The board of the Kennedy Center voted on Tuesday to close over financial issues and a dispute over putting President Donald Trump’s name on the iconic performing arts venue, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The move came after a federal judge blocked the Kennedy Center board from returning Trump’s name to the building or grounds in any way, saying it would violate an earlier ruling that his name was illegally added.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump denounced the Supreme Court after it rejected his push to restrict mail-in voting in this year’s midterm elections, saying justices who opposed him are “not the people I interviewed.” His last-minute push to empower the U.S. Postal Service to refuse to deliver ballots in states that didn’t submit a list of eligible voters was opposed by election officials, who argued that the changes weren't necessary or even possible with ballots already being mailed.
Appearing before a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, FBI Director Kash Patel defended the bureau’s loose hiring requirements regarding prostitution and bestiality. Patel said the changes were meant to protect people forced into such acts from automatic disqualification.
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The 49-50 vote on whether to move forward with the legislation was a pivotal election-year test for the $2.3 trillion cryptocurrency market as the industry has pushed aggressively for a uniform set of rules. The Senate debate came as cryptocurrency companies have become a major political force, and as Trump has amassed significant wealth in crypto while in office.
While some Democrats are friendly toward the industry and support the idea of regulation, they have been adamant that the bill include strong ethics safeguards to prevent the president and his family from enriching themselves while he’s in office. The opposition appears to have only solidified two months before the midterm elections, despite significant donations that crypto groups have given to some Democrats in recent years.
Blanche indicated that recent reports about rogue AI agents conducting cyberattacks were somehow leaked to hurt Republicans in November’s midterm elections.
His statements were unusual as the concerns were raised by the leading AI companies such as Anthropic, OpenAI and Google DeepMind that would profit from wider adoption of the technology.
Blanche noted that “every Democrat senator suddenly races to a microphone to talk about” the AI risks and the need for regulation “after being eerily silent for months and months and months.”
Blanche then said the timing was evidence “of this as being nothing but an effort to to influence the midterms.”
“I shouldn’t have to say that out loud, of course,” Blanche said.
He says the Supreme Court’s ruling rejecting Trump’s efforts to restrict mail ballots in the midterm elections will not impact ongoing investigations into voter fraud.
“The Supreme Court’s decision today or yesterday doesn’t affect ongoing criminal investigations into illegal voting, no,” the attorney general told reporters at a Rose Garden press briefing.
He also said the administration’s work to combat fraud will continue.
Attorney General Todd Blanche says the alleged “grand conspiracy” investigation in Florida into Trump’s perceived adversaries is continuing even after the resignation of the prosecutor who’d been leading it.
Joe diGenova, an 81-year-old former Justice Department lawyer during the Reagan administration, was brought back to government in April to lead an investigation into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against Trump over the last decade during their various inquiries into the Republican president.
DiGenova resigned last week. He told The New York Post that “If you want indictments where there’s no evidence, you have an ethical problem.” He made different comments later to The Associated Press.
Speaking at a White House press briefing, Blanche said that diGenova had made different comments to different news organizations. He declined to discuss his conversations with diGenova but pledged that the investigation would proceed.
Longtime Trump ally Steve Bannon doesn’t always align himself with Sen. Bernie Sanders, the democratic socialist from Vermont. But he said threats posed by artificial intelligence span political ideology.
“We have to rise above it,” Bannon said at the Pro-Human Assembly in Washington, a conference focused on prioritizing humans as AI develops. “This is a hinge in history.”
Bannon blasted the “arrogance” of AI leaders and warned of “oligarchs” in much the same way Sanders does regularly.
Speaking from the same stage earlier in the afternoon, Sanders called AI and robotics “the most transformational technologies in the history of the world” and said the public should have a greater say in how the industry develops.
“If the lives of every man, woman and child are going to be fundamentally changed by this technology, then the people of this country must make the decisions about AI, and not just a handful of oligarchs,” Sanders said.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said it was proper for Trump to vent about the Supreme Court decision to decline the changes that the president wanted for mail-in-voting.
“He is very frustrated,” Blanche said at the White House briefing. “He has every right and, indeed, he should communicate his concerns with the Supreme Court whenever he has them. This isn’t the first time that he’s done it, and it won’t be the last.”
