Poland’s new president, Karol Nawrocki, is visiting the White House on Wednesday, looking to strengthen his relationship with President Donald Trump and make the case that the U.S. needs to maintain its strong military presence in his country.
Nawrocki’s first overseas trip since taking office last month comes after Trump involved himself in the elections of a longtime ally by endorsing the former amateur boxer and historian representing the nationalist Law and Justice party. It's a fraught moment for Warsaw — Trump is increasingly frustrated by his inability to get Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to end the three-year war between Poland’s neighbors.
A group of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims is expected to hold a press conference outside the Capitol with lawmakers on Wednesday. The House Oversight Committee released some Epstein case files, mostly containing information already publicly known or available. The Justice Department released the files to the House Oversight Committee in response to a subpoena. They contain hundreds of image files of years-old court filings related to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Trump cannot use Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelan gang members. The ruling over the administration’s use of the 18th-century wartime law came down from a federal appeals court panel Tuesday night, one of the most conservative in the country. The majority opinion said Trump’s allegations about Tren de Aragua do not meet the historical levels of national conflict that Congress intended for the act. The final legal showdown is destined for the U.S. Supreme Court.
Here's the latest:
Khanna and MTG seek more GOP support for Epstein files release
A bipartisan set of House lawmakers has appealed to their colleagues to support a discharge petition that could force a House vote requiring the Department of Justice to release its Epstein files.
Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California said Wednesday during a Washington news conference that four Republican representatives have joined the effort, and that just two more GOP signatures are needed to cross the threshold for likely passage.
“There is something that is rotten in Washington,” Khanna said. “We’ve got to stop the partisanship on this issue.”
The lawmakers spoke a day after the House Oversight Committee publicly posted the files it has received from the Justice Department on the sex trafficking investigations into Jeffrey Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. The files mostly contained information that was already publicly known or available, but the release showed lawmakers’ eagerness to act on the issue, quickly reviving a political clash that has flummoxed House Republican leadership and roiled the Trump administration.
Khanna was joined by Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, another proponent of the petition, along with Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Plans underway for a ‘midterm convention’ ahead of next fall’s congressional elections
House Speaker Mike Johnson says when Trump called him recently to discuss the novel idea he thought: “That’s genius.”
The idea is to give Republicans a chance to make their case to voters, who tend to reject the party in power during midterm cycles. Republicans are struggling to hold onto their majority in Congress.
Besides, the speaker added, Trump “loves a big show.”
They’re working with Senate Republican Leader John Thune to make it happen.
“I think that’s a done deal now,” he said.
Putin says Trump is ‘not without a sense of humor’ after social media post
Russian President Vladimir Putin brushed off a social media post by Trump on Wednesday that said he was conspiring with the leaders of North Korea and China against the United States.
Asked about the post at a news conference in Beijing, the Russian leader told journalists “the President of the United States is not without a sense of humor.”
“Over these four days, during negotiations of all kinds, both in formal and informal settings, no one has ever expressed any negative judgments on the current American administration,” Putin said.
Putin arrived in China on Sunday for a four-day visit. He took part in a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, held extensive talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, as well as a number of bilateral meetings with other leaders, and attended a military parade marking 80 years since the end of World War II. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was also present at the parade. Kim and Putin held talks after the event.
The Russian leader also said everyone with whom he had spoken during his visit to China had “supported our meeting in Anchorage,” and expressed their hope that negotiations would end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Don’t call it the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’
House Republicans emerged from a private meeting with White House officials rebranding Trump’s signature bill: The Working Families Tax Cuts Act.
“We’re so excited about that,” Speaker Mike Johnson said after the meeting.
Polling shows Americans have panned the big bill. Half of U.S. adults expect the new tax law will help the rich, according to the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Most — about 6 in 10 — think it will do more to hurt than help low-income people.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the Capitol for push to release the Epstein files
The gathering comes as a bipartisan group of lawmakers calls for the House to take up their bill that would force the Department of Justice to release its investigation into the late Jeffrey Epstein.
It’s an unusual grouping of lawmakers, including Republicans Reps. Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene and Democrat Ro Khanna. They’re trying to use a rarely-used legislative maneuver to force a vote on their bill against the wishes of House Republican leadership.
“A nation that allows rich and powerful men to traffic and abuse young girls without consequence is a nation that has lost its moral and spiritual core,” Khanna said.
Around the news conference, a large crowd gathered with signs that said, “Believe the survivors,” and “Unlock the Epstein files.”
