Trump awards Medals of Honor to 2 military pilots during State of the Union
Retired Navy Captain E. Royce Williams acknowledges applause after receiving the Medal of Honor during U.S. President Trump’s State of the Union address during a Joint Session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on February 24, 2026, in Washington, DC.(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — During his State of the Union address Tuesday, President Donald Trump awarded two Congressional Medals of Honor, the nation’s highest decoration for valor in combat — one for heroism from more than 70 years ago and the other for heroism in the most recent U.S. military action.
One of the recipients was Chief Warrant Officer 5 Eric Slover, a special operations helicopter pilot severely wounded in the raid that captured Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro. As Slover’s Chinook swept in, rounds fired from the ground tore through the cockpit and into his legs and hip.
“Eric was hit very badly in the leg and hip, one bullet after another. He absorbed four agonizing shots, shredding his leg into numerous pieces,” Trump said as Slover stood with the aid of a walker.
Slover was presented the award by Lt. Gen. Jonathan Braga, the commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, a break from tradition in which the president personally presents the award.
In recent decades, the review and awarding the Medal of Honor comes after exhaustive reviews and interviews with witnesses that can drag on for years. That had become the norm with heroic actions that occurred in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But the announcement of Slover’s award marks a break with that pattern as he was awarded the medal just 52 days after his mission, a short turnaround similar to what was seen in World War II.
First lady Melania Trump presented the second Medal of Honor to retired Navy Capt. E. Royce Williams, a 100-year-old retired Navy captain whose extraordinary dogfight during the Korean War remained classified for decades, even to his wife, as the encounter could have ignited World War III.
“At 100 years old, this brave Navy captain is finally getting the recognition he deserves,” Trump said. “He was a legend long before this evening.”
According to Navy records, on Nov. 18, 1952, during the Korean War, Williams launched from an aircraft carrier on what was supposed to be a routine patrol. Then came a warning that seven MiG-15s were inbound. The three other American aircraft in Williams’ formation were unable to engage with the MiGs.
The MiGs he faced were Soviet aircraft flown by Soviet pilots at a time when the Soviet Union was not officially a combatant in the conflict. Public acknowledgment of the clash risked escalating into direct confrontation between nuclear powers, a step that, in 1952, many feared could ignite a third world war.
What followed was 30-minutes of aerial combat. By the time it ended, he had shot down four enemy jets. His own aircraft, a F9F-5 Panther, was riddled with more than 250 bullet holes, yet he managed to guide it back to the carrier and land safely on deck.
There was no celebration waiting for Williams. Instead, he was told he could not speak about what had happened and the encounter was immediately classified. He didn’t even tell his wife until the 1990s, when the records of the fight were declassified.
ABC News’ Luis Martinez contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump answers questions during a press briefing held at the White House February 20, 2026, in Washington, DC. The U.S. Supreme Court today ruled against Trump’s use of emergency powers to implement international trade tariffs, a central portion of the administration’s core economic policy. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump has ordered U.S. government agencies to stop using Anthropic’s products, just hours before the deadline the Pentagon set for the AI company to agree to its terms.
“I am directing EVERY Federal Agency in the United States Government to IMMEDIATELY CEASE all use of Anthropic’s technology. We don’t need it, we don’t want it, and will not do business with them again! There will be a Six Month phase out period for Agencies like the Department of War who are using Anthropic’s products, at various levels,” Trump posted on his social media platform.
“Anthropic better get their act together, and be helpful during this phase out period, or I will use the Full Power of the Presidency to make them comply, with major civil and criminal consequences to follow,” Trump added.
ABC News has reached out to Anthropic for comment.
The AI company’s CEO has made clear that despite threats from the Pentagon, they refuse to drop their two key demands: no use of its artificial intelligence for fully autonomous weapons — meaning AI, not humans, making final battlefield targeting decisions — and no mass domestic surveillance.
