Summary
Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day. Here are the latest developments:
The Cook Political Report has revised its predictions for the November midterm elections, saying “A Senate Majority is Squarely in Democrats’ Sights”. Cook amended its prediction for the Kansas Senate race from “Lean Republican” to “Toss Up” – a shocker for a state where no Democrat has won a Senate election since 1932. The elections analysis newsletter also forecasted that New Hamsphire will “Lean Democrat” and that North Carolina is “Likely Democrat” in Senate races there.
Donald Trump announced a massive new shipyard, which will be funded by a combination of federal and private dollars, at Tradepoint Atlantic in Sparrows Point. Anduril Industries, which is owned by Trump’s friend and donor Palmer Luckey, plans to invest $3.7bn in the shipyard and the US Navy will contribute an additional $2.9bn. Although he helped negotiate the deal, Maryland’s Democratic governor Wes Moore said he was not allowed to speak at the event.
The USS Lincoln will dock in San Diego tomorrow, completing a nearly year-long deployment that sparked controversy over living conditions aboard the aircraft carrier as it supported military operations in Iran. Defense secretary Pete Hegseth is expected to greet the crew when they arrive.
Trump ordered the FBI to investigate protesters in Los Angeles who were demonstrating against the president’s immigration crackdown, according to a whistleblower complaint that was submitted to the Senate judiciary committee. Jill Fields, a former supervisory intelligence analyst in the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, made the complaint following the federal response to anti-ICE demonstrations around the city’s federal buildings, and in residential area, early last year.
A Republican candidate in San Diego has criticized Donald Trump after the US president suggested Iran could “take out” the city or Los Angeles. Jim Desmond, who is running for a House of Representatives seat in San Diego, said that “no American city is expendable, and no American family should ever be treated as collateral damage”. Xavier Becerra, the Democratic nominee for California governor, said today he wasn’t surprised by the president’s comments.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio urged Moscow on Tuesday to release more details about the case of a lab technician in Siberia, who died after a suspected case of pneumonic plague. Trump said he has a called scheduled with Russian president Vladimir Putin to discuss possible causes of the incident “very soon”.
Lawyers for the former Olympic canoeist David Hearn, who was charged and dismissed over damage to the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, are urging two government watchdogs to examine what they say was a flawed investigation. Hearn’s lawyers said in a letter to the inspectors general for the departments of Justice and Interior that watchdog investigations were needed “to determine what happened inside their agencies that led to the shocking and indefensible treatment” of their client.
Two top Trump advisers were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to advise the pro-Russia government of the Republika Srpska, the New York Times reports, citing four people familiar with the advisers’ travels. James Blair, a former White House deputy chief of staff, and Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to the president’s 2024 campaign, traveled to the semi-autonomous entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina ahead of an election there Sunday.
Susan Collins, the Republican senator for Maine, pointedly distanced herself from Donald Trump in a televised debate with Democratic challenger Troy Jackson on Tuesday, as she sought to present an image of independence in a state that has voted against Trump three times.
Proclaiming herself as not the US president’s “favorite senator”, Collins made the highly unusual boast for a Republican that she had voted with Joe Biden, a Democrat, more than 90% of the time when he was president. She also emphasized her differences with her fellow Republicans, saying she voted against her own party more than any other senator.
Collins’ defensiveness came amid a determined onslaught from Jackson, 58, a veteran former state legislator who was getting his first chance to present himself to a broad audience since replacing Graham Platner as the Democratic candidate in a contest that could be vital to the party’s hopes of winning the Senate.
Platner, a former harbor master, was forced to withdraw from the race in July after facing sexual assault allegations, which he denied, leaving Democrats racing against the clock to replace a candidate who had built up momentum campaigning on a populist progressive platform.
Jackson painted Collins as a Trump loyalist, saying she voted with the president 96% of the time. He also doggedly focused on her 2018 vote for the conservative supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh, tying it to the court’s subsequent overturning of Roe v Wade, which had for half a century guaranteed the national right to abortion.
Related: ‘Not exactly his favorite senator’: Susan Collins distances herself from Trump in Maine debate
Updated
Donald Trump will not reimburse the federal government for ads it ran using more than $11mn in taxpayer dollars, the New York Times and Politico report, citing White House officials.
In a post on his social media site yesterday, Trump said he will stop using taxpayer funds for television advertisements glorifying himself, which sparked a major backlash, and instead tap his super PAC to cover ads going forward.
A White House spokesperson told the Times that “the president’s Truth was not referring to reimbursement.”
The White House did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.
David Ellison, the chief executive of the newly formed media conglomerate Skydance, denied that he has “politicized” the company despite the close connection he has forged with Donald Trump’s White House over the 20 months of his administration.
“We have a good relationship with this administration,” Ellison acknowledged to reporters at a Tuesday press briefing focused on the now-consummated merger of Paramount Skydance and CNN parent company Warner Bros Discovery.
“I also had a really good relationship with President Biden. I have a good relationship with [Republican South Carolina senator] Tim Scott, and I have a good relationship with Governor Gavin Newsom. I think it is important to talk to everybody on both sides of the aisle … When you’re operating within a business-friendly administration, you should always have those relationships.”
“We want to speak to everybody,” Ellison added. “We do not want to politicize the company.”
