Republicans reportedly fear datacenter backlash could cost them Ohio Senate seat
Amid signs that the Ohio Republican senator Jon Husted’s support for the AI datacenters Donald Trump touts at every opportunity could cost him his seat, and imperil the Republican majority in the Senate, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) has reportedly warned leading AI companies that they need to arrest the public backlash to the massive warehouses springing up across the state.
Husted trailed his Democratic challenger, former senator Sherrod Brown, by eight percentage points in a recent poll for Fox News, and the Republican campaign arm suggested in a memo obtained by Axios and then the Washington Post that Brown is successfully channeling grassroots outrage over the noisy, energy-sucking centers.
“More than any other thing in this race, data centers are the anchor hanging around Husted’s neck,” the NRSC wrote. “If he loses and data centers get the blame, politicians across the country will take notice – and they will not go near the next one.”
“This has become a sleeper issue for the entire election cycle,” the campaign committee added.
A recent ad from Brown’s campaign blames Husted for encouraging the rapid expansion of datacenters in Ohio.
Charlie Blaettler, political director of the Guardrails Alliance, a Democratic Super PAC formed to combat “AI billionaire Trump donors trying to buy our elections and prevent common sense regulation”, said in a statement that the memo proves that the Republican party “is panicking because they sold out to the AI industry – a while ago – and they know it”.
Republicans, Blaettler said, “are realizing how wildly unpopular Big AI’s agenda is with the American people. Now the GOP and AI’s unaccountable billionaires are scrambling to backtrack and find a new way to pull the wool over the eyes of the public so they can get what they want: A Congress that will do their bidding and an AI future that benefits them, not the many.”
“It is time for the Democratic party to make it clear who they stand with”, he added. “A handful of Big Tech billionaires or the majority of people in the country who want commonsense regulation for this unprecedented technology.”
When he was asked by a Maga influencer about the public unease with AI datacenters on Wednesday, Trump argued they generate tax revenue and construction jobs, “and many of them are designed in a very beautiful way”.
This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day. Here are the latest developments:
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Donald Trump nominated Dr Heidi Overton – an abortion opponent who stood next to the president as he made false claims about vaccines – to be commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
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Democrats quickly denounced the nomination and promised to oppose it. Patty Murray, who sits on the Senate health committee, called Overton “a far-right, anti-abortion extremist who has no business leading the FDA”.
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Senator Bill Cassidy, the Republican chairman of the Senate health committee, said that he has “strong concerns” about Overton’s “active role in last week’s nonsensical vaccine executive order” casting doubt on the safety of the MMR vaccine. “That alone is almost disqualifying.”
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The US debt reached $40tn for the first time on Wednesday, the US treasury department said, after the government deficit doubled over the last decade.
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Trump told reporters, as he gave them a tour of his new helipad, that he will meet the North Korean communist leader, Kim Jong-un, later this year. Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korea’s leader, said she knew “absolutely nothing” about talks with Trump, and that the US remains an enemy of Pyongyang.
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Trump said he has delayed implementing tariffs on some Canadian goods because he thought a deal had been reached.
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Amid signs that the Ohio Republican senator Jon Husted’s support for the AI datacenters Trump touts at every opportunity could cost him his seat, and imperil the Republican majority in the Senate, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) reportedly warned leading AI companies that they need to arrest the public backlash.
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Trump posted on Wednesday that he intends to inflict “the MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY!”
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Senator Bill Cassidy, the Republican chairman of the Senate health committee, said that he has “strong concerns” about Donald Trump’s nomination of Dr Heidi Overton to be commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
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Writing on social media, Cassidy, a medical doctor who was outraged by Trump’s executive order last week calling the MMR vaccine “lethal”, said that he respects Dr Overton’s “experience as a physician,” he is concerned her “lack of managerial experience does not prepare her well for leading a large organization that is already dealing with staffing and morale issues.”
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“Additionally, Dr. Overton’s active role in last week’s nonsensical vaccine executive order calls into question her commitment to standing up for sound science and protecting children’s health. That alone is almost disqualifying”, Cassidy wrote.
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Clearly frustrated that his attempts to force Iran into submission through airstrikes have failed, Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he intends to inflict “the MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY!”
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“This will be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale”, the president posted on his social media platform, with the possible assistance of his close aide Natalie Harp.
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“ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences”, the president’s statement added. “Oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies — It all needs to stop NOW. You know who you are. This will be an ECONOMIC D-DAY, and we need all of our Allies to stand with the United States of America to isolate, and defeat, the Iran threat.”
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“These maniacs are on the ropes”, the president insisted, before again repeating that the aim of his campaign was to force Iran to renounce nuclear weapons, which it did 11 years ago in the nuclear deal struck during the Obama administration that Trump scuttled during his first term.
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Amid signs that the Ohio Republican senator Jon Husted’s support for the AI datacenters Donald Trump touts at every opportunity could cost him his seat, and imperil the Republican majority in the Senate, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) has reportedly warned leading AI companies that they need to arrest the public backlash to the massive warehouses springing up across the state.
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Husted trailed his Democratic challenger, former senator Sherrod Brown, by eight percentage points in a recent poll for Fox News, and the Republican campaign arm suggested in a memo obtained by Axios and then the Washington Post that Brown is successfully channeling grassroots outrage over the noisy, energy-sucking centers.
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“More than any other thing in this race, data centers are the anchor hanging around Husted’s neck,” the NRSC wrote. “If he loses and data centers get the blame, politicians across the country will take notice – and they will not go near the next one.”
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“This has become a sleeper issue for the entire election cycle,” the campaign committee added.
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A recent ad from Brown’s campaign blames Husted for encouraging the rapid expansion of datacenters in Ohio.
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Charlie Blaettler, political director of the Guardrails Alliance, a Democratic Super PAC formed to combat “AI billionaire Trump donors trying to buy our elections and prevent common sense regulation”, said in a statement that the memo proves that the Republican party “is panicking because they sold out to the AI industry – a while ago – and they know it”.
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Republicans, Blaettler said, “are realizing how wildly unpopular Big AI’s agenda is with the American people. Now the GOP and AI’s unaccountable billionaires are scrambling to backtrack and find a new way to pull the wool over the eyes of the public so they can get what they want: A Congress that will do their bidding and an AI future that benefits them, not the many.”
n “It is time for the Democratic party to make it clear who they stand with”, he added. “A handful of Big Tech billionaires or the majority of people in the country who want commonsense regulation for this unprecedented technology.”
