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Browse major news stories and see what officials have said.

Sep 22, 2026· Updated

Eight Months After Threatening to Take It by Force, Trump Announces a Deal With Denmark That He Says Gives the U.S. "Permanent Control Over Security, and All Other Needs, in Greenland" — Rubio Says It "Permanently and Completely Addresses Our National Security Concerns," While Greenland Stays Danish

On the evening of Friday, September 18, 2026, President Trump announced on Truth Social that the United States "has entered into an Agreement with The Kingdom of Denmark, and Greenland, that gives the United States permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland, completely addressing ALL of our many U.S. concerns." He said the U.S. would "immediately begin the process of developing a large Military presence in the appropriate part of Greenland," at no cost to the United States. According to a State Department official, the agreement bars any non-NATO base or troop presence in Greenland, bars adversaries from making investments on the island that could threaten the United States, and remains in force "forever" — even if Greenland becomes fully independent. Greenland remains part of the Kingdom of Denmark, a significant retreat from Trump's January demand for U.S. ownership, when he said "We probably won't get anything unless I decide to use excessive strength and force." Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called it "an agreement that strengthens our common security in the Arctic and the North Atlantic area," and Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said it respected "the Kingdom's red lines." The deal still requires parliamentary action in Denmark and Greenland, and the official text had not been released as of September 19. For the January confrontation that preceded the deal, see the earlier story on Trump's claimed NATO deal for Greenland control.

“I look forward to working with the wonderful people of Denmark and Greenland. It's been a great experience, amazing experience, and we've really formed a bond.”
Donald Trump (R-FL) · Sep 22, 2026

Whistleblowers Tell House Democrats ICE Crammed 342 People Into a Miramar Holding Facility Built for 50 and Kept Elderly Detainees Shackled Up to 16 Hours a Day — Robert Garcia Calls It "Explosive New Information," Maxwell Frost Calls the Cover-Up "Abhorrent," and DHS Answers That "Being in Detention Is a Choice"

On Sept. 21, 2026, the top Democrats on House Oversight (Robert Garcia) and Homeland Security (Bennie Thompson), with Rep. Maxwell Frost of Orlando, released whistleblower accounts and photos of ICE's Miramar and Orlando holding facilities in Florida. The whistleblowers describe men, women, families and chronically ill elderly people held "for days to weeks in abusive and life-threatening conditions, including overcrowded cells, prolonged shackling, inadequate access to medical care and hygiene, insufficient food, and limited to no legal access." Miramar at one point held 342 people against a capacity of about 50; detainees slept on concrete or in chains, some elderly people were restrained up to 16 hours a day, and staff reported overflowing toilets and black mold in the vents. The lawmakers wrote to ICE's acting director and the DHS inspector general demanding answers. DHS did not address the specific allegations, instead urging people in the country illegally to self-deport with the CBP Home app and saying "Being in detention is a choice." Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz had toured Miramar in July and described detainees "lining the floors."

“Whistleblower reports detailing inhumane and illegal detention conditions at multiple ICE holding facilities are appalling.”
Bennie Thompson (D-MS) · Sep 21, 2026

ICE

immigration detention

Florida

3 statements

Sep 21, 2026

Trump Cuts the Ribbon on a White House Helipad Paid For by Lockheed Martin — Thanking the CEO of a Contractor Holding More Than $40 Billion in Government Work — While Mark Warner Calls It One of the "Crazy Vanity Projects That Only Serve Himself" and Connecticut Democrats Say the Bill May Land on Taxpayers Anyway

On Monday, September 21, 2026, President Trump used oversized gold scissors to cut a red, white and blue ribbon on a new granite helipad on the White House South Lawn, then took Marine One's first flight from it. The roughly $5–6 million landing pad was paid for not by Congress but by Sikorsky Aircraft — a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin — through a contribution routed to the National Park Service. Trump posted afterward that he wanted "to thank Jim Taiclet, CEO of Lockheed Martin, who made this valuable contribution to our Country," adding, "Our Government has been thinking about doing this for 25 years, but was never able to get it done. I get things done!" The donor is also one of the federal government's largest contractors, holding more than $40 billion in new and expanded government contracts, and it had already given $1 million to Trump's inauguration and more than $10 million toward his White House ballroom. The official rationale is that exhaust from Sikorsky's new VH-92 Patriot Marine One helicopters was scorching the South Lawn grass. Democrats have objected since the project was announced in July. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand called it a "joke," contrasting it with a bipartisan housing bill Trump would not sign. Sen. Mark Warner said Trump was "charging taxpayers an extra $875,000 just to speed up construction of his private White House helipad — adding to the hundreds of millions he's spent on crazy vanity projects that only serve himself." Connecticut's delegation — Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy and Reps. John Larson, Joe Courtney and Rosa DeLauro, who represent Sikorsky's Stratford workforce — praised the company's workers but said Trump was "rushing to complete yet another White House project without providing the American people with the transparency they deserve." The ribbon-cutting itself became a second story: the major television networks skipped live coverage in protest of Trump's ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, leaving the president inaudible over helicopter noise on an in-house video feed.

