeatedly claimed that the joint US-Israeli attack on Iran was necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, despite the fact that he claimed to have obliterated its uranium enrichment program with strikes last year, and US intelligence assessed that Iran had made no effort to produce a nuclear weapon since 2003.
During the same event, Brian Glenn, a correspondent for Real America’s Voice, who is engaged to former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, asked Trump a question braided with over-the-top praise.
“I’ve described you as the Peacemaker, you’re achieving peace around the world,” Glenn said when Trump called on him. “Due to these latest policies, Big Beautiful Bill, no tax on tips, no taxes on social security, no taxes on overtime, now the Trump accounts and then the IRA accounts, can we describe you as the Wealthmaker?”
Another correspondent, for the far-right, conspiratorial cable outlet One America News, Daniel Baldwin, recited what he called a host of good news for the economy and asked Trump if he believed that this was “evidence that the Big Beautiful Tax Cuts that you signed into law last year are working and do you think that the economy is going to continue to hum?”
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Prosecutors release video of accused gunman Cole Allen trying to storm White House Correspondents' dinner
Amid questions about whether or not Cole Allen, who is accused of trying to storm the White House Correspondent’s dinner on Saturday to kill Donald Trump, fired his weapon before being subdued, the top federal prosecutor in Washington DC, Jeanine Pirro released edited security-camera video of the incident in a social media post.
In a caption, Pirro said that the video showed Allen casing the hotel location the night before, and then shooting first as he rushed through a metal detector at a checkpoint.
The video, which is slowed down and annotated at certain points, was submitted as evidence on Thursday to the US district court where Allen was charged. It includes no audio.
While the video does show four muzzles flashes from the agent’s gun as he fired at Allen, it was not immediately clear that it does show Allen discharging his weapon after he pointed it at the agent.
The images suggest that Allen, who charged the checkpoint as officers were in the process of removing at least one of the two magnetometers used for screening guests, could have shot up to a dozen unsuspecting officers had they been his targets.
The video was posted shortly after Sean Curran, the director of the US Secret Service, told Pirro’s former employer, Fox News that Allen was stopped not by secret service gunfire, but by a box used to transport a metal detector, which he tripped over as he ran through a checkpoint outside the venue.
Curran confirmed that Allen was was not hit by any of the five shots fired at him by a secret service agent.
“It appears that the suspect hit his knee, while being engaged by the officer, on one of our magnetometer boxes, and began to fall to the ground,” Curran said.
Curran also reiterated the government’s claim that Allen fired first, hitting the agent who returned fire, but that contention has been challenged by the public defenders acting on Allen’s behalf and by a Washington Post video analysis of security-camera footage, which documented the firing of just four shots, all by the secret service agent.
In a letter to the federal prosecutors who brought charges against Allen, the public defenders noted that the acting attorney general Todd Blanche suggested that the government was still working to produce ballistic evidence that the secret service agent, identified by the initials VG, had been shot by Allen.
“We noticed that you did not describe the shotgun ammunition in your detention memorandum. We request that you provide a description of the ammunition,” they added. “Because some of Acting AG Blanche’s statements indicate that the recovered ballistics evidence is inconsistent with aspects of the government’s theory, evidence collected by the government and/or statements made by witnesses, we are entitled to this information prior to the detention hearing.”
The public defenders then asked for the government to provide any evidence it might have that cast doubt on the claim that Allen did fire at the secret service officer.
“Please provide the following information as it relates to the alleged shooting of the Secret Service Officer V.G.”, the wrote:
• Any information in law enforcement’s possession that Mr. Allen did not shoot V.G.
• Any information in law enforcement’s possession that Mr. Allen did not fire a shot at
or in the general direction of V.G.
• Any video, including any video enhanced by law enforcement that reveals footage that is inconsistent with the government’s theory that Mr. Allen fired the shotgun
In reply to that letter, the federal prosecutors wrote that their investigation was ongoing, but suggested they did, indeed, have evidence that Allen fired his weapon.
With respect to your specific requests for information, the government’s investigation is ongoing and its analysis of the crime scene evidence and recovered ballistics evidence is not yet complete.
The evidence gathered and analyzed to date establishes that your client fired his Mossberg 12-gauge pump-action shotgun at least one time as he ran past the magnetometers on the Terrace Level of the Washington Hilton hotel on April 25, 2026. When that weapon was recovered it had one spent cartridge case in the chamber which has been identified as having been fired in the Mossberg shotgun.
The government’s preliminary ballistics and video analyses show that your client fired his shotgun in the direction of USSS Officer V.G., which Officer V.G. observed. Additionally, at least one fragment was recovered from the crime scene that was physically consistent with a single buckshot pellet; that fragment was recovered from a location at the scene consistent with your client firing his shotgun in the direction of Officer V.G. The government is aware of no physical evidence, digital video evidence, or witness statements that are inconsistent with the theory that your client fired his shotgun in the direction of Officer V.G., or that Officer V.G. was indeed shot once in the chest while wearing a ballistic vest. The government notes that the analysis of the ballistic vest and related materials is ongoing and not yet complete.
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The White House said in a statement that Donald Trump has signed the Department of Homeland Security funding bill into law, which excludes immigration enforcement operations, bringing an end the longest government agency shutdown in history.
House passes temporary extension of Fisa warrantless spying powers
The US Congress has passed a 45-day extension of a law that grants US intelligence agencies warrantless spying powers.
