Trump set to posthumously award Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom
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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday is expected to posthumously award conservative activist Charlie Kirk the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Kirk was fatally shot on Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University on the first stop of his The American Comeback Tour, which invited college students to debate hot-button issues.
Trump was the first to announce later that day that Kirk had died, and the next day said he would be be awarding Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom as he hailed the Turning Point USA founder “a giant of his generation.”
The ceremony comes after Trump returned back to Washington in the early hours of Tuesday morning from a trip to the Middle East to celebrate a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas that he helped broker.
Oct. 14 is Kirk’s birthday. He would have turned 32. The House and Senate previously approved a resolution to mark the date as a “National Day of Remembrance.”
Trump said last Friday that he was coming back from overseas for Kirk, who called “a friend of mine, a friend of all of us.”
“It’s the greatest honor,” Trump said of the award. “And Erika, his beautiful wife, is going to be here, and a lot of people are gonna be here.”
The president and Erika Kirk shared a heartfelt moment on stage at Kirk’s memorial service in Arizona, where tens of thousands of people gathered to pay tribute to Kirk, a key ally to Trump and a friend to many inside his administration.
The two hugged after Trump’s closing remarks and after Erika Kirk said she’d forgiven her husband’s killer.
Kirk was influential in building Trump’s movement and was particularly influential among young conservatives. But some of his comments on gun violence, LGBTQ issues, race and more drew criticism from liberals and others.
At his memorial service, Trump and other leading conservative figures embraced Kirk as a “martyr.”
“I know I speak for everyone here today when I say that none of us will ever forget Charlie Kirk, and neither now will history,” Trump said at the time. “Because while Charlie has been reunited with his creator in heaven, his voice on earth will let go through the generations, and his name will live forever in the eternal chronicle of America’s greatest patriots.”
Former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey speaks to members of the media at the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill December 07, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
(ALEXANDRIA, Va.) — Former FBI Director James Comey pleaded not guilty Wednesday to both counts in a federal indictment, and his attorneys said they will seek to have the case dismissed for vindictive and selective prosecution.
A federal grand jury indicted Comey on Sept. 25, just days after President Donald Trump publicly demanded Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Justice Department act “now” against Comey and other political opponents.
Comey is charged with one count of false statements and one count of obstruction of a congressional proceeding, related to his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2020.
The plea was entered by his attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who asked for a jury trial.
The judge read the charges and said they carry a penalty of up to 5 years in prison with a $250,000 fine.
He asked if Comey understood the charges, and he replied, “I do, Your Honor.”
A trial date was set for Jan. 5.
The judge asked how long the government anticipated the trial lasting, and the government said 2-3 days.
The judge said that he was prepared to move forward with a speedy trial. The government said the case was “complicated,” but didn’t appear to object to the trial date in court.
“This doesn’t appear to be a complicated case,” the judge said.
Fitzgerald agreed, saying, “We see this as a simple case.”
Comey has been a longtime target of Trump’s criticism over his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump on Monday, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, called Comey a “dirty cop” and claimed it was a “simple case.”
But the Comey matter has thrown the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia into turmoil, according to sources. The previous U.S. attorney, Erik Siebert, resigned over pressure from the Trump administration to bring criminal charges against Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Trump said he fired Siebert.
Trump then handpicked Halligan, a White House aide and his former defense attorney, to replace Siebert and lead the office. Halligan presented the Comey case to the grand jury, despite prosecutors and investigators determining there was insufficient evidence to charge him, ABC News reported at the time.
Comey attorneys told the judge Wednesday they plan to file a motion challenging the lawfulness of Halligan’s appointment, but that will be heard by a different judge appointed by the chief judge of 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The judge on Wednesday instructed the government to respond to those motions by Nov. 3 and directed the defense to respond by Nov. 10. The judge said he wants the case to be fully briefed by Nov. 19 and said hearings will be planned for Nov. 19 and Dec. 9.
Oral arguments will be held Dec. 9 on the defense’s motion to dismiss because of grand jury abuse, “outrageous government conduct” and other motions Comey’s attorneys did not disclose.
Both the defense and the judge expressed some confusion as to why the government said there would be a substantial amount of classified information involved in the case.
At one point Fitzgerald said that he believed the government should have figured out the issue with classified information before bringing the case. It appears the “cart has been put before the horse,” Fitzgerald said.
The judge said there should be no reason the case gets off track because of classified information.
“We will go through the fastest CIPA process you have ever seen in your life,” he joked, referring to the litigation that occurs around cases involving classified information.
The judge also said, “I will not slow this case down” over the government’s obligations to produce discovery to the defense.
Comey was in court Wednesday for the first time since he was indicted last month, where he was joined inside the Alexandria, Virginia, courtroom by Fitzgerald and attorneys David Kelley and Jessica Carmichael.
The government was being represented by Halligan and Nathaniel “Tyler” Lemons, a prosecutor from the Eastern District of North Carolina.
Comey’s wife and his daughter, Maureen Comey, were seen arriving at the Alexandria courthouse ahead of the proceeding.
Comey has denied any wrongdoing and has said he looks forward to a trial.
Ahead of Wednesday’s arraignment, the Department of Justice added two assistant U.S. attorneys from out of state to work on the case.
ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler, Alexander Mallin, Peter Charalambous and Ely Brown contributed to this report.
Members of the National Guard are seen standing near the Washington Monument, on September 02, 2025 in Washington, DC. Kent Nishimura/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The Army is extending orders for the Washington, D.C., National Guard to remain on active duty in the nation’s capital through Nov. 30, two U.S. officials told ABC News Thursday.
