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The Department of Defense announced on Friday a significant reduction in the number of religious affiliations it officially recognizes.

The new list of 31 is down from more than 200 previously recognized traditions that troops could choose from. The list no longer includes atheists, Unitarian Universalists, pagans and Wiccans.

“This decrease in religious affiliation codes is not designed to make any claims on the legitimacy of any faith or religious belief, nor is it intended to provide a list of ‘officially approved’ religions,” Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement. “Rather, it is designed to allow chaplains to quickly look at the religious composition of their units and determine how they structure resources to best provide for warfighters of all faith groups.”

Parnell added the department values the free exercise of religion and chaplains facilitate service members’ “ability to freely exercise their religion of choice, or no religion at all.”

The list creates broad categories of some Christian traditions — Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist — without specifying denominations within those traditions, which can span the theological and ideological spectrum.

Service members can choose to identify as “no religion,” “other religions” or agnostic. Also included are Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, the Baha’i faith and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Unitarian Universalist Association, which was cut from the list, said in a statement, “This may make it more difficult for our uniformed UUs to access the spiritual care that they need.” The denomination said it is working on a strategic response to support UU service members.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has infused his evangelical Christianity with his leadership of the Pentagon, hosting worship services for employees and often speaking of the United States as a Christian nation.

He first announced the impending changes to the faith categories in December, saying the large number of faith codes had become unmanageable.

“Secretary Hegseth is not ‘streamlining’ anything. He is elevating one narrow religious worldview from the top of the chain of command,” said the Rev. Paul Raushenbush, a Baptist minister and head of the progressive Interfaith Alliance. “The First Amendment does not allow the government to create a hierarchy of faiths, and it certainly does not allow the Pentagon to decide which beliefs are worthy of recognition.”

The military is religiously diverse, and nearly 70% of troops identify as Christian, according to a 2019 congressional report. Almost a quarter of troops were listed as other, unclassified or unknown.

“As a member of a minority religion, I think it’s really important that we be counted,” said Irene Glasse, a pagan religious professional and Marine Corp veteran. “It erases us, and so many of us have served so proudly, so well, and so honorably.”

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AP reporter Konstantin Toropin contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump on Friday said Iranian leaders have not yet reached a deal with the U.S. to end the ongoing war because they’re “strong” and “proud,” but ultimately, he added, “they’ve got no choice” except to reach an agreement.

“They’re strong, they’re proud, there are things they never thought they’d be doing that they’re going to have to do. They’ve got no choice, and it takes a little while,” the president told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker during a sit-down interview in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.

Trump’s remarks come as U.S. and Iranian leaders have been negotiating to end the war, which entered its fourth month last week.

The two nations agreed to a ceasefire in April that has been extended several times, though tensions flared in recent days when the U.S. and Iran traded strikes near the Strait of Hormuz.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday told House lawmakers that the ongoing military operation, which the Trump administration has dubbed “Operation Epic Fury,” “has concluded.”

He added that the strikes earlier in the week were “defensive in nature,” telling members of Congress that they came in response to Iran’s attacks on ships near the Strait of Hormuz.

“In order to protect our own forces, we don’t just strike the drones, we strike the people who launch those drones. These are completely defensive in nature, but they are happening in response to an Iranian action. If they don’t shoot at those ships, we don’t shoot, but we have to respond,” Rubio said.

The ongoing conflict led Iran months ago to shutter the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial maritime passageway for oil tankers. The strait’s closure has led to soaring oil prices globally and surging gas prices in the U.S., putting pressure on Trump and Republican leaders in Washington to ease economic pressure for Americans.

During Friday’s interview, Trump criticized those who are urging him to quickly reach a deal with Iran to end the ongoing conflict, saying, “It takes years to do these things.”

“These people have been fighting for 47 years. They’ve been killing Americans,” the president said, referring to Iranian leaders. “They’ve been taking off their legs and their arms and their faces have been hurt so badly and so horribly.”

He went on to compare the length of the ongoing conflict with the Vietnam War, saying, “I’m moving very fast. I’m into three months. You know, Vietnam lasted 19 years. I’m into my third month, and all they do is say, ‘Whoa, when are you going to win?’ If I were a Democrat, nobody would be talking that way, but it doesn’t matter to me. I’ve gotten so used to it.”

Trump added that so far in the conflict, “we have totally destroyed their military” but added that Iran still does have some missiles and drones.

“Most of the drone factories have been knocked out, most of the launching pads have been knocked out and most of the missile manufacturing areas have been knocked out. But they still have capacity. They have some missiles, they have some drones,” he said. “I would say percentage wise, maybe 21-22% of their missiles. It’s a lot of missiles, but it’s not what it was when we first attacked.”

Iran showed that it still retains missile and drone capabilities by a launching a series of attacks across the Persian Gulf earlier this week, even hitting the Kuwait International Airport.

The president has long been critical of Iran and he and other Trump administration officials in recent weeks have said that the war, which began with a series of U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, was necessary to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon.

On Wednesday, in an interview with the New York Post’s “Pod Force One,” podcast, Trump said it was “unlikely” that the U.S. blockade of Iran — which he imposed after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz — would still be in place by Labor Day.

In that interview, the president also floated the possibility of not reaching a deal with Iranian leaders, saying he’ll have to make a “determination.”

“Do we sign a deal or we do it the other way?” he asked. “And the other way is not nice.”

Anti-Trump Republicans have carved out a huge niche on the political left since President Donald Trump’s first campaign — generating large fundraising hauls, seemingly endless cable news bookings and persistent, public sniping from the president himself.

Some of these one-time Republicans have taken their political journey one step further: running for office as full-fledged Democrats. But so far in 2026, their new party’s primary voters haven’t shown much appetite for their candidacies.

Last month, former Georgia Lt. Gov Geoff Duncan, who broke with Trump over his claims of a stolen election in that state in 2020 and campaigned with Democrats in 2024, finished a distant fourth in the Democratic primary for governor — nearly 50 points behind the winner, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. In Pennsylvania, Ryan Crosswell, a Marine veteran and former federal prosecutor who left the Justice Department last year over an order to drop a corruption case against then-New York City Mayor Eric Adams, fell by 20 points in a battleground House primary to state firefighters union head Bob Brooks, who coalesced support from national Democrats and Gov. Josh Shapiro.

More tests of anti-Trump GOP-turned-Democratic candidacies are coming. This month, George Conway, the now ex-husband of Trump adviser and ally Kellyanne Conway, is seeking to continue his transformation from longtime conservative lawyer to one of Trump’s most prominent critics as part of a deep field of Democratic candidates for an open House seat in Manhattan.

“Welcome to the tent, absolutely,” said Andrew Mamo, a spokesperson for The Bench, a group that worked with Brooks and is seeking to boost Democrats in contested primaries. “Every former Republican is fantastic to have, but I think there is a real change from 2018” and the early years of Trump resistance in the Democratic Party.

“It is much more about authenticity and who have you always been, and what have your fights looked like,” he continued, adding, “And frankly, a lot of these folks have either worked in D.C. or worked in government, which I think is in a lot of cases a con, not a pro. And being like, ‘hello, I’m from the federal bureaucracy, and I’m here to help,’ the base is not exactly fired up for those types of people.”

Internal and unaffiliated polling of the upcoming race for New York’s 12th District, which also features state Assemblymen Micah Lasher and Alex Bores and Kennedy scion Jack Schlossberg, shows Conway trailing. An Emerson College survey released last month found Conway in fourth place with 9% support.

“I don’t view the Democratic Party as unwelcoming,” Conway said in an interview. “Whether or not I win or lose, I’ve received a lot of support from Democrats to run against a strong field of many candidates who have worked in the district as politicians longer than I have. I don’t view it as being a question of welcoming or unwelcome. I think that the strength of the party is its diversity.”

The elections come as the Democratic Party wrestles with its brand and the perception that it is strictly positioned as anti-Trump. Democratic strategists who spoke with NBC News said the races highlight a shifting mindset of primary voters, who no longer think so-called “Never Trump” Republicans are best positioned to fight for them.

One episode has stuck in some Democrats’ minds after their party sought to integrate “never Trump” Republicans in recent years, hoping their inclusion would open the door for broader Republican defections from rank-and-file voters skeptical of Trump. In the closing weeks of the 2024 campaign, then-Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned with former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., across the country.

“I do think it’s a shift,” said Eric Stern, a Democratic strategist who counts Brooks as a client, reflecting on how Democratic primary voters are approaching former Republicans who have turned against Trump. “Based on what we know now, I would be surprised if you had Kamala Harris out there campaigning with Liz Cheney. That was a strategic choice the party made that, based on the results, we absolutely would not make now. Why would we hand over the keys to the people that drove us off the cliff in the first place?”

But anti-Trump former Republicans say national Democrats have painted them as too one-dimensional and as a monolith, while potentially missing the lessons of 2024.

“I think that the Democratic Party needs to look at people as individuals and understand their politics a little better than a broad brushstroke on people who are former Republicans or anti-Trump or things like that,” said Olivia Troye, a former adviser to Vice President Mike Pence who left the White House in 2020 and became a vocal Trump critic. “Because I think that while we do all fall under that umbrella, everyone is different in where they stand.”

Troye announced in April that she would run for Congress in Virginia’s newly drawn 7th Congressional District as “a proud Democrat,” but she has decided to end her campaign after the state Supreme Court threw out the map voters narrowly passed in April. She began her career in GOP politics working for the Republican National Committee and then in President George W. Bush’s administration.

After leaving the White House, Troye — who said she voted for 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton — pledged to vote for then-Democratic nominee Joe Biden and appeared in an ad on his behalf. The Trump White House claimed she was fired, which she disputed.

“If you put George Conway, me and Geoff Duncan in a room, we probably differ on a lot of things,” Troye said. “And I think that is the problem that I’m worried about for the Democratic Party. If they want to grow a bigger tent, because they seem to say that they want to be the bigger tent, they want to welcome people, but then when they try to bring people in, they don’t actually want to listen to the fact that these are very individual types of people.”

The candidate in this group that appears most likely to win a Democratic primary is former Republican Rep. David Jolly, a vocal critic of the president dating back to his first term in office. He is now running for governor of Florida as a Democrat, and surveys have shown him with a primary lead.

Prominent anti-Trump Republicans are still having success raising money from small-dollar donors. In Pennsylvania’s 7th District, Crosswell actually outraised Brooks, though he said his campaign was doomed because of outside spending on Brooks’ behalf.

In an interview, Crosswell said some of the staunchest Democrats he met in the district were former Republicans like him, adding that his past party affiliation was used as an attack by his rivals. Given the party’s low approval ratings, Crosswell said Democrats “would be mistaken to not be thinking long and hard about how we’re going to change those numbers, how we’re going to message in a way that brings independents and Republicans.”

“I think a message that resonates, whether you speak to a Republican, whether you speak to an independent or whether you speak to a Democrat, is people are tired of losing family and friends over politics,” he said. “And I think that it’s become particularly toxic since Donald Trump came on the scene. But we’ll say both parties have some responsibility, and really have some responsibility for bridging that gap again.”

In his race, Crosswell emphasized what he described as “a real No Kings” moment, pointing to the anti-Trump protest movement and framing the president as a unique threat, while Brooks focused more on his working-class background and the need for class-based representation to best fight for constituents in Washington.

Anti-Trump former Republicans who spoke with NBC News argued that, since many of them were directly targeted by the president and his allies, they had the best experience in actually fighting him. Echoing some others, Conway said he doesn’t see fighting Trump and promoting an economic agenda as separate things. He does think, though, that fighting Trump has to be step one.

“My pitch to [voters] is that we all oppose Trump, and we all support initiatives to make life for New Yorkers and Americans generally more affordable,” Conway said, adding: “My view is that the two are much more inextricably intertwined than” others portray.

“The thing that has to come first is addressing Trumpism and fighting it tooth and nail by having a Congress that actually is going to hold the executive to account both by investigations and by impeachment proceedings against the president and his Cabinet officers, including the vice president,” he continued.

And Conway said he disagrees with those who believe the Democratic Party is “purely anti-Trump.”

“It stands for a lot more than being anti-Trump,” he said. “But I think the problem in 2024 is they weren’t tough enough on Trump. … They didn’t do enough to provoke him and show the American public how unfit he was for public office.”

“This isn’t just a battle about policy points,” he continued, adding, “We can’t get to the policy papers the Democrats like so much until we deal with the fundamental fact that we have the most corrupt government in American history.”

Troye, the former Pence adviser, said she believes there is a lane for candidates who can both prosecute a case against Trump and demand accountability while also taking on thorny issues, including those related to immigration and the economy.

“The thing is that people are looking for people who are going to stand up and fight for them,” she said. “That’s the fundamental line. … They are looking for fighters who are going to tell them, what are you for? Are you going to fight for the fact that I don’t know if I’m going to pay for food today, or if I’m going to pay my insurance bill or if I’m going to pay for gas?”

“Is that what you’re going to fight for?” Troye continued. “Or are you just going to sit here and tell me that Trump sucks?’”

A federal judge on Friday struck down a Trump administration policy enacted after the shooting of two National Guard members that made it harder for immigrants from dozens of countries to stay and enter the U.S.

In a ruling harshly criticizing the administration, U.S. District Chief Judge John McConnell Jr. said the policy “threw the lives of countless immigrants living in the United States into indeterminate legal limbo,” and he accused the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services of ignoring the law.

“In enacting its latest immigration policies, USCIS: claims statutory and regulatory authority that it does not possess; makes decisions without the reasoned explanations that it must provide; acts without regard for the reliance interests of applicants that it must consider; and justifies its actions with pretextual concerns of ‘national security’ that mask anti-immigrant sentiments that it is forbidden from letting influence its decision-making,” he wrote. “In legal terms that means USCIS’s actions are contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The policies enacted after the National Guard shooting last year meant that immigrants from 39 African, Asian, Latin American, and Middle Eastern countries have been “categorically barred” from receiving final decisions on, among other things, their asylum, work permit, green card, and citizenship applications.

“This ruling reaffirms a basic principle: the federal government cannot shut down lawful immigration pathways or discriminate against people based on where they come from,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, which represented the plaintiffs in the case. “These unlawful policies caused enormous harm to families, workers, asylum-seekers, and communities across the country who were left in limbo, unable to work, access protections, or move forward with their lives.”

The policies apply to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services or USCIS, which approves applications for immigrants to work and become citizens. The agency, which is within the Homeland Security Department, often grants asylum, but only for those already in the United States when they apply. Immigration judges grant asylum to those stopped at the border; the ruling does not affect them, nor do the policies that sparked the lawsuit.

The broad ruling would impact all pending cases at USCIS involving people from the travel ban countries, not just those included in the lawsuit, Shev Dalal-Dheini, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

“It is an important legal victory to ensure that legal immigration pathways remain open and that USCIS is held accountable to doing their congressionally mandated job of adjudicating applications,” she said.

It is part of an ongoing effort by the administration to tighten U.S. entry standards for travel and immigration, which critics say unfairly prevent travel for people from a broad range of countries. The administration suggested it would expand the restrictions after the arrest of an Afghan national suspect in the shooting of two National Guard troops over Thanksgiving weekend.

In its motion to dismiss, which the court denied, the government argued that Congress gave the executive branch broad authority over immigration policy, including “the entry of aliens into the United States as well as discretion within the statutory scheme to confer as well as withdraw various discretionary benefits.”

“This case rests on a remarkable premise: that a federal court should prevent an agency from issuing the very policy guidance that provides government personnel with the guardrails necessary to ensure consistent, non-arbitrary, and individualized decisionmaking consistent with federal law,” the government wrote in its brief.

Immigration groups celebrated the ruling.

“This ruling sets a powerful precedent that the administration cannot ignore the law as laid down by Congress and cannot arbitrarily bar immigration benefits on the basis of national origin by fiat,” Jamal Abdi, president at the National Iranian American Council, said. “Fortunately, this is still a nation of laws, and those who uphold America’s values have recourse to challenge and push back on such discriminatory, arbitrary policies.”

Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran who heads a coalition that supports Afghan resettlement efforts called #AfghanEvac, said the ruling was a “significant victory for the rule of law and for thousands of Afghan allies and other immigrants who followed every requirement asked of them.”

“Just this week in Dallas and Fort Worth, we met people who feared losing jobs because delayed work permit renewals threatened their livelihoods, families who postponed education, travel, and homeownership because they did not know when their cases would be resolved, and future Americans who had expected to become citizens only to see their applications stall without explanation,” VanDiver said.

The Senate passed legislation to fund President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies early Friday morning, after weeks of delays and fierce backlash to an unrelated $1.776 billion settlement fund that threatened to derail the bill.

Senators voted 52-47 for the $70 billion legislation to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol for the next three years, through the end of Trump’s term. The final vote came just before 5 a.m., after Republicans narrowly defeated multiple attempts by Democrats and Republicans to add language to the bill that would permanently ban Trump’s settlement fund for political allies who believe they have been politically persecuted.

Republicans cleared a major hurdle overnight when they defeated an amendment proposed by one of their own members, Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, that would have redirected payments from the settlement to members of law enforcement who were injured in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.

The amendments were a test of party unity that complicated what should have been an easy vote for Republicans who wanted to keep the focus on immigration enforcement in an election year. Instead, they spent almost a full day haggling among themselves over whether to block the settlement fund, even after acting Attorney General Todd Blanche had said earlier this week that it would not go forward.

“This would have been done several hours ago if we weren’t having to deal with some of the issues around the fund,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said shortly before midnight.

Thune himself has criticized the judgement fund, which was part of a settlement that resolves Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS over the leak of his tax returns and has angered many of his GOP colleagues. But he has been pushing GOP senators for weeks to keep the bill focused on the funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, which Democrats have blocked since early this year, and to avoid adding new provisions that could complicate its passage in the House.

Still, a group of Republican senators pushed all day and into the night to block the settlement’s payouts through legislation. That effort came after Trump raised new doubts about the settlement’s future Wednesday afternoon — just after the Senate had voted to start debate on the immigration bill — when he told reporters that the settlement is “very important” and said “I don’t know” whether it is dead or on hold.

“I’d have to ask the lawyers,” he said.

Senators push back multiple attempts to ban settlement fund

The first vote on Thursday morning, a Democratic effort to ban the settlement, was held open for several hours as three senators, including Cassidy, decided whether to support it. The Democratic motion was narrowly defeated when Cassidy eventually voted against it and the two other GOP senators — Jon Husted of Ohio and Dan Sullivan of Alaska, both of whom are up for reelection this year — voted for it.

The Senate then rejected a second amendment from Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina that would also have banned the settlement fund but moved the money to a separate anti-fraud fund at the Department of Justice. Most Democrats voted against the amendment, guaranteeing its defeat, but more than 10 Republicans supported it.

Tillis said the fund is a political liability for the party.

“If Blanche says this is largely inoperative, why not use this moment to codify that?” Tillis said. “Otherwise, you’re exposing every one of our members who are in cycle to having to deal with this between today and Election Day, and that makes no sense for something that the DOJ says they’re not moving forward with.”

Cassidy’s amendment to compensate the injured police officers was a pointed rebuke, as payouts from Trump’s fund could have potentially gone to Trump supporters who beat police and attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Despite Blanche’s comments, Cassidy said that the fund is still part of an active settlement and “absolutely can be used.”

The Senate rejected several other Democratic efforts to try to block or limit the fund, including amendments to ban payments to Jan. 6 defendants who injured law enforcement officers.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Republicans are now “leaving taxpayers to rely on nothing more than a promise from Donald Trump’s personal fixer. That is not accountability. That is a permission slip.”

ICE and Border Patrol money has been delayed for months

Enactment of the roughly $70 billion bill to fund ICE and the Border Patrol would end the blockade by Democrats who demanded policy changes after the fatal shootings of two protesters by federal agents in January. The bill would fund the agencies for three years, through the end of Trump’s term.

Senate Republicans used a complicated procedural maneuver to get around the filibuster and pass the budget legislation with no Democratic votes. But it took weeks to get the bill to the Senate floor as Republicans navigated various obstacles to passage created by Trump and the White House — including a $1 billion proposal for White House security and Trump’s ballroom that they eventually scrapped and the fierce bipartisan backlash to the settlement fund.

Democrats say any funding bill for the Homeland Security Department should place restraints on federal immigration authorities, including better identification for federal officers and more use of judicial warrants, among other asks.

After federal agents shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Trump agreed to a Democratic request that the Homeland Security bill be separated from a larger spending measure that became law. But bipartisan negotiations went nowhere, and the department funding lapsed in mid-February with no agreement on changes to the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics.

Congress eventually funded the rest of the Homeland Security Department at the end of April with Democratic support, but ICE and Border Patrol has remained without regular funding.

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Associated Press writers Kevin Freking and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.

Democrats competing over a coveted congressional district in Manhattan slugged it out during a heated debate Thursday night, sparring over big tech and who would be President Donald Trump’s toughest foe.

But it was Alex Bores — a state lawmaker whose plans to regulate artificial intelligence has led to a flurry of industry spending both against and in support of him — who was the prime target.

Within moments, state Assembly Member Micah Lasher suggested Bores would be beholden to the big tech players who support his campaign.

“Alex only wants to tell you half the story, about one AI company that’s spending millions to defeat him, and that’s bad,” Lasher said. “But he’s not telling you the story about Anthropic, which is spending a million dollars to elect him, or a crypto billionaire who is spending $3.5 million to send him to Congress,” Lasher continued.

Soon after, Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of former President John F. Kennedy, made a similar claim, arguing that Bores’ proposed artificial intelligence regulation “is a dream come true” for tech companies because it would give them too much control.

Bores responded: “With friends like these, who needs Republicans?”

“The Trump disinformation is coming from inside the party,” said Bores, a former data scientist at the tech firm Palantir who says he quit after it signed a deal to help the first Trump administration with immigration enforcement.

