Category Archives: US Politics

Trump asks Smithsonian to install ‘Colossus statue’ of George Washington with exhibit

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Trump, again trying to curate museum, says exhibit would stay until 2032 for 300th anniversary of Washington’s birth

Donald Trump asked the Smithsonian Institution to install a 30ft “Colossus statue” of George Washington outside the National Museum of American History, and a special exhibit honoring the nation’s first president, in a social media post late on Friday.

The president requested that the exhibit continue through February 2032, the 300th anniversary of Washington’s birth.

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US appeals court rejects Trump’s bid to restrict mail-in voting before midterms

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Court declined to ⁠put on hold ⁠injunction preventing the USPS from tightening rules around postal voting

A US appeals court has rejected Donald Trump’s attempt to impose sweeping restrictions on mail-in voting before November’s high-stakes midterm elections, dealing a fresh blow to the president’s attempted crackdown.

The Boston-based first US circuit court of appeals declined on Thursday to ⁠put on hold an ⁠injunction issued by a ​lower court judge last week, preventing the US Postal Service (USPS) from tightening rules around postal voting.

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Rhode Island’s Democratic governor loses primary amid anger over bridge

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Helena Foulkes beats incumbent Dan McKee after criticizing handling of Providence’s Washington bridge, now expected to be completed in 2028

Rhode Island’s Dan McKee became the first sitting governor to lose a primary in nearly a decade, bested not by a more progressive challenger or a more youthful upset but by frustration over a bridge.

McKee lost his Democratic primary to Helena Foulkes, a former longtime executive with Rhode Island-based retail pharmacy CVS, the Associated Press said on Wednesday.

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Notorious Ecuadorian crime gang designated a terrorist group by US

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Trump administration to seek extra funding from Congress to ‘dismantle’ Los Tiguerones over narcotics trafficking

The US has designated Ecuador’s Los Tiguerones gang, which stormed a television station during a live broadcast in 2024, as a terrorist organisation as the Trump administration expands its campaign against narcotics traffickers it says are destabilising Latin America.

The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, made the announcement in Quito, where he met Ecuadorian president Daniel Noboa, one of several rightwing allies of Donald Trump whom Rubio is courting as a security partner during a three-nation tour through Latin America that began on Tuesday.

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Trump gave $45,000 to Natalie Harp and other White House aides as holiday gifts

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The president’s substantial holiday gifts to four White House aides were made public via financial disclosures released by the administration

Donald Trump gave sizable holiday gifts to four White House aides, according to new financial disclosures released by the administration, including $45,000 to executive assistant Natalie Harp.

Communications adviser Margo Martin and deputy director of Oval Office operations Chamberlain Harris also received $45,000, while director of Oval Office operations Walt Nauta received a $20,000 gift.

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US bans Canadian dairy, alcohol and motorcycles as trade war escalates

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Trump responds after Canada imposes $20bn in retaliatory tariffs and Canadian PM vows to diversify trade abroad

The US is banning dairy products, most alcoholic beverages and motorcycles from Canada, the White House said on Tuesday, as the trade war between the two neighbors and longtime allies escalates.

The ban will take effect in three weeks and comes after Canada imposed retaliatory tariffs on $20bn in US imports earlier on Tuesday.

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US federal court says no constitutional right to clean water in Mississippi case

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Appeals court dismisses lawsuit from Jackson residents claiming that tainted drinking water violated their rights

A US appellate court has decided that the federal constitution does not guarantee a right to clean water.

That legal opinion came in the form of a decision on Friday from the fifth circuit court of appeals to uphold a lower court’s dismissal of a 2022 lawsuit from several Jackson, Mississippi, residents claiming that tainted drinking water violated their constitutional rights.

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Trump renames places and poses as superhero in bizarre social media blitz

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Trump passed the long weekend posting a torrent of memes and musings on his Truth Social platform

The long weekend may have proved too long for Donald Trump, who passed the time by musing about annexing other countries, unilaterally renaming places he’s not allowed to rename and turning himself into a superhero.

Amid the torrent of memes and posts by the president on his Truth Social platform over the Labor Day holiday weekend was a bizarre AI-generated video depicting Trump as the Green Lantern DC superhero, wielding a glowing green power ring to erect his border wall, illuminate an “American manufacturing” scene, and command a fleet of warplanes and warships behind him.

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Giuliani says Mamdani should skip 9/11 ceremony during rant against Islam

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New York City mayor confirms he will attend memorial service but declines to respond to Giuliani’s remarks

New York mayor Zohran Mamdani is set to come face-to-face with Rudy Giuliani at the main September 11 memorial service, just days after the former mayor – who led the city at the time of the 2001 terrorist attacks – disparaged his Muslim religion and said he should skip the ceremony.

In an interview with right-leaning Newsmax at the weekend, Giuliani said: “Having lost friends there and being very close to many of the families, it offends me that he’s coming.”

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Legal veterans lead fightback against Trump’s ‘full-out assault on democracy’

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Advocacy groups expand legal challenges and condemn president’s ‘self-serving attempts to take over midterms’

A cluster of advocacy groups that boast veteran lawyers, voting experts and ex-judges have expanded legal challenges to Donald Trump’s authoritarian executive orders on voting and other presidential actions they see as a “war” on the rule of law in the US.

