MILWAUKEE (AP) — When Andrew Vaughn joined the Milwaukee Brewers last month with a chance to rejuvenate a career that had gone sideways, the message he received from his new team was simple.
If you chase, you won’t play.
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Milwaukee Brewers' Andrew Vaughn hits a grand slam during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Tuesday, July 29, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Milwaukee Brewers' Andrew Vaughn rounds the bases after hitting a grand slam during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Tuesday, July 29, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Milwaukee Brewers' Andrew Vaughn, left, gets splashed by Andruw Monasterio after a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Tuesday, July 29, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Milwaukee Brewers' Andrew Vaughn (28) gets splashed by Andruw Monasterio after a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Tuesday, July 29, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Vaughn took that advice to heart, and suddenly the guy who was batting well below .200 for the first two months of the season is one of baseball’s hottest hitters.
His remarkable turnaround produced its biggest highlight yet on Tuesday night as Vaughn hit a grand slam and had a career-high six RBIs in the Brewers’ 9-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs. Vaughn’s performance helped the Brewers extend their NL Central lead over Chicago to two games.
“It’s a special group here right now,” said Vaughn, who went 3 for 4 on Tuesday. “We’re playing really good baseball. It’s fun to be a part of.”
Vaughn, 27, is batting .375 with a .439 on-base percentage, .771 slugging percentage, five homers and 21 RBIs in 15 games since joining the Brewers on July 7. The only player in the major leagues with more RBIs during that stretch is Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber.
“It’s been awesome,” teammate Jackson Chourio said through an interpreter. “The way he’s been able to help us out has just been spectacular. It’s just been inspiring to watch.”
Vaughn’s surge is particularly notable because he was struggling as much as just about any hitter in the game for much of the season.
After hitting a combined 72 homers for the Chicago White Sox from 2021-24, Vaughn batted just .189 with a .218 on-base percentage, five homers and 19 RBIs in 48 games before he got sent down to the minors.
Vaughn was still playing with Triple-A Charlotte when the Brewers acquired him in a June 13 trade that sent Aaron Civale to Chicago. The Brewers initially assigned Vaughn to their Triple-A team in Nashville, but they called him up when a thumb sprain sent first baseman Rhys Hoskins to the injured list.
Little did the Brewers know the guy they’d picked up from the minors would get on this kind of heater.
“The kid’s been unbelievable,” manager Pat Murphy said.
Murphy noted that Vaughn is swinging at the right pitches now. Vaughn concedes that wasn’t the case earlier when he was with the White Sox.
“Early in the year, I was hitting the ball hard, maybe swinging at some bad pitches,” Vaughn said. “Just trying to hone in on that, focus on getting my pitch to hit.”
Vaughn certainly found the right offering Tuesday when he sent the first pitch he saw from Ryan Pressly over the left-field wall for his second career grand slam. Vaughn also drove in a run with a sacrifice fly in the second and hit an RBI single in the fifth.
He has gone 8 of 15 over his last four games while helping the Brewers overcome their injury issues at first base. Jake Bauers joined Hoskins on the injured list July 20 with a left shoulder issue.
Yet the Brewers have kept on winning with Vaughn taking over at first.
Vaughn’s transformation at the plate is similar to the turnaround he’s encountered in the standings. After playing for last-place White Sox teams, he savors the opportunity to have a major role on a Brewers squad that has the best record in the majors.
“Winning’s fun, and we’ve been doing it a lot,” Vaughn said. “We want to keep it going.”
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Milwaukee Brewers' Andrew Vaughn hits a grand slam during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Tuesday, July 29, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Milwaukee Brewers' Andrew Vaughn rounds the bases after hitting a grand slam during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Tuesday, July 29, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Milwaukee Brewers' Andrew Vaughn, left, gets splashed by Andruw Monasterio after a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Tuesday, July 29, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
Milwaukee Brewers' Andrew Vaughn (28) gets splashed by Andruw Monasterio after a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs, Tuesday, July 29, 2025, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Aaron Gash)
President Donald Trump posted Wednesday on social media that anything less than U.S. control of Greenland is “unacceptable,” hours before Vice President JD Vance was to host Danish and Greenlandic officials for talks.
“NATO becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the UNITED STATES,” Trump wrote.
On Iran, Trump's threat to impose a 25% tax on imports from countries doing business with the Islamic Republic could raise prices for U.S. consumers and further inflame tensions in a country where inflation is running above 40%.
And as Senate Republicans face intense pressure from Trump to vote down a war powers resolution Wednesday aimed at limiting him from carrying out more military action against Venezuela, an AP-NORC poll conducted after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s Jan. 3 capture found that 56% of U.S. adults think Trump has overstepped on military interventions abroad, while majorities disapprove of how he's handling foreign policy.
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U.S. President Donald Trump has made an American takeover of Greenland a focus of his second term in the White House, calling it a national security priority while repeating false claims about the strategic Arctic island.
In recent comments, he has floated using military force as an option to take control of Greenland. He has said that if the U.S. does not acquire the island, which is a self-governing territory of NATO ally Denmark, then it will fall into Chinese or Russian hands.
▶ Take a closer look at the facts
China’s trade surplus surged to a record of almost $1.2 trillion in 2025, the government said Wednesday, as exports to other countries made up for slowing shipments to the U.S. under President Donald Trump’s onslaught of higher tariffs.
China’s exports rose 5.5% for the whole of last year to $3.77 trillion, customs data showed, as Chinese automakers and other manufacturers expanded into markets across the globe. Imports flatlined at $2.58 trillion. The 2024 trade surplus was over $992 billion.
In December, China’s exports climbed 6.6% from the year before in dollar terms, better than economists’ estimates and higher than November’s 5.9% year-on-year increase. Imports in December were up 5.7% year-on-year, compared to November’s 1.9%.
