Talk of the Town
(WASHINGTON) — A U.S. submarine on Tuesday sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday, the first time since WWII the U.S. has sunk an enemy combatant ship by torpedo.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump shared on his social media platform late Thursday night a video that included a racist animation of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama depicted with the bodies of apes.
After backlash, the White House at about noon Friday said the post had been taken down from the president’s page.
The roughly minutelong video, shared by Trump at 11:44 p.m. ET on Thursday, largely focused on debunked claims about the 2020 election.
At the end of the video, the Obamas’ faces appear abruptly and without explanation for seconds with the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” playing over it. The video then ends back on similar imagery of the conspiracy video footage.
The Obamas had no comment when ABC News reached out to their representatives for a response.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, when first asked for comment early Friday, had said, “This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King. Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
Though later Friday afternoon, a White House official told ABC News that a “staffer erroneously made the post.”
The video reposted by Trump overnight included only imagery of the Obamas.
The meme video referenced by Leavitt was shared in October by the Hardin County Republican Party of Kentucky on Facebook, which led the chairman to issue an apology and deleted the post after swift backlash noting the long history of racist tropes depicting Black people as apes or monkeys — a tool of slave traders and segregationists to dehumanize them.
Trump’s overnight repost was condemned by lawmakers on Capitol Hill, some of whom had called for it to be taken down and for the president to apologize.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the first Black leader of a party in Congress, wrote on X: “President Obama and Michelle Obama are brilliant, compassionate and patriotic Americans. They represent the best of this country. Donald Trump is a vile, unhinged and malignant bottom feeder.”
“Every single Republican must immediately denounce Donald Trump’s disgusting bigotry,” Jeffries wrote.
Republican Sen. Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate and also the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, posted on X: “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it.”
Republican Sen. Roger Wicker wrote in a post: “This is totally unacceptable. The president should take it down and apologize.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, wrote in a post: “Racist. Vile. Abhorrent. This is dangerous and degrades our country — where are Senate Republicans? The President must immediately delete the post and apologize to Barack and Michelle Obama, two great Americans who make Donald Trump look like a small, envious man.”
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(WASHINGTON) — With just days until a partial government shutdown, the shootings in Minneapolis have left Senate Democrats and Republicans in a standoff over how to advance a package of bills necessary to fund the government.
Democrats have made their position clear: Republicans should agree to separate the bill that funds the Department of Homeland Security from a package that includes five other government funding bills so that changes to the DHS bill aimed at reining in Immigration and Customs Enforcement can be made without affecting the other agencies that still need to be funded.
There were Democratic calls to separate the DHS funding following the deaths of Renee Good, a mother of three who was fatally shot by an immigration enforcement officer in Minneapolis earlier this month, and became more urgent after the death of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, who was fatally shot by a federal agent over the weekend.
“The appalling murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti on the streets of Minneapolis must lead Republicans to join Democrats in overhauling ICE and CBP to protect the public. People should be safe from abuse by their own government,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement Sunday night. “Senate Republicans must work with Democrats to advance the other five funding bills while we work to rewrite the DHS bill. This is best course of action, and the American people are on our side.”
But for now, Republicans have said they plan to push forward with the six-bill package, keeping DHS funding tied to the other funding bills.
“Government funding expires at the end of the week, and Republicans are determined to not have another government shutdown. We will move forward as planned and hope Democrats can find a path forward to join us,” a GOP aide told ABC News.
There will be a partial government shutdown — one that results in closures for only specific agencies where funding has lapsed — on Friday night going into Saturday morning if Congress does not approve of the remaining funding bills.
Advancing any government funding bills this week will require the support of at least seven Democrats. If the DHS bill is not decoupled form the other bills — which fund things such as the Departments of Defense, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and more — it seems unlikely that Democrats will furnish the necessary votes to allow any of those bills to proceed.
A Democratic source confirms that Democrats have been in touch with the White House about funding in light of the Minneapolis shootings.