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When he was asked by a Maga influencer about the public unease with AI datacenters on Wednesday, Trump argued they generate tax revenue and construction jobs, “and many of them are designed in a very beautiful way”.
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Jon Husted, an Ohio Republican, spoke at a White House roundtable in March at which tech leaders signed pledges to foot the electricity bill for energy-hungry data centers.”,”caption”:”Senator Jon Husted, an Ohio Republican, spoke at a White House roundtable in March at which tech leaders signed pledges to foot the electricity bill for energy-hungry data centers. “,”credit”:”Photograph: Bonnie Cash/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:true,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1787176551000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”22.55 BST”,”blockLastUpdated”:1787180479000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”00.01 BST”,”blockFirstPublished”:1787178744000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”23.32 BST”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”23.32″,”title”:”Republicans reportedly fear datacenter backlash could cost them Ohio Senate seat”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Thu 20 Aug 2026 02.55 BST”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Wed 19 Aug 2026 08.39 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The US debt reached $40tn for the first time on Wednesday, the US treasury department said, after the government deficit doubled over the last decade.
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The treasury’s latest debt balance showed $40.047tn on Tuesday afternoon, the highest in US history.
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The milestone marks years of government spending that grew under both Donald Trump and Joe Biden. During his first term, Trump approved $8.4tn worth of debt, with a huge chunk going to Covid-19 relief spending, while Biden approved $4.3tn worth of debt, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
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In fiscal year 2026, which started in October 2026, $1.8tn has been added to the debt so far, with a big chunk of new government spending dedicated to tariff refunds, which have totaled $100bn so far, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.
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Government spending watchdog groups have anticipated for weeks the US surpassing the $40tn threshold after debt reached $39tn in March.
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“For perspective, it took nearly 200 years for America’s gross debt to reach $1 trillion for the first time in 1981,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget in a statement. “$40 trillion of debt doesn’t exist solely on the government’s ledgers; it is felt throughout the economy and finds its way to the pocketbooks of people one way or another. The more we borrow, the more we exacerbate inflation, squeeze out other priorities in the budget, and leave ourselves vulnerable to emergencies at home and turmoil abroad.”
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The threshold was breached as Congress, currently out of session, remains at an impasse over its latest spending bill. The US House and Senate passed two different bills that would fund the federal government, which is scheduled to shut down on 30 September if a bill isn’t adopted by both chambers and signed by the president.
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The president of Reproductive Freedom for All, the advocacy group for abortion rights formerly known as Naral, strongly condemned Donald Trump’s pick to be the new commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Dr Heidi Overton.
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The group’s president, Mini Timmaraju, strongly condemned Overton in this blistering statement:
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n
Donald Trump is trying to put an anti-abortion extremist in charge of any agency that could seriously undermine reproductive healthcare – including the agency that could roll back access to mifepristone nationwide. Heidi Overton celebrated the fall of Roe, spread junk science about medication abortion, and openly called for remaking the FDA to serve a political agenda instead of the health of the country. Her nomination is another alarming step in Trump’s plan to weaponize every part of the federal government to restrict abortion nationwide.
n
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As Democrats increasingly try to channel grassroots opposition to AI datacenters on the midterm campaign trail, Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he is all for them.
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Flanked by leaders of the largest US cryptocurrency companies, Trump was asked by a Maga influencer planted in the press pool, Link Lauren, what he would say to supporters who say “we love president Trump, but we’re still cautious about AI and crypto”.
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“If I were the mayor of a town or the governor of a state, and I had a chance to get a big plant in, an AI plant or a datacenter, I would absolutely want it, because the jobs are enormous and the money paid, the taxes paid, are just enormous,” Trump replied. “So I would say, maybe it can use a little public relations help, but if I were a governor or a mayor, I would want that plant in my community and many of them are designed in a very beautiful way.”
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Trump did not say what city or state he would like to lead, but his remarks are also a reminder that he is not barred, after his second term as president, from running for office as a mayor or governor.
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Donald Trump nominated Dr Heidi Overton – an abortion opponent who stood next to the president as he made false claims about vaccines – to be commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
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Democrats quickly denounced the nomination and promised to oppose it. Patty Murray, who sits on the Senate health committee, called Overton “a far-right, anti-abortion extremist who has no business leading the FDA”.
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Trump told reporters, as he gave them a tour of his new helipad, that he will meet the North Korean communist leader, Kim Jong-un, later this year. Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korea’s leader, said she knew “absolutely nothing” about talks with Trump, and that the US remains an enemy of Pyongyang.
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Trump said he has delayed implementing tariffs on some Canadian goods because he thought a deal had been reached with that country’s prime minister, Mark Carney.
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Trump met with top executives from cryptocurrency companies, an industry that helped him increase his net worth by at least $1.4bn last year, according to financial disclosure forms he filed in June.
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On this subject, the reclusive North Korean leader’s younger sister has cast doubt on communications with Donald Trump and dampened hopes of a diplomatic breakthrough between them.
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Yesterday, Trump suggested he and Kim Jong-un were holding secret negotiations after announcing the US would downgrade its participation in military exercises held by South Korea. Asked whether Kim had responded to his request for a conversation, Trump said: “Yeah, he has.”
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As I said earlier, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Trump was pushing aides to set up an in-person meeting with Kim, potentially during a trip to Asia in November for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China.
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But today, Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korea’s supreme leader, said she knew “absolutely nothing” about the supposed communications, and that while Trump and Kim had an excellent relationship, the US remained an enemy of Pyongyang.
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“The United States’ hostile policy toward the DPRK has not changed, and the United States and its followers are vigorously carrying out hostile military activities against the DPRK even at this very moment,” she said in a statement carried by North Korean state media.
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She lauded the relationship between her brother and Trump, saying he had “personally good memories and feelings” toward the US president.
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But she cast doubt on whether her brother had secretly been in communication with Trump. “Perhaps it is the only matter I do not know about in relation to our supreme leadership’s foreign policy,” she said.
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Donald Trump then once again touted his “good” relationship with Kim Jong-un, before adding in an astonishing admission that he didn’t anticipate the North Korean leader doing anything during the remainder of his time in office.
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He told reporters:
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Now, I didn’t like the fact that we’re doing these massive military exercises really against North Korea … when I’m friendly with him … when I don’t see anything happening for, certainly, two and a half years – it’s not going to happen with me.
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Then, Trump got to the crux of why he had ordered the US to scale back what he said were “inappropriate and hostile” joint military drills with South Korea, stating once again that he was “not happy” when Seoul declined to join US efforts against Iran in the strait of Hormuz. “I didn’t like that,” Trump said.