Bitter infighting over section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in the Republican wing of Congress has repeatedly tanked conservative leaders’ plans to renew the controversial surveillance law for multiple years. The deadlock continued on Thursday, as the Republican House speaker Mike Johnson refused to include key reforms pushed by hardliners in his party and progressive Democrats.
In remarks before a final vote in the House, lawmakers opposed to a long-term extension of section 702 again called on Johnson to consider their concerns about how the surveillance program is abused to spy on Americans.
“We’re willing to give you 45 more days for us to negotiate this thing if the Speaker will actually sit down with us,” said US congressman Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, who has rallied against an extension of the program with no changes. “We can make this happen if we’re willing to get rid of all the chaos and the pandemonium we’ve seen over the last several days and simply sit down and have a meaningful conversation and write the legislation.”
Hardline Republicans across the aisle who took issue with section 702 welcomed Raskin’s remarks as they too expressed their fears about how the program surveils Americans’ communications. “Fisa databases have been used to query political activists, members of Congress and their staff, random romantic interests of FBI agents, and we’re being told, ‘Oh, don’t worry, it’s not being abused any more,” said Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky.
Hegseth testimony disrupted by Code Pink protester shouting 'We don't want to fight a war for Israel'
As our colleague Robert Tait reports, US defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s attempt to put a positive spin on the ongoing US war on Iran was immediately challenged, first by the ranking Democrat on the armed services committee, senator Jack Reed, who lambasted his “dangerously exaggerated” claims, and then by a protester who shouted, “you’re a war criminal!”
A Reuters photograph of the protester from the activist group Code Pink showed that he stood up in the audience behind Hegseth and held a sign reading “No War on Iran”, as a colleague recorded and Capitol Police officers quickly converged on him.
That video, recorded and posted online by fellow activists from the group Code Pink, showed that the protester shouted at Hegseth, as he being bundled away by Capitol Police officers: “You should be arrested. What you’re doing is despicable. The American people do not want to go into this war. We don’t want to fight a war for Israel!”
Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin also posted video of a brief interview with the protester in handcuffs outside the hearing room. “I’m being arrested because I oppose the war in Iran,” he said. We don’t want to fight this war for Israel… and we don’t want to commit war crimes.
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Trump dismissed the press corps from the Oval Office, but then quickly paused their departure to ask whether the assembled journalists, many from Maga-aligned outlets, liked the new floors.
“What I do best is I build,” Trump said, before launching into a, by his own admission, “tangent” on the difference between granite and marble. Granite is stronger, but marble, in the president’s opinion, is more beautiful. He said the White House raced to complete the new granite floor in time for King Charles’s visit.
“Did he love it?” one reporter asked. “Ooh he loved it and he’s seen some nice stones,” Trump replied.
“This is a Trump renaissance,” one person told him. “We’re fixing the White House,” he agreed.
Trump was asked whether he might start wearing a bullet proof vest after the latest incident at the White House correspondents dinner.
“I don’t know if I could handle looking 20lbs heavier,” Trump quipped, drawing laughs from the room. Of the secret service agents, he said: “Some of these guys are physical specimens.”
He mused that it might be useful to wear one, but “you don’t like to do it because you’re giving into a bad element,” he said.
He was previously asked about the shot that struck a US secret service officer during Saturday’s shooting outside the ballroom at the Washington Hilton.
“They say it was not friendly fire,” he said. “That’s what I heard.”
The officer was struck in the chest, but protected by a bulletproof vest. “He didn’t even want to go to the hospital,” Trump said, emphasizing the efficacy of the vest.
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Trump is taking questions in the Oval Office after signing an executive order on Thursday that aims to expand access to retirement plans for workers whose employers don’t provide one.
Asked about Iran, he claimed that they “want to make a deal badly”.
When pressed on whether the Iranian soccer team should be allowed to take part in the FIFA world cup this summer, Trump said if Fifa president Gianni Infantino – whom he called a “piece of work” – agreed the team should play, he would support that decision. “Let them play,” Trump said.
Iran’s participation has been the subject of uncertainty since the US and Israel launched airstrikes on the Islamic Republic in February, but Infantino insisted they will fulfil fixtures against New Zealand, Belgium and Egypt.
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We have some additional reporting on the major shake-up in the Maine Senate race, following Governor Janet Mills’s decision to suspend her bid.
My colleague, Shrai Popat, was in Portland reporting on the race this week, and files this report.
Mills decision to suspend her campaign now paves the way for Platner, a progressive newcomer with no experience in politics, to clinch the Democratic nomination. Platner has staked his campaign on fixing a “broken” political system that caters to the wealthy and fosters corruption.
At a campaign event in Augusta shortly after the announcement, Platner said that Mills’s decision to suspend her campaign was an example of the governor’s “commitment” to defeat Collins. “I look forward to working closely with [Mills] between now and November … to turn this seat blue again,” Platner added.
Mills, a two-term governor and longtime Maine politician who also served as the state’s attorney general, has yet to confirm whether she will endorse Platner. The governor was seen as one of Democrats’ top 2026 recruits when she entered the Senate race last year. She had the backing of Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, and prominent left-leaning advocacy groups, as they try pick up at least four seats to reclaim control of the upper chamber of Congress.
