(WASHINGTON) — There are no plans for President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet “in the immediate future,” the White House said in a statement on Tuesday — calling off a summit that was expected in Budapest in the coming weeks.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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(WASHINGTON) — Steve Bannon hasn’t worked in the White House for years, but he played a pivotal, and previously unreported, role in the explosive meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier this year that changed the course of U.S. policy toward Ukraine.
The story is first reported in an excerpt in The Atlantic magazine from ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl’s upcoming book, “Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign that Changed America.”
Karl reports on a meeting of Trump’s national security team shortly before Zelenskyy’s visit to Washington in February where Trump stopped the meeting and asked then-national security adviser Michael Waltz to “get Steve Bannon” on the phone.
“Hey, Steve, I’ve got the boys here,” Trump said. “I’m going to put you on speaker.”
Trump, keeping Bannon on speakerphone for half an hour, had the MAGA firebrand make his case to the national security team against the deal, and Zelenskyy, who he referred to as “that punk.”
“I f—— hate it,” Bannon said, arguing that the deal “ties us to Ukraine.”
“If that punk comes here, he’s going to want a security guarantee,” Bannon said of Zelenskyy to Trump and his top advisers. He told the group they “can’t trust Zelenskyy” or “any of the Europeans.”
The previously unreported conversation set the tone for Trump’s combative meeting in the Oval Office with Zelenskyy, which devolved into a tense shouting match in front of reporters and television cameras.
“You’re not acting at all thankful,” Trump said to the Ukrainian leader. “You’re gambling with World War III.”
Zelenskyy left the meeting early that afternoon, and the relationship between the United States and Ukraine was at an all-time low since the start of the conflict with Russia.
While their relationship recovered — Zelenskyy visited the White House this past week seeking more American military assistance — the moment underscored the volatile dynamic between the two leaders, and the abiding influence of Bannon over Trump’s thinking.
In “Retribution,” Karl also reports that Bannon managed to keep in touch with Trump and his camp discreetly from federal prison, while he served four months after he was found guilty of contempt of Congress.
Bannon developed a “coded” system that allowed his daughter and top aide to pass along messages to Trump via the limited email communications he was allowed in prison, which were subject to review by the Bureau of Prisons, according to the excerpt of Karl’s book in The Atlantic.
“Bannon claims that an investigative officer at Danbury — an official he described as ‘pure MAGA’ — had warned him that his communications were being reviewed by ‘Main Justice,’ otherwise known as the Biden administration,” Karl writes.
“So he developed a coded system to let ‘the girls’ know which messages were to be passed on to Trump or to those around him, in particular the aide Boris Epshteyn: “I had just a system to get to Boris, kind of in quasi-code, through [daughter Maureen] into [aide Grace Chong],’ he said. Was there literally a code word? ‘Well, we had — ‘ he began, before catching himself. I don’t — the Bureau of Prisons could go back through it. We had a way that they could get to him,'” Karl writes.
According to Karl, Bannon used the system to tell Trump campaign officials he thought they were making a “huge mistake” by trying to “reduce tensions” across the country after the July 2024 assassination attempt against then-candidate Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Editor’s note: Profanity included in the book has been altered for this account and some text has been edited for style. “Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign that Changed America,” by ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl, is being published Oct. 28 and is available for preorder at Penguin Random House.
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(WASHINGTON) — One of the biggest impacts of the government shutdown is about to hit tens of millions of the poorest Americans hard: the halting of a critical food assistance program.
Several states are now warning they will be forced to suspend Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits come Nov. 1 if the shutdown continues.
SNAP, often referred to as “food stamps,” serves roughly 42 million low-income Americans. The program, run by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, issues electronic benefits that can be used like cash to purchase food.
Texas is now warning its millions of recipients that all November SNAP benefits will be halted if the shutdown continues past Oct. 27.
Pennsylvania officials say they will also not be able to distribute SNAP benefits if the shutdown — now in its 21st day — continues.
“Because Republicans in Washington DC failed to pass a federal budget, causing the federal government shutdown, November 2025 SNAP benefits cannot be paid,” an alert on the state’s Department of Human Services website reads.
Other states such as Minnesota and New York, are issuing similar warnings — saying benefits are “at risk” or “may be delayed” if the shutdown continues.
