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    Jon Stewart on Trump’s taunts of an illegal third term: ‘We know he’s thought about it’

    Late-night hosts reacted to Donald Trump’s taunts about an illegal third presidential term and his demolition of the East Wing of the White House.Jon StewartFrom his Monday night post on the Daily Show, Jon Stewart assessed the threat of Trump attempting to run for a third term as president, which is illegal under the 22nd amendment to the constitution.Asked by reporters for his thoughts on comments by Steve Bannon that he had a plan for such a campaign, Trump answered: “I would love to do it … I have my best numbers ever.”He also claimed, however: “I haven’t really thought about it.”“That’s the tell for whenever he’s asked about something that he is definitely going to do that is dubious legally, ethically or morally,” Stewart noted. “He says he hasn’t thought about it. But of course we know he’s thought about it because he already has the merch,” he added, pointing to “Trump 2028” hats that Trump has displayed in the Oval Office.“What’s interesting about Trump is he’s actually worked through the various scenarios of running for a third term that he has not thought about,” said Stewart, pointing to Trump’s further comments that “I think the people wouldn’t like that. It’s too cute.”“Too cute? No, that’s why you don’t go to Build-a-Bear as an adult,” Stewart replied. “Running as the vice-president to skirt the 22nd amendment isn’t cute. But he’s the kinda guy who’s like ‘I respect Americans too much to play games. If I’m going to run again, I’m going to rip off the constitution’s head and shit down its neck.’“Indications are very clear he’s gonna do it,” he continued, “because you don’t move into a house, knock down a wing and build a 90,000-sq-ft ballroom for the next guy.“Trump’s not a house-flipper,” he added. “He’s not Ellen. He’s in it for the long haul.”Jimmy KimmelJimmy Kimmel returned from a weeklong family trip to Ireland with renewed perspective on his home country. “In case you’re wondering what people in other countries think about what’s going on here in our country, I’ll tell you: they’re worried about us,” he said. “They’re very worried. They’re worried about us in the same way you worry about a nephew who you maybe haven’t seen for a few years and he shows up at Thanksgiving missing all of his front teeth? That kind of worry.”People in Ireland, Kimmel reported, had a lot of questions for him about Trump, including: “Why is he knocking down part of the White House?”“I don’t know. Nobody knows,” he answered. “I don’t think he even knows.“Back here at home, the unrest continues to rage out of control. Antifa terrorists are destroying government – oh wait, that’s the White House,” Kimmel joked over a photo of the demolished East Wing. “That’s what Trump did on purpose, without permission, to the White House. I told you we should’ve made him put down a security deposit!”Nevertheless, Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, defended the move on NBC News: “I think this was a judgment call by the president. The president is a master builder. I don’t know, I assume that maybe parts of the East Wing, there could’ve been asbestos, there could’ve been mold.“There could’ve been some old Chinese food, could’ve been ghosts! We don’t know,” Kimmel joked. “All we know is that the only solution was to completely smash the whole place down. I wish the master builder would master-build in private like the rest of us do.”Seth MeyersOn Late Night, Seth Meyers also touched on the Trump 2028 hats seen on his desk during meetings with congressional Democrats.“It’s so weird to make a hat for a thing that can’t happen,” said Meyers. “Wearing a Trump 2028 hat is like wearing a hat that says Super Bowl champion New York Jets.”“So Trump put some hats on the desk during a meeting with Democrats,” he continued, “and the Democrats in attendance definitely thought it was weird.”As the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from New York, told CNN: “it was the strangest thing ever.”“Come on, the strangest thing ever? Don’t you live Brooklyn?” Meyers laughed. “If someone Rollerbladed into a Brooklyn deli wearing a full mermaid costume, the only thing anyone would say is ‘the usual, Jeff?’“It’s not even the strangest thing Trump has done,” he continued. “Not long before that meeting, he wandered on to the roof of the White House.“Think about how insane this is: this was supposed to be a meeting about keeping the government open, making sure troops get paid and families get nutrition assistance and air traffic controllers can do their jobs,” Meyers added. “And instead the president’s main interest was trolling.“Trump can’t help himself,” he concluded. “The Maga movement cares more about trolling libs than making government function, which is why he keeps going on about this unconstitutional third term.”Stephen Colbert“It was a beautiful day here in America because Donald Trump was out of the country,” said Stephen Colbert on the Late Show. To start the week, Trump was on a “field trip” to Asia, where “he’s going to tear down the Great Wall and put up a ballroom,” Colbert quipped.The trip includes stops in Japan, South Korea and Malaysia, where Trump danced to a marching band in a way that Colbert could only describe as “shuffling and swinging his wrists like a low-battery Chuck E Cheese robot”.In Japan, the new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, reportedly planned to gift Trump a gold golf ball. “It is so sad to see how easy it is to butter up the president of the United States,” Colbert remarked. “OK quick, Trump’s visiting, what are we going to get him this time? Gold burger? Gold TV? Have we tried spray-painting a woman gold?”Colbert also touched on the fourth week of the ongoing government shutdown. “The longer it goes, the more used to having no government we get and then the less likely it is to ever end,” he said.The shutdown is now restricting military pay. But on Friday, an anonymous donor – later identified as Timothy Mellon – gifted $130m to pay troops during the shutdown. “I know that sounds nice, I get it, but I don’t like the idea of the armed forces having a private sponsor,” Colbert said. “I don’t want our next invasion to be code-named ‘Operation Chili’s New El Diablo Triple Dipper Rib Tips: Can You Stand the Heat?’” More

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    Tattoo fixers on removing Nazi symbols: ‘You don’t know if they’re changing or hiding’