“We are just leaving the White House Lawn on the maiden voyage from the newly built, and very beautiful, Heliport! I want to thank Jim Taiclet, CEO of Lockheed Martin, who made this valuable contribution to our Country. Our Government has been thinking about doing this for 25 years, but was never able to get it done. I get things done! Also, and most importantly, THANK YOU to the Great Construction Workers and Stone Masons of the Washington, D.C., area, who created something very special, and to Clark Construction for its wonderful supervisory work. GOD BLESS AMERICA!”
Donald Trump (R-FL) · Sep 21, 2026

Sep 21, 2026· Updated

Eight Days Before Xi Comes to the White House, His Wife Testifies to Congress That an American Scholar Has Been Held in China Since June — Young Kim Says Beijing "Wanted to Send a Message," Ro Khanna Calls It "Appalling," and a Bipartisan Senate Resolution Demands His Release

Sylvia Zin told the House Foreign Affairs Committee's East Asia and Pacific Subcommittee on September 17 that her husband, Myanmar scholar and UC Berkeley-affiliated researcher Min Zin, has been held by Chinese state security since June 3 on unspecified national-security allegations after arriving in Kunming for an academic workshop. The State Department has formally designated him wrongfully detained. Her testimony, alongside the son of jailed Hong Kong publisher Jimmy Lai, came eight days before President Trump is scheduled to host Xi Jinping at the White House on September 24. Subcommittee Chairwoman Rep. Young Kim (R-CA) said Beijing "wanted to send a message to those whose research inconvenienced it" by detaining Min Zin ahead of the summit, while voicing confidence Trump would secure his release. The same week, Sens. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Ed Markey (D-MA) and Ted Budd (R-NC) introduced a bipartisan resolution condemning China's "repeated pattern" of wrongfully detaining American academics. On Face the Nation the following Sunday, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) said he stood with Secretary of State Rubio on the case and called the detention of Americans over what they say or research "appalling" and "unacceptable." The case adds another point of friction to a US-China relationship already strained ahead of the Trump-Xi meeting.

“[In a letter to President Trump urging him to use Xi Jinping's state visit to secure the release of wrongfully detained people, including American citizen Min Zin:] Even a single mention of a detainee's name by a senior U.S. official, let alone by yourself, can significantly increase that individual's chances of clemency or improved treatment.”
Jeff Merkley (D-OR) · Sep 21, 2026

Sep 21, 2026· Updated

Trump Media Sells Traders $100,000-a-Month Early Access to Trump's Truth Social Posts, Drawing Republican Unease, Democratic Investigations, and a First Amendment Lawsuit

