Donald Trump's announcement that he would like to appoint martial arts entrepreneur Dana White as the new White House spokesman was, according to the US president, "just a joke." However, White liked the idea and would visit him in the White House on Monday - "for other reasons," as Trump told reporters.
The Republican's announcement that he had offered the boss of the professional martial arts league Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) the spokesman position, which had been vacant for weeks, caused a lot of guesswork over the weekend, and not just in Washington. From the beginning, there was speculation as to whether Trump was joking or serious. CNN reported that White declined. The entrepreneur himself then said during a trip abroad in London that he would meet Trump in Washington on Monday.
After his Republicans' heavy electoral defeat in the congressional election, US President Donald Trump described his government's mass deportations as "too harsh". Many in the United States believed that people who were in the country illegally should not be deported, for example if they "work in a garden center or in a hotel," Trump said in an interview on the TV show "60 Minutes." He believes that an agreement could be worked out with the Democrats for such situations. Democrats will control both chambers of Congress starting in January.
In his second term, Trump initially relied heavily on raids by officials from the sometimes martial immigration agency ICE, combined with mass deportations. The tough course against migrants without valid residence permits led to protests in several major cities. Two US citizens were also killed in connection with ICE activities. The government then scaled back operations somewhat.
After their clear victory in the US midterm elections, the Democrats are planning far-reaching parliamentary investigations into those around President Donald Trump. The focus will be on technology billionaire Elon Musk, the new chief of staff in the White House, Stephen Miller, and several large companies, leading party representatives announced on Sunday. In addition, the future chairman of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, signaled support for impeachment proceedings against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Democrats take control of Congress in January.
The future chairman of the Oversight Committee in the House of Representatives, Robert Garcia, announced on CNN that he would investigate Musk's role in the firing of federal employees by the so-called Agency for Government Efficiency last year. Miller's involvement in Trump's crackdown on immigrants is also being investigated.
US President Donald Trump has ordered the Justice Department to investigate Democrats over alleged threats. The Democrats threatened “many people,” Trump wrote on social media on Saturday. The action amounted to a “criminal act,” the president wrote, without providing any evidence. He accused the Democrats of sending “threatening letters to many people, all of them innocent.”
The Democratic candidates clearly defeated Trump's Republicans in the midterm elections on Tuesday, meaning they will take control of Congress from January. The party leadership has announced that it will reassert Congress' control over the executive branch after taking power. She wants to hold hearings and investigate the actions of the Trump administration.
Democrat Chris Mann has won the election for Attorney General of the US state of Kansas. The lawyer and former police officer prevailed against the Republican incumbent Kris Kobach. Mann had already declared himself the winner on Wednesday.
Democrat Aisha Wahab has been re-elected to the US House of Representatives. She won election in California's 14th Congressional District, which includes parts of Alameda County on the east side of San Francisco Bay.
Wahab won the seat in a byelection in August and became the first Afghan-American member of the US Congress. The former senator in the California Parliament replaced Democrat Eric Swalwell. He resigned from his position in April after allegations of sexual assault and harassment were made against him. Swalwell denies the allegations.
Democrat Nancy Lacore has won election to the U.S. House of Representatives in South Carolina's 1st Congressional District. She defeated Republican Jenny Costa Honeycutt, an attorney and county councilwoman in Charleston County. The AP news agency declared Lacore the winner at 6:51 p.m. local time.
Lacore succeeds Republican Nancy Mace, who is vacating the seat after her unsuccessful run for governor.
The former vice admiral led the U.S. Navy Reserve until Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired her without explanation last year. The firing was part of a series of actions against top military officials during President Donald Trump's second term.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed a motion Friday to drop its lawsuit challenging the counting of about 20,000 ballots in California. The ministry had claimed that the ballots were sent to people without US citizenship. It wanted to exclude them from the count until the recipients' residence status was checked.
California authorities had said that the department's list was outdated and also included eligible voters. The responsible federal judge, David O. Carter, had rejected the request for separate treatment of the ballots. He warned that eligible voters could lose their vote as a result.
S-President Donald Trump and the space agency NASA want to set up a new aerospace trade fair in the USA and thus surpass large industry shows in other countries. The event, called CapeWeek, will take place for the first time in two years at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Trump said in a speech on Friday. It is intended to demonstrate the strength of the US aerospace industry and stimulate international business. The new show would complement a busy calendar of international aviation conferences, including major shows in Paris, Farnborough in England and Dubai. Thousands of executives, government representatives and engineers come to these trade fairs.
