Police patrol Brown University following a mass shooting yesterday that left at least two people dead and nine others injured on December 14, 2025 in Providence, Rhode Island. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
(PROVIDENCE, R.I.) — The mayor of Providence is asking FBI Director Kash Patel to give the $50,000 reward offered for information in the Brown University mass shooting to a local tipster who provided a detailed account of the suspect.
The man, only identified by authorities in a criminal complaint as “John,” provided the Providence Police Department with the most detailed account of the suspect, later identified as 48-year-old Carlos Neves Valente, and the gray Nissan Sentra he was driving — first on a Reddit post and later to authorities.
“One individual amongst those who provided tips stands out above the rest: John,” Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said in the letter obtained by ABC News. “As discussed with the media last night, John is no less than a hero. His bravery, selflessness and stewardship on behalf of his community went far beyond what anyone could ever hope from a tip. I believe that our community is breathing easier today because of the extraordinary assistance John provided to our law enforcement agencies. I am writing to you today to request that the entirety of the $50,000 reward be issued to this incredible Providence neighbor.”
The FBI previously said there was a $50,000 reward for any information leading to the suspect.
In the letter, Smiley said law enforcement worked for 130 hours straight to find and identify the gunman — but that John was pivotal to the investigation.
“He blew this case right open,” Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha told reporters at a news conference on Thursday night. “He blew it open.”
It all began unfolding three days after the shooting when an anonymous source tipped off authorities to a post John had made on the website Reddit, according to the Rhode Island criminal complaint detailing the evidence against the suspected shooter.
“I’m being dead serious. The police need to look into a grey Nissan with Florida plates, possibly a rental,” John wrote in the post, describing “odd” behavior by the suspect.
After noticing the man they believed to be John interacting with the suspect in surveillance footage, police released images of him and asked for help in identifying him on Wednesday. Later that day, John approached a Providence police officer and said he was the person they were looking for.
John told detectives that he first encountered the suspect in the bathroom of Brown University’s Barus & Holley building in the hours before the Dec. 13 shooting and was suspicious, according to the affidavit.
John followed Neves Valente outside, where he said he observed the suspect approaching his car, the affidavit noted. The suspect and John would lock eyes as Neves Valente repeatedly walked around the block, in what John would describe “as a game of cat and mouse,” according to the affidavit.
The tip and surveillance video, along with the use of license-plate reader technology, led investigators to a car rental agency in Massachusetts where Neves Valente had rented the Nissan under his own name, authorities said.
Investigators tracked Neves Valente to a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, on the border with Massachusetts, where they found his body inside.
Authorities said Neves Valente burst into a lecture hall on the Brown campus on Dec. 13 and opened fire, killing two students and wounding nine others, before fleeing the scene. Two days later, he fatally shot MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro in the foyer of his apartment building in Brookline, Massachusetts, according to authorities.
Officials haven’t released a motive, but Neves Velente briefly attended Brown University in the early 2000s and studied in the same prestigious physics engineering program in the 1990s with Loureiro in their native Portugal.
A memorial set up by Brown University outside of the Barus and Holley building on December 18, 2025. (Photo by David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — New details about how police caught up to Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, the 48-year-old former Brown University graduate student who allegedly perpetrated a mass shooting at Brown and killed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, have emerged after a dayslong manhunt where officials said he made a series of moves designed to evade authorities.
Authorities credited the work of a tipster who they say “blew this case out in the open.”
Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez said local police helped track down Neves Valente, who was found dead in a New Hampshire storage unit on Thursday, in part thanks to surveillance video and a tip from an anonymous source that pointed authorities to a post on social media platform Reddit.
The tip referenced a post in which the Reddit user — later identified as John — called for police to “look into a grey Nissan with Florida plates,” according to the affidavit.
“I’m being dead serious,” the Reddit post read. “That was the car he was driving.”
After noticing the man they believed to be John interacting with the suspect on surveillance footage, police released images of him and asked for help in identifying him on Wednesday. Later that day, John approached a Providence police officer and said he was the person they were looking for.
John told detectives that he encountered the suspect in the bathroom of Brown University’s Barus & Holley building in the hours before Dec. 13 shooting and was suspicious, according to the affidavit.
