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(PALM BEACH, Fla.) — Kai Trump, President-elect Donald Trump’s 17-year-old granddaughter, released an “Election Night Vlog” on her YouTube channel Monday afternoon, where she took viewers behind the scenes into her family’s experience awaiting results on election night.

“I’m ready to party it up tonight, and hopefully we can catch a dub,” Kai Trump said, tapping into Gen-Z slang.

She provided an inside look into the viral family photo taken in Mar-a-Lago on election night, with footage featuring Trump talking about “dark MAGA” hats and insisting on including surrogate Elon Musk in the shot.

“Elon? You have to have a picture with your boy,” Trump said. “You have to get Elon with his boy. Gorgeous, perfect boy.”

Early in the evening, the family was seated around four TV screens displaying ABC News, Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC newscasts as they eagerly awaited for results to filter in. Trump could be briefly seen sitting silently facing the TV screens.

“He’s up right now 20 Electoral College votes, so I think that’s pretty solid,” Kai said, describing the newscast results at the moment.

Providing a more casual, lighthearted glimpse into night, Kai also recorded herself getting her hair and makeup done, picking out her outfit, and taking selfies with family members.

Additional shots featured Kai driving to Mar-a-Lago and the Palm Beach County Convention Center, cracking jokes with a friend about Nutella, and singing along to “Money, Money, Money” from the “Mamma Mia” soundtrack — what she said was her go-to song whenever she pulls into Mar-a-Lago. The crowd could also be seen emulating Trump’s signature dance moves.

In addition to these lighter moments, Kai also opened up about the emotional aspect of the night, particularly in terms of her nerves.

“The past five days, I have been so nervous, like I feel like I’ve had butterflies in my stomach for so long,” she said, in addition to later expressing her anxieties by “stress-eating” sweet treats. Later in the video, she explains how she began “tearing up” when Pennsylvania was called for Trump.

Towards the end of the vlog, Kai announced that they were headed to say hello to Vice President-elect JD Vance, though the footage did not feature him. Melania Trump was also not seen or mentioned in the video.

While Kai did not record Trump’s ultimate victory or the celebratory events/reactions following the results, she later filmed a one-on-one explaining her admiration of her grandfather.

“I just finished playing 18 holes with him. It was his first time playing in probably 90 days or more,” she said, before recapping the sentimental value of Election Night. “It’s his last time running, so it was so special for him to win,” she said.

The oldest daughter of Donald Trump Jr., Kai recently stepped into the public eye after delivering a speech at the Republican National Convention in July in which she described Trump as a “normal grandpa” who is “very caring and loving.”

Kai’s YouTube channel, which has 133k subscribers, consists of additional vlogs featuring her golf skills and other behind-the-scenes glimpses into her life. She is also active on TikTok with 934.7k followers.

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(NEW YORK) — Many teenagers and college students reported being among those who received racist text messages sent to phone numbers across the U.S. last week.

The texts, which tell the user they’re going to be taken to a plantation to “pick cotton,” have been reported in at least 24 states, plus Washington, D.C, and primarily appeared to target Black users from teenagers to adults, according to investigators in several states.

Most of the texts were sent last Wednesday, the day after the presidential election.

“I don’t understand why there’s so much hate in this world,” Nicole Nuñez, whose 15-year-old son attends a Los Angeles charter school, told ABC7. “I don’t understand why they don’t like us because of the color of our skin.”

TextNow, a mobile provider that allows people to create phone numbers for free, said Friday that it discovered “one or more” of its users allegedly sent out racist text messages and that the service quickly shut down the accounts. The text messaging service told ABC News that they were cooperating with law enforcement and condemned the messages.

Some of the messages address the recipients by name.

The TextNow representative said once the accounts that were allegedly behind the texts were reported, the accounts were disabled in less than an hour.

Los Angeles Superintendent Alberto Carvalho addressed the many students in his district that reported receiving the messages.

“We are aware of racist and incendiary texts that are being sent to students nationwide, including to some of our students,” Carvalho said in a statement acquired by ABC News. “We unequivocally condemn this hateful and threatening rhetoric. We are investigating this situation. If you receive one of these messages students and families should contact their school for support.”

One text message reviewed by ABC News read, “You have been selected to pick cotton at the nearest plantation. Be ready at 12 pm sharp with your belongings. Our executive slaves will come get you in a brown van. Be prepared to be searched down once you’ve enter the plantation. You are in plantation group W.”

As of Saturday, the texts were reported by authorities in California, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Connecticut, Illinois, Nevada, Tennessee, Indiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Washington, D.C.