    Last week, Graham Platner, a progressive Democrat running for the US Senate in Maine, responded to a burst of online criticism by doing something few candidates for high office are ever required to do: he posted a topless photo of himself on the internet.It was an unusual moment in a campaign that had so far gone his way. Platner had won praise from progressives and secured the backing of Bernie Sanders. But his campaign came unstuck when a video surfaced of him dancing in his underwear at his brother’s wedding – and revealing a skull-and-crossbones tattoo on his chest. The design, known as the Totenkopf, is widely recognised as a Nazi symbol.Platner insists he had no idea of its associations when he got the tattoo, drunk, while stationed in Croatia during his 20s as a marine. After learning of its meaning, he says, he covered it with a new design – a Celtic cross and a dog – and released the topless photo to prove it.It’s a strange campaign story, but not all that uncommon. Across the country, tattoo artists and laser removal technicians regularly see clients who are trying to erase far-right symbols from their bodies.There a number of national non-profits that help people remove their hate-based tattoos. The California-based Jails to Jobs, for example, helps formerly incarcerated people rebuild their lives. The group maintains a directory of more than 300 free or low-cost tattoo removal programs across 45 states and several countries and publishes a how-to manual for communities hoping to start their own.Not everyone who seeks their services has tattoos linked to white supremacy. Some are survivors of trafficking, domestic violence or gang coercion. But many prison tattoos still bear the marks of racist ideology: swastikas, lightning bolts or coded runes that declare allegiance to neo-Nazi groups.View image in fullscreenThe Anti-Defamation League has catalogued hate symbols since 2000 through its Hate on Display database, which is now more than 50 pages long.Kate Widener, an advanced esthetician and owner of Undo Tattoo and Laser in Gresham, Oregon, averages about 70 tattoo removals a week. Of these, she wagers “25%” are part of her free removal program. “Everyone deserves a second chance,” she said. “I’ve seen it all, including some pretty bad ones. But they just pop in, pop out, and soon it’s gone.”Some of Widener’s clients say they are coming in only out of discretion – they are still racist, but don’t want their co-workers to know. “I have one guy who comes in only for the tattoos on his face, and he’s keeping the rest from his neck down,” she says. “Thirty-plus [swastikas] on his neck all the way down. So there are a lot of people hiding who they really are.”“There’s a big concern of: [are they] changing or hiding?” said Dustin Ortel, who oversees the free Ink-nitiative program at Removery, another national tattoo-removing chain. Since 2020, people every year submit applications – bolstered by letters of recommendations from parole officers or counselors – and about 300 are chosen for the procedure.Ortel says he is a good judge of character and helps people who are genuinely changing. “I have a great gut feeling, and going through our paperwork and seeing the advocate letters, you really get to see where the person is coming from compared to the markings on their skin.”Before each session, Ortel listens to a person’s story, what led them to get the tattoo and how they changed their mind. These conversations are always emotional: “I cry with people.”Widener, in Oregon, does not require people to apply for her free removal. “It’s invasive, and I don’t like that,” she says. “I’m confidential and judgment-free. As long as you say, ‘Please help me,’ I’ll talk.” That makes her pretty popular, with people driving hours to see her, coming form as far away as Idaho or Seattle.Removing or covering up someone’s tattoos is always an intimate process. It requires close contact. “A lot of people talk about themselves,” Widener said. “I’ll get a vibe if they’re doing this for the right reasons, or maybe not the right reasons, and that makes me more leery of them.”View image in fullscreenStill, most people are “pretty nice” and many are grateful. And, ultimately, Widener is in control during the experience: “They know that I control a laser that can cause a lot of harm to them.”What makes people change their beliefs? “Sometimes, it’s because they fall in love,” Widener said. “I have clients who were white supremacists and then they fall for a person of color.” One of her clients was brought up in a racist family and never questioned their beliefs – until he began an interracial relationship.“She kind of opened his eyes to other things,” Widener said. “He’s my favorite. He comes every six weeks like clockwork to get his tattoo removed, and he cries at every point to tell me how it changed his life. He has a child now, and he would like to put something over that to honor his mixed son.”After the white nationalist rallies in Charlottesville in 2017, interest in hate tattoo-removing services rose, with some people who had previously been affiliated with far-right groups wanting to distance themselves as the groups became emboldened. Three years later, after the murder of George Floyd and international protests against police violence, NPR pointed to an increased interest in tattoo removal. For some, the ebb-and-flow popularity of these services shows a pattern: when hate crimes hit the headlines, more people who have left a racist past behind urgently feel the need to rid themselves of such reminders.But lately, Widener says interest in her free program among people with hate tattoos has cooled. She blames the Trump administration. Before Donald Trump was in office, Widener had “a lot more people” coming in to erase a white supremacist past. “Then once [Trump was re-elected], I had someone who called me and told me they no longer need to remove it.” (Still, Undo Tattoo’s free removal program is fully booked until December.)Three other people involved in free tattoo removal or cover-up programs said they had not noticed a decline in clients due to Trump’s administration. Lorenzo Diaz, an artist at Ruby Tattoo in Marine City, Michigan, has covered up hateful ink for the past 17 years. “I have at least three, maybe four a week. They’re usually pretty big, dark pieces.”So far, Widener does not turn away clients – but she could change her mind in the future. “I thought about certain situations, because at some point, ICE officers are going to start throwing little symbols around,” she said. “I’ve personally seen in my own neighborhood how they hurt people. I’m still judgment-free, letting everyone come in, but I don’t know what the future holds.” More

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    Haitians helped boost Springfield’s economy – now they’re fleeing in fear of Trump

