Politics

By John Fritze, CNN (CNN) — The Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision backing President Donald Trump’s massive ballroom at the White House is already playing into challenges over his other pet projects and has renewed a debate over a legal doctrine tied to an abandoned California ski resort and crocodiles in Egypt.Over the objection of Chief

By Kaanita Iyer, Patrick Svitek, Fredreka Schouten, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump’s super PAC has started spending its massive war chest on the midterm elections, disclosing ad buys totaling $10 million in support of Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton.Republicans had long awaited action from MAGA Inc., growing anxious over being outspent in tough races

By Kaanita Iyer, CNN (CNN) — The Justice Department has issued several subpoenas to Nevada’s secretary of state seeking voter information, marking another effort by the Trump administration to insert the federal government more directly into the administration of elections.The office of Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar, which oversees elections in the state, said

By Fredreka Schouten, Patrick Svitek, CNN (CNN) — For months, Texas Republicans have anxiously awaited the arrival of national resources to help boost Ken Paxton, one of the GOP’s most vulnerable Senate candidates.Now, Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, has entered the scene, this week disclosing the first spending from his super PAC to benefit

By John Fritze, Ethan Cohen, CNN (CNN) — Missouri officials urged the Supreme Court on Friday to reinstate a congressional map that includes an additional seat for the Republican Party, the latest emergency case tied to President Donald Trump’s nationwide redistricting fight to reach the high court.The emergency appeal comes a day after the state’s

By John Fritze, CNN (CNN) — The Supreme Court on Friday endorsed a request from Republican campaign groups that want to buy discounted TV advertising for this year’s midterms, the latest in a series of emergency rulings from the high court benefiting the GOP.The decision effectively upholds guidance issued by the Federal Communications Commission in

By Jennifer Hansler, CNN (CNN) — US Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week instructed diplomats around the world to tell their host countries they must “systematically identify and sever” ties to Iran, and those with branches of Iranian banks must shut them down immediately.On Friday, the US Treasury Department announced it was targeting a

By Kevin Liptak, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump on Friday labeled the Iran war “small potatoes,” the latest attempt to minimize a six-month conflict that caused a spike in gas prices and led to the deaths of 18 American service-members.“A lot of people don’t call it a war. I call it a military conflict

By Evan Perez, Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN (CNN) — For a decade, Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt has been ensnared in the tentacles of a sprawling Justice Department probe into a sophisticated billion-dollar money laundering scheme that US prosecutors allege embezzled funds from Venezuela’s state-owned oil company known as PDVSA.In recent months, federal prosecutors in Miami closed

By Kristen Holmes, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump is planning to take the Qatari-gifted jet used as Air Force One when he travels to Ireland later this month, a senior White House official told CNN, just two months after he flew it to Turkey and then secretly left the country on an alternate plane

By Kaanita Iyer, CNN (CNN) — Former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer violated department policy by drinking alcohol at the office and telling her staff to perform personal tasks for her, an independent Labor Department investigation found.The scathing report published Thursday by the department’s Office of Inspector General also found that Chavez-DeRemer accepted expensive gifts without

By Molly English, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump did not dispute that he is building monuments to himself amid his architectural blitz in Washington, DC, saying in a recent interview that “nobody will do it once I’m gone.”When asked about the monuments, such as the “triumphal arch,” by New York Magazine, Trump agreed that

By Andrew Kaczynski, CNN (CNN) — William Lawrence, the Democratic nominee in one of the country’s most competitive House races in Michigan, deleted hundreds of old social media posts in which he embraced police and prison abolition, called for nationalizing fossil-fuel companies to end their production, attacked moderate Democrats and argued for a “fundamental overhaul”

By Amy O’Kruk, Rhyannon Bartlett-Imadegawa, CNN (CNN) — Mail-in voting in the 2026 midterm elections is underway following weeks of legal fighting over the Trump administration’s effort to change how ballots are sent to voters.Most recently, the Supreme Court rejected President Donald Trump’s plan, which would have given the US Postal Service unprecedented power to

