Supreme Court rejects Republican redistricting push in Missouri
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Democrats head into November with their largest lead yet in the race for Congress and the president’s approval rating at a significant low, new NBC News polling averages show.
What to know today
- CALDWELL RESIGNS: New Jersey Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell resigned from his position after an investigation found he violated state ethics and harassment policy. New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill urged him to resign Thursday.
- MISSOURI MAP: For the third time, the Supreme Court on Friday shut down efforts by Missouri Republicans to use a new congressional map in the midterm elections that are already underway.
- XI VISIT: Chinese President Xi Jinping concluded his state visit with President Donald Trump today after the two leaders and first ladies met over tea this morning and paid a visit to the National Archives.
- NBC NEWS POLL: Democrats are heading into the final stretch of the 2026 midterms with their largest lead yet in the race for Congress and Trump’s approval rating at a significant low, according to NBC News’ newly released polling averages.
Lawmakers slam Trump’s ‘unlawful’ move to cut $810 million in federal funds
The White House said Friday that it planned to cut $810 million in bipartisan, congressionally approved funding, spurring criticism from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
The executive branch would effectively send the funds back to Congress using so-called pocket rescissions, a rare budgetary tactic that the Trump administration has used before to negate congressionally allocated spending. The rejected funding affects several programs and agencies serving immigrants, minority groups and Department of Health and Human Services research programs.
The administration has argued that while the law gives Congress a 45-day period to accept or reject a White House decision to withhold funds, there is no way to follow that protocol if the action occurs less than 45 days before the end of the fiscal year. That argument has been challenged in court and criticized by lawyers and both Republican and Democratic lawmakers.
The fiscal year ends Sept. 30, only a few days away, and the House is not scheduled to return until after the midterm elections in November.
‘You’re going to see more of it’: Republican candidates increasingly distance themselves from Trump
In the past two weeks, at least a dozen Republican candidates have distanced themselves from President Donald Trump, a move born out of a sense of political self-preservation that would have been unthinkable for much of the past decade.
Rep. Maria Salazar, R-Fla., and Republican candidate for Senate, Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa. Getty Images
In key swing states like Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and Michigan, GOP candidates are pushing for an end to the war with Iran. Other candidates, in places like Florida and California, removed references to the president from their campaign websites. And Republicans continue to express their disagreement with Trump’s aggressive push to build data centers.
Trump administration’s election security plan arrives too late for the midterms, officials say
Ryan Murphy / AP file
The Trump administration’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released an election security plan on Thursday that, according to election officials and former employees of the agency, comes too late to be helpful 40 days out from the midterms.
Supreme Court for the third time rejects Republican redistricting push in Missouri
Michael Thomas / AP file
For the third time, the Supreme Court today shut down efforts by Missouri Republicans to use a new congressional map in the midterm elections that are already underway.
The court blocked an appeals court ruling that sought to revive the 2025 map despite two previous Supreme Court decisions and a ruling by the Missouri Supreme Court that ruled against Republicans on the same issue. There were no dissents.
“At this late date, ordering reversion to the 2025 map in the midst of an ongoing election would usher in electoral chaos,” the ruling said.
In doing so, the justices granted an emergency application filed by People Not Politicians, the group challenging the new map.
Trump says he'll meet Xi twice more this year
Chinese President Xi’s state visit to Washington ended today, but in a post on Truth Social, Trump said that the leaders plan to meet twice more before the year’s end — in November during the APEC summit in Shenzhen, China and once more in December for G20 set to take place at the president’s golf course in Doral, Florida.
Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images
“President Xi and Madam Peng have just left D.C., heading for China. The meeting was one of Friendship, Strength, and Success, for both China and the U.S.A. We will be meeting again in November, in China, and then at the G20 in December, in Miami, Florida," he wrote. "Much has been, and will be, accomplished. I look forward to our next meeting!”
How race, religion and a private jet could make Appalachia a battleground in Ohio’s battle for governor
Vivek Ramaswamy won Ohio’s Republican primary for governor in May with a landslide 82.4% of the vote.
Jeff Swensen / Getty Images
But Democrats see opportunity this fall in the wide swath of rural counties where Ramaswamy won by smaller margins against a largely unknown opponent. Ramaswamy underperformed his statewide vote share in 29 of the 32 counties classified as Appalachia. Seven of his 10 weakest counties sit in the region that rings eastern and southern Ohio along the Ohio River.
New Jersey lieutenant governor resigns after release of damaging ethics report
Julian Leshay Guadalupe / USA Today Network via Reuters Connect
New Jersey Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell has resigned from his position following an investigation that found he violated state ethics and harassment policy, Gov. Mikie Sherrill said Friday at a press conference.
“He submitted his resignation to me this afternoon, which I accepted,” Sherrill said. Caldwell was not present at the announcement.