    Every morning, Alicia Mercado makes the 50-minute drive from her home in Columbus to Springfield, where she runs the Adasa Latin Market store. She opened the business next to a Haitian restaurant in 2023, having spotted a gap in the market for Caribbean and Latin foods – the neighborhood’s Haitian population was booming at the time.But over the past year, she says her business, which includes an international money transfer kiosk, has taken a major hit.“About 80 to 90% of our customers were Haitians; now that’s down to about 60% over the past six months,” she says. “No more people are moving to Springfield.”Mercado’s experiences are being echoed around the city of 58,000 people that garnered international attention last year when Donald Trump falsely claimed during a presidential debate that immigrants were eating people’s pets.Until the end of last year, Springfield was something of a surprise economic juggernaut.A report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland found that it ranked second among all Ohio cities for job growth since the pandemic.New housing projects, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, are among the biggest investments the city has ever made.That growth was partly fueled by the availability of manufacturing and blue-collar jobs that were eagerly filled by the more than 15,000 Haitian immigrants who had moved to the city over the past eight years, fueling businesses such as Mercado’s.Local companies got cheap, reliable labor, while Haitian workers received stable income, health insurance and a safe place to live. Many bought homes and invested their hard-earned income into improving the city’s housing stock that, in turn, padded the city’s tax coffers. For the most part, it was a win for all involved.But since then, the city’s economic fortunes have spiraled.Springfield businesses, big and small, are struggling in the aftermath of thousands of Haitians fleeing the town after the Trump administration’s termination of the humanitarian parole program for citizens of several countries, including Haiti, in June. On top of that, the government has ended temporary protected status, affecting the immigration status of more than half a million Haitians, which comes into effect on or before 5 February 2026.The Department of Homeland Security says conditions in Haiti have improved to allow US-based Haitians to return. However, violence prompted Haiti’s government in August to issue a state of emergency in parts of the country. The US Department of State currently has a level four “do not travel” advisory for Haiti.The consequences of these moves are being keenly felt in places such as Springfield.Since January, when the Trump administration took office, the percentage of manufacturing jobs in Springfield has been falling by double digits as the civilian labor force also declines, something thought to be partly fueled by Haitians leaving the city due to fear of the administration’s anti-immigrant rhetoric.At Topre America, an automotive parts manufacturing company north-east of downtown Springfield, dozens of jobs that Haitians had once filled – forklift drivers, supervisors and stackers – have remained unfilled on the company’s employment webpage for months.Unemployment has ticked up slightly in the city – but still at a rate twice the state’s increase – in the 12 months since Trump’s racist comments.In a city where income tax makes up the majority of municipal funding, the loss of thousands of Haitian workers means fewer dollars for public services for all residents.“Our tax revenue, which is the backbone of our general fund, has flattened. After years of strong growth post-pandemic, the rebound is behind us,” Springfield’s city finance director, Katie Eviston, reported at a city commission public meeting in June.Previous estimates had tracked that 2025 would see a 3.5% increase in income tax funds for the city. By June, that anticipated growth, however, had been wiped out in what Eviston said was a “level of decline [that] hasn’t occurred since the early days of the Covid shutdown”.Moreover, the city faces a worrying $4.25m financial hole due to the cancellation of a host of Biden-era programs and grants by the Trump administration.Springfield and its businesses aren’t alone in dealing with the fallout of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.Experts say it has consequences for businesses and companies right across the country. In June, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) said that ending visas for international workers would leave 85,000 jobs unfilled.“Stripping [immigrants’] ability to work and threatening them with removal is not just a human cost; it is an economic one,” an AEM executive wrote in the Washington Examiner.Small communities in Indiana, Pennsylvania and elsewhere in Ohio that enjoyed an economic rebound in the aftermath of the pandemic are also experiencing depressed purchasing power due to White House-fueled job cuts.“Trump’s immigration policy slowed inflows. Suddenly, more firms have seen their immigrant worker supplies decline, forcing them to pay more to attract native workers, thereby placing upward pressure on inflation,” says Mark Muro, a senior fellow at the Brookings Metro thinktank.“This, combined with Trump’s tariffs, has created serious upward price pressure along with the rise in labor costs – not a great combination for many US producers in the heartland.”Without the ability to work, many Haitians are leaving the US.According to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, more than 26,000 Haitians sought asylum there in the first six months of 2025, many of whom are thought to have fled the US. By contrast, just 21,756 claims were made for all of 2024.Many Haitians in Springfield, however, are stuck in place, without jobs and with bills mounting up.“A lot of people have work problems – we have lost half our customers,” says Youdins Solon, who helps out at his family’s Keket Bongou Caribbean restaurant in south-east Springfield. Solon moved to Springfield last March, having lived in Florida for 18 months prior. But by the summer, he lost his job at a local Amazon distribution center when his immigration status was revoked. He says he is one of hundreds who have been laid off.“I’m lucky because I have my family here, but for a lot of people, they moved [out of Springfield] because they were afraid of the situation.”But for those who have staked their businesses on a thriving immigrant community in Springfield, it’s not easy to pack up and leave.“We order Haitian food from companies in Florida and Chicago every two weeks,” says Mercado, “but now, that’s greatly reduced.” More

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    Zohran Mamdani represents the future of the Democratic party | Robert Reich

