Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson will join several other Democratic elected officials and well-known actors in giving unofficial responses to President Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night, according to a news release about the event.
Organizers are calling the “State of the Swamp” a boycott of Mr. Trump’s address. Frey and Johnson are expected to join Democratic U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer, actors Robert De Niro and Mark Ruffalo, journalists Don Lemon and Jim Acosta and several others at the event. It’s scheduled to take place at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger will deliver the official Democratic response to Mr. Trump’s speech, according to party leaders in Congress.
“There are moments in our country’s history when leadership is measured not by party loyalty, but by moral clarity. This is one of those moments,” Frey said in the release.
Johnson added, “Donald Trump’s vision for America runs counter to the hopes and aspirations of the working people who wake up every single day and make our cities run.”
Minneapolis and Chicago have both faced an influx of federal agents as part of a nationwide immigration crackdown by the Trump administration. Organizers, without expanding, cited the cities as faces “of the resistance to lawless actions” of the administration.
Border czar Tom Homan said on Sunday that more than 1,000 immigration agents have left Minnesota since he announced the end of Operation Metro Surge, and several hundred more were expected to leave in the coming days.
Johnson last month signed an executive order directing members of the Chicago Police Department to investigate and document any alleged illegal activity by federal immigration agents. Police will preserve and provide evidence of felony violations to the Cook County State’s Attorney.
Defiance.org, which is organizing the event, is a club for people “willing to take peaceful, lawful, defiant action to defend democracy” from Mr. Trump, according to its website.
WCCO is reaching out to Frey’s office for comment.
Franco’s regime in Spain used tactics like economic isolation, church-state fusion and secret police that more closely mirror the president’s approach than Hitler’s Gestapo.
After last weekend’s snowstorm, streets in cities across the East Coast are crowded with dirty snow piles that squeeze pedestrians into single-file corridors and force them into gross half-frozen puddle swamps at intersections. But of the major metros, only Washington, D.C., closed its schools through Wednesday, finally reopening on Thursday with a delayed start time — all this despite receiving just six or so inches (plus, to be fair, a treacherous coating of ice on top). And, judging by accounts on the ground, the city remains tricky to navigate by car or foot. This isn’t D.C.’s first such debacle in recent years; the capital notoriouslysucks at getting snow off its streets. (It is also home to an outsize number of complainers per capita: editors and columnists, who have been airing their thoughts and posting pictures of unplowed roads and uncleared sidewalks, letting everyone know of the wintry inconveniences.)
Already, the City Council has met to address the issue, promising that new heavy equipment is being deployed while noting that alleys will not be cleared until at least next week. To understand why D.C. is struggling so badly yet again, I spoke with Joe Bishop-Henchman, an advisory neighborhood commissioner in northeast D.C., who has been venting his frustration about the storm online.
What are you seeing in your neighborhood or on your commute that is not up to snuff? This storm has been unusual in two ways. It wasn’t just snow, it was the layer of sleet that created a nice little layer of ice on everything. Snow brooms and plastic shovels are not going to cut through the ice. You need metal shovels. We need bulldozers and tractors and heavy plows. Somebody was breaking the ice next door to me with an ax yesterday. And for the next week, the weather is staying below freezing — the sun is not helping us in the way that it normally has.
But I think it’s also uncovering that maybe we weren’t as resilient as we thought, that we didn’t really have the equipment to deal with this, and that we’re not effectively communicating expectations about how long this is going to take.
What agency is responsible for snow removal in D.C., and why is it struggling? It falls under the Department of Public Works, and they have a whole snow-removal section of their agency. Snow removal is almost $7.4 million, up from a $5.2 million budget in 2023.
DPW as a whole has 1,544 employees, and they were describing at least publicly that they have 500 snowplows ready. But a lot of communities have a snowplow tracker app, and on Tuesday, I counted all the snowplows in operation citywide. It was 21 versus the 500 they say they have. On Wednesday afternoon, the number is 285 out on the road. So whatever this is, it’s not a lack of resources — or, at least, exclusively a lack of financial resources problem.
What I suspect is going on here is that the plows got sent out against the ice, and they were ineffective against it. A lot of the plows are light trucks with blades on the front. So they had to come up with a plan B. I think people would be understanding of that — if they were told that’s what was going on. Instead, it has been three days of the same line, which is that main streets are now passable and we’re working on clearing residential neighborhoods. But it’s not really matching what people are seeing.
How are the sidewalks, which are required to be shoveled by individual businesses and homeowners, correct? They’re mostly impassable. Walking around on our daily errands requires climbing over snowbanks. And in the alleys, the city has kind of abandoned all responsibility for clearing those, which is going to have an impact on us for trash collection very soon.
We’ve received really no guidance on that front. If there’s a plan, it’s not being communicated. Maybe they’re coming up with the plan right now, but I think we got close to the sun doing our work for us, and it’s not going to happen this time.
This may be a dumb question, but why can’t the National Guard be deputized as snow-removal muscle? I’ve seen on social media that if there’s a National Guard group nearby, they will help out with stuck cars and things like that. But the National Guard deployment in D.C. is up to the president. We don’t really have any say as local elected officials. And indeed, why they’re here right now is a presidential directive. And they may not have the equipment, because as I said, the little plastic shovels aren’t going to work in this. So just because they’re here doesn’t mean they can solve this problem.
Do you think this storm could help create some policy changes to avoid a future three-day school closure? I think what people are going to say is, This is just a once-in-a-generation thing, the snow-and-sleet combination. But maybe it reveals that we didn’t have resilient planning for this, and maybe we don’t have the right equipment on standby with contractors when we may need it, and maybe we need to rethink this. The approach we currently have with sidewalks and stoops and alleys — expecting regular people to do them — doesn’t always get the job done.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
President Trump’s photo portrait display at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has had references to his two impeachments removed, the latest apparent change at the collection of museums he has accused of bias, as he asserts his influence over how official presentations document U.S. history.
The wall text, which summarized Mr. Trump’s first presidency and noted his 2024 comeback victory, was part of the museum’s “American Presidents” exhibition. The description had been placed alongside a photograph of Mr. Trump taken during his first term. Now, a different photo appears without any accompanying text block, though the text was available online. Mr. Trump was the only president whose display in the gallery, as seen on Sunday, did not include any extended text.
The White House did not say whether it sought any changes. Nor did a Smithsonian statement in response to Associated Press questions. But Mr. Trump ordered in August that Smithsonian officials review all exhibits before the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. The Republican administration said the effort would “ensure alignment with the president’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”
Mr. Trump’s original “portrait label,” as the Smithsonian calls it, notes Mr. Trump’s Supreme Court nominations and his administration’s development of COVID-19 vaccines. That section concludes: “Impeached twice, on charges of abuse of power and incitement of insurrection after supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was acquitted by the Senate in both trials.”
