Category: Politics

(WASHINGTON) — Senate Republicans are aiming to secure $1 billion in funding for security-related aspects of the White House ballroom project as part of a broader, roughly $70 billion funding package for immigration enforcement, which they aim to pass with little-to-no support from Democrats.

Republicans began unveiling aspects of their reconciliation package late Monday night. Included within the bill is a $1 billion allocation to the Secret Service for “the purposes of security adjustments and upgrades … relating to the East Wing Modernization Project, including above-ground and below-ground security features.”

The funding can only be used for security-related aspects of the project, according to the bill text.

The Trump administration has previously said it aims to raise $400 million in private donations to pay for the ballroom, and has said it will cost the taxpayer nothing.

President Donald Trump said in October that the ballroom would be “paid for 100% by me and some friends of mine,” referencing donors.

“The government is paying absolutely nothing,” Trump said.

Democratic lawmakers have introduced legislation that they have titled “The Stop Ballroom Bribery Act” to regulate the project and impose restrictions on donations.

A group of GOP senators led by Sen. Lindsey Graham introduced separate legislation that would provide $400 million in funding. The senators on that bill say their proposal is to offset the cost of the ballroom by using customs fees. Because it is not in a reconciliation bill, it will almost certainly fail to pass if it even gets a vote on the Senate floor.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul put forward a separate bill that would authorize the ballroom but not fund it. He attempted to pass that by unanimous consent last week and it failed.

This bill text comes as Republicans have increasingly called for the construction of the ballroom following the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner last month. They say a secure facility is necessary for the president and Cabinet members to gather with large groups on the White House grounds.

The White House said Tuesday that “Congress has rightly recognized the need for these funds.”

“Due in part to the recent assassination attempt on President Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the proposal would provide the United States Secret Service with the resources they need to fully and completely harden the White House complex, in addition to the many other critical missions for the USSS,” White House spokesman Davis Ingle said in a statement. “As President Trump has repeatedly said, the White House must be a safe and secure complex that generations of future presidents and visitors to the People’s house can enjoy.”

In a statement to ABC News on Tuesday, a spokesperson for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley said the bill does “does not fund ballroom construction,” but “provides funds for Secret Service enhancements that will ensure all presidents, their families and their staffs are adequately protected.”

The ballroom has been the target of a lawsuit filed late last year by historic preservationists, with a federal judge finding it to be illegal without the approval of lawmakers.

In a filing in the case last month, the Trump administration said that the security enhancements to the East Wing project would include “missile resistant steel columns, Military-grade venting, drone-proof ceilings and bullet, ballistic, and blast proof glass,” all aimed at forming a “fortified structural buffer” to protect not only the ballroom, but also the main White House residence and the offices in the West Wing.

That April 27 Justice Department filing, which read in part like a social media post written in the president’s own voice, also said the upgrades would include “bomb shelters, a state of the art hospital and medical facilities, Top Secret military installations, structures, and equipment, protective partitioning, and other features.”

District Judge Richard Leon ruled in late March that building the ballroom without congressional authorization violated the law. While Leon carved out an exception for work that would be necessary to ensure the “safety and security of the White House,” he later clarified his decision to allow for “below-ground construction” on the project, as well as anything above ground that would be “strictly necessary” to secure and protect that work.

Leon’s injunction has been administratively stayed by a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, pending oral argument at a hearing set for next month. The appeals court’s order means that, for now, work on both the ballroom and the project’s security-related features can continue.

For weeks, Republicans have been working to put forward a funding package in response to political gridlock that left Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Border Patrol without their regular annual appropriations. Though these agencies received funding through the previously passed One Big Beautiful Bill, Republicans say more funding is needed, and they’re looking to secure $26 billion for U.S. Customs and Border Protection and $38 billion for ICE in this just-released bill.

Republicans are aiming to pass the funding using a budgeting tool called reconciliation, which, if successful, would allow Republicans to send this funding to Trump’s desk without the support of a single Democrat and without the possibility of a filibuster. But there are rules governing this process, and it’s not yet clear whether the Senate parliamentarian, who must determine whether items in a reconciliation package are “substantive to the budget,” will green light the ballroom security funding or other items in the bill.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday that Republicans are “on a different planet” than American families with their spending priorities.