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As my colleague Joseph Gedeon noted on Monday, this is not the first time Trump has treated the drills as a bargaining chip. After his 2018 summit with Kim in Singapore, he suspended major exercises outright, calling them costly and provocative, before they were quietly restored once nuclear diplomacy with Pyongyang broke down.
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Earlier, Trump said he will meet Kim later this year, in what would be their first of his second term. He also disclosed that North Korea had 57 “very powerful” nuclear weapons, in a rare and unusually specific assessment by a US president of Kim’s arsenal.
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Donald Trump has said he delayed tariffs on some Canadian goods because he thought a deal had been reached with prime minister Mark Carney.
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“We delayed it for three days because I think we have a deal with the prime minister and [a] good deal for everybody. So that’s good,” Trump told reporters.
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Trump said last night he had paused what would have been a bruising 50% US tariff, after reaching an agreement with Canadian administration officials hours before a hike – which would have affected $20bn worth of goods – was set to take effect.
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The duties would have affected a range of Canadian exports including wine and hockey sticks.
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“Hopefully it’ll be a wonderful deal for everybody,” Trump added.
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He was also asked if he was willing to lower tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada to help US farmers. The Wall Street Journal (paywall) reported today that the US is considering lowering that tariff from 50% to 25%.
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The president replied: “Well, we’re getting zero for our farmers, who have been hurt very badly by Canada, and they won’t be paying any tariffs any more.”
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He added:
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We may bring some of the tariffs down to a level where other countries are because Canada was paying a higher tariff.
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Going back a few minutes, there’s been one tidbit from this announcement worth noting.
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Trump, saying that the US is “way ahead” of top AI rival China, said he plans on discussing this tech with that country’s president, Xi Jinping.
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“President Xi’s coming on September 24th. We look forward to it. We’ll probably be talking about AI and a lot of other things,” Trump said.
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Trump took a few minutes at the tech and crypto confab to talk about “the old days” with interest rates. Trump has repeatedly pushed for lower interest rates.
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“When we announced good numbers, interest rates would go down,” he said. But these days, that does not happen “because they’re so afraid of inflation”.
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“Interest rates should be allowed to fall,” he said.
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Trump also called the US “the hottest country” anywhere in the world, apparently referring to the economy.
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Donald Trump is scheduled to give remarks at the White House on Wednesday about bolstering the US tech sector – and top execs from several cryptocurrency companies are expected to attend, according to reports.
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According to the Hill, prediction market leaders were not invited.
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The event is expected to start in a few minutes.
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The Republican chair of the House oversight committee has threatened to hold the private equity investor Leon Black in contempt if he does not fully cooperate with the panel’s ongoing investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, amid accusations that the billionaire is purposely delaying and disrupting the panel’s inquiry.
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A letter released by Representative James Comer’s office on Tuesday, which was addressed to Black’s lawyer, revealed new details about the high-stakes clash between the powerful Kentucky congressman and Black, the co-founder of Apollo Asset Management who was Epstein’s friend and former client and paid Epstein tens of millions of dollars in fees.
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“If Mr Black refuses to provide the Committee with responsive documents or refuses to appear for his scheduled deposition on September 3, 2026, the Committee will use all tools at its disposal, including contempt,” Comer said.
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Susan Estrich, Black’s lawyer, rejected Comer’s assertions in a statement released on Tuesday night, saying the letter was misrepresenting the facts, and that Black was being targeted in a “political witch hunt”.
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Black voluntarily agreed to be questioned by the House panel in June as part of the committee’s broad investigation into Epstein, which the panel has said includes an examination of the alleged mismanagement of the federal government’s investigation into the late sexual predator; the operation of sex-trafficking rings; and the ways in which Epstein and his companion Ghislaine Maxwell “sought to curry favor” to protect their “illegal activities”.
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But Black’s appearance ended abruptly – after just one hour of questioning – after members of both parties said Black was refusing to answer questions about non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). Comer, in his capacity as committee chair, issued two subpoenas on that day in response to Black’s alleged lack of cooperation: one demanding that Black produce “all non-disclosure agreements to which he is a party” and another demanding he appear before the committee for a deposition.
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The fight between the congressional oversight panel and Black is now centered on the scope of the oversight committee’s investigation.
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Here’s the full report:
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Democrat Brandon Dukes appears to have flipped a Pennsylvania state house seat that has been Republican since 1999 last night, leading by just 97 votes against Republican Scott Timko in the special election as of this afternoon.
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With over 99% of the votes counted, Dukes is leading by a razor-thin 8,469 votes to 8,372. At the time of writing, the Associated Press has yet to call the race.
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The conservative 12th district, north of Pittsburgh, covers Cranberry, Mars, Zelienople, Evans City and Jackson Township in Butler county.
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Butler county is significant as it’s where Donald Trump’s assassination attempt occurred in July 2024. Trump went on to win it by more than 18 points, as well as the state of Pennsylvania, a coveted presidential battleground state.
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Dukes’ apparent flip expands Democrats’ narrow majority in the state house, but the party will hope that it boosts its momentum as it heads into November’s midterms. Indeed, he will face Timko for a rematch then, and Democrats are hoping to secure control of Pennsylvania.
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Nonetheless, today’s results signify a major shift. Former US transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, who endorsed Dukes in the race, said:
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This is a big deal: Brandon Dukes just flipped a Pennsylvania state house seat held by Republicans for almost 30 years. His victory in Butler county reflects voters’ readiness for change, and the trust that he has earned in his district. I’m proud to be in his corner.
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The state’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, also congratulated Dukes:
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Pennsylvanians are rising up and using their power to combat the chaos, cruelty and corruption – and we’re not slowing down.
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And we’re already getting some sense from senators of how that might go. Democrat Patty Murray, of Washington, who sits on the Senate health committee, shared this on X:
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n
Heidi Overton is a far-right, anti-abortion extremist who has no business leading the FDA. The American people deserve someone who will put science and facts FIRST, not another Trump sycophant who will make it their mission to attack medication abortion. I will vote NO.
n
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Democrat Richard Blumenthal, of Connecticut, said:
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n
Trump is throwing down the gauntlet to both sides in the Senate – nominating an FDA head who demeans vaccines, denounces reproductive rights, & degrades science.
n
Republicans should have learned some lessons about needing to stand up now – not handwringing later about Trump officials who threaten public health.
n
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Donald Trump has nominated Dr Heidi Overton – an abortion opponent who stood next to the president as he made false claims about vaccines – to be commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
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“Today I am honored to nominate the wonderful Dr. Heidi Overton, MD, PhD, as our next FDA Commissioner. Dr. Heidi has been a ROCKSTAR in my Administration, where she has worked directly with Secretary Kennedy, Dr. Oz, and team, to deliver on the MOST TRANSFORMATIVE Health Agenda in History. She is known to take on the HARDEST issues, and bring me solutions that work best for the Country,” the president wrote on Truth Social today.
