WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced Friday he will elevate Stephen Miller to White House chief of staff, the first shake-up of his administration officials since Democrats trounced Republicans in the midterms.

Former Chief of Staff Susie Wiles will move to the “Trump Political Operation,” the president announced in an afternoon post on his Truth Social platform.

Trump said Miller, a key figure behind the administration’s aggressive mass deportation campaign, is “one of my most trusted advisors.” 

The president told reporters outside the White House that he wants Miller to “just run things well.”

“Stephen’s been with me from the beginning. He gets it, very good politically, and he’s a very good manager. He’ll do a great job,” he said.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries slammed the move, writing on X Friday that Miller “is a dangerous xenophobe and reckless extremist who has American blood on his hands.”

“His presence in government should be eradicated like a malignant tumor. Fire him today,” Jeffries, who is poised to become House speaker in January, wrote on X.

Blue wave

The move comes after voters rebuked Trump Tuesday, giving Democrats sizable majorities in both the House and Senate this coming Congress. In a backlash to Trump, Hispanics who voted for the president in 2024 shunned him in the midterms.

Every voter demographic sharply swung toward Democrats, but Latinos shifted sharply, by 21 points, according to an analysis by NPR, and a separate analysis by The Associated Press.

Miller has been a proponent of the Trump administration’s campaign against birthright citizenship, which it lost in a major case at the U.S. Supreme Court.

In an interview with Fox News host Will Cain in December 2025, Miller described birthright citizenship as “the greatest scam in history.”

“With a lot of these immigrant groups, not only is the first generation unsuccessful. Again, Somalia is a clear example here,” he said. “You see persistent issues in every subsequent generation. So you see consistent high rates of welfare use, consistent high rates of criminal activity, consistent failures to assimilate.”

The claim that immigrants commit more crimes than other demographics in the United States is unfounded, according to several studies of national crime statistics compiled by the Migration Policy Institute. The institute found that immigrants in the U.S. commit crimes at lower rates than the U.S.-born population.

The New York Times, reporting those comments by Miller, said that studies have documented the upward mobility of immigrant children and that experts questioned his underlying arguments.

The liberal-leaning Brookings Institution has reported that “immigrants are a fiscal boon to the U.S.” and that “Empirical evidence indicates that immigrants have historically contributed more in tax revenue than they receive in public benefits, creating a substantial fiscal surplus for the U.S. government over time.”

During that same interview, Miller blamed immigrants in the United States for low test scores and healthcare costs, among other issues.

2026 deadly surge

Miller also advocated for the surge of immigration agents into mostly Democrat-led American cities throughout 2026, and did not back down after extreme instances of violence. 

In January after federal agents fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minnesota, Miller reposted a video of the killing posted by the Democratic National Committee on X with the comments: “A would-be assassin tried to murder federal law enforcement and the official Democrat account sides with the terrorists.”

Miller steered immigration policies during Trump’s first term.

He has been a fixture of Trump’s political apparatus for a decade, and played a role in Trump’s successful presidential campaign beginning in 2015.

WASHINGTON — As the monumental midterm victories set in, Democrats began to talk strategy Wednesday on how to deliver what voters want: lower prices, attainable health care and an end to a stagnant and expensive conflict in the Middle East.

Starting in January, the party will control both chambers of Congress, giving them the upper hand over much of President Donald Trump’s agenda, including his judicial nominees, and the power to investigate the first two years of Trump’s second term, including his business ventures, war decisions and mass deportation campaign.

Democrats had gained 237 seats — well past the 218 needed — in the U.S. House as of Wednesday afternoon, according to The Associated Press, which also showed Democrats flipped 29 GOP House seats.

The party trounced conventional expectations in the Senate by flipping seven seats, giving Democrats and independents who caucus with them a total of 54 in the upper chamber, according to the AP, as of 4 p.m. Eastern.

Climbing inflation and record fuel prices followed Republicans on the campaign trail, fueling the groundswell for Democrats. Voters blamed Trump for higher prices in stores and at the pump as his war in Iran entered its ninth month, and as sweeping tariffs remained on imports.

Shawn Fain, leader of the United Auto Workers union, said “it’s not a massive win for anybody until these people go to work and deliver results.”

The union, which endorsed Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in early June, has roughly 1 million active and retired members — 350,000 of them in Michigan alone, according to Fain.

El-Sayed won the Senate race in Michigan on Wednesday.

“I believe this election is a mandate for change, but it is up to the Democratic Party now to deliver. And if they don’t deliver, we’ll be the first ones to call them out on it,” Fain said.   

‘Legislative razor wire’

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said voters delivered “a generational remake of the Senate map that has huge consequences for history.”

The New York Democrat, who is poised to lead the upper chamber once again, told reporters Wednesday morning that Senate Democrats have three priorities: lower the cost of living, “clean up” corruption in government and “check on Trump’s chaos at home and abroad,” including the war with Iran.

“Whenever Trump defies the will of the American people or the law, we will launch investigations, take him to court, and entangle him in legislative razor wire,” Schumer said.

Giving brief answers to a barrage of questions, Schumer hinted that Democrats could end the war in Iran with the “power of the purse” and sidestepped a question about “nuking” the filibuster.

“I’ll have more to say in the coming days about how Democrats pulled off this victory, how our majority plans to deliver for the American people,“ Schumer said.

When asked if Senate Democrats will work with Trump, Schumer said, “We are going to work hard to drive costs down with the president or without him. Period.”

‘A dramatic change in direction’

House Democratic leaders celebrated the blue tsunami across the country while vowing to fight for an “affordable America” in the next Congress. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said “the American people have chosen House Democrats because they want to see a dramatic change in direction, and that’s exactly what House Democrats will deliver beginning on Day One,” during a press conference Wednesday afternoon. 

Jeffries got a step closer to becoming the next speaker of the House following Democrats’ dramatic win Tuesday night. If elected by a majority of House members, Jeffries would make history as the first Black person to hold the gavel. 

Jeffries was joined by Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Suzan DelBene of Washington state, House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, and the chair and vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus, Reps. Pete Aguilar and Ted Lieu, respectively, both from California. 

Meanwhile, the GOP’s mid-decade redistricting blitz to shore up several seats flopped Tuesday night following Democratic victories in several districts Republicans redrew. 

DelBene, who leads the Democratic Party’s campaign apparatus for House races, said “every single redistricted Frontliner will return to Congress,” using the committee’s term for its most endangered incumbents. 

“Simply put, their gerrymandering scheme absolutely backfired, and it should send a strong message to any Republican thinking of pursuing any more gerrymanders next year,” she said. 

Agenda items on tap

As Democrats plan to center their agenda on affordability, Lieu spelled out some of the party’s legislative priorities in the new Congress. 

For starters, Lieu said Democrats would pass a bill to reverse the GOP’s mega tax and spending cut law’s sweeping Medicaid cuts, which axe roughly $1 trillion in Medicaid spending over 10 years. 

He also said they would pass legislation to “restore” the enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits, which expired in December 2025 and were used by individuals who buy their own health insurance through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace. 

“We will pass a bill to stop the stupid Trump tariffs jacking up prices on Americans, and we will pass a bill to stop the Iran war,” the California Democrat added. 

Congressional Progressive Caucus

Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus touted victories in the wave election.

Rep. Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat who chairs the caucus, said the group’s roughly 100 members will work with Jeffries on “a mandate for dramatic change” but warned that he and colleagues want significant transformation.

“Last night was not a sign that all of Democrats’ problems are solved,” Casar said on a virtual call with reporters. “The election is not an endorsement of returning to the status quo or tinkering around the edges. This is a message that people in this country are mad as hell, and are giving Democrats a shot to show them we can do something about it.”

Democrat Will Lawrence, who defeated incumbent GOP Rep. Tom Barrett in Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, said Congress needs “to set our foreign policy straight.”

“A huge cause for regret among Trump voters in this district is because he said he wasn’t going to start any new wars, and look at what he got us into now in Iran. So we have a mandate to pass a war powers resolution to restrain further hostilities in Iran,” Lawrence said.

Lawrence co-founded the Sunrise Movement, a climate-focused political action group, and received backing from congressional progressives. 

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., said despite the momentous wins, the Democratic Party is still “not particularly popular.”

“I think we’ve got a shot to show that we can deliver on the kind of bold populist change that people ran on and won on,” Jayapal said. “And I think that is going to be our task going forward for the next two years.”

WASHINGTON — In a stunning upset, Democrats ousted Republicans and flipped control of the U.S. Senate Tuesday night, effectively establishing a barricade for President Donald Trump’s agenda for the last two years of his term.

Democrats will now have the power to block many of Trump’s nominees, both executive and judicial, including if a spot opens on the U.S. Supreme Court bench.

The decisive rebuke of Trump became apparent just after 11:30 p.m. Eastern, when The Associated Press called the Iowa Senate race for Democrat Josh Turek, who clinched the open seat over Republican candidate Ashley Hinson.

By Wednesday morning, Democrats held 54 seats in the Senate, with results in Mississippi and Alaska still outstanding. Republicans were at 44. Seven of the Democratic seats, like Iowa, were flips from Republicans.

In Michigan, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed bested former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, the AP projected early Wednesday.

 

Voters increasingly grew dissatisfied as the midterms approached with high gas and diesel prices, and overall inflation, driven up by Trump’s stalled war in Iran and erratic tariff policies. The economic woes, which also include increasing food prices and skyrocketing healthcare costs, hung over Republican candidates as they campaigned in recent months.

As election results rolled in, Trump posted on Truth Social, “I’m going to become a Political Pundit, both good and bad, on the reasons these Candidates won and lost!”

During a live phone interview with Fox News early Wednesday, Trump chalked up the widespread losses to him not being on the ballot and to high gas prices.

“If I was on the ballot, they would have gotten out. Look, they got out for the rallies. You never saw rallies that big,” he told the Fox hosts.

When asked whether he thought the prolonged war in Iran factored into the results, he said, “I don’t think it’s the war.”

“I think it’s the gasoline prices. People agree with what I’m doing on Iran, but they really probably weren’t willing to do the short-term consequence of paying more for gasoline. And that you know, I understand that,” he said. 

He ended the relatively brief call by congratulating the Democrats.

“Well, I say this: congratulations to the Democrats. They did a good job. They’ve been looking for this one for 11 years, and they finally got it. But I don’t view it as a hit on me. I think we’ve done a, we’ve had the greatest two years in the history of the presidency in terms of the economy, in terms of all the things that we’ve done.”

Earlier in the evening a White House official said on background that Trump’s mood remained “defiant.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the results Tuesday night “a generational remake of the Senate map.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said his party will continue “to stop the worst impulses of Democrat extremism.”

In an early morning post on X, the South Dakota Republican touted Republicans’ “strong record of accomplishments,” citing closing the southern border and passing tax cuts, among other items.

“As we head into 2027, Senate Republicans will not stand idly by as the far-left, socialist wing of the Democrat Party attempts to unwind everything we’ve done,” he wrote.

Kansas shocker

A political earthquake rattled Kansas, where Democratic candidate Adam Hamilton sailed past incumbent Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, marking the first time Kansans have elected a Democrat in nearly a century.

Marshall, an OB-GYN, had released his closing argument Sunday in a brief video during which he defended his former medical practice for sending clients who carried unpaid balances to collection agencies. 

Speaking directly to the camera, Marshall said during the one-minute ad, “To ensure that 40,000 Kansans would still have access to care, we did have to keep the lights on. So we occasionally handed some accounts over to a collection agency, just like nearly every private medical practice does.” 

The issue had dogged Marshall’s campaign since the New York Times reported in September that the Kansas doctor had filed lawsuits against more than 700 patients with unpaid bills. Patients were arrested in 81 of the cases for missing court dates.

The patients filed a class action lawsuit against Marshall Thursday, Kansas Reflector reported.

 

In Iowa, Democratic state legislator Turek defeated Hinson, a GOP member of the U.S. House, to win the open Senate seat — delivering another massive setback for Republicans. 

Turek will now be the first Democratic senator to represent Iowa in more than a decade. 

The two-time Paralympic gold medalist and state representative received an early endorsement in July from former President Barack Obama. The two appeared in a campaign ad playing basketball. 

Iowa was Trump’s next-to-last in-person campaign stop on his whirlwind schedule to support midterm candidates in several reliably Republican states.

And in Michigan, El-Sayed kept the the Senate post for Democrats in an open race that the Cook Political Report shifted from “toss-up” to “lean Democrat” on Monday. 

In an unexpected move Sunday, El-Sayed’s primary opponent, Rep. Haley Stevens, endorsed Rogers, a former member of the U.S. House. Stevens told reporters in a joint press conference with Rogers Sunday she changed her mind because “we have to stand with country.”

“We can’t stand with hate, we can’t stand with Hasan Piker,” she said, referring to the far-left influential streamer and known Israel critic who appeared at El-Sayed’s primary campaign events.

The shake-up reportedly shocked many Democrats. 

Schumer called Stevens’ flip a “despicable betrayal” in a post on X Sunday.

The race has been among the ugliest of the 2026 midterm cycle. El-Sayed detractors have accused the former Detroit public health official of antisemitic statements.

Trump and other Republicans, including Rogers, have repeatedly hurled Islamophobic attacks at El-Sayed. Rogers described El-Sayed during an Oct. 26 campaign event as “the most radical extreme candidate in the country” and said he is “pretty close” to the nearly century-old political Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood, which El-Sayed denies.

Upsets all over the map

In another major upset, Dr. Annie Andrews, a Democrat, won the Senate race in South Carolina, defeating Republican Sen. Darline Graham. 

Graham had been appointed in July to serve out the remainder of her late brother Lindsey Graham’s term.

Andrews will be the first Democratic senator to represent South Carolina in more than 20 years.

Texas voters also delivered another staggering upset in electing Democrat James Talarico by a wide margin over Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The flip of deep red Texas to blue signified a major blow for Trump, who backed Paxton in the GOP primary over four-term Sen. John Cornyn.

Paxton, who has served as Texas attorney general since 2015, was impeached by the Texas House in May 2023 on charges of bribery, disregard of duties and several other articles of impeachment. The Texas Senate acquitted Paxton of all charges the following September.

