Live updates: Trump to travel to Texas and Oklahoma
This version of Trump 2026 Midterm Elections Congress Iran Live Updates Rcna600823 - Politics and Government | NBC News Clone was adapted by NBC News Clone to help readers digest key facts more efficiently.
The president will visit a truck factory outside Dallas this afternoon before holding a rally for GOP candidates in Oklahoma tonight.
Trump will hold a rally in Oklahoma for Republican candidates later today. Yuri Gripas / Bloomberg via Getty Images
What to know today
- TRUMP TRIP: President Donald Trump is traveling to Texas today to deliver remarks at s Peterbilt truck factory outside Dallas. He then heads to Durant, Oklahoma, for a midterm election rally at 7 p.m. ET.
- SUPREME COURT: The Supreme Court said it will consider whether immigrants subject to deportation can be held in detention indefinitely while their cases are adjudicated.
- PRE-EMPTIVE PARDONS: Trump said in a new interview that he’s considering pre-emptively pardoning members of his administration before the end of his second term.
- REFLECTING POOL CASE: A Superior Court judge in the District of Columbia has permanently banned U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office from bringing charges against a former Olympic canoeist over damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
First on NBC News: Kennedy to roll out $10 million challenge to encourage Presidential Fitness Test in schools
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to announce a new nationwide competition for schools aimed at expanding participation in the Presidential Fitness Test, which Trump revived last year.
The challenge will offer $7 million in prizes to schools, districts and youth organizations that demonstrate effective ways to implement the test, the Health and Human Services Department told NBC News. Another $3 million in awards and vouchers will be available for fitness or sports equipment.
U.S. is 'studying' role Iran may have played in air base incident in U.K., Trump says
Trump said he is closely examining the incident near an air base in the U.K. that’s used by the U.S. and looking into Iran’s involvement. According to Prime Minister Andy Burnham, Britain believes Iran was involved in the incident.
Trump says he’d consider issuing pardons to administration officials before he leaves office
President Donald Trump said in a new interview that he’s considering pre-emptively pardoning members of his administration before the end of his second term.
“Yeah, sure I’d do that,” he said in an interview this week with Time magazine, which published a transcript of the conversation Thursday.
Judge bars U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro from charging ex-Olympian in Reflecting Pool case
A Superior Court judge in the District of Columbia has permanently banned U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office from bringing charges against a former Olympic canoeist over damage to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
Judge Todd Edelman entered an order on Thursday that dismissed the case with prejudice. Edelman cited the “exceptional circumstances” of the case and said the government’s “own representations make plain” that bringing another indictment against David “Davey” Hearn “is theoretical at best, and more likely, is simply fanciful.”
New legislation aims to block renaming aircraft carrier after Trump
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., plans to introduce three bills Thursday to block the Trump administration from scrapping plans to name an aircraft carrier in honor of a Black war hero and instead naming it after President Donald Trump.
Two U.S. officials said that Navy leadership has been discussing changing the proposed name of the aircraft carrier USS Doris Miller. The ship is still under construction but is set to be named in honor of Miller, an enlisted sailor who famously staffed an anti-aircraft gun during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
Doris Miller was the first African-American sailor to receive the Navy Cross. U.S. Navy
Supreme Court to decide lawfulness of Trump’s immigrant detention policy
The Supreme Court said Thursday it will consider whether immigrants subject to deportation can be held in detention indefinitely while their cases are adjudicated.
The eventual ruling could endorse or end a key feature of President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown.
Trump says he and Republicans have done 'very bad job' touting economic wins
As Republicans confront political headwinds on the economy, NBC News’ Garrett Haake and Brian Cheung join "Meet the Press NOW" to discuss how the White House may be helping or hurting candidates ahead of the midterm elections.
Kennedy Center to remain closed to public as safety assessments continue
The Kennedy Center will remained closed as safety assessments continue at the cultural arts center with no definitive reopening date, according to an email sent to staff overnight and obtained by NBC News.
“Our facilities, safety, and security teams are now conducting a detailed emergency egress assessment to determine whether, and under what conditions, the building can safely support occupants and be evacuated while these restrictions remain in place,” according to the email from the Center’s Executive Director Matt Floca. “The main building will remain temporarily closed, pending that determination.”
