Closing summary
This brings our live coverage of the day in US politics to a close. We’ll be back on Tuesday. Here are some of the day’s developments:
Texas Democrats in the state legislature denied Republicans a legislative quorum by leaving the state, preventing, at least for now, plans proposed by the White House to aggressively redistrict Texas’s congressional lines in their favor. The state’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, said he he had ordered the Texas department of public safety to “locate, arrest and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans”. He also directed the Texas Rangers to go after Democratic lawmakers, claiming Democrats accepted money as part of their plans to leave Texas and avoid a legislative special session. More here.
The former Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioners and non-partisan economic groups have criticized Donald Trump’s shock firing of BLS commissioner Erika McEntarfer after the July jobs report data revealed jobs growth stalled this summer. Trump, without any evidence to back his claims, alleged McEntarfer “faked” employment numbers in the run-up to the 2024 election to boost Kamala Harris’s chances and said that the recent data was “rigged” to make Trump and Republicans look bad. More here.
About 600 former Israeli security officials, including previous heads of the Mossad and the military, have urged Donald Trump to pressure Israel to end the war in Gaza as the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, considers expanding the conflict. In an open letter, the former officials said an end to the war was the only way to save hostages still held by Hamas. Read the full story here.
More than a dozen Democratic members of congress have signed on to a letter – addressed to the president and secretary of state Marco Rubio – that calls for the United States to recognise Palestinian statehood, in a draft seen by the Guardian. Congressman Ro Khanna of California is leading the letter, and is joined by several House progressives. Including Congressman Greg Casar of Texas and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal of Washington. Here’s the full story.
Mike Johnson became the highest ranked US official to visit the occupied West Bank on Monday, the Republican House speaker drawing measures of praise and condemnation for his trip in support of Israeli settlements amid a worsening starvation crisis in Gaza. The excursion followed Johnson’s arrival in Israel on Sunday on an unannounced visit with other Republican lawmakers, and his meeting with Israeli defense minister Israel Katz and foreign minister Gideon Saar. Read the story here.
The US state department has prepared plans to impose bonds as high as $15,000 for some tourism and business visas, according to a draft of a temporary final rule. The bonds would be issued to visitors from countries with significant overstay rates, under a 12-month pilot program. More here.
Marjorie Taylor Greene asked President Donald Trump to pardon George Santos, the disgraced former Republican representative who began his seven-year prison sentence last month.
Greene said she sent a letter to the Department of Justice asking them to present a case to Trump for clemency consideration for Santos, who served as a representative for New York’s third congressional district before he was expelled.
She said Santos’ sentence for wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges “extends far beyond what is warranted”.
“George Santos has taken responsibility. He’s shown remorse. It’s time to correct this injustice,” Greene said on X.
Santos pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in August 2024 after running a fraudulent campaign for the United States House of Representatives.
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Greg Abbott directs Texas Rangers to investigate Democratic lawmakers
After the Texas governor ordered the arrest of Democratic lawmakers who fled the state to block a Republican-led redistricting plan, he announced that he was also directing the Texas Rangers to go after Democratic lawmakers.
Abbott asserted on X without presenting evidence that Democrats “may have violated” state bribery laws. He claims Democrats accepted money as part of their plans to leave Texas and avoid a legislative special session.
Enforcing Abbott’s order will be difficult because Democrats who left the state are beyond the jurisdiction of Texas authorities.
For more context on today’s developments, George Chidi and Lauren Gambino have all the details:
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Bloomberg reports that Missouri Republicans are weighing a redistricting proposal modeled after a similar effort in Texas, a move bolstered by Donald Trump to help Republicans retain control of Congress after the 2026 midterm elections.
State senator Cindy O’Laughlin, the Republican president pro tem, said governor Mike Kehoe is reviewing the plan.
According to St Louis’ KSDK, Republican leaders are considering a plan that could reduce the state’s Democratic-held seats in Congress from two to one. That effort would remove the Kansas City-based district currently represented by Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat.
“Well, it will certainly hurt my constituents, but it’s going to hurt the whole country. Because this is what people become disenfranchised about. They bail out of politics,” Cleaver said.
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Back in Texas, reporter Roque Planas brings us the latest from Greg Casar’s picket outside the Governor’s Mansion:
Congressman Greg Casar railed against Texas governor Greg Abbott for threatening to arrest Democratic lawmakers who fled the state in an attempt to block redistricting from moving forward by denying Republican lawmakers a quorum.
“It’s absurd that Greg Abbott thinks he’s some kind of dictator that can send DPS [Texas department of public safety] to arrest elected officials,” Casar said.
“Governor Abbott could have easily passed flood relief on day one of this special session,” Casar added. “Instead he’s holding flood relief hostage … It’s all about himself and Donald Trump.”
Every Republican member of the Texas congressional delegation that Casar has discussed the map with has told him privately that they oppose the redistricting effort, he said. Republicans have worried since Trump first floated the redistricting plan that any attempt to redraw the state’s congressional districts could backfire, since creating new right-leaning districts is hard to do without making existing red districts less conservative.
Christina Destefano, 32, said she joined the protest out of anger at the Republican-dominated Texas legislature’s decision to prioritize redistricting over passing relief for the victims of the Hill Country floods that left more than 100 people dead.
“I’m opposed to the gerrymandering and redistricting,” Destefano said. “I would like free and fair elections.”
“There’s a lot of fight here,” she added. “We are not a solid red state. There’s a lot of courage coming from Democratic leaders to break quorum.”
David Pyndus, 66, another attendee, said he enjoyed the opportunity to meet Casar, his congressional representative.
Pyndus only found out at the protest that if the Republican-drawn map becomes law, neither he nor Casar would live in their current district.
