Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day, but we will be back on Thursday. Here are the latest developments:
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103 House Democrats voted to cut military aid to Israel as accusations that Israel’s government carried out a genocide in Gaza are gaining more traction in the party.
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Two of Donald Trump’s nominees for powerful positions, Todd Blanche and Jay Clayton, buckled under pressure during their confirmations hearings. Blanche, the acting attorney general, described himself as Trump’s lawyer, before correcting himself. Clayton, the would-be national intelligence director, refused to say who won the 2020 election when asked by senator Jon Ossoff.
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Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna, who wrote the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the law requiring the release of investigative files on the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, introduced a sequel that would allow state officials, victims and members of Congress to sue the attorney general over withheld records.
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In an interview with the podcaster Joe Rogan, US vice-president JD Vance discounted the conspiracy theory that Trump’s long association with Epstein had been used by Israel to blackmail the president into attacking Iran.
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The treasury department announced Wednesday that the US Mint has started producing a new commemorative $1 coin featuring Donald Trump as part of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration.
FCC chair lashes out at Elizabeth Warren over his plan to let companies own more TV stations
The pugnacious chair of the US Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, lashed out at senator Elizabeth Warren on social media on Wednesday after she criticized his move to rescind a rule that bars a single company from owning broadcast television stations that reach more than 39% of US households.
In March, the FCC waved the 39% rule to approve the $3.54bn sale of local television station owner Tegna to Nexstar, despite objections from officials in Democratic-led states. The acquisition, if not reversed by courts, will expand Nexstar’s presence to cover 80% of US households.
After Carr announced, in an essay for the far-right website Breitbart, that the FCC will vote in three weeks on scrapping the ban, Warren said in a statement: “Trump’s FCC Chair is trying to illegally rewrite the rules to make it easier for billionaires to line their own pockets while jacking up costs and controlling what Americans watch. After rubber-stamping the Nexstar-Tegna megamerger, this looks like the Trump administration’s latest attempt to roll out the red carpet for more antitrust disasters.”
When that criticism was posted on social media by a Reuters reporter, Carr responded: “Senator Warren’s opposition to the FCC’s media ownership reform confirms that we are making exactly the right call. Let’s bring balance back to the broadcast airwaves.”
Carr endorsed the acquisition of Tegna by Nexstar in February, hours after Donald Trump said in a social media post that allowing Nexstar to buy Tegna would “help knock out” what he called “Fake News” television networks. “GET THAT DEAL DONE!”
In Denver, Colorado, the FCC waiver, which would give the merged Nexstar-Tegna permission to own two competing stations, Tegna’s 9News and Nexstar’s Fox31, has prompted fears that the city’s top rated anchor, Kyle Clark of 9News, known for his focus on accountability reporting and on-air commentary, could be forced off the air.
Clark achieved viral fame earlier this year when he asked a Republican candidate for governor, Victor Marx, to account for a string of wild claims during a debate.
On Wednesday, in a typical segment, Clark reported and debunked Marx’s new claim to have been endorsed by a former Republican governor, Bill Owens.
Massie and Khanna introduce sequel to Epstein files act to enable state officials to sue for withheld records
Republican Thomas Massie and Democrat Ro Khanna, the two congressmen who introduced the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the law requiring the Department of Justice to release investigative files on the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, introduced a sequel on Wednesday.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act II, Massie said in a statement, “gives standing to state attorneys general, the victims of Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirators, and members of Congress to challenge the Department of Justice (DOJ) in court for the DOJ’s failure to comply with the disclosure” of records from the Epstein files.
“Since the Epstein Files Transparency Act was signed into law on November 19, 2025, the Department of Justice has flagrantly and consistently ignored EFTA’s disclosure requirements,” Massie said. “The Department of Justice continues to unlawfully withhold over 3 million Epstein files that should be released to the public. In addition, the DOJ is unlawfully maintaining heavy redactions on the files it is releasing. State attorneys general and victims should have the right to sue the Attorney General of the United States to compel compliance with a transparency law President Trump signed.”
Khanna added: “the DOJ has violated our law, delayed the release of millions of files, botched the redactions, and denied the survivors justice.”
Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández, a New Mexico Democrat who joined the effort to get the new legislation passed, accused the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, who described himself on Wednesday as Donald Trump’s lawyer, of “hiding the truth from the American people and creating even more injustice and trauma for survivors”.
The effort is led in the Senate by Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat, and Ben Ray Luján, a New Mexico Democrat.
A new law is needed, Merkley said, because “those in power continue to side with the Epstein Class and shield abusers from accountability for their horrific crimes”.
The newly drained Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool’s bottom surface has noticeably faded since it was lined with a protective coating in a color Donald Trump called “American flag blue” this spring, the Associated Press reports.
An Associated Press reporter and photographer viewed the fenced-off reflecting pool on Wednesday from the top of the Washington Monument. The new liner appears grayer than when the pool was repainted and refilled with water in early June. Debris that had been visible earlier this week after the pool was drained is now largely gone, after work crews removed it.
Trump’s problem-plagued effort to revamp the landmark has stretched well past his initial goal of having the reflecting pool ready by 4 July for the nation’s 250th birthday.
The president at first suggested his renovations would cost $1.5m, but the bill ballooned to more than $16m by June.
Trump had said the repairs would last a century, but within days of the project’s initial completion last month, the water was beset by an algae bloom and pieces of the new coating appeared to be peeling off the bottom.
Dual US-Iranian citizen Dena Karari allowed to leave Iran
Donald Trump thanked the country he is bombing, Iran, for allowing an American citizen he said was “wrongfully detained in December of 2024” to leave the country.
“She is now safely outside of Iran, and in good condition,” Trump wrote on social media, without naming the woman. “The United States of America appreciates this gesture of Goodwill by Iran!”
