Trump defends Hegseth, bashes Massie
Donald Trump defended defense secretary Pete Hegseth, who is facing articles of impeachment introduced by Republican senator Thomas Massie, saying Hegseth “won two wars”.
“He won the war in Venezuela,” Trump said of Hegseth, adding that the United States’ military raid to capture former president Nicolás Maduro “was flawless”.
“He’s winning the war in Iran,” Trump added.
Meanwhile, the president called Massie “a stone cold loser” and “sick”.
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“He won the war in Venezuela,” Trump said of Hegseth, adding that the United States’ military raid to capture former president Nicolás Maduro “was flawless”.
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“He’s winning the war in Iran,” Trump added.
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Meanwhile, the president called Massie “a stone cold loser” and “sick”.
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}],”data”:{“alt”:”Donald Trump speaks at a podium in the White House press briefing room”,”caption”:”Donald Trump delivers remarks in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on 9 November.”,”credit”:”Photograph: Aaron Schwartz/Reuters”}}],”attributes”:{“pinned”:true,”keyEvent”:true,”summary”:false},”blockCreatedOn”:1794262050000,”blockCreatedOnDisplay”:”17.07 EST”,”blockLastUpdated”:1794263260000,”blockLastUpdatedDisplay”:”17.27 EST”,”blockFirstPublished”:1794262301000,”blockFirstPublishedDisplay”:”17.11 EST”,”blockFirstPublishedDisplayNoTimezone”:”17.11″,”title”:”Trump defends Hegseth, bashes Massie”,”contributors”:[] ,”primaryDateLine”:”Mon 9 Nov 2026 22.00 EST”,”secondaryDateLine”:”First published on Mon 9 Nov 2026 05.53 EST”},{“id”:”6af234088f082a3892f6b51b”,”elements”:[{“_type”:”model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.TextBlockElement”,”html”:”
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Republican Congressman Thomas Massie has introduced eight articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth, refiling a resolution in the hope of ousting the defense secretary. The House has two days to take it up. This could result in a vote on the floor, a formal investigation or the measure could be tabled. All require a simple majority (218 votes) in the House.
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Massie, the outgoing representative from Kentucky, accused Hegseth of illegally waging war in Iran without congressional authorization and abusing his powers. The articles also focuses on Hegseth’s move to strike several boats in the Caribbean that have killed over 200 people throughout the campaign. The resolution also points to the defense secretary’s targeted Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, a former Navy captain, for telling troops to resist unlawful orders. Hegseth formally censured Kelly, accused him of seditious statements, and moved to reduce his retired military rank and pension. A federal judge later blocked the Pentagon’s effort.
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While Democrats are expected to back the impeachment effort, some Republicans have also expressed some support, even though they hold a narrow majority. A reminder that for the removal of an impeached official, there needs to be 67 votes in the upper chamber. Speaking to reporters, Massie insisted that his articles of impeachment are “not symbolic”. “He is not doing a good job. In addition to breaking the law and violating the constitution, he’s not doing a good job,” Massie said. “If he stays in power, and Republicans reject this – what message do you think he sends to the American public after last week’s election?”
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After initially saying he would accept the results of the midterm elections, that saw Democrats flip dozens of seats and win control of Congress, Donald Trump has begun to cast doubt on the Republican drubbing. “Does anybody really believe that this ‘Election’ was honest,” he wrote on Truth Social. “How could the Polls be so wrong??? Some early voting ‘dumps’ were so large that it was impossible to win, no matter how many people went to vote.” The president also repeated his baseless aspersions that that voting machines are unreliable. “It’s all about the machines, which are far more important than the voter!” Trump wrote.
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Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer responded to Trump’s statement, saying that the president’s “return to election denialism was inevitable”. The Senate minority leader added: “He can whine all he wants, but nothing will stop this inescapable truth: For the last two years of his presidency, Trump will face the largest Democratic congressional majorities in decades, all because he has been an unprecedented failure.”
