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Browse major news stories and see what officials have said.

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

The U.S. Ambassador to Israel Says the British Government's "Jew Hate … Knows No Boundaries" — Aimed at a Jewish Foreign Secretary — and When Britain Bans West Bank Settlement Goods Two Days Later, He Warns of "Repercussions" and a Florida Congressman Threatens to Cut Britain Off From "Billions of Dollars"

On Tuesday, September 8, 2026, British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced that the United Kingdom will ban imports of all goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, along with services — financing, construction, infrastructure, real estate and advertising — that support them. Miliband, who is Jewish, told Parliament that "there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank, perpetrated by settler terrorists" and that the government's "argument is not with the people of Israel … our argument is with the conduct of its government." He said France and Canada would follow. Prime Minister Andy Burnham briefed President Trump by phone on Monday before the announcement; Downing Street's readout did not describe Trump's response, and the Trump administration had privately urged London not to proceed. Israel's finance minister called for expelling the British ambassador and its security minister urged closing the British consulate in East Jerusalem. The American response came from the U.S. ambassador in Jerusalem and a Florida congressman. Two days earlier, on September 6, Ambassador Mike Huckabee had responded to a Miliband video describing medicines being blocked from Gaza by posting on X: "The Brits have lost it. The Jew hate of their government knows no boundaries and knows no facts." On the morning of the announcement Huckabee told the BBC's Today programme the ban was "a discrimination against the Jewish people," that "I don't know if they have thought it through," and that "the UK is a sovereign country; they can do what they want, but so is the US" — warning Britain could face "repercussions or retaliations" and suggesting states like Florida could act on their own. Rep. Randy Fine, who as a Florida legislator wrote the state's anti-boycott law, posted Monday night that any British company forced to comply would be barred from doing business with Florida's state and local governments: "Florida is one of Britain's largest trading partners. They should understand that their vanity project in support of Muslim terror could cost them billions of dollars." The episode lands as the Senate weighs a Democratic resolution on West Bank settlements and after the E1 settlement tenders that Britain cited as its trigger. No member of Congress had publicly criticized Huckabee's "Jew hate" remark about a Jewish foreign secretary as of the announcement, and the State Department had not issued its own statement on the British measures.

“I'll be speaking to Israel, I'll be speaking to them, and I'll find out what's their thinking... I understand what's going on. But I want to find out why all of a sudden has that happened.”
Donald Trump (R-FL) · Sep 9, 2026

An Amazon Cargo Jet Runs 1,300 Feet Past the End of a Miami Runway at 128 MPH and Crushes a Van Carrying Seven Airport Cleaners — Five Dead, and the NTSB Chair Calls the Scene "Utter Devastation"

At 1:53 p.m. on Sunday, September 6, 2026, 21 Air Flight 7598 — a 32-year-old Boeing 767-300 freighter flying for Amazon Air from San Juan, Puerto Rico — landed long on Runway 30 at Miami International Airport, left the paved surface at roughly 128 miles per hour, and traveled about 1,300 feet before striking navigational equipment, a fence line, a Ford Econoline van carrying seven workers from an airline cleaning contractor, and an SUV on the road outside the perimeter. Five people in the two vehicles were killed and five more were injured, three critically. The two-person flight crew survived. The airport was under a full ground stop for about three hours, and delays into Miami ran past six hours on Sunday night. National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy led a 32-person team to the scene and, at a briefing on Monday, September 7, described "utter devastation," said the van had been "torn apart," and confirmed both the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder had been recovered. Video of the landing appears to show the jet still airborne well down the runway before touching down, and investigators are examining whether the aircraft touched down too late to stop safely. 21 Air, a North Carolina-based cargo carrier that began flying 767 freighters for Amazon in 2024, said it was cooperating fully with the NTSB and FAA. Florida's officials responded within hours. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the ground stop and warned travelers to expect significant delays. Sen. Rick Scott said he was "heartbroken by this tragic loss of life," Rep. Carlos Giménez — a former Miami fire chief — said he was "extraordinarily proud" of the emergency response, Rep. María Elvira Salazar said "Miami is with every family affected by this tragedy," and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said she was "horrified" by the crash. Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava was briefed by the FAA on scene Sunday night. The crash is the deadliest at Miami International since the 1997 Fine Air Flight 101 cargo crash, and it comes ten months after the fatal UPS cargo jet crash at Louisville.