On July 16, 2026, Trump Media & Technology Group announced "Truth API," a business-to-business data feed giving paying customers licensed, machine-readable, real-time delivery of posts from the highest-ranking Truth Social accounts — including the president's. The service was pitched to high-frequency traders, hedge funds, and other institutional investors at up to $100,000 a month, with a discounted $60,000 rate for firms signing three-year contracts. It launched August 1, 2026. Interim CEO Kevin McGurn said the product would let TMTG "monetize proprietary assets," adding that "markets already move on Truth Social posts." Trump controls a trust holding a large majority stake in Trump Media and therefore stands to profit directly. The reaction split along an unusual line. Democrats moved on three tracks at once: Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) wrote to SEC Chair Paul Atkins on July 21 asking the agency to examine the product before launch; Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) wrote the same day to financial-industry trade groups urging member firms to refuse to buy it; Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) sent their own SEC referral on July 28; House Judiciary ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) opened a minority investigation on July 30, demanding TMTG's customer list, pricing, marketing materials, and communications with administration officials; and Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) introduced the Stop Corrupt Trading Act on August 4 with Sens. Richard Blumenthal, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Gary Peters, which would make it a federal crime for a president or vice president — or any company in which they hold at least a 5 percent stake — to sell nonpublic access to their statements. Padilla's office estimated the feed could generate roughly $120 million a year if about 100 firms subscribed. More unusually, several Senate Republicans volunteered criticism when reporters asked. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) all said the arrangement looked improper; Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said he was still working out how to respond. No congressional Republican publicly defended the product. On August 12, The Intercept and the Freedom of the Press Foundation sued Trump and Trump Media in federal court in Manhattan, arguing that selling preferential access to the president's public announcements violates the First and Fifth Amendments. A TMTG spokesperson said Democrats were mischaracterizing Truth API "either out of ideological opposition to free markets or a failure to grasp the distinction between public and nonpublic information," and the White House has said there is no conflict of interest. No regulator has determined that the service is unlawful; the SEC had not publicly acted as of mid-August.

“Trump Media created a marketplace that enables insider trading, which Trump directly profits from. This scheme turns the public trust into private profit. It is corruption, plain and simple.”
David Chiu (D-CA) · Sep 21, 2026

trump-media

truth-social

conflicts-of-interest

17 statements

Sep 20, 2026· Updated

A Trump-Backed Miami Republican Tells Him in a New Ad His Immigration Enforcement Has "Gone Too Far" — Trump Answers "I Got Her Elected. Without Me She Wouldn't Have Gotten Elected"

Six weeks before the midterms, Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), who represents a 74% Hispanic Miami-area district, released a campaign ad warning President Trump that "some of your immigration enforcement efforts have gone too far" and that the Hispanic voters who backed him in 2024 "feel betrayed." She cited a statistic that half of those detained in July had no criminal record and urged the White House to "be careful what your advisers are telling you." Trump responded dismissively on Friday, September 18, calling Salazar "a nice person" while crediting himself for her election ("Without me she wouldn't have gotten elected") and defending his enforcement posture. Salazar repeated her warning two days later in a nationally televised Sunday show interview, again urging Trump to "preserve that fortune" he built with Hispanic voters. The public break is one of the most direct challenges to Trump's immigration crackdown from a sitting Republican ahead of the midterms, and comes as other battleground-district GOP members have quietly shifted their own messaging.

“Please preserve that fortune that you have brought to the party.”
Maria Salazar (R-FL) · Sep 20, 2026

Sep 20, 2026· Updated

In the Worst Measles Year Since 1991, Trump's Health Nominees Break With RFK Jr. on Vaccines Under Oath — Surgeon General Pick Nicole Saphier Says "I Do Not Believe Childhood Vaccines Cause Autism," and the Republican HELP Chairman Says "Misinformation and Misguided Policies Are Leaving Children and Adults Unprotected"

On Sept. 15 and 16, 2026, Senate committees questioned two of President Trump's top health nominees as the country recorded its most measles cases since 1991 — nearly 3,300 — including four deaths in Pennsylvania. At a Senate Finance hearing on Sept. 15, HHS deputy secretary nominee Chris Klomp told Sen. Ron Wyden that the MMR vaccine is "the single most effective public health tool that we have against measles." On Sept. 16 the HELP Committee heard from Dr. Nicole Saphier, a Fox News contributor and Trump's third choice for surgeon general, along with Klomp and SAMHSA nominee Dr. Timothy Westlake. HELP Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-La.), a physician, blamed the measles deaths on "misinformation and misguided policies" and criticized Trump's executive order overhauling the childhood vaccine schedule, including splitting the combined MMR shot. Saphier said she does not believe childhood vaccines cause autism after Cassidy said an earlier answer had left "too much wiggle room," but she declined to renounce Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s vaccine decisions. HHS called claims that the administration discourages measles vaccination "absolutely fake news."

