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Tag: President Donald Trump

  • Colorado legal scholar weighs in on SCOTUS taking up birthright citizenship case

    A Colorado legal scholar is weighing in on the case that could upend life in the United States for millions of people.

    The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s executive order declaring that children born to parents who are in the U.S. illegally or temporarily, are not American citizens. It is commonly called “birthright citizenship.”

    The birthright citizenship order, which the president signed on the first day of his second term, is part of his administration’s broad crackdown on immigration.

    Denver7 anchor Shannon Ogden spoke with P. (Deep) Gulasekaram, professor of law and director of the Byron R. White Center for the Student of American Constitutional Law at University of Colorado. Professor Gulasekaram said Trump’s order would upend more than 125 years of understanding that the constitution’s 14th Amendment confers citizenship on everyone born on American soil, with the narrow exceptions for children of foreign diplomats and those born to a foreign occupying force.

    “It has the possibility of creating hundreds of thousands of stateless individuals and depriving babies born in the United States of the ability to remain in the United States, to be educated in the United States and the possibility to be taken away from family in the United States,” said Gulasekaram.

    National Politics

    Supreme Court will take up case on Trump’s birthright citizenship changes

    Gulasekaram explained that the Trump executive order argues that it is upholding the original intent of the 14th Amendment.

    “If they are saying this was always the interpretation, this is what it meant from the jump, then we’re talking about generations of people who all of the sudden go, ‘Oh. We were never citizens,’” asked Ogden.

    “That’s right. We’re talking about millions and millions of people,” replied Gulasekaram.

    In a series of decisions, lower courts have struck down the executive order as unconstitutional, or likely so, even after a Supreme Court ruling in late June that limited judges’ use of nationwide injunctions.

    “You are talking about something that upends the way in which citizenship has been conferred and the settled expectations of the people of the United States for not just decades but centuries,” adds Gulasekaram.

    The high court will hear arguments next year and will likely hand down a decision by the end of June 2026.

    Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser joined 21 other attorneys general in a lawsuit attempting to block the president’s executive order banning birthright citizenship.

    Twenty-four Republican-led states and 27 Republican lawmakers, including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, are backing the administration.

    Denver7

    Denver7 | Your Voice: Get in touch with Shannon Ogden

    Denver7 evening anchor Shannon Ogden reports on issues impacting all of Colorado’s communities, but specializes in covering local government and politics. If you’d like to get in touch with Shannon, fill out the form below to send him an email.

    Shannon Ogden

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  • Trump announces death of National Guard member after shooting, ramps up scrutiny of refugees

    President Donald Trump announced the death of one National Guard member on Thanksgiving and said another is still “fighting for his life.” Police say both soldiers were shot while on patrol down the street from the White House on Wednesday. Trump announced the death of Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old from West Virginia, during a call with troops on Thursday night. The White House says the president spoke with Beckstrom’s parents later that evening.”She was savagely attacked. She’s dead, not with us. An incredible person, outstanding in every single way, in every department. It’s horrible,” Trump said on the call with troops. The charges against the alleged shooter are now expected to be upgraded to first-degree murder. The Justice Department has also suggested that it will seek the death penalty. “The death penalty is back,” Attorney General Pam Bondi posted Thursday night. FBI Director Kash Patel said the shooting is also being investigated as an act of terrorism. Authorities say Beckstrom and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, were shot in a targeted attack, although a motive has not been revealed. The alleged shooter has been identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old from Afghanistan. “What we know about him is that he drove his vehicle across the country from the state of Washington with the intended target of coming to our nation’s capital,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said at a press conference on Thursday morning.The Associated Press reports that Lakanwal was approved for asylum under the Trump administration, but officials say he first entered the country through a Biden administration resettlement program after the U.S. withdrew from the war in Afghanistan. Before arriving in America, Lakanwal worked with the CIA, according to John Ratcliffe, the spy agency’s director. Ratcliffe said the relationship ended shortly after the evacuation of U.S. service members.”We are fully investigating that aspect of his background as well to include any known associates that are either overseas or here in the United States of America,” FBI Director Kash Patel said Thursday. Asked about the CIA connection and the screening procedures involved with that, President Trump continued to insist that the alleged shooter entered the U.S. unvetted.”He went nuts,” Trump said. “It happens too often with these people.”In a statement, the group #AfghanEvac, which assists with the resettlement process, said Afghan immigrants and wartime allies “undergo some of the most extensive security vetting of any population entering the country.” “This individual’s isolated and violent act should not be used as an excuse to define or diminish an entire community,” #AfghanEvac president Shawn VanDiver said. After the shooting, Trump said his administration would be reviewing every Afghan who entered the country under the Biden administration. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has indefinitely paused processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals, “pending further review of security and vetting protocols.” On Thursday, USCIS also said there would be “a full-scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.” Additionally, the agency released new guidance outlining new vetting standards for prospective immigrants from “19 high-risk countries.”Meanwhile, Trump ramped up his anti-immigrant rhetoric in a social media post just before midnight Thursday, promising to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover.”Trump said he would terminate what he described as illegal admissions under the Biden administration, end all federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens, and “denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility.” “HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL, except those that hate, steal, murder, and destroy everything that America stands for — You won’t be here for long,” Trump said.

    WASHINGTON —

    President Donald Trump announced the death of one National Guard member on Thanksgiving and said another is still “fighting for his life.” Police say both soldiers were shot while on patrol down the street from the White House on Wednesday.

    Trump announced the death of Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old from West Virginia, during a call with troops on Thursday night. The White House says the president spoke with Beckstrom’s parents later that evening.

    “She was savagely attacked. She’s dead, not with us. An incredible person, outstanding in every single way, in every department. It’s horrible,” Trump said on the call with troops.

    The charges against the alleged shooter are now expected to be upgraded to first-degree murder. The Justice Department has also suggested that it will seek the death penalty.

    “The death penalty is back,” Attorney General Pam Bondi posted Thursday night.

    FBI Director Kash Patel said the shooting is also being investigated as an act of terrorism.

    Authorities say Beckstrom and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, were shot in a targeted attack, although a motive has not been revealed.

    The alleged shooter has been identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old from Afghanistan.

    “What we know about him is that he drove his vehicle across the country from the state of Washington with the intended target of coming to our nation’s capital,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said at a press conference on Thursday morning.

    The Associated Press reports that Lakanwal was approved for asylum under the Trump administration, but officials say he first entered the country through a Biden administration resettlement program after the U.S. withdrew from the war in Afghanistan.

    Before arriving in America, Lakanwal worked with the CIA, according to John Ratcliffe, the spy agency’s director. Ratcliffe said the relationship ended shortly after the evacuation of U.S. service members.

    “We are fully investigating that aspect of his background as well to include any known associates that are either overseas or here in the United States of America,” FBI Director Kash Patel said Thursday.

    Asked about the CIA connection and the screening procedures involved with that, President Trump continued to insist that the alleged shooter entered the U.S. unvetted.

    “He went nuts,” Trump said. “It happens too often with these people.”

    In a statement, the group #AfghanEvac, which assists with the resettlement process, said Afghan immigrants and wartime allies “undergo some of the most extensive security vetting of any population entering the country.”

    “This individual’s isolated and violent act should not be used as an excuse to define or diminish an entire community,” #AfghanEvac president Shawn VanDiver said.

    After the shooting, Trump said his administration would be reviewing every Afghan who entered the country under the Biden administration. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has indefinitely paused processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals, “pending further review of security and vetting protocols.”

    On Thursday, USCIS also said there would be “a full-scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.” Additionally, the agency released new guidance outlining new vetting standards for prospective immigrants from “19 high-risk countries.”

    Meanwhile, Trump ramped up his anti-immigrant rhetoric in a social media post just before midnight Thursday, promising to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover.”

    Trump said he would terminate what he described as illegal admissions under the Biden administration, end all federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens, and “denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility.”

    “HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL, except those that hate, steal, murder, and destroy everything that America stands for — You won’t be here for long,” Trump said.

