Politics

(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth blocked the promotions to one-star admirals of several senior Navy officers who had already been selected for promotion by a board of senior Navy admirals, three sources familiar with the move told ABC News.

Secretaries of Defense have the authority to intervene in promotion lists for reasons of cause, but it is unusual to see Hegseth now having intervened in both the Army and Navy’s most recent promotions to the one-star rank.

The Navy officers removed from the Navy’s promotion list included African Americans, women, and white males who were removed for a variety of reasons, including their participation or involvement in military Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, sources said.

The official promotion list was released by the Pentagon on May 22.

Separately, Hegseth also made efforts to get one of his senior military aides on the promotion list or to get him promoted, sources added. However, Capt. William Francis Jr., a Navy SEAL serving as Hegseth’s assistant, could not be reviewed by the promotion board because he did not meet certain criteria, such as heading a major command, according to sources.

The New York Times was first to report Hegseth’s block of the promotions and the effort to promote Capt. Francis.  

Hegseth’s tenure as defense secretary has been marked by his stated intent to remove policies he has framed as creating a “woke” military under previous administrations.

His critique of the military’s culture comes as minorities are quickly making up more of the ranks and as women have started to expand their footprint in the senior ranks.

Though Hegseth’s string of unexplained firings and promotion blocking has severely curtailed those gains for women.

The Pentagon’s chief spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement to ABC News, “As we’ve said before, military promotions are given to those who have earned them. The Department will never consider the color of a service member’s skin or their gender as a factor in promotions. Under President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, meritocracy reigns supreme at the War Department.”  

Since Hegseth became defense secretary, 19 senior generals or flag officers have been fired or sidelined, with several of them being women or minorities.

Hegseth’s intervention in the Navy promotion list is similar to his intervention in the Army’s promotion list to brigadier generals, where four colonels were removed from the list. Those four colonels included two African Americans and two women.

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(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge said Friday that President Donald Trump can’t close or rename the Kennedy Center, ruling that it cannot be officially named for anyone else unless Congress approves it.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the rebranding of the Kennedy Center as the “Trump Kennedy Center” violates the law, and ordered that Trump’s name be removed from the building within two weeks.

Cooper wrote that the administration “violated the Kennedy Center’s organic statute in purporting to rename the Center for President Trump, and in taking steps to effectuate that official renaming, such as installing signage with Donald J. Trump’s name on the front portico of the Center, altering the Center’s website to name the Center for President Trump, and in issuing official materials naming the Center for President Trump.”

Cooper also wrote “Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it.”

Congress created the famed cultural institution in a federal statute, designating it as a living memorial in 1964 shortly after President John F. Kennedy’s death.

Trump announced in December that the Kennedy Center’s Board of Trustees, which the president himself now chairs and filled with his hand-picked appointees, had voted “unanimously” to rename the building. Workers added signage with his name shortly after.

Trump also announced earlier this year that the Kennedy Center would be closed for two years starting in July for major renovations.

Cooper blasted the board for making an “ill-informed” and “seemingly preordained” decision to close the center.

“Finally, the Court is preliminarily persuaded that the Board’s March 16 vote to close the Kennedy Center pending a years-long renovation represents a dereliction of its common-law- derived duty of prudence,” Cooper wrote. “The current record reveals that the Board rendered this ill-informed and seemingly preordained decision without regard for how it would accomplish its full array of statutory responsibilities. The trustees might have assessed the propriety of closure in a number of prudent ways. This was not one.”

The changes are being challenged in court by Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, who sits on the Kennedy Board of Trustees as one of its ex-officio members.
“Today’s ruling rightly affirms that this administration’s efforts to rename and close the Center have no basis in law,” Beatty said in a statement Friday. “The Kennedy Center is an institution that belongs to the American people, not to Donald Trump. He has desecrated this sacred memorial for his own vanity. I am proud to have fought for the rule of law and to protect this sacred institution.”

The Trump administration has defended the renovation as fulfilling the board’s “responsibilities to repair and improve the Center.”

The Trump administration is expected to appeal the ruling, according to sources familiar with the matter.

ABC News has reached out to the White House for comment on the ruling.

ABC News’ Peter Charalambous and Steven Portnoy contributed to this report.

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(BATON ROUGE, La.) — Louisiana lawmakers on Friday approved a new congressional map that could allow Republicans to flip one of the state’s two Democratic-held House seats in the 2026 midterms.

The Louisiana Senate gave final approval to a bill with the new map after much dissent from Democrats.

“Y’all, at the beginning of this process, I would have said that we are building a house on a broken foundation. Now, it feels more like quicksand, because we’re in 2026 going into a map that we know is flawed, that we know is going to get struck down,” state Sen. Royce Duplessis, a Democrat, said on the Senate floor.

