Highlights from Aug. 7, 2025
- UKRAINE WAR: The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump will meet in the “coming days” after Trump said he hoped to discuss ending the war in Ukraine in person. But Putin threw cold water on Trump’s proposal that he also meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump said his summit with Putin was not conditional on Putin’s meeting Zelenskyy before the discussion.
- TRUMP TARIFFS: Trump's sweeping tariffs took effect today just after midnight ET, affecting everything from European appliances and Japanese cars to a slew of goods from China.
- ISRAEL-GAZA: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel plans to take over Gaza but that it is not seeking to govern the enclave long term.
- REDISTRICTING FIGHT: Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said FBI Director Kash Patel has agreed to his request to have federal agents help find Democratic legislators who fled Texas to block a vote on a Republican redistricting plan.
Beto O'Rourke urges Democrats to 'seize the initiative' in redrawing congressional maps in their favor
Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, said during a town hall tonight in New Orleans that Democrats should get ahead of Republicans by redrawing congressional maps to their party’s advantage.
"What if we encourage our Democratic governors who have control of their state assemblies and their state senates to seize the initiative and not wait for these bastards in Texas to strike first, but they redraw their congressional districts to the advantage of Democrats?" O'Rourke said at an event held by his political group Powered by People, where he argued that Trump is trying to "steal" five congressional seats.
"My contention is that Democrats, for far too long, have cared more about being right than being in power. The other side only cares about being in power, and we have to match fire with fire, or we will lose power forever," he added.
Democratic governors in states like New York and California are considering adjusting their maps in retaliation, NBC News reported this week.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican Senate candidate, announced this week that he would launch an investigation into Powered by People, which has been fundraising to support Texas Democrats who broke a quorum to disrupt Republican plans to redraw congressional lines in their favor.
Pam Bondi and Kash Patel attended White House meeting about Epstein last night, source says
A person close to the White House said a group met to discuss Epstein and more at the White House last night.
Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel were at the meeting. The person said that an informal dinner had been planned at Vice President JD Vance’s residence but that it wasn’t supposed to be just about Epstein. It wasn’t immediately clear who else attended last night’s meeting.
Another topic last night was the case of two fired FBI agents with ties to the Mar-a-Lago search. Other topics may have been discussed, but NBC News hasn’t confirmed them.
Bondi doubles reward to $50 million for information leading to arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro
Attorney General Pam Bondi announced today that the Justice Department is doubling its reward for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
Maduro began serving a third term this year despite opposition and evidence in the form of electoral tally sheets that showed his opponent, Edmundo González Urrutia, won the election.
"He is one of the largest narco traffickers in the world and a threat to our national security. Therefore, we doubled his reward to $50 million," Bondi said in a video announcement on X. "Under President Trump's leadership, Maduro will not escape justice, and he will be held accountable for his despicable crimes."
The Justice Department has twice increased its reward for details on Maduro, whom the Trump administration charged in 2020 along with other top officials in connection with playing a key role in Venezuela's illegal drug trafficking.
During Trump's first term in 2020, the United States offered up to $15 million for information about Maduro, and it bumped the reward to up to $25 million in January.
Trump says Putin doesn't have to meet with Zelenskyy before their sit-down
Trump said this afternoon that a meeting between Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian leader Vladimir Putin wasn’t a condition for him to meet with Putin in what would be their first in-person encounter of Trump’s second term.
Trump’s remarks came hours after a White House official said that Putin and Zelenskyy must meet for a summit with Trump to occur.
The Kremlin said earlier today that a meeting between Trump and Putin has been agreed to in principle and that it will happen in the “coming days.”
GOP Rep. Cory Mills accused of threatening to release explicit videos and images of an ex
Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., is alleged to have threatened to release sexually explicit videos and images of a woman who said she was previously in a relationship with him, according to a police incident report obtained by NBC News.
Lindsey Langston, 25, a Republican state committeewoman and Miss United States 2024, filed a report with Florida authorities on July 14 alleging that after their breakup, Mills contacted her “numerous times on numerous different accounts” threatening to release nude images and videos of her, as well as videos of the pair engaging in sexual acts, the report said.
Finances weigh on Texas Democrats as costs of their quorum break add up
As dozens of Texas state House Democrats near the one-week mark of their quorum break, having fled the state indefinitely to prevent state GOP leaders from redrawing congressional lines, it’s not just politics that loom over the strategy. It’s money, too.
The Democrats face a $500 fine for each day they’re “absent without leave,” a rule established after Democratic legislators mounted a similar effort to deny the Legislature a quorum in 2021, plus a “pro rata share” of what the House sergeant-at-arms spends in its efforts to compel them to return to the Capitol in Austin.