Trump’s team huddles with House GOP at the Capitol
White House officials headed to Capitol Hill to huddle privately with House Republicans, sharing polling from Trump’s political team as they frame their public messaging ahead of a busy fall session.
Attendance was mandatory at the basement session, a sign of Trump’s grip on the GOP.
Despite their legislative success in passing Trump’s big tax breaks and spending cuts bill into law, Republicans held few town hall meetings this summer as they retool their pitch to voters.
Leaders gathering in China may be simply looking out for their own interests
The images from China offer a striking, maybe even sinister, message that there could be a new reconfiguration of rising power in Eurasia, an “Axis of Upheaval,” as one U.S. analyst has called it.
But there’s also evidence that the events in Beijing are simply more of the self-interested, high-level jockeying that has marked regional power politics for decades:
Xi needs cheap Russian energy and a stable border with North Korea, his nuclear-armed wildcard neighbor.
Putin is hoping to escape Western sanctions and isolation over his war in Ukraine.
Kim wants money, legitimacy and to one-up archrival South Korea.
Modi is trying to manage his relationship with regional heavyweights Putin and Xi, at a moment when ties with Washington are troubled.
The leaders of China, North Korea and Russia stand shoulder to shoulder
They’re watching high-tech military hardware and marching soldiers fill the streets of Beijing to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Two days earlier, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping huddled together at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
The gatherings in China could be read as a defiant message to the United States and its allies. At the very least, they offered yet more evidence of a burgeoning shift away from a U.S.-dominated, Western-led world order, as Trump withdraws America from many of its historic roles and roils economic relationships with tariffs.
“Please give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin, and (North Korean leader) Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against The United States of America,” Trump posted in a social media message to Xi.
The American labor market continues to cool
U.S. employers posted 7.2 million job vacancies in July, down from 7.4 million in June, the Labor Department reported Wednesday.
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) also showed that layoffs rose slightly, and that the number of Americans quitting their jobs — a sign of confidence in their ability to find better pay, opportunities or working conditions elsewhere — was almost unchanged from June at 3.2 million.
The U.S. job market has lost momentum this year, partly due to the lingering effects of 11 interest rate hikes by the inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve and partly because Trump’s trade wars have created uncertainty that is paralyzing managers making hiring decisions. The economy has been generating 85,000 jobs a month this year, down from 168,000 last year and an average 400,000 a month during the hiring boom of 2021-2023.
Survivors of Epstein’s abuse rally in front of Capitol
Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking and their families are rallying in front of the Capitol as they press Congress to force more disclosure in the criminal investigation into the late financier.
A political clash is unfolding in the House over how Congress should proceed in a matter that has rattled both House Republican leadership and the Trump administration. On Wednesday, speakers at the rally often grew emotional as they recounted how they were lured into Epstein’s abuse, and they demanded government accountability for the actions of Epstein and his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell.
“Our demands are clear,” said Sky Roberts, whose late sister Virginia Giuffre was an outspoken survivor. “Ghislaine Maxwell must remain in a maximum security prison for the rest of her life. No leniency. No deals. No special treatment.”
Survivors also demanded that the Epstein files be released publicly and that anyone complicit be held accountable.
Missouri GOP also wants to frustrate voter initiatives
The special session agenda set by Kehoe also includes proposed changes to Missouri’s ballot measure process.
One key change would make it harder for ballot initiatives to succeed. If approved by voters, Missouri’s constitution would be amended so that all future ballot measures would need not only a majority of the statewide vote but also a majority of the votes in each congressional district in order to pass.
If such a standard had been in place last year, an abortion-rights amendment to the state constitution would have failed. That measure narrowly passed statewide on the strength of “yes” votes in the Kansas City and St. Louis areas but failed in rural congressional districts.
Missouri GOP wants to map another House seat for Trump
Missouri lawmakers are meeting in a special session to redraw the state’s congressional map in ways that could improve the Republicans’ chances of retaining control of Congress next year. The session was called by Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe and should run at least a week.
Missouri is the third state to pursue mid-decade redistricting for partisan advantage. Republican lawmakers in Texas, prodded by Trump, was the first, approving a new map that increases the Republicans advantage in five more districts.
Democratic-led California fought back, asking voters to approve in November a plan to give Democrats a chance at winning five more seats.
▶ Read more about Missouri’s efforts to change its maps mid-decade
Students without legal status lose in-state tuition
Tens of thousands of college students without legal status are losing access to in-state tuition as part of Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Florida’s tuition waiver law was a bipartisan effort championed by then-state Rep. Jeanette Nuñez, a Miami Republican who went on to become Gov. Ron DeSantis’ lieutenant governor. That a decade later Nuñez would support dismantling one of her signature achievements shows how much politics have shifted.