Paxton was indicted on state fraud charges in 2015. He reached a $300,000 settlement deal to end the state probe in 2024.

Veteran Republican senator ousted

In an early-morning statement, longtime Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins conceded her Senate seat to a newcomer, Democrat Troy Jackson.

Collins called her nearly 30-year run in the Senate “the honor of my life.”

Jackson entered the race as a late candidate after the Democrats’ initial choice, Graham Platner, ended his campaign in July following multiple allegations of sexual assault.

Jackson was mobbed by national press at his final campaign stop in South Portland. He told reporters he’s very hopeful given “the amount of people turning out, the way things are going, the way people are talking.” 

“In the end, people want change and I think people see me as a change candidate, for what’s going on in this country, I feel really good about it, I really do.”

In North Carolina, in yet another upset that had been predicted in polling, Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper won the Senate race in the Tar Heel State, flipping the open seat held by retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis.

Cooper had faced GOP candidate Michael Whatley, who previously chaired the Republican National Committee and the North Carolina Republican Party. 

Tillis announced in June 2025 he would not seek reelection after Trump vowed to primary him because he voted “no” on the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” the president’s major tax and spending cuts package.

In the Buckeye State, Democratic former Sen. Sherrod Brown won his Senate seat back, defeating incumbent GOP Sen. Jon Husted in another major upset for Republicans.

Brown spent 18 years in the Senate but lost his reelection bid in 2024 to Ohio Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno. 

Husted’s seat was formerly held by Vice President JD Vance before Vance was elected on the Republican presidential ticket with Trump in 2024. 

Trump and Vance headlined multiple rallies throughout Ohio in support of Husted. Trump’s campaign stops for Husted drew attention last month for his repeated remarks about Husted’s physical appearance, with a focus on his backside.

More races

Democratic Sen. Mark Warner retained his seat in Virginia, according to a race call by The Associated Press just after 7 p.m. Eastern. 

Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff also kept his Senate seat, the AP called shortly before 8 p.m. Eastern.  

Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Ed Markey also kept his Senate spot, the AP called, as did Democratic Sens. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Chris Coons of Delaware, Cory Booker of New Jersey, John Hickenlooper of Colorado, Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico and Jeff Merkley of Oregon. 

Juliana Stratton, a Democrat, also won the Senate race in Illinois. 

In Minnesota, Peggy Flanagan, a Democrat, won her Senate bid, AP called early Wednesday. 

New Hampshire Democrat Chris Pappas won the Senate race there, keeping a seat that was held by Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the AP called. Pappas ran against Republican John Sununu. 

Republican seats

In Florida, incumbent Republican Sen. Ashley Moody pulled ahead of Democratic candidate Angie Nixon, according to an AP race call, after precincts in the Florida panhandle tallied results. 

The race between Moody and the progressive state representative was unexpectedly close in the Republican stronghold. Progressives flocked to Florida to stump for Nixon, including independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Democratic U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York City. Nixon’s platform was closely aligned with but not identical to the national Democratic Socialists of America.

West Virginia GOP Sen. Shelley Moore Capito won the Senate race in the Mountain State, AP called shortly before 9 p.m. Eastern. 

In another expected win for the GOP, Wyoming Republican U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman cruised to victory for a seat in the upper chamber.

Kentucky GOP U.S. Rep. Andy Barr won his Senate race in the Bluegrass State, AP called.  

In Oklahoma, Republican U.S. Rep. Kevin Hern won a Senate seat in the reliably red state.

In Arkansas, GOP Sen. Tom Cotton won his Senate race, AP called. 

Alabama GOP U.S. Rep. Barry Moore won his Senate bid in the ruby red state.  

In Tennessee, Republican Sen. Bill Hagerty won his Senate race. 

In South Dakota, GOP Sen. Mike Rounds won his Senate race, AP called early Wednesday. 

In Louisiana, GOP U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow won her Senate bid in the Pelican State.

In Idaho, Republican Sen. Jim Risch was reelected.

And in Nebraska, Republican Pete Ricketts prevailed over independent challenger Dan Osborn.

Ahead of Election Day, the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter had identified close contests in Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Ohio and Texas. 

Trump’s Republican party vied to hold on to its narrow majority in the House and maintain control in the Senate, where the party currently holds 53 Senate seats. Tuesday’s results delivered Democrats the majority in the upper chamber.

In Alaska, which remained to be called Wednesday morning, former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola is up against incumbent GOP Sen. Dan S. Sullivan in Alaska. 

Trump’s Department of Justice preemptively sued the state’s election officials to try to block them from certifying the Senate election results if Dan S. Sullivan loses by a smaller margin than the number of votes cast for Dan J. Sullivan.

A federal judge in Alaska dismissed the case Sunday, citing the federal government’s failure to explain how it had the authority to bring the case.

Dan J. Sullivan’s candidacy was challenged earlier in the year in state court, and Alaska’s Supreme Court ruled in June he could remain on the ballot.

The Trump administration vowed to appeal.

The New York Times reported Oct. 28 that Democratic operatives recruited Dan J. Sullivan to be a spoiler candidate. States Newsroom has not independently verified the allegations. 

Peltola denied any knowledge of the alleged scheme, according to Alaska Beacon.

Jennifer Shutt , Jonathan Shorman and Eesha Pendharkar contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — One day before his party is forecast to lose control of the U.S. House, and possibly the Senate, President Donald Trump gathered guests and press at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to tout the “magnificent” renovation of the monument — a monthslong project plagued by algae, reclosure and false accusations of vandalism.

Trump spoke for roughly 45 minutes, bouncing from topic to topic. His remarks included but were not limited to unfounded allegations of “unprecedented” vandalism to the pool’s lining, accusations that former FBI Director James Comey is a “dirty cop,” a mention of “rave reviews” for the new White House helipad, and assertions that “we got Greenland on an unlimited basis” and “we won” the war with Iran that moments later he said is “not a war.”

The president did not mention the midterm elections until 23 minutes into his delivery, when he said Democrats are running the “most dangerous candidates ever put up,” including “jihadists and Muslim Brotherhood members.”

The remark is a continuation of the president’s persistent  verbal attacks, called racist by critics, on Michigan’s Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, Abdul El-Sayed, an Arab American. The candidate, who is leading in the latest New York Times/Siena poll, has denounced accusations that he could be connected to extremist Islamists.

Trump could lose GOP trifecta control

The midterms are slated to be the most expensive on record, and depending on the forecast, Democrats stand a chance to gain Senate seats in reliably Republican states. 

Trump’s party is expected to lose roughly 15 to 25 seats in the U.S. House, according to the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter. 

Trump’s approval ratings have sunk to record lows in the months leading up to the election, as Americans face high gas prices and inflation largely due to global oil market disruptions caused by the Iran war, and the president’s steep tariffs.

The Democrats, Trump said, “are all committed to the same radical agenda,” which he defined as raising taxes by “trillions of dollars, taking away your guns, transgender mutilation of your children, abolishing oil and natural gas,” among other claims.

He also repeated his promise to give voters cash if Republicans retain control of Congress.

“Every adult is going to get $5,000. But you have to spend it in the United States of America,” he said.

The plan would cost $1.2 trillion, and ultimately Congress would need to appropriate the money.

“The Democrats want to blow all of this up by electing communist jihadists, and the United States Congress will not allow that to happen. Got some big races tomorrow. I guess some of the voting has already gone on, but tomorrow is Election Day, more traditional, and we can’t let that happen,” he said.

Voting breaks records

Midterm voting is well underway, with more than 57 million Americans having already cast early ballots in person or by mail as of 4 p.m. Eastern Monday. The early turnout smashed the all-time high-water mark for early midterm voting, which crested at 46 million in 2022.

Trump’s Monday appearance on the National Mall followed a whirlwind month of campaigning in mostly Republican stronghold states, where he delivered lengthy speeches, veering off script and repeatedly mentioning Ohio Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Husted’s backside. 

The president wrapped up his campaign travel this past weekend with two final rally appearances in Kansas and Iowa. During his last in-person midterm campaign stop in Dubuque, Trump trailed off during his endorsement of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ashley Hinson and began discussing her weight and physique.

According to his official schedule, Trump had already appeared at two telerallies Monday prior to his visit to the Reflecting Pool. He was scheduled to do seven more telerallies through the evening.

Reflecting Pool saga

In his final in-person appearance before the midterm culmination, the president dredged up his political grievances, listed his administration’s projects in the nation’s capital and repeated false claims that vandalism was the culprit for the lengthy Reflecting Pool repairs.

Trump’s own hand-picked U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, dropped the government’s case against a former Olympian canoeist who had been accused of damaging the pool’s lining. Pirro dismissed the charges after finding the grand jury was not provided with all the evidence, namely that the damage had occurred because of “contractor error.”

“The pipes have just been changed. The whole thing is in great shape, and we’re going to make sure nobody vandalizes it,” Trump said Monday, intermittently holding up enlarged photos of pipes and surfacing for the crowd to see. 

“And I’m going to ask the Park Police, the people, to really watch cause a lot of people are sort of watching as this group of people slashed the hell out of it,” he said, trailing off to say “a weird feeling came upon them, and they didn’t, didn’t get it. But we learned a lot.”

Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum also spoke during the event, which wrapped up in just under an hour.

WASHINGTON — When the polls close Tuesday night, the 2026 U.S. election will go down as one of history’s most expensive and extraordinarily ugly midterms — galvanizing record-breaking early voter turnout among a deeply divided electorate.

Voters on Saturday crossed the high-water mark of 52.7 million early votes cast, surpassing the midterm record set in 2022, though analysts were reluctant to translate it into a Democratic wave on the way.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice continued to run into a firewall of federal judges, losing its previous cases to take over mail-in balloting and obtain state voter rolls in advance of the midterms. The Trump DOJ actions nonetheless rattled state officials who hold the constitutional responsibility to conduct their elections.

“My hope is that this trend will continue and that our worst-case scenarios don’t come to fruition,” former Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson told States Newsroom.

A federal appeals court on Friday denied Trump’s efforts to force state officials to quarantine up to 20,000 voter ballots. The department continues to pursue its preemptive lawsuit against Alaska’s U.S. Senate race results, depending on who wins. 

When asked by reporters Tuesday if he’ll accept a Democratic victory, Trump said, “I will, if they’re honest elections,” refusing to rule out federal interference feared by Democratic critics.

Trump insisted in September that his supporters “pretend” he is on the ballot, as his base has turned out in higher numbers during presidential elections to vote for him. “When I’m on the ballot, we kill everybody,” he said at his midterm convention in Texas. 

He also promised a $5,000 “Trump dividend” to voters if Republicans retained congressional majorities.

With GOP control of the House and Senate during the last two years of the Trump presidency in play, campaigns are on track to shell out $11.6 billion on ads, according to the firm AdImpact. The hard-fought Ohio and Texas Senate races led the way in spending. 

Democrats need to net four seats to control the Senate, while Republicans hold a narrow majority in the House.

Campaign advertising hit a low point when Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy aired a $4 million ad in which the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton, called Acton “a liar.” 

The woman, Donna Arthur, has not been in communication with her daughter since the late 1970s, when court records show she lost custody and fled the state with her husband, Acton’s stepfather, after he was indicted for raping Acton.

Ramaswamy’s campaign pulled the ad Friday, roughly 10 days after it began to circulate. The ad drew outcry including from outgoing Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, though both Trump and Vice President JD Vance defended it.

Voters feel punished by cost of living

While ugliness punctuated the campaign season, poll after poll revealed the cost of living remains the top motivator for voters — including fuel prices and the cost of food and everyday goods that have been driven up by Trump’s war with Iran and an erratic tariff policy. 

“It ranks as one of the most important issues for over 80% of voters, and the majority of the electorate disapproves of Trump’s handling, not just of the economy in general, but of cost of living,” economist and former Biden White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein said Tuesday, during a virtual press briefing organized by the Democrat-aligned advocacy group Defend America Action.

The GOP also risks losing Latino support on account of the administration’s dragnet immigration enforcement tactics that have targeted legal immigrants, as well as U.S. citizens, and have ended in injury or even death on multiple occasions.

María Isabel Di Franco Quiñonez of Equis, a Latino-focused research firm, surveyed 900 Latino voters across seven battleground states and found sinking support for and trust in Republicans.

“The clearest finding was that voters want both responsible enforcement and generosity towards immigrants,” she said. “They want a controlled border, enforcement focused on criminals and a pathway to legalization.”

Trump ratings

Trump’s sagging approval ratings have dogged Republican midterm candidates, giving a major boost to Democrats’ chances of flipping the House — a tried and true pattern for midterm elections — and increasing the competitiveness of several U.S. Senate races.

“Given that the president’s not on the ballot, (voters) have no other place to take out their frustration or disappointment or anger, aside from candidates of the president’s party,” said David Dulio, a distinguished professor of political science at Oakland University in Michigan. The state is the site of one of the nation’s most vitriolic U.S. Senate races, between Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed and former Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers.

Democrats are reaching for command of the upper chamber, and if the final prognosticators and polls are correct, they could stand a chance in Republican strongholds. 

Major forecasts and pollsters more strongly favor Democrats to take the House, though some experts observe that years of gerrymandering, including Republicans’ mid-decade redistricting, combined with entrenched polarization could stunt the crest of a so-called blue wave. 

Several Republican-led state legislatures, including those in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas, split majority Black voter districts after a U.S. Supreme Court decision last year struck down protections that were enshrined in the Voting Rights Act.

“I hesitate to say that Republicans are going to lose control of both houses, or Trump is going to be totally hamstrung by this blue wave. The polling has been so shaky in prior election cycles,” said Rob Glover, associate professor of political science at the University of Maine, where longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins is fighting to keep her seat against Democratic challenger Troy Jackson.  

“But if I was a Republican operative or strategist, I would be concerned,” he said. 

Senate races

As of Friday, The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, a nonpartisan forecaster, rated Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Ohio and Texas as toss-up U.S. Senate races. The University of Virginia’s Sabato’s Crystal Ball categorized Alaska as a possible flip.

Inside Elections, another nonpartisan forecaster, projected Thursday that Democrats would gain enough seats to reach at least a 50-50 split Senate, ranking Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio and Texas as tilting blue. 