“Republicans looked at families drowning in bills and decided what they really needed was more raids and a Trump ballroom,” Schumer wrote in a post on X Tuesday.

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(FULTON COUNTY, Ga.) — The Department of Justice last month demanded the names and contact information for every election worker in Fulton County, Georgia, involved in the 2020 election, according to court filings disclosed this week.

The Fulton County Board of Registrations and Elections is now asking a federal court in Atlanta to quash the grand jury subpoena from federal agents, which requested the names, addresses, phone numbers and emails for any staff member who worked the 2020 election.

“Its purpose is to target, harass, and punish the President’s perceived political opponents; it is grossly overbroad and untethered to any reasonable need; it cannot yield any evidence that could result in a criminal prosecution,” lawyers for the Fulton County officials said in the motion filed Monday with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

The subpoena appears to escalate the Trump administration’s pressure on Fulton County amid an ongoing federal investigation into purported irregulates in the 2020 election.

Driven in part by Trump allies who unsuccessfully sought to use debunked theories to overturn the election, federal agents in January seized all the ballots and records from the 2020 election.

For months, Fulton County officials have urged a federal judge to order the records be returned, though that judge has not yet issued a ruling.

DOJ attorneys have insisted that the search was based on evidence of potential misconduct and accused Fulton County officials of speculating about “some kind of grand conspiracy.”

In the motion filed on Monday, lawyers for Fulton County called the recent subpoena the “latest effort to target and harass the President’s perceived political enemies.” They argue that the statute of limitations for any alleged crime has run out and that the investigation lacks a legitimate basis.

“Grand juries do not exist to conduct roving inquiries untethered to a prosecutable criminal case,” the motion said.

Robb Pitts, the chairman of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, described the subpoena as an “outrageous federal overreach designed to intimidate and to chill participation in elections” in a statement.

The DOJ did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

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(WASHINGTON) — With Iranian forces attacking commercial vessels near the Strait of Hormuz and oil infrastructure in the United Arab Emirates, President Donald Trump on Monday stopped short of saying the U.S.-Iran ceasefire has been violated. 

“[It was] not heavy firing,” Trump said in a phone call with ABC News when asked if the ceasefire had been violated. “We’ll let you know. Ships are moving. You know, we moved quite a few last night — big ones. There was no firing. I guess there has been some recently. I’m looking into it.”

Over the past several hours, Iran fired on a South Korean ship near the Strait of Hormuz, and fired missiles and drones on the UAE. Plus, according to CENTCOM, U.S. forces fired on six Iranian fast boats and intercepted several Iranian missiles and drones.

Trump told ABC that “Iran “better hope [the ceasefire] remains in effect. The best thing that can happen to them is that we keep it in effect.”

And what happens if the ceasefire is broken?

“I’ll let you know, like I’ll let everyone else know,” the president said. “We just heard about this, and we’ll find out about it. What should happen is South Korea should get involved. It was a South Korean ship that got hit. And I would think, if you have a ship that’s hit, you should immediately send some people.”

“Right now, we we’re being very nice. We’re taking care of the world,” Trump added.

On the Iran’s firing of missiles and drones at the UAE, Trump said “they were shot down for the most part.”

“One got through. Not huge damage,” he said.

So we shouldn’t overreact?

“Overreacting is very bad for them,” Trump said. “Not for me.”

And what does this all mean about the prospects for ending the war?

“We have it under control,” Trump said. “One way or the other, we win. And you know why, Jon? I always win. You found that out a long time ago.”

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(NEW YORK) — Rudy Giuliani is hospitalized in critical condition and “is recovering from pneumonia” after being on ventilator, his spokesman said. 

The 81-year-old former New York City mayor is critical but stable, spokesman Ted Goodman said in a statement on Sunday.

He “is being monitored as a precautionary measure,” Goodman said in a followup statement on Monday.

