Highlights from Aug. 21, 2025
- REDISTRICTING BATTLE: Legislators in California voted to hold a special election this fall to let voters decide on the Democrats’ plan to gerrymander the state’s congressional map. Meanwhile, the Texas Senate is considering a House-passed Republican redistricting plan that could allow the party to gain as many as five congressional seats in the midterm elections.
- TRUMP PENALTY TOSSED OUT: An appeals court threw out the New York civil fraud judgment against President Donald Trump that was set to cost Trump and his business more than $500 million. The panel of judges called the penalty "excessive." New York Attorney General Letitia James said the state would appeal the decision.
- D.C. TAKEOVER: Trump greeted law enforcement officials and National Guard members in Washington today. The administration has touted arrests in the district, and 20 members of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps will join the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia next week to help prosecute civilian crimes, two people familiar with the matter told NBC News.
- RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv that he wants to have an understanding of the protections allies are willing to give Ukraine within seven to 10 days.
Coverage of this live blog has ended. For the latest news, click here.
Judge rules ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ can stay open for now, but no further detainees or construction are allowed
A federal judge in Miami ruled today that “Alligator Alcatraz,” the contested migrant detention facility in the Florida Everglades, can remain operational for now but that it cannot be expanded and no additional detainees can be brought in.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams entered a preliminary injunction to prevent the installation of any additional industrial-style lighting and any site expansion. Her ruling further prevents “bringing any additional persons ... who were not already being detained at the site at the time of this order.”
The ruling was filed late today, allowing the injunction that was requested over National Environmental Policy Act violations.
Within 60 days, the facility must also remove “all generators, gas, sewage, and other waste and waste receptacles that were installed to support this project,” the 82-page ruling said.
Newsom signs bill clearing way for special election on redistricting plan
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation this afternoon that will advance an effort to redraw the state's map to create at least five additional congressional seats that California Democrats believe they are favored to win.
The new bill clears the way for a special election this fall in California, where voters will be able to determine whether or not to approve a plan to gerrymander California’s congressional map to benefit Democrats. The state’s maps are currently drawn by an independent commission.
The legislation is a direct response to a similar effort in Texas, where the Republican majority approved a plan yesterday redraw district lines and create five pick-up opportunities likely to favor Republicans.
Padilla calls California's redistricting legislation an 'essential check' on Trump's power
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., accused Trump and Republicans of “trying to gerrymander their way to cling to power" in a statement that applauded the California Legislature for approving redistricting plans to put a congressional map drawn by Democrats on the ballot.
“California is ready to fight fire with fire,” Padilla said. “I am confident that California voters will approve this measure as an essential check on Trump’s reckless power grab and overreach."
Padilla released the statement shortly after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the legislation as a retaliatory response to Republicans' efforts in Texas to redraw congressional lines in their favor.
DNC chair praises California Legislature for approving ballot measure on congressional maps drawn by Democrats
Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin praised the California Legislature today for approving redistricting plans to put a congressional map gerrymandered by Democrats on the ballot.
Martin urged California voters to support the ballot measure in November, saying in a statement that "Democrats are fighting fire with fire against Trump and Republicans’ attempts to rig congressional maps."
"When faced with the reality that he was going to lose in the midterms, Donald Trump did what he always does: He cheated. He thought he could rig the maps, Democrats would fold, and we’d all move on," Martin said.
"Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Democrats had another idea: giving Donald Trump a showdown and meeting the moment to fight back against Trump’s craven, authoritarian power grab," he added.
Martin issued a scathing statement yesterday opposing the Texas House vote to pass new congressional maps that favored Republicans, saying Democrats would "get even."
West Virginia action group sues to halt state National Guard deployment to D.C.
A group of advocates represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia sued today to stop the West Virginia National Guard from deploying to Washington, D.C.
Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced Saturday that he planned to deploy 300 to 400 troops to D.C.
The lawsuit, filed in Kanawha County Circuit Court by the West Virginia Citizen Action Group, challenges the deployment as "exceeding the governor’s constitutional and statutory authority," according to the ACLU-WV.