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He continued: “She is SMART and RESPECTED by all! Dr. Heidi will work with Secretary Kennedy and Dr. Oz to RAPIDLY deliver on my priorities of FASTER Cures, INCREASED American Innovation, MAJOR Clinical Trial Reforms, LOWER Drug Prices, and even more MAHA WINS!”
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Overton speaks during an executive order that re-evaluates childhood vaccines, in the White House on 10 August 2026.”,”caption”:”Heidi Overton speaks during an executive order that re-evaluates childhood vaccines, in the White House on 10 August 2026.”,”credit”:”Photograph: ABACA/Shutterstock”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
The FDA, which regulates the nation’s drugs, medical devices and much of its food supply, has spent the bulk of the second Trump administration in tumult following widespread job cuts and disease outbreaks.
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Overton would also take the reins of an agency tasked with regulating medication abortions, specifically the drug mifepristone, which has become an important piece of abortion access for the 23 million women living in states with bans. In a 2023 policy brief, Overton has previously described mifepristone as “teleabortion” and “abortion-on-demand”, which Congress should work to strictly regulate “to protect women and children”.
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More recently, Overton appeared with Trump during a press conference for an executive order to split up the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three separate shots. She stood by the president as he falsely suggested the number or timing of vaccines could play a role in rising rates of autism spectrum disorder, even as scientific consensus and decades of studies have firmly concluded there is no link.
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Donald Trump has said he will meet the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un, later this year, in what would be their first of Trump’s second term.
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Trump also said that North Korea had 57 “very powerful” nuclear weapons, in a rare and unusually specific assessment by a US president of Kim’s arsenal.
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“Yeah, I will be,” Trump told reporters during a tour of a new helipad he is building at the White House, when asked if he planned to meet Kim later in 2026.
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Trump gave no details, but the Wall Street Journal (paywall) reported that he was eying a meeting when he travels to China for an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in November.
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Trump defended planning to meet Kim at the same time as he wages a war with Iran that he has justified on the grounds of preventing Tehran developing a nuclear weapon.
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Referring to the North Korean leader, Trump told reporters:
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n
He has 57 very powerful nuclear weapons. Should have never allowed it to happen … If I were president, I wouldn’t have allowed it.
n
But he’s got them. I get along with him very well. I can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon. And I know Kim Jong-un very well, and he’s going to be fine.
n
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Here’s the clip.
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It comes two days after Trump ordered the US to scale back what he said were “inappropriate and hostile” joint military drills with longtime US ally South Korea, citing his “good relationship” with Kim in the decision.
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Yesterday, South Korea’s military has confirmed that the US-led drills would end on Friday, six days earlier than originally planned.
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Trump’s move came despite warnings from military officials from both countries warning that Kim’s regime is learning new battlefield tactics from assisting Russia in its war in Ukraine.
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Trump and Kim met three times in his first spell in the White House, and at the time he said they “fell in love” after exchanging “beautiful letters”.
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But they haven’t met in his second term. In recent days Trump has dropped growing hints about communications with Kim, although he wouldn’t confirm when asked by a reporter today whether the pair were exchanging letters. “I can’t tell you that,” he said.
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Trump and Kim Jong-un at a military demarcation line at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas on 30 June 2019.”,”caption”:”Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un at a military demarcation line at the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas on 30 June 2019. “,”credit”:”Photograph: KCNA/Reuters”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:false,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1787156539000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”17.22 BST”,”blockLastUpdated”:1787158785000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”17.59 BST”,”blockFirstPublished”:1787157342000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”17.35 BST”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”17.35″,”title”:”Trump says he will meet Kim Jong-un later this year – and reveals how many nuclear weapons North Korea has”,”contributors”:[],”primaryDateLine”:”Thu 20 Aug 2026 02.55 BST”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Wed 19 Aug 2026 08.39 BST”},{“id”:”6a85bddf8f0882b7b6bedfd0″,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
Reactions to Angie Nixon’s surprise victory in the Democratic primary for the US Senate in Florida range from shock and delight among progressives notching another win for a democratic socialist candidate, to despairing fence-mending from moderates, to curt dismissal on the right.
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“Is our bullhorn on?” said Matthew Grocholske, president of the Democratic Progressive caucus of Florida. “Florida voters showcased at the ballot box on Tuesday that they want to chomp the oligarchy through people-powered wins. Our organizing over the past year has driven 158,000 direct voter contacts since January 1 through the efforts of our caucus alone. The movement we’ve built is embedded in a compassionate future where we fight for all: a future where we pass Medicare for All and the Green New Deal, Block the Bombs and abolish ICE. The only correct analysis is that our progressive agenda is a winning message.”
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Nixon did not have the DSA’s endorsement, nor that of progressive political stars like the US representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or the US senator Bernie Sanders, who called Nixon’s victory a “huge upset” in a post on X.
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Nixon at a town hall event at Allendale Methodist Church in St. Petersburg, Florida on 5 August.”,”caption”:”Angie Nixon at a town hall event at Allendale Methodist Church in St. Petersburg, Florida on 5 August.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Dave Decker/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock”}},{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader in the Senate, issued a joint statement Tuesday morning with the Kirsten Gillibrand, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chair.
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“Angie Nixon has dedicated her career to fighting for Florida,” they said. “A lifelong native of Jacksonville and a former union organizer, Angie’s dedication to put working families first runs deep – and now, she’s running to take that fight to the Senate. Ashley Moody’s votes have cost Florida, from her siding with private insurance companies over Floridians to ripping away healthcare. In November, Florida will have a clear choice at the ballot.”
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The Democratic National Committee chair, Ken Martin, also released a statement.
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“As an accomplished state representative and union organizer, Angie Nixon has dedicated herself to fighting for working families,” Martin said. “Floridians have chosen a proven leader with the experience and vision to lower costs, expand access to healthcare, make childcare and housing more affordable, fight for workers, protect public education, and deliver results for families across the Sunshine state. The DNC is ready to help elect Angie and work together to flip this seat, win the Senate majority, and deliver for all Floridians.”