The woman is Dena Karari, a dual American and Iranian citizen, her lawyer Jared Genser announced on social media.
Genser said that he was “excited to report” that Karari, who was banned from leaving Iran after visiting her family in 2024, and was interrogated but not detained, “is now safe and traveling back to the United States.”
“This would not have happened but for the extraordinary and relentless efforts of” Trump, he added.
The New York Times reported last year that an Iranian American woman who was first imprisoned and prevented from leaving the country in December 2024, but released from custody, “works for an American technological company and runs a charity for underprivileged children in Iran.” After the US joined Israel in bombing Iran in 2025, she was charged with espionage.
According to a 2023 Guardian profile of Genser, the human rights lawyer nicknamed “the extractor” has managed to free over 340 prisoners of conscience from 20 countries over the past two decades.
Jewish Voice for Peace calls 103 House Democrats voting against funding Israel's military 'a seismic shift in US politics'
Jewish Voice for Peace, a coalition of anti-Zionist American Jewish groups, called Wednesday’s vote by 104 members of the US House in favor of a failed measure that would have halted $3.3bn in planned aid to Israel, much of it for the Israeli military, “a seismic shift in US politics.”
“This historic vote shows a major break in Democratic support for U.S. complicity in Israeli apartheid, with more Democrats voting to block military funding than actively voting to continue it,” the group said in a statement.
“What was once unquestioning bipartisan consensus to fund Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians is now breaking apart,” Beth Miller, the political director of Jewish Voice for Peace Action, said. “While it is shameful that the House failed to pass this amendment, it is also now clear that it is impossible for Congress to ignore our voices. The overwhelming majority of Democratic voters are demanding that we halt U.S. military funding to Israel, and every Democrat who ignored these calls should fear for their seat”.
“The Israeli government is using U.S. weapons and funding to commit atrocities against Palestinian, Iranian, and Lebanese civilians,” she added. “These atrocities are in direct violation of U.S. and international law. A majority of Americans — and the vast majority of Democrats — oppose the illegal and immoral U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. The American people want the U.S. to stop sending weapons and equipment to the Israeli military as it inflicts apartheid and genocide on Palestinian people.”
Pressed by Joe Rogan, JD Vance denies that Trump was blackmailed into Iran war by Israel over Epstein ties
In an interview with the podcaster Joe Rogan, US vice-president JD Vance discounted the conspiracy theory that Donald Trump’s long association with Jeffrey Epstein, the late child sex offender, had been used by Israel to blackmail the president into attacking Iran.
When Rogan turned to the subject of the war in Iran, he began by asking Vance: “Do you think he would have continued with the most recent campaign if it wasn’t for the influence of Israel?”
After denying that Israeli influence was to blame for Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran, Vance said: “I think a lot of people- I’ve heard this argument, this idea… that Donald Trump, you know, was sort of, I’ve even heard people say he was blackmailed into this by the Israelis.”
“Yeah, a lot of people think that,” Rogan interjected.
“That’s not true dude; it’s just it’s just not true” Vance replied.
“Can you understand though why people would come to that conclusion, especially because of the Epstein files?” Rogan asked a short time later. “The Epstein files were supposed to be released… and there was a tremendous amount of resistance to those files being released and that concerned a lot of people, because if if you’re talking about very wealthy, powerful people that were engaged in crimes.”
“I see,” Vance said. “So you’re you’re basically saying like… the fear is that whatever’s in the Epstein files was used to blackmail like the administration into doing the Iran thing”.
He then denied that there was any connection between the Epstein files and the war, and cast the flawed release of the files as a mere communications problem.
“We absolutely screwed up the comms of the Epstein files, like we just did. But do I think the reason we screwed up the comms is because we were trying to hide something? No,” Vance said.
The vice-president then blamed Pam Bondi, the former attorney general for saying that a rumored Epstein client list, of powerful people he trafficked girls to for sex, and so could blackmail, was sitting in her desk for review.
The effect of that statement by Bondi, Vance said, “was to make people mistrust the entire effort.”
But, he added, “I don’t think there was anything malicious going on.”
Vance then insisted that, despite being himself “one of the OG Epstein conspiracy theorists”, there was no evidence in the files he had seen to prove that anyone associated with Epstein who has not been prosecuted had committed crimes.
Unhelpfully for Trump, his vice-president then suggested that there might have been evidence against Epstein associates that was destroyed after Epstein’s initial plea deal in 2008. “Anything that existed from the 80s and 90s up to 2006, 2007, anything that existed that we didn’t get back then was disappeared. Right?” Vance said. “So like when people say, ‘Has what you’ve seen on the inside make you think that the you know that Epstein never blackmailed people or that Epstein never engaged in broader sex trafficking?’ No, absolutely not. What I have seen, and I’ve looked at most of the files, is that there just wasn’t dispositive evidence. And if that dispositive evidence ever existed, it was probably destroyed after 2006, 2007.”
“I’ve never seen a single piece of credible evidence that the president of United States engaged in wrongdoing with minors ever.,” Vance added. “So, like when the president says ‘the hoax’, that’s what he’s talking about, is this Democratic idea that he somehow was a was a pedophile. It’s absurd. There’s no evidence for it.”
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After she voted to cut US military aid to Israel Summer Lee, a Democratic congresswoman from Pennsylvania, said in a statement: “Thousands and thousands of Palestinians have been killed using our tax dollars. This shift in the party is a testament to the movement but it’s still unconscionable for any member of Congress to justify sending any aid to fuel Israel’s genocide.”
Her colleague Greg Casar, a Texas congressman who chairs the House progressive caucus, posted: “I just voted to end US funding for Israel’s weapons of war. More Democrats than ever before voted to block funding. That is a victory for the millions of Americans who have demanded an end to our taxpayer dollars going to fund genocide. Tomorrow we get back to work. We will win.”