“I’m glad to see my congressman out here organizing people,” he said. “We all know that life isn’t fair. But shouldn’t government be leveling the playing field?”
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'We're participating in a long American tradition of standing up to bullies,' Texas Democrat tells the Guardian
I just spoke with Representative James Talarico on the phone. He’s one of the Texas Democratic lawmakers who fled the state to break quorum. Talarico is now just outside Chicago, and told me that he and his colleagues are committed to staying out of the Texas state Capitol for the next two weeks, until the end of the special session on 19 August.
He added that the support for the legislators who left Texas has been overwhelming.
“We are using the avalanche of grassroots donations across Texas to fund the food and the travel and the lodgings,” Talarico said. “There’s a lot more cost to this than just the fines,” referring to the $500 penalty that lawmakers incur each day they are absent from the state Capitol without permission during a legislative session.
Talarico also confirmed that he and his Democratic colleagues will be paying these daily fines themselves. But he added that state representatives only earn roughly $600 a month. “We have day jobs, it’s how we make ends meet and we’re leaving those behind,” he told me. “This was not a an easy thing to do, and it wasn’t a decision we made lightly, but I hope that underscores the egregiousness of this redistricting power grab in Texas.”
Governor Greg Abbott’s recent calls to expel and arrest the fleeing Democratic lawmakers isn’t an empty threat to Talarico. “If the governor is able to remove his political opponents, you know, we’re walking down a dangerous road,” he said.
While Talarico characterises the kind of mid-decade redistricting that’s happening in Texas as “the rot at the core of our broken political system”, he said that it may be the only resort available for Democrats if Texas Republicans do push through their new map. “If one side is intent on cheating, the other side has to respond, and it would be malpractice not to,” he said after I pressed him about Governor Gavin Newsom’s plans for California.
Ultimately, Talarico is hopeful that the spotlight on the redistricting battle in Texas is forcing people to “wake up” to Donald Trump’s attempt to “shield himself from voters”.
He’s worried he’s going to lose the midterms. He’s worried that he’s going to lose it his majority in Congress. Because he’s wrecking the economy, he’s starting wars, he’s protecting pedophiles, he’s kicking billions of people off their health care to fund tax breaks for billionaires. And by rigging this map in Texas he’s trying to shield from accountability.
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Jasmine Crockett, representative for Texas’s 30th congressional district, and Texas State representative Ron Reynolds closed out today’s press conference, vowing that Democrats will keep “speaking truth to power” and defending marginalized communities’ right to vote.
“Do whatever you can to support these heroes, because they are the ones that have to leave their families. They are the ones that have warrants out for their arrest. They are the ones that are doing things that honestly, a lot of other people do not have the audacity to do,” said Crockett.
Democratic Texas lawmakers called efforts to create a new congressional map designed to give the GOP five additional seats in the US House next year “racist” and designed to silence minority voices.
“One vote makes a difference, and in Texas, they are trying to silence five democratic voices in the Congress of the United States of America,” said Texas Congressman Al Green. “There are no circumstances that will prevent me from continuing to challenge the bigotry emanating from the presidency and policy.”
“Our sleeves are rolled up, and we’re ready to take this fight wherever it’s going to take us, because our communities, our state and our nation is definitely worth fighting for,” said Texas State representative Jessica González. “We have not had real discussions about providing folks relief who are in desperate need of it. And so we’re just not going to stand for it. We’re tired of it, and we’re not gonna let let them do that to our communities.”
Texas congresswoman Julie Johnson said: “I never thought as a Texan, as an elected member of the Texas House of Representatives, and now as an elected member from Texas to the United States House of Representatives, that I would see the governor of the proud state of Texas bend a knee to a felon from New York. Never thought I’d see the day, but here we are.”
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Texas House Democrats who fled to Illinois over the weekend are now holding a press conference in Chicago. They left Texas on Sunday to block a Republican-led redistricting plan that would create five additional GOP-leaning districts ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Republicans fell short of a quorum today by eight votes after Democrats fled to Illinois, a legislative conference in Boston, New York and elsewhere.
“I want you to know that you are welcome in Illinois,” said Illinois congresswoman Robin Kelly. “Stay as long as you want. Whatever we can do to make your stay more comfortable, we want to do that because we believe in what you’re doing.”
Reporting from Austin, Texas, Roque Planas covers congressman Greg Casar’s picket outside the Governor’s Mansion:
A few dozen protesters gathered in front of the governor’s mansion in Austin on Monday to protest the Republicans’ hasty rewriting of the state’s congressional districts.
Led by Democratic congressmen Greg Casar and Lloyd Doggett, protesters marched back and forth across the parking lot in front of the gates of the Governor’s mansion.
Speaking into a bullhorn, Casar, a leading progressive, praised state Democrats for fleeing the state to deny Republicans the quorum they need to pass a new congressional map that would sharply dilute Democratic voting strength in an effort to preserve a Republican majority in next year’s congressional midterms.
President Lyndon B Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965 to “prevent maps like this”, Casar said. “We’re going to fight like hell to stop it. We’re not going back to pre-1965.”
“That’s what tyranny looks like,” Doggett added, pointing toward the mansion.
“I see him basically as an errand boy for President Trump,” Doggett said of the Texas governor, Greg Abbott. “He didn’t ask for this map, he’s just following orders.”
The group chanted slogans like “Whose seats? Our seats!” as they paced along a stretch perhaps 40 yards of concrete.
“Let’s hear from the folks who want flood relief instead of redistricting!” Casar shouted as they marched.
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California governor vows to 'fight fire with fire' as state prepares ballot initiative to counter Texas GOP redistricting
California governor Gavin Newsom vowed to “fight fire with fire”, as a showdown over the Republican-led effort to redraw Texas’s congressional maps in the party’s favor escalated.