The debate came with just weeks to go before the June 23 primary for the District 12 congressional seat soon to vacated by retiring U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler. The district includes the upscale neighborhoods bordering Central Park and Times Square in Midtown Manhattan. It is considered safely Democratic, with the Democratic primary regarded as the race’s deciding contest.

Nadler’s retirement announcement resulted in a wave of Democrats launching campaigns, though the ranks of challengers have somewhat thinned.

Nadler has endorsed Lasher, a former staffer who has held several behind-the-scenes posts in New York government before becoming a lawmaker in the state Assembly.

Schlossberg, whose zany social media antics and Kennedy lineage brought national eyes to the race, has cast himself as an fresh face to a party searching for stars during Trump’s second term.

George Conway, who was once married to former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway before becoming a leading antagonist of the president, is running a campaign centered on removing Trump from office.

Bores entered the race without the fanfare of a Kennedy or a Conway but has since become a major player after an artificial intelligence-aligned group started spending to hobble his campaign. The spending has seemed to elevate his campaign, rather than damage him, helping Bores frame himself as the candidate who wants to regulate a technology that has unnerved many Americans worried about impacts such as job losses.

Throughout the debate, Bores, who sponsored state legislation to require major AI developers to report dangerous incidents to the state, fended off attacks.

After one tense exchange, he moved to respond but was cut short so the broadcast could take a commercial break. Three of the five commercials were about Bores, a signal of the glut of spending in the race.

The first ad, paid for by the AI-backed Think Big PAC, claimed Bores was “bought and sold” by corporate interests. The following two ads were supportive of Bores, with one featuring a robotic voice that identified itself as “the AI super PAC funded by Trump’s megadonors designed to destroy Alex Bores,” and the other casting Bores as a champion of the working class.

“You’ve seen tonight that I’m nothing like the incessant text and mailers and TV ads that are being sent out to demonize me. But I am terrifying to Trump’s megadonors and apparently to my opponents as well,” Bores said when the debate resumed.

Conway, meanwhile, lamented the combative nature of the night.

“What we saw here tonight was something that Democrats sometimes do a little too well, which was a circular, or really a triangular firing squad, and I think that’s a shame,” he said.

The House passed bipartisan legislation Thursday that would provide new aid to Ukraine and impose sanctions against Russia, largely clashing with the Trump administration’s approach to the war.

The 226-195 vote included support from 18 Republicans, who joined all but one Democrat in approving the measure.

The Ukraine Support Act, sponsored by Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, came to the House floor after enough Republicans crossed the aisle to side with Democrats and circumvent GOP leadership, which had prevented a vote on the legislation.

The bill would authorize $8 billion in loans to Ukraine and NATO allies under the Foreign Military Financing program, as well as more than $1 billion in other funds for Ukraine, Baltic security and Radio Free Europe.

The bill now heads to the Senate, where it faces a steeper uphill climb with Republicans. If it is passed, it would then need to be signed by President Donald Trump to become law.

Four Republicans voted with Democrats on Wednesday to pass a resolution to rebuke the war in Iran. The largely symbolic measure, also introduced by Meeks, directed Trump to remove U.S. forces from Iran unless Congress authorizes it. That came after Republicans rejected three other attempts to pass a war powers resolution this year.

The Trump administration has failed to broker a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia. Trump boasted during the 2024 campaign that he would end the war “in 24 hours” when he was re-elected president. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a hearing on Capitol Hill this week that negotiations between the two countries have stalled.

Trump has criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying in March that he was “far more difficult” to make a deal with than Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee weighed in on passage of the Ukraine Support Act, saying on X that the vote made it clear that “the American people stand with the people of Ukraine in their fight for freedom against Russian aggression.”

Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., one of the 18 Republicans who voted for the bill, said on X, “Always proud to stand with our dear friends in Ukraine who are fighting to protect themselves from Putin’s pathetic, illegal invasion.”

“Putin’s regime must be destroyed & relegated to the ash heap of history!” he added.

The House Oversight Committee said Thursday it was asking the Justice Department to investigate sexual misconduct allegations made by Jeffrey Epstein’s former assistant, Sarah Kellen, against two of his associates.

Kellen was interviewed behind closed doors on May 21 by the committee as part of its investigation into Epstein.

“During the transcribed interview, the Committee received testimony about alleged instances of criminal misconduct committed by Philip Levine, the former Mayor of Miami Beach from 2013 to 2017, and Frédéric Fekkai, a French celebrity hairstylist,” Chair James Comer wrote in the letter to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Kellen also accused a third man with ties to Epstein, late fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier, of pulling down his pants in front of her.

In a statement, Comer, R-Ky., said the committee “is not a law enforcement entity, and our role is not to determine guilt or innocence. We are referring these allegations to the Department of Justice, which has the tools to investigate criminal misconduct. We will continue to follow the facts and ensure accountability for survivors.”

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kellen worked for Epstein for over a decade and was at one point identified as one of his co-conspirators. In the May 21 interview, a transcript of which was released Thursday, Kellen said Fekkai was the person who introduced her to Epstein, the convicted sex offender financier who died in 2019 by suicide while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

She said the alleged sexual abuse by Fekkai happened before she met Epstein, and the alleged incident with Levine happened one or two years after she started working for Epstein. She said both of the alleged incidents occurred when she was in her 20s.

A spokesperson for Levine said in a statement, “Nearly a quarter century ago, our client had a brief intimate encounter with another consenting adult. Any allegation suggesting otherwise is not true.”

Mark Herr, a spokesperson for Fekkai, said in a statement that “Mr. Fekkai was astonished to read of Ms. Kellen’s testimony. Mr. Fekkai never abused anyone. He never participated in any illegal behavior. He knew nothing about Epstein’s repugnant depravity or trafficking. He did nothing wrong.”

Demarchelier died in 2022.

All three names made repeated appearances in the Justice Department’s publicly released investigative files into Epstein and his convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Kellen, a North Carolina native who married a man five years her senior when she was 17, told the panel her former husband divorced and abandoned her in Hawaii when she was 20.

It was after that that she said an unidentified makeup artist introduced her to Fekkai, who said he wanted to use her as a model at a hair show in Maui. When she arrived, she found out there was no show. “He sexually assaulted me that night,” she told the panel.

She said he told her he wanted to introduce her to his friend Jeffrey, whom he referred to as “a scout for Victoria’s Secret.” Epstein, she said, flew her to Los Angeles for a “casting” call.

He “made me think he was a model scout and told me to undress for him, which I did,” she said.

Fekkai also introduced her to Demarchelier, for whom she said she had posed before he walked up to her with his pants down.

Kellen said she was hired as an “assistant” to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, which was when she said she found out he was a money manager, and not a model scout.

Epstein, she said, “groomed me, sexually and psychologically abused me, controlled me, manipulated me, dominated me and gaslit me until I could no longer tell which thoughts were mine and which were his.”

She said Epstein reminded her “every day how powerful he was, how influential he was and that to turn on him or disobey him would mean losing everything: my job, my home, everyone I knew in the world, even my life.”

“He knew everyone in the highest echelons of society and everyone catered to him. He knew everyone in the fashion industry, academics, finance, government, powerful world leaders, dictators and everyone in between. From the beginning, he showed me that he was more powerful than basically anyone in the world,” she said.

She said Levine assaulted her in either 2002 or 2003, when she was working for Epstein and Maxwell at a house they rented in St. Tropez and he came to visit. She said Epstein and Maxwell were in the house but not present when the assault happened.

Kellen said Levine, whom she described as a good friend of Maxwell, came into her bedroom one night “and basically forced himself on me.” There was also a later incident when they were on the beach, she told the committee.

Kellen said she did not leave Epstein’s employ because she had nowhere else to go. “I had no money, no family, no education and no sense that I deserved any better,” she said.

Kellen said Epstein abused her even while he was serving a Florida jail sentence, which began in 2008 — at one point allegedly forcing her to undress in a Skype call from the Palm Beach County Stockade.

She said she later discovered that she had been identified as a co-conspirator in the controversial nonprosecution agreement Epstein signed as part of a guilty plea to state charges of soliciting a minor.

“I was not told this was happening,” she said. “No one from law enforcement ever spoke with me.”

“I did not even know my name was in that agreement until after it had been signed and released to the public,” she said.

Kellen said she “finally extricated myself from Jeffrey Epstein’s grasp in 2013, when I became engaged to a man who gave me, for the first time in my life, a piece of footing outside of someone else’s control.”

Fekkai, Levine and Demarchelier all make appearances in the investigative files that have been released by the Justice Department as a result of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

The law was passed months after the Justice Department and FBI released a joint memo last year saying they had conducted an “exhaustive” review of the Epstein case, and found that while the politically connected moneyman had preyed on over 1,000 women, there was not enough evidence to investigate anyone else.

If the DOJ were to act on Comer’s recommendation, it would be the first known active investigation into the case since the prosecution of Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.

Levine’s name appears over 1,000 times in the files, mainly in various mass campaign emails to Epstein and sometimes in flirty email exchanges with Maxwell.

While the two men did not exchange many personal emails,Levine did email him well wishes in 2010 — after Epstein finished his sentence on solicitation charges.

“Just want you to know that I am happy that everything has come to a positive ending for you during these tough times…You are a great guy and I know all good things will come to you going forward. In Europe for a while and hope we can catch up soon. Your friend, Philip,” the email read.

In an unusual interview last year with Blanche, Maxwell said Levine was “a good friend of mine” who at one point introduced her to former President Bill Clinton. Clinton, who appears in many photographs released as part of the DOJ’s Epstein records, has never been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein. He told the House Oversight Committee in a closed-door deposition this year that he “saw nothing” and “did nothing wrong” related to Epstein.

Levine said in a statement to WLRN earlier this year that “my only connection to Jeffrey Epstein arose solely through my former friendship with Ghislaine Maxwell. I met Epstein only a few times. I never conducted business with him, never visited his island and never flew on his aircraft. I regret ever meeting him.”

An attorney for Maxwell didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Fekkai’s name appears over 3,000 times in the Epstein files,including for numerous appointments with unidentified women at his Manhattan salon. One 2018 email exchange discussing Fekkai’s bills noted one person had a haircut “compliments of Jeffrey.”

Another email to Epstein’s bookkeeper from the salon in 2016 said it was a “big day” there. “5 cuts in all today,” the email said.

Demarchelier’s name is mentioned nearly three dozen times, including in several duplicates of an email exchange in 2012 between late modeling agency head Jean Luc Brunel and Epstein. In the exchange, Brunel tells Epstein he is going to be traveling with the photographer to St. Petersburg for a shoot for Russian Vogue. “What dates?” Epstein asked.

Brunel was found dead of an apparent suicide in his prison cell in 2022 while awaiting trial on charges of sexual harassment and rape.

Demarchelier, who worked closely with the late Princess Diana, was accused of sexually harassing and abusing seven models in a 2018 Boston Globe story.

He told the Globe at the time that the allegations against him were “ridiculous.”

“People lie and they tell stories,” he told the paper, adding he “never, never, never” touched a model inappropriately.

During the Kellen interview, Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., asked Kellen about Epstein’s relationship with President Donald Trump. Kellen said that Epstein had been a frequent visitor to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate early on in her tenure, and “would use the gym a lot there.”

She said she knew he and Trump had a “friendly” relationship, but she only met the future president once, and only for a few minutes. Kellen said she’d heard Trump banned Epstein from the resort because “he had like, hit on a member’s daughter or something along those lines.”

Trump and Epstein were friends for years, but the president has said they had a falling out after Epstein “took people that worked for me.” Trump, who also appears numerous times in the Epstein files, has not been accused of misconduct by law enforcement and has denied any wrongdoing.

June is widely recognized as Pride Month, but a handful of Republican governors have bestowed alternative titles that both supporters and opponents view as counterprogramming.

Without directly saying the idea was to replace Pride, the governors of Indiana and Tennessee rebranded June as Nuclear Family Month to celebrate units made up of “one husband, one wife and any biological, adopted or fostered children.”

In Alabama, it’s Strong Families Month, intended to coincide with Father’s Day. Gov. Kay Ivey’s proclamation says fathers are “the head of the household” and “homes led by a father and mother provide children with the structure and discipline necessary to succeed throughout life.”

The governors of Utah and Arkansas deemed it Fidelity Month, which emphasizes fidelity to faith, country and family — without comment on how those families might be comprised.

Last week, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ X account posted a link to an article about her proclamation that declared, “Another Red State is Counter-Programming Pride Month.”

She and the other governors haven’t answered questions from The Associated Press about why their proclamations are all set in June.

Family focus for June has come on strong this year

Republican lawmakers in at least four other GOP-controlled states have introduced legislation this year calling for June to be Fidelity Month.

An organization pushing that concept was founded by Robert P. George, a Princeton University professor of jurisprudence who has long been a leader on conservative thought. His group did not respond to interview requests.

He told the National Catholic Register about the idea in 2023, saying “nobody gets a monopoly on a particular day or a particular month.”

June Pride celebrations, which often include parades, festivals and performances, began in 1970 to mark the first anniversary of the violent police raid on the Stonewall Inn, a New York City gay bar, and have since expanded to cities worldwide.

“You can call it whatever you want, but one thing you’re not going to do is take away our pride or take away our joy,” said Jordan Braxton co-president of USA Prides.

Every Democratic president since Bill Clinton in 1999 has signed a Pride proclamation each year — and no Republican president has.

One of the few GOP governors who has proclaimed Pride is Utah’s Spencer Cox, who did so in 2021, 2022 and 2023. In 2024, he deemed June a “Month of Bridge Building” before switching to Fidelity Month this year.

A poll released this week found that a two decade-long increase in acceptance of same-sex marriages and relationships has flattened — largely because more Republicans oppose them.

Conservatives say they’re ‘reclaiming the culture’

Last year, U.S. Rep. Mary Miller, an Illinois Republican, introduced a resolution to make June Family Month — and to unrecognize Pride Month, saying “Americans are inundated with perverse Pride Month displays and events throughout the month of June that denigrate the nuclear family.” It never got a vote.

Some backers view the state measures as an opportunity for a cultural reset.

Kevin Roberts, president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, said in an interview that it’s good to have the conservative recognitions because Pride celebrations “were going so far as to make it difficult to celebrate traditional marriage.”

The resolution approved by Tennessee’s Legislature and governor does not mention Pride Month specifically, while saying the “nuclear family is under attack in our beloved State and nation.”

But Lakie Derrick, a conservative activist who authored the measure with a friend, said she did indeed target it to June to counter Pride Month, which she said “goes against” American values.

“We’re just reclaiming the culture, and there’s no better month to do that than in a month where the culture says we’re gonna celebrate something so opposite to what we know to be right,” Derrick said.

Marina Lowe, who leads legal and legislative affairs for the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality Utah, said that Pride Month is not the antithesis of other values-based recognitions. Many LGBTQ+ people also value faith and family, she said, so “I don’t think that these positions need to be in conflict with one another.”

In Wenatchee, Washington, a school’s Turning Point USA chapter was able to get Family Month banners posted on light poles that in the past had displayed rainbow flags during June. A local gay rights group, Out NCW, struck back by buying two billboards and passing out yard signs supporting Pride, its president, AJ Soto, said.

For some, this is why Pride Month exists

Josh Coleman, president of Central Alabama Pride, which has 42 events planned over two weeks, said the celebrations, which culminate with a parade on June 13 and festival June 14, won’t be affected by the proclamation.

“It’s not lost upon LGBTQ people when elected leaders don’t recognize or value the visibility of the community,” he said. “That’s why Pride started in the first place — to make sure the community had a community.”

Alex Richardson, chair of the board of directors at Indy Pride in Indianapolis, said he sees the governor’s proclamation there as a “swipe.” But he also believes the events there this month are celebrating some of the things the governor supports.

“Sure, the governor’s right, the nuclear family is worth celebrating,” Richardson said. “But I think so is the grandmother who raises her grandchildren, or the chosen family that shows up when a blended family can’t, or won’t, … or the weird blended households that are held together by love and effort.”

The Kennedy Center’s lawyers on Thursday directed staff at the iconic venue to remove President Donald Trump’s name from all official signage to comply with a federal judge’s order from last week.

Staff were told in an email from the Office of the General Counsel to “Remove any references to the ‘Trump-Kennedy Center’ or ‘The Donald J. Trump and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts,’ and instead revert to ‘The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ or ‘the Kennedy Center” or ‘the Center.’” The directive also applies to email signatures, letterhead, signage, brochures and website pages.

“The Court ruled that the Board acted beyond its authority in adding President Trump’s name to the Center and gave the Center 14 days from May 29 to remove all references to the Center being named for anyone other than John F. Kennedy,” the letter obtained by NBC News states. It gives a June 12 deadline for compliance.

The directive comes after U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled last week that the president’s handpicked board lacked the authority to change the Kennedy Center’s name when it voted in December to add Trump’s name.

A day after the board’s vote last year, the longtime Washington landmark on the shores of the Potomac River donned Trump’s name on its facade. As of Thursday afternoon, Trump’s name remains on the Kennedy Center exterior.

Cooper last week also weighed in on the board’s March decision to close the Kennedy Center for two years to complete $250 million in renovations beginning in July.

The judge said the decision to temporarily shutter the center was based “on an insufficient, one-sided presentation of information and neglected to consider the full range of its statutory obligations.” His order last week did not prohibit the Kennedy Center board from voting to close the building for a period of time, but ordered it to use proper protocols in reaching a decision.

Trump has expressed great interest in the Kennedy Center since he took office for a second term. He has been involved with the center’s programming and events, including canceling some performances and introducing others.

He teased the prospect of adding his name to the building last August in a post on Truth Social, months before the board’s vote.

John Bolton, a former national security adviser to President Donald Trump who later became one of his fiercest critics, has agreed to plead guilty to one count of retaining national security information, two sources familiar with the matter said.

As part of the agreement reached with federal prosecutors, Bolton will be arraigned again on June 26, at which point the judge will have up to 90 days to render a sentence, the sources said.

Bolton faces a potential sentence ranging from probation to 60 months in prison, the sources said. He has also agreed to pay $2.25 million in restitution, one of the sources said.

Bolton described the national security information in question in an electronic diary entry that he shared with two members of his family, the two sources said.

“So, there’s no allegation that he took home any classified documents, or that he leaked any documents or that he shared any documents with foreign adversaries,” one of the sources said.

When he was arrested in October, Bolton initially pleaded not guilty to charges of mishandling classified information. He was indicted that month by a federal grand jury in Maryland on eight counts of transmission of national defense information and 10 counts of unlawful retention of that information.

One of the sources, who is close to Bolton, told NBC News that he changed his plea for the good of the country.

“This was a very difficult decision for him,” the source said. “Most importantly, he is doing what leaders do and taking responsibility. He understands that if he went to trial what that would mean, which essentially would be the disclosure of many, many more classified documents that he would need to reveal to defend himself. And given the Ukraine and the Middle East, he didn’t want to do that.”

Eleven-year-old Ederson Galicia Alva had just stepped off the plane and into the Miami airport’s dim hallways when federal agents pulled his mother aside for questioning. Again.

Panic welled up. His excitement at soon being back at recess with his Florida classmates fell away. Would the government take her away again?

This was not his first trauma. In 2018, when he was just 3 years old, Ederson was taken from his mother’s arms at the U.S.-Mexico border under the first Trump administration’s family separation policy and kept apart from her in a government facility for months. They were finally reunited after lawyers intervened. Then, in June of last year, he and his mother were separated a second time, despite legal protections meant to keep them and families like theirs together.

He later joined his mother in Guatemala. After a destitute, torturous 11 months in the indigenous highlands, Ederson’s family was allowed to return to Florida last week, following a federal judge’s order that the government had acted illegally.

Now, eight years after President Donald Trump’s forcible border separations came to an official halt following global outrage, an Associated Press investigation has found that the government has re-separated dozens of children from their families, despite a landmark legal settlement meant to keep them together. Some of their parents have been locked in immigration detention facilities for months, others deported back to their home countries after being taken from their families once again. In some cases, immigration officials conducting interior arrests deported people despite discovering they were legally off limits for removal, according to emails obtained by AP.

“Not only has the government refused to acknowledge the horror of the initial separations during Trump I, but it is now detaining and deporting these same families,” said Lee Gelernt, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union and lead counsel in the lawsuit that ended the policy. “These children have suffered enough without re-traumatizing them.”

Trump successfully ran for reelection on an anti-immigration platform. Under his second term, the administration has vowed to deport more than 1 million people per year. Federal agents have been plucking people from their communities so swiftly that, according to the Brookings Institution, now the parents of tens of thousands of children have been detained.

This time, family separations often look different from Trump’s first term. In 2018, Ederson and other children at the border were taken from their parents, who were detained separately and overwhelmingly charged criminally with illegal entry. Then, the government was unable to reunite them for months because adults and children’s information was kept in different computer systems. A judge barred the government from separating most families at the border and ordered the government to bring the families back together after the ACLU filed a class action lawsuit. Later, a court settlement banned most family separations to deter immigration until December 2031.

Today, if parents are arrested or deported under the president’s push for mass deportations, they are being made to choose whether to leave their children behind in the United States.

“DHS complies with all court orders, even as radical NGOs shop for the most favorable forum and activist judges seek to thwart our operations,” acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, said in response to AP requests for comment about the government’s policies toward separated families.

Government attorneys have argued in recent court filings that there are no legal restrictions on “the government’s statutory authority to execute orders of removal.” Bis added that enforcing immigration law was “not optional,” and that “every removal of an illegal alien helps restore order and reinforce the rule of law.”

Ederson’s family recently was allowed to return, but their status is still on shaky ground.

Separated at the border, then again in Florida

After being taken from his mother, Mirsy Maricela Alva López, and confined to a government shelter in Arizona as a toddler for four and a half months, Ederson barely recognized her once they were reunited, she said. Vivid nightmares haunted him throughout his time in elementary school, where he learned to read in English in classrooms amid lush lawns and palm trees less than 10 miles from Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s Winter White House.