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  • Prosecutor dismisses charges against Trump and others in Georgia election interference case

    The prosecutor who recently took over the Georgia election interference case against President Donald Trump and others said in a court filing Wednesday that he has decided not to pursue the case further.Pete Skandalakis, the executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, took over the case last month from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who was removed over an “appearance of impropriety” created by a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she chose to lead the case.After Skandalakis’ filing, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee issued a one-paragraph order dismissing the case in its entirety.It was unlikely that legal action against Trump could have moved forward while he is president. But 14 other defendants still faced charges, including former New York mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.After the Georgia Supreme Court in September declined to hear Willis’ appeal of her disqualification, it fell to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council to find a new prosecutor. Skandalakis said last month that he reached out to several prosecutors, but they all declined to take on the case. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee set a Nov. 14 deadline for the appointment of a new prosecutor, so Skandalakis chose to appoint himself rather than allowing the case to be dismissed.

    ATLANTA —

    The prosecutor who recently took over the Georgia election interference case against President Donald Trump and others said in a court filing Wednesday that he has decided not to pursue the case further.

    Pete Skandalakis, the executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, took over the case last month from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who was removed over an “appearance of impropriety” created by a romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she chose to lead the case.

    After Skandalakis’ filing, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee issued a one-paragraph order dismissing the case in its entirety.

    It was unlikely that legal action against Trump could have moved forward while he is president. But 14 other defendants still faced charges, including former New York mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

    After the Georgia Supreme Court in September declined to hear Willis’ appeal of her disqualification, it fell to the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council to find a new prosecutor. Skandalakis said last month that he reached out to several prosecutors, but they all declined to take on the case. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee set a Nov. 14 deadline for the appointment of a new prosecutor, so Skandalakis chose to appoint himself rather than allowing the case to be dismissed.

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  • FBI investigates video urging US troops to defy illegal orders

    A video urging U.S. troops to defy “illegal orders” has led to the FBI requesting interviews with the Democratic lawmakers involved, indicating an investigation may be underway. The lawmakers did not mention specific reasons for their comments in the clip, but it comes after the Trump administration ordered the military to blow up boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, accusing them of smuggling drugs into the U.S., and the deployment of the National Guard to U.S. cities.All six of the Democratic lawmakers in the video have served in the military or intelligence community.In the video, lawmakers said they needed troops to “stand up for our laws … our Constitution.” The Pentagon said Monday it was reviewing Senator Mark Kelly, who is in the video, for violating military law. President Donald Trump accused the lawmakers of sedition and said it is “punishable by death.”Senator Elissa Slotkin, one of six Democrats in the video, told reporters Tuesday this is a scare tactic by the president. The FBI declined to comment, but Director Kash Patel described the situation in an interview as an “ongoing matter.”Keep watching for the latest from the Washington News Bureau:

    WASHINGTON —

    A video urging U.S. troops to defy “illegal orders” has led to the FBI requesting interviews with the Democratic lawmakers involved, indicating an investigation may be underway.

    The lawmakers did not mention specific reasons for their comments in the clip, but it comes after the Trump administration ordered the military to blow up boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, accusing them of smuggling drugs into the U.S., and the deployment of the National Guard to U.S. cities.

    All six of the Democratic lawmakers in the video have served in the military or intelligence community.

    In the video, lawmakers said they needed troops to “stand up for our laws … our Constitution.”

    The Pentagon said Monday it was reviewing Senator Mark Kelly, who is in the video, for violating military law. President Donald Trump accused the lawmakers of sedition and said it is “punishable by death.”

    Senator Elissa Slotkin, one of six Democrats in the video, told reporters Tuesday this is a scare tactic by the president.

    The FBI declined to comment, but Director Kash Patel described the situation in an interview as an “ongoing matter.”

    Keep watching for the latest from the Washington News Bureau:


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  • Trump’s Genesis Mission aims to build a centralized AI platform to power scientific breakthroughs

    President Donald Trump has issued a new Executive Order that launches the “Genesis Mission,” an AI-focused initiative that will be led by the Department of Energy. It will “harness the current AI and advanced computing revolution to double the productivity and impact of American science and engineering within a decade,” the DOE explained. One of the mission’s main goals is to build a centralized platform that will house a huge collection of datasets collected “over decades of federal investments,” as well as datasets from academic institutions and partners from the private sector.

    Those datasets will then be used to train scientific foundation models and to create AI agents, automate research workflows and accelerate scientific breakthroughs, the administration said in its announcement. “The platform will connect the world’s best supercomputers, AI systems, and next-generation quantum systems with the most advanced scientific instruments in the nation,” the Energy department said.

    Based on that statement, the platform will be linked to the two sovereign AI supercomputers the agency is building at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, its famous research and development center. The machines, to be built by Hewlett Packard Enterprises, are meant to be the Trump AI Action Plan’s flagship supercomputers. The DOE previously revealed that the machines will be powered by AMD chips and will help tackle the biggest challenges in energy, medicine, health and national security.

    “The Genesis Mission marks a defining moment for the next era of American science. We are linking the nation’s most advanced facilities, data, and computing into one closed-loop system to create a scientific instrument for the ages, an engine for discovery that doubles R&D productivity and solves challenges once thought impossible,” said Dr. Darío Gil, the Under Secretary for Science and Genesis Mission Director.

    In the next four months, the Energy department must identify its initial set of data and model assets for the Genesis platform. The department must be able to demonstrate “an initial operating capability of the platform for at least one of the national science and technology challenges” the government has identified within nine months. While the list of challenges is pretty long, the Genesis Mission will focus on addressing three key challenges overall. First, it aims to accelerate nuclear and fusion energy, as well as to modernize the energy grid using AI. It also aims to power scientific discoveries for decades to come. Finally, it aims to create advanced AI technologies for the purpose of national security, such as systems that can ensure the reliability of America’s nuclear weapons and can accelerate the development of materials for defense.

    Mariella Moon

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  • Trump slams ABC after Jimmy Kimmel’s latest monologue

    NEW YORK CITY, New York: President Donald Trump escalated his criticism of ABC and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel this week, posting on social media that the network should “get the bum off the air.” The post came shortly after Kimmel’s latest episode aired.

    Trump has also attacked ABC’s chief White House correspondent, Mary Bruce, over questions she asked during an Oval Office meeting. His press team later sent out a 17-point memo listing complaints about ABC News.

    This newest clash with Kimmel comes two months after ABC briefly suspended the comedian for comments he made after the assassination of GOP activist Charlie Kirk. The network reinstated him after backlash.

    Kimmel opened his show on November 19 with a harsh monologue targeting Trump, spending several minutes on Jeffrey Epstein and Congress’ recent decision to release more of Epstein’s correspondence. He joked about “Hurricane Epstein” and questioned what Trump knew and when he knew it.

    Trump replied at 12:49 a.m. with a Truth Social post attacking Kimmel’s talent and ratings and criticizing ABC affiliates who previously pushed for his suspension. ABC declined to comment. Kimmel’s ratings have increased since returning to the air.

    Trump has also criticized other late-night hosts, recently calling for NBC to fire Seth Meyers.

    The conflict comes as the Epstein story continues to frustrate the White House. Trump insulted multiple reporters over the topic in recent days, including calling one “piggy.”

    On November 19, the White House released a statementaccusing ABC News of bias and listing grievances going back to Trump’s first term. Complaints included fact-checking during the 2024 debate, past reporting errors about the E. Jean Carroll case, and comments made by former ABC journalists.

    Following is the White House statement in full, unedited:

    ABC “News” is not journalism — it’s a Democrat spin operation masquerading as a broadcast network. The network’s longstanding commitment to hoaxes, character assassinations, and outright fiction targeting only one side of the political aisle is a deliberate deception to wage war on President Trump and the millions of Americans who elected him to multiple terms.

