Closing summary
Our live coverage is ending now. In the meantime, you can find all of our live US politics coverage here. Here is a summary of the key developments from today:
Tulsi Gabbard oversaw an investigation into Puerto Rico’s voting machines last spring, Reuters reports, citing Gabbard’s office and three sources familiar with the events. A team working for the director of national intelligence, alongside the FBI, was tasked with investigating claims that Venezuela hacked voting machines in Puerto Rico – a claim it was not able to substantiate, Reuters’ sources said. Gabbard’s office confirmed the investigation but denied a link to Venezuela. The news comes just more than a week after Gabbard appeared at an FBI raid of an election facility in Fulton county, Georgia.
During a wide-ranging interview with NBC News, Donald Trump said Iran’s supreme leader should be “very worried”, defended homeland security secretary Kristi Noem and said ruling out an unconstitutional third term would “make life so much less exciting”. The president also declined to say whether he would support a presidential campaign by his vice president JD Vance or his secretary of state Marco Rubio.
Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered remarks at the Washington Press Club Foundation’s 80th annual Congressional Dinner, noting that “Democracy dies in darkness”, in a dig at the Washington Post’s recent layoffs of one-third of its reporters. “Those who fear transparency and accountability fear the press,” she added, naming the arrest of Don Lemon and the raid on a home of a Washington Post journalist last month.
A federal judge has ruled that Elon Musk must be deposed in a case over the government’s defunding of the US Agency for International Development. Under the Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency”, USAID went from a global workforce of more than 10,000 employees to around 600, and more 83% of the agency’s programs were abruptly terminated worldwide.
Congressman Barry Loudermilk, who has represented Georgia’s 11th congressional district since 2015, will not seek re-election when his term ends next year. Loudermilk serves as the chair of a House judiciary subcommittee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
Tom Homan said that the Trump administration will draw down 700 immigration enforcement officers. He said this was as a result of increased coordination between county jails and federal officials. Homan also noted that “around 2000” immigration officers remain in Minnesota after today’s most recent drawdown announcement. He added that the pre-operation number was between 100 and 150 officers.
Democratic lawmakers said today that “dramatic changes” are needed at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as they continue their negotiations over a full-year appropriations bill. The Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, said that the party is also demanding the end of “roving patrols”, “independent oversight by state and local governments” and “no secret police”.
A man convicted of trying to assassinate Donald Trump on a Florida golf course in 2024 has been sentenced to life in prison. Ryan Routh also received a consecutive seven-year sentence for one of his gun convictions.
Trump has said that he’s learned his administration could use “a little bit of a softer touch” on immigration enforcement, after the immense backlash to his ongoing crackdown in Minnesota.
The supreme court has ruled that California may proceed with implementing a congressional map voters approved last November. The map is likely to give Democrats five more seats in Congress, and was drawn after Texas redrew its congressional maps to create districts that will probably give Republicans five more seats.
Senator Ron Wyden sent a classified letter to the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, according to a press release and unclassified letter shared by Wyden’s office.
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Democratic leaders have shared a list of reforms they are calling for ICE to make as a part of ongoing talks over funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
In a letter to congressional Republican leadership, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries outlined 10 desired changes to ICE practices, including banning the use of face coverings and requiring officers wear identification, protecting sensitive locations such as hospitals and churches and ending racial profiling. The list also called for targeted enforcement strategies, including requiring a judicial warrant to enter a property, and ensuring state and local law enforcement are allowed to investigate incidents involving federal agents.
“After months of escalation against everyday Americans and law-abiding immigrant families, two U.S. citizens were killed in the streets of Minneapolis. Federal immigration agents cannot continue to cause chaos in our cities while using taxpayer money that should be used to make life more affordable for working families,” they wrote.
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Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi delivered remarks at the Washington Press Club Foundation’s 80th annual Congressional Dinner, noting that “Democracy dies in darkness”, in a dig at the Washington Posts’ recent layoffs of one-third of its reporters.
“In our democracy, defense of the first amendment can and should be bipartisan,” she said. “I always say the press is the guardian of our democracy.”
Pelosi shared an example of recent bipartisan support for journalists – drawing attention to the case of Jimmy Lai, a British Hong Kong journalist imprisoned in Beijing. Pelosi said she encouraged current House speaker Mike Johnson to call out China’s imprisonment of Lai during a recent visit to the UK House of Commons.
But she continued, criticizing “a president that has crowned himself king” and a “supreme court that has gone rogue”.
“Make no mistake: the first amendment is under threat here at home,” she said. “Facts are challenged, truth is distorted and the press is treated by those in power as an enemy – fake news they call it – rather than treat the press as a vital partner. We see efforts to intimidate journalists, to discredit legitimate reporting and to replace evidence with conspiracy. That is not accidental, that is a strategy.”
“Those who fear transparency and accountability fear the press,” she added, naming the arrest of Don Lemon and the raid on a home of a Washington Post journalist last month.
She also noted “painful layoffs at the Washington Post” today. “When corporate interests gut local, national and international journalism, communities lose watchdogs, truth loses megaphones and democracy loses guardians.”
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Nancy Pelosi, the former House of Representatives, has begun speaking to hundreds of guests at the Washington Press Club Foundation’s annual Congressional dinner.
But there is still a hubbub of voices and clatter of plates under nine crystal chandeliers in the ballroom at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, suggesting that not everyone is paying attention.
Various members of Congress and journalists are sitting at round dining tables with white table cloths and a booklet of recipes, including “Nancy Pelosi’s chocolate mousse”.
The Guardian’s table includes Democratic congresswomen Sharice Davids and Ilhan Omar. Your on-site blogger is struggling to hear Pelosi above all the chatter but just caught a reference to Don Lemon. Dessert is being served.
