Summary
Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day. Here are the latest developments:
Donald Trump said he was ‘doing great’ as his approval rating sank to a record low 32%. The president made the remarks as he headed to Nebraska, to campaign for a Republican senator there. At the Nebraska rally, Trump signed an executive order to “allow anyone to purchase tax-free red-dyed diesel for any reason”, which was personally delivered to the stage by his aide, Natalie Harp.
Responding to backlash over taxpayer-funded ads, Trump said he will “pay for them myself, and with money I raised for MAGA, Inc.”, a political action committee. Last week, two congressional Democrats asked federal watchdogs to investigate whether the Trump administration illegally used taxpayer money to air television ads promoting the president ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Pennsylvania is reporting the largest measles outbreak in the nation, with more than 1,000 cases this year. The governor of neighboring New York Kathy Hochul has declared a disaster emergency over an ongoing measles outbreak there. The news came the same day that a coalition of Democratic attorneys general for 16 states announced a lawsuit today against health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, over changes to the childhood vaccine schedule.
Politico has been barred from traveling on Air Force One for Donald Trump’s trip to Nebraska, according to a report by CNN. This comes after the administration previously stopped CNN from similarly traveling with the president, despite a federal judge putting a temporary block on Trump’s overall ban on Politico, CNN and MS Now from the White House. According to CNN, Politico was set to serve as the out-of-town print pool today – the newsroom tasked with covering the president’s movements that feeds to the wider US/global press. However, a Politico spokesperson confirmed to CNN that the outlet had been excluded from traveling with Trump.
Karoline Leavitt, who stepped down as White House press secretary in August, is joining Fox News as an on-air contributor, according to an announcement from the network. Leavitt, 29, the youngest press secretary in White House history, left the administration after the birth of her second child earlier this year. Suzanne Scott, Fox News’s CEO, said in a statement that Leavitt’s “firsthand experience in the White House and on the presidential campaign trail gives her a distinct understanding of today’s political landscape”. Scott said Leavitt would begin providing on-air analysis on 1 November, ahead of the midterm elections.
Earlier today, the supreme court heard the first arguments of its 2026-27 term, in a case that focuses on whether states can sue oil companies for the impact of climate change on their communities. The lawsuit was filed by local officials in Boulder, Colorado, against Suncor Energy and ExxonMobil. The energy companies argue that only federal law can be used to address this issue. Boulder is one of dozens of local governments that have filed lawsuits against energy companies that demands compensation for past and future harms to the environment. Notably, only eight of the court’s nine justices will hear today’s arguments, after Samuel Alito recused himself from the case after facing calls to step aside due to stock holdings in oil companies.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio said there was no direct link between the sudden removal of US bombers from a UK airbase and a suspected Iranian plot at the site last week. “I wouldn’t just directly tie that to the move that was made,” Rubio told reporters, when asked about the B1 bombers. “The Department of War is constantly reallocating resources where they need to be,“ Rubio added, noting that the US has confidence in the security of all its bases.
A US citizen who was shot by an immigration agent last year has sued the federal government, alleging the agent lied about the shooting and shot into her car from behind.
Initially, federal prosecutors said that Marimar Martinez used her vehicle to box in Customs and Border Protection agent Charles Exum’s SUV during an immigration raid in Chicago last October. Exum then shot into Martinez’s vehicle, leaving her with seven gunshot wounds. But a month later, prosecutors dismissed the charges against Martinez.
Speaking about the lawsuit filed today, Martinez’s lawyers told the Associated Press that they commissioned an expert analysis of the bullet trajectories and determined Exum was not in the path of Martinez’s car. They also added that he fired five shots in less than a second, including from behind her vehicle.
California senator Adam Schiff called for the White House to show proof it had stopped using taxpayer dollars to fund pro-Trump ads, following Donald Trump’s announcement today that he would pay for the ads himself or with money raised by a pro-Trump political action committee.
“Let’s see the proof this illegal waste of your taxes is over for good. And that he pays the money back. We don’t want the U.S. taxpayers to be the latest contractors to get stiffed,” Schiff said in a social media post.
A Nicaraguan exile and asylum-seeker, who was imprisoned and tortured after protesting against the government, has been jailed after he was deported to Managua today.
Jeffrey Jarquín, 35, was detained by Nicaraguan authorities in 2018 after protesting against the government of husband-and wife co-presidents Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo. Jarquín was held in the maximum-security prison El Modelo where he was tortured in cells the Organization of American States called “tiny hell”.
According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, about 62,000 Nicaraguans fled the country following the 2018 protests, out of fear for their lives. Jarquín claimed aslyum in the United States and was living in Miami when he was detained by immigration agents earlier this year. Jarquín was held in Alligator Alcatraz before he was deported today.
