Biden administration announces nearly $1 billion aid package for Ukraine as Trump meets with Zelenskyy
Kent Nishimura / Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the Pentagon will send nearly $1 billion to Ukraine, bringing the total the United States has committed to Ukraine to more than $62 billion since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022.
The package dedicated an additional $988 million to Ukraine and will provide the country with more drones, rockets for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, and support for maintenance and sustainment.
Since the package was made through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, the assistance will be for contracts to deliver these systems to Ukraine after they are manufactured. This is different from the program the U.S. routinely gives Ukraine assistance through in which existing weapons from U.S. military stockpiles are provided to Ukraine quickly and the dollar amounts replenish U.S. supplies with new weapons.
“Together, we have helped Ukraine survive an all-out assault by the largest military in Europe,” said Austin, who noted he has convened the Ukraine Defense Contract Group of allies to Ukraine 24 times to coordinate aid. “Meanwhile, Russia has paid a staggering price.”
Austin said that since Russia launched its offensive, it has suffered at least 700,000 casualties and lost more than $200 billion.
This aid package is part of the effort to try to get Ukraine as much military aid as possible before the Trump administration takes over on Jan. 20 and is the 22nd aid package the Biden administration has sent to Ukraine under the USAI. It is likely the Biden administration is not going to be able to use up the almost $8 billion in Ukraine military aid funding still available that it had hoped to give Ukraine before the start of the Trump administration, according to a U.S. official. That opens up the possibility that it will be up to the Trump administration to decide what to do with the remaining congressionally approved funds.
Austin was delivering the keynote address at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute in Simi Valley, California, on Saturday as he and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell each accepted the Reagan Peace Through Strength Award.
“There is no such thing as a safe retreat from today’s interwoven world,” he said. “We are seeing a sneak preview of a world built by tyrants and thugs, a chaotic world, violent world, far into spheres of influence.”
“This administration has made its choice, and so has a bipartisan coalition in Congress,” Austin added. “The next administration must make its own choice. From this library, from this podium, I am confident that President Reagan would have stood on the side of Ukraine, American security, and human freedom.”
His remarks followed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meeting with President-elect Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris earlier Saturday ahead of the reopening ceremony for the Notre Dame Cathedral. Foreign leaders have been attempting to pressure Trump to continue sending aid to Ukraine once he takes office.
Trump has reportedly been in communication with the Russian President Vladimir Putin multiple times since leaving office in 2021 and has vowed he will end the war in Ukraine in “24 hours.”
“The baton will soon be passed,” Austin concluded. “Others will decide the course ahead. And I hope they will build on the strength that we have forged over the past four years.”
The remarks come as Trump’s pick to lead the DOD, Pete Hegseth, has faced increased scrutiny amid allegations of sexual misconduct and claims he has been drunk in public.
Trump has stood by his choice of Hegseth, saying in a preview of his interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “Pete is doing well now. I mean, people were a little bit concerned. He’s a young guy with a tremendous track record. … He loves the military, and I think people are starting to see it. So we’ll be working on his nomination, along with a lot of others.”
(NEW YORK) — President-elect Donald Trump announced Saturday that he plans on firing FBI director Christopher Wray and replacing him with longtime ally Kash Patel.
The appointment must be approved by the Senate.
Patel has been a staunch supporter of Trump for years and served in his first administration under a number of roles. He has vocally defended Jan. 6 rioters.
Patel has said he would target journalists, former senior FBI and Department of Justice officials and turn the FBI into a museum for the “deep state” on Day 1.
“This FBI will end the growing crime epidemic in America, dismantle the migrant criminal gangs, and stop the evil scourge of human and drug trafficking across the Border,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
The FBI and Patel did not immediately comment about Trump’s announcement. Trump can not make personnel changes to the FBI until he is sworn in.
Wray was appointed in 2017 after he fired Director James Comey, less than four years into his 10 year term. Trump claimed Comey “wasn’t doing a good job.”
Patel, 44, grew up in Long Island and earned a law degree from Pace University Law School. He first served as a public defender in Miami for nine years before moving to Washington D.C. in 2013 to work at Justice Department’s National Security Division.
Patel left the Justice Department in 2017 claiming frustration with the agency, especially with the handling of the Benghazi case.
He went on to lead the “Russia Gate” investigation for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, with a promise from Nunes that after the investigation he would help Patel get a job at the National Security Council in the White House.