By Kit Maher, CNN (CNN) — The Trump administration launched a series of arcade-style games on the official White House website Thursday to tout its priorities — the latest turn in its aggressive online effort to troll Democrats that has at times surfaced racist and offensive images.The White House’s online arcade includes games where players

By Sunlen Serfaty, Tierney Sneed, CNN (CNN) — The Trump administration plans to break ground on the president’s “triumphal arch” in the next two weeks, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced Thursday, immediately spurring opponents to go to federal court for an emergency injunction.“We are pleased to announce that after a very long wait (over 125

By Kaanita Iyer, Sunlen Serfaty, CNN (CNN) — In a months-long summer saga that does not appear to want to end, the Trump administration has hired yet another new company to help clean and maintain the Lincoln Reflecting Pool — adding more cost and more questions to the renovation project that was meant to be

By Kevin Liptak, CNN (CNN) — Vice President JD Vance could provide neither a timeline for the Iran war to end nor a date when gas prices might sink below pre-war levels during a White House appearance Thursday, suggesting instead it was up to Iran to conclude the conflict that began with joint US-Israeli airstrikes

By Sunlen Serfaty, Tierney Sneed, CNN (CNN) — A federal judge on Thursday lamented the anger and threats she has faced over the removal of trees as part of President Donald Trump’s controversial effort to turn a public golf course in Washington, DC, into a championship-level one.But the discussion about the removal of the trees

By Daniel Dale, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump has for months been using a fictional economic figure. Vice President JD Vance echoed it on Thursday.Vance, listing the administration’s “wins” while speaking to reporters in the White House briefing room, claimed “we’ve seen $19 trillion of new investment come into the country.” But there is

By John Fritze, Tierney Sneed, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump’s administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to give the US Postal Service sweeping power to withhold delivery of mail ballots, setting up an extraordinary showdown over voting at the high court less than two months before the November midterm election.The emergency appeal, which

By Hannah Rabinowitz, Whitney Wild, Holmes Lybrand, CNN (CNN) — An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent has been federally charged with lying about the events leading up to his shooting of a Venezuelan immigrant earlier this year, according to an indictment that was unsealed on Friday.The officer, Christian Castro, is facing six counts of making

By Fredreka Schouten, CNN (CNN) — Elon Musk’s super PAC has disclosed its first spending on behalf of Republican candidates, providing roughly $800,000 to help congressional contenders across several states, new filings show.The expenditures by America PAC, made in August and disclosed on Wednesday night to the Federal Election Commission, cover printing costs – a

By Annie Grayer, CNN (CNN) — House Oversight Chair James Comer of Kentucky said Thursday that Sen. Mitch McConnell’s staff have told him they are hoping the senator – who has had an extended absence from Washington due to health issues – will return when the Senate comes back into session on September 14.Although he

By Annie Grayer, CNN (CNN) — Billionaire investor Leon Black is suing the House committee investigating Jeffrey Epstein to try and block the panel from obtaining his non-disclosure agreements and testimony.Black’s refusal to turn over the documents and appear for his deposition in front of the House Oversight Committee on Thursday marks a major escalation

By Adam Cancryn, CNN (CNN) — US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick publicly apologized on Thursday after falsely asserting that no Americans had died during the Trump administration’s war with Iran.Lutnick made the claim while defending the war in an interview on CNBC, saying that “the way the president is playing Iran, right, there haven’t been

By Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, CNN (CNN) — The Trump administration has suggested federal agencies may stop working with the Smithsonian Institution if its leadership does not change, ramping up a monthslong pressure campaign to align the world’s largest museum complex with its views.In an August 28 letter to the Smithsonian’s governing body that was recently

By Kevin Liptak, CNN (CNN) — It’s a question President Donald Trump has privately been asking his national security team for months: Why aren’t the Iranian people toppling their leaders?It was an outcome he seemed relatively certain of at the start of the war, convinced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that street protests would

By Zachary Cohen, Adam Cancryn, CNN (CNN) — The US military escorted 40 commercial vessels carrying 18 million barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz, marking a wartime high as Iran and the US exchanged a new round strikes on Tuesday, two US officials familiar with the operations told CNN.Prior to the launch of