Senate Republicans again block effort to halt Trump's war in Iran
The Republican-led Senate on Thursday again blocked a Democratic attempt to stop Trump’s war in Iran, rejecting a war powers resolution that would have limited the conflict until Congress authorities further military action.
The vote was 47-50, with two Republicans – senator Susan Collins of Maine and Rand Paul of Kentucky – voting in favor and one Democrat – senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania – opposing it.
It was the sixth time this year that Democrats have forced a vote on a war powers resolution related to the US’s assault on Iran. All have failed, mostly along party lines.
The resolution’s author, Senator Adam Schiff, said Thursday’s vote was critical. Friday marks 60 days since the Trump administration notified Congress that it was carrying out strikes on Iran.
Under the War Powers Resolution of 1973, the president must terminate its military campaign at the end of the 60-day window, unless Congress has declared war or authorized the use of military force. Hegseth, testifying earlier on Capitol Hill, said the 60-day clock was paused due to the current ceasefire with Iran, though Democrats and critics have raised concerns with that interpretation.
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After bidding farewell to King Charles and Queen Camilla at the White House this morning, Trump turned to Truth Social to announce that he would remove tariffs and restrictions on whiskey “having to do with Scotland’s ability to work with Commonwealth of Kentucky”.
“In Honor of the King and Queen of the United Kingdom, who have just left the White House, soon headed back to their wonderful Country, I will be removing the Tariffs and Restrictions on Whiskey having to do with Scotland’s ability to work with the Commonwealth of Kentucky on Whiskey and Bourbon, two very important Industries within Scotland and Kentucky,” Trump wrote in a truth social post.
“People have wanted to do this for a long time, in that there had been great Inter-Country Trade, especially having to do with the Wooden Barrels used,” Trump continued, heaping praise on the royal couple. “The King and Queen got me to do something that nobody else was able to do, without hardly even asking! A wonderful Honor to have them both in the U.S.A.”
Trump pulls Casey Means nomination
Donald Trump on Thursday pulled his controversial nominee for US surgeon general, Casey Means, and announced a potential replacement.
The US president said that Means will continue to fight for the so-called Make America Healthy Again (Maha) movement spearheaded by health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr and decried the opposition to her nomination from Bill Cassidy, the Republican US senator of Louisiana and medical doctor, to Means’s nomination.
Trump then announced that he would nominate radiologist and Fox News contributor Dr Nicole Saphier for the post of US surgeon general.
Here’s more from my colleague Bob Tait who was following the hearing from Washington.
Pete Hegseth has failed to give Donald Trump an accurate picture of the war on Iran while resorting to “dangerously exaggerated” statements to create an inaccurate picture of a US military triumph, a senior Democrat told a Capitol Hill hearing on Thursday.
Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate armed services committee, told Hegseth, the defense secretary, that far from victory, US citizens were having to bear the cost of a war they did not support in the form of increased fuel prices.
“American families are bearing the cost of a war they wanted nothing to do with and have gained nothing from and yet, Secretary Hegseth, you declared victory a month ago,” said Reed, a senator from Rhode Island.
The comments came at the opening of the second successive day of congressional testimony from Hegseth and Dan Caine, the chairman of the US armed forces’ joint chiefs of staff, who are testifying over the Pentagon’s record $1.45tn military budget submission.
As with the previous day’s appearance before the equivalent committee in the House of Representatives, the hearing quickly devolved into confrontation over the war with Iran, which has become stalemated after eight weeks of fighting and seen the regime in Tehran close the strategically vital strait of Hormuz.
Read his dispatch in full below:
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Hegseth hearing ends
Hegseth faced nearly three hours of grilling before the Senate Armed Service Committee, alongside the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine. An anti-war protester shouted at the secretary as he stood to leave.
The senators press Hegseth on the costs and consequences of the Iran war, asking what the Pentagon was doing to prevent and minimize civilian harm. Democrats asked particularly pointed questions about Hegseth’s rhetoric, conduct and in one-back-and-forth, potential insider trading within the department.
At one point, Hegseth claimed that the 60-day legal limit for the war in Iran, which would be reached on Friday, was paused as a result of the ceasefire, an interpretation some experts and critics have cast as dubious.
Caine also acknowledged to senators that Russia has been aiding Iran’s war effort, but declined to provide further details given the public nature of the hearing.
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Senator Jacky Rosen, a Nevada Democrat, asked Hegseth about his comparison of the US press corps and Democratic senators the Pharisees who conspired to destroy Jesus Christ.
“It’s a problematic and historically weaponized term that casts Jewish communities as hypocritical and morally corrupt. What you choose to say, how we choose to say it – how do you justify using this language?” Rosen said.
“It’s a pretty accurate term for those who don’t see the plank in their own eye … so I stand by it,” Hegseth replied.
“Sir, I cannot stand for that. That is wrong,” she said.
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Congress votes to fund DHS, ending months-long partial government shutdown
A historically long 75-day partial government shutdown has ended after a voice vote in the House to advance funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) following a late-night Republican rally to boost a GOP budget blueprint.
The tides turned on Wednesday evening when the House passed the Republican resolution following a last-minute deal over unrelated ethanol fuel provisions that flipped enough holdouts to push it over the line.
That blueprint unlocked a procedural tool allowing Republicans to pass up to $75bn for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the border patrol on party lines, sidestepping Democratic demands for new oversight following the fatal shootings of two US citizens by federal agents in January.