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Could Hakeem Jeffries, as the likely next speaker of the House, work with Stephen Miller, the architect of Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign who last week named White House chief of staff?
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“No”, Jeffries replied, when asked about the possibility of collaboration at his press conference today.
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“Stephen Miller is a stone cold racist. His track record speaks for itself, and I’ve got zero interest in working with that kind of individual,” Jeffries added.
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It’s not the first time the top House Democrat has condemned Miller, but this language is Jeffries’s strongest yet. Needless to say, this does not bode well for the possibility of bipartisan collaboration in the next Congress on issues like immigration reform.
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As I noted earlier, Thomas Massie’s push to Pete Hegseth has been months in the making.
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In September, Massie introduced the articles, but was stopped when Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson ended up cancelling the final day of votes ahead of the midterms recess. Massie, an outgoing Republican who lost his primary election earlier this year, has long pushed back against the lack of congressional approval for the administration’s war in Iran.
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“I’m a defeated congressman. I’m not disgruntled, and we’ll see if the plan works,” he said on Tuesday. “I’m being polite here … An impeachment is just firing somebody. Really, you don’t go to prison. You don’t go to jail. You’re not. You don’t pay a fine.”
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Now that Massie has refiled the resolution, the House has two days to take it up. This could result in a floor vote, a formal investigation via a committee, or the measure could be tabled altogether. All options require a simple majority (218 votes) in the House.
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While the Iran conflict is the primary focus of the articles of impeachment, Massie’s resolution also focuses on Hegseth’s move to strike several boats in the Caribbean that have killed over 200 people throughout the campaign.
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“Not only are they striking people without identifying them,” Massie told reporters outside the US Capitol. “They don’t know who all those people are in the boat. They’re going back and killing all the survivors. This puts our own military in danger in any kind of future military engagement.”
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The resolution also points to the defense secretary’s move to target Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, a former Navy captain, for telling troops to resist unlawful orders. Hegseth formally censured Kelly, accused him of seditious statements, and moved to reduce his retired military rank and pension. A federal judge later blocked the Pentagon’s efforts.
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Today, Massie said that Hegseth would be in more danger when Democrats take over Congress in the new year.
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“They won’t have just eight articles of impeachment,” the congressman said. “I suspect if Pete Hegseth doesn’t leave … the Democrats are going to bring people in here who have served under him and with him, give them protection. They’ll be able to say what he’s actually done, the things he has ignored, the things that he did that caused civilian casualties, the way he’s you know ignored the laws, and then there’ll be a full robust trial over in the Senate.”
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Massie added: “And it’s not a certain thing that he would survive the Senate, you know, even though you know they don’t have what would you call it an impeachment-proof majority in the Senate.”
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A reminder that for the removal of an impeached official, there needs to be 67 votes in the upper chamber.
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Speaking to reporters, Massie insisted that his articles of impeachment are “not symbolic”.
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“He is not doing a good job. In addition to breaking the law and violating the constitution, he’s not doing a good job,” Massie said. “If he stays in power, and Republicans reject this – what message do you think he sends to the American public after last week’s election?
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Senator Chuck Schumer, who is hoping to become the upper chamber’s majority leader when Democrats take control in the new year, is now facing pushback from members of his party for the top job.
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Many Democratic lawmakers are pushing for new leadership, and a generational shift given the historic victories the party secured in the midterm elections.
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“We need a conversation about leadership going forward because we need new energy and ideas,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, on Monday.
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Over the weekend, several other caucus members questioned whether Schumer, 75, who currently serves as the minority leader, should go unchallenged.
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“I’ve been very vocal that we need a new generation of leadership. We couldn’t have gotten a clearer signal than Tuesday,” said Elissa Slotkin, a first-term Democrat from Michigan. Meanwhile, sources close to Chris Van Hollen, the progressive Maryland senator, say that the lawmaker is receiving “an outpouring of calls and is now in active listening mode” about throwing his hat in the ring for leader, according to Politico.