Heavy legal opposition to Trump’s two executive orders on elections to curb voting rights and supplant the authority of states on election matters has come from the Democracy Defenders Fund, the Campaign Legal Center, the American Civil Liberties Union and kindred groups.

This article was updated on 7 September 2026 to reflect that members of the Democratic Attorneys General Association have filed suit, not the Daga itself.

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‘Nakedly political’: US attempts to link trans support to authoritarianism in new health department report

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HHS releases report linking ‘gender ideology’ to political violence – a study scientists say was poorly conducted

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently released a report linking “gender ideology” to leftwing authoritarianism and political violence – a study scientists say was poorly conducted and “nakedly political”, likely leading to greater politicization of science and health.

It follows attempts by the administration to limit access to gender-affirming care – including, on Friday, an agreement reached between the Department of Justice and a New York hospital to no longer offer pediatric gender-affirming care. Dozens of hospitals stopped offering gender-affirming care after the Trump administration began investigating them for offering the standard of care.

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Falling ceiling debris at Kennedy Center may mire debate over renovations

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Preservationists worry board may seize on incident ‘to make the point that the whole thing needs to be shut down’

Falling debris from a ceiling in the grand foyer of the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts may have complicated a battle over renovations of the Washington DC arts center that could result in the building being demolished.

A portion of the ceiling collapsed on Friday evening after heavy rain swept through the area, prompting officials to temporarily close the Edward Durell Stone-designed building. No one was injured by the debris.

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Trump’s pique with UK could lead to favor to acolyte Milei over Falklands

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US president suggests he might support his Argentinian ally’s drive to reclaim sovereignty of disputed islands

Donald Trump has long embraced vengeance. “I am your retribution,” he declared to an admiring audience at the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) as he commenced his march back to the White House.

It is unlikely Argentina, and far-flung holdovers of the former British empire, were on the US president’s mind at the time.

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Trump’s ex-labor secretary drank on job and created ‘toxic’ work environment, report alleges

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Labor department report alleges Lori Chavez-DeRemer also made a staffer attend a strip club while on a personal trip

Donald Trump’s former secretary of labor, Lori Chavez-DeRemer, drank during working hours, kept alcohol on federal property and made a staffer attend a strip club while on a personal trip, according to a new report by the Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General .

Chavez-DeRemer was appointed by Trump to serve as labor secretary in January 2025 and resigned in April 2026 amid the misconduct allegations.

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Trump names Adam Telle as acting army secretary following departure of Dan Driscoll

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Telle has previously worked for Trump during his first term as a special assistant to the president for legislative affairs

Donald Trump on Thursday named Adam Telle as the acting army secretary after the departure of Daniel Driscoll amid widespread reports of tensions with defense secretary Pete Hegseth.

Telle is currently the assistant secretary of the army for civil works.

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Epstein survivors urge billionaire Leon Black to cooperate with House panel

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Black called on to comply with subpoenas and appear as required to clarify connections to convicted sex offender

More than a dozen survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse have called on the billionaire Leon Black to appear before the House oversight committee in order to clarify his connections to the late disgraced financier and convicted sex offender.

In a letter released on Wednesday, the survivors urged Black to comply with congressional subpoenas ahead of Thursday’s deposition before the House oversight committee.

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Apple Maps renames Lake Ontario as ‘Lake America’ for US users after Trump order

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Tech company submits to controversial Trump order to rename body of water amid US trade spat with Canada

Apple has renamed Lake Ontario as “Lake America” for US users of its Maps app, after an executive order from Donald Trump to change the name of the Great Lake amid his trade spat with Canada.

The Apple Maps app now displays the controversial new name for the lake, which sits between New York state and the Canadian province of Ontario, for users in the US. Apple users outside the country will still see the Lake Ontario name.

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Senator Ed Markey wins Massachusetts Democratic primary

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Incumbent, 80, beats back challenge from Seth Moulton, who argued Markey was too old to be effective at his job

Senator Ed Markey won the Democratic primary in Massachusetts on Tuesday, beating back a challenge from Seth Moulton, a congressman who tried to unseat him by arguing to voters his opponent was too old to be effective at his job.

Massachusetts is heavily Democratic, making the senator favored to win a third full term in the November general election, where he faces the Republican nominee John Deaton.

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Trump nominates loyalist Hung Cao to be permanent navy secretary

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Acting secretary picked for top role as critics accuse president of overworking sailors during war with Iran

Donald Trump said Tuesday that he is nominating acting navy secretary Hung Cao for the permanent job, giving the navy combat veteran the nod as concerns have emerged that some sailors have been stretched to the limit during the Iran war.

Cao has been serving as acting navy secretary since John Phelan departed the job unexpectedly and without explanation in late April.

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Deported Milo Yiannopoulos says he is ‘ashamed’ of support for Trump

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British far-right pundit breaks silence on ICE arrest and deportation and says he was ‘really, really terrified’

Milo Yiannopoulos, the British far-right commentator who was arrested last week by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Louisiana and deported to the United Kingdom, has broken his silence about the experience, saying that “for the first time I know what it feels like to be really, really terrified”.

Yiannopoulos on Tuesday appeared on Piers Morgan Uncensored, a YouTube show presented by Piers Morgan, the British broadcaster and media personality. Yiannopoulos, 41, described the experience in the US as “humiliating and disorientating”, “physically degrading” and “frightening”.

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