According to a family member, who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, Jarquín was detained as soon as he stepped off the plane in Nicaragua and taken back to the same prison where he was tortured in 2018
To date, more than 800,000 people have fled the country fearing reprisal for speaking out against the government. In July 2026, Ortega declared Nicaragua would no longer hold elections.
Pete Hegseth has recommended that Nidal Hasan, who was sentenced to death for killing 13 soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009, be killed by US army firing squad.
Donald Trump has approved the recommendation, chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a social media post.
“The Secretary of the Army will set the time and place of the execution,” Parnell wrote.
Hasan, who was an Army psychiatrist, would become first US soldier to be executed in more than 60 years.
Donald Trump signed an executive order to “allow anyone to purchase tax-free red-dyed diesel for any reason” during his rally in Nebraska. His aide, Natalie Harp, personally delivered the executive order to the stage.
Before signing the order, Trump asked the crowd if they knew what red-dyed diesel was. “I don’t know what the hell that is,” he said. “Whatever it is it’s supposed to be very good.”
Red-dyed diesel is tax-exempt fuel typically used for farming.
After Harp left the stage with Trump’s signed order, the president remarked that Harp “reminds me of the ‘Price is Right,’” calling the 35-year-old “perfect”. He added, “We should go on television with this show.”
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Trump is now speaking at a campaign rally in Nebraska, where he’s hoping to drum up support for Republican senator Pete Ricketts.
The president is, so far, repeating common refrains, including that he won the 2020 election and that he will make America “greater than ever before”. We’ll bring you anything new and noteworthy.
FBI director Kash Patel, 46, announced his engagement to country music singer Alexis Wilkins, 27, in a social media post Sunday.
Wilkins shared a photograph of her wearing a ring with the caption “Went and got the law involved.”
In April, the FBI began investigating a New York Times reporter after the newspaper published a story alleging that Patel used FBI resources to provide protection and transportation for Wilkins.
Related: NYT alleges FBI investigated reporter over story on Kash Patel’s girlfriend
Responding to backlash over taxpayer-funded, pro-Trump ads, Donald Trump says he will “pay for them myself, and with money I raised for MAGA, Inc.”, a political action committee.
In a social media post, Trump characterized the ads as “a positive promotion for our Great U.S.A.” and called them “a rather standard thing to do”.
Last week, two congressional Democrats asked federal watchdogs to investigate whether the Trump administration illegally used taxpayer money to air television ads promoting the president ahead of November’s midterm elections.
Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the judiciary committee of the House of Representatives, and George Whitesides wrote to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the office of special counsel (OSC) on Wednesday, describing the commercials as “desperate pre-election propaganda”.
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A coalition of Democratic attorneys general for 16 states announced a lawsuit today against health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, over changes to the childhood vaccine schedule. The lawsuit addresses changes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made in January, when it stopped recommending seven vaccines for children, including ones that protect against hepatitis B, influenza, RSV and meningitis.
The lawsuit also challenges Kennedy’s decision to fire all voting members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
“For decades, these vaccines have kept millions of children out of the hospital and saved countless lives,” said New York attorney general Letitia James. “Families deserve guidance grounded in science, and these abrupt changes put children’s health at risk.”
The coalition includes attorneys for the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin, as well as Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro.
Pennsylvania is currently experiencing the largest measles outbreak in more than three decades, with more than 1,000 cases reported.
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Facing record low approval ratings, Donald Trump repeated claims that he will pay all adult US citizens if Republicans keep control of the House and Senate in the upcoming midterm elections.
In a social media post, the president wrote: “If Republicans win the House of Representatives and the Senate in the 2026 Midterm Elections, I’m going to give all Adult Citizens in the United States of America, $5,000. Thank you for your attention to this matter, and I look forward to signing those checks!”
New polling from the New York Times/Siena college shows four key Democratic gubernatorial candidates leading in their respective races against Republicans in key red states that have become more competitive in recent weeks. The races are in Texas, Iowa, Ohio and Alaska.
A new Reuters poll also shows Trump’s approval rating at a record-low 32%.
Updated
Dennis Hastert, the longest-running Republic speaker of the House of Representatives, has died. He was 84.
Hastert, who served as speaker from 1999 to 2007, later served time in federal prison related to allegations that he molested high school athletes while working as a teacher and wrestling coach before his time in Congress.
Here’s our full report:
Related: Dennis Hastert, former House speaker disgraced by molestation allegations, dies aged 84
The FBI has arrested a California real estate agent at Los Angeles International Airport, accusing her of surveiling the president of Taiwan’s family on behalf of the Chinese government.
Federal prosecutors allege that Wanying Zhang, a 34-year-old real estate agent from Irvine, surveiled the house of Taiwan’s president’s son, Ting-Yu Lai. Zhang allegedly sent photos, videos and license plate information to a Chinese government official. She has been charged with working for China as an unregistered agent.
