Blue state governors move to center of Trump battles
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In today’s issue:
▪ 2028 Democratic hopefuls clash with Trump
▪ President tells Fed’s Lisa Cook she’s fired
▪ GOP chafes at Trump’s Intel, Grassley moves
▪ Judge, ICE face off over Abrego Garcia deportation
A chorus of Democratic governors are lining up to resist President Trump‘s policies, putting potential future party leaders squarely at the center of some of the biggest battles of Trump’s second term.
Trump’s push for mid-decade redistricting and call to crack down on crime in major U.S. cities have spurred blue state governors to broadly push back on federal intervention, lifting their own profiles in the process.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) have all locked horns with Trump in recent days over redistricting and threats to send National Guard to their states. Each has been floated to varying degrees as potential 2028 presidential contenders.
“The governors in those states are utilizing the power that they have to try to stop what Trump is doing,” California-based Democratic strategist Steven Maviglio told Morning Report. “It makes perfect sense for their personal self-interest and the Democratic Party… Everybody’s fighting back in their own ways, depending on who their constituency is and what their ambition is.”
The president’s attacks have given the Democrats ready-made messaging opportunities.
On Monday, Trump threatened to sue California over its redistricting efforts while championing Texas’s own push to redraw its maps more favorably for the GOP. Newsom last week signed a law that will put the Golden State’s temporary redistricting on the ballot in November.
“I think I’m going to be filing a lawsuit pretty soon and I think we’re going to be very successful in it,” Trump said Monday in the Oval Office. “We’re going to [be] filing it through the Department of Justice, that’s going to happen.”
Newsom has relished the attention, gearing his social media presence to mirror Trump’s in tone and to troll the president. The governor on Monday responded to Trump’s threat of a lawsuit with two words: “BRING IT.”
Moore, who has taken steps in recent months to build his national brand, has become the newest blue-state leader to enter the fray.
Trump and Moore spent much of the weekend firing insults at each other after the president threatened to deploy the National Guard to Baltimore, describing the city as “out of control” and “crime ridden.”
Rebuffing Moore’s invitation to walk the streets of Baltimore to observe the city’s efforts to curb crime, Trump also threatened to cut federal funding for restoration of Maryland’s Francis Scott Key Bridge.
Moore is embracing the fight. In a Monday statement, he said Trump “represents what people hate most about politicians — someone who only seeks to benefit themselves.”
The governor also revealed over the weekend he is actively exploring redistricting options in Maryland.
“The redistricting fight is becoming somewhat of a litmus test for who’s willing to do what’s necessary to stop Donald Trump,” Mike Nellis, a Democratic strategist, told The Hill’s Julia Manchester.
Another fight devolved into personal attacks Monday, with Trump saying Illinois’s Pritzker “ought to spend more time in the gym.” The governor responded that the swipe is “just evidence of a guy who’s still living in fifth grade.”
“It takes one to know one on the weight question,” Pritzker said. “And the president, of course, himself, is not in good shape. So, he ought to respond to that from me.”
The Illinois governor has forcefully pushed back on Trump’s declaration he would send the military into Chicago.
Trump on Monday appeared to back off on his threat, saying it would be better to be asked by state and local officials for federal assistance.
“I was telling some of the people that in a certain way you really want to be asked to go,” Trump told reporters. “I hate to barge in on a city and then be treated horribly by corrupt politicians and bad politicians.”
National Guard members — some of whom are now armed — and a slew of other law enforcement agencies are deployed in Washington, D.C., to crack down on what the White House says was an unacceptable level of crime, despite statistics showing violent crime had declined in the city.
▪ The Hill: More than 1,000 arrests have been made since federal law enforcement was sent into D.C. earlier this month, the White House said.
▪ The Hill: The president assailed Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) as “incompetent.”
▪ The Hill: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s (D) reelection campaign launched its first digital ad Monday, positioning her as an opponent to Trump’s administration in the Empire State.
▪ NBC News: Rep. Mark Alford (R-Mo.) said the National Guard shouldn’t be sent to cities without a governor’s request.
LONG-TERM STRATEGY: Democrats’ public battles with Trump are showy and grabbing headlines, but they’re not emblematic of the post-2024 election comeback plan the party had envisioned.
Since their grueling defeat in November, Democrats have scrambled to form a unified voice against Trump, aiming to focus on kitchen-table issues such as the economy and inflation. Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin on Monday stressed it’s time to “stand up and fight.”
Democrats, energized by Trump’s low approval numbers and the old adage that the party in power is often trounced in the midterms, are turning their energies to 2026. But the GOP redistricting efforts are throwing a wrench in their path.