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Several freshmen Democrats spent time on the campaign trail insisting that they would not support Schumer as leader. This includes the Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed, who won the bitter fight for the open US Senate seat in Michigan, who only secured Schumer’s support after he won the Democratic primary against Haley Stevens, who Schumer backed initially. Other Senate newcomers, Troy Jackson of Maine, Adam Hamilton of Kansas and Peggy Flanagan of Minnesota, have all said they would support a different leader.
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We’re watching the latest on the House floor, where Republican Thomas Massie is introducing eight articles of impeachment against defense secretary Pete Hegseth. Massie is hoping to force a vote, which could happen as soon as Wednesday.
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Part of the impeachment articles includes the claim that Hegseth “abused the powers of the Department of Defense” that, he claims, resulted in the death of more than 175 civilians after strikes on an elementary school in Minab, Iran in February. The Pentagon has not confirmed responsibility for the specific attack, despite independent analyses finding the US was behind the strikes.
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The defense department has carried out its own investigation, with a preliminary inquiry showing Washington responsible the deadly missile strike, according to a New York Times report.
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Several Republican senators have called on party leadership to delay the internal election scheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday).
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“We need to have serious discussions within our conference as to what we can do to improve the outcome in 2028,” the group wrote in a letter to conference chair Senator Tom Cotton, noting the stunning GOP defeat in the midterm elections last week. “Holding leadership elections without engaging in a robust discussion and evaluation of how those running for leadership intend to lead would be political malpractice. It is certainly not the way leadership elections should be conducted in the world’s greatest deliberative body.”
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Senator Ron Johnson, of Wisconsin, led the letter. However, there is no apparent challenger to the upper chamber’s majority leader, Senator John Thune. If Thune stays in place, he will lead the Republican minority in the next Congress.
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Thomas Massie, the outgoing Republican congressman, is re-introducing his eight articles of impeachment today against Pete Hegseth, in his bid to oust the defense secretary.
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Massie, who lost his primary earlier this year, will likely move to force an impeachment vote against Hegseth again, ahead of Democrats re-taking control of Congress in the new year.
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The articles include launching and continuing an unauthorized war in Iran, violating the War Powers Resolution without seeking congressional approval.
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As we noted earlier, many House Democrats appear in lock-step behind the impeachment resolution. On Sunday, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said he was a “hard yes” on the vote.
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Democrats have flipped the Georgia state House, the Associated Press reported on Monday.
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As of Monday, Democrats had won 91 House seats and Republicans 86, per the AP.
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The state House in Georgia has been Republican-controlled since 2005. The flip comes as Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms won the governorship in Georgia last week.
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Pete Hegseth has announced that he will hold a press conference tomorrow morning, marking the first Pentagon press conference since May.
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Hegseth was asked by reporters on Monday whether he thinks he has enough Republican support to defeat the impeachment articles, Hegseth said, “We’re not worried about that.”
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“Actually, I hope all of you will join us, we’re going to do a press conference tomorrow morning at the Pentagon on that very topic,” he continued. “So I’ll save my remarks there.”
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Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer has responded to Trump’s statement earlier today casting doubt on the midterm election results, saying that the president’s “return to election denialism was inevitable”.
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Schumer added: “He can whine all he wants, but nothing will stop this inescapable truth: For the last two years of his presidency, Trump will face the largest Democratic congressional majorities in decades, all because he has been an unprecedented failure”
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A commerce department investigation into Megaspeed – the data company led by Singaporean executive suspected of being a Chinese spy – was halted after Nvidia’s general counsel intervened, according to a report by the New York Times.
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This comes amid a probe Nvidia launched into Jensen Huang, the company’s CEO and founder, after he revealed that he had an marital relationship with the Megaspeed executive, Alice Huang (no relation).
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According to the Times, Tim Teter, Nvidia’s general counsel, contacted the investigators at commerce department to inform them that their boss, Jeff Kessler – a top official – had given Teter permission to request details about their probe into Megaspeed. The case focused on whether the company was smuggling Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips into China.
