What to know today
- President Donald Trump arrived in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, for the final leg of his Middle East trip. Earlier today, he addressed U.S. military personnel at Al Udeid Air Base outside Doha, Qatar, where he praised the troops and lauded a multibillion-dollar package of business and defense deals the U.S. sealed with that country.
- Iran said it is ready to sign a nuclear deal with the U.S., under certain conditions, in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
- The Supreme Court heard arguments today over the president's plan to end birthright citizenship, focusing on the power of judges to block presidential policies.
- The Department of Homeland Security and Secret Service are investigating a social media post by former FBI Director James Comey that several U.S. officials interpreted as calling for Trump's assassination, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said today.
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Danielle Sassoon’s quiet return to the spotlight
It had the makings of a significant news event — the first public appearance of a former U.S. attorney who resigned in protest after defying the Trump administration. But the panel featuring Danielle Sassoon proved most notable for how careful she and a famed former New York prosecutor were in avoiding any direct remarks about the president or his Justice Department.
The New York City Bar Association event underscored the unease, public silence and caution hovering over much of the legal community four months into Trump’s second term as president. A former federal prosecutor who now works at a large law firm summed up the dynamic in one word: “Fear.”
“People are keeping their heads down,” said the lawyer, who asked not to be named due to fear of retaliation from Trump. “Scared of being audited. Scared of being investigated. The federal government is very powerful.”
Sassoon was the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan until February, when she resigned rather than carry out orders from Trump appointees in the Justice Department to drop federal corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. A half dozen other federal prosecutors in New York and Washington subsequently refused to drop the charges and resigned in one of the highest-profile public rebukes of a president since Watergate.
Suspected serial killer shouts out Trump in last words before he’s put to death: ‘Keep making America great’
A man on death row in Florida used his last opportunity to share a message with the world today to show his support for Trump.
“President Trump, keep making America great. I’m ready to go,” Glen Rogers, 62, said moments before receiving a lethal injection.
Rogers was executed for the 1995 murder of a 34-year-old mother of two he had met at a bar.
In his final statement, Rogers also thanked his wife, who visited him earlier in the day at the prison, according to visitor logs. He also somewhat cryptically said that “in the near future, your questions will be answered” without going into detail.
The lethal injection began after his message to Trump, and he lay quietly through the procedure.
Former FBI Director James Comey under investigation for post seen as a potential threat to Trump’s life
The Department of Homeland Security and Secret Service are investigating a social media post by former FBI Director James Comey that several U.S. officials interpreted as calling for the assassination of Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday.
In a now-deleted post on Instagram, Comey shared a photo of what he described as a “shell formation” on a beach that formed the numbers “8647.” The post was swiftly condemned by administration officials, Republican lawmakers and Trump allies who said it blatantly targeted Trump, the 47th president of the United States.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “eighty-six” can informally mean “to get rid of.”
Is Syria’s new president a U.S. ally or enemy?
Trump met yesterday with Syria’s new leader, Ahmad al-Sharaa, in an effort to forge a new relationship with the country, the first time a U.S. president has met with its leader in decades. But what kind of relationship the U.S. will have with a person it once called an Al Qaeda terrorist remains unclear.
“We’re living in a very unusual world where suddenly people who professed hatred of the West and in particular the United States are now being accepted as potential allies and partners,” said Sajjan Gohel, international security director at the Asia Pacific Foundation.
Senate Republicans put House on notice: We won’t accept your Trump agenda bill without changes
As House Republicans scramble to corral the votes to pass a massive bill for Trump’s agenda, their Senate counterparts are making clear the emerging package won’t fly as written when it reaches them.
Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., was categorical that the product coming out of various House committees cannot pass the Senate as it currently stands.
“No. We’ll make changes,” Hoeven said. “We’ve been talking with the House and there’s a lot of things we agree on. … But there’ll be changes in a number of areas.”
Ahead of G-20 meeting in South Africa, State Department says it will ‘engage with the G20 where it aligns with U.S. interests’
The State Department today said the U.S. would “engage with the G20 where it aligns with U.S. interests” following a report that the White House is directing departments and agencies not to work on the November G-20 summit in South Africa.
The Washington Post reported that the White House is directing departments and agencies not to work on the upcoming G-20 summit. Asked for comment on that reporting, a State Department spokesperson said, "We refer you to President Trump's recent remarks regarding South Africa and our participation in the G20."
NBC News has reached out to the White House for comment.