    ABC “News” has a long, rich tradition of peddling lies, conspiracies, and outright opinion thinly veiled as fact:

    • In 2017, ABC suspended investigative reporter Brian Ross after he falsely reported that President Trump had directed Michael Flynn to contact Russian officials before the 2016 election.
    • In 2020, ABC suspended veteran correspondent David Wright after he was caught identifying himself as a “socialist” and admitting the network pushes an anti-Trump agenda and airs stories designed for profit, not news.
    • In 2020, George Stephanopoulos — longtime Democrat operative turned wannabe “journalist” — failed to ask Joe Biden about his son Hunter’s infamous laptop or the swirling allegations of impropriety.
    • In 2024, Stephanopoulos repeatedly lied about President Trump’s legal cases. After being sued for promoting these defamatory lies, the network agreed to settle for $16 million and issue a statement of regret.
    • In October 2024, the network erroneously “fact checked” President Trump at least five times during the presidential debate — but failed to call out his opponent a single time.
    • Following President Trump’s historic 2024 election victory, 90% of the network’s coverage of his cabinet nominees was negative.
    • In January, ABC News gave 27 times more coverage to President Trump’s pardons of January 6 defendants than of Biden’s last-minute pardons to his corrupt family members.
    • In January, ABC News editorialized in a partisan way that President Trump’s personnel directives were “retribution.”
    • In February, ABC News mischaracterized the Trump Administration’s effort to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in the bloated federal bureaucracy as an “attack on veterans.”
    • In April, ABC News peddled the debunked lie that the Trump Administration was unilaterally deporting U.S. citizen babies.
    • In June, ABC News’s senior national correspondent Terry Moran smeared White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller as a “world-class hater” whose “hatreds are his spiritual nourishment” — just one entry in a long series of Moran’s obvious liberal bias during his tenure.
    • In June, ABC News aired what it called a “violent Border Patrol detention” — but failed to mention the detained illegal immigrant had been chasing federal agents with a weed whacker.
    • In June, ABC News praised violent Los Angeles rioters for “self-policing” — as local businesses and property were being harmed — during coverage critical of President Trump’s National Guard deployment.
    • In July, ABC News used its special coverage of the One Big Beautiful Bill signing ceremony to falsely claim the legislation would “mostly” benefit “the wealthiest Americans” and repeat the debunked talking point that millions of Americans would “lose their healthcare.”
    • In July, ABC News refused to cover the Office of National Intelligence’s announcement of a landmark investigation into Obama-era politicization and manufacturing of intelligence assessments.
    • In July, ABC News dismissed the vicious MS-13 gang — whose motto is literally “kill, rape, control” — as a “clique.”
    • In September, Stephanopoulos repeatedly — and falsely — insisted that people had somehow “died” because of the Trump Administration’s decision to shutter a bloated, wasteful bureaucratic agency.

    ABC News has not responded publicly to the criticism.

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  • President Trump’s Ukraine peace plan faces criticism from senators

    President Trump initially said he was giving Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelinsky until Thursday to accept the peace plan, but yesterday President Trump told reporters this is not his final offer. The Ukraine war with Russia should have never happened. If I were president, it never would have happened. We’re trying to get it ended one way or the other. We have to get it. The plan gives in to many Russian demands, including that Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelinsky has rejected on multiple occasions, including giving up large pieces of territory to Russia. Over the weekend, senators on both sides of the aisle said they spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who told them the Peace plan President Trump pushing Kiev to accept is actually *** wish list of the Russians and not the actual proposal offering Washington’s positions. Now Rubio denied this and claims that the plan was authored by the US with input from Ukraine and Russia. Zalinsky said on Friday the pressure on Ukraine is at its most intense, adding he will work quickly and calmly with the US and its partners to end the war at the White House. I’m Rachel Herzheimer.

    President Trump’s Ukraine peace plan faces criticism from senators

    President Donald Trump’s proposal to end the Ukraine-Russia war is under scrutiny from senators, including Republicans, who argue it favors Russia and leaves Ukraine vulnerable.

    Updated: 5:55 AM PST Nov 23, 2025

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    President Donald Trump’s plan to end the nearly four-year Ukraine-Russia war is drawing criticism from senators, including some Republicans, who say it strongly favors Russian President Vladimir Putin and puts Ukraine in a vulnerable position. This comes as top U.S., European, and Ukrainian officials meet Sunday in Switzerland to discuss President Trump’s plan to end the war.”It rewards aggression. This is pure and simple. There’s no ethical, legal, moral, political justification for Russia claiming eastern Ukraine,” Independent Maine Sen. Angus King said of Trump’s proposal.”We should not do anything that makes (Putin) feel like he has a win here,” said Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina.Trump initially said he was giving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy until Thursday to accept the peace proposal, but later said it was not his final offer.”The Ukraine war with Russia should have never happened. If I were president, it never would have happened. We’re trying to get it ended one way or the other. We have to get it ended,” Trump said.The plan reportedly accommodates many Russian demands, including concessions that Zelenskyy has repeatedly rejected, such as ceding large areas of territory to Russia. Over the weekend, senators from both parties said they spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who informed them that the peace plan Trump is urging Kyiv to accept is actually a “wish list” of the Russians and not the actual proposal reflecting Washington’s positions. Rubio denied this, claiming that the plan was authored by the U.S. with input from Ukraine and Russia. Zelenskyy said Sunday that “a positive result is needed for all of us” and that he will continue to work with American and European partners to end the war. Keep watching for the latest from the Washington News Bureau:

    WASHINGTON —

    President Donald Trump’s plan to end the nearly four-year Ukraine-Russia war is drawing criticism from senators, including some Republicans, who say it strongly favors Russian President Vladimir Putin and puts Ukraine in a vulnerable position.

    This comes as top U.S., European, and Ukrainian officials meet Sunday in Switzerland to discuss President Trump’s plan to end the war.

    “It rewards aggression. This is pure and simple. There’s no ethical, legal, moral, political justification for Russia claiming eastern Ukraine,” Independent Maine Sen. Angus King said of Trump’s proposal.

    “We should not do anything that makes (Putin) feel like he has a win here,” said Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

    Trump initially said he was giving Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy until Thursday to accept the peace proposal, but later said it was not his final offer.

    “The Ukraine war with Russia should have never happened. If I were president, it never would have happened. We’re trying to get it ended one way or the other. We have to get it ended,” Trump said.

    The plan reportedly accommodates many Russian demands, including concessions that Zelenskyy has repeatedly rejected, such as ceding large areas of territory to Russia.

    Over the weekend, senators from both parties said they spoke with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who informed them that the peace plan Trump is urging Kyiv to accept is actually a “wish list” of the Russians and not the actual proposal reflecting Washington’s positions. Rubio denied this, claiming that the plan was authored by the U.S. with input from Ukraine and Russia.

    Zelenskyy said Sunday that “a positive result is needed for all of us” and that he will continue to work with American and European partners to end the war.

    Keep watching for the latest from the Washington News Bureau:


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  • Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene says she is resigning from Congress in January

    Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a once-loyal supporter of President Donald Trump who has become a critic, said Friday she is resigning from Congress in January.Greene, in a more than 10-minute video posted online, explained her decision and said she’s “always been despised in Washington, D.C., and just never fit in.”Greene’s resignation followed a public fallout with Trump in recent months, as the congresswoman criticized him for his stance on files related to Jeffrey Epstein, along with foreign policy and health care.Trump branded her a “traitor” and “wacky” and said he would endorse a challenger against her when she ran for reelection next year.Greene had been closely tied to the Republican president since she launched her political career in 2020.In her video, she underscored her longtime loyalty to Trump except on a few issues, and said it was “unfair and wrong” that he attacked her for disagreeing.”Loyalty should be a two-way street and we should be able to vote our conscience and represent our district’s interest, because our job title is literally ‘representative,’” she said.Greene swept to office at the forefront of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement and swiftly became a lightning rod on Capitol Hill for her often beyond-mainstream views.As she embraced the QAnon conspiracy theory and appeared with white supremacists, Greene was opposed by party leaders but welcomed by Trump. He called her “a real WINNER!”Yet over time she proved a deft legislator, having aligned herself with then-GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, who would go on to become House speaker. She was a trusted voice on the right flank, until McCarthy was ousted in 2023.

    Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a once-loyal supporter of President Donald Trump who has become a critic, said Friday she is resigning from Congress in January.