Giuliani served as New York City’s mayor from 1994 to 2001. Goodman noted in Monday’s statement that Giuliani “ran toward the towers to help those in need” on Sept. 11, 2001, “which later led to a diagnosis of restrictive airway disease.”

“This condition adds complications to any respiratory illness, and the virus quickly overwhelmed his body, requiring mechanical ventilation to maintain adequate oxygen and stabilize his condition,” he said. “He is now breathing on his own, with his family and primary medical provider at his side.”

Restrictive lung disease refers to a group of conditions where the lungs can’t fully expand, so people take in less air and often feel short of breath, according to the CDC.

After his term as mayor, Giuliani was a personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, who wrote about Giuliani’s hospitalization in a social media post on Sunday. The president called Giuliani “a True Warrior, and the Best Mayor in the History of New York City, BY FAR.”

A spokesperson for Eric Adams, who was the city’s mayor from 2022 to 2025, noted Giuliani’s service in a statement.

“From his years as a federal prosecutor to leading New York City through its darkest day on 9/11, he stood with this city when it needed him most,” Adams spokesperson Todd Shapiro said.

People with restrictive lung disease face a higher risk of pneumonia because stiff or scarred lungs make it harder to clear mucus and fight infection.

Studies show patients with interstitial lung disease have significantly higher hospitalization and death rates from pneumonia than the general population, especially in older adults and those with advanced disease.

There are about 650,000 cases of interstitial lung diseases in the U.S. Various conditions that fall within this diagnosis are linked to 9/11 exposure and are covered by the World Trade Health program. 

– ABC News’ Isabella Murray, Darren Reynolds and Liz Neporent contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court on Monday issued an administrative stay of a lower court order that had rolled back access to mifepristone nationwide.

The move preserves access to the abortion pill without the need for an in-person doctor’s visit.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(NEW YORK) — Rudy Giuliani is hospitalized in critical condition, his spokesman said on Sunday.

The 81-year-old former New York City mayor is critical but stable, spokesman Ted Goodman said in a statement.

The statement does not say what led to the hospitalization.

“Mayor Rudy Giuliani is currently in the hospital, where he remains in critical but stable condition,” the statement said. “Mayor Giuliani is a fighter who has faced every challenge in his life with unwavering strength, and he’s fighting with that same level of strength as we speak.  We do ask that you join us in prayer for America’s Mayor — Rudy Giuliani.”

Giuliani served as New York City’s mayor from 1994 to 2001.

More recently, he was a personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, who wrote about Giuliani’s hospitalization in a social media post. The president called Giuliani “a True Warrior, and the Best Mayor in the History of New York City, BY FAR.”

A spokesperson for Eric Adams, who was the city’s mayor from 2022 to 2025, noted Giuliani’s service in a statement.

“From his years as a federal prosecutor to leading New York City through its darkest day on 9/11, he stood with this city when it needed him most,” Adams spokesperson Todd Shapiro said.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Indiana Hoosiers — 2025 College Football Playoff national champions — will visit the White House on Monday, May 11, according to a source familiar with the team’s plans.

It’s unclear whether former Indiana quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza will attend. Mendoza was the first player chosen in April’s NFL draft.

ABC News reached out to the White House about the upcoming visit but did not receive an immediate response.

Led by a late-game touchdown run by Mendoza, the Hoosiers’ undefeated season was capped off in storybook fashion this past January, when the team defeated the Miami Hurricanes 27-21 for their first-ever championship.

Indiana Head Coach Curt Cignetti is also expected to attend.

The White House trip is an honor bestowed to the championship winning teams in both college and professional sports. It’s often coupled with visits to Capitol Hill but the source couldn’t determine whether the team’s schedule would feature a trip to Congress.

President Donald Trump welcomed several NCAA collegiate champions to the White House last month.

The Hoosiers’ expected visit comes amid Trump’s efforts to “save” college sports. The president signed an executive order last month urging Congress to “expeditiously” pass legislation that addresses the future of competition and opportunity in all college sports, especially football and basketball.