Once a federal judge approved a settlement to the class action suit under the Biden administration, Ederson’s family and those like his got legal status to stay in the U.S., with pathways for residency and asylum, and his mother got a work permit. And after months of mental health services to address his ongoing fear that his mother would never return, in early June last year — about five months after the beginning of Trump’s second administration and the president’s resumed anti-immigration push — his therapist finally said he had made so much progress he could put his weekly sessions on pause.

Two weeks later, Alva López was stopped by federal agents as she and co-workers were en route to a landscaping job near Mar-a-Lago. The agents, wearing brown uniforms, never gave a reason for the stop or identified themselves before transferring Alva López to two Florida jails, then to ICE custody in Louisiana, and finally to a plane full of shackled deportees heading to Guatemala City, she said.

“I felt the very same thing I went through the first time,” Alva López said, weeping. “I was living it all over again.”

Alva López was separated from Ederson and his older sister, Briseidy, for a week, and not given the chance to speak with an immigration official about her status or legal protections, said Kelly Kribs, an attorney with the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, which has supported Alva López’s family’s return to the U.S.

When she finally managed to call Ederson and Briseidy, they couldn’t stop sobbing. Alva López said she asked her sister to buy airplane tickets to send them to Guatemala City. She met them the next day at the airport and traveled with them nine more hours down highways and rutted roads to reach San Martín Cuchumatán, a hamlet in the highlands where the children were born.

The three of them shared a tiny bedroom with a dusty floor with Alva López’s parents and brother in an adobe brick home with a sheet metal roof, nothing like the leafy cul-de-sacs of South Florida. The school, where all lessons are in Spanish, was a mile’s walk, and none of the children in town spoke English, Ederson said.

Instead of clocking in to trim the gardens of West Palm Beach estates, each day Alva López fed the chickens and ducks in a small coop behind the house, washed the family’s laundry by hand and cooked meals on an open fire.

And Ederson was back to waking up at night fearing his future. At Northmore Elementary School, he had been doing well in fifth grade. In Guatemala, he repeated fourth grade, this time in Spanish, and was quizzed on the history and culture of a country he barely knew. His friendships weren’t as close as in West Palm Beach. Sometimes when he felt sad, he watched the school’s old online videos to see his old friends.

“We used to play and chat. Sometimes they would help me when I didn’t understand the lesson, and I would help them with math,” he said, fighting back tears. “I have very few friends here.”

Ederson still doesn’t want to talk about the separations, and he can’t stop asking his mother why she went to work that day. But he is clear on one thing: he never wants to be apart from his mother again.

‘Lasting, excruciating harm’

In late 2017, immigration officials began forcibly separating parents and children at the U.S.-Mexico border, under a policy championed by Stephen Miller, Trump’s then-senior policy advisor who is now White House deputy chief of staff. After advocates got word, the ACLU filed a lawsuit in February 2018 to halt the practice called Ms. L v. U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement, on behalf of a Congolese mother the Trump administration separated from her 7-year-old daughter for four months. It later became a class action suit.

It wasn’t until thousands of families were torn apart that a judge ordered the government to end separations, saying it caused “lasting, excruciating harm.” According to the ACLU’s most recent accounting, the number of separated parents and children, and their impacted family members covered by the settlement is far greater than had been previously reported — over 11,800 — and because the government deported so many people before the practice was banned, the full scope may never be known. The ACLU also provided AP with new information surrounding Ms. L class members who have been detained and deported during the second Trump administration, including that dozens of children were re-separated. Legal filings in the Ms. L case and other immigration attorneys working with separated families also detailed the re-separations of children.

Under a 2023 settlement agreement signed by the Biden administration, Ms. L class members — including separated parents, children and other close relatives — received special legal protections, pathways toward asylum and access to attorneys, work permits and support services. And over eight years, advocates and attorneys have been trying to help the families reunite and recover, traveling to the Guatemala rainforest and remote Honduran villages to inform class members of their rights, and offering them to apply for everything from humanitarian parole to work authorization permits to psychological counseling, benefits meant “to prevent any ongoing harm caused by the initial separation,” according to the settlement.

That changed when Trump began his second term. Support for separated families was never encoded by an act of Congress, and soon it started shrinking.

First, funding for legal services temporarily ended. Instead, the Trump administration said it would charge families $1,000 each to enter or stay in the country. Then, attorneys said, some parents were told to appear for more frequent ICE check-ins, and ordered to wear ankle monitors to record their movements. Many class members lost access to counseling.

By late last year, emails show the government had deported some protected family members even after being told by the ACLU that they were off limits as protected Ms. L class members.

Seven days before Christmas, ACLU attorney Natalie Behr wrote an urgent email to Department of Justice contacts, saying her team had learned that a protected relative was once again in ICE custody.

“We ask that you tell us why we were not notified of this class member’s detention within 24 hours. … this class member should not be removed,” Behr wrote.

A Washington DOJ trial attorney emailed back, saying he would ask ICE. ACLU attorneys followed up.

By the day after Christmas, it was already too late. He had been deported.

The problem is still surfacing. While the government is required by judge’s orders to immediately tell the ACLU when Ms. L class members are detained and to return re-separated families who have been deported, the Trump administration only disclosed in April that it had deported another protected person to Guatemala back in September, court filings show.

The same thing nearly happened to one of Alva López’s neighbors, who was picked up in West Palm Beach a few months after her deportation. The father also had done landscaping near Mar-a-Lago and had been separated at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2017 from his daughter. Under the first Trump administration, he was swiftly returned to Guatemala. As ACLU attorneys and government lawyers hashed out what separated families were due, he came back to Florida in 2021 to reunite with his children, one of whom had been released after spending months in a government detention facility.

In October, the government locked him up, first in Alligator Alcatraz, an immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades, then inside Camp East Montana in Texas, Kribs said.

At Camp East Montana, he was fed moldy food with worms, berated by guards and learned that a fellow detainee died after being mistreated by ICE officials, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisal. ICE said the detainee died after experiencing “on-site medical distress,” and the El Paso medical examiner’s office later ruled the detainee experienced “asphyxia due to neck and torso compression.” Christmas and New Year’s Eve came and went, and by January he found it hard to keep up his hopes when his children called.

The ACLU filed a motion about Ms. L parents being detained, and the father was released from government detention in April. While he’s grateful to be back home in Florida with his children, he told AP he feels like he is still being tracked through his ankle monitor and the ICE check-ins he’s required to do every two weeks. His children still worry he won’t be there when they get out of school, he said.

Bis said DHS could impose conditions on parole, including electronic monitoring, regular reporting requirements, and even detention.”

‘A place where we can all be safe’

Sinri Baltazar, a mother from Honduras who was first separated from her then-5-year-old daughter in 2018, also was allowed under a judge’s order in April to return to Louisiana with her three children, including her youngest, a U.S. citizen.

It has not been easy. Baltazar, a member of the Afro-indigenous Garifuna community that faces discrimination in Honduras, was deported with her children last year after she said immigration officials told her to sign a document they said would permit her to keep her family together — only if they all left. Back in New Orleans, she said she was grateful her children could seek a better life, but they have been struggling to get by while living with an acquaintance from church.

“The only thing my children say is that they want to be home, in their own house,” Baltazar said. “I’m just trying to get us to a place where we can all be safe, and I hope for that for all the other families.”

As deportations have risen in the last year and a half, attorneys say separated families have become increasingly fearful about filling out government paperwork and many don’t know they can apply for asylum, a key benefit of the settlement that expires in December. The administration also hasn’t said whether it will extend a current, trimmed-back legal services contract for families that ends in August. Another deadline is looming as well: thousands of separated families need to request for any pending removal orders to be cancelled by December, or lose their ability to stay in the U.S. legally.

“There was never enough funding to keep up with the need,” said Anilú Chadwick, an attorney and senior director at the legal nonprofit Together & Free, which she said has supported 15 families that have been re-separated, including Baltazar’s. “Now we have to see if the government awards a new contract, and I gotta say as someone who has been on the clock to find and locate services, that is not enough time even in the best of circumstances.”

For separated families who are waiting for loved ones to be released from detention, or for paperwork to return to the U.S., however, time has been moving at a glacial pace.

Ever since Alva López was deported back to Guatemala nearly a year ago, she checked her phone each morning for word of when she and her children could return. Money started drying up. The children began forgetting their English slang. Briseidy, now 14, worried she would drift away from her American friends. Finally, two weeks ago, there was news: the government would bring her and her children back to Florida on an American Airlines flight, under a judge’s order.

The puppies she had bought Ederson to lighten his mood had died, and there were few friends and relatives to say goodbye to. So she packed up the siblings and their few possessions, their clothes now loose on their frames after losing weight since returning to Todos Santos Cuchumatán.

And finally, in the last week of May, passports and travel documents in hand, the family flew to Miami. Ederson said it felt like a miracle. But soon after landing, immigration officials pulled Alva López in for questioning, taking her photo and fingerprints all over again and re-examining every document she held. Their stay in the U.S. may be short. An immigration official granted her just two weeks’ humanitarian parole.

The government declined to comment specifically on Alva López’s case.

“I still haven’t told the children” about the two weeks’ parole, Alva López said the first day she woke up back in the family’s old neighborhood in West Palm Beach. “They’re going to worry that the same thing will happen again,” she said.

—-

Burke reported from San Francisco. Pérez reported from San Martín Cuchumatán, Guatemala. AP photographer Rebecca Blackwell in Miami contributed reporting.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he will nominate Todd Blanche to serve as attorney general, tapping his former personal lawyer who has aggressively pursued the Republican president’s agenda while leading the Justice Department in an acting role.

Trump said at a dinner at the White House that he plans to nominate Blanche formally on Thursday, according to a video of the event posted on social media by a White House aide.

“We are going to make him permanent attorney general,” Trump said at the Rose Garden event.

Blanche sought quickly to position himself as the favorite for the permanent job after Pam Bondi’s firing in April, accelerating investigations into Trump foes and announcing a nearly $1.8 billion fund meant to compensate the president’s allies for alleged political persecution. The proposed fund created a bipartisan firestorm that forced the Justice Department to scrap the idea earlier this week in an extraordinary about-face.

Blanche was brought into the Justice Department as deputy attorney general and was elevated after Bondi’s ousting over her failed efforts to prosecute Trump’s perceived political opponents. Blanche insisted he wasn’t auditioning for the permanent post but made clear through splashy moves since taking the reins his intent on proving his loyalty to Trump.

Blanche’s actions have outraged Democrats and other critics who accuse him of still acting like Trump’s personal lawyer to carry out the president’s campaign of retribution. The $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” also prompted backlash from Republicans in the Senate whose support Blanche will now need in order to be confirmed as attorney general.

While Blanche has maintained he feels no pressure from the president, the Justice Department under his watch has advanced its pursuits of longtime Trump foes. Blanche has strongly rejected accusations that the Trump administration has politicized the Justice Department and has said he is focused on correcting what he contends were past abuses by the Biden administration.

Former FBI Director James Comey was indicted in April over a social media photo of seashells arranged on a beach that officials said constituted a threat the president. Comey, who has slammed the case as politically motivated, has said he wouldn’t be surprised if the Justice Department pursues additional indictments against him.

Blanche separately appointed Joseph diGenova, an 81-year-old former Justice Department prosecutor from the Reagan administration, to oversee a Florida-based investigation into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired over the last decade to undermine Trump.

He came under intense scrutiny last month over the proposed “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” which the administration said was meant to compensate people who feel they’ve been unjustly investigated and prosecuted under past administrations. The fund sparked outrage over the possibility that violent offenders who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol riot could be considered for payments — which Blanche refused to publicly rule out.

Blanche told lawmakers on Tuesday the Justice Department would not move forward with the plan after the political blowback stalled legislation to fund Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies.

A former federal prosecutor in New York, Blanche came to public prominence for his lead role on Trump’s defense team, including during the Republican’s hush money trial in New York. That perch afforded him, he has said, a firsthand look at what he contends was the weaponization of the criminal justice system against Trump.

___

Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.

The House offered a rare rebuke to President Donald Trump on Wednesday, passing a Democratic-led measure to end his war with Iran over objections from Republican leadership.

It was one of two Democratic-led measures opposed by the White House that advanced in the GOP-led House. Lawmakers also passed a motion that would unlock a vote on sending aid to Ukraine.

The Iran war powers resolution, offered by Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the Foreign Affairs Committee, had been heading for a vote before the House left for its Memorial Day recess May 21. But it was abruptly pulled from the floor when it appeared too many Republicans were absent to defeat it.

On Wednesday, it passed 215-208, with four Republicans joining all Democrats in voting yes: Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Tom Barrett of Michigan and Warren Davidson of Ohio.

The resolution directs Trump to remove U.S. armed forces from hostilities with Iran, unless Congress votes to declare war or authorizes using military force against it. It would not force him to end the conflict, however; it is a symbolic expression of disapproval of the war with Iran.

Republicans had rejected three other attempts to pass a war powers resolution this year. The most recent vote ended in a 212-212 tie, and Democrats celebrated, saying that more Americans are turning against the war and that it was only a matter of time before they would be successful.

Wednesday’s vote gives momentum for the resolution in the Senate, which had already advanced its own war powers resolution on the floor last month but had not yet held a final vote. The Senate version has teeth, however, and it would require Trump to end the war without congressional approval. But it would need to pass the House, and then Trump could veto it.

A White House official responded to the House vote by noting that a handful of GOP lawmakers were absent for it and that previous efforts on similar resolutions were unsuccessful.

The House resolution was opposed by Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and most Republicans, who complained that it undermines Trump and his top negotiators when they are trying to secure a nuclear deal with Iran. Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., called Wednesday’s action “just a total BS vote.”

“I think there’s no Democrat, no Republican, that can tell you what forces they would want pulled from Iran. There’s really nothing they actually want pulled from there. They just want a stupid political vote, which is what this is,” Mast said Wednesday. That “weakens the president’s hands as he’s negotiating with Iran.”

In the same vote series Wednesday, the House voted 218-204 in favor of a motion to “discharge,” or bring forward, legislation that would provide aid to Ukraine. That vote took place after the so-called discharge petition reached 218 signatures — a simple majority of the chamber — on May 13, allowing supporters to bypass Johnson and GOP leadership and bring the measure directly to the floor.

Rep. Kevin Kiley of California, a Republican-turned-independent, joined all Democrats and two Republicans, Fitzpatrick and Don Bacon of Nebraska, in signing the Ukraine petition.

Kiley and six Republicans voted Wednesday to discharge the bill. That sets up a final vote Thursday.

“This vote is not a process vote,” said Meeks, who also led the discharge effort. “It’s a statement on whether this Congress and all of its members stand with and support Ukraine and the people of Ukraine and its fight for freedom, its fight for democracy and its fight for liberty.”

It’s been a long six weeks for Democrats in the redistricting wars.

By the end of April, the party had drawn enough Democratic-leaning seats to turn the back-and-forth over new congressional maps for the midterms that President Donald Trump had started a year earlier into roughly a wash.

Then the courts acted: The U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, opening the door to Republican-led states in the South to eliminating majority-Black districts held by Democrats. A week later, the Virginia Supreme Court blocked the state from implementing a new map favoring Democrats that voters had approved in a special election.

Now, with the general election five months away, the 2026 redistricting dust is beginning to settle. In total, 10 states have implemented new congressional boundaries over the past year, with Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee most recently taking action following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling.

Litigation is still ongoing in several states, but under the new maps, Republicans are in position to gain as many as 16 House seats this fall, compared to six for Democrats.

The redistricting battle, which typically occurs at the start of each decade after new census results, has reshaped the race for the narrowly divided House.

Here’s a rundown of all the states that have enacted new maps in the 2026 election cycle — and which ones could enter the fray heading into 2028.

Alabama: Up to 1 Republican seat

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday night cleared the way for Alabama to use its preferred congressional map for the midterms.

The state will now use a map originally drawn in 2023, which a federal court had previously barred it from implementing for discriminating against Black voters. The map is likely to reduce the number of Democratic-held House seats in the state from two to one.

Louisiana: Up to 1 Republican seat

After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Louisiana’s map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander as part of its major April redistricting ruling, Republican lawmakers moved to pass a new map eliminating one of the state’s two majority-Black districts.

The lone majority-Black district favoring Democrats in Louisiana, where a third of the population is Black, now snakes from New Orleans to Baton Rouge.

Tennessee: Up to 1 Republican seat

Tennessee’s Republican-led Legislature passed a new congressional map carving up the state’s lone majority-Black district in Memphis just days after the Supreme Court’s ruling, pairing the liberal urban areas with rural Republican parts of the state that stretch hundreds of miles away from the city.

Under the redrawn lines, Tennessee is likely to elect an all-Republican delegation to Congress this fall.

Florida: Up to 4 Republican seats

In April, GOP legislators approved a map preferred by Gov. Ron DeSantis that creates four additional Republican-leaning seats.

It’s led to a serious legal showdown, with Republicans hoping that the Supreme Court’s Voting Rights Act ruling will bolster their effort to nullify Florida’s anti-gerrymandering rules.

California: Up to 4-5 Democratic seats

Democrats’ most aggressive counterpunch to Republicans’ redistricting efforts came in California. Last November, voters approved a congressional map passed by the Democratic-led Legislature and championed by Gov. Gavin Newsom that could result in upward of five more seats for the party.

Utah: Up to 1 new Democratic seat

A Utah judge gave Democrats a surprise boost last year by ruling that a Republican-drawn map violated state anti-gerrymandering rules. In its place, the judge approved a new map with a solidly Democratic seat based in Salt Lake City.

Ohio: Up to 1-2 new Republican seats

Ohio’s redistricting commission was scheduled to redraw its congressional map last year after failing to reach bipartisan consensus on it earlier in the decade. While Democrats and Republicans fought tooth and nail over the maps in other states, members of the Ohio commission cut a deal.

The approved map gives the GOP a modest boost, turning two districts — currently held by Democratic Reps. Marcy Kaptur and Greg Landsman — more Republican while making a third more safely Democratic.

North Carolina: Up to 1 new Republican seat

Republican legislators in North Carolina passed a new map targeting the 1st District, represented by Democratic Rep. Don Davis. It made the seat more Republican-friendly by moving Democratic areas into a neighboring district.

Missouri: Up to 1 new Republican seat

Missouri Republicans put a new map in place that went after Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s district, splitting parts of Kansas City into two more rural and Republican-leaning districts.

Activists have submitted signatures to put a referendum on the ballot to block the map. But a state court ruled that the map could be used for this year’s election amid ballot measure campaign.

Texas: Up to 3-5 Republican seats

Texas kick-started this cycle’s redistricting fight last summer, drawing a map at Trump’s urging that could allow Republicans to pick up five seats.

But some Democrats argue that Trump’s electoral success in 2024 won’t necessarily transfer downballot, which could limit the gains Republicans are hoping to make in the state in 2026.

What’s coming next

While the map-drawing battles are coming to a close for 2026, they will pick back up again ahead of the next election.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has called for a special legislative session later this month to take up a new congressional map for the 2028 cycle. Mississippi Republicans are also expected to tackle redistricting.

On the Democratic side, New York lawmakers are expected to pass legislation this week that would pave the way for new district lines ahead of 2028. And Democrats in Colorado, Maryland, New Jersey and Washington state are considering their own efforts.

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President Donald Trump acknowledged criticizing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “crazy” in a phone call that involved expletives, saying he was “a little bit perturbed” that Israel’s fighting with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon was holding back peace talks with Iran.

But even as the U.S. president conceded the tensions in an interview released Wednesday, he insisted that his relationship with Netanyahu was solid and that they connected, in part, because they are both “wartime” leaders.

“We’ve worked very well together. I like Bibi a lot. And I work very well with him,” Trump told The New York Post’s “Pod Force One.”

In an interview on the American business-news channel CNBC, Netanyahu responded that he and Trump sometimes have “tactical disagreements” but have “common goals” and “agree on the main things.”

“He respects me. I respect him. We always find a way to work out our differences,” the prime minister said.

The president’s comments about the Monday call offered a sign of the growing pressure he faces to resolve the Iran war as higher energy prices and economic uncertainty threaten Republican prospects in the midterm elections and hamper global commerce.

Talks have dragged on for weeks and have been strained by Israel’s broadening war with the Iranian-backed militia group in Lebanon. The conflicts have become increasingly intertwined as Iran insists that any potential truce in the war there must also quell the fighting in Lebanon.

Israel, Lebanon renew ceasefire

Israel and Lebanon agreed Wednesday to renew their fragile ceasefire and create a number of “pilot” security zones inside Lebanon from which Hezbollah militants would be banned.

In a joint statement released after a fourth round of U.S.-mediated talks at the State Department, the two sides said the ceasefire “is contingent on a complete cessation of Hezbollah fire and the evacuation of all Hezbollah operatives” from areas south of the Litani River. It was not immediately clear how the security zones would be established but the agreement calls for the Lebanese army to take full control of those areas.

“These steps will enable progress towards a comprehensive peace and security agreement,” the statement said. “All countries reaffirmed that the future of the relationship between Israel and Lebanon must be decided by the two sovereign governments. They rejected any attempt, by any state or non-state actor, to hold Lebanon’s future hostage.”

Hezbollah is not part of the Israel-Lebanon talks, which have been held at the ambassadorial level in Washington since the beginning of last month.

“All parties condemned Iran’s attacks on countries in the region, and ongoing activities that undermine stability throughout the Middle East, whether through support for proxies and all other acts of aggression,” the statement said.

A new round of discussions will be held during the week of June 22 with an eye toward “reaching a comprehensive agreement.”

Trump does not commit to timeline for ending Iran war

Trump remained noncommittal about a timeline for settling the Iran conflict, saying the Strait of Hormuz might stay blocked through the Labor Day holiday on Sept. 7. He has insisted that Iran stop any efforts that could lead to a nuclear weapon and that the strait be reopened for shipments of oil and natural gas.

“I don’t know. I mean, I think it could be (closed through Labor Day), but I think it’s unlikely. I think that we’ll have it. I think this will resolve itself fairly quickly,” Trump said.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his late father, is “involved” in peace talks, Trump added.

