(WASHINGTON) — Rally highlights, White House glamour shots and his signature moves. President Donald Trump made a surprise return to the popular video app TikTok with three montages posted to a new official @whitehouse account Tuesday night.
“America we are BACK,” the first post was captioned. Trump pledged “I am your voice” as the video played.
The account isn’t Trump’s first foray with the Chinese-owned app. Both he and his 2024 rivals, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, signed up for TikTok in an effort to reach the 170 million users the company claims it has in the U.S. Trump last posted to his 15 million-plus followers from his former account @realdonaldtrump on Election Day. Candidates especially hoped to court young voters on the platform.
But TikTok has faced scrutiny from the U.S. government since Trump’s first administration. In August 2020, he released an executive order calling for “aggressive action” against TikTok to protect national security. One Republican-introduced bill that became law in 2022 banned most federal employees from downloading the app on government devices.
U.S. authorities have listed concerns about possibilities of stolen U.S. user data and a potentially manipulative and addictive algorithm.
Trump threatened to ban the app in his first term, but has thrice in his second term delayed the enforcement of a 2024 bipartisan law requiring TikTok’s Chinese-owned parent company, ByteDance, to sell it in the U.S. or be banned.
In anticipation of the initial ban deadline, TikTok briefly left app stores in the U.S. the day before Trump’s second inauguration and went dark for 14 hours. A pop-up message crediting him appeared when the app started working again, reading, “As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!”
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was among many tech leaders who Trump invited to his inauguration.
The company offered various alternatives to divesting, including increased oversight and data protection. The latest pause on the ban is set to end on Sept. 17, though Trump repeatedly vowed to cut a deal for TikTok, even suggesting the sovereign wealth fund he created in February could be used to keep TikTok operating in the U.S.
Despite security concerns, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to ABC News that TikTok will be a powerful tool for the president.
“The Trump administration is committed to communicating the historic successes President Trump has delivered to the American people with as many audiences and platforms as possible,” Leavitt said. “President Trump’s message dominated TikTok during his presidential campaign, and we’re excited to build upon those successes and communicate in a way no other administration has before.”
Leavitt also appeared in a clip on the White House account.
The account racked up more than 140,000 followers by Wednesday afternoon, still catching up to Trump’s more than 10 million Truth Social followers and more than 108 million followers on his less frequently used X account.
(WASHINGTON) — As President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops continued, protesters lashed out at three of his top officials who took time for a photo op with the guardsmen on Wednesday in Washington, D.C.,’s Union Station.
Protesters booed and jeered Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller as they came to the station, located blocks from the U.S. Capitol, to thank the troops. The crowd’s chants drowned out the voices of the officials.
“Free DC,” the protesters shouted as three officials arrived in their motorcade.
Vance, Hegseth and Miller stopped by at the station’s Shake Shack and bought and ate lunch for the guard members.
Vance and Miller dismissed the jeers of the protesters, which drowned out their press gaggle, calling them “crazy” and “communists.”
“They appear to hate the idea that Americans can enjoy their communities,” Vance said.
Vance was asked why the troops were stationed at Union Station instead of parts of the city with higher crime rates. The vice president claimed that the station was being overrun with homeless people and visitors didn’t feel safe.
“This should be a monument to American greatness,” he said.
Vance added that he believed that crime statistics do not report the full scope of crime on the streets, however he declined to talk about evidence that backed his claim up and told a reporter to “You just got to look around.”
The event happened at the same time that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser was giving a news conference on Wednesday.
U.S. Attorney For Washington, DC Jeanine Pirro. Win McNamee/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro, has instructed prosecutors in her office to not seek felony charges for individuals who carry registered rifles and shotguns in the district, sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.
The policy shift, according to the sources, followed concerns relayed by the Justice Department’s solicitor general, John Sauer, that the district’s restrictive firearm statutes infringe on the Second Amendment rights of residents as affirmed in several recent rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court.
