What to know today
- FED DECISION: The Federal Reserve reduced interest rates by a quarter-point in its third cut this year. President Donald Trump has repeatedly attacked Fed Chair Jerome Powell for not lowering them sooner.
- OIL TANKER SEIZED: The U.S. military seized an oil tanker off Venezuela, Trump told reporters this afternoon at a White House event; he said this week that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s “days are numbered.”
- EPSTEIN FILES: A federal judge in New York granted the Justice Department’s request to unseal grand jury records in Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 sex trafficking case.
Trump puts renewed pressure on Indiana state senators to approve new GOP-drawn map
Trump continued to rail against Indiana Senate Republican leader Rod Bray and other state GOP lawmakers in a social media post tonight that threatened primary challenges against state senators who oppose redistricting efforts to boost the party's prospects in next year's midterms.
"Bray and his friends are the favorite Republicans of Hakeem Jeffries, Crazy Nancy Pelosi, and Cryin’ Chuck Schumer. Anybody that votes against Redistricting, and the SUCCESS of the Republican Party in D.C., will be, I am sure, met with a MAGA Primary in the Spring," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
"If Republicans will not do what is necessary to save our Country, they will eventually lose everything to the Democrats. Rod Bray and his friends won’t be in Politics for long, and I will do everything within my power to make sure that they will not hurt the Republican Party, and our Country, again," he added.
Bray did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump's primary threats come two days after a panel of state lawmakers advanced a Republican-drawn congressional map for a vote by the state Senate.
Trump for weeks has sought to raise primary challenges as a threat to state lawmakers who oppose redistricting after Bray said last month that the chamber lacked the support needed to pursue redistricting efforts.
Bray is up for re-election in 2028.
Advocacy group sues to have Trump's image removed from national park passes
The environmental advocacy nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity wants Trump’s image removed from the 2026 national park passes, and it's suing to try to make that happen.
The lawsuit says the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (FLREA) requires the secretaries of interior and agriculture to hold an annual photography contest, and the winning person’s photo appears on the annual pass for the year.
“The official rules governing the contest require that 'the photo must be taken on federal public lands or waters' and any submissions that are 'are highly controversial, inappropriate, indecent or obscene' are disqualified. The rules allow disqualification of images that have been 'noticeably and/or excessively altered,'" attorneys for the Center for Biological Diversity wrote.
But on Nov. 25, they said, the Interior Department announced that the Annual America the Beautiful Pass would bear an image of Trump instead of the winner of this year’s contest: an image of Glacier National Park.
“The Interior Department’s bait-and-switch betrays the expectations of the thousands of people who participate in the contest and is directly at odds with the public participation mandates of the statute. It also undermines the stability of this well-established program and the conservation, recreational, and educational outcomes FLREA provides,” they wrote.
The group is asking a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to declare the Trump administration in violation of the FLREA and to prevent the administration from displaying an image of Trump on the passes.
Trump says CNN should be sold as part of any Warner Bros. deal
Trump said today he thinks it’s “imperative” that CNN is sold as its parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, gears up for a proposed merger with Netflix and faces a hostile takeover bid from Paramount.
“I think CNN should be sold, because I think the people that are running CNN right now are either corrupt or incompetent,” Trump told reporters during a roundtable with business executives at the White House.
“I don’t think they should be entrusted with running CNN any longer. So I think any deal should — it should be guaranteed and certain that CNN is part of it or sold separately,” he added. “I think CNN should be sold along with everything else.”
GOP congressman says he doesn’t like it when Trump 'kisses Russia's a--'
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., tore into Trump’s recent comments about Europe and Russia and called on him to change course.
“I don’t like when he trashes Europe and kisses Russia’s a--. Don’t like it,” he told a small group of reporters today just off the House floor.
Bacon, who represents a swing district and is not seeking re-election next year, said Trump’s strategy is “terrible” and “there’s probably been no worse national security strategy written since the ’30s.”
