Live updates: US military strikes second Venezuelan vessel; Trump launches crime crackdown in Memphis

Trump said he did not think to lower flags to half-staff for the slain speaker of the Minnesota House, a Democrat, because nobody asked him to do it.

The president was asked why flags were not lowered for Melissa Hortman, who was killed in a politically motivated attack in June given flags were lowered for the killing of Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist.

“Well if the governor had asked me to do that, I would have done that. But the governor of Minnesota didn’t ask me. I wouldn’t have thought of that, but I would have if somebody had asked me,” Trump said.

Trump did not speak to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) after the shootings in his state, saying it would be a waste of time.

Trump suggested after Memphis, he would eye three Democratic-led cities for potential federal intervention.

“We think Chicago is going to be next, and we’ll get to St. Louis also, and New Orleans we want to get to too,” Trump said.

Trump said he may be speaking at the conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s funeral on Sunday, after he has said he will attend.

“I guess I’ll say a few words, I don’t know. But I guess I will. But I knew him very well,” Trump said in the Oval Office.

He said he will be “taking a whole plane load” of people with him to the funeral in Arizona.

“I bet that stadium’s going to be pretty packed,” Trump said.

Kirk’s funeral is set to take place at State Farm Stadium in Glendale.

Trump commented on the protesters he encountered while dining out in Washington, D.C., last week

“I had four the other night, all in one group, total phonies, that started to scream when I got into a restaurant— something with Palestine,” Trump said in the Oval Office about the protesters.

He added, “I said, ‘I’m doing a great job for peace in the Middle East, I should get lots of awards for that right? With the Abraham Accords and everything else.’ But a woman just stood up and starts screaming and she got boo’ed out of the place.”

The president said, without evidence, that the protester was “a paid agitator.” And, he warned that he wants to bring in criminal RICO, which is the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), against paid agitators.

President Trump on Monday established the Memphis Safe Task Force in order to replicate in the Tennessee city the recent federal law enforcement crackdown in Washington, D.C.

“This task force will be a replica of our extraordinary successful efforts here and you’ll see it’s a lot of the same thing,” Trump said about D.C., flanked in the Oval Office by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) and GOP Tennessee Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Haggerty.

The president noted that the task force was created at the request of Lee. Federal law enforcement on the ground in Memphis will include the National Guard, FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security investigations and U.S. Marshals.

“I’m tired of crime holding the great city of Memphis back,” Lee said, noting that he spoke with the director of the U.S. Marshals, FBI and Attorney General Pam Bondi about the multiagency crackdown.

“When we come together, we can make significant change in our city and the city of Memphis… and I want to say thank you,” the governor added.

FBI Director Kash Patel is expected to take heat from the right and the left in back-to-back appearances before Congress amid heightened scrutiny of his performance leading one of the nation’s top investigative agencies.

Patel is set to appear before the Senate and House Judiciary committees starting Tuesday, just days after the FBI response to the assassination of Charlie Kirk prompted a flood of GOP criticism about how the director handled the case.

The director is also sure to face questions about the scores of firings that have rocked the bureau, the FBI’s role in reviewing the Epstein files, and a number of other moves that Democrats argue have politicized the FBI. 

Patel is not shying away from conflict. 

Read more here.

Trump said Monday that the U.S. had carried out another military strike targeting what he said were “confirmed narcoterrorists from Venezuela” in international waters, further escalating his war on drug traffickers.

“This morning, on my Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a SECOND Kinetic Strike against positively identified, extraordinarily violent drug trafficking cartels and narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” Trump posted on Truth Social, along with an accompanying video of a military strike targeting a boat floating on the water.

Read more here.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) on Monday poured cold water on the likelihood that bipartisan legislation to place heavy sanctions on countries that buy oil from Russia will be added to a continuing resolution to fund the government past Sept. 30.

Thune said he hopes the sanctions legislation sponsored by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) becomes “ripe” to move in the Senate soon, but he cast doubt on the likelihood of that happening.