The Secret Service arrested a man with several weapons in his car near the White House. He told officials that voices in his head told him to come to Washington and kill President Donald Trump, the Department of Homeland Security said. It was said that the man comes from Venezuela and is in the USA illegally. A semi-automatic rifle was among the three weapons in the car that was reported stolen.
US President Donald Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, is leaving the inner circle of power in the White House a few days after the Republicans' devastating election debacle. Her deputy Stephen Miller is moving to the position, as Trump announced on the Truth Social platform.
Republican US Senator Thom Tillis defends efforts to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, accusing him of incompetence. “This is about you: the incompetence you have displayed, the bad advice you have given the President, and your shameful and embarrassing episodes - from firing our top generals to texting war plans to reporters,” the outgoing North Carolina state senator wrote on Platform X.
After the Democrats' election successes in Texas, the city of Houston wants to limit its cooperation with US immigration authorities. Mayor John Whitmire announced a “new model” for immigration enforcement on Friday. The city will take action against immigrants who pose a threat, but not against people who are pursuing their family life, their work or their education.
For traffic violations, for example, a warning or a ticket should remain the case, explained Whitmire. For non-violent violations that cannot be punished with imprisonment, there will be no contact with the immigration authorities ICE.
Following the defeat of US President Donald Trump's Republicans in the congressional elections, two more high-ranking US Justice Department officials resigned on Friday. They are John Eisenberg, the head of the National Security Division, and Jason Reding Quiñones. The latter was involved in reviewing previous criminal investigations against Trump. The authority is rapidly losing management staff. The head of the civil rights department, Harmeet Dhillon, resigned on Thursday.
The Justice Department is now without leadership on two of its most important efforts: this review and the crackdown on colleges. The reasons for Eisenberg and Quiñones' resignations initially remained unclear. However, such a move is not uncommon after midterm elections, especially if the president's party suffers a defeat. Democrats are planning a series of investigations into Trump's administration and his businesses.
US President Donald Trump's administration has postponed a meeting with top tech industry executives scheduled for Friday. The White House Technology Advisory Board includes, among others, Nvidia boss Jensen Huang and the head of the Facebock group Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, as the Energy Ministry announced. It stated next Friday as the new date on its website. The White House did not immediately comment on why the advisory board meeting was postponed.
A US federal judge has banned the start of construction work on President Donald Trump's planned triumphal arch in Washington for 14 days. Judge Tanya Chutkan's preliminary injunction represents a setback for one of Trump's most prominent construction projects. The president wants to use the monumental building to redesign the US capital according to his ideas.
Chutkan granted the request of the state of Virginia and the capital Washington, which had jointly sued against the project. A group of Vietnam War veterans and an architectural historian had previously filed suit. The proceedings are directed against the legal basis of the project.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has approved the use of additional military vehicles and boats for National Guard patrols in the capital Washington. As can be seen from two internal memos available to the AP, the emergency services will in future be allowed to use, among other things, 60 military police vehicles, tactical vehicles and patrol boats. They are also allowed to carry rifles on certain missions, but not in subway stations.
The increased patrols are intended, among other things, to combat gang crime and drug trafficking, according to the memos. According to the notes, the maximum number of National Guard troops deployed remains at 3,500. Almost 3,100 soldiers from various states are currently stationed in Washington.
US President Donald Trump wants to protect the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room in the White House from major renovations by future presidents. He signed a decree on Thursday (local time) that is intended to be a first step toward designating the rooms in the West Wing as a national monument. However, this requires congressional approval. "So if they want to say, 'Let's get rid of the Oval Office, let's make it square,' then they have to go back to Congress," Trump said. He hoped that Parliament would be wise enough not to allow this. The move comes two days after the midterm elections, in which Trump's Republicans lost control of Congress to Democrats.
Since his return to the White House in January 2025, Trump himself has made far-reaching changes to the historic building and to the US capital Washington. Among other things, he had the Oval Office decorated with gold, the rose garden paved and the east wing demolished to make room for a ballroom. Asked by reporters whether the next president would be allowed to remove his gold decorations, Trump said: "They can do whatever they want as long as they do it carefully."
After the Republican defeat in the US midterm elections, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the war against Iran and appeared combative against the threat of impeachment. In a video message published on Thursday (local time), he described the military operation as courageous and historic. US President Donald Trump supported his minister and said he had done a fantastic job. However, Hegseth is under massive pressure after Vice President JD Vance blamed the Iran war for the Republicans' election defeat.