    Greene, in a more than 10-minute video posted online, explained her decision and said she’s “always been despised in Washington, D.C., and just never fit in.”

    Greene’s resignation followed a public fallout with Trump in recent months, as the congresswoman criticized him for his stance on files related to Jeffrey Epstein, along with foreign policy and health care.

    Trump branded her a “traitor” and “wacky” and said he would endorse a challenger against her when she ran for reelection next year.

    Greene had been closely tied to the Republican president since she launched her political career in 2020.

    In her video, she underscored her longtime loyalty to Trump except on a few issues, and said it was “unfair and wrong” that he attacked her for disagreeing.

    “Loyalty should be a two-way street and we should be able to vote our conscience and represent our district’s interest, because our job title is literally ‘representative,’” she said.

    Greene swept to office at the forefront of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement and swiftly became a lightning rod on Capitol Hill for her often beyond-mainstream views.

    As she embraced the QAnon conspiracy theory and appeared with white supremacists, Greene was opposed by party leaders but welcomed by Trump. He called her “a real WINNER!”

    Yet over time she proved a deft legislator, having aligned herself with then-GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, who would go on to become House speaker. She was a trusted voice on the right flank, until McCarthy was ousted in 2023.

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  • GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene will leave Congress after five turbulent years

    (CNN) — Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene announced on Friday that she will be resigning from office in January, stunning some in her own party after a shocking, monthslong political pivot that catapulted her from one of President Donald Trump’s closest allies to one of his top antagonists.

    Greene dropped the news in a post on social media just days after her public falling out with Trump, who called her a “traitor” and said he’d support a GOP challenge to her House seat next year.

    In her statement, Greene said she wanted to avoid a nasty primary — while predicting that the GOP would lose its House majority in the midterms.

    “I have too much self-respect and dignity, love my family way too much, and do not want my sweet district to have to endure a hurtful and hateful primary against me by the President we all fought for, only to fight and win my election while Republicans will likely lose the midterms,” Greene said in a statement.

    The decision to step down will cap a turbulent five-year career in Washington, during which Greene was publicly condemned for violent rhetoric on the House floor and booted from the hard-right Freedom Caucus over a feud with a fellow Republican — while wielding extraordinary influence in her party as one of Trump’s most trusted political allies on Capitol Hill.

    In the days since Trump’s “traitor” comments, Greene faced direct threats against her life, the congresswoman said in an interview with CNN. In the same interview, the conservative firebrand apologized for her own years of “toxic” rhetoric — comments that reverberated around the country amid an increasingly violent political culture.

    Greene had been contemplating her resignation for over a week, according to a person close to her, as the threats against her continued to escalate amid her falling out with the president.

    Her next steps remain unclear. But the Georgia congresswoman, who just months earlier had been discussed as a potential candidate for her state’s high-stakes Senate race, currently has no plans to run for any office, the person added.

    CNN has reached out to the White House for comment.

    In recent weeks, Greene criticized the president for being too focused on foreign policy and not doing enough with his domestic agenda at home — going as far as to side with Democrats over the contentious issue of costly enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that expire next month.

    Greene also became one of the White House’s most vocal critics of the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case files. She and fellow Republican Rep. Thomas Massie accused the White House of attempting to conceal details of the files. Following fierce resistance, Trump ultimately signed an Epstein transparency measure into law earlier this week.

    “I’m very sad for our country but so happy for my friend Marjorie. I’ll miss her tremendously. She embodies what a true Representative should be,” Massie wrote on X, shortly after Greene’s announcement.

    Greene’s exit is likely to be quickly felt in the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson must navigate a razor-thin majority. The Republican leader already faces the tall order in the new year of corralling his fractious conference to move on major legislation and further the president’s priorities.

    First elected in 2020, the Georgia congresswoman was known for vocally touting conspiracy theories and for her incendiary rhetoric, including prior remarks endorsing violence against Democrats in Congress.

    Her first year in office, a Democratic-led House under then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi took the extraordinary step of stripping Greene of her committee assignments because of her past rhetoric endorsing violence and claims the deadly Sandy Hook and Parkland school shootings had been staged.

    In a sign of Greene’s recent political turnaround, the Georgia congresswoman praised Pelosi’s leadership in an interview with CNN, saying of the longtime Democrat, “She had an incredible career for her party. … I served under her speakership in my first term of Congress, and I’m very impressed at her ability to get things done.”

    This story has been updated with additional details.

    Sarah Ferris, Kaitlan Collins, Kaanita Iyer and CNN

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  • This Atom-Splitting Startup Just Hit a Critical Milestone 

    An advanced nuclear startup just achieved a milestone as it races to meet an ambitious Department of Energy goal. 

    Founded just over two years ago in July 2023, El Segundo-based Valar Atomics announced it had achieved what is known as “cold criticality” during a November test at Los Alamos National Laboratory, the New Mexico site best known for its role in the Manhattan Project. 

    Cold criticality occurs when uranium-235, the isotope used as nuclear fuel, achieves a self-sustaining reaction, but without reaching full operational temperature or producing power, according to Valar. Valar used a special fuel that was originally made by General Atomics and sourced through the DOE, and equipment from Los Alamos National Laboratory. Valar contributed the reactor core and general configuration, which was meant to mimic the design of its Ward 250 reactor, but at a smaller scale.

    Valar Atomics CEO and founder Isaiah Taylor says the benchmark is a crucial step for data gathering as the company pushes toward the bigger goal of achieving criticality (that actually produces power) in a full-scale test reactor. 

    “All of these things give us a ton of data that we can then go use and make sure that we understand our full scale Ward 250 core before we go take that critical and actually make some power in it next year,” Taylor says.

    Following the achievement on Monday, Taylor took to social media platform X to trumpet that Valar “became the first startup in history to split the atom,” and doubled down in a press release, saying Valar secured “the first criticality ever achieved by a venture-backed company.” 

    The exuberant announcement sparked some backlash online, including from nuclear consultant Nick Touran, who has a PhD in nuclear engineering from the University of Michigan.

    “Having the institutional capability to relatively quickly get first in line at the Los Alamos critical facility and get some of your stuff in there and test it, I think that’s impressive,” Touran says. “But they certainly are not the first startup to split the atom.”

    Touran also runs the educational resource whatisnuclear.com, and spent 15 years at Bill Gates-backed TerraPower. He noted that TerraPower already tested fuel in a test reactor that splits atoms at a high rate. TerraPower did not respond to requests for comment by publication time.

    In a conversation with Inc., Taylor narrowed the scope of his claim, saying that what Valar was the first to do was achieve zero-power criticality using a startup-built reactor core.

    “Other startups have built fuel and have tested fuel in other reactors, but no startup has ever built a core and taken a core critical,” Taylor says.

    Touron also notes that cold criticality experiments are no longer quite so common, given advancements in computing that render cold criticals effectively unnecessary: “Our computer simulations can predict what a cold critical test tells you.” But Taylor pushed back, arguing that nuclear engineering tends “to massively overweight our mathematical models” and that real world, precise data is still crucial.

    The news follows the August kickoff of the Department of Energy’s Nuclear Reactor Pilot Program. Valar’s project was one of 11 advanced nuclear projects from 10 different companies (two projects from Oklo were chosen) selected by the DOE in an effort to construct, operate and achieve test reactor criticality in at least three reactors by July 4, 2026.

    The Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act created incentives for nuclear power, as well as allocating funding toward a domestic supply chain for fuel production and infrastructure improvements at labs like Los Alamos. The bipartisan ADVANCE Act, passed in 2024, also kicked off reforms within the Nuclear Regulatory Commission meant to accelerate licensing. The Trump administration’s program, Touran notes, is building on that progress by opening up resources and streamlining regulation for these startups in an effort to accelerate innovation: “They basically are asking the nuclear industry to throw down and actually build stuff.”

    Nuances of Valar’s milestone aside, Touran adds there is value from an innovation standpoint in having more companies participate more quickly in such experiments. The ultimate prize, however, is still a ways off.

