Following President Donald Trump’s unprecedented announcement that his administration would take over the Washington, D.C., police department and dispatch the National Guard for at least a month, the White House announced there would be a round-the-clock presence of local and federal law enforcement officers in the city.
The White House said there were 45 arrests in the city last night, including 29 arrests of people living in the country illegally, and that over 1,650 people are now participating in the law enforcement operation. While the National Guard will be able to temporarily detain people while assisting law enforcement, they will not have the power of arrest, Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said Thursday.
The federalization push also includes clearing out encampments for people who are homeless and relocating them far from the city, although details of the plan are unclear. Washington officials have opted to tackle some of the work of closing encampments themselves in advance of Trump’s threat in order to offer stronger social services resources to those being displaced.
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Trump moves official White House portraits of Obama and the Bushes out of the public’s view
The portraits of Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush had been on display in the foyer, visible to tourists and guests alike.
But Trump recently had Obama moved to the top of the staircase to his private living quarters, an area off-limits to visitors. The Bushes also were relocated to the staircase. The change was first reported by CNN.
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle attributed the rearrangement to Trump’s “incredible eye for detail and design” and said he is “carrying out a historic renovation of the People’s House for Americans to enjoy for generations to come.”
“And just like every other President before him, he and the First Family may request changes to the Executive Residence,” Ingle said.
Trump and Obama have had a fraught relationship. Trump also has not hidden his dislike for the Bush family.
Portraits of the most recent presidents traditionally get a place of prominence in the foyer.
Judge strikes down administration guidance aimed at eliminating diversity programs at schools and colleges
In her ruling, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher in Maryland said the Education Department violated the law when it threatened to cut federal funding from educational institutions that continue with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
The ruling followed a motion for summary judgment from the American Federation of Teachers and the American Sociological Association, which challenged the government’s actions in a February lawsuit.
The case centers on two Education Department memos ordering schools and universities to end all “race-based decision-making” or face penalties up to a total loss of federal funding. It’s part of a campaign to end practices the Trump administration frames as discrimination against white and Asian American students.
Texas Democrats set plan to end nearly 2-week walkout over Republicans’ redraw of US House maps
Texas Democrats on Thursday moved closer to ending a nearly two-week walkout that has blocked the GOP’s redrawing of U.S. House maps before the 2026 election and put them under escalating threats by Republicans back home.
The Democrats announced they will return so long as Texas Republicans end a special session and California releases its own redrawn map proposal, both of which were expected to happen Friday.
Democrats did not say what day they might return.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott still intends to push through new maps that would give the GOP five more winnable seats before next year’s midterm elections.
▶ Read more about Texas redistricting
Maine clinics fight Trump administration to restore Medicaid funding
A network of clinics that provides health care in Maine asked a judge Thursday to restore its Medicaid funding while it fights a Trump administration effort to keep federal money from going to abortion providers.
President Donald Trump’s policy and tax bill, known as the “ big beautiful bill,” blocked Medicaid money from flowing to Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. The parameters in the bill also stopped funding from reaching Maine Family Planning, a much smaller provider that offers health care services in one of the poorest and most rural states in the Northeast.
A federal judge ruled last month that Planned Parenthood clinics around the country must continue to be reimbursed for Medicaid funding as the provider wrangles with the Trump administration over efforts to defund it. That legal fight continues.
Trump says federal law enforcement officials sent into DC streets are not being pulled away from priority assignments
Trump on Thursday denied that the federal law enforcement officials he sent into Washington’s streets to fight crime have been pulled away from priority assignments.
Asked if he was concerned about that, Trump said he’s using a “very small force” of soldiers and that city police are now allowed to do their job under his takeover of the department.
“And no, they’re not being pulled off for anything,” Trump said.
Top Democratic senator on Foreign Relations Committee says Putin has ‘played’ Trump
Ahead of a summit between the American and Russian leaders, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is warning that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been allowed to “play” American President Donald Trump for months.