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According to current and former government officials, and others familiar with the incident, that the Times spoke to, some viewed Kessler’s interaction with Nvidia as violating government procedure and potentially tainting the investigation.
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The case was eventually transferred to the justice department late last year, but questions remain about Kessler’s discussions with Nvidia, and what information he subsequently relayed to Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary or the wider Trump administration.
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According to the Times’ sources, the justice department is conducting a criminal inquiry into Megaspeed.
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After initially saying he would accept the results of the midterm elections, that saw Democrats flip dozens of seats and win control of Congress, Donald Trump has begun to cast doubt on the Republican drubbing.
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“Does anybody really believe that this ‘Election’ was honest,” he wrote on Truth Social. “How could the Polls be so wrong??? Some early voting ‘dumps’ were so large that it was impossible to win, no matter how many people went to vote.”
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The president also repeated his baseless aspersions that that voting machines are unreliable. “It’s all about the machines, which are far more important than the voter!” Trump wrote.
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Voting rights experts were initially concerned that the president and Republican allies would contest the midterm results, but after the seismic victory from Democrats last week Trump appeared to concede.
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After last week’s elections, Trump said and his administration “look forward” to working with Democrats as they prepare to take control of both chambers of Congress. “We’ll probably work something out,” he told the New York Times.
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In that same interview, he told the Times that he was “absolutely willing” to accept the results of the midterm elections.
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House and Senate lawmakers are back in Washington after Democrats’ swept Republicans out of Congress in the midterm elections. This means that the remaining weeks in-session are likely to be ineffective as the GOP prepare to lost control. However, members do have one key deadline – 11 December.
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This is when government funding, which was extended by a continuing resolution in September, lapses. Both chambers will have to hammer out another stopgap spending fill to avert a shutdown before Democrats take control in the new year.
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Democratic Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, currently the House minority leader who is poised to become new Speaker next year, told CBS News that the Trump administration will hold a closed-door congressional briefing today to discuss Jensen Huang’s affair with an alleged Chinese spy.
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Last week the Republican chairs of three key House committees also called on Huang to appear before lawmakers in a closed-door hearing on 18 November.
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Nvidia announced it is launching an independent investigation following reports that Huang, its founder and CEO, had been the target of “a foreign intelligence effort”.
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That effort, reports claim, led to Huang conducting a romantic relationship with a Chinese woman, Alice Huang, who was recruited to spy for China’s Ministry of State Security intelligence agency.
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On Sunday Donald Trump said he had yet to speak with the Nvidia CEO. “I just know he’s a fine person, but you never know what is going on,” the president said of Huang. “I’m sure. I hope everything’s fine. He’s done such an incredible job, and so I would certainly hope he’s a fine person, in my opinion.”
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We’re also keeping an eye on the latest results out of Mississippi, in the neck-and-neck US Senate race.
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With 97% of the votes counted, Democrat Scott Colom is leading the Republican incumbent, Cindy Hyde-Smith by more than 2,500 votes. A reminder that election officials in the state can accept ballots until 10 November (five business days after election day) as long as they are postmarked by 3 November.
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We’ll bring you the latest as we learn more.
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Public health leaders and politicians whomadehealthcare a central part of their platforms swept into office in the US midterm elections last week, setting the stage for national, state and local changes.
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Voters, faced with an unprecedented rise in vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, alongside devastating outbreaks of foodborne illnesses, chose national candidates who prioritized public health, healthcare affordability, reproductive health and the impeachment of Robert F Kennedy Jr, among other key issues.
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“The American people are speaking out against President Trump andthepoliciesthathe’sbeenrollingoutsincetheday he took office,” said Julie Scofield, a member of the coordinating committee at the grassroots organization Defend Public Health. “I think it’s a complete repudiation.”
