Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration, a rare day in which Donald Trump himself has been absent from view as chaos descended at the nation’s leading public health agency. We will be back on Friday but in the meantime, here’s latest:
The White House confirmed that the deputy health secretary, Jim O’Neill, a biotech investor and former speechwriter, will serve as acting CDC director until a Senate-confirmed replacement for the ousted Susan Monarez is in place.
Hundreds of staffers rallied outside the CDC headquarters in Atlanta to support vaccine research and the public health leaders who resigned or were fired by the Trump administration. Three of the senior leaders who resigned, Debra Houry, Demetre Daskalakis and Daniel Jernigan, spoke to the crowd.
Houry, who served as chief medical officer and deputy director for program and science at the CDC, said that she, Daskalakis and Jernigan agreed to leave together because of their work on vaccine science and outbreaks. “We have reached the tipping point and we knew it was a powerful statement for the three of us to do this together,” Houry said.
Jernigan, one of the three CDC leaders to resign in protest on Wednesday, said that the last straw for him was being forced to re-examine the false claim that vaccines cause autism, as part of an effort by Robert F Kennedy Jr, the anti-vaccine health secretary, to find a link to autism.
Senator Bill Cassidy, a physician who chairs the Senate’s health, education, labor and pensions committee, called for a vaccine advisory panel to indefinitely postpone its scheduled September meeting. “If the meeting proceeds, any recommendations made should be rejected as lacking legitimacy given the seriousness of the allegations and the current turmoil in CDC leadership,” the senator said.
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RFK Jr's push to link vaccines to autism helped convince CDC leaders to resign
In interviews on Thursday with Reuters and the Washington Post, Dr Daniel Jernigan, one of the three CDC leaders to resign in protest on Wednesday, said that the last straw for him was being forced to re-examine the false claim that vaccines cause autism.
The health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, promised “announcements” in September on what has caused a spike in autism at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
Jernigan, whose department oversaw the vaccine safety group, said that he was “asked to revise and to review and change studies” about vaccine safety data by Kennedy’s aides, Lyn Redwood and David Geier, anti-vaccine activists who promote a debunked link with autism.
Redwood, former leader of the Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group founded by Kennedy that has featured the parents of a Texas girl who died of measles in its campaign against the MMR vaccine, is listed as an expert and Geier as a senior data analyst in the health department employee database.
Jernigan said a request for Geier to be given access to vaccine safety data prompted him to raise patient privacy and ethical concerns with senior officials in the health department.
“I was told was that the requests were legally supported and that that was enough. But for me, that’s just not enough,” Jernigan said. “I have come to that point where I’m not able to fulfil the duties that I have as a public health professional.”
Dr Debra Houry, who resigned as the CDC’s chief medical officer, said she and her colleagues had become aware that vaccine advisers appointed by Kennedy, a longtime critic of vaccines, were making recommendations before reviewing data.
“For us, that’s problematic,” Houry said in an interview with Reuters. “As scientists, you should never know in advance what you want the data to show.”
Dr Demetre Daskalakis, who stepped down as the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases on Wednesday, said that he believes the goal of Kennedy and his close advisers is “to create chaos and more mistrust of vaccines, so that there is less demand for vaccines, and then over time, they can demonstrate that there’s less need” for federal vaccine subsidies.
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Elizabeth Warren remains unimpressed by Jim O'Neill, who told her RFK Jr was 'doing a great job' on measles outbreak
Senator Elizabeth Warren responded to the news that the deputy health secretary, Jim O’Neill, has been named acting director of the CDC on Thursday by drawing attention to his confirmation hearing in May, when he told the Massachusetts Democrat that Robert F Kennedy Jr was “doing a great job” dealing with the measles outbreak in Texas, which had turned deadly in the unvaccinated Russian Mennonite community.
Warren shared a clip of O’Neill making those remarks to her during the hearing on social media on Thursday, with the comment: “Donald Trump is purging the CDC leadership and putting in charge the guy who thought RFK Jr. was doing a ‘great job’ after measles cases hit a record high. These fools can’t be trusted with your health.”