SNAP has traditionally been entirely federally funded, but is administered by states. That means the shutdown’s impact on SNAP and when benefits will start to dry up will vary state by state.
Earlier this month, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children — commonly known as WIC — received $300 million to help support the program amid the shutdown. The White House said it would use tariff revenue to pay for WIC benefits, which help more than 6 million low-income mothers, young children and expectant parents get nutritious foods.
“We welcome efforts to keep WIC afloat during the shutdown, but families need long-term stability, not short-term uncertainty. We still don’t know how much funding this measure provides, how quickly states will receive it, or how long it will sustain operations. There is no substitute for Congress doing its job,” National WIC Association CEO Georgia Machell said in a statement.
In a letter to state health officials earlier this month, Ronald Ward — the acting head of SNAP — warned that “if the current lapse in appropriations continues, there will be insufficient funds to pay full November SNAP benefits for approximately 42 million individuals across the Nation.”
This has already been a tumultuous few months for SNAP. President Donald Trump’s megabill already cut the program by an estimated $186 billion over 10 years.
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(NEW YORK) — Former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., was freed from prison last week thanks to his federal fraud sentence being commuted by President Donald Trump — but he may not be free from criminal prosecution on the local level.
Prosecutors on Long Island are not ruling out the possibility of bringing local charges, however, the district attorney’s office in Nassau County, which is home to part of the district Santos represented, declined to say what, if anything, prosecutors might be investigating that could warrant state charges.
“Since first learning of George Santos’ actions, I have been at the forefront of bringing him to justice,” Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said in a statement. “I am proud of the work my office has done, and the conviction achieved in partnership with the U.S. Attorney’s office. While the office cannot comment on ongoing investigations, suffice it to say that I remain focused on prosecuting political corruption wherever it exists regardless of political affiliation.”
A spokeswoman for Donnelly’s office declined to elaborate.
Santos was three months into a seven-year prison sentence for deception, fraud and lying to Congress when Trump intervened, noting Santos had the “courage, conviction and intelligence to always vote Republican.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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(BLADENSBURG, Md.) — A 66-year-old man has been identified by police as the alleged driver who plowed into a child’s front-yard birthday party over the weekend in Bladensburg, Maryland, killing a woman and leaving 13 others injured, including eight children.
The suspect, Joseph Sunday of Washington, D.C., was arrested on Monday, according to the Bladensburg Police Department.
Sunday was charged with two counts of negligent manslaughter with a vehicle and failure to remain at the scene of an accident where a death occurred, according to the police department.
The crash unfolded around 10 p.m. on Saturday when a car traveling in reverse in a Bladensburg residential neighborhood plowed into a crowd gathered on the front lawn of a home for a child’s birthday party, according to police.
The vehicle crashed into a party tent set up on the lawn, police said. The driver jumped out of the car and ran from the scene, but later surrendered to police, authorities said.
It remains under investigation what caused the driver to crash unto the party, including whether the suspect was impaired at the time of the crash, according to Bladensburg police officials.
The woman killed in the crash was identified by police as 31-year-old Ashley Hernandez Gutierrez of Washington, D.C.
Five adults and eight children, ranging in age from 1 to 17, were hospitalized with injuries, according to police. One young girl and a toddler were initially treated for critical injuries, according to Prince George’s County Fire and EMS Department.
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(NEW YORK) — Tropical Storm Melissa has formed in the Atlantic and may further strengthen into a hurricane.
Melissa will stay away from the mainland United States, and instead pose the biggest threat to Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Cuba. The storm might also impact Puerto Rico.
Here’s the latest forecast:
As Melissa churns over the Caribbean in the coming days, it will unleash heavy rain, strong winds and rough surf on the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba. A dangerous 5 to 10 inches of rainfall is possible by Friday, with more rain possibly coming over the weekend.
Puerto Rico may face heavy rain and gusty winds from Melissa’s outer bands on Thursday, Friday and this weekend. But so far, the forecast shows that the worst of the storm will avoid Puerto Rico.
Water temperatures in the Caribbean are 3 to 4 degrees above average for this time of year, which will help fuel this system.
The Atlantic hurricane season lasts until Nov. 30.