Donald Trump has set a 1 June deadline for a final funding package to reach his desk. The White House has warned Congress that without action, it will be unable to pay most DHS employees from May. More than 1,100 Transpotation Safety Administration agents have so far quit since February.
A separate bill funding non-immigration DHS agencies must still pass before lawmakers leave for recess.
Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat of Arizona, pressed the Secretary on whether he stands by his statement of “no mercy, no quarter” for US enemies, which legal experts and Democrats have said could consitution a violation of international law.
Kelly has argued that Hegseth’s vow to take “no quarter” implies that enemy combatants will not be taken prisoner but instead executed, a war crime under the Hague Convention of 1899.
Kelly, a former Navy pilot, repeated the question, quoting the definition of “no quarter” from the department’s law of war manual, and asked if Hegseth wanted to provide any clarity on what he meant by the statement.
“We have untied the hands of our warfighters. We fight to win and we follow the law,” Hegseth said.
“You’re not clarifying your statement,” Kelly said. “You’re the secretary of defense. The things you say matter and your response right here, right now, makes it clear to the American people why you’re not right for this job.”
Notably, Hegseth had tried to punish Kelly for his participation in a video that implored US troops to reject unlawful orders. In February, a judge blocked the Pentagon from formally censuring Kelly over the video.
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In a back-and-forth with Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren, Hegseth said he did not invest in defense manufacturers in advance of the Iran war.
“I’ll give it to you as a big fat negative,” Hegseth told Warren.
“I’m not looking for money. I don’t do it for money,” he added.
“Prices are rising for nearly every American family, but someone is profiting off Trump’s war: insiders who know what’s going on and who place bets on that inside information,” Warren said in her remarks.
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A recent CBS story offers some context on this argument.
If the president wishes to continue the war without congressional approval, Katherine Yon Ebright, an attorney at the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program, said it’s possible that the Office of Legal Counsel tries to argue that the ceasefire stopped the 60-day clock and any further hostilities reset the clock altogether. But she said “that is not something that by its text or by its design the War Powers Resolution accommodates.”
“But there is a long history of executive branch lawyers willfully misinterpreting the War Powers Resolution to allow presidents to conduct hostilities even past that 60-day clock,” Ebright said.
In an exchange with Democratic senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, who has led several war powers resolutions attempting to reign in the president’s authority on use of military force, Hegseth argued that the 60-day limit for the Iran war had been “paused” during the ceasefire.
“We are in a ceasefire right now, which our understanding means the 60-day clock pauses or stops in a ceasefire,” he said.
Under the War Powers Act of 1973, the president has 60 calendar days after deploying troops into hostilities to terminate military operations not authorized by Congress. The 60-day limit will be reached on Friday, but Hegseth disagreed and explained the pause during the ceasefire.
“I do not believe the statute would support that,” Kaine replied.
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Democratic senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii asked Hegseth about his past comments in which he said “women shouldn’t serve in combat units.”
Noting that he recently ordered a review of women in combat roles, she asked if he was “laying the groundwork” to potentially reverse the policy.
“We are laser-focused on standards -- the highest male standard for every combat arms position should be the standard,” he said. Hirono said he didn’t answer the question and asked if his review would be made public.
“We’re doing that study for that very reason, to ensure that real science is applied to this question and not social engineering like the previous administration,” Hegseth retorted.
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The sharpness of the questions Hegseth is facing has largely fallen along partisan lines – Democrats are grilling him, while Republicans are mostly presenting opportunities for the secretary to champion the war as an unmitigated success.
In between praising Hegseth’s reverence for fallen soldiers, Republican senator Joni Ernst noted that she had been “disappointed” to see General Randy George’s retirement “hastened” earlier this month.
She “pulled the Army out of its worst recruiting crisis since the Vietnam era” and trimmed “nonessential” Army positions.
In April, the Pentagon said George would be “retiring from his position as the 41st Chief of Staff of the Army effective immediately. The Department of War is grateful for General George’s decades of service to our nation. We wish him well in his retirement.”
He was one of many long-serving officials to be removed from the US military under the Trump administration.
“He had 38 years of honorable service. He achieved the greatest Army recruitment and modernization effort in a generation,” Ernst said. “So I want to thank him for his service.”
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In another testy exchange, Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat of Connecticut, asked Hegseth if he agrees with the president’s assessment that Iran has been “military defeated”.
Blumenthal, like other Democrats, appeared to be trying to find disagreement between Trump and his defense secretary. But Hegseth didn’t bite, and instead lashed out Blumenthal’s characterization of the war.
“The negative nature in which you characterized the incredible and historic effort in Iran is part of the reason, senator, why the American people view it the way they do. It’s why I looked at the press corps at the Pentagon and called them pharisees in the press. It’s because they look for every problem that exists,” Hegseth said, adding: “Its defeatist Democrats like you that cloud the minds of the American people and would otherwise fully support preventing Iran from having a nuclear weapon,” Hegseth said.
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‘An unauthorized war’: Democrat grills Hegseth on US war with Iran
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat of New York, is up now. She begins by telling Hegseth: “I don’t know if you fully appreciate how much the American people do not support this war. It is an unauthorized war.”
She said New Yorkers are upset by the soaring cost of the war, and concerned about the death toll in Iran, particularly headlines confirming that a US missile struck a primary school in Minab, and the use of AI in warfare.