Related: David Ellison denies he has ‘politicized’ Skydance despite close Trump links
The USS Lincoln will dock in San Diego tomorrow, completing a nearly year-long deployment that sparked controversy over living conditions aboard the aircraft carrier as it supported military operations in Iran.
Defense secretary Pete Hegseth is expected to greet the crew when they arrive tomorrow.
Related: ‘It’s been hard’: families await the return of the USS Abraham Lincoln
Two top Trump advisers were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to advise the pro-Russia government of the Republika Srpska, the New York Times reports, citing four people familiar with the advisers’ travels.
James Blair, a former White House deputy chief of staff, and Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to the president’s 2024 campaign, traveled to the semi-autonomous entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina ahead of an election there Sunday. Blair and LaCivita were paid to advise the government there on voting issues, the Times reports, noting that the government is controlled by a pro-Russia, nationalist party.
On Sunday, the Bosnian Serb nationalist politician Milorad Dodik won his election there. Last year, the Trump administration lifted sanctions against Dodik, which the US government imposed in 2017. The government of Republika Srpska has paid lobbyists and operatives with connections to Trump more than $4mn since last year, the Times reported, citing justice department records.
Related: Bosnian Serb nationalist Dodik declares party victory in Bosnia election
Updated
The department of health and human services is creating a team of attorneys to “provide direct legal advice and counsel” to unaccompanied migrant children, per an announcement signed by health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. Critics of the program say children should have access to non-government lawyers to lower the risk they will be deported.
The Unaccompanied Alien Children Legal Representation Division will work toward “safely reuniting these children with their families and ensuring they have the legal support they need,” HHS said in a statement.
The department did not answer additional questions from the Associated Press, including whether it would continue to contract with nongovernmental attorneys.
A nonpartisan coalition of former Nasa astronauts has denounced Donald Trump’s comments at a campaign rally yesterday that Iran could “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego.
In a statement posted to social media, Astronauts For America wrote: “No American city and no American citizen should ever be spoken of as an acceptable price to pay in a conflict with a foreign adversary.”
It added that it called “on elected leaders of both parties to affirm their shared responsibility to protect all Americans.”
Donald Trump said on Tuesday his administration was considering suspending the federal gasoline tax, a sign the president is noticing voter anger over fuel costs a month before the midterm elections.
“We’re thinking about that,” Trump said when asked whether the tax should be suspended.
Any suspension would require an act of Congress. The president cannot unilaterally suspend the federal tax.
Trump first raised the idea in May, as the Iran war pushed fuel prices sharply higher. Pump prices have stayed high since. The national average for regular was $4.3685 a gallon on Tuesday, according to AAA, more than a dollar above where it stood a year ago.
The federal tax is 18.4¢ a gallon on gasoline and 24.4¢ on diesel. Dropping it would cut about 4% from the price of a gallon of regular. The tax also brings in more than $23bn a year for highways and public transit.
Related: Trump says he is weighing suspension of federal gas tax
In an interview with Reuters, JD Vance said he had not decided whether he would seek the presidency in 2028 and that Iran must make a “meaningful” reduction in its nuclear enrichment capacity.
“I think if they want to show a commitment to not building a nuclear weapon, they would do something meaningful on their enrichment capacity,” Vance said, speaking to the news outlet during a campaign appearance in Alaska.
The vice-president added, “One of the things we picked up on is it’s not totally clear how their country makes decisions.”
Speaking about whether he would run to replace Donald Trump when the president’s term expires, Vance said: “I’m inherently a procrastinator,” adding, “I really haven’t thought about it much.“
A former CIA official has pleaded guilty to a charge that he stole hundreds of gold bars worth more than $40m from the US spy agency and hid them in his basement.
David J. Rush pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud during a hearing in Alexandria, Virginia today. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for 28 January.
Here’s more of our past coverage of the case:
Related: Ex-CIA officer accused of stealing gold bars reaches tentative plea deal
Although he helped negotiate the deal, Democratic governor Wes Moore said he was not allowed to speak at an event announcing a new $6.6bn shipyard in Maryland today.
“If the president of the United States wants to bring the circus in town and tell me that I’m not allowed to speak, despite the fact we were the ones that helped bring the deal, then I will let the circus be conducted while I go back to the work of the people of Maryland,” Moore told reporters.
A White House official told CNN the president “graciously” invited Moore to attend the event as a guest, rather than a speaker, and that the governor was “throwing a tantrum”.
Sally Yates, a deputy attorney general during the Obama administration, will lead a review of Cornell University’s process for investigating sexual misconduct complaints. The university’s trustees announced the review Tuesday, which is expected to evaluate the school’s disciplinary processes and campus police responses.
“It is imperative that Cornell be willing to examine itself with the same rigor we expect of others,” trustee Chair Anne Meinig Smalling said in a statement.
Lawyers for Disney accused the Trump administration of “blatant violations of the US constitution” and censorship on Tuesday in the first court hearing over the Federal Communications Commission’s early review of the media giant’s eight local television station licenses.
District judge Loren AliKhan seemed unswayed by government arguments that the order to force Disney’s ABC to apply years early to renew local television station licenses was tied to an investigation into parent company Disney’s hiring practices.
ABC, Disney and its station group filed suit against the FCC in August, seeking to block the US media regulator from taking any further steps to punish or pressure the network in connection to the order.
