Judge partially backs Democrat Kennedy Center trustee in lawsuit over renaming

(WASHINGTON) — The Senate on Thursday advanced a war powers resolution, which would block the president’s use of the U.S. armed forces to engage in hostilities within or against Venezuela unless authorized by Congress.

A small group of Senate Republicans joined with all Democrats to narrowly advance the resolution by a vote of 52-47.  It needed 51 votes to move forward.

Republican Sens. Rand Paul, Lisa Murkowski, Todd Young, Susan Collins and Josh Hawley voted with all Democrats in favor of the legislation. 

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, pushed for the resolution to receive a vote immediately after President Donald Trump announced U.S. forces carried out a large-scale attack in Venezuela, capturing dictator Nicolas Maduro and his wife, who are facing federal charges including narcoterrorism conspiracy and conspiracy to import cocaine.

“Where will this go next? Will the President deploy our troops to protect Iranian protesters? To enforce the fragile ceasefire in Gaza To battle terrorists in Nigeria To seize Greenland or the Panama Canal? To suppress Americans peacefully assembling to protest his policies? Trump has threatened to do all this and more and sees no need to seek legal authorization from people’s elected legislature before putting servicemembers at risk,” Kaine said in a statement on Jan. 3.

Kaine added it was “long past time for Congress to reassert its critical constitutional role in matters of war, peace, diplomacy and trade.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Republican Sen. Paul and Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff co-sponsored Kaine’s resolution.

The legislation, if finally approved by the Senate, would still need to be approved by the House and signed by the president. The bill did not pass the Senate with a veto-proof majority and it seems unlikely that Trump would sign it into law.

The Senate considered a similar resolution last November that narrowly failed to get the 50 votes it needed to pass. Sens. Paul and Murkowski voted with all Democrats to advance it at the time. 

Ahead of Thursday’s vote, many Republicans distanced themselves from the effort.

“Let’s be clear about what that resolution does and what it does not do. It does not reassert Congress’s powers. It does not make America stronger. It makes America weaker and less safe,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso said in a statement on Wednesday.

“It would weaken the President’s legitimate, constitutional authority. This body, the United States Senate, is being asked whether the President of the United States has the authority to arrest indicted criminals. Of course he does. Democrats want to weaken the President’s ability to enforce the law. That is the wrong message to send to hardened drug traffickers and to dictators,” Barrasso added.

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(WASHINGTON) — When President Donald Trump capped a historic political comeback on Inauguration Day last Jan. 20, he proclaimed the “Golden Age of America” had arrived, and in his first 12 months, the nation has experienced a whiplash of domestic and foreign policy changes, and political disputes that have stirred intense national debate.

Within hours of taking office, the president signed more than 200 executive actions, including rescinding nearly 80 actions under President Joe Biden, and pardoning 1,500 people convicted of crimes stemming from the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

“From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer. During every single day of the Trump administration, I will very simply put America First,” Trump vowed during his inaugural address.

A look at Trump’s first year shows a mixture of fulfilled promises, dramatic actions and ongoing controversies that show his political ambitions and the divided response from Americans.

Foreign policy

Trump ran on an agenda of “peace through strength,” promising to be a global peacemaker.

“My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier. That’s what I want to be, a peacemaker and a unifier,” Trump said during his address at the inauguration.

Since taking office, the president has made significant foreign policy decisions, from an on-the-ground operation to seize the leader of Venezuela, ratcheting tensions with Europe in an effort to seize Greenland and efforts to achieve peace in global conflicts from Ukraine to the Middle East.

The president achieved one of those goals by securing a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war that raged in Gaza. The delicate peace deal has held and recently moved into its second phase. The deal came after months of statecraft by Trump and many of his closest allies. 

Trump has also formulated what he calls the “Donroe Doctrine,” a play on words of the Monroe Doctrine that reimagines the American role in the Western Hemisphere. That change in vision was punctuated by an on-the-ground operation in Venezuela to capture then-President Nicolas Maduro and bring him to the U.S. to face charges for allegedly supporting cartels that brought narcotics into the U.S. 

That effort came after the administration carried out strikes on boats that were allegedly carrying drugs, killing more than 100 people. Those strikes have faced major questions from Democrats.

The president has also called for the U.S. to own Greenland and is ratcheting up tension with European allies as he tries to make good on his promised efforts to own Denmark’s semiautonomous territory. Those tensions have reached a fever pitch around Trump’s one-year mark in office as the president has not ruled out taking Greenland by force. 

Trump vowed on the campaign trail to end the war in Ukraine on Day 1 of his term in office. However, after many meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a historic summit on American soil with Russian President Vladimir Putin, that promise has failed to materialize. The war between Russia and Ukraine continues to rage on and Trump has repeatedly said that ending the conflict is more complex than he expected it would be.