At least five students at Fisk University, a historically Black institution in Nashville, received the offensive text messages, the university told ABC News in a statement. Some told the school that their peers had received the texts as well, it noted.

“We are aware of disturbing and offensive messages circulating on social media, appearing to target members of our community,” Fisk University said in its statement. “These messages, which suggest threats of violence and intimidation, are deeply unsettling. However, we want to assure you that these are likely the work of an automated bot or malicious actors with no real intentions or credibility.”

Local and federal investigators, including the FBI, said they were looking into the messages and urged anyone who received them to contact the authorities. The probes are ongoing.

A senior law enforcement official told ABC News that it has not been determined if the source of the racist texts is domestic or foreign, but efforts are underway to determine their origin.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a video statement posted on X Friday that “some” of the racist text messages “can be traced back to a VPN in Poland.”

“At this time, they have found no original source — meaning they could have originated from any bad actor state in the region or the world. We will continue to investigate,” Murrill said.

Murrill told ABC News that, in addition to the messages being “vile” and “racist,” they could also contain malware.

The president of the NAACP’s San Francisco branch Reverend Amos Brown called for the community to come together and denounce the offensive texts, ABC7 reported on Monday.

“City officials, pastors, democratic clubs, need to speak up and speak out and cannot be silent if you are silent it suggests you are complicit with evil,” Brown said, according to ABC7.

Carryn Freeman, who runs a non-profit near Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, said that she and some of friends’ children received the texts. Their parents are angry and want to know what to do to make sure this doesn’t happen again, she said.

“I got mad that my friends’ children were receiving this, 15 year olds who are having to process very overt pre-Jim Crow, transatlantic slave trade level racism in their text messages,” Freeman told ABC News on Friday. “Then they have to go to school the next day.”

ABC News’ Pierre Thomas, Abby Cruz, Luke Barr and Emmanuelle Saliba contributed to this report.

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(DELPHI, Ind.) — Delphi, Indiana, resident Richard Allen was found guilty on all charges on Monday in the double murders of best friends Abby Williams, 13, and Libby German, 14.

The jury’s verdict came on the fourth day of deliberations in the high-profile case that shocked the nation.

Allen was stoic in court and did not react to the verdict, but his mother and wife sobbed.

Allen was convicted of felony murder for the killing of Abigail Williams while attempting to commit kidnapping; felony murder for the killing of Liberty German while attempting to commit kidnapping; murder for knowingly killing Abigail Williams; and murder for knowingly killing Liberty German.

Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 20.

Abby and Libby were killed on a local hiking trail on Feb. 13, 2017. The girls’ throats were slit and they were dumped in a wooded area near the trail. Their bodies were found the next day.

As police hunted for a culprit, they released a clip of the unknown suspect’s voice — a recording of him saying “down the hill” — which was recovered from Libby’s phone. Police also released a grainy image of the suspect on the trail: a man who became known as “bridge guy.”

Allen, who was arrested for murder in 2022, admitted to police he was on the trail that day, but he denied any involvement in the crime.

Allen’s multiple confessions while in jail and his mental health at the time became a major focus of the trial.

The defense argues Allen was in a psychotic state when he made numerous confessions to corrections officers, his wife and a psychologist.

The prosecution’s key evidence is police analysis of Allen’s gun, which determined that a .40-caliber unspent round discovered by the girls’ bodies was cycled through Allen’s Sig Sauer Model P226. But the defense rejects the accuracy of that testing, calling it an “apples to oranges” comparison, because the technician compared the initial round — which had been cycled, not fired — to a bullet fired from Allen’s gun.

No DNA was found at the site to tie Allen or anyone else to the crime scene, a forensic scientist testified.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(NEW YORK CITY) — A wildfire raging on the border of New York and New Jersey exploded overnight to 5,000 acres, prompting officials on Monday to postpone one of the oldest Veterans Day Parades in the nation.

As firefighters battled the Jennings Creek Fire straddling the border between Orange County, New York, and Passaic County, New Jersey, organizers of the 80th annual West Milford, New York, Veterans Day Parade, announced the event will be delayed until Nov. 24, due to the ongoing emergency.

“I cannot in good conscience detract from all the hard work our firefighters, police officers, first responders, DPW personnel and our community leaders are currently facing in dealing with wildfires along the East Shore area,” Rudy Hass, commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 7198 in West Milford, said in a statement.

Hass said many firefighters battling the Jennings Creek Fire are military veterans.

“Right now we need to keep them in our thoughts as they spend many hours, day and night, doing all they can in order to protect our great communities in that area,” Hass said.

