Politics

(WASHINGTON) — High-profile races are unfolding across the country on Tuesday, including New York City’s mayoral election and governor’s races in New Jersey and Virginia.

In California, voters will consider a ballot measure that puts forth a redrawn congressional map that could net Democrats five House seats.

The elections come with high-stakes for both Democrats and Republicans, and will provide a picture of how Americans feel about President Donald Trump’s first nine months in office.

Here’s how the news is developing.

44 minutes ago

NYC 2025 vote surpasses 2021 total, halfway through the day

As of 3 p.m. ET, roughly 1.4 million New York voters have cast a ballot in this year’s elections, with six hours before polls close, the city’s Board of Elections said.

Roughly 1.1 million voters cast a ballot in the 2021 election, according to city BOE data.

Of the 1.4 million cast so far in 2025, 716,625 votes, about 49%, were cast on Tuesday, while the remaining were cast at early voting polling sites.

2 hours and 9 minutes ago

‘Another baseless claim,’ California officials dismiss Trump

The California secretary of state slammed President Donald Trump over his unfounded claims about the state’s election.

Secretary of State Shirley Weber said in a statement that Trump’s comments appeared to be “another baseless claim”– and urged voters to head to the polls.

“California voters will not be deceived by someone who consistently makes desperate, unsubstantiated attempts to dissuade Americans from participating in our democracy,” she said.

Additionally, a spokesperson for the state’s attorney general said that Trump is “continuing to spread lies,” adding that elections in California are “fair, safe, and secure.”

-ABC News’ Olivia Rubin

2 hours and 28 minutes ago

Trump says California redistricting vote is under ‘criminal review’

After President Donald Trump wrote in a social media post that California’s Proposition 50 should be under “very serious legal and criminal review,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the White House is “looking into” providing “executive action.”

“The White House is working on an executive order to strengthen our elections in this country, and to ensure that there cannot be blatant fraud, as we’ve seen in California with their universal mail-in voting system. It’s absolutely true that there’s fraud in California elections. It’s just a fact,” Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday.

Leavitt’s comments come after Trump laid into the proposal — where Californians are deciding if the state will adopt a new Democratic-friendly congressional map in response to mid-decade redistricting in Texas — calling it a “GIANT SCAM.”

“The Unconstitutional Redistricting Vote in California is a GIANT SCAM in that the entire process, in particular the Voting itself, is RIGGED. All ‘Mail-In’ Ballots, where the Republicans in that State are ‘Shut Out,’ is under very serious legal and criminal review. STAY TUNED!” Trump wrote in a social media post on Tuesday.

2 hours and 49 minutes ago

Trump has made his thoughts on NYC mayoral election ‘quite clear,’ White House says
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that President Donald Trump has made his thoughts on the New York City mayoral election “quite clear.”

“The president is a New Yorker, and he loves New York. He has made his thoughts on this election quite clear,” Leavitt said.

Leavitt also addressed Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani’s comments accusing the Trump administration of attempting to “intimidate voters with baseless allegations of voter fraud,” saying his comments are “based on zero evidence.”

“I think this is just another example of how the Democratic Party unfortunately stands for nothing. All they stand against is President Donald Trump, and I think it’s quite sad to see that we have someone at the top of the ticket on election day today saying such things about the president, when he obviously had nothing to do with those threats,” Leavitt said on Tuesday.

On Tuesday, Mamdani addressed reports of voter intimidation in New Jersey, saying these incident are “incredibly concerning.”

“I think that it is an illustration of the attacks we’re seeing in our democracy,” he continued, accusing the Trump administration of adopting a “general approach” of attempting to “intimidate voters with baseless allegations of voter fraud as a means of trying to repress the voice of Americans across this country,” Mamdani said.

Trump endorsed Cuomo on Monday in a social media post. “Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice. You must vote for him, and hope he does a fantastic job,” Trump wrote.

3 hours and 50 minutes ago

Trump and Newsom square off on Prop 50

President Donald Trump and California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom are sparring over the vote on Proposition 50, the ballot proposition where Californians are deciding if the state will adopt a new Democratic-friendly congressional map in response to mid-decade redistricting in Texas.

On social media, Trump laid into the proposal as a “GIANT SCAM” and that voting process itself is “rigged.”

“The Unconstitutional Redistricting Vote in California is a GIANT SCAM in that the entire process, in particular the Voting itself, is RIGGED. All ‘Mail-In’ Ballots, where the Republicans in that State are ‘Shut Out,’ is under very serious legal and criminal review. STAY TUNED!” Trump wrote.

Newsom hit back on X: “The ramblings of an old man that knows he’s about to LOSE.”

Democrats feel particularly bullish about their chances in California tonight.

-ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd

3 hours and 58 minutes ago

GOP groups attack Mamdani, attempt to link him to broader Democratic Party

As voters head to the polls, various Republican groups have released statements and memos attacking New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, as the Republican Party continues to tie the self-described democratic socialist to the broader Democratic Party as a way to paint Democrats as radical and out of touch.

The messaging, while not new, reflects how the Republican Party hopes to use Mamdani as an albatross against Democrats.

The National Republican Congressional Committee, in a memo released on Tuesday morning framing Republicans as having more momentum one year out to the 2026 midterms, claimed that Democrats are fully on board with “the socialist agenda.”

“Democrats are now fully embracing the socialist agenda, with Hakeem Jeffries endorsing radical socialist Zohran Mamdani just last week,” the committee wrote, calling this “electoral poison for Democrats” because Democrats view socialism more negatively than capitalism.

Additionally, the National Republican Senatorial Committee — the campaign arm of Senate Republicans — sent out a flurry of at least seven memos early Tuesday tying Democratic primary candidates in key Senate races to Mamdani.

In a press release on Monday, the Republican National Convention grouped Mamdani with the two Democratic gubernatorial candidates in New Jersey and Virginia, saying they “are all cut from the same far-left cloth.”

-ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim, Brittany Shepherd and Emily Chang

12:05 PM EST

Cuomo says Trump ‘does not support me’ but ‘opposes Zohran Mamdani’

While casting his vote for himself on Tuesday morning, independent candidate for mayor of New York City and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo said President Donald Trump does not support him but “opposes Zohran Mamdani.”

“The president does not support me. The president opposes Zohran Mamdani,” Cuomo said when asked if he accepts Trump’s recent endorsement.

Cuomo was also asked what’s at stake nationally in this election, to which he told reporters, “I think what you’re seeing is a civil war in the Democratic Party that has been growing for a while.”

The former governor said Trump believes Mamdani is an “existential threat” and that the “momentum is on our side.”

-ABC News’ Halle Troadec

11:27 AM EST

Vance urges support for New Jersey GOP gubernatorial candidate Ciattarelli as race tightens

Vice President JD Vance urged voters in New Jersey to cast their vote for Republican gubernatorial candidate Jack Ciattarelli, as the race tightens between Ciattarelli and the Democrats’ pick, former Navy helicopter pilot Mikie Sherrill.

“Get out there and vote for Jack if you live in NJ. New Jersey is such a great state but it’s suffered too long under crap leadership,” Vance wrote on Tuesday.

According to a Quinnipiac poll, Ciattarelli is lagging Sherill only by single digits in the race, with Sherill leading Ciatttarelli by 8 points in the full ballot matchup.

Former President Barack Obama has previously endorsed Sherill, saying her “integrity, grit and commitment to service are what we need right now in our leaders.”

In addition to being backed by Vance, Ciattarelli also boasts the support of President Donald Trump.

-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie

11:10 AM EST

Implications of NYC’s mayoral race stretch beyond the Big Apple

While New Yorkers are focused on solving key issues of affordability and public safety, the implications of the mayoral race could stretch beyond the five boroughs.

This local off-year election has garnered national attention and is considered representative of political headwinds ahead of the 2026 midterms. Candidates are zeroed in on navigating the impacts of President Donald Trump’s second term, and Zohran Mamdani’s candidacy has shed light on how the Democratic Party has struggled to balance its progressive and moderate sides.

-ABC News’ Emily Chang

10:49 AM EST

Cuomo votes, calls Trump ‘pragmatic’ for encouraging Republicans to back him

Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who appeared to cast his ballot at a polling place on the East Side of Manhattan on Tuesday morning, called President Donald Trump “pragmatic” for encouraging Republican voters to support him in the New York City mayoral election, instead of the GOP nominee, Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, to blunt a victory for Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani.

“President Trump is pragmatic. He is telling them the reality of the situation, which is, if you do not vote, Mamdani is going to win. Who is Mamdani? I don’t know, but he’s a Democratic socialist that brings socialism to New York City. New York City will not thrive with a socialist economy,” Cuomo, who is running as an independent, said on Fox News on Tuesday. “So Republicans, you have to get up and come out and vote. Even if you’re not voting for a Republican, you’re voting to save New York City.”

Cuomo went on to say that Mamdani’s campaign promises to lower costs and expand government resources — by freezing the rent temporarily on rent stabilized units, providing government-run grocery stores and free city busses — is “all BS.”

“It’s not up to the mayor. It’s up to the state. State said they’re not going to do it. It’s all BS, it’s all campaign rhetoric. None of it will change anybody’s life,” Cuomo argued.

-ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd

10:37 AM EST

Mikie Sherrill says there’s ‘no credible’ threats to New Jersey voting

Accompanied by her husband and children, New Jersey’s Democratic nominee for governor Mikie Sherrill appeared at a Montclair voting center to cast her ballot and address the press.