Tarps remain on the facade of the Kennedy Center today. Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty
Floca writes that the assessment, ordered by Kennedy Center leadership, is expected to be completed within the next two weeks.
The main building of the Kennedy Center has been closed since September 15, after the Center’s board voted to close for renovations. In court filings, Floca explained the closure would be reconsidered on a week-by-week basis, depending on the status of the assessment.
It comes as a separate evaluation completed over the past three months by engineering firm Walter P Moore found significant corrosion and water damage on most of the exterior “soffit panels” that make up the Kennedy Center’s overhang. The documents, obtained by NBC News, call for “immediate” fixes to prevent further damage to the Center’s structure.
The Walter P Moore firm suggested replacing the entire soffit panel system — each individual panel weighing more than 2,000 pounds — with what they call “a more durable solution.” They also recommend replacing the roof’s drainage system and improve the enclosure in-between the roof and the panels, along with the roof deck itself.
The firm suggests keeping the plaza area outside the front of the Kennedy Center closed to the public. “Because the soffit is located 60 feet above areas regularly occupied by the public, continued deterioration of the panels and their support system presents a falling object hazard and life-safety concern,” the report states.
“Walter P Moore recommends the area under and adjacent to the soffit panels be closed to the public until repairs or further evaluation is performed,” according to the assessment.
While there is no programming currently scheduled for any of the theaters inside the main building of the Kennedy Center, events continue inside a physically separate, newer, and much smaller building on the Kennedy Center’s campus. There are free events scheduled between Thursday and Sunday each week over at that building, called “The REACH.”
On the legal front, the court battle over the naming of the Center — and the more closure of the center — continue, with Judge Christopher Cooper asking for weekly updates from the Trump administration on the repairs.
Senate confirms Keith Sonderling to be labor secretary in final vote before midterms
The Senate confirmed Keith Sonderling’s nomination to lead the Labor Department on a 47-41 vote along party lines last night.
Sonderling had been serving in an acting capacity since April, when Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned amid a misconduct probe. Sonderling had served in several roles at the department before Trump nominated him in June.
The vote was the Senate’s final one before the Nov. 3 midterms. It is scheduled to return Nov. 9.
Keith Sonderling testifies during a Senate Committee hearing in May. Nathan Posner / Anadolu via Getty Images file
GOP super PAC increases its spending for Sen. Jon Husted in tough Ohio race
Sen. Jon Husted, who faces a tricky path to keep his seat this fall in Ohio, is about to get another boost from national Republicans.
Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is pouring another $14 million into the state, according to details shared first with NBC News.
White House removes CNN from press pool for Trump’s upcoming trip to Texas and Oklahoma
The White House removed CNN from the press pool that’s set to cover a trip by Trump today, escalating a feud with the cable network after a federal judge blocked the administration’s push to restrict its media access.
CNN had been designated to travel with Trump, according to a press rotation document the White House released Sunday. But when the daily guidance came out for his scheduled visit to a truck manufacturing facility in Denton, Texas, followed by remarks in Durant, Oklahoma, it did not list CNN as providing pool coverage.
Trump to visit Texas and Oklahoma today
Trump will travel south today to tour a motor facility in Denton, Texas, and deliver remarks in Durant, Oklahoma.
The president previously said he would campaign for Republicans in 35 races ahead of the midterm elections, which are a little over a month away. The Texas Senate race is considered a major battleground, but the president does not have a campaign event on his schedule in the state today.
In Oklahoma, Rep. Kevin Hern, a Republican, is facing off against Democrat N'Kiyla Thomas for the Senate seat while Republican Mike Mazzei and Democrat Cyndi Munson square off in the governor's race. NBC News has classified both races as "solid GOP."
Trump previously won both states in his presidential bids. Tomorrow, the president plans to hold a rally in Mobile, Alabama. That state, too, is considered solidly red.
Trump has previously urged his base supporters to turn out to vote and pretend like he is on the ballot as polling shows Republicans facing strong headwinds going into the final stretch of campaigning before the midterms.