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Nixon is a state representative for Jacksonville and a former union organizer. She beat former Trump impeachment witness Alex Vindman despite being outspent more than 16 to 1. Vindman’s campaign was criticized by Democratic operatives for its focus on television spending with comparably less regard to field organizing, a strength for both Nixon and the Democratic Socialists of America, which she joined during the campaign.
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David Jolly, who won the Democratic nomination for Florida governor on Tuesday night, found himself on MS Now telling voters that he rejects socialism, even as he congratulated Nixon on her victory and called her a “fighter” for education and healthcare.
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Conservatives, meanwhile, have already declared the general election a walk for the Republican nominee.
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“There are two things I would not want to be if I were running a statewide race in Florida: anti-Israel and communist-curious,” wrote Noah Rothmann in National Review. “The Democratic nominee for Senate, Angie Nixon, is both … There’s more than a whiff of capital ‘S’ socialism in all this. Given the scale of the Cuban and Venezuelan diaspora in Florida – demographics with living memory of the horrors that attend life inside the socialist world – the Sunshine State’s voters are likely to sniff it out. Even if the race for Senate in Florida is now a foregone conclusion, this race will still feature prominently in the national conversation. Why? Because it demonstrates that Republicans are right when they warn that the socialist phenomenon is coming to a town near you.”
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Conservatives are dogpiling on US senator Darline Graham’s debate performance on Tuesday evening against US congressman Ralph Norman of South Carolina, as the two Republicans face a primary runoff next week.
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Asked if Taiwan and the South China Sea are national security issues for the United States, Graham responded, “I’m just going to be honest here. On national security, I’m not that informed on national security.” Audible groans from the studio audience at the venerable Newberry Opera House ensued.
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“So … but I do support the military,” she continued. “My brother was in the Air Force for 33 years. So, I will do everything I can to support the military. My dad was in the Army. I’m not a polished politician up here. National security is not my thing, not my area of expertise.”
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Lindsey Graham, Darline Graham’s brother and long-serving South Carolina senator, was notable for his involvement in foreign policy. South Carolina ranks sixth in military veteran population per capita, or about 8.4 percent of the state’s residents.
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Darline Graham, a public administrator who has led the South Carolina Commission for the Blind since 2019, was appointed to complete the term of her late brother last month and has the endorsement of President Donald Trump, which she has leaned on during the campaign and in debates.
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“I fully trust President Trump when it comes to the war in Iran,” Graham said on Tuesday night. “Iran is the weakest they have been in 47 years. The one thing that concerns me is we cannot let them get a nuclear weapon. So I trust President Trump and everything he’s doing. I think he’s got this, and I trust him on it.”
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But the thinness of her political resume and her political inexperience have become a point of contention in the contest. At one point during the debate, she referred to South Carolina’s “50 million” residents – a state that has about 5.5 million residents.
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Both candidates are running to the right. Each argued against birthright citizenship in opposition to the US supreme court’s ruling affirming the 14th Amendment’s plain language. Norman – who in 2021 advocated for Trump to declare martial law to prevent Joe Biden’s accession to the presidency – called for Anthony Fauci to be imprisoned Tuesday night.
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“I have a proven record,” Norman said Tuesday night. “Look me up. Eight years I’ve been in Congress as the most conservative member. You know how I will vote. My resume is my record.”
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An announcement of a three-day pause to the start of 50% tariffs on Canadian trade has left business and economic leaders thirsting for a resolution.
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“Let’s be clear: the tariff delay provides relief on both sides of the border,” said Candace Laing, president and CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. “Businesses may not be closing up shop with this news, but an extension doesn’t bring the certainty that a signed interim deal would. We know that stability is in short supply and businesses will take any ounce they can get. This limbo state is not anyone’s preferred outcome – time is of the essence.
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“We commend the negotiating team for their work and sense of urgency this week, and call on them to keep it up: ultimately, a resilient and integrated North American economy would be a stronger one for all.”
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“The additional time is welcome, but the continued threat of tariffs leaves manufacturers and their workers facing the same damaging uncertainty,” said Dennis Darby, president and CEO of trade group Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, in a statement.
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“Businesses cannot confidently make long-term decisions about production, hiring, technology adoption and capital investment without knowing the conditions under which they will trade with their largest market. Delay may buy time, but it does not remove the damage caused by uncertainty.”
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President Donald Trump posted late on Tuesday on social media that he had paused the tariffs for three days “based on the fact that Canada and the USA, subject to the finalization of documents, have a DEAL!”
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Trump has made a point of antagonizing Canada throughout his second term. Retailers in Canada have responded in kind, ridding their shelves of American goods, particularly alcohol. In March 2025, every province of Canada banned the import and distribution of American alcohol. Only Alberta and Saskatchewan have subsequently lifted their bans.
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Though the US supreme court struck down much of Trump’s tariff regime earlier this year, the White House announced a 50% tariff on Canadian exports including wine and hockey sticks in July, saying that it sought to hold Canada accountable for discrimination against US-produced cars, alcohol and dairy products.
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Most Canadians oppose offering concessions to the United States as part of a trade deal. Almost 70 percent of Canadians want a ban on American alcohol to continue.
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Byron Donalds, a congressman backed by Donald Trump, won the Republican nomination for governor on Tuesday in the race to succeed Ron DeSantis.
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Donalds, who has represented south-west Florida since 2021, trounced three reasonably prominent Republican rivals, including Jay Collins, DeSantis’s handpicked lieutenant governor.
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If he wins the November election, as he is expected to do in the conservative stronghold, Donalds would become the first Black governor in any southern US state.
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So confident was Donalds of victory that his television advertisements in the weeks leading to the primary ignored his Republican challengers and focused on former Republican congressman David Jolly, who secured the Democratic party’s nomination on Tuesday.
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With 80% of the vote counted, incumbent Republican senator Dan Sullivan and former Democratic congresswoman Mary Peltola will be moving forward from Alaska’s open primaries to the general election.
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Peltola is currently leading with 48% of the vote with Sullivan following at 42.8%. The other Dan Sullivan – a retired schoolteacher and US Forest Service employee who infuriated his namesake senator by running as a long-shot Republican candidate – is in a distant third place with 2.4% of the vote, followed by Democrat David Leslie and Republican Gerald Heikes, each with about 1.1%.
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This election is yet another contest that could tilt the scale in the Democrats’ favor and help them retake control of Congress.
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The Guardian’s Chris Stein has more:
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Brendan Carr was very firm.