    The only upside to living through this dark time is it pushes us to rethink and perhaps totally remake things we once thought immutable.Like the Democratic party.In case you hadn’t noticed, the current Democratic party is dysfunctional, if not dead.Better dysfunctional than a fascist cult like Donald Trump’s Republican party. But if there were ever a time when America needed a strong, vibrant Democratic party, it’s now. And we don’t have one.The brightest light in the Democratic party is Zohran Mamdani, the 34-year-old member of the New York state assembly who has a good chance of being elected the next mayor of New York City when New Yorkers go to the polls a week from Tuesday.Mamdani is talking about what matters to most voters: the cost of living. He says New York should be affordable for everyone.He’s addressing the problems New Yorkers discuss at their kitchen tables. He’s not debating “Trumpism” or “capitalism” or “Democratic socialism”. He’s not offering a typical Democratic “10-point plan” with refundable tax credits that no one understands.He’s proposing a few easy-to-understand things: free buses, free childcare, a four-year rent freeze for about 2 million residents, and a $30 minimum wage. He’s aiming to do what Franklin D Roosevelt did in the 1930s: fix it.You may not agree with all his proposals (I don’t), but they are understandable. And if they don’t work, I expect that, like FDR, he will try something else.The clincher for me is that he’s inspiring a new generation of young people. He’s got them excited about politics. (My 17-year-old granddaughter is spending her weekends knocking on doors for him, as are her friends.)You don’t have to reach too far back in history to find Democratic politicians who have inspired young people. Bernie Sanders (technically an independent) and AOC. Barack Obama. (I was inspired in my youth by Bobby Kennedy – the real Bobby Kennedy – and Senator Eugene McCarthy.)And Mamdani.What do all of them have in common? They’re authentic. They’re passionate. They care about real people. They want to make America fairer. They advocate practical solutions that people can understand.View image in fullscreenNonetheless, Mamdani is horrifying the leaders of the Democratic party. Chuck Schumer still hasn’t endorsed him. Bill Clinton has endorsed Andrew Cuomo, who is spending what are probably the last days of his political career indulging in the kind of racist, Islamophobic attacks we’d expect from Trump.Meanwhile, the editorial board of the New York Times counsels “moderation”, urging Democratic candidates to move to the “center”. Tell me: where is the center between democracy and fascism, and why would anyone want to go there?In truth, the Times’s so-called “moderate center” is code for corporate Democrats using gobs of money to pursue culturally conservative “swing” voters – which is what the Democratic party has been doing for decades.This is part of the reason America got Trump. Corporate Democrats took the party away from its real mission: to lift up the working class and lower-middle class and help the poor. Instead, they pushed for globalization, privatization and the deregulation of Wall Street. They became Republican-lite.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionIn 2016 and again in 2024, working and lower-middle class voters saw this and opted for a squalid real estate developer who at least sounded like he was on their side. He wasn’t and still isn’t – he is on the side of the billionaires to whom he gave two whopping tax cuts. But if the choice is between someone who sounds like he’s on your side and someone who sounds like a traditional politician, guess who wins?Trump also fed voters red-meat cultural populism – blaming their problems on immigrants, Hispanic people, Black people, transgender people, bureaucrats and “coastal elites”. Democrats, meanwhile, gave voters incomprehensible 10-point plans.The Times tries to buttress its argument that Democrats should move to the “center” by citing Democrats who won election last year in places Trump also won.But that argument is bunk. Democrats won in these places by imitating Trump. One mocked the term “Latinx” and was hawkish on immigration. Two wanted to crack down harder on illegal immigration. Two others emphasized crime and public safety. Another bragged about taking on federal bureaucrats.This isn’t the way forward for Democrats. Red-meat cultural populism does not fill hungry bellies or pay medical bills or help with utility bills or pay the rent.Mamdani poses a particular threat to New York’s corporate Democrats because he wants to tax the wealthy to pay for his plan to make New York more affordable to people who aren’t wealthy.He aims to generate $9bn in new tax revenue by raising taxes on the city’s wealthiest residents and businesses. He’s calling for a 2% tax on incomes more than $1m, which would produce $4bn in tax revenue. He wants to increase the state’s corporate tax rate to 11.5% to match New Jersey’s, generating about $5bn annually.He’s right. The wealthy have never been as wealthy as they are now, while the tax rate they pay hasn’t been as low in living memory.Inequalities of income and wealth are at record levels. A handful of billionaires now control almost every facet of the United States government and economy.Even as the stock market continues to hit new highs, working-class and lower-middle-class families across America are getting shafted. Wages are nearly stagnant, prices are rising. Monopolies control food processing, housing, high-tech, oil and gas.The time is made for the Democrats. If the party stands for anything, it should be the growing needs of the bottom 90% – for affordable groceries, housing and childcare. For higher wages and better working conditions. For paid family leave. For busting up monopolies that keep prices high. For making it easier to form and join labor unions.Pay for this by raising taxes on the wealthy. Get big money out of politics.This dark time should wake us up to the bankruptcy of the corporate Democratic party.It should mark the birth of the people’s Democratic party. Zohran Mamdani and others like him are its future.

    Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now More

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    Forget diplomatic niceties: it’s beyond time Europe denounced Trump’s trashing of democracy in the US | Paul Taylor

