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"The South Carolina GOP senator is using golf, good humor and frequent White House visits to try to influence foreign policy and keep Trump close as he faces a primary challenge.I’m his north star,” Graham told NBC News in an interview this week, a bold remark few in his party would dare make. “We disagree, but he knows where I am coming from. He sees me helping him as much as anybody in the Senate.” ADVERTISING Late last month, Graham temporarily blocked a $1.2 trillion deal to avert a government shutdown. Asked by reporters why he would block something that...

Acting ICE director Todd Lyons says newly reviewed video evidence contradicts officers' sworn testimony about January confrontation.

The U.S. military is preparing for the possibility of sustained, weeks-long operations against Iran if President Donald Trump orders an attack, two U.S. officials told Reuters, in what could become a far more serious conflict than previously seen between the countries. The disclosure by the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the planning, raises the stakes for the diplomacy underway between the United States and Iran. U.S. and Iranian diplomats held talks in Oman last week in an effort to revive diplomacy over Tehran's nuclear program, after Trump amassed military forces in the...

The Pentagon has reportedly ordered a second aircraft carrier strike group to prepare to deploy to the Middle East in support of potential military action against Iran. President Trump has not yet given the carrier group the greenlight to deploy, but an order could be issued “in a matter of hours,” the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday night, citing US officials. The deployment would likely come from the US East Coast, and one carrier is being prepped to head out to sea in two weeks, an official told the publication. The USS George H.W. Bush is currently conducting training exercises...

Jeannine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, on Monday threatened jail time for anyone who enters the capital with a gun. In remarks on Fox News that could deepen a growing rift between gun owners and the Trump administration, Ms. Pirro declared that if anyone brings “a gun into the District, you mark my words, you’re going to jail. I don’t care if you have a license in another district and I don’t care if you’re a law-abiding gun owner somewhere else.” Her remarks prompted swift pushback from the Republican Party’s pro-Second Amendment wing, which was thrown...

The value of the U.S. dollar plunged Tuesday, after President Donald Trump said he was not concerned about the currency's recent drop. "I think it’s great," Trump said, speaking to reporters in Iowa, when asked if the dollar's value had declined too much. “The dollar’s doing great.” Before Trump's comments, the benchmark ICE U.S. Dollar Index was already on pace to record its worst three-day drop since Trump's April 2025 "Liberation Day" tariff rollout. After Trump’s comments, the value of the dollar as measured by the index sharply extended its slide to as much as 1.5%, putting it on track...

President Trump has warned America’s European allies “I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace” after he missed out on last year’s Nobel Prize amid a new round of threats to annex Greenland.Trump’s message, initially sent to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, was forwarded to multiple European ambassadors in DC, according to PBS. “Dear Jonas,” the message reads. “Considering your Country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace, although it will always be predominant, but can now...

President Donald Trump's focus on the brazen U.S. capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro is frustrating some White House aides and Republican lawmakers, who want him to address economic and healthcare concerns in an election year, according to three people familiar with the matter.White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, her deputy James Blair and Vice President JD Vance are pressing Trump to prioritize domestic concerns, said two White House officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters. Vance has been the most persistent voice in meetings, repeatedly steering conversations back to kitchen-table issues, they said....

White supremacist and MAGA influencer Nick Fuentes went all in over the weekend on supporting California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) over Vice President JD Vance because Newsom is more “handsome.” Fuentes, who has regularly attacked Vance in the past, calling him childish names like “gay” and “fat,” posted to social media on Sunday: “Physiognomy is real. Post physique, its handsome thursday. I only believe in beauty and aesthetics!!” JD Vance = fat subhuman. Newsom mogs him to death I would vote for him 100x over just because he’s handsome. “NOOOOOO NOT LIKE THAT!!!! YOU HAVE TO VOTE FOR THE REPUBLICAn!!”...

A federal appeals court said on Monday that Alina Habba had been serving unlawfully as the U.S. attorney in New Jersey, dealing a blow to the Trump administration and most likely setting up a showdown at the Supreme Court. In its ruling, the three-judge panel, based in Philadelphia, affirmed an earlier ruling by a Federal District Court judge, shooting down each of the government’s arguments for why Ms. Habba could continue to serve. In their opinion, the judges wrote that the Trump administration appeared to have become frustrated by the legal and political barriers that have prevented its preferred U.S....