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White House names deputy health secretary Jim O'Neill acting CDC director
In the sudden absence of the usually ubiquitous Donald Trump, a Trump administration official has confirmed to the Guardian by email that the White House has picked deputy health secretary Jim O’Neill to serve as acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
O’Neill, a biotech investor and former speechwriter for the health department during the George W Bush administration, will replace microbiologist Susan Monarez until a new permanent director is confirmed by the Senate.
Monarez, who was confirmed less than a month ago, was the first non-physician to lead the premier US public health agency since 1953.
O’Neill, who worked for Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel for a decade after his brief tenure in the Bush administration, is not a medical doctor or a scientist of any kind.
A federal judge ruled on Thursday that Kari Lake, a senior adviser to the US Agency for Global Media, does not have the power to fire the director of Voice of America, the congressionally funded news outlet.
US district judge Royce Lamberth, who was nominated by Ronald Reagan, ruled that Michael Abramowitz cannot be removed from his position without the approval of the majority of the International Broadcasting Advisory Board.
In June, layoff notices were sent to more than 600 employees of Voice of America and the government agency that oversees it. Abramowitz was placed on administrative leave along with almost the entire Voice of America staff. He was told he would be fired effective this Sunday.
Lamberth concluded that firing Abramowitz would be “plainly contrary to law”.
“The defendants’ own representations, in and out of court, indicate that they have already effectively removed Abramowitz from his role as director,” the judge wrote.
Lake, who told a congressional panel that the agency is “rotten to the core”, told NPR that the administration intends to appeal “this absurd ruling.”
In addition to Voice of America, the agency staffs and operates Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia and Radio Martí, which delivers Spanish-language news to Cuba.
The networks, which together reach an estimated 427 million people, were founded during the cold war to provide news and information to people living in repressive societies and to extend US influence.
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Education department calls all-gender bathrooms in one Denver high school illegal 'sex discrimination'
Donald Trump’s education secretary, Linda McMahon, might have laid off nearly half the Department of Education’s staff, but she has directed the remaining employees to stay laser-focused on one of the president’s main educational priorities: punishing schools that make allowances for transgender students.
That’s why, on Thursday, the department announced that its office for civil rights had concluded an investigation into the apparently pressing issue of all-gender bathrooms in Denver public schools, and of allowing students to use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity.
The civil rights office found that the bathroom policies in the schools violated Title IX protections against sex-based discrimination.
The finding followed an unprecedented investigation of Denver’s East high school that marked a sharp departure from the department’s investigations during previous administrations.
The investigation in Denver began after the school district converted a girls’ restroom into an all-gender restroom while leaving another bathroom on the same floor exclusive to boys in January. The school district has said that was done as a result of a student-led process and that the bathroom had 12ft-tall partitions (3.6 meters) for privacy and security.
The school district later added a second all-gender restroom on the same floor, which it said was meant to address concerns of unfairness. At the time, it said that students would continue to have access to gender-specific restrooms and single-stall, all-gender bathrooms.
The education department said it was giving the school district a chance to voluntarily make changes, including converting multi-stall, all-gender bathrooms back to ones designated by gender, within 10 days or risk unspecified enforcement action.
It also wants the district to use biology-based definitions for the words “male” and “female” in all policies and practices related to Title IX and to rescind any policies or guidance allowing students to use bathrooms based on their gender identity rather than their biological sex.
Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary of the department’s civil rights office, referred to the Denver school district’s policies as an endorsement of “self-defeating gender ideology”.
Denver public schools officials said they had received the results of the investigation and were “determining our next steps”.
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Thiel ally named to lead CDC is not a doctor, or a scientist of any kind
When Susan Monarez was confirmed by the Senate as CDC director less than a month ago, she was the first non-physician to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since 1953, and only the second ever to not be a medical doctor.
But Monarez holds a doctorate in microbiology and did postdoctoral work in immunology at Stanford University school of medicine. (The non-MD director in 1952 was a public health scientist and world-renowned authority on malaria.)
Her replacement as acting director of the US public health agency, Jim O’Neill, is not a medical doctor or a scientist of any kind. He is a former speechwriter for the health department, who went on to work for the tech investor Peter Thiel.
O’Neill’s work included helping establish the Thiel Fellowship, a two-year program for young people who agree to skip or drop out of college in exchange for a $200,000 grant.