A photograph of President Donald Trump and a short plaque next to it are on display at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery’s “American Presidents” exhibit on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026 in Washington.
Anna Johnson / AP
Then the text continues: “After losing to Joe Biden in 2020, Trump mounted a historic comeback in the 2024 election. He is the only president aside from Grover Cleveland (1837– 1908) to have won a nonconsecutive second term.”
Asked about the display, White House spokesman Davis Ingle celebrated the new photograph, which shows Mr. Trump, brow furrowed, leaning over his Oval Office desk. Ingle said it ensures Mr. Trump’s “unmatched aura … will be felt throughout the halls of the National Portrait Gallery.”
The portrait was taken by White House photographer Daniel Torok, who is credited in the display that includes medallions noting Mr. Trump is the 45th and 47th president. Similar numerical medallions appear alongside other presidents’ painted portraits that also include the more extended biographical summaries, such as what had been part of Mr. Trump’s display.
Sitting presidents are represented by photographs until their official paintings are commissioned and completed.
Ingle did not answer questions about whether Mr. Trump or a White House aide, on his behalf, asked for anything related to the portrait label.
The gallery said in a statement that it had previously rotated two photographs of Mr. Trump from its collection before putting up Torok’s work.
“The museum is beginning its planned update of the America’s Presidents gallery which will undergo a larger refresh this Spring,” the gallery statement said. “For some new exhibitions and displays, the museum has been exploring quotes or tombstone labels, which provide only general information, such as the artist’s name.”
For now, references to Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton being impeached in 1868 and 1998, respectively, remain as part of their portrait labels, as does President Richard Nixon’s 1974 resignation as a result of the Watergate scandal.
And, the gallery statement noted, “The history of Presidential impeachments continues to be represented in our museums, including the National Museum of American History.”
Mr. Trump has made clear his intentions to shape how the federal government documents U.S. history and culture. He has offered an especially harsh assessment of how the Smithsonian and other museums have featured chattel slavery as a seminal variable in the nation’s development but also taken steps to reshape how he and his contemporary rivals are depicted.
New plaques have been placed underneath presidential portraits on the “Presidential Walk of Fame” on the White House Colonnade, seen in this photo on Dec. 17, 2025.
Brendan SMIALOWSKI /AFP via Getty Images
In the months before his order for a Smithsonian review, he fired the head archivist of the National Archives and said he was firing the National Portrait Gallery’s director, Kim Sajet, as part of his overhaul. Sajet maintained the backing of the Smithsonian’s governing board, but she ultimately resigned.
At the White House, Mr. Trump has designed a notably partisan and subjective “Presidential Walk of Fame” featuring gilded photographs of himself and his predecessors — except Biden, who is represented by an autopen — along with plaques describing their presidencies.
The White House said at the time that Mr. Trump himself was a primary author of the plaques. Notably, Mr. Trump’s two plaques praise the 45th and 47th president as a historically successful figure, while those under Biden’s autopen stand-in describe the 46th executive as “by far, the worst President in American History” who “brought our Nation to the brink of destruction.”
Washington — The Trump administration has terminated the National Links Trust’s lease with the National Park Service to manage, operate and renovate Washington, D.C.’s three municipal golf courses, effectively taking back federal control of the courses.
National Links Trust, a nonprofit that says its aim is to make golf accessible to the public, said the Trump administration is asserting they are in default of the lease, a characterization with which the organization strongly disagrees. The lease was five years into its 50-year term covering the district’s Rock Creek, East Potomac and Langston courses. The National Park Service owns the land.
“We are fundamentally in disagreement with the administration’s characterization of NLT as being in default under the lease,” the organization said in a statement. “We have always had a productive and cooperative working relationship with the National Park Service and have worked hand in hand on all aspects of our golf course operations and development projects.”
National Links Trust said the courses will remain open for now, but long-term renovation projects will cease.
“At our in-progress Rock Creek Park rehabilitation project, construction has been stopped and our general contractor is in the process of demobilizing,” the organization said. “After five years spent navigating the complex Federal permitting processes, this development is extremely disappointing for all who have supported the project.”
President Trump, who spends many weekends golfing, has floated the possibility of redoing the district’s courses. “If we do them, we’ll do it really beautifully,” he said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Dec. 12.
CBS News does not have access to the lease or financial statements to verify the claims of the parties of the lease.
“The Trump administration prides itself on getting the job done for the American people and partnering with others who share that same goal,” said the Interior Department, which oversees the National Park Service.
Washington — The Virginia man accused of planting two pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic Party headquarters on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot will be in court Tuesday as his lawyers and federal prosecutors argue over whether he should remain detained in the lead-up to a criminal trial.
Justice Department lawyers have argued in court papers that Brian Cole, 30, poses an “intolerable risk” to the community and should continue to be detained. He faces two criminal charges stemming from the alleged planting of two improvised explosive devices in the vicinity of the RNC and DNC headquarters in Washington, D.C., nearly five years ago. He has not yet entered a plea to the charges.
Prosecutors urged the court to keep Cole in custody “considering the extreme and profoundly serious nature of his crimes, the overwhelming evidence of his guilt, the years he has spent deceiving those around him to avoid accountability, and the intolerable risk that he will again resort to violence to express his frustration with the world around him.”
The Justice Department said in court filings Sunday that Cole has confessed to constructing the bombs, filling them with explosive power and setting their timers to detonate. Prosecutors argued that he evaded law enforcement and avoided accountability “for actions that endangered lives and created a widespread sense of fear and terror.”
The devices were planted on the night of Jan. 5, 2021, and were not discovered until the afternoon of Jan. 6, 2021, as law enforcement in Washington, D.C., were overwhelmed when a mob of President Trump’s supporters breached the U.S. Capitol in an effort to stop Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The bombs did not detonate, but the FBI said they were viable. The perpetrator who planted the devices eluded federal investigators for years, even as the FBI continued to release new video and information in hopes of a break in the case. Then, earlier this month, authorities arrested Cole after investigators looked at cellphone provider records, purchasing history and vehicle movements.
Brian Cole Jr.
Department of Justice
Cole told investigators during an interview after his arrest that he had driven to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5 to attend a protest over the outcome of the 2020 election and did not tell his family he was going to a protest in support of Mr. Trump, prosecutors said. He said that after the 2020 election, he began following the issue on YouTube and Reddit “when it first seemed like something was wrong” and “stuff started happening,” according to Justice Department filings. He said that “if people feel that their votes are like just being thrown away, then . . . at the very least someone should address it,” prosecutors said.