Blanche said that the administration would comply with the Supreme Court.
Trump said on social media that the justices ruling against his plans for mail-in-voting were different once on the bench than when he had interviewed them as part of the nominations process.
Blanche said Trump’s complaints do not undermine the independence of the Supreme Court.
Attorney General Todd Blanche is speaking at an unusual White House press briefing.
The Justice Department has historically maintained a degree of independence from the White House, but the Trump administration has blurred those lines with Blanche saying that President Donald Trump has the right to weigh in on prosecutorial decision-making.
Blanche opened his appearance by touting the Trump administration’s efforts to combat violent crime, saying that “crime is the lowest it has been in modern history.”
He also is taking questions on a broad array of topics, including Justice Department efforts against voter fraud.
Earlier Tuesday, a federal judge blocked the Kennedy Center from returning name to the iconic performing arts venue in a move meant to recognize his renovation efforts, saying it would violate an earlier ruling that his name was illegally added to the building.
Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that, “Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing.”
The board of the Kennedy Center voted to close over financial issues and a dispute over putting President Donald Trump’s name on the iconic performing arts venue, according to people familiar with the matter. The people spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a private meeting.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General said in a report released Tuesday that Krome North Processing Center was 25% over its maximum capacity at a time of an unexpected visit on May 28, 2025.
There were 1,102 detainees at the facility, which had a maximum capacity of 882, the report said. It noted that the overcrowded conditions were seen in intake rooms where immigrants were waiting for more than 12 hours, and in the housing units.
“Housing detainees in crowded conditions for extended period of time jeopardizes de safe and orderly operations within the facility,” the 36-page report said. “We found several areas of non-compliance with detention standards.”
As examples it said that Krome staff did not provide the minimum required number of toilets, sinks and showers, thaw food properly or store perishable foods at required temperatures, and provide detainees with outdoor recreational equipment.
Krome is the United States’ oldest immigration detention facility and one with a long history of abuse.
The secretary of state made the call to discuss the Gulf Arab country’s efforts to salvage a U.S.-Iran ceasefire and reopen the strait.
The State Department said Tuesday that Rubio had spoken with Omani Foreign Minister Sayyid Badr al-Busaidi to thank him for Oman’s role in trying to deescalate tensions in the Gulf. Rubio “acknowledged Oman’s important role in deescalation in the region and condemned recent Iranian attacks on commercial ships and countries in the region,” the department said in a statement.
“He reiterated the United States’ commitment to ensuring that Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon and to freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz,” it said.
Oman, which has been a frequent mediator between the U.S. and Iran, had unsuccessfully tried to arrange a meeting earlier this week between Iran and Gulf Arab states to explore ways to clear the strait.
The campaign arm of U.S. House Democrats has added independent Bill Hill to its “red to blue” program, as Democrats hope to flip Alaska’s only House seat.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s move follows the state Democratic Party’s endorsement of Hill earlier this month. Hill is the main challenger facing Republican Rep. Nick Begich.
The DCCC says the program provides organization and fundraising support. But the Republican National Committee described the DCCC’s support of Hill as “ripping off Hill’s independent mask.”
Hill, a fisherman and former educator, has previously declined to say who he’d caucus with if elected. Earlier this year, he said he can work with progressives and conservatives.
“I believe I can work with all Alaskans, as long as we can have a reasonable conversation about what’s best for Alaska,” he said.
The country’s top Border Patrol official said Tuesday that plans to build a border wall through Texas’ remote Big Bend region is legal, brushing off a lawsuit filed to stop the project.
“We remain confident in our legal authorities and committed to securing the ENTIRE border while preserving the unique landscape of the Big Bend region,” Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said in a statement. “We cannot allow any region—including Big Bend—to be exploited again.”
The lawsuit, filed Monday by landowners and a nonprofit, argues that the government’s own statistics show the region sees few illegal crossings, and that the $46 billion effort, which includes a collection of three-story steel walls, vehicle barriers, and detection technology, are a particular threat to Big Bend National Park.
The park’s remote, rugged location, steep canyon walls and clear night skies attract visitors from around the world.
Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that, “Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing.”
The Trump-aligned board at the Kennedy Center voted in August to inscribe the president’s name on the venue’s facade so it would read “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated By President Donald J. Trump.”
If the Trump Kennedy Center Fund reached $100 million, another inscription would be added reading: “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund.”
The plaza in front of the Kennedy Center would have also been renamed in Trump’s honor, as part of the board’s vote.
The renegade Republican lawmaker is presenting the longshot resolution against the defense secretary on the floor of the House, potentially forcing a vote within days.
Massie said Hegseth abused his powers by deploying the U.S. military in the war against Iran without seeking congressional approval under the War Powers Act. He said these are “unlawful orders” and “high crimes and misdemeanors.”
While the House under control by Republicans is not expected to approve the resolution, it would put lawmakers on record over Hegseth’s leadership and the now seven-month war.
The State Department on Tuesday notified Congress that it will reprogram $52 million in foreign military financing, known as FMF, from Slovakia, North Macedonia, Tunisia, and Iraq to Panama, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Colombia, Ecuador and Peru just last week and pledged additional support to them as the administration has prioritized the Western Hemisphere in its foreign policy with an emphasis on combatting drug trafficking and illegal immigration.
“Mr. Patel is the least qualified and most partisan FBI director in our nation’s history,” Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the top Democrat on the judiciary committee, said in his opening statement at Tuesday’s hearing. He accused the FBI director of wielding the bureau’s law enforcement powers to seek retribution against Trump’s political opponents and pursue the president’s grievances, including his false claims that the 2020 election he lost was stolen.
Patel has made multiple appearances before Congress as FBI director. This is his first since last September before the bureau’s oversight committee. That hearing featured feisty and personal exchanges with Democrats, with Patel at one point shouting over Sen. Adam Schiff of California as he called him an “utter disgrace” and a “coward.”
“You can make an internet troll the FBI director, but he will always be an internet troll,” Schiff shot back.
Both Democratic nominee for Senate Abdul El-Sayed and United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain adopted anti-corporation rhetoric as they spoke to more than 200 union members at their first community action conference since 2018, an effort to revive the UAW’s political relevancy in Michigan.
“There are only two sides on this fight, only two. There’s the rich and there’s everybody else,” Fain said. “We ain’t the rich.”
El-Sayed referenced his father’s work as an automotive engineer, criticized stock buybacks and said investments are needed in both combustion and electric vehicles. He also said the U.S.’s trade relationships needed a revamp. He called the USMCA a terrible deal, but said Trump’s erratic tariff policies were not the best way forward for the auto industry.
“We’re going to need smart tariffs to protect our market,” said El-Sayed, who has the UAW’s endorsement in his race against Republican Mike Rogers.
Johnson said he has been speaking to Trump, including late Monday, about gathering industry leaders to address public concerns.
“So all the big names you know, I think within the next week, we’ll be together,” he said.
The speaker blamed AI fears on the media and Democratic lawmakers who he said “are all spun up” about the technology.
“We’ve seen this movie before,” Johnson said, comparing doomsday fears about AI to warnings about climate change.
The U.S. military says it has opened fire and destroyed two Iranian boats whose crews were trying to steal a drone ship in the waters off Iran.
“Iranian small boats recently attempted to take possession of a U.S. unmanned surface vessel, but they were unsuccessful after CENTCOM forcefully responded,” Capt. Tim Hawkins, U.S. Central Command spokesman, said Tuesday.
Iranian state media reported Monday that a pair of fishing boats came under attack in Hormozgan province on Iran’s southern coast and that several fishermen were reported missing, citing a provincial official.
Hawkins said the drone involved is a “Saildrone” — a small, roughly 25-foot (8-meter) craft — that can operate by itself. U.S. Central Command has been using them in the region for several years to surveil maritime traffic.
Hawkins said all of the command’s surface drones “remain fully accounted for.”
President Trump’s new White House helipad appears complete. Photos taken by The Associated Press on Tuesday show workers putting the final touches on the black-and-white landing pad, fashioned to look like a presidential seal.
In a post on Truth Social Monday, Trump said the new "Heliport Landing Zone” on the South Lawn “is magnificently made of carved granite in shades of Black and White” and is “truly a work of art” as well as “essentially indestructible.”
