Trump signs order to rename Lake Ontario to ‘Lake America’
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The president was dealt another setback in his push to limit voting by mail when a federal judge blocked a recently finalized Postal Service regulation on ballots.
What to know today
- 'LAKE AMERICA': President Donald Trump signed an order this afternoon to rename Lake Ontario as "Lake America" in an escalating trade war between the United States and Canada.
- MAIL-IN BALLOTS: A federal judge tonight blocked a Postal Service regulation that would exert control over mail-in ballots ahead of the midterm elections in the latest setback on the issue for Trump.
- TAKING HER LEAVE: Karoline Leavitt, Trump's often combative White House press secretary, gave her parting thoughts on the role and offered advice to a future replacement in media appearances today, her last day on the job.
Judge blocks Trump’s Postal Service regulation on mail-in ballots
An official mail ballot drop box at a polling location in New York. Michael Nagle / Bloomberg via Getty Images file
A federal judge tonight blocked a Postal Service regulation that would exert control over mail-in ballots ahead of the midterm elections in the latest setback on the issue for Trump.
The recently finalized measure would implement a key provision of Trump’s executive order on mail-in ballots that would add a new level of bureaucracy to the election process, which is typically administered by states.
The executive order directed the U.S. Postal Service to, among other things, track mail-in ballots and potentially reject those submitted by people not on a federal list of eligible voters.
The decision by Boston-based U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in a case brought by the League of Women Voters and other groups means part of the executive order remains blocked for at least 14 days with time running out to implement it ahead of the November election.
Judge hits DOJ lawyers with barrage of questions about Kennedy Center renovation and Trump renaming
A tarp remains on the facade of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images file
The judge in a court battle over efforts to add Trump’s name to the front of the Kennedy Center peppered the administration’s lawyers with questions today about their rush to put his name back on the building.
The Trump-appointed board at the performance venue voted this month to add the words “renovated and restored by President Donald J. Trump” to the building and to rename the property “President Donald J. Trump Plaza” by Sept. 8.
“What’s magic about that date?” U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper asked Justice Department attorney Brantley Mayers, noting that it seems “expedited.”
Mayers said that was the date the board had voted on and a timetable it plans to stick to.
Stars and Stripes publisher, editor and reporter sue Pentagon to challenge their firings
Three staff members from the Stars and Stripes military news outlet are suing to challenge their recent firings by the Defense Department, accusing the Trump administration of violating their First Amendment free speech rights to speak out against government interference in their work.
Stars and Stripes publisher Max Lederer, editor in chief Erik Slavin and Middle East reporter Lara Korte are named as plaintiffs in the federal lawsuit filed today in Washington.
The Pentagon, which partially funds the news outlet, fired them last week. A Pentagon spokesperson declined to comment on the suit’s allegations.
Trump names Ben Moss White House staff secretary in latest adminstration change up
Deputy White House staff secretary Ben Moss will now serve as the assistant to the president and White House staff secretary, Trump posted on Truth Social today.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and deputy White House staff secretary Ben Moss in the Oval Office this month. Andrew Harnik / Getty Images file
Moss will replace Will Scharf, who Trump announced this month would become White House counsel.
Scharf will replace the current White House counsel, David Warrington, who is leaving to join the private sector.
The transitions will take place Wednesday, Trump said in the Truth Social post.
“Will did a truly outstanding job as Staff Secretary, and will no doubt be an amazing White House Counsel,” Trump said, adding that “he is a Patriot who loves our beautiful Country.”
The moves come after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced she is leaving her position, with today being her last day.
Mark Carney says Canadians will continue to call Lake Ontario by its original name after Trump order
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in response to Trump’s executive order renaming Lake Ontario as “Lake America” that Canadians will continue to call it by its real name.
Carney said the name “Ontario” came from the indigenous Wendat word for “the lake is beautiful, the lake is big.”