When O’Neill, a critic of the CDC’s work in combatting the Covid pandemic, was sworn in as deputy health secretary in June, Robert F Kennedy Jr cited his “extensive experience in Silicon Valley and government”, not any public health experience or scientific credentials.
During the Covid pandemic, O’Neill voiced public support on then-Twitter for unproven treatments that were not supported by scientific evidence, including ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, as well as vitamin D as a supposed “prophylaxis”.
He also posted a number of conspiratorial theories, including the baseless claim that “the name #COVID was chosen to conceal the origin of the virus. This name made it harder to study and probably slowed the response.”
News of O’Neill’s appointment led Atul Gawande, a surgeon, author and public health expert, to ask: “Has America run out of actual health practitioners with demonstrated experience improving public health outcomes?”
“Or maybe,” he added, “it is just ones willing to betray the tenets and beneficiaries of public health that Trump and RFK Jr want them to do.”
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19 Democratic governors condemn ‘chaotic federal interference in our states’ National Guard’
As Donald Trump threatens to expand federal control over cities and states run by elected Democratic officials by deploying the national guard, 19 of the 23 Democratic governors issued a joint statement on Thursday condemning his actions.
“The President’s threats and efforts to deploy a state’s National Guard without the request and consent of that state’s governor is an alarming abuse of power, ineffective, and undermines the mission of our service members,” the governors said.
The statement comes as Trump hints that his next targets for federal intervention may include two heavily Democratic cities: Chicago and Baltimore.
“This chaotic federal interference in our states’ National Guard must come to an end,” the governors added.
The signatories included several potential candidates for the 2028 presidential nomination, including: Wes Moore of Maryland, Gavin Newsom of California, JB Pritzker of Illinois, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan. The four Democratic governors who did not join the statement include the party’s 2024 nominee for vice-president, Tim Walz of Minnesota, as well as Katie Hobbs of Arizona, Ned Lamont of Connecticut and Josh Green of Hawaii.
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White House picks top aide to RFK Jr as interim CDC director
The White House has picked an aide to health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr as acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
News of the temporary appointment was first reported by the Washington Post.
The aide is Jim O’Neill, currently the deputy health secretary. A former speechwriter for the health department in the George W Bush administration, O’Neill then worked for Silicon Valley investor, and JD Vance backer, Peter Thiel for a decade.
In 2020, O’Neill’s frequent tweets on the Covid pandemic included this comment about China’s wildlife trade: “It’s almost like the communists want to spread disease.”
He also called Facebook Orwellian for announcing that it would direct users who spread misinformation about the virus to the World Health Organisation.
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Senator Bill Cassidy calls for CDC meeting on Covid vaccines to be postponed amid turmoil
Senator Bill Cassidy, a physician who chairs the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, just called for a vaccine advisory panel to indefinitely postpone its scheduled September meeting.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which was reshaped by the health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, in June, when he fired all 17 of its members and replaced them with a smaller number of experts, including several Covid vaccine critics, was expected to meet 18 September to decide on whether or not to approve updated Covid vaccines.
In a statement on Thursday, attributed by his office to “Dr Cassidy”, the Republican senator and longtime vaccine advocate who reluctantly voted to confirm Kennedy as health secretary, said:
“Serious allegations have been made about the meeting agenda, membership, and lack of scientific process being followed for the now announced September ACIP meeting. These decisions directly impact children’s health and the meeting should not occur until significant oversight has been conducted. If the meeting proceeds, any recommendations made should be rejected as lacking legitimacy given the seriousness of the allegations and the current turmoil in CDC leadership”.
The new vaccine advisory panel members chosen by Kennedy, an anti-vaccination advocate, include Retsef Levi, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, who has baselessly claimed that Covid vaccines are killing young people and should be stopped and Robert Malone, who did early on mRNA technology but beame a hero to anti-vaxxers during the pandemic by claiming, without evidence, that mRNA Covid vaccines might cause cancer.
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Bernie Sanders calls for bipartisan investigation into firing of CDC director
Senator Bernie Sanders, ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee, has called for a bipartisan congressional investigation into Susan Monarez’s firing as director of the CDC.