“They have a lot of respect for him,” the president said in the interview.

Trump said that Khamenei is not doing well due to wounds sustained in an airstrike, but “they say he’s giving approval because that’s the way it has been for a long, long time.” Khamenei’s father was killed in an airstrike when the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran at the end of February.

Meanwhile in the Persian Gulf region, Kuwait briefly shut its main airport Wednesday after Iranian drones hit a passenger terminal building, killing one person and wounding dozens. It was the latest in the back-and-forth attacks by Tehran and Washington that have tested the ceasefire.

Path to a lasting ceasefire in Lebanon is obscured by new strikes

The path toward a lasting ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah remained unclear as hostilities continued in Lebanon.

An Israeli strike Wednesday hit a car on a busy highway just south of Beirut. The strike in Khaldeh came without warning, and it was not immediately clear if the person targeted was killed.

Israel and Lebanon on Monday reached a U.S.-brokered agreement in which Israel would not strike Beirut’s southern suburbs and Hezbollah would end its attacks on northern Israel.

The agreement was made hours after Israel announced that it was going to launch strikes across the sprawling urban neighborhoods near the Lebanese capital in what would have been the most intense strikes since a nominal ceasefire went into effect on April 17.

Lebanon hopes to widen the scope of the ceasefire so it becomes comprehensive across the country. Israel wants to disarm Hezbollah immediately before the Israeli military ends its operations in Lebanon and withdraws its troops from dozens of villages and towns.

Israeli military warning rattles coastal city

Israeli strikes over southern Lebanon continued, especially in and around the battered cities of Tyre and Nabatiyeh. Two overnight strikes near Tyre, a coastal city, killed four Syrians and two Palestinians.

Israel warned the Christian neighborhoods in Tyre that Hezbollah members were among them. Many Lebanese Shiite Muslims fled to those areas in recent days because they were spared from the aerial bombardment along the Mediterranean coast.

After the warning, the Lebanese army deployed to the Christian district of Tyre in an effort to prevent Israeli attacks there and to show that Hezbollah has no armed presence in the area.

Israel launched an invasion of southern Lebanon days after the latest war was sparked on March 2, when Iran-backed Hezbollah fired rockets toward northern Israel in solidarity with Iran. Israeli troops have pushed deeper into Lebanon over the past week, as Hezbollah continues to claim rocket and drone attacks.

The latest round of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah has killed 3,468 people in Lebanon and displaced 1.2 million people. According to Netanyahu’s office, at least 27 Israeli soldiers and a defense contractor have been killed in or near southern Lebanon. Two civilians have also been killed in northern Israel.

Strike on village kills most of a family

Many residents of southern Lebanon remained in villages near the hostilities or returned to areas where strikes occurred after evacuation warnings.

The Al-Abdallah family returned to their home in Marwanieyh, which they left because they thought the village was unsafe following earlier strikes. A day later, two rockets hit the home, bringing down the three-story building and killing six family members, said the brother of Hassan Al-Abdallah, who was killed.

Ahmed Al-Abdallah, 13, was thrown away from the building by the force of the blasts and was the only member of his family to survive. His uncle, Eissa Al-Abdallah, said the boy has two broken legs and shrapnel wounds all over his body.

“What good is talking now? They are gone, and nothing will bring them back,” the uncle told The Associated Press in a phone call Tuesday. “This land costs blood.”

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Boak and Lee reported from Washington.

The contours of a premier U.S. Senate race took shape Tuesday night in Iowa, while President Donald Trump’s endorsement streak ran into a roadblock there.

Democrats chose a nominee for a U.S. House race in New Jersey that could decide control of the chamber. But much of the focus is on California, home to Hollywood but not a governor’s race packing much star power.

Here are takeaways from primary elections in California, Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota.

Iowa Democrats rally behind former Paralympian in marquee Senate race

Democrats stunned by how Trump has remade American politics have spent the past decade debating which type of candidate is best positioned to energize voters and win elections, not moral victories.

Iowa marked the latest stop in this sometimes agonizing conversation.

The party’s establishment supported Josh Turek, a state representative who presented a compelling personal biography that included competing for the U.S. in four Paralympics. State Sen. Zach Wahls, meanwhile, offered himself as a more disruptive player, refusing to back Chuck Schumer as Democratic leader if he were elected.

Democratic voters united behind Turek, who will face Republican Ashley Hinson in the fall.

At this point, many of the party’s most fractious races are behind them. But Turek’s win could be closely watched in Michigan, where one of the last major Democratic primaries will unfold on Aug. 4. Rep. Haley Stevens is emerging as the establishment candidate there vying against state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and progressive Abdul El-Sayed.

Both races are important for Democrats increasingly bullish about retaking the Senate majority in November. To get there, they must protect their Michigan seat while looking for pickup opportunities in places like Iowa.

The results in the fall could have longer-term implications as Democrats look to rebuild their standing in the Midwest, which swung to Trump in 2024.

Trump’s endorsement streak faces setback in Iowa

In just the past month, the power of Trump’s endorsement helped end the political careers of two senators — John Cornyn of Texas and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana — and Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky.

But the president was unable to lift Rep. Randy Feenstra to victory in Iowa’s Republican primary for governor. Trump jumped in with his backing last week but Feenstra narrowly lost to Zach Lahn.

The development is a rare setback for Trump, who basks in his ability to sway the vote among Republicans with his endorsement. And it sets up what Democrats see as one of their best opportunities to pick up a governorship this year.

Democrats nominated Rob Sand, who ran unopposed in the primary. A native of Decorah, Iowa, he has the rural roots that have become rare among Democrats. Perhaps most importantly, he’s a proven winner in a Republican-leaning state, having been elected twice as auditor.

Lahn was not well known in Iowa politics when he launched his campaign in November, but he built support among conservatives. He championed policies including a total ban on abortion and keeping liberal ideology out of public school classrooms.

Lahn criticized Feenstra for not showing up to debate his primary opponents and spending limited time on the campaign trail. He was endorsed by former U.S. Rep. Steve King, who Feenstra unseated in the 2020 Republican congressional primary.

Independents emerge in red-state Senate races

If Democrats hope to compete in red-state Senate contests this fall, they may have to abandon their party’s nominees and rally around independents.

That’s one of the takeaways after voters on Tuesday finalized general election matchups in Montana and South Dakota, where little-known Democrats earned their party’s nominations. In both states, however, higher-profile independent candidates also qualified for the general election ballot.

It’s much the same in Idaho and Nebraska, which held Senate primaries last month. Democratic leaders in Nebraska are openly endorsing independent Dan Osborne over their party’s nominee, who has promised to drop out to make it easier for Osborne to win.

In Montana, independent Senate candidate Seth Bodnar, the former University of Montana president, looks like the strongest opponent to Republican Kurt Alme — on paper, at least. Bodnar raised more money than all of the five Democratic primary candidates combined. He’s even significantly outraised Trump-backed Alme.

In South Dakota, three-term incumbent Republican Mike Rounds cruised to his party’s nomination Tuesday. He’ll face Democrat Julian Beaudion, a former highway patrol trooper and small business owner, on the November ballot. But it’s a former Democrat now running as an independent, military veteran Brian Bengs, who some Democrats believe may be the tougher challenger.

The Democrats shift toward independents reflects the party’s toxic brand in Republican strongholds.

Absent congressman gets a Democratic challenger

One of the most closely watched U.S. House races is set.

Democrats nominated Rebecca Bennett to take on incumbent Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr. in New Jersey’s 7th congressional district.

The district, which stretches from the New York City suburbs to the Pennsylvania border, is critical for Republicans as they defend a narrow majority in Congress. The race was always going to be one of the most competitive on a map that has been increasingly gerrymandered to protect both parties. But it’s under particularly close scrutiny because of Kean’s extended and unexplained medical absence.

He’s missed more than 100 votes since casting his last one on March 5.

Bennett, a former Navy pilot, was among the Democrats in the primary who made the absence and the lack of clarity surrounding it an issue, arguing Kean wasn’t around to protect money for a new rail tunnel connecting New Jersey and New York City. That line of attack will likely only grow heading into the general election.

Trump reiterated his endorsement of Kean on Monday. And the congressman released a statement Tuesday saying he is “focused on my recovery” and would return to “in person work within a matter of weeks.”

New Mexico could make history in governor’s race

The stage is set for Deb Haaland to make history this fall after the former U.S. interior secretary secured the Democratic nomination for governor in New Mexico.

Haaland, who served under Biden for four years, was the first Native American to serve as a presidential cabinet secretary. And this fall, the citizen of Laguna Pueblo could become the first Native American woman elected governor of any U.S. state.

She defeated Albuquerque-based District Attorney Sam Bregman, the father of Chicago Cubs All-Star Alex Bregman, in a Democratic primary campaign that emphasized her ancestral roots in addition to lowering costs and her governing experience.

Haaland will face Republican Greggory Hull in the general election.

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Associated Press writer Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa contributed to this report.

The ballots are set in two Republican-held battleground House races in Iowa, part of a slate of primaries Tuesday shaping the battle for control of Congress in the fall.

As far as the primaries were concerned, there wasn’t much suspense in the two districts expected to be most competitive in the fall.

Democratic former state Rep. Christina Bohannan will face off against GOP Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks for the third consecutive election in the southeastern part of the state, NBC News projects, following up on a 2024 election decided by just a few hundred votes. Meanwhile, Democratic state Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott and GOP Rep. Zach Nunn were unopposed in their primaries ahead of a major clash for the 3rd District, anchored in Des Moines.

A third Iowa House race could be competitive this fall: the 2nd District left open by Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson’s bid for the Senate. Former state Rep. Joe Mitchell, who is backed by President Donald Trump, is projected to win the Republican nod there, while the Democratic nominee will be state Rep. Lindsay James.

The House battleground will continue to come into focus as results in other states are tallied Tuesday night. Already, Democrats in New Jersey selected Rebecca Bennett, a healthcare executive and former Navy helicopter pilot, as their nominee to take on GOP Rep. Tom Kean Jr. in the battleground 7th District.

Meanwhile, primary results in safer seats will also continue to transform Congress, from contests between different factions in the Republican and Democratic parties to incumbents battling for their political survival.

California’s key role shaping the House

California is home to four major battleground House races after state Democrats redrew the congressional lines as part of the national redistricting battle, and a handful of other districts could be competitive in the fall, too. In California, every candidate runs on the same ballot, regardless of party, and the top two vote-getters move on to the general election.

California’s 22nd District: The Fresno-area district, a perennial battleground, is home to Rep. David Valadao, who, if he is re-elected, would be the only Republican House member left who voted to impeach Trump in 2021. Valadao isn’t facing any Republican challengers in the primary, unlike in previous elections, so the battle for the second spot in the general election is between two Democrats with very different ideas of how to win a swing seat: establishment-backed state Assemblymember Jasmeet Baines and progressive local school board member Randy Villegas.

California’s 48th District: Another hotly contested battleground primary is in the San Diego area, which features a similar dynamic of two Democrats fighting for a shot to make the ballot in the fall against a Republican.

Redistricting moved this district from a safe Republican seat to a light-blue one, leading GOP Rep. Darrell Issa to retire instead of running again. Jim Desmond, a member of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, is backed by Trump, while the top Democrats are San Diego City Council member Marni von Wilpert and Ammar Campa-Najjar, who is making his third bid for Congress.

California’s 13th District: Democratic Rep. Adam Gray is a top Republican target in a race in which the top Republican appears to be former Stockton Mayor Kevin Lincoln, who lost a close race to Democratic Rep. Josh Harder in 2024 and is backed by Trump.

California’s 6th District: This stretch of suburban Sacramento changed significantly in redistricting. Newly independent Rep. Kevin Kiley, who recently announced he would leave the Republican Party, is running against a crowded field of Democrats looking to move on to the general.

California’s 1st District: Another formerly red seat turned blue by redistricting, this district has two former state legislative leaders — Democrat Mike McGuire and Republican James Gallagher — as the favorites to move on to the general election.

California 1st District special election: After the death of Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa, there is also a special election for this seat, which will be held under the current lines, which are much more favorable to Republicans.

Gallagher is the front-runner, and both he and McGuire are on the crowded ballot of candidates looking to serve out the rest of LaMalfa’s term.

California’s 21st District: Democratic Rep. Jim Costa is likely to face off this fall against either Lorenzo Rios, a military veteran and veterans activist, or Kyle Kirkland, the president of the California Gaming Association, in this Fresno-area seat, which leans toward Democrats.

California’s 45th District: Freshman Democratic Rep. Derek Tran is likely to face whoever emerges as the top choice of a crowded field of Republicans in another blue-leaning seat.

Other battleground races come into focus

New Jersey’s 9th District: Democratic Rep. Nellie Pou is running for re-election in a district Trump won by 1 point, but the wind will most likely be at her back when she faces off against her Republican opponent — either Clifton City Council member Rosie Pino or Tiffany Burress, an attorney married to longtime NFL player Plaxico Burress.

Montana’s 1st District: This seat is on the fringe of the battleground after Trump carried it by 11 points in 2024. But the district will be open this fall because Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke is retiring.

Both parties’ primaries are crowded. On the GOP side, Trump is backing Aaron Flint, a combat veteran and radio host, over Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen and former state Sen. Albert Olszewski. The Democratic side includes 2024 gubernatorial nominee Ryan Busse; Sam Forstag, a firefighter backed by prominent progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.; and education advocate Russ Cleveland.

New Mexico’s 2nd District: Trump won this district by less than 2 points in 2024. Democratic Rep. Gabe Vasquez is almost certainly going to be running this fall against Greg Cunningham, a former police officer backed by Trump, after the other Republican on the ballot dropped out and endorsed him.

Incumbents face threats to political careers

A bevy of incumbents in California face tough re-election bids, with Democratic challengers calling for leaders to pass the torch and two Republican lawmakers thrust into a brutal battle thanks to redistricting.

California’s 40th District: This member-on-member primary in the Riverside and Orange County area between Reps. Young Kim and Ken Calvert, prompted by redistricting, is one of the nastiest primaries in the country. The big question Tuesday will be whether both advance to the fall — or whether a Democrat, like Esther Kim Varet, will win one of those spots.

California’s 4th District: Democratic Rep. Mike Thompson, 75, faces a challenge in this Napa-area district from Democrat Eric Jones, a mid-30s venture capitalist who lent his campaign $5 million and has been making the generational argument against Thompson.

California’s 7th District: Sacramento-area Democratic Rep. Doris Matsui, 81, faces another generational challenge from Sacramento City Council member Mai Vang, who is in her early 40s. While Matsui has the backing of powerful California Democrats like Gov. Gavin Newsom, Vang is backed by prominent progressive groups, as well as The Sacramento Bee’s editorial board. Matsui’s campaign had been asking outside groups to spend to lift up a Republican candidate in hope of squeezing Vang out of the general election.

California’s 32nd District: Rep. Brad Sherman, 71, faces a crowded field of fellow Democrats calling for a new direction, the most notable being Jake Levine, who worked in the Obama and Biden White Houses on climate policy.

California’s 34th District: Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez, 51, faces a challenge from a Justice Democrats-backed candidate, community activist Angela Gonzales-Torres, who has criticized Gomez over his views on Israel policy. But Gomez has outraised her 5-to-1, and there has been no real ad spending aimed at boosting Gonzales-Torres in this Los Angeles district.

California’s 41st District: Democratic Rep. Linda Sánchez faces a notable challenger in former state Assemblyman Hector De La Torre.

Other key House races on the ballot

New Jersey’s 12th District: Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman’s retirement turned this deep-blue seat into the next battleground for progressive groups looking to elect one of their own. Adam Hamawy, a surgeon whom Sen. Tammy Duckworth credits with saving her life in Iraq and was later stranded in Gaza during Israel’s war with Hamas, is projected to win the nomination, a big win for the progressive wing of the party. American Priorities, a group formed to counter spending by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Democratic primaries, has spent heavily in support of Hamawy in a race in which Israel policy has loomed large.

California’s 11th District: Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to retire sparked a competitive, three-way Democratic battle to replace her. Pelosi is backing San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan, while the other prominent Democrats include state Sen. Scott Weiner, who has the state party endorsement, and Saikat Chakrabarti, a former aide to Ocasio-Cortez who has the backing of a handful of progressive Democrats and groups.

California’s 38th District: Former Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is running in this district east of Los Angeles, which is open thanks to redistricting, as she looks to return to Congress — where she served before she joined the Obama administration. But Monica Sánchez, City Council member in Pico Rivera, is backed by Rep. Linda Sánchez (no relation).

South Dakota’s At-Large District: The state’s lone congressional seat is open because Rep. Dusty Johnson is running for governor. Trump-backed Marty Jackley, the state’s attorney general, won the GOP primary.

New York Democrats are wading into the national redistricting wars — just don’t expect a victory before this year’s midterm elections.

Democrats in the state Legislature are taking the first steps toward a plan to give themselves more control over redistricting, introducing a proposal Monday that could open the door to a new set of aggressively gerrymandered congressional lines for the 2028 elections.

The measure came as Democrats in New York vowed to counter Republican redistricting efforts elsewhere but were barred from redrawing the state’s map without a constitutional amendment, which requires two legislative approvals over two years before it can go to voters as a ballot referendum.

Democrats are instead moving forward with a proposal to change the state constitution’s redistricting rules, potentially allowing themselves to more easily draw new districts while also removing a ban on lines that favor political parties.

Though it wouldn’t help Democrats pick up any seats in this year’s midterms, the amendment could prove potent in the years to come after the U.S. Supreme Court gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act, kicking off a new, untamed front in the nation’s redistricting battles.

Elsewhere, Maryland’s Democratic-led statehouse could consider a constitutional amendment this summer, paving the way for congressional redistricting ahead of the 2028 elections. In Georgia, Republican lawmakers are expected to revise congressional and state legislative districts in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Mississippi’s Republican governor also has said he expects lawmakers to redraw districts for the U.S. House, state legislature and state Supreme Court by 2027.

The redistricting flurry began after President Donald Trump urged Republicans to use whatever tools at their disposal to craft lines that could help the GOP hold on to its narrow House majority in November’s midterm elections. Democrats moved to counter with their own efforts in different states, but were at times hamstrung by rules meant to prevent partisan gerrymandering.

In New York, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul said her state’s proposal “will give New Yorkers the power to fight back against attempts by Donald Trump and his allies to rig our elections.”

“As Republicans across the country redraw maps to shield themselves from accountability, it’s more important than ever that New Yorkers have a voice in the process,” she said.

The proposed amendment leaves the state’s bipartisan independent redistricting commission in place but places tighter deadlines on its redistricting plans. It also allows maps to be passed by a simple majority in the legislature.

The proposal is expected to pass this week, but it will need another legislative approval next year before it can go to voters in 2027. If passed by voters, Democrats could begin tweaking districts for the 2028 elections.

Republicans in New York have accused Democrats of moving to corrupt the state’s redistricting process.

“New York Democrats, who proclaim to want to protect democracy, they only protect it when it’s convenient, when it suits their purpose, when it helps them gain power,” said U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican who represents a purple district in New York’s Hudson Valley.

“They don’t care one iota about our elections, they don’t care one iota about the integrity of our elections when it doesn’t serve their purpose,” he said.

The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year rejected an effort from Democrats to throw out the lines of the only congressional seat in New York City controlled by a Republican.

Democrats in the state Legislature redrew the congressional map in 2024 to give their party a modest boost in a few battleground districts, helping the party pick up a handful of seats. Democrats currently control a majority of the state’s congressional districts.

President Donald Trump tried to create a near $1.8 billion fund that could be funneled to his supporters as a means of settling a lawsuit he filed against his own government — even arguing that he “gave up a lot of money in allowing” it.

After drawing outcry in Congress and the courts, however, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers on Tuesday that the administration was scrapping plans to create the fund. That potentially means the suit — and the possibility that the president could still cash in — might be back on.

Trump hasn’t been shy about turning the presidency into a major source of personal benefit, involving everything from merchandising deals to crypto ventures to high-dollar political and official events at his properties.

Asked about possible self-dealing, the White House called such suggestions “the same, tired narrative that Democrats have pushed against President Trump, his family, and his administration for a decade.”

“President Trump only acts in the best interests of the American public — which is why they overwhelmingly re-elected him to this office, despite years of lies and false accusations against him and his businesses from the fake news media,” spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement. “There are no conflicts of interest.”

Here are some key ways Trump has reaped rewards for himself, his children and allies in his second term:

Suing his government and deals favoring his family

Last year, the president submitted a claim seeking $230 million in compensation from the Justice Department for a FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida as part of an investigation into whether he took classified records from the White House.

In January this year, Trump, his two eldest sons and the family’s business, the Trump Organization, filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS and Treasury Department after a former IRS contractor illegally leaked Trump’s tax returns.

In an attempt to resolve those cases, Trump’s government agreed that $1.776 billion in taxpayer funds be distributed to people who believe they were targeted by past administrations for politically motivated prosecution — including the Trump supporters imprisoned for attacking police while overrunning the U.S. Capitol in 2021.

After blowback from even some congressional Republicans, the Justice Department now said it would comply with a ruling temporarily blocking the fund. Blanche was clearer on Tuesday, telling a House committee that, “We’re not moving forward with the fund.”

But there was less clamor about another part of the deal allowing the government to drop pending IRS audits into Trump and his relatives. Blanche said the Justice Department was not abandoning that part of the agreement.

Separately, the Air Force has agreed to purchase interceptor drones from Powerus, a Florida-based company linked to Trump’s family. And ProPublica reported that direct intervention from the White House preceded the Pentagon agreeing to loan $620 million to Vulcan Elements, a North Carolina startup linked to Donald Trump Jr.

Trump Organization spokesperson Kimberly Benza denied any ethical conflicts between the White House and the family business.

“The Trump Organization operates completely separate from the presidency and is in full compliance with all ethics and conflict-of-interest laws,” Benza said in a statement.