Those fines have already eclipsed the $600 monthly salary the lawmakers receive from their part-time elected posts. And given their meager salaries and the fact that the Legislature meets for regular session for only six months every two years, virtually every state lawmaker has a day job he or she has left behind in Texas, too.
Where is Alex Acosta now? Newsmax
Since he resigned as labor secretary in 2019 during the first Trump administration over the furor that erupted over a non-prosecution agreement signed with Jeffrey Epstein, former U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta has largely stayed out of the spotlight. But his new job as a board member of the news outlet Newsmax could bring him closer to it.
On June 11, Acosta was named to Newsmax’s board of directors and as the audit committee chair — according to the news release issued by the company.
Newsmax’s release does not mention Epstein or Acosta’s resignation as labor secretary. His time as the person who oversaw federal prosecutors in Miami is noted in a single sentence: “From 2005 to 2009, Mr. Acosta served as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.”
Newsmax has faced some online criticism lately over several segments about Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in which host Greg Kelly has raised questions about Maxwell’s guilt.
Kelly recently said on the air that he believes Epstein was guilty but that “that doesn’t mean that Ghislaine Maxwell is guilty, and there’s a hell of a lot of evidence out there that she’s innocent and a hell of a lot of evidence that she was railroaded.”
Trump asks Supreme Court to block judge-imposed limits on immigration stops in Los Angeles
The Trump administration has again asked the Supreme Court to block a lower court ruling, this time over a decision that restricted federal officers' ability to conduct immigration stops in the Los Angeles area.
A federal judge had ruled that immigration agents could not stop people purely because of their race or ethnicity or the fact that they speak Spanish or because of their work or where they congregate.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to block the decision Friday, prompting the Trump administration to turn to the Supreme Court.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer wrote in the new filing that the plaintiffs who challenged the practice did not have legal standing, that the ruling swept too broadly and that it misinterpreted the requirements of the Constitution's Fourth Amendment, which protects against illegal searches and seizures.
If it is left in place, the ruling "threatens to upend immigration officials' ability to enforce the immigration laws" in the Los Angeles region, he added.
The Trump administration has filed regularly at the Supreme Court to block lower court rulings and prevailed in most cases.
Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue unveils new tool for downballot candidates
ActBlue, the leading Democratic fundraising platform, released a new platform today intended to boost its use among downballot candidates.
The platform, called Raise, is targeted for state, local and hyperlocal candidates who are looking to raise less than $25,000. It marks a significant extension of the platform for use by Democrats running for offices with lower profiles.
“Every race matters, from school board to state legislature, and every candidate deserves access to the same world-class fundraising tools that have powered Democratic victories for over 20 years,” ActBlue CEO Regina Wallace-Jones said in a statement. Wallace-Jones, who earlier in her career was the mayor of East Palo Alto, California, called the new platform “a new chapter” that can help boost the campaigns of candidates running for downballot offices. “Local races determine daily life outcomes for communities across America,” she said.
Currently, 98% of all ActBlue users are giving to federal candidates. The expanded platform is designed to broaden use to downballot candidates.
The move is also intended to boost Democrats running for state and local offices to help counter ongoing efforts by Republicans in legislatures across the United States — most prominently right now in Texas — who are moving forward with mid-decade redistricting.
“With mid-decade redistricting on the brink of becoming a nationwide battle, we need to ensure that candidates who are ready to fight for every voice and safeguard our democracy — especially at the local and state level — have the tools and resources to meet the moment," ActBlue spokesperson Carter Christensen told NBC News.
The release comes months after Trump signed an executive memorandum, aimed at investigating ActBlue, that directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to “investigate allegations regarding the unlawful use of online fundraising platforms to make ‘straw’ or ‘dummy’ contributions or foreign contributions to political candidates and committees, and to take appropriate action to enforce the law.”
ActBlue is the primary fundraising tool for Democratic candidates. In most cases, it is actually the default donation option for Democratic campaign websites. The platform effectively facilitates individual donations for campaigns and nonprofit groups, taking processing fees on most donations.
Trump says 'it's going to be up to him' when asked about tomorrow's ceasefire deadline with Putin
Trump told reporters this afternoon that he would defer to Putin on a ceasefire deadline that was initially set for tomorrow.
“We’re going to see what he has to say. It’s going to be up to him. Very disappointed,” Trump said.
He was responding to a reporter's question at the White House this afternoon about a deadline Trump set for Putin to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine tomorrow.
Trump previously threatened new economic sanctions in urging for a ceasefire tomorrow. NBC News reported this week that the Trump administration still plans to advance secondary sanctions after Trump meets with Putin.
The Kremlin said earlier today that the two leaders had agreed in principle to meet in the "coming days" in what would be their first in-person sit-down since Trump's return to office.