As the self-described “lead investigator of the Russia Gate hoax,” Patel authored the so-called “Nunes memo” alleging that the FBI improperly eavesdropped on former Trump adviser Carter Page.
A major report by the Justice Department’s inspector general released in late 2019 found that the FBI was not impacted by political bias when it opened the investigation — though it outlined what it called “serious performance failures” on the part of agents as they vetted information from sources and sought surveillance warrants against Page.
In February 2019, Patel became Deputy Assistant to the President and “senior director for counterterrorism” on the White House’s National Security Council.
In February 2020, Patel took on a “temporary duty assignment” as deputy to the newly installed acting Director of National Intelligence. That November, after Trump lost the election, Patel was named chief of staff for the Defense Department, despite large critics pointing out that he was unqualifed for the role.
After Trump left the White House, Patel held a number of jobs including hosting shows on far right media outlets.
On a podcast two months ago, Patel said anyone involved in “Russiagate” should be stripped of their security clearances.
According to Patel, there is a “massive” list of such government officials, from the FBI and Justice Department to the CIA and U.S. military.
“They all still have clearances,” including those who left government for private sector jobs, so “everybody” should lose their clearances, Patel said.
Patel said he has personally “recommended” to Trump that the new administration also strip any security clearances still held by the 51 then-former intelligence officials, including former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA director John Brennan, who in October 2020, just weeks before the 2020 presidential election, signed onto a letter dismissing the public release of emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop as part of a “Russian information operation.”
Patel has also come to the defense of January 6th rioters.
He’s raised money for Jan. 6 defendants and their families, including by promoting the “J6 Prison Choir,” featuring Jan. 6 defendants still in jail, and co-producing their fundraising song “Justice for All,” which Trump played at some of his campaign rallies. And Patel once suggested Jan. 6 was “a free speech movement.”
Patel became a part of the investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
After news surfaced that the National Archives found some classified documents in boxes previously stored at Mar-a-Lago, Patel called the news “disinformation” and insisted he was there when Trump “declassified whole sets of materials in anticipation of leaving government that he thought the American public should have the right to read themselves.”
Four weeks later, Trump named Patel as one of his official representatives to the National Archives, and Patel promised to “march down there,” “identify every single document that they blocked being declassified at the National Archives, and we are going to start putting that information out.”
Two months later, Patel’s claimed Trump declassifying documents were included in the FBI’s affidavit laying out why the FBI believed a broad search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate was warranted. And Patel was subpoenaed to testify to the grand jury investigating the matter, but at first he refused to answer key questions.
He later returned to the grand jury and answered those questions only after being granted limited-use immunity. He has blasted the entire probe as unlawful overreach by a politically corrupted Justice Department.
(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump has proposed a plan to eliminate the Department of Education to “send all education work and needs back to the states,” according to his Agenda47 policy platform.
According to education experts, an end to the Department of Education could leave billions of funds, scholarships, grants and more hanging in the balance for the millions of K-12 and college students attending schools in the U.S.
The DOE was established as a Cabinet-level agency in 1979 under then-President Jimmy Carter, but was initially created in the late 1800s to collect data on what is working effectively in education for policymakers and educators.
The education agency facilitated the expansion of federal support for schooling over the years. After World War II, the GI Bill expanded education assistance for war veterans. After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik into space, the agency led to the expansion of science, math and foreign language instruction in elementary and secondary schools and supported vocational-technical training.
In the 1960s and 1970s, anti-poverty and anti-discrimination efforts shaped the Department of Education’s mission to provide equal access to education nationwide. This led to the founding of Title I funding to reduce educational achievement gaps between low-income and rural students and non-low-income schools.
The DOE also holds schools accountable for enforcing non-discrimination laws like Title IX based on gender, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Americans with Disabilities Act based on disability and Title VI based on race.
Federal Student Aid, awarding more than $120 billion a year in grants, work-study funds, and low-interest loans to approximately 13 million students, is also backed by the Department of Education.
The Department also holds schools accountable under the Every Student Succeeds Act, which requires each state to provide data on subject performance, graduation rates, suspensions, absenteeism, teacher qualifications, and more.
The department states on its website that it does not develop school curricula, set requirements for enrollment and graduation, or establish or accredit schools or universities.
