Stories

Browse major news stories and see what officials have said.

Sep 25, 2026· Updated

Five Days After Calling AI Risk a "HOAX," Trump Answers the Industry's Safety Warnings by Announcing an "AI Force" Modeled on Space Force and an "AI 'Czar'" — "Only High I.Q. Individuals Need Apply!" — While Ro Khanna Says an Offensive AI Capability "Would Give Me a Lot of Pause" and Calls for an FDA for AI

On September 19, 2026, President Trump posted on Truth Social that he is forming an "AI Force," modeled on the Space Force he created in his first term, and will soon name an "AI 'Czar'" to lead it — adding "Only High I.Q. individuals need apply!" The announcement came days after he dismissed warnings from AI company leaders and researchers about the pace of AI development as a "HOAX" by "Radical Left Dumocrats," and he used the post to promise the industry that "We will not in any way hinder or stifle the Growth of this incredible Industry." The next morning on Face the Nation, Rep. Ro Khanna said he did not know what Trump's vision was and that an offensive military AI capability "would give me a lot of pause," renewing his call for an independent federal AI regulator on the model of the FDA and urging Trump to negotiate an international AI agreement with Xi Jinping at their White House summit later in the week.

“Scott Bessent will not be going to be Super Intelligence (SI) Czar. Number One, he doesn't want to. Number Two, he's doing such a great job at Treasury, and that's where I want to keep him!”
Donald Trump (R-FL) · Sep 25, 2026

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Sep 24, 2026· Updated

Kennedy Center Board Votes 20-3 to Carve Trump's Name Into the Facade and Close the Main Building for Two Years, Three Months After a Judge Ordered the Name Removed

On Thursday, August 13, 2026, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts board of trustees — chaired by President Trump and composed mostly of his appointees — voted 20-3 during a roughly two-hour Zoom meeting to close the center's main building for a two-year, $250 million renovation and to attach Trump's name to the building again. The board approved changing the building's name to "The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump," to be realized as an inscription reading "Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump" placed below the existing marquee bearing President Kennedy's name. The board separately voted to rename the physical site "President Donald J. Trump Plaza." The REACH, a 2019 addition, stays open for limited programming and as a memorial to Kennedy. Reopening is targeted for summer 2028. The vote came three months after U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper ruled in May 2026 that the board's earlier renaming of the venue the "Trump-Kennedy Center" was unlawful, writing that "Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it," and separately blocking a planned closure as "ill-informed and preordained." A D.C. Circuit panel declined to stay that ruling. Federal law establishes the center as a memorial to Kennedy and bars renaming it — or adding "memorials or plaques in the nature of memorials" — without an act of Congress. The three votes against came from the congressional ex officio trustees: Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH-3), the plaintiff in the underlying lawsuit *Beatty v. Trump*, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA-2). Whitehouse said Trump called into the meeting and gave a speech for several minutes, after which the president's vote — and that of chief of staff Susie Wiles, a board member — were texted in. Democratic trustees said they still had not been given the assessments of what a closure would mean for the institution. The White House defended the plan; Beatty's counsel called the vote an effort to evade the court's ruling, setting up a likely contempt fight.

“What was not authorized is a demolition of the Kennedy Center. … If a federal facility is going to be demolished, it cannot be without congressional oversight here.”
Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) · Sep 24, 2026

Aug 31, 2026· Updated

Trump White House Ballroom Construction

President Trump demolished the White House East Wing in October 2025 to build a 90,000-square-foot grand ballroom, estimated at $400 million and funded by private donors. The project has faced repeated legal challenges: a federal judge halted construction on March 31, 2026, ruling Trump needs congressional authorization; the National Capital Planning Commission approved the design 8-1 on April 2; an appeals court allowed work to continue on April 11; but on April 16, Judge Richard Leon again blocked above-ground construction, ruling "national security is not a blank check to proceed with otherwise unlawful activity" and rejecting the administration's argument that the ballroom was inseparable from underground security facilities. Trump called Leon a "Trump Hating" judge and the administration is expected to seek Supreme Court review.

“We are living in the Golden Age of America, and this Building will be one of the Greatest ever constructed in Washington, D.C.”
Donald Trump (R-FL) · Aug 31, 2026

A 3 A.M. White House Email Summoning Five Agencies to a "Brainstorm Call" on Colorado Surfaces in Court — Days After the State Refused to Free Tina Peters, and Weeks Before Hundreds of Millions in Grants Were Cut

An email written at roughly 3 a.m. on December 15, 2025 by Emily Underwood, a deputy assistant to the president and senior policy strategist, went to officials at the Departments of Energy, Transportation, Interior and Agriculture and at the Office of Management and Budget under the subject line "brainstorm call." Recipients were told to be "prepared to discuss immediate actions that your department or agency can take with respect to Colorado," and to "prioritize Colorado for the purposes of ensuring grants and federal support are in line with administration priorities." The email was sent a month after Colorado refused to move Trump ally Tina Peters — the Mesa County clerk convicted in state court over the 2020 election-equipment breach — to federal custody, and days after the state declined to give effect to Trump's clemency declaration for her. Hours after the email went out, Trump called Gov. Jared Polis "weak and pathetic" on live television. In the weeks that followed, federal agencies froze hundreds of millions of dollars owed to Colorado, denied disaster aid for fires and flooding, cut more than $600 million from 38 Colorado-affiliated energy projects, and announced plans to disband the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder. The email surfaced publicly at an August 11, 2026 hearing in Colorado's lawsuit against the administration and was first reported by the Denver Post on August 13-14. Senior U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson said from the bench that he had "never seen anything like it." Attorney General Phil Weiser called it proof of "an unconstitutional scheme"; Colorado's two senators and its House Democrats called it weaponization of the federal government. A White House spokeswoman denied the call had anything to do with Peters and said the president was using "lawful and discretionary authority."

“The shocking White House email discussed in court earlier this week proves what we have long suspected: the White House orchestrated an unconstitutional scheme to weaponize the federal government to attack and punish Colorado for its lawful decisions over elections and our criminal justice system.”
Phil Weiser (D-CO) · Aug 14, 2026

Supreme Court Overturns Humphrey's Executor, Expands Presidential Removal Power While Sparing the Fed (June 2026)

On June 29, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 91-year-old precedent Humphrey's Executor v. United States, ruling 6-3 in Trump v. Slaughter that President Trump's 2025 at-will firing of Democratic FTC Commissioner Rebecca Kelly Slaughter was lawful. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the conservative majority, held that officials exercising executive power must remain removable by the President, effectively ending Congress's ability to shield independent-agency commissioners from at-will removal. In a separate 5-4 decision in Trump v. Cook, the Court held that Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook could remain in her post for now, carving out the central bank as a constitutionally distinct institution. Trump celebrated the FTC ruling as a historic expansion of presidential power, while Democrats and the affected officials warned it threatens the independence of watchdog agencies. Justice Sonia Sotomayor read a summary of her dissent from the bench, a rare signal of strong disagreement.

“It is such an Honor to be the sitting President who won this Historic and Unprecedented Ruling, one of the most important ever given with respect to Presidential Powers.”
Donald Trump (R-FL) · Jun 29, 2026