Sherrill sought to assure voters that it is currently safe to cast ballots throughout the state, after multiple polling places temporarily closed in northern New Jersey after precincts fielded emailed bomb threats later deemed to be not credible, prompting election officials to direct some voters to other polling places.

“We’ve checked out all the bomb threats. There are no credible ones yet. Law enforcement is working overtime to keep our elections safe, so I don’t see any threat to voting,” Sherrill said. She called the scare an “attempt to suppress the vote.”

-ABC News’ Emily Chang and Lucien Bruggeman

10:24 AM EST

Mamdani casts his ballot: ‘We are on the brink of making history’

Just moments after casting his ballot on the morning of Election Day, New York City mayoral Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani proudly branded an “I voted” sticker and emphasized his vision to “usher in a new era in this city.”

“Today is Election Day. It is a day that we have been dreaming of for more than a year,” he began. “We are on the brink of making history in our city, on the brink of saying goodbye to a politics of the past.”

Mamdani emphasized his platform centered on affordability, touting his plan to “transform the most expensive city of the United States of America into one that’s affordable for each and every person that calls it home.”

Asked by ABC News’ Aaron Katersky on what he would say to New Yorkers concerned that President Donald Trump will follow through on his threats, Mamdani reiterated his resolve to stand up to Trump and argued that the president’s words sometimes hold no weight.

“I look forward to representing those New Yorkers, and look forward to fighting for every single dollar this city is owed. What we see in the language of Donald Trump is a premise, as if it is his decision on whether or not to fund the city the very money that this city is owed … That means using the courts, that means using the bully pulpit, that means ensuring that we actually follow the letter of the law,” he said.

Mamdani is facing off against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat who is running as an independent, and Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, along with some other independent and third-party candidates.

-ABC News’ Emily Chang

10:13 AM EST

Voters head to polls in 1st major elections of Trump 2.0

It’s Election Day in America, and voters across the country are heading to the polls in statewide and local elections.

It’s the first major election cycle since President Donald Trump’s return to the White House. The results from Tuesday’s races will give voters an opportunity to weigh in on the state of the country and their communities.

Trump joined election eve tele-rallies supporting Republican candidates in Virginia and New Jersey, where he focused on energy costs and crime. He also threw out an eleventh-hour endorsement in New York City’s mayoral election, urging voters to support Andrew Cuomo over Zohran Mamdani.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Former Vice President Dick Cheney, considered by many political observers to be the most politically active and influential vice president in U.S. history, has died. He was 84.

“Richard B. Cheney, the 46th Vice President of the United States, died last night, November 3, 2025,” his family said in a statement. “He was 84 years old. His beloved wife of 61 years, Lynne, his daughters, Liz and Mary, and other family members were with him as he passed. The former Vice President died due to complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease.”

He worked for nearly four decades in Washington. He served as the youngest White House chief of staff under President Gerald Ford; represented Wyoming in the U.S. House of Representatives — where he worked with congressional leadership and President Ronald Reagan; was secretary of defense under President George H.W. Bush; and later served two terms as vice president under Bush’s son, President George W. Bush.

He was also CEO of Halliburton, an energy company based in Texas that had a global presence.

When terrorists attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, it was Cheney who first took charge while the president was out of Washington.

“When the president came on the line, I told him that the Pentagon had been hit and urged him to stay away from Washington,” Cheney recalled in his memoir, “In My Time.” “The city was under attack, and the White House was a target. I understood that he didn’t want to appear to be on the run, but he shouldn’t be here until we knew more about what was going on.”

He and senior staff gathered at the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, where they monitored the horror unfolding.

“I stayed up into the morning hours thinking about what the attack meant and how we should respond,” Cheney wrote in his memoir. “We were in a new era and needed an entirely new strategy to keep America secure. The first war of the twenty-first century wouldn’t simply be a conflict of nation against nation, army against army. It would be first and foremost a war against terrorists who operated in the shadows, feared no deterrent, and would use any weapon they could get their hands on to destroy us.”

As vice president, Cheney was also known as the mastermind behind much of the Bush administration’s strategy in Iraq.

“His power is unparalleled in the history of the republic, frankly, for that position,” John Hulsman, a research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington-based think tank, told ABC’s “Nightline” in 2005.

Cheney said he looked upon his role as vice president as being an adviser to the president.

“I don’t run anything, I’m not in charge of a department or a particular policy area and for me to be out all of the time commenting on the issues of the day — pontificating if you will — on what’s going on, to some extent infringes upon everybody else in the administration, especially with those specific people who have got specific responsibilities,” he told ABC News Chief Global Affairs Martha Raddatz in an interview in March 2008, when she was a White House correspondent.