John followed Neves Valente outside, where he said he observed the suspect approaching his car, the affidavit noted. The suspect and John would lock eyes as Neves Valente repeatedly walked around the block, in what John would describe “as a game of cat and mouse,” according to the affidavit.
“At some point they [John and Neves Valente] encountered each other on George Street, at which time, the Suspect ran in the opposite direction. John then ran up behind the person of interest, slowed to a good speed-walk and walked past the Suspect,” the affidavit said.
Ultimately, John questioned Neves Valente why he was circling the block prompting a response from the suspect, before John walked away, according to the affidavit.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha told reporters John’s information was crucial in tracking the suspect.
“I remember last night watching his interview, and he blew this case right open,” he said.
The tip and surveillance video, along with the use of license-plate reader technology, led investigators to a car rental agency in Massachusetts.
There, police obtained a copy of the rental agreement with the suspect’s name, as well as video of the suspect that matched the videos of the person of interest seen on the Brown University campus on the day of the shooting, the complaint said.
That discovery ultimately led investigators to a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, where the suspect was found dead, officials said.
Financial records and video evidence confirmed that the storage unit belonged to the alleged suspect and that the rental vehicle was connected to both the Rhode Island and Massachusetts cases.
Authorities identified the suspect as Neves Valente, a Portuguese national and former Brown University student whose last known address was in Miami, Florida. Officials said Neves Valente died by suicide Thursday evening.
Officials confirmed that Neves Valente was found with a satchel containing two firearms, and evidence recovered from the vehicle matched what was found at the Providence crime scene.
Federal authorities confirmed that shortly before 9 p.m. on Thursday, FBI SWAT teams executed court-authorized search warrants at a storage facility in Salem, which is where they found Neves Valente’s body.
The autopsy performed by the New Hampshire Department of Justice Office of the Chief Medical Examiner estimated that Neves Valente died on Tuesday, one day after the professor was killed at MIT, according to investigators.
Portugal’s Instituto Superior Técnico (IST) confirmed to ABC News that Cláudio Manuel Neves Neves Valente studied between 1995 and 2000 in the school’s physics engineering program, the same one attended at the time by slain MIT professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro.
A 1998 announcement in Portugal’s official Diario da República referred to Neves Valente’s appointment as a teaching assistant at IST and a 2000 notice in the same publication mentions his termination from the role.
A spokesperson for IST declined to comment further on Neves Valente’s history at the institution, due to the ongoing investigation and out of respect for the friends and family of Loureiro.
Brown officials confirmed that Neves Valente was enrolled at the university from the fall of 2000 through the spring of 2001 as a graduate student in physics, entering Brown’s graduate program in September 2000 before taking a leave of absence in April 2001 and formally withdrawing in 2003.
“He was not a current student, was not an employee and did not receive a degree from the University, attending for only three semesters as a graduate student until taking a leave in 2001 and formally withdrawing effective July 31, 2003,” Brown University President Christina Paxson wrote in a letter to students and faculty Thursday.
During his time at Brown, he was enrolled only in physics courses, which were typically held in the Barus & Holley building. University records indicate he has had no active affiliation with Brown for more than two decades.
Police said the suspect acted alone and that there is no indication, at this time, of additional planned attacks. Investigators have not identified any writings, known criminal history or clear motive.
Officials said forensic teams are still processing evidence recovered in New Hampshire, including firearms, and will compare it with ballistic and DNA evidence from the Providence crime scene.
Paxson said the university is still reviewing how the suspect gained access to the building. She said the building was unlocked that day because exams were being held, and the university will examine security procedures moving forward.
Investigators said Neves Valente obtained lawful permanency in April 2017 and was issued a green card.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said in an X post that Neves Valente received his visa through the diversity visa lottery program, and announced that, at President Donald Trump’s direction, she was pausing the program.
Each year, the State Department awards up to 50,000 immigrant visas to “winners” of the diversity visa lottery. The program was created by Congress in 1990 to allow applicants from countries with low rates of immigration into the U.S. to come here.
The winners are selected at random, but they must still go through a lengthy application process, which includes submitting criminal records, being interviewed at an embassy or consulate, and meeting other requirements, such as having a High School Diploma or two years of work experience. Applicants are then allowed to apply for lawful permanent resident status.
Investigators said they identified Neves Valente by name late Wednesday night and weighed whether releasing his identity could cause him to flee or take further action.