“We’ve seen again red line after red line that he’s drawn and then allowed Vladimir Putin to cross while the conflict gets worse or people are killed,” Shaheen told reporters. “The president, frankly, should be embarrassed because Vladimir Putin is playing him and has been playing him for months. And this summit, unfortunately, seems like it’s just one more effort to do that.”
Still, Shaheen said she was hopeful that the meeting could yield a positive result for Ukraine and urged the Republican president to show strength, including by moving ahead with legislation to impose further sanctions on Russia.
RFK Jr. relaunches panel to investigate childhood vaccine safety
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, led by prominent vaccine critic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., will revive a childhood vaccine panel to “improve the safety, quality and oversight of vaccines.”
The panel was disbanded in 1998.
National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez and Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary will all sit on the panel but it is unclear who else will serve on it.
The panel will give a formal report to Congress on vaccines within two years, according to an HHS announcement on Thursday.
Judge orders USDA to reinstate millions in terminated grant funds
A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to reinstate millions of dollars in grant funding that it terminated for several nonprofits involved in agriculture and ecology-related projects.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, D.C., ruled in favor of five groups that sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture after it terminated their grants in response to executive orders issued by President Donald Trump. One plaintiff, Urban Sustainability Directors Network, received a $28 million grant in 2023 to promote urban forestry.
USDA terminated a total of approximately 600 grants, but the judge’s ruling only applies to six grants received by the five plaintiffs.
Howell rejected the government’s argument that the plaintiffs’ claims are essentially contractual in nature and belong in the Court of Federal Claims. She ruled that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed in showing that the five grant terminations were “arbitrary and capricious.”
Trump says willingness of DC police to cooperate with immigration authorities is a ‘great step’
Trump was just asked about Washington police chief’s executive order regarding cooperating with immigration authorities and said he’d just heard about it.
“That’s a very positive thing, I have heard that just happened,” Trump said in response to a question in the Oval Office as he marked the 90th anniversary of Social Security.
“That’s a great step. That’s a great step if they’re doing that,” Trump said.
Trump dismisses concerns that moving federal agents to DC could create security risks
The president had no qualms about the possible national security risks from his reassigning of officers for the FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to deal with local crime in Washington.
“Like what? Like what?” Trump said.
A reporter suggested that moving federal officials could compromise efforts to stop terrorism.
“Oh, really, terrorism?” Trump said. “They’ll stop terrorism as part of what they’re doing right now.”
Pentagon says Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth supports women’s right to vote
That’s after he recently reposted a video on social media about a Christian nationalist church that included various pastors saying women should no longer be allowed to vote.
“Of course the secretary thinks that women should have the right to vote. That’s a stupid question, to be honest with you,” Pentagon’s press secretary Kingsley Wilson told reporters Thursday.
She was asked about Hegseth’s support for Doug Wilson, co-founder of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, or CREC.
Doug Wilson has said he was grateful Hegseth shared the video.
“He was, in effect, reposting it and saying, ‘Amen,’ at some level,” Wilson said.
Wilson said Hegseth’s support for CREC isn’t expected to hurt recruitment in the future.
Trump rejects that his meeting with Putin could be a ‘reward’ for Russia’s leader
Some analysts have suggested that, simply by agreeing to meet with Putin on U.S. soil, Trump is undermining longstanding U.S. and international efforts to isolate Putin and Russia.
But asked by reporters if sitting down with Putin in Alaska constituted a win for Putin, the president insisted, “I don’t think it’s a reward.”
Trump says his meeting with Putin will be ‘big’ but subsequent meeting with Putin and Zelenskyy will be more important
Trump says his meeting in Alaska with Putin will be a “big meeting” and is “going to be a good meeting,” but that “the more important meeting is the second meeting we’re having” with Putin and Zelenskyy.
In comments to reporters in the Oval Office, the president suggested he may even bring in European leaders for the second discussion after meeting with Putin.
Trump said he believes that both Putin and Zelensky want to make peace.