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(WASHINGTON) — Lawyers for President Donald Trump are asking a federal judge in Florida to deny a request by the Wall Street Journal and its parent companies, Dow Jones and News Corp, to dismiss a $10 billion defamation lawsuit over the paper’s reporting on the bawdy letter allegedly penned by Trump that appeared in a birthday book for disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
In a court filing late Monday, Trump’s lawyers argued that the July article and surrounding coverage were a “deliberate smear campaign designed to damage President Trump’s reputation” and subject the president to “public hatred and ridicule.” They also requested oral arguments over the Journal’s recent motion to dismiss.
“Defendants did not publish the Article on the front page of The Wall Street Journal based on a mere harmless joke between friends,” Monday’s filing said. “Indeed, such an assertion strains credulity beyond repair. The Article, and the surrounding media around it, were all a deliberate smear campaign designed to damage President Trump’s reputation.”
Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for aiding and participating in Epstein’s trafficking of underage girls, told Justice Department officials in August that Epstein had asked her to coordinate contributions to his 2003 50th birthday book from friends and associates, but said she could not recall if Trump, then a private citizen, was among those who responded.
Last month the House Oversight Committee released records from Epstein’s estate that included a copy of a birthday book with the alleged letter from Trump that the newspaper had described.
Trump, who filed suit against the Journal in July, has continued to argue the letter is fake and that the signature on the letter is not his.
Acknowledging the release of the letter by the House Oversight panel, Trump’s lawyers alleged that the Wall Street Journal was still “deliberate and malicious” because the reporting suggested that the letter was not only authored by Trump but also on-brand for the president.
“Defendants cannot hide behind a few words buried within the text — words that refer to the letter ‘bearing Trump’s name’ — while simultaneously ignoring their deliberate portrayal of the letter as being authored and sent by President Trump to Epstein in 2003,” the filing said.
The Wall Street Journal has stood by its reporting.
“Because Plaintiff has publicly admitted that he was Epstein’s friend in the early 2000s, his reputation cannot be harmed by the suggestion that he was friends with Epstein in 2003. Indeed, he was listed in the Birthday Book as a ‘friend’ of Epstein. The fact that his relationship with Epstein may now be a political liability — over 20 years after the Birthday Book was presented to Epstein — does not change this conclusion,” the Journal contended in its request for dismissal.
While the Journal’s reporting included a denial from President Trump, his lawyers argued in Mondays filing that the publication still acted with a “reckless disregard for the truth” because the request for comment was rushed and the reporting allegedly cast doubt on the president’s claim.
“Although Defendants included Plaintiff’s denial, they did so in a way that made it seem as if Plaintiff’s denial was false. This kind of reckless disregard for the truth by Defendants provides a sufficient basis for an inference of actual malice,” the filing said.
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(NEW YORK) — As the federal government shutdown enters its third week, some Americans are worried about the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies.
The subsidies, or premium tax credits, help lower or eliminate the out-of-pocket cost of monthly premiums for those who purchase insurance through the health insurance marketplace.
They were enhanced during the COVID-19 pandemic and are currently set to expire at the end of 2025.
Democrats have been demanding that Republicans pass extensions of the subsidies before the government is reopened, while the GOP says it won’t negotiate until a clean funding bill passes and the government reopens.
A recent analysis from KFF found that premium payments could more than double in 2026 if the ACA enhanced premium tax credits expire.
Some Americans who rely on the tax credits to help pay for some or all of their or their family’s premiums told ABC News they’re worried that if the subsidies expire, they may be forced to choose a less comprehensive insurance plan or they may not be able to cover the cost of their premiums.
We ‘can’t afford to not have insurance’
Doug Butchart, 67, from Eglin, Illinois, told ABC News that his wife, Shadene, has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and currently receives her insurance through the health insurance marketplace.
Shadene Butchart, 58, started off on a Blue Cross bronze plan — or the lowest tier — but, as her disease progressed, the couple decided to upgrade to a gold plan, the highest tier, which covers a higher percentage of her health care costs.
The premium under this plan is $1,273.82 per month. The Butcharts receive enhanced premium tax credits that cover $670 of the monthly premium, leaving them to pay $603.82 per month themselves.
Without the premium tax credits, Doug Butchart said they cannot afford to pay the entire premium out of pocket each month.
“I’ve heard [premiums could rise] anywhere from 25 to 50%,” he said. “And that’s not sustainable because we can’t afford that but can’t afford to not have insurance.”
Doug Butchart said his wife doesn’t quality for Medicare and they don’t meet the income threshold to qualify for Medicaid.