“Having measles is not a kind of victimless kind of experience. It's a little bit like drunk driving. … The president should be saying, "Be vaccinated. It is safe and effective."”
Bill Cassidy (R-LA) · Sep 20, 2026

Sep 20, 2026· Updated

Trump Promises Every Adult Citizen a $5,000 "Dividend" — but Only if Republicans Keep the House and Senate — and Within a Day a Republican Senator Is Drafting the Bill, a Republican Congressman Is Asking Who Pays for "Well Over $1 Trillion," and a Democratic Governor Calls Him the "Briber in Chief"

Closing the first night of the Republican Party's midterm convention in Dallas on September 9, 2026, President Trump promised to send every adult US citizen a $5,000 "dividend" — explicitly conditioned on Republicans holding both the House and the Senate in the November 3 midterms. "If the Republicans win, you win with us," he told the crowd, framing the payment as the kind of cash distribution "a successful company will do" for its shareholders, and saying at least part of it would come from tariff revenue. Independent estimates put the cost between $1.15 trillion and $1.35 trillion, and the pledge drew pushback from both parties within hours. Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) said he would have a bill ready to pass "immediately after the November 3rd election." Vice President JD Vance narrowed the offer in a Fox News interview, suggesting wealthy Americans would not qualify and pointing to tariff collections as the funding source. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) publicly asked how the administration intended to pay for it, and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) mocked the figure outright. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) accused the president of making himself the "briber in chief," noting that the $2,000 tariff rebates Trump promised in November 2025 never arrived. Federal law makes it a crime to offer or make a payment to induce someone to vote for or against a candidate, and legal commentators raised that statute immediately.

“It's absolutely inflationary. If Joe Biden had proposed that, conservatives would have been all against it. … [I]f the government borrows money, it's going to drive up how much somebody pays for their mortgage, for their car note, perhaps for their credit card.”
Bill Cassidy (R-LA) · Sep 20, 2026

Seven Weeks Before the Midterms, California Makes It a Felony to Seize Ballots or Block a Mail Ballot's Delivery — Newsom Signs Thirteen Bills Saying Trump "Won't Stop Until He Can Exert Dictatorial Control Over Your Free Vote," While the Secretary of State Calls the Package "a Shield Against Multiple Attacks"

On September 19, 2026, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a package of thirteen election bills at the Democracy Center of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, framing them as California's answer to federal interference in the November midterms. The package creates new felonies for seizing ballots, election records or voting equipment before certification (AB 282), for directing workers to interfere with the delivery or return of a mail ballot (SB 259) and for theft of election materials (SB 1418); restricts law-enforcement activity near polling places; requires election officials to notify the attorney general and secretary of state of any warrant or subpoena touching election records (AB 1664); expands ballot drop-off hours and language access; and tightens rules on AI-generated and deceptive campaign content. The signing followed the Justice Department's orders to states to preserve 2024 election records, its notices to two chief election officers that they were "under investigation," and its plan to send roughly 1,000 federal monitors to the midterm polls. Republican legislators argued existing law already criminalized ballot theft, and the state sheriffs' association objected that one bill gave the attorney general too much power.

“The Trump Administration is waging an all-out assault on our elections and voting rights, and California refuses to stand idly by.”
Rob Bonta (D-CA) · Sep 19, 2026

Sep 19, 2026· Updated

A Chatbot-Assisted Intelligence Report Sent Armed U.S. Troops to Board a Chinese Ship for Nuclear Weapons Parts That Were Never There — and the Top Democrats on Intelligence, Armed Services and Defense Appropriations Demand an Inspector General Investigation of AI Errors in Military Targeting

On September 18, 2026, CNN reported that earlier this year, during the Iran war, a U.S. Special Operations Command analyst used an AI chatbot to help produce an intelligence report claiming a Chinese ship in the Middle East was carrying components for a nuclear weapons program. The report circulated across the military; armed personnel suited up to board the vessel and military aircraft were already airborne before senior officials examined the underlying sourcing and concluded the report was "entirely false." One source told CNN the "hallucination" reflected a trend rather than an isolated incident, and another said it "almost started a war." On September 19, Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, Armed Services Ranking Member Jack Reed and Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Ranking Member Chris Coons wrote to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton demanding an "immediate investigation by relevant Inspectors General." The letter also cited the February strike on a school in Minab, Iran, which killed nearly 200 people, after commanders bypassed warnings in AI-powered databases that the target intelligence was badly outdated. The Pentagon, which under Hegseth has pushed to accelerate AI adoption across operations, had not publicly responded as of September 19.