At a press conference on Monday, Newsom said the state’s Democratic leaders were in the process of preparing a ballot initiative asking California voters to enact new congressional maps if – and only if – Texas moves forward with its effort – sought by Donald Trump – to add five more GOP-leaning House seats before the upcoming midterms. Newsom said any proposal from California would “more than” off-set those Republican gains in Texas.
“We will punch above our weight, and it will have profound national implications,” the governor warned, adding: “These folks don’t play by the rules. If they can’t win playing the game with the existing set of rules, they’ll change the rules.”
Newsom said he supported the state’s independent redistricting commission, and still believed it should serve as a national model to avoid partisan map-making. But he said the nearly 250-year American project was on the line.
“We’re not drawing lines to draw lines. We’re holding the line on democracy, on the rule of law,” the governor said. “This is not an intellectual exercise.”
He said the ballot measure would only move forward if Texas redrew its maps as proposed. “It’s cause and effect, triggered on the basis of what occurs or doesn’t occur in Texas,” Newsom said. “I hope they do the right thing, and if they do, then there’ll be no cause for us to have to move forward.”
Newsom said he was confident that the state legislature would be able to get a measure on the ballot by November, and believed voters would approve the request given the “ existential realities that we’re now facing”.
“Things have changed. Facts have changed. So we must change,” Newsom said.
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The US attorney general, Pam Bondi, directed federal prosecutors to move forward with an inquiry into accusations that members of the Obama administration manufactured intelligence about Russia’s 2016 election interference, CNN reported.
The grand jury would have the authority to issue subpoenas and potentially recommend indictments if the justice department decides there is enough evidence for a criminal case.
The investigation centers on allegations that Democratic officials falsely accused Donald Trump’s campaign of colluding with Russia as a tactic to damage him during the 2016 election.
The move comes after a referral from director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who declassified documents in July that she alleges undermine the Obama administration’s conclusion that Russia tried to help Trump defeat Hillary Clinton.
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The US Food and Drug Administration announced today that Sean Keveney has been appointed as its new chief counsel, who is responsible for overseeing all legal matters at the agency.
Keveney previously served as acting general counsel at the Department of Health and Human Services, where he led legal efforts to advance administration priorities and regulatory reforms under the “make America healthy again” agenda. He sent a letter to Harvard earlier this year demanding that the university make a series of policy changes in order to continue to receive federal funding.
Before his time at HHS, he spent nearly 16 years in the civil rights division of the Department of Justice.
Keveney succeeds Robert Foster, who had been serving as interim chief counsel after the sudden resignation of Hilary Perkins. Perkins stepped down just two days after her appointment was announced, following criticism from Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, who labeled her “pro-abortion” and supportive of vaccine mandates.
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The United States and Rwanda have agreed for the African country to potentially accept hundreds of migrants deported from the US, Reuters reports.
The agreement, signed by US and Rwandan officials in Kigali in June, allows Rwanda to accept up to 250 migrants. A Rwandan official told Reuters that Washington has already provided an initial list of 10 people for vetting.
“Rwanda has agreed with the United States to accept up to 250 migrants, in part because nearly every Rwandan family has experienced the hardships of displacement, and our societal values are founded on reintegration and rehabilitation,” said the spokesperson for the Rwandan government, Yolande Makolo.
Makolo added: “Under the agreement, Rwanda has the ability to approve each individual proposed for resettlement. Those approved will be provided with workforce training, healthcare and accommodation support to jumpstart their lives in Rwanda, giving them the opportunity to contribute to one of the fastest-growing economies in the world over the last decade.”
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The congressional budget office (CBO) informed Jeff Merkley, the Senate budget committee ranking member, in a letter Monday that Trump’s tax and spending cut bill would add $5tn to the deficit over the next decade if its temporary tax relief provisions are extended for 10 years.
The letter comes after the CBO released an analysis last month showing that the bill will add $3.4tn to the debt.
The CBO projects that making temporary provisions like the tax exemption on tipped wages up to $25,000 and the $6,000 senior deduction permanent would increase the debt by an additional $789bn over the next decade.
Including another $718bn in debt-servicing costs, the total price tag for Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” would approach $5tn over 10 years. Merkely said in a statement:
Each and every analysis from the nonpartisan congressional budget office continues to show the same result regardless of how you look at it: this bill explodes the debt by trillions of dollars to fund tax breaks for billionaires. Republicans can’t spin the fact that this bill is bad policy that kicks more than 15 million people off of their health insurance, will force millions of kids to go hungry, and explodes the national debt by $5 trillion over the next 10 years – pushing the cost of this bill onto future generations to ensure billionaires can pay less in taxes.
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Greg Abbott orders the arrest of Democratic lawmakers who left the state
The Texas governor ordered the arrest of Democratic lawmakers who left the state to block a controversial vote on new congressional maps.
“Texas House Democrats abandoned their duty to Texans,” Abbott said in a statement. “By fleeing the state, Texas House Democrats are holding hostage critical legislation to aid flood victims and advance property tax relief. There are consequences for dereliction of duty.”
“Speaker Dustin Burrows just issued a call of the Texas House and issued warrants to compel members to return to the chamber. To ensure compliance, I ordered the Texas department of public safety to locate, arrest, and return to the House chamber any member who has abandoned their duty to Texans.”
Abbott said the order will remain in effect until “all missing Democrat House members are accounted for and brought to the Texas Capitol”.
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Texas House reconvenes without quorum as Democrats flee state
Texas Democrats in the state legislature denied its speaker a legislative quorum Monday by leaving the state, forestalling plans proposed by the White House to redistrict Texas’s congressional lines to more greatly favor Republicans.
