White House says over 70 arrests in D.C. yesterday
A White House official said 76 people were arrested in D.C. last night as part of the president’s law-enforcement initiative, bringing the total number of arrests since the operation started earlier this month to over 700.
The official said that of those arrested yesterday, 36 were undocumented immigrants. The charges against them include drug possession, resisting arrest, assault and driving without a license. The official did not release any information on exactly how many of those arrested were charged with nonimmigration crimes, except to say it was “many.”
The official said the arrests included two known gang members, a person who had an outstanding warrant for violating parole in a sex abuse case, a person who was carrying a pistol without a license, and a robbery suspect.
Law enforcement personnel also seized five illegal firearms, the official said.
Trump says he will fire Fed governor Lisa Cook if she doesn’t resign
Speaking to reporters during a museum visit in D.C., Trump said today that he will fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook if she doesn’t resign.
“What she did was bad. So I’ll fire her if she doesn’t resign,” the president said.
Trump’s comment came days after Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William Pulte alleged that Cook had committed mortgage fraud.
A crowded race for governor has turned into an all-out fight over Trump’s endorsement
The crowded Republican race to be South Carolina’s next governor has erupted into an early, all-out battle to secure Donald Trump’s coveted endorsement, with the candidates going to great lengths to grab the president’s attention 10 months before the primary.
That includes everything from personally sending him positive polls and employing his top allies to mimicking his signature catchphrases and policy proposals.
Zelenskyy again pushes for meeting with Russia
During remarks to reporters alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte this morning, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy questioned Russia’s commitment to ending the war, saying that its officials are avoiding meeting with him to keep the conflict going.
“The Russians will try to do something else now to avoid a meeting. The issue is not just the meeting. The issue is that they don’t want to end the war,” the Ukrainian president said. “A meeting is one of the components of how to end the war. It’s not all, it’s one of the components. And since they don’t want to end it, they will look for space for it. And this space needs to be reduced. America and Europe in unity reduce this space for war.”
Zelenskyy also called for increased sanctions against Russia if they continue to slow-walk the details of a meeting.
“We need to force them to engage in diplomacy,” he said. “We need really strong sanctions if they don’t agree to a diplomatic solution to this war. If they don’t want to end the war, we are very much counting on strong [sanctions] packages from our partners. We believe that we need to do everything we can to prevent Russia from continuing to hide from the meeting.”
His remarks come hours after Russia’s foreign minister told NBC News that there are currently no concrete plans for a meeting between Zelenskyy and and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump said he had no knowledge of FBI raid on John Bolton’s home
Trump said he had no prior knowledge of the FBI raid on his former national security adviser John Bolton’s home until he “saw it on television this morning.”
“I don’t know about it,” Trump told reporters today. “I’m not a fan of John Bolton. He’s a real sort of a lowlife.”
Bolton has emerged as an outspoken critic of Trump since serving in his first administration, specifically his handling of foreign policy matters and recent meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Asked if he expects to be briefed on the raid, Trump said, “They’ll brief me, probably today sometime,” adding, “I tell Pam, and I tell the group, I don’t want to know but just you have to do what you have to do.”
Trump suggests he could send National Guard into Chicago and N.Y.C
The president again suggested that he might send National Guard troops into Chicago and New York City when he feels their work is done in D.C.
“A lot of people say, ‘Well, where is he going from there?'” Trump told reporters while visiting a museum about the White House in D.C. “Well, I have calls from politicians begging me to go to Chicago, begging me to go to New York, begging me to go to Los Angeles. And if we didn’t go to Los Angeles with Newsom, they run it so badly, I don’t think we would have been able to have the Olympics. They would have ripped down that city. We went there, and it stopped day one.”
Trump made similar remarks at the White House on Aug. 11, saying “I’m going to look at New York in a little while” and “if we need to, we’re going to do the same thing in Chicago, which is a disaster.
D.C., he said today, “is very safe now.”
“There’s been no murders since I started,” Trump claimed,” later clarifying there were no killings this past week.”And you know, it’s a terrible thing to say. Who would think that you have to say that there have been no murders? It’s terrible.”
FBI raids former national security adviser John Bolton’s home in a probe to find classified records
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Peter Alexander, Kelly O’Donnell and Alexandra Marquez
The FBI raided former national security adviser John Bolton’s home in Bethesda, Maryland, this morning as part of a “national security investigation in search of classified records,” a source familiar with the matter confirmed to NBC News.
An FBI official said in a statement that the agency was “conducting court authorized activity in the area. There is no threat to public safety.”
The agency declined to comment further.
Famine declared in Gaza City as Israel vows to open ‘gates of hell’ on besieged area
Russia’s foreign minister says no Putin-Zelenskyy summit planned despite Trump’s peace push
Trump meets with law enforcement and National Guard troops in D.C. to thank them for anti-crime efforts
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Monica Alba, Megan Lebowitz and Nnamdi Egwuonwu
WASHINGTON — Trump greeted dozens of law enforcement personnel and National Guard troops Thursday and thanked them for what he characterized as a successful early start to his administration’s efforts to reduce crime in Washington, D.C.
Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were among those stationed outside of the U.S. Park Police Anacostia Operations Facility as Trump talked up the federal takeover of D.C. police that’s been accompanied by the deployment of more than 1,000 National Guard troops.
California voters will decide whether to adopt a new Democratic-drawn congressional map
California’s Democratic-controlled Legislature passed bills yesterday setting up a high-profile special election this fall, when voters will decide whether to approve the party’s plan to gerrymander California’s congressional map.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who signed the relevant legislation shortly after it passed, has championed the plan as a political counterweight to Texas’ recent move to create more Republican seats there as both parties get ready for a 2026 election in which control of Congress will be up for grabs.
Judge rules ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ can stay open for now, but no further detainees or construction are allowed
MIAMI — A federal judge in Miami ruled yesterday that “Alligator Alcatraz,” the contested migrant detention facility in the Florida Everglades, can remain operational for now but that it cannot be expanded and no additional detainees can be brought in.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams entered a preliminary injunction to prevent the installation of any additional industrial-style lighting and any site expansion. Her ruling further prevents “bringing any additional persons … who were not already being detained at the site at the time of this order.”