“We will continue to seize all illegal and unlicensed firearms, and to vigorously prosecute all crimes connected with them,” Pirro said in a statement to ABC News. “And we will continue to charge a felon in possession of any of these firearms. Our resolve to prosecute crime is not lessened by defective DC code statutes, as the DOJ works to change those statutes.”
Pirro added in her statement, “If anyone is carrying a weapon illegally, they will absolutely be charged.”
The policy shift, which was first reported by the Washington Post, comes as the administration has publicly touted numbers of illegal firearms seized in its ongoing surge of federal resources intended to combat D.C. crime.
Prosecutions for those types of offenses, according to Pirro’s statement, would continue; the shift is instead related to a D.C. statute that bars people from carrying shotguns or rifles in the capital without permits, which Pirro’s office says violates the Supreme Court’s holdings in two recent Second Amendment cases in 2008 and 2022.
“Nothing in this memo from the Department of Justice and the Office of Solicitor General precludes the United States Attorney’s Office from charging a felon with the possession of a firearm, which includes a rifle, shotgun, and attendant large capacity magazine pursuant to DC Code 22-4503,” Pirro said in her statement to the Post. “What it does preclude is a separate charge of possession of a registered rifle or shotgun.”
In an aerial view, the State Capitol is seen on August 14, 2025 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
(AUSTIN, Texas) — After weeks of delays and protests from Democrats, the Texas state House is slated Wednesday to consider moving forward on the controversial redistricting plan.
Republicans have put the bill for the redistricting on the agenda for when their special session convenes again today on the House floor at 10 a.m. local time.
The move came weeks after state Democrats decried the unorthodox mid-decade redistricting as blatant gerrymandering to increase the number of GOP congressional seats. The special session was delayed after Democrats left the state to avoid a quorum, despite threats of arrest from Gov. Greg Abbott and other Republican leaders.
Some Democrats returned to the statehouse on Monday and allowed the legislature to reach a quorum, but they continued to speak out against the controversial redistricting.
It is likely that the redistricting plan, which was pushed by President Donald Trump, will pass.
Texas House Democrats said they are still planning to resist the maps and call out what they say it means for their constituents. They plan on fighting the bill on the floor.
A handful of Texas House Democrats refused law enforcement escorts. It stayed overnight in the Texas House, in solidarity with state Rep. Nicole Collier, who had refused to sign a “permission slip” allowing her to leave the state Capitol with a law enforcement escort.
The Texas state Capitol also dealt with a social media threat Tuesday night that led to the evacuation of grounds and the building, but Democratic lawmakers who were already in the building remained inside.
The bill, which was newly filed for the second special session after the first one was adjourned due to not having a quorum, passed out of committee on Monday.
The Texas Senate is expected to pick up the bill once it passes the House.
(NEW YORK) –The Texas State Capitol was cleared of visitors Tuesday evening and closed to the public after a social media threat, the Texas Department of Public Safety said in a statement.
The disruption came amid protests in support of Democratic State Rep. Nicole Collier, who has been confined to the House after she refused a law enforcement escort during a contentious redistricting fight that saw several Democrats leave the state earlier this month to hamper the redrawing of new maps.
In a statement, the Texas Department of Public Safety said the message was posted earlier Tuesday. “In that message, the individual calls on others to go to the Capitol building and take action by shooting and killing those who will not allow lawmakers to leave,” the department said.
The department said it evacuated the public from the Capitol building around 6:30 p.m. local time “for the safety of those at the Texas State Capitol, and out of an abundance of caution.”
The department said it’s working to identify the person responsible for the posting. The Capitol was closed to the public for the rest of the day.
While the public was evacuated from the Capitol, some Democratic House Members remained in the building with many state troopers present.
Several hours before the building was cleared of visitors, a handful of Texas House Democrats said they planned to stay overnight in the State Capitol in solidarity with Collier — joining her in refusing law enforcement escorts mandated for them because they had broken quorum to prevent House Republicans from changing the state’s congressional maps to make five districts more GOP-friendly.