When the legislature gaveled in at 3pm local time on Monday, Republicans fell short of a quorum by eight votes after Democratic lawmakers fled to Illinois, a legislative conference in Boston, New York and elsewhere.
Democrats hold 62 of the 150 seats in the legislature’s lower chamber, so as long as at least 51 members remain out of Austin, the Texas legislature cannot move forward with any votes, including a plan to redraw the state’s congressional maps to give Republicans five more seats in Congress.
The Texas speaker, Representative Dustin Burrows, adjourned the house until 1pm on Tuesday after issuing a call for absent lawmakers and threatening their arrest. He cited pending legislation on flood relief and human trafficking – and not the contentious redistricting proposal before the chamber – in his call for Democrats to return.
Instead of confronting those challenges, some of our colleagues have fled the state in their duty. They’ve left the state, abandoned their posts and turned their backs on the constituents they swore to represent. They’ve shirked their responsibilities under the direction and pressure of out-of-state politicians and activists who don’t know the first thing about what’s right for Texas.
Texas governor Greg Abbott has threatened arrest, fines, felony charges of bribery and expulsion against the lawmakers.
Real Texans do not run from a fight. This truancy ends now. The derelict Democrat House members must return to Texas and be in attendance when the House reconvenes at 3pm on Monday, August 4, 2025.”
Here’s the full story by George Chidi, The Guardian’s politics and democracy reporter:
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Transgender women seeking to compete in women’s sports will now face new visa restrictions under an immigration policy update announced today by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Under the revised policy, USCIS will consider “the fact that a male athlete has been competing against women” as a negative factor when evaluating visa petitions in categories such as the O-1A for extraordinary ability, EB-1 and EB-2 green cards for highly skilled workers and national interest waivers.
“USCIS is closing the loophole for foreign male athletes whose only chance at winning elite sports is to change their gender identity and leverage their biological advantages against women,” said Matthew Tragesser, a USCIS spokesperson.
The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee last month updated its policy to align with an executive order signed earlier this year by Trump barring transgender women from competing in women’s sports.
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House Democrats sign on to Palestinian statehood letter
More than a dozen Democratic members of congress have signed on to a letter – addressed to the president and secretary of state Marco Rubio – that calls for the United States to recognise Palestinian statehood, in a draft seen by the Guardian.
Congressman Ro Khanna of California is leading the letter, and is joined by several House progressives. Including Congressman Greg Casar of Texas and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal of Washington.
“This is the moment for the United States to officially recognise a Palestinian state,” Khanna said in a statement. “Over 147 countries have recognised a Palestinian state, soon to include France, Britain, Canada and Australia. We cannot be isolated from the rest of the free world.”
Khanna’s office told the Guardian that the letter will be sent out after 16 September.
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As Texas continues special session without a quorum, a recap of the day so far:
The redistricting battle in Texas has gone far beyond the state’s borders, as Democrats fled the state to various blue safe-havens (New York, Massachusetts, and Illinois) –breaking quorum and grinding legislative business to a halt. Texas Governor Greg Abbott – incensed by Dems bolting – has vowed to expel lawmakers who fail to return to the Capitol in Austin by 3pm CT. The Texas House Democratic Caucus snapped back in a statement: “Come and take it”.
Abbott has also threatened to pursue legal action if any Texas Democrats solicit campaign donations that are used to pay the $500-a-day fine they’re racking up by leaving the Capitol during a legislative session without permission.
The new mid-decade congressional map by Texas Republicans – redrawn earlier than usual at the behest of Donald Trump – has ignited a counterattack from Democrats. In an effort to offset the five seats that the GOP could pick up in 2026 if Texas successfully passes their map, Governor Gavin Newsom is pushing for a special election to reinstate the California legislature with the power to redraw the state’s own map. Meanwhile, New York Governor Kathy Hochul said at a press conference earlier today that she’s exploring “every option” to redraw New York’s state congressional lines. However, this would require a re-write of the state’s constitution.
In the days since Donald Trump fired Erika McEntarfer – the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) – he has doubled down on his baseless claims that her latest, and last, jobs report was “rigged” and the data was “manipulated”. Despite the lack of evidence, his circle maintain the president “wants his own people” at the BLS.
Also earlier, the president announced a new tariff hike for India – the exact number currently unknown. It comes as a penalty for India continuing to buy and sell Russian oil. A choice, that Trump says, is helping fund “the Russian war machine” in Ukraine. India’s government has called the increased levies “unjustified and unreasonable”.
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Tariff increase is 'unjustified and unreasonable', says Indian government
India’s foreign ministry has responded to the tariff hike that Donald Trump announced on Truth Social today.
In a statement, the Ministry of External affairs said that “the targeting of India is unjustified and unreasonable”.
The Indian government also claimed that the increased purchase of Russian oil was because “traditional supplies were diverted to Europe”, and at that time the US “actively encouraged such imports by India for strengthening global energy markets’ stability”.
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The Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) will deny federal aid for natural disaster preparedness if a US state or city boycotts Israeli companies, according to Reuters.
This would apply to “$1.9 billion that states rely on to cover search-and-rescue equipment, emergency manager salaries and backup power systems among other expenses”, according to the grant notices reviewed by Reuters.
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California congressman to introduce redistricting legislation
Republican representative Kevin Kiley plans to introduce a bill that would prevent mid-decade redistricting across the country.
It’s in response to the push from California governor Gavin Newsom to redraw the state map to counter the ensuing redistricting battle in Texas.
California currently has a special commission that oversees the congressional map, so Newsom would need California voters to restore those powers to the legislature.
In a statement announcing his proposed legislation, Kiley called Newson’s plans “a brazen scheme” that will “undo the will of voters, and return line-drawing power to himself and other partisan politicians”.