Meanwhile, the Hoosiers championship also comes as name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals have been scrutinized by the White House and lawmakers in Washington concerning pay-for-play and player eligibility.

Looking to repeat as national champions, the Hoosiers finished spring practice last week with a reloaded squad that features top transfer portal pickups, quarterback Josh Hoover and wide receiver Nick Marsh.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump announced Friday that he will increase tariffs on European Union cars and trucks to 25% next week, claiming in a social media post that the EU is “not complying with our fully agreed to Trade Deal.”

“Based on the fact the European Union is not complying with our fully agreed to Trade Deal, next week I will be increasing Tariffs charged to the European Union for Cars and Trucks coming into the United States. The Tariff will be increased to 25%,” Trump wrote in a post to his social media platform.

While the president did not specify what tariff authority he was invoking, it appears that the administration will use Section 232, which authorizes him to “adjust the imports” of goods that the secretary of commerce finds to have been imported in a manner that threatens U.S. national security.

Trump, departing the White House Friday afternoon, reiterated that the tariff was coming because “as usual, they were not adhering to the agreement that we have.”

ABC News has reached out to the White House for additional comment on tariff authority.

Trump, in his social media post, touted American automobile production capabilities, claiming that U.S. manufacturing plants “will be opening soon” and that “over 100 Billion dollars” is being invested, though he did not say where the alleged money was coming from.

“It is fully understood and agreed that, if they produce Cars and Trucks in U.S.A. Plants, there will be NO TARIFF. Many Automobile and Truck Plants are currently under construction, with over 100 Billion Dollars being invested, A RECORD in the History of Car and Truck Manufacturing,” Trump added in his post.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration is seeking the participation of other countries to form an international coalition to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, according to an internal cable sent this week by the State Department to posts around the world.

Dubbed the “Maritime Freedom Construct,” the coalition would help with coordinating diplomatic efforts, including aligning on sanctions and information sharing to help with safe transit through the waterway, according to a U.S. official.

The cable called on diplomats to announce the formation of the new coalition and “ask for partner participation” by Friday.

The Maritime Freedom Construct would take steps to ensure safe passage, including providing real-time information, safety guidance, and coordination to ensure vessels can transit the waters securely, the cable said.

The Wall Street Journal first reported on the cable.

“The MFC’s efforts will enhance maritime domain awareness and support the safe passage of commercial operators and their crews,” a State Department official said.

The United Kingdom and France have already launched a multilateral effort involving 30+ nations toward securing the strait that could eventually involve deploying military assets if a peace deal is reached, according to those countries’ governments. 

However, last week during a Pentagon press briefing, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth mocked the European efforts, saying Europe might want to start having “less fancy conferences in Europe and get in a boat.”

He dismissed the U.K. and French effort aimed at ensuring the future security of the critical Gulf waterway as “silly.”

“Europe and Asia have benefited from our protection for decades, but the time for free-riding is over,” he said.

Shahram Irani, Iran’s Navy commander, called the U.S. blockade “piracy” and the U.S. as “maritime terrorists.”

“The Strait of Hormuz is closed from the Arabian Gulf, meaning they have no right of passage from there, and there is no entry. As soon as they come, operational and tactical action is taken against them,” he said.

He went on to call the blockade piracy and american actions as “maritime terrorists”

On Thursday, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned the consequences of continued disruptions to the global energy supply caused by the Iran war and the closure of the strait “grow worse with each passing hour.”

Guterres the worst-case scenario could be “the specter of a global recession” if disruptions to the strait continue through 2026. Even in the best case, if restrictions were relieved today, “supply chains will take months to recover” and warned that developing countries will be hit the hardest by economic instability.

According to the cable, the coalition will be led by the departments of State and Defense through U.S. Central Command.

The State-led component, based in Washington, D.C., will serve as the diplomatic operations hub, uniting partners and the commercial shipping industry. The Pentagon component operating out of CENTCOM headquarters in Florida would coordinate real-time maritime traffic and communicate directly with vessels transiting the Strait, the cable said.

“It will provide a platform to coordinate diplomatic actions and socialize and align economic measures designed to impose costs on Iran for disrupting maritime security,” the State official said.