A few of them tore up their paperwork to consent to an escort during a media availability outside the House chamber Tuesday afternoon.
Democratic state Rep. Penny Morales Shaw told reporters at a news conference, “This is illegitimate, this is a wrongful use of power and I will not condone it, and I don’t want to be a part of setting a very bad and low precedent for future legislators.”
Shaw was joined by state Reps. Rhetta Andrews Bowers, Cassandra Hernandez and Mihaela Plesa outside the House chamber.
Rep. Rhetta Andrews Bowers told reporters, “We walked in, we are not running from anything. We have not been running from anything this entire time. So I want to be clear that this is a blatant violation of our freedoms as Texans, as Americans, and of duly elected officials.”
Saying the law enforcement escort was a waste of taxpayer dollars, Bowers added, “We are representatives of the people of Texas. Those resources belong to Texans right now, families in the Hill Country who lost everything to devastating floods need our help. Yet, instead of providing relief, those dollars are being spent on constant [Department Public Safety] patrols.”
Some Democrats returned to the statehouse on Monday and allowed the legislature to reach a quorum, but they continued to speak out against the controversial redistricting.
It is likely that the redistricting plan, which was pushed by President Donald Trump, will pass. The House is set to consider the bill containing the new maps on Wednesday, according to an updated House calendar. The bill, which was newly filed for the second special session after the first one was adjourned due to not having a quorum, passed out of committee on Monday.
Hernandez said that other colleagues are heading to the Capitol to stay overnight and plan to fight the bill when they are on the House floor tomorrow. She did not specify how many were en route or when they could show up.
“So while we’re in here, doing our slumber party for democracy, you will see that we will be working on the floor, strategizing and making sure that we bring the fight tomorrow, and we will not allow them to continue to keep silencing our communities and taking away our abilities as duly elected officials to represent the people that we have been elected to represent in all of Texans,” she said.
Collier and House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Gene Wu posted a video on X on Tuesday chronicling how they and their colleague, state Rep. Vince Perez, slept in the chambers Monday night.
“We had two chairs that we put together. [Wu] slept in two chairs. I slept in two chairs. Our other colleague, Vince Perez, he slept in a couple of chairs,” Collier said in the X video.
Wu, who did sign the waiver, said in his post that he joined Perez and Collier in support of “#goodtrouble,” referencing the late Democratic Rep. John Lewis.
“We know this is a #riggedredistricting process. Democrats are not giving up!” he posted.
Collier echoed that statement.
“I think they need to find their resistance,” she said of her supporters.” Finding your voice and your resistance — that will make a change in America.”
Plesa said Collier had gotten support and calls from people around the country — including former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Harris called Collier Tuesday and gave her words of encouragement, according to a representative for the former vice president.
“Know that we’re in the rooms with you no matter what. And you have our support,” Harris told Collier.
House Speaker Dustin Burrows responded to Collier’s action in a statement Tuesday, saying, “Rep. Collier’s choice to stay and not sign the permission slip is well within her rights under the House Rules.”
“I am choosing to spend my time focused on moving the important legislation on the call to overhaul camp safety, provide property tax reform and eliminate the STAAR test — the results Texans care about,” he added.
A spokesperson for the Texas House Democratic Caucus told ABC News that Collier is effectively stuck in the Capitol until Wednesday at the earliest if she doesn’t sign the form, because that is the earliest the House could do a rules change.
Collier told ABC News on Monday that she was taking a stand for herself and her constituents.
“Look, I’m not a criminal. I’ve exercised my right, and I am tired of the government controlling our movement, and so this is nothing more than the government exercising its control over people who exercise their constitutional rights to resist,” she said.
Collier said she had no issue with the DPS officers themselves since they were ordered by the state Republican leadership to escort the selected Democrats; however, she was angry that the directive was made in the first place.