Given the president’s pressure for Texas lawmakers to pass the newly proposed congressional map early, it’s unlikely that the bill will get much, if any, support in the House.
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Some tourists and business travelers may face up to $15,000 bond to enter US
The US state department has prepared plans to impose bonds as high as $15,000 for some tourism and business visas, according to a draft of a temporary final rule.
The bonds would be issued to visitors from countries with significant overstay rates, under a 12-month pilot program.
It renews an initiative issued by the first Trump administration in November 2020, the month that Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in the presidential election. That rule would have required a $15,000 bond for tourist and business travelers from two dozen countries with 10% or higher overstay rates, mostly in Africa.
The new federal registry notice of the visa bond pilot program is scheduled to be published on 5 August.
“The Pilot Program will enable the Department to assess the operational feasibility of posting, processing, and discharging visa bonds, in coordination with the Department of the Treasury (‘Treasury’) and the Department of Homeland Security (‘DHS’), and to inform any future decision concerning the possible use of visa bonds to ensure nonimmigrants using these visa categories comply with the terms and conditions of their visas and timely depart the United States,” it states.
It said it would announce the countries in question at the “Travel.State.Gov” website no fewer than 15 days before the pilot program takes effect. It also said the list might change, again with 15 days’ notice.
Tourists and business travelers would receive their bonds back when they depart the US, are naturalized as a citizen or die, according to the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement regulations.
The original six-month pilot program was never implemented.
The Trump administration has cracked down on immigration to the US, including terminating temporary protected status for many people living in the US, and banning immigration visas outright for 12 countries.
The state department last month also unveiled new guidance directing US diplomats to review the online activity of foreign students before issuing educational and exchange visas. Students who refuse to unlock their social media profiles will be suspected of hiding the activity from US officials.
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The Pentagon said that the under secretary for research and engineering has directed a reduction in personnel within the defense technology information center, Reuters reports.
The move will save taxpayers more than $25m and 40 “mission-essential personnel” will be retained, the Pentagon said in a statement. It did not elaborate on the reduction.
Illinois governor says Texas Democrats who left will be protected amid arrest threats
The Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, has vowed to protect the Democratic members of the Texas house of representatives who left the state in an attempt to block Republican efforts to redraw Texas’s congressional maps.
“We’re going to do everything we can to protect every single one of them and make sure that – ’cause we know they’re doing the right thing, we know that they’re following the law,” Pritzker said at a press conference on Sunday in Illinois alongside some of the the Texas Democratic lawmakers.
The Texas Democrats fled the state on Sunday in an effort to prevent the Texas house from reaching the quorum on Monday needed to vote on a newly proposed congressional map.
In response to the Democrats’ actions, Greg Abbott, the Republican Texas governor, threatened to expel the Texas Democrats from the state house if they do not return by Monday at 3pm CT – when the legislature is set to resume. Ken Paxton, Texas’s Republican attorney general, also condemned their actions on Sunday and threatened their arrest.
“Democrats in the Texas House who try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately,” he said in a statement. “We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law.”
But Pritzker, who said he will support the Texas Democrats, described their actions as “a righteous act of courage”, saying that they “were left no choice but to leave their home state, block a vote from taking place, and protect their constituents”.
Hundreds of ex-Israeli security officials urge Trump to help end war in Gaza
Some 600 former Israeli security officials, including previous heads of the Mossad and the military, have urged Donald Trump to pressure Israel to end its war in Gaza as the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, considers expanding his assault.
In an open letter, the former officials said an end to the war was the only way to save hostages still held by Hamas.
“Your credibility with the vast majority of Israelis augments your ability to steer prime minister Netanyahu and his government in the right direction: end the war, return the hostages, stop the suffering,” they wrote.
They added that they thought Hamas no longer posed a strategic threat to Israel.
An expansion of the war would be contrary to what Trump’s Middle East envoy told the families of hostages over the weekend was the US position. Steve Witkoff said Washington was backing a comprehensive end to the Gaza war that would bring hostages home and assured the families that would not mean more fighting.
Any expansion of the conflict would risk worsening the already catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza. A UN-affiliated humanitarian body said the territory was experiencing famine, as the approximate 2.1 million people who live there experience mass starvation.
Marjorie Taylor Greene suggests she may abandon the Republican party
Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the most prominent voices in Donald Trump’s Maga movement, has declared in an interview that she feels that the Republican party has lost touch with its base, and suggested she may abandon the party entirely.
The Georgia congresswoman told the Daily Mail this week she was questioning whether she still belongs in the Republican fold and expressed resounding frustration with GOP leadership. She said:
I don’t know if the Republican party is leaving me, or if I’m kind of not relating to Republican party as much any more. I don’t know which one it is.
Greene, who boasts 7.5 million followers on X and commands one of the largest social media audiences of any Republican woman, accused party leaders of betraying core conservative principles.
She did not criticize Trump himself, instead preferring to express her ire for what she attempted to paint as political elites.
“I think the Republican party has turned its back on America First and the workers and just regular Americans,” she said, warning that GOP leadership was reverting to its “neocon” past under the influence of what she termed the “good ole boys” network.
In the roughly six-month mark following Trump’s return to the White House, Greene said she was particularly frustrated with the House speaker, Mike Johnson, saying: “I’m not afraid of Mike Johnson at all.”
On Monday, Greene, 51, used social media to criticize the lack of accountability over what she deems key issues to the base, sharing a table showing no arrests for the “Russian Collusion Hoax”, “Jan 6th”, and “2020 Election”.
“Like what happened all those issues? You know that I don’t know what the hell happened with the Republican Party. I really don’t,” she said in the interview. “But I’ll tell you one thing, the course that it’s on, I don’t want to have anything to do with it, and I just don’t care any more.”