Attorney General Pam Bondi said, "We have released over 33,000 Epstein documents to the Hill, and we will continue to follow the law and to have maximum transparency." She spoke at an unrelated news conference alongside FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. The bill includes several exceptions to a full release that could complicate or delay disclosure. The measure says the Justice Department has up to 30 days from its signing to make "publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of...

Trump administration officials fired more than 300 staffers Thursday night at the National Nuclear Security Administration — the agency tasked with managing the nation’s nuclear stockpile — as part of broader Energy Department layoffs, according to four people with knowledge of the matter. Sources told CNN the officials did not seem to know this agency oversees America’s nuclear weapons. An Energy Department spokesperson disputed the number of personnel affected, telling CNN that “less than 50 people” were “dismissed” from NNSA, and that the dismissed staffers “held primarily administrative and clerical roles.” The agency began rescinding the terminations Friday morning. Some...

NATO’s Secretary-General Mark Rutte hailed newly inaugurated U.S. President Donald Trump’s warning on Wednesday that Russia could expect more tariffs and sanctions if it did not end the war in Ukraine. “I was very, very happy with the position of Trump to put more sanctions on Russia. We know that the Russian economy is doing terribly bad[ly], and the sanctions will help,” he told CNBC on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.” He expressed hopes that Europe will now also “step up” with sanctions in a bid to “choke off the Russian economy” and lessen Moscow’s...

US President Donald Trump on Monday called for Russian President Vladimir Putin to strike a deal to end the nearly three-year war in Ukraine, specifying that Russia will be in "big trouble" if the conflict continues. "He should make a deal. I think he's destroying Russia by not making a deal," Trump said upon his return to the Oval Office. "I think Russia's going to be in big trouble." Trump expressed his willingness to meet with Putin, mentioning their prior summit during his first term. "I got along with him great. I would hope he wants to make a deal,"...

President-elect Donald J. Trump’s support for Pete Hegseth, who he announced as his nominee for defense secretary shortly after Election Day, is wobbling after a crush of controversy over a rape allegation and a 2018 email from Mr. Hegseth’s mother accusing him of a pattern of abuse toward women. How Mr. Hegseth fares through a series of tests on Wednesday will be critical for his chances. He is set to continue his meetings with key senators, including Joni Ernst of Iowa, a combat veteran who has spoken about being sexually assaulted herself, and his mother is expected to sit for...

In his future policies, including those on the Russian track US President-elect Donald Trump will rely on the commitments to the forces that brought him to power, rather than on election pledges, Russian presidential aide Nikolay Patrushev told the daily Kommersant in an interview. "The election campaign is over," Patrushev noted. "To achieve success in the election, Donald Trump relied on certain forces to which he has corresponding obligations. As a responsible person, he will be obliged to fulfill them." He agreed that Trump, when he was still a candidate, "made many statements critical of the destructive foreign and domestic...

Former President Trump on Saturday revealed that he is selling $100 “Trump Coins” with his face on them, calling the items a “true symbol of American greatness.” The coins are now the latest product to be sold by Trump as he seeks a second term in the White House, following the launch of Trump Sneakers and “God Bless the USA” Bibles earlier this year. “Trump Coins are designed by me and minted right here in the U.S.A. This beautiful, limited-edition coin commemorates our movement, our fight for freedom, prosperity and putting America first, we always put America first,” Trump said...

President Biden managed to gain ground on former President Donald Trump in key battleground states and trails by only 2% — even after his disastrous debate performance last week, a new poll shows. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, leads Democrat Biden 47% to 45%, in the crucial states needed to win the November election, according to a Bloomberg News/Morning Consult tracking poll released Saturday. It’s the smallest gap since the poll began in October. Although Biden is losing in Pennsylvania, the state where he grew up, he now leads Trump in Michigan and Wisconsin. He’s also within the poll’s...

Former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley is under active consideration by Donald Trump's campaign to be his running mate, news site Axios reported on Saturday, citing unidentified people familiar with the situation. Trump could pick Haley if he were convinced she could help him win the presidency, avoid a potential prison sentence and cover tens of millions in legal bills if he loses, the report said. Haley, the former South Carolina governor and a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, ended her log-shot challenge to Republican presidential frontrunner Trump in March. She said it was likely Trump - who...

With seven months to go until November's presidential election and the majority of polls showing the presumptive presidential candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden are basically neck-and-neck, the pair both need every vote they can to secure the keys to the White House. But Trump, the Republican former president, may be hampering his chances at success because of his standing with one key demographic in the adult voting population: women. Polls show that the proportion of women who plan to vote for Trump in November is less than the proportion who voted for him in the 2020 election. Meanwhile, experts...