National Politics

By Annie Grayer, Ellis Kim, Morgan Rimmer, Manu Raju, CNN (CNN) — Democrats say the Trump administration still won’t share critical details of recent US military strikes on suspected drug boats in the western hemisphere, asserting that Pentagon lawyers were pulled at the last minute Thursday from a briefing on Capitol Hill. As they emerged

By Kevin Liptak, Alejandra Jaramillo, Way Mullery, Rachel Wilson, CNN (CNN) — What to get the man who has everything, including his own Boeing 747 and a set of nuclear launch codes? The conundrum of the diplomatic gift has preoccupied foreign leaders and their envoys in Washington for decades, never more so than when Donald

By Katelyn Polantz, Evan Perez, Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN (CNN) — Failing to win Senate approval as US Attorney for Washington, DC, has made Ed Martin a more formidable force inside the Trump Justice Department. After three chaotic months as interim US attorney earlier this year, Justice Department officials placed Martin in the department’s headquarters in

CNN, POOL By Devan Cole, Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — A federal judge in Boston indicated Thursday that she will intervene in a high-stakes fight over the Trump administration’s decision to not tap into billions of dollars in emergency funds to help cover food stamp benefits for tens of millions of Americans in November. “Right

By Devan Cole, Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — A federal judge in Boston indicated Thursday that she will intervene in a high-stakes fight over the Trump administration’s decision to not tap into billions of dollars in emergency funds to help cover food stamp benefits for tens of millions of Americans in November. “Right now, Congress

By Katelyn Polantz, Holmes Lybrand, CNN (CNN) — The Justice Department’s decision to sideline two US attorneys and remove mentions of Donald Trump and the US Capitol attack from court papers before the sentencing of a pardoned January 6 rioter is being viewed by former and current career prosecutors as an alarming whitewashing of history.

By Morgan Rimmer, CNN (CNN) — The Senate on Thursday passed a resolution aimed at ending President Donald Trump’s global tariffs introduced last spring, with four Senate Republicans joining Democrats to object to the president’s trade policy. For a third time in as many days, Sens. Rand Paul, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Mitch McConnell,

By Angélica Franganillo Díaz (CNN) — A federal judge in Maryland on Thursday temporarily paused the government’s rollout of a new annual asylum application fee, citing confusion and inconsistent policies between federal agencies. Judge Stephanie Gallagher said two agencies, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Executive Office for Immigration Review, acted “arbitrarily and

By Brianna Keilar, CNN (CNN) — As military families lurch from one pay day to the next, they’re suffering collective anxiety, unsure if paychecks will arrive as the government shutdown passes a month with no signs of resolution. Just days ahead of pay day, the Trump administration has shifted Pentagon and Department of Homeland Security

By Arlette Saenz, CNN (CNN) — The 2025 campaign trail has become a popular stop for potential 2028 presidential hopefuls looking to help the Democratic Party’s candidates for governor. Pete Buttigieg joined Democratic nominee Rep. Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey Thursday morning to criticize President Donald Trump’s threats to cancel a major commuter rail project

By Arit John, CNN (CNN) — Former Vice President Kamala Harris, in an interview out Thursday, said a frustrating phone call with Joe Biden ahead of her debate with Donald Trump showed her that the former president wasn’t focused on her success – citing it as an example of why she has a “complicated” relationship

By Gloria Pazmino, CNN New York (CNN) — Through the final days of this year’s campaign for New York City mayor, Andrew Cuomo has at times lived up to the nickname he earned in the early days of his political career: the prince of darkness. Cuomo relaunched his mayoral campaign after his shocking Democratic primary

By Michael Williams, Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, Austin Culpepper, Logan Schiciano, Emily Condon, Sylvie Kirsch, CNN (CNN) — Demand has doubled at a Washington, DC, food bank over the past few weeks, while another in Texas has been forced to dip into emergency hurricane reserve funds to meet demand. Meanwhile, a Florida charity is giving out

By Fredreka Schouten, CNN (CNN) — National political leaders are making frantic, last-ditch efforts in multiple states to redraw more US House districts ahead of next year’s midterms. But their ambitions face big political and procedural obstacles and in some cases, open rebellion from state lawmakers pushing back against pressure from the top leaders in

By Simone McCarthy, Brad Lendon, Betsy Klein, CNN Beijing/Seoul, South Korea (CNN) — President Donald Trump on Thursday vowed to begin testing US nuclear weapons “on an equal basis” with Russia and China, heralding a potentially major shift in decades of US policy at a time of growing tensions between the world’s nuclear-armed superpowers. Trump

By Kaanita Iyer, CNN (CNN) — The US military conducted a strike against a vessel in the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, killing four people, according to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. “This vessel, like all the others, was known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking

By Natasha Bertrand, Zachary Cohen, Haley Britzky, CNN (CNN) — A three-star general serving on the Pentagon’s Joint Staff has been pushed out of his position following months of sustained tensions with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, according to people familiar with the matter. The general’s stalled promotion also contributed to his early retirement, the

By Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, Natasha Bertrand, CNN (CNN) — Trump administration briefed Republicans on Wednesday about US military strikes on suspected drug boats without telling Democratic members about the briefing, according to a top Senate Democrat and a source with direct knowledge of the incident. Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner slammed the Trump

By Natasha Bertrand, Haley Britzky, CNN (CNN) — National Guard troops deployed in Washington, DC, will remain mobilized in the city at least through February 2026, according to people familiar with the guard’s orders. The troops’ orders had been expected to lapse at the end of November before Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth extended them,