Her recent bills have targeted unconventional Republican territory: preventing cloud-seeding, making English the official US language, and cutting capital gains taxes on homes. She is also the first Republican in Congress to label the crisis in Gaza a genocide, and has called for ending foreign aid and using the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge) to cut down fraud and waste in the government.
Greene acknowledged her isolation within the party, saying: “I’m going alone right now on the issues that I’m speaking about.”
A Doge-style audit launched by Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis into Democratic-run cities and counties he accuses of wasteful spending could soon be known by an offensive new name: FAFO, universally known as a meme for the phrase “fuck around and find out”.
In a post to X on Monday, DeSantis said the acronym - which he claims actually stands for a Florida Agency for Fiscal Oversight he has yet to formally commission, had “a nice ring to it” and that he “might need to work up an executive order and make it official”.
Under the guise of ensuring “transparency and accountability” in local government, DeSantis sent audit teams last week into the city of Gainesville, and Broward county, two pockets of Democratic strength in a largely Republican state.
It is part of a wider initiative the governor trumpeted earlier this year to replicate Elon Musk’s Doge (the so-called “department of government efficiency”) efforts at state level in support of his ambitious longer-term goal of eliminating property taxes.
Taking credit for the FAFO handle is Florida’s new chief financial officer Blaise Ingoglia, a staunch DeSantis ally whose X profile includes the words “If you’re looking for snark, you’ve found it.”
He posted on Monday an assertion that he got “a rave reception” when he rolled out the new nickname at a party event over the weekend.
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Trump promises increased India tariffs over Russian oil purchases
The president has said that India will be subject to a tariff hike for not only “buying massive amounts of Russian oil” but “selling it on the open market for big profits”. He announced his decision on Truth Social, saying that India does not care “how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine”. It’s unclear what the levy increase will be.
Trump already hit India with a 25% tariff last week, citing the country’s substantial purchasing of Russian oil as part of the penalty.
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Nancy Mace launches Governor bid
South Carolina congresswoman Nancy Mace has officially entered governor’s race for the Palmetto state.
In a video announcement posted on social media, Mace, 47, positions herself as a conservative “firebrand” and a “fighter”. She also cites her credentials as the first woman to graduate from South Carolina’s “The Citadel”– one of the country’s oldest military colleges.
In her first two terms in office, Mace was a vocal Trump adversary. In 2021, she was one of seven House Republicans who signed a letter that said Congress did not have the authority to overturn the 2020 election results. She also heavily criticised the president’s role in the Capitol attacks on 6 January 2021. Notably, Mace did not vote to impeach him for inciting an insurrection.
Throughout her third term in Congress, Mace has now become a key Trump ally. She’s waged some of the president’s key battles in the culture war – including a resolution prohibiting trans women using bathrooms that align with their gender identity at the US Capitol. Mace confirmed this was to target incoming freshman Representative Sarah McBride of Delaware.
Mace is entering an already crowded primary for gubernatorial race in South Carolina. While the incumbent, Henry McMaster, is unable to seek a third term, Mace will be facing off against Alan Wilson, the state’s attorney general.
In a lengthy floor speech earlier this year, Mace called out Wilson for failing to prosecute four men, including her ex-fiancé, who she accuses of rape and sex-trafficking.
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Governor Hochul confirms that she hasn’t and won’t spend any money housing the Texas lawmakers in New York City.
She added that the Democrats who did flee will probably face exorbitant legal fees, as well as highlighting the daily fine of $500 for not appearing during the legislative session without permission.
The delegation of Texas lawmakers present today did not confirm where they would be travelling to next, but did say they “won’t be going back to Texas”.
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'This doesn't stop with Texas' says Democratic state lawmaker
Representative Mihaela Plesa, vice-chair of the House Democratic caucus, says that the redistricting battle in Texas goes beyonds the state’s borders:
If Trump and Abbott succeed, it will give them five seats. But then where else do they go? Ohio, Missouri, any other Republican legislature with Democratic Congress people. They’re on the chopping block too.
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Governor Hochul calls the Texas Democrats who left the state to trigger a quorum break “profiles in courage”.
She adds that they’re “on the right side of history” and this redistricting fight is a “war”.
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Texas Democrats who fled the state are now holding a press conference with New York Governor Kathy Hochul.
Hochul kicks off her remarks:
Americans don’t want a system that’s stacked against them. They believe in fairness, it’s fundamental. I’ll tell you this. They’re done with the chaos, they’re done with the cruelty. And I would say they’re ready to vote Republicans out of power in Washington, certainly in the upcoming 2026 elections.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has made an unannounced visit to Israel, per the minister of defense’s post on X.
Johnson was joined by a delegation of House Republicans. Axios reports that this was a trip organised by a pro-Israel advocacy group, and that Johnson made a stop at a settlement on the occupied West Bank.
This comes after Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration’s Middle East envoy, travelled to Gaza on Friday to assess the food and aid situation after several reports of worsening starvation in the region.
On Sunday, the president addressed reporters’ questions about Witkoff’s visit. “We’re putting up money to get people fed,” he said. “We don’t want people to starve.”
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Trump doubles down on 'rigged' jobs numbers claims
Just a short while ago, the president took to Truth Social to repeat his claim that last week’s jobs report was “rigged” and the overall conduct of the Bureau of Labor Statistics is “in favor of the Radical Left Democrats”.
He added that “the FAKE political numbers that were CONCOCTED in order to make a great Republican Success look less stellar!!!”
The administration has provided no evidence that McEntarfer’s conduct was in any way political, or that the recent jobs numbers were manipulated.
