Security for UFC fights at White House will be at Super Bowl level, Secret Service says
United States Secret Service Special Agent in Charge of the Washington, DC Field Office Tara McLeese speaks with ABC News Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas at D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Headquarters in Washington, DC. (ABC News)
(WASHINGTON) — As UFC fans descend on Washington, D.C., for Freedom 250 on Sunday and events surrounding it Friday and Saturday, security will also be strict, according to the top Secret Service agent for D.C.
UFC Freedom 250 has been designated a Special Event Assessment Review 1 event, like the Super Bowl, Indianapolis 500, Kentucky Derby and college football games, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Entrance to the South Lawn of the White House, where the UFC Octagon has been erected, is invitation-only for some 4,000 guests. The larger crowd will be watching on The Ellipse, outside the White House grounds.
The UFC Fan Fest and Watch Party on the Ellipse is free, but tickets are required and fans will have to pass through TSA-like screening, according to Tara McLeese, special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Washington Field Office.
Federal law prohibits flying drones in the airspace over the National Capital Region, so McLeese’s advice for fans is to “leave their drones at home.”
“We will have law enforcement drones for overwatch, but just to make it simple for the public, if they see a drone, we want them to report that,” she said.
The fight on the South Lawn and viewing on The Ellipse kick off a summer of events in the nation’s capital, many celebrating America’s 250th birthday.
“The public safety team here in the Washington, D.C., area is second to none. We have a lot of big events in D.C., and it’s very much a collaborative effort, a team effort here in D.C.,” McLeese said. The Secret Service is partnering with U.S. Park Police for security.
For the first time, the annual 4th of July fireworks display on the National Mall will be designated a National Special Security Event, with security levels on par with presidential inaugurations.The event is something Secret Service is also “very focused on,” McLeese said, adding that people attending the celebration will also have to pass through TSA-like screening.
In years past “you could just walk up and put a lawn chair and a blanket out. That will be different this year,” she said. “You won’t be able to just show up. There will be specific places, designated places to go through security before you can get on the Mall.”
The Secret Service uniformed division and agents have been involved in three shootings in the past two months — the first at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner when a gunman allegedly attempted to get through the screening area with a firearm, the second in which a man allegedly fired on a unformed officer near the Washington Monument and then days later a man allegedly opened fire on uniformed officers over Memorial Day weekend.
“I can tell you that our workforce is training every day, that we are hyper-focused on ensuring that we are ready to respond to any type of threat or attack that comes our way,” McLeese said.
The Dome of the U.S. Capitol Building is visible in the early morning hours, April 2, 2026. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Congress returns from its two-week recess early this week — thrusting lawmakers back into the debate surrounding the Iran war as the President Donald Trump’s strategy faces continued scrutiny.
House and Senate Democrats plan to force separate votes in both chambers on Iran war powers resolutions this week. These resolutions would call on the president to terminate the use of U.S. armed forces in hostilities against Iran or any part of the Iranian government or military unless a declaration of war or authorization to use military force is enacted.
Previously these efforts have narrowly failed, but as the conflict drags on and lawmakers continue to face questions about the president’s actions, additional Republicans could decide to support the efforts.
Expulsion votes possible for four lawmakers The House could move as early as this week to expel several members of Congress.
Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida said she will force a vote to expel Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., next week amid allegations of sexual assault. Texas GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales could also face a similar vote after he admitted to having an affair with a former staffer. And Florida Democrat Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick is expected to face an expulsion vote, likely following a House Ethics Committee sanction hearing on April 21. The congresswoman was indicted on charges of stealing $5 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds, which she is accused of laundering to support her 2021 congressional campaign.
Expelling a member of Congress — which is a rare occurrence — requires a two-thirds majority vote, a higher threshold than the simple majority needed to pass most legislation. Only six lawmakers in U.S. history have been expelled, including George Santos in 2023.
As the expulsion resolutions stack up, Democrats are also clamoring for the expulsion of Florida Republican Rep. Cory Mills, who has faced his own allegations of misconduct.
Speaker Mike Johnson has previously been opposed to expulsion efforts and has argued that lawmakers deserve due process.
Awaiting Johnson’s next move on DHS funding Lawmakers return as the Department of Homeland Security’s partial shutdown drags on — hitting Day 66 on Monday when the Senate returns to session.
The partial shutdown is the longest in U.S. history.
Johnson has not yet acted on the Senate’s DHS funding bill, which stripped out funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.
It’s not clear what Johnson’s next move will be to attempt to reopen the agency, as he balances threats to the gavel against an arduous path to fully fund DHS’ breadth of agencies via reconciliation.
The Senate plans to move forward with a narrow budget reconciliation bill to fund ICE and CPB for the next three years with Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham leading the charge, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said.
Trump said on Friday that he met with senators Graham and John Barrasso to discuss the matter.
“Reconciliation is ON TRACK, and we are moving FAST and FOCUSED in keeping our Border SECURE, and getting funding to the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department to continue our incredible SUCCESS at MAKING AMERICA SAFE AGAIN!” Trump wrote on his social media platform on Friday.
While reconciliation is a lengthy process that sidesteps the filibuster, Trump has demanded that the bill land on his desk by June 1 — an enormous challenge for Republicans navigating small margins in both chambers.
As the next legislative blitz approaches, House Republicans get a smidgeon of relief with the arrival of Rep.-elect Clay Fuller, who won a special election in Georgia’s 14th Congressional District earlier this month to fill the seat once occupied by Marjorie Taylor Greene. Fuller is expected to take the oath of office during the House’s first vote series on Tuesday, April 14.
The addition means that Johnson can afford to lose two GOP votes with all members voting and present.