“I’m tired of being pushed around and told what to do when I disagree with the actions of our government,” she said.
“You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to dig in deeper into the harm that you’re doing. You are going to get what you want,” Collier said of the Republican leadership. “This is just petty and unnecessary, and I don’t think that it is fair. It’s demeaning to me as a person and to my community, and I just won’t take it.”
Exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. (Emily Chang/ABC News)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday confirmed the White House is conducting a review of the Smithsonian museums and expressed frustration over their portrayal of dark parts of America’s history, including slavery.
“The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future,” Trump wrote on his social media platform.
“We are not going to allow this to happen, and I have instructed my attorneys to go through the Museums, and start the exact same process that has been done with Colleges and Universities where tremendous progress has been made,” Trump added. “This Country cannot be WOKE, because WOKE IS BROKE. We have the ‘HOTTEST’ Country in the World, and we want people to talk about it, including in our Museums.”
The Smithsonian declined to comment.
ABC News reported last week that the White House planned to do a wide-ranging review of the Smithsonian Institution’s exhibitions and operations ahead of America’s 250th anniversary next year.
In a letter sent to Lonnie Bunch, the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, the White House wrote that it wants to ensure that the museums “reflect the unity, progress, and enduring values that define the American story.”
When Trump visited The National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2017, he had a different opinion about the discussion of slavery in the museum.
In his remarks that day he praised Bunch, the current secretary of the Smithsonian who was then the founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Trump referred to the museum as “incredible,” “done with love,” and a “truly great museum.”
He praised abolitionist figures Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass. He even recounted a story he’d learned about a runaway slave. He called the tour of the museum “a meaningful reminder of why we have to fight bigotry, intolerance and hatred in all of its very ugly forms.”
The White House review is said to be focused on eight museums, including The National Museum of African American History and Culture, The National Museum of American History, The National Museum of Natural History, The National Museum of the American Indian, The Smithsonian American Art Museum, The National Air and Space Museum, the National Portrait Gallery and The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
Trump signed an executive order back in March directing Vice President JD Vance and Interior Department Secretary Doug Burgum to “remove improper ideology” from all areas of the Smithsonian.
Last week, ABC News visited the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History and National Museum of African American History and Culture, and took photographs of multiple exhibits displayed information and historical artifacts about slavery, segregation and the civil rights movement.
ABC News’ Averi Harper, Hannah Demissie and Emily Chang contributed to this report.
Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu attends a news conference at the conclusion of a House meeting on August 18, 2025 in Austin, Texas. Brandon Bell/Getty Images
(AUSTIN, Texas) — A trio of Texas Democrats slept overnight in the state house instead of traveling home with a mandated law enforcement escort ordered by the Republican leadership as they continued their peaceful resistance against the state leadership and their controversial redistricting plan.
State Representatives Nicole Collier and Gene Wu posted a video on X on Tuesday chronicling how they and their colleague, state Rep. Vince Perez, slept in the chambers after Collier refused to sign a waiver mandated by State House Speaker Dustin Burrows.
Although the Democrats returned to the statehouse Monday, those who denied quorum were allowed to leave the Capitol only if they signed a form agreeing to be under the custody of Texas Department of Public Safety officers.
Texas Democrats fled the state in protest of the Republicans’ plan to redraw congressional maps. Some Democrats returned to the statehouse on Monday and allowed the legislature to reach a quorum, but they continued to speak out against the controversial redistricting.
It is likely that the redistricting plan will pass.
Collier and Wu talked about how they had to make do with their surroundings as they slept in the chambers.
“We had two chairs that we put together. [Wu] slept in two chairs. I slept in two chairs. Our other colleague, Vince Perez, he slept in a couple of chairs,” Collier said in the X video.
Wu, who did sign the waiver, said in his post that he joined Perez and Collier in support of “#goodtrouble”, referencing the late Rep. John Lewis.
