Trump says he hasn’t made a decision on whether to strike inside Venezuela
Samuel Corum/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Friday denied reports that he’s made a decision to strike inside Venezuela.
“There are reports that you are considering strikes within Venezuela. Is that true?” a reporter asked the president on Air Force One as he traveled to Florida for the weekend.
“No,” Trump said.
The Miami Herald reported on Friday that the administration had made a decision to attack Venezuelan military installations and that it could happen imminently.
The reporter followed up by asking him, “Have you made a decision on that?”
“No, it’s not true,” Trump said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
JD Vance speaks with ABC News on This Week. (ABC News)
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President JD Vance confirmed to ABC “This Week” co-anchor George Stephanopoulos that Hamas has said they are holding 20 living hostages, and that those hostages are expected to be released in the next 24 hours as President Donald Trump was headed to the region later Sunday to mark the occasion.
“Well, they’ve been confirmed, George. Of course you don’t know until you see these people alive. But thank God we expect to see them alive here in the next 24 hours, probably early tomorrow morning, U.S. time, which will be later in the day, of course, in Israel,” Vance said.
“We are on the cusp of true peace in the Middle East. Really, for the first time in my lifetime, certainly these 20 hostages are going to come home to their families, George. I think this is a great moment for our country. Our country should be proud of our diplomats who made this happen. It’s really a great moment for the world, too, which is why the president’s going to go over there and celebrate with these hostages. But it’s a great thing, and I’m very excited about it,” he said.
Trump is scheduled to leave for his visit to Israel and Egypt on Sunday afternoon and will meet with hostage families at the Israeli Knesset on Monday.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report Hamas’ confirmation of the 20 living hostages.
With the U.S. Central Command establishing a coordination center in Israel to support and monitor the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, Vance said it was “misreported” that additional members of the U.S. military were being sent to the region — claiming that “We already have troops at Central Command.”
A U.S. official told ABC News that 200 troops are being sent to Israel, however, to specialize in transportation, planning, logistics, security and engineering. Vance also repeated claims from top officials that no U.S. troops are intended to go into Gaza.
“So, that story is actually misreported. We already have troops at Central Command. We’ve had them for decades in this country. They’re going to monitor the terms of the ceasefire. That’s everything from ensuring that the Israeli troops are at the agreed upon line, ensuring that Hamas is not attacking innocent Israelis, doing everything that they can to ensure the peace that we’ve created, actually sustains and endures,” Vance said.
“But the idea that we’re going to have troops on the ground in Gaza, in Israel, that that is not our intention, that is not our plan. There was a bit of a misreporting there, but we are going to monitor this peace to ensure that it endures,” he added.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said Friday that he will send National Guard troops to Memphis, Tennessee, as part of his push to combat crime.
The president said on “Fox & Friends” that he wanted to replicate the results of his deployment of the National Guard in Washington, D.C.
“Memphis is deeply troubled,” he said during the interview. “We’re going to fix that, just like we did in Washington.”
Trump said part of the crime crackdown could include federal forces, National Guard and even “the military, too,” if needed into Memphis.
“And anybody else we need,” Trump said of the forces he planned to send into Memphis.
Trump has said that local leaders across the country should ask for federal help and indicated that he has such backing from Tennessee officials.
“The mayor is happy. He’s a Democrat mayor, the mayor is happy. And the governor, Tennessee, the governor is happy,” he said.
Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s office said in a statement on X that he would be speaking with Trump to “work out the details.”
“I’m grateful for the President’s unwavering support and commitment to providing every resource necessary to serve Memphians, and I look forward to working with local officials and law enforcement to continue delivering results,” he said in the post on Friday afternoon.
Memphis Mayor Paul Young confirmed at a news conference Friday afternoon that the National Guard will be sent to the city, but the Democrat added he didn’t ask for the National Guard.
Young added he needed more details on the Guard’s deployment from the governor and the federal government.
“When will they come? How many people are gonna come? How long will they be here? What are they going to wear?” Young asked.
The mayor cited the city’s drop in crime over the last year.
There have been 29,978 reported crime incidents in Memphis in 2025 as of Sept. 11, a roughly 44% drop from the same period in 2024 when there were 53,805 reported incidents, according to data from the city.
Homicides in the city dropped nearly 30% during the year with 182 reported incidents in 2025 so far compared to 261 during the same period last year, the data showed.
However, before Trump began his deployment, the city had seen a two-year decline in crimes, according to police data. As of Friday, there have been 17,806 reported crime incidents in the city so far this year, compared to 19,501 during the same period last year — a nearly 8% drop, the data showed.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said Friday, in her first public news conference since the federal surge expired earlier this week, that the city will continue to partner with federal law enforcement.
“We have a long history of working with federal law enforcement, and we’re going to continue to partner in ways that make sense for D.C. safety,” Bowser said. “This also gives me the opportunity just to emphasize that we’ve always been about safe communities, safe streets and driving down crime.”
Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb filed a lawsuit last week that sought to end the D.C. Guard deployment arguing it was a “military occupation.”
Critics have noted that the president has focused his threats of federal deployments on cities that are led by Democratic mayors.
For the last few weeks, Trump has made threats that he was going to send National Guard troops to Chicago, citing its crime rate, and was met with vocal protests from Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson.
“I want to help people, not hurt them,’ says the guy who just threatened an American city with the Department of War,” Pritzker wrote on X on Monday.
The president continued to argue that federal intervention was needed in Chicago.
“You’re about to lose Chicago,” Trump said Friday. “I can fix Chicago, much bigger than D.C., but we can bring in the military. We can bring in the National Guard. We’ll do what we have to do.”
ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim and Matt Foster contributed to this report.