State Sen. Jay Morris, a Republican, defended the map ahead of the final vote.

“I think we have a map here that meets all the traditional redistricting criteria. It’s not racially gerrymandered. … I think it broadly allows for representation for each region of the state, and it’s very fair, and we should approve it,” Morris said.

The new map comes weeks after U.S. Supreme Court struck down the state’s current map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander.

The landmark Supreme Court decision dealt a blow to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and set off a newfound scramble of mid-decade redistricting in Louisiana and other states that Democrats say could drastically reduce the number of Black representatives in Congress.

On Thursday, during hours of floor debate, several Democratic state representatives condemned the redrawn map, which eliminates one of the two majority-Black districts in the state, as discriminatory.

“I want to ask you to remember the argument that we should now be colorblind about a congressional map, in this state of all states, requires forgetting a quantity of history that I don’t believe any of us has the right to forget. Black people in this country were not citizens; not partial citizens, not second-class citizens. We weren’t citizens at all,” state Rep. Kyle Green, a Democrat and member of the Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus, said on Thursday.

State Rep. Beau Beaullieu, a Republican who sponsored an amended version of the map that the state House approved, argued to members that legislators had been forced to redraw the map because of the Supreme Court’s ruling.

“And now we find ourselves back with a similar map to the one this body passed in 2022, that had five Republican districts and one Democrat district,” he said on Thursday. “The map complies with traditional redistricting principles and also maximizes partisan advantage. The map is contiguous; it is compact; it binds communities of interest; it protects incumbency. … Race was not a factor when drawing these districts.”

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(WASHINGTON) — Trump administration officials have pushed the office tasked with printing the nation’s money to move forward with designing a commemorative $250 bill with President Donald Trump’s portrait and signature, should legislation to create the new currency pass, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions.

It would mark the first time a living person has appeared on U.S. currency in more than 150 years. As of now, federal law explicitly states only deceased people can appear on United States currency.

But some Republicans in Congress are working to change that.

Republican Rep. Joe Wilson, of South Carolina, has introduced a bill ordering the Treasury Department to print $250 Federal Reserve notes featuring a portrait of Trump.

The bill has 15 Republican cosponsors, a small sum for legislation that was introduced more than a year ago.

The bill has not passed — stuck in the House Financial Services committee for more than a year — but in a statement to ABC News, the Treasury Department acknowledged the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is “conducting appropriate planning and due diligence” should the legislation be signed into law.

It would still have to pass the Senate as well before it hits Trump’s desk, requiring a bipartisan majority of 60 votes for passage. Democrats are expected to try to block the effort.

If the bill doesn’t become law, it expires at the end of the 119th Congress. After that, Wilson or another member can try to reintroduce it in the 120th session.

A Treasury Department spokesperson called the bill a “proactive” measure.

“Should this legislative mandate be signed into law, the BEP is moving proactively to produce a $250 commemorative note which will appropriately recognize the 250th Anniversary of our great nation,” the spokesperson said.

The number 250 reflects the nation’s upcoming anniversary.

There’s been no word from Republican leadership on whether they would support Wilson’s bill, though none of its party leaders have signed on as cosponsors.

Two people familiar with the discussions told ABC News that U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have pushed for the president’s signature to be added to the $250 bill.

The Treasury Department did not dispute the reporting.

“Based on the recommendation of U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach, Secretary Bessent will recognize the historic achievements of our great country and President Trump by adding his signature to the currency,” a spokesperson stated.

The Treasury Department insisted no taxpayer dollars will be used to produce the new bill, noting Bureau of Engraving and Printing finances its operations entirely through product sales and billings rather than relying on annual congressional appropriations.

The State Department announced it would begin issuing special edition passports featuring Trump’s portrait and signature to commemorate the anniversary.

The Washington Post was the first to report the news.

ABC News’ John Parkinson contributed to this report.

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(NEWARK, N.J.) — Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin amped up his threats Thursday to pull Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents who process international passengers at Newark Liberty International Airport to help control protesters outside of New Jersey’s Delaney Hall detention center.

Mullin continued to slam the protests, now in their seventh day, outside the Immigration Customs and Enforcement detention center over reports of poor living conditions and poor health among its 300 detainees. DHS has denied the allegations.

ICE agents have clashed with protesters who attempted to block vehicles from entering, prompting the federal agents to use pepper spray and batons against them.

Mullin told “Fox & Friends” on Thursday that DHS needed to “prioritize federal police officers” in response to the protests and is considering pulling CBP agents from the airport to help agents outside the detention facility, which would delay processing international travelers and cargo.

