Trump signs executive order to reclassify cannabis; Kennedy Center board votes to change building's name
NBC News Clone summarizes the latest on: Rcrd94712 - Politics and Government | NBC News Clone. This article is rewritten and presented in a simplified tone for a better reader experience.
The board of the Kennedy Center in Washington voted to rename the building the Trump-Kennedy Center.
What to know today...
- CANNABIS CATEGORIZATION: President Donald Trump signed an order to reclassify cannabis. The move would allow the Food and Drug Administration to study it for medical purposes, but it wouldn’t make cannabis legal at the federal level.
- KENNEDY CENTER: The board of the Kennedy Center in Washington voted to rename the performance venue as the Trump-Kennedy Center. Efforts to rename the Kennedy Center could run into legal hurdles, experts told NBC News in July.
- GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE: The Trump administration announced that it would begin to take steps aimed at ending transition-related care — or what the Department of Health and Human Services has termed “sex-rejecting procedures” — for minors nationwide.
Zohran Mamdani appointee resigns after old antisemitic posts resurface
An appointee tapped to lead New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s recruitment efforts resigned today after antisemitic social media posts resurfaced.
Catherine Almonte Da Costa resigned a day after Mamdani named her director of appointments, with responsibilities to strategize recruitment in his administration.
“I spoke with the Mayor-elect this afternoon, apologized, and expressed my deep regret for my past statements. These statements are not indicative of who I am,” Da Costa said in a statement through Mamdani’s transition team.
“As the mother of Jewish children, I feel a profound sense of sadness and remorse at the harm these words have caused. As this has become a distraction from the work at hand, I have offered my resignation,” she added.
U.S. military says 2 strikes on alleged drug boats kill 5 in eastern Pacific
The U.S. military said tonight that it had conducted two more strikes against boats it said were smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing five people.
U.S. Southern Command posted on social media, “Intelligence confirmed that the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Eastern Pacific and were engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” though it did not provide evidence. It posted videos of each boat speeding through the water before they were struck by an explosion.
The military said three people in one vessel and two in the other were killed.
The attacks brought the total number of known boat strikes to 28, while at least 104 people have been killed, according to numbers announced by the Trump administration. Trump has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the U.S. and asserted the U.S. is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels.
Jury finds a Wisconsin judge guilty of obstruction for helping an immigrant evade federal agents
A jury found a Wisconsin judge accused of helping a Mexican immigrant dodge federal authorities guilty of obstruction today, marking a victory for Trump as he continues his sweeping immigration crackdown across the country.
Federal prosecutors charged Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan with obstruction, a felony, and concealing an individual to prevent arrest, a misdemeanor, in April. The jury acquitted her on the concealment count, but she still faces up to five years in prison on the obstruction count.
The jury returned the verdicts after having deliberated for six hours.
Dugan and her attorneys left the courtroom, ducked into a side conference room and closed the door without speaking to reporters.
A few House members dispute a colleague’s endorsement claim in a tough Senate race
Rep. Andy Barr, locked in an already contentious 2026 Republican Senate primary in Kentucky, projected strength this week by announcing endorsements from more than 100 of his House colleagues.
But when they were reached today by NBC News, spokespeople for two of those members said they were declining to endorse in the race. Another member on the list said he wasn’t, at that moment, endorsing Barr — though he changed his tune hours later, offering his backing.
Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa, is focused solely on his campaign for governor and “is not endorsing in the Kentucky Senate race,” a spokesperson told NBC News. Rep. Tony Wied, R-Wis., hasn’t endorsed Barr, said an adviser, who also noted that the Barr campaign initially misspelled Wied’s last name in the news release proclaiming his support.
And Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said in an interview this afternoon that his endorsements are typically accompanied by formal letters — one of which, he emphasized, he hadn’t yet written for Barr.
TikTok owner ByteDance signs binding deal to create U.S. joint venture
TikTok CEO Shou Chew told employees of the social media app today that its owner, China’s ByteDance, has signed binding agreements to create a joint venture for the app in the United States, as agreed to in a deal with the Trump administration.
That deal means the U.S. version of TikTok will become majority-owned by American investors, according to a memo obtained by NBC News.
The investors include American tech giant Oracle, the California-based private equity fund Silver Lake and the United Arab Emirates investment firm MGX.
Silver Lake and MGX did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Spokespeople for the White House and the Treasury Department likewise did not reply to requests for comment on the deal.
Senate votes on party lines to confirm 97 Trump nominees all at once
The Senate tonight voted along party lines, 53-43, to confirm a third batch of Trump nominees all at one time using a new procedural tool it unlocked by nuking the Senate rules so it can confirm nominees en bloc instead of one by one.