“We know this is a #riggedredistricting process. Democrats are not giving up!” he posted.
Collier echoed that statement.
“I think they need to find their resistance,” she said of her supporters. ” Finding your voice and your resistance — that will make a change in America.”
It was not immediately known if Perez signed the waiver.
Burrows responded to Collier’s actions on Tuesday in a statement, “Rep. Collier’s choice to stay and not sign the permission slip is well within her rights under the House Rules.”
“I am choosing to spend my time focused on moving the important legislation on the call to overhaul camp safety, provide property tax reform and eliminate the STAAR test — the results Texans care about,” he added.
A spokesperson for the Texas House Democratic Caucus told ABC News that Collier is effectively stuck until Wednesday in the state House at the earliest if she doesn’t sign the form, because that is the earliest the House could do a rules change.
Collier told ABC News on Monday that she was taking a stand for herself and her constituents.
“Look, I’m not a criminal. I’ve exercised my right, and I am tired of the government controlling our movement, and so this is nothing more than the government exercising its control over people who exercise their constitutional rights to resist,” she said.
Collier said she had no issue with the DPS officers themselves since they were ordered by the state Republican leadership to escort the selected Democrats; however, she was angry that the directive was made in the first place.
“I’m tired of being pushed around and told what to do when I disagree with the actions of our government,” she said.
“You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to dig in deeper into the harm that you’re doing. You are going to get what you want,” Collier said of the Republican leadership. “This is just petty and unnecessary, and I don’t think that it is fair. It’s demeaning to me as a person and to my community, and I just won’t take it.”
: U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on August 18, 2025 in Washington, DC. President Trump is hosting President Zelensky at the White House for a bilateral meeting and later an expanded meeting with European leaders to discuss a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sounded positive as they met at the White House on Monday as Trump pushes for an end to Russia’s war on Kyiv.
Zelenskyy was joined in Washington by a remarkable delegation of European leaders who rushed to the U.S. in support of the Ukrainian leader in the wake of Friday’s talks between Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
The last time Zelenskyy was in the Oval Office was February, when he received a verbal lashing from President Trump and Vice President JD Vance, who accused him of not being grateful enough for U.S. military assistance.
Monday’s meeting was a much more cordial affair, with Trump and Zelenskyy sharing smiles and Zelenskyy thanking the president for his personal efforts to bring this conflict to a close.
Afterward, they sat down with European leaders, who before news cameras pressed Trump publicly on the need for security guarantees for Ukraine as part of any deal — after Trump made a new commitment on that point. Some also said a ceasefire would be necessary before further negotiations or any trilateral meeting between Trump, Zelenskyy and Putin.
Here are some key takeaways from the high-stakes meetings.
Trump says US will give Ukraine ‘very good protection’
President Trump on Monday said the United States will be involved in security assistance for Ukraine but did not elaborate on what exactly that would look like or give any specifics.
“We’re going to be discussing it today, but we will give them very good protection, very good security,” Trump said.
The president later confirmed that Putin said Russia would accept security guarantees for Ukraine.
Trump didn’t go quite as far as special envoy Steve Witkoff, who told CNN that Russia agreed to “Article 5-like” protections. Article 5 is the agreement of collective defense among NATO nations stating an attack against one member is considered an attack against them all.
Trump said Europe would need to shoulder much of the burden when it comes to security guarantees, but that the U.S. will play a role.
“They are first line of defense because they’re there,” Trump said before adding, “But we’re going to help them. And also we’ll be involved.”
Trump walks back ceasefire demand
After previously pushing for a ceasefire and threatening severe consequences for Russia if Putin did not stop the war, President Trump appeared to back off that demand.
“I don’t think you need a ceasefire,” he said in the Oval Office. “I know that it might be good to have, but I can also understand strategically, like, well, you know, one country or the other wouldn’t want it.”
He continued that he likes “the concept of a ceasefire for one reason, because you’d stop killing people immediately.”