In a letter to his Republican counterpart, senator Bill Cassidy, Sanders called the termination “reckless” and “dangerous”. He urged Cassidy to open a bipartisan investigation, and require secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr to testify at a hearing in front of the HELP committee.
“It is absolutely imperative that trust in vaccine science not be undermined. The well being of millions of people are at stake,” Sanders wrote.
Yesterday, Cassidy posted on X that the CDC “departures” would require “oversight”.
Debra Houry calls out RFK Jr's vaccine messaging in warning on public health
Debra Houry, who served as chief medical officer and deputy director for program and science at the CDC, said that she, Daskalakis and Jernigan agreed to leave together because of their work on vaccine science and outbreaks.
“We have reached the tipping point and we knew it was a powerful statement for the three of us to do this together,” Houry said.
She encouraged reporters to “report on the harms that are being done by losing our staff,” and called out secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s vaccine messaging. “Look at measles, we have the highest number of cases in the US in 30 years because we had unvaccinated populations, and a secretary that’s promoted vitamins over vaccines,” she said.
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'Let's get the politics out of public health,' say resigning CDC officials
Some of the senior CDC officials who recently resigned just spoke at the demonstration opposite the agency’s Atlanta headquarters.
“Let’s get the politics out of public health,” said Daniel Jernigan, who worked at the CDC for 30 years and played a key role in influenza and pandemic preparedness. “Let the science lead us, because that’s how we get to the best decisions for public health.”
Demetre Daskalakis, known for his leadership in HIV prevention and vaccination programs, as well as the Biden administration’s response to the Mpox outbreak, addressed the staffers who walked-out today. “You are the people that protect America, and America needs to see that you are the people that protect America, and we are going to be your loudest advocates,” he said.
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Hundreds of CDC staffers protest firing of director and subsequent resignations
Hundreds of staffers have gathered across the street from the CDC headquarters to support vaccine research, and public health leaders who resigned or fired by the Trump Administration in recent days.
Demonstrators held up signs that read “you are heroes” and “CDC saves lives”.
The senior leaders that resigned yesterday, Debra Houry, Demetre Daskalakis, Daniel Jernigan and Jennifer Layden, were escorted off campus this morning, denied a dignified exit by agency leaders.
The agency is reeling from the firing of CDC chief Susan Monarez by the White House, and is still recovering from the attack of a gunman – who fired more than 500 rounds into the Atlanta offices before killing DeKalb police officer David Rose.
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Here's a recap of the day so far
The dispute over the firing of Susan Monarez, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), continued today. Earlier, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that a new nominee for CDC director would be announced “very soon”, but Monarez’s lawyers have said that she won’t leave her post unless the president himself terminates her. A Trump spokesperson said today that secretary Kennedy’s firing stands, and Monarez wasn’t “aligned” with the administration’s Maha agenda.
Following Monarez’s firing, four senior CDC leaders abruptly resigned, expressing frustration with Kennedy’s approach to vaccines and his management style. Read more from my colleague, Marina Dunbar here.
In response to the tumult at Health and Human Services, there have been several calls from public health experts for secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr to resign, and Senator Bernie Sanders, ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee, has also called for a bipartisan investigation into Monarez’s firing.
Meanwhile, Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook has filed a lawsuit claiming Donald Trump has no authority to fire her. A notable feature of Cook’s lawsuit against the president is that Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, and the rest of the board, are also listed as defendants. Cook’s lawyers argue that she only “found out about the attempt to remove her through President Trump’s Truth Social post,” which they say afforded her “neither a notice nor a hearing” guaranteed by the Federal Reserve Act. A judge has set a hearing in the case for Friday 29 August at 10am ET.
The president extolled the “great success” of the GOP on Truth Social today, and said he’s floating the idea of a national convention for the Republican Party, “just prior to the Midterms.” An event which traditionally takes place every four years to select the party’s presidential nominee.
At the White House earlier, Border czar Tom Homan said that there will be a “ramp up” of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) operations in Chicago, and other Democratic-led cities, after Labor Day. He added that these cities “refuse to work with ICE” and release “public safety threats” into the country.
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Bondi and Patel to face questions over handling of Epstein case - report
Attorney general Pam Bondi and FBI director Kash Patel are set to testify in front of the House judiciary committee, and face questions about the justice department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, according to a report from Politico.