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JD Vance calls Donald Trump's attack on Kaitlan Collins for not smiling 'so perceptive'
JD Vance, the vice-president Donald Trump again refused to endorse as his successor in an interview on Wednesday, used an appearance on Megyn Kelly’s podcast to praise his boss for attacking the CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins for not smiling, as she asked him about the victims of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse.
Speaking to the former Fox News host, Vance brought up Trump’s decision to scold Collins in the Oval Office on Tuesday, calling the question of why she does not smile more in the president’s presence “so perceptive.”
“Even if you’re asking a tough question, even if you take your job very seriously, like, why does it always have to be so antagonistic?” the vice-president asked.
Kelly interjected to say that it was absurd that people called Trump sexist for scolding Collins, since she herself had made the same observation about the CNN host last year.
“She never smiles! Every once it a while, you have to smile,” Kelly said. “Roger Ailes used to tell us that,” she added.
“Have some fun” Vance chimed in.
Kelly’s reference to Ailes, the former Fox News chairman, was odd because he was forced to resign from running the conservative network after one former female host accused him of “severe and pervasive sexual harassment” and others, including Kelly, said they were harassed by him as well.
Vance and Kelly made no mention of the fact that Trump exploded at Collins for not smiling as she was asking about a sensitive subject: the feelings of victims of Epstein’s abuse. After Trump suggested that it was time for the country to move on from the Epstein scandal, Collins asked: “What would say to the survivors who feel that they haven’t gotten justice?”
After Trump berated Collins for not smiling as she asked him that question, she explained: “These are survivors of a sexual abuser”.
Kamala Harris’ former campaign social media account shared a post teasing a major announcement tomorrow. No additional details were provided.
A federal judge has ruled that Elon Musk must be deposed in a case over the government’s defunding of the US Agency for International Development. It’s the latest twist in a lawsuit brought last year by dozens of current and former USAID staff against the actions of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
The plaintiffs allege that Musk led the effort to slash funding at the aid agency and used authority outside of his role as a “special government employee”. According to Wednesday’s filing by US District Judge Theodore Chuang, plaintiffs allege that “Musk personally made many of these decisions” and “his own statements on social media during the relevant time period provide evidentiary support for that conclusion”.
Under the Doge cuts, USAID went from a global workforce of more than 10,000 employees to around 600, and more 83% of the agency’s programs were abruptly terminated worldwide.
In November, the Justice Department filed a motion requesting that Musk be precluded from any depositions in the case. It also requested that Peter Marocco, a Donald Trump ally who was tasked with overseeing USAID as it was eviscerated by Doge, and Jeremy Lewin, a former Doge team lead who went on to temporarily become the chief operating officer for USAID, also be precluded from depositions.
The Justice Department referred to the “apex doctrine” for its argument, which precludes depositions of high-ranking government officials.
In Chuang’s ruling on Wednesday, he said it’s unclear whether Musk, Marocco and Lewin were ever high-ranking government officials, and even if they were, they are no longer in their Doge and USAID positions. Chuang also said these three individuals were reportedly making decisions about the fate of USAID and the Justice Department hasn’t offered lower-ranking officials who could be deposed in their place.
Gabbard investigated Puerto Rico before Georgia - Reuters
Tulsi Gabbard oversaw an investigation into Puerto Rico’s voting machines last spring, Reuters reports, citing Gabbard’s office and three sources familiar with the events.
A team working for the director of national intelligence, alongside the FBI, was tasked with investigating claims that Venezuela hacked voting machines in Puerto Rico – a claim it was not able to substantiate, Reuters’ sources said. Gabbard’s office confirmed the investigation but denied a link to Venezuela.
The news comes just more than a week after Gabbard appeared at an FBI raid of an election facility in Fulton county, Georgia.
As my colleague Hugo Lowell reported:
Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, is running her own review into the 2020 election with Donald Trump’s approval, working separately from a justice department investigation even as she joined an FBI raid of an election center in Georgia last week.
Her presence at the raid drew criticism from Democrats and former intelligence officials, who questioned why the country’s top intelligence officer with no domestic law enforcement powers would appear at the scene of an FBI raid.
Donald Trump, who has repeatedly and falsely claimed the 2020 election was rigged, escalated his rhetoric around election security this week when he suggested on a conservative podcast that Republican state officials “take over” and “nationalize” elections in 15 states to protect the party from being voted out of office.
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Donald Trump said “I can’t talk about that” when asked whether his administration had previous contact with Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez before the US military captured president Nicolás Maduro.
The president did say “so far she’s done a great job”.
When asked about US relations with Cuba shortly after, Trump said, “We are talking with Cuba.”
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Trump won't rule out attempt at unconstitutional third term and mulls Vance and Rubio's 2028 prospects
Asked by NBC News’ Tom Llamas if there was any possibility he would still be in power after the conclusion of his second term, Trump said ruling out an unconstitutional third term would “make life so much less exciting”.
Trump touted a strong bench of conservative candidates and promoted the idea of a Vance and Rubio presidential ticket in 2028 – though declined the parlor game question of who would top it.
“Well, I don’t want to get into this. We have three years to go. I don’t want to, you know, I have two people that are doing a great job. I don’t want to have an argument with, or I don’t want to use the word ‘fight’– it wouldn’t be a fight,” Trump said. “But look, JD is fantastic, and Marco is fantastic.”
Pressed on how Vance and Rubio differ, Trump mused that it was Llamas’s most “interesting” question of the lengthy and wide-ranging interview.
“I would say one is slightly more diplomatic than the other,” Trump said, though did not specify which. “I think they’re both of very high intelligence.”
“They’re both very capable,” he added. “I do think this: The combination of JD and Marco would be very hard to be beaten, I think. But you never know in politics, right?”
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Trump said on Wednesday that his pick to lead the Fed, Kevin Warsh, wouldn’t have received the job had he indicated he would have raised interest rates.
