From 41m agoTrump calls appeals court's decision to halt ballroom construction 'National Security Threat at the highest level'Donald Trump called the decision to halt construction of his $400m White House ballroom a “National Security Threat at the highest level” in a post on Truth Social.“We are not tenants, who pay rent and do all other things that a tenant must do, we are PRESIDENTS, elected by the people of the United States of America, and have many rights, including the right to fix, renovate, secure, protect, and beautify the White House grounds,” Trump wrote. “This decision, made after much of the work has been done and paid for, is a National Security Threat at the highest level.”Earlier today, a US federal appeals court sided with historic preservationists who sued to stop construction of the 90,000-square-foot (8,400-square-meter) ballroom, which he has repeatedly labeled as “a gift” to the US people.The order upheld a preliminary injunction won by the National Trust for Historic ⁠Preservation. The group sued last year after the Trump administration tore down the historic East Wing and began building a ballroom without seeking authorization from Congress.The appeals court put ⁠its ruling on hold for two weeks to allow the administration to appeal to the ​US supreme court.District court judge Richard Leon had said in a March opinion that any construction work left incomplete, although it poses concerns regarding the “safety and security of the White House grounds and the President himself, the existence of a ‘large hole’ beside the White House is, of course, a problem of the President’s own making.”Key events41m agoTrump calls appeals court's decision to halt ballroom construction 'National Security Threat at the highest level'1h agoProsecutor fired over blogposts critical of Trump sues US justice department2h agoOregon governor supports locally-set moratoriums on data center development6h agoHere's a recap of the day so far6h agoTrump vows to 'immediately' appeal court's decision to block ballroom construction to supreme court7h agoTrump moving forward with attempt to fire Lisa Cook after supreme court ruling - report8h agoUS judge allows deportation protections to end for South Sudanese nationals8h agoAppeals court halts construction of Trump’s $400m White House ballroom9h agoCassidy says he will vote to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general: 'I will be criticized for this vote'11h agoMax Miller lends re-election campaign $1m despite growing calls to resign amid domestic abuse allegations - report11h agoBlanche can’t afford to lose Bill Cassidy’s vote in quest for confirmation12h agoUS employers lost 23,000 jobs in July amid ongoing job growth slump13h agoJustin Pearson and Brent Taylor win primaries for key Tennessee House seat14h agoAnother Republican comes out against Blanche's confirmation14h agoTrump signs new orders targeting birthright citizenship14h agoTrump refuses to say whether Max Miller should step aside by tomorrowProsecutor fired over blogposts critical of Trump sues US justice departmentA federal prosecutor fired last year over critical comments he had written as a private citizen about Donald Trump sued the justice department, the AP reports, saying his termination violated his first amendment rights.Will Rosenzweig was two weeks away from trying a multimillion-dollar Medicare fraud case when a blog he had written years earlier covering a broad range of topics was publicized online by a conservative political commentator who also included a screenshot of Rosenzweig’s LinkedIn account and tagged senior justice department officials for their awareness.Less than three hours after the post, the lawsuit says, Rosenzweig received an email signed by then attorney general Pam Bondi informing him that he had been fired. The news came as Rosenzweig was out of town with his family observing the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashana.The September 2025 termination was part of a sweeping personnel purge inside the justice department. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/AP Photograph: Andrew Harnik/APOregon governor supports locally-set moratoriums on data center developmentOregon’s Democratic governor, Tina Kotek, said she supports locally set moratoriums on new data center construction, with her comments coming nearly two weeks after the city of Hillsboro became the first in the state to enact such a temporary prohibition.“Data center corporations are taking Oregon out to an expensive dinner and leaving our environment, communities, and people to foot the bill,” Kotek said in a statement. “Local governments are doing the right thing in calling for a pause until we can get this right.”Kotek also directed the department of administrative services last week to terminate Oregon’s contract for the sale of approximately 32 acres in southeast Salem for a proposed data center project.Her remarks respond to increasing concerns over data centers’ impacts on the environment and the electrical grid. A poll released this week found that 71% of Oregonians “have a negative impression of data centers.” Oregon currently has about 135 operational and planned data centers, according to Data Center Map.Donald Trump announced a list of deals and investments that aim to bolster mining, totaling more than $2 billion in projects and mining school investments.The largest chunk will go to the California-based company Sila Nanotechnologies to build a battery facility and expand production, coming as a $1.4b investment from the defense department.The department will also give $400m to Sunrise Energy Metals to develop scandium, which is used in fighter jets and spacecraft, among other companies. The Export-Import Bank, which provides financing to support US exports, is also investing in a boron deposit, battery manufacturing, and tantalum and niobium to make electronics, magnet, and steel.Donald Trump once again targeted Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, this time writing a post on Truth Social saying she should “re-visit her hastily made decision” after she dismissed vandalism charges against Olympic canoeist David Hearn last week.Trump reposted images from a photographer of what seemed like the reflecting pool showing “slashes”, according to the US president, who also claimed “there were witnesses to the VANDALISM.”“U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro should re-visit her hastily made decision,” he wrote.Donald Trump speaks at the White House as Jeanine Pirro looks on in May 2025. Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty ImagesThese comments are just the latest in a series of snubs against Pirro, a longtime Trump ally. After her decision to dismiss the charges, the president accused her of having “folded like an umbrella.” He also told NBC News that he didn’t “understand why she did such a stupid thing.”Richard LuscombeOfficers for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will be equipped with much-delayed body cameras by the end of next month, it was reported on Friday. But experts have questioned the transparency of a policy that allows the ICE director to restrict the public release of footage unless “it is in the best interests of the agency”.Pressure has mounted on the Trump administration to provide body cameras after people caught up in encounters with federal immigration personnel suffered death or serious injuries.Two men were shot and killed by ICE agents, in Texas and Maine, last month in circumstances similar to the death of another man during a traffic stop in Illinois last September. None of the officers involved was wearing a camera.Tom Homan, Trump’s so-called border czar, said last month that ICE officers would be required to have at least one body camera recording during future vehicle stops. Policy for body-worn cameras was first established in a February 2025 ICE directive, but funding for their provision was held up by this year’s partial government shutdown, Homan said.Ramon Antonio VargasLouisiana congressional candidate Blake Miguez, a Republican state senator who was the subject of a police report accusing him of a rape that he denies, waited until the final day of a three-day qualifying period to make clear his intentions for the upcoming midterm elections.Miguez on Friday afternoon signed up to run in Louisiana’s sixth congressional district – despite knowing, if he did so, he would have to again compete for a coveted Donald Trump endorsement which he had previously secured while campaigning for another US House seat.Miguez had first signed up to run for Louisiana’s fifth US House district seat for a primary initially scheduled for May, and he had won the president’s endorsement. But that race was postponed until the November midterms after the US supreme court’s landmark voting rights decision in Callais v Louisiana prompted the state to redraw the boundaries of its congressional districts.Blake Miguez at Louisiana’s state legislature in January 2024 Photograph: Gerald Herbert/APThose redrawn boundaries pushed a residence that Miguez bought in March in the state capital of Baton Rouge from the fifth district to the sixth, as the Louisiana Illuminator news outlet reported.In late July, after his campaign website had temporarily become blank and password protected, a spokesperson for Miguez acknowledged to the Guardian that the state senator was left hoping to again “earn” Trump’s endorsement as he weighed announcing a run for office “under the new district lines”. Politico, citing sources with direct knowledge of the matter, reported a day later that Miguez was mulling a run in the new sixth district.The outlet furthermore reported that Trump officials had told Miguez privately that he would not have the president’s endorsement — at least not immediately — if he opted for a sixth district run.In safely Republican districts like the sixth in Louisiana, Trump’s endorsement is eagerly sought by candidates from the party he has led across two presidencies.Another Republican candidate who has also formally signed up to run in Louisiana’s sixth district has already expressed his confidence that Miguez won’t have Trump’s endorsement.“What I do know is he’s not getting the president’s endorsement in the sixth district,” Louisiana state senator Rick Edmonds said to reporters after signing up to run there on Wednesday.Miguez’s website was reactivated on Friday. It had replaced a prior mention of his Trump endorsement with a pledge to work alongside the president if eventually elected.He also didn’t mention having Trump’s endorsement in a social media post announcing his signing up to run in the sixth district, saying he qualified there because that area had “given so much” to him through the years.An additional complication with which Miguez has had to grapple is a 2007 police report containing a rape allegation made against him by an ex-girlfriend. He denies the claim, and it never led to formal charges.But that document’s existence first became public when the Atlantic and the Guardian each published separate stories on 11 March, after Miguez had locked down Trump’s fifth district endorsement. The Atlantic also wrote that the police report raised concerns within the president’s team that Miguez “either wasn’t fully vetted or wasn’t forthcoming about discoverable documents from his past” while he successfully pursued Trump’s endorsement.Miguez’s opponents are bound to invoke that police report ahead of a 3 November open primary – and a 12 December runoff if necessary. In fact, his qualification on Friday was immediately met with a mass text from a federal political action committee calling itself End Predator Abuse that provided recipients a link to a website with the police report.“Blake Miguez CANNOT be our congressman,” the group’s text read.In the months since the disclosure of that police report, US House members Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzales – a California Democrat and a Texas Republican, respectively – heeded bipartisan calls to resign over allegations of sexual misconduct against both.Then, on 10 July, Democratic US Senate hopeful Graham Platner of Maine withdrew his candidacy after detailed sexual assault allegations were made against him. And Republican congressman Max Miller of Ohio has been met with growing calls to resign over domestic abuse allegations.By an overwhelming majority, the Senate just advanced legislation that would extend government funding through 11 December – after the midterm elections.Current spending expires on 30 September.As a reminder, before the House went on recess last month, lawmakers approved a stopgap measure to head off a government shutdown until 4 December, sending it to the upper chamber for consideration.Top congressional Republicans have argued that an extension to the continuing resolution is necessary to ensure that Democrats do not block government funding measures in the Senate.They did so last year for a record 43 days in protest against the expiration of tax credits that lowered some healthcare costs, and twice again this year, to push for reforms to immigration enforcement operations after the killings of two US citizens in Minneapolis.Senator Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the banking committee, has slammed reports that Donald Trump is attempting to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook again, despite an earlier supreme court ruling this year that protects her from dismissal while she fights the Trump administration’s allegations that she has committed mortgage fraud.Warren said that the president “is tanking the economy, and he is desperate to shift the blame for higher costs and higher interest rates. So he’s once again trying to illegally take over America’s central bank.”She added: “If he [Trump] is successful, it will be working families who pay the price. We will fight back to make sure he fails.”Donald Trump has started his state department roundtable on American mining, we’ll bring you the latest lines as it gets under way.A number of Donald Trump’s other nominations were also confirmed in the Senate today.By a vote of 51-47 along party lines, the upper chamber’s confirmations included David Cummins to lead the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and the new Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) administrator, Cameron Hamilton.Here's a recap of the day so far