Anthropic told ABC News that amid negotiations, the latest contract language from the Pentagon does not fully commit that the military will not use their technology for those two use cases.
In fact, Anthropic said the “new language” added into the contract by the department would allow their safeguards to be “disregarded at will.”
“The contract language we received from the Department of War made virtually no progress on preventing Claude’s use for mass surveillance of Americans or in fully autonomous weapons,” Anthropic told ABC News.
The company added, “New language framed as compromise was paired with legalese that would allow those safeguards to be disregarded at will. Despite DOW’s recent public statements, these narrow safeguards have been the crux of our negotiations for months.”
Top members of the Senate Armed Services Committee have sent a private letter to Anthropic and the Pentagon, urging them to resolve their fight.
The Senate leaders are urging Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the CEO of Anthropic, Dario Amodei, to extend their negotiations and work with Congress to find a solution, according to the letter obtained by ABC News.
The Pentagon claims it has no intention of using Anthropic’s AI for cases that involve mass domestic surveillance or autonomous kinetic operations. However, it says Anthropic’s guardrails could jeopardize military operations.
The Pentagon said that if Anthropic does not agree to its demands by 5:00 p.m. ET Friday, they will terminate the partnership with Anthropic and label the company a “supply chain risk” – a designation usually reserved for foreign adversaries.
“The Department has stated that it does not intend to conduct mass surveillance or use autonomous weapons without humans on the loop — positions that we in Congress endorse,” the letter from the Senate leaders reads. “It is clear, however, that the issue of ‘lawful use’ requires additional work by all stakeholders. We must determine whether additional legislative or regulatory language is required, and, if so, what that law and regulation should entail.”
“By Friday, February 27, the DOD could essentially declare war not on a foreign nation but on one of America’s most successful frontier AI companies if it does not bow to its demands,” Adam Conner, the vice president for technology policy at American Progress, wrote in an article on their website.
“This would be an unprecedented and unnecessary peacetime move that sends the signal to other private companies that they must do the Trump administration’s bidding or face existential consequences,” Conner wrote.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) looks on as senators speak to reporters following a Senate Democratic policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on December 09, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Senate on Thursday failed to advance two competing health care proposals aimed at addressing a spike in costs that are expected for tens of millions of Americans who receive enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits.
Both plans, one put forward by Democrats and the other championed by Republicans, failed to get the 60 votes needed.
The Republicans’ bill failed to advance by a vote of 51-48 with Republican Sen. Rand Paul as the only Republican to vote against it.
The Democrats’ bill also failed to advance by a vote of 51-48. Republican Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Dan Sullivan and Josh Hawley crossed the aisle to join all Democrats in supporting it.
Now, lawmakers will have only a matter of days remaining to address the expiration of the enhanced tax credits, and there’s little indication that any sort of breakthrough is on the horizon.
Here’s what the plans entailed.
Democratic plan: 3-year extension of expiring enhanced tax credits
The Democratic plan proposed a three-year extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that are otherwise set to expire on Jan. 1. The enhanced subsidies were originally put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
During remarks on the floor Wednesday, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the Democratic plan the “only realistic path left” to address the looming premium spike.
“We have 21 days until Jan. 1. After that, people’s health care bills will start going through the roof. Double, triple, even more,” Schumer said. “There is only one way to avoid all of this. The only realistic path left is what Democrats are proposing — a clean direct extension of this urgent tax credit.”
Even though Democrats are in the minority, they got a vote on their proposal as part of a deal struck by a small group of Senate moderates to reopen the federal government after a 43-day shutdown, which centered around Democrats’ efforts to address the expiring tax credits.
“What we need to do is prevent premiums from skyrocketing and only our bill does it is the last train out of the station,” Schumer said.
But Majority Leader John Thune made clear Wednesday that Republicans would not support the Democratic plan.
Thune called the Democratic proposal a “partisan messaging exercise” and said that Democrats’ claim that their plan would lower health care costs represented a “tour of fantasy land.”