Pressed by host Tom Llamas whether the Fed was an “independent body”, Trump replied: “I mean, in theory, it’s an independent body. But I think, you know, I’m a smart guy. I know the economy better than almost everybody.”
Historically the Federal Reserve has operated as independent, as a way to insulate monetary policy decisions from short-term political pressure.
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Chad Davis, a Minneapolis photographer who is documenting his city’s response to the deployment of thousands of federal immigration agents to his city, photographed an unusual street scene on Wednesday.
On one snow-covered front lawn in south Minneapolis, the part of the city where Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed by federal officers in recent weeks, Davis came across a large display in the form of a giant paper bag like those used by the fast-casual chain Cava stuffed with huge, replica $50 bills. On the bag were the words: “Homan” and “$50k To Go”, a reference to reporting that the person overseeing the federal immigration surge in the city, Tom Homan, accepted a $50,000 bag of cash from an undercover FBI agent in return for political favors. At the bottom of the bag is the slogan: “ICE GTFO of MN.”
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Trump again defended his homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, as calls grow for her ouster after federal immigration agents shot and killed two people in Minneapolis last month.
“She was in charge of the border,” he said. “The border’s closed.”
Several top congressional Democrats have called for her to resign or to face impeachment.
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Donald Trump said Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, should be “very worried” about a US military buildup in the Middle East after a violent crackdown against anti-government demonstrations in Tehran last month.
He also warned Iran not to try to restart their nuclear program. “You do that, we’re going to do bad things to you,” he said in an interview with NBC News that aired on Wednesday.
His remarks come as the US and Iran salvaged talks scheduled for Friday after the US initially rejected Iran’s request to move them from Turkey to Oman.
“That country’s a mess right now because of us,” Trump said of Iran. “We went in, we wiped out their nuclear if I didn’t take out the nuclear, think of it. If we didn’t take out that nuclear, we wouldn’t have peace in the Middle East.”
Trump has previously said the country needs “new leadership”.
More than 60% of voters think the Trump administration has not given an honest account of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old ICU nurse who was killed by ICE agents in Minneapolis last month, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll.
A majority of voters also believe the homeland security secretary Kristi Noem should be removed from her position, and 80% think there should be an independent investigation into Pretti’s shooting.
The poll’s findings fall largely along partisan lines, with 93% of Democrats saying they did not believe the Trump administration’s account and 60% of Republicans saying that they did.
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Adults across the world were far more likely to name the economy as the greatest problem facing their countries than other issues like safety, food and shelter, the environment, healthcare or immigration, according to a new Gallup poll.
The poll found that 23% of adults across 107 countries named the economy as their country’s most important problem – while 10% listed work.
Among high-income nations like the United States, younger people were more likely to cite economic concerns than their older peers. About one-third of adults under the age of 35 raised concerns about affordability in the poll, compared with only 13% of those 55 and older.
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The CIA has shuttered its longtime favorite reference manual, the World Factbook.
In an announcement on its website, titled “Spotlighting the World Factbook as We Bid a Fond Farewell”, the CIA said: “The World Factbook served the Intelligence Community and the general public as a longstanding, one-stop basic reference about countries and communities around the globe” but gave no reason for its closure.
The Factbook was first published in 1962 as a classified manual for staff, with an unclassified version first released in 1971. In 1997, the World Factbook went online at CIA.gov, where it received millions of views each year from researchers, pop science aficionados and others seeking information on other countries.
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Immigration agents have arrested more than 4,000 people since Operation Metro Surge began in Minnesota, according to White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt.
Leavitt called those arrested “dangerous criminal illegal aliens” and said that “Democrats opened our borders and allowed vicious criminals, including murderers, rapists, gang members and terrorists to invade our communities”, adding that “President Trump is reversing that horrific damage”.
She did not include specific data on the number of those arrested who have been convicted or deported.
The Trump administration has classified immigrants across the country as “vicious”, labeling them as gang members or other criminals in order to justify their arrest – or as in the case of two people in Portland, Oregon, last month, their shooting.
Highly public cases of those detained so far in Minnesota have included five-year-old Liam Ramos and 10-year-old Elizabeth Caisaguano.
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Georgia Congressman Barry Loudermilk says he will not seek re-election when his term ends
Congressman Barry Loudermilk, who has represented Georgia’s 11th congressional district since 2015, will not seek re-election when his term ends next year. Loudermilk serves as the chair of a House judiciary subcommittee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.
“I believe it is time to contribute to my community, state and nation in other ways,” Loudermilk said in a statement. “I have learned throughout my life that doing what is right is not always easy, convenient or popular. My wife and I have prayed diligently and discussed this extensively; and, while this is not an easy decision, we believe it is the right one. While serving my constituents in Congress ranks among my greatest honors, being a husband, a father and a grandfather holds even greater importance to me; and at this time, I wish to spend more dedicated time with my family.”
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Senator Ron Wyden has sent a classified letter to the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, according to a press release and unclassified letter shared by Wyden’s office.
“I write to alert you to a classified letter I sent you earlier today, in which I express deep concerns about CIA activities,” Wyden wrote in the unclassified letter to Ratcliffe.
Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, is the longest-serving member of the Senate select committee on intelligence.
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Virginia will no longer deputize state police to enforce immigration laws, after an executive order that the state’s governor, Abigail Spanberger, signed today. Former governor Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, had signed an executive order last year directing state police and corrections officers to assist with federal immigration enforcement.
“This doesn’t preclude any sort of coordination or taskforce-related work; it doesn’t preclude any federal agency coming with a judicial warrant and requesting assistance,” Spanberger said. “But taking Virginia law enforcement, state agency personnel, and basically giving them over to ICE is something that ends today.”
Here’s more of our past reporting on federal efforts to recruit local police for immigration enforcement purposes:
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The White House says the findings of a major Human Rights Watch report released today, finding that “the rules-based international order is being crushed” under “relentless pressure from US President Donald Trump”, are untrue.
