Trump warns US is ‘locked and loaded’ if Iran kills peaceful protesters
President Donald Trump listens during a press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky following their meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club on December 28, 2025 in Palm Beach, Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said overnight the United States is “locked and loaded” as he warned Iran not to kill peaceful protesters as nationwide unrest unfolds in Tehran.
In a post on his social media platform early Friday morning, Trump vowed that “if Iran [shoots] and violently kills peaceful protestors,” then the U.S. would step in and “rescue” them.
The president did not specify by what means such a “rescue” would occur, but he added that the U.S is “locked and loaded and ready to go.”
The post comes as several people were reportedly killed on Thursday amid protests in Iran.
Iran’s top security official, Ali Larijani, responded to Trump’s statement with a threat of his own.
“With the stances taken by Israeli officials and Trump, the behind-the-scenes of the matter has become clear. We consider the positions of the protesting merchants separate from those of the destructive elements, and Trump should know that American interference in this internal issue is equivalent to chaos across the entire region and the destruction of American interests. The American people should know that it was Trump who started the adventurism. They should look after their soldiers,” Larijani posted on X.
Thousands began protesting in Iran on Sunday over the country’s inflation and record-low currency value, but the unrest has expanded over discontent with the Iranian regime.
On Monday, Trump declined to answer whether he would support an overthrow of the Iranian regime, but commented on the country’s “problems” and recognized the public dissatisfaction.
“They’ve got a lot of problems they are in,” Trump said on Monday. “They have tremendous inflation. Their economy is bust, their economy is no good. And I know that people aren’t so happy.”
Trump on Monday also warned Iran not to rearm itself or rebuild its nuclear program.
“Now I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we’re going to have to knock them down. We’ll knock them down. We’ll knock the hell out of them,” the president said as he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
ABC News’ Joseph Simonetti contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — While Democrats have been celebrating some recent wins in the ongoing mid-decade congressional map redistricting sweeping the country, they face some roadblocks in Democratic-aligned states over building on those wins – and the future of President Donald Trump’s agenda remains at stake regardless of how long the battles drag on for.
Why Republicans and Democrats are trying to redraw seats
Which party controls the House after the 2026 midterm elections could come down to just a couple of seats. As of Thursday, Republicans hold 219 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives while Democrats hold 214, with two seats vacant.
If all of the seats are filled by the midterms, Democrats need to only net three seats to flip the House in 2026, allowing them to thwart Trump’s legislative agenda during the second half of his presidency. Republicans, meanwhile, hope to bolster their razor-thin majority and continue moving Trump’s legislative priorities forward.
That’s why fighting over five seats in one state or fewer in another matters so much.
The ongoing mid-decade redistricting also further narrows what was already a relatively small field of truly competitive seats. The Cook Political Report only rates 16 seats as of Thursday as a “toss-up” out of all 435 U.S. House seats. The ratings factor in states that completed mid-decade redistricting already.
Some wins for Democrats, but roadblocks ahead
Initially, it appeared like the new scramble of congressional map redrawing would favor Republicans. Texas legislators pushed through a map that redraws five congressional seats to favor Republicans; GOP-controlled legislatures or commissions in Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio soon followed suit with maps that could allow the GOP to flip at least one seat in each state.
And Republican-controlled legislatures in Florida, Kansas, and Louisiana are mulling redrawing their maps and could box out even more Democrats.
Kansas may be an unusual case. Republican state legislators have discussed redrawing the state’s congressional map to box out the Sunflower State’s lone Democratic member of Congress, Rep. Sharice Davids.
But Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly is staunchly opposed to mid-decade redistricting, and Republican legislators have indicated they will not be able to get enough signatures to bypass her to call a special session about the issue. Some have also indicated they want to resist White House pressure to redistrict.
A pending Supreme Court ruling in a Louisiana case might trigger more redrawing in favor of Republicans.
Democrats said they’d try to counteract that Republican push – and their first major win came when California voters chose on Election Day to vote yes on “Proposition 50,” which will redraw their state’s congressional map to make five seats potentially winnable by Democrats.
(The Department of Justice on Thursday joined a legal effort by Republicans in California suing over the new map; Newsom’s office responded that “these losers lost at the ballot box and soon they will also lose in court.”)
After California, one less expected success for Democrats came about in Utah, which was redrawing its congressional map due to a court order.
A judge ordered late Monday that the state must adopt a congressional map proposed by plaintiffs in a lawsuit, ruling in favor of a map that includes a redrawn Salt Lake City-based district that leans strongly in favor of Democrats.
Utah’s four-member U.S. House delegation is currently fully Republican. The new map creates a congressional district centered around Salt Lake City that analysts say strongly favors Democrats.
And notable names are taking note. On Thursday, former Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben McAdams, who once represented Utah’s 4th congressional district, announced a run for the new district.
But further success for Democrats in mid-decade redistricting ahead of the midterms is not assured.
For instance, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has formed an advisory commission on redistricting, but state Senate President Bill Ferguson, also a Democrat, has said he opposes moving forward with redistricting.
Ferguson wrote in a recent letter, obtained by ABC News, to Democratic state Senators that “mid-cycle redistricting for Maryland presents a reality where the legal risks are too high, the timeline for action is dangerous, the downside risk to Democrats is catastrophic, and the certainty of our existing map would be undermined.”
But Maryland U.S. Reps. Jamie Raskin and Steny Hoyer, both Democrats, wrote in a separate letter obtained by ABC News that Maryland Democrats should redistrict “to make Maryland House seats more competitive in a way that counters the Trump national steamroller.” The Baltimore Sun first reported on the letter.
Democratic state legislators in Illinois have, similar to Maryland lawmakers, not been entirely on board with possible redistricting, even though national Democratic leaders such as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries are pushing for it.
