Viktor Kovalchuk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
(LONDON) — Russia overnight fired more than 300 drones and about three dozen missiles at targets throughout Ukraine, including civilian energy infrastructure and emergency services, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday.
The strike included an attack on the State Emergency Service department in the Kharkiv region, he said.
“There are wounded,” Zelenskyy said on social media. “Recovery efforts are underway everywhere. Emergency services are working.”
Zelenskyy, who is scheduled on Friday to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House, said on Thursday that the ongoing strikes only showed that the West needed to continue applying “pressure” on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
That pressure included continuing to update sanctions, but, he said, it could also include longer-range capabilities for the Ukrainian military to strike targets farther into Russia.
“Strong decisions are possible, decisions that can help. And this depends on the United States, on Europe, on all partners whose strength directly determines whether the war will be ended,” Zelenskyy said.
He added, “Now there is an important momentum toward peace in the Middle East. In Europe, this is also possible. That is exactly what I will be discussing today and tomorrow in Washington.”
The Kremlin on Wednesday also addressed the potential for the West to supply weapons for or to greenlight longer-range Ukrainian strikes within Russia.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was quoted in Tass, a Russian state-affiliated media outlet, saying that deliveries of U.S.-made Tomahawks would amount to a “dangerous escalation of tensions” between Russia and the United States.
The Russian strike on Ukraine overnight targeted several Ukrainian regions — with a focus on the Poltava and Kharkiv regions — with a total of about 320 drones, about 200 of which were Shahed attack drones, the Ukrainian air force said. About 37 missiles were also fired, the military said.
Most of those aerial attacks were thwarted by Ukraine or otherwise failed, the air force said. At least 37 drones and 14 missiles made it through Ukraine’s air defenses, the military said.
The Russian Ministry of Defense also reported downing at least 51 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory. Local authorities said the electricity supplies to several settlements in the Volgograd, Voronezh and Belgorod regions were disrupted by the Ukrainian attacks.
Trump on Wednesday said during an Oval Office press conference that he thought Russia and Ukraine were close to a ceasefire deal about two months ago, blaming the impasse on animosity between Zelenskyy and Putin.
“You know, it’s an obstacle. It’s an obstacle,” Trump said. “There’s no question about it.”
U.S. President Donald Trump returns to the White House following a visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on October 10, 2025 in Washington, DC. President Trump traveled to Walter Reed to visit with troops and receive a medical check up. (Photo by Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump, speaking in the Oval Office on Wednesday alongside FBI Director Kash Patel, said his administration is going to “go into other cities” to combat crime.
“We’re going to have a surge of strong, good people, patriots. And they’re going to go in, they straighten it all out,” Trump said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem speaks during a roundtable discussion in the State Dining Room of the White House on October 08, 2025 in Washington, DC. Trump’s administration held the roundtable to discuss the anti-fascist Antifa movement after signing an executive order designating it as a “domestic terrorist organization”. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Democratic senators are alleging that the Department of Homeland Security potentially violated the Hatch Act by asking airports across the country to play a video featuring DHS Secretary Kristi Noem blaming Democrats for the impacts of the government shutdown.
“This appears to be a flagrant violation of Sec. 715, which states ‘No part of any funds appropriated in this or any other act shall be used by an agency of the executive to branch… for the preparation, distribution or use of any… film presentation designed to support or defeat legislation pending before the Congress, except in presentation to the Congress itself,'” Connecticut Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal wrote in the letter to DHS citing a section from the Anti-Lobbying Act.
The Hatch Act restricts certain political activities by federal employees and by some state, Washington, D.C., and local government workers who are involved or work in federally funded programs. Penalties for violating it include removal from federal employment, suspension without pay, demotion, or blocking a party from federal jobs for up to five years, according to the Office of Special Counsel.
“The law’s purposes are to ensure that federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion, to protect federal employees from political coercion in the workplace, and to ensure that federal employees are advanced based on merit and not based on political affiliation,” according to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel’s website.
In response to ABC News’ request for comment on the call for an investigation, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said “DHS responds to official correspondence through official channels.”