“Human Rights Watch suffers from an organization-wide case of Trump Derangement Syndrome – they have been attacking the president before he even took office,” said spokesperson Anna Kelly. “President Trump has done more for human rights than this Soros-funded, left-wing group ever could by ending eight wars, saving countless lives, protecting religious freedom, ending Biden’s weaponization of government, and more.”
In an introductory essay to the 529-page World Report, Human Rights Watch executive director Philippe Bolopion wrote: “To be fair, the downward spiral predated Trump’s reelection. The democratic wave that began over 50 years ago has given way to what scholars term a ‘democratic recession.’ Democracy is now back to 1985 levels according to some metrics, with 72 percent of the world’s population now living under autocracy. Russia and China are less free today than 20 years ago. And so is the United States.”
Bolopion called 2025 “a tipping point”, adding: “In just 12 months, the Trump administration has carried out a broad assault on key pillars of US democracy and the global rules-based order, which the US, despite inconsistencies, was, with other states, instrumental in helping to establish.”
Here’s more coverage on the report:
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The supreme court has ruled that California may proceed with implementing a congressional map voters approved last November. The map is likely to give Democrats five more seats in Congress, and was drawn after Texas redrew its congressional maps to create districts that will probably give Republicans five more seats.
Today’s supreme court ruling rejects an effort by the state’s Republican party and the Trump administration to block California’s redrawn map. Earlier this year, the court ruled that Texas could proceed with implementing its own new congressional map, redrawn to favor Republicans.
Here’s more of our past coverage of the effort to redraw congressional maps in a scramble before the midterms:
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The Fulton county commission chair, Robb Pitts, said at a press conference this morning that he received a phone call last Monday – two days before the FBI served a criminal warrant to seize 2020 election documents – to warn that he, Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, former Raffensperger deputy Gabriel Sterling and others in the state were at risk of imminent arrest by federal agents.
“That did not happen on Monday,” Pitts said. “It didn’t happen on Tuesday, but lo and behold on Wednesday, the FBI shows up.”
Pitts would not disclose who called him, identifying them only as someone familiar with Washington DC, and the Guardian has not reported or confirmed that any of the three officials are under investigation.
The FBI has maintained a seal on the affidavit that federal officials used to obtain the criminal warrant. Pitts held a press conference on Wednesday to announce that the county had filed a motion for the ballots and other election material to be returned, and for that affidavit to be unsealed.
“Because the case is still under seal at this time, I cannot share the contents of the motion itself,” he said. “We will use every resource at our disposal to fight for their vote and that we will fight using all resources against those who seek to take over our elections. Our constitution itself is at stake in this fight.”
The press conference came amid deep confusion over an unprecedented raid that turns the presidential election disputes of 2020 into a criminal case.
Here's a recap of the day so far
Tom Homan said that the Trump administration will drawdown 700 immigration enforcement officers. He said this was as a result of increased coordination between county jails and federal officials. “This frees up more officers to arrest or remove criminal aliens, more officers taking custody of criminal aliens directly from the jails, means less officers on the street doing criminal operations,” Homan said.
Homan noted that “around 2000” immigration officers remain in Minnesota after today’s most recent drawdown announcement. He added that the pre-operation number was between 100 and 150 officers.
Democratic lawmakers said today that “dramatic changes” are needed at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as they continue their negotiations over a full-year appropriations bill. The Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, said that the party is also demanding the end of “roving patrols”, “independent oversight by state and local governments” and “no secret police”.
A man convicted of trying to assassinate Donald Trump on a Florida golf course in 2024 has been sentenced to life in prison. US district judge Aileen Cannon pronounced Ryan Routh’s fate in the same Fort Pierce courtroom that erupted into chaos in September when he tried to stab himself shortly after jurors found him guilty on all counts. Routh also received a consecutive seven-year sentence for one of his gun convictions.
Donald Trump has said that he’s learned his administration could use “a little bit of a softer touch” on immigration enforcement, after the immense backlash to his ongoing crackdown in Minnesota. “You still have to be tough,” Trump said in a forthcoming interview with NBC News. “These are criminals we’re dealing with, really hard criminals.”
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Steve Bannon, the former White House strategist and rightwing podcast host, said he wants to see immigration agents at the polls in November, a proposal that election officials have feared.
Bannon has no formal power, but is an influential figure on the far right and is closely tied with the Trump administration.
Donald Trump this week again suggested that the federal government “should take over the voting” and federalize elections, which are run by local and state jurisdictions, as part of his ongoing false claims that Democrats have stolen elections.
He also reiterated lies that undocumented people are brought to the US to vote and their participation led to Democratic electoral victories.
Repeating false claims that undocumented people vote in large numbers in US elections, Bannon said on his War Room show on Tuesday: “You’re damn right we’re gonna have ICE surround the polls come November.”
The comments come as elections officials nationwide grow more concerned about potential interference from the Trump administration in this year’s midterms. One of those fears is that immigration agents will be near polling places or have a heavy footprint in Democratic areas on election day.
Law enforcement presence at the polls is generally seen as a negative among election officials, and in some places subject to legal parameters, because it can intimidate voters from casting their ballots. Immigration agents, in particular, have caused people – including US citizens and otherwise legal residents – to stay home for fear of detention or racial profiling.
Trump says that administration could use 'softer touch' on immigration in forthcoming interview
Donald Trump has said that he’s learned his administration could use “a little bit of a softer touch” on immigration enforcement, following the immense backlash to his ongoing crackdown in Minnesota. “You still have to be tough,” Trump said. “These are criminals we’re dealing with, really hard criminals.”
In an forthcoming interview with NBC News, Trump said that the decision to draw down 700 officers in the North Star state came from him, but the administration is “waiting for [Minnesota] to release prisoners”.
