Live updates: Trump announces plans for new steel plant in Iowa
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Andrew Bailey, who became “co-deputy director” of the FBI last September, is stepping aside, two people familiar with the matter told NBC News.
What to know today
- IOWA STEEL PLANT: President Donald Trump announced a plan for a $15 billion steel mill in Iowa alongside officials from the company building the plant, Mesabi Metallics, and other business leaders at the White House.
- ALITO RECUSAL: Conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito will no longer participate in a major climate case after he faced calls that he recuse himself because of his stock holdings in oil companies.
- SENIOR FBI OFFICIAL LEAVING: Andrew Bailey, who became “co-deputy director” of the FBI last September to work alongside then-Deputy Director Dan Bongino, is stepping aside, two people familiar with the matter told NBC News.
- U.K. TERRORISM PROBE: A farmer’s predawn alert about a group of hooded and masked men appears to have sparked a massive security operation around a British base the U.S. Air Force used to facilitate strikes on Iran.
Rep. Mike Lawler says he disagrees with Trump's AI development stance during debate in race for battleground district
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., who is fighting to keep his seat in a battleground district in New York, said in a debate against Democratic opponent Cait Conley tonight that he disagreed with Trump's push for faster AI development.
Lawler said the decision to build data centers should be up to local communities.
Conley accused him of having three data centers in Rockland County built on his watch, which Lawler denied, while claiming that Conley was “bought and paid for by the AI companies.”
Conley had said Lawler’s vote for Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill last year was a vote against allowing states to regulate the industry.
During the debate, Lawler outlined his disagreement with Trump's full-steam-ahead approach to AI development.
“No, I don’t agree with him, and that’s why I’ve led on this issue with Josh Gottheimer, Democrat from New Jersey. We’ve introduced numerous pieces of legislation, including the Stop Rogue AI Act, to go after these rogue bots and agents that are multiplying, that are hacking into our systems. We also have legislation to require all of these new models that are being created to be tested before they go live,” Lawler said.
Contradicting Trump, Pope Leo says artificial intelligence safety concerns aren't ‘fake news’
ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE — Pope Leo XIV said today that concerns about artificial intelligence going rogue are not “fake news” and should be taken seriously, insisting that safety issues raised by AI experts should be discussed and acted on.
Leo, who dedicated his first encyclical to AI and protecting humanity in its wake, was asked during a news conference about what the U.S. and China especially should be doing to prevent AI from posing catastrophic risks to humanity. Trump has called concerns that AI could go rogue a “hoax.”
Right-wing conservatives push to shut down the last active Jan. 6 prosecution
There’s just one active federal prosecution still tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, the case of the man accused of planting two pipe bombs at the Republican and Democratic national committees. And some of MAGA’s most fervent supporters want to shut it down.
Some conservative figures accuse the Trump administration of framing Brian Cole Jr., who was arrested almost five years after the unexploded devices were placed. Cole, as NBC News first reported, told the FBI that he believed the 2020 election had been stolen after false accusations fueled by Trump and his supporters.
Election denier Kurt Olsen leaves DOJ, ‘grand conspiracy’ probe
Kurt Olsen, an attorney involved with efforts to overturn the 2020 election results who had recently been involved in the Justice Department’s so-called grand conspiracy investigation targeting officials who investigated Trump, has resigned, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News.
CBS had earlier reported Olsen’s departure.
His departure follows the resignation of Joe diGenova, who told NBC News that “lanes got crossed” in the final days of the investigation.
Tillis slams Trump’s taxpayer-funded ad, likens Trump to Viktor Orbán
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., tore into the White House’s new political ad promoting Trump, saying it’s not a public service announcement and shouldn’t be done with taxpayer money.
“I hate it. I tell you, it feels like Viktor Orbán talking to the Hungarian people. There’s no place for that sort of thing,” Tillis told reporters today. “Look, you want to run that ad? We got plenty of resources. The ads didn’t cost that much.”
“But when I saw that image come up during the NFL game yesterday — overall I was disappointed because the Browns beat the Panthers. I was more disappointed with that ad, because it made no sense to me. If it were, you know, some clear message that was going to appeal to the broader, a real public service announcement, that’s fine. But that was not that.”
NFL asks DHS to take down video featuring footage of Eagles star
The NFL has asked the Department of Homeland Security to take down a video featuring former Eagles player Brian Dawkins, seemingly posted in reference to a purported caravan of immigrants heading to the U.S. border.
The footage showed Dawkins, a Hall of Fame safety, during his playing years, performing his signature pre-game walkout.
Former Philadelphia Eagles' Brian Dawkins. Chris Szagola / AP file
He responded to the controversial video on X on Monday afternoon, posting his own video to X saying he “didn’t give permission for his name, image and likeness to be used by anybody.”