“It is TSA’s top priority to ensure that travelers have the most pleasant, efficient, and safe air travel security experience possible. It is a simple statement of fact that Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government, and because of this, most of our TSA employees are working without pay. It’s unfortunate our workforce has been put in this position due to political gamesmanship. Our hope is that Democrats will soon recognize the importance of opening the government,” she said.
The letter followed a number of airports nationwide declining to play the video, saying their facilities’ policies bar the showing of political content. Some of them also pointed to the Hatch Act.
Among the major airports that declined to show the DHS video are LaGuardia, Newark Liberty, John F. Kennedy, Charlotte Douglas International, Seattle-Tacoma, San Francisco, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta, Chicago O’ Hare, Phoenix International and Colorado Springs.
As of Wednesday afternoon, officials at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Michigan and Bismarck Airport in North Dakota said the video was being shown on screens controlled by TSA at the airports and out of their control. Both airports said they were not involved in the decision to play the video. A spokesperson for Detroit Wayne Airport said it has requested that TSA stop playing the video.
The letter to DHS led by Blumenthal and Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed was cosigned by 15 other senators and asks the department to “immediately remove these videos from all TSA checkpoints and cease illegally using federal funds for partisan political messaging.”
The senators also asked DHS to provide information on the funding used to produce the video, including the cost, the approver of the funds, whether anyone from the Trump administration was consulted on the video, and if any outside contractors or organizations were involved in its creation to assess whether any federal laws were violated or funds misused, according to the letter.
A similar letter was sent by Washington Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell, ranking member on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, to the Office of Special Counsel demanding an investigation into the video, adding that the OSC is responsible for enforcing the Hatch Act.
“When viewed in its totality, Secretary Noem’s video can only be reasonably interpreted as a partisan message intended to misleadingly malign the Trump Administration’s political opponents, convince Americans to blame ‘Democrats in Congress’ for the ongoing government shutdown, and influence their future votes — all while omitting the fact that Republicans currently control the White House, U.S. Senate, and U.S. House of Representatives,” Cantwell wrote in the letter.
In this Aug. 18, 2025, file photo, Rep. Gina Hinojosa reacts as a proclamation by the Governor is read inside the House Chamber at the Texas Capitol in Austin, Texas. Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman via Getty Images, FILE
(TEXAS) — One of the Texas Democrats who attempted to block Republican efforts to redraw the state’s congressional maps mid-decade is looking to bring that fighting spirit to the governor’s mansion.
Austin-area state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, a Democrat, on Tuesday launched a bid to unseat Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
Hinojosa told ABC News she believes Texas voters desire a spirited, fresh candidate to take on Abbott, who is running for a fourth term.
“I think Americans are done with politics as usual and are interested in shaking off labels and just wanting to see something real,” she said. “I’m as real as you get — a mom who got mad [who] ran for office.”
A former Austin ISD school board president, Hinojosa will center education, and campaigning on behalf of Texas public schools, in her bid. Hinojosa was elected to the statehouse in 2016.
“After 10 years, I now understand where our money is going and our money is going to vendor contracts and to enrich the billionaire class and not to the needs of Texans,” she said.
Hinojosa was part of the first wave of legislators who, this summer, left the state to deny their Republican counterparts a quorum, which brought the Abbott-backed special session to implement new GOP-favored congressional maps to a screeching halt.
The quorum break kicked off a national redistricting saga; high-profile Democrats, like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Illinois. Gov. JB Pritzker, and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul hosted these lawmakers to protest the maps.
Pritzker took on an outsized role in the showdown, helping coordinate the travel and lodging of dozens of state lawmakers as they camped out in Illinois and ran out the clock. Former President Barack Obama even called into their Illinois’ encampment and offered support.
Texas Republicans did eventually pass new congressional maps after establishing a second special session, though Texas Democrats, Hinojosa among them, heralded their collective action as a win. Newsom and California Democrats, in turn, launched their own effort to pass blue-leaning maps, bringing the issue to voters on a proposition this November.