However, it has played a major role in school funding for decades, particularly as state investment in K-12 schools worsened amid the 2008 Great Recession.
According to the Education Law Center, U.S. students lost almost $600 billion from states’ disinvestment in their public schools in the decade following the Great Recession.
The complicated nature of a department closure includes administering the billions of DOE funds directly to the individual states, according to higher education expert Clare McCann. McCann said doling out the money is something skilled employees at the DOE would be equipped to do.
“There’s a reason the Department of Education was created and it was to have this kind of in-house expertise and policy background on these [education] issues,” McCann told ABC News, adding, “The civil servants who work at the Department of Education are true experts in the field.”
Education Analyst Neal McCluskey at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, argues that dismantling the department could be as simple as giving states the funding, but allowing them to decide how it’s administered.
“What I’ve seen most often, and I’ve written about myself, is you could, for instance, take all the K-12 money, Title One, IDEA [Individuals with Disabilities Education Act] etc. — You would, of course, have to change the law, but one of the things you could do is block grant it; You’d say, ‘we’re going to fund these things, but we’re going to give it to the state so they can decide how it’s administered,'” he told ABC News.
Some education experts like Wendy A. Paterson, a professor and dean at Buffalo State University’s School of Education, told ABC News in an interview that she “could not see how serving families and children under the offices of the Department of Education could continue” without a federal department.
Paterson said that if funding itself is changed, it will likely worsen the national teacher shortage and impact the targeted communities the Department of Education specializes in — including low-income, disabled or FAFSA-seeking students.
“There’s an intimate relationship between our schools and the society that we create and that we pass along to our children, and it’s that important,” said Paterson. “So if we don’t have a federal organization that acknowledges the importance of schools and post-secondary education and the right of all children to have access to education, what are we saying about democracy?”
Why does Trump want to get rid of the Department of Education?
In a 2023 statement on his plans for schools, Donald Trump said that “one thing I’ll be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., and sending all education and education work and needs back to the states.”
“We want them to run the education of our children because they’ll do a much better job of it,” said Trump.
Trump’s Agenda47 does not state how the dismantling of the department would impact the programs the Department of Education runs.
However, on the campaign trail, in interviews with Elon Musk and on “Fox & Friends,” Trump has repeatedly said he wants to shutter the agency and instead choose one education department official for his Cabinet, aligning with Trump’s goals of dismantling “government bureaucracy” and restructuring the government agencies for more efficiency.
Several prominent conservatives and Republican figures have similarly proposed department closures over the years, including Ronald Reagan, Vivek Ramaswamy, and lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
McCluskey said in a recent essay that the department is “unconstitutional,” arguing that it exerts too much power over schools above local and state entities.
House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx has also argued that it’s not a constitutional requirement to have such a department: “I can’t find the word education in there [the Constitution] as one of the duties and responsibilities of Congress or the federal government,” Rep. Foxx, R-North Carolina, told ABC News.
Is it possible to eliminate it?
While possible in theory, education policy experts who spoke with ABC News suggest that would be an extremely chaotic – and unrealistic — task on Jan. 20, 2025, Inauguration Day.
The bold initiative won’t happen immediately, but McCluskey told ABC News it could be done through Congress.
“The Department of Education was created through legislation,” McCluskey told ABC News. “Legislation comes through Congress. If you want to take the Department of Education apart, you have to do that through legislation,” McCluskey added.
At this point, without congressional approval, McCluskey said the campaign trail messaging by the president-elect has no standing.
“I think that what is said on the campaigns and what actually is done have to often be two different things because, in campaigns, politicians say a lot of things that make it seem like it’s easy to do what they want to do,” McCluskey said.
“No president can just fire everybody in the Department of Education and have one person administer those programs,” he added.
Trump’s education policy
Trump, however, does list several federal policies he hopes to implement in schools nationwide. This includes instructing a future education department to cease programs that he claims “promote the concept of sex and gender transition, at any age” as well as punish teachers or schools who do so.
He hopes to create a credentialing body to certify teachers “who embrace patriotic values and support the American way of life,” though he does not further elaborate on what that consists of.
He also would prevent Title IX from allowing transgender women to compete in sports. He said he will create funding preferences and favorable treatment for states and school districts that abolish teacher tenure and adopt merit pay for educators for grades K-12 and allow parents to vote for principals.