At the DNC’s summer meeting in Minneapolis, Minn., Martin argued that the president is acting as “a dictator-in-chief” and that Trump’s second administration is “fascism dressed in a red tie.”
“We are the only thing standing in his way,” Martin emphasized.
Maviglio cautioned that Democrats need to focus on policy, too, beyond the public fights with the president, connecting with voters on issues from the economy to crime.
“Considering [Democrats] do not [control] the executive branch, legislative branch, or the courts, the most effective strategy is to use the power that Democrats have to show what they can do,” the strategist said. “It’s actually solving problems.”
Smart Take with Blake Burman
The commander in chief spent much of his Monday on camera talking about quite a few newsworthy topics, from crime in Chicago to the war between Ukraine and Russia. One of the things that stood out to me: he suggested changing the name of the Department of Defense to the “Department of War.”
“We’re just going to do it. I’m sure Congress will go along if we need that,” Trump told NewsNation’s Kellie Meyer when she asked how he would do that, given it requires congressional approval.
It wouldn’t be a first for America. George Washington established a Department of War in 1789, and it was a fixture in our country until after World War II. We don’t know yet what material or organizational changes could come with a new name, or when that could occur.
However, the president hasn’t shied away from making changes to the Pentagon; in his first term, he stood up the Space Force.
Burman hosts “The Hill” weeknights, 6p/5c on NewsNation.
3 Things to Know Today
1. Trump escalated his pressure on the Federal Reserve Monday by saying he fired Fed board member Lisa Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud. He has no such legal authority, she responded.
2. The House Oversight And Government Reform Committee subpoenaed Jeffrey Epstein’s estate for materials, including a collection of birthday messages from VIPs.
3. Utah’s Legislature will have to redraw unlawful congressional boundaries ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, a district court judge ruled Monday.
Leading the Day
To the consternation of some Republicans in Congress, Trump vowed on Monday to challenge the GOP chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee in court.
The president vented to reporters while taking aim at Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), a nearly 92-year-old ally who has many defenders in the Senate.
Trump said the government will file a lawsuit to challenge a Senate Judiciary custom he described as an impediment to confirming his chosen nominees. He attacked a practice called “blue slipping,” which in the Senate requires nominees’ home-state senators to quietly sign off on nominees’ suitability. It’s a nod to bipartisanship and Senate courtesy and airs out the concerns of individual states.
“You know, blue slips make it impossible for me as president to appoint a judge or a U.S. attorney because they have a gentleman’s agreement,” Trump said.
That agreement allows Democratic senators to theoretically block or stall Republican nominees, for example. Trump said the “gentleman’s agreement” should end.
The president is furious that Alina Habba, formerly one of his personal defense attorneys who was appointed to be U.S. attorney in New Jersey, came to the end of a temporary role, according to a federal judge. To keep the job, she needs to be confirmed by the Senate. But to get through the Judiciary Committee to full Senate approval, she needs support.
On Monday, the Justice Department said it will appeal a judge’s opinion that Habba was disqualified to serve as New Jersey’s top prosecutor.
The friction with the Senate escalated over the weekend and prompted Grassley to defend “blue slipping” as a useful tool for any White House that wants appointees to win support in the full Senate.
“A U.S. Atty/district judge nominee without a blue slip does not hv [have] the votes to get confirmed on the Senate floor & they don’t hv [have] the votes to get out of cmte [committee],” Grassley said in a social media post.
INTEL: Trump on Monday rejected worries that a government deal to own part of Intel, a private company, is too risky. Conservatives say the president’s decision allowing the federal government to accept a 10 percent share in the semiconductor manufacturer sets a dangerous precedent that creates a semi-state-owned enterprise in the tech sector.
“State-sponsored capitalism? America will not outperform China by being more like China,” Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) posted on social media.
Trump defends the agreement and said he wants more such deals, which alarms the business community. On Monday, he told reporters the Intel agreement is a model for other U.S. companies to follow.
Republicans historically have assailed federal efforts under Democrats to pick winners and losers in the broader economy.
The Hill’s Emily Brooks has more on the GOP pushback to Trump’s Intel move in today’s The Movement newsletter. Click here to sign up & get it in your inbox.
▪ Reuters: Intel later Monday warned that the U.S. government’s stake could hurt international sales and future grants.
▪ CNBC: The president’s interest in Intel equity is “more like a downpayment on a sovereign wealth fund, which many other countries have,” White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said on Monday. “I’m sure that at some point there will be more transactions, if not in this industry, then in other industries.”
