Almost two weeks after the Supreme Court allowed President Trump’s birthright citizenship order to partially go into effect, a judge has blocked it in line with that order.
U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante agreed to certify a class-action lawsuit on behalf of any children whose citizenship status would be at risk if Trump’s order went into effect.
The case of mistakenly deported Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia returns to court Thursday. A government witness will testify on the administration’s plans for Abrego Garcia, should he be released from criminal custody in next week. The Trump administration has suggested it would attempt to deport him to a country other than El Salvador.
Congress is closing in on endorsing a sanctions bill against Russia, which pummeled Ukraine overnight Thursday. Amid that, Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Malaysia on the sidelines of an Asian nation summit.
Trump has no publicly scheduled events Thursday. The president and first lady are expected to travel Friday to Texas to witness the devastation brought in Fourth of July flooding that killed at least 118 people. More than 150 others remain missing.
Catch up on top headlines:
- The ‘big, beautiful’ fight over school choice ends with escape clause for blue states
- Trump tariff letters: Running list of countries and rates
- Documents detail DOJ whistleblower’s account of Trump court order defiance
Follow along for news updates all day.
White House accuses Powell of mismanaging the Fed, citing renovation
White House budget chief Russ Vought on Thursday accused Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell of mismanaging the central bank’s budget during renovations, adding to President Trump’s criticism of Powell.
Vought, in a letter to Powell, said Trump is “extremely troubled” that he has “plowed ahead with an ostentatious overhaul” of the Fed’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. He said that costs of the renovations have reached about $700 million, new features include “VIP dining rooms” and “premium marble” and that each employee will get an average of 512 square feet, which is above OMB’s recommended 150 square feet.
Read the full story here.
Trump nominates MAGA influencer Nick Adams to Malaysia ambassador post
President Trump has nominated MAGA influencer and self-described “alpha male” Nick Adams to be the next ambassador to Malaysia, the White House announced in a list of recommendations sent to the Senate this week.
Adams, a 40-year-old Australian native who lives in Florida, said in a video posted on the social platform X on Thursday that he is “humbled and honored” by the nomination and looks forward to the Senate confirmation process.
Read the full story here.
US sanctions UN official over political ‘warfare’ against Israel
The Trump administration is sanctioning Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, on Wednesday over her political “warfare” against Israel.
“Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt @IntlCrimCourt action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a Wednesday statement on X.
“Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated. We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense,” Rubio, who also serves as the national security adviser, added in the post.
The Trump administration has asked the U.N. to fire Albanese, a vocal critic of Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip who has often accused Israel of committing genocide in the war-torn enclave. Israel has rejected the allegations.
Senate appropriators advance first fiscal 2026 funding bills
The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday advanced its first two funding bills for fiscal year 2026, greenlighting dollars for the Department of Agriculture, Food and Drug Administration and the legislative branch.
The committee voted unanimously to approve the annual agricultural and rural development funding bill, which it said provides about $27 billion in total funding for fiscal 2026. That includes $8.2 billion for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).
The committee also voted 27-1 to provide roughly $7 billion for congressional operations, U.S. Capitol Police, the Library of Congress, the Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Budget Office, along with other legislative branch operations.
The committee plans to release final bill text later in the day.
The committee also met Thursday to consider annual legislation funding the departments of Commerce and Justice. But a final vote was not taken after a dispute over the Trump administration’s FBI headquarters plans.
Bannon calls for special prosecutor on Epstein files
Steve Bannon argued a special counsel should be appointed to review files related to Jeffery Epstein amid outrage from the right over a government memo saying the disgraced financier had no “client list” and was not murdered in prison while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
“They have to go to the court and demand and unseal the sealed evidence in Epstein,” the conservative pundit and ally to President Trump said on his popular “War Room” podcast this week. “Bundle everything together you’ve got sealed and unsealed, and release it all.”
Senate funding committee recesses amid dispute over Trump’s FBI plans
The Senate Appropriations Committee recessed abruptly on Thursday amid consideration of their first batch of full-year funding bills for the season after an amendment passed that seeks to block the Trump administration’s move to keep the FBI’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Several Democrats who initially voted against the annual FBI funding bill changed their vote after adoption of the amendment while multiple Republicans opted to switch their previous “yes” votes to “no.”