Hinojosa said her involvement in the quorum break “opened my eyes” that voters are ready for a fight.
“I can run for governor because I have faith in Texans that they will have my back and that they are in this with me. That quorum break did expand my understanding of where Texans, where voters are today in 2025 when it comes to what they want to see their leaders doing,” she said.
But Hinojosa, a self-described populist, has a lot of ground to gain. No Democrat has won a statewide office in Texas since 1994. And Texas’ Latino population has been slowly edging toward Trump over the last few elections. Trump led former President Joe Biden by 6 points in the state in 2020 — and the gulf grew in 2024, when trounced former Vice President Kamala Harris by 14 points.
She must also edge out serious Democratic challengers in the primary. Andrew White, the son of former Texas Gov. Mark White, is also running. And she faces the potential of more well-known Democrats jumping into the fray. (Though Hinojosa says both Rep. Joaquin Castro and former congressman Beto O’Rourke have told her they’ve ruled out a gubernatorial run.)
Despite it all, she feels she can navigate these challenges. And is making a bet that Texas voters feel the same.
“People want change. I’m the candidate of change. Greg Abbott is the candidate of status quo, of the insider club enriching themselves with our taxpayer dollars. So, I feel very good about being a candidate that represents the desires and what Texans want to see in a leader,” Hinojosa said.
Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., leaves the U.S. Capitol after the last votes before August recess, on Wednesday July 23, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
(FLORIDA) — A Florida judge issued a protective order against Republican Rep. Cory Mills after he was accused by a former girlfriend of threatening to release sexually explicit videos of her, according to court documents.
The judge ordered the congressman to refrain from contacting Lindsey Langston, who was named Miss United States in 2024 and is a Republican state committeewoman from Columbia County.
Langston alleged in July that Mills threatened to release videos of her after their breakup earlier this year and that he threatened to harm any future partners, according to a report obtained from the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office in Florida.
In the order, the judge wrote that Langston has “reasonable cause to believe she is in imminent danger of becoming the victim of another act of dating violence” and said the evidence supported Langston’s assertion that Mills had caused her “substantial emotional distress” and that Mills offered “no credible rebuttal” to her testimony.
The order, which remains in place until January 2026, prohibits Mills from contacting Langston in any way and from coming within 500 feet of her residence or place of employment.
In her first comments since the judge’s decision, Langston said she now “feels like I’m able to live my life again.”
“I do feel that justice was served, and I can’t even describe the relief that I felt once I got the phone call that I had been issued the injunction for protection. I felt like I’m able to live my life again,” Langston said on a Zoom call Wednesday with reporters, sitting next to her attorney.
Mills previously said in a statement to ABC News, “These claims are false and misrepresent the nature of my interactions,” and accused a former Florida primary opponent of “weaponizing the legal system to launch a political attack against the man who beat him.”
In the order, the judge said he did not find Mills’ testimony to be “truthful.”
“The court, considering the totality of the testimony and the circumstances, does not find the Respondent’s testimony concerning the intimate videos to be truthful,” the judge wrote.
Speaker Mike Johnson, on Wednesday, was asked about allegations against Mills and told reporters, “I have not heard or looked into details of that. I’ve been a little busy. We have a House Ethics Committee; if it warrants that, I am sure they’ll look into it.”
“You have to ask Rep. Mills about that,” the Speaker added when pressed. “I mean, he’s been a faithful colleague here. I know his work on the Hill. I mean, I don’t. I don’t know all the details of all the individual allegations and what he’s doing in his outside life. Let’s talk about things that are really serious.”
Langston’s attorney Bobi Frank said Wednesday that her client plans to cooperate with any future investigations, including with the House Ethics Committee, and said she had been in contact with “other individuals” involved the matter and alleged that “Miss Langston is not alone.”
Voting rights activists protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court as the court prepares to hear arguments in a case challenging Louisiana’s congressional map in Washington on Wednesday, October 15, 2025. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared ready to limit how a key part of the Voting Rights Act long aimed at protecting equal opportunity for racial minority voters is applied to the drawing of state election maps.