Officials said they believed he might return the rental car in Boston or attempt to leave the area, and they wanted the opportunity to arrest him without alerting him that police were closing in.
Officials said it remains unclear exactly when the suspect took his own life, but noted that he signed into the storage facility but was never seen leaving.
The site was secured by federal agents, and investigators said an autopsy will help determine the timing of his death.
ABC News’ Armando Garcia and Christopher Looft contributed to this report.
A woman receives a flu vaccination, October 15, 2025. Alejandro Martinez Velez/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Flu activity is increasing across the country, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
New York City is seeing some of the highest levels of flu-like activity across the country. States including Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, and Texas are seeing “moderate” activity of respiratory illnesses. All other states are seeing low or very low levels.
The CDC estimates that there have been at least 4.6 million illnesses, 49,000 hospitalizations, and 1,900 deaths from flu this season so far.
The bulk of flu illnesses so far are being linked to the new variant known as subclade K, according to hundreds of samples sent to the CDC. Of just over 900 flu samples, roughly 90% were A(H3N2). Of those that had further genetic testing, nearly 90% belonged to subclade K.
The mutations seen in the new variant result in a mismatch with this season’s flu vaccine composition, the CDC notes. Experts believe that the flu vaccine will still help reduce the risk of severe illness, including hospitalization and death.
Two pediatric flu deaths were reported this week, bringing the total to three for this season. Last season had a record tying 288 die from flu – the same number during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. It’s the highest levels seen since 2004, which is when flu child deaths became mandatory for states to report to CDC.
About 90% of kids that died from flu last season were not vaccinated, a CDC study found. Flu vaccinations among kids have dropped 10% points lower than pre-pandemic with about 40% of kids getting the shot this season.
About 140 million doses of the flu vaccine have been distributed nationally so far this season, compared to 128 million last season.
The CDC recommends that everyone over the age of 6 months get their annual flu shot. Experts say it is not too late to get vaccinated.
In this Nov. 18, 2025, file photo, Rep. Robert Garcia speaks during a news conference on the “Epstein Files” outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Heather Diehl/Getty Images, FILE
(WASHINGTON) — Democratic lawmakers warned the Trump administration that they’re “examining all legal options” to hold it accountable to Friday’s deadline ordering the Department of Justice to release all its files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer accusing the administration of “breaking the law.”
The Justice Department was set to release on Friday hundreds of thousands of documents stemming from its investigations into Epstein, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in an interview with Fox News.
But as the administration reviews the documents for sensitive materials, Blanche said more productions would be coming over the next several weeks — indicating the administration does not believe it can fully comply with a law mandating the release of all files by 11:59 p.m. on Friday.
“So today, several hundred thousand, and then over the next couple of weeks I expect several hundred thousand more,” Blanche said.
The comments set off immediate reaction from lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Schumer charged that the administration is “hell-bent on hiding the truth” while asserting that failure to release all of the Epstein documents by Friday’s deadline would be “breaking the law.”
“Senate Democrats are working closely with attorneys for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein and with outside legal experts to assess what documents are being withheld and what is being covered up by Pam Bondi. We will not stop until the whole truth comes out,” Schumer pledged in a statement. “People want the truth and continue to demand the immediate release of all the Epstein files. This is nothing more than a cover up to protect Donald Trump from his ugly past.”
Trump has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, and said he hadn’t spoken to Epstein for more than a decade at the time of his arrest in 2019.
Trump’s name was mentioned several times across the hundreds of Epstein files that were made public earlier this year. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles told Vanity Fair in an article published this week that Trump “is in the file” but that “he’s not in the file doing anything awful.”
Reps. Robert Garcia and Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrats on the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees, said they’re examining “all legal options” after “the Department of Justice is now making clear it intends to defy Congress itself.”
“Donald Trump and the Department of Justice are now violating federal law as they continue covering up the facts and the evidence about Jeffrey Epstein’s decades-long, billion-dollar, international sex trafficking ring,” Garcia and Raskin said in a statement.
“Courts around the country have repeatedly intervened when this Administration has broken the law. We are now examining all legal options in the face of this violation of federal law. The survivors of this nightmare deserve justice, the co-conspirators must be held accountable, and the American people deserve complete transparency from DOJ,” they added.