    “I think we’ll see a bunch of people doing relatively simple criticality experiments, and that’s better than nothing. Even if they all go critical, none of them are anywhere near having an economical, reliable power plant,” Touran says. “But everybody’s excited to get going and see if all this talk actually means anything.”

    As for Valar, a lot has to happen between now and the July 2026 goalpost for taking its test reactor critical. Taylor says the company already has a version of its high-temperature gas reactor built at a facility in Los Angeles, but still has to build up the Utah test facility where it broke ground in September. Valar is one of a number of companies working to develop small modular reactors (SMRs), which are meant to be less expensive and faster to build than today’s larger scale reactors.

    “It is much easier to achieve a zero power criticality than to actually make power in a reactor. There’s a huge technical gap between those things,” Taylor says. “But I certainly wouldn’t underestimate the value of the data that we’re going to get out of this test.”

    The final deadline for the 2026 Inc. Regionals Awards is Friday, December 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

    Chloe Aiello

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  • ‘FIFA Pass’ to fast-track US visas for ticket-holding World Cup fans

    WASHINGTON, D.C.: With the United States preparing to host matches in next year’s World Cup, the Trump administration is rolling out a new visa initiative aimed at keeping the influx of international visitors moving smoothly, while still maintaining the president’s hard-line messaging on immigration.

    The program, called the “FIFA Pass,” will allow foreign travelers who have purchased official World Cup tickets to secure expedited visa interview appointments. The name stands for “prioritized appointments scheduling system.”

    “If you have a ticket for the World Cup, you can have prioritized appointments to get your visa,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino, standing alongside President Donald Trump in the Oval Office on November 17. Turning to Trump, he added: “You said it the very first time we met, Mr. President, America welcomes the world.”

    Trump urged prospective visitors to apply “right away,” emphasizing the scale of interest and the need for early action.

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the State Department has deployed more than 400 additional consular officers worldwide to handle increased demand. He noted that in roughly 80 percent of countries, travelers can already secure a visa appointment within 60 days. Under the new system, those with FIFA-purchased tickets will use a dedicated “FIFA portal” to help move their applications and interviews to the front of the line.

    “We’re going to do the same vetting as anybody else would get,” Rubio said. “The only difference here is, we’re moving them up in the queue.”

    Next year’s World Cup will span 104 games across Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Trump has made its success a significant priority, and Infantino has become a frequent White House visitor as FIFA prepares for the Dec. 5 World Cup draw at the Kennedy Center, now run by Trump loyalists.

    Trump again raised the possibility of shifting matches away from any host city he views as unsafe, most recently pointing to Seattle, where newly elected mayor Katie Wilson has spoken about protecting the city’s sanctuary-city status and, in Trump’s words, “Trump-proofing” the city.

    “If we think there’s gonna be a sign of any trouble, I would ask Gianni to move that to a different city,” Trump said.

    Infantino did not commit to any venue changes, responding only that “safety and security is the number one priority for a successful World Cup” and adding that strong global ticket sales show “people have trust in the United States.”

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  • Trump administration releases SNAP benefits amid new work requirements

    The Trump administration has released all withheld funds for November SNAP benefits to states for distribution, while new work requirements are set to change the program for many of its 42 million participants.SNAP participants should receive their December benefits according to their normal schedule, but now, there’s an extra step beneficiaries need to take to receive this assistance. President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” expanded requirements for many SNAP recipients to work, volunteer, or participate in job training for at least 80 hours a month. The law also expands the age limit of people who need to meet these requirements from 54 to 64. People who do not meet these rules can be exempt for up to 3 months during a 3-year period. The new requirements took effect when the law was signed in July and were suspended for November amid the government shutdown, meaning December will be the first time many face enforcement of the new standards. The Congressional Budget Office reports that the new requirements are expected to reduce the average monthly number of SNAP recipients by about 2.4 million people over the next 10 years.”I think we’re looking forward to USDA to having a broad-based discussion to ensure that every dollar that we spend here goes to someone who legally qualifies for the program and is actually in need,” said Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Stephen Vaden.Under federal law, most households must report their income and basic information every four to six months and be fully recertified for SNAP at least every year. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins suggested SNAP recipients should be required to reapply, though it is unclear whether she is proposing adding an additional step to what’s already in place.Rollins said the Agriculture Department asked states to send in SNAP data. She says they received information from 29 states and found that 186,000 deceased men, women and children were receiving a check for SNAP benefits. Rollins noted 120 Americans have been arrested for SNAP fraud and added half a million people were receiving benefits twice. The secretary says structural changes to SNAP will be announced after Thanksgiving. Keep watching for the latest from the Washington News Bureau:PHNjcmlwdCB0eXBlPSJ0ZXh0L2phdmFzY3JpcHQiPiFmdW5jdGlvbigpeyJ1c2Ugc3RyaWN0Ijt3aW5kb3cuYWRkRXZlbnRMaXN0ZW5lcigibWVzc2FnZSIsKGZ1bmN0aW9uKGUpe2lmKHZvaWQgMCE9PWUuZGF0YVsiZGF0YXdyYXBwZXItaGVpZ2h0Il0pe3ZhciB0PWRvY3VtZW50LnF1ZXJ5U2VsZWN0b3JBbGwoImlmcmFtZSIpO2Zvcih2YXIgYSBpbiBlLmRhdGFbImRhdGF3cmFwcGVyLWhlaWdodCJdKWZvcih2YXIgcj0wO3I8dC5sZW5ndGg7cisrKXtpZih0W3JdLmNvbnRlbnRXaW5kb3c9PT1lLnNvdXJjZSl0W3JdLnN0eWxlLmhlaWdodD1lLmRhdGFbImRhdGF3cmFwcGVyLWhlaWdodCJdW2FdKyJweCJ9fX0pKX0oKTs8L3NjcmlwdD4=

    WASHINGTON —

    The Trump administration has released all withheld funds for November SNAP benefits to states for distribution, while new work requirements are set to change the program for many of its 42 million participants.

    SNAP participants should receive their December benefits according to their normal schedule, but now, there’s an extra step beneficiaries need to take to receive this assistance.

    President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” expanded requirements for many SNAP recipients to work, volunteer, or participate in job training for at least 80 hours a month. The law also expands the age limit of people who need to meet these requirements from 54 to 64.

    People who do not meet these rules can be exempt for up to 3 months during a 3-year period. The new requirements took effect when the law was signed in July and were suspended for November amid the government shutdown, meaning December will be the first time many face enforcement of the new standards.

    The Congressional Budget Office reports that the new requirements are expected to reduce the average monthly number of SNAP recipients by about 2.4 million people over the next 10 years.

    “I think we’re looking forward to USDA to having a broad-based discussion to ensure that every dollar that we spend here goes to someone who legally qualifies for the program and is actually in need,” said Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Stephen Vaden.

    Under federal law, most households must report their income and basic information every four to six months and be fully recertified for SNAP at least every year.

    Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins suggested SNAP recipients should be required to reapply, though it is unclear whether she is proposing adding an additional step to what’s already in place.

    Rollins said the Agriculture Department asked states to send in SNAP data. She says they received information from 29 states and found that 186,000 deceased men, women and children were receiving a check for SNAP benefits. Rollins noted 120 Americans have been arrested for SNAP fraud and added half a million people were receiving benefits twice.

    The secretary says structural changes to SNAP will be announced after Thanksgiving.