“That may effect international flights coming in and out of their airport because I’m going to have to pull Customs and Border Protection officers out of being able to process international flights and put them helping our ICE agents,” he said.

“By the way, if you can’t process international flights because Customs is closed, you can’t obviously process international flights coming in from out of country,” he added.

Mullin said on Fox News that if “things don’t change” he’ll have to make the move “pretty quick.”

“We are not going to halt the flights, we won’t be able to process them because we won’t have officers there,” he said. “We will have to pull out our Customs and Border Patrol officers that process these flights and put them in these [detention] facilities to help protect our employees coming out to work.”

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Newark Liberty International, did not immediately comment on Mullin’s proposal.

Mullin has long been teasing a plan to pull CBP officers from airports that are in so-called “sanctuary jurisdictions.” On Wednesday, he said he is “drawing up plans.”

However, Mullin’s controversial proposal has received pushback from travel groups.

U.S. Travel Association, a group representing the country’s travel industry, met with Mullin last week and expressed concerns about the plan to withdraw CBP officers from several cities.

“U.S. Travel believes such a move would have devastating consequences for the travel industry and communities that depend on international visitation,” the group said in a statement Friday.

At least one Trump administration official has questioned such a policy.

Asked about the proposal in a congressional hearing last week, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he wasn’t familiar with Mullin’s comments but said it wouldn’t be a good idea to implement such a policy based on politics.

“I’d like to take a look at [Mullin’s] comments and get the context and I’d even ask him a question of what he meant by that, but we have people from around the world and around the country that need to be able to fly into all different kinds of places. We shouldn’t shut down air travel in a state that doesn’t agree with our politics,” Duffy said.

The demonstrations at Delaney Hall continued Wednesday night and protesters again clashed with federal law enforcement.

Several Democratic Congress members, including New Jersey Sen. Corey Booker, have visited the detention center over the last week and say they have seen the decrepit conditions first hand.

“The stories I’ve gotten, especially from women inmates, about the access to medical attention, seemed unsatisfactory, if not downright dangerous to their conditions,” Booker said Wednesday.

That same day, Mullin denied the allegations and the reports of a hunger strike inside the facility contending that  there were “only a handful of individuals that was refusing to eat” because they allegedly wanted their “ethnic right food.”

“Well, they can go back to their country and get whatever food they want,” he told reporters. 

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(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — Texas state Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic nominee in the pivotal U.S. Senate race in Texas, appeared on Wednesday to walk back some of his past comments on religion that have become a major line of attack in the race against Republican state Attorney General Ken Paxton.

When asked about his comments in 2021 during floor debate in the legislature that “God is non-binary” in an interview on ABC News Live, Talarico replied that “Ken Paxton is clipping my past cringey comments to distract from his career of corruption,” as part of a “playbook” of “distraction and division.”

When pressed on his comments, Talarico replied that they were “meant to be deliberately provocative” and that he believes “you can’t use human categories to define God.” He said that Republicans are seizing on the comments “to try and distract from the corrupt system that Ken Paxton embodies.”

ABC News reached out to Paxton’s campaign for response to Talarico’s comments.

Talarico’s comments along with other statements on transgender rights and immigration were highlighted in Paxton’s first general election ad, which ends with the tagline “Radical Talarico: too low-T for Texas.” “Low-T” is a reference to levels of testosterone that is used to insult men for a lack of masculinity.

Republicans have used transgender rights as a major line of attack, including in the 2024 presidential race. The DNC’s after-action report on the election identified the Trump campaign’s attack ads labeling his opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, as “for they/them” as one of the most effective ads of the cycle.

Democrats think Talarico’s potential to reach beyond the Democratic base and appeal to independents and Republicans disaffected by Paxton’s candidacy could be enough to win the seat and possibly control of the Senate next year.

Paxton faced ethical and personal questions during the primary. He was acquitted in an Republican-driven impeachment trial in 2023. Paxton’s wife filed for divorce last year, citing “biblical grounds.”

Republican leadership, which had encouraged President Donald Trump to back Paxton’s opponent in the primary, Sen. John Cornyn, as more electable in the general election, have begun to coalesce around Paxton as the Republican nominee.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in a radio appearance Wednesday that Republicans were going “all-in” on Paxton and attacked Talarico as a “far left liberal.”

The Senate Majority PAC, which backed Cornyn in his primary race, has taken down past press releases and ads attacking Paxton and has issued a statement opposing Talarico without mentioning Paxton by name.

