CNN US Politics

CNN by Adam Cancryn, CNN (CNN) — Donald Trump told a private gathering of donors last year that he once sought to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin from attacking Ukraine by threatening to “bomb the sh*t out of Moscow” in retaliation, according to audio provided to CNN. “With Putin I said, ‘If you go into

By Natasha Bertrand and Zachary Cohen, CNN (CNN) — Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth did not inform the White House before he authorized a pause on weapons shipments to Ukraine last week, according to five sources familiar with the matter, setting off a scramble inside the administration to understand why the halt was implemented and

By Alison Main, Ted Barrett and Morgan Rimmer, CNN (CNN) — The White House’s package to formalize spending cuts from the Department of Government Efficiency faces potential obstacles ahead in the Senate as congressional Republicans confront an upcoming deadline to enact the measure into law. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins on Tuesday expressed uncertainty over

By John Fritze and Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday backed President Donald Trump’s effort to carry out mass firings and reorganizations at federal agencies, putting on hold a lower court order that had temporarily blocked the president from taking those steps without approval from Congress. The decision is the latest

By Dianne Gallagher and David Wright, CNN Bennettsville, SC (CNN) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom embarked Tuesday on a two-day swing through rural South Carolina as the high-profile Democrat seeks to position himself as a leader for a party in rebuilding mode while simultaneously stoking fresh speculation about a potential 2028 presidential bid. Newsom alternated

By Daniel Dale, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump again turned a Cabinet meeting into a wide-ranging conversation with reporters – and again uttered a whole bunch of false claims in the process. Trump’s Tuesday remarks at the White House included inaccurate assertions about inflation, immigration, his tariff policy, the massive domestic policy bill he

CNN By Alayna Treene, Kristen Holmes, Evan Perez and Steve Contorno, CNN (CNN) — Many of President Donald Trump’s close advisers, both inside and outside the White House, have grown increasingly frustrated with Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of files related to the Jeffrey Epstein case, following days of intense criticism from some of the

By Donald Judd, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday shrugged off questions around a new Justice Department memo about accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, calling them “a desecration.” “Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy’s been talked about for years,” Trump said during a Cabinet meeting after a reporter directed a

By Alejandra Jaramillo, Veronica Stracqualursi, Alison Main and Dana Karni, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump’s foreign envoy Steve Witkoff said Tuesday that he’s hopeful to have a Gaza ceasefire deal by the end of the week, as negotiators make substantial progress working through remaining issues. Trump also met Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin

By Kevin Liptak, CNN (CNN) — Members of President Donald Trump’s national security team plan to discuss Tuesday the details of shipping weapons, including Patriot missiles, to Ukraine after Trump said he would dispatch defensive weapons to the country, according to a person familiar with the matter. “We’re going to send some more weapons. We

By Annie Grayer, CNN (CNN) — GOP Sen. Ted Cruz was on a pre-planned vacation in Greece with his family when devastating floods hit central Texas, and he sought to travel back “as fast as humanly possible,” his office said in a statement. “The Senator was already in the middle of preplanned family vacation travel

CNN By Kevin Liptak, CNN (CNN) — When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived at the White House Monday for dinner, he came bearing what has become the ultimate host gift for President Donald Trump: a letter nominating him for a Nobel Peace Prize. The award has become Trump’s ultimate fixation, one he says is well

By Sarah Owermohle and Kaanita Iyer, CNN (CNN) — A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a provision of President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy law to defund Planned Parenthood’s health care services. The order from US District Judge Indira Talwani, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, blocks the

CNN By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN (CNN) — After months of touting the impending release of new, blockbuster information on accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, the Justice Department announced in a memo Monday that there is no evidence he kept a “client list” or was murdered. The Justice Department also does not plan to release any

By Devan Cole and Molly Reinmann, CNN (CNN) — The Trump administration will take steps to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia before he goes to trial in Tennessee if he’s released from criminal custody, which could happen as soon as next week, a Justice Department attorney said Monday. The comments came during a wide-ranging court hearing

