Highlights from Aug. 13, 2025
- TRUMP D.C. CRACKDOWN: President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he would ask Congress for an extension of the federalization of D.C.'s police. The move is unlikely to pass as it would require Democratic support.
- NATIONAL GUARD: Trump's comments come after National Guard troops began deploying in Washington, D.C., yesterday, with some joining city police last night. The full contingent of 800 troops is expected to be operational by the end of the week.
- TRUMP-PUTIN SUMMIT: Trump joined a video call with European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this morning to discuss ending the war in Ukraine. Trump will hold a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a U.S. military base in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday.
- KENNEDY CENTER HONOREES: Trump visited the Kennedy Center today to announce this year's honorees and said he would host the ceremony. The president has taken an active role in the cultural institution this year, appointing himself as chairman and boosting a GOP push to rename the center after the first lady.
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Federal agents in Trump’s crime crackdown set up checkpoint in popular D.C. nightlife area
Steps away from a YMCA, popular bakery and local pharmacy, a group of law enforcement officers across several agencies turned a busy intersection in a mixed residential-commercial area of Washington, D.C., into a police checkpoint tonight as part of Trump’s directive to crack down on crime in the nation’s capital.
Uniformed officers with the Metropolitan Police Department stood alongside Homeland Security Investigations personnel and several plainclothes agents at one of the first checkpoints set up since Trump temporarily put D.C. police under federal control and deployed the National Guard.
More than 100 protesters soon gathered, heckling law enforcement as they stopped cars approaching the checkpoint and in some cases flagged the vehicles for additional investigation. Some protesters began warning drivers to avoid the checkpoint.
Protesters, federal agents and local officers all dispersed without incident.
Illinois judge denies Texas attorney general's request to help arrest Texas Democrats who fled to Illinois
An Illinois judge turned down a request from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to help arrest Texas Democrats who left the state earlier this month to block Republicans from redrawing congressional lines.
The order, posted on a docket for the case in the Eighth Judicial Circuit of Illinois, said that the court lacks the authority to rule on the case which centers on allegations that the lawmakers fled to Illinois to break quorum and dodge arrest.
"As the Petitioner has failed to present a legal basis for the court to obtain subject matter jurisdiction over this cause of action, this court is without jurisdiction to grant petitioner’s emergency motion to rule on pleadings," the order states.
"This court does not find that it has subject matter jurisdiction, this court does not consider the issues of personal jurisdiction, venue or the merits of the underlying petition for rule to show cause or the request to issue a rule to show cause upon the respondents," it adds.
The lawsuit was filed in Adams County, where Trump won more than 72% of the vote in the 2024 presidential election, and asked the court to "effectuate" civil arrest warrants that were issued in Texas on Aug. 4, "just as if they were acts of the State of Illinois. To wit, the Court should treat the Quorum Warrants as its own civil order."
Paxton's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment tonight.
The state’s first special legislative session is expected to end Friday before another session is immediately launched.
Failed New Mexico candidate gets 80 years in prison for shootings at officials’ homes
A failed political candidate was sentenced to 80 years in federal prison today for his convictions in a series of drive-by shootings at the homes of state and local lawmakers in Albuquerque in the aftermath of the 2020 election.
A jury convicted former Republican candidate Solomon Peña earlier this year of conspiracy, weapons and other charges in the shootings in December 2022 and January 2023 on the homes of four Democratic officials, including the current state House speaker.
Prosecutors, who had sought a 90-year sentence, said Peña has shown no remorse and had hoped to cause political change by terrorizing people who held contrary views to him into being too afraid to take part in political life.
Trump orders easing of commercial spaceflight regulations, in boon to Musk’s SpaceX
Trump signed an executive order today to streamline federal regulation governing commercial rocket launches, a move that would benefit Elon Musk’s SpaceX and other private space ventures.
Trump’s order, among other things, directs the U.S. transportation secretary to eliminate or expedite environmental reviews for launch licenses administered by the Federal Aviation Administration, the White House said in a statement.
The declaration also calls on the secretary to do away with “outdated, redundant or overly restrictive rules for launch and reentry vehicles.”
“Inefficient permitting processes discourage investment and innovation, limiting the ability of U.S. companies to lead in global space markets,” the executive order states.
Trump Bureau of Labor Statistics nominee was bystander outside Capitol on Jan. 6, White House says
Trump’s pick to run the Bureau of Labor Statistics was among the crowd outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, with the White House saying he was a “bystander” who wandered over after seeing coverage on the news.