“I would say that Russia sanctions — I’m hoping, I talked to Lindsey over the weekend. I hope it’s ripe here soon but I think one of the things the president is trying ensure happens before we do secondary sanctions is that our European allies join us,” Thune told reporters.

“I think it would … minimize the effectiveness of the sanctions unless we have all of our allies join us,” he added. “I commend the president for trying to do that. I think this needs to be everybody taking the same tack when it comes to addressing the situation in Ukraine and Russia.”

Read more here.

Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) said Monday that he was “out on another CR for the sake of more government.”

“Lord willing, there will be a revival and resurgent faith in Jesus. Pray for it! Work for it!” Davidson said in a post on the social platform X. 

“But, I’m not sure the GOP, the Republicans, MAGA, conservatives, or some other blend of right of center politics will do anything different,” he added. “I already hated status quo thinking and approaches (soft incrementalism at best), so I’m out on another CR for the sake of more government.”

“We know we need a smaller, more accountable, more focused America First government. I will tolerate nothing else,” the Ohio Republican continued. 

House Republican leaders are attempting to pass a stopgap bill this week that would keep the government funded largely at current levels through Nov. 20, GOP sources told The Hill.

Vance on Monday railed against what he called a “lunatic fringe” on the far left that “celebrate[s] political violence” after Kirk’s killing last week.

As he hosted “The Charlie Kirk Show,” filling in for the conservative media personality, Vance claimed that “people on the left are much likelier to defend and celebrate political violence.”

He recounted that his family had been shouted at during a recent trip to Disneyland, with one woman telling his children to “‘tell the Secret Service to protect the Constitution, not your father.’”

“Are these women violent? Probably not. Are they deranged? Certainly. And while our side of the aisle certainly has its crazies, it is a statistical fact that most of the lunatics in American politics today are proud members of the far left,” the vice president said.

“We can thank God that most Democrats don’t share these attitudes, and I do, while acknowledging that something has gone very wrong with a lunatic fringe, a minority, but a growing and powerful minority on the far left.”

A suspect has been arrested in connection with the shooting that killed Kirk, but further details about a possible motive and exact political affiliation remain unclear.

In his closing remarks on the program that featured several top White House voices honoring Kirk, the vice president called on Americans to call out and call the employers of people they see “celebrating Charlie’s murder.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday that the U.S. has a “framework” for a TikTok deal, after President Trump hinted that his administration had reached a deal to keep the app available in the U.S.

“We have a framework for a TikTok deal,” Bessent said at a press conference in Madrid. “The two leaders, President Trump and Party Chair Xi [Jinping] will speak on Friday to complete the deal. But we do have a framework for a deal with TikTok.”

Read more here.

The South Korean government said on Monday it will investigate whether any human rights violations occurred in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid at a Hyundai plant in Georgia earlier this month. 

During the Sept. 4 operation, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees ICE, detained 475 people. As part of an agreement between the Trump administration and the South Korean government, DHS released 330 detainees — 316 South Koreans, 10 Chinese nationals, three Japanese nationals and one Indonesian. They left Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in a plane chartered by South Korea on Thursday.

The 316 South Koreans returned to their home country Friday.

Read more here.

CNN Anchor Kate Bolduan and Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) got into a heated debate on the network on Monday over President Trump blaming the left for an increased level of political violence and tension in America.

Bolduan played for Burchett a clip of Trump speaking to reporters over the weekend and calling “agitators” on the left “scum” and referencing flag burning, social media posts and other statements he characterized as anti-American.

Vance revealed that, talking with Kirk shortly after his vice presidential debate last year, he “actually kind of liked” his Democratic rival, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D).

“You get in this sort of bunker mentality in the campaign: it’s us vs. them. And I was like, ‘Honestly, even though I’m glad that I think I did well, and I certainly don’t want this guy to become vice president, I actually kind of liked him afterwards, after 90 minutes of talking with him.’ And Charlie said, ‘That’s why I do all these debates,’” Vance recounted as he hosted “The Charlie Kirk Show” and remembered the conservative activist who was fatally shot last week.

