Talk of the Town
(COLUMBIA, S.C.) — The South Carolina Senate on Tuesday effectively killed a proposed congressional map that could have allowed Republicans to flip the seat held by Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn, a major rebuff to a mid-decade redistricting effort promoted by President Donald Trump.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said that he and Vice President JD Vance are “philosophically a little bit different” when it comes to U.S. war with Iran after ABC News previously reported that Vance internally expressed reservations about the strikes late last month.
When asked during his Monday evening news conference in Florida if there were any disagreements between him and Vance on action against Iran, Trump said he didn’t “think so.”
“We get along very well on this,” Trump said. “He was, I would say, philosophically a little bit different than me. I think he was maybe less enthusiastic about going, but he was quite enthusiastic. But I felt it was something we had to do. I didn’t feel we had a choice. If we didn’t do it, they would have done it to us.”
Trump’s comments about their differences on Iran come after ABC News reported that Vance, who has largely opposed U.S. intervention abroad, made his reservations about the strikes against Iran known internally, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Once it became clear that the decision had been made to move forward with the strikes, Vance shifted his focus to supporting the military operation, a source told ABC News.
This is not the first time Vance, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq, has expressed concerns internally about possible U.S. foreign military intervention.
Last year, in the Signal group chat discussing the U.S. attack on Houthis in Yemen that a journalist was inadvertently invited to join, Vance appeared to break with Trump and questioned whether the president recognized that a unilateral U.S. attack on the Houthis to keep international shipping lanes open was at odds with his tough talk about European nations paying their share of such efforts.
A few days before the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, Vance told The Washington Post that there was “no chance” of a drawn-out war in Iran if the U.S. moved forward with the strikes.
Vance reiterated that same sentiment in a recent interview with Fox News, but also added that the operation against Iran “could go for a lot longer.”
“There’s just no way that Donald Trump is going to allow this country to get into a multi-year conflict with no clear end in sight and no clear objective. What is different about President Trump, and it’s frankly different about both Republicans and Democrats of the past, is that he’s not going to let his country go to war unless there’s a clearly defined objective,” Vance told Fox News.
“He’s defined that objective as Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and has to commit long-term to never trying to rebuild the nuclear capability. It’s pretty clear. It’s pretty simple, and I think that means that we’re not going to get into the problems that we’ve had with Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said.
Ahead of his second term, Trump campaigned on “America First” policies, which attracted his MAGA base. After the strikes on Iran, there has been criticism from within his base — including former political adviser Steve Bannon, who called the it “a mistake not to put America first.”
Trump said Monday that the U.S. is making “major” progress in achieving its military goals and that the operation is “ahead of our initial timeline by a lot.”
“We’re achieving major strides toward completing our military objective. And some people could say they’re pretty well complete. We’ve wiped every single force in Iran out very completely,” Trump said.
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(WASHINGTON) — Construction on the Ultimate Fighting Championship Octagon is underway on the White House South Lawn ahead of President Donald Trump’s planned fights this summer to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States.
The event, dubbed “UFC Freedom Fights 250,” will take place on June 14 — coinciding with the president’s birthday and Flag Day — and feature a lightweight title matchup between undisputed champion Ilia Topuria and interim title holder Justin Gaethje alongside four other fights.
“Selected fighters” will take home prize money — some of which will come from Crypto.com, according to UFC.
The scaffolding — which will frame and light the cage where the fight is occurring, according to renderings shared by UFC — is visible from the White House North Lawn, cresting over the historic West Wing and Oval Office.
Trump has repeatedly touted the popularity of the fight, claiming at the congressional picnic earlier this month that he had “never seen anybody want anything so much as people want those tickets.”
In an Oval Office event featuring some of the fighters earlier this month, including Topuria and Gaethj, Trump claimed that tickets would be free to attendees and that tens of thousands of people would be able to congregate on the South Lawn and surrounding parks to witness the event.
“Our country is invited to this, it’s free,” Trump told reporters, claiming that the Ellipse would be able to house 75,000 to 100,000 fans beyond the main stage on the South Lawn. “They’re going to set up eight big screens and they’re going to have the fight. And then out here, we’re going to have 4,000 seats right in front of the front door of the White House.”
On Saturday, UFC shared new renderings to social media of what the event is expected to look like. The images featured a large fighting cage surrounded by stadium seating as well as an overview of the “UFC Freedom 250 Fan Fest” in Ellipse Park.
In a statement, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said the event “will be one of the greatest and most historic sports events in history.”
“President Trump hosting it at the White House is a testament to his vision to celebrate America’s monumental 250th anniversary,” he said.
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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump, responding to the arrest of an American soldier for allegedly betting on the capture of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, said the world “has become somewhat of a casino.”
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday he was unaware of the arrest of Gannon Ken Van Dyke, which was first reported by ABC News, but that he’d “look into it.”
Federal investigators said Van Dyke bet more than $33,000 on the prediction market Polymarket just days before President Trump announced Maduro’s capture by U.S. special forces in early January. In total, Van Dyke’s series of bets won more than $409,000, the Justice Department said on Thursday.
Trump was asked on Thursday if he was concerned about online prediction markets, through which bets are regularly placed on geopolitical events, such as the war in Iran, and the potential for insider trading.
“Well, you know, the whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino,” Trump responded. “And you look at what’s going on all over the world, in Europe and every place, they’re doing these betting things. I was never much in favor of it. I don’t like it conceptually, but it is what it is.”
“No, I think that I’m not happy with any of that stuff,” the president continued. “But they have all these different sites. They have predictive markets. It’s a crazy world. It’s a much different world than it was.”
One of Trump’s namesake companies, Trump Media and Technology Group, announced last year that it would launch a prediction betting marketplace called Truth Predict. The White House has said all of President Trump’s assets, including his majority stake in Trump Media and Technology Group, are being held in a trust controlled by his sons.
Polymarket has cultivated close ties to the Trump family, announcing last August that the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., would join its advisory board. Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm, 1789 Capital, also invested in Polymarket.
ABC News on Friday reached out to the White House for comment on Truth Predict and Trump Jr.’s involvement in Polymarket.
Polymarket on Thursday said they referred Van Dyke’s suspicious trades to the Justice Department and cooperated with its investigation. “Insider trading has no place on Polymarket. Today’s arrest is proof the system works,” their statement said.
Van Dyke, who was involved in Maduro’s capture, was charged with unlawful use of confidential information for personal gain, theft of nonpublic government information, commodities fraud and wire fraud.
He appeared in court on Friday and was expected to be released on $250,000 bond. He is set to make another court appearance on April 28 in Manhattan federal court, where the complaint was filed.
On Thursday, Trump appeared to compare Van Dyke’s arrest to the betting scandal baseball great Pete Rose faced.
“That’s like Pete Rose betting on his own team,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
Rose, who died in 2024, was a Cincinnati Reds star and later the team’s manager who received a lifetime ban from the sport after betting on games, including Reds games.
“Pete Rose they kept him out of the hall of fame because he bet on his own team,” Trump said on Thursday. “Now, if he bet against his team, that would be no good, but he bet on his own team.”
There are already two Republicans who are calling for a pardon for Van Dyke.
“I don’t agree with what he did and he should be required to disgorge all the profits however, unless the DOJ plans on doing Congress next, this is not justice,” Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna wrote on X.
ABC News’ Lucien Bruggeman, Peter Charalambous and Lauren Peller contributed to this report.
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