As for Powerus, Benza said Eric Trump was “a passive investor in a vehicle that, among many others, holds an interest” in the company, but wasn’t involved in its decision-making or management.

Trading in financial markets he can help move

Trump has traded stocks and bonds in unprecedented ways for a sitting U.S. president.

Office of Government Ethics filings show Trump made more than 3,600 stock trades in the first quarter of 2026 alone — transactions far exceeding $100 million in value.

Many of those trades involved sizable purchases of shares of technology and artificial intelligence giants like Nvidia, Dell, Oracle and Palantir before Trump’s administration took policy actions favoring those firms.

Similar disclosures last year show that Trump bought up more than $300 million in bonds issued by companies, states and municipalities even as he repeatedly pressed the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates — a move that could help drive up the value of his holdings.

Crypto ventures

Trump’s family has raked in big profits in the crypto sector since he was reelected. A key driver has been the $TRUMP meme coin, announced the day before Trump took office. Some 220 of the top investors were invited to a subsequent, private reception with the president.

Trump’s family also has a controlling stake in World Liberty Financial, a crypto firm co-founded with the president’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and run by his son Zach. It has its own stablecoin, USD1, and got a major boost when, just before Trump took office, an investment fund linked to the United Arab Emirates bought a large stake in it.

An Abu Dhabi state-backed investment firm, MGX, subsequently pledged to use $2 billion worth of USD1 to purchase a stake in Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange — a move that further bolstered World Liberty Financial.

Trump-branded bonanza

Beyond the digital realm, scores of companies pay to license the president’s name for physical products, from Bibles, guitars and sneakers to watches, fragrances and a gold-hued cellphone.

Trump has promoted many such goods on social media, particularly during his 2024 campaign, but they’ve also made conspicuous appearances at the White House.

When French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited last summer, Trump showed them a merchandise room off the Oval Office stocked with goods for sale on his website. A few months later, video emerged of Trump at the White House spraying Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa with bottles of his “Victory 47” cologne and perfume, which he gave him as a gift.

The president displayed hats emblazoned with “Trump 2028” on the Resolute Desk while meeting with congressional Democrats last year. And, during a televised Cabinet meeting in May, at every seat was a red hat commemorating America’s 250th anniversary.

Each hat sells for $55 on Trump’s website.

Paydays for the president’s properties

The Republican National Committee and various political groups associated with Trump and the GOP have held fundraisers and political events at Mar-a-Lago, as well as Trump’s estate in Bedminster, New Jersey, and his golf clubs in Doral, Florida, and Sterling, Virginia.

The LIV Golf league, controlled by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which is helmed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has held events at Doral. Trump will host the G20 summit there in November.

That means world leaders, support staff, business executives, journalists and the bevies of others involved will be paying the Trump Organization, which purchased Doral in 2012, to attend. The president has already tried to head off criticism of self-dealing around the summit, saying that government attendees will be billed “at-cost” and “We will not make any money on it.”

Renovation and construction projects

Qatar gave Trump a $400 million jet that he intends to employ as Air Force One, then store at his presidential library after he leaves office. The gift has undergone extensive taxpayer-funded rebuilding and security upgrades that lawmakers estimate may exceed $1 billion.

Trump has also ordered up scores of renovation projects meant to leave his mark on Washington while passing on the costs to taxpayers.

He long insisted that wealthy donors would pay for the $400 million ballroom he demolished the White House’s East Wing to build — only to seek $1 billion in federal funding for security upgrades he says the military and Secret Service have sought as part of the project.

At least $15 million in public funds is going for a ceremonial arch. The National Park Service is also paying a contractor $13.1 million to carry out the Trump-directed renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

An Albanian man’s pain grew so unbearable, he said, he pulled out his own tooth as he languished for months in a New Mexico immigration detention center. A Honduran mother of two said she was hospitalized for a heart problem after she was denied blood pressure medications while held in Florida. A Venezuelan man said his leg grew purple and swollen from flesh-eating bacteria when staffers at a Vermont facility did not bring him to a scheduled doctor’s appointment.

Hundreds of detainees across at least 33 states allege in federal lawsuits that immigration detention facilities are failing to provide adequate medical care, an investigation by KFF Health News and The Associated Press found. Detainees say they didn’t get medications on time — or at all — for conditions including high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, epilepsy, Parkinson’s and HIV. Requests for help went unanswered for weeks. Blood sugars rose. Infections festered. Cancers remained untreated. Detainees collapsed and had seizures.

U.S. jails and immigration detention centers have long struggled to meet the medical needs of the people in their charge. But the system is sagging under an influx of detentions since President Donald Trump returned to office: More than 75,000 immigrants were being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as of mid-January, up from around 40,000 a year earlier.

KFF Health News and AP analyzed thousands of court cases filed since Trump’s second inauguration that use a legal route known as habeas corpus to argue people are being held illegally by ICE. The records offer a rare window into how those detained say — often under penalty of perjury — ICE is handling their medical needs. Reporters also interviewed more than 50 detainees, family members and lawyers.

The investigation revealed that medical neglect is alleged across the sprawling detention system, including in offices not designed to house people, county jails and quickly staged sites with nicknames such as “Alligator Alcatraz.”

ICE custody is deadlier than it has been in two decades, researchers wrote in JAMA in April. The Department of Homeland Security reported 51 people had died in detention since the start of Trump’s second administration, with suicides spiking to an unprecedented number.

KFF Health News and AP asked DHS to respond to the findings six days before publication but it did not provide comment. The department’s acting chief medical officer, Sean Conley, previously said “it is both policy and longstanding practice for aliens to receive timely and appropriate medical care from the moment they enter ICE custody” and that DHS recruits healthcare professionals to maintain high standards. “This is better, more responsive healthcare than many aliens have ever received in their entire lives,” he said.

Individual facilities and private prison companies contracting with DHS that responded to requests for comment said they follow ICE standards and that detainees receive medical care when it is required. Some said they were unfamiliar with the allegations outlined in court documents; others blamed the detainees themselves for lapses in their medical care.

“I have never seen such disregard or medical neglect like this anywhere,” Vardan Gukasian, a political dissident and former paramedic who spent years behind bars in Armenia, wrote in a court declaration in March to contest his detention in Henderson, Nevada, as it stretched to 13 months despite his health problems.

Madeleine Skains, a spokesperson for the city of Henderson, said medical care is always available at the facility and that the court had not ordered changes to his care.

Last June, as Gukasian experienced the symptoms of uncontrolled high blood pressure — dizziness, a nosebleed and a headache — his cellmate banged on their door for help.

“When it did not arrive, the rest of the block banged on their doors,” he wrote. Gukasian was hospitalized that day.

‘Brazen indifference to really obvious problems’

The administration’s mass deportation effort has swept up hundreds of thousands of people during routine immigration check-ins, at traffic stops, at their homes and in hospitals.

About 70% of detainees have no criminal conviction. Their immigration proceedings are civil, not criminal.

“I couldn’t understand why they treated me so harshly,” said a father of six in Georgia. He said he was injured while shackled in custody when the vehicle transporting him to an Atlanta facility jolted, throwing him out of his seat and into a metal armrest. His wound became infected with E. coli, he said, because he had to sleep on a dirty concrete floor amid leaking toilets.

Like other detainees interviewed, he spoke on the condition of anonymity; they said they fear for their safety, for the safety of their families or that speaking out would jeopardize their immigration cases. The AP and KFF Health News are not naming anyone identified in court documents without their consent.

Staffers at Stewart Detention Center in rural Lumpkin, Georgia, didn’t adequately respond to that man’s request for medical help, court records say, until he passed out and was taken to a hospital about an hour away. There, he said, a doctor told him he’d narrowly escaped amputation of his left leg. Medical staff found no records of a case matching this description, according to Brian Todd, a spokesperson for CoreCivic, a private prison company, which runs the facility.

The 48-year-old, who moved to the U.S. from Guatemala more than two decades ago, was released in October and is now a legal permanent resident. But he is unsure if he’ll be able to return to his job in construction because he said he can no longer lift heavy things due to his injury.

Some detainees or their lawyers said even basic care was denied: gauze to protect an open foot wound, prenatal care for a high-risk pregnancy, a pillow to ease the pain of sleeping with advanced stomach cancer, sanitary pads for postpartum bleeding.

“I would like to believe the government has the best interest of those it holds in detention for whatever period of time,” Judge Benita Pearson, a federal judge in Ohio, said during a hearing in October concerning a 70-year-old who alleged the government lost her glasses during her arrest. “If one is unable to see due to the loss of glasses when detained, that should be fixed.”

Dora Schriro, who worked for ICE and now serves as a special adviser to the American Bar Association, said case law requires the government to treat people in immigration detention with the same care it affords those in traditional jails awaiting trial. But administrators are granted discretion and medical care standards vary.

Detainees are frequently moved across the country, often without warning, interrupting treatment. A woman from El Salvador said she missed a week of HIV medication when she was transferred from Colorado to a county jail in Wyoming.

A Russian man wrote that he saw a gastroenterologist about his painful gallstones while detained in Texas and scheduled an appointment with a surgeon. “Unfortunately, I never got to see him, due to my being moved around various detention centers.”

Advocates say even obvious disabilities, like legal blindness, are ignored.

A detainee who lost one eye and had severe glaucoma in the other required twice-daily drops to maintain what vision remained. But, he said, some days the drops never came.

“Now, I can only see a little bit straight in front. It now often looks like I’m seeing through gauze,” the man wrote in a court declaration. “This makes me very afraid that one of these times I am going to open my eyes and not be able to see anything at all.”

He wrote that he was scared he wouldn’t be able to see his infant son grow up.

“It’s just sort of brazen indifference to really obvious problems, things you would have thought absurd a decade ago — like the fact that you can’t see,” the man’s attorney, Brian Hoffman, said. “Before, you could attempt to work with folks on the government side and maybe shame them into doing the right thing. Now, it’s sort of like anything you want done you have to go to court and sue over.”

Even court orders aren’t always enough. One California judge ordered the government to take a man showing signs of prostate cancer to a specialist for diagnosis and treatment. Records show they did not take him.

Lawyers representing ICE told the judge that officials missed the appointment because of an “internal scheduling error.” CoreCivic, which runs that facility, said it was unable to comment on active litigation.

A surge in cases

When immigrants file habeas corpus petitions, they exercise a right to challenge unlawful imprisonment that dates back to medieval times.

More than 40,000 such petitions have been filed during Trump’s second term, fueled by decisions last year to deny bond to many people held on immigration charges. Judges are split on whether that’s legal; the question appears headed to the Supreme Court.

Many habeas claims have been successful, but judges typically cite reasons unrelated to the medical neglect described in the petitions, such as being held too long before being deported.

The more than 300 medical neglect claims found in this investigation represent a fraction of the problem. The details of habeas corpus cases are often hidden due to a federal rule barring the public from viewing such documents online. KFF Health News and AP obtained some documents directly and received records on 4,400 cases from Habeas Dockets, a project of the nonprofit Immigration Justice Transparency Initiative. But tens of thousands more remain largely inaccessible.

Some judges have written that the habeas process is not how to raise allegations of medical neglect and have declined to release detainees over those claims. Not every detainee who believes they experienced medical neglect files a habeas petition or cites their medical issues if they do.

Jose-Antonio Segismundo’s petition made no mention of being unable to see an oncologist for the cancer in his abdomen while detained for more than seven months at the Florida detention facility known as Alligator Alcatraz and Folkston D Ray ICE Processing Center in Georgia. Medical records in his court filings show he was arrested about five weeks before his scheduled appointment with a cancer specialist.

His wife, Maria Jose Gonzalez, said he didn’t receive any treatment even though she sent his medical records and explained his condition to officials at Folkston. When his stomach pain erupted, often suddenly and intensely, she said, they gave him Tylenol.

Geo Group, which runs Folkston, follows ICE standards and provides healthcare and access to off-site medical specialists when needed, spokesperson Christopher Ferreira said.

This spring, Segismundo, 48, was deported to Mexico, a country he left nearly 30 years ago, Gonzalez said. Now, she said, he will have to restart his search for care in the Oaxacan village where he grew up.

Watching loved ones deteriorate

Detainees receiving inadequate healthcare have little recourse. DHS last year gutted the Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman. In early May, it shut the office entirely, citing a lack of funding from Congress.

Previously, ombudsman staffers could facilitate medical care or investigate complaints of neglect, according to Matt Boles, an immigration attorney in Georgia. Now, he said, there’s no one to call.

Meanwhile, detainees’ families said they feel helpless, making desperate calls to facilities, the government and their legislators while watching their loved ones deteriorate.

Riya Khan saw her mother get sicker at the California City Detention Facility, which is owned by CoreCivic. When she visited a week after her mother arrived at the facility in the Mojave Desert, Riya said, the 64-year-old woman stumbled into her seat. She was shaking and her breathing was labored.

Masuma Khan came to the U.S. from Bangladesh in 1997. She has no criminal history, her records say, and was detained in October when she showed up for her regular ICE check-in.

For the month she was detained, according to her daughter, she only intermittently received her medications for conditions including high blood pressure, hypothyroidism and prediabetes.

CoreCivic treats chronic conditions in line with applicable medical standards, Todd said.

“Nothing matters more to CoreCivic than the health, safety and well-being of the people in our care,” Todd said.

Khan said she got her asthma medication for the first time two days before she was released and her eye drops for glaucoma never arrived. Staffers told Khan she needed to buy some of her medications from the commissary but it didn’t stock them, her daughter said.

Before ICE detained Masuma Khan, she made friends with everyone, her daughter said. She had worked for years at Lucky Boy, an iconic Pasadena fast-food restaurant, and in her free time fed birds and left out fruit for bees that visited her apartment’s balcony.

Now she’s too scared to go outside. She still must regularly check in with ICE, and she’s terrified each time.

A stroke on a video call

Previously, detainees with serious medical needs would likely have been released on humanitarian parole, in part to avoid the cost of their care, Vermont attorney Andrew Pelcher said.

In fiscal year 2023 — before the detained population soared — ICE spent more than $390 million on healthcare for detained noncitizens, according to its most recent annual report to Congress. At a conference in May, then acting director Todd Lyons said ICE has spent “almost half a billion dollars” on detainee healthcare this year.

Now, under “mandatory detention,” attorneys say people are staying locked up with serious — and expensive — conditions.

A Romanian citizen underwent several heart surgeries, including an emergency triple bypass in April 2025, before he was arrested in July. As part of his recovery, the 52-year-old was required to take 16 daily medications. While at an ICE field office in Baltimore, his court filings allege, he went two days without any medication before officials moved him to a facility in New Jersey.

He was hospitalized three times while detained, complaining of chest pains — in part, medical records and court documents say because, despite “countless requests,” the detention center did not provide all his medications. Hospital discharge papers cited by his lawyer show he received only eight of the 16 medications after his second release from the hospital.

“Can you please talk to the ICE facility to make sure they give him his medications?” his treatment providers wrote in medical records included in his court filings. “He was admitted last week for chest pain and today he was readmitted again for chest pain secondary to non compliance for medications.”

Several weeks later in August, he had a stroke while on a video call with his daughter, according to court filings. “He was struggling to breathe, and was pointing at his chest where he was again experiencing pain, and suddenly stopped speaking.” His daughter screamed for help through the video monitor, according to his petition. “Eventually an officer came in to assist him and cut the feed.”

The man lost his ability to speak for four days, the document says. He was returned to detention, where he remained until a federal judge ordered his release in November.

Families of ICE detainees are left with impossible choices

Cassandra Amador waits for the phone to ring every morning, desperate to ask her husband the question that’s woken her up every night for months: “Did you get your medicine?”

Her husband, Pedro Javier Amador Gutierrez, 36, has high blood pressure and depends on the state-run facility in Florida nicknamed “Deportation Depot” to administer the prescriptions that have kept him alive for years. Many mornings, he tells his wife he did not get them.

When she talks to him, she said, he sounds weaker and more scared every day, not like the upbeat man who would take her kids out for ice cream.

“You can hear in his voice how he feels,” she said.

Now, she said, he’s considering returning to Cuba, which he fled because of political persecution, out of fear that he will die in detention without his medicines. Amador and her children would go with him, she said, even though she was born in New Jersey, has never been to Cuba and doesn’t speak much Spanish.

He has already collapsed twice at the Baker Correctional Institution in Sanderson, Florida, his wife said. She’s terrified that the next time, he won’t get up.

___

This report is a collaboration between The Associated Press and KFF Health News. Associated Press journalists Garance Burke, Valerie Gonzalez and Tim Sullivan as well as KFF Health News correspondent Kate Wells contributed.

The White House Correspondents’ Association announced Tuesday it will host another dinner next month to make up for the gala that was cut short when a suspect stormed the event and fired a gun in an alleged attempt to kill President Donald Trump.

Weijia Jiang, president of the association and senior White House correspondent for CBS, said in a letter to the press the dinner would be held in Washington, D.C., on Friday, July 24, with “significantly enhanced safety measures and new access procedures.”

“We will not allow an act of violence to have the last word, especially during a year when we are reflecting on the 250th anniversary of America and everything we stand for,” Jiang said in part.

Trump said in a post on Truth Social he would attend the rescheduled dinner and he accepted an invitation from Jiang to speak.

“I don’t know whether or not I will give the same rather nasty statements, at least as it concerns certain people, but we will soon find out. In any event, it will be a ‘HOT’ ticket!” Trump said.

The president said in his post the dinner would take place at the Waldorf Astoria hotel.

A Secret Service officer was shot once in a bullet-resistant vest during the April 25 attack at the Washington Hilton hotel, which disrupted and ultimately prompted an early end to one of the highest-profile annual events in the nation’s capital. The officer fired five shots but didn’t hit anybody, authorities said.

“Our thoughts remain with the officer who was injured and with everyone who experienced that evening,” Jiang said. “We are indebted to the U.S. Secret Service, law enforcement and the hotel staff whose swift response protected our guests and our staff.”

Jiang said rescheduling the dinner “was not automatic,” but a choice the WHCA board made after input from its members.

Details on the venue and programming for the event will be announced soon, she said.

The suspected shooter, Cole Tomas Allen, pleaded not guilty last month to charges that he attempted to kill Trump and fired a shotgun at the Secret Service officer.

Allen’s lawyers asked a judge to disqualify Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro from direct involvement in prosecuting him because they could be considered victims or witnesses in the case, creating a potential conflict of interest.

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President Donald Trump has tapped Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, to be the acting director of national intelligence — putting a real estate scion and fierce Trump loyalist in a key national security post as the U.S. remains at war with Iran.

Trump made the surprise announcement Tuesday on social media that Pulte would be replacing Tulsi Gabbard, the former Hawaii congresswoman who had served as the director of national intelligence. Trump said Pulte will keep his other positions even as he fills in for Gabbard, who resigned last month after revealing her husband’s cancer diagnosis.

The Republican president cited Pulte’s work at the FHFA and his role as chair of the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as indicating that his real estate work would overlap with the skills needed to coordinate 18 federal agencies tasked with foreign and domestic security.

“William has deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America, the safety and soundness of the Markets,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Trump’s choice to elevate Pulte, who would also continue in his post at FHFA, shows how the president is putting a greater priority on fidelity to him. It’s unclear what national security expertise Pulte brings to bear as the U.S. faces conflict in the Middle East, helps Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s assault and manages the emergence of artificial intelligence as a military tool. But Pulte has been a frequent guest on Air Force One as Trump has traveled to Mar-a-Lago, his home and club in Palm Beach, Florida.

As the grandson of the founder of PulteGroup, one of the country’s largest homebuilders, Pulte has cut a combative streak on social media and used his post at the FHFA to attack perceived opponents of the Trump administration.

His time overseeing mortgage finance has been linked with criminal referrals for mortgage fraud by public officials Trump sought to punish, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat; Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; and Lisa Cook, a board member of the Federal Reserve, who was nominated by a Democratic president, Joe Biden.

The prosecution against James was dismissed in November after a judge concluded that the prosecutor who filed the charges was illegally appointed. Other referrals made by Pulte, including against Schiff and Cook, have not yielded any criminal charges. Lawyers for both have denied any claims of wrongdoing. But Trump did try to use the possibility of mortgage fraud as grounds for removing Cook from the Fed.

Pulte told reporters at the White House several months ago that he had also made criminal referrals regarding at least one Republican official, but he declined to provide the name.

He has famously gone after then-Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not cutting the central bank’s benchmark interest rates as aggressively as the president wanted. He has also been linked to ideas such as the 50-year mortgage and efforts to lower mortgage rates through the purchase of home loan debt that have not paid off as promised, as mortgage rates began to climb after the Iran war started at the end of February.

Pulte has a reputation for cultivating enemies. In a legal feud pursued by Pulte that involved his family namesake’s homebuilding company, he accused his grandfather’s widow of insider trading. He was believed to be the driving force behind a website trashing an aunt as a “fake Christian.” And he publicly blasted another relative as “a fat slob,” “weirdo” and “grifter,” according to court records.

Politico reported in September that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threatened to punch Pulte in the face. The showdown occurred at a private dinner, and the treasury secretary claimed that he had heard Pulte had been badmouthing him to Trump.

If formally nominated, Pulte would need to be confirmed by the Senate to hold the position full time.

Pregnant women, parents of young children, veterans with disabilities and several other groups will be exempt from Medicaid’s new work requirements, the Trump administration said Monday.

The guidance was released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, meeting a June 1 deadline under President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” to explain how states should carry out the work rules.

Beginning Jan. 1, 2027, many adults on Medicaid will need to work, attend school or volunteer for at least 80 hours a month to keep their coverage.

The guidance also allows exemptions for people who are “medically frail,” or have conditions that significantly limit their ability to work, such as cancer or substance use disorder. The guidance doesn’t include an exemption for people who are homeless.

States will have discretion to determine which medical conditions qualify for an exemption. Nebraska, which implemented Medicaid work requirements earlier this year, listed diagnoses that would qualify a person as medically frail in a nearly 300-page list of medical codes and technical language.