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“As a general rule, we don’t get into any discussions that happen with the White House or don’t happen with the White House,” Carr, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), told Politico’s Dasha Burns in a recent interview. Burns had pressed Carr to explain how exactly he came to issue a highly unprecedented order forcing ABC to apply early to renew its eight local broadcast licenses just one day after the man who appointed Carr, Donald Trump, and his wife Melania called for ABC to be punished for a joke made by late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.
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“Did you get a call or talk to the president either before or after you made that announcement?” Burns had asked. Later in the interview, Carr repeated his policy: “As a general matter, I don’t speak publicly about conversations with the White House, or whether they happen or don’t happen.”
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While Carr may not be keen to detail his relations with the Trump administration, a trove of FCC documents – obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request and lawsuit filed by the advocacy group Democracy Forward, and provided to the Guardian – shed light on the close working relationship between Carr, his top staffers and members of Trump’s White House team.
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Between 12 March 2025 and 11 February 2026, Carr attended at least eight meetings at the White House, according to the records, and had at least three scheduled calls with administration officials, including two conversations with chief of staff Susie Wiles. He also spoke by phone with administration officials such as controversial health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.
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In addition, the files provide insight into Carr’s media strategy, including communications with producers at Fox News, and make public previously undisclosed meetings he has held with media titans such as Fox Corp chief executive Lachlan Murdoch and Sinclair Broadcast Group chair David Smith.
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Wearing shoulder-length blonde hair, gold earrings and a red dress, cancer survivor Natalie Harp introduced herself to the 2020 Republican national convention as “a formerly forgotten American from California” and compared Donald Trump with George Bailey, the everyman hero played by James Stewart in the classic film It’s a Wonderful Life.
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“George Bailey’s father was right,” smiled Harp, her voice echoing in the Andrew W Mellon auditorium in pandemic-hit Washington. “All you can take with you is that which you’ve given away. Mr President, that makes you the richest man in the world.”
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Six years later, Harp is now one of Trump’s closest and most devoted aides. Her official job title is special assistant to the president and executive assistant to the president on an annual salary of $150,000.
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Her unofficial job title is the “human printer” for supplying him with print-outs of information. And for years she has only been a minor character in the Trump Cinematic Universe.
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But all that changed this week when Jon Ossoff, a Democratic senator and possible 2028 presidential contender, accused Trump in a campaign speech of wanting to “build his ballroom and travel with Natalie” instead of doing his job.
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Hello and welcome to our live coverage of US politics.
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We are still awaiting the full election results from Alaska, where it appears Mary Peltola is leading for the Democrats and Dan S Sullivan is leading for the Republicans in the contest for US Senate.
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Incumbent Sullivan is running for a third term while Peltola is fighting to flip the seat and aid Democrats in their quest to retake control of Congress. The Tuesday vote in the nonpartisan primary will see four candidates advance to the general election for the seat in November.
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Peltola became the first Alaska Native and the first woman to represent Alaska in the House of Representatives when she won her bid for the state’s sole seat in 2022. Sullivan, on the other hand, faces the unique challenge of running against … Dan Sullivan. Dan J Sullivan is a retired schoolteacher and US Forest Service employee. Though Republicans argued that the 70-year-old challenger Dan Sullivan had only filed his candidacy as an interference tactic against Senator Sullivan, the state supreme court ruled in June that he was qualified to run for the seat and ordered election officials to place him on the primary ballot.
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With 66% of votes counted, Peltola is leading with 46.8% of the vote with the incumbent Sullivan trailing closely behind with 44.4% of the vote. Dan J Sullivan is in third, with 2.4% of the vote.
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In other election news:
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Progressive Aisha Wahab is currently leading with 51% of the vote in the special runoff election to fill former representative Eric Swalwell’s seat in California. This comes after Super Pacs tied to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) spent millions supporting Wahab’s closest competitor, Democrat Melissa Hernandez. According to the Associated Press, 62% of votes have been counted.
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In Wyoming, the Trump-backed Harriet Hageman is leading the Republican primary for US Senate. Hageman, a conservative lawyer with a passion for thwarting environmentalists, had previously beat Liz Cheney for the thinly populated western state’s solitary seat in the US House of Representatives.
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Byron Donalds won the Republican nomination and David Jolly the Democratic nomination for Florida governor. Donalds was endorsed by Donald Trump and will become Florida’s first Black governor if elected in November. Jolly is a former Republican who joined the Democratic party last year.
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Progressive Angie Nixon won the Democratic nomination for Florida’s open Senate seat, defeating the heavily favored Alex Vindman, a retired army lieutenant colonel and an impeachment witness against Trump during the president’s first term of office. If elected in November, Nixon would be the state’s first Black senator. Nixon will compete against Republican Ashley Moody in November for the Senate seat Marco Rubio won in 2022.
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Key events
Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day. Here are the latest developments:
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Donald Trump nominated Dr Heidi Overton – an abortion opponent who stood next to the president as he made false claims about vaccines – to be commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
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Democrats quickly denounced the nomination and promised to oppose it. Patty Murray, who sits on the Senate health committee, called Overton “a far-right, anti-abortion extremist who has no business leading the FDA”.
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Senator Bill Cassidy, the Republican chairman of the Senate health committee, said that he has “strong concerns” about Overton’s “active role in last week’s nonsensical vaccine executive order” casting doubt on the safety of the MMR vaccine. “That alone is almost disqualifying.”
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The US debt reached $40tn for the first time on Wednesday, the US treasury department said, after the government deficit doubled over the last decade.
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Trump told reporters, as he gave them a tour of his new helipad, that he will meet the North Korean communist leader, Kim Jong-un, later this year. Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korea’s leader, said she knew “absolutely nothing” about talks with Trump, and that the US remains an enemy of Pyongyang.
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Trump said he has delayed implementing tariffs on some Canadian goods because he thought a deal had been reached.
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Amid signs that the Ohio Republican senator Jon Husted’s support for the AI datacenters Trump touts at every opportunity could cost him his seat, and imperil the Republican majority in the Senate, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) reportedly warned leading AI companies that they need to arrest the public backlash.
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Trump posted on Wednesday that he intends to inflict “the MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY!”
Republican chair of Senate health committee calls Trump’s FDA nominee’s role in his ‘nonsensical’ vaccine order ‘almost disqualifying’
Senator Bill Cassidy, the Republican chairman of the Senate health committee, said that he has “strong concerns” about Donald Trump’s nomination of Dr Heidi Overton to be commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Writing on social media, Cassidy, a medical doctor who was outraged by Trump’s executive order last week calling the MMR vaccine “lethal”, said that he respects Dr Overton’s “experience as a physician,” he is concerned her “lack of managerial experience does not prepare her well for leading a large organization that is already dealing with staffing and morale issues.”