And later, in the 2013 documentary “The World According to Dick Cheney,” the former vice president said, “Tell me what terrorist attacks you would have let go forward because you didn’t want to be a mean and nasty fellow. Are you going to trade the lives of a number of people because you want to preserve your honor, or are you going to do your job, do what’s required, first and foremost your responsibility is to safeguard the United States of America and the lives of its citizens.”

After his time in office ended, he remained politically active while former President George W. Bush had moved back to Texas and refrained from commenting on politics in an effort to avoid “undermining” the current president.

During President Barack Obama’s administration, Cheney emerged as an outspoken critic of the president’s national security policies — charging that Obama’s counterterrorism policies were making the country less safe.

“It has always been easy for those who are evil to kill, but now it is possible for a few to do so on an unimaginable scale,” Cheney wrote in his 2011 memoir.

“The key, I think, is to choose serious and vigilant leaders, to listen to the men and women who want us to entrust them with high office and judge whether they are saying what they think we want to hear or whether they have the larger cause of the country in mind,” he continued. “It’s not always easy to move beyond pleasing promises, but in the case of America, the greater good is so grand.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Eyes are on New York City as Election Day arrives, marking the final opportunity for voters to weigh in on the high-stakes mayoral race.

While New Yorkers are focused on solving key issues of affordability and public safety, the implications of this race could stretch beyond the Big Apple.

Along with gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, this local off-year election has garnered national attention and is considered representative of political headwinds ahead of the 2026 midterms. Particularly in New York City, one of the most high-profile races to watch on Election Day, candidates are zeroed in on navigating the impacts of President Donald Trump’s second term. 

State assemblyman and Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani has remained the front-runner since his upset victory in the June primary. The 34-year-old democratic socialist is running on a progressive economic platform with a remarkable social media charm, though he has faced questions from mayoral opponents and others on the feasibility and effectiveness of his policies, in addition to backlash for comments about Israel and his stance toward police.

Though Mamdani has scored endorsements of notable Democratic leaders, his candidacy has shed light on how the Democratic Party has struggled to balance its progressive and moderate sides. 

If elected, Mamdani would be the city’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor. His identity has been a topic of scrutiny throughout the course of the campaign, with Mamdani accusing Independent candidate former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, as well as Vice President JD Vance, of engaging in Islamophobic attacks.

Trump has called Mamdani a “communist lunatic” and threatened to withhold federal funding to New York City if he wins. Though, his dislike for Cuomo has been evident, the president declared his preference for Cuomo over the other candidates in a CBS “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday night.

The president endorsed Cuomo on Monday in a social media post. “Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice. You must vote for him, and hope he does a fantastic job,” Trump wrote.

Cuomo, 67, has attempted a political comeback following his 2021 resignation from New York’s governorship amid sexual harassment and inappropriate conduct allegations — allegations he has denied and charges dropped. Cuomo has also faced backlash for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic during his tenure as governor.

After losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani in June, he attempted his return once more — this time as an Independent candidate. Backed by multiple billionaire donors, including former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Cuomo touts his experience and ability to work with Trump as cornerstones of his campaign. 

While Mamdani has consistently held a healthy lead over Cuomo, a Quinnipiac poll published Wednesday shows polls beginning to tighten between the two.

Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, 71, who ran an unsuccessful campaign against current Mayor Eric Adams in 2021, is keen on improving public safety — a goal that has been top-of-mind ever since he founded The Guardian Angels in the 1970s, a nonprofit crime prevention organization. 

In addition to garnering criticism from Trump and consistently facing low polling numbers, Sliwa has faced numerous calls to exit the race — which he has refused to do. 

Adams, who suspended his re-election campaign in September, remains on the ballot as an Independent due to his late withdrawal. Despite previous harsh words, he endorsed Cuomo last month and campaigned alongside him.

New York City has already seen a massive increase in early voting, with five times as many people voting early in 2025 compared to the 2021 mayoral race, according to the New York City Board of Elections.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LOS ANGELES) – One of 2025’s major elections could have major reverberations for the 2026 midterms.

Californians are voting on a ballot initiative, “Proposition 50,” to determine if the state will adopt a new congressional map that redraws five districts to be more Democratic-leaning, potentially allowing Democrats to flip them in the midterms.

Supporters of Proposition 50 — including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and former President Barack Obama — have pushed for the new map.

Texas Republicans, encouraged by President Donald Trump, revised their maps in a rare mid-decade redistricting move that could allow Republicans to gain five seats in 2026 — and insulate the GOP from the historic midterm headwinds a president’s party can face.

“We have a chance at least to create a level playing field in the upcoming midterm elections,” Obama said during a recent call with supporters of the campaign to vote “yes”.

Hannah Milgrom, a spokesperson for Yes on 50, the political committee supported by Newsom, told ABC News that the group has been working with over 230 community organizations on the ground.

National Democrats have largely supported the initiative, hoping it will be the first of other Democratic efforts to push back on Republican-led redistricting in Texas, Missouri, and other states.