E.J. Antoni, an economist from the Heritage Foundation nominated by Trump this week after the president fired the previous BLS head, appears in numerous videos posted on social media of the crowd on the Capitol grounds.
The footage shows Antoni on the grounds approximately an hour after the mob removed police barricades. The footage appears to show him leaving the grounds as people entered the Capitol and not entering the building.
Trump told Zelenskyy and allies he won’t discuss territory divisions with Putin this week, sources say
Trump told European leaders during a call today that he does not intend to discuss any possible divisions of territory when he meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska this week, according to two European officials and three other people briefed on the call.
Trump said on the call, which also included Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, that he is going into the meeting with Putin with the goal of securing a ceasefire in Ukraine, those sources said.
Trump and European leaders agreed that a ceasefire in Ukraine has to be implemented before peace negotiations can begin, the European officials and two other people briefed on the call said. Some of the European leaders were left with the impression from the call that Trump is not optimistic about the results of his meeting with Putin, they added.
Man charged with felony assault after allegedly throwing sandwich at CBP officer
A man who can be seen in a now-viral video throwing a sandwich at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent on the streets of Washington, D.C., on Sunday, has been charged with felony assault of a federal officer.
Sean Charles Dunn stood within inches of a CBP agent, yelling, “F--- you! You f-----g fascists! Why are you here? I don’t want you in my city," according to a criminal complaint.
Minutes after shouting the obscenities, Dunn allegedly hurled the sandwich, striking Lairmore in the chest.
Dunn allegedly tried to flee on foot, but was apprehended. During processing with the Metropolitan Police Department, Dunn told an officer, “I did it. I threw a sandwich.”
U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro said in a video statement posted on X that her office was prepared to back law enforcement.
"He thought it was funny. Well, he doesn't think it's funny today, because we charged him with a felony: assault on a police officer. And we're going to back the police to the hilt. So there, stick your Subway sandwich somewhere else," Pirro said.
Dunn faces up to a year in prison.
Trump administration can withhold billions in foreign aid, D.C. appeals court rules
A panel of the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today partially vacated a lower court’s ruling that directed the Trump administration to continue spending billions of dollars in foreign assistance funding appropriated by Congress.
Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, an appointee of former President George H.W. Bush, wrote in a 2-1 majority opinion that the nonprofit groups and aid organizations challenging the frozen funding lacked cause in bringing their impoundment claims.
“The district court erred in granting that relief because the grantees lack a cause of action to press their claims,” Henderson wrote.
Henderson and Judge Gregory Katsas, an appointee of President Donald Trump, found that only the U.S. Comptroller General, who leads the Government Accountability Office "may step in" to sue, serving "as an enforcer of the statutory scheme, which controls any efforts by the President to impound appropriated funds."
The amounts at issue include almost $4 billion for the U.S. Agency for International Development to spend on global health activities through Sept. 30, 2025, and over $6 billion dollars for HIV/AIDS programs to be spent until Sept. 30, 2028.
Judge Florence Pan, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, wrote in a dissenting opinion that called the court's finding "as startling as it is erroneous."
“The majority holds that when the President refuses to spend funds appropriated by Congress based on policy disagreements, that is merely a statutory violation and raises no constitutional alarm bells," Pan wrote.
"But the factual scenario presented plainly implicates the structure of our government and the roles played by its coordinate branch," she added.
Lauren Bateman, an attorney with Public Citizen Litigation Group and lead counsel on this case said in a statement to NBC News that the decision marked "a significant setback for the rule of law and risks further erosion of basic separation of powers principles."
“We will seek further review from the court, and our lawsuit will continue regardless as we seek permanent relief from the Administration’s unlawful termination of the vast majority of foreign assistance," Bateman said.
Treasury secretary pushes for congressional stock trading ban
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday said in a post on X that he is pushing for a ban on stock trading by members of Congress.
"I am pushing for a ban on single-stock trading in Congress," Bessent wrote.
He attached a short clip of himself in a news interview saying that stock trading by members of Congress affects the "credibility of the House and the Senate."
"People shouldn't come to Washington to be rich," he added in the clip. "They should come to serve the American people."
Treasury Department temporarily lifts narrow set of Russia sanctions ahead of Trump's Alaska summit with Putin
The U.S. Treasury is temporarily lifting a very narrow set of sanctions on Russia in order to allow it to make financial transactions that are necessary for President Putin’s visit to Alaska in the coming days for his summit with President Trump.
This temporary license does not allow the release of any property blocked by sanctions in place related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or any other transactions other than those necessary to facilitate or support the summit.
This limited and temporary suspension will last until Aug. 20.