“Additionally, Dr. Overton’s active role in last week’s nonsensical vaccine executive order calls into question her commitment to standing up for sound science and protecting children’s health. That alone is almost disqualifying”, Cassidy wrote.
Trump declares economic warfare on Iran ‘on an unprecedented scale’
Clearly frustrated that his attempts to force Iran into submission through airstrikes have failed, Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he intends to inflict “the MOST CRUSHING ECONOMIC OPERATION EVER TAKEN AGAINST ANY COUNTRY!”
“This will be Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale”, the president posted on his social media platform, with the possible assistance of his close aide Natalie Harp.
“ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences”, the president’s statement added. “Oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies — It all needs to stop NOW. You know who you are. This will be an ECONOMIC D-DAY, and we need all of our Allies to stand with the United States of America to isolate, and defeat, the Iran threat.”
“These maniacs are on the ropes”, the president insisted, before again repeating that the aim of his campaign was to force Iran to renounce nuclear weapons, which it did 11 years ago in the nuclear deal struck during the Obama administration that Trump scuttled during his first term.
Republicans reportedly fear datacenter backlash could cost them Ohio Senate seat
Amid signs that the Ohio Republican senator Jon Husted’s support for the AI datacenters Donald Trump touts at every opportunity could cost him his seat, and imperil the Republican majority in the Senate, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) has reportedly warned leading AI companies that they need to arrest the public backlash to the massive warehouses springing up across the state.
Husted trailed his Democratic challenger, former senator Sherrod Brown, by eight percentage points in a recent poll for Fox News, and the Republican campaign arm suggested in a memo obtained by Axios and then the Washington Post that Brown is successfully channeling grassroots outrage over the noisy, energy-sucking centers.
“More than any other thing in this race, data centers are the anchor hanging around Husted’s neck,” the NRSC wrote. “If he loses and data centers get the blame, politicians across the country will take notice – and they will not go near the next one.”
“This has become a sleeper issue for the entire election cycle,” the campaign committee added.
A recent ad from Brown’s campaign blames Husted for encouraging the rapid expansion of datacenters in Ohio.
Charlie Blaettler, political director of the Guardrails Alliance, a Democratic Super PAC formed to combat “AI billionaire Trump donors trying to buy our elections and prevent common sense regulation”, said in a statement that the memo proves that the Republican party “is panicking because they sold out to the AI industry – a while ago – and they know it”.
Republicans, Blaettler said, “are realizing how wildly unpopular Big AI’s agenda is with the American people. Now the GOP and AI’s unaccountable billionaires are scrambling to backtrack and find a new way to pull the wool over the eyes of the public so they can get what they want: A Congress that will do their bidding and an AI future that benefits them, not the many.”
“It is time for the Democratic party to make it clear who they stand with”, he added. “A handful of Big Tech billionaires or the majority of people in the country who want commonsense regulation for this unprecedented technology.”
When he was asked by a Maga influencer about the public unease with AI datacenters on Wednesday, Trump argued they generate tax revenue and construction jobs, “and many of them are designed in a very beautiful way”.
US gross national debt tops $40tn for first time
Lauren Aratani
The US debt reached $40tn for the first time on Wednesday, the US treasury department said, after the government deficit doubled over the last decade.
The treasury’s latest debt balance showed $40.047tn on Tuesday afternoon, the highest in US history.
The milestone marks years of government spending that grew under both Donald Trump and Joe Biden. During his first term, Trump approved $8.4tn worth of debt, with a huge chunk going to Covid-19 relief spending, while Biden approved $4.3tn worth of debt, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
In fiscal year 2026, which started in October 2026, $1.8tn has been added to the debt so far, with a big chunk of new government spending dedicated to tariff refunds, which have totaled $100bn so far, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.
Government spending watchdog groups have anticipated for weeks the US surpassing the $40tn threshold after debt reached $39tn in March.
“For perspective, it took nearly 200 years for America’s gross debt to reach $1 trillion for the first time in 1981,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget in a statement. “$40 trillion of debt doesn’t exist solely on the government’s ledgers; it is felt throughout the economy and finds its way to the pocketbooks of people one way or another. The more we borrow, the more we exacerbate inflation, squeeze out other priorities in the budget, and leave ourselves vulnerable to emergencies at home and turmoil abroad.”
The threshold was breached as Congress, currently out of session, remains at an impasse over its latest spending bill. The US House and Senate passed two different bills that would fund the federal government, which is scheduled to shut down on 30 September if a bill isn’t adopted by both chambers and signed by the president.
Trump’s pick to lead FDA condemned by abortion rights activists as ‘an anti-abortion extremist’
The president of Reproductive Freedom for All, the advocacy group for abortion rights formerly known as Naral, strongly condemned Donald Trump’s pick to be the new commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Dr Heidi Overton.
The group’s president, Mini Timmaraju, strongly condemned Overton in this blistering statement:
Donald Trump is trying to put an anti-abortion extremist in charge of any agency that could seriously undermine reproductive healthcare – including the agency that could roll back access to mifepristone nationwide. Heidi Overton celebrated the fall of Roe, spread junk science about medication abortion, and openly called for remaking the FDA to serve a political agenda instead of the health of the country. Her nomination is another alarming step in Trump’s plan to weaponize every part of the federal government to restrict abortion nationwide.
Anna Betts
The US Department of Justice has defended its prosecution of former FBI director James Comey, claiming in new court documents there is “no serious dispute” that his social media post last year featuring a photo of seashells arranged to read “8647” could be interpreted as a threat against Donald Trump.
“There is no serious dispute that an objective viewer of Comey’s post could read it to mean ‘Kill President Trump’,” prosecutors wrote in a document filed on Tuesday in response to efforts by Comey’s efforts to have the case dismissed.
Comey was indicted in April after a grand jury in North Carolina charged him with making a threat against the US president and transmitting that threat, via social media, across state lines, over an image he posted on Instagram while vacationing in North Carolina last May.
In the photo, the seashells were arranged to read “8647”, which the president’s allies and supporters quickly denounced as a threat against Trump. The number “86” is often used as shorthand to mean to get rid of or remove something, while Trump is the 47th US president.
Comey deleted the photo after the uproar, saying he didn’t know that it could be interpreted as a violent threat. “It never occurred to me, but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down,” he said.
In the court documents filed earlier this week, prosecutors with the eastern district of North Carolina continued to argue the post was a “coded message to his followers meaning ‘kill’ or ‘get rid of’ President Trump”.
