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Browse major news stories and see what officials have said.

Aug 27, 2026

Trump Discloses More Than 1,000 Stock Trades in a Single Month — Including Oil Companies Made Richer by the War He Started — and Joint Economic Committee Democrats Put His Gain at $15.5 Million

Two disclosures landed a few days apart in late August 2026 and, read together, put a number on what the Iran war has been worth to the president's own portfolio. On Aug. 24, Democrats on Congress's Joint Economic Committee, led by ranking member Maggie Hassan, reported that President Trump's oil and gas holdings had risen roughly 39 percent through Aug. 17 — a gain of as much as $15.5 million — putting their estimated value between $17.2 million and $61.1 million. The committee also found he had bought up to $3.6 million in additional oil and gas stock in the first three months of 2026, the quarter the war began. Then on Aug. 27 a periodic transaction report showed more than 1,000 individual trades in June alone, an average of over 30 a day, worth between $78 million and $263 million. Among them were repeated trades in companies directly exposed to the war: two sales and a purchase of ExxonMobil, three sales of ConocoPhillips, a sale of Valero Energy, and a purchase of Occidental Petroleum. Reporters also flagged the timing of trades outside energy, including a Boeing purchase on the day the Navy awarded the company an $880 million contract and an ExxonMobil sale on the day Trump declared a ceasefire. The White House says the president has no hand in any of it: spokesman Davis Ingle said the portfolio is run by outside institutions through computer-driven model portfolios replicating indexes such as the Schwab 1000. The disclosures land ten weeks before the midterms and alongside a separate demand from Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Robert Garcia that Trump name the managers behind his accounts.

“Trump's only focus is enriching himself at the expense of the American people.”
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) · Aug 27, 2026

ICE Signs a $16.7 Million No-Bid Contract for 6,000 Pairs of Gloves That Deliver Electric Shocks — Sixteen Senators Ask Why Its Existing Tools Are Not Enough, and the Border Czar Answers "You Can’t Just Go From 0 to 100"

On August 10, 2026 the Department of Homeland Security published a notice that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement intended to spend up to $20 million on the CTG-5 G.L.O.V.E. — for Generated Low Output Voltage Emitter — a patrol glove made by Compliant Technologies LLC of Kentucky that functions normally until an officer switches it into "electrical mode," at which point contact with exposed skin delivers a charge of up to 380 volts. ICE signed the contract on Wednesday, August 26 and posted the award on Thursday, August 27: $16.7 million, no bid, for 6,000 pairs at roughly $2,495 apiece. The agency wrote in its procurement documents that it "does not currently have an empty hand use of force device to provide to the field amidst unprecedented levels of threats and violence against ICE officers and agents." A DHS spokesperson said ICE is "constantly assessing the needs of our officers in the field." The purchase went through over two rounds of congressional objection. On August 20, Homeland Security Committee Democrats Bennie Thompson, Lou Correa and Shri Thanedar wrote to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin asking him to stop the procurement, citing what they called a pattern of DHS personnel permanently injuring and nearly killing people with weapons already labeled "less-lethal." On August 27 — the day the award posted — Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto led fifteen colleagues in a letter to Acting ICE Director David Venturella putting more than thirty questions to the agency about protocols, training, safety limits and accountability. The signers included Angus King, the letter's only non-Democrat. White House border czar Tom Homan had defended the device on Fox & Friends on August 13, framing it as a rung on the use-of-force ladder below lethal weapons. The device arrives against the record this site has already documented: fatal ICE shootings in Houston and Maine, an ICE agent charged with firing into a Minneapolis home, and a man in Arlington, Virginia tasered on his way to work who woke with a brain bleed.

“The blatant and tragic misuse of force in Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, Houston, Maine, and other locations around the country raises significant skepticism about the agency’s professional capability to safely deploy a new tool that could be used to harm Americans without cause.”
Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) · Aug 27, 2026

RFK Jr. Told Senators His 2019 Samoa Trip Had "Nothing to Do With Vaccines" — a Newly Surfaced Letter He Wrote to Samoa’s Prime Minister Uses the Word Eight Times