In its lawsuit, ABC argued that the FCC’s actions – taken at the behest of the Donald Trump-appointed chair, Brendan Carr – were actually intended to chill the network’s speech, which the president and Carr have argued is tilted against the administration.
Related: Disney accuses Trump officials of ‘blatant violations’ of constitution amid FCC battle
Christa Pike, a Tennessee prisoner who survived the state’s attempt to execute her, is awake and speaking as she receives treatment at a hospital, her attorneys said on Tuesday.
Here’s our full report:
Related: Christa Pike is conscious and speaking after botched execution attempt, lawyers say
Donald Trump told reporters he has a call scheduled with Russian president Vladimir Putin to discuss possible causes of a pneumonic plague case in Siberia “very soon”.
Asked about US intelligence on the case, Trump said “We’ll be able to report about it, probably tomorrow.”
My colleague Nicola Davis has more on the incident:
Related: What do we know about death of anti-plague institute worker in Russia and is there a wider risk?
US Senate race in Kansas becomes 'toss up' in new forecast that puts control 'squarely in Democrats' sights'
The Cook Political Report has revised its predictions for the November midterm elections, saying “A Senate Majority is Squarely in Democrats’ Sights” as it revises three Senate race estimates in Democrats’ favor.
Cook amended its prediction for the Kansas Senate race from “Lean Republican” to “Toss Up” – a shocker for a state where no Democrat has won a Senate election since 1932.
The elections analysis newsletter also forecasted that New Hamsphire will “Lean Democrat” (from a previous “Toss Up” prediction) and that North Carolina is “Likely Democrat” (from a previous “Lean Democrat”) in Senate races there.
“While Republicans continue to have a financial edge in almost every competitive state, President Donald Trump is a drag across the board even in deep red states due to rising fuel prices and the persistent high cost of living,” editor Jessica Taylor wrote.
“At this point, the question isn’t whether Democrats will gain seats, but how many. As such, we are revising our estimate of potential pickups to two to six seats for Democrats — squarely within the range of the four seats they need to net for a majority,” she added.
Updated
Chris Murphy, the Democratic senator from Connecticut, said the Pentagon denied him access to a US military base during a visit to the Middle East. Murphy had intended to visit the Al Udeid airbase, which has been repeatedly attacked during the US war in Iran.
“This trip confirmed for me that there is an active, unprecedented, unconstitutional effort underway to hide the costs of this war and the implications of this war from Congress and the American people,” Murphy told reporters during a stop in Saudi Arabia.
A senior Pentagon official told the Associated Press that Murphy’s office had been informed that it would not receive support to visit the base, per Pete Hegseth’s March directive restricting travel to the area.
“I’ve never encountered anything like this in my time in the Senate and it’s part of a deliberate campaign of obfuscation that my Republican colleagues in Congress should demand an end to,” Murphy said.
Speaking at a Maryland shipyard, Donald Trump said the biggest problem for him in negotiating with Iran is that no one knows who is running the country.
“Their second group of leaders are gone, and the biggest problem I have is nobody knows who the hell is running the country,” Trump said.
Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, spoke to the United Nations last month, and Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff has met with the country’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi.
Updated
Donald Trump has announced a massive new shipyard, which will be funded by a combination of federal and private dollars, at Tradepoint Atlantic in Sparrows Point.
“Today we’re officially launching the construction of the largest new shipyard in the United States,” Trump said. “This is since World War II there’s been nothing like we’re doing today.”
Anduril Industries plans to invest $3.7bn in the shipyard, Trump said. The shipyard will be called Arsenal-2, and will build “the next generation of American submarines, including autonomous subs, torpedo tubes and critical components” for Virgina-class nuclear-powered attack submarines, the president said.
The US Navy will contribute an additional $2.9bn to the project.
Trump thanked his personal friend, Anduril Industries owner Palmer Luckey, for making the project happen.
Updated
Donald Trump has just arrived at Sparrows Point, Maryland, where he is addressing a crowd at a submarine shipyard.
According to the Baltimore Banner – a local outlet – Anduril Industries, a defense technology manufacturer is expected to make an announcement about the company’s future at the facility.
A reminder that Anduril Industries is owned by Palmer Luckey, a top Trump donor. The Guardian has previously reported that Luckey’s company has received billions in contracts from the administration for drones, autonomous jet fighters and space-based interceptors.
Updated
As Trump headed to Baltimore County, Maryland, he briefly spoke with reporters at the White House. However, the president didn’t give a clear answer when asked about whether he plans to reimburse the federal government for the two pro-Trump, taxpayer-funded advertisements which drew sustained backlash.
On Monday, Trump said that he would now pay for the spots using money from his aligned Super Pac, Maga Inc.
“The ads were really good. They were promotion for the country, done by many presidents before, so we’ll decide,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday.