Dave Chan / AFP via Getty Images
“The name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America,” Carney wrote on X.
“We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms,” he added, seeming to mention Trump’s efforts to impose sweeping tariffs, intervene militarily abroad and renovate monuments like the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
“Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario — then, now and always,” Carney said.
MTV for MAGA: Conservative network Real America’s Voice plans new entertainment programming
For conservatives who don’t want their MTV, there’s something coming: new entertainment programming created specifically for them.
Anisha Chopra / NBC News; Getty Images; Adobe Stock
Real America’s Voice, a news and commentary network popular with fans of Trump, is expanding into reality television, music and lifestyle programming, creating a slate of MAGA programming inspired by channels like MTV on the bet that its fiercely loyal audience will follow the brand wherever it goes.
Wyoming’s Republican governor raises concerns over ‘aggressive’ DOJ election monitors
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, a Republican, expressed concern yesterday over how election observers from the U.S. Justice Department monitored the state’s primaries last week, saying it was “aggressive” and “irregular.”
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon. Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images file
“It sounded like the behavior of the observers was a bit aggressive,” he said at a State Canvassing Board meeting.
“It just was irregular, and I have asked the attorney general to start looking into, you know, kind of the nature of the visits and all that sort of stuff,” Gordon added.
Controllers warned Marine One pilots of communications issue days before near miss with jet, NTSB says
Air traffic controllers in Washington and the pilots of Trump’s helicopter met to discuss communication issues one week before a jet and the chopper were allowed to take off at the same time, the National Transportation Safety Board said today.
Marine One, with President Donald Trump aboard, flies past the Washington Monument on Aug. 4. Alex Brandon / AP
The sides met to discuss the failures in communications and agreed to an alternative for such occasions — but that method was also unsuccessful on the day of the incident at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, the NTSB’s preliminary report shows.
Having both in the air at the same time seemed to violate safety procedures put in place after last year’s midair collision near the busy airport, which killed 67 people, but officials stressed Trump was never in danger. The Defense Department also has a long-standing agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration to provide controllers with a three-minute warning before the president’s helicopter takes off that predates last year’s crash.
The FAA decided after an airliner collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter Jan. 29, 2025, that all takeoffs and landings at the airport, in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, would be halted any time a helicopter passed by on a conflicting route. The airspace near the White House and the airport is heavily congested with military and commercial aircraft.
The FAA has acknowledged that the helicopter and the airliner briefly got too close before they started to move away from each other. The airplane quickly climbed above the helicopter after Marine One’s pilots saw it and paused until it safely left the area.
Trump says the trade dispute with Canada will help Republicans in the midterms
When asked by a reporter about the trade dispute with Canada and how it will affect affordability ahead of the midterms, Trump said, “Ultimately, it’s going to be very good for us.”
He continued: “Because we’re losing, when you talk about affordability, we’re losing 62 billion a year on average with Canada, and if you really look at it, we’re losing more than that. It’s too much.”
According to the U.S. Trade Representative's Office website, “U.S. goods and services (exports plus imports) trade with Canada totaled an estimated $872.3 billion in 2025,” though the number was higher in 2024.
Trump praises Ted Cruz amid 2028 talk
Trump praised Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, today in response to questions about his exploring a run for president in 2028.
"I would say that he's very talented. He's a very good friend of mine. I think he might do that," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
Cruz told MSNOW in an interview this week that the GOP hasn't yet settled on who its leader will be after Trump leaves office, despite Vice President JD Vance's popularity among GOP voters.
"There’s going to be a full discussion about who we are and what we believe," said Cruz, who ran against Trump for the GOP nomination in 2016.
Asked whether he might run for president again, Cruz demurred, saying, "There’ll be time to figure that out.”
He added, “I’ll certainly be part of the discussion, because I care deeply about — economically, I think we should be a conservative party. And on foreign policy, we’ve got to debate are we an isolationist party that withdraws from the world or do we believe in American leadership.”
