The Latest: Trump is expected to make election conspiracies a focus of his national address

President Donald Trump is set to address the nation Thursday at 9 p.m. ET on topics he said will include elections and voting machines, suggesting he could revisit long-debunked conspiracy theories about his 2020 defeat to Democrat Joe Biden. The speech comes as he’s escalated his calls for Republicans to pass tighter federal voting rules ahead of November’s midterm elections.

At Trump’s last primetime presidential address in April, he said the U.S. would accomplish its Iran war objectives “very shortly.” But days of back-and-forth attacks by the U.S. and Iran across the Middle East and in the Strait of Hormuz have shredded the interim deal to pause the fighting. U.S. strikes intensified early Thursday against a widening set of targets, including a ship it accused of breaking its blockade on Iranian ports. Iran retaliated by firing on U.S. allies in the region.

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They are the Juárez Cartel, on the border with Texas, and Los Viagras, a criminal group from the western state of Michoacán. The Federal Register, the U.S. government’s gazette, published the designation Thursday.

They joined six other Mexican criminal organizations the U.S. considers terrorist groups, including the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Gangs in other Latin American countries, including Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador and El Salvador, also have been designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the Trump administration.

President Trump began to extend the terrorist label to Latin American cartels in February 2025 to allow U.S. authorities to take more aggressive action against them or against anyone the U.S. sees as aiding the groups.

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U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio convened more than 60 governments to address what he described a growing increase of left wing violence around the globe. Rubio opened the conference by making sweeping statements about the issue and noting that the U.S. and most of the world has spent the last few decades focusing on Islamic terrorism.

“For far too long, however, our counterterrorism doctrine has had a blind spot, a blind spot when it comes to extremist violence from the political left,” he said.

Rubio added that the U.S. plans to make more terrorist designations against groups like antifa.

Two of the eight men indicted on murder and terrorism conspiracy charges for their alleged roles in a thwarted drone and sniper attack on the UFC cage-fighting show at the White House last month pleaded not guilty Thursday.

Tycen Proper, 19, of Danville, Ohio, and Chandler Scaggs, 21, of Chapmanville, West Virginia, entered the pleas before U.S. District Court Judge Edmund Sargus Jr. in Columbus, Ohio. Each is charged, as are the six others, with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to commit murder on federal government territory and to murder a federal government official.

Sargus set their trial date for Sept. 14.

A message seeking comment was left with Proper’s attorney. Scaggs’ lawyer declined to comment.

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When Markwayne Mullin took over as Homeland Security secretary from fired Kristi Noem, he pledged to get the department responsible for carrying out the Trump administration’s mass deportations policy out of the headlines.

But just months into Mullin’s time in office, the department is squarely in the center of controversy again after three people were killed in encounters with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in the span of less than a week.

The events are the first major test for Mullin, who promised a steady hand for a department roiled by his predecessor’s conduct and the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

As he navigates the uptick in violence, he’s being forced into a balancing act that has him juggling pressures from a White House eager to carry out mass deportations and his former colleagues in Congress seeking answers — all while attempting to ease tensions in American cities over the deaths.

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In the weeks after Trump lost to Joe Biden in 2020, the people Trump appointed to run the Department of Justice, cybersecurity agencies and intelligence departments all said the same thing — the election was fair, legitimate and free of major fraud or foreign interference.

In his second term, Trump has tried to use the levers of power to rewrite that well-settled history, something he’s expected to try again Thursday night with an address to the nation.

He’s already appointed loyalists who’ve echoed his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and made clear he expects everyone to follow his lead.

In an indication of how fealty to Trump’s lies has become a litmus test for his administration, many of his nominees have steadfastly refused to directly answer the question of who won in 2020, preferring to tersely note that Biden became president.

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When major disasters strike, Americans are routinely waiting weeks — or even months — to receive presidential approval for aid. And if they live in a state that didn’t support President Trump, chances are greater that aid will be denied.

Since taking office last year, Trump has approved about 65 requests for major disaster declarations and denied more than two dozen others from states, tribes or territories seeking federal financial assistance following hurricanes, tornadoes, storms, floods and fires.

Trump has taken longer on average to approve disaster requests than any other president, according to an Associated Press analysis of data dating back to 1989, when a federal law setting new parameters for disaster determinations was implemented. And no other president has such a disparity in denials between states that supported him politically and those that did not.

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President Donald Trump is set to address the nation Thursday night on topics he said will include elections and voting machines, suggesting he’s likely to revisit some of the unproven claims he’s previously made about Republican losses, particularly his own in 2020.

Trump’s fixation on his loss to Democrat Joe Biden six years ago and the long-debunked theories he’s circulated about it are something he still brings up regularly when discussing other subjects. But elevating the deeply political and conspiratorial topics to a presidential primetime address underscores the lengths to which Trump has used his second term to both blow past norms and fixate on old grievances.

