Highlights from Dec. 3, 2025
- BOAT STRIKES: President Donald Trump said this afternoon that he would be willing to release video of the second strike on an alleged drug vessel in the Caribbean on Sept. 2. The House and the Senate have both initiated inquiries into the strikes.
- TRUMP PARDON: The president said he is pardoning Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, who was indicted last year on bribery and money laundering charges. Trump also said he would pardon Cuellar’s wife, Imelda.
- SIGNAL CHAT: The Defense Department’s inspector general concluded in a report that the information Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared on a group Signal chat about a pending military operation in Yemen was considered classified, according to two people who have read the report.
- EPSTEIN ISLAND: Democrats on the House Oversight Committee today released images and video clips showing what they say is the private island that was owned by the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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Trump pardons sports executive charged by his Justice Department
Trump has pardoned the former chief executive of the entertainment venue company Oak View Group months after he was indicted on a federal conspiracy charge.
Tim Leiweke, 68, who remains a shareholder of the company after he stepped down as CEO in July, expressed his “profound gratitude” to Trump for the pardon.
“This has been a long and difficult journey for my wife, my daughter, and me,” Leiweke said in a statement today. “The President has given us a new lease on life with which we will be grateful and good stewards.”
Leiweke was charged during the Trump administration.
Some House Republican women are in open revolt against Speaker Mike Johnson
Speaker Mike Johnson is staring down a revolt from House Republican women.
Several female lawmakers have been increasingly defying Johnson, R-La., on legislative matters and lobbing public broadsides at him — including a member of Johnson’s own leadership team.
This week alone, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., launched a discharge petition to go around Johnson and force a floor vote on a congressional stock trading ban, posting on X that she’s “pissed” that leadership isn’t moving fast enough on the issue while clarifying, “I like Mike.” Johnson prefers to go through regular order, and there has been an initial hearing on the issue.
Trump says he will roll back fuel efficiency standards for vehicles
Trump said today his administration would “reset” fuel efficiency standards for passenger cars to put a lid on rising auto prices as the administration battles inflation and an affordability crisis.
The previous rules, which sought to lower carbon emissions, “put tremendous upward pressure on car prices,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
Trump is under political pressure to address affordability concerns after Democrats swept major races last month, fueled by voters’ frustration with rising prices.
Overall inflation, as measured by the consumer price index, has risen every month since Trump announced sweeping tariffs on imported goods, including automobiles and car parts. Food prices have also been rising this year. In early November, the White House announced cuts to dozens of tariffs in a move aimed at cutting food prices.
Senate Democrats to unveil their health care proposal tomorrow
Senate Democrats, led by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, will unveil their health care plan at a news conference tomorrow afternoon on Capitol Hill.
In a statement shared with NBC News, Schumer said Democrats’ plan will “protect ACA tax credits” and “lower costs for millions of Americans.”
Democrats’ plan does not have buy-in from Republicans. NBC News reported this week that hopes of a bipartisan deal to mitigate the pain of insurance premiums' spiking at the end of the month are fizzling among lawmakers in both parties.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., promised Democrats a vote on health care as part of a deal to reopen the government last month. Thune has said the vote will occur sometime next week, though the exact timing is still to be determined.
Trump disparages Somali immigrants for the second straight day, saying they’ve ‘destroyed our country’
For a second day in a row, Trump launched into a hate-filled rant against Somalia and Somali immigrants living in the U.S., saying they’ve “destroyed Minnesota” and “our country.”
Minnesota, Trump said, is “a hellhole right now. The Somalians should be out of here. They’ve destroyed our country. And all they do is complain, complain, complain.”
The recent focus on Minnesota comes after it was reported that dozens of people of Somali descent have been convicted in fraud schemes related to Covid relief that netted over $1 billion. There are about 80,000 people of Somali descent in Minnesota.
State Department revokes visas and imposes visa restrictions on people in Mexico for allegedly facilitating illegal immigration to the U.S.
The State Department has revoked visas and made efforts to restrict visas from executives and senior officials of a Mexico-based transportation company who it alleges “knowingly provided travel services designed primarily for aliens intending to illegally immigrate to the United States.”
A State Department spokesperson said in a news release today that the officials and executives in question had "arranged transportation" for illegal immigrants from the Caribbean and elsewhere to transit points in Central America, where many of those travelers subsequently tried to enter the U.S.
The news release did not name the company.
“The Department is revoking visas and taking steps to impose visa restrictions to prevent these individuals from entering our country," the spokesperson said.
Virginia House speaker floats map with 4 new Democratic seats
Virginia state House Speaker Don Scott said today that the Legislature could propose a congressional map with four new Democratic seats, which would go beyond previous expectations.
“Our congressional delegation is 6-5 — six Democrats, five Republicans. Ten-1 is not out of the realm,” Scott said at an event hosted by the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. “Ten-1 is not out of the realm to be able to draw the maps in a succinct, community-based way.”
The suggestion is notable — it made moderator Larry Sabato chuckle — as most expected Virginia Democrats would be able to net only two or three seats with a redrawn map.
Scott clarified that he wasn’t joking, arguing that if Republicans continued to pursue new maps across the country, Virginia would respond.
"Congress is, like, a three-vote difference. If [Trump] keeps rigging these things by one and twos and threes, we have to push back," he said.
Virginia Democratic lawmakers took the first step in a complicated legislative maneuver to redraw the state’s congressional map in October, approving a proposed constitutional amendment that would pave the way for a mid-decade redistricting push. The measure needs to pass the Legislature again next year and then be put before voters in an election.
Trump blasts Democrats' messaging on affordability
At an event today in the Oval Office, Trump blasted Democrats who are campaigning on affordability and lowering prices, saying, "They never talk about, like, the specifics."
"They look at you and they say, 'Affordability.' They don't say anything else," he said just after having referred to GOP Rep.-elect Matt Van Epps' victory last night in a closer-than-expected special election in Tennessee.
Trump added that Democrats reflect on the Biden administration by saying, "Oh, their prices were so low."
"No, they had the worst inflation," he said.
Trump also accused Democrats of talking about affordability only during elections.
"When they use the word 'affordability,' they just say — they never say anything else. Just election's about affordability, and then they go into the next subject. It's a con job," he said.
Trump says Witkoff and Kushner had 'reasonably good meeting' with Putin
Trump said this afternoon that Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner had a "reasonably good meeting" with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"I don’t know what the Kremlin is doing. I can tell you that they had a reasonably good meeting with President Putin," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "We’re going to find out."
Trump had tasked Witkoff with brokering a deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war. NBC News reported that Witkoff and Kushner met with Putin for roughly five hours yesterday.
Trump won't say whether he supports killing survivors of boat strikes
Trump was asked more questions about the Sept. 2 follow-up boat strike that killed survivors of the first strike. Asked whether he supports the decision to kill survivors of U.S. strikes, Trump did not directly answer the question.
"I support the decision to knock out the boats. And whoever is piloting those boats, most of them are gone, but whoever is piloting those boats, they're guilty of trying to kill people in our country," Trump said.