Kirk had garnered significant internet fame for his live debates with students on college campuses.

“It’s like, you can disagree vehemently with somebody, but if you’re actually communicating with them, it’s really hard not to appreciate at least a little bit, as a human being, even if you think they’re 100 percent wrong on the issues,” Vance said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Monday attributed President Trump’s gains with young voters in 2024 in large part to Kirk, the co-founder of the Turning Points USA organization.

“The president’s massive gains with young Americans across the country was in no small part because of the efforts of Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA,” Leavitt said, joining Vice President Vance as he hosted “The Charlie Kirk Show” on Monday following Kirk’s killing last week.

“Charlie played an instrumental role in returning the President to the Oval Office,” Leavitt added.

Vance welcomed a string of top White House figures to “The Charlie Kirk Show” on Monday as he sat in for the conservative media personality who was fatally shot last week.

Stephen Miller and Taylor Budowich, both deputy chiefs of staff, joined the program to praise Kirk’s political work and legacy alongside the vice president, as did deputy communications director Kaelan Dorr.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., chief of staff Susie Wiles and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt were all expected to make appearances, according to a post from Kirk’s account.

Maurene Comey on Monday filed a lawsuit challenging her July dismissal from her job as a prosecutor in the Southern District of New York (SDNY), tying it to President Trump’s longstanding feud with her father, former FBI Director James Comey. 

Comey, who worked on the criminal cases against Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, said in the lawsuit that her employment was terminated without cause, without notice and without an opportunity to contest it.  

“Defendants have not provided any explanation whatsoever for terminating Ms. Comey. In truth, there is no legitimate explanation,” the complaint reads. “Rather, Defendants fired Ms. Comey solely or substantially because her father is former FBI Director James B. Comey, or because of her perceived political affiliation and beliefs, or both.” 

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) warned on Sunday that the Trump administration could be preparing a “dizzying” crackdown on political dissent, pointing to officials’ escalating rhetoric against left-leaning groups.

“Pay attention. Something dark might be coming,” Murphy wrote in a thread on the social platform X.

“The murder of Charlie Kirk could have united Americans to confront political violence. Instead, Trump and his anti-democratic radicals look to be readying a campaign to destroy dissent,” Murphy added.

Murphy said Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) has “led the way” in stressing “the need to depoliticize our fight against violence,” adding, “But Trump and his lieutenants are spinning a lie. That the only threat is from the left.”

Murphy pointed to several examples of the “kind of rhetoric” that is “gaining traction in MAGA world.”

Vance on Monday lauded Charlie Kirk as a “visionary” and knocked “festering violence that you see on the far left” as he hosted “The Charlie Kirk Show,” sitting in for the conservative commentator who was fatally shot last week.

After introductory remarks lauding Kirk’s faith and work, the vice president went on to knock what he called an “incredibly destructive movement of left wing extremism” that he argued “is part of the reason why Charlie was killed by an assassin’s bullet.”

Vance welcomed Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, as the first guest on the program to discuss “all of the ways that we’re trying to figure out how to prevent this festering violence that you see on the far left from becoming even more and more mainstream.”

A suspect has been arrested, but further details about a possible motive remain unclear.

“We need to have an organized strategy to go after the left wing organizations that are promoting violence in this country,” Miller said.

FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau was able to reconstruct a note from Tyler Robinson, saying the alleged shooter of conservative activist Charlie Kirk said he planned to take him out.

Patel, during a Monday morning appearance on “Fox and Friends,” summarized the content of the note.

“The suspect wrote a note saying I have the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, and I’m going to take it. That note was written before the shooting. Evidence of its existence – we now have learned existed before the shooting – was in the location in the suspect and partner’s home,” Patel said.

House GOP leaders are aiming to pass a stopgap spending bill this week that funds the government through Nov. 20, GOP sources told The Hill, as lawmakers face an end-of-the-month shutdown deadline.