    What do you do when you discover your best friend is abusive to their partner at home? That question, or something similar, should be addressed to European leaders – and indeed to all of us in the European public space, who are watching, often speechless, as Donald Trump takes a cudgel to the institutions of American democracy.For the last nine months, European leaders have bitten their tongues, looked the other way and engaged in flattery, appeasement and wild promises to keep the US president sweet and engaged in European security. The overwhelming imperative for Trump to stand with Europe against Russia over its war on Ukraine – or at least not against us and alongside Vladimir Putin – has led them to swallow unrealistic defence spending targets and unbalanced trade terms. For what gain?No European leader has publicly contradicted Trump’s inflated claims to have ended eight wars in eight months, nor criticised his demolition of the multilateral rules-based free trade order, his assault on the United Nations, or his selective use of tariffs to pursue political vendettas around the world.The only time European leaders briefly found their voices was when JD Vance used the stage of the Munich security conference to launch a fierce attack on European democracy. Vance accused US allies of suppressing free speech and said he was more worried by “the threat from within … the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values” than by any threat from Russia or China to the continent’s freedom. To underline his support for freedom of anti-immigrant hate speech, he chose to meet the leader of the far-right German AfD Alice Weidel in Munich in the midst of an election campaign, and to snub Berlin’s then-chancellor, Olaf Scholz of the Social Democrats.With millions of Americans now taking to the streets to protest against Trump’s authoritarian drift at home, isn’t it time for European leaders to speak up and assert their moral autonomy by signalling Europe’s support for democracy in the US, and for those who are trying to defend it?This is not to suggest that an expression of European dismay would have any practical effect on the dismantling of checks and balances in the US political system, the abolition of the USAID foreign aid agency, the crackdowns on universities, law firms and science, the abuse of the justice system against political enemies, or the purging of the armed forces and, most alarmingly, the deployment of the military in American cities to combat the “enemy from within”.While the US can protect security in Europe and deserves our undying gratitude for having done so for the last 80 years, Europeans cannot protect democracy in the US. They can and must, however, protect liberal democracy in Europe, which risks becoming a collateral victim of Trump’s domestic and foreign policy agenda.What happens in America doesn’t stay in America. It is often a precursor for trends in Europe. Just as the #MeToo and “woke” movements spilled over from Hollywood studios and US campuses to European film sets and universities, so the tide of illiberalism and repression rising in Washington is already washing up on European shores in countries such as Hungary and Serbia. By speaking up about Trump’s assaults on the independence of the US civil service, judiciary, legal profession, media and armed forces, and his moves to criminalise dissent, European leaders would be asserting the values of the rule of law, the separation of powers and liberal democracy that they have a duty to preserve at home.If Elon Musk can use his social media platform and the world’s biggest fortune to intervene in German elections in favour of Weidel’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) – or in British politics in support of convicted anti-Islam extremist Tommy Robinson – then surely we, too, can make our voices heard in US politics. We can offer support and practical cooperation to states, cities and courts that share our values, and moral support to US freedom campaigners. Our governments and regions can build partnerships on climate action, civil rights and development assistance with like-minded US states and local authorities. We can offer jobs, visas and scholarships to US scientists and academics hit by Trump’s cuts to research funding. Europe stands only to gain from a self-inflicted American brain drain.The massive No Kings protests in towns and cities across the US were fortunately peaceful, despite Trump’s deployment of armed forces in Washington DC, Los Angeles, Memphis, Portland and other cities, and the attempted mobilisation of the National Guard across 19 states. But having branded his leftwing opponents “domestic terrorists”, the risk is growing that Trump will make good on his threat to invokethe 1807 Insurrection Act and claim sweeping powers to use the military against American protesters.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe last time the US military was used for domestic policing against demonstrations was under Richard Nixon in 1970, when the National Guard shot dead four students protesting, at Kent State University in Ohio, against the draft and the US military intervention in Cambodia. An earlier precedent for the deadly use of force against peaceful protesters was in Selma, Alabama in 1965, when state and local police violently broke up civil rights marches by black Americans demanding the unhindered right to vote. On both those historic occasions, European media criticised the use of force against peaceful demonstrators, but governments on this side of the Atlantic kept their mouths shut, motivated by the principle of non-interference in the affairs of an allied state.With the administration and its billionaire buddies intervening at will in support of hate speech and its proponents in Europe and against EU digital regulation, there is no longer any justification for staying silent. On the contrary, the defence of European liberal democracy starts by recognising when it is under threat in our closest ally.

    Paul Taylor is a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Centre More

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    New Yorkers sue state elections board as battle over House maps intensifies

    A group of New Yorkers has filed a lawsuit against the state’s board of elections alleging that its congressional map unconstitutionally dilutes the voting power of Black and Latino residents of Staten Island.The complaint, filed Monday, is another volley in the battle between Democrats and Republicans to redraw congressional districts in a way that favors their party in advance of the midterm elections.The suit concerns the 11th congressional district, which is represented by Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican, and challenges part of the map approved by the majority Democratic New York legislature less than two years ago.But in the wake of Donald Trump’s call for Texas and other red states to redraw their maps to help the party pick up more seats in 2026, Democrats have responded by trying to do the same thing in states like California and Maryland.Democrats in California and New York trying to counter Republican efforts could be hurt by their own efforts to prevent gerrymandering, said Michael Kang, a law professor at Northwestern University and an expert on redistricting.“The Democrats are trying to respond, but they have much greater obstacles – legal obstacles – in their way in places like California and New York, where they have engaged in this kind of good government redistricting reform and put hurdles in the way of being able to partisan gerrymander and do so on a mid-decade basis,” Kang said.In New York, the lawsuit was filed by Elias Law Group, which has also worked with Democrats on court cases concerning redistricting and congressional maps in Texas, Nevada and Wisconsin.The new petition states that the district boundaries do not account for the increase in Staten Island’s Black and Latino populations in recent decades and violate the New York Voting Rights Act.The district’s antiquated boundaries “instead confine Staten Island’s growing Black and Latino communities in a district where they are routinely and systematically unable to influence elections for their representative of choice, despite the existence of strong racially polarized voting and a history of racial discrimination and segregation on Staten Island”, the suit states.New York Democrats would have a harder time trying to redraw the state congressional map than Republicans in Texas because in 2014, voters approved an amendment to the state constitution to have a commission, rather than lawmakers, draw legislative districts.As such, the soonest the state could “make some changes on the commission and some of the limitations on gerrymandering in the state constitution”, would be before the 2028 election, said Shawn Donahue, a University of Buffalo political science professor and expert on redistricting.The lawsuit “seems to be a way that, if they are successful, to at least make some changes to one district”, Donahue said. More

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    Trump comments about a third term spark concern – US politics live

    Rashida Tlaib, Michigan’s Democratic representative, has criticized comments from Steve Bannon after the former White House aide said that Donald Trump plans to run for a third term.On Monday, Tlaib took to X and wrote:
    “Despite what the Constitution says, Bannon vows Trump will be president for a third term. But they all start crying when we call them fascists. No way in hell we’re going to let that happen.”
    While on his Asia tour, Trump told reporters on Monday that he “would love to do” an unconstitutional third term but ruled out the option of running as a vice-president, saying “Because it’s too cute.”Today brought news of another state kicking off partisan redistricting, the latest in the map wars brewing in legislatures across the country.Donald Trump received a royal welcome in Japan as part of a five-day Asia trip, meeting with Japanese emperor Naruhito.Here’s what else happened today:

    Trump left the door open to a third term, a constitutional impossibility, saying he “would love” to do it but wouldn’t use a vice presidential loophole, which he called “too cute.” “Am I not ruling it out? I mean you’ll have to tell me,” he said in a gaggle on Monday.