The news comes amid ongoing probes into foreign influence in the United States. A California court will hold a sentencing hearing tomorrow for a California mayor who has pleaded guilty to working as an agent for China.
Earlier today, the justice department announced that it has filed denaturalization actions against 40 individuals accused of offenses ranging from acting as an agent for a foreign government to committing voluntary manslaughter.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul has declared a disaster emergency over an ongoing measles outbreak.
“No one should get seriously ill or die from a vaccine-preventable disease,” Hochul said. “That is why I have taken steps to increase the number of health professionals who can vaccinate and test. These emergency measures will protect New Yorkers and support our community partners as they work tirelessly to address the spread of this disease.”
According to the state’s measles dashboard, there have been 108 cases in the state this year, with 101 of those reported outside New York City.
Neighboring Pennsylvania is reporting the largest measles outbreak in the nation, with more than 1,000 cases this year.
Republican senator Thom Tillis said voting to confirm Pete Hegseth as defense secretary was the “biggest regret of my career” and added that he “should’ve stopped” Robert F Kennedy Jr. from becoming health secretary.
The remarks come in Tillis’s new book, “How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents,” set to publish tomorrow.
“I know for a fact that there are others like me,” Tillis writes, “Republicans who agreed to go along with the early demands of the Trump team no matter how ridiculous they were, believing that failing to do so would mean the end of their political career, and who now see that things have gone way too far.”
The retiring senator from North Carolina adds that he can count at least 30 Republican colleagues who have “expressed reservations (to put it mildly) about many of the president’s actions in private.”
Donald Trump says the United States is monitoring the situation at a Russian plague institute, where an employee has died of pneumonia.
Plague outbreaks continue to occur worldwide, with most cases localized to Africa, Asia and South America. An average of seven plague cases occur every year in the western United States, predominantly in Arizona and New Mexico.
“We’ll help,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “Anybody that has that kind of a problem, we’re always willing to help.”
He also appeared to confuse pneumonia caused by the plague, and pneumonia caused by other viruses, bacteria and germs. “Years ago you could beat pneumonia easier. The microbes and the germs have gotten stronger disproportionately,” he said.
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Trump claims he’s ‘doing great’ as his approval rating sinks to record low 32%
Before boarding a flight to Nebraska, Donald Trump answered more questions from reporters, speaking about his polling numbers and efforts to remove bombers from a UK airbase.
“I’m doing great,” Trump told a reporter, who’d asked about recent polls showing the president losing support among Latino voters. “You’re CNN, you’re fake news.”
According to a NBC News/Telemundo poll release Sunday, 59% of Latino voters prefer a Democratic-controlled Congress, double the number that supported the party two years ago.
A new Reuters poll shows Trump’s approval rating at a record-low 32%. According to that poll, just 24% of Hispanic Americans approve of Trump’s performance .
Speaking about work to move US bombers off a UK airbase, Trump said: “There was some threats and rather than tempting the enemy, we’ll capture the enemy and beat the enemy, but why should we leave them there.”
Responding to a question about whether there was a risk that Iran had brought combat drones into the UK, Trump said: “I can’t tell you that, but if they did they’ll suffer greatly.”
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Speaking to reporters ahead of leaving for his rally in Nebraska, Donald Trump slammed the recent news that election officials in Arizona’s largest county, Maricopa, accidentally sent out more than 3,000 ballots five days ahead of the 7 October mailing date.
“Maricopa is a very, very dishonest county,” Trump said, despite the fact that the area’s recorder – Justin Heap – is a former Republican lawmaker who has repeatedly undermined the integrity of the voting system in Arizona. In 2024, Heap defeated Stephen Richer, the GOP incumbent, who defended his county’s process and routinely pushed back on claims of rampant voter fraud.
In response to the latest news, Heap said that the ballots that were issued early remain valid and do not need to be voided or reissued as the error affected only the timing of the mailing. “The correct ballots were mailed to the correct voters,” Heap said in a statement.
Trump, who has routinely and baselessly undermined mail-in voting – and even signed an executive order to try to curb it last year – still defended his decision to tell Americans to cast their ballot via mail. A reminder that the president has voted by mail on several occasions.
“I’d rather have a vote in person, but they can vote by mail if they want, because we seem to have no choice,” he said, before claiming – again without evidence – that there is “a lot of cheating in vote by mail”.
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Here's a recap of the day so far
Politico has been barred from traveling on Air Force One for Donald Trump’s trip to Nebraska, according to a report by CNN. This comes after the administration previously stopped CNN from similarly traveling with the president, despite a federal judge putting a temporary block on Trump’s overall ban on Politico, CNN and MS Now from the White House. According to CNN, Politico was set to serve as the out-of-town print pool today – the newsroom tasked with covering the president’s movements that feeds to the wider US/global press. However, a Politico spokesperson confirmed to CNN that the outlet had been excluded from traveling with Trump.