A separate effort by Democratic legislators in Virginia to allow the legislature to redraw congressional districts is still moving forward, but will need to go through many steps before legislators can even propose a map. However, Democrats maintained control of the state House of Delegates and won the governorship in 2025’s elections.
How do Americans feel – and how long could this go on for?
Americans are caught in the middle of the redistricting struggle, facing confusion over who will represent them and what district they’ll be voting in. A Marquette University Law School poll taken in September found that 70% of American adults oppose states redrawing districts “to make them as advantageous as possible for the party with the majority in the state.”
And how long could the back-and-forth on mid-decade redistricting go on for?
It may depend on candidate filing deadlines, which are the dates by when a candidate needs to submit paperwork to get on the ballot for a state’s primary. In Maryland, for instance, the filing deadline for the congressional primary is on Feb. 24. In Kansas, it’s not until June 1.
If state legislatures aiming for new congressional maps haven’t passed them into law by then, candidates will likely still be filing to run in the current districts. Lawsuits or legislative action could change deadlines as well.
The real date to watch is Nov. 3, 2026. The midterms themselves will be the true test of whether Republicans or Democrats have won, lost, or fought the redistricting wars to a draw – and what lies ahead for Trump’s agenda.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump now says extending Affordable Care Act subsidies “may be necessary” as the enrollment deadline looms for millions of Americans who are set to see their premiums skyrocket in the new year.
“Somebody said I want to extend it for two years. I don’t want to extend it for two years. I’d rather not extend them at all,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Tuesday night, pushing back on reports that the White House was going to pitch a plan that would have included a two-year extension of the subsidies.
Trump, though, notably went on to say “some kind of an extension may be necessary to get something else done because the unaffordable care act has been a disaster. It’s a disaster.”
The comments come after a fight over the health care tax credits on Capitol Hill that resulted in the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, as Democrats pushed for an extension while Republicans largely balked.
A deal to end the shutdown in the Senate included Majority Leader John Thune promising to allow a vote on a bill of Democrats’ choosing related to the Affordable Care Act in December.
But House Speaker Mike Johnson, who during the funding battle called the subsidies a “boondoggle,” said he wouldn’t commit to a vote on ACA subsidies in the House.
“Am I going to guarantee a vote on ACA unreformed COVID-era subsidies that is just a boondoggle to insurance companies and robs the taxpayer? We got a lot of work to do on that,” Johnson said in mid-November. “We, the Republicans, would demand a lot of reforms before anything like that was ever possible. And we have to go through that deliberative process.”
Some vulnerable Republicans, though, have pushed Johnson to hold a vote on the issue.
A poll from KFF taken right before the federal government shutdown began showed 78% of Americans said they want the ACA marketplace tax credits extended — including 59% of Republicans.
The clock is ticking for a solution for the estimated 22 million ACA enrollees currently receiving a tax credit to lower monthly premiums. December 15 is the deadline for Americans to sign up for or change a plan that begins coverage on Jan. 1. The last day to enroll is marketplace health plans for 2026 is Jan. 15.
Congress is currently out of town for the Thanksgiving recess. Trump is spending the holiday at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, on Monday, said the issue was a “topic of discussion that’s happening very frequently and robustly inside the West Wing” and that Trump was involved in the talks but didn’t reveal any further details.
Trump, on Air Force One on Tuesday, was pressed further on when he will unveil his health care plan and what may be included.
“Don’t give any money to the insurance companies, give it to the people directly. Let ’em go out, buy their own healthcare plan. And we’re looking at that, if, if that can work. We’re looking at that. That’s sort of taken off,” Trump said on Tuesday.
(WASHINGTON) — The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group has arrived in the U.S. Southern Command area of operations north of the Caribbean Sea as part of the Trump administration’s campaign against drug cartels, the Navy’s Fourth Fleet announced Wednesday.
The carrier’s deployment to assist in operations against Latin American drug cartels was announced on Oct. 24 while it was on a port of call in Croatia. Since then it has made the lengthy transit through the Mediterranean Sea and across the Atlantic Ocean.
Typically the Pentagon’s announcements that a carrier group has entered a regional area of operations occur when they have crossed the furthest limits of that area, which for SOUTHCOM means somewhere in the Atlantic east of Florida and Cuba.
The strike group includes three destroyers that will augment the eight Navy surface ships already in the SOUTHCOM region. The sizable U.S. military presence in the region also includes a submarine, reconnaissance aircraft, 10 F-35 fighters and Reaper drones.
It was disclosed last week through imagery that an AC-130J gunship and two other reconnaissance aircraft have been operating from an El Salvador military base co-located at the country’s international airport, presumably as part of operations against the cartels.
The Ford carries more than 60 aircraft that could be used against the drug cartels.
“These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations,” Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, said.
The Trump administration says it has killed 76 people in 19 strikes against alleged drug-running boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean since it began its campaign in September.
The 4,000 sailors and Marines aboard ships in the Ford strike group join the 10,000 troops already deployed to the Caribbean.
The Pentagon has said that the carrier’s deployment is tied to the operations targeting the drug cartels, but critics have asked if it is intended to be a show of force or potential operations targeting Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro regime.
Experts say that while Maduro is complicit in the drug trade, many of the drugs coming into the U.S. come via Mexico and sea routes in the Pacific, not the Caribbean, which is known more for shipping drugs to Europe.
The administration has flown B-52 bombers near the coast of Venezuela and B-1 bombers over the Caribbean in what appears to be a major show of force by President Donald Trump.
In addition, a special operations aviation unit conducted training exercises in international waters near Venezuela in October, a U.S. official said.
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