“I would describe it in one word as devastating, utter devastation. There's debris everywhere.”
Jennifer Homendy (O) · Sep 7, 2026

A Trump Adviser Calls Five Black Women in Public Life "Ghetto, Entitled, Race-Obsessed" — and the First Republican to Denounce Her Is the One Trump Wants Primaried

On Friday, August 28, 2026, Laura Loomer — the far-right activist and longtime Trump ally whose recommendations have repeatedly preceded firings inside the administration — posted on X that Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon, Reps. Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley, former Rep. Cori Bush and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson are "all ghetto, entitled, race-obsessed, destructive black BITCHES who are completely unfit for the power they hold." Nixon, who won Florida's Democratic Senate primary in August, answered directly. Loomer doubled down on Monday, August 31, calling Nixon "a ghetto, black, communist" and telling her "you speak Ebonics though, so maybe I need to bark at you and tug your leash." The condemnation ran across party lines, but not in the usual direction. The first Republican voice was former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene — herself the target of a Trump-backed primary threat — who on Sunday, August 30, said she "1000% denounce[s]" Loomer and put the blame on the party that keeps her close. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries followed on Monday, calling Loomer "a stone-cold racist, pathological liar and nutjob" and demanding every Republican end their relationship with her. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Rep. Rashida Tlaib also weighed in. The White House did not respond to Reuters' request for comment on Loomer's remarks. No sitting Republican member of Congress publicly denounced her in the first four days.

“Every single Republican should denounce her vile behavior and end their relationship with this extremist immediately.”
Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) · Aug 31, 2026

Rep. Cory Mills Loses His Florida Primary by 13 Points While Under House Ethics Investigation — and Trump, Who Endorsed Him in February and Never Withdrew It, Says He Told Him to "Get Out of the Race"

Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) lost the Republican primary in Florida's 7th Congressional District on August 18, 2026 to Ryan Elijah, a former Fox 35 Orlando news anchor who entered the race late. Elijah took 46.9% to Mills's 34.4%, a margin of more than 13 points. Mills spent the cycle under an ethical cloud: a House Ethics Committee investigation into alleged dating violence and potential campaign-finance violations, an assault allegation, and an ex-girlfriend's claim that he threatened to release sexually explicit images and videos of her. Mills has denied wrongdoing and has never been charged. Four days before the primary, Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters in Daytona Beach that he had not endorsed Mills and did not support him. President Trump endorsed Mills in February 2026 and never publicly rescinded it. The day after the loss, Trump posted on Truth Social that he had privately told Mills to quit the race, and gave Elijah his "Complete and Total Endorsement." Mills's defeat was one of three Trump-endorsed primary losses that night — along with Catalina Lauf in Florida's 19th District and Megan Degenfelder in Wyoming's governor primary — bringing his 2026 cycle total to 12, more than the 2018, 2020 and 2024 cycles combined.

“We now have a great candidate, Ryan Elijah, running in his place! Ryan stands for EVERYTHING MAGA, and is respected by ALL. He has my Complete and Total Endorsement!”
Donald Trump (R-FL) · Aug 19, 2026

Trump’s Pick Byron Donalds Routs the DeSantis Camp by 20 Points to Win Florida’s Governor Primary — and Will Face David Jolly, the Republican Congressman Who Became a Democrat

On August 18, 2026, Florida Republicans nominated U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds for governor, handing President Trump's hand-picked candidate a victory of more than 20 points over a crowded field that included Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, the candidate widely understood to be Gov. Ron DeSantis's preferred successor. Donalds took roughly 48 percent of the Republican vote. DeSantis, who has an icy relationship with Donalds and whose wife Casey had been floated for the race, declined to endorse anyone before the primary, saying he was "not involved in any Primaries." On the Democratic side, former U.S. Rep. David Jolly — who represented Florida's 13th District as a Republican from 2014 to 2017 before leaving the party and registering as a Democrat — won his primary with about 61 percent. Jolly used his primary-night remarks to claim a cross-party "new coalition" and to attack Donalds as purchasable, saying Donalds "will sell his governorship for a buck." Donalds, who is seeking to become Florida's first Black governor, called for Republican unity and predicted Jolly would lose again in November. The Republican Governors Association, chaired by Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, congratulated Donalds the next day and attacked Jolly's party switch. The general election is November 3, 2026, for the seat term-limited Gov. DeSantis must vacate.