Karoline Leavitt, who stepped down as White House press secretary in August, is joining Fox News as an on-air contributor, according to an announcement from the network. Leavitt, 29, the youngest press secretary in White House history, left the administration after the birth of her second child earlier this year. Suzanne Scott, Fox News’s CEO, said in a statement that Leavitt’s “firsthand experience in the White House and on the presidential campaign trail gives her a distinct understanding of today’s political landscape”. Scott said Leavitt would begin providing on-air analysis on 1 November, ahead of the midterm elections.
Earlier today, the supreme court heard the first arguments of its 2026-27 term, in a case that focuses on whether states can sue oil companies for the impact of climate change on their communities. The lawsuit was filed by local officials in Boulder, Colorado, against Suncor Energy and ExxonMobil. The energy companies argue that only federal law can be used to address this issue. Boulder is one of dozens of local governments that have filed lawsuits against energy companies that demands compensation for past and future harms to the environment. Notably, only eight of the court’s nine justices will hear today’s arguments, after Samuel Alito recused himself from the case after facing calls to step aside due to stock holdings in oil companies.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio said there was no direct link between the sudden removal of US bombers from a UK airbase and a suspected Iranian plot at the site last week. “I wouldn’t just directly tie that to the move that was made,” Rubio told reporters, when asked about the B1 bombers. “The Department of War is constantly reallocating resources where they need to be,“ Rubio added, noting that the US has confidence in the security of all its bases.
Updated
Trump attacks media and defends crowd size at his events ahead of Nebraska rally
Ahead of traveling to Nebraska to rally today, Donald Trump took aim at the New York Times’ reporting which highlighted that the president’s recent rally on Saturday was not full, and certain sections of Butler high school gymnasium in Vandalia, Ohio, were “completely empty”.
Trump – who has routinely blasted the press for commenting on the size of crowds at his events – claimed that in Ohio “thousands of people were unable to get in”.
“I never have empty seats – Never have, and never will! Because of their dishonesty, I have cinematographers shooting the various Arenas where I speak,” he wrote on Truth Social. “The Rallies are “HOTTER” than ever. They are all “happenings,” and they never happened before, and will never be duplicated again. The Networks refuse, however, under any circumstances, to show the Crowds, but you can hear the thunderous applause, and know that it represents thousands and thousands of people.”
Updated
Shifting back to the supreme court, and the case before the eight justices (after Samuel Alito’s recusal) which focuses on whether states can hold energy companies liable for their role in climate change.
The justices focused their questions today primarily on the merits of the case rather than concentrating on whether the court had jurisdiction to hear it, suggesting they will make a decision on the question of whether federal law pre-empts Boulder’s state climate case.
Dennis Fan, the founder and director of the Appellate Litigation Clinic at Columbia Law School who wrote an amicus brief in the case, said it was too close to call, but he was concerned for the future of the climate cases. “They focused more on the merits,” he said. “That had me much more worried for Boulder.”
Kannon Shanmugam, a lawyer for the fossil fuel companies, told the justices that climate change was a pressing issue, but state cases – such as the one filed by Boulder – were the wrong way to resolve it, and the issue should be left to lawmakers. He argued that if the cases were heard in state courts, it would allow a high number of lawsuits to be filed. “The breadth of Boulder’s argument is astonishing,” he said.
“The hope of the industry side is that this is going to be the death blow,” said Fan. “The industry is going for the home run, they’re going for the grand slam. They’re thinking, ‘If we win this argument, there will never, ever be climate change litigation again.’”
Related: US supreme court hears big oil’s bid to block climate damage lawsuits
Politico barred from traveling on Air Force One for Trump Nebraska trip – report
Politico has been barred from traveling on Air Force One for Donald Trump’s trip to Nebraska, according to a report by CNN.
This comes after the administration previously stopped CNN from similarly traveling with the president, despite a federal judge putting a temporary block on Trump’s overall ban on Politico, CNN and MS Now from the White House. That injunction is in effect until 8 October, but the newsrooms have sought for it to be extended until the matter is resolved in court. A hearing has been set for Thursday in the lawsuit filed by the three newsrooms against the administration’s ban.
The White House has previously argued that the judge’s ruling does not apply to Air Force One, the jet used to transport the president, cabinet members and the media to official events.
According to CNN, Politico was set to serve as the out-of-town print pool today – the newsroom tasked with covering the president’s movements that feeds to the wider US/global press. However, a Politico spokesperson confirmed to CNN that the outlet had been excluded from traveling with Trump.