Pollsters have also found Democratic rumblings in time-tested Republican bastions. 

Wednesday’s New York Times/Siena poll found South Carolina voters, surveyed between Oct. 19 and Oct. 26, evenly split between Republican nominee Darline Graham, who is running to fill the seat of her late brother Sen. Lindsey Graham, and her Democratic challenger Annie Andrews, a pediatrician. 

A survey of Kansas voters between Oct. 26 and Oct. 28 by Emerson College Polling found Democratic candidate and pastor Adam Hamilton at 49% over Republican incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall, who polled at 45%. The survey, which asked voters who they would vote for if the election were held today, carried a 3.5 percentage point margin of error.

Trump on Thursday canceled his weekend trip to a rally in Kansas because Marshall is “doing very well,” but reversed his plans by Friday morning and announced he’ll appear in person, as scheduled. 

He similarly flipped on canceling his trip to Iowa to support Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson, who is running against Democrat Josh Turek for U.S. Senate.

While the U.S. House appears to be tipping toward the Democrats, only a small fraction of the races across the U.S. are competitive. The districts include California’s 22nd; Florida’s 14th and 22nd; Iowa’s 2nd; Kentucky’s 6th; Michigan’s 4th, 7th and 10th; Montana’s 1st; New York’s 17th; North Carolina’s 1st; Ohio’s 7th and 9th; Texas’ 15th and 35th; and Virginia’s 1st, according to widely cited prognosticators.

Surge in early voting

Tens of millions of Americans have already marched — some literally —  to the polls, or submitted their mail-in ballots, in the final stretch leading up to Election Day.

Carrie LeVan, a political scientist at Colby College in Maine, said she’s not sure whether the enthusiasm driving early voters will translate into a “wave” election for Democrats, like the 2010 midterm “Tea Party” wave when Republicans regained House control by flipping more than 60 seats.

“There’s a lot of hype and expectation that Democrats are going to perform and have this huge wave this election cycle, and I don’t know — if I’m gonna make a prediction, I don’t think it’s gonna be that big,” she said.

LeVan highlighted this cycle’s rare mid-decade redistricting by Republicans, and then by Democrats, combined with “affective” polarization as obstacles to the size of shifts. The academic term affective polarization, she explained, is not just clinging to your side and your beliefs but rather “how much do I hate the opposition party?” 

“There’s all these things that have changed since the 2010 election, so can we ever have a wave that was as big, even if we’re so dissatisfied with the state of things right now?” she said.

An NRP/PBS News/Marist poll published Tuesday found other possible warning signs for Democrats hoping for a big surge.

The survey found several “key pillar groups” among Democratic voters, including voters under age 45 and voters of color, lagged in enthusiasm to vote in the midterms, while some Republican voter segments gained ground on who is “very closely” monitoring the races.

The poll also found some swing voters turned off by the Democrats’ primary victories for some far-left candidates, including those belonging to the Democratic Socialists of America. 

Democrats are grappling with how to navigate the intraparty divisions, particularly if they gain control of the House.

In the courts

Ahead of Election Day, an array of legal challenges are playing out in federal courts across the country.

The Justice Department wants to require California election officials to set aside the ballots of 20,000 voters it says are suspected noncitizens. The Trump administration doesn’t want those ballots to count unless voters can prove their citizenship. A similar request was also made to officials in Washington state.

Multiple federal judges have already ruled against the DOJ’s California request and the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday dealt the Trump administration its third and fourth courtroom losses in less than a week. It’s possible the Trump administration will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. 

The Justice Department has also issued subpoenas to election officials in California, prompting a new lawsuit that seeks to stop the department from threatening state and local officials with prosecution. In recent days, DOJ lawyers have suggested election officials face “criminal liability” if they count the ballots of noncitizen voters.

In Washington, D.C., a federal judge is weighing whether to issue an order prohibiting the Trump administration from demanding that states set aside the ballots of voters. The judge has promised a decision by Monday.

And in Alaska, the Justice Department is continuing to pursue a preemptive lawsuit that would block the state from certifying the results of its U.S. Senate election if the Republican incumbent loses by less than the votes received by a nonpartisan challenger of the same name that Trump has said is on the ballot to confuse voters. 

The New York Times has reported Democrats helped recruit the spoiler candidate.

Ariana Figueroa, Shauneen Miranda and Jennifer Shutt contributed to this report.

SPRINGDALE, Pa. — Residents in a small southwestern Pennsylvania town are facing the prospect of a 47-acre data center facility on their doorstep.

“Right here behind this fence is where they want to put up the data center, and as you can see, there’s houses right across the street, roughly 100 feet,” said lifelong Springdale borough resident Cathy Mager, stretching her arms to show the distance from the development site’s perimeter to a line of houses across Porter Street. 

“We don’t want it,” she told States Newsroom on Oct. 19

The scenario is playing out around the United States. Both Democratic and Republican candidates during the heated midterm election cycle have had to navigate deep voter resentment of the massive advanced computer server farm developments that will power artificial intelligence.

“The issue has blown up over the last year,” said Darrell West, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Technology. “It wasn’t that long ago politicians were fighting to bring data centers to their communities. Now these facilities are completely controversial, and many people don’t want them in their neighborhood. So public opinion has changed very rapidly on this issue.”

53 years with a power plant

Mager is among a few dozen residents in Springdale, in northeastern Allegheny County, who formed the group Save Allegheny Valley Environment to protest the proposed data center development on the community’s riverfront site of a coal-fired power plant that went offline in 2022.

“We’ve already lived for 53 years under that power plant,” said Vicki Wanamaker, 66, a lifelong Springdale resident who lives about a 10th of a mile from the fencing around the site.

She’s worried now about the noise a data center would bring to the neighborhood, with its water coolers running and back-up diesel generators on site, and whether she would experience electricity shortages. 

Springdale’s council voted 5-2 in December to approve a conditional use permit for the project by Dynamo DC, a company with a Springdale-based address that “builds AI data centers on environmentally remediated brownfield sites,” according to its website. Residents are now asking Allegheny County to stop further land use plans.

Dynamo DC spokesperson Brian Regli said the developers will use “acoustical shielding” to keep noise well below ordinance levels.

The hyperscale data center will recycle 500,000 gallons of water in a closed-loop system to cool the servers, he told States Newsroom during an interview in late October. The facility is planned to handle up to 240 megawatts, which it will pull from a regional electricity grid, Regli said. 

Dynamo DC has not yet identified which company or contractors will actually use the data center. The company plans for the data center to go online by 2029.

Regli said the company is exploring “environmentally conscious” fuels for the diesel back-up generators. The amount of back-up power needed for the site will ultimately depend on how the data center is used.

Some uses “may need a fraction of the backup power that we put forward,” he said. “But you know, if this is a critical facility, let’s say it is being used by the military — which I doubt that the center would become that, but let’s use that as an example — you’re going to want to have as robust of a backup infrastructure as you can,” Regli said.

Amie Downs, of Caveat Communications, which is providing communications for Springdale, said the borough “was able to negotiate a number of other provisions that benefit the community and its taxpayers that relate to noise, lighting, traffic, landscaping, and other requirements, imposing stricter standards than the borough’s ordinances otherwise required.” 

Thousands of data centers planned

Data centers are a linchpin of the modern internet, but the scale needed for advanced computing is new.

There are 1,394 data centers already operating around the United States, and they carry a combined capacity of 64,764 megawatts. 

As of October, 2,841 more data centers are planned and would add 413,152 megawatts of additional capacity, according to the energy market firm Cleanview’s data center project tracker.

“What we’re seeing now is huge facilities that are being built. These are data centers that occupy the size of several football fields,” said West, who also publishes the progressive organization’s TechTank and is a senior fellow on governance studies. “They require a lot of energy. Some of them require water as well. So the size of the data centers creates public anxiety and worry.”

Sixty-three percent of American adults say they don’t want a data center built in their community, according to a late August poll published by YouGov and The Economist.

A CNN poll conducted in mid-September found nearly two-thirds of registered voters surveyed said AI and data center development will be an extremely or very important factor in their vote this midterm election. The poll also found a partisan divide: Democrats are 26 percentage points more likely than Republicans to say they’re very concerned about data centers, according to the results.

From Trump on down

The issue is permeating politics and races at the federal, state and local levels.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday wrote on his Truth Social platform that data centers “are mandated by me to make their own electricity.”  

“If companies want to make their Data Centers popular, pay the community, and/or individuals within the community, a ‘dividend.’ … MAKE DEALS, and get them built!!!” he wrote.

The statement is a pivot from his late August post, when he called opponents of data center developments “backwards and poor.” 

 

Everyone is talking about data centers ahead of the midterm elections. I heard from residents in a Pennsylvania neighborhood where a hyperscale data center is proposed for just outside their doorsteps. Read more: www.newsfromthestates.com/article/we-d…

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— Ashley Murray (@ashleymurray.bsky.social) October 26, 2026 at 5:02 PM

 

Resentment against the large-scale projects has become a dominant issue in hotly contested U.S. Senate races that will determine party control for the closely divided upper chamber.

A Democratic-backed political action committee poured $2.5 million in late October into ad campaigns depicting incumbent Republican U.S. Sens. Roger Marshall of Kansas and John Husted of Ohio as friends of the tech industry and AI developers. 

States Newsroom did not immediately receive a response for comment about the new ads from Husted’s and Marshall’s reelection campaigns. 

Marshall told the publication Semafor in July that he was supportive of data center moratoriums. Husted blamed Senate Democrats for blocking a procedural vote in late September on a House-passed bill that aimed to regulate electricity costs associated with large-scale data center projects. 

Not all Democrats voted against the measure. Democratic senators who voted for it included Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock of Georgia, where Osoff is seeking reelection; Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar, who is running for governor; and New Hampshire’s Maggie Hassan, who is not seeking another term. 

West said anxiety about data centers exists on both sides of the aisle, but that it’s become a “partisan issue in the election because Republicans historically have been more pro-business.”

“Democrats are now using that past support for tax breaks against Republican officials,” he said, pointing to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s pause on data center development after rapid growth. Abbott is seeking reelection this November.

But party lines on the issue blur, West noted.

Pennsylvania politics

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat who is seeking reelection, has touted the commonwealth’s infrastructure and workforce as ripe for hyperscale data center and AI development, and until recently provided a fast-track permitting path. 

In June 2025, he joined state leaders from both sides of the aisle to announce a $20 billion investment by Amazon Web Services for two development sites, including a 1,200-acre site in northeast Pennsylvania that would reportedly consume as much energy as 900,000 homes and require millions of gallons of cooling water each day. 

The technologies, he said, “should be developed by the hands of a Pennsylvania worker…not in communist China,” according to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. 

Under pressure from grassroots opposition and from his Republican challenger, state Treasurer Stacy Garrity, Shapiro signed an executive order in August 2026 mandating energy usage and transparency requirements on “greedy” data center developers.

In Pennsylvania state politics, Hadley Haas, a Democrat vying to unseat Republican state Rep. Valerie Gaydos in the 44th House District, said data center regulations have become a main issue in her campaign. 

“There’s just a generalized anxiety, I would say, about AI and data centers, especially around the cost of utilities,” Haas told States Newsroom. “Sometimes people will bring up water consumption or noise and that kind of thing. But mostly, they’re concerned about the cost implications.” 

Haas said her platform includes “guardrails” on data center development. She accused her opponent of flip-flopping on the issue — voting “no” in March on a data center regulation bill in the Democratic-led Statehouse, but then announcing support for a 180-day pause proposal in July.

“People started to see actual data that this was an issue that was a concern for people, and that’s when we saw more of the Republicans starting to chime in,” she said.

States Newsroom reached out to Gaydos’ campaign for comment but did not receive a reply.

Pennsylvania’s 44th House District occupies the west side of Allegheny County, where the 15-member countywide council voted unanimously in September to ban the development of data centers over 25 megawatts on any county-owned land, including vast tracts of park land.

Council member Kathleen Madonna-Emmerling, who represents a portion of the county’s western side, said, “It’s important we do this proactively because it gives us the strong legal foundation to deny those permits without discriminating against a certain type of business.”

States Newsroom reached out to all members of the Springdale borough council for comment but did not hear back.

West said he expects “this issue is going to stay on the political scene for several years as people debate how we should handle these facilities.” 

WASHINGTON — Democrats are touting an ambitious legislative agenda centered on affordability and accountability if they take back the U.S. House or Senate — or both — in November. 

A slew of pressing policy debates are on tap for Democrats, including healthcare, immigration, voting rights, the war in Iran, oversight, education and beyond, as they aim to reverse many of President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans’ actions since January 2025. 

Some issues, while surging to the forefront, likely will provoke internal divisions, such as “Medicare for All,” a movement popular among progressives to extend single-payer national health care to all Americans. 

“Healthcare costs have consistently been at or above other concerns on the public’s affordability worries,” said Liz Hamel, a senior vice president and director of public opinion and survey research at KFF who oversees the nonpartisan health organization’s polling program.

Democrats also are poised to conduct tougher oversight of the Trump administration.

Any legislation from Democrats faces the threat of Trump’s veto, making any legislation without broad bipartisan support almost certain to fail. In addition, Democrats would need a filibuster-proof majority of 60 votes to advance most measures in the Senate.

Democrats remain heavily favored to regain the majority in the House, while Senate races continue to move in the party’s favor, amid Trump’s plummeting popularity, according to the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter, an elections forecaster. Democrats currently hold 47 Senate seats, including two independents who generally vote with the party.

“House Democrats are committed to fighting for an affordable America, lowering the high cost of living, lowering the cost of groceries, lowering the cost of gas, lowering the cost of housing and fighting to make healthcare affordable for every single American,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters in September. 

The New York Democrat is in line to become the next speaker — the first Black person to hold that office — if the party clinches control of the lower chamber. 

Jeffries announced five working groups on affordability — housing, healthcare, gas and utilities, groceries and goods, and caregiving — which House Democrats will concentrate on at the beginning of the new Congress. 

The Democratic Party’s campaign apparatus for House races echoed an agenda centered on affordability. 