Talarico has made explicit overtures to Trump voters and Cornyn voters, who are necessary to win any statewide election in Texas, saying, “There is a lot of disillusionment among the president’s supporters here in Texas, and I’m extending an open hand to those Trump voters. So that they know they have a place in our campaign.”

While Cornyn has not explicitly endorsed Paxton in the election, he has said that he will “support the Republican ticket.”

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said during a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday that he isn’t concerned about making a deal soon with Iran, adding that he doesn’t “care about the midterms” in what he said he thinks is the regime’s calculation that he has to negotiate a deal before what are expected to be highly-competitive elections in November.

“They thought they were going to out-wait me, you know. ‘We’ll out-wait him. He’s got the midterms.’ I don’t care about the midterms. Look what happened last night, that was a prelude to the midterms. People understand it,” Trump said, likely referencing his endorsed candidate, Ken Paxton, winning the Senate Republican runoff in Texas.

With tensions escalating with Iran and gas prices still up across the country, Trump said he feels no urgency to end the war.

“Mr. President, you’ve said that you’re in no rush to make a deal, but with gas prices that are still high across the country, people are paying more for travel. Does that give you more urgency to make a deal? Why doesn’t it?” ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott asked Trump during the Cabinet meeting.

“Well, I’ll tell you, the primary urgency, I’ve said this, it wasn’t covered properly, but the primary urgency is that we can’t let Iran have a nuclear weapon,” Trump responded.

The president also appeared to issue a new threat against Oman, a key American ally in the Middle East.

Trump said he would not accept a short-term deal that allows Iran and Oman to control the Strait of Hormuz — as reported in Iranian state media, and that the critical shipping lane will be “open to everybody.”

“Oman will behave just like everybody else or we’ll have to blow them up. They understand that,” Trump said.

Trump on Wednesday was asked whether he would consider easing any sanctions on Iran. He said no.

“No, we’re not talking about any easing of sanctions or giving money. No sanctions, no money, no nothing,” Trump said. “We have control of money that they claim is theirs. We’ll keep control of that money. And when they behave properly and when they do what’s right, we’ll let them have their money. But right now, we’re not doing that … One thing is not contingent on the other.”

The comments come after a senior administration official told reporters over the weekend that Iran could be rewarded with a lifting of sanctions and unfreezing of assets in exchange for a deal on its nuclear program.

On the status of negotiations, Trump said on Wednesday he’s “not satisfied” and that Iran is “negotiating on fumes.”

“We’re not satisfied with it, but we will be. We will be. Either that or we’ll have to just finish the job,” Trump said.

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(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — Former President Joe Biden filed suit against the Justice Department on Tuesday in an effort to block the release of recordings and transcripts from interviews he gave for his memoir that were central to a special counsel probe regarding his handling of classified materials after his time as vice president.

The lawsuit follows an intervention by Biden in a separate lawsuit brought by the conservative Heritage Foundation over a FOIA request that sought records from the investigation by former special counsel Robert Hur.

The audio recordings and transcripts stem from interviews Biden did with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer for his 2017 memoir “Promise Me, Dad: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose.”

The materials were obtained by the DOJ as part of the special counsel’s probe, which ended in February 2024, finding that Biden “willfully retained and disclosed” classified materials but recommending no criminal charges.

Biden’s lawsuit seeks to further bolster his demands that the materials not be shared with the conservative think tank or congressional Republicans, citing his right to privacy as well as allegations against DOJ that it is acting unlawfully in seeking an avenue to release the records.

“President Biden—like every American—has a right to privacy in personal conversations he had within his own home,” the lawsuit said. “That is particularly true here, where the Department obtained this information through a criminal investigation.”

Biden’s lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., said the DOJ has indicated it will release the audio recordings and transcripts to both the Heritage Foundation and the House Judiciary Committee on June 15 unless a court order blocks the release.

The lawsuit details a frenzied effort and communications between Biden’s counsel and DOJ in recent weeks to walk through potential redactions and other issues surrounding release of the audio and transcripts.

While the DOJ and career attorneys during the Biden administration had taken the position that release of the materials was a clear departure from department norms, Biden’s attorneys said the current DOJ reversed its position without any formal explanation beginning in February. 

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(COLUMBIA, S.C.) — The South Carolina Senate on Tuesday effectively killed a proposed congressional map that could have allowed Republicans to flip the seat held by Democratic Rep. Jim Clyburn, a major rebuff to a mid-decade redistricting effort promoted by President Donald Trump.

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

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(WASHINGTON) — A three-judge panel in a federal court in Alabama ruled unanimously on Tuesday that state Republicans are still blocked from using their 2023 congressional map, which would have potentially helped Republicans in November.

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

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