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Obama to rally in Michigan for Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed
News from the campaign trail in Michigan today. Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Senate, announced that he’ll rally this weekend with former president Barack Obama in Detroit. They’ll be joined by Michigan’s Democratic nominee for governor, Jocelyn Benson, the secretary of state.
A reminder that Obama won Michigan twice in 2008 and 2012, before Donald Trump flipped the state in 2016. The former president is also going to headline a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) fundraiser this week in Washington DC, according to NBC News.
Updated
Dozens of protesters stood outside the supreme court this morning as the court hears a bid from officials in Boulder, Colorado, seeking monetary damages for harms caused by climate change.
Protesters held signs that read “The People v Big Oil” and “Stand With Communities, Not Big Oil”.
Former Washington governor Jay Inslee rallied with environmental activists outside and took the stage alongside more than a dozen speakers.
The event was organized by two climate activist groups, Fossil Free Media and the Center for Climate Integrity.
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A quick reminder that we’ll be hosting a live midterm election Q&A on Tuesday 6 October 2026 at 12pm EDT on the Guardian US site, with a panel of our politics and foreign policy reporters to help readers understand the costs of the war and political consequences for Trump and candidates running in November.
If you have a question about how the war with Iran could shape midterm election results, we’d like to hear from you – and be sure to tune in to our live conversation on 6 October, as reporters may have an answer to your question.
Related: Send us your questions about how the Iran war will affect US voters in the midterms
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Trump says Ukraine strikes on Russia, not Iran war, driving up oil prices up
Trump said Ukraine strikes on Russia are driving up oil prices, rather than the Iran war, in social media post.
“What’s driving up Gasoline is no longer the Strait of Hormuz, because Record Numbers of Barrels are coming out now on an almost daily basis, but the word, ‘Refineries,’ where Russia’s are being blown up by Ukraine, and where ours are being closed up, in Blue States, like California, by the Dumocrats.”
Trump’s post comes as the price of oil rose above $100 a barrel, last month, for the first time since July as the escalating conflict in the Middle East threatens further disruption to global supplies.
Related: Oil prices rise above $100 a barrel for first time since July as Iran war escalates
Marco Rubio responds to removal of US bombers from UK base, says no direct ties to suspected plot
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there was no direct link between the sudden removal of US bombers from a UK airbase and a suspected Iranian plot at the site last week.
“I wouldn’t just directly tie that to the move that was made,” Rubio told reporters, when asked about the B1 bombers.
“The Department of War is constantly reallocating resources where they need to be,“ Rubio added.
Rubio said on Monday that the US has confidence in the security of all its bases.
“It’s not unusual to see rotations happen and moving into the different parts of the world based on exercises, redeployment, changing out and new people coming in, in planes coming in, old planes going out,” Rubio said. “So, rules are changing all the time.”
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Ahead of taking off for his trip to Alaska today, vice-president JD Vance spoke briefly to supporters where he stressed how competitive the state was ahead of the midterm elections.
He urged voters in the Last Frontier to not judge Mary Peltola, the moderate Democrat running to unseat the Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan – by “what she’s saying in the final six weeks of the Senate campaign”.
“You’ve got to judge her by what she actually did. And the reality is that she did support a lot of radical Democrat policies,” Vance said, referring to Peltola’s time as the state’s sole congresswoman.
When pressed by a reporter about whether the Trump administration’s so-called “public service announcements” – that have aired in recent weeks – are a good use of taxpayer dollars, Vance defended the advertising spots.
“If you look historically, you go back to the Obama administration with the Affordable Care Act. You have the people’s government using tax dollars to advertise about what the government is doing,” the vice-president said. “It’s part of actually living in a constitutional republic. You have to be honest with the American people about what you’re doing, about what’s going on, and part of that is getting out there and telling the message … They’re not partisan. It’s not like we’re advocating for a particular candidate.”
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New polling shows Democrats leading governors races in red states
New polling from the New York Times/Siena college shows four key Democratic gubernatorial candidates leading in their respective races against Republicans in key red states that have become more competitive in recent weeks.
While we’ve been covering dozens of races that will shape the make-up of Congress, there are a number of races for governor across the country that will be vital – particularly when it comes to the ensuing redistricting battles we expect in the lead up to 2028.
According to the Times/Siena survey, Gina Hinojosa – the Democratic state lawmaker challenging sitting governor Greg Abbott – is leading the Republican incumbent by three points. Meanwhile in Iowa, which has become a source of hope for national Democrats, sees Rob Sand – a moderate who serves as the state auditor – ahead of GOP nominee Zach Lahn by 11 points. Staying in the midwest, in Ohio the closely watched competition between Republican Vivek Ramaswamy and Democrat Amy Acton sees the latter with an edge over the billionaire and former presidential candidate. In Alaska, where a Democrat hasn’t won the governor’s mansion in almost 30 years, Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins is up by four points over Bernadette Wilson, the Republican nominee.