The blaze broke out Saturday and burned drought-parched wildland stretching from the West Milford in Passaic County, New Jersey, to the Sterling Forest State Park in New York’s Orange County, and on both the New York and New Jersey sides of Greenwood Lake, officials said.

Despite the first measurable rain in the area in more than a month, the fire grew from about 2,500 acres on Sunday to over 5,000 acres, or about 4.7 square miles, by Monday morning, according to the New York Forest Fire Service.

The fire has burned about 2,500 acres on the New York and New Jersey sides of the fire, a forest ranger for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation said at a news conference Monday.

Firefighters made progress battling the fire Sunday night, increasing containment from 0% to 20%, officials said.

At least 25 structures remain threatened by the conflagration, including eight historic structures in New Jersey’s Long Pond Ironworks State Park, a historic 175-acre village where iron was produced during the Revolutionary War, officials said.

A New York State Parks and Recreation aid was killed on Saturday helping the battle the Jennings Creek Fire, officials said. The deceased parks employee was identified Sunday by the New York State Police as 18-year-old Dariel Vasquez.

The New York and New Jersey forest services have teamed up to fight the fire on both sides of the state line.

Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus said numerous residents living near the fire have complied with voluntary evacuations.

“We had about 40 homes and residents that move out voluntarily, we really didn’t have to encourage them too much because they saw out their windows a major firestorm coming their way,” Neuhaus told ABC New York station WABC.

While Sunday’s light rainstorm was welcomed on the fire line, the precipitation did little to extinguish the fire, officials said. Overnight, about 0.25 inches of rain fell across the fire area.

“This provided an opportunity to rest several of the crews who have been working non-stop to contain this fire,” the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said in a social media post on Monday morning. “Today, crews are back on scene and will continue to improve containment lines and address area of concern.”

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Chief Bill Donnelly of the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said at a news conference Sunday that it could take crews until the end of this week to extinguish the blaze.

The fire came amid blustery winds and drought conditions in New York and New Jersey, which before Sunday hadn’t seen any rain in more than a month, officials said.

Since Oct. 1, New Jersey firefighters have responded to 537 wildfires that have consumed 4,500 acres, including about 40 fires that ignited between Friday and Saturday, according to Donnelly. Forest Ranger Jeremy Oldroyd, of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, said New York fire crews have battled 60 wildfires since Oct. 1, and they have burned 2,100 acres.

At one point over the weekend, New Jersey firefighters were simultaneously battling at least six significant brush fires that ignited across the state, including a second large wildfire in Passaic County.

The “Cannonball 3” fire began on Friday afternoon near Passaic County’s Pompton Lake and grew to 181 acres. The New Jersey Forest Fire Service announced Sunday afternoon that firefighters had achieved 100% containment on the fire.

Another wildfire in New Jersey — the Shotgun Fire — started Wednesday and burned 350 acres of the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area in Jackson Township before firefighters gained control of the blaze, officials said. Officials said the cause of the fire was arson.

Investigators concluded the fire began behind a berm at the Central Jersey Rifle & Pistol Club in Jackson, New Jersey, and was caused by magnesium shards of a “Dragon’s Breath” 12-gauge shotgun round, which ignited materials on the berm. Firing incendiary or tracer ammunition is illegal in New Jersey, authorities said.

Richard Shashaty, 37, of Brick Township, surrendered to the police on Saturday. He was charged with arson and violation of regulatory provisions relating to firearms, officials said Saturday.

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(EL SEGUNDO, Calif.) — Mattel has apologized after boxes for some of its new dolls from the movie “Wicked” included a link to a pornographic website.

The packages for the dolls were printed with a web address to an adult film site with the same name as the upcoming movie musical starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.

Customers who noticed the mistake shared images of the toy boxes on social media.

Mattel has apologized for the boxes, describing the link as a “misprint.”

“Mattel was made aware of a misprint on the packaging of the Mattel Wicked collection dolls, primarily sold in the U.S., which intended to direct consumers to the official WickedMovie.com landing page. We deeply regret this unfortunate error and are taking immediate action to remedy this,” the toy company said in a statement.

“Parents are advised that the misprinted, incorrect website is not appropriate for children. Consumers who already have the product are advised to discard the product packaging or obscure the link and may contact Mattel Customer Service for further information,” the company added.

The movie comes out Nov. 22.

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(BRANDYWINE, Md.)  — On 7 acres in Brandywine, Maryland, Peter Scott, a former United States Army counterintelligence agent assigned to Special Forces, is farming to help food-insecure veterans in the D.C. metropolitan region.