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Mallory Harris, a scientist in Austin, almost delayed having children because she was worried about accessing life-saving healthcare, such as vaccines and abortion, if she needed it. She had doctors check her immunity against viruses including measles, and sought assurances from her physicians that she would have access to appropriate care. Harris found out she was pregnant just as 2026 officially became the worst year for measles in the US since before she was born. Texas has no paid time off for maternity or paternity leave, but Harris and her husband will try to wait until the baby is six months old and can get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot early before starting daycare.
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Dealing with public health emergencies like these have been “a top issue” for her as a voter. After the election, “it suddenly became a lot less scary”, Harris said. “We’ve seen scientists and physicians getting elected in record numbers. We saw big shifts in places that have had measles outbreaks.”
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Donald Trump will meet the prime minister of key mediator Qatar on Monday as efforts to end the Iran war ramp up following last week’s midterm elections, though senior US and Gulf officials cast doubt on the chances of an imminent deal.
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With no victory in sight more than eight months into the conflict he launched alongside Israel on 28 February, Trump has played down the likelihood of major warfare restarting soon but remains unwilling to accept an existing Iranian truce plan.
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Mutual attacks continue, with the US striking Iran’s Qeshm island overnight, according to Iranian state media, and Iran attacking tankers in the Gulf and strait of Hormuz this month, while its Yemeni Houthi allies have hit Saudi Arabia.
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Donald Trump said on Sunday that he “was only kidding” when he announced a day earlier that he had offered the job of White House press secretary to Dana White, the chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
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Speaking to reporters on his way back the White House from his beach club in Florida, Trump explained the premise of his joke, that if the UFC boss, who is a devoted fan of the president, took over the briefing room, flanked by six fighters, reporters “wouldn’t mess around with him so much”.
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“So I was kidding, but I think Dana likes the idea, and he is a very capable guy,” Trump added. “Of course, I was kidding. And you could see that because I put all of the great fighters as his assistants, that they’re all going to come with him … It was just a little fun.”
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Earlier on Sunday, the president shared an animated AI cartoon made by one of his supporters on social media, which showed UFC fighters beating up journalists and one, Josh Hokit, repeating the racist remark about Michelle Obama he made during the UFC event at the White House on Trump’s birthday in June.
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The president said that his mock announcement that White would become his spokesperson, in a social media post on Saturday, “was an example of something where I was kidding, and then people said, ‘You know, that’s actually a pretty good idea’”.
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Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
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Donald Trump said he thinks his administration was too aggressive on deportations and that he was open to an arrangement to allow some undocumented immigrants to remain in the US.
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The president said, in his first major interview since his party lost control of the House and Senate in the midterm elections, that his deportation policy was part of the reason Republicans lost.
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He told CBS’s ‘60 Minutes’ in an interview that aired on Sunday:
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I think it might be too tough, yeah. And a lot of people would say that it’s great. But a lot of people think it’s too tough.
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The president’s comments were an unusually frank acknowledgment that one of the defining policies of his second administration had become a political liability. But they were seemingly at odds with his decision on Friday to elevate Stephen Miller, the architect of his immigration crackdown, to White House chief of staff.
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Trump said that he thinks he could reach an agreement with the new Democratic majority, adding:
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n
We would work something out. And I think it’s something – I think that’s something that’s actually doable.
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The president claimed that his policy “both helped and hurt”, since people gave him an “A+ for closing up the border” and “very high marks for getting the bad ones out”. But he admitted: “I get hurt because we also took people that had good jobs, that created one violation, or breaking of the law, and that was that they came into the country illegally.”
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His comments come as his most controversial aide Miller was due today to start his new role as chief of staff. In a social media post, Trump called Miller, 41, “one of my most trusted advisors” and praised the outgoing Susie Wiles for doing “an outstanding job”.
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Read our full report here:
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In other developments:
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On the race among Republicans to succeed him for the 2028 presidential election, Trump hinted at staying neutral. Asked whether he’d endorse a potential successor, the president said “probably, not necessarily.” “We have a tremendous bench. I have so many people that I have great relationships with,” Trump said in his CBS interview.