Cabinet members defend their budgets Trump’s FY2027 budget requests also take center stage as several Cabinet secretaries and administration officials are slated to testify before lawmakers including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Director of the United States Office of Management and Budge Russ Vought, United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, Secret Service Director Sean Curran and more.
Bipartisan backlash over Bondi While first lady Melania Trump brought the saga around convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein back into the headlines, the GOP-led House Oversight Committee is not slated to hold any depositions this week as part of their ongoing investigation into Epstein. The Department of Justice said former Attorney General Pam Bondi will not appear for a closed-door deposition with the committee on Tuesday, April 14 — which has prompted bipartisan backlash from lawmakers on the committee. The next scheduled deposition is expected April 30.
Conservatives present challenge for Johnson on FISA House Republican leadership are also aiming to put a clean extension of FISA Section 702, known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, on the floor for a vote sometime this week. The federal law sets out rules and procedures for gathering foreign intelligence through electronic surveillance, physical searches, pen registers and more.
Johnson and Trump have publicly backed a clean extension through October 2027. However, several House conservatives do not support a clean extension — presenting Johnson a challenge to pass the bill relying on help from Democrats, who are mostly reluctant to help Republicans and Trump accomplish anything legislatively.
Once the House passes FISA legislation, the Senate will need to take up the measure by April 20 — when the law is set to expire.
Markwayne Mullin, secretary of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, May 27, 2026. (Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(NEWARK, N.J.) — Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin amped up his threats Thursday to pull Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents who process international passengers at Newark Liberty International Airport to help control protesters outside of New Jersey’s Delaney Hall detention center.
Mullin continued to slam the protests, now in their seventh day, outside the Immigration Customs and Enforcement detention center over reports of poor living conditions and poor health among its 300 detainees. DHS has denied the allegations.
ICE agents have clashed with protesters who attempted to block vehicles from entering, prompting the federal agents to use pepper spray and batons against them.
Mullin told “Fox & Friends” on Thursday that DHS needed to “prioritize federal police officers” in response to the protests and is considering pulling CBP agents from the airport to help agents outside the detention facility, which would delay processing international travelers and cargo.
“That may effect international flights coming in and out of their airport because I’m going to have to pull Customs and Border Protection officers out of being able to process international flights and put them helping our ICE agents,” he said.
“By the way, if you can’t process international flights because Customs is closed, you can’t obviously process international flights coming in from out of country,” he added.
Mullin said on Fox News that if “things don’t change” he’ll have to make the move “pretty quick.”
“We are not going to halt the flights, we won’t be able to process them because we won’t have officers there,” he said. “We will have to pull out our Customs and Border Patrol officers that process these flights and put them in these [detention] facilities to help protect our employees coming out to work.”
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Newark Liberty International, did not immediately comment on Mullin’s proposal.
Mullin has long been teasing a plan to pull CBP officers from airports that are in so-called “sanctuary jurisdictions.” On Wednesday, he said he is “drawing up plans.”
However, Mullin’s controversial proposal has received pushback from travel groups.
U.S. Travel Association, a group representing the country’s travel industry, met with Mullin last week and expressed concerns about the plan to withdraw CBP officers from several cities.
“U.S. Travel believes such a move would have devastating consequences for the travel industry and communities that depend on international visitation,” the group said in a statement Friday.
At least one Trump administration official has questioned such a policy.
Asked about the proposal in a congressional hearing last week, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he wasn’t familiar with Mullin’s comments but said it wouldn’t be a good idea to implement such a policy based on politics.
“I’d like to take a look at [Mullin’s] comments and get the context and I’d even ask him a question of what he meant by that, but we have people from around the world and around the country that need to be able to fly into all different kinds of places. We shouldn’t shut down air travel in a state that doesn’t agree with our politics,” Duffy said.
The demonstrations at Delaney Hall continued Wednesday night and protesters again clashed with federal law enforcement.
Several Democratic Congress members, including New Jersey Sen. Corey Booker, have visited the detention center over the last week and say they have seen the decrepit conditions first hand.
“The stories I’ve gotten, especially from women inmates, about the access to medical attention, seemed unsatisfactory, if not downright dangerous to their conditions,” Booker said Wednesday.
That same day, Mullin denied the allegations and the reports of a hunger strike inside the facility contending that there were “only a handful of individuals that was refusing to eat” because they allegedly wanted their “ethnic right food.”
“Well, they can go back to their country and get whatever food they want,” he told reporters.
White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles listens as President Donald Trump announces the creation of the U.S. strategic critical minerals reserve during an event in the Oval Office of the White House on February 02, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — White House chief of staff Susie Wiles said Monday that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer, which was detected early, and that she will continue to serve in her role while she undergoes treatment.
“I am grateful to have an outstanding team of doctors who detected the cancer early and are guiding my care, and I am encouraged by a strong prognosis,” Wiles said in a statement. “I am also deeply thankful for the support and encouragement of President Trump as I undergo treatment and continue serving in my role as White House Chief of Staff.”
President Donald Trump said in a social media post Monday that while Wiles undergoes treatment, “she will be spending virtually full time at the White House, which makes me, as President, very happy!”
During an event at the White House on Monday, Trump praised his top aide, saying that she is an “amazing fighter” and will “take care of it immediately,” referring to her treatment.
“She just started actually, and she’s going to be a great shape,” Trump said of her treatment. “The prognosis there is excellent, beyond excellent.”
Wiles has served as the White House chief of staff since the beginning of Trump’s second term.
She didn’t offer any additional details about her prognosis or treatment plan.
Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women in the United States (excluding skin cancers). About 1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer.
An estimated 321,910 females will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year, the American Cancer Society estimates. An estimated 42,140 women will die.