President Donald Trump could still cut the mission shorter than Nov. 30 if desired — or extend the deployment past that date, the officials noted. That essentially leaves the deployment open-ended for now.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll signed off on the plan on Wednesday, enabling Brig. Gen. Leland D. Blanchard II, commanding general of the D.C. National Guard, to update the initial orders.
The Nov. 30 plan for the estimated 950 members of the D.C. Guard, which has not been previously reported, does not apply to the other 1,300 troops deployed to D.C. from other states, including Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, South Carolina, and West Virginia. Those troops remain under the control of their governors with many of them already under orders to remain through the end of December, one of the officials said.
Blanchard alluded to the plan in a video message on X released Thursday.
“Our mission is not complete,” he said. “I’ve made the decision to extend the encampment as we continue to work to ensure everyone that walks these city streets is safe.”
Trump mobilized the D.C. National Guard last month to address what he insisted was “out of control” crime.
Since then, troops have been seen hanging out around the National Mall and other low-crime areas, often posing with tourists or spreading mulch as part of Trump’s “beautification” project.
According to the latest update provided by the Guard, troops have cleaned roadways, collected more than 677 bags of trash and disposed of five truckloads of plant waste in coordination with the U.S. National Park Service.
The decision to extend the Guard through Nov. 30 was a practical one, sources told ABC News. Instead of reupping orders every 14 to 29 days as is typical, the troops can plan on the extended stay.
National Guard troops typically leave other full-time civilian jobs during the deployment, and this would allow their employers to make other arrangements, officials say.
The plan also ensures there would be no gap in pay or benefits, which can happen when tours of duty need to be reapproved several times.
A spokesperson for Joint Task Force-DC told ABC News that all Guards members who are deployed to D.C. have already been extended beyond initial orders — some which would have lapsed on Sept.10 — in order to secure their eligibility for benefits including pay and health care.
Bill Nye speaks onstage during Global Citizen NOW at Spring Studios on April 30, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images for Global Citizen)
(WASHINGTON) — One of the most well-known names in science, Bill Nye, the “Science Guy,” is pushing back on the Trump administration’s proposed NASA budget cuts.
NYE, the CEO of the Planetary Society, a nonprofit founded by Carl Sagan in 1980, joined colleagues, space advocates and legislators on Capitol Hill Monday to make a case for keeping NASA’s funding intact and the benefits of space exploration.
The Trump administration has proposed cutting NASA’s budget by approximately 24% for the 2026 fiscal year. The agency’s total budget would decrease from around $24.8 billion to $18.8 billion. Around $6 billion of the cuts would impact the agency’s planetary science, Earth science and astrophysics research funding, which all form part of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.
“We’re not talking about delays in scientific exploration, we’re talking about the end of it,” Nye said at a press conference Monday on the steps of Capitol Hill. “While we’re checking out, our competitors are checking in,” he added.
Under the proposed budget, NASA’s science research funding would be among the hardest hit by the cuts, with a 47% cut. In a statement, The Planetary Society called this cut an “extinction-level event for space exploration.”
ABC News has reached out to multiple NASA centers for comment, but the agency is currently being affected by the government shutdown.
“Cutting NASA science in half would end several missions that are spacecraft that are already flying and several missions that are scheduled to fly,” Nye told Diane Macedo on ABC News Live on Monday. “And why this matters is if you cut it in half, cut the science budget in half, you’ll probably turn the whole thing off.”
Casey Dreier, the chief of space policy at The Planetary Society, says his organization has a simple goal: protecting existing programs.
“So, this is no new money, it’s no changes in policy, it’s just to continue these projects that we’ve already invested in, already paid for and are currently returning in fantastic science,” Dreier said.
At Monday’s press conference, Dreier explained that at this point, “Both House and Senate [are] a near-full rejection of the proposed cuts to NASA science and broadly around other areas of NASA as well.”
The Science Mission Directorate is responsible for sending satellites into space like the James Webb Space Telescope, the Perseverance Rover (the spacecraft that landed on Mars in 2021) and the Landsat 9 satellite, which work to collect vital data and “achieve scientific understanding of Earth, the solar system, and the universe.”
The White House’s proposal referred to several missions as “unaffordable.” More than 40 projects have already been flagged for defunding, including the Mars Sample Return, Mars orbiter MAVEN and the Juno mission.
“The Budget proposes termination of multiple unaffordable missions and reduces lower priority research, resulting in a leaner Science program that reflects a commitment to fiscal responsibility,” the proposal stated.
ABC News has reached out to the Trump administration for a comment, but did not immediately hear back.
“The Budget eliminates climate-focused ‘green aviation’ spending while protecting the development of technologies with air traffic control and defense applications, producing savings,” NASA headquarters said in a statement.
Nye and Drier say they are speaking out to explain the dangers of cutting funding for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and the National Science Foundation. Nye suggested that those cuts could ultimately have a direct impact on the United States’ position in the global race back to the moon’s surface.
“The China National Space Administration is going fast, doing a lot of extraordinary missions very similar, almost mission for mission, to what the United States is doing and I’m telling you there’s going to be a Sputnik moment when Taikonauts, China National Space Administration space travelers, are on the moon in the next five years,” Nye said.
U.S. Representative Glenn Ivey, D-Md., echoed those thoughts during the Capitol press conference.
“We’re falling behind with respect to China,” Rep. Ivey said. “They’re pushing money and engineers and scientists towards advancing science in China, competing against us, while we’re doing the exact opposite. The White House almost wants to zero out NASA science.”
More than 300 advocates joined the call to action on Capitol Hill Monday, along with 20 education, science and space partner organizations. Some of the groups represented at the press conference at the U.S. Capitol included the American Astronomical Society, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
“Finish the job. So, both the Senate and House have bills that reject these cuts, pushing back against these cuts, but we want them to sign it into law,” Nye said.