(WASHINGTON) — With just six weeks until Election Day, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are campaigning in battleground states on Wednesday.
Vice President Kamala Harris is delivering remarks on the economy — a key 2024 issue that polls show Trump leading on with voters — in Pennsylvania. Later this week, she will travel to Arizona for some campaign events and to visit the southern border, according to a source familiar with her plans.
Trump will speak in North Carolina, a state Democrats are eyeing to flip this cycle. Trump is returning to the state as controversy engulfs the Republican nominee for governor, Mark Robinson, who Trump previously supported.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Harris to outline ‘pragmatic’ view on the economy to voters
As Harris seeks to gain ground on the economy, she will outline on Wednesday what her campaign is calling a “pragmatic” view on the issue.
Harris plans to tell voters that “as a capitalist she understands the limitations of government” and that the government must “work in partnership with the private sector and entrepreneurs,” according to the senior official, granted anonymity to preview Harris’s speech. The official noted Harris will make clear “she is unafraid to hold bad actors accountable if she needs to.”
The vice president will also argue that her economic philosophy is “rooted in her middle-class upbringing” and contrast that with Trump’s “gilded path to wealth,” as part of a larger values argument, the official said.
Harris to be interviewed by MSNBC
Harris is participating in an interview with MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle on Wednesday, which will air on the cable network on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET, MSNBC announced Wednesday morning.
The network frames it as her first solo network interview since she became the nominee.
Harris has done solo interviews with other news outlets: radio stations and local TV stations. Her first media interview since announcing her candidacy took place last month when she did a joint interview with Tim Walz on CNN.
National Intelligence director briefs Trump about Iranian threats
Former President Donald Trump was briefed by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence earlier Tuesday on Iran’s continued assassination threats against him, his campaign said in a new statement, calling the threats “real and specific.”
“Intelligence officials have identified that these continued and coordinated attacks have heightened in the past few months, and law enforcement officials across all agencies are working to ensure President Trump is protected and the election is free from interference,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung wrote in the statement.
“He will let nothing stop him or get in his way to fight for the American people and to Make America Great Again,” Cheung continued.
Harris Arizona campaign office damaged by apparent gunfire for second time in one week: Police
A coordinated campaign office shared by Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign and the Democratic Party in Tempe, Arizona, was damaged by gunfire just after midnight on Monday, the police said Tuesday in a statement to ABC News.
“No one was inside the office during the overnight hours, but this raises concerns about the safety of those who work in that building, as well as those nearby,” Tempe Police spokesperson Sgt. Ryan Cook said.
Police said they received calls from those who worked in the office on Monday afternoon and arrived to what they said appeared to be gunshots through the front windows.
Tempe Police said they are analyzing evidence and were taking “additional measures” after the shooting “to ensure the safety of staff and others in the area.” A motive for the shooting has not yet been determined and the investigation continues, according to the police.
The same office was shot at just a week prior, on Sept. 16, in an incident the police said appeared to involve a BB or pellet gun. That shooting also happened just after midnight and caused “criminal damage,” according to the police.
Harris is scheduled to visit the state on Friday.
In response to the second incident, the Harris campaign offered its thanks to Tempe police.
“Overnight, several shots were fired into our Tempe Democratic Party coordinated campaign office. We are grateful to Tempe Police for coming quickly to the scene and are fortunate no one was present or injured,” read a statement from a campaign spokesperson
Trump, Harris to take part in separate town halls on Univision
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will participate in two town halls next month hosted by Univision where they will interact with undecided Hispanic voters and respond to questions.
Trump will headline the first town hall, which will take place in Miami on Tuesday, Oct. 8 at 10 p.m. ET, the network announced.
Harris will headline the second Univision town hall, which will take place in Las Vegas on Thursday, Oct. 10 at 10 p.m. ET.
Both events will air coast-to-coast with Spanish-language translation on Univision and stream on ViX’s Noticias 24/7 channel and will also be available in English on Noticias Univision’s YouTube channel.
Mark Robinson hires Trump attorney who fought 2020 election results
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson announced Tuesday that he has hired lawyer Jesse Binnall to represent him in what he calls the “outrageous lies” following reporting by CNN that he posted racist and inflammatory comments on a porn site’s message board a decade ago.
Binnall is known for his representation of former President Donald Trump, including in legal cases involving Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Binnall still represents Trump in legal matters.