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Speaking at a defense industry summit in Pennsylvania, Donald Trump said his administration “will soon take historic action to get an illegal alien truck drivers,” announcing plans to ban undocumented drivers from retaining commercial drivers licenses.
Trump claimed that undocumented drivers “are just killing a lot of people. They can’t read signs. Many of them are on drugs or alcohol and they shouldn’t be driving these things and they’re … they came in totally illegally and we don’t want them, but they are driving all over America’s roadways.”
The administration has made this labor a focal point of federal transportation policy and political rhetoric, highlighting any case involving an undocumented commercial driver in an accident that causes fatalities. Most recently, the death of Pennsylvania State Trooper Michael Pahira Jr – who was struck and killed by Michael Bon, a Haitian national with a commercial drivers license – has been part of the rallying cry for a change to federal policy. Bon, who held a valid commercial driver’s license issued by Massachusetts, has been charged with vehicular homicide.
The Trump administration established a new rule in March that barred immigrants with temporary status, DACA recipients and refugees and asylum seekers with legal status from renewing or obtaining commercial drivers licenses. About 20% of the transportation workforce is foreign-born.
Trump said he intended to replace undocumented truck drivers with veterans.
“We’re gonna teach them a lot about driving trucks and in many cases they know,” he said. “We’re going to say any American who’s driven a heavy truck for our military will automatically be eligible for a commercial driver’s license.”
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More than 100 House Democrats on Wednesday voted to slash military aid to Israel, a significant rebuke of the longtime US ally as accusations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government green-lit genocide in Gaza continue to convulse the party ahead of November’s midterm election.
The amendment proposed by Republican congressman Thomas Massie to a spending measure would have halted $3.3bn in planned aid – much of which would have gone to Israel’s military – but was rejected by a 104-314 vote, with 10 lawmakers voting present. It received the support of 103 House Democrats, or nearly half of the 212-strong caucus, underscoring how sentiment in the party towards Israel and the Netanyahu government has soured since the 7 October attack and Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza.
The provision resulted in an unusual split among top House Democrats, with minority leader Hakeem Jeffries and the caucus chair, Pete Aguilar, both saying they would vote against it. In a letter to members, Jeffries called Massie’s amendment “overly broad”, but said he would not formally try to persuade other Democrats to join him in opposition, citing “the strongly held views throughout the caucus in this important area of foreign policy”.
On Wednesday, the House Democratic whip Katherine Clark said she would support Massie’s amendment, saying in a statement “it is clear that the status quo is not tenable.
We should not provide a blank check for military aid to any country that does not comply with US law, interests, and values. The Netanyahu government has failed to meet that standard,” added Clark, the second-highest ranking House Democrat.
The treasury department announced Wednesday that the US Mint has started producing a new commemorative $1 coin featuring Donald Trump as part of the nation’s 250th anniversary celebration.
The coin is scheduled for release this fall. Treasury officials said its final design was approved earlier this year by the US Commission of Fine Arts, whose members were appointed by Trump. However, the version revealed Wednesday is not identical to the previously approved design. Among the changes, the coin has a gold finish rather than being made of solid gold.
Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, said in an X post the coin is intended “to honor the enduring legacy of liberty and a lasting symbol of patriotism”, adding: “Featuring President Trump, it celebrates the strength of American values, and the promise of a nation dedicated to preserving freedom for all.”
The decision has already sparked criticism because federal law bars living presidents from appearing on US currency. At the same time, the treasury secretary has authority in certain situations to authorize the minting and issuance of coins.
The front of the new coin shows Trump wearing a suit and tie with a stern expression. The word “LIBERTY” appears across the top edge, while the dates 1776-2026 are displayed along the bottom. The phrase “IN GOD WE TRUST” is positioned in the center.
On the reverse, the coin features the traditional bald eagle from the Great Seal of the United States. “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” is inscribed around the top edge, and the shield on the eagle’s chest bears the Latin phrase “E PLURIBUS UNUM,” meaning “Out of many, one.”
Donald Trump gave new meaning to the word rambling in nearly an hour of opening remarks at the US Army War College, during what was billed by the White House as a defense and innovation summit, but devolved into another opportunity for the president to recite his familiar boasts, false claims and grievances.
Among other topics, Trump spent time complaining about wind power, made false claims about immigrants flooding into the US, repeated his false boast that the King of Saudi Arabia told him two years ago that the US was “a dead country” before he transformed it into “the hottest country in the world”, saluted a conservative columnist in the crowd by name for writing flattering pieces about him, told a long story about how he supposedly corrected the designer of an aircraft carrier on how it should be constructed and claimed that the war in Iran is almost over.
“We’ll have Iran defeated soon, they’ll be defeated very soon,” Trump said, as he has dozens of times in the past four months.
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While introducing officials and industry leaders at the Pennsylvania panel today, Trump addressed Danny Deep – an executive at the advanced military equipment manufacturer, General Dynamics.
The president said that General Dynamics “make the greatest submarine in the world” but “they just have to make them faster”.
“Danny, will you please make them faster?” Trump added. “That’s true with all of the munitions … we need a little more speed.”
In March, Democrats warned that the airstrikes on Iran are diminishing US stockpiles of certain weapons.
As my colleagues reported a short while ago, the US is launching another wave of strikes against Iran in a further effort to keep the strait of Hormuz open.
It will be the second set of strikes targeting Iran during daylight hours today.
On Wednesday, Donald Trump said that Iran “is not happy right now,” while speaking in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
At a defense and innovation summit at the US Army War College, the president repeated his frequent claim that Tehran wants “to settle so badly”.
“They don’t like what we’re doing, and they do want to settle. We’ll find out whether or not we settle with them, or we just finish it off,” he added.
