Politics

By Natasha Bertrand, Zachary Cohen, CNN (CNN) — The US released the two survivors of Thursday’s military strike on a suspected drug vessel in the Caribbean to their home countries of Ecuador and Colombia, President Donald Trump said Saturday. Trump said it was his “great honor” to destroy a drug-carrying “submarine” with “four known narcoterrorists

By Tami Luhby, CNN (CNN) — Roughly 42 million people are at risk of losing critical food assistance in November amid the federal government shutdown. And it’s not clear whether the Trump administration will step in to find the funds to continue paying benefits, as it has with other priorities. The food stamp program will

By Alayna Treene, Kylie Atwood, CNN (CNN) — Trump administration officials have privately discussed setting up a meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un when Trump visits Asia next month, though many are skeptical that it will ultimately happen, sources familiar with the matter said. Officials have not yet done

By Jeff Zeleny, CNN Whippany, New Jersey (CNN) — Donald Trump may not be on the ballot in the fall’s biggest political races, but both sides are counting on him to help them win. A year after winning back the White House, Republicans are racing to motivate voters who love the president and Democrats are

By Isabelle Khurshudyan, Zachary Cohen, Ines Capdevila, CNN (CNN) — As President Donald Trump weighs military action inside Venezuela, building up forces in the Caribbean and flying B-52 bombers off the country’s coast this week, Nicolás Maduro is responding in kind, repositioning troops, mobilizing “millions” of militia and denouncing US activity in the region –

By Kristen Holmes, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump’s hand-picked interim US Attorney Lindsey Halligan has fired more senior prosecutors from the Eastern District of Virginia office, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN. Beth Yusi and Kristin Bird were no longer with the office as of Friday. Yusi has been with the Department

By Kevin Liptak, CNN (CNN) — These are busy days for Steve Witkoff. The real estate developer-turned-Swiss Army Knife diplomat (officially the special presidential envoy for peace missions) was sitting in the galleries of the Israeli Knesset on Monday, listening as President Donald Trump basked in the newly brokered ceasefire-for-hostages deal, when his boss reminded

CNN By Samantha Waldenberg, Kaanita Iyer, Fadel Allassan, CNN (CNN) — Disgraced former Rep. George Santos, who had been serving a seven-year term for the fraud charges that got him ousted from Congress, was released from prison on Friday night after President Donald Trump commuted his sentence, his lawyer tells CNN. Trump first announced the

By Annie Grayer, Kara Scannell, CNN (CNN) — The former US attorney who negotiated a controversial 2008 plea deal with Jeffrey Epstein defended that agreement in a closed-door interview with House investigators last month, according to a transcript of the interview released by lawmakers. Alex Acosta, the former US attorney from the Southern District of

By Samantha Waldenberg, Kaanita Iyer, Fadel Allassan, CNN (CNN) — Disgraced former Rep. George Santos, who had been serving a seven-year term for the fraud charges that got him ousted from Congress, was released from prison on Friday night after President Donald Trump commuted his sentence, his lawyer tells CNN. Trump first announced the commutation

By Donald Judd, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump’s frustrations with Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro spilled into public view during a White House meeting with Ukraine’s leader Friday, which saw Trump trade military strikes in the Caribbean for an f-bomb in the Cabinet Room. Pressed on reporting from The New York Times that Venezuela had

By Jeremy Herb, Katelyn Polantz, Kristen Holmes, Evan Perez, CNN (CNN) — By the time FBI Director Kash Patel took office in February, the investigation into whether John Bolton mishandled classified information had been in the works for roughly three years. President Donald Trump had long been calling for Bolton – and other perceived political

By John Fritze, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump on Friday urged the Supreme Court to allow him to deploy the National Guard in Chicago, putting the explosive legal fight over his ability to use those troops on American soil before the justices for the first time. The filing sets up a showdown over presidential

By Daniel Dale, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump made multiple false claims to the press during a Friday meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House – including a long-debunked claim about the war in Ukraine. The Russian invasion of Ukraine Trump repeated his previous fake history about Russia’s full-scale invasion of

By Daniel Dale, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump uses a lot of inaccurate numbers. Sometimes, like on Thursday, he uses a bunch of them in rapid succession. At a White House event at which he announced sharply reduced prices for some common fertility drugs through a new direct-to-consumer platform, Trump: Again falsely claimed he

By Kylie Atwood, Natasha Bertrand, Zachary Cohen, Katie Bo Lillis, CNN (CNN) — The US military is holding two survivors on a Navy ship after the US carried out a Thursday strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, according to three US officials. The strike, which President Donald Trump confirmed Friday, was the

By Alayna Treene, Zachary Cohen, Kevin Liptak, CNN (CNN) — President Donald Trump did not take the possibility of the US sending long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine off the table during his call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, sources familiar with their conversation told CNN. But Trump is also not expected to commit to

By Tami Luhby, René Marsh, CNN (CNN) — One essential Social Security employee didn’t foresee her surgery being upended by the federal government shutdown when she scheduled it for early October. But the longtime manager decided to postpone the procedure, which would have required her to take two weeks off to recover, fearing that she

By Kaanita Iyer, CNN (CNN) — Republican Rep. Dave Taylor said Thursday that his office was targeted as part of an elaborate “ruse” after an American flag reportedly altered to include a swastika was found in his Washington, DC, office earlier this week and that similar flags have been found in other Republican offices. “Numerous