Comey has denied the charges against him and his lawyers have asked the judge to dismiss the case, arguing that the post was protected speech and did not amount to a “true threat” against the president.
Trump says he if he was a mayor, or a governor he would ‘absolutely’ want ‘very beautiful’ datacenters in his city or state
As Democrats increasingly try to channel grassroots opposition to AI datacenters on the midterm campaign trail, Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he is all for them.
Flanked by leaders of the largest US cryptocurrency companies, Trump was asked by a Maga influencer planted in the press pool, Link Lauren, what he would say to supporters who say “we love president Trump, but we’re still cautious about AI and crypto”.
“If I were the mayor of a town or the governor of a state, and I had a chance to get a big plant in, an AI plant or a datacenter, I would absolutely want it, because the jobs are enormous and the money paid, the taxes paid, are just enormous,” Trump replied. “So I would say, maybe it can use a little public relations help, but if I were a governor or a mayor, I would want that plant in my community and many of them are designed in a very beautiful way.”
Trump did not say what city or state he would like to lead, but his remarks are also a reminder that he is not barred, after his second term as president, from running for office as a mayor or governor.
The day so far
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Donald Trump nominated Dr Heidi Overton – an abortion opponent who stood next to the president as he made false claims about vaccines – to be commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
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Democrats quickly denounced the nomination and promised to oppose it. Patty Murray, who sits on the Senate health committee, called Overton “a far-right, anti-abortion extremist who has no business leading the FDA”.
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Trump told reporters, as he gave them a tour of his new helipad, that he will meet the North Korean communist leader, Kim Jong-un, later this year. Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korea’s leader, said she knew “absolutely nothing” about talks with Trump, and that the US remains an enemy of Pyongyang.
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Trump said he has delayed implementing tariffs on some Canadian goods because he thought a deal had been reached with that country’s prime minister, Mark Carney.
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Trump met with top executives from cryptocurrency companies, an industry that helped him increase his net worth by at least $1.4bn last year, according to financial disclosure forms he filed in June.
Kim Jong-un’s sister casts doubt on Trump’s claims of secret US-North Korea talks
Andrew Roth
On this subject, the reclusive North Korean leader’s younger sister has cast doubt on communications with Donald Trump and dampened hopes of a diplomatic breakthrough between them.
Yesterday, Trump suggested he and Kim Jong-un were holding secret negotiations after announcing the US would downgrade its participation in military exercises held by South Korea. Asked whether Kim had responded to his request for a conversation, Trump said: “Yeah, he has.”
As I said earlier, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Trump was pushing aides to set up an in-person meeting with Kim, potentially during a trip to Asia in November for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, China.
But today, Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korea’s supreme leader, said she knew “absolutely nothing” about the supposed communications, and that while Trump and Kim had an excellent relationship, the US remained an enemy of Pyongyang.
“The United States’ hostile policy toward the DPRK has not changed, and the United States and its followers are vigorously carrying out hostile military activities against the DPRK even at this very moment,” she said in a statement carried by North Korean state media.
She lauded the relationship between her brother and Trump, saying he had “personally good memories and feelings” toward the US president.
But she cast doubt on whether her brother had secretly been in communication with Trump. “Perhaps it is the only matter I do not know about in relation to our supreme leadership’s foreign policy,” she said.
Trump suggests North Korea not a threat while he is president
Donald Trump then once again touted his “good” relationship with Kim Jong-un, before adding in an astonishing admission that he didn’t anticipate the North Korean leader doing anything during the remainder of his time in office.
He told reporters:
Now, I didn’t like the fact that we’re doing these massive military exercises really against North Korea … when I’m friendly with him … when I don’t see anything happening for, certainly, two and a half years – it’s not going to happen with me.
Then, Trump got to the crux of why he had ordered the US to scale back what he said were “inappropriate and hostile” joint military drills with South Korea, stating once again that he was “not happy” when Seoul declined to join US efforts against Iran in the strait of Hormuz. “I didn’t like that,” Trump said.
As my colleague Joseph Gedeon noted on Monday, this is not the first time Trump has treated the drills as a bargaining chip. After his 2018 summit with Kim in Singapore, he suspended major exercises outright, calling them costly and provocative, before they were quietly restored once nuclear diplomacy with Pyongyang broke down.
Earlier, Trump said he will meet Kim later this year, in what would be their first of his second term. He also disclosed that North Korea had 57 “very powerful” nuclear weapons, in a rare and unusually specific assessment by a US president of Kim’s arsenal.
Trump says he thinks he has a deal with Canada on trade and ‘may bring some of the tariffs down’
Donald Trump has said he delayed tariffs on some Canadian goods because he thought a deal had been reached with prime minister Mark Carney.
“We delayed it for three days because I think we have a deal with the prime minister and [a] good deal for everybody. So that’s good,” Trump told reporters.
Trump said last night he had paused what would have been a bruising 50% US tariff, after reaching an agreement with Canadian administration officials hours before a hike – which would have affected $20bn worth of goods – was set to take effect.
The duties would have affected a range of Canadian exports including wine and hockey sticks.
“Hopefully it’ll be a wonderful deal for everybody,” Trump added.
He was also asked if he was willing to lower tariffs on steel and aluminum from Canada to help US farmers. The Wall Street Journal (paywall) reported today that the US is considering lowering that tariff from 50% to 25%.
The president replied: “Well, we’re getting zero for our farmers, who have been hurt very badly by Canada, and they won’t be paying any tariffs any more.”
He added:
We may bring some of the tariffs down to a level where other countries are because Canada was paying a higher tariff.
Trump says he and Xi will talk about AI during Chinese president’s White House visit
Going back a few minutes, there’s been one tidbit from this announcement worth noting.
Trump, saying that the US is “way ahead” of top AI rival China, said he plans on discussing this tech with that country’s president, Xi Jinping.
“President Xi’s coming on September 24th. We look forward to it. We’ll probably be talking about AI and a lot of other things,” Trump said.
Paul Atkins, Trump’s Securities and Exchange Commission chair, is now at the lectern, where he’s flattering his boss. “We’re making IPOs great again by cutting red tape,” Atkins said.
Trump says ‘interest rates should be allowed to fall’
Trump took a few minutes at the tech and crypto confab to talk about “the old days” with interest rates. Trump has repeatedly pushed for lower interest rates.
“When we announced good numbers, interest rates would go down,” he said. But these days, that does not happen “because they’re so afraid of inflation”.
“Interest rates should be allowed to fall,” he said.
Trump also called the US “the hottest country” anywhere in the world, apparently referring to the economy.