Trump pushes for a trilateral meeting, Zelenskyy says Ukraine ‘ready’
Trump continued to push for a trilateral meeting between himself, Zelenskyy and Putin — something he had hoped to set up immediately following his summit with Putin on Friday but was unsuccessful.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine is “ready” for a trilateral discussion.
“I think it’s going to be when,” Trump said, “not if.”
Later Monday, Trump posted on social media that he began planning for a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy, after which he said a trilateral meeting could take place.
“I called President Putin, and began the arrangements for a meeting, at a location to be determined, between President Putin and President Zelenskyy,” Trump wrote in the post. “After that meeting takes place, we will have a Trilat, which would be the two Presidents, plus myself. Again, this was a very good, early step for a War that has been going on for almost four years.”
European leaders back up Zelenskyy on security guarantees, ceasefire
Trump and Zelenskyy sat down with a host of European leaders in the East Room following their bilateral talks in the Oval Office.
At the table were NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italy Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Finland President Alexander Stubb.
Nearly all the leaders stressed the need for security guarantees for Ukraine, with several saying it should look similar to Article 5 obligations. Ukraine is not a part of NATO but the nation has pushed for membership, something Russia is strongly opposed to.
“The fact that you have said that I’m willing to participate in the security guarantees is a it’s a big step. It’s really a breakthrough,” NATO’s Rutte told Trump. “And, it makes all the difference. So also, thank you for that.”
France’s Macron and Germany’s Merz challenged Trump on a ceasefire, insisting it’s a necessity for moving forward.
“The next steps ahead are the more complicated ones now … To be honest, we all would like to see a ceasefire,” Germany’s Merz said. Merz said he cannot imagine a trilateral meeting would be able to occur without a ceasefire in place.
Trump spoke with with Putin after meetings
Trump said he would call Putin after his meetings Zelenskyy and European leaders at the White House.
“He’s expecting my call when we’re finished with this meeting,” Trump said while he sat with Zelenskyy in the Oval Office.
During a “Fox & Friends” interview on Tuesday morning, Trump said he stepped away from his meeting with Zelenskyy and European leaders to speak with Putin. Trump said it was 1 a.m. in Russia when he and Putin spoke.
“I told them that we’re going to set up a meeting with President Zelenskyy, and you and he will meet, and then after that meeting, if everything works out okay, I’ll meet and we’ll wrap it up,” he said.
“If I can get to heaven, this will be one of the reasons,” Trump said on the potential ending of the war.
ABC News’ Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.
Graham Platner, a military veteran and oysterman from a small town near Maine’s Acadia National Park, will run for U.S. Senate as a Democrat, he announced on Tuesday, in an effort to oust Republican Susan Collins, the five-term senator who is expected to run for reelection next year.
A campaign launch video shows Platner, bearded and broad-shouldered with a gruff voice, harvesting oysters and chopping wood as he describes how Maine has become “essentially unlivable for working-class people.”
In an interview Monday with ABC News, Platner said he was driven to run by the growing wealth gap in the U.S., which he said has crippled working-class people in his home state.
“We are moving in a position where regular, working-class people can’t even afford to live in the towns that they were born in,” said Platner, who after four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Army and Marine Corps, moved to the coastal community of Sullivan where he grew up.
Platner might draw comparisons to Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman or Dan Osborn, the union leader running as an independent for the Senate in Nebraska after a failed attempt last year. Both men campaigned for the Senate as champions, and representatives, of the white working class, a demographic with whom Democrats have lost ground in recent cycles.
Platner has hired Fight Agency, a Democratic consulting firm whose members have worked for Fetterman and Osborn’s campaigns, as well as that of Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic candidate for New York mayor.
“I drink coffee every morning with the guys that I work next to, who are friends of mine, who all voted for Donald Trump. And they voted for Donald Trump because they wanted something new, they wanted change,” Platner told ABC News, arguing that his understanding of these voters could help steer the Democratic Party, which he described as “quite confused,” back to a winning track.