The White House has not publicly commented on the criticism from Democrats.
Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, who led the charge to force the vote to compel the Justice Department to release the files, posted the legislative text of the bill he co-authored highlighting the phrase “not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this act” and also the word “all” as it pertained to “unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of Justice, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Attorneys’ Offices.”
Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee who has long been investigating Epstein’s financial ties, proclaimed that anything short of a full release of the files by end of day Friday amounts to a “violation of the law.”
“The law Congress passed did not say ‘release some of the Epstein files’ or ‘release the files whenever it’s convenient for Donald Trump.’ Anything short of a full release today is a violation of the law and a continuation of this administration’s coverup on behalf of a bunch of pedophiles and sex traffickers,” Wyden wrote in a statement.
Blanche, during the Fox News interview, suggested that the administration’s review has been partially hamstrung by a ruling from a judge in the Southern District of New York that demanded the administration verify that its review is fully protecting the identities of victims.
Blanche added that “there’s a lot of eyes” looking over the documents to ensure victim identities have been redacted. The Justice Department in recent weeks has enlisted scores of attorneys from the National Security Division to conduct the review, according to sources familiar with the matter.
he Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building on December 19, 2025 in Washington, DC. The U.S. Department of Justice is required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act to release files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein today. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — After years of legal battles and online speculation, the Justice Department on Friday is set to release what a top DOJ official says are “several hundred thousand” documents from the investigations into the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, whose connection to the rich and powerful and 2019 death by suicide has generated scores of conspiracy theories.
The DOJ faces a Friday deadline for the release of all remaining Epstein files after Congress last month passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act following the blowback the administration received seeking the release of the materials.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, in an interview Friday morning on Fox and Friends, said, “I expect that we’re going to release several hundred thousand documents today … and then over the next couple of weeks I expect several hundred thousand more.”
Several Democratic lawmakers, responding in the afternoon to Blanche’s comments, objected to only a partial release of the files Friday.
Blanche, in his Fox appearance, said, “The most important thing that the attorney general has talked about, that [FBI] Director [Kash] Patel has talked about, is that we protect victims, and so what we’re doing is we are looking at every single piece of paper that we are going to produce, making sure that every victim, their name, their identity, their story, to the extent it needs to be protected, is completely protected.”
The Epstein Files Act says the Justice Department “may withhold or redact” the identities of Epstein’s victims, and contains exemptions that would allow the DOJ to withhold records that “would jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution.”
Blanche said “there’s a lot of eyes” looking over the documents to ensure victim identities have been redacted. The Justice Department in recent weeks has enlisted scores of attorneys from the National Security Division to conduct the review, according to sources familiar with the matter.
“Those documents will come in all different forms, photographs and other materials associated with all of the investigations into Mr. Epstein,” Blanche said.
He further suggested in the interview that the administration’s review has been partially hamstrung by a ruling from a judge in the Southern District of New York that demanded the administration verify that its review is fully protecting the identities of victims.
When asked whether the American public should expect any additional criminal cases to come in the wake of the release of the files, Blanche said, “Look, as the president directed, it’s still being investigated, and I expect that will continue to happen. So we, as of today, there’s no new charges coming but, but we are investigating.”
President Donald Trump recently directed the Justice Department to investigate high-profile Democrats associated with Epstein, a task that Attorney General Pam Bondi then referred to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
The Justice Department and FBI announced in July that they would be releasing no additional Epstein files, after several top officials — including Patel and outgoing FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino — had, prior to joining the administration, accused the government of shielding information regarding the Epstein case.
The Senate subsequently voted to approved the Epstein transparency bill passed by the House, after which President Donald Trump signed it into law.
Critics of Trump have speculated about the degree to which the president, who had a friendship with Epstein until they had a falling out around 2004, appears in the Epstein files, while Trump has accused several well-known Democrats of having ties to the disgraced financier.
“Perhaps the truth about these Democrats, and their associations with Jeffrey Epstein, will soon be revealed, because I HAVE JUST SIGNED THE BILL TO RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES!” Trump wrote on social media after signing the bill.
Epstein owned two private islands in the Virgin Islands and large properties in New York City, New Mexico and Palm Beach, Florida, where he came under investigation for allegedly luring minor girls to his seaside home for massages that turned sexual. He served 13 months of an 18-month sentence for sex crimes charges after reaching a controversial non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami.