Officials asked to turn over phones as part of investigation into leaked information about new Air Force One - report
In a new report from CNN, Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and FBI director Kash Patel, have initiated a “sprawling” investigation at the White House, in order to identify who leaked information about the security deficiencies on the new Air Force One plane – a gift from the Qatar.
Citing unnamed sources familiar, CNN reports that some officials being asked to turn over their phones to investigators on White House grounds.
Following a report from the New York Times, who initially reported on the security concerns surrounding the new plane, Trump was incensed according to CNN’s sources. What ensued was a probe into the leaked information, and subpoenas issued to the four Times journalists who reported the story.
According to CNN, Patel cancelled a trip to Chicago on Friday, instead arriving at the White House to help lead the investifation.
The FBI director and Wiles spent “roughly seven hours” in a White House office, according to one of CNN’s sources. The investigators also sought information from those who were traveling with Trump or had a role in the president’s trip to Ankara for the Nato summit. One of CNN’s sources also said that not all officials who were asked to turn over their devices complied with the directive.
The Times reported that Trump had to leave Turkey on the old Air Force One instead of the Qatari-donated Boeing 747-8, as a security precaution. Sources who spoke to the Times said that the new plane does not have all the features of the older plane.
On Wednesday, during Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearing to be the next attorney general, Democratic Senator Peter Welch grilled Trump’s nominee on the efforts to subpoena the Times journalists, and get them to reveal their confidential sources.
Blanche confirmed that he authorized the subpoeana, but insisted it was “not targeting reporters”.
“They’re material witnesses, just like a reporter would be a material witness to a car crash,” he told lawmakers. “We want to ask them is who provided them with classified national security information, which everybody in this body should want to protect.”
Iran ‘better behave’, says Trump - as he claims he doesn’t like deadlines
Donald Trump said he does not like giving deadlines when asked by reporters on Wednesday if Iran had a deadline before the United States starts attacking Iranian bridges.
“I don’t like giving deadlines, but they pretty much know, they know the story … they better behave,” Trump said on arrival in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
The president, in fact, has a history of setting deadlines – or perhaps we should say, unenforced deadlines – for Iran to end the war he started but has since struggled to end. Some counts have it as at least eight deadlines, which he then publicly shifted or extended.
Indeed, since the conflict began on 28 February, Trump has repeatedly threatened to resume bombing if Iran didn’t reopen the strait of Hormuz, reach a deal, and/or hand over its enriched uranium. Over the last few months that has included several infamous threats to bomb civilian infrastructure including bridges and power plants – which could possibly constitute war crimes under international law.
He typically then walks back his threats within hours, extending or postponing his deadlines citing “progress” made in talks.
Annie Farmer, a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse, has released a statement on Blanche’s Senate confirmation hearing today.
“Todd Blanche has failed survivors at every turn” Farmer said. “He is overseeing an investigation that has repeatedly re-traumatized survivors, and has sought to bury the case even as questions remain unanswered about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s vast network of enablers and supporters. His suggestions that survivors reach out to the Department of Justice to re-report the crimes committed against them – in addition to his inconsistent claims about meeting with survivors – are beyond insulting.”
“Last summer, after then Deputy AG Blanche’s troubling decision to meet with Maxwell, I sent him a letter expressing my concerns and objecting to any pardoning or commutation of her sentence. In return, I received silence.”
“My sister Maria was the first survivor to contact the FBI in 1996 about her abuse and trafficking at the hands of Epstein and Maxwell, and she continues to be ignored to this day. Blanche cannot rewrite history or pretend this investigation is over when the evidence shows otherwise. The Senate must not reward this record of failure, deception, and disregard for survivors. We urge the Senate not to confirm him.”
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Here's a recap of Todd Blanche's confirmation hearing
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Throughout today’s confirmation hearing, Democratic and Republican lawmakers have questioned whether the $1.8bn “anti-weaponization” fund created to compensate the president’s allies – namely January 6 defendents – has been definitively abandoned by the Trump administration. Blanche sought to underscore that the slush fund is “dead”, as he fielded questions from senators on both sides of the aisle. “The settlement fund is just not moving forward,” Blanche told Cornyn. “No money went from the treasury to any other account.”
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At various points, Blanche sparred with Democratic senators repeatedly with Democrats over allegations about FBI director Kash Patel’s conduct. Patel has denied, under oath, claims of heavy drinking and unexplained absences, calling them “baseless.” At one point, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse pressed Blanche: “Are you confident he’s not drinking on the job? Are you sure none of his travel is a pretext for vacation activities like snorkeling Olympics and visiting girlfriends?” Blanche shot back: “That’s an extraordinarily obnoxious question, senator. And I have full faith in director Patel and the work he’s doing every day.”
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Blanche insisted that he does not merely do the president’s bidding and that he would resign if ever asked to do anything illegal or unethical, when questioned by senators today. He also said he had disagreed at times with Trump and said he did not believe the president was eligible to run for a third term. “President Trump trusts me to give him counsel,” Blanche said at one point. “Counsel does not mean I’m a yes man.”
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However, Trump’s pick to lead the justice department evaded questions about the presence of federal agents at polling locations. Blanche simply said that he would “commit to following the law”, when asked by Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, whether he would ensure that ballot sites were free of federal officers. Trump has said publicly that he favors elections being “nationalized” – which has drawn widespread backlash from legal experts and lawmakers alike.
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Blanche repeatedly defended the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, while conceding that the release included “mistakes” – notably redaction errors that exposed identifying details of some survivors. He said those errors were fixed quickly and that only “1%” of the documents required changes. In a particularly heated exchange, Senator Dick Durbin pressed Blanche to meet personally with survivors, several of whom were in the room. Blanche said he was barred from doing so. Durbin, unsatisfied, accused him of “dancing on the head of a pin” to avoid responsibility.