The president added: “Give us the murderers that they’re holding and all of the bad people, drug dealers, all of the bad people we allowed in our country.”
As we reported earlier, Minnesota’s department of corrections (DOC) already coordinates with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when an undocumented immigrant, convicted of a felony, is scheduled for release. Both the DOC and the “border czar”, Tom Homan, have confirmed this cooperation, guaranteed under state law, is taking place.
County jails, however, are a separate matter. They do not fall under the purview of the DOC. In Minnesota, it’s a patchwork, as individual sheriffs choose whether to work with federal immigration enforcement.
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In response to Tom Homan’s announcement that the Trump administration will draw down 700 federal officers in Minnesota, the state’s governor, Tim Walz, said the news was “a step in the right direction”.
However, he added that the state needs a “faster and larger drawdown of forces, state-led investigations into the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, and an end to this campaign of retribution”.
Meanwhile, Minneapolis’s mayor, Jacob Frey, said that that while the scaling back of agents and the news that body-cameras will be issued to immigration enforcement agents was encouraging, “2,000 ICE officers still here is not de-escalation”.
“My message to the White House has been consistent – Operation Metro Surge has been catastrophic for our residents and businesses. It needs to end immediately.”
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An ICE attorney who publicly expressed frustrations with her role and told a court “this job sucks” is no longer detailed to the US attorney’s office for the district of Minnesota, according to NBC News.
“The system sucks. This job sucks,” Julie Le, an attorney representing the US attorney’s office in Minnesota, said in response to a federal judge’s questions on why ICE has repeatedly failed to comply with court orders.
“I wish you would hold me in contempt so I would have a full 24 hours sleep,” she added in comments that quickly went viral.
US district judge Jerry Blackwell had ordered Le, as well as assistant US attorney Ana Voss, to appear in his Saint Paul courtroom on Tuesday to explain why the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) missed multiple deadlines to release five detainees who the judge said never should have been arrested in the first place.
“A court order is not advisory, and it is not conditional,” Blackwell said. “It is not something that any agency can treat as optional as it decides how or whether to comply.”
During the hearing, Le acknowledged that many at the DHS did not understand the seriousness of an order from a federal judge.
“It took a long, long, long time, and many orders to show cause to explain and let them know that if you don’t fix it, I’m going to quit and you’re going to be dragging yourself into court,” she said.
Le said that she moved from her job as an ICE lawyer to the Minnesota US attorney’s office on 5 January to help it respond to an influx of civil filings of detainees, known as petitions of habeas corpus.
Le also told the court that she had previously submitted her resignation, after handling more than 88 immigration cases in less than a month. She ultimately ended up staying in the role because there was no one to replace her.
It comes amid intense scrutiny of the ICE operations in Minnesota, which have resulted in the detention of adults and children without criminal records, including Liam Ramos, the five-year-old in the viral photograph being detained by ICE agents in his bunny hat.
Tom Homan, the White House “border czar”, announced today that about 700 federal agents would leave Minnesota, a large decrease in the number of agents on the ground but still leaving about 2,000 agents remaining there, far above typical levels for the state.
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Man who tried to assassinate Trump in Florida sentenced to life in prison
A man convicted of trying to assassinate Donald Trump on a Florida golf course in 2024 has been sentenced to life in prison.
US district judge Aileen Cannon pronounced Ryan Routh’s fate in the same Fort Pierce courtroom that erupted into chaos in September when he tried to stab himself shortly after jurors found him guilty on all counts.
“It’s clear to me that you engaged in a premeditated, calculated plot to take a human life,” Cannon said.
Routh also received a consecutive seven-year sentence for one of his gun convictions.
Shackled at the hands and wearing beige prison garb, Routh gave a rambling address in court focused on foreign wars and his desire to be exchanged with political prisoners abroad. “I have given every drop of who I am every day for the betterment of my community and this nation,” Routh said.
Prosecutors said Routh spent weeks plotting to kill Trump before aiming a rifle through shrubbery as the then Republican presidential candidate played golf on 15 September 2024, at his West Palm Beach country club.
At Routh’s trial, a Secret Service agent helping protect Trump on the golf course testified that he spotted Routh before Trump came into view. Routh aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire, causing Routh to drop his weapon and run away without firing a shot.
Here’s the full report:
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Delayed jobs report to be released next week, BLS says
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics has said that January’s employment report will be released next Wednesday after being delayed by the three-day government shutdown, Reuters reports.
The BLS said the consumer price index report for January will now be published next Friday instead of on Wednesday; while the job openings and labor turnover survey report for December, which was due on Tuesday, will be released on Thursday this week.
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Democratic lawmakers say 'dramatic changes' needed from DHS as negotiations continue
Speaking at the US Capitol today, Senate and House Democrats said that “dramatic changes” are needed at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as they continue their negotiations over a full-year appropriations bill
A reminder that Trump signed a stopgap spending measure on Tuesday that funds the DHS until 13 February while lawmakers hammer out guardrails.
The Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, said that the party is also demanding the end of “roving patrols”, “independent oversight by state and local governments” and “no secret police”.
Democrats have pushed for the need of judicial warrants to conduct raids, a reduction in aggressive tactics, and for agents to not wear masks.
“You can’t just stop anybody on the street … and not even tell them why they’re picked up,” Schumer said today. He added that Democrats hope to get a legislative proposal together to submit “within the next 24 hours”.
Schumer said that he hopes Republicans in both chambers will negotiate in good faith, but they also need to get the White House “on board”.
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The Washington Post laid off hundreds of employees on Wednesday, which its former executive editor said “ranks among the darkest days” in the newspaper’s history. Approximately one-third of employees were affected.
Staffers at the Post have been on edge for weeks about the rumored cuts, which the publication would not confirm or deny. “It’s an absolute bloodbath,” said one employee who was not authorized to speak publicly.