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Trump said on Sunday that he “was only kidding” when he announced a day earlier that he had offered the job of White House press secretary to Dana White, the chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Speaking to reporters on his way back the White House from his beach club in Florida, Trump explained the premise of his joke, that if the UFC boss, who is a devoted fan of the president, took over the briefing room, flanked by six fighters, reporters “wouldn’t mess around with him so much”.
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Trump will meet with Qatar’s prime minister at the White House today, according to the White House schedule, as the conflict with Iran drags on and diplomatic efforts to end it face significant obstacles. Trump is due to meet with Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, who also serves as Qatar’s foreign minister, in a closed-door meeting. Vice-president JD Vance is also scheduled to meet with the Qatari leader, according to a US official.
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A US deportation flight of Iranian nationals bound for Iran by way of Pakistan was abruptly canceled Sunday morning, according to an attorney who spoke to some of the detainees slated for repatriation. At least eight Iranians were loaded onto a plane Sunday morning in Mesa, Arizona, for a deportation flight headed to the country of Georgia, then on to Pakistan, according to Ali Rahnama, an attorney with the Iranian American Legal Defense Fund who filed emergency motions on behalf of some of the Iranian detainees. The flight was canceled without explanation, he said.
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Key events
Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day. Here are the latest developments:
Republican congressman Thomas Massie introduced eight articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth, refiling a resolution in the hope of ousting the defense secretary. Massie, the outgoing representative from Kentucky, accused Hegseth of illegally waging war in Iran without congressional authorization and abusing his powers.
Donald Trump was joined by Dana White, the CEO of UFC, at his press conference today. At the conference, Trump defended Hegseth, saying his defense secretary “won two wars”, and called Massie “a stone cold loser” and “sick”.
After saying that his deportation policy was “too tough” and offering to strike an immigration deal with Democrats in an interview on 60 Minutes broadcast yesterday, Donald Trump today said his administration’s deportation policy was “very strong.” “Somebody suggested, will there be amnesty? No, but— they came in. They knew the law,” Trump told reporters during a press conference today. He added that he had not spoken with incoming chief of staff Stephen Miller about any changes.
In its first major move since last week’s elections, the Senate has advanced bipartisan legislation to speed up permitting reviews for data centers and other infrastructure projects. The Senate voted 73-25 to formally take up the bill, which would shorten the timeline for approving both clean and fossil fuel energy projects.
A Utah judge scheduled the trial of the man accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk for June 2028. District Judge Tony Graf allocated 105 days for the trial. Graf said the 2028 date balances the defense’s right to prepare with the Kirk family’s desire for a speedy resolution.
The Supreme Court will allow the Trump administration to resume border wall construction in the Big Bend region of Texas. The majority paused a lower court’s decision as the case plays out. The Trump administration had filed an emergency appeal, saying there are illegal border crossings and drug seizures in the region.
After initially saying he would accept the results of the midterm elections, Trump has begun to cast doubt Democrats’ electoral wins. “Does anybody really believe that this ‘Election’ was honest,” he wrote on Truth Social. Democratic senator Chuck Schumer responded to Trump’s statement, saying that the president’s “return to election denialism was inevitable”.
Chris van Hollen said he is in “listening mode” and hasn’t “shut the door” on a possible bid for Senate majority leader. The senator from Maryland has been floated as an alternative to Schumer.
Mike Johnson declined to commit to serving out his term in Congress while answering questions from reporters this evening. The House speaker noted that “Really the only person in the modern era that decided to stick around and serve in the Speaker emeritus position was Nancy Pelosi.”
California voters rejected a first-in-the-nation tax on the net worth of billionaires.
California billionaires won a contentious ballot measure campaign, defeating a proposed one-time tax on their wealth. The measure would have imposed a one-time 5% tax on the wealth of Californians whose net worth exceeds $1bn.
As my colleague Dara Kerr writes:
The bruising campaign over Proposition 40 was the most expensive in state history and witness to back-and-forth dealing from tech billionaires and democratic leaders, including Gavin Newsom, the governor, who steadfastly opposed the measure. While supporters of Prop 40 cast it as a solution to drastic healthcare cuts from Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, opponents led by prosperous billionaires mounted an influential campaign saying the billionaire tax was instead “an everyone tax”.