“Congratulations to Byron Donalds on his primary victory. He has the vision, experience, and the right plan for lowering costs, protecting law and order, and defending the American Dream. Hardworking families and the next generation of Floridians have a fighter on their side in Donalds. Democrats continue to prove they can't gain ground in Florida with David Jolly campaigning as a so-called moderate while voters know he's just another career politician they can't trust. From switching parties to promoting far-left woke policies like irreversible gender transition surgeries for minors, Florida voters will reject Jolly in November.”
Greg Gianforte (R-MT) · Aug 19, 2026

A Democratic Socialist Who Raised Under $1 Million Beats a $16 Million Impeachment Witness: Angie Nixon Upsets Alex Vindman for Florida's Democratic Senate Nomination

On August 18, 2026, Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon — a Jacksonville Democrat and former union organizer who joined the Democratic Socialists of America during the campaign — defeated Alex Vindman in the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate seat Marco Rubio vacated, winning roughly 56% to 44%. The margin was the story. Vindman, the retired Army lieutenant colonel who became nationally known as a witness in President Trump's 2019 impeachment, raised more than $16 million; Nixon raised under $1 million, a spending gap of roughly 16 to 1. She ran on Medicare for All, opposition to U.S. military aid to Israel, and an economic message aimed at working-class voters, and was endorsed by Reps. Maxwell Frost, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley — but not by Sen. Bernie Sanders or Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the left's best-known national figures. Nixon will face Republican Sen. Ashley Moody, who took roughly 75% of her own primary vote and was appointed to the seat by Gov. Ron DeSantis in January 2025. No Democrat has won a Florida Senate race since 2012. On the same night, Rep. Byron Donalds won the Republican gubernatorial nomination and former Rep. David Jolly won the Democratic one, and Rep. Jared Moskowitz turned back a DSA-backed primary challenger in Florida's 25th District — making the night a split verdict for the left rather than a sweep. Senate Democratic leaders moved quickly to embrace Nixon, while the National Republican Senatorial Committee said Florida "will never elect a socialist to the US Senate."

“Angie Nixon has dedicated her career to fighting for Florida. A lifelong native of Jacksonville and a former union organizer, Angie's dedication to put working families first runs deep — and now, she's running to take that fight to the Senate. Ashley Moody's votes have cost Florida, from her siding with private insurance companies over Floridians to ripping away health care. In November, Florida will have a clear choice at the ballot.”
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) · Aug 18, 2026

Oklahoma Becomes the Third Republican-Led State to Move Against the Country’s Largest Muslim Civil Rights Group — Stitt Orders an "Intelligence-Based Assessment" of CAIR and Asks Washington to Designate It a Terrorist Organization

On August 12, 2026, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed an executive order directing the state Departments of Public Safety and Homeland Security to conduct an "intelligence-based assessment" of whether the Muslim Brotherhood, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or people acting in their name pose a terrorist or public-safety threat in Oklahoma. If investigators find evidence of support for those organizations, the order directs state law enforcement to recommend that the federal government designate them as foreign terrorist organizations. Oklahoma is the third Republican-led state to act. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott designated the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR "foreign terrorist organizations" and "transnational criminal organizations" by proclamation on November 18, 2025, a designation that also bars them from acquiring land in Texas; CAIR chapters sued, arguing the proclamation chilled protected speech. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a similar executive order on December 8, 2025. On March 4, 2026, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee temporarily enjoined the Florida order on First Amendment grounds, finding it operated as a prior restraint by threatening private parties with loss of government benefits for associating with CAIR. Florida's legislature responded in March 2026 with HB 1471, empowering the head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to label organizations as domestic or foreign terrorist groups, and DeSantis used that law against CAIR-Florida in July 2026. The state actions follow a November 2025 executive order from President Trump aimed at designating certain Muslim Brotherhood chapters as foreign terrorist organizations. The U.S. State Department has never designated the Muslim Brotherhood or CAIR as terrorist organizations. Oklahoma State Senate Democratic Leader Julia Kirt condemned Stitt's order, noting it was issued without evidence and warning it raises the risk of hate crimes.

“What we do know is that CAIR works to protect the civil rights of Oklahoma Muslims in the face of ongoing profiling and discrimination.”
Julia Kirt (D-OK) · Aug 13, 2026

DeSantis Releases Florida Congressional Map to Create 24-4 Republican Advantage

On April 27, 2026, Governor Ron DeSantis proposed a new Florida congressional map targeting four Democratic incumbents, which passed the Republican-controlled legislature in a rushed process and was sent to DeSantis for signature. The map would create a 24-4 Republican advantage in Florida's congressional delegation, targeting Reps. Kathy Castor (Tampa), Darren Soto (Orlando), Lois Frankel, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (both Miami). DeSantis first released the map to Fox News before Florida lawmakers had seen it. The legislature held hearings one day and voted the next, passing the House 83-28 and Senate 21-17 along party lines. The redistricting blitz followed the Supreme Court's April 29 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, which effectively gutted VRA Section 2 protections and opened the door for Republican-controlled states to redraw maps before the 2026 midterms. The new Florida map faces legal challenges under the state's Fair Districts constitutional amendment, which bans partisan gerrymandering.

“This is a completely unconstitutional partisan gerrymander drawn behind closed doors to silence the voices of millions of Florida voters. We will fight this in court.”
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) · Apr 28, 2026