“I was at a place in life where I needed to do something and I needed to feel like it was something good after my time in service,” said Scott.

He returned stateside after serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“I separated after about 12 years of service. I thought I was fine, but a few years went by and I was not fine,” Scott said. “I reached a moment with my family where it was ‘go get help or get out.’ I decided to go get help.”

After entering an inpatient program for combat PTSD, Scott met other service members who were food insecure. This discovery, along with a newfound passion for gardening, led him to launch Fields4Valor.

Since its inception, Fields4Valor has helped feed more than 500 veterans and their families. According to the Military Family Advisory Network, 1-in-5 active-duty military and veteran families experience food insecurity. And that number is on the rise.

While picking up her weekly bag of groceries from the farm, Shara Simms, a disabled Air Force veteran, expressed her admiration for the honey that is harvested from the honeycombs Scott maintains, calling it “liquid gold.”

Simms said the weekly bags afford her the opportunity to share “fresh fruit and honey that we don’t necessarily get in the stores because it’s extra expensive.”

“We live and die on everybody’s good will,“ said Scott. This year, he estimates approximately 300 volunteers helped on the farm – sometimes sourced from area military installations.

From the garden where rhubarb, kale, peppers, cucumbers and lettuce are grown, to the beehives where honey is extracted to fill jars and made into soaps, to the chicken coop where 120 chickens produce fresh farm eggs – everything is given to veterans.

Scott takes whatever is left over and sells it at Crossroads Community Food Market to help fund the farm.

Scott’s years in combat zones left him feeling the need to seek some form of redemption.

“I’ve seen some combat,” he said. “[I’ve] been asked to do things that maybe morally I don’t feel good about. It’s hard to conduct yourself in war.”

He said he found a void that needed to be filled.

“I think something like Fields4Valor should exist as long as the need is there,” he said.

For more information on Scott’s mission to help food insecure veterans, please contact Fields4Valor at admin@fields4valor.org.

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(YEMASSEE, S.C.) — The ongoing operation to capture 43 monkeys that escaped from a South Carolina lab nabbed at least one of the furry runaways on Saturday, according to officials.

Officials in the town of Yemassee said they recovered overnight one of the rhesus macaque monkeys that had escaped from Alpha Genesis Primate Research Center on Wednesday.

“She is well and having a peanut butter and jelly sandwich,” Alpha Genesis CEO Greg Westergaard said in a statement.

Yemasee officials said that “a significant number” of the escaped primates were located in a facility near where the rescued animal was found and were “jumping back and forth over the facility’s fence.”

“Alpha Genesis management and staff are on-site, actively feeding and monitoring the animals, and they will continue these efforts throughout the weekend,” the town’s officials said in a statement.

“The primates continue to interact with their companions inside the facility, which is a positive sign,” they added.

Westergaard said the monkeys were having a nap Saturday afternoon.

“They are coming down to the ground a bit more now. It is a slow process,” he said.

The creatures escaped when a new employee at the Alpha Genesis center left the door to their enclosure open, Yemassee Town Administrator Matthew Garnes said during a briefing Thursday with town officials.

The primates are all very young females weighing 6 to 7 pounds each who have never been tested, according to police. There is no public health threat, police said.

ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — A large storm over the central U.S. is bringing a range of weather issues, from flooding rain and severe weather to heavy snow in the Rockies.

This early season snowstorm has brought more than three feet of snow to portions of New Mexico.

Angel Fire, New Mexico, is home to a popular ski resort that has picked up 40 inches of snowfall in the last 36 hours. That’s still 8 inches below their record snowfall for one storm.

Las Vegas, New Mexico, has picked up 31.7 inches of snow from this storm, breaking their all-time record snowfall of 27 inches in 1958.

Rociada, New Mexico, had 36 inches of snow; 28 inches of snow fell in Genoa, Colorado; 24.5 inches fell in Colorado Springs, Colorado; 20 inches fell in Kenton, Oklahoma.

Denver, Colorado’s snow total of 19.2 inches makes this their third-largest November snowstorm on record.

Winter Storm Warnings have been allowed to expire across parts of Colorado Saturday morning, as the snow tapers off and quieter weather moves in.

Rafael feeds flood threat

Tropical Storm Rafael is meandering around the central Gulf of Mexico with winds of 50 mph.

After seeing so much activity in the Gulf of Mexico this hurricane season, it’s a relief to see a storm that will not be making landfall as a dangerous storm.

There will be indirect impacts from Rafael as some of the moisture from this storm is pulled into a front as it moves across the south Saturday.