During the first year, people will be allowed to attest — on their Medicaid application or renewal form — that they qualify for one of the exemptions rather than provide documentation, federal health officials said on a call Monday.

Beginning in 2028, states will be expected to verify the exemptions. The temporary flexibility, the officials said, is intended to give states time to build systems that can verify exemptions using claims data and other records.

Allowing people to self-report exemptions without proof, however, could make it easier for some to falsely claim they qualify.

“We’re forgiving, but we’re not foolish,” Dr. Mehmet Oz, the CMS’ administrator, said on the call. “We are appropriately going after problem areas and doing it in a way that’s compassionate and forgiving, but we don’t want to be false.”

Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group, said allowing people to self-declare that they qualify for an exemption for the next year means fewer Medicaid enrollees will fall through the cracks and end up uninsured.

The work requirements are expected to cause about 5 million people to lose their health coverage by 2034, largely because of paperwork and administrative hurdles, as opposed to because of their job status, according to a KFF report.

“The quick implementation timeline makes it even harder for states to set up adequate systems,” Levitt said.

The Trump administration says the policy will encourage more people to find jobs or increase their work hours.

Officials cited a 2026 report from the National Bureau of Economic Research, a nonpartisan research group, that found Americans are working fewer hours than they did in previous decades. The officials argued that government benefits reduce incentives to seek employment.

The Trump administration signaled Monday it is backing off on the creation of a $1.8 billion fund announced by the Justice Department that could send money to allies of President Donald Trump deemed to be “victims of lawfare and weaponization.”

It comes after a fierce and rare backlash from Senate Republicans, who threatened to team up with Democrats to block the fund. About half the Republican conference appeared ready to vote with Democrats to restrict or kill it, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said last week.

In a statement, the Justice Department cited a Friday ruling by a federal judge that blocked the fund on a temporary basis, saying it “disagrees strongly” but “will abide by the Court’s ruling.”

That judge had only issued an order that temporarily blocked DOJ from taking any further actions on the fund until the court more fully assesses the arguments from both parties; it did not permanently block the fund. A hearing on the issue had been set for June 12.

That order came after a Jan. 6 prosecutor who was fired by the Trump administration, and others, sued to challenge the fund in the Eastern District of Virginia. The head of the group that filed that suit — Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward — said Monday that it would be a “major victory” if the Trump administration was “abandoning its illegal slush fund” but said they would continue challenging for the time being.

“Until the administration fully abandons the scheme, it’s beyond dispute that it will not recur, and our clients’ harm is remedied, we will be in court challenging it,” she said. “We look forward to the government’s response to the courts and to our filings, and to prevailing on behalf of our clients.”

The announcement is aimed at restarting the party-line “reconciliation” bill Republicans are trying to push through Congress to fund ICE and Border Patrol through the end of Trump’s term in office. Those two agencies were left out of the Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill earlier this year. That push stalled two weeks ago before the Memorial Day recess due to the “anti-weaponization” fund.

On Capitol Hill, Democrats have threatened to go all out to shut down the fund — through amendments in the reconciliation bill and potentially forcing votes on standalone legislation to prevent the administration from reviving it later.

And they’re not convinced by the administration’s suggestion that it will backtrack on pursuing the fund.

“If Trump and Republicans are truly abandoning this corrupt scheme, they should have zero problem banning it in law,” Schumer said. “This week, Senate Democrats will push legislation to ban this slush fund and ensure no president can ever do this again. Trump’s word is nowhere near enough.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., did not directly say Monday whether Republicans would support a standalone bill to shut down the weaponization fund.

“I don’t know, but I do think that the best way to handle it is if the administration decides to shut it down themselves,” Thune said.

When asked if the administration needs to be clear that they won’t try to bring back the fund, Thune replied, “That would be the ideal outcome. But I don’t know what they’re gonna say.”

Democrats have threatened to force votes on amendments to block the money. And numerous Republicans ripped into it during a private meeting on May 21 with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, according Cruz, who said he personally supports the fund but that the White House would have “a full-on revolt in the Senate” if it stayed the course.

“My guess is they’re probably 45 senators in the room, at least half of them were blasting the attorney general, and they were pissed,” Cruz said on his podcast “Verdict” the following day. “There were multiple senators yelling at the Attorney General, saying this feels like self-dealing.”

There was a “jailbreak of Republicans who were bolting, who were saying we’re going to vote with the Democrats and basically kill reconciliation because of this judgment fund,” Cruz added.

Republicans control a 53-47 majority in the Senate, and an even narrower 217-212 margin in the House. Numerous Republicans have openly criticized the $1.8 billion fund.

At least three other suits had been filed over the lawsuit: Two in Washington, D.C., and another in the Southern District of California. One of the D.C. lawsuits was filed by two officers who protected the Capitol on Jan. 6.

A federal judge in Florida who had overseen Trump’s $10 billion IRS lawsuit, which led to the out-of-court settlement between the administration and Trump’s private attorneys that established the fund, had separately asked for further briefing after 35 retired federal judges wrote that the settlement was a product of “collusion” and “fraud on the Court.”

The Justice Department was supposed to name five commissioners — all of whom could have been fired at whim by Trump — within 30 days of the settlement that established the fund on May 18, but never made any announcements about the commissioners.

Schumer took to the floor Monday to warn that the fund, as proposed, could funnel taxpayer money to “MAGA billionaires, cop-beating January 6 insurrectionists and [Trump’s] own family.”

“Trump is claiming that the slush fund is dead for now. But Democrats will not stop until it’s well and truly buried and can never see the light of day,” Schumer said. “Republicans can try to wriggle their way out of answering for this corruption. If Republicans try to force through their reconciliation bill again, the first amendment I will offer will be to ban the slush fund permanently, and forever.”

A Trump administration policy illegally banned transgender troops from military service, a divided panel of federal appeal court judges ruled on Monday.

The majority opinion by a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit largely upholds a March 2025 ruling by U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington, D.C. Reyes concluded that President Donald Trump’s executive order to exclude transgender troops from military service likely violates their constitutional rights.

The administration appealed after Reyes issued a preliminary injunction requested by attorneys for six transgender people who are active-duty service members and two others seeking to join the military. The appeal court’s majority decided that the injunction should be narrowed to the plaintiffs currently serving in the military but not those seeking to join.

The ruling won’t immediately go into effect, allowing the administration time to ask the full appeals court to hear the case.

The U.S. Supreme Court allowed the transgender military ban to go into effect last year, as litigation continues to play out. Another lawsuit challenging the ban was filed in Washington state and led to a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs challenging the policy in that case.

In January 2025, Trump signed an executive order that claims the sexual identity of transgender service members “conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life” and is harmful to military readiness.

In response to the order, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a policy that presumptively disqualifies people with gender dysphoria from military service. Gender dysphoria is the distress that a person feels because their assigned gender and gender identity don’t match. The medical condition has been linked to depression and suicidal thoughts.

The policy “appears to be driven by the bare desire to harm a politically unpopular group: persons who identify as transgender,” Judge Robert Wilkins wrote for the majority. Wilkins was nominated to the court by Democratic President Barack Obama.

In a dissenting opinion, Judge Justin Walker said judges lack the power to second-guess the decision to exclude transgender troops.

“We have neither the expertise nor the authority to decide whether the military can exclude the plaintiffs from its ranks. The Constitution assigns that authority to Congress and the Commander in Chief,” wrote Walker, who was nominated by Trump, a Republican.

Judge Judith Rogers, who was nominated by Democratic President Bill Clinton, joined Wilkins’ opinion but also partially dissented.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, D-Ky., on Sunday said the Texas Senate race is “in play” for Democrats after state Attorney General Ken Paxton beat incumbent John Cornyn in last week’s Senate Republican primary.

“Texas is in play. Democrats have never run against a candidate like Ken Paxton that is so corrupt that his own party impeached him,” Beshear told NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” adding, “This is someone who does not have the character … to serve as AG or even as dog catcher.”

The Kentucky governor referred to the GOP-controlled Texas state House’s impeachment of Paxton in 2023 on bribery and corruption charges before the state Senate acquitted him. The state Senate trial also touched on allegations that Paxton engaged in an extramarital affair while serving as attorney general.

Last year, his wife, who is also a state senator, announced that she had filed for divorce from the attorney general “on biblical grounds” and “in light of recent discoveries.”

Paxton did not testify at his impeachment trial, but he denied any wrongdoing and characterized the misconduct and corruption allegations as false and politically motivated. After his wife announced their divorce, Paxton wrote in a post on X that the two “decided to start a new chapter in our lives” after “countless political attacks.”

Beshear on Sunday said that if elected, Paxton is a person who “would use his office to enrich himself, that would be a rubber stamp for the president, and would do nothing for the people of Texas. He has shown that as AG.”

Beshear pointed to Paxton’s opponent, Texas state Sen. James Talarico, who won the Democratic primary in the state earlier this year as a better candidate for Senate.

Talarico “is spreading his message about being there for American families, about putting them ahead of the politics, about bringing down prices, expanding access to health care, making sure they feel safe in their community,” the Kentucky governor said. “Those things that make life just a little bit better and a little bit easier as the Trump administration is making things so much harder.”

Beshear accused Paxton of attacking Talarico early in the race because he “knows he has nothing to offer.”

“And so what does he do? He simply attacks his opponent over and over,” Beshear added.

Earlier on “Meet the Press,” former Vice President Mike Pence was asked if he supported Paxton and responded indirectly, saying, “If I was voting in Texas, I could never vote for the Democrat nominee.”

Pence added that he was confident the GOP could keep control of the Senate after November’s elections.

“I think in many respects Republicans have lost our way, but Democrats have lost their mind, and I think the reason why we’re going to hold the Senate.”

Also in his interview, Beshear was asked if he himself was considering running for president in 2028.

“I haven’t ruled it out,” he said. “But I haven’t sat down and had that conversation with my family. I’m trying to fire up Democrats to be a voice of reason in the chaos. It is so important that we win right now.”

Graham Platner’s wife called the media reports that her husband had previously exchanged sexually explicit text messages with several women “shameful” over the weekend, the latest controversy to hit the Maine Democrat’s whirlwind Senate campaign.

Platner, an oyster farmer and combat veteran, posted a video taken by his wife, Amy Gertner, who reportedly told his campaign of the text messages last year. In the five-minute video, Gertner avoided speaking directly about her husband’s reported texts, dubbing the broader coverage as “gossip” and saying that “being married is hard.”

“I find it really shameful that there’s a group of media outlets and people who are willing to spread gossip,” she said in the informal, selfie-style video where she walked along a road. “No marriage is perfect, and I don’t want a perfect marriage. I want my marriage.”

Platner is seeking the Democratic nomination for one of the most closely watched Senate races as Democrats hope to defeat longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins in the party’s efforts to win control of the narrowly divided Senate. The Maine primary is June 9.

Genevieve McDonald, a then-campaign staffer for Platner, told the The Associated Press that the candidate was “sexting multiple women while married” and that “the campaign tried to assess that as an election vulnerability.”

Platner told reporters Sunday that what McDonald had said wasn’t true. Asked if he was confirming that the text messages didn’t exist, Platner replied, “I’m confirming that what Genevieve McDonald said in the New York Times is not true.”

Platner didn’t provide any specifics. He was referring to a Times story that names McDonald Saturday, after The Wall Street Journal first reported the story. Gertner had told the campaign in August about the messages, which she had discovered on his phone last year, to make sure they weren’t a liability to the campaign, according to the Wall Street Journal. Platner’s campaign team reportedly decided that the texts were private and being handled by the couple, who were married in 2023. The two are in counseling, Gertner has said.

Platner told reporters that he and Gertner spoke with the campaign about their marriage, but reiterated that McDonald’s claims were false. Platner’s campaign on Sunday did not specifically confirm the text messages to the AP, but issued a statement from Gertner saying the disclosure of the conversations she had with a campaign aide was a betrayal that “deeply hurt.”

“I trusted this person with the most private chapter of our lives — the early days of our marriage before any campaign was on our mind,” she wrote.

Graham Platner responds

The couple appeared together Sunday, arm in arm, at a campaign rally in Portland’s largest park, Deering Oaks, according to NBC10 Boston affiliate News Center Maine. They were asked for a statement about the story in the Times and the Journal, to which Platner said on camera:

“It’s no surprise to me that the establishment media outlets are just going to run gossip instead of wanting to talk about the things that actually matter in this race, which are the material realities that Mainers are working with. These people are going to try to make this race about anything but what it’s supposed to be about, which is policy. They never want to talk about policy. Amy and I have a very loving and very happy marriage. They would very much like to try to rip that apart. They’re going to come after us in every awful way they possibly can, and we’re just going to keep talking about the fact that the hospitals are closing, the fact that child care facilities are closing, the fact that teachers and nurses aren’t paid enough, and the fact that everybody down here continues to work harder and longer and get less. But of course, the powers that be do not want us to talk about that, and so they’re going to just do gossip instead.”

Platner denied the reports were true, saying on camera to News Center Maine, “The Wall Street Journal and New York Times ran stories without any evidence besides the gossip from a former staffer. I’m sorry, that’s frankly, journalistic malpractice. We pushed back on it, they did it anyways.”

Gertner did not answers any questions but stood by Platner’s side as he spoke.

News Center Maine also reports that Platner’s campaign confirmed he did have a profile on the messaging app “kik”—seen in a selfie wearing only a towel—with the handle “phustle 0331,” similar to his old Reddit account handle. The campaign reportedly said the “kik” account has not been active for years, and Platner deleted the app from his phone long ago.

Platner provided a written statement to News Center Maine on Sunday, as well, saying, “Amy and I went through something hard—because of me. We did the work, and I’m grateful for her every hour of every day.”

According to News Center Maine, these revelations come one month after a Platner campaign town hall in Sabattus, where the last audience question was from a woman worried about possible skeletons in Platner’s closet. She asked him, “Is there anything you need to share with us from your past?”

In his reply, Platner conceded he had spent a few years after his military service working as a bartender and drinking too much, but denied there was really anything else that needed revealed, News Center Maine reports.

“I’ve never had some kind of like weird, I don’t know, weird relationships with people. I have a lot of ex-girlfriends. They’re all still my friends. Yeah, I spent years kind of just drifting. Honestly, I mean pretty much everything’s been dragged up,” Platner said at the town hall. “In my past, there is not like some big dark secret.”

It’s not Platner’s first controversy

Platner, who has never held public office, has a gruff, less buttoned-up approach on the campaign trail, fashioned a platform around economic equality and has already had to navigate statements that surfaced from his past.

The candidate had a tattoo recognized as a Nazi symbol, which he said he didn’t realize until he was several weeks into the campaign.

There’s also been much attention on his former Reddit posts, which were dismissive of military sexual assaults and used homophobic slurs, for which he has apologized.

Platner’s campaign weathered those earlier revelations in what had been considered one of the most competitive Democratic primaries before Gov. Janet Mills dropped out of the race in late April due to a lack of campaign funds. Mills, a two-term governor, had been seen as one of the Democrats’ top 2026 recruits when she entered the Senate race before her campaign fizzled out.

Platner has still pulled support from big-name Democrats, including Sens. Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Ruben Gallego as well as U.S. House Rep. Ro Khanna. The latter is scheduled to rally with Platner on Friday, and so far, it appears he hasn’t lost any endorsements with this latest texting revelation.

Two Democratic senators on Sunday declined to directly address the topic when pressed by reporters. Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy told CBS’ “Face the Nation” that Platner had served his country and community, but “also made mistakes and he has admitted that.”

On CNN’s “State of the Union,” New Jersey Sen. Andy Kim sidestepped, too.

“With any campaign in the country, the character and the transparency about the different candidates is going to come out,” said Kim, “and the voters are going to decide what they ultimately think.”

Barreling forward Sunday, Platner posted a video on X from an event “happening now” where he entered a room to a standing ovation from ecstatic supporters.

Questions over whether additional controversial information about Platner could still surface have added to some Democrats’ anxiety over his chances in a general election against Collins, who has represented Maine in the Senate since 1997.

In October, after the revelation that he once had a Totenkopf tattoo on his chest and promptly had it covered, the AP asked him if other scandals were on the horizon.

Platner said he was expecting his opponents were “going to keep dragging things up.”

“They’re going to keep making things up,” he said. “I fully expect people to just lie about me at this point.”

Voters are familiar with the couple’s struggles, including with infertility and traveling out of the country to afford IVF treatment, which they’ve discussed on the campaign trail.

In late April, Platner shared that Gertner had suffered a miscarriage, and he’s discussed his own mental health struggles and the role of his family and therapist in helping.

Former aide explains why she went public

McDonald initially worked on Platner’s campaign as his political director and resigned a few months later when his now-deleted Reddit posts began surfacing, saying she couldn’t stand behind him as a candidate. She later declined a severance offer from the campaign in exchange for signing a non-disclosure agreement.

On Saturday, McDonald wrote on Facebook that Platner’s campaign had “demanded” she retract her statements she had made to The Wall Street Journal or his team would accuse her of violating the couple’s trust. McDonald wasn’t named in the newspaper’s article, but after that exchange, she said she made the choice to be publicly named in a New York Times story.

“His consultants greatly overestimate how much I do not aspire to be them,” she wrote on Facebook.

After resigning from Platner’s campaign, McDonald moved to help Democrat Jordan Wood’s congressional campaign in Maine’s second district. McDonald submitted her resignation from Wood’s campaign Saturday morning, according to Wood’s campaign.

Wood endorsed Platner after Mills dropped out.

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The U.S. military said it carried out another strike Saturday on a boat accused of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing three men in the fourth attack this week and putting the total death toll at 205.

U.S. Southern Command announced the strike with its usual language that the vessel was “engaged in narco-trafficking operations” and operated by a designated terrorist organization. It provided no evidence for the allegation.

It’s the latest in a monthslong campaign against alleged drug boats traversing the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific.

Video released by the military on social media shows a small vessel floating in the ocean before it’s hit and engulfed in a fireball.

The attack brings the death toll to 205 in a series of U.S. strikes that began in early September, with other attacks announced on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. The Trump administration has declared that the U.S. is at armed conflict with Latin American drug cartels, saying they are behind the flow of drugs into American communities.

U.S. Southern Command said in its post on X that the strike came at the direction of Gen. Francis L. Donovan, the top U.S. commander in Latin America.

Former Vice President Mike Pence said Sunday that President Donald Trump’s second administration has “departed” from traditional conservative principles.

Pence, who served as Trump’s vice president from 2017 to 2021, told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that the administration is no longer committed to “the conservative agenda that has defined the Republican Party since the days of Ronald Reagan, and before that an agenda of American leadership, limited government, free market economics, the right to life.”

He added that “on a number of those issues, the president’s been good” in the past.

“I don’t think there’s any question about the president’s popularity,” Pence continued, adding: “I give him all the credit in the world for the hold that he has on Republican voters.”

The former vice president said he still believes GOP voters align with the party’s core conservative principles, telling “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker that “if Republicans this fall and in 2028 hold up those time-honored conservative principles, those voters will rally to our cause.”

Pence said he understands that GOP primary voters want to support Trump-aligned candidates in primaries, “but I believe that the overwhelming majority of people in the MAGA movement believe that America is the leader of the free world, believe in limited government, less taxes, less regulations, would reject ideas like nationalization of businesses and price controls and broad-based tariffs, and at the core of our movement is a commitment to the sanctity of life.”

The former vice president criticized the Trump administration for not doing enough to restrict abortion pills, saying, “This administration, we see a desire to relegate the right to life to a state-only issue, to actually have a pro-abortion secretary of HHS who has done nothing to limit the availability of the abortion pill.”

Pence also warned that the values of Trump’s second administration could affect how Republicans fare in the midterm elections this fall, asserting that if they win, it will be because Democrats are too radical.

“I think in many respects Republicans have lost our way, but Democrats have lost their mind, and I think the reason why we’re going to hold the Senate, and we have a real shot to hold the House, is because of the extremism on the Democratic side,” he said, pointing specifically to the Texas Senate race.

Last week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton beat Sen. John Cornyn in the race for the GOP Senate nomination, setting up a general election matchup against Democratic nominee James Talarico.

Pence was particularly critical of the Justice Department’s “anti-weaponization fund,” which includes nearly $1.8 billion that could be paid out to people who believe they’ve been unfairly targeted by the federal government. (A federal judge last week temporarily blocked the fund.)

“I think that the weaponization fund is a bad idea from the start, and I would encourage the administration just to drop it,” the former vice president said.

He called the notion that Jan. 6 rioters who were charged and sentenced for their actions at the Capitol in 2021 could receive payouts from the Justice Department “deeply offensive.” Upon taking office for his second term, Trump pardoned roughly 1,500 people who were charged for their actions that day.

Pence, who was at the Capitol to certify the 2020 elections results when the Jan. 6 riot broke out and had to be evacuated from the complex, added that he believes his negative view of the fund is shared by most Republicans and most Americans.

“I mean it’s deeply offensive to me that you could have a fund that could even possibly compensate people who assaulted police officers or vandalized the Capitol on Jan. 6, and I think that’s broadly held by most Republicans and most Americans,” he said.

An upcoming celebration of America’s 250th anniversary, “The Great American State Fair,” recently had several musical guests back out because of the event’s connections to President Donald Trump. Now, Trump himself is slated to headline the festivities, the organizers said Saturday.

“I understand Artists are getting ‘the yips’ having to do with their performance,” Trump posted to his social media platform Truth Social Saturday, adding that he was thinking of bringing “the man who some say is the Greatest President in History (THE GOAT!), DONALD J. TRUMP, to take the place of these highly paid, Third Rate ‘Artists.’”

The group organizing the June fair on Washington’s National Mall, Freedom 250, confirmed the billing in a statement, writing, “we are excited to announce that President Trump will personally kick off this historic celebration.”

Trump’s social media post twice referenced the event as being “Wednesday,” though the fair doesn’t start until June 25. The White House did not immediately clarify the discrepancy.