Trump has offered only vague details about the address, scheduled for 9 p.m. When asked by a reporter Tuesday if it would concern “election machines and integrity,” Trump said it would “concern that subject” and “we’ll have a couple of other things to say also.”

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President Donald Trump arrives at the United States Army War College for the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit, Wednesday, July 15, 2026, in Carlisle, Pa. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

President Donald Trump departs on Marine One after speaking at the United States Army War College in Carlisle, Pa., at the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit, Wednesday, July 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Catastrophic flooding in Texas after days of pounding rain forced authorities to rescue dozens of people from rising waters before sunrise Thursday while many more fled to higher ground across a region still recovering from devastating floods just a year ago.

The National Weather Service in San Antonio said a “large and deadly flood wave” was barreling down the same river wrecked by floods last summer when two dozen children and counselors were killed at Camp Mystic.

Forecasters urgently warned “Move to higher ground now!” as rivers rose hour by hour, turning them into fast-moving seas of white water.

There was no immediate word of any deaths or injuries from the flooding. Several tornado warnings were also issued. The Texas Hill Country floods over the July Fourth holiday last year killed more than 100 people.

The storms and flooding threatened multiple counties close to the border with Mexico and in the Texas Hill Country near San Antonio. City officials in Kerrville urged people to shelter at the highest levels of their homes.

Images along a creek in Kerr County showed propane tanks that had been pushed onto a bridge and a mess of tangled trees.

Floodwaters overran the city of Uvalde overnight, cutting off outside access.

“There’s no way into the city at this point in time. Rescues have been happening overnight,” said Juli Alvarado, a spokesperson for Uvalde police. Multiple people trapped in vehicles were being rescued, she said.

“The good thing is they’re communicating with our emergency dispatch center and we’re getting crews to them quickly,” she said.

Uvalde officials were deploying boats for rescue operations and planned to fly helicopters after daybreak, Alvarado said. Phones buzzed with warnings throughout the night, warning of flash flooding in the morning.

Texas Game Wardens rescued more than 40 people, mostly in the Uvalde County area, according to a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department spokesperson.

The weather service said 10 to 20 inches of rain (25 to 50 centimeters) had fallen in the past two days, with 8 inches (20 centimeters) in just two hours early Thursday.

The deluge dumped nearly a foot of rain in some counties and put people in multiple counties under flood watches.

Some of the flood watches were expected to remain in effect through Friday evening.

The floodwaters were expected to reach a crest similar to last year's flood, the weather service said.

Gauges in some spots along the Guadalupe River showed it rose by more than 30 feet (9 meters) in a matter of hours overnight Thursday.

One gauge outside of Kerrville showed the river had risen 32 feet (9.7 meters) in four hours.

Close to Camp Mystic, which remains shut down, the Guadalupe River near Hunt reached about 20.5 feet (6.3 meters), according to a U.S. Geological Survey gauge, which is just under the level expected to inundate structures and roads.

By Wednesday, Uvalde police had ordered mandatory evacuations for some parts, with first responders notifying people affected directly. Others were asked to stay vigilant in case more evacuations are needed.

Some people walked out of their homes into the street to see the water growing closer every hour, their faces worried. People living along the Leona River scrambled to pack up their cars and head out, although many did not yet know where they should go. One man threw two kayaks into his truck bed, just in case.

Lightning flashed as clouds darkened, and brown water created large rapids in the typically calm river, which was pushing up against the town’s high bridge and into neighborhoods by Wednesday afternoon.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has issued disaster declarations for dozens of counties.

As of late Wednesday, six million Texas residents in 57 counties were under a National Weather Service flood watch. Watches for more than half of those counties were to continue into Friday evening.

Some of the highest rainfall totals so far have been in Uvalde County, which normally gets about 23 inches (58 centimeters) of rain a year, according to the Uvalde County Extension Office.

Stengle reported from Dallas. Associated Press writers Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut; and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this report.

A small fish is stranded on a sidewalk after flood waters subsided on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, in Boerne, Texas. (AP Photo/Darren Abate)

Reece Noble, left, and Gavyn Steffek, photograph a tortoise they found in flood waters on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, in Boerne, Texas. (AP Photo/Darren Abate)

Members of the Boerne Fire Dept. rescue a woman from flood waters on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, in Boerne, Texas. (AP Photo/Darren Abate)

A flood-damaged car hangs from a fence on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, in Boerne, Texas. (AP Photo/Darren Abate)

Members of the Boerne Fire Dept. prepare to perform a water rescue on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, in Boerne, Texas. (AP Photo/Darren Abate)