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In an interview with CNN’s Audie Cornish, the Texas Democratic party chair Kendall Scudder urged Democrats to “stop trying to be the only adults in the room”.
He added that the GOP’s new congressional map should be a “signal flare” for blue states to “start carving up their own seats”.
Scudder said that this weekend’s action by Texas Democrats is part of an effort to hold state Republicans “accountable for their actions”:
The reality is, no Democrat is sitting around itching and waiting for a quorum break. But this is what has to be done to make sure we’re preserving democracy.
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'Come and take it,' say Texas Democrats
In response to Governor Greg Abbott threatening to arrest and expel any Texas legislators who refuse to return to the state capitol by 3pm local time on Monday, the Texas House Democratic Caucus issued a short and simple statement: “Come and take it.”
Governor Abbott however, has also said that Texas Democrats “may have committed felonies” by asking for donations to help pay for fines that they incur by fleeing the state. House rules in Texas state that lawmakers rack up a $500-a-day fine for each day they are absent without permission during a legislative session.
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As he boarded Air Force One on Sunday, the president told reporters that a new leader for the Bureau of Labor Statistics would be announced “over the next three to four days”. Trump added that he had “no confidence” in commissioner Erica McEntarfer, who he fired on Friday.
The director of the White House Economic Council, Kevin Hassett, defended the president’s decision in an interview with NBC on Sunday. “He wants his own people,” Hassett said. Despite not being able to offer evidence that suggested the jobs data McEntarfer published was, in fact, “rigged”.
It’s also worth noting that the commissioner of BLS is a cabinet position that requires Senate confirmation.
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Donald Trump is at the White House today, per his schedule.
But it’s a quiet day for the president. The only listed item on his agenda is lunch with the vice-president JD Vance, at 12:30pm EDT.
As Donald Trump’s Department of Justice expands investigations of his foes and ousts dozens of lawyers and staff who worked on cases targeting himself and his allies, scholars and ex-prosecutors say the rule of law is under siege in the US as the department morphs into Trump’s “personal weapon”.
The justice department’s politicization to please Trump was underscored by an announcement on 23 July of a new “ strike force” to investigate unsubstantiated charges that ex-president Barack Obama and top officials conspired to hurt Trump’s 2016 campaign and his presidency with inquiries into Russian influence operations to help Trump win, say critics.
The announcement came the day after Trump dodged queries from reporters about the justice department’s failure to produce long-promised files about the notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, and pivoted to blast Obama without evidence for “treason”. Trump’s conspiratorial charge echoed dubious claims by his national intelligence director, Tulsi Gabbard, who days before called for a justice department inquiry into a purported “treasonous conspiracy”.
Likewise, the FBI earlier in July announced investigations into the ex-FBI director James Comey and ex-CIA director John Brennan, which critics see as political efforts to placate Trump who has often voiced anger at them for their roles in the Russia investigations before and during his first term.
Legal scholars and ex-prosecutors say Trump and his loyal attorney general, Pam Bondi, have turned the justice department into his personal law firm to pursue his political and legal agendas.
“It’s not unprecedented for presidents to deploy their powers for personal ends, but no one including Nixon has done this with the intensity of Trump,” Peter Shane, who teaches constitutional law at New York University, told the Guardian.
In a new court filing, attorneys for the Trump administration denied the existence of a daily quota for immigration arrests, despite reports and prior statements from White House officials about pursuing a goal of at least 3,000 deportations or deportation arrests per day.
In May, reports from both the Guardian and Axios revealed that during a meeting with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) leaders on 21 May, the White House adviser Stephen Miller and the Department of Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, demanded that immigration agents seek to arrest 3,000 people per day.
Following that report, Miller appeared on Fox News in late May and stated that “under President Trump’s leadership, we are looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for Ice every day.”
He added that Trump “is going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every day”.
However, in a court filing on Friday, lawyers representing the US justice department said that the Department of Homeland Security had confirmed that “neither Ice leadership nor its field offices have been directed to meet any numerical quota or target for arrests, detentions, removals, field encounters, or any other operational activities that Ice or its components undertake in the course of enforcing federal immigration law.”
The filing is part of an ongoing lawsuit in southern California, where immigrant advocacy groups have sued the Trump administration, accusing it of conducting unconstitutional immigration sweeps in the Los Angeles area.
Donald Trump administration officials fanned out on Sunday’s US political shows to defend the president’s policies after a bruising week of poor economic, trade and employment numbers that culminated with the firing of labor statistics chief Erika McEntarfer.
US trade representative Jamieson Greer said Trump had “real concerns” about the jobs numbers that extend beyond Friday’s report that showed the national economy added 73,000 jobs in July, far below expectations. Job growth numbers were revised down by 285,000 for the two previous months as well.
On CBS News’s Face the Nation, Greer defended Trump’s decision to fire McEntarfer, a respected statistician, saying: “You want to be able to have somewhat reliable numbers. There are always revisions, but sometimes you see these revisions go in really extreme ways.”
He added: “The president is the president. He can choose who works in the executive branch.”
But William Beach, who served as Trump’s commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in his first presidency, warned that McEntarfer’s dismissal would undermine confidence in the quality of US economic data.
The BLS gave no reason for the revised data but noted that “monthly revisions result from additional reports received from businesses and government agencies since the last published estimates and from the recalculation of seasonal factors”.
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More than a dozen House Democrats have signed a letter pressing the Trump administration to recognise a Palestinian state, with at least one lawmaker planning to introduce a pro-statehood resolution, Axios reported on Monday.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
Trump envoy to visit Moscow this week before deadline for ending Ukraine war
Donald Trump has said he will dispatch his special envoy to Moscow this week before his Friday deadline for progress to be made on ending the war in Ukraine.