“I am confident that Binnall Law Group will leave no stone unturned and enable us to use every legal means to hold CNN accountable for their lies. In the meantime, my campaign remains laser-focused on the issues at stake in this election,” Robinson said in a statement.
Trump’s campaign and political action committees began paying Jesse Binnall’s law firms in November 2020, and they have paid nearly $6 million since.
This includes more than $823,000 paid so far this year by Trump’s Save America PAC and Make America Great Again PAC, which used to be his previous presidential campaign, according to campaign records.
Trump praises Sen. Manchin for not endorsing Harris
Former President Donald Trump is celebrating the decision from Independent Sen. Joe Manchin not to endorse Harris over her comments on considering eliminating the filibuster.
Manchin has not said whether or not he will endorse Trump.
“Congratulations to Senator Joe Manchin for not endorsing Radical Kamala Harris because of her DEATH WISH for the Filibuster and the Rule of Law,” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soo Rin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
Trump, in Georgia, hits on economy, immigration and more
In remarks in battleground Georgia focused on the economy and the tax code, Trump said dealing with immigration is first step in his economic plan.
In Savannah, Trump again said migrants with legal protected status in Springfield, Ohio, need to be deported and repeated his discriminatory and false argument that undocumented immigrants were stealing jobs from Black and Hispanic communities. He went on to call on local officials to “move the people back to the country from which they came.”
Trump spent much of his speech focused on increasing domestic production by tariffing other countries, telling Georgians they soon would be “stealing” jobs from other countries.
“Vote for Trump, and you will see a mass exodus of manufacturing from China to Pennsylvania, from Korea to North Carolina, from Germany to right here in Georgia, they’re going to come to Georgia, from Germany and a lot of other places,” he claimed.
“I’m outlining today, not only will we stop our businesses from leaving for foreign lands, but under my leadership, we’re going to take other countries’ jobs. Did you ever hear that expression before? Have you ever heard that? ‘We’re going to take other countries’ jobs.’ It’s never been stated before. We’re going to take their factories,” Trump claimed.
The former president also touched on Ukraine, just hours after President Joe Biden urged world leaders gathered at the United Nations General Assembly to never “waver” in support for Ukraine.
“I think that we’re stuck in that war unless I’m president. I’ll get it done. I’ll get it negotiated,” Trump claimed — a campaign pledge he often repeats but offers no specifics on how to accomplish.
Trump then seemingly praised Russia.
“That’s what they do, is they fight wars,” he said. “As somebody told me the other day, they beat Hitler, they beat Napoleon. That’s what they do. They fight and it’s not pleasant.”
ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
Nebraska governor won’t call special session to change electoral votes system
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen released a statement Tuesday confirming he has “no plans” to call a special session before the November general election — meaning that the Republican-led effort to change the state electoral college to winner-take-all is tabled, for now.
“My team and I have worked relentlessly to secure a filibuster-proof 33-vote majority to get winner-take-all passed before the November election,” Pillen said. “Given everything at stake for Nebraska and our country, we have left every inch on the field to get this done.”
“Unfortunately, we could not persuade 33 state senators,” he added.
Pillen specifically cited opposition from state Sen. Mike McDonnell, who on Monday said he would not support such a change before the 2024 election.
The switch would have likely benefitted Trump and made the electoral map more difficult for Harris.
-ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd and Oren Oppenheim
Trump attacks Harris’ plan to visit the border
Trump is now weighing in on Harris’ plans to visit the southern border this Friday in Arizona, labelling the visit as “political” and accusing her of attempting to “con the public” of her border record.
“After almost four years, Border Czar Kamala Harris has decided, for political reasons, that it’s time for her to go to our broken Southern Border. What a disgrace that she waited so long,” Trump wrote on his social media, repeating his disparaging rhetoric on migrants.
While Harris has been to the southern border, the trip marks her first visit since lauched her campaign at the end of July.
Trump has made immigration central to his 2024 campaign, pledging mass deportations and a border shutdown among other hard-line policies. He visited the border last month, the same day Harris formally accepted the Democratic nomination for president.
ABC News’ Soorin Kim, Lalee Ibssa and Kelsey Walsh
Harris planning a visit to southern border this week: Source
Vice President Harris is planning to visit the southern border during her visit to Arizona on Friday, according to a source familiar.