Ken Martin, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, speaks during a press conference with Texas Democrats at the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades union hall on August 05, 2025 in Aurora, Illinois. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Democrats are in a tough stretch. Their fundraising and voter registration lags Republicans. And polls show American voters find the party generally unfavorable.
But at this week’s Democratic National Committee summer meeting in Minneapolis, members are desperate to turn a page, shed a rudderless reputation, and more clearly define their platform as they look to deliver wins in upcoming governor’s races and the midterms next year.
In fact, at least a half dozen members who spoke to ABC News say that they are eager to start fighting back more aggressively against President Donald Trump and feel like some of the problems the party finds itself in is due to compounding factors, rather than the direct fault of Chair Ken Martin, who was elected in early February.
One of the ways Democrats believe they can get their footing back is leaning into the recent outrage around Republican efforts to pursue mid-decade redistricting and take a page out of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s playbook to give Trump a taste of his own rhetoric. Many members also believe they can resonate with voters as they push back against the impacts Trump’s spending and policy bill have on health care and costs.
“We all know that this is going to be an uphill battle. We all know that there’s tremendous challenges ahead, but we also know that the American people are not happy with the way things are turning out, and you see it in the polling,” said Maria Cardona, a member from Washington, D.C., who brushed off anxieties about Democrats in disarray as “b——t.”
“All of this internal b——t is exactly that — it’s b——t,” Cardona said.
This week’s meeting is the first major gathering of Martin’s tenure — and an early litmus test of his popularity and trust in his leadership, as his first few months have been mired in growing pains.
The DNC reported having around only $14 million cash on hand as of the end of July — far less than the Republican National Committee, which reported having $84.3 million cash on hand. The DNC also fundraised less than the RNC in July.
The news is better for Democrats’ official U.S. House campaign arm. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee reported having $40.4 million cash on hand by the end of July, while its GOP counterpart, the National Republican Congressional Committee, reported having $37.6 million cash on hand. The DCCC also outpaced the NRCC in fundraising in July.
Martin has faced increased scrutiny and criticism over infighting surrounding Gen Z activist David Hogg, who resigned from his role as vice chair after he promised to support primary challenges of incumbent Democrats he saw as complacent. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten also stepped away from the DNC in June, writing in her resignation letter she is “out of step” with new party leadership. Weingarten endorsed Martin’s most prominent chair challenger, Ben Wikler, the former Wisconsin Democratic Party chair.
When asked by ABC News about Democratic voter registration lagging as reported by The New York Times last week, Martin said the party has “work to do, for sure,” and pointed to the committee’s new organizing summer project, a volunteer training and voter registration initiative that sets to train Democrats to engage — and ideally convert voters — in non-political spaces in battleground areas and online as proof of concept.
“We’ve got to get back to registering voters — that’s what the DNC has already started this year with our summer organizing program. We are doing that with our state parties now,” Martin said during an event at the Minnesota State Fair.
Shasti Conrad, a DNC member from Washington state, said that grief over the election loss has permeated several conversations with fellow members, but has felt a recent energy shift, particularly after Texas House Democrats denied a quorum to delay the passage of new congressional district maps — which now await the signature of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
“When you lose an election like we did last year, you’re going to feel people’s rage, their sadness, their despair, all of that, and that is very much, has been what has been reverberating through every conversation that I’ve had,” Conrad said. “I think we’re all trying to move through this.”
Conrad continued: “We are starting to really get on solid footing, and that’s my hope with this meeting, is that we’ll be able to walk out of here feeling ‘Ok, we’re settled.'”
Conrad finds some of the handwringing about fundraising and voter registration “slightly overblown” and feels like the organization is in a solid place and has room to grow.
That doesn’t mean internal concerns have evaporated — but members feel concern is finally resulting in consensus.
“This is the crows coming home to roost. We’ve abandoned partisan voter registration for a very long time and it’s no surprise that we’re not only losing elections, but we’re also losing voters,” said progressive DNC member Michael Kapp from California. Kapp says he is “so happy” that Martin, in his view, is focused on righting the wrong.
Kapp said he believes it’s a “new day at the DNC” and that many members are frustrated with national Democratic top brass — like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — for not doing enough. He also suggested that some members are galvanized to be a more active resistance.
“I see anger. I see willingness to stand up and defend the communities that are being impacted by this administration. I see frustration that we can’t move fast enough, and I know that that’s a frustration that Chair Martin himself feels, but he’s working like crazy,” Kapp said.
“A number of members arrived concerned about the direction of the party, but the focus on unity and messaging has been well received,” North Dakota member Jamie Selzler said. Selzler added that while he expects conversations about the fundraising figures to keep coming up, “There’s a sense that standing up against Republican overreach over the next few years and winning in Virginia and New Jersey this year will be an important factor in proving we can fight back.”
Andre Treiber, a Texas DNC member and youth council chair, feels like the committee is nearing the end of a “rebuild phase.”
“This is going to be repouring the final cement,” Trieber said. “The Democratic Party definitely has a brand issue, and I think that is what so many people here this week care a lot about fixing.”
For John Verdejo, a DNC member from North Carolina, the next step for the party is to keep things simple — focus on core issues like affordability, for instance — and stop feeling sorry for yourself.
“We need to get our message straight,” said Verdejo, who stressed the party should keep things simple: focus on core issues like affordability, for instance.
Verdejo understands why some members of the party may be licking their wounds post-loss, but believes the complaining should wrap as the committee reaches a critical transition point. Internally, there’s a desire for more fighters, Verdejo said, which he does see reflected in Martin, who he and other Democrats who spoke to ABC maintain is broadly well-liked despite the early challenges of his tenure.
“We need to, we need to think differently, strategically, dirty even, take the gloves off. Never mind the polling, never mind what the stats say. Never mind what the numbers say … people want to see that fire in us. Let’s give it to them. This is life or death out here,” Verdejo added.