In 2019, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York indicted Epstein on charges that he “sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls at his homes in Manhattan, New York, and Palm Beach, Florida, among other locations,” using cash payments to recruit a “vast network of underage victims,” some of whom were as young as 14 years old.
Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial.
Police officers remain on the scene of a shooting that killed two and wounded at least eight at Brown University on December 13, 2025 in Providence, Rhode Island. (Libby O’Neill/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Two elite Northeast institutions of higher education have been rocked by horrific acts of gun violence, just days apart.
In the first incident, two people were killed and nine were injured in a mass shooting at Brown University, when a gunman opened fire on the Rhode Island campus, officials said.
Two days later, some 50 miles away in neighboring Massachusetts, an esteemed professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was killed in a shooting at his home, officials said.
Following a dayslong manhunt, authorities identified the suspect in both shootings as Claudio Manuel Neves Valente, a 48-year-old former Brown graduate student, who attended the school some 25 years ago. Valente, a Portuguese national, and the slain MIT professor both attended the same physics engineering program at Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, the school confirmed to ABC News.
Officials have not yet provided a motive for the back-to-back shootings that left residents of parts of New England on edge for days.
Here’s how the tragic shootings unfolded.
Nov. 26-Nov. 30
Valente, who is believed to have lived in Florida, rents a hotel room in Boston, according to federal officials.
Dec. 1
Valente rents a gray Nissan Sentra with Florida plates from a car rental agency in Boston and then drives to the vicinity of Brown University in Providence, where the vehicle is seen “intermittently” through Dec. 12, according to federal officials.
Dec. 13
A person of interest in the Brown shooting — subsequently believed to be the suspect, Valente — is seen in surveillance footage walking through a residential neighborhood near the campus, beginning around 2 p.m., in images and footage released by the FBI. But police have said they believe he had been around the Brown campus as early as 10 a.m. that day “casing out the area.” The individual is seen dressed from head to toe in dark clothing, including wearing a surgical mask over his face.
Around 2:16 p.m., an unknown person — later identified as a man who introduced himself as John — is seen interacting with the person of interest, according to the arrest warrant affidavit for Valente.
The shooting at Brown occurs at 4:03 p.m. in a lecture hall in the school’s Barus & Holley Engineering building during a final exam review, according to authorities and school officials.
Just after the shooting, a security video captures the person of interest emerging onto Hope Street from what investigators described as “lot 42” on the Brown campus.
The last video in the FBI’s timeline shows the individual walking north on Hope Street at 4:07 p.m.
Valente returns to Massachusetts over the next day, where at some point he switches the plates on his rental car to an unregistered plate out of Maine, according to federal officials.
Dec. 14
A man initially thought to be a person of interest in the Brown shooting is detained at about 3:45 a.m. at a Hampton Inn in Coventry, Providence, according to law enforcement sources and police, though that individual is released hours later without being charged.
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha says during a late-night press conference that there had been evidence pointing to this individual, but that evidence “now points in a different direction.”
Dec. 15
Authorities release new images and video of the person of interest in the mass shooting at Brown and the FBI announces it is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the individual responsible.
That night, authorities respond to a residence in Brookline, Massachusetts, after receiving a report of a man shot at his home, according to the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office.
The victim is identified by the office as 47-year-old Nuno Loureiro, a Portugal native who is a faculty member in MIT’s departments of Nuclear Science & Engineering and Physics and the director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center.
Video surveillance captured Valente in the area of the professor’s apartment that evening, according to federal officials.
Following the shooting, Valente drives to a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, which he had rented in November, according to federal officials.
Dec. 16
Loureiro is pronounced dead at an area hospital in the morning, according to the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office.
Authorities release a new image and enhanced video of the person of interest sought in the Brown shooting.
Police received an anonymous tip in the investigation into the Brown shooting referencing a Reddit post in which the poster — later identified as John — called for police to “look into a grey Nissan with Florida plates,” according to the affidavit.
Dec. 17
A Brown University faculty member reports to state police seeing a suspicious vehicle in the area of the campus the morning of Dec. 11, describing it as a gray sedan with Florida plates, according to the affidavit.