The helipad is just the latest stamp that Trump, a former builder, is putting on the White House during his second term, from decorating the Oval Office with gold — and more gold — to knocking down the East Wing to construct a ballroom.
He claims that before he began the alterations, the White House “was a badly maintained ‘dump.’ Now, it is a Palace!”
The FBI quietly issued guidance this past spring lifting a categorical ban on hiring applicants who had previously engaged in prostitution. The bureau made a similar change with regard to bestiality.
Pressed about the moves at a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing, Patel denied that the changes reflected a lowering of employment standards. He insisted that they were designed to protect victims who had been forced to engage in that conduct from being automatically disqualified.
The answer did little to satisfy Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, who grilled Patel about the rationale for a change that the FBI director said was proposed to him by subordinates.
“When you saw bestiality, I say this with respect: The person who recommended it, why didn’t you just say ‘what planet did you parachute in from?’” Kennedy asked.
Republicans leaving a closed-door meeting with Vice President JD Vance say that the Republican messaging going into the midterms will emphasize that they inherited a mess when they won the presidency and Congress two years ago, and it will take time to fix it.
“Democrats basically spent four years wrecking our country. We’re not going to fix it in a single year, two years,” said Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, as he left the meeting. “We need to keep on offense. Trust us, and we’re going to keep making the kind of progress we made over the last year and a half.”
“I think the vice president’s message essentially was we didn’t create this mess, and we’re working hard to clean it up, straighten it out and point us back in the right direction,” said Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla.
Speaker Mike Johnson continued the theme in a press conference, telling reporters “we had a country on the brink of ruin.”
“The vice president got them all riled up this morning,” Johnson said. “I did my best to do the same.”
The speaker said it was standing room only at Republican Party headquarters with House GOP incumbents and candidates showing up and lining up for the open mic session.
Johnson said the day’s total fundraising tally, with the $13 million he had announced earlier for the campaigns, rose to $20 million.
NATO fighter jets shot down a drone that entered Lithuanian airspace overnight, military officials said Tuesday. They didn’t comment on the drone’s origin or purpose, but said the device was likely carrying explosives.
Separately, Denmark said Tuesday that one of its air force helicopters was fired on with flares as it surveilled a Russian frigate in the Baltic Sea.
NATO countries including Germany, Denmark, the United Kingdom, and Poland have accused Russia of involvement in recent acts such as drone incursions, sabotage, arson, surveillance of defense facilities and planning to use a drone carrying explosives to attack an airport. Russian President Vladimir Putin is showing “desperation and also his desire to sow fear and terror,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said after a Russian drone struck a railway line near the Ukraine-Poland border.
“Russia will find our resolve only growing stronger,” said Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission.
Republican Mike Johnson announced the haul during a private meeting with Vance and the party’s top “vanguard” candidates at GOP headquarters, according to a person granted anonymity to discuss the closed-door session.
This puts the Speaker at nearly $100 million transferred from his joint fundraising committee so far for this cycle, the person said.
As Republicans work to keep control of the House, Johnson told them there is more to come.
The U.S. Treasury made money on tariffs last month for the first time since April as Trump rebuilt his protectionist wall following a stinging defeat at the Supreme Court.
Revenue from the import taxes came to $12.8 billion in August, the Treasury Department reported Monday.
In February, the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s double-digit tariffs on almost every country on Earth, forcing the government to pay the money back. Refunds exceeded tariff income for three months, creating losses — $42 million in May, $25.6 billion in June and $8.5 billion in July.
But Trump has found new tariffs to impose, including levies of 10% to 12.5% slapped in July on 60 trading partners that account for 99% of U.S. imports. The United States says those economies aren’t doing enough to prevent trade in goods produced by forced labor. Those tariffs are also being challenged in court.
The average U.S. pump price for diesel fuel broke another record Tuesday, reaching nearly $6.27 a gallon, according to the AAA.
Trump has blamed the prices on Ukraine, calling on its President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries. “Mr. Zelenskyy has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia,” Trump told reporters on Sunday. “There are plenty of other targets. Don’t hit diesel fuel, because that’s hurting, that’s hurting the world.”