Tonight's batch consisted of 97 nominees, including former Rep. Anthony D'Esposito of New York to be inspector general of the Labor Department and Media Research Center founder Brent Bozell III to be U.S. ambassador to South Africa.
Erika Kirk endorses JD Vance for president in 2028
Erika Kirk, widow of assassinated Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk, endorsed Vice President JD Vance for the 2028 presidential election in a speech opening the group’s America Fest annual conference tonight.
“We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected” in 2028, she told thousands of activists at the Phoenix Convention Center. The end of Kirk’s statement was drowned out by cheers for the endorsement.
The backing of Turning Point USA, one of the most influential conservative organizations — particularly among young activists and MAGA voters — could provide a major boost to Vance if he seeks the presidency in three years.
Kirk, who took over as head of her late husband’s organization, had previously said a Turning Point USA endorsement of Vance was “in the works.” Tonight, she put a fine point on her support for Vance and for helping Republicans try to hold their majorities in the House and the Senate in next year’s midterm elections.
Democrats release more Epstein photos with a promise of more to come
Jeffrey Epstein’s estate has turned over roughly 95,000 photographs to the House Oversight Committee. So far, the public has seen only a tiny fraction of that trove of files.
Today, Democrats on that committee released 68 photos from the Epstein estate, including photos of the convicted sex offender with high-profile people. The release and another one last week by Oversight Democrats include dozens of photos of Epstein posing with Trump, his top ally Steve Bannon, former President Bill Clinton, former Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, movie director Woody Allen and others. All have denied any wrongdoing, and none have been charged related to Epstein’s crimes.
The latest batch of photos comes just one day before tomorrow's deadline when the Justice Department will be required, under a new law, to release all of the government’s Epstein files with very limited exceptions.
Trump signs National Defense Authorization Act
Trump has signed the annual National Defense Authorization Act, a sweeping defense policy bill.
The signing, initially scheduled as a press event, comes after the Senate approved the bill yesterday.
The measure includes a provision that would limit Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget if he doesn’t release video of recent military strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific.
DNC won't release its report on what went wrong for Democrats in 2024
The Democratic National Committee won’t release its completed postmortem of the 2024 election, a DNC official confirmed to NBC News.
DNC Chair Ken Martin ordered an autopsy shortly after he took over as the national party chairman this year, stressing that the report should be released to help the party learn from its mistakes. But Martin said in a statement today that his top priority is to not distract from helping the party “win.”
“We completed a comprehensive review of what happened in 2024 and are already putting our learnings into motion. And we’re winning again — even in places that haven’t gone blue in decades,” he said.
“In our conversations with stakeholders from across the Democratic ecosystem, we are aligned on what’s important, and that’s learning from the past and winning the future. Here’s our North Star: does this help us win? If the answer is no, it’s a distraction from the core mission,” Martin’s statement continues.
What the November election results in one key state mean for the battle for the House
As both parties race to redraw congressional lines before next year’s midterm elections, Virginia represents one of Democrats’ best chances to blunt Republicans’ attempts to pad their congressional majorities.
It’s unclear whether Virginia Democrats will be able to execute a high-wire act to successfully change their map for next year’s elections. Regardless, last month’s election results highlight how an energized Democratic Party could win back control of the House next year.
High turnout helped propel Democratic Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger in more Republican-leaning areas, and Spanberger improved on Democrats’ 2024 margins in the most diverse congressional districts, a new NBC News Decision Desk analysis of the governor’s race results showed.
Throughout the year, Trump’s strong performance in 2024 with nonwhite voters and younger voters has served as something of a baseline for Republicans who, at his behest, touched off a redistricting arms race that’s expected to continue into next year. The Virginia gubernatorial results, broken down by congressional district, underscore how quickly voters can shift from one election to the next and highlight some of the risks of the extraordinary effort.
HHS moves to slash funding and access to care for transgender minors
The Trump administration announced that it would begin to take steps aimed at ending transition-related care — or what the Department of Health and Human Services has termed “sex-rejecting procedures” — for minors nationwide.
The proposals — which, if enacted, would pull federal funding from hospitals that offer transgender care to minors — are the latest effort by the administration to restrict access to certain transgender care.
Former Rep. Joe Kennedy III says Trump can't rename the Kennedy Center
Former Rep. Joe Kennedy III, D-Mass., a grandnephew of the late president, responded to news that the Kennedy Center board had voted to rename the arts institution the Trump-Kennedy Center.
"The Kennedy Center is a living memorial to a fallen president and named for President Kennedy by federal law. It can no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial, no matter what anyone says," said Kennedy, a former board member at the Kennedy Center.
In July, after House Republicans proposed renaming the Kennedy Center, four sources familiar with the matter told NBC News that the plans would violate the law that created it.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump blames Democrats for expiring Obamacare subsidies
Trump continued to blame Democrats for the Affordable Care Act tax subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year, leading to higher health care costs next year for many people.