    Michigan congresswoman Rashida Tlaib responded to Trump’s refusal to rule out a third term: “No way in hell we’re going to let that happen.”

    In other 2028 news, Gavin Newsom, California’s Democratic governor, told CBS News Sunday Morning he plans to make a decision on whether to run for president in 2028 once the 2026 midterm elections are over.

    The head of America’s largest federal workers union says it is time to end the government shutdown, now the second-longest in US history, as hundreds of thousands of employees miss another round of paychecks.

    Republican speaker of the House Mike Johnson blasted the chamber’s Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries for his endorsement of Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayor’s race.

    And speaking of that shutdown, Johnson was asked whether he would call lawmakers back to Washington. He said he was “evaluating this day by day”.

    Indiana governor Mike Braun announced that he is calling a special session to consider redrawing congressional districts in the state, the latest state to work on its maps ahead of 2026.

    As Republican states launch more redistricting efforts, Democrats in blue states are still deciding how or if they will respond. House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries is said to be headed to Illinois today, while in Virginia, the Democratic House speaker called a special session focused on redistricting.

    As Tesla prepares for a board meeting next week where shareholders will vote on a proposed $1tn pay package for Elon Musk, the board chair told shareholders Musk could leave the company if he doesn’t get the pay increase.
    This blog has been paused for now, but may resume later today pending new developments.The Democratic National Committee said Indiana’s decision to start mid-decade redistricting is part of Trump’s plan to distract from the unpopularity of his Big Beautiful Bill Act, which the committee calls the “big ugly bill”.The committee also pointed to polling that shows majorities of Americans, across the political spectrum, don’t support gerrymandering and believe it is unfair.DNC communications director Rosemary Boeglin said in a statement: “Donald Trump is desperate to rig Indiana’s map because he knows Republicans are at risk of losing their majority in the 2026 midterms, given how unpopular their agenda is. In Indiana, Trump’s Big Ugly Bill kicks 290,000 families off their health insurance and pushes 12 rural hospitals to the brink of closure. Hoosiers should choose their congressional representatives, not have them hand-picked by DC Republican elites.”Rashida Tlaib, Michigan’s Democratic representative, has criticized comments from Steve Bannon after the former White House aide said that Donald Trump plans to run for a third term.On Monday, Tlaib took to X and wrote:
    “Despite what the Constitution says, Bannon vows Trump will be president for a third term. But they all start crying when we call them fascists. No way in hell we’re going to let that happen.”
    While on his Asia tour, Trump told reporters on Monday that he “would love to do” an unconstitutional third term but ruled out the option of running as a vice-president, saying “Because it’s too cute.”The head of America’s largest federal workers union says it is time to end the government shutdown, now the second-longest in US history, as hundreds of thousands of employees miss another round of paychecks.Everett Kelley, who leads the American Federation of Government Employees representing more than 800,000 workers, avoided assigning blame to either party in the Monday morning letter but said lawmakers must stop playing politics and pass a stopgap funding measure to reopen the government, its closure now eclipsing the four-week mark.“Both political parties have made their point, and still there is no clear end in sight,” Kelley wrote in the statement. “Today I’m making mine: it’s time to pass a clean continuing resolution and end this shutdown today. No half measures, and no gamesmanship.” NBC News first reported the letter.A “clean” continuing resolution is a temporary spending bill that keeps the government running at current funding levels without attaching other political demands. Republicans say they have offered that in their measure, but Democrats argue the bill shortchanges key services and are using their power in the Senate to push for a deal on health insurance subsidies that expire at year’s end.For the full story, click here:At a press conference this morning, Republican speaker of the House Mike Johnson blasted the chamber’s Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries for his endorsement of Zohran Mamdani in the New York City mayor’s race.“After a months-long pressure campaign from the far left, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries finally relented. He gave in, and he gave his endorsement to the socialist running to be mayor of New York City,” Johnson said.“The House Democrats have chosen a side they were forced to by that far left that they’re so terrified of, and they’ve shown the world what they really believe. There is no longer a place for centrist and moderates in their party.”Though Mamdani won the city’s Democratic primary in June, Jeffries, who represents part of Brooklyn, waited until Friday to give his endorsement.Johnson has repeatedly bashed the Democratic socialist Mamdani as a “Marxist”, and pressed the attack now that Jeffries had given the candidate his backing.“Zohran Mamdani is expected to take the helm of one of the most important cities in the world and largest city in America, and he now has the full blessing of the Democrat leader in the House of Representatives. It is shocking, and that leader and all the other Democrats are going to co-own the consequences of what they do to America’s largest city,” the speaker said.Johnson’s comments came on the 27th day of a government shutdown that shows no signs of ending. He has kept the House of Representatives out of session for more than a month in a bid to pressure Senate Democrats into accepting a short-term funding bill that his chamber passed before going on recess.Asked at his press conference when he would call lawmakers back to Washington, Johnson said he was “evaluating this day by day”, and added that Republicans are “are doing some of the most meaningful work of their careers” while the House is out of session.Amid the redistricting battles, one important point: Republicans control more state legislatures than Democrats.As the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee puts it on their website urging Democrats to redraw maps, Democrats wouldn’t be able to win an “all-out, state-by-state battle on redistricting”. Republicans legislative majorities oversee 55 Democratic congressional seats; Democratic majorities oversee 35 GOP districts.The DLCC has called on Democrats to go through mid-cycle redistricting to fight against Republicans’ efforts.“The GOP’s ploy to gerrymander itself into power ahead of the 2026 midterms continues to intensify across the country, with Indiana becoming the latest to join the ranks,” campaign committee president Heather Williams said in a statement today. “As state Republicans’ attacks on voters expand, Democrats must meet Republicans’ might and fight back to preserve democracy. The DLCC has called on Democratic state leaders to use all immediate options to push back on Republicans – including mid-cycle redistricting – as we build more durable Democratic majorities. We must fund winning crucial battleground chambers to position Democrats for redistricting parity by the end of the decade.”As Republican states launch more redistricting efforts, Democrats in blue states are still deciding how or if they will respond.House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries is said to be headed to Illinois today to meet with local leaders about redrawing the congressional maps. Punchbowl reports that Jeffries will meet with the Illinois Legislative Black caucus and Black members of Congress, a nod to the fact that Black lawmakers will be needed to pass a new map.Last week, the Illinois Senate Black caucus warned that it wouldn’t support a new map if it dilutes the Black voting population, Punchbowl noted. There are three historically Black districts among Illinois’s 17 congressional seats. Only three of the state’s seats are held by Republicans.Meanwhile, in Virginia, the Democratic House speaker called a special session focused on redistricting, which could add two or three additional Democratic seats. The state’s governor, Republican Glenn Youngkin, called the potential redrawing a “sham” from Democrats who are “desperate for power any way they can get”.Indiana governor Mike Braun announced today that he is calling a special session to consider redrawing congressional districts in the state, the latest state to work on its maps ahead of 2026.Indiana is one of several Republican-led states that the Trump administration has pressured to undertake mid-decade redistricting to favor Republicans, which began with a push in Texas to redraw lines to add Republican seats.California is considering a ballot measure to redraw its lines to favor Democrats, taken in response to Texas. Now, several other states, including Indiana, have cast their efforts at redistricting as a response to California.