On August 27, 2026, the Associated Press and The Guardian published a January 2019 letter, written on Children's Health Defense letterhead, in which Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asked Samoa's prime minister to let his team "conduct detailed health informatics assessment in Samoa of what happened with your MMR vaccines," following the deaths of two children who had received them. The letter uses the words "vaccine" or "vaccination" eight times. Kennedy told two Senate committees during his 2025 confirmation hearings that the trip had nothing to do with vaccines — "I went there, nothing to do with vaccines. I went there to introduce a medical informatics system" — and denied any role in the measles outbreak that killed 83 people in Samoa later in 2019, most of them young children. He was confirmed 52-48. The Department of Health and Human Services said the visit was "unrelated to vaccines" and called the claim that Kennedy lied "not only false but outright defamatory." Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) said Kennedy "should never have been confirmed"; Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), ranking Democrat on the Finance Committee that took the testimony, said he would press Republicans to refer the matter to the Justice Department. Hawaii Gov. Josh Green, an emergency physician who worked in Samoa, tied the episode to the current U.S. measles outbreak. The documents surfaced a day after the first U.S. measles deaths of 2026 were confirmed in Pennsylvania.

“New documents confirm what we already knew: RFK Jr. lied to Congress. He told us his Samoa trip had nothing to do with vaccines—now this letter shows that was false.”
Ed Markey (D-MA) · Aug 27, 2026

Ten Weeks Before the Midterms, a Second Person in Mike Collins’s Orbit Surfaces With Nazi and Klan Imagery — a Former Staffer Who Calls Himself a "Twink Fascist," and Jon Ossoff Says It Is "Disqualifying"

On Thursday, August 27, 2026, The Washington Post reported that Preston Parra, 24, who interned for Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) in 2024 and then worked as a contractor for the congressman's political action committee into 2025, had posted a swastika to his X account in June and July and shared an image of himself in Ku Klux Klan robes. Parra, who describes himself online as a "twink fascist," defended the posts to the Post as satirical and provocative, and said the Klan image was generated with X's Grok AI tool. Collins is the Republican nominee challenging Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) in what is expected to be one of the most expensive Senate races of the 2026 midterms. A spokesman said Parra has no affiliation with Collins's office or campaign and that Collins "unequivocally condemns" the posts. The report landed on top of an earlier and unresolved controversy. In July 2026, CNN's KFile reported that Collins's son-in-law, David Alan Scheer II — who is registered to vote at a Collins-owned property, has appeared in Collins campaign photos, and attended Collins's June primary victory party — had shared content from the white nationalist group Patriot Front along with antisemitic conspiracy material and calls to deport Muslims. Collins abruptly ended a press conference at Monroe County Hospital on July 30 after reporters repeatedly pressed him on the relationship, saying only that he had "fully addressed" it before pivoting to attacks on Ossoff. On August 11, more than 50 Black Georgia state legislators signed a statement condemning Collins and demanding answers; Collins responded that "no one speaks for me" and condemned antisemitism generally without disavowing his son-in-law by name. The Washington Post framed the Parra posts as part of a pattern that some Republicans have begun to notice, coming as Republicans defend a Senate majority and Georgia sits near the center of the map.

“This morning's news should shock not just the entire state of Georgia but the entire country.”
Jon Ossoff (D-GA) · Aug 27, 2026

Ten Weeks Before the Midterms, House Democratic Leaders Hand the Middle East Subcommittee to One of the Chamber’s Most Pro-Israel Members — and Rashida Tlaib Says They Are "Ignoring the Base of Our Party"

On Tuesday, August 25, 2026, House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Gregory Meeks (D-NY) announced that Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) would become the top Democrat on the committee's Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee, with Rep. Jonathan Jackson (D-IL) succeeding Moskowitz as ranking member on the Oversight and Intelligence Subcommittee. Meeks also welcomed three new Democrats to the full committee: Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Wesley Bell (D-MO). The MENA assignment is the one that lit the fuse. Moskowitz is among the most consistently pro-Israel Democrats in the House; Wasserman Schultz has taken roughly $1.5 million from pro-Israel PACs over her career, and Bell won his seat by beating a Democratic Socialists of America-backed candidate. The slate landed two days after The New York Times reported that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who signed off on the assignments alongside Meeks, had met privately with Jared Kushner. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), the only Palestinian American in Congress, said leadership was elevating "a genocide denier" and ignoring a party base that wants U.S. funding for the war in Gaza to end. Georgia state Rep. Ruwa Romman, a Palestinian American Democrat running for governor, tied the pick directly to the Kushner meeting. The committee Moskowitz will help steer also seats members moving the other way: Pocan recently backed a failed amendment to cut $3.3 billion in U.S. military assistance to Israel, and Jackson has sponsored legislation restricting arms transfers. The fight is a proxy for the larger question facing House Democrats before November — whether a caucus whose voters have moved sharply on Israel will move with them.