Prosecutors wrote that when asked about his motive, Cole said “something just snapped” and he wanted to target “the parties” because “they were in charge.” He denied that his actions were directed toward Congress or related to certification of the 2020 election results, which took place on Jan. 6, according to the Justice Department.
Cole’s lawyers have argued in court papers that he should not be kept in custody while awaiting a trial, as he has lived “without incident” for the past four years. They said that Cole has been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Level 1, and obsessive compulsive disorder. Level 1 is the mildest form of Autism Spectrum Disorder, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition.
Cole’s legal team also argued that he has no criminal history and said there is “zero evidence” to suggest he would flee ahead of a trial. He agreed to home detention with GPS monitoring, and would be supervised by his grandmother, according to court filings.
“There is no pattern of alarming conduct either prior to or after the alleged conduct at issue in this case. Mr. Cole does not pose a danger to the community,” they wrote.
Cole’s lawyers have also asked the magistrate judge overseeing Tuesday’s hearing to order any and all confessions or admissions Cole made to investigators to be turned over to his legal team.
Cole, a Virginia resident, was arrested earlier this month after the yearslong search for the perpetrator of the alleged plot. In court documents, the FBI said Cole lives with his mother and other family members in Woodbridge, Virginia, and works in a bail bondsman’s office.
His lawyers said that Cole “can continue being a productive member of society upon release” because he can return to his job, “which will provide immediate structure and accountability.”
The man accused of planting pipe bombs outside the Democratic and Republican national committee headquarters on Jan. 5, 2021, told investigators that he believed that the 2020 election had been tampered with and he felt “someone needs to speak up,” the Justice Department said in a court filing Sunday.
The Justice Department said that over the course of 90 minutes, Brian Cole, who was arrested in Virginia on Dec. 4, “walked the interviewing agents in detail through his construction, transportation, and planting of the pipe bombs.”
Cole, 30, has yet to enter a plea. He has been charged with transplanting and planting the two IEDs at the DNC and RNC headquarters, neither of which exploded.
Cole is due in court on Tuesday for a detention hearing.
Cole’s attorneys on Monday asked that all evidence be turned over sooner rather than later, including any copies of an alleged confession. His attorneys on Sunday also asked for Tuesday’s hearing to be not just a detention hearing but also a probable cause hearing.
According to the court documents from prosecutors, Cole told investigators that he wasn’t targeting the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021. Supporters of President Trump stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, interrupting the counting of the electoral votes and delaying the official validation of the 2020 election results. Mr. Trump has falsely claimed that he won the 2020 election.
Cole allegedly told investigators that he disliked both political parties and didn’t consider himself a “political person.” But after the 2020 election, “when it first seemed like something was wrong” and “stuff started happening,” he began following the issue closely on YouTube and Reddit and felt “bewildered,” the court documents said.
“I didn’t agree with what people were doing, like just telling half the country that they — that their — that they just need to ignore it,” Cole told investigators, according to the court documents. “I didn’t think that was a good idea, so I went to the protest.”
Cole allegedly told investigators that “someone up top” needed to “speak up” if people “feel that, you know, something as important as voting in the federal election is being tampered with, is being, you know, being — you know, relegated null and void.” Cole said he felt the “people up top, public figures,” should not “ignore[e] people’s grievances” or call them “conspiracy theorists,” “bad people,” “Nazis,” or “fascists.” Instead, “if people feel that their votes are like just being thrown away, then . . . at the very least someone should address it,” the court documents said.
Prosecutors said Cole told them that he bought the bomb-making materials between 2018 and 2020. He told investigators the idea to use pipe bombs came from his interest in history, specifically The Troubles in Northern Ireland, in which pipe bombs were frequently used over a three-decade period of conflict between Protestants and Catholics.
According to the court documents, when asked about his motive, Cole said “something just snapped” after “watching everything, just everything getting worse.”
Investigators also say Cole told them he wasn’t thinking of the reaction if the devices detonated, although he hoped there would be news about it. He said he was “pretty relieved” that the bombs didn’t explode.
WASHINGTON — Every night, Abdullah Ibrahim retreats from the streets into a wooded stretch along the Potomac River.
As night falls and temperatures drop, he erects a tent and builds a fire beneath a canopy of pine, hemlock, and cedar trees.
He evades authorities by rotating use of three tents of different colors at three campsites. As day breaks, he dismantles his shelter, rolls up his belongings, and hides them for the next night. “They don’t see you if you’re in the woods,” the 32-year-old said. “But make sure it’s broken down by morning or they’ll find you.”
During the day, he wanders, stopping at a public library to warm up or a soup kitchen to eat. What’s important is to not draw attention to himself for being homeless.
“Police want us out of the way,” he said, dressed in a gray jacket and carrying none of his possessions. “Out of sight, out of mind.”
Abdullah Ibrahim is homeless on the streets of Washington, D.C. He hides his tent nightly to avoid authorities conducting encampment sweeps.
Angela Hart/KFF Health News
Ibrahim has been deliberate about blending in since August, when President Trump placed the district’s police under federal control and ordered National Guard soldiers to patrol its streets. The president also ordered homeless people to leave immediately. “There will be no ‘MR. NICE GUY,’” he posted.
The Trump administration says encampment sweeps have reduced the visibility of homelessness, thereby enhancing the city. “There is no disputing that Washington, DC is a safer, cleaner, and more beautiful city thanks to President Trump’s historic actions to restore the nation’s capital,” White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said.
While there may appear to be fewer homeless people in the nation’s capital now, they have not disappeared.
In interviews, homeless people said they are in a constant shuffle, hiding in plain sight. During the day, they stay on the move, grabbing meals at soup kitchens and resting on occasion in public libraries, on park benches, or at bus stops. At night, many unsheltered people bed down in business doorways, on park sidewalks, and on church stoops. Some ride the bus all night, while a few shelter in emergency rooms. Others find respite in the woods or flee to suburbs in Virginia or Maryland.
There are about 5,100 homeless people in Washington, D.C., including in temporary shelters, according to an early-2025 homelessness tally. After Mr. Trump ordered the crackdown on public homelessness, people living in makeshift communities scattered and are now living in the shadows. City officials estimated in August that nearly 700 homeless people were living outdoors without tents or other shelter.
As winter draws near, they are exposed to the elements and grow sicker as chronic ailments such as diabetes and heart disease go untreated. Street medicine providers say that, since the National Guard was deployed, they have faced enormous difficulty finding patients. Many caught up in sweeps have had their lifesaving medications thrown away, and they are more likely to miss medical appointments because they are constantly on the move. Street medicine providers say they can’t find their patients to deliver medication or transport them to medical appointments. The constant chaos can suck patients with mental illness and substance use deeper into drug and alcohol addiction, raising the risk of overdose.