“We’re stuck like in the middle because, normally with an ALS diagnosis, you’re automatically eligible for [Social Security Disability Insurance] and Medicare, but she doesn’t have any work credits, so she doesn’t qualify for Social Security Disability,” he explained. “So right now, we’re doing everything off of my Social Security, and it’s very hard to try and pay all the bills and keep insurance and, if they mess around with the marketplace insurance, it’s going to make it impossible for us to afford insurance.”
Now that the Butcharts have met the deductible for the year, combined with the anticipation of possibly losing tax credits and going to a lower tier insurance plan, the couple is trying to use insurance to get as much equipment as Shadene Butchart needs to manage her ALS before the end of the year.
This includes an order for a new wheelchair that Shadene Butchart could drive with her eyes, and that could cost anywhere from $65,000 to $95,000, Doug Butchart said.
Doug Butchart said they may have to downgrade to a lower-tier plan next year, but he’s not sure if the medications his wife currently takes will be covered by a “lesser plan.”
Doug Butchart, who is a retired mechanic, said he feels lucky that he does not need to worry about house or car payments — both of which are paid off — but there are other bills to pay and he did not expect to have to struggle to meet insurance costs every month.
“You work your entire life to make yourself comfortable and I’m sure there are things that we could do without but there’s not that much crazy spending to possibly have to cover $1,500 a month for insurance,” he said. “That’s a lot of money. … You don’t realize how important insurance is until you need it.”
‘It’s very much a worry’
Nancy Murphy, a retired registered nurse and insurance industry employee, was able to receive insurance through the ACA for the first time this year with Florida Blue.
Every month, her premium is $1,019 and the enhanced premium tax credits cover the total cost, she told ABC News. If there is no deal made before the Nov. 1 open enrollment deadline or the tax credits expire at the end of the year, she’s concerned about being able to cover the cost.
“It’s very much a worry. I definitely could not afford that if the tax credits expire,” said Murphy, 60, who lives in Fort Lauderdale. “It’s a scary thought as a type 1 diabetic.”
Murphy said she uses an insulin pump to manage her diabetes, which is covered by her insurance without a co-pay. However, she said she sometimes uses other medications that have a $30 a month co-pay.
She added that losing the tax credits is a concern because she has other costs she wants to make sure she can manage including property taxes and her daughter’s tuition for college in Boston.
Without knowing exactly how much premiums are going to increase by, she said she’s very anxious about what her budget will look like.
“I’m like in limbo and it’s a really uncomfortable feeling,” Murphy said. “I like to budget and plan out my budget. With tuition, property taxes and repairs that need to be done around the house, I need to map these out.”
She continued, “These things to me are so upsetting. We are American citizens. We should be able to access our tax dollars for our heath care needs.”
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(NEW YORK) — Tropical Storm Melissa has formed in the Atlantic and may further strengthen into a hurricane.
While Melissa will stay away from the mainland United States, it could bring rough surf, rain and wind to Puerto Rico.
The exact path and timing are not yet clear, but Melissa will likely stay in the Caribbean for days.
A cold front will work to keep this system away from mainland America this weekend and next week.
However, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico should all prepare for heavy rain, flooding, strong winds and rough surf for the second half of this week through the weekend, and possibly into early next week.
Water temperatures in the Caribbean are 3 to 4 degrees above average for this time of year, which will help fuel this system.
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(NEW YORK) — New York City police have released footage of the person who they say left a newborn girl at a Midtown Manhattan subway station during the Monday morning rush hour.
The unknown person left the baby girl wrapped in a blanket at the southbound 1 train platform at 34th Street-Penn Station at about 9:04 a.m. Monday, the New York Police Department said. The person then fled on foot, police said.
The infant was reported via an anonymous tip, and NYPD and fire personnel responded, New York City Transit President Demetrius Crichlow told reporters.
The baby was conscious and alert on the way to the hospital and she was admitted in stable condition, police said.
“I’m calling it the miracle on 34th Street, maybe just a little earlier,” Crichlow said.
“Just grateful for the work of the NYPD for responding and caring for the baby,” he added.
The NYPD is looking for help identifying the unknown person who left the baby. The police ask anyone with information to call NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS or submit a tip online at https://crimestoppers.nypdonline.org/.
ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.
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