“A supermajority of Democratic voters have made it clear they want to end U.S. support for Israel's genocide in Gaza and Trump's assault on Iran. By elevating a genocide denier who has said he is 'to the right' of JD Vance on the war on Iran, Democratic leadership is once again ignoring the base of our party who want the funding of the genocide to end.”
Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) · Aug 27, 2026

A Maryland Judge Throws the Democrats' Mid-Decade Gerrymander Off the November Ballot — Ruling the General Assembly Broke Its Own Deadline and Wrote "Intentionally Misleading" Ballot Language

On August 26, 2026, Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Robert J. Thompson blocked a Democratic-backed constitutional amendment from appearing on Maryland's November general election ballot. The amendment was the vehicle Maryland Democrats had built during an August special session to let the General Assembly redraw the state's congressional map before 2028 — a map that would almost certainly have eliminated the Eastern Shore seat held by Rep. Andy Harris, the state's lone Republican in Congress and chairman of the House Freedom Caucus. Thompson found three separate defects. Lawmakers missed the statutory deadline they themselves had enacted in April for placing measures on the ballot; the ballot question's claim that it merely "clarifies" the Constitution's compactness standards was intentionally misleading; and the measure violated the single-subject rule by also handing the Maryland Supreme Court original jurisdiction over congressional redistricting suits. "Because the legislature did not follow the very laws it enacted," Thompson wrote, "the court finds the enactment of HB2100 to be legally deficient." Thompson stayed his own order pending appeal, and the state noted an appeal to the Maryland Supreme Court within hours. Gov. Wes Moore and the General Assembly's two presiding officers said they expect to be vindicated; Harris and Annapolis Republicans treated the ruling as proof that the majority had tried to rewrite the state constitution without following it. The case is the Democratic counterpart to the mid-decade redistricting fights the site has tracked in Texas, Indiana, Florida, Virginia and South Carolina, and its outcome determines whether Maryland can answer those maps before the 2028 cycle.

“I expect this case to receive prompt review, and I look forward to a clear ruling that affirms the General Assembly's constitutional authority.”
Bill Ferguson (D-MD) · Aug 26, 2026

The United States Designates a British Protest Group and an Italian Web-Hosting Collective as Global Terrorists — the First Sanctions Under Rubio’s "Far-Left Terrorism" Doctrine

On Wednesday, August 26, 2026, the State and Treasury Departments designated three organizations as Specially Designated Global Terrorists under Executive Order 13224, the first sanctions imposed under the administration's push to reorient counterterrorism policy toward what it calls violent far-left terrorism. The three are Palestine Action, a United Kingdom protest group proscribed by the British government in July 2025 after activists broke into RAF Brize Norton and damaged military aircraft; Autistici/Inventati, an Italy-based collective that provides encrypted email, web hosting and anonymity services and that the State Department describes as supplying "the digital infrastructure for Antifa cells"; and Masar Badil, a transnational pro-Palestinian movement the Treasury says operates as a front for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, along with two of its leaders. The designations block the groups' US assets and bar Americans from transacting with them. The action follows Secretary of State Marco Rubio's July 2026 summit in which delegations from more than 60 countries were pressed to treat far-left political violence as terrorism, and the administration's 2026 National Counterterrorism Strategy, which names violent far-left groups as one of three top threats — a reversal of the Biden-era emphasis on far-right and white supremacist violence. Civil liberties groups and Palestine Action itself say the designation criminalizes protest and civil disobedience. House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats had already written to Rubio in July warning that the Department was politicizing counterterrorism work, hosting a conference focused exclusively on left-wing extremism while cutting the offices that assessed extremist violence of all kinds. No member of Congress had issued an on-record response to the designations themselves in the first 24 hours.