Caseworkers report similar disruptions, saying as clients get lost, they break connections essential for obtaining housing documents, particularly IDs and Social Security cards.
District officials and health providers say this cascade will make homelessness worse, threatening public health and public safety and racking up enormous costs for the health care system.
“It was already hard locating people, but the federal presence just made it worse,” said Tobie Smith, a street medicine doctor and the executive director of Street Health D.C.
The homeless shuffle
Chris Jones was born and raised in Washington, D.C., but now is homeless, having been pushed out of his tent near the White House in the initial days of the federal homelessness crackdown. He said two of his tents were taken during sweeps. Now, sleeping on a sidewalk outside a church, he doesn’t bother trying to get another one. “Why? What’s the point? It’ll just get thrown away again.”
Chris Jones experienced the homelessness crackdown ordered by President Donald Trump in August 2025, when authorities swept through Washington, D.C., dismantling homeless encampments and evicting people from their tents.
Angela Hart/KFF Health News
Jones, 57, has a severe knee injury that prevents him from walking some days and said he was scheduled for a knee replacement in December. He said it’s important to stay where he is — he relies on a nearby drugstore to refill his medications for bipolar disorder, diabetes, and high blood pressure. When he’s hungry, he goes to a soup kitchen for a meal or tries to get a cheeseburger and a soda from a fast-food joint across the street.
It’s important for him to stay outside the church, he said, so his case manager can find him when a permanent housing slot opens up. If it gets too cold, he said, he will cross the street and sleep in the doorway of a business, which can provide a bit more shelter. He wants to get indoors, but for now, he waits.
Since taking control of Washington’s police force, the Trump administration has ratcheted up pressure on cities and counties across the nation to clear homeless encampments under threat of arrest, citation, or detention. It has ordered or threatened similar National Guard deployments in Los Angeles; Portland, Oregon; and other cities with large homeless populations.
Rogers, the White House spokesperson, said the president is maintaining National Guard and federal law enforcement presence in the nation’s capital “to ensure the long-term success of the federal operation.” Since March, city and federal officials have removed more than 130 homeless encampments, she said, though some local homelessness experts say that number could be inflated.
A shopping cart next to a tent in Washington, D.C.
Angela Hart/KFF Health News
The Supreme Court last year made it easier for elected officials and law enforcement to fine or arrest homeless people for living outside. Then, in July of this year, the president issued an executive order calling for a nationwide crackdown on urban camping, including a massive removal of people living outdoors and forced mental health or substance use treatment.
President Trump is also spearheading an overhaul of homelessness policy, moving to slash funding for permanent housing and services for homeless people. The move would limit the use of a long-standing federal policy known as “Housing First” that offers housing without mandating mental health or addiction treatment. The National Alliance to End Homelessness warns the move risks displacing at least 170,000 people in permanent supportive housing. The Department of Housing and Urban Development paused the plan on Dec. 8 to make revisions, which it “intends” to do, federal housing officials said.
City officials say they are complying with the Trump administration’s forceful campaign against homeless people sheltering outside. Pressured by the White House, local officials said they’ve gotten more aggressive in breaking up camps. Advocates for homeless people say some of the sweeps have been conducted at night and others with little or no notice to move. City leaders believe they could be done more compassionately by offering services and shelter.
“We’ve pivoted from the notion of allowing encampments if they didn’t violate public health or safety to a position of, ‘We don’t want you in the streets,’” said Wayne Turnage, deputy mayor for District of Columbia Health and Human Services, who oversees encampment cleanups. “It’s unsafe, it’s unhealthy, and it’s dangerous.” Yet he acknowledges the encampment sweeps can waste city resources as caseworkers and street medicine providers scramble to find their clients and patients.
Tobie Smith, a street medicine doctor with Street Health D.C., checks a homeless person with a stethoscope in November 2025.
Angela Hart/KFF Health News
Advocates say the Trump administration is inciting fear and mistrust between homeless people and those working to help them while wasting taxpayer dollars used to provide care and place people into housing. There are, however, far fewer tents and large-scale encampments visible to tourists and residents.
“People found safety in those communities and service providers could find them. Now there are people with guns and flashing lights dislocating folks experiencing homelessness without notice and just throwing stuff away,” said Jesse Rabinowitz, campaign and communications director for the National Homelessness Law Center.
District officials say some people have accepted emergency shelter. But even as the city works to connect people with services and expand shelter capacity, officials acknowledge there isn’t enough permanent housing or temporary beds for everyone.
And there will be fewer places for people living outside to go.
The city, in its fiscal year 2026 budget, concentrated its homelessness funding on families, funding 336 new permanent supportive housing vouchers. Yet it cut funding for temporary housing for both families and individuals and provided no new permanent supportive housing vouchers for individuals. That means fewer housing slots for single adults, who make up most of those wandering the streets. City officials said, however, that they have slotted 260 more permanent housing units for homeless individuals or families into their construction pipeline.
Worsening health care
The fallout is inundating local soup kitchens with demand, including Miriam’s Kitchen in Foggy Bottom. The local institution provides hot meals, housing assistance, and warm blankets to people in need.
Caseworkers say it’s becoming increasingly difficult to help clients secure IDs and other documents needed for housing and other social services.
“I’m looking everywhere, but I can’t find people,” said Cyria Knight, a case worker at Miriam’s Kitchen. “Most of my clients went to Virginia.”
It’s unclear how much of the district’s homeless population has fanned out to neighboring Virginia and Maryland communities. There were an estimated 9,700 homeless people in the region in January, months before the Trump crackdown. Four of six counties around Washington saw homelessness rise from 2024, while it fell 9% in the district.
“I’m not seeing my patients for a month or more, and then when I do, their chronic conditions are uncontrolled. They’ve been in and out of the ER, and they’re more likely to be hospitalized,” said Anna Graham, a street medicine nurse practitioner for Unity Health Care, a network of clinics in Washington. “It’s just setting us back.”
Graham’s team stations its mobile medical van outside Miriam’s Kitchen at dinnertime to better find patients.
Willie Taylor, 63, was figuring out where to sleep for the night after grabbing dinner from Miriam’s. He saw Graham to receive his medications for advanced lung disease, seizures, chronic pain, and other health disorders.
Willie Taylor, who lives outside and has difficulty walking, gets regular medical care for his chronic health conditions in a mobile medical van. Anna Graham, a street medicine nurse practitioner with Unity Health Care, helped him organize his bags of medication on a cold night in November 2025.