Per the two sources granted anonymity to speak with Politico, Patel is set to give testimony 17 September, and Bondi will face the committee on 9 October.
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Judge schedules hearing in Lisa Cook lawsuit challenging firing
A federal judge in DC has scheduled a hearing in the lawsuit filed by Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor that Donald Trump has moved to fire.
Judge Jia Cobb – a Biden appointee – has been assigned the case. The hearing is set for 29 August at 10am ET.
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The press secretary was also misleading when asked whether the president believes Covid vaccinations should be covered by health insurance, regardless of age and pre-existing conditions.
“The FDA decision does not affect the availability of Covid vaccines for Americans who want them,” Leavitt said. But the agency has authorized the updated vaccines for people 65 and older, who are known to be more at risk from serious illnesses from Covid infections.
As my colleague, Oliver Milman, reported yesterday, younger people will only be eligible if they have an underlying medical condition that makes them particularly vulnerable.
This means that the upcoming fall and winter seasons will be the first where the US government hasn’t recommended widespread Covid vaccinations.
Karoline Leavitt avoids a reporter’s question asking why Donald Trump has yet to acknowledge the shooting at the CDC headquarters in Atlanta earlier this month. Instead, she recounts the response from health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.
We absolutely were very much aware of that shooting, the secretary of health and human services put out a statement immediately. He was in touch with the CDC, and he actually traveled to Georgia to assess the situation, and to mourn with the people who work in that building there.
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Leavitt also said that she wasn’t aware of any kind of taskforce going through high level appointees who aren’t “aligned” with the administration’s agenda.
When asked if agency officials should be afraid of repercussions for speaking out publicly or privately, Leavitt’s answer was opaque:
If you’re doing your job well, and if you are executing on the vision and the promises that the president made to the public who elected him back to this office, then you should have no fear about your job. Just do your job. That’s what this president wants to see.
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Trump or Kennedy to announce new CDC director nominee 'very soon', Leavitt says
When asked about the firing dispute of Susan Monarez, Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the director was “not aligned with the president’s mission to make America healthy again.”
Leavitt said when Monarez refused to resign, at secretary Kennedy’s behest, the president fired her. “Which he has every right to do,” she added.
“This woman [Monarez] has never received a vote in her life, and the president has the authority to fire those who are not aligned with his mission. A new replacement will be announced by either the president or the secretary very soon,” Leavitt said.
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Leavitt makes misleading claims about Chicago homicides
Karoline Leavitt said today that Chicago has seen the “most murders of any US city” for 13 consecutive years.
While Chicago saw 573 homicides last year, according to FBI data, the city didn’t experience the highest murder rate in the US. St Louis, Missouri, actually saw the highest rate of homicides in both 2023 and 2024.
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Leavitt just cited Muriel Bowser’s gratitude at yesterday’s press conference talking about the surge of federal law enforcement in DC.
“We thank Mayor Bowser for her cooperation and her willingness to help us make DC safe and beautiful,” she said.
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Leavitt says Donald Trump will travel to New York City on 22 September to address the United Nations General Assembly on 23 September.
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We’re now hearing from Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary, at a briefing.
We’ll bring you the latest as it happens.
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RFK Jr faces calls to quit as CDC chief fired and senior staff resign
It’s been a tumultuous week for US health agencies, with the departure of several top officials, uncertainty around new Covid vaccine restrictions, and even more experts calling for the removal of top health official Robert F Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy also released controversial and confusing restrictions on Covid vaccines on Wednesday.
“I’m worried that these confusing changes will cause chaos in the vaccine distribution system that will make it harder for people–even those at high risk of severe illness–to get the Covid vaccines they may want,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, a professor of epidemiology and director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University school of public health.
The chaos on Wednesday intensified scrutiny of Kennedy after controversial moves on vaccines and the shooting at the CDC reportedly motivated by anti-vaccine briefs.
Kennedy “has to go”, said Colin Carlson, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Yale University’s school of public health, who has joined other health professionals to call for his resignation or termination.
Health and human services secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr is expected to testify before the Senate finance committee on 4 September, Politico is reporting, citing an anonymous source.