Danielle Alvarez, a spokesperson for Freedom 250, emphasized the broader fair that will run through July 10 includes an array of exhibits, family friendly attractions, musical performances, flyovers and more.

Freedom 250 is billed as nonpartisan, but was launched last year by Trump and is led by a former State Department appointee from Trump’s first term. Several artists, including Bret Michaels, the Commodores and Martina McBride dropped out last week.

Michaels and other artists have said that they were misled about the theme of the shows or were otherwise wary of being caught up in a political fight.

Other artists plan to attend, including Flo Rida, Fab Morvan of Milli Vanilli and Vanilla Ice. The latter’s representative previously said that the “Ice Ice Baby” rapper was “proud to help celebrate America’s 250th Anniversary!”

President Donald Trump on Saturday branded the federal judge who blocked his renovation of the Kennedy Center as “an anti Trump Hater” and predicted that the nation’s premier performing arts center he wanted to shutter for a two-year overhaul will “soon be closed, probably never to open again.”

In a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform, Trump fumed about the Friday decision from U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper who also ordered Trump’s name removed from the center. Clearly angered by his latest legal setback, he said it was “impossible for me to be treated fairly,” tying Cooper’s ruling to earlier losses, including the Supreme Court’s rejection in February of his sweeping tariffs.

His post aimed to make the case for the project but did not clarify whether he would continue to defend it in court. Hours after Cooper’s decision, Trump said he was backing away from the renovations and making arrangements to relinquish control to Congress of what, until the Republican president’s second term, had been known as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The White House did not immediately clarify his position or say whether he would keep serving as the center’s board chairman.

Without offering evidence, Trump suggested that Cooper’s wife, lawyer Amy Jeffress, was to blame in part for the ruling. The president noted that Jeffress, a partner at the Hecker Fink law firm, is a former federal prosecutor who served as a counselor to Attorney General Eric Holder during the administration of Democratic President Barack Obama. Cooper was nominated for the bench by Obama.

Trump also noted that Hecker Fink is representing former President Joe Biden in a lawsuit against the Department of Justice to block the release of audio recordings and transcripts from the Democrat’s interviews with a ghostwriter that were obtained in an investigation into Biden’s handling of classified documents from his time as a senator and as vice president.

Trump asserted that the Kennedy Center, named for the late Democratic president and opened in 1971, was “rusted, rotted, and rat and bug infested” and that the ”new Building would have been incomparable.”

Cooper said in his ruling that the center board’s March 16 vote to close the venue was “ill-informed and seemingly preordained” with no regard for its legal obligations. The administration had announced the work would begin in July and last approximately two years. Cooper’s ruling halts those plans for now.

The judge also found that the board “overstepped its statutory bounds” by adding Trump’s name to the center. Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it, he said. Cooper ordered that Trump’s name be removed within two weeks.

Trump on Saturday said it was the board, not him, that added the Trump name to the center. “They thought it would be good for this dying Institution,” he wrote.

Shortly after returning to office in January 2025, he ousted the center’s previous leadership and replaced it with a handpicked board of trustees that named him chairman.

Cooper held hearings in late April for parallel lawsuits challenging the project. One lawsuit was filed by a group of cultural and historic preservation organizations. The other was brought by Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who serves as an ex officio member of the board through her position in Congress. He ruled in favor of Beatty’s request but rejected the other challenge.

Trump, in his post, also noted that Jeffress’ firm represented E. Jean Carroll, the longtime advice columnist who has said Trump sexually assaulted her in a New York department store 30 years ago.

Jeffress did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The FIFA organizing committee in Houston confirmed that agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will be present during the World Cup. However, they clarified that their role will not be tied to immigration enforcement.

“As we understand it, ICE will play a role in security and protection around the World Cup — as it does at Super Bowls and other major events – but will not be conducting immigration activities,” said Chris Canetti, president of the World Cup organizing committee in Houston.

Canetti emphasized that his committee has no involvement in this decision. When asked about fears within the immigrant community, he simply replied: “That’s not a question for me, to be honest.”

However, immigration attorney Silvia Mintz believes the situation could have consequences.

“This is going to affect fans and also trust in authorities when it comes to reporting crimes,” she warned.

She added that it is important to “not give reasons for interactions with police.”

“We have to remember that, even though they are immigration officers, they are law enforcement agents, and if a crime is being committed or a rule is being violated, they can intervene and initiate a process,” she said.

NBC’s affiliate Telemundo Houston asked ICE what authority its agents would have in this context, but had received no response by press time.

It is worth noting that ICE is part of the Department of Homeland Security, a key agency at large-scale events like this. For that reason, some experts believe this is not a targeted immigration strategy, but rather the use of available resources, in this case federal agents.

Businesses big and small have started receiving tariff refunds after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that President Donald Trump lacked the constitutional authority to impose higher import taxes on goods from nearly every other country.

The process could grind to a halt, however, after the Trump administration said Friday that it intended to appeal a federal judge’s order to allow all companies that paid the invalidated duties to seek refunds, not just the ones that filed lawsuits.

Until the Department of Justice informed the judge of its planned appeal, the refund system overseen by U.S. Customs and Border Protection had been working fairly smoothly. Refunds reached the bank accounts of the first successful applicants on May 12, about three weeks after importers and their customs brokers could start submitting claims through an online system, according to CBP.

Applications for refunds totaling $85 billion — more than half of the $166 billion the agency estimated the government owes to companies that paid the tariffs on imported goods — were accepted for processing as of May 22, CBP reported in a legal filing earlier in the week. It said it had so far directed the Treasury Department to issue $20.6 billion in refunds.

The administration revealed its appeal preparations while objecting to a demand by Judge Richard K. Eaton for CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott to appear in the U.S. Court of International Trade to answer questions about how long it would take to repay all 330,000 importers that might be eligible for refunds. The judge has scheduled a June 9 hearing on why he shouldn’t require the government do whatever it takes to speed up the process.

Justice Department lawyers asked Eaton to allow one or two of Scott’s deputies to appear in his place, arguing that as a high-ranking presidential appointee, the CBP chief could not be compelled to testify in court. They also argued that Eaton exceeded his own authority when he determined in March that the Supreme Court’s ruling entitled “all importers of record’’ to refunds.

“For that reason, defendants intend to appeal the court’s universal injunction,” the lawyers wrote, adding that CBP would continue to move “as quicky as it can to process refunds in a phased approach” for businesses that filed some 485 pending trade court complaints to assert their rights to refunds.

In a terse reply Friday, Eaton said he needed to hear directly from Scott whether the government would return all of the money it collected between when Trump put what he called “reciprocal” tariffs on most countries in April 2025 and when the Supreme Court struck them down in late February.

“This case involves $166 billion,” the judge wrote. “It is undisputed that the remedy for this unlawful collection is for the United States government to refund the unlawfully collected duties.”

Some national retail chains said they planned to use their tariff refunds refunds to lower customer prices on some items. Walmart Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey told analysts last week that the company would implement price cuts even though the maximum refund it might be eligible for represented less than half of 1% of Walmart’s $483 billion in annual U.S. sales.

Some smaller companies told The Associated Press that the partial refunds they’ve received so far would go toward paying remaining or future tariffs, reducing debt or just keeping the lights on after more than a year of uncertainty and additional import costs.

Jay Foreman, CEO of toy company Basic Fun, said he received about $450,000, or 7% of his total claim, over two consecutive days this month. He took the initial repayment as a positive sign but said that after having less than $10,000 refunded since then, the process seemed like a “total slow roll.”

“It’s time to release the funds back into the economy, especially given how much we and others need these funds to support our businesses and fund our operations,” Foreman said.

President Donald Trump is in “excellent health,” the White House physician said Friday in a memo the administration released after Trump’s visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center — his third in-person medical checkup in 13 months.

“He is fully fit to carry out all duties of the Commander-in-Chief,” Dr. Sean Barbabella, the president’s physician, wrote in the memo.

The memo came out three days after his Tuesday exam.

The memo said that Trump took a series of exams testing cardiac function, eye health and pulmonary function, among other areas. Barbabella reported Trump’s weight as 238 pounds — 14 pounds higher than at his April 2025 visit — with a resting heart rate of 73 beats per minute. Trump also took a neurological exam that included screening for cognitive function, which was within normal limits with a score of 30 out of 30, Barbabella said.

Trump is taking medication for cholesterol control and cardiac prevention, Barbabella said.

“The President remains up to date on all appropriate preventive screenings and immunizations,” Barbabella said. “Routine cancer screenings, cardiovascular risk assessment, and metabolic evaluations are current and within recommended intervals. Preventive counseling was provided, including guidance on diet, recommendation to take a low-dose aspirin, increased physical activity, and continued weight loss.”

The report also addressed two issues that have drawn public attention in recent months: bruising on the hands and swelling in the legs. Barbabella attributed the hand bruising to frequent handshaking combined with aspirin use, noting that a coagulation profile was normal (this is a blood panel that can point towards a bleeding disorder). They also did not specify the aspirin dose (they previously stated he takes a high dose of 325 mg as opposed to a more common lower dose of 81 mg.)

The leg swelling, which has been attributed to chronic venous insufficiency, a common condition in older adults in which leg veins have difficulty returning blood to the heart, was noted to have improved. Importantly, his ultrasound of the heart showed preserved heart function (having a weak heart can also sometimes cause leg swelling).

Trump went to Walter Reed twice last year — in April and October — and had two dental appointments in Florida this year: one in January and one in May.

Trump, who will turn 80 in June, is the oldest person to assume the presidency. He regularly insists he is in excellent health, most recently on Tuesday following his visit to Walter Reed in Bethesda, Maryland.

“Just finished my 6 month physical at Walter Reed Military Medical Center. Everything checked out PERFECTLY. Thank you to the great Doctors and Staff!” Trump posted on Truth Social.

He also regularly says he has aced cognitive exams.

Still, speculation about Trump’s health has been fueled by moments of apparent drowsiness and a noticeably bruised right hand. The White House has blamed the bruising on Trump’s frequent handshaking and said he takes aspirin as a blood thinner — more than is recommended by his doctors.

Last year, the White House revealed that Trump had chronic venous insufficiency, a non-life-threatening condition that causes poor circulation and led to swelling in his legs.

In October, following his visit to Walter Reed, which the White House had described as a “routine yearly check up” even though it was his second visit in six months, Trump revealed to reporters that he had undergone an MRI. His doctor later clarified that the exam was a CT scan of his heart and abdomen “to definitively rule out any cardiovascular issues.”

Barbabella said that Trump had the scan “to make the most of the President’s time at the hospital” and that his doctors had asked Trump whether he would undergo advanced imaging.

“As we revealed in the post-examination report, the advanced imaging was perfectly normal and revealed absolutely no abnormalities,” Barbabella said in a statement to NBC News at the time.

Barbabella struck a similar tone during Trump’s April 2025 visit, saying he “remains in excellent health, exhibiting robust cardiac, pulmonary, neurological and general physical function.”

The Trump administration is looking into selling some of the large warehouses that Immigration and Customs Enforcement had purchased earlier this year to serve as mega-detention centers for immigrants, according to two Department of Homeland Security officials.

DHS and ICE officials have identified several of the eleven previously purchased warehouses, some of which were expected to be repurposed to hold as many as 8,000 immigrants, for potential sale, the officials said. But, they said, the facilities have not yet been put on the market, and no final decisions have been made on the matter.

The warehouses were purchased under former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem as part of a plan to build the capacity to detain 100,000 immigrants across the country at a single time. They were in addition to existing facilities capable of detaining tens of thousands of immigrants. The total cost of the warehouse purchases was estimated at over $38 billion.

The DHS officials also said that ICE is considering selling several planes that were purchased or leased under Noem’s leadership, including a luxury Boeing 737 Max 8, though no decision has been made. ICE has typically used chartered planes for deportations; those purchased during Noem’s tenure were the first deportation planes to be government-owned.

The discussions about potentially offloading assets acquired to help carry out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation policy underscores the cultural shift that has taken shape inside DHS since Secretary Markwayne Mullin began leading the agency. Trump has also said he may want a “softer touch” on immigration enforcement following the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens during immigration enforcement in Minneapolis in January.

The DHS officials said ICE no longer needs the capacity to hold 100,000 immigrants.

“Under new leadership, DHS is assessing all our resources, including aircraft, to maximize efficiency and continue to deliver on President Trump’s mission of securing the homeland for all Americans,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement when asked about the potential sale of warehouses.

“Secretary Mullin is 100% focused on ensuring the needs of our department are met while being the best possible steward of taxpayer dollars,” the spokesperson said. “As with any transition, we are reviewing agency policies and proposals.”

The so-called mega-warehouses gained public attention and drew protests at their proposed sites around the country, often dividing local communities about whether they would help create jobs or drag down their economies. Even several Republicans opposed ICE warehouses that were planned for their districts. Maryland sued successfully to stop ICE from developing a warehouse near Hagerstown. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., criticized DHS’ plan to turn a warehouse in Byhalia, Mississippi, into an ICE detention center.

The DHS spokesperson said Mullin is committed to working with community leaders as the issue unfolds, adding, “We want to be good partners.”

NBC News was first to report that ICE was considering purchasing warehouses during Noem’s tenure, and that ICE put a pause on new warehouse purchases after Mullin stepped into the role of secretary in March.

If ICE sells any of its warehouses, their market value could come under scrutiny. The DHS inspector general is examining ICE’s purchases of warehouses around the country as part of an audit examining whether DHS met the need for new detention space in a “cost-effective manner.”

A lawsuit filed by Social Circle, Georgia — a suburb of Atlanta — alleges ICE paid more than five times the property’s previously assessed value.

The town filed the suit in mid-May after ICE bought one warehouse there in a move that was widely opposed by local officials.

At the time the lawsuit was filed, DHS said Mullin was in the process of reviewing agency policies and proposals and stressed that the new secretary wanted to work with community leaders about their concerns.

Social Circle City Manager Eric Taylor told NBC News the town sued to stop the ICE warehouse from opening in the community.

“We are a quaint, small Southern town, and this would triple the population overnight and have all kinds of strain on our water and sewer infrastructure,” Taylor said.

Taylor said he was happy to hear ICE might be changing its warehouse plan but was skeptical that would ultimately happen, adding that he wants it in writing from DHS.

“That’s great news,” he said. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

Celebrations are taking place across the country leading up to the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, including concerts, fairs and sporting events, with two main groups responsible for the largest festivities.

One of them, America250, is the nonprofit supporting the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, which was established 10 years ago through an act of Congress and is led by a bipartisan group of lawmakers and private citizens. The other, Freedom 250, was established by the Trump administration as a public-private partnership by which to fund and plan events celebrating this summer’s historic anniversary.

This week, confusion about the difference between the two groups reached a fever pitch after some of the artists who were billed as performing at Freedom 250’s Great American State Fair backed out, saying they were misled about the nature of the event.

“The artists were never told about any political involvement with the event,” rapper Young MC wrote in a social media post on Wednesday. Country singer Martina McBride said she “was assured this was a nonpartisan event that was meant to celebrate ALL 50 states. Yesterday things started changing and what we were told is, in fact, not what is happening.”

Freedom 250, which labels itself as a nonpartisan nonprofit, maintained that its event wasn’t meant to be political. In a statement to NBC News on Friday, Rachel Reisner, a spokesperson for the group, said: “Freedom 250 is a nonpartisan organization singularly focused on celebrating America’s 250th anniversary and bringing Americans together around this historic milestone. From the outset, our work has reflected the unifying spirit of this moment.”

The two groups aren’t connected, but each entity says they share similar goals of putting on nonpartisan events to honor the United States’ history on its milestone birthday.

What is America250?

America250 was the group that was originally supposed to put on all the birthday celebrations.

It’s a nonpartisan, nonprofit group supporting the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, which was established by law in 2016 to “plan and orchestrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.”

The commission is led by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.; Alex Padilla, D-Calif.; and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.; and Reps. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala.; Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Fla.; Dwight Evans, D-Pa.; and Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J.

America250, the nonprofit arm, is led by a nonpartisan group of private citizens, including the group’s chair, former U.S. Treasurer Rosie Rios, and its executive vice president, Jennifer Condon.

So why was Freedom 250 created?

The foundation for what became Freedom 250 began as an executive order that President Donald Trump signed shortly after his second term began, with the establishment of “Task Force 250.”

In a video message in December, Trump said the “public-private partnership” was meant to fulfill his campaign pledge “to give America the most spectacular birthday party the world has ever seen for America’s 250th anniversary.”

Trump is the chair of the task force, and Vice President JD Vance serves as vice chair.

Because Freedom 250 isn’t subject to congressional oversight, the Trump administration — and aligned outside groups — have more latitude in its plans.

Who is funding these groups?

Freedom 250 and America250 are each 501(c)3 organizations, meaning they’re not required to disclose their donors, but can do so if they choose.

America250 lists its corporate sponsors on the organization’s website. They include major American corporations such as Amazon, Boeing, General Mills, FedEx, Northrop Grumman and Palantir. (Comcast NBCUniversal, the parent company of NBC News, is also a donor.) Under the 2016 law, the commission that oversees the nonprofit is required to submit an annual report to Congress on its activities, including funding and spending.

Freedom 250 does not list its major donors online, but has identified companies such as John Deere and Northrop Grumman as “strategic partners” to the organization. Though the organization is partnering with departments and agencies across the federal government, Freedom 250 is not subject to any sort of independent oversight.

Last year’s signature Republican legislative package, the so-called big, beautiful bill, also earmarked $150 million for events related to the 250th anniversary. Under that law, the Interior Department is responsible for distributing the funds. The bill does not mention America250 or Freedom 250.

A spokesperson for the Interior Department did not immediately respond to an NBC News request for comment about whether or how much was given to each of the two groups.

Why has Freedom 250 attracted criticism?

The split funding between the two groups has drawn questions and concerns from Democratic senators, led by Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.

In a March letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Schiff and several other Democrats questioned “whether Freedom 250 is commingling federal taxpayer dollars, including from the Department of Interior, with privately raised funds and money potentially raised from foreign sources.”

The senators added that they had serious questions about the Interior Department’s legal authority to allocate the funds.

Ethics groups, like Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, have also raised concerns about Freedom 250’s funding and whether there are conflicts of interest among some of the corporations that have donated to the group and have business before the Trump administration.

Who runs Freedom 250?

While America250 lists its organization’s leaders online, Freedom 250 does not explicitly identify who is managing the group on a day-to-day basis.

Much of the work to put on the group’s events is being done by Event Strategies Inc. and its Managing Partner Justin Caporale. ESI produced the Jan. 6, 2021, rally on the Ellipse that preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Caporale is a longtime Trump ally and worked to put on some of the Trump 2024 campaign’s most memorable public events, including Trump’s visit to McDonald’s and the garbage truck photo op.

What events are backed by Freedom 250?

Freedom 250 is responsible for several major events that are scheduled to take place in Washington this summer, including the Great American State Fair on the National Mall in late June, the Salute to America fireworks celebration on July 4 and the Patriot Games later this fall.

The Patriot Games will be a physical fitness competition featuring male and female high school athletes from every state and territory, and two winners, one male and one female, will split a $250,000 grand prize.

One of Freedom 250’s signature events took place in May and was named “Rededicate 250,” a national prayer celebration that took place on the National Mall.

What events are backed by America250?

On its website, America250 is advertising America’s Block Party, a “shared celebration” across the country on July 3 and 4 that includes large and small gatherings open to the public to celebrate the spirit of the nation’s founding.

The group has also partnered with other organizations over the last year on initiatives like a “USA 250” patch that players wore at the Super Bowl in February and astronauts raising the “America 250” flag on the Artemis II mission that orbited the moon in April.

In a statement, Rios told NBC News that the group also supports local groups and other organizations involved in planning events surrounding the nation’s 250th birthday.

Alexandra Bacallao contributed.

A rookie federal prosecutor who brought a case accusing former FBI Director James Comey of threatening President Donald Trump’s life by posting a photo of seashells on Instagram has stepped off the case.

Matthew Petracca, who was had been recently hired as an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of North Carolina, is no longer on the Comey case, according to a court filing.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Severo is now heading the case. Petracca did not respond to a prior message seeking comment on his status at the Justice Department. Petracca did not handle a recent interaction with Comey’s defense team, which instead communicated with First Assistant U.S. Attorney Phil Aubart.

U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina W. Ellis Boyle oversaw the highly-criticized case, which will go to trial in October if it manages to survive legal challenges.

Petracca also dropped off of other criminal cases in the Eastern District of North Carolina in recent days, according to court filings. Petracca is a former Republican county committeeman in New Jersey whom Boyle hired months ago, NBC News has reported.

A two-count indictment, was brought late last month and suggested that a reasonable person would interpret the image of the shells, arranged to spell out “86 47,” as “a serious expression of an intent to do harm to the President of the United States.”

The indictment doesn’t spell out what the numbers mean. The term “86” is widely considered to be restaurant slang for being out of something in the kitchen, and the 47 was thought to be a reference to the 47th president.

It was the second time the Justice Department has tried to indict the former FBI director, a longtime target of Trump’s. The first, over an allegation that Comey lied to Congress five years ago during remote testimony via Zoom, was dismissed by a judge who ruled the federal prosecutor had been improperly appointed.

Trump has said he wants the Justice Department to go after his political enemies; acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has argued that those now targeted by the Justice Department themselves used the law to go after the president.

Some legal experts — including several conservatives who typically defend the Trump administration’s actions — criticized the case and expect it to be dismissed long before it gets to trial.

“As one of his longest and most vocal critics, I would frankly prefer to crawl into one of Comey’s conversant shells than write this column,” wrote scholar Jonathan Turley. “However, here we are. This indictment is unconstitutional and will not likely survive constitutional challenge.”

After the indictment was announced, Trump said of Comey: “Comey is a dirty cop. He’s a very dirty cop,” Trump said. “He’s a crooked man.”

Comey’s attorney has said he was going to file a motion arguing the case was a vindictive prosecution.