Cornyn tells reporters that he is 'undecided' about whether he can vote to confirm Blanche
Earlier, Senator John Cornyn, the outgoing Republican from Texas, confirmed to reporters outside the Senate judiciary committee hearing room that he was still undecided about his support for Todd Blanche’s confirmation as attorney general.
One of Cornyn’s main concerns is the $1.8bn so-called “anti-weaponization” slush fund, derived from Donald Trump’s settlement with the IRS, and whether it is officially non-existent.
“I think it’s really important to correct the record, which I tried to do, and I think he was straightforward in answering my questions. But they don’t they don’t lead inevitably to the conclusion that it’s that it’s dead. It could be revived at a future date,” he told reporters.
Cornyn added that he would not make any decisions at this point. “I’m going to wait until we actually vote on the confirmation in a week or so,” he said.
A reminder that Blanche can afford very few Republican defections in order to secure his nomination.
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After almost five hours, Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearing to be the next attorney general has ended. The next step will be a Senate vote, which is yet to be scheduled.
Thom Tills, the outgoing Republican senator from North Carolina, who has been critical of the Trump administration’s pursuit of the president’s perceived political enemies, said that he wants leadership at the justice department “that says we’re going to ratchet things down and not make the heinous mistakes that the Biden administration did”.
Tillis implored Blanche, if confirmed, to “be better than them, not better at prosecuting people that maybe we shouldn’t, or take a little bit more time before we indict them – but let’s let’s just be better than them.”
While the senator said that he was concerned that the “Binance CEO got pardoned,” he also noted that as he was leaving office, Joe Biden issued a number of pardons. “The point that I’m trying to make, folks, is you’re all victims of political physics,” Tillis added.
The lawmaker has, in the past, been vocally critical of Trump’s blanket pardon of January 6 rioters – noting that those who attacked law enforcement “should go to prison for as long as the law allows”. Tillis did, however, seem to be satisfied when Blanche said he would walk the lawmaker through the pardon process, and finished his questioning by telling the acting attorney general he “did a great job today”.
While Blanche was testifying before lawmakers today, Kathryn Ruemmler, a former White House counsel under Barack Obama, answered questions in a closed-door deposition from the House oversight committee about her ties to Jeffrey Epstein as part of the panel’s investigation into the convicted sex offender.
Afterwards, James Comer, the committee’s Republican chair, said that he hopes Blanche can sit for an interview “as soon as his confirmation is completed”.
Trump rails against New York state’s data center moratorium
Donald Trump lambasted New York Governor Kathy Hochul Wednesday for pausing the construction of large new datacenters, the gargantuan, resource-intensive facilities that power artificial intelligence.
“New York state has made a terrible decision,” he wrote on Truth Social, the social network he owns.
Trump said that Hochul had implemented the one-year ban for purely political reasons and should scrap the policy “IMMEDIATELY”.
“One of the biggest Driving Forces in the Future for Jobs, are Data Centers. They are big, strong, bold, and Money Machines for the State in which they are built,” Trump wrote.
New York became the first US state to enact a moratorium on new datacenters on Tuesday. Hochul issued an executive order mandating a one-year statewide pause on the large facilities.
“This pause will remain in place for up to one year while New York establishes the strongest possible framework to protect our community’s guardrails to reduce the risk to our energy grid, minimize land disruption, noise pollution and protect our national resources, especially our water supply,” Hochul said at a press conference.
The president has pursued a deregulatory agenda with regards to AI during his second term, though he said Wednesday that datacenters should pay for their own water and power rather than accepting tax breaks, as have been offered in the past.
“Both the Taxes and the Jobs amount to LIQUID GOLD! All of this Income, and other Benefits, will be going to Red States, and some Blue, where Data Centers are sought as Cash Cows, with Lower Taxes and Record Setting Jobs,” he wrote, adding that data centers constituted “tremendous WINS” for “states that were lucky enough to get them.” He said the “radical left democrats” would cause the US to “lose Data Centers and AI” to China.
The appetite for datacenter moratoriums is growing nationally as anger grows over the facilities’ effects on energy prices and local environments. Almost three-quarters of Americans oppose a datacenter project being built near their homes, according to a new Heatmap poll.
More than a dozen states have considered moratoria in response to residents’ fears about the potential costs of living next to datacenters, especially higher utility bills and negative environmental effects. Seattle approved a one-year ban on datacenter development in June, becoming the largest city to do so.
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Earlier today, while we brought you the latest from Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearing, another nominee for one of the cabinet’s top jobs was facing questions from Senate lawmakers.
Jay Clayton, the US attorney for the southern district of New York, refused to say that Joe Biden won the 2020 election during his confirmation hearing to become the nation’s next intelligence chief.
As my colleague Cate Brown reports, Clayton opted instead to say that Biden was “certified” as president. Clayton also skirted questions about his previous election integrity claims and whether or not a White House official asked him to subpoena a group of New York Times journalists as part of an alleged national security investigation.
Richard Blumenthal then asks Todd Blanche if he would agree that agents of the United States should not fire their weapons into cars unless there is an imminent threat.
Blanche is told by the chair to give a short answer, and he does:
There’s a well-established standard as to when an agent can discharge their firearm and I think that that’s something that should be followed in every case.
Blumenthal presses him, saying that that includes not firing weapons into cars.
Asked if he would like to respond, Blanche adds:
There’s not really a response. It requires federal agents to follow the rules.
It comes as the White House this morning overturned a day-old DHS memo that said they would be halting traffic stops in the wake of recent stops that left two men killed in the space of a week, hours after Donald Trump insisted ICE keep making them.