During oral arguments in a complicated case challenging the drawing of a second majority-black district in Louisiana, the court’s conservative majority suggested race may have improperly predominated as a factor in its creation.
At the same time, it was not clear whether a majority of the court was prepared to issue a more sweeping ruling that any use of race as a factor in redistricting is unconstitutional.
Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act has long been a guardrail against states “packing” Black voters into districts and “cracking” communities of color into other districts with an aim of diluting their electoral influence.
Courts that have found a violation of Section 2 then order states to redraw their maps, with an eye on race, to ensure minority voters are given fair chance at political participation.
The law does not require proof of intent to discriminate — prohibiting any discrimination in effect — but several conservative justices suggested that plaintiffs should have to show at least some possibility of intent, a tougher standard to meet.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who could be the key vote in the case, voiced particular concern about the indefinite use of race to draw maps compliant with Section 2.
“This court’s cases in a variety of contexts have said that race-based remedies are permissible for a period of time, sometimes for a long period of time, decades in some cases, but that they should not be indefinite and should have an end point,” Kavanaugh said.
“What is not grounded in case law,” replied Janai Nelson, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, which is defending Louisiana’s map, “is the idea that an entire statute should somehow dissolve simply because race may be an element of the remedy.”
The court’s longstanding precedents have said that race cannot be a primary motivating factor when drawing congressional districts under the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, but they also grant states have breathing room to consider race in order to comply with the Voting Rights Act.
The court most recently upheld Section 2 in a 2023 decision.
“What Section 2 does is to say where the effects [of a congressional map] are discriminatory such that … African Americans here are not being given the same voting opportunities as white people are, then a remedy is appropriate,” Justice Elena Kagan told Louisiana Solicitor General Benjamin Aguinaga. “That remedy doesn’t have to be race-based, but sometimes it is race-based in order to correct the racially discriminatory situation that exists.”
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson most vigorously defended the legacy of Section 2 and its use to create two majority-black districts in Louisiana, describing the Civil Rights-era law as a “tool” to identify racial disparities.
“It’s like a tape measure that we’re looking [at] as to whether or not certain circumstances exist, and those circumstances that Congress is worried about – unequal access to electoral opportunity,” she said. “That’s why it doesn’t need a time limit, because it’s not doing any work other than just pointing us to the direction of where we might need to do something.”
Justice Samuel Alito said outright that he believed lower courts did not correctly apply the Supreme Court’s precedents around Section 2 to the maps at issue in Louisiana.
“There’s a serious question about whether the Black population within the district in question in the illustrative map was geographically compact,” he said, referring to one of the legal requirements for a VRA-compliant map.
A decision in Louisiana’s favor could, at the very least, require the state to redraw its map under more race-neutral criteria ahead of the 2026 midterm election. The two majority-black districts are represented by Democrats.
A broader conclusion in the case could upend congressional maps nationwide, potentially triggering the redrawing of race-neutral districts in multiple states and in turn putting minority representation at risk in legislatures nationwide.
Nelson argued that a further rollback of the Voting Rights Act would be “catastrophic.”
“If we take Louisiana as one example, every congressional member who is Black was elected from a VRA opportunity district,” she said. “We only have the diversity that we see across the south, for example, because of litigation that forced the creation of opportunity districts under the Voting Rights Act.”
The court is expected to release a decision before the end of its term in June 2026. How quickly it releases its ruling could determine whether or not states will have sufficient time to redraw maps — if necessary — before midterm voting begins.
(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Labor Department is warning of a potential food crisis linked to President Trump’s immigration raids – and one family-owned farm is caught in the middle.
“The near total cessation of the inflow of illegal aliens combined with the lack of an available legal workforce, results in significant disruptions to production costs and threatening the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S consumers,” according to a Department of Labor report submitted earlier in October.
Owyhee Produce, a third-generation agricultural business in Idaho, is now facing worker shortages in the wake of the Trump administration’s increasing deportation raids.
Shay Myers, Owyhee Produce’s general manager, said the farm typically has 300 workers at peak harvesting times, with roughly 82 H-2A visa employees, who are temporary, seasonal agricultural workers from abroad.