Only one Republican senator voted with Democrats to back an amendment that sought block funding from being used to relocate the headquarters from its current J. Edgar Hoover Building site to any location other than the Greenbelt, Md., site selected by the General Services Administration in 2023.
That GOP senator, Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), also changed her vote to “no” as members indicated negotiations continued behind the scenes on a path forward.
“As best I can tell, we are hung up over one issue. I think we have it within ourselves to resolve this. I think it’s important for us as the Appropriations Committee to figure out a way forward,” Murkowski.
“I raised the concern. I felt it was appropriate that we have a pause on this issue regarding the FBI building, for a host of different reasons, the pause was not accepted, and so we’re in a place where we’re trying to scramble right now, and we haven’t been able to scramble fast enough, and it has caused people who in good faith, chose to vote in the affirmative at the beginning and now in the negative and switch back both ways,” she said. “So there is now total confusion.”
Republicans had previously sought to have the amendment withdrawn to allow members to receive more information from the FBI regarding the relocation plans, but Sen. Chris Van Hollen (Md.), the senior appropriator who offered the proposal, declined.
Democrats have argued the previous decision to bring the FBI headquarters to Maryland was the result of a lengthy, competitive process to replace the current crumbling structure in D.C., accusing the Trump administration of not performing a sufficient analysis before changing the plan.
Widow of man slain in Trump assassination attempt: ‘We were all sitting ducks that day’
The widow of a Pennsylvania firefighter who was killed during the assassination attempt against President Trump at a campaign rally last year said in a new Fox News interview that she wants accountability from the Secret Service for her husband Corey Comperatore’s death.
“We were all sitting ducks that day. Our blood is all over their hands,” Helen Comperatore told Fox News’s Alexis McAdams this week. “I am angry. I lost the love of my life.”
“They screwed up,” she added.
Saturday will be the one-year anniversary of the deadly Butler, Pa., campaign rally, where gunman Thomas Crooks, 21, opened fire on then-GOP presidential candidate Trump and the crowd. Corey Comperatore, 50, was fatally shot by the would-be assassin, while Trump and two others were injured. Crooks was shot and killed as he continued to fire at the crowd from the rooftop of a nearby warehouse.
African leader says taking U.S. deportees was ‘discussed’ with Trump
The president of Guinea-Bissau on Thursday said that the country would only take back its own citizens who are deported from the U.S., rejecting requests from the Trump administration to take in deported migrants whose home countries refuse them or are slow to accept them.
President Umaro Sissoco Embaló, one of five West African leaders who met with Trump at the White House on Wednesday, said the president raised the issue of third countries taking in migrants but added that Trump didn’t specifically ask for the African nations to agree to accept deportees.
“He talk about that, but he didn’t ask us to take immigrants back in our country. Just to be clear on that,” Embaló said during an event at the Atlantic Council, in response to a question from a reporter from The Africa Report.
Democrats push for hearing on disaster preparation, response after Texas flood
House Democrats are calling for an immediate hearing on disaster preparations, including Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) resources, after catastrophic flooding in Texas killed more than 100 people over the weekend.
“The flooding … raises serious concerns about FEMA’s readiness and highlights the damaging role that the Trump administration has played in weakening the Federal government’s capacity to respond to disasters,” Democratic Reps. Bennie Thompson (Miss.) and Julie Johnson (Texas), the top Democrats on the Homeland Security Committee, wrote in a letter to chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) on Wednesday.
The letter, which primarily takes aim at President Trump’s administration, was cosigned by 20 additional Democratic House members.
A spokesperson for Green, who announced Monday that he plans to resign from the House later this month to take a job in the private sector, didn’t immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment.
Senate committee votes to block Trump FBI headquarters move
The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved an amendment to the annual Justice Department funding bill aimed at blocking the Trump administration from keeping the FBI’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The committee voted 15-14 to adopt language that seeks to block funding from being used to relocate the headquarters from its current J. Edgar Hoover Building site to any location other than the Greenbelt, Md., site selected by the General Services Administration in 2023.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) bucked party lines to join Democrats in backing the proposal.