Trump said Steve Witkoff would visit Moscow on Wednesday or Thursday. When asked on Sunday what message Witkoff would take to Russia and what Vladimir Putin could do to avoid new sanctions, the US president answered: “Yeah, get a deal where people stop getting killed.”
In Kyiv, there is little expectation that Witkoff will make a breakthrough with Putin, but a hope that Trump’s changed rhetoric and tougher stance on Moscow may lead to a real change in US support for Ukraine.
Trump came into office convinced he could do a deal with Putin, but in recent weeks appears to have become increasingly frustrated with Russian actions. On Thursday he described Russia’s continued attacks on civilian areas in Ukraine as “disgusting” and on Sunday said that two nuclear submarines that he ordered to be deployed after online threats from the former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev were now “in the region”, without giving further details.
Trump had initially announced in July a 50-day deadline for Russia and Ukraine to end the war, but said last week he said he no longer believed Russia was serious about ending the war and shortened it to “10 or 12” days, later clarified as this Friday, 8 August.
Trump has previously said the new measures he has in mind if the deadline is not met could involve “secondary tariffs” targeting Russia’s remaining trade partners, such as China and India.
Trump says there could be distribution of money from tariff revenues
President Donald Trump on Sunday said some Americans could get some kind of dividend or distribution of money as a result of tariffs being imposed on US trading partners.
“There could be a distribution or a dividend to the people of our country, I would say for people that would be middle income people and lower income people, we could do a dividend,” Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One after leaving his golf club in New Jersey.
Trump attacks Charlamagne Tha God after radio host criticizes his presidency
President Donald Trump on Sunday lashed out at radio host Charlamagne Tha God, saying in a social media post that the popular broadcaster “knows nothing about me or what I have done.”
Trump’s comments came a day after Charlamagne, whose real name is Lenard McKelvey, criticized Trump on the Fox News show “My View with Lara Trump.” The show is hosted by the president’s daughter-in-law, a former co-chair of the Republican National Committee.
Asked how he would rate Trump’s presidency, the radio host said, “I wouldn’t give it a good rating simply because the least of us are still being impacted the worst.”
Trump said on Truth Social that Charlamagne was a “dope” who voted for Democratic vice-president Kamala Harris.
Charlamagne said he personally will benefit from tax breaks approved in Trump’s tax-and-spending law, but said, “There’s going to be so many people that’s hurt by that bill.”
“Anything that takes away Medicaid from people and will put people in a worse financial situation than they were previously in, I’m not for,” he added.
Charlamagne also predicted that “traditional conservatives” are going to take back the Republican Party from Trump’s Make America Great Again movement, citing controversy over Trump’s refusal to release files related to disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Texas governor threatens to remove Democrats who left state over Trump-backed redistricting
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I am Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with the news that Republican Texas governor Greg Abbott has said he will begin trying to remove Democratic lawmakers from office on Monday if they don’t return after dozens of them left the state in a last-resort attempt to block redrawn US House maps that president Donald Trump wants before the 2026 midterm elections.
The revolt by the state House Democrats, many of whom went to Illinois or New York on Sunday, and Abbott giving them less than 24 hours to come home ratcheted up a widening fight over congressional maps, Associated Press reported.
The planned vote on Monday could see five new Republican-leaning seats created in the House of Representatives. The move by the Democrats threatens to thwart Republican efforts by denying them a quorum, or the minimum number of members to validate the vote’s proceedings.
In a statement, Texas Democrats accused their counterparts, the Texas Republicans, of a “cowardly” surrender to Trump’s call for a redrawing of the congressional map to “continue pushing his disastrous policies”.
“Texas Democratic lawmakers are halting Trump’s plan by denying his bootlickers a quorum,” the statement read.
The scheme to flee the state is reported to have been put together by the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, who met with the Texas Democratic caucus late last month and has directed staff to provide logistical support for their stay.
The Texas group has accused governor Abbott of withholding aid to victims of Guadalupe River flooding last month in a bid to force the redistricting vote through.
“We’re leaving Texas to fight for Texans,” Gene Wu, the Texas House Democratic caucus chair, said in a statement. “We will not allow disaster relief to be held hostage to a Trump gerrymander.”
“We’re not walking out on our responsibilities; we’re walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent,” Wu added. “As of today, this corrupt special session is over.”
Read our full story here:
In other developments:
US trade representative Jamieson Greer has defended the firing of labor statistics chief Erika McEntarfer. “The president is the president. He can choose who works in the executive branch,” he said on Face the Nation. Greer was among a host of Trump administration officials who were deployed to defend Trump after a week of bruising economic numbers.
The US Senate left Washington DC on Saturday night for its month-long August recess without a deal to advance dozens of Donald Trump’s nominees, calling it quits after days of contentious bipartisan negotiations and the president taking to social media to tell Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer to “GO TO HELL!”
In a new court filing, attorneys for the Trump administration denied the existence of a daily quota for immigration arrests, despite reports and prior statements from White House officials about pursuing a goal of at least 3,000 deportations or deportation arrests per day. Lawyers representing the US justice department said that the Department of Homeland Security had confirmed that “neither Ice leadership nor its field offices have been directed to meet any numerical quota or target for arrests, detentions, removals, field encounters, or any other operational activities that Ice or its components undertake in the course of enforcing federal immigration law.”
The US Senate has confirmed Jeanine Pirro – a former Fox News host and staunch Donald Trump ally who boosted lies that he lost the 2020 presidential race because of electoral fraudsters – as the top federal prosecutor for the nation’s capital. Pirro – a former New York state district attorney and county judge who joined Fox News in 2011 – was confirmed on Saturday in a 50-45 vote along party lines.
The Smithsonian says it will restore Trump impeachment exhibits in “coming weeks”.
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