"I want that money to go to the people directly and let the people buy their own health care, and they'll get much better health care than they get with the 'Unaffordable Care Act,' as it's known by a lot of people," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when he was asked whether he'll allow the subsidies to expire Dec. 31.
Asked whether he wants Congress to extend the subsidies, Trump said: "I'd like not to be able to do it. I'd like to get right into this. ... I don't know why we have to extend. This could be done rapidly if the Democrats would come along."
"We have a problem," he continued, adding that Democrats are "going to have to decide do they want to do the right thing, or do they want to be beholden to the, you know, insurance companies."
Trump's military bonus will draw $2.6 billion from military housing funds
Trump’s announcement that U.S. troops would get a $1,776 bonus in their stockings this year will cost about $2.6 billion, and the one-time payment will come from military housing funds, according to a senior administration official. Trump directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to draw the funds as a “basic allowance for housing supplement” to all eligible service members, from the lowest-ranking enlisted troops to colonels or captains.
The pay, a “warrior dividend” for about 1.45 million troops, includes compensating those eligible recipients even if they are not receiving BAH, or what the military calls basic housing allowance.
The money is from the “one big, beautiful bill,” not tariffs, according to a Senate appropriations source. That bill allocated $2.9 billion for basic housing allowance to reduce out-of-pocket costs for service members for two years. The Pentagon decided to give the money as a one-time payment instead of creating precedent for housing costs down the line, according to that person.
It applies to reserve component service members, colonels or captains and below, and to active-duty orders of 31 days or more in duration as of Nov. 30.
All enlisted ranks are eligible, from private to senior enlisted, as well as officers, from lieutenants to Army or Air Force or Marine colonels or Navy captains, what the military refers to in rank as an 0-6. It does not include generals or admirals.
“This one-time payment exemplifies the Department’s ongoing commitment to improving the housing and quality of life for our military members and their families,” the person said in the statement.
“President Trump’s administration recognizes the hard work of our service members with this one-time Warrior Dividend, which places funds directly in the hands of our military members and their families, helping to improve their housing and quality of life,” the statement said.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune says extension of ACA subsidies 'is not happening' in the Senate
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., reiterated to reporters that a three-year extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies "is not happening" in his chamber.
Democrats have garnered enough Republican support to force a vote on the measure in the House.
“I think a straight-up extension is a waste of money,” Thune said, adding that he would not put the House extension up for a vote in the Senate without amending it.
Affordable Care Act subsidies expire at the end of the year, which will cause health care premiums to rise.
Transportation secretary's daughter calls to 'abolish' TSA
Evita Duffy-Alfonso, the daughter of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, urged Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem this morning to abolish the Transportation Security Administration.
"I nearly missed my flight this morning after the TSA made me wait 15 minutes for a pat-down because I’m pregnant and didn’t feel like getting radiation exposure from their body scanner," Duffy-Alonso, an independent journalist who has appeared on Fox News, wrote in a series of posts on X that ripped the agency.
"The agents were passive-aggressive, rude, and tried to pressure me and another pregnant woman into just walking through the scanner because it’s 'safe.' After finally getting the absurdly invasive pat-down, I barely made my flight. All this for an unconstitutional agency that isn’t even good at its job," she wrote.
Asked by another person on X why she hadn't reached out to her father, she noted that the TSA is a part of the Department of Homeland Security and said that if her father were in charge of the TSA, "he’d radically limit it and lobby Congress to abolish it."
"TSA = unreasonable, warrantless searches of passengers and their property. That means it violates the Fourth Amendment and is therefore unconstitutional. Pls abolish," she wrote in another post, tagging both Trump and Noem.
House passes bill aimed at making gender-affirming care for minors a federal crime
The House passed a bill last night that would make it a federal criminal offense to provide gender-affirming care to minors. The legislation, introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., now heads to the Senate.
The Protect Children’s Innocence Act would make it a crime to “perform procedures or provide medications (e.g., hormonal treatments) to a minor for the purpose of changing their body to correspond to a sex that differs from their biological sex,” according to the bill’s summary. There are exceptions for procedures for “individuals who have both ovarian and testicular tissue or abnormal sex chromosome structure or hormones.”
The vote was 216-211. Four Republicans voted against the measure: Gabe Evans of Colorado, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Mike Kennedy of Utah and Mike Lawler of New York. Three Democrats supported it: Henry Cuellar of Texas, Don Davis of North Carolina and Vicente Gonzalez of Texas.
This afternoon, the House will vote on a bill from Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, called the Do No Harm in Medicaid Act, which would prohibit federal Medicaid payment for gender transition procedures for people under age 18. The bill does have exceptions, including for procedures that are intended to rectify early puberty, reverse previous transition procedures or prevent imminent death. If the bill passes, it would then head to the Senate.