“The Guard’s services are indispensable to West Virginia, and sending these vital resources out of state to participate in a political stunt by the President is unprecedented, unconscionable, and unlawful,” ACLU-WV Legal Director Aubrey Sparks said in a news release. “Neither state law nor our Constitution permits this deployment.”
West Virginia Citizen Action Group advocates for "better public policy, rights of individuals, a clean environment, and a stronger democratic process," according to its website.
Dani Parent, its executive director, said using state National Guard troops is a "clear misuse of power" in the news release, saying that "the governor’s priority should be in serving West Virginians, not political grandstanding.”
Trump meets with law enforcement and National Guard troops in D.C. to thank them for anti-crime efforts
Trump greeted dozens of law enforcement personnel and National Guard troops today and thanked them for what he has characterized as a successful early start to his administration’s efforts to drastically reduce crime in Washington.
Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were among those stationed outside the U.S. Park Police Anacostia Operations Facility as Trump talked up the federal takeover of D.C. police, which has been accompanied by the deployment of more than a thousand National Guard troops.
“I feel very safe now, and I’m hearing people are very safe,” Trump told the crowd. “You people are winners. And I just think it’s really, it’s such an honor to be with you. And we’re going to make Washington, D.C., great again.”
California legislators pass redistricting plans to put a Democratic-drawn map before voters
California’s Democratic-controlled Legislature passed bills today setting up a high-profile special election this fall, when voters will decide whether to approve the party’s plan to gerrymander California’s congressional map
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has championed the proposal as a political counterweight to Texas’ recent move to create more Republican seats there as both parties get ready for a 2026 election in which control of Congress will be up for grabs.
Both the state Assembly and the state Senate passed the redistricting legislation today, each with the two-thirds vote needed to enact “urgent” measures in the state. With Newsom’s signature expected to come quickly, now it’s up to the voters to decide whether to temporarily sidestep the state’s independent redistricting commission, which voters put in place to handle the issue once every decade.
Trump praises dismissal of civil fraud penalty
Trump this evening praised the dismissal of a $500 million civil fraud judgment against him and his companies in connection with listing misleading property values for years in financial statements in a case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
"You know, they stole $550 million from me with a fake case, and it was overturned. They said this was a fake case," Trump told a group of law enforcement officers in Washington, D.C.
"It’s a terrible thing, but it’s a nice victory, you know? I mean, it’s not bad, you know, we all have, we all have our limits, but this was a terrible thing, that it was a witch hunt. And I’ve had more witch hunts than any human being," he added.
Trump had appealed the judgment last year.
The New York state Appellate Division’s First Department agreed that Trump was being held to an “excessive fine” in the judgment.
Trump earlier had touted the ruling as a “total victory” on Truth Social.
Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett says he’ll retire after Texas redistricting unless courts overturn GOP map
Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett, the longest-serving member of Texas’ congressional delegation, announced today that he will retire instead of run for re-election if new congressional district boundaries aren’t rejected in court after state Republicans carved up his Austin-area home district in new maps.
While Austin is divided into two districts represented by two Democrats, Doggett and Rep. Greg Casar, the new map combines those two districts to make one heavily Democratic seat and another more around San Antonio that leans Republican.
While Doggett, 78, had been telegraphing for weeks he was planning to seek re-election for the blue seat in Austin, setting up a generational clash Casar, 36, he’s on course to retire, instead, unless a court intervenes.
Supreme Court allows Trump’s cuts to National Institutes of Health grants over DEI policies
The Supreme Court today allowed Trump administration cuts to National Institutes of Health grants as part of the federal government’s campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
But in a mixed decision, the court left in place a different part of the lower court judge’s ruling that threw out the administration’s guidance document that introduced the policy, raising questions about whether it can be applied moving forward.
The justices, on a 5-4 vote, granted in part an emergency request filed by the administration seeking to put a Massachusetts-based federal judge’s ruling on hold.
The court did not fully explain its reasoning, but the majority indicated that groups seeking to challenge the funding cuts have to file separate lawsuits in a different federal venue — the Court of Federal Claims.