In a wide-ranging interview with Politico published yesterday, Trump said Russia had a stronger negotiating position than Ukraine in talks to end the war that began nearly four years ago. He also called European leaders “weak” and said their countries are “decaying.”
House passes annual defense policy bill, sending it to the Senate
The House tonight passed the National Defense Authorization Act on a bipartisan 312-112 vote.
The legislation includes a provision that would restrict Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget for fiscal year 2026 until he provides the video of military strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean.
The measure now heads to the Senate.
‘We need to come up with something’: House Republicans struggle to agree on a health care plan
House Republicans vow to vote on a health care plan next week before the leave for the holidays. They just can’t agree on what should be in it.
Insurance premiums are set to skyrocket for millions of people in the new year if Congress fails to extend subsidies for the Affordable Care Act that are set to expire on Dec. 31.
Bowing to conservatives, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and his leadership team are moving forward with a proposal that wouldn’t extend those subsidies but would instead offer people some funds to defray health care costs.
Meanwhile, Republicans facing tough races in next year’s midterms say any health care package moving forward must be bipartisan and extend the subsidies.
Trump announces launch of 'gold card' for visa applications
At a roundtable event with business executives this afternoon, Trump said his administration is now accepting applications for a new "gold card" immigrant visa that's similar to a green card.
"We just launched the Trump gold card," he told reporters at the White House.
"People just buying them, somewhat like a green card, but with big advantages over a green card," he added. "This is much better than a green card."
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the cost of the gold cards are $1 million for a person and $2 million for a corporation.
‘I love an underdog’: Trump-Zohran Mamdani voters are at the center of an unexpected relationship
Adalberto Rodriguez wasn’t someone who paid much attention to politics — until Trump faced a criminal trial in New York City last year.
Rodriguez, 30, who lives in Brooklyn, felt he saw similarities between his own legal troubles and what he believed was “political lawfare” Trump dealt with in his city. Soon, he was all-in on Trump, attending rallies in the Bronx and Philadelphia and at Madison Square Garden. He proudly voted for Trump in 2024.
This year, Rodriguez became enthralled with another New York City political figure on the rise: Zohran Mamdani, now the mayor-elect.
“I pray for these two guys specifically,” Rodriguez said in an interview. “And that’s pretty much the first time in my life I’ve ever had such a level of excitement towards any politician. It’s funny, because a lot of people think that I’m joking or trolling or trying to stir the pot. I get that all the time. I know it’s going to sound silly, but it actually is the opposite.”
Trump says he will speak with Thailand and Cambodia as border fighting threatens ceasefire
Trump said this afternoon that he would have phone calls tomorrow with Thailand and Cambodia as fighting along the border between the two Southeast Asian countries threatens to unravel a ceasefire he pushed for.
“I think I can get them to stop fighting,” he told reporters at a White House event. “I think I’m scheduled to speak to them tomorrow.”
Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by the latest fighting, which began Sunday. Both countries have blamed the other for the renewed clashes, which have killed 10 people in Cambodia, including an infant and eight Thai soldiers.
It is some of the worst fighting since July, when Thailand and Cambodia engaged in five days of combat stemming from longstanding territorial disputes. The fighting stopped when Trump threatened to halt trade talks with both countries, and they signed a ceasefire in Malaysia in October in a ceremony that Trump presided over.
Trump warns that Colombia's president will have 'big problems if he doesn't wise up'
Trump said today that he hasn't considered talking to Colombian President Gustavo Petro about fighting narcotraffickers while warning that Petro "will be next."
"He’s been fairly hostile to the United States," Trump said. "He’s going to have himself some big problems if he doesn’t wise up."
Trump went on to say Petro “better wise up” to avoid military action.
"Colombia is producing a lot of drugs. They have cocaine factories that they make cocaine, as you know, and they sell it right into the United States," he said. "So he better wise up, or he’ll be next. He’ll be next, too, and I hope he’s listening. He’s going to be next."
Trump also said this week that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s “days are numbered.”