Rep. Sarah McBride, D-Del., the first openly transgender member of Congress, said yesterday that Republicans are “obsessed with trans people.”
“They are bringing forward a bill that would put parents and providers at risk of being jailed, literally jailed for affirming their transgender child and following medical best practices,” she said.
Former Alabama star quarterback ends lieutenant governor bid to take coaching gig
A.J. McCarron, the former University of Alabama back-to-back national championship-winning quarterback, is ending his bid for Alabama lieutenant governor to accept a job coaching a professional football team in his home state.
McCarron had been running in a crowded GOP primary to be Alabama's next No. 2. But he announced in a statement that he will end his bid and was named the head coach of the Birmingham Stallions, a professional football team in the United Football League.
Senate Judiciary Democrats request hearing on Caribbean boat strikes
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are calling on Republicans to hold a hearing “on the Trump administration’s executions of alleged drug traffickers via military strikes on boats at sea.”
In a letter to Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, they wrote that at least 95 people have been killed in 25 separate strikes. The committee said it has jurisdiction over extrajudicial killings, murder, war crimes and the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, which wrote a classified memo providing cover for the killings.
“These strikes are extrajudicial killings and shocking violations of fundamental principles of due process and the right to life under U.S. and international law,” they wrote in the letter, led by ranking member Dick Durbin, D-Ill. “The Administration’s claims that the people it is killing are guilty of crimes, affiliated with a criminal or terrorist organization, or ‘combatants’ in a nonexistent armed conflict, do not render these extrajudicial killings any less unlawful.”
They continued: “There is not, nor can there be, any justification for state-sanctioned extrajudicial killings. Summary executions have no place in a constitutional democracy operating under the rule of law, no matter how heinous the accusations a government makes against someone. Nor can governments fabricate an armed conflict or falsely label people ‘combatants’ to kill them.”
Trump launches Freedom 250 group for country's 250th anniversary events
Trump launched a nonpartisan group called Freedom 250, which the organization said in a press release was "fulfilling the President’s promise to deliver the most extraordinary commemoration in American history."
The country's 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence takes place next year.
Freedom 250 announced a series of events next year as part of the anniversary commemoration, including a "Great American State Fair" on the National Mall from June 25-July 10, and a "major address" from Trump on the Fourth of July.
Next fall, the administration will host "the first-ever Patriot Games," an athletic competition of high school athletes. The group also announced a parade for Memorial Day and reiterated the president's plans to hold a UFC event at the White House during Flag Day, which is also Trump's birthday.
Trump Media to merge with nuclear fusion company
Trump Media & Technology will merge with a fusion power company in an all-stock deal that the companies said today is valued at more than $6 billion.
Devin Nunes, the Republican congressman who resigned in 2021 to become the CEO of Trump Media, will be co-CEO of the new company with TAE Technologies CEO Michl Binderbauer.
Shares of Trump Media & Technology, the parent company of Trump’s Truth Social media platform, have tumbled 70% this year but jumped 20% before the opening bell today.
TAE is a private company and the merger with Trump Media would create one of the first publicly traded nuclear fusion companies.
Trump to sign the National Defense Authorization Act
Trump is scheduled to sign the National Defense Authorization Act today. The act is a massive defense bill, which lays out the military programs and provisions that will later be funded through the defense appropriations bill.
The Senate yesterday voted to pass the bill. It had already been passed by the House.
The bill includes a provision to restrict Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's travel budget to 75% until he provides the House and Senate Armed services committees with "unedited video of strikes conducted against designated terrorist organizations in the area of responsibility of the United States Southern Command."
Trump seeks to defend his economy in prime-time speech to the nation
Amid slumping approval ratings, President Donald Trump used a prime-time speech yesterday to deride his predecessor, assert that his economic plan is working and suggest that Americans need to be patient as his policies start to kick in.
Trump, in an 18-minute address from the White House, rolled out no new proposals apart from what he called a $1,776 “warrior dividend” that will go to nearly 1.5 million military service members in honor of the nation’s founding almost 250 years ago.
“And the checks are already on the way,” he said. “No one understood that one until about 30 minutes ago; we made a lot more money than anyone thought because of tariffs.”
Trump marshaled the power of incumbency to command broad television network coverage for a speech that largely reiterated points he has made in public appearances and interviews since he returned to office in January.
He spoke at a faster clip than usual and for the most part appeared to stick to the prepared text. He rattled off the price of eggs, Thanksgiving turkeys and airline tickets to amplify his argument that costs are dropping on his watch and to persuade the nation that former President Joe Biden left behind “a mess” that will take time and effort to fix.