The directive came after ICE agents fatally shot Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston on 7 July and Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine on Monday. Both men were unarmed, neither was the intended target of the operation that killed him, and in both cases the agents involved wore no body camera to record what happened.
As my colleague Joseph Gedeon notes, five of the 11 people shot dead by federal immigration officers since Trump’s second term began were in their vehicles at the time, and the DHS’s standard justification – that occupants had “weaponized” their vehicles against agents – has repeatedly been undercut by witness video.
Blanche apologizes for mistakes made by DOJ 'in about 1% of the documents' related to Epstein
Richard Blumenthal then invites Todd Blanche to apologize to survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, some of whom are in the room, for how the DOJ mishandled the release of the files in its investigation and the mistakes that were made.
A reminder that at a House judiciary committee hearing in February, his predecessor Pam Bondi refused to directly apologize to survivors in the room for how her department handled the case.
Blanche at first goes down a similar path, giving a vague expression of regret that this happened to them.
My heart breaks for every victim of any sexual crime, whether it’s involving Mr Epstein or somebody else. And so if you’re asking me to apologize that this happened to them, of course, absolutely.
Pressed by Blumenthal on whether he would apologize to them for “the mishandling and the mistakes” by the justice department, Blanche adds:
I will absolutely say that any mistake that we made should not have been made … Any mistake that was made was not appropriate. And so, yes, I am sorry that in about 1% of the documents mistakes were made.
But what I will say on top of that is we put tons of resources to rectifying those mistakes immediately, including pulling down documents within minutes of being informed that there potential mistakes made.
After a 15-minute recess, the hearing has resumed. Todd Blanche has been refusing to answer questions from Democrat Richard Blumenthal regarding the clemency Donald Trump granted to private equity executive David Gentile, who had just begun a seven-year prison sentence for what prosecutors described as a $1.6bn fraud scheme, last year.
The founder and former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GPB Capital, Gentile had been convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in defrauding thousands of individual investors.
Blanche repeatedly declined to discuss whether he had any knowledge about or involvement in the commutation of Gentile’s sentence. He also refused to comment on “leaks” or the existence of investigations, when Blumenthal asked him about once such investigation into Gentile that was stopped. That is despite – as Blumenthal pointed out – Blanche commenting on several other investigations this morning.
In response to a question from Coons, the acting attorney general also confirmed that he does “not believe” that Trump would be able to run for another term as president.
A reminder that under the 22nd amendment of the US constitution, a president is only able to serve two non-consecutive terms in office.
Blanche repeats that Trump 'anti-weaponization' fund in 'dead'
Throughout today’s confirmation hearing, Democratic and Republican lawmakers have questioned whether the $1.8bn fund created to compensate the president’s allies has been definitively abandoned by the Trump administration.
Last month, Blanche insisted that the justice department would not moving forward with the fund while answering questions from the House oversight committee. Today, he sought to underscore his position as he fielded questions from senators on both sides of the aisle.
“I’m under oath today, and I’ve said it’s dead repeatedly,” Blanche in response to Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat.
Earlier, outgoing Republican John Cornyn, a senator from Texas who lost his primary bid this year, also grilled Blanche about the status of the fund.
“The settlement fund is just not moving forward,” Blanche told Cornyn. “No money went from the treasury to any other account.”
Blanche went on to clash with Whitehouse further, after the Democratic senator accused him of hiring Jared Wise, a rioter at the January 6 insurrection, to be a part of the justice department staff. Whitehouse also said that Blanche “bragged that bringing justice for violent rioters meant that every one of them was either pardoned or had their sentence commuted”.
The acting attorney general said that “almost everything” that Whitehouse said was “absolutely false”.
Blanche also insisted that he did “not hire the person referenced” and noted that while Trump has the “absolute right” to pardon anyone who he sees fit, including all of those who took part in the Capitiol riots, he has not celebrated that decision.
Blanche spars with Democratic senator over Kash Patel's alleged behavior as FBI director
Democratic senator Sheldon Whitehouse probed Blanche over the alleged behavior of FBI director Kash Patel while on the job.
Patel has denied, under oath, recent allegations of excessive drinking and unexplained absences on the job, dismissing them as “baseless”.
The reports were first covered by the Atlantic mid-April, and the embattled FBI director sued the magazine – filing a defamation lawsuit against the magazine for publishing the claims and seeking $250m in damages.
During Blanche’s hearing, Whitehouse questioned whether the nominee for attorney general was happy with Patel’s performance. “Are you good with his airplane jaunts? Are you confident he’s not drinking on the job? Are you sure none of his travel is a pretext for vacation activities like snorkeling Olympics and visiting girlfriends? Are you sure he knows what he’s doing? Do you vouch for him? Are you willing to look at whether he lied to this committee?” the Democratic senator asked.
Blanche quickly snapped back: “That’s an extraordinarily obnoxious question, senator. And I have full faith in director Patel and the work that he’s doing every day.”
Blanche says he will 'follow the law' when pushed about federal agents at polling sites
When asked by Klobuchar whether he would ensure that federal agents are not deployed to polling sites during the November midterm elections, Blanche simply said that he would “commit to following the law”.
A reminder that the US constitution defers control of elections to each state. Donald Trump, however, has said publicly that he favors elections being “nationalized” – which has drawn widespread backlash.
“Do you understand why voters, US citizens, are concerned about armed agents at polling places?” Klobuchar asked.
“I’m not aware of armed agents being at polling places,” Blanche responded. “So I don’t. I’m not aware of that concern. But I will tell you, we will follow the law, senator.”
Blanche didn’t give a clear answer when asked by Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat, whether federal officials will work with local law enforcement in Texas and Maine, following the recent fatal shootings by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
“I expect that these investigations should be run as every investigation of similar kinds, and so that necessarily includes working with state and locals in the appropriate way,” Blanche said.