Below is some of the Guardian’s reporting on these key races as we head into the final month of campaigning before election day on 3 November.
Related: A Democratic upset is brewing in Alaska’s governor’s race as Trump’s popularity craters
Related: Vivek Ramaswamy is struggling to connect with voters. Can Ohio’s Indian community help?
Related: ‘Our democracy is run by two private clubs’: can a pro-hunting Democrat lead a blue wave in Iowa?
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Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general chosen by Donald Trump to run as the Republican candidate for a Senate seat, admitted in private that his campaign was being controlled by outside forces in DC.
“I’ve never been in a race where I felt less control over the campaign and, like, what issues are going to matter because it’s all coming – you know – from DC,” Paxton told people at a fundraising event in September, according to an audio recording obtained by Politico.
“I don’t control message or what we’re doing,” Paxton added.
Paxton has been locked in a competitive race with progressive Democrat James Talarico.
An unnamed attender told Politico that Paxton never explicitly said he was referring to Trump’s team controlling his campaign messaging, but that Paxton’s comments arose during a conversation about the national political environment.
The Guardian has asked Paxton’s campaign for comment.
Paxton’s campaign adviser Nick Maddux told Politico that, “Campaigns don’t coordinate with Super Pacs, and that’s obviously what AG Paxton was referring to.”
“AG Paxton is thankful for the support and knows how important Texas is to keeping the majority which is why he’s on the ground every day talking to Texas, raising money, and taking his message directly to the people including with his statewide television buy that started over this past weekend,” Maddux said.
Related: Republican Ken Paxton admits forces in DC control his Texas Senate campaign
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As the supreme court hears oral arguments this morning, it’s worth noting that if the justices side with Boulder or decide that the case is not in their jurisdiction, then it would continue in state court.
But if the fossil fuel industry convinces the justices, the decision could apply not only to the Boulder case, but also to the many other climate cases brought by state and local governments around the US that we mentioned earlier.
“The hope of the industry side is that this is going to be the death blow,” said Dennis Fan, the founder and director of the Appellate Litigation Clinic at Columbia Law School who wrote an amicus brief in the case. “The industry is going for the home run, they’re going for the grand slam. They’re thinking, ‘if we win this argument, there will never, ever be climate change litigation again.’”
Boulder officials filed a lawsuit in Colorado court in 2018 arguing that Exxon and Suncor concealed and misrepresented to the public what they knew about the damage that burning fossil fuels would do to the climate, and that they should pay for the resulting costs of disasters. Initially, the firms sought to have the case moved to federal court. Then when the Colorado supreme court allowed Boulder’s case to make its way toward trial in state court, Exxon and Suncor appealed that ruling up to the supreme court arguing it should be dismissed on grounds of federal preemption.
Typically, cases must be decided by lower courts before reaching the supreme court, but the justices agreed to hear this case while the state case is ongoing. “That’s an incredibly weird thing to have happen,” Fan said.
The supreme court will consider whether it has proper jurisdiction to hear Boulder’s case right now, and whether federal law preempts Boulder’s case from being heard in state court.
Related: US supreme court to hear big oil’s bid to block climate damage lawsuits
Trump falsely calls counting windows in blue states and cities 'corrupt'
Donald Trump has, once again, falsely claimed the counting window – the time between voters casting their ballots and the official results of an election being released – is an example of how voting is “corrupt” in the US.
He used the first round of Brazil’s general elections, where Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Flávio Bolsonaro will now head to a runoff, as the basis for his claims.
“The results came out shortly after the vote closed, on the SAME DAY!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “In Detroit, Philadelphia, California, and numerous other U.S. Cities and States, the results, with much smaller numbers, will often take weeks to Rig, I mean, calculate. Voting in America is CORRUPT!!!”
My colleague, George Chidi, has been reporting on how the president and his allies could seize on this period – as we wait for states to announce results – to amplify unfounded allegations in a bid to challenge results that don’t go their way. Some states take days – even weeks, in California’s case – to complete a count of votes after an election.
Related: Trump allies could use midterms ‘counting window’ to disrupt results, experts warn
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Karoline Leavitt to join Fox News as on-air contributor
Karoline Leavitt, who stepped down as White House press secretary in August, is joining Fox News as an on-air contributor, according to an announcement from the network.
Leavitt, 29, the youngest press secretary in White House history, left the administration after the birth of her second child earlier this year. She said at the time that she planned to spend more time with her family and take a role with the Trump-aligned Super Pac Maga Inc. When she announced her pregnancy in December, she became the first sitting White House press secretary to do so.