“Far-left terrorism poses a profound threat to the United States and the broader West.”
Marco Rubio (R-FL) · Aug 26, 2026

The Third Circuit Rules 2-1 That the Speech or Debate Clause Does Not Shield Rep. LaMonica McIver — Sending the Only Member of Congress Indicted by Trump’s Justice Department to Trial Ten Weeks Before the Midterms

On August 26, 2026, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) is not immune from prosecution on charges arising from a May 2025 congressional oversight visit to the Delaney Hall immigration detention facility in Newark. The 2-1 panel allowed two of three counts of impeding and interfering with federal officers to proceed to trial and remanded the third to the district court. Writing for the majority, Judge Cindy Chung held that the charged conduct — physical contact with two officers — was "unambiguously non-legislative" and that the Speech or Debate Clause immunizes legislative acts only. Judge Thomas Ambro dissented in part, writing that the Constitution does not permit the Executive to wield prosecutorial discretion in retaliation against disfavored legislators, and would have allowed McIver discovery into the government's motives. McIver, who is running for reelection while under indictment, said the court "got it wrong" and that the ruling "chills" congressional oversight authority. The charges were originally brought by Alina Habba, whose appointment as U.S. Attorney for New Jersey the same court later found unlawful. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill both said publicly they stand with her. No Republican member of Congress was on record about the ruling in the first 48 hours.

“I fundamentally believe that the court got it wrong here. To protect the people, their elected representatives must be authorized to conduct oversight of the executive branch without fear of retaliation.”
LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) · Aug 26, 2026

House Judiciary Democrats Widen Their Kushner Probe to a $120 Million Albanian Land Deal Bought From a Suspected Drug Trafficker — and Raskin Tells the President’s Son-in-Law He Started "Another Fraud-Related International Incident All by Yourself"

On Monday, August 24, 2026, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) sent Jared Kushner a letter expanding the committee's investigation into Kushner's foreign business dealings to cover his purchase of more than $120 million of disputed coastal land in Albania for a luxury resort. The seller, Arthur Shehu, is a suspected criminal with a history of drug trafficking; the Albanian government has alleged he used fraudulent documents and forged Ottoman-era land records to claim ownership of large stretches of coastline. Democrats say Kushner bought anyway, after being warned the seller did not own the property, while pursuing a project that has drawn extraordinary concessions from the Albanian government and mass protests inside Albania. Raskin opened the letter by noting Kushner had not responded to the committee's earlier demand for records about his simultaneous work as a U.S. foreign policy official — he is the administration's Middle East envoy and a lead negotiator on the Iran war — and as a private investor funded by foreign governments. The expanded probe asks whether Kushner's conduct warrants scrutiny under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and whether federal bribery, conflict-of-interest and foreign-agent statutes need to be rewritten. Records are due September 7, 2026. The White House dismissed the demand. Spokeswoman Anna Kelly called it "the same, tired narrative" Democrats have pushed for a decade, and the administration has consistently described Kushner — who holds no Senate-confirmed post — as a volunteer whose private business is separate from his diplomacy.

“This is the same, tired narrative that Democrats have pushed against President Trump, his family, and his administration for a decade.”
Anna Kelly (R) · Aug 25, 2026

Hegseth Polled the Nine Combatant Commanders on Killing the Military's Civilian-Protection Program Expecting Them to Call It "Woke" — Every One Said Keep It, and He Cut It Anyway

ProPublica reported on August 25, 2026 that before gutting the Pentagon's Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response program, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth put the question to the nation's top combatant commanders. He appears to have expected them to agree with him that protecting civilians was a "woke" distraction from "maximum lethality." Instead, according to internal documents and current and former defense officials, every command that answered said the program should be preserved. Gen. Erik Kurilla appealed the decision directly. Hegseth made the cuts regardless. CHMR was created by Congress and built out over more than a decade of bipartisan work following civilian-casualty failures in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Somalia. Under Hegseth the Defense Department fired the staff of the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence and cut CHMR positions at the combatant commands by more than 90 percent. Hegseth has publicly framed the broader project in his own words: "We became 'the woke department.' … We're done with that shit," and "No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement." The consequences arrived with the Iran war. The U.S. military has killed hundreds of noncombatants since the mission was gutted, including a strike on a school. A Defense Department inspector general report and the resulting congressional letters became the paper trail. After the blowback, the department is now weighing a partial restoration of the program it dismantled. Congress had been on this before the August revelation. On April 20, Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) opened an investigation with nine colleagues, writing that Hegseth's attempts to gut the institutions "contradicts more than a decade of bipartisan consensus and DoD-led reforms." On July 6, Warren led ten lawmakers — including combat veterans Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) — in a letter accusing the administration of acting "potentially in violation of federal law." Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the ranking Democrat on House Armed Services, told Hegseth flatly: "You are in violation of the law right now on civilian harm." No Republican member of Congress is on record about the commanders' poll as of publication. The Pentagon's response to the letters has been that it "will respond directly to the authors."