Asked if he might offer a rare earth minerals deal with Russia as part of his discussions with Putin, Trump said, “We’re going to see what happens with our meeting” but he also suggested that such minerals were “very unimportant.”
Trump touts decision to call in National Guard to California earlier this year
In an appearance at the Oval Office, President Donald Trump said that he saved Los Angeles by calling in the National Guard earlier this year, and that the city would have burned down without his intervention.
He said that if he had allowed protests to continue without intervention, he would have had to cancel the Olympics.
“If I didn’t send in the troops, I don’t think you would have had Los Angeles in condition to have the Olympics,” Trump said.
Oval Office signing ceremony for Social Security does not address program’s long-term solvency
Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano said “Social Security will be great again,” under his watch, “you have my commitment,” he told Trump. However, the Republican president and Republican lawmakers have not yet proposed a long-term solution to shore up the program.
The so-called go-broke date — or the date at which Social Security will no longer have enough funds to pay full benefits — has been moved up to 2034, instead of last year’s estimate of 2035.
Legislation signed during the Trump and Biden administrations have contributed to the accelerated insolvency date of SSA, including the Social Security Fairness Act, signed into law by Democratic President Joe Biden and the new mega-tax law signed by Trump in July.
Trump repeats claim that Republican tax bill includes ’no tax on Social Security”
During a signing ceremony in the Oval Office commemorating Social Security’s 90th anniversary, President Donald Trump repeated the claim that Republicans’ mega tax and spending cut legislation signed into law last month will eliminate taxes on federal Social Security benefits.
It does not.
Trump’s “no tax on Social Security” claim exaggerates the benefits. The temporary tax deduction for seniors aged 65 and over applies to all income — not just Social Security.
And it turns out, not all Social Security beneficiaries will be able to claim the deduction. Those who won’t be able to do so include the lowest-income seniors who already don’t pay taxes on Social Security, those who choose to claim their benefits before they reach age 65 and those above a defined income threshold.
Trump’s Washington crackdown is a ‘dog and pony show of force,' Baltimore mayor says
If Trump wants to help cities lower violence and crime, he’s doing it the wrong way, Baltimore mayor Brandon Scott said in a call with reporters Thursday.
Scott said federal officials should be working for agencies and collaborating with cities on issues such as gun trafficking and drug crimes rather than being taken off their posts to surge into cities.
Trump should allow public safety professionals “to do what they signed up to do” instead of his D.C. “dog and pony show of force,” Scott said.
Pentagon says National Guard won’t be making arrests in DC
The National Guard now assisting law enforcement in Washington, D.C. will not have the power of arrest, Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said Thursday.
Similar to role they played when responding to protests in Los Angeles, the Guards will have the ability to temporarily detain people but it will be up to law enforcement agencies to arrest anyone, she said.
“They will not be arresting people, but they may temporarily limit the movement of an individual who has entered a restricted or secured area without permission,” Wilson told reporters during a press conference. “So this will be very similar to the L.A. mission, where we could temporarily detain someone and then turn them over.”
126 civil rights groups request Congress investigate and intervene in Trump’s federalization of DC police
The advocates expressed “profound concerns” about Trump’s plan to crack down on crime and homelessness in the nation’s capital in a letter sent to the Republican chairs and Democratic ranking members of the House Oversight and Senate Homeland Security committee.
The leaders, who represent some of the largest civil rights groups in the country, argued Trump’s moves were an “unprecedented and needless takeover of a local government’s law enforcement mechanisms” that posed “a dire threat to public safety as well as to civil and human rights.”
They urged Congress to investigate Trump’s actions make sure that DC residents’ constitutional rights “are being fully protected and enforced.”
“This administration has proven that it will push every boundary to test for exploitable weakness in Congress and the courts,” reads a letter signed by the leaders of 126 civil rights organizations. “Given the role of your respective committees in matters affecting our nation’s capital, we urge you to promptly call for hearings into this decision, and to engage in vigorous oversight moving forward.”
The Associated Press