Here's a recap of the day so far
Donald Trump ordered the FBI to investigate protesters in Los Angeles who were demonstrating against the president’s immigration crackdown, according to a whistleblower complaint that was submitted to the Senate judiciary committee. Senator Alex Padilla, a Democrat who represents California and serves on the committee, said his office had received a copy of the complaint. “These allegations are deeply alarming,” Padilla, who also serves as the top Democrat on the border security and immigration subcommittee, said in a statement. Jill Fields, a former supervisory intelligence analyst in the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, made the complaint following the federal response to anti-ICE demonstrations around the city’s federal buildings, and in residential area, early last year. More here
A Republican candidate in San Diego has criticized Donald Trump after the US president suggested Iran could “take out” the city or Los Angeles. Jim Desmond, who is standing in a competitive San Diego based seat in the House of Representatives, said that “no American city is expendable, and no American family should ever be treated as collateral damage”. Desmond is set to face Marni Von Wilpert, a lawyer and member of San Diego’s city council, for the state’s 48th congressional district – which was redrawn in response to Proposition 50. More here
Desmond joined a string of prominent Democrats who called out the comments. Xavier Becerra, the Democratic nominee for California governor, said today he wasn’t surprised by the president’s comments, but criticized Republican leaders in the state for not strongly condemning the remarks.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio urged Moscow on Tuesday to release more details about the case of a lab technician in Siberia, who died after a suspected case of pneumonic plague. Darya Shipilova, a 28-year-old employee at the anti-plague institute in the city of Irkutsk, became ill at work. It remains unclear how she became unwell. Unconfirmed reports in Russian media have suggested Shipilova may have been infected after a mishap at the laboratory. Officials have not publicly confirmed that account. “I think it’s incumbent upon Russia to obviously share more information with the world,” Rubio told reporters in Reykjavik. “We’re watching it very closely, hour by hour.”
Lawyers for the former Olympic canoeist David Hearn, who was charged and dismissed over damage to the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, are urging two government watchdogs to examine what they say was a flawed investigation. Hearn’s lawyers said in a letter to the inspectors general for the departments of Justice and Interior that watchdog investigations were needed “to determine what happened inside their agencies that led to the shocking and indefensible treatment” of their client.
Updated
Republican House speaker Mike Johnson has been on the campaign trail in recent days, stumping for lawmakers and candidates in competitive districts, as his party tries to retain control of the lower chamber of Congress in this year’s midterms.
Today he spent time in Pennsylvania, where he’s expected to visit four battlegrounds in a purple state where incumbent Republicans are facing challenges from Democrats. A reminder that Trump flipped Pennsylvania in 2024 by fewer than two points. Now, Republicans in the state will have to answer for unpopular policies when voters head to the ballot box in November. An August poll by Franklin & Marshall College found that the president’s approval rating sits at 27% in the Keystone state.
On social media, Johnson posed with Scott Perry – the hard-right congressman – facing a tough re-election battle against moderate Democrat Janelle Stelson, a former news anchor who lost narrowly to the incumbent in 2024. Recent polls show Stelson with a slight edge over Perry – a fervent ally of Trump who maintained that the 2020 election was stolen, and in the lead-up to the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol introduced Donald Trump to fellow election denier Jeffrey Clark, who was then a justice department official. Perry pushed for Clark’s appointment as acting attorney general to continue an effort to undermine the 2020 election results.
Rubio urges Moscow to share more information about lab technician death over suspected pneumonic plague
Secretary of state Marco Rubio urged Moscow on Tuesday to release more details about the case of a lab technician in Siberia, who died after a suspected case of pneumonic plague.
Darya Shipilova, a 28-year-old employee at the anti-plague institute in the city of Irkutsk, became ill at work. She died two days later on the night of 2 October at a regional hospital in the nearby town of Shelekhov.
It remains unclear how she became unwell. Unconfirmed reports in Russian media have suggested Shipilova may have been infected after a mishap at the laboratory. Officials have not publicly confirmed that account.
“I think it’s incumbent upon Russia to obviously share more information with the world,” Rubio told reporters in Reykjavik. “We’re watching it very closely, hour by hour.”
Donald Trump had said on Monday that his administration was willing to offer assistance. “I hate to see them having it. We’ll help. Everybody who has that kind of a problem, we’ll always help,” he told reporters at the White House when asked what Washington was going to do about the risk of plague coming from Russia.
Christian Lindmeier, a WHO spokesperson, said on Tuesday that there was no sign of a wider outbreak. “All of the patients’ contacts have reportedly been identified and are being monitored for illness, and none to date have shown symptoms of illness,” he said.
Related: Plague epidemic risk in Russia low after death of lab technician, WHO says
Also on Truth Social today, the president made sure to weigh in on the protests in France, which have seen 250,000 students, teachers and parents demonstrate across the country for better high school conditions – from staffing to crumbling classrooms.
The protests have resulted in violent clashes with the police, with the French prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, noting that at least 215 teenagers and 85 school staff had been injured since the protests began more than two weeks ago.
Trump, however, falsely claimed that the demonstrations are about “out of control mass migration”.
“This isn’t about schools,” he wrote, without providing any evidence, “this is about Islam wanting to take over a once great country!”
Updated
'You know how he acts': Becerra unsurprised by Trump's rally comments, scolds Republican leaders for not condemning remarks
During a media availability after the event – a rally with Latino leaders against a voter ID ballot measure in Los Angeles – Xavier Becerra said he wasn’t surprised by the president’s comments.
“Donald Trump is a known commodity – you know how he acts,” he said.
Becerra, a Democrat who is poised to be elected the state’s next governor in November, criticized Republican leaders in the state for not strongly condemning the remarks.
Becerra added: “Life is already tough enough in California. You don’t need to have a president pile on and say … ‘If you get bombed, who cares.’”