Angela Hart/KFF Health News
He has difficulty walking and needs a wheelchair, which is complicated because he doesn’t have a permanent address. Taylor and his medical providers say his previous wheelchairs have been stolen while he slept outdoors at night. He uses a shopping cart to keep him steady, walking around all day, until nightfall.
On a cold November night, Graham helped Taylor figure out his daily medications and checked his vitals. The team handed him a warm coat and hand warmers before sending him back outside.
After walking for about 45 minutes, he found a piece of park pavement where he could build a bed out of tarps and sleeping bags.
“My body can’t take this,” Taylor said, preparing to sleep. “There’s ice on the concrete. I’m in so much pain; it hurts so much worse when it’s cold.”
Homeless people die younger and cost the health care system more than housed people, largely because conditions go untreated on the streets, and when they do seek care, many go to the ER. Among Medicaid enrollees, homeless people have been estimated to incur $18,764 a year in spending, compared with $7,561 for other enrollees.
Over at the So Others Might Eat soup kitchen earlier that day, Tyree Kelley was finishing his breakfast of a sausage sandwich and hard-boiled eggs. He was considering going into a shelter. The streets were becoming too dangerous for someone like him, he said, referring to the police and National Guard presence. He was feeling the loss of an encampment community that would watch his back.
He’s been to the ER at least seven times this year to get care for a broken ankle he sustained falling off an electric scooter. The accident caused him to lose his job and health insurance as a garbageman, he said. His situation has caused him to sink deeper into a depression that began three years ago after his mother died, he said.
Then his father and sister died this year. He began to numb his pain with beer.
“You get so depressed, being out here,” said Kelley, 42. “It gets addictive. You start to not care about even changing your clothes.”
His depression also led him to seek out marijuana. Then he smoked a joint laced with fentanyl. The overdose sent him to the hospital for days.
“I actually died and came back,” he said, crediting other homeless people with administering naloxone and saving his life. “I need to get out of this, but I feel so stuck.”
A few blocks west of the White House sits a vacant plot of land that earlier this year held more than a dozen tents. Workers in the area sense what they don’t always see.
“I was here when this was all cleared. A bulldozer came in, and all their stuff was thrown in a garbage truck,” said Ray Szemborski, who works across the street from the now-empty lot. “People are still homeless. I still see them around underneath the bridge. Sometimes they’re at bus stops, sometimes just walking around. Their tents are gone but they’re still here.”
KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.
The U.S. government admitted in a court filing Wednesday that it was partially at fault in a midair collision between an American Airlines passenger jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter that killed 67 people earlier this year.
In the 209-page filing by the Justice Department, government lawyers wrote that the U.S. “admits that it owed a duty of care to Plaintiffs, which it breached, thereby proximately causing the tragic accident on January 29, 2025.”
The filing states that the crew of the Army Black Hawk helicopter — which was conducting a training mission with night-vision goggles on the night of the crash — failed to establish and maintain proper and safe visual separation with a regional American Eagle flight that was approaching runway 33 at Reagan National Airport near Washington, D.C. American Eagle and PSA Airlines are subsidiaries of American Airlines.
The Army Black Hawk helicopter pilots “failed to maintain vigilance so as to see and avoid other aircraft and their failure was a cause-infact and proximate cause of the accident,” the filing states.
The Justice Department also identified an air traffic controller in the DCA tower as partially to blame for the accident, arguing the controller “negligently violated” a Federal Aviation Administration order by “failing to follow the procedures for visual separation” between the helicopter and passenger jet.
At the time of the accident, there was one controller managing helicopter traffic in the area and departures and arrivals at DCA, according to multiple sources.
The extraordinary revelation by the U.S. government was in response to a lawsuit filed by the family of Casey Crafton, one of the passengers on the jetliner.
Meanwhile, the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation into the deadly crash is still ongoing. The final results of the investigation and recommendations were expected before the anniversary of the crash.
Tim and Sheri Lilley, the parents of First Officer Sam Lilley, who was in the cockpit of American Eagle Flight No. 5342 the night of the crash, maintain their son did everything right leading up to the collision.
“We stand by the facts presented at the NTSB’s investigative hearing, which confirmed that AA5342 Captain Jonathan Campos and our son, First Officer Sam Lilley, complied with all required federal procedures and industry-standard operating practices,” the Lilleys wrote.
The surviving National Guard member wounded in the D.C. shooting is now breathing on his own and can stand with assistance, his medical team said Friday.
Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe’s medical team said in a statement that the National Guard member “has made extraordinary progress” in the 16 days since he was airlifted to MedStar Washington Hospital Center with a critical gunshot wound to the head.
National Guard member Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe
CBS News
“He is now breathing on his own and can stand with assistance—important milestones that reflect his strength and determination,” his neurosurgeon, Jeffrey Mai, said in the statement.
West Virginia National Guard members Wolfe, 24, and Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom were shot in an ambush-style attack in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 26. Beckstrom, 20, died from her injuries the following day.
Suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, was charged with murder, assault with intent to kill while armed and possession of a firearm during a crime of violence for the shooting. He pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey said last week that Wolfe was “slowly healing” and his family expects Wolfe to be in acute care for another two to three weeks, but has been “optimistic about his progress.”
His medical team said Friday that Wolfe is ready to transition from acute care to inpatient rehabilitation based on his recent improvements.
His rehabilitation location was not disclosed due to his family’s request. Wolfe’s family thanked the medical staff, the doctors and nurses who cared for their son throughout his stay. The family said in a statement that the care “has been remarkable, and they have told us Andy’s progress is miraculous.”
Wolfe’s family said they know their son faces a long and tough rehabilitation.
“We know he will continue to improve at a rapid pace and know your prayers are making the difference. Please continue as God heals Andrew and gives him the strength to return to work, the West Virginia National Guard, and his new mission of being a light into this world,” the family said in a statement.
Investigators are still searching for a motive after two National Guard members were shot near the White House on Wednesday. One died Thursday, while the other remains in critical condition. The alleged gunman now faces a first-degree murder charge, according to U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro.
Days after the Wednesday shooting of two National Guard members in D.C., businesses and local community members are still processing what happened.
Washington (CNN) — Fasil Regassa wipes away tears when he talks about Sarah Beckstrom, the 20-year-old National Guard member who was shot Wednesday just a few feet away from his store.
“I cried when I heard she died,” Regassa told CNN.
For nine years, Regassa and his wife, immigrants from Ethiopia, have managed a 7-Eleven convenience store just across the street from the shooting scene. When the shooting started, Regassa said, he locked the front doors of his store and rushed the three or four customers inside to a back area for safety.