According to Myers, these seasonal workers – some from Mexico, some from South Africa and other countries – are granted a visa for up to nine months after being interviewed to determine whether they qualify. Owyhee then provides their travel to the farm, and their housing – “everything, really, when they’re here except for food and clothing. That’s part of the requirements,” said Myers.
Given the cost and requirements, it may seem easier to hire local workers instead. Not so, according to Myers.
“We would love to hire people from here. The reality is that we can’t find the numbers of people here,” Myers told ABC News. “We’re in a rural area, number one. Number two: This is hard work. It is difficult work, and there are lots of people that are not willing to do it.”
Mauricio Sol, a seasonal worker at Owyhee, said 90% of the workforce at the farm is from Mexico, but it is becoming more difficult to find seasonal agricultural workers due to increased concerns about possible ICE raids.
“We all come on the H-2A visa program, so we come all here legally by the season, just for the season, and then we go back to Mexico,” Sol told ABC News. “We usually get a lot of applications. We’re not getting that many now because people is afraid of that even when they are legally here, they’re getting arrested for no reason.”
James O’Neill, the director of Legislative Affairs for the American Business Immigration Coalition, which describes itself as “a bipartisan coalition of over 1,700 employers and CEOs from across the country to provide a strong and unified voice seeking lasting immigration solutions,” says that President Trump’s immigration raids are hurting agricultural labor forces and could lead to higher food prices.
“It’s absolutely impacting the labor force,” O’Neill told ABC News. “Nationwide, the USDA’s ag labor survey suggests that somewhere between 50 and 60 percent of our farm labor workforce is undocumented immigrants.”
“And if that’s the case, if we were to deport them all overnight, then that’s 60% of the workforce, meaning that’s 60% of the supply that’s not being met without a shift in demand. And I think anyone that understands economics knows that means higher prices for them at the grocery store,” O’Neill said.
A September report by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Research Service estimated that “about 40 percent” of “hired crop farmworkers lack legal immigration status.”
Myers said he wants to share Owyhee’s story in hopes of bringing attention to the plight faced by seasonal agricultural workers across the country, “because it’s wrong not to.”
“I have a voice, I have reach. I have people that will listen,” Myers told ABC News. “And because I am a conservative and a Republican, people assume that I would have a different perspective here, and this is my reality.”
“I love these people. I love the culture, and I love the effort that they make. And ethically, to continue to not fix this problem is absolutely completely wrong.” Myers said. “We as Americans try to do the right thing. Let’s do the right thing.”
ABC News reached out to the U.S. Department of Labor for comment but was told that their press team was unavailable due to the ongoing government shutdown.
A photo of Theresa Fusco is shown during a press briefing with the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office, Oct. 15, 2025. ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Authorities in suburban New York believe they have closed a murder case that had been open for more than 40 years.
In November 1984, 16-year-old Theresa Fusco disappeared after she was fired from her job working the snack bar at a roller rink in Lynbrook. Three men who had been convicted of her death were exonerated in 2003 based on DNA evidence.
On Wednesday, the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office announced 63-year-old man Richard Bilodeau has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with Fusco’s death. The indictment further charges him with second-degree murder during the commission or attempted commission of first-degree rape.
A discarded smoothie cup was the critical piece of evidence in the nearly 41-year-old murder case that Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said “sent shockwaves through the tight-knit Lynbrook community” and a fear that young women were at risk.
Investigators had been surveilling the suspect for months when a break came in February. Bilodeau went to get a smoothie not far from his home in Center Moriches and investigators recovered the discarded cup and straw from the trash and brought it for testing, officials said.
“The DNA from that straw, Richard Bilodeau’s DNA, was a match,” Donnelly said during a press briefing Wednesday. “The DNA in this case led us straight to Richard Bilodeau.”
Donnelly said Bilodeau, who lived by himself in Center Moriches, had been under investigation since early 2024.
He was arrested Tuesday and pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder charge. Donnelly said he denied knowing Fusco, “but science proves otherwise.”