    Keep watching for the latest from the Washington News Bureau:


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  • Education Department announces new steps in downsizing push

    The U.S. Department of Education announced new steps Tuesday in President Donald Trump’s push to downsize the federal agency. Trump signed an executive order in March that called for eliminating the Education Department, but his administration has previously acknowledged that dissolving it entirely would require an act of Congress, which created the agency in 1979. For now, the department is moving forward with plans to shift key services to other parts of the federal government through six new interagency agreements. “The Trump Administration is taking bold action to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement. “Cutting through layers of red tape in Washington is one essential piece of our final mission.”The announcement is already facing pushback. Critics fear that the Education Department shakeup will disrupt critical services that students rely on.The National Education Association called it an “illegal plan to further abandon students.”Minnetonka Public Schools Superintendent David Law, who serves as president of AASA, The School Superintendents Association, said the reorganization could prove counterproductive. “It talks about streamlining and efficiency, and yet it’s counterintuitive to me that multiple agencies having their hand on something is more efficient,” Law said.Under the plan, the Labor Department will co-manage the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, which administers K-12 grant programs and Title 1 funding for low-income schools, as well as the Office of Postsecondary Education, which oversees grants for institutions of higher education.The Department of the Interior will take on a greater role in administering Indian Education programs. The Department of Health and Human Services will co-manage the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program and Foreign Medical Accreditation. The State Department will help oversee international education and foreign language studies programs. In the past, the Trump administration has also talked about moving management of other Education Department services, like the student loan portfolio and civil rights enforcement. The administration is still “exploring options,” according to a senior department official who briefed reporters on Tuesday ahead of the official rollout. Tuesday’s announcement builds on a sweeping downsizing effort that started earlier this year. The Trump administration has already launched an interagency partnership with the Labor Department to manage adult education and career and technical education programs.In July, the Supreme Court paved the way for the Education Department to move forward with roughly 1,400 layoffs.The Education Department said in an email on Tuesday that no additional layoffs are expected at this time as a result of the new interagency agreements.

    WASHINGTON —

    The U.S. Department of Education announced new steps Tuesday in President Donald Trump’s push to downsize the federal agency.

    Trump signed an executive order in March that called for eliminating the Education Department, but his administration has previously acknowledged that dissolving it entirely would require an act of Congress, which created the agency in 1979.

    For now, the department is moving forward with plans to shift key services to other parts of the federal government through six new interagency agreements.

    “The Trump Administration is taking bold action to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states,” U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement. “Cutting through layers of red tape in Washington is one essential piece of our final mission.”

    The announcement is already facing pushback. Critics fear that the Education Department shakeup will disrupt critical services that students rely on.

    The National Education Association called it an “illegal plan to further abandon students.”

    Minnetonka Public Schools Superintendent David Law, who serves as president of AASA, The School Superintendents Association, said the reorganization could prove counterproductive.

    “It talks about streamlining and efficiency, and yet it’s counterintuitive to me that multiple agencies having their hand on something is more efficient,” Law said.

    Under the plan, the Labor Department will co-manage the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, which administers K-12 grant programs and Title 1 funding for low-income schools, as well as the Office of Postsecondary Education, which oversees grants for institutions of higher education.

    The Department of the Interior will take on a greater role in administering Indian Education programs. The Department of Health and Human Services will co-manage the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program and Foreign Medical Accreditation. The State Department will help oversee international education and foreign language studies programs.

    In the past, the Trump administration has also talked about moving management of other Education Department services, like the student loan portfolio and civil rights enforcement. The administration is still “exploring options,” according to a senior department official who briefed reporters on Tuesday ahead of the official rollout.

    Tuesday’s announcement builds on a sweeping downsizing effort that started earlier this year.

    The Trump administration has already launched an interagency partnership with the Labor Department to manage adult education and career and technical education programs.

    In July, the Supreme Court paved the way for the Education Department to move forward with roughly 1,400 layoffs.

    The Education Department said in an email on Tuesday that no additional layoffs are expected at this time as a result of the new interagency agreements.

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  • Some National Guard Troops Being Withdrawn From Chicago and Portland, Official Says

    The Pentagon is withdrawing some National Guard troops from Chicago and Portland, weeks after President Donald Trump deployed them to combat what he described as increased crime, a U.S. defense official familiar with the decision said on Sunday.

    The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 200 California National Guard troops who were sent to Portland and 200 Texas National Guard members who were sent to Chicago would return to their home states as soon as Sunday.

    The Trump administration sent the troops to those cities last month, saying they were needed to support domestic immigration enforcement personnel who were being confronted by activists and protesters.

    However, the troops never joined immigration operations in those cities because of lawsuits challenging their deployment.

    The Pentagon and a spokesperson for Oregon’s governor did not immediately respond to requests for comments. A spokesperson for Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said the state had not heard from the federal government about a withdrawal of troops.

    “In the coming days, the Department will be shifting and/or rightsizing our Title 10 footprint in Portland, Los Angeles, and Chicago to ensure a constant, enduring, and long-term presence in each city,” the U.S. Northern Command posted on X on Friday.

    “Our troops in each city (and others) are trained and ready, and will be employed whenever needed to support law enforcement and keep our citizens safe.”

    Trump, a Republican, has also deployed the National Guard to other Democratic-led cities, including Los Angeles, Memphis and Washington.

    The deployments were criticized by Democrats who sued to block them, and the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to decide whether Trump’s actions are lawful.

    Reporting by Idrees Ali and Jasper Ward; Editing by Sergio Non, Alex Richardson and Paul Simao

    Reuters

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  • Trump issues new pardons for January 6 rioters, including militia member and woman who threatened FBI

    (CNN) — President Donald Trump has issued a new pardon to a militia member involved in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, covering separate Kentucky firearms offenses that were not included in his initial Inauguration Day pardon.

    In April, the appeals court for the District of Columbia rejected Dan Wilson’s attempt to vacate his firearms-related sentences from the Western District of Kentucky that were transferred to DC.

    “The plain language of the pardon does not apply to the Kentucky firearms offenses,” the appeals court stated, returning him to prison.

    Trump in January issued more than a thousand pardons and commutations of those involved with the January 6 attack on the US Capitol and said last month he was “very proud” of it.

    US pardon attorney Ed Martin was one of the people who advocated for Wilson’s new unconditional pardon, which was issued Friday.

    “Danny Wilson is now a free man. When I was DC’s U.S. Attorney, and now as U.S. Pardon Attorney, I advocated for this clemency, which the president granted Friday,” Martin posted on X, thanking Trump.

    The White House said the gun charges were ultimately related to the January 6 investigation.

    “While being investigated for conduct related to January 6 – which President Trump issued a larger pardon for in January – investigators discovered that Mr. Wilson may have owned unauthorized firearms. Because the search of Mr. Wilson’s home was due to the events of January 6, President Trump is pardoning Mr. Wilson for the firearm issues,” a White House official told CNN on Saturday.

    Martin announced Saturday that Trump granted another pardon to Suzanne Kaye, who was sentenced to prison for threatening to shoot FBI agents in a video posted on social media in 2021. The comments were directed at agents who were seeking to question her about her presence in Washington, DC, on January 6.

    Kaye was arrested in February 2021.

    “On video, Kaye announced that she would ‘shoot their [expletive] a–’ if FBI agents showed up at her house,” according to a release by the Justice Department in 2023.

    Alleging “the Biden DOJ targeted Suzanne Kaye for social media posts,” Martin posted on X, “President Trump is unwinding the damage done by Biden’s DOJ weaponization, so the healing can begin.”

    Kit Maher and CNN

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  • President Trump signs bill to reopen government, ending longest shutdown in US history

    (CNN) — President Donald Trump late Wednesday signed a funding package to reopen the federal government, officially bringing a close to the longest shutdown in history.

    The final approval came hours after the House voted 222 to 209 to pass a deal struck between Republicans and centrist Senate Democrats that keeps the government running through January and ensures some key agencies will be funded for the remainder of fiscal year 2026.

    The agreement, which ended a record 43-day stalemate in Congress, will also reverse the mass federal layoffs carried out by Trump during the shutdown. It paves the way for paychecks to flow to government employees, as well as the resumption of critical food and nutrition services relied on by tens of millions of Americans.

    Trump on Wednesday night cast the legislation as a victory over Democrats, calling it “a clear message that we will never give in to extortion, because that’s what it was, they tried to extort.”

    “They didn’t want to do it the easy way,” he said from the Oval Office, attacking what he called “the extremists” in the Democratic Party. “They had to do it the hard way, and they look very bad.”

    The White House signing ceremony was attended by a range of Republican lawmakers and capped a four-day sprint to pass the funding bill, after eight Senate Democrats broke ranks to compromise with Republicans amid worries about the shutdown’s widening economic consequences.