NBC News has confirmed that the NFL asked DHS to take down the video Monday morning.
“DHS is playing lockdown defense at the border. We will use every Weapon at our disposal, from A to X, to keep Americans safe," a DHS spokesperson told NBC News. “The United States Border Patrol is actively tracking a migrant caravan which departed San Pedro Sula, Honduras on September 20, 2026. USBP is closely engaged with its international partners to monitor their movement and any additional developments. USBP reminds migrants that under the leadership of President Trump and Homeland Secretary Mullin, the border has remained closed and secured for the last 16 months.”
DHS General Counsel James Percival offered his own take on the development. In response to an X user posting a story on the NFL and Dawkins objecting to use of the footage, Percival posted a meme on X: An image of Bugs Bunny saying "no."
Amodei meets with Senate Majority Leader Thune
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei entered the office of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., on Capitol Hill this afternoon.
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, center, leaves the U.S. Capitol today. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
Thune told NBC News earlier today that he plans to meet with several AI leaders this week but that he is skipping the AI summit at the White House tomorrow, which House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is attending.
“I think we’re having some meetings with some of those folks up here later in the week. I’ve got a couple of those tech people coming into town. So anyway, but yeah, I know they’ve got a meeting going forward tomorrow, and I hope it’s productive,” Thune said.
Trump denies reporting that he offered Iran sanctions relief and frozen funds
Trump today denied a report that he had offered sanctions relief and frozen funds to Iran in exchange for nuclear concessions.
Bonnie Cash / Bloomberg via Getty Images
“I offered them NOTHING!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, calling it a “HOAX.”
Axios reported the story, citing U.S. officials as its sources. NBC News has not independently confirmed Axios’ reporting.
Schumer criticizes Trump's PSA-style ads
Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images file
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., today lambasted the Trump administration's newly released ads, which the White House says are government-funded “public service announcements.”
Schumer called Trump’s latest ad “an absolute violation of what democracy is supposed to look like” and said only Trump would have “the audacity to force Americans not only to watch his propaganda, but to pay for it.”
The ad, which aired this weekend, carries a disclaimer saying it was paid for by the U.S. government. It is virtually identical to an ad Trump put out during his 2024 presidential campaign.
A separate ad that the White House released last week includes Trump saying he wants to “defeat communism” and “cast out the communists, Marxists and fascists.”
“These ads are virtually indistinguishable from those made for Trump’s 2024 campaign, and yet you, the taxpayer, is funding them. It’s an absolute violation of what democracy is supposed to look like,” Schumer said.
Other lawmakers who have criticized the ads include Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and fellow Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, along with several Democrats.
Thune says Trump ad 'shouldn't be paid with taxpayer dollars'
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said today that Trump's controversial "public service announcement" ad touting his political stances has a "great message" — but it shouldn't be paid for by taxpayers.
“I don’t think he’s said exactly where the money’s coming from," Thune, R-S.D., told reporters when he was asked about the ad that aired over the weekend.
The spot, which is almost identical to a 2024 Trump presidential campaign ad, shows Trump walking down a hallway as he asks people in a voiceover to join him in his fight to "demolish the deep state" and “expel the warmongers from our government.” At the end, it says, “Paid for by the U.S. government.”
"It’s a great message. I like the message," Thune said. "But it shouldn’t be paid for with taxpayer dollars.”
The ad is the second to feature Trump this month. The earlier one featured him talking about how he wanted to “defeat communism,” set to the song “Love Me” by JMSN. The White House has called the ads “public service announcements.”
The political ad tracking firm AdImpact has estimated that the administration has spent more than $1.7 million to run the ads.
In a letter to the White House last week, a group of Democratic lawmakers called the ads "an egregious and utterly illegal misuse of Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars."
Education Department formally rescinds Biden-era Title IX protections
Al Drago / Getty Images file
The Education Department announced today that it has formally rescinded the Biden-era interpretation of Title IX that addressed discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.
The updated Title IX regulations issued during the Biden administration prohibited schools from barring transgender students from using bathrooms and changing facilities that correspond with their gender identities.
In 2024, more than 20 states sued the Biden administration over the expansion of Title IX, a 1972 law forbidding sex-based discrimination and sexual harassment in federal government-funded educational programs and activities. A federal judge struck down the protections in January 2025 for legal shortcomings.
“Today’s rulemaking clears the Biden Administration’s illegal rewrite of Title IX from the Code of Federal Regulations and restores the commonsense language promulgated in the first Trump Administration, which we have been enforcing since the first days of the Administration,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement.