“My understanding is that this has been a decision that was made just very recently,” Murkowski said ahead of the vote. “So I for one, would like to know that this analysis has actually been going on for more than just a couple months, that there’s actually been that effort to ensure that we’re going to move forward.”
Top Democrats slam Noem over Texas flood response: ‘That’s abandonment’
Democrats Reps. Greg Stanton (Ariz.) and Gabe Amo (R.I.) on Thursday slammed Department of Homeland Security (DHS) administrator Kristi Noem over the administration’s response to fatal flooding in Texas amid its efforts to cut disaster response, climate and weather agencies.
“They need to justify it, and I guarantee you here, they will not be able to defend these actions,” Amo said about the overhaul during the Thursday presser.
This past weekend, at least 120 people were killed and nearly 160 individuals remain missing in south-central Texas after flash flooding emerged along the Guadalupe River.
Stanton and Amo, who are the top Democrats on the subcommittees overseeing the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), respectively, called on Noem and acting FEMA administrator David Richardson to testify to Congress after the flooding spurred questions about the preparedness of the agencies.
“Gutting FEMA won’t make it more responsive, just like getting rid of it won’t make disaster response better; it lets communities fend for themselves in their darkest hour. That’s not reform. That’s abandonment,” Stanton said, echoing concerns from fellow Democrats.
Trump knocks Jerome Powell, again
In a Truth Social post on Thursday morning, Trump once again called for lower interest rates. While he didn’t name Fed Chair Jerome Powell, he referred to him by the oft-used nickname “Too Late” in the post.
“‘Too Late’ DEMEANS THE GREAT CREDIT OF THE USA. We are now, again, the Number One Credit in the World! ‘Gigantic Comeback.’ The Fed Rate should be reflective of this. We should be at the top of the list!!! LOWER THE RATE!!!” Trump wrote.
Texas Democrat knocks Abbott over flooding football analogy: ‘This is not a game’
Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) criticized Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) for invoking a football analogy in response to a question about blame for the triple-digit death toll resulting from the catastrophic flooding in the state over the July Fourth weekend.
“For the governor to treat this as if it were a football game, this is not a game. People’s lives are at stake, and there’s so much more that should have been done,” Doggett said in an interview on CNN’s “Inside Politics” on Wednesday.
Pence: Tillis criticism of Hegseth ‘not fair’
Former Vice President Mike Pence defended Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday, amid mounting criticism of the Pentagon leader’s management style, leaked Signal chats and his reported decision to pause military aid to Ukraine without President Trump’s approval.
“I don’t think it’s fair,” Pence told CNN’s Kate Bolduan in an interview Thursday after Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) rebuked Hegseth a day earlier. “I’ve known Pete Hegseth a long time — he’s someone who’s worn the uniform.”
Judge blocks Trump birthright citizenship order after Supreme Court ruling
A federal judge on Thursday said he will block President Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship for a class of every child it affects.
U.S. District Judge Joseph Laplante agreed to certify a class-action lawsuit on behalf of any children whose citizenship status would be at risk if Trump’s order went into effect, saying at a hearing that a written order will follow.
It comes after the Supreme Court curtailed judges’ ability to issue nationwide injunctions against Trump’s policies but left open a door for challengers to try to seek broad relief by filing class action lawsuits.
Laplante’s ruling has the same practical effect as a nationwide injunction, as it applies to babies anywhere in the country. The class does not include parents, as sought by the plaintiffs.
He said he would stay the ruling for seven days so that the Trump administration can appeal.
DOJ, FBI sitting on ‘treasure trove’ of Epstein information, victim attorney says
An attorney representing victims of Jeffrey Epstein accused the government of holding back information on his associates but stopped short of pointing fingers at any high-powered officials.
Sigrid McCawley, who is representing several Epstein victims in their civil cases, said the government has yet to disclose information collected from Epstein’s computers and said there has been a lack of accountability for the financier’s lawyer and accountant.
”I think what’s really just astonishing about this recent disclosure from the government is that they know they are sitting on a treasure trove of information, and they’re not turning it over. And I’ve worked on these cases for over 10 years now, there’s a plethora of information that the public has not been able to see relating to Epstein and his co-conspirators,” McCawley told NewsNation’s Elizabeth Vargas.
McCawley said that includes files from the seizures of computers at his New York and Florida homes, as well as financial records.