During the meeting, editor in chief Matt Murray told employees that the Post was undergoing a “strategic reset” to better position the publication for the future, according to several employees who were on the call.
“Today, the Washington Post is taking a number of actions across the company to secure our future,” he said, according to an audio recording of the meeting.
Over the past week, Post employees had been urging owner Jeff Bezos to stop – or at least soften – the planned cuts, signing letters and sending personalized messages on social media that conveyed the importance of the journalism the Post produces.
But Bezos has remained silent, and did not respond to a series of letters sent by staffers representing the newspaper’s foreign, local and White House reporting teams.
On Monday, though, he was there in person to warmly greet Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, on a tour of another one of the companies he owns, his Blue Origin spaceflight startup in Florida.
Read Jeremy’s full report here:
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Trump touts 'extremely good' relationship with Xi Jinping following 'excellent' phone call
Donald Trump touted his “extremely good” relationship with Xi Jinping of China, after an “excellent” phone call today.
“It was a long and thorough call, where many important subjects were discussed,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social, before rattling off several topics from trade to the his upcoming trip to China in April.
Trump also noted that the pair discussed “lifting the Soybean count to 20 Million Tons for the current season”, after China significantly reduced their purchases of the crop last year.
“The relationship with China, and my personal relationship with President Xi, is an extremely good one, and we both realize how important it is to keep it that way. I believe that there will be many positive results achieved over the next three years of my Presidency,” Trump added.
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As my colleague Pjotr Sauer reports, Ukrainian and Russian negotiators kicked off a second round of US-led peace talks in Abu Dhabi, in an attempt to end the nearly four-year war in Ukraine.
The two-day trilateral talks starting on Wednesday come after Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of exploiting a US-backed energy truce last week to stockpile weapons before launching a record number of ballistic missile attacks at Ukraine on Tuesday.
“Taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorise people is more important to Russia than turning to diplomacy,” Zelenskyy wrote after the attacks, urging western governments to denounce the strikes.
Donald Trump said later on Tuesday that Vladimir Putin had “kept his word” on the ceasefire, adding that Russia’s pause in attacks was only meant to last until Sunday.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, have travelled to Abu Dhabi for the negotiations.
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When it comes to protests, Homan noted that 158 people have been arrested for “assaulting, impeding, interfering” with immigration officers in Minnesota.
Homan said he’s had “frank, honest discussions” with the state’s governor, Tim Walz; Minneapolis’s mayor, Jacob Frey; and the state attorney general, Keith Ellison, while noting they “don’t agree on everything”.
He urged them to “ask for calm in the community and to end the resistance, the impediment, the interference” of federal law enforcement.
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As I noted earlier, Homan was deployed to Minneapolis by Donald Trump to replace senior border patrol official Gregory Bovino. Backlash to Bovino’s handling of the immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities spread nationwide – with hundreds of protests in response to the use of deadly force by officers.
Today, Homan tried to mitigate any speculation about his takeover. “I brought a different set of eyes on this. I’ve done this for a long time,” he said. “I’m not going to sit and point fingers at anybody that they failed, because it was a great operation. We took a lot of public safety threats off the street.”
Homan added: “President Trump sent me here to help de-escalate. We’re not walking away from our mission … This is smart law enforcement. Smart law enforcement makes us safer.”
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Another note from today’s press conference in Minneapolis, Homan said that all Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers in Minnesota will integrate with the ICE team on the ground to form “one unified chain of command”.
A reminder that ICE and CBP are separate agencies that fall under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Experts note that CBP officers have a different remit, particularly when carrying out their roles for interior immigration enforcement. They are, by definition, carrying out less targeted operations that are normally focused on profiling people who have made illegal border crossings. ICE, however, generally homes in on specific people in a particular area.
Homan reiterated his threat that while those with criminal convictions are the target of the operation, any undocumented immigrant could be apprehended. “Just because you prioritize public safety threats don’t mean we forget about everybody else,” he said.
Homan says 'around 2000' immigration officers remain in Minnesota
Tom Homan said that “around 2000” immigration officers remain in Minnesota after today’s most recent drawdown announcement.
He added that the pre-operation number was between 100 and 150 officers.
Homan elaborated on his ask of county jails. Namely, asking local officials to notify Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when an undocumented immigrant who has been booked and arrested is released from jail. Homan said this would mean “the need for less law enforcement officers to do this work in a safer environment”.
However, legal experts and immigrant rights advocates told the Guardian that if counties cooperate with ICE, it can erode trust between police and immigrant communities, and lead to fewer people reporting crimes.
Homan says administration is drawing down 700 immigration enforcement officers
Speaking to reporters today, Tom Homan said that the Trump administration will draw down 700 immigration enforcement officers. He said this was as a result of increased coordination between county jails and federal officials.
“This frees up more officers to arrest or remove criminal aliens, more officers taking custody of criminal aliens directly from the jails, means less officers on the street doing criminal operations,” Homan said.
Notably, Homan has not confirmed which sheriffs have agreed to this increased coordination with federal immigration enforcement.
A reminder, the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) already facilitate transfers of people who have completed felony sentences in state prisons, when federal agents are present to take custody. But DOC does not operate county jails – where most immigration encounters occur – and many sheriffs across the state choose not to work with ICE.
In Minneapolis, for example, Hennepin County does not notify federal immigration authorities when undocumented immigrants are booked or arrested, and is barred under state law from honoring requests to hold someone past their release time so immigration officers can take custody – known as ICE detainers.
Homan, however, said that he was “not requiring jails to hold people past their normal release time for immigration purposes” while addressing reporters today.
Trump’s ‘border czar’ to address reporters in Minneapolis
Tom Homan, the president’s so-called “border czar” is set to speak to reporters in Minneapolis shortly.
A reminder that Homan took over the immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota from senior border official Gregory Bovino, just days after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti and the mounting backlash in the Twin Cities.