The hearing, which was already in the works and will focus on Donald Trump’s health agenda, is expected to be formally announced later today, a second person told the outlet. Senators will no doubt be keen to question Kennedy about yesterday’s sudden shakeup at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Departing top officials of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Deb Houry, Demetre Daskalakis and Dan Jernigan, were escorted from the agency’s Atlanta headquarters campus on Thursday morning, Reuters is reporting citing four sources familiar with the situation.
They have resigned over what they have condemned as political interference in their work, budget cuts and the spread of misinformation under the Trump administration. The agency is currently in a standoff with the administration over the firing of its director, Susan Monarez, with Monarez’s lawyers claiming she will not depart unless Donald Trump himself removes her.
The three CDC leaders resigned – Houry as chief medical officer, Daskalakis as director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, and Jernigan as director of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases – within minutes after the news of Monarez’s firing broke, according to Politico.
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My colleague, Marina Dunbar, has been covering the fallout of Susan Monarez’s firing. A reminder that Monarez is contesting her termination – with her lawyers arguing that she won’t leave unless Trump himself removes her from the role.
In the hours following the dispute, four senior CDC leaders abruptly resigned, apparently out of frustration with Robert F Kennedy Jr’s approach to vaccines and his management style.
Here’s Marina’s breakdown of who they are, and why they left the agency.
It’s a scary time to work at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), according to one agency worker who anonymously signed a letter of dissent this week.
“We’re anxious, we’re confused, and we’re desperate to get back to doing what we signed up for,” the person told the Guardian.
The staffer was one of 141 current and former Fema employees who signed the letter anonymously for fear of retribution. Thirty-six more placed their names on the letter, and some of them have been placed on a leave of absence.
“I am so proud of my coworkers who signed with their names, but devastated that they’ve been put on administrative leave,” the anonymous worker said. “If my family were impacted by a disaster, these are some of the people I would want working to help them–they believe in the mission so strongly that they put their careers and livelihoods in jeopardy.”
The letter was sent 20 years to the week after Hurricane Katrina lashed the Gulf Coast – and after Fema came under sharp criticism for its failure to provide sufficient aid to victims. The Trump administration’s erosion of Fema’s staff, programs, and autonomy are putting the US at risk of another Katrina-level disaster, says the missive sent this week.
“Katrina was a tragedy,” said the anonymous worker. “One thing you learn quickly in emergency management is that we’re all just one hurricane season, lightning strike, or fault line slip away from tragedy.”
She added: “I would also ask anyone reading this to consider adding their names to the over 4,000 individuals who have signed the Katrina Declaration in support of our requests.”
Read our full report on the crackdown on the dissenters below:
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Donald Trump is calling out crime in Chicago again on Truth Social. In a post, he notes that the city saw six homicides over the weekend.
The president chastised the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, for not asking him for help: “Can this be possible? The people are desperate for me to STOP THE CRIME, something the Democrats aren’t capable of doing.”
According to the office of the Chicago mayor, Brandon Johnson, violent crime in the city has dropped by more than 20% compared to this time last year. The murder rate has fallen by 32%, according to data compiled from the Chicago police department.
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A note from the press pool traveling with vice-president JD Vance today. He’s expected to make remarks about the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in La Crosse, Wisconsin, around 2pm ET today.
Last week, you may remember that he was in Peachtree City, Georgia, on a similar tour. The administration has been rebranding the legislation as “Working Family Tax Cuts”.
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Border czar says Ice operations will ramp up in blue cities
Border czar Tom Homan said that there will be a “ramp up” of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) operations in Chicago, and other Democratic-led cities, after Labor Day.
He added:
You’re going to see a ramp up of operations continue in New York, operations continuing in LA...Portland, Seattle, all these sanctuary cities that refuse to work with ICE, where we know public safety threats are being released every day into this country.
Homan also confirmed that “there are discussions” taking place about Ice using a naval base north of Chicago as an operations centre. “The planning is still being discussed,” he added.
He also pushed back against Muriel Bowser’s comments yesterday that masked federal agents in the nation’s capital has not been working. The DC mayor said these tactics have created a “break in trust” between officers and residents.