    The deal guarantees an early December vote in the Senate on the expiring Obamacare subsidies that Democrats made the focus of their demands during the shutdown fight. But a vote to extend the subsidies is unlikely to succeed, a likelihood that’s driven intense blowback across the Democratic Party.

    Most congressional Democrats loudly protested the bill in the run-up to Wednesday’s vote over concerns Americans’ health care premiums will skyrocket without the subsidies, with only six House Democrats voting in favor of the package.

    “This fight is not over. We’re just getting started,” top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries said ahead of the vote. “Tens of millions of Americans are at risk of being unable to afford to go see a doctor when they need it.”

    Back in Washington for the first time since mid-September, Speaker Mike Johnson corralled almost all Republicans behind the bill, despite sharp complaints from some of his members over a contentious provision added by Senate Republicans that allowed senators to retroactively sue the Department of Justice for obtaining phone records during a Biden-era probe – potentially amounting to a major financial windfall for those lawmakers.

    Johnson himself said he was blindsided by the language, and he said he didn’t know about it until the Senate had already passed the package.

    “I was shocked by it, I was angry about it,” the speaker said, though he added that he did not believe Senate Majority Leader John Thune added it in a nefarious manner. “I think it was a really bad look, and we’re going to fix it in the House.”

    To win over conservative holdouts, Johnson vowed that the House would take a future vote to strip that language — though it’s unclear if the Senate would take it up. Republicans like Rep. Chip Roy of Texas ultimately agreed not to amend the language in the current stopgap bill, since it would require the Senate to return to Washington to vote again and delay the end of the shutdown.

    Conservatives like Roy had blasted that provision as “self-dealing,” since it would award senators $500,000 or more in damages for each violation by the government if their lawsuit is successful. The amendment appeared to benefit eight senators in particular who had been subpoenaed by the previous administration into investigations into Trump’s first term.

    Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations panel, accused those eight senators of voting “to shove taxpayer dollars into their own pockets – $500,000 for each time their records were inspected.”

    The House Democrats who voted in favor of the compromise bill to reopen the government were: Reps. Jared Golden, Adam Gray, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, Henry Cuellar, Tom Suozzi and Don Davis. GOP Reps. Thomas Massie voted and Greg Steube against the bill.

    The end of the government shutdown will usher in a frenetic few weeks of work for the House, which has been largely shuttered since late September. As part of the GOP’s pressure campaign on Democrats, Johnson had decided to keep all members out of Washington until Senate Democrats agreed to back the GOP’s existing funding plan.

    Now, Republicans and Democrats have just four weeks in session before the end of the year — when those Obamacare tax credits expire. Trump has called for revamping the law rather than extending the existing subsidies, setting up a high-stakes showdown over health care that could carry political ramifications for next year’s midterm elections.

    “Obamacare was a disaster,” Trump said Wednesday night. “We’ll work on something having to do with health care. We can do a lot better.”

    But there are plenty of other deadlines, including Congress’ farm bill and a slew of expiring energy credits.

    House Republicans are also eager to pass as many spending bills as possible to improve their negotiating stance with the Senate ahead of that next deadline on January 30.

    Johnson also faces another hot-button issue: the question of how Congress should handle the Jeffrey Epstein files.

    Not long before the votes to reopen the government got underway, a newly elected Democrat — Rep. Adelita Grijalva — became the critical 218th signature to force a vote to compel the Justice Department to release all of its case files related to Epstein.

    Johnson announced to reporters soon after Grijalva signed the petition that he will put a bill compelling the Department of Justice to release all of its Epstein case files on the House floor next week – earlier than expected, and after an extraordinary White House pressure campaign earlier Wednesday failed to convince any Republicans to remove their name from the petition.

    The effort coincided with intensifying scrutiny over the Epstein files in the House. Earlier Wednesday, House Democrats on the Oversight panel released new emails that showed Epstein had repeatedly mentioned Trump by name in private correspondence, and then the GOP-led committee released 200,000 pages of documents the panel received from Epstein’s estate.

    This headline and story have been updated with additional details.

    Sarah Ferris and CNN

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  • Fact-checking Democratic ACA subsidies talking points

    The government shutdown failed to resolve differences between Republicans and Democrats over policies related to Obamacare’s affordability.

    Republicans refused to go along with Democrats’ proposal to extend expiring COVID-19-era subsidies for people who buy their insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplace. The Senate voted Nov. 10 to fund the government through January without voting on the subsidies. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said the Senate would vote later this year on extending them. 

    Most people who use Affordable Care Act marketplaces obtain subsidies. 

    In 2021, then-President Joe Biden signed legislation that made the subsidies more generous. The legislation reduced the maximum amount purchasers would have to pay for coverage and enabled households with incomes higher than 400% of the federal poverty level to receive subsidies. Previously, the subsidies were capped at 400% of the poverty limit for a household, which in 2024 was $60,240 for a one-person household. 

    Congress renewed these enhanced subsidies in 2022 through the end of 2025.

    The subsidies proved popular; the number of people receiving them increased from about 11 million to more than 24 million people, the vast majority of whom receive an enhanced premium tax credit.

    If enhanced tax credits expire, many enrollees will continue to qualify for smaller tax credits, while others will lose eligibility altogether.

    President Donald Trump, who unsuccessfully pledged to repeal and replace Obamacare, said he wants to give people money to buy their own health insurance, without providing details. 

    Democrats will likely campaign on Obamacare costs through the midterms, particularly if Republicans vote against extending the subsidies in the coming weeks. We fact-checked some recent Democratic talking points. 

    “The five states that are most impacted by a failure to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits are West Virginia, Wyoming, Alaska, Mississippi and Tennessee.”  — Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., at a Nov. 10 press conference

    This is accurate, according to one analysis of premium payment increases for consumers choosing plans in the same tier, without the enhanced subsidies. Jeffries was citing the liberal Center for American Progress Action Fund.

    “Most impacted” can mean many things, not just premium spike size. Florida has 4.7 million people enrolled in Affordable Care Act plans in 2025, more than any other state. About 97% of enrollees receive a discount that makes their plans cheaper.

    One analysis puts Texas ahead of Florida for the overall number of people who will not enroll in ACA plans in 2026 if the subsidies expire. Texas has a larger state population.

    “Forty-five percent of the people, of the Americans, who are going to lose health care or be at risk of losing health care if they don’t on the other side of the aisle extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, 45% of them are registered Republicans.” — Jeffries at a Nov. 10 press conference

    Jeffries’ statistic for Republican voters affected by the ACA subsidies comes from a May poll by KFF, a leading health policy think tank.

    The poll found Republicans make up 45% of adults who purchase their own health insurance, most of whom do so through the ACA marketplaces. That included 31% who defined themselves as MAGA Republicans and 14% called themselves non-MAGA Republicans. (The survey defined MAGA Republicans as Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who support Trump’s Make America Great Again movement.) About 35% enrolled through the marketplace were Democrats and 20% were independents.

    The rates were lower for Medicaid enrollees, KFF found: 27% self-identified as MAGA or non-MAGA Republicans.

    Jeffries predicted that this group is at risk of losing health care entirely, but we don’t yet know exactly how many would drop their insurance because of rising costs.

    The Congressional Budget Office expects 2 million more people would be uninsured in 2026, increasing to 3.8 million in 2034 and 2025. More people are likely to drop ACA coverage but not become uninsured, for example changing to a job that offers health insurance.

    “If this is the so-called ‘deal,’ then I will be a no. That’s not a deal. It’s an unconditional surrender that abandons the 24 million Americans whose health care premiums are about to double.” — Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., Nov. 9 X post

    This is largely accurate.

    Torres told us he was referring to a Sept. 30 analysis by KFF that found that the expiration of the credits “is estimated to more than double what subsidized enrollees currently pay annually for premiums — a 114% increase from an average of $888 in 2025 to $1,904 in 2026.” About 24 million people are on the marketplace, and most receive subsidies.

    Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., went further Nov. 9 when he said ending the subsidies “raises health care premiums for over 20 million Americans by doubling, and in some cases tripling and quadrupling” the cost. 

    Many low-income people would see their out-of-pocket premiums increase from zero to hundreds of dollars, said Larry Levitt, KFF’s executive vice president for health policy.