Leavitt is the second Trump White House press secretary to join Fox News. Kayleigh McEnany joined the network as an on-air contributor after leaving the White House at the end of Trump’s first term.
Suzanne Scott, Fox News’s CEO, said in a statement that Leavitt’s “firsthand experience in the White House and on the presidential campaign trail gives her a distinct understanding of today’s political landscape”. Scott said Leavitt will begin providing on-air analysis on 1 November, ahead of the midterm elections.
In the announcement, Leavitt said she looked forward to “bringing my unique perspective from my experience as White House press secretary, along with the same energy and candor that defined my tenure, to Fox’s millions of viewers across their many platforms”.
During her time in the West Wing, Leavitt sought to reshape the White House media landscape. She moved to exert greater control over the press pool, the small group of journalists who closely track the president’s daily activities; created a “new media” briefing-room seat often filled by conservative commentators and pro-Trump personalities; and frequently clashed with reporters.
One of Trump’s most steadfast defenders, Leavitt emerged as a key ally to the president and regularly drew praise from him during her time in the administration.
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Supreme court to hear first oral arguments of new term
The supreme court will hear the first arguments of its 2026-27 term today at 10am ET. The case was filed by local officials in Boulder, Colorado, against Suncor Energy and ExxonMobil. It focuses on whether states can sue oil companies for the impact of climate change on their communities.
The energy companies argue that only federal law can be used to address this issue. Boulder is one of dozens of local governments that have filed lawsuits against energy companies that demands compensation for past and future harms to the environment.
Notably, only eight of the court’s nine justices will hear today’s arguments, after Samuel Alito recused himself from the case after facing calls to step aside due to stock holdings in oil companies.
While Alito does not own stock in Suncor Energy and ExxonMobil, he does have holdings in other oil companies such as ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66, according to his disclosures. The group Consumer Watchdog says that means he could indirectly benefit from a decision in the industry’s favor.
Donald Trump will begin his day in Washington in closed-door meetings, before he heads to Nebraska to campaign with Pete Ricketts. A reminder that Ricketts is the incumbent Republican senator who is facing a competitive re-election race against the independent nominee, Dan Osborn, in November. The state – which Trump won by more than 20 points in 2024 – is the latest stop on the president’s midterms blitz in the final month until the election. He’s set to deliver remarks at 7pm ET.
And while Trump is in the midwest, his vice-president, JD Vance, will campaign in Fairbanks, Alaska where he’ll stump on behalf of Dan Sullivan, the Republican senator who is fighting for re-election against Mary Peltola, the state’s former Democratic congresswoman.
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JD Vance, widely considered to be the Republican frontrunner for the presidential election in 2028, is aligning himself with the Make America Healthy Again (Maha) movement as some say it is shedding its grassroots supporters in favor of political and corporate interests.
The US vice-president has positioned himself as the inheritor of Make America Great Again (Maga), and attaching himself to Maha, which many in the Trump administration believe helped to win the 2024 election, signals a greater overlap between the two movements as the administration’s popularity plummets amid the war in Iran and rising prices.
More than two-thirds (68%) of rural Maha supporters said that Trump’s health policies have “had a negative effect or no impact on the health of people where they live”, according in a new AP-KFF survey that highlights the disconnect between the sprawling political project and its grassroots support, especially in rural areas that overwhelmingly supported Trump in the 2024 election. More Americans view the president and vice-president unfavorably than favorably, according to a January survey by Pew Research.
At the Maha summit in Washington DC on Tuesday, Vance traded jokes about memes and the “carnivore” diet of meat and fermented foods with Robert F Kennedy Jr, the secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the leader of Maha.
But Vance also highlighted his role in identifying what he says is fraud in Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act marketplace – blaming it on immigrants, especially undocumented immigrants.
“We’ve found close to $250bn in fraud just since I’ve been leading the anti-fraud task force,” Vance claimed, though the administration has released scant details on who has been unenrolled from these programs and why the activity was considered fraudulent.
Related: JD Vance flexing Maha connections as he eyes 2028 election
US bombers pulled from UK's RAF Fairford base after suspected terror plot
The US Air Force has pulled its bombers from RAF Fairford following an investigation into an alleged planned terror attack at the base.
The bombers were redeployed back to their home bases in the US, according to a Pentagon official who was not authorised to discuss sensitive military movements and spoke on Sunday on condition of anonymity.
A Pentagon spokesperson said:
While operational security precluded us from confirming the movement of our assets and forces in real time, we can acknowledge now that all US bombers that were deployed to RAF Fairford have redeployed to their home stations in the United States.
At least 10 B-1 bombers of 12 flew out of Fairford on Sunday, including some that arrived on rotation less than a week ago, underlining the haste of the departure and the apparent significance given by the US to the threat.