But Rep. Kevin Kiley, a California Republican whose district would be reshaped and made significantly more Democratic-leaning, told ABC News partisan gerrymandering is a “plague on democracy,” and has unsuccessfully pushed House Speaker Mike Johnson to take up a bill banning the practice.

“I think it takes power away from voters, undermines the fairness of elections and degrades representative government,” he said.

Spokespeople for two of the political committees opposing Proposition 50, which are supported by megadonor Charles T. Munger Jr. and former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, respectively, told ABC News they were focused in the final weeks before the election on reaching persuadable voters and to emphasizing arguments about allowing voters to choose their politicians, not the other way around.

Actor and former governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger, who supported independent redistricting as governor, has also spoken out against the proposition. He said in September, “If you vote yes on that, you’re going backwards.”

“Prop 50 will have a big impact on the midterms … the U.S. House margin right now is so narrow that every seat in every state could make a difference for which party controls Congress,” Christian Grose, a professor of political science at the University of Southern California, told ABC News. 

If the proposition passes, Grose added, a large margin of support could signal to Democratic donors that there’s enthusiasm for the party — and could impact whether other blue or red states decide to redraw their congressional maps as well.

Grose said Democrats are likely more fired up in part because campaigning towards Democratic voters is how to win with ballot propositions in California, Grose said, but also because of what they see as national stakes: “Democrats, maybe nationally, are viewing things as an existential threat; are viewing Trump as an existential threat. So anything that pushes back against Trump, anything that helps Democrats, is resonating.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is mandating that personnel can no longer engage lawmakers or their staff about most major issues confronting the U.S. military without prior approval — a list that includes recent military strikes in the Caribbean, how the Pentagon buys weapons, and the construction of a U.S. missile shield.

It’s a major shift on how the military interacts with Congress. Congressional staff say they are concerned that Hegseth’s clampdown will hamstring lawmakers’ ability to get even routine information as it oversees the Pentagon’s $1 trillion budget and cobbles together an annual defense policy bill .

Under Hegseth’s new mandate, staff from the various military services and agencies were told they must coordinate first with Hegseth’s central legislative office. Staffers say they worry the result will be that information needed by Congress will wind up bottlenecked, waiting for aides to Hegseth to approve.

The list of restricted topics, reviewed by ABC News, includes acquisition reform, spectrum, critical munitions, budget and reconciliation spending plans, critical minerals, foreign military sales, attempted lethal force on military installations and the national defense strategy. CNN first reported the list on Sunday.

In a post on X, Nebraska Republican Rep. Don Bacon called it an “amateur move.”

“I was a five-time commander & our leadership WANTED us to engage members of Congress,” he said. “We wanted to share what our great airmen were doing. We were proud of our service. The new rules have put a large barrier between the military & Congress. Pentagon says the change is very small. But I already see the impact with military members being afraid to communicate. This is another amateur move.”

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to an ABC News request for comment.

Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell told CNN, “the Department intends to improve accuracy and responsiveness in communicating with the Congress to facilitate increased transparency. This review is for processes internal to the Department and does not change how or from whom Congress receives information.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Back in April, President Donald Trump made his decadeslong view on tariffs the official policy of the United States by imposing sweeping levies on virtually all global trade partners.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will consider whether those tariffs are lawful and allowed to stand.

Trump is calling it the “most important” case before the court in its history.

As Supreme Court returns, major tests ahead for Trump’s presidential power
In a sign of his personal stake in the issue, Trump had talked about going to watch the arguments himself, which would have likely made him the first sitting U.S. president to do so. But he reversed course on Sunday, saying he didn’t want to cause a distraction by attending.

“No, I don’t think so, because I don’t want to call a lot of attention to me. It’s not about me, it’s about our country,” he said.

“I wanted to go so badly, I just don’t want to do anything to deflect the importance of that decision,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he returned to Washington from a weekend in Florida.

The president has painted the outcome as existential to the country’s future.

“Everybody uses tariffs on us. If I wasn’t allowed to use tariffs on them, we would be a third rate — we would be a third world nation,” Trump said in an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday.

Trump’s yearslong push for tariffs turned reality

When Trump unveiled his tariffs on April 2, a date he dubbed “Liberation Day” for the U.S., he described them as retribution for a grievance he’s held since the 1980s when he was a Manhattan real estate developer.

“I’ve been talking about it for 40 years because I saw what was happening 40 years ago,” Trump said.

“I’d be on a television show, I’d be talking about how we were being ripped off by these countries. I mean, nothing changes very much. The only thing that changed were the countries, but nothing really changes. It’s why it’s such an honor to be finally able to do this,” Trump added.

Trump that day declared trade deficits a national emergency as he hit nearly every country with a baseline 10% tariff rate and tougher, so-called “reciprocal” rates on countries he deemed as the worst trade offenders.