Updated
California officials react to Trump's comments saying Iran could 'take out' LA or San Diego
California leaders are furious at Trump over his remarks at a Nebraska campaign rally.
“I don’t think he was joking,” said state senator Mark González, a Democrat representing downtown LA and other parts of the city.
Trump is “very intentional about his comments, and especially about targeting Los Angeles,” González said at a campaign event in Koreatown for Xavier Becerra, the Democratic gubernatorial nominee. “He’s been targeting Los Angeles and Southern California since his presidency started on Day One, treating it like a political playground. When you think about ICE, when you think about the policies that he’s carried out or the things that he has said.”
“Using Los Angeles as your collateral damage is un-American. It’s unpatriotic and it’s disgusting,” he said.
Congressman Pete Aguilar, a California Democrat and the House caucus chair, said the president was “just trying to overcompensate for this reckless and irresponsible war” that he started without congressional authorization.
“He might think it’s a joke, but to his supporters, he’s not joking, right?” Aguilar said at the Becerra event. “He wasn’t joking when he told folks to overrun the Capitol either. It’s incredibly dangerous rhetoric. You shouldn’t be making any jokes about giving up California, giving up Los Angeles and San Diego.”
Updated
Media 'freakout' over Trump rally comments is 'not rooted in reality', says White House communications director
In a post shared to X, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said that the outrage to Donald Trump’s rally comments are “not rooted in reality”.
“The media freakout over President Trump’s comments is not rooted in reality. He was clearly stating U.S. cities would have been threatened if a nuclear Iran hadn’t been stopped,” Cheung posted.
“America is safer because of the President. Iran has no nuclear, no navy, no air force, and no money”, he concluded.
At a rally in Nebraska on Monday, the president said that Iran could “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego, and it would be “a small price to pay for keeping the world safe”.
Updated
Kilmar Ábrego García expected back in court in as Trump administration continues attempt to deport him to Liberia
Kilmar Ábrego García is expected back in court today as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) continues its battle to carry out his deportation to Liberia.
The DHS is seeking to vacate a preliminary injunction put in place by US District Judge Paula Xinis, preventing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from detaining and deporting Ábrego Garcia.
The Trump administration has asked a federal appeals court to reinstate criminal charges against Kilmar Ábrego García that were dismissed in May by a judge who said the prosecution of the man who unwittingly became a symbol of the White House’s mass deportation campaign was “vindictive in nature”.
In a filing to the US sixth circuit court of appeals, the justice department insisted that human smuggling allegations against Ábrego are genuine – and not retaliation for challenging his wrongful deportation to El Salvador in March 2025.
Ábrego García’s case grew national attention after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials admitted to his deportation as an error during the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Updated
US justice department moves to strip citizenship of 40 naturalized citizens
Donald Trump’s justice department has moved to strip the citizenship of 40 naturalized citizens accused of crimes in what authorities describe as “the largest” such initiative over a single period during his administration.
US justice department officials on Monday announced the filing of “denaturalization actions” against more than three dozen people alleged to have committed such offenses as “acting as an agent for a foreign government, committing voluntary manslaughter, and aggravated sodomy against a special‑needs man”.
The denaturalization requests in question were submitted in multiple federal courts between 21 August and 2 October, according to the justice department.
The federal Immigration and Nationality Act allows for naturalized US citizenship to be revoked by a federal court if the government proves that it was illegally obtained through concealment of a material fact or willful misrepresentation.
Lawyers for Olympian in dismissed reflecting pool damage case seek inspectors general investigation
Lawyers for the former Olympic canoeist David Hearn, who was charged and dismissed over damage to the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, are urging two government watchdogs to examine what they say was a flawed investigation.
Hearn’s lawyers said in a letter to the inspectors general for the departments of Justice and Interior that watchdog investigations were needed “to determine what happened inside their agencies that led to the shocking and indefensible treatment” of their client.
Judge Todd Edelman, of the DC superior court, dismissed the case days ago, siding with Hearn’s lawyers over the office of the US attorney Jeanine Pirro, which had wanted to keep the option of refiling.
Pirro, a Donald Trump ally, publicized the charges at a press conference in July. Later that month her office moved to drop the case, conceding that the damage resulted from flawed installation rather than anything Hearn did.
Updated
On the whistleblower’s complaint that I reported on earlier, it’s worth noting that Senator Alex Padilla, a Democrat, sent a letter to Todd Blanche, the attorney general, and Kash Patel, the FBI director, referencing a specific allegation.
According to the whistleblower, Donald Trump reportedly viewed a TikTok video of protestors in Alhambra, California – that alerted neighbors about the presence of federal immigration officers and advised them of their legal rights. The White House then instructed Patel to direct the Los Angeles Field Office to initiate an investigation into those demonstrating in the video.
In the letter, Padilla also asks Blanche and Patel dozens of questions about the reported investigations, including whether they resulted in arrests, how many directives of this kind the justice department has received from the president and how many investigations are still open.
Updated
My colleagues will be answering your questions about how the Iran war is shaping the midterms, as the conflict enters its eighth month and we head into the final stretch of campaigning.
Our team of reporters has helped readers understand the costs of the war and political consequences for Trump and candidates running in November. Join the live Q&A now (12pm ET) at the link below.