Providence police announce they are seeking the public’s help in identifying and speaking to the unknown individual — later identified as John — “who was in proximity of the person of interest” in the Brown shooting.
John approaches Providence police officers at Brown University to report his interaction with the person of interest, according to the affidavit. He tells detectives that he saw the man approach a gray or silver sedan with a Florida license plate the afternoon of Dec. 13 at a location near Brown’s campus, according to the affidavit.
“John informed detectives that he recognized one of the images released to the press as the person he encountered that day, which prompted him to post on Reddit,” the affidavit states.
Detectives trace the vehicle to the one rented by Valente in Boston, according to the affidavit.
Dec. 18
A Rhode Island state court issues a state arrest warrant for Valente, charging him with two counts of murder and 23 felony counts of assault and felony firearms offenses in the Brown shooting.
While executing search warrants on the Salem storage unit facility shortly before 9 p.m., Valente is found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound inside a storage unit, authorities said.
During a late-night news conference, authorities identify the suspect in the Brown mass shooting as Valente and confirm he is believed to be the same man who gunned down Loureiro, saying the professor was the intended target.
Officials say investigators linked the Brown and MIT shootings through the vehicle, financial records and video footage.
ABC News’ Josh Margolin, Aaron Katersky, Jon Haworth and Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is taking his message and vision on the economy directly to voters — but he faces an American public that, recent polling shows, feels largely negative toward how the president has handled economic issues.
“Here at home, we’re bringing our economy back from the brink of ruin,” Trump said during a primetime address to the nation on Wednesday night.
Vice President JD Vance also travelled to Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Tuesday to talk about the White House’s economic vision — just one week after Trump paid his own visit to the Keystone State for remarks on the economy.
But a Quinnipiac University poll published on Wednesday found that almost 6 in 10 registered voters disapprove of how Trump has handled the economy, while 65% say the state of the American economy is “not so good” or “poor.”
Quinnipiac University’s poll also found that 57% of registered voters think Trump is more responsible for the economy’s state right now, and 34% of voters think former President Joe Biden is.
Last week, Reuters and Ipsos published a poll that found that only 31% of Americans approve of how Trump has handled the cost of living — up from 26% in their late November polling.
Dan Schnur, a political communications and strategy expert who teaches at the University of Southern California, told ABC News that part of that comes from Republican voters, including working-class young men, feeling the impact of high costs.
“A lot of voters, particularly working-class young men, voted for him last year because they were angry about the inflation under Biden and they believed Trump would make things better,” he said. “That hasn’t happened yet, and so we’re beginning to see their disappointment.”
Ryan Mahoney, a Republican strategist and former communications director for the Georgia Republican Party, told ABC News he thinks this low approval may be because of a “disconnect from the White House to the American people, about the president acknowledging and empathizing with the cost crunch that the American people are feeling.”
Asked on Tuesday if he was worried about recent polling and whether affordability would be a political liability, Vance brushed off concerns — instead shifting blame to Biden.
“When we go out there and we tell our story, that gasoline and energy got way too high under Joe Biden’s administration, but we’ve lowered the cost of energy — the American people will understand that … They know what Joe Biden broke is not going to be fixed in a week,” Vance said.
ABC News has reached out to Biden’s office for comment on Vance’s remarks.
Inflation rose during Biden’s term (while slowing toward its end). At the time, Biden and his White House defended the administration’s performance on the economy by pointing to measures they took to bolster the economy, particularly as it struggled in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Economists have also said rising prices during Biden’s presidency did not occur in a vacuum, but emerged in part from factors such as the supply shortage imposed by the pandemic.
Despite the economic woes during the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. economy significantly outperformed other major industrialized nations as it emerged from the pandemic, according to an October 2024 report by the Brookings Institution.
Schnur said that while discussing Biden could be “part of, potentially, an effective message. The problem is that blaming your predecessor — for any president — has diminishing returns the longer they’ve been in office.”
From a tactical perspective, Mahoney said, “It’s OK to blame what happened for the four years before you got into office, that you’re having to wade through that … I think all of that is fair game,” Mahoney said. “I do think, though, you have to then present what your plan is.”
Trump is set to once again speak about the economy in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Friday — so will his administration’s focus on the issue and travels help Americans feel better about how they’re handling the economy?