Since then, the administration says it has raked in billions of dollars in revenue and Trump has touted various deals with the United Kingdom, European Union, Japan, South Korea and most recently China.

But the tariff rollout led to economic uncertainty and concerns of price increases for American businesses and consumers. One recent estimate from the Yale Budget Lab said tariffs will cost U.S. households $1,700 per year.

A new poll from ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos found more than 6 in 10 American disapprove of how Trump is handling tariffs and the economy overall.

Tariffs central to economic agenda, but Trump uses them for more

Trump said on “60 Minutes” that he believed the U.S. economy would “go to hell” if the Supreme Court struck down his tariffs, now the cornerstone of his entire economic agenda.

But he has used tariffs for leverage not just in trade negotiations but in a number of foreign policy matters.

Trump said the threat of tariffs helped him bring an end to international conflicts between Cambodia and Thailand, India and Pakistan and more. He’s used them to pressure Mexico and China into pledging more action to curb the flow of fentanyl and other illicit drugs. Trump imposed a 50% tariff on Brazil over the country’s prosecution of former president Jair Bolsonaro, a hard-line conservative who was convicted of trying to overthrow democracy.

Most Americans say country is on the wrong track, blame Trump for inflation: Poll
Trump relied on the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose his tariffs, sidestepping Congress in the process. Trump on Sunday, during his “60 Minutes” interview, bemoaned it would take Congress too long to act if he didn’t have the power to impose tariffs himself.

“You want that power. You want that executive power,” CBS’s Norah O’Donnell asked Trump.

“You need it to ru– to protect our country. This is a national secure — tariffs are national security,” Trump said.

It’s the biggest– I think it’s one of the biggest decisions in the history of the Supreme Court,” he said.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(RICHMOND, Va.) — The Republican candidate has a familiar closing message in the Virginia gubernatorial race.

Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears’ campaign spent millions of dollars on ads attacking Democratic nominee and former Rep. Abigail Spanberger for her stance on transgender rights in Virginia schools.

One ad claims Spanberger supports “men in girls’ locker rooms,” and closes with the notion that “Abigail Spanberger is for they/them, not us” — a direct echo of an ad the Trump campaign used against Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.

The 2025 Virginia gubernatorial election will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 4. The incumbent Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, assumed office in 2022 and is ineligible to run for re-election.

The debate over trans rights also played a role in Youngkin’s 2021 campaign. Youngkin has rolled back accommodations for trans students and increased parental notification requirements during his time in office.

Nicole Neily, president and founder of the nonprofit Defending Education, said that the focus on this issue in Virginia began with Youngkin’s race, which he won by championing parental rights in Virginia schools.

Virginia GOP governor candidate called Trump a ‘liability’ ahead of 2024
“This is an issue that has been on the radar of parents across Virginia,” Neily told ABC News. However, she added that in this particular race, she “can’t see this flipping the election by any stretch.”

Throughout the race, Earle-Sears has continued the Youngkin administration’s focus on the issue, she told ABC News in a statement.

“We see it’s about $30 million worth of attack ads against me related to trans youth,” the Democrat told Katie Couric in an interview last week. “There’s a real effort to engage in some level of fearmongering.”

Spanberger’s campaign did not respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.

“I do find it really objectionable that there would be kids who turn on the television and as in an effort to attack me, see images of themselves sort of reflected as a villain,” Spanberger added. “I really do believe that a lot of these choices, whether it’s sports participation or bathroom usage, needs to be made at the very local level with parents and teachers and administrators and not necessarily dictated — certainly not by the federal government — or the state government.”

In a recent ad her campaign released that appeared to be in response to the Earle-Sears team’s ones, Spanberger spoke to this directly.

“I believe we need to get politics out of our schools and trust parents and local communities,” she said.

Spanberger has maintained her lead against Earle-Sears, as Virginians cite issues like inflation and threats to democracy as some of their biggest concerns in the election, according to a recent poll from Christopher Newport University.

Furthermore, Virginia is home to over 300,000 federal workers, who have likely been affected by the actions taken by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency and the current government shutdown.

Virginia-based Republican strategist Tucker Martin believes that beyond Earle-Sears’ closing strategy, the current political environment in Virginia meant that her campaign for governor was “uphill from the start.”

“Any Republican who is going to be the Republican nominee for governor in this cycle — with Trump back in the White House in a state that he’s lost three straight times by significant margins — was going to be in big trouble,” Martin told ABC News.

Could the federal layoffs impact the Virginia governor race?
Martin doesn’t think Earle-Sears’ focus on trans rights has resonated “at all” among voters.

“Transgender issues just aren’t top of mind for Virginians right now,” he said.

“What works well in Florida or Wisconsin may not work well in Virginia or New Jersey,” Martin added, invoking another hotly contested gubernatorial race this year. However, Martin said that it could prove to be a “powerful issue” in “competitive congressional races.”