On Thursday, Sherrill urged Caldwell’s resignation after releasing a report summarizing the findings of an independent probe of his behavior, including alleged sexual harassment, conducted by a law firm hired by the state.
In a statement then, Sherrill said that Caldwell, a fellow Democrat, “engaged in serious, repeated violations of state policy and failed to uphold the responsibilities of his office. I’m calling for his resignation and giving him until tomorrow to do so.”
Caldwell’s resignation, she added, “is necessary and in the best interest of New Jersey residents.”
Administration runs another Trump-themed 'public service announcement'
The Trump administration just launched another television ad highlighting Trump, one of the spots it is referring to as "public service announcements" that are funded by the U.S. government.
The latest minute-long ad features Trump speaking against the backdrop of Mt. Rushmore and ends with him saying: "This is only the beginning of the golden age of America."
Its the second ad in a campaign that appears to have started this week where the government is airing campaign-style ads featuring Trump, arguing they are a public service instead of ads aimed at boosting the president's party ahead of November's elections.
The media monitoring company AdImpact estimates the administration has spent more than $400,000 to air the ads based on the airings it has caught, which is likely an undercount given how the service doesn't track every ad on every channel in every TV market in America.
James Comey seashells case delayed until early 2027
The seashells-based prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey has been delayed until early 2027, as a judge makes her way through a number of pending motions, including a request by Comey to dismiss the case on grounds that it was driven by Trump’s animus.
U.S. District Judge Louise Flanagan declined to set a trial date in the case against Comey, in which prosecutors say that a photo he posted on Instagram of seashells arranged to spell out “8647” amounted to a threat against the president. The term “86” is widely considered to be restaurant slang for running out of or canceling an item, and 47 is thought to be a reference to the 47th president.
Comey, who has not entered a plea yet in the case, had been set to be arraigned Wednesday at a federal courthouse in New Bern, North Carolina, but Flanagan pushed the arraignment until January.
Comey’s team had asked to delay the case.
“The gravity of the charges, pending motions, and the need to provide defense counsel additional time to prepare for trial promote need for continuance,” Flanagan wrote in an order today.
@comey via Instagram; Getty Images
Panda pair will arrive in Atlanta 'in a few days,' Xi says
Two giant pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, will soon make the roughly 8,000-mile journey from China to Atlanta, Chinese leader Xi Jinping revealed at the White House yesterday.
“Here, I have a piece of good news. In a few days, two pandas, Ping Ping and Fu Shuang, will come to their new home in Zoo Atlanta and meet with the American people,” Xi said.
Zoo Atlanta first announced the loan of the pair, a male and a female from a research base in Chengdu, in April, ahead of Trump’s May state visit to Beijing. Xi’s remarks yesterday were the first public confirmation of when the pandas would arrive.
Xi called the two furry, bamboo-loving animals “an envoy of friendship between the Chinese and Americans.” The move is a sign that Beijing’s panda diplomacy toward the U.S. is warming again.
China tightly controls where its pandas, a prized national symbol, are displayed. In late 2023, when relations between the two nations soured, loan agreements with U.S. zoos were allowed to lapse and the U.S. was left without pandas for several months.
Currently, two other U.S. zoos have pandas: the National Zoo in Washington and the San Diego Zoo, both of which received new pairs in 2024.
Xi invites 100,000 young Americans to study in China, double his previous pledge
Chinese leader Xi Jinping has invited 100,000 young Americans to China for study and exchange programs, double the number he pledged in a visit to San Francisco in 2023.
“The hope of the China-U.S. relationship lies in our people, and its future lies with the young,” Xi said yesterday after arriving at the White House. “I am glad to announce an invitation for 100,000 young Americans to visit China for exchanges and study in the coming five years.”
Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan board their plane Friday at Joint Base Andrews. Mark Schiefelbein / AP
Xi’s proposal, which works out to 20,000 students a year for the next five years, comes as Americans are studying in China in far fewer numbers than in the past. According to the annual Open Doors report, published by the Institute of International Education with State Department sponsorship, 1,749 Americans studied in mainland China in the 2023-24 academic year. This is up from a low of 211 in the 2021-22 school year, but well below the pre-pandemic high of 15,000 more than a decade ago.
In contrast, traffic in the other direction is much heavier. About 227,000 Chinese students studied in the U.S. in the 2023-24 academic year, though that number has been declining in recent years as rising tensions between the two nations have led to uneasiness for international students.
Supreme Court allows Trump administration to use expanded database for potential voter purges
The Supreme Court today permitted the Trump administration to use an expanded federal database containing citizenship information, as the president encourages states to purge people from voter rolls.
The justices, divided 6-3 on ideological lines with conservatives in the majority, granted an emergency request filed by the government after lower courts ruled that the Trump administration’s changes to the database were likely unlawful.