    “It would cost $38 billion to extend ACA credits next year and prevent millions of people from losing their healthcare. Reminder: Trump sent $40 billion to Argentina for no reason.” — Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., Nov. 7 on Bluesky 

    Lofgren’s statement about the cost of ACA enhanced subsidies is in the ballpark, but she exaggerated what the federal government sent to Argentina.

    Extending the enhanced subsidies would cost about $350 billion over a decade including about $38 billion next year, the center-right American Action Forum found.

    Other estimates are lower or higher. Levitt told us the net effect on the federal budget in 2027, which is a more complete year, is $31.9 billion.

    Romina Boccia, director of budget and entitlement policy at the libertarian Cato Institute, said factoring in direct costs, interest payments and spending in other programs averages around $48.8 billion more each year. 

    Regarding Argentina, Lofgren was referring to the Trump administration’s announcement in October that it agreed to a $20 billion currency swap and facilitated $20 billion in private financing. 

    The funds to support Argentina couldn’t be shifted to health care credits. The U.S. Treasury dedicates a pool of funds  for onetime U.S. intervention in foreign exchange markets.

    Chief Correspondent Louis Jacobson contributed to this article.

    RELATED: Government shutdown fact-checks about SNAP, WIC, Obamacare and immigration

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  • Senate votes to end government shutdown, sending funding bill to the House

    (CNN) — A small band of Senate Democrats voted with Republicans on Monday night to approve a funding measure to reopen the federal government — without securing their party’s demand to guarantee an extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies, which help millions of Americans afford insurance.

    The funding compromise will now go to the House, where GOP leaders are hopeful it could pass as soon as Wednesday and end the longest-ever US shutdown. The recently struck deal, which President Donald Trump is expected to sign, would restore critical services like federal food aid, as well as pay for hundreds of thousands of federal workers.

    Eight members of the Senate Democratic caucus crossed the aisle to join with Republicans in the 60 to 40 vote. One Republican voted in opposition: Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.

    That shutdown has been politically painful on Capitol Hill. Republicans have repeatedly shouldered blame in recent polling for the funding lapse. And the deal, struck by Democratic centrists in the Senate, has ignited a fight within the party about its strategy in the already 41-day funding fight — and where they go next.

    Most Democrats were eager to keep fighting even as centrists declared that with Trump dug in, there was no real chance of securing policy wins on health care. Instead, those centrists secured the promise of a future vote on a health care bill of their choosing, which Democrats are determined to win GOP support on. It is far from guaranteed, however, that the bill will survive the Senate, let alone the House.

    The vote late Monday night caps a frenetic few days of negotiations inside the US Capitol, with quiet negotiations between the Senate centrists, GOP leaders and the White House throughout the weekend before formally unveiling their deal on Sunday. A bloc of eight members of the Democratic caucus took a critical first step to support that measure Sunday night, and all eight gave it final approval on Monday night.

    Those eight lawmakers were: Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin, Maggie Hassan, Tim Kaine, Jeanne Shaheen, Catherine Cortez Masto, John Fetterman, Jacky Rosen and Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats.

    While he did not vote for the final deal, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has drawn fury from the party’s left for allowing those centrists to strike the deal without any real wins on the Affordable Care Act subsidies that will soon expire and hike premiums for millions of Americans.

    Many Democrats in both chambers believe the party will be forced to relive the fight again on January 30, when the next tranche of funding runs out. The broader legislative package, however, would fund several key agencies, including ones that run federal food aid, as well as the Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program, and veterans programs, through the remainder of fiscal year 2026.

    The floor of the US Senate is seen here on November 10. Credit: Senate TV via CNN Newsource

    Now, attention will turn to House Speaker Mike Johnson and members of the House, who are making their way to Washington after being in their districts since mid-September.

    The House plans to vote on the Senate-passed bill to reopen the federal government as early as 4 p.m. on Wednesday, according to a notice from Majority Whip Tom Emmer. The notice forecasts multiple votes that day.

    The Republican speaker is likely to need the president’s help to muscle the package through his fractious conference in the coming days. But in an optimistic sign Monday, Trump told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins “I would say so” when asked if he personally approved of the deal making its way through the process on Capitol Hill.

    “I think, based on everything I’m hearing, they haven’t changed anything, and we have support from enough Democrats, and we’re going to be opening up our country,” Trump said. “It’s too bad it was closed, but we’ll be opening up our country very quickly.”

    CNN’s Ellis Kim contributed to this report.

    Sarah Ferris, Morgan Rimmer and CNN

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  • DUI, assault, theft lead nearly 80,000 visa revocations under Trump

    WASHINGTON, D.C.: A senior State Department official said this week that President Donald Trump’s administration has revoked roughly 80,000 non-immigrant visas since taking office on January 20, citing offenses such as driving under the influence, assault, and theft.

    The Washington Examiner first reported the scale of these revocations, which illustrate a wide-ranging immigration crackdown undertaken after Trump assumed the presidency, resulting in the deportation of unprecedented numbers of migrants, including individuals who held valid visas.

    The administration has also implemented more demanding standards for visa issuance, introducing stricter social media vetting and expanding its screening measures. Of the visas revoked, approximately 16,000 were linked to DUI cases, around 12,000 to assault, and another 8,000 to theft. “These three offenses accounted for nearly half of the revocations this year,” the senior official said, speaking anonymously.

    In August, a State Department spokesperson confirmed that more than 6,000 student visas had been canceled for overstaying or violating U.S. laws, with a small portion tied to allegations of “support for terrorism.” The department also said last month that at least six visas were withdrawn due to social media posts referencing the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

    U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated in May that he has revoked the visas of hundreds — possibly thousands — of individuals, including students, for involvement in activities he described as conflicting with U.S. foreign policy priorities.

    Recent State Department guidance instructed U.S. diplomats overseas to maintain heightened scrutiny of applicants who may be considered hostile to the United States or have a record of political activism.

    Officials in the Trump administration have asserted that holders of student visas and green cards could face deportation for expressing support for Palestinians or for criticizing Israel’s actions in the Gaza conflict, arguing that such positions threaten U.S. foreign policy and amount to pro-Hamas sentiment.

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  • Oregon Leads Case Against Trump Tariffs Straight To Supreme Court – KXL

    Oregon Attorney Dan Rayfield speaks to reporters during a virtual press conference Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 5, 2025.

    Washington, D.C. – The Supreme Court will decide the fate of President Trump’s sweeping tariffs. Justices heard arguments Wednesday in a 12-state lawsuit led by Oregon. 

    Oral arguments lasted nearly three hours, much longer than expected. “The court was grappling with the reality: did this President abuse an emergency power to be able to do this,” Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said Wednesday afternoon.

    Justices asked pointed questions of both sides, particularly over whether a President’s power to “regulate” imports includes taxation. The Trump Administration’s Solicitor General John Sauer told them, “When Congress confers the power to regulate imports, it is naturally conferring the power to tariff, which is delegated to the Executive branch.” But some Justices seemed skeptical. Rayfield said later, “You heard Chief Justice Roberts talk about, ‘So, Trump Administration, what you’re effectively saying is you can tax anything at any height for any length for any reason?’ And, that’s an immense amount of power.”  

    Rayfield also points out the President’s lawyers admit tariffs are not paid by foreign countries. “$4 trillion is the amount of money that’s expected to be raised,” said Rayfield, “They talked, even in their own words, about 30-80% – by their own calculations – are going to be paid by Americans.” He wants the tariffs deemed illegal and refunds sent to businesses and consumers, “The philosophy behind this is exactly what we teach our kids: if you make a wrong, you make it right. And if you screw up, you need to fix it.”

    Rayfield is cautiously optimistic about the outcome, “If I were sitting in the shoes of either the Trump administration or the states holding the line, I’d rather be sitting in our shoes right now, based on the questioning happening.” And, he thinks the ruling will be swift, but admits the timeline is unpredictable, “I would expect something to happen sooner than the normal schedule, just based upon past actions.”

    Three lower courts ruled in favor of the 12-state coalition led by Oregon.

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