Trump taps Sean Duffy as interim NASA administrator
President Trump said late Wednesday that he was tapping Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to lead NASA on an interim basis after Trump yanked his original nominee for the post.
“Sean is doing a TREMENDOUS job in handling our Country’s Transportation Affairs, including creating a state-of-the-art Air Traffic Control systems, while at the same time rebuilding our roads and bridges, making them efficient, and beautiful, again,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “He will be a fantastic leader of the ever more important Space Agency, even if only for a short period of time.”
Trump in June abruptly withdrew the nomination of tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman to lead NASA. The move came days before the Senate was expected to confirm Isaacman to the post.
In announcing the withdrawal, Trump cited Isaacman’s “past associations,” an apparent nod to his previous donations to Democrats.
But Isaacman was also a close ally of Tesla CEO and former special government employee Elon Musk, who has since had a falling out with the president. Trump has since said he thought it was “inappropriate that a very close friend of Elon, who was in the Space Business, run NASA, when NASA is such a big part of Elon’s corporate life.”
GOP rep says he believes Epstein files were destroyed
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) said Wednesday he believes a so-called “client list” associated with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein once existed but was “destroyed” by the Biden administration.
“I think the files existed at one time,” Burchett said in an interview on NewsNation’s “On Balance” with host Leland Vittert. “I think they were destroyed in the previous administration.”
The Justice Department (DOJ) released a memo earlier this week concluding that Epstein did not keep such a list that was allegedly used to blackmail high-profile individuals — contradicting conspiracy theories circulating for years that suggested otherwise.
The memo also concluded that the convicted sex offender died in his New York City jail cell in 2019 by suicide, refuting other claims that he died under suspicious circumstances.
Burchett pushed back on suggestions by former Trump adviser Elon Musk and other media influencers that the president was among the individuals whose names were included in the files associated with Epstein.
Brennan on reported DOJ scrutiny: ‘I’ve had no contact’
Former CIA director John Brennan on Wednesday commented on reported scrutiny he has faced from the Justice Department (DOJ), saying he’s “had no contact” with federal officials.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the DOJ saud that former FBI director James Comey and Brennan were facing a “criminal investigation.”
“I don’t know whether or not there’s any, you know, validity to it. If there is — it was a referral,” Brennan told MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace on “Deadline: White House,” in a clip highlighted by Mediaite.
“If there is an investigation, presumably, if there is an investigation, that people will be questioned, I would be questioned about it. But again, I’ve had no contact from them,” he added.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that the U.S. and Russia have exchanged new ideas for Ukraine peace talks after he met with his Russian counterpart in Malaysia Thursday.
“I think it’s a new and a different approach,” Rubio told reporters after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. “I wouldn’t characterize it as something that guarantees a peace, but it’s a concept that, you know, that I’ll take back to the president.” He didn’t elaborate.
Rubio added that President Donald Trump has been “disappointed and frustrated that there’s not been more flexibility on the Russian side” to bring about an end to the conflict.
“We need to see a roadmap moving forward about how this conflict can conclude. And then we shared some ideas about what that might look like,” he said of the 50-minute meeting. “We’re going to continue to stay involved where we see opportunities to make a difference.”
‘Big, beautiful’ fight over school choice ends with escape clause for blue states
Republicans quietly passed a first-of-its-kind national school choice program in President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” but celebration among advocates was tempered after the Senate added a provision giving blue states a way out.
The Educational Choice for Children Act (ECCA) was on turbulent waters throughout the process, at one taken out of the bill due to the Senate Parliamentarian and leaving backers on the edge of their seats.
Its final form lifts the cap on how much the federal government can spend on the issue, but its opt-in feature means school choice programs might not make new advances in the Democratic-led states supporters have long targeted.
GOP senators fear Musk-Trump beef spells trouble for midterm election
Senate Republicans fear Elon Musk’s beef with President Trump could become a wild-card factor that could cost them seats in 2026 if Musk follows through on his threat to create a new political party to compete with the GOP.
GOP lawmakers note that third-party candidates have swung presidential and Senate races in the past and worry that Musk’s bid to establish an “America Party” is likely to peel off more Republicans than Democratic voters in key races.
Read the full story here.