With the 2026 midterms fast-approaching, and Republicans seeking to maintain their control of both chambers of Congress and Democrats hoping to flip some seats, the political salience of culture war debates like this one is something that both parties will be paying attention to.

“Republicans have given in to the most extreme fringes of their party by abandoning pocketbook issues in favor of an anti-freedom agenda that is obsessed with letting politicians make decisions that should be left to parents and doctors,” DCCC spokesperson Viet Shelton told ABC News in a statement.

“Rather than getting involved in personal matters, House Republicans should perhaps spend their time expanding the middle class, lowering costs, and protecting freedoms,” Shelton’s statement continued. “That’s certainly what House Democrats are focused on — and it’s why we’ll win in 2026.”

Spanberger has been able to avoid addressing the debate head-on in this race, often pointing to her experience investigating child predators as a federal law enforcement officer and her belief that such decisions should be left up to local communities.

According to Martin, this question is something that Democrats like Spanberger will need to shore up their stances on in upcoming elections in other states or districts.

“I wouldn’t say the Spanberger campaign has handled it well, but what they have going for them is it’s just not an issue in Virginia that voters are particularly concerned about,” Martin said.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration has committed to partially funding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program with a $4.65 billion payment — but using emergency funds to pay for reduced SNAP benefits could take “a few weeks to up to several months,” a top USDA official told a federal judge in a sworn court filing Monday.

The disclosure comes after a federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the Trump administration to use emergency funds to pay for SNAP amid an ongoing government shutdown by Wednesday. Following the court order on Friday, Trump said it would be his “honor” to fund the food assistance program.

In addition to the delay, the Trump administration also said it was $4 billion short of the expected $8 billion cost to fund SNAP for the month of November, in part because they are declining to tap an additional bucket of emergency funds held by the USDA.  

Trump says he has asked court to ‘clarify’ SNAP ruling with funding set to lapse
“Defendants have worked diligently to comply with the Court’s order on the short timeline provided by the Court and during a government shutdown,” DOJ lawyers wrote in a filing on Monday.

“I have instructed our lawyers to ask the Court to clarify how we can legally fund SNAP as soon as possible,” Trump posted on social media late Friday. “If we are given the appropriate legal direction by the Court, it will BE MY HONOR to provide the funding.”

The $4.65 billion in funding will cover half of the households relying on the food assistance program, according to a declaration from Patrick Penn, Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services.

That payment will completely expend SNAP’s contingency funding, according to Penn.

“This means that no funds will remain for new SNAP applicants certified in November, disaster assistance, or as a cushion against the potential catastrophic consequences of shutting down SNAP entirely,” he said.

While the Trump administration could use additional funds from tariff revenue, known as Section 32, Penn said the government declined to do so to save the money for child nutrition programs.

“Amid this no-win quandary and upon further consideration following the Courts’ orders, USDA has determined that creating a shortfall in Child Nutrition Program funds to fund one month of SNAP benefits is an unacceptable risk, even considering the procedural difficulties with delivering a partial November SNAP payment, because shifting $4 billion dollars to America’s SNAP population merely shifts the problem to millions of America’s low income children that receive their meals at school,” Penn said.

Beyond the budget shortfall, Penn warned that distributing the reduced benefits could take weeks or months because of “procedural difficulties.”

“There are procedural difficulties that States will likely experience which would affect November SNAP benefits reaching households in a timely manner and in the correctly reduced amounts,” he wrote. “There are procedural difficulties that States will likely experience which would affect November SNAP benefits reaching households in a timely manner and in the correctly reduced amounts.”

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(WASHINGTON) — From New York and New Jersey to California, millions of Americans are voting this fall in multiple states, in several notable local and statewide elections for the first time since last November’s presidential race.

The results from Tuesday’s off-year elections in New Jersey and Virginia — and the New York City mayor’s race — will give voters an opportunity to weigh in on the state of the country and their communities.

ABC News has launched a series of stories and reports across multiple platforms to comprehensively cover the issues at the center of this year’s elections and look ahead at the 2026 midterms.

Tuesday’s elections could hold clues to how Americans view this pivotal moment in the country, and reveal the strengths and weaknesses of each party’s position one year away from the consequential 2026 midterm elections.  

And in California, where Democrats have asked voters to approve redrawing the state’s congressional map as part of a national redistricting battle, the results will help shape next year’s fight for the balance of power in Washington and control of the U.S. House of Representatives. 

The stakes are high for both parties: A new ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, conducted using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel, found that two-thirds of Americans say that the country is “pretty seriously off on the wrong track,” compared to one-third who say it is moving in the right direction.

That figure, while lower than the 75% of Americans who said the same at the same time last year, comes as 6-in-10 Americans blame President Donald Trump for the current rate of inflation.