The rescission does not amount to different enforcement or reflect new policy decisions, as the Trump administration has adhered to his 2020 Title IX regulations since he returned to office in 2025, according to a government fact sheet.
Shiwali Patel, senior director of education justice at the National Women’s Law Center, said the move weakens protections against sexual harassment in education.
“While the administration is unlawfully eroding protections for trans students under the guise of ‘protecting women and girls,’ they are systematically weakening the very laws that keep students safe and schools accountable,” Patel said in a statement.
Trump says U.S. wouldn't have released suspects arrested near British air base
Trump told reporters this afternoon that the U.S. wouldn't have released the suspects arrested in connection with a massive security operation near a British air base used by the U.S.
"We would not have released them," Trump said in the Oval Office when he was asked about the five British nationals, who were released on bail today.
They were arrested yesterday on suspicion of terrorism and explosives offenses after three suspicious vehicles were seen moving toward RAF Fairford, a Royal Air Force station about 90 minutes west of London.
In reversal, Justice Samuel Alito steps aside from major climate case
Conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito will no longer participate in a major climate case after he faced calls that he recuse himself because of his stock holdings in oil companies.
The development was disclosed in a letter sent to lawyers involved in the case, with no reason given.
“Justice Alito has determined that he will not continue to participate in this case,” the letter said.
Ken Paxton says he's open to state businesses 'having help' from immigrants
Ken Paxton, the Republican Senate nominee in Texas and a staunch opponent of illegal immigration, said in an interview today he's "open" to having immigrants fill some jobs in the state "as long as we have a secure border."
Paxton made the remarks in a sitdown with U.S. Hispanic Business Council head Javier Palomarez after being asked if he was open to some work authorization programs.
"We should have America first policy here," Paxton said. "We need to have a policy that benefits the Americans that are here, and that likely means that we have to let people in that can fulfill some of these jobs that we don’t have enough people for. Our birth population isn’t keeping up with demand."
Paxton specifically cited the need for help in the farming and construction industries.
"And so as long as we have a secure border, and as along as we are doing this by the rule of law, I’m open to having help — we need help — but let’s do it the right way," Paxton said.
Senate Democrats call on DHS secretary to halt 'election interference' efforts
A group of Senate Democrats is calling on Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin to halt what they describe as his department's efforts to interfere in the upcoming midterm elections.
In a letter, they accused Mullin of promoting Trump's election-related conspiracy theories and pressuring states to divulge voter roll information as the Department of Homeland Security tries to find ineligible voters by checking citizenship.
"Your actions as Secretary are intentionally undermining Americans’ trust in the 2026 midterm elections and appear to purposefully disenfranchise eligible voters. Taken together, these actions amount to an illegal attempt to federalize the administration of the upcoming midterm elections," they wrote in the letter.
The letter was spearheaded by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and the ranking members of the Judiciary, Homeland Security and Rules Committees, Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Alex Padilla, respectively. Thirty other Senate Democrats signed the letter as well.
They called on Mullin to "cease" all of these election-related activities and provide information to them to support allegations he made in letters DHS sent in July to certain states alleging that they had tens of thousands of noncitizens on their voter rolls.
Reached for comment, a DHS spokesperson said, "The assertion that DHS is attempting to exert more federal control over elections heading into the November midterms is totally false. DHS is fulfilling our obligation to protect election infrastructure under existing statutory authority so that our elections are fair, honest, and accurate."
The spokesperson added: “Our message to aliens who vote in American elections is clear: we will find you, arrest you, and you will face the consequences — including criminal charges and deportation.”
5 arrested on suspected terror plot at U.S. air base in Britain
Five men have been arrested by U.K. police on a suspected terror plot at a key U.S. Air Base in Britain. Now an urgent investigation is underway with officials looking into whether Iran was behind the threat. NBC’s Raf Sanchez reports for the "TODAY" show.
Trump administration asks Supreme Court to limit treatment for transgender inmates
The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court today to pause a federal judge’s ruling blocking a Bureau of Prisons healthcare policy for federal inmates who are clinically diagnosed with gender dysphoria — the impairment that occurs when a person’s gender identity does not match the sex they were born with.
The bureau previously addressed gender dysphoria through mental health treatment and interventions "such as sex-trait-modification surgeries, hormone interventions, and social accommodations,” Solicitor General John Sauer wrote in the filing. “In developing the 2026 policy at issue here, however, BOP determined that sex-trait-modification surgeries, hormone interventions in general, and social accommodations could no longer be justified as treatment for gender dysphoria.”
The district court made the ruling without "meaningfully engaging with either BOP’s reasoning or the administrative record,” Sauer wrote, noting that a split appeals court also ruled against the administration on this issue.