“House Democrats are going to win the majority because voters know we’re focused on lowering costs, and that’s exactly what we’re going to do when we’re in charge,” Nebeyatt Betre, a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson, said in a statement shared with States Newsroom.

“From ending the war in Iran to lower gas prices, restoring (Affordable Care Act) tax credits to lower health care prices, to rolling back reckless tariffs to lower prices on everything in between, House Democrats’ number one priority will be making life more affordable for working families,” Betre said. 

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, chair of the corresponding campaign arm for Senate races, cited healthcare access and affordability as a top priority in a Democratic-led upper chamber. 

“I think the most important issues that I’ve heard from voters is restoring their healthcare, making sure that those cuts to Medicaid get restored, making sure that people can afford healthcare and get access to good, high-quality healthcare,” Gillibrand said in a September interview with States Newsroom and other members of the Regional Reporters Association. 

The New York Democrat, who leads the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said other major priorities include “trying to fix the problems Trump has created, end the war in Iran” as well as getting “costs of groceries, housing, and healthcare and other everyday costs down.” 

While not a major part of the party’s messaging in the general election, House Democrats are poised to take a harder line with Israel amid the country’s war in Gaza. Jeffries said a measure meant to discourage violence in the West Bank, where Israeli settlements have inflamed tensions, “should be considered” next year, according to The Hill. 

With less than three weeks to go until Election Day on Nov. 3, here’s a closer look at what Democrats want to accomplish in both chambers: 

Anti-corruption, impeachments 

Democrats are all but certain to open investigations into the Trump administration if they gain power over congressional subpoena decisions.

“Our promise to the country in the new Congress is that beginning on Day One, we’re going to hold the crooks accountable,” Jeffries vowed at an Oct. 8 press conference. 

High-ranking Democratic House members say multiple probes are on the table, including Trump’s IRS settlement, brokered by his administration’s Justice Department, which delivered retroactive tax audit immunity for him and two of his sons as well as the creation of an “anti-weaponization” fund.

A federal judge slammed the settlement in a July order prohibiting Trump, his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr., and the Trump Organization from claiming they reached a “settlement,” and referred Trump’s personal attorneys to the bar for investigations. 

Democrats are also weighing whether the party would attempt to impeach Trump if they take back control of the House. 

The president was impeached twice in the House and acquitted twice in the Senate during prior sessions of Congress. 

Jeffries told PBS Newshour in September “we certainly haven’t ruled anything in, and we haven’t ruled anything out,” when asked about any impeachment proceedings against the president if Democrats regain the majority in the lower chamber. 

Democrats could also try to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth if they clinch control of the House. 

Outgoing GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth in September for the secretary’s handling of the war in Iran.

But House GOP leadership sent the lower chamber home early for its weeks-long campaign break, punting any vote until after the midterms. 

House Democrats will also likely dog the administration’s legally mandated release of files related to the 2019 federal sex trafficking investigation of deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who kept the company of powerful and wealthy individuals, including Trump.

Trump denies any knowledge of Epstein’s involvement in trafficking girls and young women for sex.

Democrats and Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform opened a months-long probe, subpoenaing documents from the Epstein estate and compelling closed-door testimony from Epstein associates and former Attorney General Pam Bondi. 

Healthcare 

On the healthcare front, House Democrats want to undo the healthcare provisions tucked into a mega tax and spending cut law signed by Trump in July 2025, known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”  

“Undoing (that law) is the floor, but not the ceiling,” according to a September memo obtained by Politico from Democrats’ affordability working group on healthcare. 

The 84-page memo proposes myriad healthcare policy priorities in the first 100 hours, first 100 days and first year of the next session of Congress, broken down into eight wide-ranging categories. 

“There is broad consensus in the Democratic caucus that the Democratic agenda must both reverse the immediate harms of the administration while also taking bold action to rein in corporate monopolies, invest in a durable healthcare system, and pursue an ambitious path towards universal coverage,” per the memo.  

Part of Democrats’ healthcare agenda includes reversing the GOP’s mega tax and spending cut law’s sweeping Medicaid cuts, which axe roughly $1 trillion in program spending over 10 years and impose new work requirements.

The party is also looking to “permanently restore” the enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits, which expired in December 2025 and were used by individuals who buy their own health insurance through the Affordable Care Act Marketplace. 

The expiration of those credits has “sharply increased” individuals’ out-of-pocket costs toward premiums, according to KFF. 

The memo also underscores a commitment to “achieving universal coverage” in the first year of the next session of Congress, and mentions the “Medicare for All Act” as one avenue to examine in achieving this ambition. 

The bill would establish a national health insurance program administered under the Department of Health and Human Services. 

Iran war

The costly war in Iran that has caused prices at the gas pump to soar for Americans is a major reason for Trump’s sagging poll numbers, and Democrats, if the House and Senate flip, would likely pass a measure to try to end any further conflict without congressional approval.

The war has cost $40 billion and counting, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, and will continue to cost American taxpayers $2 billion to $3 billion per month as the conflict drags on.

The national average price of diesel remains above $6 per gallon in the U.S., according to AAA, as Iranian officials continue to block petroleum products from reaching the global market. 

The national motor club, which monitors daily fuel prices, reported that Americans were paying a national average of $4.33 for a gallon of gasoline as of Oct. 14.

Meanwhile, Democrats’ attempts to rein in Trump’s military campaign in Iran have slowly picked up some Republican support over multiple votes in both chambers.

Senate Democrats have forced 14 War Powers Resolution votes to curb Trump’s unilateral military decisions without input from Congress. The votes are privileged, meaning they can be brought to the floor without the blessing of majority leadership.

The measure has advanced twice in the upper chamber, but the latest attempt to advance a House-passed War Powers Resolution narrowly failed, 49-50. 

House Democrats picked up seven Republicans on Sept. 15 to approve the War Powers Resolution. 

Administration officials contend the War Powers Resolution, established by Congress during the Vietnam War era, is unconstitutional, so it’s unclear what might happen if a resolution were approved. 

Immigration 

To help the president carry out his mass deportation campaign, congressional Republicans used a legislative tool to skirt Democratic support and allocate more than $200 billion for immigration enforcement through two measures. 

With the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” more than $170 billion was given to the Department of Homeland Security to hire more immigration agents, expand detention centers and carry out deportations. 

The “Secure America Act” funded Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement until late September 2029, at nearly $70 billion, after Democrats refused to approve funding for DHS following two deadly shootings of American citizens by immigration officials in Minneapolis. 

Though it’s unlikely Democrats will be able to claw any of that funding back even if they take both chambers, there are several avenues they are likely to pursue amid the president’s immigration crackdown. 

The first avenue is oversight and the ability to subpoena Trump officials. Democrats are likely to hold oversight hearings into the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were shot and killed by federal immigration officials in Minneapolis in January. 

Members of both parties on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee reached rare bipartisan agreement at a grilling of top Trump immigration officials after the killings. 

Democrats will also likely hold hearings on the scores of U.S. citizens detained by ICE and also shot by federal immigration officers, such as Marimar Martinez, who has already appeared several times before lawmakers as the minority witness for Democrats. 

She was shot in her car five times by Border Patrol agents during the aggressive immigration deportation campaign in Chicago in October 2025 and was labeled a domestic terrorist by DHS. The DOJ dropped charges against Martinez after the Trump administration accused her of using her car as a weapon.

Democrats are also likely to continue with oversight at federal facilities that detain immigrants, including the high death toll of immigrants at those detention centers. So far, 61 immigrants have died in ICE detention, which has doubled under the second Trump administration. Democrats have demanded answers from the administration about the deaths, along with concerns about medical neglect at the facilities. 

And even though former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stepped down earlier this year, Democrats still plan to question some of her decisions while leading DHS, such as a $220 million ad campaign that prominently featured her and the practice of no-bid contracts awarded to her close allies. 

Apart from oversight, Democrats are likely to introduce and pass legislation related to immigration reform, such as creating a pathway to citizenship for immigrants who were stripped of their Temporary Protected Status and for children brought into the country without legal authorization under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. 

The Trump administration has stripped more than 1 million immigrants of their legal status, and House Democrats, with a handful of Republicans, in April moved to extend TPS for more than 500,000 immigrants hailing from Haiti. 

TPS is granted to nationals who hail from a country deemed too dangerous to return to due to violence, disasters or other destabilizing forces.

In the Senate, Democrats have tried to pass legislation through unanimous consent to grant a pathway to citizenship for TPS recipients, but were blocked by Republicans. If Democrats regain the Senate, they will need a 60-vote majority for that legislation to move ahead. 

Some Democrats in Congress also likely will advocate an end to funding for ICE, but it’s unclear whether that would have enough support to advance.

Voting rights and democracy

Voting rights and democracy are likely to be high priorities for Democrats if they retake one or both chambers of Congress. 

A gerrymandering war egged on by Trump and a U.S. Supreme Court decision this spring that severely weakened the federal Voting Rights Act left Democrats and their base deeply angry and eager for action.

Democrats are likely to again turn to the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, named after the late civil rights activist and Georgia Democratic Rep. John Lewis. 

Though the U.S. House last passed the measure in 2021, the bill did not advance through the Senate. 

The legislation would seek to restore preclearance, a major provision of the Voting Rights Act that was previously blocked by the Supreme Court in 2013. Preclearance required states and local governments with a history of discrimination to obtain federal permission before making voting changes, and it applied to most Southern states and a handful of others.

“We fight to pass the John Robert Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act so we can end the era of voter suppression in the United States of America once and for all,” Jeffries said in an August speech.

The renewed focus on the voting rights legislation comes after the Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision in April sharply weakened Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The section prohibits voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race and other characteristics. 

In 1982, Congress expanded Section 2 to ban voting practices that have a discriminatory effect, whether or not the law was intended to discriminate.

Louisiana had redrawn its congressional map in response to a court order to include a second majority-minority district where a majority of residents are Black. The Supreme Court ruled the new map was an unconstitutional gerrymander.

In response, several Southern states quickly redrew their congressional maps to eliminate majority-minority districts — part of a larger wave of gerrymandering that swept the country over the past two years after Trump initially urged Texas to enact a more GOP-friendly map.

In response, some Democrats are also pushing for gerrymandering reform. At a minimum, some lawmakers want to require states to return to a once-a-decade redrawing process. That was the norm before 2025, and followed the census every 10 years.

Over the summer, the bipartisan House Problem Solvers Caucus unveiled a framework for changes to the redistricting process. The proposal calls for restricting new maps to once a decade, requiring “clear, objective” criteria to draw lines and supporting steps to reduce partisan influence, such as turning to independent commissions to develop district lines.

Education 

Congressional Democrats also want to halt and undo the administration’s ongoing efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education and repeal major education provisions in the GOP’s mega tax and spending cut law.

The department has entered into a series of interagency agreements with other departments that transfer several of its responsibilities to those agencies, including Health and Human Services, Labor, Interior, State, Justice and Treasury. 

If Democrats take back the Senate, Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine told States Newsroom his first goal in education is to “stop the handoff of critical components of (the Education Department) to other agencies that don’t want them.”

In the most-far reaching of the interagency agreements yet, the department said in June that HHS would administer programs under Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, while civil rights enforcement under Education’s Office for Civil Rights would be transferred to the DOJ. 

Kaine sponsored a bill, with GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska as original co-sponsors, that would block interagency agreements that transfer programs regarding special education, elementary and secondary education, postsecondary education and Native American education. 

That measure advanced out of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions in July. 

Sen. Mazie Hirono told States Newsroom “we need to restore federal support for education and how it’s going to look, I mean, clearly we need to support IDEA and support it to a greater extent than we have normally,” pointing to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, which guarantees a free public education for students with disabilities.

The Hawaii Democrat is also looking to repeal a national school voucher program baked into the GOP’s mega tax and spending cut law that’s set to launch in early 2027. 

The program allocates up to $1,700 in federal tax credits for people donating to organizations that provide K-12 scholarships, with 31 states having opted in so far. 

Hirono and Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, joined by more than two dozen of their colleagues, introduced legislation in April to repeal the program. 

Wisconsin Democratic Rep. Gwen Moore introduced a companion bill in June with Reps. Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon, Maxwell Frost of Florida, Adelita Grijalva of Arizona, Mark Pocan of Wisconsin and dozens more original cosponsors.

WASHINGTON — The No Kings movement that has brought millions to the streets across the United States three times since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term is staging its next event at the polls.

Organizers across hundreds of advocacy groups will pull together thousands of events nationwide Saturday to encourage early voting in this year’s midterm elections. Voting is already underway in dozens of states, and roughly 5.1 million ballots – both in-person and mail – have been cast, according to the University of Florida’s Election Lab.

Saturday’s “No Kings: Vote Early Day of Action” events include marches and walks to the polls where early voting is already underway and open on the weekends. Also planned are gatherings that offer live music, food and assistance for voter registration, car pool sign-ups and information on how to become a poll observer.

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— Ashley Murray (@ashleymurray.bsky.social) October 14, 2026 at 10:43 AM

Beatriz Lopez, executive director of Voto Latino, spoke at a press conference about early voting outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026. (Video by Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

“The best way to prevent any funny business from this administration after Election Day is to make sure that our turnout is massive — so clear, and so overwhelming that our victory for democracy is impossible to question,” Alma Couverthie, a senior organizer with the advocacy group Common Cause, said at a Wednesday morning press conference in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Common Cause is one of the nearly 320 organizations coordinating the events under the direction of nine national steering committee groups.

“There is no time to sit on the sidelines. We need everyone. So I urge you, make your plan to vote early. Don’t trust in the way you voted before. Check again. Make sure you know where you’re going, how you’re going, and who you’re bringing with you,” Couverthie said.

This one is different

Ezra Levin, co-founder and co-executive director of Indivisible, one of the nine steering committee groups, said Saturday’s events will be distinct from previous No Kings Day rallies in June and October 2025, and March 2026.

“It is different in the sense that No Kings One, Two, and Three were designed to send a message that the American people were not simply going to sacrifice their constitutional rights, that they were willing to stand up,” Levin told States Newsroom during an Oct. 9 interview.

The message of the three marches was “well sent,” he said, as each successive one expanded in numbers. It started with 5 million attendees across 2,100 individual events nationwide on June 14, 2025, to more than 7 million at 2,700 events on Oct. 18, 2025, and then reached 8 million across 3,330 events on March 28, 2026, according to organizers.