“[We ask that officials] promptly investigate this matter [and give inspectors general] unrestricted access to both instances this year in which media reports have suggested significant errors in AI-enabled targeting workflows, as well as any additional instances that may have so far not been publicly reported.”
Chris Coons (D-DE) · Sep 19, 2026

artificial-intelligence

pentagon

intelligence

3 statements

Sep 19, 2026· Updated

In Forty-Eight Hours the Commerce Secretary Says "There Haven't Been American Deaths" in Iran, the Vice President Says "I Wouldn't Call It a War," and an Airman's Widow Is Told Her Combat Benefits Depend on Congress Declaring One

On September 2, 2026, in a CNBC interview from the G20 finance meeting, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said of the six-month-old Iran campaign that "there haven't been American deaths, it's really just an economic choke out." The Defense Department's own casualty database records 18 U.S. service members killed and more than 400 wounded in action since the war began on February 28. Lutnick apologized the next morning on X, saying he had been thinking of the January operation that captured Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. President Trump offered the same explanation on Truth Social. Hours later, at a White House briefing on September 3, Vice President JD Vance was asked whether the conflict would be over before the midterms and answered, "I wouldn't call it a war. Right now, there is no active shooting" — in a briefing where he had described Iran shooting at commercial shipping repeatedly, before and after. The semantics are not academic. Libby Klinner, whose husband Air Force Maj. John "Alex" Klinner was killed March 12 in a KC-135 crash during refueling operations, wrote that a casualty assistance officer told her combat-related entitlements — Hostile Fire Pay, Imminent Danger Pay, the Combat Zone Tax Exclusion — were unavailable because Congress had not declared war. The Air Force opened a review and later said classification confusion, not denial, was the cause; a Defense Department review found the family was receiving all eligible benefits. Vance told reporters the administration would "work that on the back end." Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) called Vance's framing "profoundly disrespectful" to the families of the 18 dead. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) had already introduced legislation in August to stop the Pentagon from resetting the war's casualty count by moving deaths after July 7 onto a separate page labeled "Overseas Operations."

“22 of our service members have been killed in Trump's illegal war. Not 18 like we were told. The Pentagon hid four more heroes' deaths from us for months. Congress cannot let them get away with this.”
Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) · Sep 19, 2026

Sep 18, 2026· Updated

The Senate Passes the Russia and Iran Sanctions Bill 86-11 and Names It for Lindsey Graham a Month After He Died — "This Is a Big Effing Deal," Blumenthal Says, Quoting Graham's Last Words to Him

On August 7, 2026, the Senate passed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 by a vote of 86-11, breaking a stalemate that had lasted more than a year and handing the late South Carolina Republican a posthumous version of the bill he had spent years failing to move. The measure imposes primary and secondary sanctions on Russia and the financial network sustaining its war in Ukraine, targeting the "shadow fleet" of shell corporations and repurposed maritime infrastructure along with Russian officials, oligarchs, their family members and financial institutions. It authorizes tariffs of up to 100 percent on the five largest importers of Russian crude and natural gas by volume — in practice China and India — and extends the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996, renewing sanctions on Iran's energy and weapons sectors that were set to lapse at the end of the year. The bill had been blocked for months by the White House's unwillingness to accept binding sanctions authority. It moved only after a bipartisan group — Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Darline Graham Nordone (R-S.C.), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho) — announced an agreement on July 28, seventeen days after Graham died at 71 at his Capitol Hill home. They said there was "no greater way to honor" his legacy. Blumenthal, a co-author, told the floor: "I'm not even going to try to channel my inner Lindsey Graham, except to say, as he said to me in some of his last words, 'This is a big effing deal.'" Graham's sister Darline Graham Nordone — appointed to his seat on Trump's recommendation — said he "believed that this was the most consequential piece of legislation that he had ever led." Not everyone was satisfied. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) forced a vote on an amendment limiting Trump's tariff authority under the bill; it failed 32-64. On the House side, Foreign Affairs ranking member Greg Meeks (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) warned that the final text "still contain[s] the broadest possible waiver authority for President Trump, who already has the power to impose these sanctions on Russia under U.S. law but has refused to do so," and Meeks said he opposed "handing President Trump a Trojan horse for tariff authorities he has repeatedly abused." The House is expected to take the bill up when members return from summer break on August 31.

“I wish Lindsey were here to celebrate this historic day. I know he would be so proud.”
Darline Graham Nordone (R-SC) · Sep 18, 2026

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