“I love the idea of getting on the road … but at the end of the day, the script, the teleprompter, the remarks to folks, the interviews with press, have to acknowledge the problem and then provide the solutions,” Mahoney said.
Doug Heye, another GOP strategist and a former spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, told ABC News, “In a normal political world, this is what you do, and this helps. But we just saw in Pennsylvania, where Trump was supposed to talk about the economy, and brings up all this other stuff, and all he does is get in the way of himself, and there’s no reason to think that that’s going to change.”
Schnur, meanwhile, cautioned that local visits may help Trump’s standing on the economy with older voters, but may have less impact on younger voters who get their news more through digital platforms — a challenge facing both major political parties.
David McIntosh, the president of the conservative political group Club for Growth, said Republicans should “take their message directly to the people this Christmas and in 2026” and explain that the way to reduce prices is “to have price transparency, reduce regulations, and allow free markets to bring back affordability.”
A White House spokesperson, in response to the recent polling and concerns raised by some in the GOP, pointed to how Trump was elected because of economic concerns and to Thursday’s better-than-expected inflation numbers as a sign of the administration’s success.
“President Trump was resoundingly re-elected one year ago precisely because he, unlike Democrats, understood and acknowledged Joe Biden’s economic disaster,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement to ABC News.
People walk bundled up in winter clothing in Manhattan on December 08, 2025 in New York City. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Traveling for the holidays Friday may be turbulent, as gusts and widespread rain move into the Northeast, fire warnings persist in the West and storms linger on the West Coast until the end of the year.
Here is a look at the weather forecast for Friday.
Rain and wind in the Northeast
As a large cross-country storm moves east, the system is moving through over the northern Great Lakes region and stretching down to the Southeast where wind gusts could reach 60 mph in some areas.
Areas across Appalachia, New England and coastal Maine will be affected by the strongest gusts, while rain and wind will persist from D.C. to Boston until the evening.
In the Northeast, airport delays are possible due to the inclement weather, as lake-effect snow will begin in the region before things start drying out in the evening.
The weekend will be milder with the exception of some lingering gusts and snow around the Great Lakes region.
Fire danger out West
Parts of Colorado and Wyoming are experiencing extreme and dangerous fire weather Friday, as dry and windy conditions persist across the Rockies.
In particular, the area around Denver is under a rare “Particularly Dangerous Situation” Red Flag Warning for winds between 45-55 mph and gusts up to 80-110 mph, making conditions extremely favorable for rapid fire spread.
Parts of the Texas panhandle, west-central Nebraska and other parts of Colorado and Wyoming are also under Red Flag Warnings for fire, as wind gusts may reach up to 50 mph with the dry conditions out West.
Rain, wind and some snow will rock the Northwest Friday, as a lingering system on the West Coast starts to shift south, dropping an additional 1 to 4 inches of rain across western Oregon, southwest Washington and northwest California.
A Flood Watch remains in effect across coastal Oregon and Washington until 4 a.m. Saturday, as rivers and streams will continue to rise to potentially record levels.
Some mountain resorts in California, such as Boreal Mountain and Soda Springs Mountain Resort, have paused operations into next week due to the weather and will reopen when weather permits.
“While it’s never easy to pause early in the season, this storm is expected to help build our snowpack and set us up for an exciting stretch of winter riding ahead,” the Boreal Mountain resort wrote in a Facebook post. “Our teams will be working throughout the storm to protect terrain and prepare for reopening as soon as conditions allow.”
Over the weekend, 2 to 6 more inches of rain will hit Washington down to California, and a coastal storm will gift nearly all of the West Coast with rain and wind for Christmas.
The holiday week will be much mild and warmer for the rest of the country.
Erika Kirk, widow of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, and U.S. Vice President JD Vance embrace on stage during a Turning Point USA event at the Pavilion at Ole Miss at the University of Mississippi, on October 29, 2025 in Oxford, Mississippi. Jonathan Ernst-Pool/Getty Images
(PHOENIX) — Erika Kirk endorsed Vice President JD Vance for president during a Turning Point USA conference in Arizona, vowing to throw one of the most influential conservative organizations in the country behind Vance in 2028.
“We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible,” she said during her speech on Thursday night at AmericaFest, the first major Turning Point event since her husband’s assassination.
While the endorsement is not a major surprise given Vance’s close relationship with Charlie Kirk, Erika Kirk and Turning Point, it is significant given the group’s prominence on the right.