Trump and Cruz have had an at-times rocky relationship since they were political foes 10 years ago, with Trump sometimes calling Cruz a "liar" or "unstable."
In 2016, Trump's insults also extended to members of Cruz's family. At one point, he accused Cruz's father — without evidence — of helping plot the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Trump also repeatedly insulted the senator's wife, Heidi Cruz, for her appearance.
Last year, Cruz rankled White House staffers and advisers who believed he was using some of his congressional power to position himself as a potentially more right-wing 2028 candidate than Vance.
Hearing on Kennedy Center renovations beginning
Oral arguments over the Trump administration’s renewed efforts to rename the Kennedy Center and close it for two years are getting underway now.
The administration threatened this week to demolish the center if the requested renovations aren’t allowed.
Outside the courthouse ahead of the hearing, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick — acting as a spokesman of sorts for the Kennedy Center — downplayed the threats, made in a legal filing, saying that was an “eventuality” but providing no real evidence that there is any plan to tear down the Kennedy Center.
Trump signs executive order to rename Lake Ontario as ‘Lake America’
Trump today signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America.”
Trump displays the signed executive order. Andrew Harnik / Getty Images
Trump has offered taunts and repeatedly that he would do so in his escalating trade war with Canada.
“This is official effective immediately,” Trump said after he signed the order in the Oval Office.
Canada owns the lakebed rights to the Canadian side of Lake Ontario, but neither country owns the naming rights.
“The Americans can call it whatever they want to call it,” Canadian maritime attorney Marc Isaacs told NBC News this week. “It is Lake Ontario.”
Isaacs compared the situation to Trump’s efforts to rename the Gulf of Mexico: “If the U.S. president decides the United States is going to call it something different, they can do that.”
Judge denies Minnesota’s bid to compel the extradition of an ICE officer from Texas
A federal judge yesterday refused to order Texas to extradite an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer charged with shooting a man and lying about it during the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty holds up a document listing charges against ICE officer Christian Castro at a news conference in May. Renée Jones Schneider / Renée Jones Schneider / Minnesota Star Tribune via AP file
Christian Castro is charged in Minnesota with assault and falsely reporting a crime in the Jan. 14 shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, 24. Minnesota authorities have sought his extradition since his arrest, but he remains in custody in Brownsville, Texas, a city bordering Mexico.
Trump to phone International Space Station astronauts from NASA Mission Control
Trump this week will become the first sitting president to call astronauts aboard the International Space Station from Mission Control at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.
It'll be part of a trip Trump is making to Johnson tomorrow to award the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to the crew of the Artemis II, who made history this year on their mission around the moon.
It won't be the first time a president has called the International Space Station, though — just the first time one will have done it from the iconic Johnson Space Center, which has hosted mission control for every crewed NASA mission since 1965's Gemini 4.
In 2011, President Barack Obama called the space station from the Oval Office, and Trump did the same in 2017, during his first term.
Trump in the past has proposed slashing funding for or privatizing the space station. In a 2018 budget proposal, the first Trump administration suggested ending the U.S.' involvement in it. Last year, near the start of his second term, Trump in an executive order proposed building a replacement for it with commercial funding.
Judge to hear arguments on Kennedy Center closure and renaming
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., will hear arguments this afternoon over the Trump administration’s renewed efforts to rename the Kennedy Center and to close the venue for two years to make renovations.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images
The hearing comes after the administration threatened to demolish the center if the requested renovations aren’t allowed.
USS Abraham Lincoln will stop in Thailand on its way home from lengthy Middle East deployment
The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier will make a stop in Thailand after its grueling deployment in the Middle East, Thai officials said.
The Lincoln was supporting the U.S. war against Iran, and its deployment included a record-setting uninterrupted time at sea of more than 250 days. Concerns have grown about the Lincoln’s lengthy deployment following reports of deteriorating mental health among the crew and shortages of supplies including food and hygiene products.