In the bustling downtown areaof Washington, DC, blocks away from the White House and packed with tourists, chain restaurants, cafes, banks, stores and corporate offices, business community membersare still processing the violence and chaos they experienced near the Farragut West Metro Station.
Beckstrom and fellow guard member Andrew Wolfe, 24, were shot multiple times by a lone gunman just outside the entrance to the metro station. Beckstrom died from her injuries Thursday evening. Both soldiers, members of the West Virginia National Guard, had been deployed to the nation’s capital during President Donald Trump’s law enforcement surge in August of this year.
Regassa said the presence of National Guard members in this district has made the area “more safe” and described the Guard members who have come into his store for snacks and drinks as “completely nice people.”
He says he appreciates the guard members and feels the retail area was a more dangerous place before their arrival. He told CNN of an incident in 2020 when he says five assailants overran his store, stole some goods and caused him to suffer a broken leg when one of them crashed down on him as he lay on the floor.
Rosa Fuentes was also caught up in the chaos of Wednesday afternoon. Fuentes manages the Tatte Bakery & Cafe, less than a block from the shooting scene. When she heard the shots, Fuentes said, she immediately closed and locked the doors of the restaurant and kept customers inside.
She saw one woman outside running, who she described as crying, “shaking” and “panicking,” and she opened the doors to let her in. “We were scared,” Fuentes said, because “we didn’t know if they had got the guy.”
Fuentes, who has a 23-year-old daughter, also fought back tears when she reflected on Beckstrom’s death. She said she was crying when she heard the news, “and was thinking about how her parents felt.”
Fuentes, an immigrant from El Salvador, described the guardsmen who come into her restaurant as nice people, but she has mixed feelings about the Trump administration’s plans to deploy additional guard soldiers to Washington in the wake of the shooting. She initially said she thought it could make the area safer, but added, “I don’t know,” saying that she’s worried about what could happen to the guard members themselves.
The manager of another cafe nearby, who declined to provide her name or the name of the establishment, said she witnessed the shooting, describing it as “shocking.” She recalled locking the doors of the cafe and getting customers down on the ground in the moments afterward. She said the guardsmen patrolling the area since August have kept a “low profile,” and she is pleased that more of them could be deployed here soon. They’d provide “another layer of protection,” she said.
Gyanu Sapkota, an immigrant from Nepal who has managed a Subway sandwich shop near Farragut Square for 18 years, told CNN that guard members would often come into his shop during their deployment, and he said Beckstrom and Wolfe looked familiar to him.
The guard members in the city “are very, very nice,” said Sapkota, who was not at the store during the shooting. “Most were very friendly. Most of them were very young.”
Before the arrival of the guard members in the tourist-heavy area, Sapkota said he often had problems with people coming into his store and stealing drinks and bags of chips. But he said the presence of the National Guard in the area has made him and his employees feel safer, and he applauded the plan to send more guard troops to DC. “That’s better for us,” Sapkota said.
Managers of local branches of major banks that operate in Farragut Square, who declined to give their names, described to CNN locking doors and taking cover after the shooting, seeing police converging on the scene and people running past their windows.
While one of the managers described the shooting as “sad,” he said of the presence of the guard members in the area, “I didn’t want them here.”
“In my opinion, they’re military folks, and they’re always going to be targeted,” he said. “I just feel there’s ways you can do more in the community to cut violence. I don’t think the National Guard would do that.”
The manager of another bank described the guard members in the area as friendly, and he said one of them gave him a patch as a kind gesture. But he added, of the possible deployment of additional guard members here, “I don’t think they should bring more of them here. I don’t think it’ll help the situation.”
Makeshift memorial draws emotional reflections
On Friday,a makeshift memorial to the victims at the site of the shooting grew by the hour, with people placing flowers, wreaths, flags and notes in an outdoor planter by the entrance to the Farragut West station.
A 21-year-old Marine, who did not give his name because he’s not authorized to speak to the media, placed a vase of roses, an American flag patch and two challenge coins at the memorial.
After taking a moment to reflect on the victims, he told CNN he thought the political rhetoric and finger-pointing following the shooting has been “disgusting.”
“It all needs to stop,” he said. “We need to recognize that a US service member has lost their life.”
A note was placed that read: “Praying for all Nat’l Guard — thank you for all you do.”
A man who laid flowers said, while he didn’t agree with the National Guard’s deployment in the city, “she didn’t deserve to die.”
Gov. Patrick Morrisey said Friday that no West Virginia National Guard members deployed to Washington, D.C., have requested to return home in the wake of Wednesday’s shooting of two West Virginia Guard members that left one dead and the second critically wounded.
“I haven’t heard of anyone step back,” Morrisey told CBS News in an interview. “They wanted to stay. They wanted to complete the mission and serve their state and country.”
Back in August, at President Trump’s request, Morrisey was one of several Republican governors that deployed National Guard soldiers to D.C., with West Virginia sending somewhere between 300 and 400 Guard members.
According to the military’s Joint Task Force – District of Columbia, there are 180 West Virginia Guard members deployed in D.C. as of Friday. They are among about 1,300 out-of-state Guard troops that were dispatched to D.C. as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on crime in the city.
Although Mr. Trump has ordered an additional 500 Guard personnel to D.C. in response to the shooting, Morrisey repeatedly sidestepped questions on whether West Virginia troops would join that surge.
Members of the National Guard patrol the National Mall on Nov. 28, 2025, in Washington, D.C.
Andrew Leyden / Getty Images
And though he expressed openness towards it, Morrisey said he will not pre-judge future deployment decisions, and avoided committing additional units.
“Right now, I’m focusing on the families, the guardsmen, and healing,” the governor said. “As time evolves, I’ll keep talking with Guard leadership to make the right call.”
Still, he insisted the mission continues and should not be abandoned in the wake of the shooting.
“When evildoers come in and commit heinous acts, we can’t back down,” Morrisey said. “That’s exactly what they want.”
The suspect now faces charges of first degree murder. The former West Virginia attorney general told CBS News that the death penalty should remain “on the table.”
Twenty-year-old Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom was killed in Wednesday’s shooting, and 24-year-old Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe was critically wounded.
Morrisey, who met Beckstrom’s parents at the hospital following her death, described the young soldier as deeply respected among her unit — someone whose presence “brought positive energy to every room.”
“She was loved and respected greatly,” Morrisey said. “There’s an energy around her — people lining up to pay respects, showing sympathy, standing by their friend and the Guard.”