Related: The Iran war is unpopular, but will it cost Trump the midterms? Our reporters answer your questions
Whistleblower alleges Trump ordered FBI to investigate protesters in LA over immigration crackdown
Donald Trump ordered the FBI to investigate protesters in Los Angeles who were demonstrating against the president’s immigration crackdown, according to a whistleblower complaint that was submitted to the Senate judiciary committee.
Senator Alex Padilla, a Democrat who represents California and serves on the committee, said his office had received a copy of the complaint.
“These allegations are deeply alarming,” Padilla, who also serves as the top Democrat on the border security and immigration subcommittee, said in a statement. “Using the FBI to target Americans for exercising their first amendment rights directly undermines our nation’s foundational values. I won’t rest until we get answers.”
NBC first reported on the allegations after viewing a copy of the complaint, which identifies the whistleblower as Jill Fields, a former supervisory intelligence analyst in the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, who made the complaint following the federal response to anti-ICE demonstrations around the city’s federal buildings, and in residential area, early last year. Fields ultimately resigned from the bureau last year.
According to NBC, Fields alleges that Emil Bove, then the acting deputy attorney general, told the head of the field office to open an investigation into activities outside the federal building even though Fields says the activities were protected free speech. Fields also says the White House gave a directive to FBI Director Kash Patel to investigate a group of protesters using megaphones during immigration enforcement operations after agents had initially declined to open an investigation.
Per NBC, Fields also claims that agents were taken agents based in Los Angeles were taken off active cartel cases to carry out the White House’s requests.
Updated
Today we’re also keeping an eye on several key debates in competitive statewide races ahead of the November midterms.
In Georgia, we’ll see Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, and Republican Rick Jackson, a healthcare executive, face off in a gubernatorial debate at 8pm ET.
In Michigan, Jocelyn Benson, the secretary of state and Democractic nominee for governor will debate Republican nominee and current congressman John James at 7pm ET.
And in Maine’s US Senate race, Susan Collins, the five-term Republican incumbent, and Troy Jackson, the lumberjack and Democratic nominee, will come face-to-face for the first of two televised debates this week. That will kick off at 7pm ET.
The New York governor, Kathy Hochul, declared a state of emergency on Monday in response to a dramatic spike in measles cases in the state.
Hochul’s administration said the emergency declaration was in response to a “growing number of measles cases across rural areas of New York and neighboring states”, including Pennsylvania, which has been grappling with a deadly outbreak that is its largest in more than three decades.
The declaration expands the pool of people who can administer vaccines against measles and allows more individuals to order testing.
It comes as there have been 108 confirmed cases of measles in New York so far for the year, up from just one reported case in 2023. In Pennsylvania, which neighbors New York, five people have died after contracting the disease, and there have been 198 hospitalizations.
The Trump administration health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has been criticized for his response to the measles outbreak. Before his appointment as health secretary, Kennedy was a noted anti-vaccine activist.
Kennedy headlined an anti-vaccine conference in Washington DC in mid-September, as measles cases surged. He told the crowd there that they had a “strong and steadfast friend at the White House”.
Meanwhile, the Pennsylvania governor, Josh Shapiro, has called Kennedy “incompetent”, as the health secretary has publicly questioned whether the state’s recorded fatalities were directly caused by measles. The CDC – which Kennedy oversees – currently lists two measles deaths in the US this year.
Related: New York governor declares state of emergency after spike in measles cases
Donald Trump has spent much of his morning on Truth Social touting the success of his rallies – claiming Republicans are “flipping races all over the place” despite the president’s approval rating reaching a new low.
Trump also chided his once-favored network, Fox News, for not doing enough to spotlight his rallies.
The president said the “crowds and enthusiasm are unbelievable” at his rallies, and they are “SAVING THE REPUBLICAN PARTY”. But also accused Fox of spending time covering “Dumocrat candidates”, his insult for Democrats, than they do the “good old fashioned Republicans”.
He once again, used a racist epithet to describe Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for Michigan’s open Senate seat, calling him a “jihadist” and blamed Fox for spending time talking about him on air.
“They don’t show my record breaking Rallies the morning after, but others do, and that’s what MAGA is watching. Fox is promoting the Dumocrats, not the Republicans and MAGA,” Trump wrote.
The White House’s rapid response account has reposted and refuted the Los Angeles Times’ reporting of last night’s rally – where Donald Trump said that Iran could “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego, and it would be a “small price to pay”.
On X, the White House called the outlet “buffoons” and insisted that Trump was saying the US is “fighting to STOP Iran from having the ability to take out LA and San Diego with a nuclear weapon – which they would if they had the chance.”
Paramount and Warner Bros close $110bn merger, paving way for new media giant
Two media giants, Paramount and Warner Bros Discovery, have completed their $110bn merger, creating a new entertainment powerhouse, Skydance.
The deal, fiercely contested by several state attorneys general over potential antitrust concerns, formally closed on Tuesday.
The combined company is now led by David Ellison, the son of billionaire Oracle founder Larry Ellison, a longtime ally of Donald Trump. Skydance brings together two of Hollywood’s remaining legacy studios, alongside major television networks, streaming platforms and news operations. Under one corporate roof now sit assets including HBO Max, CNN, CBS, Paramount+, and several film franchises.