There is a High Risk for Excessive Rainfall in parts of Louisiana today with up to 8 inches of rain in the forecast. That flash flood risk extends as far north as Kentucky today.

Rafael is also churning up the seas enough to bring a dangerous rip current risk to several beaches along the Gulf Coast this weekend.

Waves up to 7 feet have prompted High Surf Advisories through Sunday, with minor coastal flooding also possible in parts of Louisiana.  

Wildfire risk

While there are several dangerous wildfires still burning in the west, the conditions have improved enough to limit fire growth this weekend across California.

In the Northeast, a Red Flag Warning remains in effect for portions of 6 states on Saturday due to elevated fire weather concerns.

Wind gusts up to 35 mph and humidity as low as 25% could help to rapidly spread any fires that flare up, so residents are urged to avoid open flames this weekend.

Rain will move into the northeast by Sunday night, offering a bit of relief to an area that hasn’t seen much measurable rainfall in more than a month.

While any rainfall is better than nothing, this is not looking to put a dent in the severe to extreme drought across much of the northeast.

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(SEATTLE) — Five people were stabbed in Seattle on Friday, marking the latest incident in a string of stabbings over the past two days in the same area, police said.

A suspect was taken into custody following Friday’s stabbing attack, which appeared to be random, Seattle Police Deputy Chief Eric Barden told reporters at a press briefing.

The suspect, whose name has not been released, is believed to be linked to several of the recent stabbing incidents, police said.

The latest stabbing incident occurred Friday afternoon in the 1200 block of South Jackson Street, in the Chinatown-International District, Seattle police said.

Four of the victims were transported to a local hospital in various conditions, including one who still had a knife in them, Barden said. A fifth victim was treated and released at the scene, police said.

A man matching a description given by witnesses was located nearby and arrested without incident, Barden said. A weapon was also recovered near the suspect, he said.

“This is a horrific tragedy, a mass casualty event,” Barden said.

In addition to the five victims in this incident, five other people have been stabbed in the area in a roughly 38-hour period, according to Seattle police.

The suspect is believed to be linked to four of those stabbings, while one is still being investigated, police said.

The first incident occurred early Thursday, in which a 52-year-old woman was stabbed eight times, police said.

Three other stabbing incidents involving male victims occurred on Thursday, police said. Two of the victims were stabbed multiple times. The other victim told police the assailant tried to stab him in the chest but he managed to block the assault, though sustained a cut to his hand, police said. The victim’s cellphone was also stolen, police said.

Another stabbing occurred early Friday, where a victim was found bleeding “heavily from the neck” and transported to a local hospital in serious condition, police said.

Barden said that beyond the robbery incident, the stabbings appeared to be “just random attacks.”

“This incident was apparently one individual over a 38-hour period of time committing random assaults. That is an aberration. That is not at all the norm,” Barden said. “With a suspect in custody, I think we are returned to normal.”

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(NEW YORK) — The Chinese effort to hack prominent Americans is far more pervasive than previously reported, ABC News has learned.

Sources told ABC News that U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials are concerned the espionage operation by the Chinese government may have been in place for well over a year — and perhaps longer — before it was recently discovered.

The Chinese appear to have been able to gather large volumes of data in a sweeping covert campaign targeting the cellphones and mobile devices of business leaders and other high profile Americans of both political parties, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

The evidence is mounting that in some cases the Chinese operation was able to tap into, or get access to, what cellphone users of Verizon, AT&T and Lumen were communicating.

Authorities are trying to determine whether the Chinese were able to listen to conversations and watch text messages in real time, as they were occurring, or if they captured the material for review at a later time.

Sources said that U.S. officials are only beginning to understand the breadth of the Chinese operation, but what they have found so far is deeply concerning and represents a massive breach of privacy on a disturbing scale.

The targets have included not only former President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance, but also individuals working in a number of government agencies.

The FBI is systematically contacting victims, sources said.

Salt Typhoon, the name given to an advanced, persistent threat actor run by the Chinese government, is believed to be behind the operation.

Intelligence officials suspect Salt Typhoon hackers exploited routers as a gateway to cellphones and mobile devices, and there is concern that Chinese capabilities for intrusion may have made significant advances.

In a statement issued last month, Verizon representatives said, “We are aware that a highly sophisticated nation-state actor has reportedly targeted several U.S. telecommunications providers to gather intelligence. Along with federal law enforcement, industry peers and third-party cyber experts, we have been and are working to confirm, assess and remediate any potential impact. Verizon is committed to assisting law enforcement in this investigation.”

Representatives for AT&T and Lumen declined to comment.

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