Trump and Xi viewed America's founding documents during National Archives tour
Trump, Xi and their wives viewed America's founding documents during a tour of the National Archives in downtown Washington this afternoon for about 10 minutes.
They viewed the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights inside the rotunda.
Speaking briefly to reporters inside, Trump said he and Xi were chatting about China being 6,000 years old compared with America's 250 years.
"But we’re very proud of our 250," Trump said.
Trump also confirmed that the two leaders discussed the war with Iran during their meetings.
Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images
CNN, MS NOW turned away from Xi state dinner despite court order to restore White House access
Trump touts Xi's visit during tea: 'We've made tremendous strides'
Trump and Xi each spoke about the Chinese president's visit to Washington during a tea with their wives in the Red Room of the White House today, the first TV pool coverage of Xi’s three-day visit so far.
The president did not answer any questions.
“We’ve had a tremendous visit from two spectacular people, and we really enjoyed it, and I think we’ve made tremendous strides,” Trump said. “We’ve made great strides, very positive for both countries.” He added that he thinks U.S. farmers will be “very happy.”
Jacquelyn Martin / AP
Xi said he expects to see Trump at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in China in November, as well as at the G20 in Miami in December.
Trump made a point to say the news coverage of the visit has been “very fair,” although there was no TV pool for most of the visit as a result of his banning three news outlets from the White House grounds last week.
White House says new pro-Trump ad funded by the ‘U.S. government’ is a ‘public service announcement’
The administration is airing a new TV ad touting Trump’s accomplishments — featuring Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White praising him as the “toughest, most resilient person,” with music proclaiming “love me” — which it says is a “public service announcement” funded “by the U.S. government.”
Japan says Trump voiced concern over weak yen in summit with PM Takaichi
Trump raised concern about yen weakness during a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said, offering an unusually detailed account of the leaders’ talks on currencies.
“At the recent Japan-U.S. summit meeting, President Trump expressed concern about the yen’s weakness,” Katayama said at a regular news conference, adding that she was disclosing the exchange for the first time after consulting with the prime minister’s office.
Katayama’s unusually frank account of the leaders’ talks, which governments typically keep confidential, points to shared concern in Tokyo and Washington over the yen’s continued slide despite their joint intervention in July.
Putin’s party secures a record number of seats in Russia’s wartime election
Russian authorities today released the full results from the country’s first wartime parliamentary election, which further cemented the Kremlin’s overwhelming political control.
The three-day balloting ended Sunday. According to the results released by the Central Election Commission, the main Kremlin party, United Russia, will get more than three-fourths of the seats in the lower house, the State Duma, a record high. The tightly orchestrated vote excluded virtually any genuine opposition.
Trump and Xi to view U.S. founding documents, historic treaties
Trump and Xi will view America’s founding documents, starting with the Declaration of Independence and then the Constitution and Bill of Rights, when they visit the National Archives this morning, CNN reported ahead of their arrival.
Those documents are housed in permanent display cases on the northern wall of the building's rotunda and are displayed from left to right in that order.
In their second and final stop of the tour, Trump and Xi are scheduled to view a collection of Chinese and American documents on display on a small table in the center of the rotunda, including the first diplomatic and trade treaty between the U.S. and China's Qing dynasty, signed in 1844; a subsequent version signed in 1858; an 1895 letter from the Guangxu emperor to President Grover Cleveland; the 1951 Treaty of Peace with Japan; and a stone from the Great Wall of China.
Trump says people at U.S.-China summit liked his idea of changing AI to 'super intelligence'
Trump said in a Truth Social post this morning that he had a "very productive meeting" with Xi and said "Tremendous things will be happening."
He suggested that people at the summit liked his idea of changing references to AI in government to "super intelligence."
"Like almost everyone else, he seemed to like calling the poorly and inaccurately named Artificial Intelligence to a far more accurate and important name, SUPER INTELLIGENCE," he said. "That would be 'SUPER!' Everyone last night agreed, also."
He first made the suggestion in his speech before the U.N. General Assembly earlier this week.
Bill Gates says AI companies self-regulating isn’t enough and governments should be involved in monitoring
Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates on Wednesday called for lawmakers in Washington to regulate the development of artificial intelligence, weeks after the CEOs of some of the nation’s biggest AI labs agreed on the need to slow the pace of AI progress.
“No one thinks self-regulation is enough,” Gates told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” in an interview set to air in full Sunday.
Meet The Press
Who was invited to Trump's state dinner for Xi at the White House?
More than 130 people attended the state dinner Trump hosted at the White House for Xi last night. The White House released a list of invited guests.
In addition to members of the Cabinet, guests included Trump's children Ivanka, Eric and Tiffany and daughter-in-law Lara.
Business executives included Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple board chair Tim Cook, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and Amazon founder and chairman Jeff Bezos.