Republicans have for months been saying that the premium subsidies require reform. Without changes, Republicans say, the enhanced subsidies create opportunities for waste, fraud and abuse and have driven up the overall cost of premiums.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the Senate Democrats’ proposal would add nearly $83 billion to the federal deficit over the next decade. CBO also estimates that enacting the Democrats’ legislation would increase the number of people with health insurance by 8.5 million people by 2029.
Pointing to the cost of extending the subsidies, Thune said Democrats ought to put forward a program that makes modifications to the program.
“That’s not what they did … No changes,” Thune said. “Just continue to run up the cost. Run up the cost in the individual marketplace like that — but have the American taxpayers pay for it and then go tell people that you’re trying to keep their premiums down,” Thune said. “This does nothing, nothing, to lower the cost of health insurance.”
Republican plan: Do away with the enhanced tax credits and create HSAs
Republicans offered an “alternative” plan on the Senate floor on Thursday.
The Republican proposal, championed by Senate Health Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, would do away with the enhanced tax credits and instead take the extra money from those tax credits and put it into health savings accounts for those who purchase bronze-level or “catastrophic” plans on the ACA exchanges. Republicans say this will help Americans pay for out-of-pocket costs.
Under the plan, individuals earning less than 700% of the federal poverty level would receive $1,000 in HSA funding for those between age 18 and 49 and $1,500 for those age 50-64. Republicans say these funds could be used to help cover the higher deductibles on lower cost plans.
Republicans said that their plan will reduce premiums through cost-sharing reductions and tout that the plan stops payments to insurance companies. Thune called it a “very different business model” than what Democrats proposed.
“The question is do you want the government deciding this, ordo you want to put this power and these resources in the hands of the American people?” Thune said on the Senate floor on Wednesday. “American taxpayers. Patients. That’ what we’re about.”
Schumer had called it “dead on arrival.”
“I want to be very clear about what this Republican bill represents, junk insurance,” Schumer said. “Let me tell my Republican colleagues: it is dead on arrival. The proposal does nothing to bring down sky-high premiums; it doesn’t extend the ACA premiums by a single day. Instead, Republicans want to send people $80 dollars and pretend that is going to fix everything.” Schumer said.
Cassidy called Schumer’s categorization of his plan as a “junk plan” “so ironic.”
“These are Obamacare plans. These are the plans they put in place, except that when they did the plans, they’ve got $6,000 deductibles, or $7,500 deductibles. We addressed that deductible. We make these plans better,” Cassidy said. “We Republicans are trying to make it better. We want money in your pocket for your out-of-pocket [costs], and they want you to front the whole thing.”
Democrats also took umbrage with provisions in the GOP bill that prevent funds from being used for abortions. Schumer, on the Senate floor, called it a “poison pill.”
Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate appropriations committee, was asked if she saw any way that Democrats could support the bill.
“Not with the choice issues in it, where they have made it that women cannot get access to an abortion through their plan,” Murray said. “I don’t see any way that this helps the people that are being hurt right now by the tax credits going away.”
US President Donald Trump, during the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. The annual Davos gathering of political leaders, top executives and celebrities runs from Jan. 19-23. (Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(DAVOS, Switzerland) — President Donald Trump, speaking Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland amid heightened tensions with Europe, notably ruled out using military force to acquire Greenland.
“We probably won’t get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force where we would be, frankly, unstoppable. But I won’t do that,” Trump said.
“I don’t have to use force. I don’t want to use force. I won’t use force,” Trump said.
Still, Trump said no other country can defend Greenland but the United States and said he is seeking “immediate negotiations to once again discuss the acquisition of Greenland by the United States.”
“I have tremendous respect for both the people of Greenland and the people of Denmark, tremendous respect. But every NATO ally has an obligation to be able to defend their own territory, and the fact is, no nation or group of nations is in any position to be able to secure Greenland other than the United States. We’re a great power,” Trump said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