“I would just like to know why you have not sought the support of the American people?” she asked Hegseth in a testy exchange.
Hegseth retorted that the tone of the conversation was much different during the private session with the cameras off, a way of suggesting that Democrats are performing for the cameras.
“The question I would ask to you and to others is, what is the cost of a nuclear armed Iran?” Hegseth responded, insisting in the face of polling that shows the opposit that the administration does “have the support of the American people”.
“What is your response to targeting that has resulted in the destruction of schools, hospitals, civilian places? Why did you cut by 90% the division that’s supposed to help you not target civilians?” she asked.
Hegseth argued that the US’s commitment to preventing civilian deaths was “ironclad” commitment” and stronger than other countries.
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Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a staunch supporter of the president, called the US’s assault on Iran a “smashing military success”. He then asks Hegseth to explain what steps the US military is taking to mitigate US casualties.
Ensuring “force protection was maximized was the top priority”, Hegseth said.
The US has confirmed 13 service member deaths in the Iran war.
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Caine confirms Russian involvement in Iran war
Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, has told senators that Vladimir Putin has aided Iran’s war effort, something the Kremlin has previously denied to the White House.
Caine declined to go into details, citing the public nature of the hearing, but said: ”There’s definitely some action there.”
The chair of the committee, Republican senator Roger Wicker, agreed. “There’s no question that Vladimir Putin’s Russia is taking serious action to undermine our efforts for success in Iran,” Wicker said.
In his opening remarks to the Senate committee, Hegseth repeated what he told the House panel yesterday:
As I said yesterday, and I’ll say it again today, the biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless naysayers and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans.
Defending Trump’s budget request, he said the president had “inherited a defense industrial base that had been hollowed out by years of America last policies, resulting in a diminished capacity to project strength.”
Protesters interrupt Hegseth's opening statement
As Pete Hegseth was delivering his opening remarks, protesters interrupted him and was removed from the room.
One protester said as they were removed by security: “This is despicable, the American people [did] not want to go into this war.”
“We appreciate the first amendment rights of Americans to express themselves but disruptions of this hearing will not be tolerated,” said committee chair Roger Wicker, before inviting the defense secretary to continue his testimony.
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Top Democrat delivers sweeping critique of Hegesth's tenure
Senator Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the Senate armed services committee, did not hold back in his opening remarks directed at Pete Hegseth.
Hegseth and Trump had “unwisely” taken the United States to war against Iran, he said.
He argued that the war has left the US in a worse strategic position than when it was started with the strait of Hormuz closed and 13 US military members killed. Many others have been injured, and equipment has been destroyed, he added.
“American families are bearing the cost of a war they wanted nothing to do with and have gained nothing from,” he went on.
Reed then said Hegseth’s statements on the war are “dangerously exaggerated”, as Iran’s regime and its military and nuclear capabilities remain intact.
“Mr Secretary, I am concerned that you have been telling the president what he wants to hear instead of what he needs to hear,” he told Hegesth.
Hegseth has often made “dangerous statements that are counter-productive to the mission”, Reed added, including “orders that would constitute war crimes”.
And on Hegseth’s personal agenda in overhauling the merit-based system of the military and firing dozens of senior military leaders, Reed said:
My colleagues and I have heard from countless service members throughout the ranks, many of whom will be watching right now, who are confused and disturbed by your actions. Hopefully you can explain them today.
He concluded:
The American people’s trust in our military took 250 years to build. You are dismantling it in a fraction of that time.
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Meanwhile, King Charles and Queen Camilla arrived at the White House to say farewell as their four-day state visit comes to an end.
The monarchs shook hands with Donald and Melania Trump, with Trump calling Charles, “the greatest king in my book,” before they entered the White House.
A few minutes later, the king and queen departed. They’re expected to head to Arlington cemetery to lay a wreath before leaving for Bermuda.
“We need more people like that in our country,” Trump told reporters after their car left.
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To recap quickly, when he appeared before the House armed services committee yesterday, Pete Hegseth denied that the US-Israel war on Iran, which the Pentagon estimates has cost the US at least $25bn, is “a quagmire” and claimed critics of the operation posed a greater threat to the US and the war effort than Iran itself.
“The biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans,” he said.
Here’s my colleague Joseph Gedeon’s report:
Defense secretary Pete Hegseth and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine return to Capitol Hill today for a grilling from the Senate armed services committee.
Formally billed as a hearing on the defense department’s $1.5tn budget request, questioning is likely to focus mostly on the US’s deeply unpopular war on Iran, as it did yesterday in what was at times a fiery and combative hearing, as well as the tumultuous internal politics of Hegseth’s Pentagon.
It’s due to start shortly, I’ll be watching and will bring you all the key lines here.
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Louisiana postpones primaries as states rush to redraw districts after supreme court ruling
Further to the report I brought you earlier from the Washington Post, Louisiana has now moved to postpone its May primaries, as other southern states are also scrambling to redraw congressional districts in response to yesterday’s supreme court ruling that severely weakened the landmark Voting Rights Act.
Before the supreme court’s decision, eliminating a key protection against racial discrimination in drawing voting maps, some states had already begun initiating processes to redraw districts and gut black voting power. More states have now followed, with governors calling for special sessions to redraw congressional districts, potentially before the midterm elections in November.