▶ Read more about how economists expect exports to impact China’s economy
Although he doesn’t always follow through, Trump seems intent on doubling and tripling down whenever possible.
“Right now I’m feeling pretty good,” Trump said Tuesday in Detroit. His speech was ostensibly arranged to refocus attention on the economy, which the president claimed is surging despite lingering concerns about higher prices.
Trump has repeatedly insisted he’s only doing what voters elected him to do, and his allies in Washington remain overwhelmingly united behind him.
Republican National Committee spokesperson Kiersten Pels predicted that voters will reward the party this year.
“Voters elected President Trump to put American lives first — and that’s exactly what he’s doing,” she said. “President Trump is making our country safer, and the American people will remember it in November.”
It’s only two weeks into the new year, and Trump has already claimed control of Venezuela, escalated threats to seize Greenland and flooded American streets with masked immigration agents. That’s not even counting an unprecedented criminal investigation at the Federal Reserve, a cornerstone of the national economy that Trump wants to bend to his will.
Even for a president who thrives on chaos, Trump is generating a stunning level of turmoil as voters prepare to deliver their verdict on his leadership in midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.
Each decision carries tremendous risks, from the possibility of an overseas quagmire to undermining the country’s financial system, but Trump has barreled forward with a ferocity rattling even some of his Republican allies.
“The presidency has gone rogue,” said historian Joanne B. Freeman, a Yale University professor.
▶ Read more about the turmoil Trump is creating ahead of this year’s votes
Nearly half of Americans — 45% — want the U.S. to take a “less active” role in solving the world’s problems, the new AP-NORC poll found.
About one-third say its current role is “about right,” and only about 2 in 10 U.S. adults say they want the country to be more involved globally.
Democrats and independents are driving the desire for the U.S. to take a “less active” role. At least half of them now want the U.S. to do less, a sharp shift from a few months ago.
Republicans, meanwhile, have grown more likely to indicate that Trump’s level of involvement is right. About 6 in 10 Republicans — 64% — say the country’s current role in world affairs is “about right,” which is up slightly from 55% from September.
About half of Americans believe the U.S. intervening in Venezuela will be “mostly a good thing” for halting the flow of illegal drugs into the country, according to a new AP-NORC poll.
And 44% believe the U.S. actions will do more to benefit than harm the Venezuelan people. But U.S. adults are divided on whether intervention will be good or bad for U.S. economic and national security interests, or if it simply won’t have an impact.
Republicans are more likely than Democrats and independents to see benefits to the U.S. action, particularly its effects on drug trafficking. About 8 in 10 Republicans say America’s intervention will be “mostly a good thing” for stopping the flow of illegal drugs into the country.
▶ Read more about the poll’s findings
Most U.S. adults — 56% — say President Trump has “gone too far” in using the U.S. military to intervene in other countries, according to a new AP-NORC poll conducted from Jan. 8-11, after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s capture.
Democrats and independents are driving the belief that Trump has overstepped. About 9 in 10 Democrats and roughly 6 in 10 independents say Trump has “gone too far” on military intervention, compared with about 2 in 10 Republicans.
The vast majority of Republicans — 71% — say Trump’s actions have been “about right,” and only about 1 in 10 want to see him go further.
▶ Read more about the poll’s findings
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with oil executives in the East Room of the White House, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington, as Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio listen. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Trump said in a social media post on Monday that he would impose a 25% tax on imports to the United States from countries that do business with Iran. The sanctions could hurt the Islamic Republic by reducing its access to foreign goods and driving up prices, which would likely inflame tensions in a country where inflation is running above 40%.
But the tariffs could create blowback for the United States, too, potentially raising the prices Americans pay for imports from Iranian trade partners such as Turkish textiles and Indian gemstones and threatening an uneasy trade truce Trump reached last year with China.
The Trump administration has offered scant details since announcing the new tariffs targeting Iran. It’s also unclear what legal authority the president is relying on to impose the import taxes. He invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to justify his most sweeping tariffs last year. But businesses and several states have gone to court arguing that Trump overstepped his authority in doing so.
▶ Read more about Trump’s threat of new tariffs
The Smithsonian Institution gave the White House new documents on its planned exhibits Tuesday in response to a demand to share precise details of what its museums and other programs are doing for America’s 250th birthday.
For months, Trump has been pressing the Smithsonian to back off “divisive narratives” and tell an upbeat story on the country’s history and culture, with the threat of holding back federal money if it doesn’t.
By Tuesday, the Smithsonian was supposed to provide lists of all displays, objects, wall text and other material dedicated to this year’s anniversary and other purposes. Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III told staff, in an email obtained by The New York Times and The Washington Post, that “we transmitted more information in response to that request.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment, leaving it unclear whether it was satisfied with the material it received.
▶ Read more about the Smithsonian
Trump said Wednesday that anything less than U.S. control of Greenland is “unacceptable,” hours before Vice President JD Vance was to host Danish and Greenlandic officials for talks.
In a post on his social media site, Trump reiterated his argument that the U.S. “needs Greenland for the purpose of National Security.” He added that “NATO should be leading the way for us to get it” and that otherwise Russia or China would.
“NATO becomes far more formidable and effective with Greenland in the hands of the UNITED STATES,” Trump wrote. “Anything less than that is unacceptable.”
Greenland is at the center of a geopolitical storm as Trump is insisting he wants to own the island, and the residents of its capital, Nuuk, say it is not for sale. The White House has not ruled out taking the Arctic island by force.
▶ Read more about Trump’s comments
President Donald Trump walks down the stairs of Air Force One upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Luis M. Alvarez)