Text of the continuing resolution (CR) has yet to be released, though Republicans have said it will largely be “clean.”

House leaders face a tight time crunch to pass the plan by the week’s end, with lawmakers scheduled to leave Washington next week for the Rosh Hashanah holiday.

The strategy, however, sets up a showdown with Democrats who have called for any stopgap to include major concessions on health care as a condition of their votes.

Read more here.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is traveling to Qatar this week after a trip to Israel, with heightened tensions in the region following an Israeli attack on Doha targeting Hamas officials. 

Israel has threatened follow-up strikes if the designated-terrorist group is not expelled from the country.

The State Department announced Rubio’s updated travel schedule on Monday, coming after two-days of meetings in Israel.

The secretary, who also serves as national security adviser, sought to show U.S. solidarity with Israel despite strains between President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the Qatar strike, a major, non-NATO ally to the U.S.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is launching an “all-hands-on-deck” voter registration push this week as the party has lagged behind the GOP in recruiting new voters. 

The DNC announced Monday that it will hold more than 50 voter registration events this week in 27 states and territories, with National Voter Registration Day on Tuesday. The organization said this is the first time in years that it is directly supporting registration efforts for the annual day devoted to getting people signed up to vote. 

Read more here.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will lead a vigil in memory of conservative activist and commentator Charlie Kirk in the Capitol on Monday evening, open to all members of both parties.

The memorial will take place in Statuary Hall at 6:15 p.m., just ahead of House votes. Johnson will give remarks and prayers in wake of Kirk’s assassination last week.

Johnson will be joined by House leadership and other members of Congress, according to an advisory.

The U.S. and U.K. are expected to sign a deal to bolster nuclear energy as President Trump travels to Britain.

A press release from the British embassy says the new arrangements will “turbocharge” the buildout of nuclear plants and are expected to speed up the time it takes for nuclear reactors to be licensed.

Commercial agreements between U.S. and British companies are also expected to be announced, including a deal between X-Energy and Centrica to build 12 reactors in England.

Meanwhile Holtec, EDF and Tritax are expected to announce a deal for data centers powered by nuclear energy and Last Energy and DP World agreed to establish what was described as a “micro modular” nuclear power plant.

Nuclear energy is a potential subject of agreement between the Trump administration and the U.K. It is carbon free, meaning it could be a tool for combating climate change.

President Trump on Monday suggested public companies should report their earnings on a six-month basis, rather than quarterly.

“This will save money, and allow managers to focus on properly running their companies,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Did you ever hear the statement that, ‘China has a 50 to 100 year view on management of a company, whereas we run our companies on a quarterly basis???’ Not good!!!”

Such a change would require approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which has required quarterly disclosures since 1970. The SEC in 2018 conducted an analysis of whether companies should shift to reporting earnings every six months.

Trump threatened to call a national emergency early Monday after Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) said she expects local police to stop cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) efforts now that the president’s 30-day emergency authority has expired.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump lashed out at Bowser, saying she buckled under pressure by her fellow Democrats. Trump had previously praised Bowser for cooperating with the federal government’s enforcement efforts in D.C. after she touted the crime drop after Trump deployed troops.

“It has been a beautiful thing to watch but, now, under pressure from the Radical Left Democrats, Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has presided over this violent criminal takeover of our Capital for years, has informed the Federal Government that the Metropolitan Police Department will no longer cooperate with ICE in removing and relocating dangerous illegal aliens,” Trump wrote in his post.

“If I allowed this to happen, CRIME would come roaring back. To the people and businesses of Washington, D.C., DON’T WORRY, I AM WITH YOU, AND WON’T ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN,” Trump continued.

“I’ll call a National Emergency, and Federalize, if necessary!!!”

A number of senators are growing concerned that the apparent increase in political violence will be nearly impossible to reverse despite calls from every corner to turn down the national temperature after the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

Kirk’s killing was the latest in a lengthy string of politically-based attacks against members of both parties in recent years — headlined by the twin assassination attempts against President Trump.

Read the full report here.