More than 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy, management of the federal government and tariffs — and 64% said he is going “too far” in trying to expand presidential power.

At the same time, 68% of Americans say the Democratic Party is “out of touch with the concerns of most people in the United States today,” compared to 63% who feel the same way about Trump, and 61% who say the Republican Party is out of touch.

Voters will weigh in on the state of the country this fall as the federal government remains shut down, with Democrats locked in a battle with Republicans and the Trump administration over federal spending and health care.

Americans blame both parties for the logjam that is jeopardizing some federal programs and frozen pay for hundreds of thousands of government workers. The message some voters send this week could potentially break the impasse, and jump start talks to reopen the government.

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(WASHINGTON) — As the negative impacts of the 33-day government shutdown compound, Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine said Sunday he doesn’t see the present funding impasse in terms of politics, insisting what Democrats are “focused on is the American people.”

Asked by ABC’s “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz what Democrats have gained since the shutdown began, Kaine said, “Well, I don’t look at this as politics.”

“I mean, the president told the House, do a budget and, in his words, don’t deal with Democrats. So, Senate Democrats put an alternative on the table 12 days before Sept. 30 that fixed the health care wreckage that the Republicans caused and that ensured that a deal would be honored, both by Congress and the White House. The president refused to meet until the day before the deadline,” Kaine continued. “The guy’s unserious.”

Raddatz followed up to press Kaine: “Not talking about politics. What have Democrats gained during this period? And how long can this last?”

“I’m a United States senator,” Kaine said. “And I — yes, I run as a Democrat, and I’m a Democrat, but I just don’t approach my work that way. So, when you ask what Democrats have gained, what we’re — what we’re focused on is the American people. We want President Trump to stop firing people, canceling economic development projects. We want them to stop raising everybody’s costs.”

Kaine said Democrats want Trump to “simply sit down” and negotiate a “budget deal that puts us on a path to a health care fix.”

As the shutdown drags on, neither side has moved much from their initial stances. The Democrats continue to insist on health care priorities, including an extension of expiring tax credits for millions of Americans who get health insurance via the Affordable Care Act. The Republicans and White House continue to insist the only viable option is to pass the short-term funding bill that would fund the government through Nov. 21 and has failed to pass 13 times in the Senate.

‘We will delay, we will cancel’ flights to make sure people are safe: Duffy on ATC issues
Americans are now learning just how much their health care premiums would increase next year if these tax credits aren’t extended. But the consequences of the shutdown are also becoming more apparent: air traffic controllers are increasingly calling out sick leading to delays and ground stops, and the critical SNAP food assistance program is now in limbo after a judge ruled the administration must continue to fund the program, despite the administration claiming it legally cannot.

Here are more highlights from Kaine’s interview:

Kaine refutes GOP claims that Democrats are trying to give health care to “illegal immigrants”
Raddatz: I know you heard Secretary [Sean] Duffy [who appeared earlier on the show] talking about the onus is on the Democrats and that you are fighting to get illegal health care for immigrants.

Kaine: That’s a lie. The health care battle is not about health care for illegal immigrants and Sean Duffy knows it. It’s about millions of Americans who, in the last few weeks, have gotten premium increase notices that tell them that Donald Trump’s big, beautiful bill is delivering them big, ugly health insurance bills within the next few weeks unless we can find a fix.

On reports bipartisan rank and file senators are meeting to try to end shutdown

Raddatz: There are reportedly conversations among rank and file senators to try to reach — to negotiate the reopening of the government for a few weeks. Is that going on right now? Are you part of those discussions?

Kaine: I would say, Martha, I’m sort of at the edge of them. There is a group of people talking about these two issues, a path to fix the health care debacle and a guarantee that if we reopen government, I’m calling it a moratorium on mischief. If we agree to reopen, President Trump’s got to stop the firings.

The FAA, we’re talking air traffic control, they’ve forced 2,400 people out of the FAA during Trump’s first year when they were already short 3,000 air traffic controllers. Stop the firings, stop the game-playing, stop going after blue cities and helping red cities. Let’s have a moratorium on mischief during whatever this period is. Get on a path to fix people’s health care. If the president engages, we will be — we will find a deal I think within hours.

On Virginia Democrats’ chances in Tuesday’s governor election

Kaine: I feel really good about it, Martha. And here’s why. In Virginia, we are the best red to blue turnaround in the country in the last 25 years. And the way we’ve done it is by focusing on the economy. Abigail Spanberger, our candidate, three pillars to her campaign: affordability, jobs, and education, which is about kids, but also about our workforce. Her opponent is running ads on offbeat cultural issues that don’t really matter to most people. In Virginia, Democrats focus on the economy, winning the economic arguments, delivering economic results. And that’s why the state has moved from red to blue so dramatically since 2000.

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