By Jennifer Hansler, CNN (CNN) — The Trump administration will no longer consider Syria’s Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the group led by Syria’s interim president, a foreign terrorist organization, according to a notice from Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The revocation of the foreign terrorist designation for the group, which is also known as the

By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN (CNN) — After months of touting the impending release of new, blockbuster information on accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, the Justice Department is set to announce Monday that there is no evidence he kept a “client list” or was murdered, a department official said. The admission would renege on promises from

By Kevin Liptak, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump said early Friday that he wasn’t aware that some people view the word “Shylock” as antisemitic after using the term during a rally to decry amoral money lenders. “I’ve never heard it that way. To me, Shylock is somebody that’s a money lender at high rates,”

CNN, POOL, CAROLINA BRONZE SCULPTURE, SOUTH DAKOTA GOVERNOR’S OFFICE By Eric Bradner, CNN (CNN) — When President Donald Trump signs his so-called big, beautiful bill into law Friday, much of the focus will be on its big-ticket items — tax cuts, slashes to Medicaid and food stamp spending and boosted border security funding. But lawmakers

By Holmes Lybrand, CNN (CNN) — The Department of Homeland Security is preparing to cut nearly 75% of staffing at the agency’s office tasked with developing and sharing threat intelligence with state and local partners, according to an official familiar with the plans. The planned cuts of about 750 at the Office of Intelligence and

By Sarah Ferris, CNN (CNN) — Republican lawmakers have handed President Donald Trump the first major legislative achievement of his second term, following a fierce arm-twisting campaign by GOP leaders to unite a deeply divided party behind his sweeping domestic agenda. House Republicans voted Thursday afternoon to approve Trump’s massive package of tax and federal

By John Fritze, CNN (CNN) — The Supreme Court declined Thursday to review a Montana law that requires people under 18 to seek parental consent before obtaining an abortion, leaving in place a state court ruling that struck the law down. Montana’s law, enacted in 2013, prohibits a doctor from providing an abortion to a

By John Fritze and Devan Cole, CNN (CNN) — The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to decide whether states may ban transgender students from playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity, revisiting the issue of LGBTQ rights in a blockbuster case just days after upholding a ban on some health care for

By Molly Reinmann, CNN (CNN) — A federal judge grappled for over an hour on Wednesday with an effort to force the Trump administration to provide American Sign Language interpreters at White House press briefings. The case, brought by the National Association of the Deaf, alleges that, in failing to provide sufficient ASL interpretation, the

By John Fritze, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to step in on an emergency basis to permit the firing of three members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, as the White House continues to attempt to assert more control over independent agencies. Trump dismissed the three Joe

By Gabe Cohen, CNN (CNN) — As hurricane season bears down, a new layer of uncertainty is spreading through the disaster response system: a wall of silence from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that’s leaving officials from across the country scrambling for answers. “We’ve been ghosted by FEMA,” Robert Wike Graham, deputy director of Charlotte-Mecklenburg

CNN By Steve Contorno and Kit Maher, CNN (CNN) — Just months after President Donald Trump’s administration quietly moved to undercut a hardline immigration push by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the two Republican former rivals appeared side by side on Tuesday for the opening of a new migrant detention center in the Everglades. Trump and

By Curt Merrill, CNN (CNN) — The US Senate narrowly passed President Donald Trump’s agenda bill Tuesday, after a weekend of negotiations and a marathon voting session on amendments. The chamber voted 50-50, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote. Three Republican senators — Rand Paul, Susan Collins and Thom Tillis — voted

By Jennifer Hansler and Deidre McPhillips, CNN (CNN) — US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hailed the end of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Tuesday as a new analysis found that its demolition could contribute to 14 million deaths in the next five years. “This era of government-sanctioned inefficiency has officially come to

By Sarah Ferris, Alison Main, Lauren Fox and Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — Senate Republicans narrowly approved President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending cuts package Tuesday after a dayslong grind to secure the support of key holdouts. Some of the hardest work may still lie ahead, however, as Trump and GOP leaders must now