Louisiana’s governor Jeff Landry and attorney general Liz Murrill, both Republicans, said in a joint statement today that the state can no longer use its current districts to carry out the primaries after the supreme court ruling. Early voting had been scheduled to begin on Saturday in advance of the 16 May primary.
“The State is currently enjoined from carrying out congressional elections under the current map,” Landry and Murrill said in the statement on social media Thursday. “We are working together with the Legislature and the Secretary of State’s office to develop a path forward.”
Louisiana is currently represented in the US House by four Republicans and two Democrats. A revised map could give Republicans a chance to pick up at least one more seat in the November midterm elections — adding to GOP gains elsewhere in Trump’s national redistricting battle.
Here’s my colleague Adria R Walker’s report:
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The US president also ramped up his criticism of German chancellor Friedrich Merz, saying he should focus on trying to end Russia’s war in Ukraine and spend “less time on interfering” with the effort to tackle “the Iran nuclear threat”.
Trump wrote on Truth Social:
The Chancellor of Germany should spend more time on ending the war with Russia/Ukraine (Where he has been totally ineffective!), and fixing his broken Country, especially Immigration and Energy, and less time on interfering with those that are getting rid of the Iran Nuclear threat, thereby making the World, including Germany, a safer place!
He has been sparring with Merz in recent days, after the German leader told students on Monday that Iran’s “very skilled negotiators” are “humiliating” the United States and that “the Americans clearly have no strategy” for the war.
Trump responded on Tuesday, saying Merz “doesn’t know what he’s talking about!” The next day, he threatened to reduce the number of US troops deployed in Germany.
Donald Trump has posted on Truth Social this morning renewing his call for ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel, saying “it better be soon”.
When is ABC Fake News Network firing seriously unfunny Jimmy Kimmel, who incompetently presides over one of the Lowest Rated shows on Television? People are angry. It better be soon!!!
It comes after he and his wife Melania Trump called for the network to sack the late-night talk show host over a monologue he delivered prior to the shooting at the White House correspondents’ dinner, accusing the comedian of inciting violence.
Kimmel has refused to apologize for saying that Melania was glowing “like an expectant widow”, pointing out that he made the comment two days before the shooting and that the joke was about the age difference between Donald and Melania.
“Donald Trump is allowed to say whatever he wants to say, as are you and as am I. Because under the First Amendment, we have, as Americans, a right to free speech,” Kimmel said last Tuesday.
The US’s top media watchdog, the Federal Communications Commission, led by Trump-appointed chair Brendan Carr, announced on Tuesday that it is accelerating the review of eight local broadcasting licenses used by ABC, in a move critics see as a clear example of political and regulatory retribution against a disfavored broadcaster.
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Governor Janet Mills drops Maine Senate bid weeks before primary clash
Maine governor Janet Mills has dropped her bid for the US Senate just weeks before the Democratic primary in a race that reflected an internal party debate over how to win one of this year’s most competitive Senate seats.
“While I have the drive and passion, commitment and experience, and above all else – the fight – to continue on, I very simply do not have the one thing that political campaigns unfortunately require today: the financial resources,” Mills said in a statement. “That is why today I have made the incredibly difficult decision to suspend my campaign for the United States Senate.”
Mills, a two-term governor and longtime Maine politician, was seen as one of Democrats’ top 2026 recruits when she entered the Senate race last year. She had the backing of Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, and prominent left-leaning advocacy groups hoping to unseat Susan Collins, a Republican senator, and help the party win control of the closely divided Senate.
But Mills struggled to outshine Graham Platner, a first-time candidate and her opponent in the 9 June Democratic primary. Platner has maintained strong popularity despite facing controversy over past comments he made online and a tattoo he had that is widely recognized as a Nazi symbol.
The contest between Platner and Mills was part of a broader debate within the Democratic party over how best to defeat Republicans and win back some power in Donald Trump’s Washington, where the GOP controls the White House and both chambers of Congress.
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Strait of Hormuz will be 'free from American presence', Iran's parliament speaker says
Iran’s powerful parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has vowed that Tehran’s control over the strait of Hormuz would ensure a future without US presence in the region.
“Today, by managing the Strait of Hormuz, Iran will provide itself and its neighbours with the precious blessing of a future free from American presence and interference,” said Ghalibaf in a post on X to mark the national “Persian Gulf” day.
It follows Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khameini saying in a written message read out on state television that the United States had been defeated in its war on Iran, and that foreigners who act with greed and malice have no place in the Gulf, “except at the bottom of its waters”.
Louisiana governor plans to suspend House primaries to allow time to redraw congressional map, Washington Post reports
Louisiana governor Jeff Landry yesterday told GOP candidates that he plans to suspend next month’s primary elections so that state lawmakers can pass a new congressional map first, the Washington Post (paywall) reported last night.
It came hours after the US supreme court decided that Louisiana’s creation of a second majority black congressional district to satisfy previously rulings relied too heavily on race and was “an unconstitutional racial gerrymander”, as opposed to a required effort to comply with the Voting Rights Act.
The ruling effectively guts a key provision of the Voting Rights Act that prevents racial discrimination in voting, and paves the way for aggressive gerrymandering in states across the nation that could affect elections for years to come.
But there is debate about how far the ruling will impact this year’s elections, as southern states keen to redraw their maps face a mad scramble to do so before November’s midterms. Experts believe that with such short notice, the ruling likely won’t deliver more than a handful of seats to the GOP in those elections.