Homan hit back today: “They’re extremely effective…President Trump’s gonna make DC the model city of the world.”
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On Lisa Cook’s lawsuit challenging her firing, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement that Donald Trump found cause to remove the governor “who was credibly accused of lying in financial documents from a highly sensitive position overseeing financial institutions.”
A reminder that Cook hasn’t been charged with a crime. Her lawyers say that she wasn’t given the ability to properly respond to the mortgage fraud allegations in a letter from Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
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Trump floats national convention for Republicans ahead of 2026 midterms
On Truth Social today, Donald Trump extolled the “great success” the GOP is experiencing.
“We have raised far more money than the Democrats, and are having a great time fixing all of the Country Destroying mistakes made by the Biden Administration, and watching the USA heal and prosper,” the president wrote.
He also said that he’s “thinking of recommending a National Convention to the Republican Party, just prior to the Midterms.” An event which traditionally takes place every four years to select the party’s presidential nominee.
A notable feature of Cook’s lawsuit against the president is that Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, and the rest of the board, are also listed as defendants.
Cook’s lawyers underscore that while the president has the right to remove a governor of the board “for cause”, Donald Trump only cited a referral letter from Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which alleges that Cook made false statements on a mortgage agreement.
The claims made in Director Pulte’s referral letter are unsubstantiated allegations that about conduct that predates her [Cook’s] Senate confirmation, and Governor Cook has never been given an opportunity to address them.
Cook’s lawyers argue that “unsubstantiated mortgage fraud allegations” – that allegedly took place prior to her tenure on Fed’s the board of governors – do not amount to “cause” needed for the president to fire Cook.
They also note that Cook only “found out about the attempt to remove her through President Trump’s Truth Social post,” which they say afforded her “neither a notice nor a hearing” guaranteed by the Federal Reserve Act.
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Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook files lawsuit challenging Trump’s bid to fire her
Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook has filed a lawsuit claiming Donald Trump has no authority to fire her.
The lawsuit – filed by Cook in federal court in Washington on Thursday – sets the stage for a legal battle over the US president’s extraordinary bid for greater control of the central bank.
We’ll get you the latest details as we go through the lawsuit.
Minneapolis woke on Thursday to the aftermath of the mass shooting at a Catholic school in which two children were killed and 17 people injured, stunning the close-knit community and prompting the FBI to investigate the act as domestic terrorism and a hate crime targeting Catholics.
A shooter at the Annunciation Catholic school in the south of the city killed two children, aged eight and 10, in church pews during morning mass. Fourteen other children, aged six to 15, were injured, two of them critically, though officials said they were expected to survive. Police said the suspect, Robin Westman, 23, killed themself and was found dead behind the church.
Online posts indicate that Westman’s mother worked at the church until 2021. The Minneapolis police chief, Brian O’Hara, told Minneapolis ABC affiliate KSTP that his office believes Westman had been a student at Annunciation.
“This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshipping,” O’Hara, said. “The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible.”
He said the incident took place just before 8.30am during a service marking the first week of school. The pews had been packed with teachers, parents and children listening to a psalm. Just before the congregants were to proclaim “Alleluia”, bullets were fired through the windows.
“Down! Everybody down!” someone shouted as children ducked for cover behind wooden pews. One student threw himself on top of a friend and was shot in the back. A youth minister called her husband to say goodbye. People used a wooden plank to barricade a door and fled to a gymnasium.
The shooting went on for several minutes, according to a man who lives near the church and said he heard as many as 50 shots.
The three injured adults were parishioners in their 80s, officials said.
Read the full report from my colleagues below:
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Attorney general says 105 arrests made in DC on Wednesday
Attorney general Pam Bondi said that federal law enforcement made another 105 arrests in DC on Wednesday, including seizing 12 illegal firearms.
Bondi said that this brings the arrest tally to 1,283 – since 7 August, when Trump ordered federal officers to start sweeping the streets of Washington DC.
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Bernie Sanders says CDC chief's firing is 'outrageous'
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an Independent, who serves as the ranking member on the health, education, labor and pensions (Help) committee, said that Robert F Kennedy Jr’s attempt to fire Susan Monarez was “outrageous”.