Wolfe, who remains in intensive care, comes from what Morrisey called “a rich tradition of service.” Wolfe’s father serves in the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office, and his grandfather earned multiple Purple Hearts. “His family asked for one thing — prayers,” Morrisey said. “He’s fighting for his life.”
Law enforcement sources told CBS News that following the ambush shooting, the suspected gunman, identified as a 29-year-old Afghan national, was stabbed with a pocketknife by a third Guard member, while a fourth returned fire and shot the suspect multiple times, ending the attack.
President Trump said Thursday that the suspect remains hospitalized in serious condition.
The governor Friday confirmed West Virginia soldiers were directly involved in subduing the alleged gunman, but withheld operational details pending a federal review. He praised their response as swift, coordinated and heroic, crediting them with preventing further casualties.
Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, the 20-year-old West Virginia National Guard member who was shot and killed in an ambush-style attack in Washington, D.C., is being remembered by former coworkers as energetic, funny and quick to laugh.
“Her coworkers would tell you she had a great sense of humor,” said Marcie Vaughan, CEO of Seneca Health Services. “She loved being part of the community. She would frequently go to events, engage others, and share resources that might positively impact their lives.”
An updated photo of National Guard member Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom.
Beckstrom was one of two members of the West Virginia National Guard who were shot in an ambush-style attack in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. The second victim, Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, underwent surgery on Wednesday and remains in critical condition. The suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is believed to have acted alone.
Beckstrom worked for behavioral health agency, Seneca Health Services, as a community engagement specialist before her deployment and supported those at risk of psychiatric hospitalization, helping them remain stable and connected to care, Vaughan said.
“She had a passion for serving people,” Vaughan recalled. “Her decision to join the National Guard and to become a member of the behavioral health profession … that requires a person to have compassion. The fact she volunteered shows courage and dedication.”
Beckstrom is from Summersville, West Virginia, and served in the Guard since June 2023, according to a statement from the West Virginia National Guard. She volunteered to serve in the Trump administration’s D.C. National Guard deployment and was assigned to the 863rd Military Police Company, 111th Engineer Brigade at the time of the shooting.
“Her mother was very proud of everything Sarah had done,” Vaughan said. “We have a beautiful 20-year-old young lady whose life was cut short. It’s tragic.”
Beckstrom had been on active duty in Washington since August, part of the ongoing White House crime task force in Washington. Vaughan said colleagues are bracing for the emotional return to the office.
“It will be anguished,” Vaughan said. “Her mother was here the day this happened. Everyone is concerned, and saddened.”
Beckstrom was one of roughly 180 National Guard members currently deployed from West Virginia.
“The family just needs prayers,” Vaughan said. “Sarah was happy to serve — and it is a tragedy that this happened to her.”
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey told CBS News that while he never met Beckstrom in uniform, the outpouring of support from her unit, her commanders and her family has painted a clear picture of who she was.
“All the accounts about her over the last couple days have been nothing but so positive,” he said. “She looked like she was loved by the people in her unit, and they also respected her greatly.”
Beckstrom’s body was moved from the hospital where she died to the D.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner on Thursday night, the National Guard told CBS News.
Beckstrom received an honor escort, which is also known as a fallen soldier procession. Photos show U.S. service members lining the procession’s route.
U.S. service members line the streets of Washington, D.C., for U.S. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom.
U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. William Blankenship
The procession symbolizes “the nation’s gratitude for a life given in service,” according to the Department of Defense.
Wounded guard member remains in critical condition
Pirro said that Wolfe remains in critical condition. She did not share any specifics.
“We still have hope,” she said on Fox News.
Wolfe underwent surgery after the shooting. Mr. Trump said on Thursday that he was “fighting for his life.” Pirro said that the government is supporting his family “during this difficult time.”
Suspect will be charged with murder
Lakanwal will be charged with murder in the first degree, Pirro said during a Fox & Friends appearance on Friday morning. She called Beckstrom’s killing a “premeditated murder.”
More charges may follow as the investigation unfolds, she said.
“This is a case that has touched the hearts of so many Americans because to be gunned down on the streets on the nation’s holiday is an outrage,” Pirro said. “The individual who did this will pay the ultimate price, according to the attorney general, Pam Bondi, as well he should.”
Pirro declined to discuss details of the investigation, but said that “there will be no stone left unturned.”
“We will know everything we need to know. It’s not time to share that. When the time comes, we will share it,” she said.
National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom remembered as “a hero”
In a statement confirming her death Thursday night, the commander of Joint Task Force District of Columbia hailed Army National Guard Spc. Sarah Beckstrom as “a hero.”
“This is a devastating loss to our National Guard family,” Col. Larry Doane said in a statement. “Spc. Sarah Beckstrom came to the District from West Virginia to make our nation’s capital safe and beautiful. She is a hero and we mourn her passing. Our thoughts and prayers are with her loved ones and with the West Virginia National Guard.”
Beckstrom enlisted in the West Virginia National Guard in June 2023. She served as a military police soldier with the 863rd Military Police Company.
Second National Guard member shot in D.C. is “fighting for his life,” Trump says
One of two National Guard members who were shot in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday is “fighting for his life,” President Trump told reporters Thursday.
Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, is “in very bad shape,” Mr. Trump said. “Hopefully, we’ll get better news in respect to him.”
Earlier Thursday, U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro said Wolfe was in critical condition after undergoing surgery.
National Guard member Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe
The second victim, 20-year-old Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, died from her injuries, Mr. Trump said.
Law enforcement sources told CBS News the two were on patrol outside a downtown D.C. metro station when a gunman opened fire in what the sources described as a “clear ambush” and “calculated attack.”
One of 2 National Guard members shot in D.C. has died, Trump says
One of the National Guard members who was shot, 20-year-old Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, has died, President Trump said Thursday.
“Right now I heard that Sarah Beckstrom of West Virginia, one of the guardsmen that we’re talking about, highly respected, young, magnificent person, started service in June of 2023, outstanding in every way, she has just passed away,” Mr. Trump told reporters Thursday evening.
An undated photo of National Guard member Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom.
A White House official later said the president spoke with Beckstrom’s parents Thursday evening.
Suspect may have suffered from paranoia, mental health challenges, investigators believe
A running theory of investigators is that the suspect in the shooting of the two National Guard members suffered from paranoia and other mental health challenges that indicated he believed authorities sought to deport him from the U.S., multiple law enforcement sources told CBS News on Thursday.
By Nicole Sganga and Pat Milton
Multiple family members of the suspect have been interviewed, sources say
Multiple family members of the suspect in Washington state have been interviewed by investigators following a search of the suspect’s Bellingham home, multiple law enforcement sources told CBS News.