But, per the Washington Post’s scoop, Louisiana could be one of the exceptions. According to its report, Landry’s announcement to suspend the 16 May primary could come as early as Friday — one day before early voting is to begin.
Other states including Florida, Mississippi and Alabama have also signaled similar plans. My colleagues wrote about that here.
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The ruling from the US supreme court destroying one of the last pillars of the 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) marks the end of a long and painstaking campaign to roll back civil rights legislation by two titans of the court’s rightwing majority, chief justice John Roberts and Samuel Alito.
Acting as an unspoken double act, the duo have chipped away at what has been called the crown jewel of the civil rights movement. Wednesday’s ruling in Louisiana v Callais is the fifth major supreme court decision authored by the two justices that have slowly but surely strangled efforts to protect the democratic rights of Black and other minority Americans.
The attack on section 2 of the VRA in this latest ruling eviscerates a critical tool that had been used for 40 years to prevent the political power of minority voters being diluted by largely Republican southern states in the drafting of electoral maps. The ruling finds that attempts to create a second electoral district in Louisiana that would give African American voters the chance to choose their own representatives proportionate to the state’s population, which is about one-third Black, was a form of “unconstitutional racial gerrymandering”.
The conclusion of the rightwing majority, voting 6-3 on ideological lines, overturns the clear will of Congress, laid down in the original 1965 statute and then overwhelmingly reaffirmed in later years. It was ironically done in the name of the equal protection clause of the US constitution which was designed with the opposite purpose in mind – to protect the interests of minority voters.
Oil price tops $126 a barrel after Trump warns Iran blockade could last ‘months’
The global oil price has soared above $126 a barrel, its highest level since 2022, after Donald Trump warned the US blockade of Iranian ports could last for months and peace talks remained stalled.
After surging more than 13% in 24 hours, the price of Brent crude futures reached its highest price since the war began on 28 February. Not since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has Brent topped $120, with the price then peaking at $139.
Oil markets have been spooked this week as Trump appeared willing to maintain the US navy’s blockade of Iranian ports, with Iran responding by keeping the strait of Hormuz all but shut to other oil tankers.
Market observers believe that traders are beginning to look beyond the early optimism that a diplomatic resolution could restore Gulf oil flows through the vital trade route, and towards “the reality of the supply situation”.
“The breakdown of talks between the US and Iran, along with President Trump reportedly rejecting Iran’s proposal for a reopening of the strait of Hormuz, has the market losing hope for any quick resumption in oil flows,” Warren Patterson, the head of commodities at investment bank ING, said.
Trump told oil executives this week that the US would “continue the current blockade for months if needed,” according to a White House official.
US officials hope the blockade will force Iran to cap its oil wells and shutter production once its oil facilities, such as Kharg Island, have filled to the brim.
“The blockade is somewhat more effective than the bombing,” Trump told Axios. “They are choking like a stuffed pig.”
A bit more now from Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei. He said in a written message on Thursday that the United States had been defeated in its war on Iran.
“Today, two months after the largest military deployment and aggression by the world’s bullies in the region, and the United States’ disgraceful defeat in its plans, a new chapter is unfolding for the Persian Gulf and the strait of Hormuz,” said Khamenei in the message read on state television.
House votes to reauthorize domestic surveillance
The US government’s effort to renew its warrantless domestic surveillance powers cleared the House of Representatives on Wednesday, after House speaker Mike Johnson and Trump administration officials persuaded Republican holdouts to back the bill.
The renewal of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act now goes to the Senate, where it faces a potentially rough reception because it was attached to unrelated legislation that would restrict the Federal Reserve’s ability to issue digital currency - something Senate majority leader John Thune has described as a non-starter.
The White House and Congressional leadership have piled pressure on recalcitrant lawmakers to endorse FISA, which has drawn bipartisan skepticism because a provision in the law - Section 702 - allows authorities to bypass warrant requirements before rifling through vast hauls of Americans’ communication data.
US spy chiefs have long defended the program, saying it provides an irreplaceable surveillance tool.
Lawmakers’ concerns over the warrantless spying have in past years repeatedly delayed attempts to renew the surveillance authority, although the intelligence community and its allies always won in the end.
'Foreigners act with greed and malice have no place in Gulf', says Iran's supreme leader
Iran’s supreme leader says that the Islamic Republic will protect its “nuclear and missile capabilities” as a national asset, even as US president Donald Trump tries to get a deal on those issues.
Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei spoke in a written statement read aloud on Iranian state television, as he has since he took over after the 28 February airstrike that killed his 86-year-old father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“Ninety million proud and honorable Iranians inside and outside the country regard all of Iran’s identity-based, spiritual, human, scientific, industrial and technological capacities - from nanotechnology and biotechnology to nuclear and missile capabilities – as national assets, and will protect them just as they protect the country’s waters, land and airspace,” Khamenei said.
“By God’s help and power, the bright future of the Persian Gulf region will be a future without America, one serving the progress, comfort and prosperity of its people,” Khamenei added in the statement.
“We and our neighbors across the waters of the Persian Gulf and the (Gulf) of Oman share a common destiny. Foreigners who come from thousands of kilometers away to act with greed and malice there have no place in it - except at the bottom of its waters.”
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British monarchs to say farewell to Trumps on last day of US state visit
Britain’s King Charles and Queen Camilla will end a four-day state visit to the US on Thursday with a formal farewell with US president Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump in Washington.
