Johnson, Thune announce plan to end DHS shutdown ‘in the coming days’
(WASHINGTON) — House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune announced on Wednesday the Republican-controlled Congress “in the coming days” will fully fund the Department of Homeland Security through both the appropriations process and reconciliation process.
“In following this two-track approach, the Republican Congress will fully reopen the Department, make sure all federal workers are paid, and specifically fund immigration enforcement and border security for the next three years so that those law-enforcement activities can continue uninhibited,” the top Republicans said in a statement.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Conference, participates in the group’s press conference in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, March 25, 2025. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
(UVALDE, Texas) — Texas Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales is denying allegations he engaged in an extramarital affair with a congressional aide who died by suicide last fall — calling on the Uvalde police department to release its report on her death despite objections from her family.
Regina Santos-Aviles, 35, died on Sept. 14 after she doused herself with an accelerant and set herself ablaze at her home on Geraldine Avenue in Uvalde, Texas, Bexar County officials determined.
Santos-Aviles served as regional district director for Gonzales, who lost an endorsement this week from the San Antonio Express-News following its reporting of an alleged affair between Gonzales and Santos-Aviles.
The Express-News reported that it obtained texts between a former Gonzales staffer and Santos-Aviles, in which Santos-Aviles claimed she engaged in an affair with Gonzales.
Gonzales has repeatedly denied the affair with Santos-Aviles.
In a statement to ABC News, the Gonzales campaign did not comment on the reported text messages, and blamed his rival in the GOP primary, Brandon Herrera, for planting allegations in the press.
“Ms. Santos-Aviles was a kind soul who devoted her life to making the community a better place,” Gonzales told ABC News in a statement. “Her efforts led to improvements in school safety, healthcare, and rural water like never before. It’s shameful that Brandon Herrera is using a disgruntled former staffer to smear her memory and score political points, conveniently pushing this out the very day early voting started. I am not going to engage in these personal smears and instead will remain focused on helping President Trump secure the border and improve the lives of all Texans.”
Gonzales faces a primary fight with Herrera, a conservative influencer who he defeated by less than 400 votes in 2024. Herrera called on Gonzales to resign from office via a post on X on Wednesday.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office ruled that 9-1-1 calls, video, and police reports must remained sealed, though Gonzales is now calling on the Uvalde Police Department to release its report.
On Thursday, Gonzales posted on X suggesting an attorney representing the Santos-Aviles family was seeking an out-of-court financial settlement, which Gonzales described as “blackmail.”
“I WILL NOT BE BLACKMAILED. Disgusting to see people profit politically and financially off a tragic death. The public should IMMEDIATELY have full access to the Uvalde Police report. I will keep fighting for #TX23,” Gonzales said in the post.
Santos-Aviles’ widower, Adrian Aviles, denied Gonzales’ charge of blackmail while expressing his intent to block details of the incident from becoming unsealed.
“We have never blackmailed anyone,” Adrian Aviles wrote in a statement on X. “What we’ve seen instead is a consistent pattern of evasion, refusal to take accountability, and outright lies to protect your image. You’re a classic case of a two-faced politician who says whatever is convenient to save face. We chose to hold back the full police report and body cam footage for one reason only it shows my wife suffering severe burns in horrific detail. I will not allow that graphic material to become accessible to our 8 year old son in the future when he is old enough to search for or come across it.”
The post continued: “Nothing in that police report protects you, that decision is about protecting our child’s well-being, not concealing anything improper. Your actions have been disgraceful, and you continue to mislead your constituents with falsehoods. You may avoid responsibility here on earth, but one day you will answer to a higher authority. Today, though, you still answer to the people you represent–people who deserve the truth, not more deception.”
Reached by ABC News, attorney Robert Barrera, who represents Adrian Aviles, said he is in possession of “substantial evidence” from Santos-Aviles’ phone “supporting the affair.”
Barrera added that Gonzales refused any out of court settlement and is now “attempting in an act of desperation to become a victim of his own conduct when it has now come to light that he has committed adultery with a staffer.”
Barrera declined to release the full letter sent to Gonzales’ lawyers.
Gonzales, 44, is married to his wife Angel and the couple have six children together.
At the time of the incident, the three-term lawmaker provided a statement to San Antonio ABC station KSAT reacting to “the recent news” of Santos-Aviles’ death:
“We are all heart-stricken by the recent news. Regina devoted her profession toward making a difference in her community. She will always be remembered for her passion towards Uvalde and helping the community become a better place,” Gonzales stated.
Gonzales has already won President Donald Trump’s endorsement for reelection, as well as several law enforcement groups from Texas.
he U.S. Supreme Court is seen on March 04, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump attacked the U.S. court system in two posts on social media over the weekend, including disparaging a Supreme Court ruling over his use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to implement tariffs.
He also took aim at a ruling by a U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Friday that blocked the Justice Department’s subpoenas as part of their criminal investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
“The decision that mattered most to me was TARIFFS! The Court knew where I stood,” Trump said on Sunday night.
The Supreme Court last month delivered a major blow to Trump by invalidating most of his global tariffs, a cornerstone of his economic policy in his second term. In a 6-3 decision, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court concluded that IEEPA did not give Trump the power to unilaterally impose tariffs because the Constitution gives Congress the sole authority to raise revenue from Americans.