Journalists at CBS News and CNN have raised concerns about the possibility of newsroom consolidation and the job cuts that could follow. Press freedom advocates have also warned that the deal could increase political pressure on the companies’ news divisions.
Since taking over Paramount, Ellison has reoriented the CBS network in an editorial direction more favorable to the president, especially under the leadership of CBS News’s embattled editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss.
However, Ellison sought to reassure critics in March, pledging that CNN would retain its editorial independence amid reports that Weiss could be considered for a senior leadership role at the network. Mark Thompson, the current CNN CEO, remains in place.
Trade deficit widens in August, marking new high
According to the latest data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) the US trade deficit for August has widened, and is now sitting at $105.6bn – up by more than 13% compared to July’s revised figures.
The new numbers show that there has been an increase in imports of semiconductors, manufacturing material and gold. The deficit is now the highest it’s been since Donald Trump announced his sweeping rounds of tariffs last April.
‘No city is expendable’: Republican candidate for competitive San Diego House seat slams Trump’s rally comments
Jim Desmond, the Republican candidate for a competitive San Diego based House seat has pushed back on Donald Trump’s comments at a rally in Nebraska on Monday, where the president said that Iran could “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego, and it would be “a small price to pay for keeping the world safe”.
Desmond said that he “vehemently” disagrees with Trump’s comments.
“America must stand up to Iran and defend our interests, but the first responsibility of our Commander in Chief is to protect the American people and our homeland,” Desmond, the former mayor of San Marcos, said in a statement. He’s set to face Marni Von Wilpert, a lawyer and member of San Diego’s city council, for the state’s 48th congressional district – which was redrawn in response to Proposition 50.
Desmond, also a navy veteran, said that he “served to protect Americans, not write off American cities as an acceptable price of war”.
It’s a notable rebuke from a Republican in a closely watched contest that could help the party retain their razor-thin majority in the lower chamber.
“No American city is expendable, and no American family should ever be treated as collateral damage,” Desmond added.
Donald Trump will begin his day in Washington. At 1pm ET, he and first lady Melania Trump will welcome Gold Star families to the White House for a reception. We’ll then hear from the president at 4pm ET when he travels to Baltimore County, Maryland, where’s he due to deliver remarks at Tradepoint Atlantic, an industrial center. According to the Baltimore Banner – a local outlet – Anduril Industries, a defense technology manufacturer is expected to make an announcement about the company’s future at the facility.
A reminder that Anduril Industries is owned by Palmer Luckey, a top Trump donor. The Guardian has previously reported that Luckey’s company has received billions in contracts from the administration for drones, autonomous jet fighters and space-based interceptors.
Last week, Pete Hegseth also announced that Luckey, Elon Musk and Newt Gingrich will co-lead a government project to study the “future of warfare”.
In Donald Trump’s telling, he’s a model of incorruptible self-sacrifice.
“I’m the only president that donated his salary,” he told a group of cheering supporters at a Hispanic heritage month celebration in the White House last week, before conceding that George Washington – “a very wealthy person” – might have beaten him to the punch.
“They pay me $550,000 a year, and in my first term, I donated it,” he continued. “In my second term I donated it too. I donated it to fixing the White House. I donated the salary into the White House preservation.”
Trump’s ethical self-depiction was undercut in startling fashion a day later when the crypto company that runs his memecoin offered “the most exclusive dinner in the world” at the president’s members-only Trump National club in Washington.
“Join three legends and featured speaker Donald J Trump,” gushed the invite to the 185 biggest investors in the Trump coin. The top 29 buyers were promised an invitation to an additional “VIP reception with your favourite president and one of the legends”. For the top four donors, a Trump 18-karat gold watch lay in store.
The aim appeared to be to boost sales of the memecoin – called $Trump – over the next two months. Trump personally profits from the coin, and disclosures show he made about $636m from it last year.
With just over a month to go before November’s midterm elections, Democrats seized on the dinner invitation as a political gift as they try to convert concerns over Trump’s perceived corruption into a groundswell of outrage. They theorize it will power a “blue wave” that could enable the party to retake control of the House of Representatives and the Senate on 3 November.
Related: ‘Using the presidency to line his pockets’: could claims of corruption fuel backlash against Trump?
Trump says Iran could ‘take out’ Los Angeles or San Diego
Leaders in California have denounced Donald Trump as “reckless” and “deranged” after the US president suggested Iran could “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego – two liberal cities in the blue state that has been a frequent target of his administration.
At a rally in ruby red Nebraska on Monday night, Trump told supporters that he hoped to see a “tremendous victory” in the fast-approaching November midterm elections. He then suggested high prices due to the war with Iran were a “small price to pay for keeping the world safe – keeping our country safe”.
“They can take out a city,” Trump said in Grand Island. “Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego.” The crowd applauded.
“It’ll be over very soon,” Trump said of the war.
The governor and the cities’ mayors quickly condemned the comments. “After sending the National Guard and Marines to occupy California, Donald Trump is now saying our foreign enemies should ‘take out’ Los Angeles and San Diego,” the California governor, Gavin Newsom, said on X. “He is deranged and dangerous.”
Newsom, a Democrat who has repeatedly clashed with Trump over his two terms, said from his press office account: “Let’s be clear: The President is advocating for an attack on 10+ million U.S. residents in two of America’s largest cities. This is not normal. None of this is. And we will continue to remind folks of that every day.”
Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, assailed the president for making what she called “irresponsible threats” that “could potentially compromise” the safety of America’s second-largest city.
“The role of a president is to protect the country, not to actively threaten it and encourage attacks on American lives,” she said in a statement.
Related: Trump suggests he would let Iran ‘take out’ Los Angeles or San Diego
Updated
New Jersey congresswoman LaMonica McIver faces legal deadline after giving birth to second child
A US congresswoman who just gave birth to a baby girl faces a deadline this week on whether to seek a rehearing of a federal case against her by the Trump administration after an oversight visit to an immigration detention facility.
LaMonica McIver, 40, represents New Jersey’s 10th congressional district. She gave birth to her second child last Thursday – a rarity for a sitting member of Congress. She is only the 15th member of Congress to give birth while serving and part of a small subset of congresswomen who have school-age children.
McIver first won her seat during a special election in mid-2024, then won a full term later that year. She is also running for re-election this year.
In announcing the birth of her second child after publicly discussing fertility struggles, McIver called being a mom “one of the greatest joys of my life”.
“Getting the chance to raise a family is a priority and a delight for me, something I hope everyone who wants to, gets the chance to do,” she said in a statement last week. “Bringing a child into the world is a reminder not only of why we fight for maternal healthcare and reproductive rights, but of why we fight for the rights and freedoms of our most vulnerable – they are someone’s babies too.”
In late August, a federal appeals court declined to dismiss criminal charges against McIver, who is charged with interfering with an arrest in May 2025 outside Delaney Hall, an immigration detention facility that has drawn protests over poor conditions inside. She is the only member of Congress whom the Department of Justice has indicted, and the charges carry a potential 17 years in prison.
She has pleaded not guilty to the charges and sought to get them dismissed, arguing that she is immune from prosecution under the US constitution’s speech and debate clause because she was doing her job and that she has been selectively prosecuted by the Trump administration.
Related: New Jersey congresswoman LaMonica McIver faces legal deadline after giving birth to second child
Some Republicans also raised concerns, with Senate majority leader, John Thune, and the senators Mike Rounds, John Kennedy and Thom Tillis questioning the use of public money.
Meanwhile the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chair, Brendan Carr, a Trump appointee, said the ads were appropriate.
The ads are not the first administration advertising spending to draw scrutiny.
Last year the Department of Homeland Security under Kristi Noem spent more than $200m on ads promoting her and Trump’s immigration policies.
In March, Noem testified that Trump had approved the campaign (which the president denied to Reuters), and he then removed her from the secretary role, relegating her to special envoy of the “Shield of the Americas”.
The Trump administration had faced questions over whether it illegally used taxpayer money to air television ads promoting Donald Trump five weeks before the US midterm elections.
Two congressional Democrats, Jamie Raskin of Maryland and George Whitesides of California, asked federal watchdogs to investigate the ads.
Raskin, the top Democrat on the judiciary committee of the House of Representatives, and Whitesides wrote to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the office of special counsel (OSC), describing the commercials as “desperate pre-election propaganda”.
The first ad was initially broadcast on 23 September. It shows dozens of images of Trump as a singer repeats “love me”, and the UFC president, Dana White, praises the president. A second ad, which aired days later, pairs footage of Trump with audio from a rally criticizing the “deep state”. Both end with fine print saying they were paid for by the US government.
“President Trump is obviously desperate for the American people to ‘love’ him, a problem that goes beyond your jurisdiction,” Raskin and Whitesides wrote in their letter. “But stealing taxpayer dollars to pay for Mr Trump’s narcissistic ego trips is plainly illegal.”
The lawmakers asked the GAO to identify the source and total amount of money used, and to issue a legal decision on whether the ads broke the law. They asked the OSC to investigate and determine who should be held accountable.
Trump says he will pay for taxpayer-funded ads that sparked backlash for glorifying him
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
Donald Trump has said he will stop using taxpayer funds for television advertisements glorifying himself, which sparked a major backlash, and instead tap his super PAC to cover ads going forward.
In a post on his social media site, Trump defended the ads, which cost at least $1.5m in federal funds and have drawn intense criticism. Trump said they were “positive promotion for our Great U.S.A”.
“This is a rather standard thing to do,” the president wrote, while blaming intense criticism for using taxpayer funds on the ads on the “Radical Left.”
But the president added that he had “decided to do the Patriotic Ads, among others, and pay for them myself, and with money I raised for MAGA, Inc.”
Trump provided no details on reimbursing taxpayers for ads that already aired, nor how he would go about having his political organization pay for such future advertising, AP reported.
The White House - which had fiercely defended using taxpayer money on spots meant to promote the president - said on Monday night that MAGA Inc will pay for such ads going forward. It did not answer questions on how it or Trump might prove that his political funds were being used on such future advertising.
The first ad featured clips of Trump talking about defeating communism interspersed with onscreen text promoting the “largest tax cuts in history,” “reigniting American manufacturing” and a call to “defend law and order and police.”
Later the same week, a second ad began running. It showed scenic videos of Mount Rushmore with quotes and clips from Trump’s 4th July weekend speech there honoring the country’s 250th anniversary.
In other 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.
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.
Politico was barred from traveling on Air Force One for 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.
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.
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.
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.