More than 6,500 students qualified for the waiver in Florida before DeSantis signed the bill revoking it as of July 1. At the University of Florida, a state resident pays about $6,380 in tuition, compared with about $30,900 for a nonresident. Housing, transportation and other expenses can add another $17,000 or more.
Now some of these students have switched to online programs to finish their degrees, and staying at home to avoid being detained.
▶ Read more about how tuition waiver revocations are affecting these students
Mexico demands respect as Trump asserts dominance
Rubio is in Mexico City as President Claudia Sheinbaum was convening a security forum of all 32 Mexican governors, the army, navy, federal prosecutor’s office and security commanders. “Under no circumstance will we accept interventions, interference or any other act from abroad that is detrimental to the integrity, independence and sovereignty of the country,” she said Monday in her State of the Nation address.
Sheinbaum had been talking up a comprehensive security agreement with the State Department that would protect Mexican sovereignty while combatting the flow of fentanyl north and weapons south. Sheinbaum sought to lower expectations Tuesday, saying it would be more like a memorandum of understanding to share intelligence.
“It is a relationship of respect and at the same time collaboration,” Sheinbaum said.
Trump suggested otherwise last month, saying: “Mexico does what we tell them to do.”
Marco Rubio is in Latin America to talk security, sovereignty, tariffs, trade, drugs and migration
All these hot-button issues for the Trump administration and its neighbors will top the secretary of state’s agenda this week on his third trip to Latin America since becoming chief U.S. diplomat.
The trip comes as the Trump administration has dramatically stepped up operations against drug cartels in the Caribbean, including military deployments and what it said was a lethal strike on a suspected drug-carrying vessel.
In talks with leaders in Mexico and Ecuador on Wednesday and Thursday, Rubio will make the case that broader, deeper cooperation with the U.S. is key to improving health, safety and security. But Trump has alienated allies in the region with persistent demands, threats of sweeping tariffs and massive sanctions.
Vance heading to Minnesota to pay his respects to church shooting victims
Vice President JD Vance is heading to Minneapolis on Wednesday to pay his respects to victims of the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting.
Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, also plan a series of private meetings “to convey condolences to the families of those affected by the tragedy,” the vice president’s office said in a statement.
What to know about the law limiting Trump’s use of troops in US cities
Trump’s recent actions have sparked debate over the Posse Comitatus Act, a law from 1878 that prevents military involvement in domestic affairs unless bypassed by Congress or under the Insurrection Act.
The president has tested the law’s limits in the first few months of his second term as he expands the footprint of the U.S. military on domestic soil.
Lawsuits have followed, and a judge ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration violated federal law by sending troops to accompany federal agents on immigration raids this summer in Los Angeles.
Experts say the law’s enforcement has clear limitations and remains largely untested. Trump administration attorneys have argued the law doesn’t apply because the troops were protecting federal officers not enforcing laws.
▶ Read more about what to know about the Posse Comitatus Act
Trump: US military strike on vessel in southern Caribbean targeted Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang, killed 11
Trump says the U.S. has carried out a strike in the southern Caribbean against a drug-carrying vessel that departed from Venezuela that was operated by the Tren de Aragua gang.
The president said 11 were killed in the operation.
“The strike occurred while the terrorists were at sea in International waters transporting illegal narcotics, heading to the United States,” Trump said in a social media posting Tuesday. “No U.S. Forces were harmed in this strike. Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America.”
US media quickly forced to revisit a thorny question: How should a president’s health be covered?
At President Trump’s news conference Tuesday, Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked something that surely baffled those who avoided social media over Labor Day: “How did you find out over the weekend that you were dead?”
Doocy referred to questions about Trump’s health that swirled through social media over the weekend. With a 50-minute appearance, Trump certainly put to rest rumors that he was dead or seriously ill. But for the news media, it quickly renewed questions about whether they were being diligent enough in investigating questions over a president’s health, a year after they dealt with the same issues with his predecessor, Joe Biden.
Trump, who turned 79 in June, is the oldest person to be inaugurated as president. Pictures showing him with bruises on his hands and apparent swelling in his legs circulated online recently, as did clips of misstatements in public. The White House has said Trump was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, which means veins in the legs can’t properly carry blood back to the heart, causing it to pool in the lower legs. It’s a fairly common condition for older adults.
▶ Read more about how the press is covering Trump’s health
The Associated Press