Federal law enforcement, led by the FBI, are scrutinizing and analyzing the suspect’s digital footprint, the sources said. No other suspects have been identified in connection with the shooting.
Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, one of the victims of Wednesday’s ambush-style attack in Washington, D.C., died Thursday night. A coast-to-coast investigation is now underway as officials look to learn more about the suspect, who has been identified as an Afghan national who entered the U.S. in 2021. Nicole Sganga has the latest.
The U.S. capital is tiny compared to many of the world’s largest cities, a new report on urbanization around the globe shows.
Tokyo has lost its status as the world’s largest city, with another sprawling Asian capital, the Indonesian metropolis of Jakarta, knocking it off the top spot, according to a report from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
According to the U.N. report, nine of the 10 most populous cities in the world are in Asia.
Jakarta, with 41.9 million residents, is the largest. Dhaka, Bangladesh, follows with almost 36.5 million people. The Japanese capital, Tokyo, has fallen from the top spot to third, with 33.4 million people. The Indian capital, New Delhi, is fourth with just over 30.2 million people.
Urban U.S.
For the U.S., these findings offer important insights into future urbanization trends, infrastructure challenges and global economic shifts.
As the rate of population growth in Asian cities outpaces that in the U.S., cities in the United States and the rest of the Americas are falling down the ranking of the world’s largest.
The figures are also a reminder of just how small Washington, D.C., is in comparison with Asian metropolises.
The U.N. measures population within an urbanized area, often beyond a city’s administrative limits. It puts the population of Washington, D.C., at 3.27 million.
The U.S. Census Bureau, basing its calculation on a smaller city area excluding urban sprawl, says there are just over 702,000 people in the capital.
The biggest U.S. city is New York with 13.9 million people in 2025, according to the U.N. data, making it the 22nd biggest city in the world—down from 15th place in 2000.
Los Angeles has a population of 12.7 million, according to the U.N. calculations, making it the world’s 27th largest city—down from 17th in 2000.
Sao Paulo, Brazil, is the biggest city in the Americas with a population of 18.9 million in 2025, making it the world’s 13th biggest city—down from 10th in 2000, according to the U.N. data.
Mexico City is the second-biggest city in the Americas with 17.7 million people in 2025, making it the world’s 15th biggest city—down from the 8th largest in 2000, according to the U.N. data.
Buenos Aires, Argentina, ranks third in the Americas for population and 21st in the world with 14.2 million people, one spot ahead of New York. Its position is down from 16th in 2000.
Chicago is the U.S.’s third-biggest city with 2.723 million people, according to U.S. Census Bureau data from 2024. Then comes Houston (2.39 million), Phoenix (1.67 million), Philadelphia (1.57 million), San Antonio (1.52 million), San Diego (1.4 million), Dallas (1.32 million) and Jacksonville (1 million).
The other mega cities in the world’s top 10, according to U.N. data, are China’s Shanghai (29.5 million) and Guangzhou (27.5 million); Cairo, Egypt’s capital and the only non-Asian city in the top 10, with 25.5 million; the Philippine capital, Manila (24.7 million); India’s Kolkata (22.5 million); and the South Korean capital, Seoul (22.4 million).
President Trump said late Thursday night that he would suspend immigration from developing nations to the U.S.
In a post to Truth Social, Mr. Trump wrote that he “will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover.”
The declaration follows Wednesday’s shooting in downtown Washington, D.C., just blocks from the White House, in which a National Guard member was killed and a second Guard member critically wounded. The suspect detained in the shooting has been identified as a 29-year-old Afghan national who was admitted to the U.S. in September 2021, along with thousands of other Afghan refugees, a month after the U.S. withdrew its troops from Afghanistan.
Since the shooting, the Trump administration has taken an aggressive stance on U.S. immigration policies it says are to blame for allowing the suspect into the U.S., and has vowed to change them.
The president did not clarify when such a move might take effect or how the pause would be implemented. He also did not disclose which countries would fall under such a designation.
CBS News has reached out to the White House for clarification.
The president also wrote that he would “terminate” the status of millions of migrants admitted under former President Joe Biden’s administration and “remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States.”
He said he would end “Federal benefits and subsidies” for “noncitizens” and deport foreign nationals who are determined to be a “security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization.”
Earlier Thursday, the Trump administration said it would be conducting a “full-scale, rigorous reexamination” of all green cards for every immigrant from 19 countries “of concern.”
Those countries included Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iran, Somalia, Libya, Sudan, Yemen and Venezuela.
Also Thursday, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed to CBS News in a statement that the White House is now reviewing all asylum cases approved under the Biden administration.
The suspect in the shooting, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, immigrated to the U.S. from Afghanistan in September 2021, paroled on humanitarian grounds, a DHS official told CBS News. His asylum case was granted earlier this year, during Mr. Trump’s presidency, the DHS official said.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Thursday that the suspect lived with his family in Bellingham, Washington, and drove across the country to D.C. prior to the attack.
Mr. Trump said Thursday that the suspect, who was shot by a National Guard member following the ambush attack, is in serious condition. Authorities
The CIA also disclosed Thursday that Lakanwal previously worked with the U.S. government, including the CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar that ended in 2021 following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
One of the two West Virginia National Guard members who was wounded Wednesday in what authorities described as an ambush-style shooting in Washington, D.C., has died, President Trump said Thursday.
Mr. Trump told reporters Thursday evening that 20-year-old Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom died in the hospital.
“Right now I heard that Sarah Beckstrom of West Virginia, one of the guardsmen that we’re talking about, highly respected, young, magnificent person, started service in June of 2023, outstanding in every way, she has just passed away,” Mr. Trump said.
Earlier Thursday, U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro said the second victim, 24-year-old Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, was in critical condition after undergoing surgery.
Mr. Trump told reporters that Wolfe is “fighting for his life, he’s in very bad shape.”
“Hopefully, we’ll get better news in respect to him,” Mr. Trump added.
Photos of National Guard members Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe.
Mr. Trump also said the suspect in the shooting, previously identified as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was in serious condition.
Pirro said Thursday that both Guard members had been sworn into Guard duty less than 24 hours before the attack. The National Guard’s joint task force for the district later clarified that the two had been serving in the district since August, and they were deputized before the attack to maintain their status to conduct patrols.
Although they were deputized for deployment, the two Guard members were not operating as law enforcement and did not have arrest powers, multiple sources familiar with the investigation told CBS News Wednesday night.
President Trump told reporters Thursday night that Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom has died. Beckstrom was one of the National Guard troops shot in Wednesday’s Washington, D.C., ambush attack. Andrew Wolfe, the other victim, is still in critical condition. CBS News’ Nicole Sganga reports.