Turning Point, founded by Charlie Kirk in 2012, played a key role in helping elect President Donald Trump and shaping the modern conservative movement, particularly among younger voters.
Vance has not yet officially said whether he will run in 2028. In an interview last month with Fox News, Vance said he was focused on the vice presidency and the 2026 midterms but would have a conversation with President Trump after next year’s elections about 2028 .
“We’re going to win the midterms, we’re going to do everything that we can to win the midterms, and then after that, I’m going to sit down with the president of the United States and talk to him about it,” Vance said. “But let’s focus on the now.”
In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death, Vance credited the Turning Point founder for his own political rise and for building out President Trump’s second administration.
“So much of the success we’ve had in this administration traces directly to Charlie’s ability to organize and convene. He didn’t just help us win in 2024, he helped us staff the entire government,” Vance said in the days after Kirk was fatally shot on Sept. 10 during a campus event at Utah Valley University.
Erika Kirk’s endorsement follows Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying in an interview with Vanity Fair published this week that if the vice president were to run for president in 2028, he would support him.
“If JD Vance runs for president, he’s going to be our nominee, and I’ll be one of the first people to support him,” Rubio told Vanity Fair’s Chris Whipple.
Trump himself has said Vance and Rubio would be “great” options for presidential candidates.
“I’m not sure if anybody would run against those two,” Trump said in late October. “I think if they ever formed a group, it would be unstoppable.”
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan leaves the Milwaukee Federal Courthouse on May 15, 2025 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Scott Olson/Getty Images
(MILWAUKEE) — A Wisconsin judge accused of concealing an undocumented man to prevent his arrest by immigration authorities was found guilty of felony obstruction, according to ABC Milwaukee affiliate WISN, which was in the courtroom for the trial.
Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan was charged in a two-count federal indictment that alleges she obstructed official Department of Homeland Security removal proceedings and knowingly concealed the man from immigration authorities at a courthouse in April.
Dugan was found guilty of obstructing federal agents and not guilty of concealing an undocumented immigrant from arrest during the courthouse incident.
The jury reached the mixed verdict after deliberating for approximately six hours on Thursday, according to WISN.
Dugan, who pleaded not guilty, faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison. The judge has not yet set a sentencing date.
One of Dugan’s attorneys, Steve Biskupic, said they are “obviously disappointed” in the outcome. The mixed verdict is “the big thing from the defense perspective,” he told reporters Thursday night.
“The same elements of count one are in count two. In count two — how can you find guilty there and not guilty on the first,” Biskupic said. “But that’s why we asked for a post-trial briefing.”
“The case is a long way from over,” he added.
According to federal prosecutors, Dugan encountered federal agents who were at the Milwaukee County Circuit Court on April 18 to arrest Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, who was appearing in her courtroom on a battery charge.
Prosecutors say that after speaking to the agents, Dugan directed them to the chief judge’s office down the hall and then sent Flores-Ruiz and his attorney out a non-public door in an alleged attempt to help him evade arrest on immigration violations.
Flores-Ruiz was ultimately captured outside the court building after a brief foot chase.
During closing arguments on Thursday, the government portrayed Dugan as a frustrated and angry judge and asked the jurors to hold her accountable for the alleged criminal conduct, according to ABC Milwaukee affiliate WISN.
The defense, meanwhile, argued that the case is an “unjust prosecution” that is “riddled with doubts” and based on “assumptions,” according to WISN. The defense also questioned the veracity of the audio evidence, according to WISN.
During the nearly weeklong trial, prosecutors produced transcripts and audio recordings that they said showed Dugan telling her court reporter that she would “get the heat” for showing Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer the side exit, WISN reported.
Dugan did not testify during the trial.
The defense witnesses included former Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who was not at the courthouse that day but testified as a character witness, according to WISN.
After the defense rested on Thursday, Judge Lynn Adelman denied their request to dismiss the case, according to WISN.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court suspended Dugan in the wake of her arrest, stating in an order that it was “in the public interest that she be temporarily relieved of her official duties.”
Flores-Ruiz, a native of Mexico, was charged with unlawful reentry into the U.S. He was sentenced to time served earlier this month after pleading guilty to the charge, federal court records show. DHS said last month he had been deported.