With Trump at historic low approval ratings, and with an “electoral wipeout” likely ahead if polls are on target, Levin said No Kings messaging “is largely completed” and that action is the next step.

“The goal of No Kings on October 17 is therefore not just to protest and get attention to the fact that people aren’t afraid to stand up, but to use this tool that is available to us right now in October, and it is a different constitutional right, not just the constitutional right to organize and make your voice heard — but your constitutional right to vote,” Levin said. 

As of Wednesday, more than 2,500 events were scheduled for Saturday in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to No Kings organizers.

Deirdre Schifeling, chief political and advocacy officer for the ACLU, said the civil liberties organization has been training thousands of volunteers to assist voters in knowing their rights and what to do if they encounter issues at the polls.

“We know that the best way to protect our freedom is to act free. That means showing up at the polls and making sure that your neighbors can show up too. See you at the polls on Saturday,” Schifeling said at the Wednesday press conference.

Joining forces

Other concerted efforts to do what organizers call “get out the vote” are joining No Kings events Saturday to amplify and strengthen their messages, leaders say.

Bishop William Barber, Repairers of the Breach founder and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, has been organizing 1,000 marches nationwide to the polls in an effort he announced in July as “Love Forward Together.”

So far, Barber’s campaign has organized 652 marches in 428 locations across the United States, according to Repairers of the Breach.

Standing before the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday alongside No Kings organizers, Barber said the overall goal despite the campaign or group “is about people being conspicuous in their courage and in their commitment.”

“There is no competition. We have one competition. We are competing against a low voter turnout that can no longer exist in this democracy if we are to have a democracy, and if we are to have a democracy that serves all the people,” Barber said. 

The Interfaith Alliance will be more than 10 days into a 15-state “The Vote is Sacred” bus tour Saturday when it stops in Charlotte, North Carolina, to join a “No Kings: Vote Early Day of Action” event.

Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush said the tour is about mobilizing faith communities to be “trained up” to recognize possible illegal interference at polling places.

“Unfortunately, this administration has threatened to disrupt. … We are going to bring the nonviolent spiritual mobilization that has been with us, and we’re going to be trained up all across the country,” Raushenbush said during an Oct. 6 interview with MS NOW’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” after the tour’s stop in Kansas City, Missouri.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment, but referred States Newsroom to a statement from a Republican National Committee spokesperson.

“From Virginia to Louisiana, Democrats have tried to manipulate congressional maps for political gain. Republicans are restoring the rule of law, protecting fair representation, and making it easier to vote and harder to cheat,” according to the statement from Ally Triolo, the RNC’s election integrity communications director.

WASHINGTON — A federal judge late Tuesday extended a block on a Trump administration ban of press passes for three news organizations, which will allow them to continue to enter the White House grounds while a legal challenge to the ban, including a Wednesday appeal filed by the administration, plays out.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly in a 26-page order rejected Department of Justice arguments that the revocation of passes for CNN, Politico and MS NOW was based on the administration’s concern over reporting that endangered national security.

“First, there is no evidence in the record that President (Donald) Trump made the decision to revoke Plaintiffs’ hard passes on national security grounds from the get-go, nor at any time has he directly stated that national security was the reason for his decision. When he announced the ban with his post on September 18, he did not mention national security,” Kelly wrote.

Kelly also said the news organizations were likely to succeed on their claim that the White House unlawfully retaliated against them for exercising their First Amendment rights. He noted that a previous court decision bars government officials from subjecting individuals to retaliatory actions after the fact for having engaged in speech protected by the amendment.

“President Trump’s own comments suggest that he intended the revocation of Plaintiffs’ hard passes to alter their reporting on him, bolstering the case that his action here is sufficient to deter a reporter of ordinary firmness from reporting in the same way she had before,” Kelly said.

He said the news organizations were also likely to succeed in their argument that they were denied due process by the administration.

Kelly granted the news outlets’ request for a preliminary injunction, which Trump already has said the administration will appeal. It replaces a temporary restraining order, also granted by Kelly, that expired Tuesday.

The administration on Tuesday afternoon filed a notice to Kelly that it had appealed his ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

The notice of appeal did not contain any legal arguments. The court ordered the administration to submit a brief outlining its case by Nov. 13. The news organizations’ response is due by the end of November.

Kelly’s ruling came a little over three weeks after Trump banned CNN, MS NOW and Politico. The president announced the measure via his social media platform on Sept.18, “a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!” he wrote. 

The White House press office followed with letters Sept. 22 to the three outlets citing national security concerns and allegations of misinformation as reasons reporters’ press passes were revoked.

Trump’s order ousted 78 journalists from the three outlets, according to a court filing.

In a show of solidarity, major television networks that rotate distributing video coverage from the White House suspended video feeds over the next several days. 

The three news outlets sued the White House in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on First Amendment grounds and alleged the ban caused irreparable harm to the organizations.

Kelly temporarily ordered the White House to restore press access on Sept. 24 to the three banned outlets. 

Kelly, who appeared skeptical during an initial hearing, wrote in the eight-page temporary order that the media outlets were likely to succeed in the case, and that the journalists were denied their due process rights before their passes were confiscated.

Michael Velchik, senior counsel in the civil division of the Justice Department, had argued on Sept. 23 that access to the White House “is a privilege not a right.”

Kelly was nominated by Trump during his first term and confirmed by the Senate in September 2017 by a vote of 94-2.

In response to a request for comment, the White House confirmed in a background statement not attributed to an individual that the decision will be appealed.

“The Fake News has no place demanding a spot in the President’s Oval Office. The lies they smear are a disservice to the American public and tear at the very fabric of our Democracy. They’re completely capable of reporting from directly outside. We intend to appeal this misguided decision,” the statement said.

Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., the lawyer for the news outlets, said they were grateful for Kelly’s ruling.

“When the President issued his ‘ban on the free press,’ he blatantly and explicitly violated due process and the First Amendment,” Boutrous said in a statement. “Since then, the President has repeatedly, candidly, and consistently admitted in public that he banned our clients from the White House to punish reporting he doesn’t like and to try to force journalists to cover him in ways he prefers. The harm this ban did to our clients, the First Amendment, and the public as a whole is profound. The Court was right to enjoin the White House from enforcing this unconstitutional ‘ban on the free press’ for the foreseeable future.”

Kelly also noted in his ruling that Trump could be right in his concerns about the nature of reporting on him, and that there were instances in which a national security argument would succeed.

“Still, no one should interpret the Court’s decision to suggest that President Trump’s concerns about accuracy and fairness in the media’s reporting are unfounded, or that the government is powerless when its true aim is to protect national security when classified information is unlawfully disclosed,” he said.

WASHINGTON — Democratic leaders in the U.S. House condemned a “deeply disturbing” raid early Monday at the District of Columbia home of Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who has long been a target of verbal attacks by President Donald Trump and Republicans.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., and House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., called the morning raid by Department of Homeland Security officials “egregious.”

The House minority leaders said the search of Omar’s home “raises serious questions about the continued corrupt weaponization of the federal government against Donald Trump’s adversaries.”

“For years Donald Trump and far-right extremists have relentlessly targeted Congresswoman Omar with vile personal attacks and baseless accusations,” Jeffries, Clark and Aguilar said in a statement posted on social media Monday. “Now, less than 30 days before the midterm election, his violent mass deportation machine has descended upon the home of a duly elected Member of Congress and her family.”

Omar, a Somali-born American and one of four Muslims in Congress, represents a deep-blue district.

Fox News first published a report on the raid just after 7:30 a.m. Eastern, and cited two sources who told the network the operation was related to an investigation of Omar’s immigration paperwork. Omar was resettled as a refugee in the United States with her family at the age of 12 in 1995 and was later naturalized as a U.S. citizen.

A Department of Justice official, asked for comment on the raid, told States Newsroom: “Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured by the Department of Justice. This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.”

Omar said in a post on social media Monday that she “will not be silenced.” 

“I’m ok. Make no mistake: this is an attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement. For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns. This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation,” she wrote on X.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., wrote in a statement on X that the president is “grossly abusing his power.”

“He has repeatedly attacked her, Somali Americans, and Minnesotans. @Ilhan has done nothing to justify a pre-dawn raid ahead of the election. I stand with my sister always,” Tlaib wrote.

Trump, without evidence, has accused Omar of being connected to a $242 million fraud scheme involving pandemic-era funds meant for hunger programs, as well as other fraud investigations in the state, and has called for her to be deported.

“There is 19 Billion Dollars in Minnesota Somalia Fraud. Fake ‘Congresswoman’ Illhan Omar, a constant complainer who hates the USA, knows everything there is to know. She should be in jail, or even a worse punishment, sent back to Somalia, considered one of the absolutely worst countries in the World. She could help to MAKE SOMALIA GREAT AGAIN!,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Jan 18.

WASHINGTON — Rebecca Myers lives in one of the nation’s most hotly contested congressional districts, and tariffs were on her mind as she voted early and in-person in Suffolk, Virginia in late September.

The 44-year-old trained social worker said she and her husband, who recently retired after 25 years in the U.S. Navy, are raising two children, ages 7 and 9, and forgoing a family vacation to save money.

“I’m an educated person, but I’m not going to pretend to be an expert in the economy. All I can say is I know my family’s finances very well and I know everything we spend money on has gone up in price.

“I understand some of it is due to the tariffs, some of it is due to the war in Iran,” Myers told States Newsroom in an Oct. 1 interview.

Myers is among a growing number of voters found to be taking their anger about affordability to the polls this midterm election and blaming President Donald Trump’s tariffs as a culprit for rising expenses. Public opinion surveys bear out Myers is far from alone in making the connection.

“The real top line is that for maybe the first time ever, tariffs are a salient issue at the ballot box,” said Scott Lincicome of the libertarian Cato Institute. “You know, normally trade is a boring issue that nobody really thinks about or cares about.”

Myers, who lives in Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District, voted for Elaine Luria, the Democratic candidate and former U.S. representative who is challenging the incumbent Republican, Rep. Jen Kiggans.

Kiggans, Myers said, has supported Trump’s “MAGA agenda,” including tariffs.

Kiggans’ campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump opponents seize on issue

Organizers are targeting districts like Myers’, where Democrats could flip seats.

“We talk to families every day who are struggling with the things that they need to take care of themselves and their families,” said Sondra Goldschein, executive director of the Campaign for a Family Friendly Economy.

Her organization, which also has a political action committee that endorses Democrats, recently hosted a “tariff-proof” cooking class in Chesapeake, Virginia, to drive attention to the issue. Attendees received tips like substituting chicken for beef, buying domestic produce, and choosing frozen over canned goods — all which have been affected by Trump’s ever-changing taxes on imports.

Goldschein and national organizers are targeting voters not only in Virginia, but in Florida, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

“This Republican-backed Congress and all of the members that come from states like this have really turned their backs on working families,” Goldschein told States Newsroom during an interview ahead of the cooking class.

In a state-by-state breakdown of tariffs, the conservative National Taxpayers Union Foundation and Trade Partnership Worldwide found the top 10 states most affected by Trump’s tariffs — in the tens of billions of dollars — are California, Texas, Michigan, Georgia, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Florida, Ohio and Tennessee. 

Virginia, where business owners have paid a collective $6.2 billion in tariffs ordered by Trump since January 2025, ranked 18th.

Nearly all are in the midst of fierce battles for U.S. Senate or House seats as tariffs emerge as what critics predict will be a major factor in the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.

Ever-changing tariffs

New research shows Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs on imported goods have cost business owners and consumers billions of dollars. 

“The typical estimate has it being in the neighborhood of $1,000-plus per year of additional (consumer) costs, and maybe accounting for somewhere between one-half and 1 percentage point of the inflation rate. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but if someone came along and gave you a tax increase of $1,100, which is about what this is, you’d feel it,” said Kimberly Clausing, economist and senior fellow at the Peterson Institute of International Economics.

Clausing and fellow economist Maurice Obstfeld at the nonpartisan think tank reviewed 13 academic papers from 2025 and 2026 on Trump’s tariffs and the pass-through costs to consumers and businesses.

“What makes it a little confusing and hard to measure is that there’s been a lot of uncertainty about the trade policy, and so it’s come in spurts and reversals and restarts,” Clausing said, adding that some businesses may absorb the new taxes on imports at first but then eventually raise prices later.

“It’s not like you raise the tariff on day one and (on) day two all the prices have fully adjusted. It’s a little slower than that, but you do see absolutely evidence that with time the tariffs are being passed through to consumers, and very little evidence that foreigners are bearing a significant burden,” she said. 

Trump’s tariff policy has changed more than 50 times since he began his second term in January 2025, according to the Tax Foundation, a think tank that advocates for a slimmed-down tax code and “policies that lead to greater economic growth.”

As of Sept. 10, the foundation estimated that Trump’s tariffs will cost each household an average $820 in 2026.

While Trump campaigned on the promise that other countries would pay for his tariffs, and vowed the same once he took office again, the statement has always been false, economists have documented. Tariffs are taxes that American businesses and individuals pay upon retrieving their shipments of items they’ve purchased from other countries. The tariffed goods fall into hundreds of categories — anything from machine parts to food.

The president’s early round of “emergency” and “reciprocal” tariffs imposed on worldwide goods in April 2025 were struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in February. Since then, Trump has used three other statutes to justify charging import taxes on goods.

Impact spreads across states

The breakdown produced by the National Taxpayers Union found the biggest effects in states and industries scattered throughout America.

Sectors hit hardest by tariffs in the top 10 states include automobiles and auto parts; steel, aluminum and other metals; clothes and shoes; and food and beverages.

For example, businesses in Michigan have paid an extra $23 billion on imports, largely cars and trucks. Meanwhile, the food and beverage sector was hit hardest in Florida, where importers have paid an extra $11 billion since Trump began implementing new tariffs in 2025 through Aug. 4, 2026, according to the conservative organization’s analysis that drew from Census Bureau import data.

 

 

Bryan Riley, director of the National Taxpayers Union’s free trade initiative, described Trump’s tariffs during his second term as “a very costly policy.” 