There was no immediate comment from the UK Ministry of Defence, though the rapid pace of the withdrawal will heighten concerns in the area around the RAF base in Gloucestershire.
Related: US bombers pulled from RAF Fairford base after suspected terror plot
Donald Trump on Sunday named Jay Clayton, the director of national intelligence, to also serve as the new White House AI czar.
Clayton, who leads the US’s 18 intelligence agencies, previously served as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan and led the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term.
During his Senate confirmation hearing, Clayton said AI was a “gamechanger” but it also posed “a threat”.
“When something’s both an opportunity and a threat, you better get your arms around it,” Clayton told lawmakers when asked about AI.
CBS News was the first to report that Clayton would be appointed White House AI czar.
In a social media post on Sunday, Trump announced that Clayton would lead what the US president called “the Super Intelligence Force (SIF)”.
Trump’s post also said the SIF would “coordinate the federal government’s engagement with consumers, public interest groups, religious organizations, critical infrastructure providers, and super intelligence companies”.
Related: Trump names intelligence chief Jay Clayton as new White House AI czar
The White House has defended a newly hired press aide who posed for a holiday photograph in 2021 wearing a “Fuck Joe Biden” T-shirt and holding a rifle.
Beni Rae Harmony, the new assistant White House press secretary, revealed on Friday that she was going to work for Donald Trump just days after covering him as a correspondent for Real America’s Voice, a partisan rightwing outlet originally created as a video podcast platform for the president’s former adviser Steve Bannon.
According to a LinkedIn profile, Harmony, 24, previously worked as a producer for the far-right Turning Point USA host Jack Posobiec – and as a press aide “focusing on crisis management” for two far-right Republicans: congressman Paul Gosar of Arizona and former congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida.
In 2021, when Gosar was censured by the US House for posting an animated video that depicted him killing Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacking Joe Biden, Harmony recorded an outraged defense of her boss for his YouTube channel.
The photograph of Harmony and an older man posing with rifles in matching anti-Biden shirts, in front of Christmas decorations, was reportedly posted on Instagram in November 2021 by a far-right Republican House candidate, Jarome Bell, who mounted a failed campaign for Congress in 2022.
Related: White House defends new press aide who posed with rifle in ‘Fuck Joe Biden’ shirt
Trump heads to Nebraska in attempt to shore up the GOP's midterm vote
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
Donald Trump will be in Nebraska later today, campaigning alongside Republican senator Pete Ricketts, in an attempt to salvage the GOP’s dwindling midterms campaign.
The president is headed to Grand Island, located in the solidly conservative south-central part of the state. It’s part of what Trump says is a 32-day blitz of rallies ahead of 3 November that so far has taken him to ruby-red territory such as Oklahoma and Alabama.
On Wednesday, he will make his second stop in two weeks in Texas with a rally in San Antonio.
“The president’s coming to Nebraska to help me campaign, so I can get reelected,” Ricketts, who is running against an independent candidate backed by national Democrats, told the Associated Press last week on Capitol Hill.
The administration’s plan to allow more imports of foreign beef has particularly roiled the agriculture-rich state of Nebraska. Trump wants to lower beef prices for consumers but ranchers have rebelled against the import proposal, arguing it would undercut them.
“The plan to import low-quality foreign beef is not helping Nebraska ranchers,” Ricketts told the AP. “I would advise the White House to change that policy and look for longer-term things that will help us build the size of the herd and ultimately bring the price of beef down for consumers.”
This campaign is set against the president’s plummeting approval ratings, the unravelling of his Maga movement and an affordability crisis escalated by his unpopular war on Iran. But Trump supporters are also among the most motivated to vote and Republicans have far deeper coffers to mobilise their base.
Meanwhile, vice-president JD Vance will rally in Alaska for senator Dan Sullivan, a Republican locked in a tight reelection campaign.
In other developments:
The White House has defended a newly hired press aide who posed for a holiday photograph in 2021 wearing a “Fuck Joe Biden” T-shirt and holding a rifle. Beni Rae Harmony, the new assistant White House press secretary, revealed on Friday that she was going to work for Donald Trump just days after covering him as a correspondent for Real America’s Voice, a partisan rightwing outlet originally created as a video podcast platform for the president’s former adviser Steve Bannon.
Trump on Sunday named Jay Clayton, the director of national intelligence, to also serve as the new White House AI czar. Clayton, who leads the US’s 18 intelligence agencies, previously served as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan and led the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term.
The United States has removed its B-1 bombers from a British air base one week after five men were arrested nearby on suspicion of preparing terrorist acts, a suspected plot that British prime minister Andy Burnham said was likely backed by Iran. The planes had been stationed at RAF Fairford, the preferred European base for US bombers 90 miles west of London, which had recently been used for US strikes on Iran.