Last week, at his first press conference in Minneapolis, Homan appeared conciliatory when addressing the unspecified “improvements” he would be making to the crackdown in Minnesota.
He also acknowledged the operation had not been “perfect”, but didn’t actually mention Pretti or Renee Good – the 37-year-old mother also killed in Minneapolis by a federal immigration officer two weeks prior.
Homan also said that if local officials allowed federal officers into jails (to take custody of undocumented detainees) this could lead to a drawdown of immigration enforcement in Minnesota. On Tuesday, governor Tim Walz said that he remained firm with the “border czar” in their recent conversations.
“It’s my expectation that we will see a dramatic shift in where this is at, for the better,” Walz told reporters.
Donald Trump is in Washington today. Per his official schedule, he has no events that are currently open to the press.
He’ll film an interview with NBC News at 11am ET, and have a policy meeting later. First lady Melania Trump will meet with freed American-Israeli hostage Keith Siegel at the White House this afternoon.
We’ll bring you the latest lines as they happen.
Donald Trump’s aggressive rollback of environmental protections directly contradicts the promises of his “make America healthy again” campaign, according to new research.
Helmed by Robert F Kennedy Jr, Trump’s health and human services department has touted pledges to “transform our nation’s food, fitness, air, water, soil and medicine” and “reverse the childhood chronic disease crisis”. But the president’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is pushing the country in the opposite direction, says the new report from the liberal research and advocacy non-profit Center for American Progress (CAP).
An EPA spokesperson called the CAP report “fake news”, saying that EPA is in “lock-step” with Maha and the entire Trump administration.
Under administrator Lee Zeldin, EPA is dismantling dozens of environmental regulations, weakening efforts to limit pollution and has exempted facilities from clean air regulations. These actions will make children more vulnerable to many of the same chronic diseases the Make America Healthy Again (Maha) agenda says it wants to eradicate, including cancers, heart diseases, diabetes, obesity, autism and attention deficit disorder, according to the new report.
“The administration is trying to pull the wool over Americans’ eyes, claiming that they care about our health, that they care about kids’ health, when in reality, they are moving so aggressively to eliminate dozens of safeguards,” said Cathleen Kelly, a senior fellow at CAP and report co-author. “It’s really been heartbreaking to watch.”
The EPA spokesperson said the agency is delivering on its mandate to overturn “wasteful” policies “while also protecting the environment and public health”.
“We have banked environmental win after environmental win, and under president Trump and administrator Zeldin, children and families are safer and healthier than ever,” the person said.
The billionaire investor Ken Griffin has accused Donald Trump’s administration of “enriching” its families, and criticised its interference in American businesses as “distasteful”.
Griffin, who is the chief executive of the hedge fund Citadel and a large Republican donor, rebuked the Trump administration, saying it “has definitely made missteps in choosing decisions or courses that have been very, very enriching to the families of those in the administration”.
“That calls into question, is the public interest being served?” he said at a conference on Tuesday in Florida hosted by the Wall Street Journal.
Griffin is one of the most vocal critics of Trump on Wall Street, although it is the first time he has commented on how the president’s family appear to have made financial gain from their proximity to the White House.
Trump’s eldest sons, Don Jr and Eric, have benefited from the White House’s crypto-friendly policies, and have secured a series of big business deals since their father’s re-election. They have previously insisted there was a “huge wall” between their moneymaking and their father’s position.
Griffin added that most chief executives he was friends with “find it incredibly distasteful” when the “US government starts to engage in corporate America in a way that tastes of favouritism”.
“Most CEOs just don’t want to find themselves in the business of having to, in some sense, suck up to one administration after another to succeed in running their business,” he said.
Griffin is a longtime Republican donor, giving millions of dollars to conservative groups during the 2024 election cycle. He did not fund Trump’s re-election campaign, but after Trump won, he gave $1m to the president’s inaugural committee.
The power to enforce immigration law rests with the federal government. But Trump adviser, Stephen Miller, has a vision for states working in coordination with federal immigration officials, and he’s attempting to test it out in Tennessee.
Earlier this month, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported that Miller had been meeting in Washington DC with Tennessee speaker of the house, Cameron Sexton, to craft model legislation for states around the country.
A few weeks later, the speaker announced a suite of eight bills that would turn state and local police officers, judges, teachers, social workers and others into an auxiliary extension of the federal immigration system. It makes the presence of an undocumented person with a final deportation order a state crime in Tennessee. And it mandates that officials report the presence of undocumented persons to ICE, while criminalizing disclosure of information about immigration enforcement activities to the public.
“The president’s behind us,” said Knoxville-area representative and deputy speaker, Jason Zachary, on a video taken from a talk with a conservative group, describing Sexton’s contact with Miller. “The president has promised his support on social media for us, and we are being told Tennessee will go first.”
Epstein messaged with former CIA director Bill Burns, files show
A new tranche of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein revealed several communications with William J Burns, a career diplomat who would go on to become the central intelligence director under Joe Biden.
The documents describe the planning for meetings between Burns and Epstein, two of which occurred, and show Epstein texting with Burns and recommending that other people in his orbit meet with him. The meetings and correspondence occurred after Epstein had pleaded guilty to prostitution-related charges in Florida in 2008, including solicitation of prostitution with a minor under the age of 18.
A spokesperson for Burns told the Guardian that the two men had “no relationship”, and that Burns “did not know anything about him, other than that he was introduced as an expert in the financial services sector”. The spokesperson said Burns “deeply regrets ever meeting with him”. Burns has never been accused of any wrongdoing related to Epstein’s crimes.
Burns has decades of diplomatic experience under both Republican and Democratic administrations. During his confirmation hearing to become CIA director in 2021, even Trump-partisan senator Lindsey Graham called him an “outstanding choice”.