“Through his denials that he had ever known her name, who she was, he made kind of a flippant comment about the 1980s. He said, ‘People got away with murder.’ Well, I’ll tell you something, Mr. Bilodeau, I’ve got you now,” Donnelly said.
Fusco’s father said he “never gave up hope” and the indictment “brings closure” to him and his family.
“It’s heartbreaking to go through this over and over again, but this seems like a finalization and I’m very grateful, very grateful, for me and my family to come to an end like this, than to constantly be a cold case situation,” Tom Fusco said during Wednesday’s press briefing.
In 1984, Bilodeau was a 23-year-old living with his grandparents in Lynbrook, a mile from Hot Skates, the roller rink where Fusco had worked, officials said.
Fusco’s body was found buried under leaves and shipping pallets. Police said she had been strangled, sexually assaulted and beaten.
The murder stunned her Nassau County community, especially when two other teens went missing in the same area, which became known as the Lynbrook Triangle, a local take on the Bermuda Triangle, known for its disappearances.
Three men were charged in Fusco’s death, convicted and sentenced to more than 30 years in prison.
The men insisted they were innocent, and, in 2003, DNA technology caught up to the case and confirmed semen found on the girl’s body was from another man and their convictions were vacated.
One of the wrongly convicted, John Restivo, told “Good Morning America” in 2003, “For years … someone would ask me how I’m doing today. I’d say, ‘Not good, I woke up on the wrong side of the wall this morning.’ Yesterday I was able to say, ‘I woke up on the right side of the wall this morning.'”
ABC News’ Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.
Farmer Scott Thomsen, pictured here with ABC’s Matt Rivers, is preparing for the fall soybean harvest in eastern Nebraska. Ben Siegel & Matt Rivers/ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump’s $20 billion bailout of Argentina’s economy has raised red flags in the U.S., especially among American farmers desperate for help dealing with a crop crisis triggered by his trade war with China.
Argentina’s President Javier Milei met with Trump and top U.S. officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Tuesday at the White House.
The meeting came nearly a week after Bessent announced a $20 billion financial lifeline that included a currency swap framework with Argentina’s central bank aimed at propping up the Argentine peso.
“We just want to see Argentina do well,” Trump told reporters during the meeting.
Details still unclear
In an X post last week, Bessent said the U.S. finalized a $20 billion swap line, or a loan, with Argentina’s central bank, where the U.S. Treasury will exchange dollars for pesos.
The expectation, Bessent has said, is that those dollars will eventually be paid back.
Bessent also said last week the U.S. directly purchased pesos, without specifying how much.
The Treasury Department had not published any details about the terms of the swap agreement as of Tuesday and ultimately the dollars it’s offering to Argentina’s central bank are U.S. taxpayer dollars.
“You can call it a bailout, you can call it a rescue, it is a credit line to a country that otherwise would be out of reserves,” Brad Setser, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and former Treasury official, told ABC News.
Bessent has repeatedly denied that the deal is a bailout, saying the U.S. is supporting the economic reforms of a key South American ally and advancing U.S. strategic interests in the region.
The Treasury Department has not responded to ABC News requests for more information on the deal.
Farmers, leaders on both sides sound off
The bailout has sparked controversy with farmers, Democrats and some Republicans questioning why the U.S. would commit billions to boost the economy of a foreign country, especially when thousands of American soybean farmers are suffering and in need of help.
China stopped purchasing American soybeans amid the trade war with the United States. According to the American Soybean Association, China is the largest buyer of American soybeans, purchasing more than 50 percent of U.S. exports in 2023 and 2024.
While some American farmers have said they are afraid of bankruptcies and foreclosures because of their losses, Argentina and Brazil’s farmers are increasingly supplying Chinese markets — with soybeans.
Ben Steffen, a Nebraska soybean and corn farmer, who spoke to ABC News from his tractor Tuesday, said the U.S. is “bailing out our competitor in the soybean production business.”
“Clearly, people are not happy about the markets, and my neighbors are not happy about bailing out Argentina,” he said.