“No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement.”
Pete Hegseth (R-MN) · Aug 25, 2026

Forty Members of Congress, Six of Them Senators, Tell Rubio to Get a 20-Year-Old American Out of an Israeli Military Prison Where She Has Been Held Without Charge Since June

On August 25, 2026, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) led 40 members of Congress — including six senators — in a bicameral letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanding the immediate and permanent release of Sama Safi, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen held in Israeli military detention without charge. Safi, an honors psychology student at Birzeit University whose family lives in Florida, was taken from her family's home near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank at about 3 a.m. on June 2, 2026, in a series of Israeli raids targeting Birzeit students. She was moved to Ofer prison and then to the Moscovia interrogation center in Jerusalem. She has never been charged. The letter says Safi "has described horrific conditions and violence by guards in Israeli military detention, including frequent physical assault, gas and stun grenades thrown in overcrowded cells, and lack of food and water." Safi has familial Mediterranean fever, a severe chronic condition requiring daily medication, regular monitoring and recurring specialized biologic treatment abroad — which is why the signers frame the delay itself as the danger. The letter is the escalation point of a campaign that has been building since June. Sen. Chris Van Hollen was among the first to demand her release and has since called for the resignation of U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee over his silence on detained Americans. Rep. Ayanna Pressley pressed the administration publicly in August. On August 18, 102 rights groups including CAIR wrote to Rubio making the same demand. The August 25 letter is the first time the ask has come from both chambers at this scale.

“Every day that Sama remains wrongfully detained in these inhumane conditions, she is at greater risk of irreversible and life-threatening repercussions.”
Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) · Aug 25, 2026

The Air Force Charges a Major Under Article 88 for Calling Trump a "Failure" — His Lawyer Says He Is the First Officer of His Rank Ever Charged With Contempt Toward the President

On Monday, August 24, 2026, the Air Force preferred charges against Maj. Jason P. Watson, an officer last assigned to Poland, over public statements calling for President Trump's impeachment. The charge sheet his attorney released lists ten specifications across three articles of the Uniform Code of Military Justice: three under Article 88 (contempt toward officials), five under Article 92 (failure to obey an order), and two under Article 133 (conduct unbecoming an officer). Article 88 is the provision that makes it a crime for a commissioned officer to use "contemptuous words" against the President, Vice President, Congress and other named officials. It is rarely invoked, and prosecutors must show the words were contemptuous rather than merely critical. Watson's counsel, Christopher Mutimer, says Watson is the first major in the history of the U.S. military to be charged under it. The Article 88 specifications trace to three things: a June interview Watson gave the Substack newsletter Defenders of Our Republic, a July 1 protest in uniform on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, and an August 17 CNN interview in which he said Trump "is flagrantly violating the Constitution, breaking the law, engaged in rampant corruption, and is killing Americans." The July 1 demonstration was held alongside Rep. Al Green (D-TX), who was calling for the impeachment of both Trump and Vice President JD Vance. Watson was arrested there, then taken into pretrial confinement again on August 18 — a day after the CNN interview — after telling his chain of command he would no longer wear the uniform. The Article 92 and 133 counts allege he wrongfully wore the uniform at the Capitol, violated leave regulations to travel to Washington, and then refused to wear the uniform. Watson has remained in military pretrial confinement. "Who I am is immaterial," he said in a statement through counsel. "In the grand scheme of things, I'm just a nobody. What matters far more than who I am is what I have to say and the price I'm willing to pay to say it." The case tests where military law ends and political speech begins at a moment when the administration has already fired the leadership of Stars and Stripes over what its editor called censorship of the troops' newspaper. Active-duty service members do not have the same First Amendment latitude as civilians, and the Air Force has framed the prosecution as ordinary accountability. As of publication, Green is the only member of Congress on record about the case.

“Pursuant to a thorough investigation — which will proceed unimpeded — commanders will ensure appropriate disposition when holding service members accountable in accordance with military law and due process.”
Troy Meink (R) · Aug 25, 2026

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