“If you’re in a state like Georgia, big tariff costs are mainly because there’s a lot of auto manufacturing in Georgia, surprisingly to many people. And then that’s not going to be the case in New Mexico, which doesn’t have a lot of auto manufacturing, so (there are) less tariff costs and different categories hit in each state,” Riley said. 

The analysis did not account for any court-mandated refunds the Trump administration must pay back after the Supreme Court deemed the president’s initial emergency tariffs illegal. Those refunds to businesses are not necessarily passed on to consumers.

Trump and the cost of living

Polls show voters are growing increasingly frustrated with Trump’s handling of the economy, as his approval ratings plunge, and many of those surveyed are blaming the administration’s trade policy for the rising cost of living.

Overall, 69% of American adults, and 52% of Republicans, say Trump is not meeting his promise to fix the cost of living, according to an Associated Press/NORC nationwide poll of just over 2,100 voters from Sept. 24-28.

Specifically on trade and tariffs, the survey found that overall 68% of respondents disapprove of Trump’s trade negotiations with other countries, and 64% think the tariffs have gone too far.

Lincicome of the Cato Institute said it’s a “shocker” that tariffs are becoming a mainstream concern among voters.

When surveying just over 4,100 voters in mid-August, Cato and Morning Consult found 3 in 4 participants said they will consider tariffs when casting their midterm election ballot.

Additionally, the survey revealed 74% of respondents — 66% percent of Republicans and 84% of Democrats — blamed Trump’s tariffs for increased prices on items they buy at the store.

Lincicome, vice president of general economics for Cato, pointed to his home state of North Carolina, where Roy Cooper, the former Democratic governor now vying for an open U.S. Senate seat, is making opposition to tariffs a centerpiece of his affordability agenda.

“It’s pretty clear from both the polling and Democrats in not just North Carolina but Georgia and Iowa and other places (candidates) are really chomping at the bit to run on cost of living, and to say they’re going to nix all these tariffs. … Even in places like Ohio, where Sherrod Brown is trying to win,” Lincicome said.

Brown, a Democrat who served in the U.S. Senate from 2007-2025, was “one of the most consistent protectionists” of domestic manufacturing in the upper chamber, Lincicome said.

“Now all of a sudden he’s running on nixing the tariffs,” Lincicome said. “Now he’s not nearly as vocal as somebody like Cooper or (James) Talarico in Texas or Jon Ossoff in Georgia. He’s still saying he’s going to get rid of these tariffs, and that’s a pretty shocking change.”

Trump ‘skillfully used tariffs,’ White House says

The White House defended Trump’s record on the economy and said he has “skillfully” imposed tariffs.

“President Trump signed the largest working-class tax cuts in history, lowered the cost of prescription drugs, sealed the border, drove violent crime to the lowest level in nearly a century, unleashed an energy revolution, added more than a million private-sector jobs, and sent Americans’ 401(k)s climbing to record highs. 

“The President skillfully used tariffs to renegotiate almost 20 trade deals and level the playing field for American workers and businesses. The Trump administration has consistently maintained that the cost of tariffs will ultimately be borne by foreign exporters who rely on access to the American economy, the world’s biggest and best consumer market,” said White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers. 

WASHINGTON — The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee is demanding his colleagues across the aisle apologize to former special counsel Jack Smith after Missouri Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt launched false accusations at a recent hearing and called the former Justice Department official a “dirtbag.”

Committee ranking member Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., accused his Republican counterparts in a letter Wednesday of violating committee rules for presenting records they say supported accusations against Smith at the Sept. 29 hearing. Committee Democrats, Durbin said, did not have a chance to review the records in advance or later.

“We request that you immediately provide these and all other documents that you have withheld, commit to fully complying with Senate rules in the future, and apologize to Mr. Smith on behalf of the Committee for the unacceptable personal attacks and false accusations of perjury he faced during this hearing,” Durbin wrote in the letter to GOP Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa, first reported by Politico.

Durbin specifically highlighted a poster displayed by Schmitt’s staff purporting to show text messages between Smith and security personnel about his attendance at an Atlanta Hawks NBA game. Schmitt intimated the messages were proof that Smith had been in Atlanta during a development in the Fulton County, Georgia, election interference case against then-former President Donald Trump. 

Two staff members behind Schmitt quickly flashed the poster before the senator accused Smith of perjury for denying attendance at the game and said the former prosecutor will be remembered “as a total dirtbag.”

Democrats on the panel asked for, but did not receive, copies so that they and Smith could view the poster’s contents more clearly. 

The accusations were immediately debunked in real-time during the hearing when Smith said he recalled being at a University of Maryland women’s basketball game against the University of Iowa to see the popular Iowa player Caitlin Clark on the date in question.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., then clarified that Schmitt had confused the Iowa Hawkeyes with the Atlanta Hawks, in a humiliating moment for Schmitt that quickly spread on social media.

The situation, and lack of shared records, “caused needless confusion, slowed down the business of the Committee, introduced the possibility that false information would be entered uncontested into the record, and created an embarrassing stain on one of the most important committees in Congress,” Durbin wrote.

“While Senator Klobuchar successfully clarified that Mr. Smith had attended a basketball game in a different state on the date in question, and subsequent reporting confirmed the same, Senator Schmitt has since doubled down on his false assertions. He has continued to publicly call Mr. Smith a liar and ‘dirtbag,’” Durbin continued, citing repeated comments from Schmitt to news media following the hearing.

The Republican-led hearing, titled “Oversight of Jack Smith’s Abuse of Authority and the Targeting of Republicans and Related Matters,” followed nearly two years of allegations by Grassley that the former special counsel improperly collected phone records of dozens of members of Congress during his probe of Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Grassley has also accused Smith of collecting information on Republican-affiliated organizations and individuals.

The insurrection followed Trump’s alleged conspiracy to create fake electors to swing the 2020 presidential election in his favor.

Smith denies any wrongdoing.

In an apparent response to the letter, Grassley posted on X just after 12:30 p.m. Eastern Thursday that “Jack Smith should apologize for taking the bank records of 42 Iowans & 4,782 Americans.”

When asked earlier for a response to Durbin’s letter, a spokesperson for Grassley pointed States Newsroom to the Iowa senator’s Sept. 29 comments about the hearing to Newsmax’s “The Record with Greta Van Susteren.” The comments did not include an apology. 

“I think that we learned through the thousands of pages that I’ve released to the public that Jack Smith was a tool of the Biden administration to put Trump in prison. (Trump) was the only one indicted, but the records that we (made) public today, and a few days ago, show that he swept at least 400 Republican organizations into his investigation, and 44 members of Congress by subpoenaing their phone records,” Grassley told the conservative media outlet.

In a response to Durbin’s letter on Friday, Grassley said committee Democrats “have run roughshod over Committee rules” in the past.

“I need not remind you that my oversight of this matter is years in the making, has been supported by courageous whistleblowers who came to my office concerned about the rotten political bias at the heart of Jack Smith’s investigation, and has been transparent with the American people and my Democratic colleagues from the get-go,” Grassley wrote in a four-page letter.

The Iowa Republican continued later in the letter: “Contrary to your misguided statement, the major embarrassment of the hearing was Democrats falling over themselves defending unlawful and unconstitutional actions by Jack Smith.”

The letter did not contain an apology, and Grassley said Democrats have been provided with thousands of pages of records and are invited to his office next week to review records Durbin specified in his letter.

Grassley further accused committee Democrats of failing to cooperate on previous investigations, including a 2020 COVID-19 matter, an inquiry into Hunter Biden and the vetting of Trump’s former personal attorney who now sits on the federal bench.

Schmitt’s office did not immediately respond for comment.

Durbin’s letter also requested records from Sen. Josh Hawley, also a Missouri Republican. Hawley’s office did not immediately respond for comment.

WASHINGTON — Every child in the United States with a valid Social Security number is now enrolled in a tax-advantaged investment account, titled a “Trump Account,” President Donald Trump announced Wednesday.

Parents must claim the accounts by downloading a Trump Account mobile app. Children born from 2025 through 2028 will automatically receive a one-time deposit of $1,000 from the U.S. government, once parents or guardians officially claim it. 

Children born before the eligibility window, up to age 10, can receive a $250 deposit donated by the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, of Dell Technologies fortune.

Surrounded in the Oval Office by U.S. Treasury Department officials, business moguls and a half dozen children holding a banner reading, “Thank You for Trump Accounts,” the president said parents and guardians have voluntarily created accounts for 8 million children since the July 4 launch.

“With today’s announcement, we’re building on that success by 70 million accounts of children across America,” Trump said. “Put very simply, this money is your child’s future.”

The White House estimates over 60 million accounts have been added via auto-enrollment, but did not provide a specific figure.

The president signaled to the children standing by the Resolute Desk and said, “These beautiful young children are extremely rich — they are now, and they will be in the future, extremely rich. So they have something to look forward to.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the accounts mark the “beginning of the ownership society.” 

“I was talking to these great young people earlier,” he said. “They already know about compounding. They understand how the stock market works. … I think this is going to be a real-time financial literacy project.”

Investments from government, philanthropy

More than $4.5 billion has been deposited into the accounts since July 4, according to the White House.

Trump said Wednesday “much of that” has come from large donors, including the Dells, and Altimeter tech investment firm founder Brad Gerstner, who attended the announcement.

Parents and guardians have claimed roughly $2.6 billion in philanthropic contributions to date, with more available, according to the White House. The U.S. Treasury has so far seeded the accounts with $1.3 billion.

Another $638 million has been deposited into the accounts from friends and family of the individual accountholders, according to the administration.

Family and friends can contribute up to $5,000 annually to the accounts. Parents and guardians can elect to divert pre-tax contributions from their paychecks directly into their child’s account. Employers can match up to $2,500.

Over 70 companies have signed on to contribute to accounts of employees’ children, according to the White House.

Certain contributions, like the government’s one-time $1,000 deposit and contributions from state and local governments and nonprofits, do not count toward the $5,000 cap.

Susan Dell said she has received letters from parents and grandparents who have claimed the contribution from her foundation.

“It’s not just the money that matters — that does matter — but knowing that someone believes in you and your future that matters just as much,” she said. “These accounts are ready. They’re waiting for you, and they have money in them. So claim your child’s accounts and start adding money to their accounts and preserving a wonderful future for them.”

The Dell Foundation targeted the contributions to 25 million children from ZIP codes with median family incomes of up to $118,000.

The Trump administration is directing families to the website trumpaccounts.gov to find how to download the app and manage the account.

The White House estimates the government’s $1,000 seed money could grow to approximately $6,000 by age 18, if the family never contributed another dollar, assuming historical return data.

A child’s account that receives the maximum family and employer contributions of $5,000 at the start of each year could grow to nearly $200,000 by age 18, assuming a 7% annual rate of return, according to a Fidelity Investment hypothetical example, not adjusted for inflation. 

Used for retirement, education or down payment

The Trump Accounts, as named in the 2025 law dubbed “the big beautiful bill,” are structured like a traditional individual retirement account, but with different investment features and restrictions.

Money in the account can be invested in mutual funds or exchange traded funds that track the returns of large American companies, for example the S&P 500 index.

Investments will legally belong to a minor, but can only be managed by a parent or guardian until a child’s 18th birthday. 

The accounts are bound by certain restrictions, including a prohibition on withdrawals until age 18, when the account essentially becomes an individual retirement account subject to tax penalties for early withdrawal before age 59.5.

Some penalty-free exceptions include accessing the cash for a first-home purchase of up to $10,000, birth or child adoption fees up to $5,000 and qualifying medical expenses.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Republicans did not gain any support Wednesday from Democrats as they attempted to advance a bill that mashed together two hot-button midterm issues: requiring voter ID in federal elections and limiting stock trading for members of Congress.

The Republican-led bill, titled the Stop Insider Trading Act, failed 53-47 when lawmakers stayed solidly within party lines for the procedural vote. Most legislation requires 60 votes, or three-fifths of the Senate, to advance.

The House-passed measure attached a voter ID requirement onto a base bill prohibiting members of Congress and their spouses and close family members from purchasing certain stocks, and requiring a public notice and waiting period prior to selling stocks. 

House lawmakers approved the legislative package by a 232-192 margin.

While 13 House Democrats supported the bill, sponsored by Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., despite plenty of criticism, Senate Democrats did not bite.

“The Senate GOP let their counterparts in the House take out all of the ban’s teeth and fill it with poison pills so it could never pass. This bill has no reform, no accountability, no substance,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor prior to the vote Wednesday.

House and Senate Democrats panned the legislation for being a weaker version of other bipartisan bills aimed at stopping members of Congress from potentially profiting off insider knowledge while trading stocks. The issue has drawn support from both parties over the past several years.

“Under (the) Republican bill, members would still get to own and sell stocks. And most importantly, this bill doesn’t do anything – anything – to stop Donald Trump from trading stocks. I guess Republicans forgot that Trump has made nearly 30,000 stock trades in the past year and raked in billions – more than all of Congress combined,” Schumer continued.

The New York Democrat also said the measure “would make voting more difficult in every state than it is now” and described it as “some of the most twisted, radical schemes Trump has ever dreamed up to rig our election.”

ID for voting

Under the measure, a voter would be required to present a current state-issued driver’s license or identification card, passport, valid military or veteran ID, or tribal government-issued ID card to be able to vote. 

If a voter doesn’t have one of the listed physical forms of identification, state election officials could issue a provisional ballot. The voter would then have three days to provide the accepted ID or an affidavit that the voter doesn’t have one because of religious objections to being photographed.

Additionally, state officials would be prohibited from accepting absentee ballots unless the voter attaches a copy of a valid ID, the last four digits of their Social Security number with an affidavit that they cannot obtain a photo ID, or a notarized statement that the voter personally completed their ballot.

‘Commonsense legislation’

Senate Republicans pushed for the bill ahead of the vote, including Nebraska Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts, who posted Monday on X, “This bill would ban congressional insider trading. We need to pass this commonsense legislation and restore integrity to Congress.” 

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, pointed to a Department of Justice indictment announced Wednesday to argue in support of the legislation.

Quoting a post on social media about DOJ allegations that 10 noncitizens voted in a previous election, Lee wrote: “Every Senate Democrat just voted against legislation that would stop this.”