Minnesota farmer Darin Johnson said China’s purchase of soybeans from Argentina has cost the U.S. leverage in trade talks, by satisfying China’s demand for the crop.
But he added that many farmers still support Trump, despite any frustrations with some of the administration’s policies.
“We’re going to put it to good faith in this administration that we are going to get a trade deal, but we are running out of time,” Johnson said. “Without a little help from this administration, which we don’t know what is going on yet, there is still a fair amount of uncertainty.”
Ryan Marquardt, an Iowa farmer, told ABC News on Tuesday that the bailout for Argentina seems to run counter to Trump’s “America First” vision.
“It does feel like you are propping up your competition. It does seem counterintuitive to the America First ideology,” he said. “I don’t see any place where we come out ahead from that transaction.”
Democrats have accused the White House of neglecting farmers and other Americans at a time of economic turmoil and uncertainty.
“The truth is clear: Trump put America second, bailing out another country while abandoning American farmers,” the Democratic National Committee said in a press release Monday.
Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley also criticized the priorities of the administration in an X post last month when word of the Argentine deal was making the rounds.
“Why would USA help bail out Argentina while they take American soybean producers’ biggest market, he said. “We shld use leverage at every turn to help hurting farm economy Family farmers shld be top of mind in negotiations by representatives of USA.”
The American Soybean Association’s president, Kentucky farmer Caleb Ragland, said in a statement in September that “frustration” with the Trump administration was “overwhelming.”
“U.S. soybean prices are falling, harvest is underway, and farmers read headlines not about securing a trade agreement with China, but that the U.S. government is extending $20 billion in economic support to Argentina while that country drops its soybean export taxes to sell 20 shiploads of Argentine soybeans to China in just two days,” Ragland said.
“The farm economy is suffering while our competitors supplant the United States in the biggest soybean import market in the world,” he added.
Trump has promised to help the soybean farmers, at one point claiming that money from tariffs would be used to assist them financially, but no such proposal had been formalized as of Tuesday.
The administration has blamed the current federal government shutdown for delaying the rollout of an assistance package.
The president has also called on China to purchase U.S. soybeans — to no avail.
“President Trump pledged to put American farmers first, and every historic trade agreement that his Administration has struck with the EU, Japan, and others includes unprecedented provisions to expand American agricultural exports,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement to ABC News.
“The Administration continues to fight for American farmers in trade negotiations, and also remains committed to using tariff revenue to support farmers who have been left in the lurch due to unfair foreign trade practices,” he added.
Trump says deal helps South American conservative ally before election
The Argentine bailout comes at a politically crucial time for its controversial president.
Milei has made headlines for his libertarian beliefs and has frequently been seen with conservative leaders and figures, including Elon Musk, who he joined at this year’s CPAC and gave him a what became a famous mock chainsaw, praising Musk’s DOGE cuts.
Trump has frequently praised Milei and backed his leadership, praising his right-wing, cost-cutting agenda in Argentina.
“They have a great leader,” Trump told reporters just before his meeting with Milei on Tuesday.
However, the 55-year-old is facing serious competition in Argentina’s Oct. 26 election as he has been hit with rising disapproval ratings over the last few months, according to Reuters.
The U.S. deal seeks to stabilize the peso just as Argentine voters head to the polls.
“We’re helping a great philosophy take over a great country … we want him to succeed,” Trump said Tuesday, adding that if Milei is successful, other countries in South America could follow its lead politically.
Trump later said the currency swap is dependent on Milei’s success during the country’s upcoming elections.
“If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina,” Trump said. “If he doesn’t win, we’re gone,” he said.
Trump said “no” when asked how the currency swap was an “America First” policy — if it was just to help Milei in the upcoming election.
Bessent echoed the president’s sentiment Tuesday, claiming that the U.S. is using its economic strength to create peace in South America.
“It’s hope for the future,” Bessent said. “I think that with the bridge the U.S. is giving them and with the strong policies, that Argentina can be great again.”
Bessent’s finance colleagues come under scrutiny
Bessent has also been on the hot seat over Argentina’s ties to some of his former colleagues in the finance world.