ABC News’ Desiree Adib contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Senate committee on Thursday that dissent from the “cheap seats” in Congress sought to undermine the military’s efforts in its war in Iran only two months into the campaign.

“Defeatists from the cheap seats who, two months in, seek to undermine the incredible efforts that have been undertaken and the historic nature of taking on a 47-year threat,” Hegseth said in his opening statement.

The statement was nearly identical to what he told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday in the first of two hearings on the Pentagon’s 2027 budget plan in which he faces questions on the war in his first appearances before Congress since the war started in February.

The hearings were scheduled to discuss the Pentagon’s request for a $1.5 trillion budget for 2027, the most the Pentagon has ever requested. In Wednesday’s hearing, Jules Hurst III, the Pentagon comptroller, testified the war has so far cost $25 billion. The Pentagon has said it will ask for $200 billion in supplemental funding for the campaign.

In both hearings, Hegseth asserted the the U.S.’s “biggest adversary” in the war is from within.

“Unfortunately, as I said yesterday, and I’ll say it again today, the biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless naysayers and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans,” he said.

Democratic Rep. Chrissy Houlahan pushed back against Hegseth’s assertion on Wednesday, telling him, “Mr. Secretary, you reserved more words and more time and more vitriol to condemn Democrats than you did for [Chinese President Xi Jinping] and for [Russian Federation President Vladimir] Putin combined. It’s pretty telling to me that you decided to use your words and your time for that.”

Leaving Thursday’s hearing, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said, “Secretary Hegseth seems to feel that by attacking the committee, he somehow is persuading the American people. “It’s exactly the opposite — his antagonism and seeming reluctance to tell the truth, I think, is doing this administration and the country a tremendous disfavor. And by refusing to come clean, give us precise numbers on costs, when we know that the true figures are higher than what has been told us, I think just undermines his credibility.”

Democrats and some Republicans in Congress have questioned the rationale behind launching the campaign against Iran, its endgame and the strains it has put on the economy and alliances with U.S. partners.

Hegseth was briefly interrupted by protesters during Thursday’s hearing.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared to agree with Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker’s assertion that Russia has tried to to undermine the U.S. operation in Iran.

“General Caine, there’s no question that Vladimir Putin’s Russia is taking serious action to undermine our efforts for success in Iran. Is there any question about that?” Wicker asked.

“I think there’s actions and activities. [I’m] mindful of the hearing room we’re in, but there’s, there’s, there’s definitely some action there,” Caine said. Wicker described the war against Iran as a success.

“While we all mourn the tragic loss of the 14 service members who have lost their lives in this conflict, we do so knowing the world is safer without a nuclear Iran,” he said.

But he noted the threat that Iran still poses.

“Most of Iran’s leaders are now deceased, but they and those who survived them have consistently sought violence against America, Israel, our Gulf allies,” Wicker said.

Wicker said Iran was part of an axis of aggressors with China, Russia and North Korea.

“This growing alliance cannot be denied,” the chairman said, adding later that “ties have never been closer among these four … dictatorships.”

Ranking Democrat Jack Reed said that the war has put the U.S. “in a worse strategic position,” pointing out that the Strait of Hormuz had closed because of the war and Iran’s nuclear material remained unaddressed and telling Hegseth his declaration of victory on April 8 was premature.

“Mr. Secretary, I am concerned that you have been telling the president what he wants to hear, instead of what he needs to hear,” Reed said. “Bold assurances of success are a disservice to both the commander-in-chief and the troops who risk their lives based on them. Our military has performed heroically. But military force without a sound strategy is a path to long-term defeat.”

Reed also said cultural erosion has taken place in the military and would lead to “lasting harm.” He pointed to Kid Rock’s recent “joy ride” with Hegseth in Army attack helicopters, the firing of several senior officers, and “troubling” statements he said the secretary had made about the conduct of the war.

“You have made troubling statements about showing ‘no mercy’ and ‘no quarter’ to the Iranians: orders that would constitute war crimes,” Reed said.

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