Thai defense ministry spokesperson Surasant Kongsiri said the Lincoln will stop in Thailand next week for rest and recovery before returning to its U.S. base.
“The stop in Thailand is a chance for the crew to go ashore and relax,” he told reporters yesterday at a news conference in Bangkok.
Karoline Leavitt calls her departure from White House post 'bittersweet'
Karoline Leavitt, the outgoing White House press secretary, said this morning that her decision to leave the role is "very bittersweet."
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Andrew Harnik / Getty Images file
Speaking to reporters outside the White House on her last day, she added, "I'll miss you guys. I know that's probably not something anyone would expect me to say, but obviously it's been great working with all of you."
"And I think people don't realize about this job: the briefings and what I just did on TV is 10%. Ninety percent of it is taking all of your calls at 5 in the morning and 11 p.m. at night, and I won't really miss that. But I will miss working with you guys every day," Leavitt, 28, went on to say.
Leavitt, the youngest person to serve as White House press secretary, announced earlier this month that she would step down. She plans to spend more time with her children and work for the president's super PAC, MAGA Inc., after she formally leaves the White House.
Trump hasn't yet named a replacement for Leavitt. She told reporters that the one piece of advice she has for the next press secretary is that "President Trump is his own best spokesperson."
"We joke ... that he is the true communications director and press secretary here at the White House," she added.
Judge suspends charges against a Marine veteran arrested with ammo on Trump’s L.A.-area golf course
A judge suspended criminal charges yesterday against a U.S. Marine veteran arrested at Trump’s Los Angeles-area golf course with ammunition and a gun in his vehicle. He is undergoing a psychiatric evaluation.
Los Angeles County Judge John Lonergan Jr. sent Jeanine John Taele, 38, to a mental health court in Hollywood based on statements he made in a pretrial evaluation indicating he wasn’t mentally fit to stand trial. In the evaluation, Taele falsely insisted he had been a State Department official for 14 years.
Trump signs proclamation to start importing discounted beef despite GOP backlash
Trump signed a proclamation yesterday seeking to lower beef prices by increasing imports and selling them at discounted prices, despite GOP lawmakers’ concerns that the move will harm American ranchers.
Al Drago / Getty Images
The proclamation says the U.S. will “temporarily increase the quantity of lean beef trimmings that are imported ... to ensure affordable beef for American consumers in light of current supply challenges,” according to a fact sheet from the White House.
The move will allow 100,000 tons to be imported per month for 90 days beginning Tuesday. The memo said that the plan applies only to “lean beef trimmings to combine with U.S. beef for ground beef” and that it “encourages beef to be sold at a 25% discount from the going import price.”
Several GOP lawmakers criticized the proposal last week, arguing that the discounted imports will make it harder on American farmers.
Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., wrote Friday on X that she was “extremely disappointed by this decision from the White House.”
“We all want lower grocery prices, but as I’ve said for months, we cannot do it at the expense of American producers. Flooding the market with foreign beef hurts our livestock industry,” Fischer wrote.
Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., wrote in his own post that “the reality is this action will make it more difficult for American ranchers to rebuild our herd and bring prices down for the American people. And most importantly, this will harm our ranching families who feed the nation.”
Military trial date set for alleged mastermind of Sept. 11 attacks
A military judge ruled yesterday that the man accused of being the mastermind behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks will stand trial starting in June 2028.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged Sept. 11 mastermind, shortly after his capture during a raid in Pakistan in 2003. AP file
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be prosecuted alongside others suspected of conspiring in the attacks: Walid bin Attash, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi.
Secret Service officials placed on leave in inquiry over potential misconduct
Secret Service communications director Anthony Guglielmi has been placed on leave, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News yesterday.
The news comes as a Secret Service spokesperson revealed that three officials who are not law enforcement personnel were put on leave pending an investigation into potential misconduct.