Here’s our full story:
A democratic socialist candidate who is originally from Gaza will challenge John Fetterman, the Democratic senator from Pennsylvania, in 2028.
Ahmed Moor, a Palestinian American, today announced his bid to primary Fetterman when the senator is up for reelection.
As my colleague Robert Tait writes:
The move is the first sign of Fetterman’s weakened position in the party since the Democrats won back control of the Senate in last week’s US midterm elections, when the party won at least 54 of the upper chamber’s 100 seats.
Here’s our full story:
Republican Ken Calvert has won election his race to represent California’s 40th district in the House of Representatives.
Calvert, who is the longest-serving Republican in California’s House delegation, beat the incumbent, fellow Republican Young Kim. Calvert and Kim were set to face each other after California redrew its districts to favor Democrats.
The education department announced today that it has launched investigations into public school districts in Pennsylvania and New Mexico, alleging that the schools’ gender identity policies violate federal law. The Trump administration has taken repeated actions to restrict transgender rights.
In a press release, the education department cited “recent reports from Albuquerque Public Schools and Santa Fe Public Schools in New Mexico” that “raise concerns that these districts maintain policies that prevent school personnel from sharing information about a child’s ‘gender transition’ or ‘gender identity’ with their parents.”
It added that “in Pennsylvania parents allege that the Pennsbury School District facilitated their daughter’s so-called “social transition” to appear as a boy for three years without informing them” and said it was taking enforcement action with thejustice department against the Pine-Richland School District “for policies directing school staff, including nurses and psychologists, to facilitate ‘gender transitions’ for students without parental consent.”
“The Trump Administration has made upholding parental rights and transparency in the classroom a key part of our education agenda – and we will continue to do so,” said education secretary Linda McMahon. “Policies designed to conceal or hide the most sensitive information about a child’s well-being not only violate federal law but also educators’ moral obligation to let parents be the first decision-makers in their child’s lives.”
The justice department has sued Lyft, alleging the ride-share service discriminated against passengers with disabilities, including those who use service animals and mobility devices such as stowable wheelchairs.
In a press release, the department said its lawsuit “seeks $53 million for individuals with disabilities who Lyft has discriminated against, and who have submitted complaints to Lyft or the Department.”
California congressman Ro Khanna said he “will vote to cut off every dollar for” border wall construction in Big Bend National Park when Democrats take control of Congress in January.
In a social media post, Khanna noted today’s Supreme Court ruling allowing construction of the wall to proceed. “Texas ranchers oppose this wall. A Bush-appointed judge blocked it. In January, Democrats run Congress. I will vote to cut off every dollar for it,” said in a social media post.
Donald Trump urged senators to vote for the bipartisan infrastructure permitting bill yesterday, calling it a “BIG WIN for U.S. ENERGY INDEPENDENCE and DOMINANCE” in a social media post.
The bill will “ensure that we can build Pipelines, Mines, and Power Plants faster than ever before, lowering Energy Costs for American Families”, Trump wrote.
Here’s more of our recent coverage:
Mike Johnson declined to commit to serving out his term in Congress while answering questions from reporters this evening.
Johnson, the current House speaker, said “after a lot of prayer and reflection” he had decided not to run to be House minority leader in January.
“I’m still in charge here until early January. And we’re going to do our duty and after that my commitment and my objective is to help my team ensure that the Republican Party has a very successful 120th Congress, and we’ll see how all that develops,” he said. But he noted, “Really the only person in the modern era that decided to stick around and serve in the Speaker emeritus position was Nancy Pelosi.”
California senator Adam Schiff said “the need for a permitting reform package has only grown in the past decade” but that current bipartisan legislation intended to speed up permitting reviews for data centers and other infrastructure projects “needs further improvement before I can support it.”