There are scores of T-shirts, hats, buttons, bumper stickers and posters for sale that read “8647,” including some that are made with seashells.

Blanche said on “CBS Mornings” that he had “no idea whether there was an investigation into the other times that that post has been made and whether that investigation yielded different results.”

“This investigation that we undertook resulted in a two-count indictment,” he said.

The Defense Department is requiring members of the military to meet a certain body type criteria in order to attend the big Ultimate Fighting Championship event at the White House next month, according to two people familiar with the criteria and a Pentagon memo outlining the criteria that was reviewed by NBC News.

The memo, which was issued to branches of the military this week, states that service members who receive tickets to the big fighting event on the South Lawn must meet a waist-to-height ratio of less than 0.55, “as well as all service-specific physical fitness test requirements.”

Uniformed troops from commands around the world are eligible to request tickets, but the Pentagon will not cover their travel costs, according to the memo, which describes the fight as a “high visibility” event at on the White House South Lawn.

And in this instance, service members’ level of devotion to the UFC means more than their rank. “Tickets must be distributed to genuine UFC fans, not solely by high-ranking [distinguished visitors],” according to the memo.

The Pentagon declined to comment on the matter.

The Pentagon requiring troops to meet a certain fitness standard for the event was first reported by the Washington Post on Friday.

The requirements suggest Pentagon leaders and organizers of the UFC fight — which is shaping up to be President Donald Trump’s marquee event around celebrating America’s 250^th anniversary — are placing a higher premium on the image of the audience than the record or length of service of active-duty troops.

Demand is high for the event, which is held on the same day as Trump’s 80th birthday on June 14, with limited supplies of tickets. Trump is handpicking most of the 4,000-plus spectators lucky enough, cunning enough or rich enough to secure a seat, according to a report last week in NBC News.

“I’m going to make a lot of enemies because it’s impossible to get everyone tickets,” Trump told NBC news in an interview earlier this month.

Discussions about whether members of the military who attend the UFC fight will be considered “deployed” while there, as they were when they took part in the Army 250 parade last summer, have been ongoing for months among organizers of the event and within the Defense Department.

For troops seeking tickets, the Pentagon memo says, “Commands should ensure a fair and transparent selection process.”

They required attire for attendance will be “Short sleeve uniform with appropriate military regalia & headgear,” according to the memo, which notes: “The event is standing room only, outdoors and uncovered.”

A federal judge ruled Friday that President Donald Trump’s name was illegally added to the Kennedy Center and blocked the administration from closing the cultural and arts venue for major renovations — the latest legal setback for Trump’s efforts to leave his personal mark on the landscape of the nation’s capital.

Trump said in response that he’s backing away from his proposed renovation and returning control of the arts institution to Congress.

“Unless I am free to do what I do better than anyone else, bring this Institution back, physically, financially, and artistically, I have no interest in continuing what could only be a hopeless journey into ‘NEVER NEVER LAND,’” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington, D.C., ruled that the Kennedy Center board’s March 16 vote to close the facility was “ill-informed and seemingly preordained” with no regard for its legal obligations. The administration had announced the work would begin in July and last approximately two years, but Cooper’s ruling halts those plans for now.

“The trustees might have assessed the propriety of closure in a number of prudent ways. This was not one,” he wrote.

Cooper also concluded that the board “overstepped its statutory bounds” by unilaterally adding Trump’s name to the center. Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it, he said.

The judge, who was nominated to the bench by Democratic President Barack Obama, ordered the defendants to remove Trump’s name from the institution’s façade and any “official materials,” such as digital or physical signs, within two weeks.

“May the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts be renamed absent Congressional authorization? The answer, plain from the face of the statute, is no. Nor can any other individual be memorialized on the front portico of the building,” Cooper wrote.

Trump said the judge “should be ashamed of himself” in a social media post hours after the decision was issued.

The Republican president said he instructed his administration to “make all necessary arrangements” to have the center transferred to Congress.

Trump determined to leave his mark on DC

Trump has made it a priority of his second term to leave his personal stamp on some of the most historic spots in Washington. He demolished the East Wing of the White House to build a ballroom. His name or image has been added to government buildings, including the U.S. Institute of Peace and Justice Department headquarters. He is pushing for a triumphal arch overlooking the Potomac River.

Opponents have challenged other Trump construction projects in court — and won favorable rulings. But the district court judges likely won’t have the final say as the administration pursues appeals.

Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s vice president of public relations, said Friday the institution is “confident that on appeal the court will uphold the Board’s will to recognize President Trump’s historic contributions to our nation’s cultural center.” She said the decision would be reviewed “carefully.”

“Though the reality remains — the Center requires an urgent and significant restoration – a truth that even the plaintiff acknowledges,” Daravi said. “With $257 million secured by President Trump and approved by Congress, the resources are in place and we remain committed to pursuing every lawful avenue to ensure the Trump Kennedy Center is restored as a national cultural landmark for all Americans to enjoy.”

Cooper held hearings in late April for parallel lawsuits challenging the project. One was filed by a group of cultural and historic preservation organizations. The other was brought by Rep. Joyce Beatty, an Ohio Democrat who serves as an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center’s board. He ruled in favor of Beatty’s request but rejected the other challenge.

Beatty called the decision a win for the Kennedy Center and the performing arts. “Now hopefully people can come back to work, we can continue to be the Kennedy Center that we were intended to be,” she told The Associated Press.

Justice Department attorneys said renovation plans for the building are limited in scope and well within the board’s authority to make without needing outside approvals.

How much of an overhaul is needed?

The plaintiffs worry the president and his board allies will flout preservation rules designed to maintain the building’s historic fabric. In earlier statements in court hearings, attorneys for Beatty and the preservation groups raised doubts about the limited scope of the project, pointing to Trump’s statements that he would “fully expose” the building’s steel skeleton.

Beatty has said she was “very fearful that we’ll see what happened with the East Wing and what happened with the Rose Garden” if the center is closed and the renovations allowed unsupervised, referring to major changes the president has made at the White House.

Mike Floca, the Kennedy Center’s executive director and chief operating officer, spent several weeks during the spring walking a bipartisan group of lawmakers and their staffs, along with journalists and Washington city officials, through the expansive building that sprawls across 1.5 million square feet.

The tours were intended to show that the Kennedy Center, which began construction in 1965, was in genuine need of an overhaul. The walkthroughs showed severe water damage, apparent in some places through discoloration and pooling. Some pieces of equipment, including several 800-ton chillers that help cool the building, are decades old and in need of replacement.

Floca told reporters in April that he considered doing the repairs individually but insisted it was his recommendation to Trump to close the building and move forward with the renovation all at once.

Trump has taken a keen interest in the Kennedy Center’s operations since he returned to the White House last year. He installed a handpicked board that named him chairman. His name was added to the façade of a building that is considered a living monument to Kennedy.

The Kennedy Center has kept up performances ahead of the closure, though at a much slower pace than in previous years. Trump attended the premiere of the musical “Chicago” in March and other shows, including “Moulin Rouge,” are slated for June.

Bill Maher, the comedian who has had an up and down relationship with Trump, is expected to be awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on June 28, an event that was anticipated to be one of the final big moments at the Kennedy Center before the closure.

The White House has launched a new website called Aliens.gov — but the extraterrestrial-themed page isn’t for disclosures on unidentified flying objects. Instead, it’s an immigration enforcement website mapping out arrests across the United States.

The site uses dark visuals and sci-fi-style green font to warn of aliens who “walk among us.” The White House teased the site Thursday night with a 10-second video posted on X.

“For 60 years, the U.S. government has kept a closely guarded secret,” the website reads. “Aliens have been walking among us, living in our neighborhoods, and interacting with us in our daily lives. They’ve shopped in the same stores, attended the same classes as our children, and lived seemingly normal human existences. With one exception — they do not belong here.”

The controversial website includes a ticker purporting to show the number of so-called “encounters,” with the figure standing at over 3.1 million and counting as of Friday morning. It is unclear exactly what the White House site means by “encounters,” but the Department of Homeland Security defines the term to include “apprehensions,” encounters at U.S. ports of entry and those processed for deportations. The site doesn’t provide any information on a timeline for when the “encounters” occurred.

The site also features a searchable live map for tracking arrests of undocumented immigrants by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and encourages citizens to “report suspicious aliens” through an ICE tip line.

“If you’ve witnessed an Alien abduction, do not be alarmed,” a message reads. “The Alien is in good hands… and will be returned safely to its place of origin.”

In March, the White House sparked intrigued when it quietly registered the domain name Alien.gov. At the time, many suspected it was related to directive from President Donald Trump to release previously classified files related to UFOs.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, responded to the post on X, writing: “Still looking for intelligent life in the White House.”

The White House did not immediately respond to NBC’s request for comment, but defended the site in a statement to Fox News: “This is a first-of-its-kind effort to draw eyeballs to the fact that the previous administration’s porous border didn’t just put families in border states at risk, many across the country were in harm’s way.”

Immigration has long been Trump’s signature issue and a top reason he won a second term in 2024. His first year back in the White House saw sweeping changes in enforcement and an infusion of billions of dollars to the agencies tasked with carrying out his agenda. ICE has loosen restrictions placed on those who could be arrested and removed, leading to a surge of arrests in large-scale sweeps, mostly in Democratic-led cities. The crackdown sparked clashes between protesters and enforcement officers and led to the shooting deaths in Minneapolis of two U.S. citizens.

Since then, the president’s hard-line anti-immigration agenda has lost popularity with voters and there have been no new high-profile city-based operations launched, raising questions about the administration’s strategy.

But in a sign of its continued determination, ICE in budget documents says it plans to remove 1 million people this fiscal year and the next compared with roughly 442,000 people last year. The agency also has plenty of money to carry out its mission, with Congress granting the Department of Homeland Security more than $170 billion for Trump’s immigration agenda last year.

The administration aims to have enough space to detain roughly 100,000 people this fiscal year, which would more than double the average daily number held in ICE detention last year. The administration has already expanded its detention capacity with the purchase of 11 warehouses across the country.

The Trump administration has also targeted legal pathways to immigration, including stripping away protections for migrants with temporary legal status to remain in the U.S. while their cases are being adjudicated. Another example is the decline in the number of green cards approved by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which dropped by half over the course of a year under the Trump administration, according to an analysis by the Cato Institute, which supports immigration into the U.S. Humanitarian visas for refugees or people who qualified for asylum saw the biggest declines. USCIS also announced this week that foreigners in the U.S. who want a green card will need to leave and apply in their home country.

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“The Great American State Fair” is a series of concerts, exhibits, tributes and other programs scheduled to take place June 25 to July 10 on Washington’s National Mall. It was organized by Freedom 250, which is billed as a nonpartisan organization but was launched last year by President Donald Trump and is headed by a Trump State Department appointee from his first term, the businessman-philanthropist Keith Krach.

On Wednesday, Freedom 250 announced that Bret Michaels, the Commodores and Martina McBride would be among the musical performers, some of whom were slated for an “I Love the ’90s” show on June 26.

But by late Thursday, Michaels, the Commodores and McBride had dropped out, as did Morris Day and Young MC.

Why have artists been canceling their appearances?

Michaels and others have said that they were misled about the theme of the shows or were otherwise wary of being caught up in a political fight. In an Instagram post, Michaels wrote that he had thought his show would be a chance to “honor our veterans, active military, first responders, teachers and hardworking Americans from all walks of life.” But he concluded that the event had “evolved into something much more divisive” and referred to “threats that are completely unfounded and unforgivable.”

McBride also issued an Instagram statement, saying she had been “presented with an opportunity to perform at a nonpartisan event but that turned out to be misleading.” Young MC expressed similar sentiments in an Instagram post, while the Commodores released a brief statement saying they chose “not to publicly affiliate with any single political party.”

Who’s still on the bill for the Freedom 250 concerts?

As of Friday morning, performers still expected to appear include Flo Rida, Vanilla Ice and Fab Morvan of Milli Vanilli, the Grammy-winning duo from the late 1980s-early 1990s who were discredited after reports that Morvan and fellow frontman Rob Pilatus did not sing on the records and lip-synced on stage. (The actual singers, including sisters Jodie and Linda Rocco, told The Associated Press that they were not invited).

Morvan told the AP in an emailed statement that he was “here to entertain and unite people, not divide them.”

“Let’s celebrate life & music and take a trip down memory lane,” he said.

A representative for Vanilla Ice told the AP in an email that the “Ice Ice Baby” rapper was “proud to help celebrate America’s 250th Anniversary!”

“Everyone is welcome to attend and celebrate USA’s Birthday and our Freedom!” the representative said.

A Flo Rida representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

What Freedom 250 organizers have said

Freedom 250 organizers have yet to respond to AP requests for comment. Freedom 250 spokeswoman Rachel Reisner told The New York Times in a statement that “Freedom 250 is focused on our signature celebrations and events that honor our history and engage all Americans.”

How, in general, artists have responded to the Trump administration

Trump, a Republican, has some prominent supporters in the entertainment industry, including Sylvester Stallone and Nicki Minaj, but many more have shunned him. Taylor Swift, Robert De Niro, Billie Eilish and Bruce Springsteen are among those who have endorsed Democrats and/or condemned Trump, while Elton John, Kenny Loggins and others have objected to their music being used for Trump rallies or Trump videos. After the president ousted the leadership last year at the Kennedy Center and had his own name placed on the building’s facade, numerous artists, including Bela Fleck, Renée Fleming and Issa Rae, called off scheduled appearances.

Former Attorney General Pam Bondi refused to answer questions Friday on President Donald Trump’s involvement in the release of the Jeffrey Epstein case files as she defended the Trump administration’s actions before House lawmakers scrutinizing a process that was delayed and included personal information of potential victims.

Bondi, who arrived Friday morning on Capitol Hill for her closed-door interview, was defiant in previous public testimony when she was confronted by lawmakers about the Epstein investigation. In her opening statement, she kept to the same tact.

“The bottom line is: justice and transparency in this matter have been delivered at the direction of President Trump and his administration,” she said, according to a written copy of her opening statement.

The transcribed Bondi interview gave lawmakers a chance to dig for information on the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files and other related matters, including the prison sentence of Epstein’s former girlfriend and confidant, Ghislaine Maxwell.

But Democratic lawmakers said that Bondi told them she would not speak about the president in the interview and, consulting with a lawyer from the Department of Justice, cited her ability to decline questions because she agreed to appear before the committee voluntarily.

“It’s a sham in there. They are not answering any questions,” said Democratic Rep. Dave Min of California during a break in the interview.

Democratic Rep. James Walkinshaw of Virginia said that he asked Bondi whether Trump had any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes before they became public. Reading from his notes of the exchange, Walkinshaw told reporters that Bondi’s response was, “I’m not certain of the extent of his knowledge.”

The top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Robert Garcia of California, also criticized the fact that Harmeet Dhillon, a top DOJ official, was in the interview with Bondi.

“The DOJ is in there right now, stopping questions about President Trump and about what happened in the release of these files, and why so many survivors were doxxed, and their information, of course, released to the public,” he said.

Asked after the interview concluded if she directed Bondi not to answer questions about Trump, Dhillon told reporters that “there were ground rules laid with the committee before we walked in there, and we simply wanted to stick to those, the temporal limitations as well as subject matter limitations.”

Epstein killed himself in a New York City jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial. Maxwell, a British socialite, was convicted in 2021 of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein but has insisted she’s innocent, arguing she never should have been prosecuted. The Justice Department moved Maxwell from a federal prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas last August.

Lawmakers are trying to find out what decisions prosecutors have made about investigating Epstein associates, how the Justice Department handled the congressional mandate to release the Epstein case files and whether Trump was involved in the process.

Bondi told lawmakers in her opening statement that then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who is now the acting attorney general, had overseen the process to release the Epstein case files as mandated by a law passed by Congress and signed by Trump last year.

She called it “an enormously complicated and labor-intensive process” and conceded that the department had made redaction errors. Bondi said she was assured by the team that reviewed the documents that “the only materials that were withheld were either non-responsive, privileged, or duplicative.”

“To the best of my knowledge, the Department produced everything required under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Our diligent and good faith effort to collect materials ensured that all potentially responsive documents that could be reasonably located would see the light of day,” she said in her opening remarks.

But she mostly defended the Justice Department’s work, saying that it had complied with the law and demonstrated “an unprecedented commitment to transparency.”

Several survivors of Epstein’s abuse also gathered outside the Capitol office where the interview was taking place. They tried to make their presence known to Bondi as she entered the room, but several said they were shoved aside by police officers.

The survivors also implored lawmakers to hold Bondi accountable for the handling of the Epstein case files’ release, which included the personal information of potential victims.

They confronted the committee chair, Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, and he told them that he would press for the complete release of case files mandated by law.

“We want justice for the survivors, we do,” Comer added.

Bondi, who revealed this week that she is being treated for thyroid cancer, has stayed within the Republican president’s orbit even after being ousted from her job in early April.

Trump appointed Bondi to a White House panel on artificial intelligence this week, and she will be accompanied Friday by Justice Department officials, including Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the department’s Civil Rights Division, acting as her counsel.

Democrats say that arrangement is a conflict of interest.

Bondi was central to the Epstein saga

Bondi has been central to the political firestorm over Epstein, initially raising expectations for the full release of what’s known as the Epstein files, only to later backtrack. That reversal prompted Congress to step in and pass a law requiring the release.

Bondi faced even more backlash when the Justice Department’s release of the files was delayed and then included personal information and nude photos of several potential victims. She has insisted in congressional hearings that she was trying to follow the law.

The House Oversight Committee, meanwhile, has been conducting a wide-ranging investigation into Epstein that spans multiple presidential administrations.

The interview format is already contentious

Bondi was subpoenaed by the committee in March in a bipartisan vote, but she tried to head off that demand by holding a closed-door meeting with lawmakers that month. The maneuver only added to the enmity between Bondi and Democrats on the committee.

Bondi’s departure from the Justice Department also raised doubts about the enforcement of the congressional subpoena. After the committee’s Democrats maneuvered to press for a civil contempt of Congress resolution against Bondi, she agreed to sit for a transcribed interview rather than a sworn deposition.

Democrats on the Oversight panel have criticized that arrangement, saying that it allows Bondi to decline to answer questions. They also objected to Comer’s decision not to video the interview.

“We continue to be incredibly disappointed of the decision to not have this interview videotaped and then released to the American public,” said Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the panel.

Comer has said he is allowing Bondi to sit for a transcribed interview rather than a deposition as an incentive to cooperate. Previously, he had enforced a subpoena on former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after they resisted the demand. Both of their depositions were video-recorded.

Still, Comer said Bondi could face prosecution if she lies to Congress. He said the committee would also release a transcript of the interview.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from paying any claims through a new $1.776 billion settlement fund for the Republican president’s allies who believe they were victims of a weaponized government.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, on Friday also barred the government from moving forward with the fund’s creation while litigation is pending to challenge it.

The judge, who was nominated to the bench by President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, scheduled a June 12 hearing for arguments on whether to extend the order blocking payouts from an “Anti-Weaponization Fund.” The government created the fund to resolve Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns.

The White House declined to comment on the judge’s ruling and referred all questions to the Justice Department, which didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The judge gave the government another week to respond in writing to the plaintiffs’ arguments in favor of freezing the fund’s creation.

The fund has created a fierce backlash since it was announced last week, with even Republicans pressing acting Attorney General Todd Blanche over the eligibility considerations and the possibility that even violent rioters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, would be free to seek compensation.

Senate Republican leaders last week punted a vote on a GOP package to fund ICE and the Border Patrol until June in part because of concerns over the fund, NBC News reported.

The Justice Department hasn’t formed the five-member commission that will decide on payout criteria, so there has been no money paid out yet or claims accepted.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys from the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward are seeking a court order halting the fund’s implementation and preventing the Trump administration from disbursing any payouts from it. The federal suit claims there is no legal basis or accountability behind the fund.

“President Trump and his allies have long accused Democrats of using the government and the legal system as political weapons,” plaintiffs’ lawyers wrote. “In doing so, the (Trump) administration fails to acknowledge the unprecedented campaign of targeting individuals and entities for retribution on personal and ideological grounds that it has carried out.”

Brinkema said it’s important to maintain the status quo — for at least the next two weeks — and to ensure that no funds are “irreversibly disbursed” from the fund. Her order temporarily prohibits the Trump administration from transferring any money to the fund, considering any claims or disbursing any money from it.

The Virginia lawsuit’s plaintiffs include a fired prosecutor and a college professor acquitted of assaulting federal agents at a protest.

“The unlawfulness that has imbued the Anti-Weaponization Fund from its inception requires that it be wholly dismantled,” the suit says.

At least two other lawsuits, both filed separately in Washington, also are challenging the fund’s creation. A lawsuit filed by the advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington refers to the fund as “a jaw-dropping act of presidential corruption.” Two police officers who helped defend the Capitol from a mob of Trump supporters sued last week.

During a congressional hearing, Blanche wouldn’t rule out the possibility that rioters who assaulted police on Jan. 6 could be eligible for fund payouts.

Nearly 1,600 people were charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 1,200 were convicted and sentenced before Trump handed out mass pardons, commuted prison sentences and ordered the dismissal of every pending Jan. 6 criminal case last year.

One of the plaintiffs in the Virginia case is former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Floyd, who prosecuted Capitol riot cases in Washington before he was fired last year by then-Attorney General Pam Bondi. Floyd believes his firing was retaliation for his Jan. 6 work.

“The President’s targeting of me and others involved in January 6 prosecutions leaves our country in a very dark place, sending a message that insurrection and sedition will be protected (and even encouraged) as long as it is on behalf of this administration,” Floyd said in a court filing.

Another plaintiff is California State University Channel Islands professor Jonathan Caravello, who was acquitted of an assault charge. He was accused of throwing a tear gas canister at federal agents during a 2025 protest against an immigration raid at a Camarillo, California, cannabis farm.

___

Associated Press writers Darlene Superville, Alanna Durkin Richer and Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

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