Sam Altman and Mark Zuckerberg at the dinner. Annabelle Gordon / Bloomberg via Getty Images
A few Supreme Court justices attended, including Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Amy Coney Barrett and Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Lawmakers included House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.; Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont.; and Reps. Richard McCormick, R-Ga., and Jason Smith, R-Mo. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine was also invited.
Several members of conservative media attended, including Fox News' Jesse Watters, Bret Baier and Laura Ingraham.
N.J. Gov. Mikie Sherrill calls on Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell to resign after internal investigation finds ethics, sexual harassment violations
Julian Leshay Guadalupe / USA Today Network via Reuters file
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said last night that she was giving Lt. Gov. Dale Caldwell until today to resign after an internal investigation found he had violated state ethics and harassment policy.
“Today, I’m announcing the conclusion and findings of an independent investigation into allegations regarding Lieutenant Governor Dale Caldwell,” Sherrill wrote on X. “The investigation found that the Lieutenant Governor engaged in serious, repeated violations of state policy and failed to uphold the responsibilities of his office. I’m calling for his resignation and giving him until tomorrow to do so.”
The state of New Jersey said this month that it had hired a law firm to investigate allegations that Caldwell, who was elected on the ticket with Sherrill last year, had behaved inappropriately toward women.
Sherrill said Caldwell’s “ethical lapses persisted despite multiple warnings and trainings.”
“The substantiated finding of sexual harassment is extremely troubling. I’ve seen firsthand how a hostile culture can undermine everyone’s ability to succeed. It’s insidious and ruptures the trust within an organization,” she said.
Sherrill said that the investigation “fully examined the evidence, followed the facts, and protected everyone’s privacy” and that Caldwell’s resignation “is necessary and in the best interest of New Jersey residents.”
Lawyers for Caldwell said in a statement last night that they “strongly disputed the three findings in the investigation into allegations concerning his conduct,” as its conclusions “go further than the evidence supports.”
“This unnecessarily protracted and one-sided process lacked the requisite due process that should be afforded every citizen of this state,” Thomas Calcagni, a lawyer for Caldwell, said.
Calcagni said Caldwell was “not provided a meaningful opportunity to address each of these anonymous allegations or offer readily identifiable witnesses who possessed more pertinent, first-hand knowledge of the events in question.”
The 61-page report, which was published by the New Jersey Globe, found that Caldwell sexually harassed a young female staffer and her friend. Caldwell was also found to have violated state ethics rules for using his office to try to promote a state employee whom he had a romantic relationship with, without disclosing the relationship.
He also violated ethics rules by making a practice of taking personal guests to ticketed events without providing payment or reimbursement for the tickets, the report said.
White House ban on Politico cited reporting from a press call with a senior Trump administration official
The Trump administration told Politico on Tuesday that it revoked the outlet’s credentials, in part, because it allegedly “threatened national security and/or spread falsehoods.”
One of the stories cited by the White House was a report on the administration’s efforts to end the war with Iran, based on information from a senior administration official who spoke with reporters during a White House press call on June 12.
Journalists who participated in the call, including NBC News, were asked not to name the speaker, who put the odds of “a preliminary deal with Iran at 80 to 85%.” Reporters were informed the call was held “on background” and agreed to “attribute remarks to a ‘senior administration official.’”
The Trump administration’s letter to Politico, made public through a government court filing Wednesday, said the story violated White House standards: “In June 2026, Politico cited a ‘senior administration official … granted anonymity’ said the odds of a preliminary deal to end the conflict with Iran were between 80 and 85 percent,” the letter said.
But other news organizations, including The Associated Press and CNBC, reported on the same briefing using the same attribution and were not included in Trump’s ban.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
A lawyer for Politico, CNN and MS NOW, the three outlets banned by Trump, said the White House is falsely arguing that national security concerns justify the ban.
Journalists from the outlets temporarily regained access to White House grounds yesterday, after a federal judge ordered the administration to immediately reinstate their credentials.
Inside NBC News’ polling averages: Democrats enjoy biggest lead yet in the race for Congress
Democrats are heading into the final stretch of the 2026 midterms with their largest lead yet in the race for Congress and Trump’s approval rating at a significant low, according to NBC News’ newly released polling averages.
A 9-point advantage for Democrats when it comes to control of Congress is part of a steady deterioration of the political environment for Republicans. The parties started the road to this November effectively tied in the weeks after Trump took office last year, but independents have gradually begun to prefer a Democratic-controlled Congress. And these voters have soured on Trump and his economic policies in particular.
Trump rolls out red carpets for Xi Jinping, though he has portrayed China as a global menace
He has accused China of hacking America’s elections and plundering its wealth, yet Trump has showered the visiting Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, with tributes and affection during their summit meeting this week at the White House.