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Judge to hear arguments in Trump's bid to erase hush-money conviction
A federal judge is set to hear arguments Wednesday after an appeals court directed him to take a fresh look at president Donald Trump’s bid to erase his hush money conviction.
The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in November ordered US district judge Alvin K Hellerstein to reconsider his decision to keep the case in state court instead of moving it to federal court, where Trump can seek to have it thrown out on presidential immunity grounds, AP reported.
A three-judge panel ruled that Hellerstein erred by failing to consider “important issues relevant” to Trump’s request to move the New York case to federal court. They said they “express no view” on how he should rule.
Trump, a Republican, is not expected to attend Wednesday’s arguments in federal court in New York City, which were preceded by lengthy written submissions from Trump’s lawyers and the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted the case and wants it to remain in state court.
Hellerstein, who was nominated by Democratic president Bill Clinton, has twice denied Trump’s requests to move the case.
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Democrats on Capitol Hill offered apologies and promises of accountability on Tuesday amid often harrowing testimony from people who had experienced violent encounters with federal agents engaged in Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
With Republicans conspicuously absent, the forum of senators and representatives heard from Luke and Brent Ganger, the brothers of Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, who was shot dead by an Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (ICE) officer in Minneapolis on 7 January as she tried to drive away from agents.
Luke Ganger said he and his brother were there “to ask for you help” and suggested the sense of loss his family felt had been deepened by subsequent events in Minneapolis, where a protester, Alex Pretti, also aged 37, was shot dead by two border patrol agents on 24 January.
“The deep distress our family feels at Renee’s loss in such a violent and unnecessary way is complicated by feelings of disbelief, distress and desperation,” he said.
“In the last few weeks, our family took some consolation, thinking that perhaps Nee’s death would bring about change in our country. It has not. The completely surreal scenes taking place are beyond explanation.
“This is not just a bad day or a rough week or isolated incidents. These encounters with federal agents are changing the community and changing many lives, including ours. I still don’t know how to explain to my four-year-old what these agents are doing when we pass by.”
His daughter, Ganger added, “knows that her aunt died and that somebody caused it to happen”.
Democrats are launching an aggressive campaign to win back voters they lost, not to Donald Trump, but to the proverbial “couch,” as they look to regain support ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
On Wednesday, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) rolled out a new initiative called Local Listeners with the goal of targeting over one million “infrequent” voters in key battleground districts. Seeking to build on the party’s string of off-year election victories, which extended into 2026 with an upset in Texas last weekend, the DNC is betting that early, localized outreach will be crucial in winning back these voters’ trust – and their ballots – this time around.
“If we want to keep earning back the trust and support of voters, we have to listen to them,” DNC chair Ken Martin said in a statement, shared in advance with the Guardian. “This program modernizes the way we are talking to and hearing from the voters that we need to win elections now and for years to come. The Democratic Party is done with waiting until the last minute to engage voters – these conversations need to happen early and often.”
The program marks the DNC’s most ambitious early voter outreach effort for a midterm cycle, according to the organization. More than 2,000 volunteers have already signed up to participate in what the groups says is a sign, of “renewed grassroots energy” for the party.
Volunteers will undergo a seven-week training program on how to better engage these voters, including sessions on “active listening” and “having difficult conversations about politics”.
The goal is to engage voters who cast ballots for Joe Biden in 2020 but sat out in 2024, with volunteers aiming to conduct at least 250,000 phone conversations and host more than 50 grassroots events in key congressional districts by the end of March.
Trump calls for Americans to 'move on' from Epstein files
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
President Donald Trump has made a fresh plea for Americans to move on from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, even as it left a prominent British politician facing a criminal probe.
Former British ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson has resigned from the upper house of UK parliament amid allegations he passed market sensitive information to the late sex offender Epstein while in government.
The fallout from the latest release of millions of documents linked to Epstein continued in the US too, where former president Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary will testify in Congress later this month.
Trump insisted once again that he had been cleared by the latest trove of files as he faced renewed questions at the White House over the disgraced financier, AFP reported.
“Nothing came out about me other than it was a conspiracy against me, literally, by Epstein and other people. But I think it’s time now for the country to maybe get on to something else like health care or something that people care about,” Trump said.
Trump added that it was “not a Republican, it’s a Democrat problem,” in a bid to turn the issue back to the Clintons, and away from the mention in the files of allies including his commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and billionaire Elon Musk.
In other developments:
Donald Trump suggested on a conservative podcast released on Monday that Republican state officials “take over” and “nationalize” elections in 15 states to protect the party from being voted out of office. Trump framed the issue as a means to prevent undocumented immigrants from voting. Claims that noncitizens are voting in numbers that can affect an election are a lie. But it raises concerns about potential efforts by the president to rig the November midterm elections.
A message from Donald Trump celebrating the 19th-century US invasion of its southern neighbour – and the subsequent loss of more than half its territory – has touched a historical nerve in Mexico, with some seeing it as a veiled threat of future incursions. Reacting to the US president’s statement, which described the invasion as “a legendary victory”, Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s president, said during her morning news conference on Tuesday: “We must always defend our sovereignty.”
Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, is running her own review into the 2020 election with Donald Trump’s approval, working separately from a justice department investigation even as she joined an FBI raid of an election center in Georgia last week.
The US military says it shot down an Iranian drone that “aggressively” approached the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea. The Iranian Shahed-139 drone was flying toward the carrier “with unclear intent” when an F-35 fighter jet shot it down, US Central Command said on Tuesday.
Donald Trump has announced that his administration is seeking $1bn in damages from Harvard University, the latest step in a long-running battle with the university over allegations of antisemitism. In a Truth Social post late on Monday, Trump accused the Ivy League school of being “strongly antisemitic”, adding that Harvard president Alan Garber “has done a terrible job of rectifying a very bad situation for his institution and, more importantly, America itself”.
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