Immigration

Trump has followed through on his campaign pledge to aggressively crack down on illegal immigration.

In 2025, the United States experienced negative net migration for the first time in at least 50 years as a result of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, according to a report by the Brookings Institution, which added that the number is mostly due to a significant drop in entries into the U.S.

The Department of Homeland Security claims more than 622,000 people have been deported since the president took office.

Throughout the year, the administration significantly expanded Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations nationwide, with the White House publicly celebrating rising ICE arrests in multiple states, despite their controversial tactics, deadly force, legal pushback and protests.

A Quinnipiac University poll found 57% of voters disapproving of how ICE is enforcing immigration laws, with 40% approving, largely unchanged from Quinnipiac’s previous polling in July. Most Democrats and independents disapprove of how ICE is enforcing laws; most Republicans approve.

The president surged federal law enforcement and even troops into cities such as Los Angeles, New Orleans and currently Minneapolis, Minnesota, to help carry out immigration enforcement there. However, many local officials have spoken out against the enforcement operations.

Federal restructuring (DOGE)

Trump has also made major changes to the federal government, executing on another of his major changes to the size and powers of the federal government. Trump worked alongside billionaire Elon Musk for the first months of his presidency to enact the policy of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

DOGE took a chainsaw to much of the government, including shuttering the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and firing or laying off thousands of federal workers.

In May, after months working to reshape the federal workforce and government, Musk said that the DOGE effort, which he promised on the campaign trail would cut $2 trillion in federal spending, saved about $160 million after about five months.

“I think we’ve been effective, not as effective as I’d like, I think we could be more effective, but we made progress,” Musk said in May.

Economic policies

Trump enacted one of his biggest campaign promises during his first year in office: widespread tariffs on goods brought into the U.S. The goal of the tariffs was to onshore manufacturing and slash trade deficits.

On April 2, which Trump dubbed “Liberation Day,” the president announced sweeping tariff policies on almost all of America’s trading partners and went far beyond what many experts expected his tariff policy to look like. Just one day later, the stock market tanked in reaction, with stocks losing nearly $3.1 trillion in value. 

A few days later, the president paused those sweeping tariffs to give time for the administration to instead cut deals with nations. Trump said that investors had gotten “the yips,” which is why he pulled back. The administration set to work, promising to strike 90 deals in 90 days with America’s trading partners.

They fell short of that goal, but the White House has since reached deals or frameworks with dozens of America’s trading partners. The White House has also made significant carve-outs for some goods that cannot be produced or grown in the U.S. such as coffee and bananas. 

The president came into office promising a “manufacturing boom” and that his policies would create “millions and millions of blue-collar jobs and jobs of every type,” but the final jobs report of 2025 showed hiring in the American economy is cooling.

Roughly 50,000 new jobs were added to the workforce in December, slightly below expectations, but the unemployment rate did drop to 4.4%. Roughly two thirds of overall job gains last year were in the health care sector, while manufacturing, tech and government all lost more jobs than they added, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The latest CPI report shows inflation up 2.7% from a year ago. Costs continue to rise for energy, medical care and foods such as coffee and ground beef, while wholesale egg prices have dropped to their lowest levels since 2019, according to the USDA.

The typical American household is now spending $184 more a month to purchase the same goods and services as a year ago, and $590 more a month than three years ago, according to Moody’s Analytics.

The president kicked off a tour in December to talk to Americans directly about his administration’s efforts to bring down costs. Trump has continued to insist that “affordability” is a “hoax” that was invented by Democrats. 

Trump unveiled a health care plan, which he had promised for nearly a decade in early 2026. The administration unveiled his “great healthcare plan,” but the details are sparse, with top administration officials calling it “broad” and a “framework.”

Trump says he wants to give money directly to Americans so they can buy their own insurance, but it’s unclear how that would work, how much they will get or whether it would cover their health care costs. A recent poll found 52% of voters saying Trump has “hurt” the cost of health care.

The president has also planned to unveil a plan that would lower housing costs during an upcoming trip to Davos, Switzerland. It’s unclear what exactly the plan will entail, but the president has floated “steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes” in an effort to improve housing costs.

Changes to the White House

Trump has also made his mark on the physical space of the White House. From ornamental changes to major tear downs, the president has made his mark on the historic home of the commander in chief. 

What started with gilded additions to the Oval Office and the usual redecorating quickly became more long-lasting changes to the White House. The president repaved the historic Rose Garden with white stone and added what he dubbed the “Presidential Walk of Fame” which includes portraits and politically charged plaques about American presidents through history. 

One of the biggest moves came in October of 2025, when Trump tore down the White House East Wing to make way for a 90,000 square foot ballroom. The major construction and rapid pace of the tear-down faced major criticism from many Democrats.