“The Sen. HELP Committee must hold a hearing with Kennedy & the CDC Director as soon as possible. Vaccines save lives. Period,” Sanders said on X.
As Monarez is a Senate-confirmed official (the first CDC director to receive this stamp), removal from office can only come from president, or an impeachment process by Congress. Monarez’s lawyers say that her termination is “legally deficient”, since it didn’t come from Trump himself.
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Donald Trump doesn’t have any public-facing events today, according to his official schedule. He’s due to sign executive orders later, but that remains closed to the press. If anything changes we’ll bring you the latest.
We can expect to hear from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt at 1pm today. She’ll hold a briefing, and we can expect questions on several topics: the school shooting in Minneapolis that killed two children and injured 17 people on Wednesday, the fallout of the CDC director’s firing, and the latest on foreign policy – particularly after Russian airstrikes on Kyiv killed at least 12 people overnight.
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CDC chief Susan Monarez refuses to resign amid 'targeted' ousting
Hello, I’m Shrai Popat, and welcome to today’s coverage of US politics live.
The US’s top public health agency was plunged into chaos on Wednesday after the Trump administration moved to oust its leader, Susan Monarez, sworn in less than a month ago. But her lawyers said she would not resign and that she was being “targeted” for her pro-science stance.
Monarez, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was ousted on Wednesday evening, according to a statement from Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that offered no explanation its decision.
“Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people,” HHS said in an unsigned statement posted to social media. Her lawyers pushed back in a statement, saying she had “neither resigned nor received notification” from the White House of her termination.
Monarez, who was confirmed by the Senate just last month, appeared to have run afoul of Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, after she declined to support sweeping changes to US vaccine policies, according to reporting from the Washington Post and the New York Times.
“First it was independent advisory committees and career experts. Then it was the dismissal of seasoned scientists. Now, Secretary Kennedy and HHS have set their sights on weaponizing public health for political gain and putting millions of American lives at risk,” her lawyers, Mark Zaid and Abbe David Lowell, said in a statement. “When CDC director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she has been targeted.”
Democratic senator Patty Murray, who serves on the Senate health committee called for Kennedy to be fired and said he is “a dangerous man who is determined to abuse his authority to act on truly terrifying conspiracy theories and disinformation”.
“If there are any adults left in the White House, it’s well past time they face reality and fire RFK Jr,” Murray said.
Meanwhile, Dr Mandy Cohen, a former CDC director under president Joe Biden, said: “We lost exceptional leaders who have served over many decades and many administrations. The weakening of the CDC leaves us less safe and more vulnerable as a country.”
The ousting has set off a wave of departures within the agency, with at least three other CDC leaders publicly resigning after the HHS announcement.
The most explosive resignation letter came from Dr Demetre Daskalakis, who stepped down as the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, according to Inside Medicine, an industry newsletter that obtained the full statements.
“I am not able to serve in this role any longer because of the ongoing weaponizing of public health. You are the best team I have ever worked with, and you continue to shine despite this dark cloud over the agency and our profession,” Daskalakis wrote. “Please take care of yourself and your teams and make the right decisions for yourselves.”
Read our full report here:
In other developments:
Former British prime minister Tony Blair has attended a White House meeting with Donald Trump to discuss plans for postwar Gaza, the Guardian understands. After stepping down as prime minister in 2007, Blair took on the role of Middle East envoy until 2015 and spent time in Jerusalem trying to formulate a plan for a two-state solution.
National guard troops have spent their last days of the summer mulching cherry trees, collecting trash and clearing homeless camps across Washington DC, as Donald Trump’s federal takeover of the capital evolved the guard from makeshift cops to armed jacks of all trades.
Republicans in California are proposing a “two-state solution” for the Golden state, in a move that is unlikely to go anywhere but is reflective of partisan divisions amid a nationwide battle over control of Congress.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved updated Covid vaccines but has placed new restrictions on who can get them.
Florida’s immigration jail known as “Alligator Alcatraz” will probably be empty of detainees within days, a state official has said, indicating compliance with a judge’s order last week that the facility must close.
The Fulton county commission in Georgia will be fined $10,000 a day for violating a court order to appoint two Republicans associated with Trump-aligned groups pushing voter fraud conspiracies to the county’s election board.
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