This comes after the federal government refused to cooperate with Minnesota investigators from accessing the scene of Alex Pretti’s death in Minneapolis, despite having the requisite judicial warrant.
Blanche defended the justice department’s handling of the Epstein files during his testimony on Wednesday, while also acknowledging that there were “mistakes that were made” when it came to some of the redactions, including redaction errors that exposed sensitive personal information about some Epstein survivors. Blanche said that the department corrected those errors as soon as they became aware of them.
“Whenever we learned that any victim’s name had been improperly not redacted, we immediately took the document down and fixed it as soon as we could,” he said. “That doesn’t excuse the mistakes, of which I take responsibility, but it does mean that we tried to fix them.”
Blanche maintained that the department complied with the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
“When it comes to the victims of this horrible man, we will never, never, not talk to victims” Blanche said. “We will never, not do everything we can to prosecute anybody that committed any crimes against any of these women. There are no closed investigations.”
During a heated exchange, Durbin later asked whether Blanche would commit to meeting personally with some of the Epstein survivors within the next 30 days.
Blanche responded that if the survivors are represented by attorneys, he is prohibited from “directly meeting with them” but, he said that members of his staff would meet with them.
“You’re dancing on the head of a pin here,” Durbin said. “If you’re truly committed to extraordinary transparency and you’re willing to meet with these victims, I hope you will do it immediately, or we’re going to hold you to it.”
In his opening statement before senators today, Todd Blanche, said that he is “pleased to testify again today to tell everybody here that we are doing just that-we are keeping America safe”.
The nominee for attorney general, who has been leading the justice department in an acting capacity since Pam Bondi was fired in April.
Throughout his opening remarks, Blanche made a number of misleading comments about crime rates across the country.
First, Blanche said the US has the “lowest murder rate since 1900”.
While recent data, compiled by the Crime Index, shows that the US is seeing a record low homicide rate, this only goes back to the late 1950s.
Blanche also said that homicides in Washington DC are “down about 60%” and overall crime in Memphis “declined by more than 40 %”.
In Memphis, overall crime has fallen 41% since 2023, per the Memphis Police Department. However, the year‑over‑year drop from 2024 to the end of 2025 – Donald Trump’s first year back in office – is 27%.
Meanwhile, in Washington DC, the drop in murder rate during that same period is 32%, according to Metropolitan Police Department data.
During his opening remarks, Durbin slammed Blanche for a number of his decisions while both as deputy attorney general and his role as the nation’s acting top prosecutor.
He criticized Blanche for his work establishing the almost-$2bn dollar “anti-weaponization fund” used to pay out defendants who took part in the January 6 insurrection and born out of Donald Trump’s settlement with the IRS. “Despite resounding bipartisan criticism and admitting that it was a mistake, you’ve refused to rescind the order creating this fund,” Durbin said. “That order can still be found on the Department of Justice’s website today.”
The judiciary committee’s top Democrat also noted that he had a conversation with Blanche yesterday, where the acting attorney general said that the judge who chided the original lawsuit. Judge Kathleen Williams wrote that Blanche’s testimony to Congress, that the court could not review the settlement agreement, was “at best misleading and at worst disingenuous.”
Durbin, however, said that Blanche called Williams’ opinion was “a hit piece”.
“Another troubling attack on a judge for doing her job,” Durbin added.
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Senators begin Todd Blanche confirmation hearing for attorney general
Senators on the judiciary committee have kicked off the confirmation hearing for Todd Blanche to serve as the attorney general.
The committee chair, Republican Chuck Grassley, noted that the lawmakers will consider Blanche for a “promotion” today. A reminder that Blanche was previously confirmed, and served, as deputy attorney general under Pam Bondi.
“We’re not starting out from a blank slate. You have a track record,” Grassley said. “My Democrat colleagues have relentlessly attacked the department and your and President Trump’s leadership.”
During his opening statement, Grassley also used his time to flag new records released by the judiciary committee that shows former special counsel Jack Smith obtained text messages that 44 members of Congress sent to White House officials during the final weeks of Donald Trump’s first term in office. This is part of a wider strategy from many Republican lawmakers to paint Smith’s investigation as a “recklessness and blatant abuse of power”. Grassley added that the former special counsel’s operation was “a runaway political train that improperly obtained congressional information”.
In response, the committee’s ranking member, Dick Durbin, noted that Smith has volunteered to appear before the judiciary committee under oath and testify about his work as special counsel.
“For reasons I cannot explain, the Republican majority does not want to bring Jack Smith before this committee and have him testify under oath,” Durbin added. “They continue on a regular basis to take exception to things that he said or did or allegedly did, but will not bring him before this committee. I don’t get it.”
As we noted earlier, Jay Clayton will also appear before Senate lawmakers today at a confirmation hearing to be the next director of national intelligence.
Clayton, if confirmed, would replace Bill Pulte, whom Donald Trump installed as acting director last month. Pulte’s position has been deeply divisive on Capitol Hill, with members of both parties saying his background as the chair of a federal mortgage regulation agency is not enough experience for the job, and that Pulte’s unwavering loyalty to Trump and willingness to punish the president’s political enemies makes him a dangerous spy chief.
Like Pulte, Clayton has thin credentials for America’s top intelligence job. He served as the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) during Trump’s first term and made millions working as a Wall Street attorney in the decades prior to his 2017 SEC post. He has no experience serving in any intelligence agency in any capacity.
But Clayton has also demonstrated unwavering support for Trump and his agenda – including his conspiracies of election fraud.
My colleague, Cate Brown, has been covering the latest.
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Donald Trump will start the day with meetings in Washington. He’s then due to travel to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he’ll take part in a defense and innovation summit at the US Army War College. The event will mark major energy investments in the Keystone state, and the president will be joined by a number of tech executives.