Trump on Sunday night derided the high court’s decision, claiming that the “Democrats on the Court always ‘stick together,’ no matter how strong a case is put before them.”
Trump also took a dig at Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett, both of whom the president appointed during his first term to the nation’s highest court, accusing them of going “out of their way, with bad and wrongful rulings and intentions, to prove how ‘honest,’ ‘independent,’ and ‘legitimate’ they are.”
Notwithstanding the criticism, Gorsuch and Barrett have been reliable conservative votes on the court, consistently voting in favor of positions backed by the Trump administration. Last year, Barrett authored the landmark 6-3 decision restricting the ability of lower court judges from issuing nationwide injunctions against Trump policies.
Trump claimed the court’s decision on tariffs meant the U.S. “was unnecessarily RANSACKED” and called the court “a weaponized and unjust Political Organization.”
“They are hurting our Country, and will continue to do so. All I can do, as President, is call them out for their bad behavior! This statement about the United States Supreme Court will cause me nothing but problems in the future, but I feel it is my obligation to speak the TRUTH,” Trump wrote, seemingly acknowledging the potential backlash he might receive over his attacks.
Trump on the day after that ruling said he would raise those tariffs to 15%. Twenty-four states are suing the Trump administration over those duties, saying they’re illegal because the president does not have the power to impose them.
Tariffs aside, the court’s conservative majority ruled overwhelmingly in Trump’s favor during this first year of his second term, approving nearly all of the administration’s unprecedented number of emergency applications seeking a green light for government layoffs, federal funding freezes, expedited removal of immigrants, and expulsion of transgender military service members.
In 2024, the court extended sweeping immunity to Trump in the face of criminal prosecution, which Trump called a “big win for our Constitution and democracy” at the time.
In a second social media post, Trump claimed that the U.S. court system had singled him out and treated him and other Republicans in a politicized manner.
“The Courts treat Republicans, and me, so unfairly, always seeming to protect those who should not be protected,” Trump said. “They are highly politicized. Cases don’t matter, the Judge does!”
He then blasted the Friday ruling by Boasberg, a top federal judge in Washington, that blocked the Justice Department from subpoenaing the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors after determining the government “produced essentially zero evidence” to support a criminal investigation of Powell, the Fed chair.
“How is this absolutely terrible Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome ‘Too Late’ Powell, not even allowed to be investigated for the horrible job he does?” Trump wrote.
Powell in January had rebuked the investigation, describing it in a video message as a politically motivated effort to influence the Fed’s interest rate policy.
The president on Sunday also attacked Boasberg, who authored the ruling.
“I strongly criticized Jerome ‘Too Late’ for his horrible performance throughout his tenure, which is either gross incompetence, total dishonesty, or both, and, in return for this well justified criticism, get viciously and wrongfully blamed by, as usual, a Wacky, Nasty, Crooked, and totally Out of Control Judge, named James Boasberg, a man who suffers from the highest level of Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), and has been ‘after’ my people, and me, for years,” Trump wrote.
“In case after case, Boasberg has displayed open, flagrant, and extreme partisan bias and contempt against Republicans and the Trump Administration,” Trump added later in the post.
The president then called for Boasberg to be removed from cases related to Trump and his administration, claiming “he is exactly what Judges should not be!”
Acting U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said on Friday that Boasberg was an “activist” judge, adding that the Justice Department planned to appeal the ruling.
Following a previous round of Trump attacks on Boasberg last year, Roberts issued a rare public statement defending the judge and judiciary.
The Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Truxtun departs Naval Station Norfolk, Feb. 3, 2026. (Petty Officer 2nd Class Derek Co/US Navy)
(NEW YORK) — A rare collision at sea between two U.S. Navy ships occurred in the Caribbean on Wednesday, leaving two personnel with minor injuries, according to U.S. Southern Command.
“Yesterday afternoon, the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Truxtun (DDG103) and the Supply-class fast combat support ship USNS Supply (T-AOE-6) collided during a replenishment-at-sea,” Col. Emmanuel Ortiz, a U.S. Southern Command spokesman, said in a statement.
He added that “two personnel reported minor injuries and are in stable condition.”
“Both ships have reported sailing safely. The incident is currently under investigation,” Ortiz said.
It is unclear if the two injured were aboard the destroyer, the supply ship or both ships.
During a replenishment at sea, two ships sail side-by-side at a close distance and supplies are transferred to the receiving ships via a cable fired from one ship to the other.
The Wall Street Journal was first to report that a collision had occurred between the two ships.
Collisions at sea are very rare for U.S. Navy ships with the most recent one before Wednesday’s incident taking place on Feb. 12, 2025, in the Mediterranean Sea when the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman collided with a merchant ship off of Port Said, Egypt. The collision caused enough damage to the carrier that it had to make a port of call to receive repairs.
While no injuries occurred in that collision, a subsequent Navy investigation determined that a slight adjustment in the course of either ship could have led to a mass-casualty event.
A damage assessment for the Wednesday collision is being made that will help determine whether the ships will proceed with their deployments or will return to port, according to a U.S. official.
The Truxtun had just left its homeport of Norfolk, Virginia, on Feb. 6 to begin its deployment to the Caribbean as part of the large U.S. Naval presence built up over the last couple of months and that has remained in place following the seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
There are currently 11 U.S. Navy ships operating in the Caribbean including the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford.