The president has made his mark on other D.C. landmarks too. The president’s hand-picked board of the Kennedy Performing Arts Center voted in mid-December to rename the structure the “Trump-Kennedy Center.”

The president has followed through of many of his campaign promises. Yet a recent Reuters-Ipsos poll finds that on every issue measured, Trump does not enjoy majority approval. With the midterm elections looming, it remains to be seen whether the president will have the political capital to push through his agenda throughout his historic second term.

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(WASHINGTON) —  Millions of dollars tied to artificial intelligence are pouring into the 2026 midterms.

Interest groups funded in part by AI industry leaders are split on how the government should oversee AI — and that’s already having an impact on political ads, some experts told ABC News.

“It’s sort of an open question as to what regulation is going to look like,” University of Rochester professor David Primo told ABC News. “The stakes are really high because once a regulatory system gets entrenched, it’s really hard to change it.”

An AI-related political group, Innovation Council Action, tied to two of President Donald Trump’s advisors, announced on Sunday that it would spend at least $100 million, The New York Times reported.

The donations associated with the AI sector go beyond party lines. Federal Election Commission filings show that key industry players are pouring money into committees supporting both Democrats and Republicans, with certain groups criticizing candidates who have expressed support for new AI-related laws and others doing the opposite.

“Companies have always tried to shape regulations, and they’ve always tried to shape them in their favor. What we’re seeing now, though, is that the big companies are not united,” Primo said.

With AI’s presence being increasingly felt, some politicians are calling on their colleagues not to accept money from the burgeoning industry.

“Their money will end up being toxic anyway,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., posted on social media. “People are catching on.”

1 industry, different political priorities

In February, Anthropic, the developer of Claude AI, announced it would give $20 million to an organization called Public First Action, explaining that it agreed with most Americans that not enough was being done to regulate AI and that the technology comes with “considerable risks.”

Public First Action spokesperson Anthony Rivera-Rodriguez said that they have already run advertisements thanking Rep. Nikki Budzinski, D-Ill., Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Rep. Josh Gottheimer D-N.J., for their AI records.

Gottheimer introduced a bill in February that would provide tax credits for companies training workers on AI development.

It is not yet clear who else has contributed to Public First Action, which describes itself as a “pro-regulation” group.

“Public First Action doesn’t disclose its donors,” Rivera-Rodriguez told ABC News. “To date, the project has raised around $50 million. The aligned super PACs will publicly disclose their contributors in their upcoming FEC reports.”

One of Anthropic’s main competitors, ChatGPT owner OpenAI, has voiced support for nationwide “common-sense rules of the road,” but has cautioned that the U.S. should not fall behind other countries.

In an economic blueprint released last year, OpenAI compared AI’s ascent to the rise of the car, pointing out that while the motor vehicle “industry’s growth was stunted by regulation” in the United Kingdom, the U.S. “took a very different approach,” causing the American automobile sector to grow.

FEC disclosures show that OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman and his wife each contributed $12.5 million to a group called Leading the Future, which describes itself as supporting candidates who “champion policies that harness the economic benefits of AI and reject attempts to hinder American innovation.”

Committees with links to Leading the Future have already made millions worth of contributions, filings indicate.

One group spent more than $500,000 each in support of North Carolina Republican House candidate Laurie Buckhout and Texas Republican House candidate Jessica Steinmann. The same committee spent more than $700,000 supporting Texas Republican House candidate Chris Gober.

Buckhout, Steinmann and Gober each won their March primaries. All three candidates include similar statements on their websites, mentioning that China cannot overcome the U.S. in the AI race.

Millions spent in Manhattan alone

Nowhere is the role of AI more front and center than in New York’s 12th Congressional District.

Numerous Democrats are running in this Manhattan race, but Assemblyman and former ​​Palantir employee Alex Bores, who co-sponsored New York’s Responsible AI Safety and Education Act, is the candidate who has largely had AI’s focus.

Bores’ website says that he hopes to hold large AI companies accountable and would work to create national safety and privacy requirements.

A PAC associated with Anthropic-supported Public First Action is supporting Bores, Rivera-Rodriguez confirmed. Leading the Future is not.

“Alex Bores is a hypocrite pushing policies that would undermine America’s ability to lead the world in AI innovation and job creation,” Leading the Future spokesperson Jessie Hunt told ABC News.

As of March 16, a super PAC tied to Leading the Future had already spent more than $2.2 million opposing Bores, FEC filings show.

“There’s a few Trump megadonors that made billions of dollars from AI that don’t think there should be any regulation of AI whatsoever,” Bores told ABC News following a recent forum.

With so much AI-related money flowing into races like NY-12 around the country, Primo said these funds are not being spent secretly or for bribery. Instead, the cash is being used to convince voters of who they should elect.

“This might actually be democracy functioning really well,” he said.

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