While the DOJ has alleged instances of isolated election-related crimes, widespread voter fraud has never been credibly proven. 

A database published in 2024 by the right-leaning Heritage Foundation surveying millions of votes cast in seven states over decades found reported cases of fraud to be less than 1%, according to an analysis of the results by the progressive Brookings Institution.

A comprehensive body of research has found the practice to be exceedingly rare.

WASHINGTON — Small businesses will once again challenge President Donald Trump’s tariffs in federal court this week as they continue to feel the squeeze of the administration’s roller coaster policy on import taxes.

Spice importer Burlap & Barrel and rare watch importer Collective Horology will argue Wednesday in the Court of International Trade in New York City that the Trump administration did not properly establish forced labor cases against dozens of U.S. trading partners before levying duties on goods that numerous American importers buy.

The Office of the United States Trade Representative announced in late July that products from 60 top U.S. trading partners will be tariffed at 10% or 12.5%, depending on whether governments have or have not developed laws meant to combat forced labor. The new tariffs cover 99.4% of all goods imported into the United States, according to the office.

The plaintiffs, represented by the legal advocacy nonprofit Liberty Justice Center, allege the administration exceeded its tariff authority delegated by Congress under the forced labor statute, Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. 

The plaintiffs also argue the tariffs are “arbitrary and capricious” because U.S. trade officials relied on “generalized assertions” that labor policies in 60 economies imposed concrete economic harm to the U.S.

Trade law expert blasts Trump usage

Ambassador Alan Wm. Wolff, a former trade official who helped draft the forced labor statute and filed a brief in support of the small business plaintiffs, said Section 301 was “designed for sort of a rifle shot of retaliation against a single foreign country doing some particular act that’s been verified.”

Wolff served in the Carter and Ford administrations, and later as a deputy director-general at the World Trade Organization.

“I sat through the executive sessions of the committees that were drafting the statute,” he said. “No one ever conceived of the idea that you could just create a sort of a fake, bogus test for other countries – 60 of them — that none of them could meet.”

Wolff told States Newsroom in an interview Sept. 21 that the statute has never been used in this way.

“If the U.S. was serious about forced labor being dealt with in this fashion … it would say, ‘Well, we’ll review it every six months, and if you put in a statute that has the following provisions, we would probably lift the tariff,’” he said. 

“There’s none of that because the purpose is to have the tariff, not to combat forced labor,” he continued.

The Department of Justice declined to comment Monday on ongoing litigation.

The White House and the Office of the United States Trade Representative did not respond Monday.

One tariff after another

The legal challenge on behalf of small business plaintiffs is not the first one to be brought by the Liberty Justice Center, a nonprofit that focuses on “high-impact cases that defend individual liberty and challenge government overreach,” according to its website.

In February, the organization secured a victory against the Trump administration when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the president’s unprecedented executive tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, referred to as IEEPA, were unconstitutional.

The organization won the case on behalf of several small business plaintiffs, ranging from an Illinois-based toymaker and New York-based wine importer, to a Utah-based plastics producer and a Pennsylvania-based fishing gear company, among others.

Almost immediately after the high court struck down his emergency tariffs, Trump imposed a new wide-reaching 10% tariff on global imports under a separate statute – Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. The statute limited Trump to only 150 days.

The administration concurrently opened sweeping trade practice investigations, including under the Section 301 forced labor statute, on nearly all U.S. trading partners. The government announced its forced labor findings just as the earlier tariffs expired at the 150-day mark.

New duties ‘blatantly pretextual’

Sara Albrecht, the Liberty Justice Center’s CEO, described the administration’s new forced labor tariffs as “blatantly pretextual” to replace duties imposed under Section 122.

“And Section 122 was pretextual for the IEEPA tariff that rolled off this year when he lost at the Supreme Court. So we feel like our job wasn’t done because we struck down the IEEPA tariff, and then the administration just did it again,” Albrecht said.

The organization is again representing small business plaintiffs who allege harm to their bottom line because of the administration’s tariff policy. 

Burlap & Barrel, a New York-based company with warehouses in Hagerstown, Maryland, and Las Vegas imports spices from 22 countries. The California-based Collective Horology imports high-end mechanical watches from independent makers in six European nations.

“They are two individual American small businesses that have been swept up in a political kind of debate. We’re arguing this on behalf of every American small business, every American business that is being forced to once again pay illegal tariffs,” Albrecht said.

The organization has asked the Court of International Trade for class status.

“You have to keep in mind that they’re just getting their IEEPA refunds right now, and we’re almost done with that. But they had to start paying Section 122 (tariffs), and then when that stopped, they had to pay Section 301 (tariffs). So a lot of these businesses are effectively loaning all of their working capital to the U.S. government while we kind of sort this out in court,” Albrecht said.

The Liberty Justice Center had also challenged the Section 122 tariffs on behalf of Burlap & Barrel.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is still in the process of refunding roughly $166 billion worth of tariffs paid by businesses under Trump’s IEEPA import charges.

“We’re a small nonprofit that is, you know, 12 attorneys trying to again strike down the tariffs, and it would be nice if someone else wanted to jump into the fight,” Albrecht said. “So we’re doing the best we can, and I think we’ve done a good job so far.”

Prior to the tariff case win, the organization was most well known for its role in successfully arguing before the U.S. Supreme Court in Janus v. AFSCME, in which its client Mark Janus challenged public sector unions over paying dues.

WASHINGTON — Former special counsel Jack Smith on Tuesday defended before a U.S. Senate panel his past investigations of President Donald Trump’s possession of classified documents and alleged role in attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Judiciary Committee Republicans repeatedly dissected Smith’s work and accused him of weaponizing the Department of Justice. In a heated exchange, Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., labeled Smith a “total dirtbag” and alleged he had perjured himself when Schmitt asked if Smith was in Atlanta on Feb. 3, 2024, during a separate sensitive election investigation development in Fulton County, Georgia. Smith said he was not there.

But it became clear Schmitt had bungled the accusations against Smith by mixing up the names of the Atlanta Hawks and Iowa Hawkeyes basketball teams, and the back-and-forth went viral on social media. Smith had attended a University of Maryland Terrapins game against the Hawkeyes, not a Hawks game, on the date in question.

 

 

Smith said in his opening statement he “will not be silenced” by threats, including Trump’s calls for his prosecution.

“I stand by my decisions as special counsel, including my decision to bring charges against President Trump,” Smith said. “I made those decisions without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 presidential election.”

“Our investigation developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt that President Trump engaged in serious crimes against our nation,” Smith said.

Grassley: not ‘normal prosecution’

The hearing comes nearly two years after committee Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, alleged the former special counsel improperly collected phone records of dozens of members of Congress during his probe of Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The insurrection followed Trump’s alleged conspiracy to create fake electors to swing the 2020 presidential election in his favor.

Smith denies any wrongdoing.

In his opening remarks, Grassley argued Smith’s investigation “ultimately wasn’t just about Trump.”

“It was about partisan agents and prosecutors mapping out the Republican apparatus,” Grassley said.

“This wasn’t a normal prosecution by any means. Yet today, you will certainly hear from Democrats that it was. Importantly, Mr. Smith has claimed his focus was on January 6, but his own conduct contradicts that,” Grassley said moments later, citing subpoenas for records before and after the date of Jan. 6, 2021, and those that included Republican interest groups.

Durbin says ‘nothing untoward’

Democrats dismissed the hearing’s premise and repeatedly evoked memories of evacuating the U.S. Senate while a mob of Trump supporters violently overran law enforcement and attacked the U.S. Capitol.

Ranking member Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said attacks on Smith “are nothing but a smokescreen to distract from the president’s own clear unlawful conduct.”

“Let me be clear: there was nothing untoward about special counsel Smith and his fellow prosecutors conducting this investigation. The aspersions cast on Mr. Smith nonstop are petty, personal, and political,” Durbin said.

Sen. Cory Booker, who is speculated to be eyeing a presidential run in 2028, said the hearing amounted to “gaslighting the American people.”

The New Jersey Democrat said the scenario “should be chilling to every American that the commander-in-chief … did everything he could to undermine the legal transfer of power, incited a riot, which several Republicans said he did, and we’re now persecuting the prosecutors who followed the evidence.”

Kennedy, Cruz attack Smith

But Senate Republicans maintained accusations that the Biden administration targeted Trump for prosecution just days after he announced he would challenge then-President Joe Biden in the 2024 presidential election.

Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, asked Smith if he told then-Attorney General Merrick Garland that he intended to prosecute the former president.

“I did so twice,” Smith answered.

“And the attorney general checked with President Biden. Is that right?” Kennedy asked.

“I have absolutely no idea,” Smith said, adding that he made an “independent decision” to prosecute.

“I made that decision on my own, consulting with my staff and reviewing the incredibly strong evidence that we had,” he said.

Kennedy also accused Smith of partisanship for only seeking phone records of Republicans during his investigation.

“The toll records that we sought were relevant to the investigation,” Smith told Kennedy, referring to historical logs that reveal time and duration of calls rather than content.

 

 

“Were you in the quad playing frisbee during (constitutional) law at Harvard Law School?” Kennedy asked, accusing Smith of violating the speech and debate clause that protects members of Congress.

“You make me want to throw up in my mouth,” Kennedy said.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who is widely considered a potential 2028 Republican presidential candidate, also attacked non-disclosure orders Smith obtained to keep the phone record subpoenas confidential.

Smith maintains he sought the orders in compliance with the law.

“Let me say congratulations, because you have succeeded where Richard Nixon failed, which is weaponizing the Department of Justice and the federal government to go after your political opponents,” Cruz said.

Details on the ‘dirtbag’ back-and-forth

The viral exchange with Schmitt came about when he falsely accused Smith of being in Atlanta when Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who was prosecuting Trump on a separate election conspiracy case, admitted she had a romantic relationship with a special prosecutor. 

As his proof, Schmitt’s aide briefly displayed a large poster containing alleged texts between staff members about Smith’s attendance at an NBA game between the Atlanta Hawks and Golden State Warriors.

Smith said he could not recall going to an NBA game in Atlanta, or even visiting the city during his time as special prosecutor.

“I don’t think you know that we have this stuff, so I’ll give you a moment to process it so you don’t perjure yourself,” Schmitt said.

“You just took it down really quick, if I could look at that again,” Smith said. 

When Durbin requested Schmitt provide Smith with a copy of the alleged texts, the Missouri Republican moved on to his next question and said “I think you’ve already perjured yourself.”

Wrapping up his questioning, Schmitt said, “You may think you’re a hero in this story, but let me tell you something, you’re a villain. … You will go down as a total dirtbag.”

Booker, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., prodded Schmitt to display the poster board again and provide a copy.

Smith said he recalled being at a University of Maryland women’s basketball game against the University of Iowa to see the popular Iowa player Caitlin Clark.

“Could it be the Iowa Hawkeyes then … Perhaps you should have looked at it more carefully?” Klobuchar said to Schmitt. 

Schmitt criticized Klobuchar for interjecting before being officially called on for questioning.

“I’m gonna begin my questioning now, but I think that people should have their facts straight before they accuse someone of being a dirtbag,” Klobuchar said.

How the Trump cases turned out

Trump fought Smith’s prosecutions and claimed in court he was entitled to presidential immunity for any of his actions surrounding the 2020 election.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed in early 2024.

Smith dropped the election conspiracy case after Trump won the presidential election in November 2024.

Months prior, a Florida federal judge dismissed Smith’s case alleging Trump hoarded sensitive government documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving office in 2021. 

Judge Aileen Cannon threw out the case in July 2024 on the grounds that the Biden administration illegally appointed Smith.

WASHINGTON — Despite skyrocketing fuel prices and sinking approval ratings for President Donald Trump’s conflict in Iran ahead of the November midterms, Senate Republicans blocked Democrats’ efforts Thursday to check the president’s unfettered military action in the Middle East.

Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., joined Democrats in supporting the House-approved Iran War Powers Resolution. 

But the number of Republicans who wanted to curb Trump’s prolonged military action in the Islamic Republic fell short in the final tally of 49-50.

While Collins, Murkowski and Paul have supported Iran War Powers Resolutions over the past several months, Thursday’s vote marked the first time the retiring Tillis crossed the aisle on the issue. 

The North Carolina Republican announced he would not seek reelection after Trump publicly harangued him for voting against the “big beautiful bill” in July 2025. 

Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, voted against the resolution, as he has on more than a dozen occasions. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., did not vote.

Senate Republicans locked in tight races, including one who spoke out about the war just one day ago, voted against the measure.

Sen. Jon Husted, who is facing a heated challenge in Ohio from former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, said Wednesday, “The war needs to come to an end as quickly as possible so that we can lower gas prices,” according to Politico.

Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, who’s facing a challenge from Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola, and Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican facing an increasingly tight race, also voted no.

House passes resolution

The block in the Senate comes after seven House Republicans, including two vulnerable Iowa incumbents who for the first time supported halting the Iran conflict via a War Powers Resolution, jumped on board with Democrats Sept. 15 to pass the measure 220-204.

Iowa Republicans Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks both face tough reelection bids rated as “toss-ups” by the Cook Political Report with Amy Walter.

The war has dragged on since late February, ricocheting through the Middle East and disrupting global oil supplies. Americans are paying on average $1.30 more per gallon of gasoline than they were a year ago, according to AAA. Diesel hit a record high national average of $6.52 Tuesday.

Trump mulls war options

Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian signaled this week neither were ready to settle the conflict when they addressed the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. 

Trump contemplated aloud whether he would “annihilate” Iran’s population “with no chance of survival” if the Islamic Republic leaders refused to make a deal. Trump has made similar comments as far back as April, when he was still promising a swift end to the conflict.

Thursday’s vote marks the 14th time Senate Democrats have forced an Iran War Powers Resolution on the floor. Thursday’s vote was on Washington state Democrat Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s resolution that passed the House on July 23.  

A similar measure squeaked through the Senate 50-48 on June 23, when Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., joined Collins, Murkowski and Paul in support – though two Republicans, Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell and Pennsylvania’s Dave McCormick, were absent.