In a lengthy social media post, Schiff, a Democrat, said “the transmission and grid reform provisions are very positive” but “that we need to have confidence that any permitting reform legislation is not going to be weaponized by this or any future administration to single out states and provide giveaways to the oil and gas industries.”
Schiff added that the “legislation would jeopardize tribal sovereignty through major changes to the National Historic Preservation Act, impact the State of California’s authorities under the Clean Water Act, and constrict federal agencies’ ability to protect vulnerable wildlife under the Endangered Species Act.”
Chris van Hollen said he is in “listening mode” and hasn’t “shut the door” on a possible bid for Senate majority leader.
The Democratic senator from Maryland told reporters: “What I’ve said from the very beginning is, we shouldn’t have a coronation. We should have a caucus discussion about what we’re going to do with the power and responsibilities that have been invested in us.”
He added, “In response to people calling upon me to step up here, what I’ve said on it is. ‘I’m in listening mode and haven’t shut the door.’”
In its first major move since last week’s elections, the Senate has advanced bipartisan legislation to speed up permitting reviews for data centers and other infrastructure projects.
The Senate voted 73-25 to formally take up the bill, which would shorten the timeline for approving both clean and fossil fuel energy projects.
As my colleague Hilary Beaumont recently reported:
Donald Trump urged all senators to vote for the 417-page bill, which is sponsored by two Republicans and two Democrats in the Senate, but after last week’s historic “blue wave” elections, some environmental and tribal advocates called on Democratic leadership to pump the brakes.
Here’s more of our recent coverage of the bill:
The White House has nominated Palantir’s chief information security officer Michael LoSapio to head the homeland security department’s cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency.
The agency has been without a Senate-confirmed head for 22 months.
Here’s more of our recent coverage of the agency:
After saying that his deportation policy was “too tough” and offering to strike an immigration deal with Democrats in an interview on 60 Minutes broadcast yesterday, Donald Trump today said “we’re not going to have amnesty.”
“Somebody suggested, will there be amnesty? No, but— they came in. They knew the law,” Trump told reporters during a press conference today. He said his administration’s deportation policy was “very strong” and that he had not spoken with incoming chief of staff Stephen Miller about any changes.
“My policy hasn’t changed,” he said.
The Supreme Court will allow the Trump administration to resume border wall construction in the Big Bend region of Texas. The majority paused a lower court’s decision as the case plays out. The Trump administration had filed an emergency appeal, saying there are illegal border crossings and drug seizures in the region.
“This horrific decision clears the way for contractors to bulldoze pristine desert and dynamite canyon walls before the courts have even decided whether this destruction is legal,” Laiken Jordahl, national public lands advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups that sued to stop the construction, told the Associated Press.
The man accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk will stand trial in June 2028, a Utah judge ruled today.
District Judge Tony Graf allocated 105 days for the trial, with jury selection slated to begin on 21 June 2028. Graf said the 2028 date balances the defense’s right to prepare with the Kirk family’s desire for a speedy resolution.
Attorneys for defendant Tyler Robinson, 23, had proposed a trial starting in 2029. Robinson could be eligible for the death penalty if convicted.
In a statement, the Kirk family called the hearing date a “delay” and said that “every additional day without justice prolongs our family’s pain.”
Josh Hawley, the Republican senator from Missouri, called for “a time of fasting and prayer for the nation” after Republicans’ losses in the midterms.
In a social media post, Hawley wrote, “What happened last Tuesday was shocking and historic. It calls for a historic response. Christians need to gather and seek the Lord. I’m going to host a time of fasting and prayer for the nation on Tuesday, December 15 from 12 to 1 at the Capitol. Meet me there!”
During his press conference today, Donald Trump alternately claimed that the Iran war has already been won and is going to be solved soon.
Speaking about his recent meeting with the prime minister of Qatar, Trump told reporters he believes the war “militarily is effectively over.”
Later he added that Pete Hegseth is “winning” the war and that there is “positive momentum” toward resolving the conflict.