“Republicans and the White House have reached out, but have not yet raised any realistic solutions,” the Senate Democratic leadership aide told ABC News Monday morning.
The House is on recess for the entire week, making modifications to any of the bills ahead of the Friday deadline nearly impossible.
There are a number of agencies and programs that could be affected if Congress does not act by the deadline on Jan. 30. Air traffic controllers and military personnel could go without pay, and the IRS and USPS will also be affected.
The DHS bill that the House approved last week would keep funding for ICE roughly flat from the year prior through September 2026, although ICE is receiving separate funding from the already-passed “Big Beautiful Bill.” It also funds other agencies like the Transportation Security Administration and the Coast Guard.
If lawmakers do cause a shutdown of DHS, it won’t have an immediate impact on ICE operations.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, warned in a statement last week that the “Homeland Security funding bill is more than just ICE.”
“If we allow a lapse in funding, TSA agents will be forced to work without pay, FEMA assistance could be delayed, and the U.S. Coast Guard will be adversely affected. All while ICE continues functioning without any change in their operations due to $75 billion it received in the One Big Beautiful Bill. A continuing resolution will jettison the guardrails we have secured while ceding authority to President Trump, Stephen Miller, and Secretary Noem.”
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(WASHINGTON) — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick is set to testify behind closed doors on Wednesday about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, making him the first Trump Cabinet official to face questions as part of the House Oversight Committee investigation.
Lutnick agreed to the voluntary transcribed interview after months of criticism over his relationship with Epstein — who was once Lutnick’s neighbor — and past statements distancing himself from the notorious sex offender.
During an interview last year with The New York Post, Lutnick described Epstein as “gross” and claimed that he said in 2005 he would “never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again” after touring Epstein’s New York City mansion.
However, documents released by the Department of Justice showed that Lutnick planned a visit to Epstein’s private island in 2012 — years after Epstein pleaded guilty to two prostitution-related charges in 2008.
“We are looking forward to visiting you,” Lutnick’s wife emailed Epstein’s assistant. “We would love to join you for lunch.”
When asked about the documents in February, Lutnick acknowledged he visited the island and said that he did not see anything inappropriate during his visit.
“I did have lunch with him, as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation. My wife was with me, as were my four children and nannies,” Lutnick testified on Capitol Hill in February.
While the DOJ’s Epstein files included a photo from that trip, the Department of Justice acknowledged they temporarily removed the photo before restoring it following backlash. A DOJ official claimed that the photo was temporarily removed with a “batch of files that were flagged for nudity,” though the photo did not contain any nudity and did not include any redactions when it was restored.
Lutnick also appeared to enter a business deal with Epstein in 2012, according to documents released by the Department of Justice. Both men signed business documents in 2012 to acquire an advertising company called Adfin.
Other documents released by the DOJ showed Epstein agreed to donate $50,000 in 2017 related to a dinner hosted in Lutnick’s honor.
During his New York Post interview last year, Lutnick said he believed that Epstein may have used blackmail to get the “sweetheart deal” he received during his first criminal case in 2008.
“I assume, way back when, they traded those videos in exchange for him getting that 18-month sentence, which allowed him to have visits and be out of jail. I mean, he’s a serial sex offender. How could he get 18 months and be able to go to his office during the day and have visitors and stuff? There must have been a trade,” Lutnick said.
But those allegations contrast with statements from multiple Trump administration officials who have insisted that Epstein neither trafficked young women for people beyond himself nor held compromising information about high-profile individuals,
“There is no credible information. None. If there were, I would bring the case yesterday that he trafficked to other individuals,” FBI Director Kash Patel said last year.
When asked about Lutnick’s relationship with Epstein in February, President Trump described Lutnick as a “very innocent guy” and suggested he would be willing to testify.
“Well, Howard would go in and do whatever he has to say,” Trump said. “He’s a very innocent guy, doing a good job.”
Copyright © 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.