The Kremlin said Tuesday that Trump’s call for a ceasefire on energy infrastructure is “a good idea,” but the attacks on Russian oil refineries aren’t the root cause of global supply shortages for gas or diesel.
“The core problem lies in the export of petroleum products to global markets,” said Peskov. He said that countries instead needed to guarantee safe navigation for oil tankers and lift global sanctions on Russian oil.
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The vice president’s message to House Republicans on Tuesday echoed the party’s midterm convention in Dallas.
“We’re just trying to raise money and fire us up,” Tim Burchett, R-Tenn, said as he left the GOP campaign headquarters on Capitol Hill.
A few protesters — one holding a sign saying “End this stupid war” — gathered across from the Capitol.
Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas expressed various levels of willingness to let the Trump administration carry out his order to restrict mail voting in current or future elections, but the majority noted that Trump’s defense of the plan was “unlikely to succeed on the merits.”
David Becker, a former U.S. Justice Department lawyer who is now executive director of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, said implementing Trump’s executive order “would have done nothing for election integrity but would have imposed a vast and expensive new bureaucracy on the states” and disenfranchised voters.
He said the majority’s language about the merits of the case meant “it is unlikely these rules will ever apply to any election.”
“Thanks to the rule of law, voters will not need to worry about this,” he added.
“The Court’s inability and unwillingness to do the right thing for our Country will go down, in a very negative way, in the annals of History,” Trump wrote in a lengthy social media post Tuesday. “This Supreme Court is bullied and cajoled by the Radical Left into making decisions that have set America back at least a hundred years.”
Justices Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh were all nominated by Trump in his first term but ruled against him in Monday’s decision.
“These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court, they are merely a shell of their original selves,” Trump said, continuing that the court “is costing the United States Trillions of Dollars with shockingly bad rulings that are of such magnitude that it won’t be easily possible for our Country to recover or heal.”
Voters cast ballots almost entirely by mail in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and Washington, which lack extensive networks of polling places.
“This provides voters and elections officials with the certainty they need ahead of a major, federal election, and it sends a clear message to this country: Presidents don’t run elections, the people do,” said Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read, a Democrat.
Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar said his reaction to the Supreme Court’s decision is “one of relief, but also excitement, because today the voters really won across America.”
More than half the voters in Nevada’s June primary cast ballots by mail, and the Democrat said “some of the damage has already been done” with false claims affecting people’s confidence in voting by mail.
“You can trust the process,” Aguilar urged voters. “Please participate.”
Patel is appearing at an oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The Republican-led panel is likely to try to keep the focus on Patel’s efforts to combat violent crime, counter drug trafficking and pursue the Trump administration’s agenda from his perch at the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency.
But Democrats will almost certainly seize on the tumult inside the bureau over the last year. The FBI has seen sweeping firings of agents who participated in investigations into Trump, efforts by the bureau to investigate Trump’s perceived political adversaries and Patel’s travel schedule that has blended private leisure with professional responsibilities.
The U.S. Supreme Court has lifted much of the uncertainty over preparations for November’s elections by rejecting Trump’s push to have the U.S. Postal Service play a central role in deciding who would get a mail ballot.
The decision late Monday is a win for the status quo — thousands of election offices around the country can send out mail ballots as intended without worrying about complying with 11th-hour Postal Service rules.
“Now, we can finally move forward and get back to what we do best: conducting our elections without a dark cloud hanging over us — fairly, openly, for the people, by the people,” California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, a Democrat who oversees voting in a state where all voters receive a mail ballot, said in a statement.
“Utahns can have confidence that the 2026 election will proceed as normal,” said Utah Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a Republican serving as the state’s chief election officer.
Trump hasn’t immediately commented on the Supreme Court’s rejection of his efforts to restrict voting by mail.
Trump has consistently promoted his executive order as vital to ensuring election integrity even though there is virtually no evidence of fraud with mail ballots.
A report by the Brookings Institution published in 2025 found that mail voting fraud occurred in only 0.000043% of total mail ballots cast.
Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told the Air and Space Cyber Conference in Maryland on Monday that the U.S. has fielded “on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action.”