The king is then expected to lay a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River in Virginia, a sacred site for many Americans where tens of thousands of the country’s war dead are buried, as well as two presidents and some former Supreme Court justices.
The royal visit to the US, officially to commemorate the 250th anniversary of America’s Declaration of Independence from British rule, came at a time of tensions between Britain and the US, with Trump having criticized British prime minister Keir Starmer for what he says is his lack of help in the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Charles and Camilla are due to fly to Bermuda on Thursday evening, after attending events in Virginia.
A message from Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei will shortly be released on the occasion of “national Persian Gulf day“, the country’s state media said on Thursday.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth has previously said that Iran’s new leader, who has not been seen in public since the war began, is “disfigured”.
It comes at a time when Iran’s Gulf ports are under a US blockade.
US growth likely picked up in first quarter
US economic growth likely accelerated in the first quarter on a rebound in government spending after a crippling government shutdown, but the pickup is expected to be short-lived as the war with Iran drives up gasoline prices and squeezes household budgets.
The anticipated increase in gross domestic product last quarter also would reflect robust growth in business investment in equipment, fueled by an artificial intelligence spending boom and the building of data centers underpinning the technology, Reuters reported.
The Commerce Department’s advance estimate of first-quarter gross domestic product on Thursday is, however, expected to show consumer spending losing further momentum even before the US-Israeli war with Iran raised the average US gasoline price to above $4 a gallon.
“We remain in relatively slow growth mode, nothing exciting,” said Brian Bethune, an economics professor at Boston College. “There’s nothing really to get a good fire going. There are some warm embers, but there is no fire out there.“
Hegseth faces a second day of Democrats grilling him over the Iran war
Hello and welcome to our US politics coverage as Pete Hegseth faces a second day of grilling from Democrats on Capitol Hill, with senators getting their first opportunity to confront or praise the Pentagon chief over his handling of the Iran war.
The defense secretary battled with Democrats - and some Republicans - yesterday during a nearly six-hour House armed services committee hearing, where he faced questioning over the war’s costs in dollars, lives and the diminishing stockpiles of critical weapons.
The Senate armed services committee will hear a similar presentation on the Trump administration’s 2027 military budget proposal, which would boost defense spending to a historic $1.5 trillion.
Yesterday Hegseth denied that the US-Israel war on Iran, which the Pentagon estimates has cost the US at least $25bn, was “a quagmire”.
During the hearing, California Democrat John Garamendi attacked Hegseth over the “astounding incompetence” that Garamendi argued had led to “political and economic disaster at every level”.
“The president has gotten himself and America stuck in a quagmire of another war in the Middle East,” Garamendi said. “He is desperately trying to extricate himself from his own mistakes; it is in America’s, and indeed the world’s, interest he succeed in that.”
Hegseth was incensed, responding “Your hatred for president Trump blinds you to the truth of the success of this mission … you call it a quagmire, handing propaganda to our enemies? Shame on you for that statement.”
Stay with us today for round two starting at 10am ET. The chief of staffs, Dan Caine, and Jules Hurst III, chief financial official for the Pentagon, will also be appearing.
In other developments:
US economic growth likely accelerated in the first quarter on a rebound in government spending after a crippling government shutdown. The anticipated increase in gross domestic product last quarter also would reflect robust growth in business investment in equipment, fueled by an artificial intelligence spending boom and the building of data centers underpinning the technology. Figures will be out at 8.30am ET
King Charles and Queen Camilla are expected to make stops in Virginia before wrapping up their US visit back at the White House on Thursday with a formal farewell from Trump. Charles will then travel solo to Bermuda on his first visit as king to a British overseas territory.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said that Democrats will once again force a vote on a war powers resolution on Iran, the sixth time in recent weeks. “This week, Democrats will force a vote on our war powers resolution for the sixth time. We’ll continue to force votes every week as this war rages on,” Schumer said from the Senate floor.
The House approved a three-year reauthorization of a divisive US surveillance program ahead of its expiration on Friday, adding new oversight measures but stopping short of the warrant requirement that critics have demanded. A large group of Democrats joined most Republicans in passing the bill by a 235-191 vote.
Trump once again reinforced his feelings towards James Comey in a social media post. Commenting on the accusation that the former FBI director called for him to be killed after posting a picture of some seashells in a pattern showing 86 47, Trump wrote: ““86” is a mob term for “kill him.” They say 86 him! 86 47 means “kill President Trump.”James Comey, who is a Dirty Cop, one of the worst, knows this full well! EIGHT MILES OUT, SIX FEET DOWN! Didn’t he also lie to the FBI about this??? I think so!”. Trump is the 47th president of the US.
The US supreme court’s conservative majority struck down a major element of the Voting Rights Act which protects against racial discrimination in redistricting, in a ruling that paves the way for aggressive gerrymandering in states across the nation that could affect elections for years to come.
The Florida Legislature approved a new congressional map intended to maximize Republicans’ advantage in the state as part of the national redistricting battle that Republicans launched ahead of this year’s midterms.
Outgoing Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said he will stay on as a central bank governor when his leadership term ends in just over two weeks.
The Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that three anti-ICE protesters have been charged with allegedly assaulting Savannah Hernandez, a rightwing video journalist who was shoved to the ground during a skirmish with three members of a family outside an immigration detention facility in St Paul Minnesota this month.