We’ll bring you the latest lines as Trump heads to Pennsylvania. He’s due to speak at 3:15pm ET.
Trump says ICE should continue traffic stops after recent fatal shootings
The president is awake and posting about ICE on his own social media network.
Writing on Truth Social, Donald Trump said ICE agents are doing a “great” job and that crime is “way down” in the US.
The full post reads:
The men and women of ICE are doing a GREAT job, one that has to be done. CRIME IS WAY DOWN IN AMERICA, in many cases with numbers that haven’t been seen in decades. The Open Border Policy of Sleepy Joe Biden allowed 25,000,000 people to pour into our Country, unchecked and unvetted. Many were Criminals, and we have to get them out.
In order to do this, we must be strong, tough, and smart, and we CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP! Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands.
The Radical Left Dumocrats would like to see this done, but it won’t happen on my watch. I.C.E., be judicious, fair and smart, and go back and do your very important job. Keep those Crime Stat Records coming! Remember, you are loved and respected in America.
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Two US advocacy groups sued the Trump administration on Wednesday, alleging that sanctions targeting Palestinian rights organizations, international criminal court (ICC) officials and a UN expert have unlawfully violated Americans’ first amendment rights.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, argues that the administration’s sweeping 2025 sanctions package has had a “profound” chilling effect on Palestine-related advocacy, compelling Americans to sever professional relationships and abandon constitutionally protected work.
“The Trump administration is using the blunt instrument of economic sanctions not only to punish human rights defenders but to police the political expression of millions of Americans,” said Omar Shakir, executive director of Democracy in the Arab World Now (Dawn), a Washington-based advocacy group focused on US foreign policy in the Middle East. Dawn joined the New York-based Taxpayer Alliance Against Genocide in Wednesday’s lawsuit.
The 43-page legal complaint notes that both organizations have worked on ICC submissions documenting Israeli war crimes in the West Bank and Gaza. Dawn has also worked with the three sanctioned Palestinian NGOs and Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur, to publish research, convene conferences and lobby US policymakers.
Former president Joe Biden will publish a memoir this fall, publisher Little, Brown and Company told the Associated Press.
‘Promise Me, America,’ which Biden says will touch upon everything from the economy to his decision to drop his bid for reelection, is scheduled to come out 17 November.
The timing of the book – two weeks after midterm elections in which Democrats seek to regain control of Congress – could raise concerns within his party. Many Democrats remain divided on Biden’s legacy and his ill-fated determination to seek a second term in the White House and leaders hope to keep the fall campaign focused on the record of Republican president Donald Trump .
“‘Promise Me, America’ is about the challenges we faced as a nation. It’s about the decisions I made and why I made them,” Biden said in a video statement accompanying Wednesday’s announcement. “Most of all, it’s about my faith in the promise of America.”
Reports of Biden’s book have circulated for more than a year, and the former president himself has referred to it during public remarks, appearing to suggest it would be released before November’s election.
US officials are facing mounting calls to remove US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from American streets after federal agents killed two men who were not the target of enforcement action in less than a week.
Advocacy groups, including the National Police Accountability Project and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, described the fatal shootings of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Texas as extrajudicial killings.
“The bystander videos I watched make it clear that ICE agents carried out another extrajudicial public execution in Maine,” Lauren Bonds, the executive director of the National Police Accountability Project, said in a statement.
“It’s clear that the only way to prevent ICE from killing us in the streets is to remove ICE from the streets.”
Congress can do so, she added, by freezing funding to the agency and limiting their jurisdiction.
Details have emerged in recent days about how the two killings unfolded during operations that quickly turned deadly.
Trump's pick for attorney general faces Senate hearing later today
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
President Donald Trump’s pick to be the next US attorney general – his former personal defense lawyer Todd Blanche – faces what is expected to be a contentious Senate confirmation hearing today.
Blanche will come under tough questioning from Democrats and potentially some Republicans during his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
A sole Republican “no” vote on the panel could be enough to torpedo the 51-year-old Blanche’s appointment to be the chief law enforcement officer of the United States.
Blanche has been serving as acting attorney general since Pam Bondi was fired by Trump and has been closely tied to what Democrats have dubbed a “retribution” campaign by the Republican president against his perceived political enemies. Senators are also expected to robustly press Blanche on his handling of the release of millions of files related to Jeffrey Epstein.
It comes amid a flurry of confirmation hearings set to take place today. Jay Clayton, Trump’s pick to head the nation’s intelligence agencies, will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee, weeks after Trump abruptly delayed his nomination.
And the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions will hold nomination hearings for Dr Erica Schwartz to permanently head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an agency that has been without a confirmed director for most of Trump’s second term.
The committee could also confirm Sean Kaufman to lead emergency and disaster preparedness efforts as Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response.
In other developments:
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Federal immigration officials have been instructed to stop pulling over vehicles until further notice, according to a homeland security source, following two recent deadly shootings in Texas and Maine during which officials shot and killed immigrants in vehicles. More here.
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Darline Graham, the sister of the late Republican senator Lindsey Graham, was sworn in to temporarily fill his Senate seat on Tuesday, just three days after his sudden death. Graham was appointed by Henry McMaster, South Carolina’s governor, to fill the remainder of her brother’s current term. More here.
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A person died during an encounter with federal immigration officials on Tuesday morning in Florida, marking the third death in one week linked to immigration enforcement operations. Officials with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which is a component of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), had an “encounter” with four men in a vehicle in the parking lot of a convenience store along a busy road in St Augustine, Florida, the highway patrol spokesperson said. More here.
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Supreme court justices requested $14.6m increase in security amid a rise in threats. Amy Coney Barrett told House lawmakers that a sharp rise in threats against her and other justices is increasingly affecting her personal and family lives. More here.
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