Rob Citrone, a billionaire who once worked with Bessent, has sizable investments in Latin America and Argentina, according to SEC filings.
A spokesperson for Citrone and Discovery Capital Management, his hedge fund, declined to comment to ABC News.
Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller — a longtime friend of Bessent — has publicly said he invested in Argentina after Milei’s election. Druckenmiller did not immediately return messages to ABC News for comment.
The Treasury Department did not respond to a message seeking comment about reports that Bessent had discussed Argentina with Citrone, or additional requests for comment on the deal.
Bessent denied the deal had any connection to his finance colleagues in a CNBC interview last week where he said the “trope that we’re helping out wealthy Americans with interest down there couldn’t be more false.”
“What we’re doing is maintaining a U.S. strategic interest in the Western Hemisphere,” he added.
-ABC News’ Isabella Murray and Fritz Farrow contributed to this report.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto gesture as they pose for a photo, at a world leaders’ summit on ending the Gaza war on October 13, 2025 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. Suzanne Plunkett – Pool / Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto appear to have been overheard on Monday discussing what seemed to be a Trump family business venture, leading to criticism that it undermines what the White House has said about a firewall existing between the president’s official duties and his personal fortune.
During the exchange, which took place on a live camera feed shortly after Trump addressed a gathering of leaders in Egypt to laud the Gaza ceasefire plan, Subianto asked Trump to meet with “Eric,” presumably referring to Eric Trump, president’s son who is the executive vice president of the Trump Organization.
“Would you do that?” Trump responds. “He’s such a good boy. I’ll have Eric call you.”
Neither leader appeared to be aware that their conversation was being picked up by a microphone. The audio is muffled and at times difficult to discern. It was not clear exactly what the two men were discussing.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News. In the past, White House officials have said that Trump’s assets are held in a trust controlled by his family, and that, while president, he has no role in the family’s business dealings in order to avoid ethical concerns.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters in May that it was “frankly ridiculous that anyone in this room would even suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit.”
A spokesperson for the Trump Organization said in a statement that “The Trump Organization has two of the largest and most substantial projects in all of Indonesia, which began in 2015, long before President Trump entered office for the first term.”
“It should come as no surprise that our unbelievable property was referenced given its prominence within the country,” the statement said.
Critics immediately leapt on the nature of the discussion between Trump and Subianto, saying that “there is no line between Trump presidential and personal business,” according to Tony Carrk, the executive director of Accountable.US, a nonprofit government watchdog.
“The President is apparently using a foreign leader summit as a platform to smooth things over for his son’s condo development ventures in Indonesia,” Carrk said.
The exchange began when Subianto approached Trump behind the lectern where he had just finished addressing world leaders on camera, in front of the media. The first intelligible words came from Subianto, who describes a region as “not safe, security-wise,” before asking to meet with Eric.
“We’ll look for a better place,” Subianto says moments later.
“I’ll have Eric call you,” Trump responds.
“Eric or Don,” Subianto says, apparently referring to Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr., another executive vice president at the Trump Organization.
At one point during the conversation, Subianto tells Trump, “I told Hary, also, by the way,” possibly referring to Hary Tanoesoedibjo, an Indonesian real estate developer who has partnered with the Trump Organization on both of its existing projects in the country.
Just days before the summit, Tanoesoedibjo posted a video on social media promoting the Trump-branded property in Lido City, a town just south of Jakarta, boasting of its “breathtaking views” and “unmatched prestige.” Tanoesoedibjo’s firm, MNC Land, is also in the process of developing another Trump-branded property in Bali.
MNC Land did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
Before parting ways, Trump, on the video feed, tells Subianto: “You’re a fantastic guy. I’ll have one of them call you. I like that you told me that. We don’t need that.”
Indonesia’s foreign minister downplayed the conversation, according to Bloomberg.
“They’re friends, so it’s natural for them to speak privately,” Sugiono, the foreign minister, told reporters. “If there’s anything specific that needs follow-up, I will be informed.”