Cassidy lost the Senate Republican primary recently after Trump endorsed another candidate. But Cassidy voted against the latest War Powers Resolution Thursday.

Diesel export ban

Iowa’s longtime Sen. Chuck Grassley urged the White House as recently as Wednesday to ban diesel oil exports.

Trump administration officials have so far tiptoed around the issue of halting diesel exports. The White House denied a Politico report Wednesday claiming the administration was preparing for a 90-day embargo. Energy Secretary Chris Wright reportedly told Reuters Wednesday that an export ban would put “upward pressure” on the oil market and increase prices.

A White House official denied the Politico report in an email to States Newsroom Thursday.

But Trump signaled Tuesday that he’s “been talking about it” and supports the idea, according to reporters who traveled with him to New York.

Global petroleum supply is backlogged as Iran maintains its stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, and Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen gain more control of the Bab al-Mandab Strait. Both narrow passageways on either side of the Arabian Peninsula are major transit points for crude oil and liquid natural gas exports, among other commodities like fertilizer. 

Ukraine’s recent strikes on Russian oil refineries are also contributing to rising fuel prices. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sharply criticized Russia during his address at the U.N. Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump faces a “big decision” to make a deal with Iran or “annihilate” the country, he told the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday. 

During a 37-minute speech to his international counterparts including Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, in New York City, Trump asked, “Will a deal be made with Iran that lets them rebuild and create a far greater country than it ever was before?

“Or do I annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly … Do I drive them into hell with no chance of survival and no hope of future greatness or generations?” he said.

Speaking at the annual gathering aimed at promoting multilateral discussion among 193 member nations, Trump suggested Iranian leaders were waiting to see the results of the approaching midterm elections for control of Congress before any major negotiating decision.

“I believe we’ll make a deal right after the election because it doesn’t make sense for them not to,” he said. “They’re waiting to see how I do in the midterm election. What they don’t realize is that I’m not running.”

Iran tied to GOP midterm woes

Republicans running to maintain the majority in Congress in November face a difficult task amid sinking public support for Trump’s costly, months-long war in Iran. 

The Pentagon has confirmed 19 U.S. troops have died in the conflict, though The Washington Post has reported a more accurate count is either 22 or 23. Roughly 830 service members have been injured.

And the war has spiked the price of fuel to record levels.

Trump’s approval rating hit a record low of 32%, according to the latest polling figures published Monday by Reuters/Ipsos.

Diesel hit a new high Tuesday, reaching a national average of $6.52 per gallon, according to AAA. Gasoline hovered at $4.47 a gallon. 

The cost of energy commodities and services, a main driver of current inflation, is up 16.3% over last year, according to the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index.

Iran maintains its stranglehold of the Strait of Hormuz, a major global petroleum trade passageway, amid a U.S. naval blockade. And Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen are now targeting the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a chokepoint for Saudi Arabian oil exports.

The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on yet another War Powers Resolution this week aimed at curbing Trump’s military actions in Iran. Seven House Republicans joined Democrats Sept. 16 in passing a measure to stop Trump’s unilateral decision-making in Iran.

‘They want to talk’

Trump told reporters just before 2 p.m. Eastern that U.S. officials had met with Iranian leaders after his speech for what he described as “a very good meeting.” He did not provide further detail, according to reporters who traveled with him to New York City.

Speaking to reporters just before 1 p.m. Eastern, Trump said he believed “a settlement is going to be reached.” 

“They want to talk to us,” Trump said. “They have been talking to us even today. They’ve been talking to us. The relationship is developing, I’d say. But we can’t let them (have a nuclear weapon). They understand that. … And there’s a price to pay for that.”

White House pool

Trump’s trip to New York City also comes as major U.S. media organizations refused to distribute video, audio or photos of the president after he banned CNN, MS Now and Politico from the White House. The three organizations have sued on First Amendment grounds.

He told reporters Tuesday he has a right “to clean out fake news,” which he also described as “dangerous.”

When pressed by a reporter on how the media outlets are “dangerous,” Trump responded: “When they make statements about the war, when they make false statements, false stories, and they don’t have sources but they say they do, it’s very dangerous for our country.”

Iran’s Permanent Mission to the UN did not immediately respond to States Newsroom’s request for comment. An email address listed for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs appeared to be inoperable.

Upon arrival at the United Nations this week, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araqchi criticized what he called a “cowardly” war launched by the U.S. in conjunction with Israel on Feb. 28, according to a translation posted on his ministry’s website.

“This year, after the war that took place, it is natural that this rostrum will be a place to express the oppression of the Iranian people, the martyrs of Iran, the martyrs of Minab School, and at the head of them, our martyred leader and leader,” Abbas Araqchi said, referring to early strikes during the war that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, his family members and over 100 elementary school children. 

Iranian security forces killed thousands of Iranians in January as part of a crackdown on protests against the current government, according to Human Rights Watch and other advocates and observers.

Threat repeated

Trump’s speech Tuesday was not the first time he’s threatened a choice between striking peace with or heavily attacking Iran. 

Just before a short-lived ceasefire between Iran and the U.S. took effect in April, Trump threatened “a whole civilization will die” if Iran did not cooperate with U.S. demands.

The comment drummed up vocal opposition from some Republicans. 

Speaking about another military conflict, Trump said his Board of Peace was working to stabilize the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip following three years of bombardment by the Israeli government. When listing the countries involved in that effort, he twice mispronounced Kazakhstan.

The board claimed in a statement in July it reached an agreement for the “COMPLETE DISARMAMENT” of Hamas, the militant organization that attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, though the conflict remains ongoing.

Trump highlighted in his Tuesday remarks to global leaders the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and claimed the U.S. “is stronger today than ever before.” He repeated familiar refrains on domestic policies, including his immigration agenda and crime statistics in the nation’s capital. 

He also briefly mentioned he would require federal documents to use the term “super intelligence” in place of “artificial intelligence.” Trump has ardently defended the use of AI without guardrails in recent weeks after tech leaders issued a warning to slow its development.

The White House pointed States Newsroom to Trump’s comments to the press following the speech.

WASHINGTON — Diesel prices hit a record average of $6.51 a gallon Monday, and some in President Donald Trump’s own party are breaking their support for the ongoing war in Iran that has driven fuel prices to staggering levels in the United States and across the globe.

Already House Republicans locked in tight races as the November midterms approach have distanced themselves from the president’s conflict and his administration’s stagnant negotiations with Iran over reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a vital passage for global petroleum products. Another major vote on Iran support is expected later this week in the U.S. Senate.

The cost of diesel, which fuels the movement of goods through the United States, is up nearly $1 since last month, and up from just over $3.69 a year ago, according to AAA. 

The national average cost for a gallon of gasoline landed at just over $4.47 Monday, up more than a dollar from last year’s average at $3.18, according to the motor club’s daily monitor.

Trump has an opportunity this week to potentially meet with Iranian officials, as leaders head to the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. Trump told Fox News on Sunday he is “open” to meeting with Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Trump said he is in “deciding mode” about next steps in Iran, and that “big things” will happen in the “not so distant future,” he told the network’s Trey Yingst. 

Grassley wants diesel embargo

Longtime Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley urged Trump throughout the weekend to embargo diesel fuel exports as costs impact farmers in his largely agricultural state. 

“W(ith) diesel $6.57 in Iowa why doesn’t Pres Trump put an embargo on diesel exports like presidents in the 70s put embargoes on (agricultural) products bc food prices were inflated. High diesel prices ARE KILLING FARMERS INCOME,” Grassley wrote Saturday on X, followed by two more posts on Sunday urging the president to put “AMERICA FIRST.”

The administration does not have plans at this time to ban or restrict diesel exports, according to a White House official Monday. 

Seven House Republicans broke ranks last week and voted in support of stopping Trump’s war with Iran unless Congress approved further action. 

The Republicans included two vulnerable Iowa representatives, Reps. Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who are facing tough reelection bids in the fast-approaching midterm elections.

Democratic senators are expected to move on a War Powers Resolution vote this week. 

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said Wednesday he will force the vote to continue applying pressure on Trump to stop the military campaign that has not been authorized by Congress.

“We’re gonna force a vote to end this illegal war every week until we succeed,” Kaine said in a video posted to X. 

Two Republicans who will not serve in Congress next year, largely due to Trump’s public opposition to them, have also spoken out against the Pentagon leadership.

House Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who has consistently supported War Powers Resolutions on Iran, unexpectedly introduced articles of impeachment last week against Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, citing his leadership during the Iran conflict. 

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina told reporters on Capitol Hill Thursday that Hegseth “needs to go.” Tillis has voted no on multiple War Powers Resolutions aimed at ending hostilities in Iran.

Energy commodities up 16.3%

Inflation continued a steady march upwards in August, with fuel leading the way, according to the government’s latest consumer price index. 

The cost of all types of gasoline and fuel oil rose 3.9% from July to August. All energy commodities and services, like electricity, shot up 16.3% over the past 12 months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Trump and his administration officials have downplayed the squeeze on Americans at the pump, and Trump has promised fuel prices will drop “quickly” once the conflict ends.

On Monday he shifted the blame for skyrocketing diesel prices on to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“Russia has unfortunately lost control of its Diesel Oil Industry due to its War with Ukraine. A large number of their Diesel refineries have been blown up and are, at least temporarily, out of commission. This ridiculous and never ending War with Ukraine must be ended,” he wrote on his platform Truth Social.

Vice President JD Vance told reporters Monday that the administration “is doing everything we can” to reduce energy prices, and suggested that states should suspend gas taxes.

“We’re very cognizant of the fact that because the Iranians are terrorizing international shipping, energy prices are elevated,” he said.

Meanwhile the conflict has expanded in the Middle East as Iran -backed Houthi rebels in Yemen fight for control of the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a key route for Saudi Arabian oil exports. 

The State Department issued a safety alert Saturday to U.S. citizens in the Middle East, warning “the security environment remains complex with the potential for unforeseen escalation.”

“Americans currently in the Middle East should exercise heightened vigilance and be aware of potential flight cancellations, airspace closures, and travel disruptions,” according to the warning, which instructs American travelers to make sure cell phones are charged at all times and to “keep a low profile.”

WASHINGTON — A federal judge told the Trump administration Friday a case against the Department of Justice’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund is “still alive and kicking.”

The administration sought to dismiss the case brought against President Donald Trump’s negotiated settlement terms to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service for a years-old grievance over leaked tax returns. 

The settlement, brokered by the DOJ and Department of Treasury and met by heated opposition even from Republicans, established a massive taxpayer-funded settlement fund to pay “victims of lawfare.” It also included retroactive relief from tax audits and enforcement for Trump, his sons Don Jr. and Eric, and the Trump Organization.

Critics of the fund asserted the likelihood that violent participants who assaulted police during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol could reap a reward from the pot of money.

The administration maintains the fund never became operational and that the case is moot, though it refused to provide a sworn statement requested by the court saying as much.  Attorney General Todd Blanche testified at his July 15 confirmation hearing that the fund is “dead” and “never started.”

30 days to produce documents

On Friday, Judge Leonie Brinkema at the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia overruled the government’s objection to producing evidence and gave DOJ 30 days to produce documents potentially revealing who structured the deal. 

The “real concern,” she said is “this concept of taxpayer money being used to promote political viewpoints.”

“I think the fund now is gone, but is there a functional equivalent?” she asked, noting violators of federal laws that the administration opposes, like protections for abortion clinic clients, could be paid from a DOJ judgment fund.

Plaintiffs, including individuals and interest groups, sued the DOJ, Blanche and Treasury officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and IRS CEO Frank Bisignano.

Among the numerous plaintiffs are Andrew Floyd, a former assistant U.S. attorney who alleges he was fired for prosecuting Jan. 6 defendants, and the nonprofit National Abortion Federation, which represents abortion providers and advocates for abortion access.

Pooja Boisture, counsel for the plaintiffs, argued Friday the fund is “discriminatory.”

“This fund was designed to reward and give credence to election deniers and violators of the FACE Act,” she said, referring to the 1994 law that penalizes violence or threats from protesters against those entering to abortion clinics.

In response to a request for comment on Friday’s hearing, a DOJ spokesperson said, “The Department is confident that the court lacks jurisdiction over this lawsuit against the (anti-weaponization fund), which never started and isn’t moving forward.”

Constitutional question

The plaintiffs also allege the tax immunity arrangement for Trump, his sons and private conglomerate amounts to an unfair gain or advantage for the president, therefore violating the Constitution’s emoluments clause.

The National Treasury Employees Union is also party to the suit and brought the claim of an emoluments violation, as well as allegations of injury to tax auditors who may have been told to stop any audits of Trump.

“These members have no good options: If they comply with a request to terminate audits, they violate their oath of office; and if they refuse to comply, they will likely face retaliation for insubordination,” the union argued in a court filing.

The plaintiffs allege the president has ongoing audits that will be terminated under the immunity deal. 

Lisa Newman, attorney for the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward that is representing the plaintiffs, also told Brinkema, “We do plead that the president was participating in negotiation of the settlement.”

Newman referred to public reporting by The New York Times on May 19 that a loss in an IRS audit of Trump’s previous tax returns could cost him roughly $100 million.

Andrew Block, senior counsel for the Justice Department, told Brinkema he’s “not aware there are or (are) not” audits of the president’s tax returns from that period of time.

“It is speculation to say … that there was an improper request,” he said.

Brinkema shot back that Trump’s underlying $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS is “unique.”

“The plaintiff is absolutely controlling the defendants” who are at risk of being fired by the president on “a whim,” she said.

Settlement ‘castrated’ by judge

Brinkema said the Florida federal judge in Trump’s IRS case “castrated” the settlement in a July 13 order, adding the president’s underlying lawsuit against the nation’s tax enforcement agency is “extraordinarily relevant” to the lawsuit before her.

Judge Kathleen Williams for the  U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, where Trump filed his lawsuit, wrote in a 56-page order that “No sitting President has ever sued federal agencies completely subject to his control for monetary benefits, or any benefits that inure to him, his family, and associates.” 

“The failure of any attorney in this case to address, on this docket, the relationship of this Article II proscription with the benefits conferred by the ‘settlement’ is a glaring omission that speaks to the control of the Lead Plaintiff,” Williams wrote.