Month: July 2025

Roughly 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines had been deployed to respond to protests against immigration raids.

96 <!– Welcome to The Hill’s Defense & NatSec newsletter {beacon} Defense &National Security Defense &National Security <!–   The Big Story  Waltz emerges largely unscathed despite Signal chat scrutiny President Trump’s former national security adviser, Mike Waltz, emerged from a Senate confirmation hearing largely unscathed over his role in mistakenly adding a journalist to…
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Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Tuesday compared the race to dominate artificial intelligence (AI) to an American atomic bomb program during World War II. “The AI race is the second Manhattan project,” Wright said in a Tuesday post on the social platform X. During the World War II, the U.S. government’s Manhattan Project eventually succeeded…
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One professor of American studies breaks down the president’s “crude” comments about women.

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) on Tuesday joined his fellow Democrats in calling for the release of the federal files in the case involving disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In an interview with CNN’s Kate Bolduan, the No. 2 Senate Democrat said he “absolutely” wants to see the files released. “Absolutely.…
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The governor shared his thoughts on the recent deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles.

President Trump on Tuesday touted $92 billion in new private data center and energy investments as his administration seeks to boost the nation’s power supply amid a push to rapidly develop energy-hungry artificial intelligence (AI). Trump unveiled investments from 20 major energy and technology companies, including Google, CoreWeave and Blackstone, at Sen. Dave McCormick’s (R-Pa.)…
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He said more information could be released if it’s deemed “credible” by his attorney general.

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley on Tuesday pushed for the Trump administration to release files about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein “and let the chips fall where they may.” “This is why people don’t trust government. You can never go wrong with being transparent. Redact victims’ names but release the rest,” Haley wrote Tuesday in…
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Sports commentator Stephen A. Smith on Monday said he would consider jumpstarting his career as a politician by campaigning for the presidency.  “You want to start as president of the United States?” Stephen Colbert asked on “The Late Show.”  “Why not?” Smith responded.  Smith has been a sports commentator for over two decades, which has…
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Whoopi Goldberg took aim at former President Obama and billionaire investor Mark Cuban for criticizing the way Democrats have been responding to various actions and policy initiatives undertaken by the Trump administration. Goldberg cited recent criticism from Obama, who urged Democrats to “just toughen up” in remarks Friday at a private fundraiser in New Jersey,…
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David Sacks, President Trump’s artificial intelligence (AI) and crypto czar, urged tech billionaire and friend Elon Musk to reconsider his recent third-party push, arguing his political goals could be achieved through the Republican Party.  Sacks, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, also said that he hopes Musk repairs his relationship with Trump, as the two had…
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Former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday that Democratic voters are “fully caffeinated, double espresso” when it comes to involvement in politics at the moment.  “If you look at every special election and every primary, Democratic turnout since 2024 is way up on a comparative basis, and it’s very, very — Democratic voters…
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House Democrats are hammering President Trump and his GOP allies for pushing to alter Texas’s congressional lines ahead of the midterms, accusing the Republicans of rigging the system to stay in power.  “It’s painfully clear why Republicans are doing this: They know they are going to lose the majority next year,” Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.),…
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A Justice Department memo seeking to douse conspiracy theories around Jeffrey Epstein has split the MAGA influencer ecosystem into competing factions, with some of President Trump’s loudest backers refusing his demand to drop the issue.    The memo said there was no evidence Epstein kept a “client list” or blackmailed powerful global figures. The report also…
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Inflation moved up in June, due partially to businesses passing tariff costs onto consumers. Despite the uptick, President Trump is on the warpath for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, a move that would stimulate markets and investment, but that could also push inflation higher. As tariff-induced inflation threatens to become the dominant narrative…
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The latest attempt by House Democrats to force a vote on releasing files related to the disgraced, late financier Jeffrey Epstein failed on Tuesday. Democrats unsuccessfully urged the chamber to oppose a routine procedural vote — known as the motion on ordering the previous question — since failure would have triggered a vote on Rep. Ro Khanna’s…
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Just three percent of Americans say they’re satisfied with the amount of information the federal government has released in the case involving disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to a CNN/SSRS survey released Tuesday. Meanwhile, 50 percent of U.S. adults say in the poll that they are dissatisfied with the amount of…
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President Trump is in Pennsylvania on Tuesday to tout his technology and energy agenda. Trump, participating in a conference alongside Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.), is expected to announce tens of billions of dollars of investments in the sectors within the Keystone State. The president, since returning to office in January, has repeatedly pledged “energy dominance”…
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President Trump said he hopes Texas Republicans will pick up five seats in the House from a redistricting plan they hope to enact in a special legislative session later this month.  Trump told reporters that it’s “OK” if other Democratic-leaning states like California or New York also seek to redraw their congressional district lines to…
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President Trump told reporters Tuesday that Ukraine should not target Moscow with military attacks and that the U.S. was not looking to give long-range missiles to Kyiv in its ongoing war against Russia. “No, he shouldn’t target Moscow,” Trump said of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as he departed the White House for a trip to…
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Conservative commentator Candace Owens said on Monday that President Trump thinks his “base is stupid” and that “people around him” think he is “stupid” during the latest episode of her show. Owens accused Trump of “gaslighting the public” after the FBI and Justice Department (DOJ) published a memo earlier this month stating there’s no evidence Epstein had…
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President Trump on Tuesday said his administration will impose a 19 percent tariff on Indonesia, lowering the import tax rate he slapped on the nation last week, which was set to go into effect Aug. 1. “We made a deal with Indonesia. I spoke to their really great president, very popular, very strong, smart, and…
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Deputy Secretary of State Michael Rigas will testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee Tuesday afternoon on the State Department’s fiscal 2026 budget request. The hearing comes just days after the Trump administration began its plan to layoff 1,300 employees amid its reorganization efforts. The decision has drawn criticism from Democrats and former diplomats alike…
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Having covered several administrations, I know from my own experience that there’s one common complaint among White House reporters, no matter who is president: Lack of access. Why isn’t he more available? Why won’t he take our questions?  That’s not true of President Trump, though. He’ll stop and take questions anywhere, anytime, on any topic.…
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