“I am calling a special legislative session to protect Hoosiers from efforts in other states that seek to diminish their voice in Washington and ensure their representation in Congress is fair,” Braun said in a statement this morning.Republican state lawmakers in some states, including Indiana and Kansas, have pushed back on the idea of redistricting. But Braun has said, if the state doesn’t redraw its maps, “probably, we’ll have consequences of not working with the Trump administration as tightly as we should.”As Tesla prepares for a board meeting next week where shareholders will vote on a proposed $1tn pay package for Elon Musk, the board chair told shareholders Musk could leave the company if he doesn’t get the pay increase.Reuters reports this morning that board chair Robyn Denholm wrote a letter to shareholders saying they should approve Musk’s pay package because he is “critical” to the electric vehicle company’s success.The contours of the pay package are intended to keep Musk at the company for another seven and a half years, she wrote. Tesla’s board is close with Musk – a prior pay deal, in 2018, was recently struck down by a court because the board wasn’t fully independent and the deal was improperly rewarded, according to Reuters.“Without Elon, Tesla could lose significant value, as our company may no longer be valued for what we aim to become,” Denholm wrote.Musk said on the company earnings call last week that he wants to ensure he has control over a “robot army”, a reference to Optimus robots Tesla is building. The pay plan includes increasing Musk’s shares in the company.“If we build this robot army, do I have at least a strong influence over that robot army?” Musk said last week. “I don’t feel comfortable building that robot army if I don’t have at least a strong influence.”Gavin Newsom, California’s Democratic governor, told CBS News Sunday Morning he plans to make a decision on whether to run for president in 2028 once the 2026 midterm elections are over.“Yeah, I’d be lying otherwise,” Newsom said in response to a question on whether he would give serious thought to a White House bid after the 2026 elections. “I’d just be lying. And I’m not – I can’t do that.”Newsom’s term as governor ends in January 2027 and he is not able to run again due to term limits, but cautioned that a decision is years away.“Fate will determine that,” he said.The California governor has emerged as a high-profile critic of the Trump administration through his social media accounts and push of a ballot measure that would increase Democrats’ congressional seats in response to Republican redistricting efforts – a move that has made him a target for critics.The staff supporting the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) were let go earlier this month in a sweeping round of layoffs that gutted entire departments of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Most of the committee’s working groups, which pore over data and help set the agendas, haven’t met for months, and there was little communication from the staff even before they received reduction in force (RIF) notices during the US government shutdown.The ACIP meeting planned for 22-23 October has been indefinitely postponed.The changes mean the US government may not make routine vaccine recommendations for more than half of children in 2026, and they will likely affect the development and recommendation of new vaccines in the pipeline.The ACIP made headlines in June when Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, replaced all of the independent vaccine advisers with his own handpicked advisers, an unprecedented move.Some of these advisers, as well as others added in September, are vocal anti-vaccine activists. But the work of the committee isn’t done only by the independent advisers; it is supported by CDC staff and outside experts on working groups.The CDC staff provide logistical support and subject-matter expertise, and they make sure the committee follows rules and regulations.British journalist Sami Hamdi was reportedly detained on Sunday morning by federal immigration authorities at San Francisco international airport, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair) says that action is apparent retaliation for the Muslim political commentator’s criticism of Israel while touring the US.A statement from Cair said it was “a blatant affront to free speech” to detain Hamdi for criticizing Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza while he engaged on a speaking tour in the US. A Trump administration official added in a separate statement that Hamdi is facing deportation.“Our attorneys and partners are working to address this injustice,” Cair’s statement said. The statement also called on US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “to immediately account for and release Mr Hamdi”, saying his only “‘crime’ is criticizing a foreign government” that Cair accused of having “committed genocide”.The press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, wrote of Hamdi in a social media post: “This individual’s visa was revoked, and he is in ICE custody pending removal”.McLaughlin’s post also said: “Those who support terrorism and undermine American national security will not be allowed to work or visit this country.”During his tour, Hamdi spoke on Saturday at the annual gala for Cair’s chapter in Sacramento. He was expected to speak on Sunday at the gala for the Florida chapter of Cair.Treasury secretary Scott Bessent celebrated Japan’s Nikkei share average closing above the 50,000 level for the first time on Monday, in a meeting with Japanese finance minister Satsuki Katayama in Tokyo.“It’s an honor to be here on the day it went over 50,000”, Bessent told Katayama. “Congratulations,” he added.“I’ve been coming since 1991,” said Bessent, a former hedge fund manager known for having made hefty profits for betting against the yen in the 2010s.Bessent arrived in Japan on Monday evening as part of the Asia tour of top US officials led by president Donald Trump and met Katayama for the first time in person since she took office last week.President Donald Trump said on Monday he would rule out running for the vice-presidency in the 2028 US election, an approach some of his supporters have floated to allow the Republican president to serve an additional term in office.“I’d be allowed to do that,” Trump said, in an exchange with reporters aboard Air Force One.But he added:
    I wouldn’t do that. I think it’s too cute. Yeah, I would rule that out because it’s too cute. I think the people wouldn’t like that. It’s too cute. It’s not – it wouldn’t be right.
    No one may be elected to the US presidency a third time, according to the 22nd Amendment of the US Constitution.Some have suggested that one way around this prohibition would be for Trump to stand as vice-president, while another candidate stood for president and resigned, letting Trump again assume the presidency.Opponents have disputed whether this would be legal.The Trump administration’s military airtrikes against boats off Venezuela’s coast that the White House claims were being used for drug trafficking are “extrajudicial killings”, said Rand Paul, the president’s fellow Republican and US senator from Kentucky.Paul’s strong comments on the topic came on Sunday during an interview on Republican-friendly Fox News, three days after Donald Trump publicly claimed he “can’t imagine” federal lawmakers would have “any problem” with the strikes when asked about seeking congressional approval for them.US forces in recent weeks have carried out at least eight strikes against boats in the Caribbean off Venezuela’s coast, killing about 40 people that the Trump administration has insisted were involved in smuggling drugs.Speaking with Fox News Sunday anchor Shannon Bream, Paul asserted that Congress has “gotten no information” on the campaign of strikes from Trump’s administration – despite the president claiming the White House would be open to briefing the federal lawmakers about the offensive.“No one said their name, no one said what evidence, no one said whether they’re armed, and we’ve had no evidence presented,” Paul said of the targeted boats or those on board. He argued that the Trump administration’s actions bring to mind the way China and Iran’s repressive governments have previously executed drug smugglers.“They summarily execute people without presenting evidence to the public,” Paul contended in his conversation with Bream. “So it’s wrong.”Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.We start with the news that president Donald Trump received a royal welcome on Monday in Japan, the latest leg of a five-day Asia trip which he hopes to cap with an agreement on a trade war truce with Chinese president Xi Jinping.Trump, making his longest journey abroad since taking office in January, announced deals with four Southeast Asian countries during the first stop in Malaysia and is expected to meet Xi in South Korea on Thursday, Reuters reported.Trump shook hands with officials on the tarmac and gave a few fist pumps, before his helicopter whisked him off for a scenic night tour of Tokyo. His motorcade was later seen entering the Imperial Palace grounds, where he met Japanese emperor Naruhito.Trump has already won a $550-billion investment pledge from Tokyo in exchange for respite from punishing import tariffs.Japan’s newly elected prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, is hoping to further impress Trump with promises to purchase US pickup trucks, soybeans and gas, and announce an agreement on shipbuilding, sources with knowledge of the plans told Reuters.Takaichi, who became Japan’s first female premier last week, told Trump that strengthening their countries’ alliance was her “top priority” in a telephone call on Saturday.Trump said he was looking forward to meeting Takaichi, a close ally of his late friend and golfing partner, former prime minister Shinzo Abe, adding: “I think she’s going to be great.”In other developments:

    The US and China have agreed a framework for a trade deal just days before Donald Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping are due to meet. Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said the agreement, forged on the sidelines of the Association of south-east Asian Nations (Asean) summit in Malaysia on Sunday, would remove the threat of the imposition of 100% tariffs on Chinese imports starting on 1 November and include “a final deal” on the sale of TikTok in the US.

    Trump has overseen the signing of a ceasefire agreement between Thailand and Cambodia on the first day of an Asia tour. The US president arrived in Malaysia on Sunday before the Asean summit in the capital, Kuala Lumpur. At a ceasefire ceremony in front of a sign that read “Delivering Peace”, the Thai prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, and his Cambodian counterpart, Hun Manet, signed an expanded ceasefire deal related to a deadly five-day conflict in July.

    The council of American-Islamic relations (Cair) has accused the Trump administration of a “blatant affront to free speech” after federal immigration authorities detained British journalist, Sami Hamdi, on Sunday. The Muslim civil rights organization claimed that Hamdi had been detained at San Fransisco airport for criticising Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza. Hamdi is one of several people who have been arrested and deported by ICE for expressing pro-Palestinian views.

    On the day that his supporters attacked the US Capitol because his 2020 re-election run ended in defeat, Donald Trump called his vice-president at the time, Mike Pence, and told him he would go down in history as a “wimp” if he certified the election result, a new book says.

    Gavin Newsom, California’s Democratic governor, told CBS News Sunday Morning he plans to make a decision on whether to run for president in 2028 once the 2026 midterm elections are over. “Yeah, I’d be lying otherwise,” Newsom said in response to a question on whether he would give serious thought to a White House bid after the 2026 elections. “I’d just be lying. And I’m not – I can’t do that.” More