MORE POLITICS: The president declined on Monday to endorse either Texas Senate GOP candidate John Cornyn, who is seeking reelection, or Republican challenger Ken Paxton, saying he likes both men.
▪ The Hill: Democrats today look to flip GOP seats in Georgia, Iowa special elections.
▪ The Hill: Trump’s war on wind, solar rattles clean energy industry.
When and Where
The president will convene a meeting of his Cabinet at 11 a.m.
The House will hold a pro forma session at 11 a.m. and will return to work in Washington on Sept. 2.
The Senate will hold a pro forma session at noon.
Zoom In
DETAINED AGAIN: Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland migrant who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador by the administration before being returned to the U.S. and charged by the Justice Department with a felony in Tennessee, is fighting to block his possible deportation to Uganda with a petition to be heard “as fast as is just,” said federal Judge Paula Xinis.
Xinis, who has been dealing with the case for nearly five months, on Monday temporarily barred the government from expelling Abrego Garcia, who is being held in Virginia. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took him into custody Monday when he appeared at an ICE field office in Baltimore following his federal release from a Tennessee prison on Friday.
Elsewhere
KIM MEETING: Trump said he plans to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, following a request from South Korea’s president to help bring about peace on the peninsula.
Trump said the meeting would take place “in the appropriate future,” adding that he would like to meet Kim this year.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung argued in an Oval Office meeting Monday that Trump is “the only person who can make progress on this issue.”
Trump in February said the U.S. will have relations with North Korea and touted his personal relationship with Kim. He held two summits with Kim during his first term, but failed to achieve North Korea’s denuclearization.
▪ CNBC: Lee sang Trump’s praises on Monday, weeks after their nations reached a trade deal that capped tariffs on South Korea’s exports to the U.S. at 15 percent.
▪ Reuters: Trump told reporters on Monday that China has to give the U.S. magnets or “we have to charge them 200 percent tariff or something” amid a trade dispute between the two nations.
‘PEOPLE I DON’T LIKE’: Trump said Monday he recently spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and he believed the Russian leader’s dislike of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is holding up a meeting between the pair.
“He doesn’t like him,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I have people I don’t like, I don’t like to meet with them.”
Since the start of his second term, Trump has sought to end the war in Ukraine, which began in 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion. The president recently hosted Putin for a summit in Alaska and then met with Zelensky and European leaders at the White House. But Trump’s promise of future meetings with Putin and Zelensky, followed by a trilateral meeting with Trump himself, has yet to materialize. Moscow continues to slow-walk a peace deal, demanding territorial concessions Kyiv will not grant.
“Every conversation I have with him is a good conversation,” Trump said of Putin. “And then, unfortunately, a bomb is loaded up into Kyiv or someplace, and then I get very angry about it.”
Still, Trump said he was optimistic “we’re going to get the war done.”
▪ The New York Times: What’s next for Ukraine after all that diplomacy?
▪ NBC News: Vice President Vance says Russia has made “significant concessions” in Ukraine talks. Has it?
JOURNALISTS AND MEDICS: Trump said he is “not happy” about Israeli strikes on a hospital in Gaza that killed at least 20 people, including five journalists and several medical workers. The explosion hit rescue workers who were searching for survivors at the scene of an earlier strike at a hospital in Khan Younis. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the strike as a “tragic mishap.”
Israel is facing increased international and domestic criticism for its further incursion into Gaza City, where around half of the enclave’s population of 2 million has gathered, many of whom are displaced. Coupled with an increasingly dire humanitarian crisis, which the world’s leading body on hunger has labeled a famine, the further assault by Israeli forces threatens civilians in the enclave.
The Committee to Protect Journalists estimates at least 192 journalists have been killed in Gaza in the 22-month conflict, 189 of them Palestinians. More than 1,500 health workers have been killed, according to the United Nations.
▪ The New York Times: These are the five journalists killed in the Israeli strike.
Opinion
- Trump picks a losing fight with the longest-serving GOP senator, by The Washington Post editorial board.
- Mail ballots are not a threat to democracy, but an invitation to it, by Barbara Smith Warner, opinion contributor, The Hill.
The Closer
And finally … 🗳️ On this day in 1920, Congress formally adopted the 19th Amendment, granting women the right to vote. The amendment was the culmination of more than 70 years of work by women suffragists.
“The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex” the amendment reads, along with “Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”
Despite its passage, poll taxes, local laws and other policies would restrict the ability for women of color to vote for several more decades.