He didn’t say what the weapons are or how they work. In 2024 the U.S. said Russia was developing a new anti-satellite weapon that could be launched from space. At the time the White House said the danger wasn’t imminent, but it raised concerns about threats to U.S. infrastructure that depends on satellite communications.
Meink, who has overseen the Space Force, predicted the service would look “radically different” by 2032 — for example, with one-way attack drones replacing artillery as the “primary killer.”
“We are increasing readiness against existing threats,” he said.
The technology industry’s increasingly urgent warnings about the potential harm of artificial intelligence are slamming into political intransigence in Washington, offering a fresh test of the federal government’s willingness and ability to confront what may become a defining issue of the era.
Trump is leading the opposition to recent calls by tech leaders seeking greater government oversight.
The president dismissed efforts to limit the technology on Monday as a “conspiracy.” House Speaker Mike Johnson has largely deferred to the White House.
Democrats, meanwhile, are pressing for a more robust response, convening in private on Tuesday in the House to discuss AI. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is hosting his colleagues for a briefing with experts on Wednesday.
The contrasting responses illustrate a yawning disconnect emerging between a tech sector warning of AI’s existential threats to humanity and a federal government often struggling to accomplish basic functions under the weight of intense partisanship and election-year pressure.
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A last-ditch Trump administration effort to hunt for noncitizen voters ahead of November’s elections is requiring federal employees to misrepresent themselves on voter lookup tools in a way that likely violates state laws, according to a federal whistleblower’s statement released Monday.
The Department of Homeland Security probe known as the “Unlawful Voter Initiative” also asks employees to create federal law enforcement records about voters based on unreliable data, the account warns. That could potentially wrongly implicate U.S. citizens in official documentation that could spur further investigation.
The anonymous, nearly 30-page disclosure was published Monday by Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California, the ranking member of a Senate committee overseeing federal elections.
Padilla and Schumer said Monday the initiative was an example of Trump attempting to interfere in elections and the short timelines would impede officials from conducting proper investigations. They noted that the data DHS has on voters can be unreliable and differ from state records, making any federal findings based on that data potentially problematic.
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The Federal Reserve is widely expected to lift its short-term interest rate Wednesday for the first time in three years to fight stubbornly high inflation, a move that would put the central bank at odds with President Donald Trump’s support for a cut.
An increase in the Fed’s rate, currently about 3.6%, isn’t guaranteed because Fed Chair Kevin Warsh doesn’t provide the signals about next moves that his predecessors did. Still, most analysts and economists expect a hike after a speech two weeks ago at the Fed’s annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in which Warsh argued that the Fed had not yet achieved its goal of putting inflation in check.
A rate hike would throw another sharp shift into a volatile period for the economy and financial markets. As recently as March, the Fed had forecast it would cut its rate once this year. But with the Iran war flaring up again and causing sharp increases in oil and gas prices, inflation is likely to remain higher than the Fed’s 2% target for even longer.
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The Supreme Court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump’s bid to restrict mail ballots for the midterm elections, capping a flurry of last-minute legal action with voting already underway.
The decision allows states to continue sending out mail ballots under the same processes they’ve used for years and have accounted for nearly a third of votes cast.
It represented a stark defeat for Trump on an issue he consistently has emphasized as vital to ensuring election integrity even though there is virtually no evidence of fraud with mail ballots.
The Supreme Court majority wrote that the administration’s push to implement the restrictions this year is likely to lose in court, though the brief emergency order didn’t detail its reasoning. Two justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, publicly dissented.
The Trump administration had asked the justices, once again at the center of a roiling political controversy, to clear the way for restrictions before the pivotal November contests for control of Congress.
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A worker walks near the new White House helipad, as seen from the Rose Garden of the White House, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks during a news briefing in the Rose Garden of the White House, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
FILE - An election worker reaches for an unopened ballot during sorting at the Clackamas County Elections office, Nov. 7, 2024, in Oregon City, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters before boarding Air Force One at Shannon Airport, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Shannon, Ireland. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Protestor, Linda James, poses for photo with her "VOTE" sash at the Dallas March on the RNC Midterm Convention in Dallas, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Gabriela Passos)