“In nullifying BOP’s exercise of its statutorily conferred authority to adopt a policy that prison administrators have determined is necessary to maintain institutional security, the court’s order causes irreparable harm to the government and to the public,” Sauer wrote.
Andrew Bailey, who joined FBI in unusual ‘co-deputy’ position, to leave bureau
Another top FBI official is leaving the bureau after just a year on the job.
Andrew Bailey, who joined the FBI in the newly created position of “co-deputy director” in September 2025 to work alongside then-Deputy Director Dan Bongino, is stepping aside, two people familiar with the matter tell NBC News.
An email sent internally at the FBI stated that Bailey was leaving for family reasons, the two people familiar with the matter told NBC News.
Trump to unveil plans for a $15 billion steel mill in Iowa
Trump will announce a plan for a $15 billion steel mill in Iowa today.
Mesabi Metallics is building the plant with the aim of starting production by 2030, a White House official said. The facility is expected to produce 10 million tons of steel a year and create as many as 1,750 permanent jobs in the state, the official said.
China and U.S. agree to tariff cuts on $60 billion of goods including agriculture, household items
China and the United States have agreed to cut tariffs imposed on $60 billion worth of goods imported from each other, on an array of products ranging from U.S. corn to cosmetics, and from Chinese household appliances to toys.
Under the U.S.-China Board of Trade, both countries have each recommended $30 billion of trade in non-sensitive goods for more favourable tariff treatment, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement yesterday.
Trump rejects Iranian proposal to reopen Strait of Hormuz
Trump rejected a new ceasefire proposal from Iran that would’ve reopened the Strait of Hormuz, leaving the next steps in the conflict uncertain as the war enters its eighth month. NBC’s Garrett Haake reports for "TODAY."
U.S. Marines injured in recent Iranian attack
WASHINGTON — Eight U.S. Marines were injured two weeks ago when an Iranian cruise missile attacked the ship they were operating on in the Strait of Hormuz, according to three U.S. officials. The Marines were not seriously injured, but they sustained smoke inhalation and possibly traumatic brain injuries, as they had symptoms of concussions, such as headaches, the officials said.
Farmer’s tip may have led to 5 arrests near air base used by U.S.
A farmer’s predawn alert about a group of hooded and masked men appears to have sparked a massive security operation around a British base the U.S. Air Force used to facilitate strikes on Iran.
“When they saw me, they ran ahead of me — some into the field and some towards the neighboring village,” the farmer, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the BBC News today. “I then realized that something highly unusual was taking place.”
An image circulating on social media shows handcuffed suspects yesterday near RAF Fairford air base. via X
Some lawmakers doubt a Congress that’s ‘barely capable of email’ can regulate AI
Amid warnings that artificial intelligence could soon wipe out humanity, some lawmakers are not confident that Congress has the expertise or ability to regulate AI.
“A lot of them can’t spell it,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., quipped. “They just don’t have the experience.”
Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., was equally skeptical. “They still don’t know how to get on the internet,” let alone understand AI, he said.
Five men arrested on terrorism charges near U.K. air base used by U.S. Air Force
British police arrested several men on suspicion of terrorism and explosives offenses yesterday and evacuated homes near an air base that the U.S. Air Force had been using to facilitate strikes on Iran.
A major incident was declared, with a massive emergency presence seen around RAF Fairford, which is about 90 minutes outside London, close to the village of Whelford in western England.
Iran ‘fully prepared’ for war to resume but diplomacy not over yet, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said his country is prepared to resume fighting with the United States but has not yet abandoned diplomacy after Trump publicly rejected a proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
“We are fully prepared for the time for the war to be resumed, and I repeat, we stand firm in the face of any new aggression, even if it comes to a doomsday war,” Araghchi told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” yesterday, when asked about a Wall Street Journal report that Trump could seek to resume bombing after the U.S. midterm elections. “At the same time, we stand ready for diplomacy. It is up to President Trump to choose.”
Meet the Press
Bill Gates says getting countries to agree on AI regulations will be harder than Cold War-era nuclear negotiations
Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates called on the U.S. to be a leader in regulating the growth of artificial intelligence but warned that getting countries to agree on a global framework could be “more difficult” than Cold War-era negotiations to limit nuclear weapons.
“This is more difficult than that was,” Gates told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” during a wide-ranging discussion on AI that aired yesterday.
Meet The Press
White House releases new taxpayer-funded ad describing ‘final battle’
The Trump administration put out a new ad this weekend as part of its “PSA” campaign, this time showing the president walking down a hallway as he asks people to join him in his fight to “expel the warmongers from our government.”
The ad — which at the end says it was “Paid for by the U.S. government” — is nearly identical to an ad put out by Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