Trump earlier this week alleged that a “genocide” is taking place against white South Africans — though the State Department has issued no such formal designation — and reiterated the threat he made last month not to attend the meeting of some of the world’s largest economies “unless that situation’s taken care of.”
“How could we be expected to go to South Africa for the very important G20 Meeting when Land Confiscation and Genocide is the primary topic of conversation?” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Claims of a genocide against whites in South Africa have been disputed but have motivated the administration to accept Afrikaners to the U.S. as refugees.
Former DOJ attorney sues department for records related to her termination
Former DOJ pardon attorney Liz Oyer filed a lawsuit this afternoon in United States District Court for the District of Columbia against the Department of Justice for withholding records related to her termination and the documentation that details the request for Mel Gibson to have his gun rights restored.
Oyer believes her refusal to support a request to restore Gibson’s gun rights — stemming from his prior domestic violence charges — is the reason she was terminated earlier this year.
The lawsuit alleges that the DOJ has unlawfully withheld records related to her firing.
After her dismissal, Oyer submitted two requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Privacy Act seeking communications regarding the Gibson matter and records related to her termination. The DOJ acknowledged receiving the requests but failed to provide key documents within the required deadlines.
The complaint asks the court to compel the DOJ to produce the improperly withheld records immediately.
Tulsi Gabbard is taking steps to have more control over the president's daily intelligence brief
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is taking steps that appear designed to bolster the role of her office in the presentation of intelligence to the president, according to a government official and two sources with knowledge of the matter.
Gabbard plans to move the office that prepares the president’s daily intelligence briefing from the CIA’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia, to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, a few miles away in McLean, the official and the sources said. But it’s not clear when the move will take place and how the ODNI will muster the resources and manpower needed to carry it out.
The New York Times first reported the planned move.
As director of national intelligence, Gabbard oversees and approves the president’s daily briefing or PDB. A large staff of analysts and other employees at the CIA compile the classified briefing, creating detailed text, graphics and videos based on the latest intelligence gathered by America’s spy agencies.
The ODNI currently lacks the staff and digital tools needed to put together the brief, former intelligence officers said.
“The DNI has always controlled the PDB. She is just moving it physically to ODNI from CIA in a streamlining effort,” said a government official with knowledge of the matter.
An internal CIA memo on Tuesday informed the workforce about the planned move, saying the agency had identified agency staff to work with their counterparts to facilitate the move but that the exact timeline was still being worked out, a source with knowledge of the matter said.
The Central Intelligence Agency declined to comment.
There has been friction at times over the years between the CIA and ODNI. The director of national intelligence position was created after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the CIA — traditionally the country’s most powerful spy agency — was initially skeptical of a new office overseeing the entire intelligence community.
Apart from the president, the PDB is typically shared with a small number of cabinet members and top aides. What material goes into the daily briefing — and how it’s presented — can decisively shape a president’s decision-making.
By choosing to bring the daily brief operation into her headquarters, Gabbard appears to be looking to have tighter control over what intelligence material reaches the president, especially after an assessment became public that contradicted Trump’s claims about a Venezuelan cartel, former intelligence officers said.
Gabbard also plans to move the National Intelligence Council, which oversees major analyses drawing on contributions from across U.S. spy agencies, to the ODNI. The National Intelligence Council is a part of the ODNI but has been physically located at the CIA.
Tiffany Trump announces birth of a son, president's 11th grandchild
Trump's youngest daughter, Tiffany, announced the birth of her first child today, a son named Alexander Trump Boulus. The new arrival is Trump's 11th grandchild.
"Welcome to the world our sweet baby boy, Alexander Trump Boulos. We love you beyond words. Thank you for coming into our lives!," Tiffany posted on X.
Tiffany Trump married business executive Michael Boulos in 2022. His father, Massad Boulos, serves as Trump's senior adviser for Africa.
GOP Rep. slams $150 billion military spending hike for ‘war pimps at the Pentagon’
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., slammed the $150 billion in new military spending in the sweeping party-line bill making its way through the House, saying the Pentagon doesn’t need that money.
“The war pimps at the Pentagon who are supposed to be — we’re building aircraft carriers that we don’t need. Because why? They’re built strategically, the components are being built in powerful members’ districts. And that’s a problem,” Burchett told NBC News.
He said if the military needs funding to modernize, it should cut wasteful or unnecessary programs in the Pentagon budget. “But that’s not the way they operate, because you have members of Congress who own stock and companies that are going to profit from it. And you have people’s jobs.”
Burchett is seen as a key vote on the package in the narrow House majority, and it would be a problem for House GOP leaders if he votes against it due to his concerns about military spending.