This would be Harris’ first visit to the southern border since she jumped to the top of the ticket at the end of July.
Immigration has been a big issue in the 2024 race, with Donald Trump and Republicans inaccurately calling Harris the “border czar” and blaming her for the border crisis. Harris, in turn, argues that Trump and Republicans are at fault for killing the bipartisan border bill earlier this year.
Harris has overseen the Biden administration’s efforts to address the root causes of migration as vice president, and visited the border in 2021, after she came under fire for not having done so.
Trump expected to return to Butler for a rally on Oct. 5: Sources
Trump is expected to return to Butler, Pennsylvania, the city of his first assassination attempt, next Saturday for a rally, according to multiple sources familiar with his plans.
The rally is scheduled for Oct. 5.
Trump has long promised to return to Butler to honor the victims who died at his July rally.
“I WILL BE GOING BACK TO BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA, FOR A BIG AND BEAUTIFUL RALLY, HONORING THE SOUL OF OUR BELOVED FIREFIGHTING HERO, COREY, AND THOSE BRAVE PATRIOTS INJURED TWO WEEKS AGO. WHAT A DAY IT WILL BE — FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT! STAY TUNED FOR DETAILS,” Trump wrote on his social media platform in July.
NBC News was first to report the news.
ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, Lalee Ibssa, Kesley Walsh and Soorin Kim
Harris won’t attend the Al Smith dinner, a presidential campaign staple
Vice President Harris will not attend the Al Smith dinner next month in New York, breaking with tradition of major party nominees sharing laughs at the benefit dinner, and will instead be on the campaign trail, a campaign official confirmed to ABC News.
“She is going to be campaigning in a battleground state that day, and the campaign wants to maximize her time in the battlegrounds this close to the election,” the official said.
The dinner, which benefits Catholic Charities, is scheduled for Oct. 17. It has become a traditional stop on the presidential campaign trail, with both the Republican and Democratic nominees attending and delivering remarks full of roasts. In recent years, both nominees attended the gala, including in 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020. (The latter was virtual because of the COVID-19 pandemic.)
The official also added that Harris’ team informed the dinner’s organizers she would be absent, but was willing to attend in a later year as president.
ABC News’ Fritz Farrow, Gabrielle Abdul-Hakim and Will McDuffie
Melania Trump to sit for her 1st interview of 2024 election cycle
Former first lady Melania Trump will sit down for her first interview of the 2024 election cycle with Fox News’ Ainsley Earhardt as she continues to promote her new book.
The interview is set to air on Thursday, Fox announced on Monday.
While Melania Trump has remained relatively quiet this campaign cycle, mainly appearing with the former president at closed-door events, she has been more active online recently as she launches her forthcoming memoir, “Melania.”
Her book is scheduled to be released on Oct. 8. Her website describes it in part as “the powerful and inspiring story of a woman who has defined personal excellence, overcome adversity, and carved her own path.”
ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim and Kelsey Walsh
Trump again says it’s too late for another debate amid challenges from Harris
Trump is again ruling out another debate against Harris, arguing it would be “a very bad thing” for the country.
“Well, I’ve already done two debates, and they, you know, we’re good, but to do a third one, everybody’s voting now, and it’s very late to be doing a third debate,” Trump told Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin in a phone conversation that aired Monday morning.
Harris said over the weekend she accepted an offer from CNN for a debate on Oct. 23.
Her team has also noted that there have been presidential debates in years past in the final weeks before Election Day.
“The final 2020 debate was October 22,” the Harris campaign wrote on X. “The proposed CNN debate is October 23.”
Trump also debated Hillary Clinton for a third time around the same timeframe: Oct. 19, 2016.
Trump slightly leads in Arizona, about even in North Carolina: Polls
A set of New York Times/Siena College polls found Trump slightly leads Harris in Arizona and they are about evenly matched in North Carolina.
Among likely voters in Arizona, Trump leads Harris 50% to 45% in a head-to-head matchup. In a six-way matchup with other candidates, Trump still leads Harris 48% to 43%.
In North Carolina, Trump also leads Harris among likely voters 49% to 47%. He also leads by 2 percentage points in a six-way matchup. The lead, however, is within the poll’s margin of error.
Arizona and North Carolina are considered crucial battlegrounds this election, along with Georgia. According to 538’s polling average, Trump is ahead slightly in each of the three Sun Belt states.