“The Democratic Party needs to return to an age where it is the party of labor unions, it is the party of community organizers, it is the party of fighting for big structural change to benefit working class people,” he said.
Asked who he believes is the face of the Democratic Party, Platner said there isn’t one, but he indicated an affinity for some of the most progressive members of the Senate.
He said he admires the former Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and respects Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.
Platner described “Medicare for All” as an urgent priority and called the war in Gaza a “genocide,” saying he follows the lead of “Israeli scholars on genocide.”
On the hot-button cultural issue of transgender women’s participation in sports, he said the topic is a “distraction from the things that impact Americans materially every single day.”
“I am dedicated to equality and justice for all in this country,” Platner said. “And I think that this specific topic has become such a touchstone of the media discussion because it pulls us away from the conversation that needs to be happening, which is getting every American affordable health care.”
Maine briefly became the center of the debate over transgender youth in sports in February, after a public spat between President Trump and Maine Gov. Janet Mills over the Trump’s administration’s threat to withhold funding over a Maine anti-discrimination law that lets transgender women participate in girls’ and women’s sports.
Shortly afterward, at a demonstration protesting the Trump administration, Platner, who leads a Democratic grassroots group in Hancock County, said Mills “displayed great courage when she defended Maine’s laws to Donald Trump’s face,” according to a transcript of the remarks posted online by a local Democratic group.
Mills, a Democrat, has not ruled out entering the race and has reportedly been urged to run by national Democrats who believe she would offer the best chance at flipping Collins’ seat.
Asked about a potential primary challenge from Mills, Platner told ABC News that Democrats “really need to stop running the same kind of playbook over and over and over again.
“I think we really need to start thinking outside of the box on the type of candidates that we’re sending into these races,” he said.
Asked if he has spoken with national Democrats about backing his campaign, Platner said no.
“Nobody has called me, and I’m not really in a position to call anybody because I’m the harbormaster of Sullivan, Maine,” he said.
Sarah Reingewirtz/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images
Many of the nation’s school districts are returning to the classroom with immigrant families fearful of the Trump administration’s targeting of undocumented migrants, according to educators, experts and parents who spoke to ABC News.
Los Angeles and Chicago’s school districts — the nation’s second- and third-largest public school systems, respectively — have returned with new guidance and protections for immigrant families wary of the federal government’s measures to curb illegal immigration.
Chicago Public Schools (CPS) said it will prohibit Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents or federal law enforcement from accessing its facilities unless the agents produce a criminal warrant signed by a federal judge.
More than half a million Los Angeles Unified students are back in school with the district’s police force partnering with local law enforcement in an effort to protect its immigrant students. LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho stressed the district will provide students with a safe space “regardless of immigration status.”
This comes as immigrants nationwide are afraid of deportation from school campuses as the administration continues to tout its signature campaign promise.
During the first several months of the president’s second term, Esmeralda Alday, former executive director of dual language and English as a second language migrant education for the San Antonio Independent School District, said fear permeated through the immigrant families in her district unlike anything she had seen before.
Some mixed-status families — where one or both parents are undocumented but the kids are U.S. citizens — unenrolled from the district after Trump took office, according to Alday. She said it was not only due to the perceived threats from ICE but some families also received detention orders in the mail.
“It’s coming at our families from every angle,” Alday told ABC News. “It’s affecting our families from all angles, almost leaving them with no choice but to self deport.”
ImmSchools co-founder Viridiana Carrizales told ABC News that these families now dread dropping their kids off at school — some won’t even leave their homes — because they risk being detained. She claimed that the administration is not only targeting undocumented immigrants with criminal records but immigrants at large.
“They don’t want our kids,” Carrizales said. “They don’t want immigrant kids in schools, they don’t want them to get educated and that’s what’s happening. We have parents who are not taking their kids to school, we have parents who are withdrawing their kids from programs that are critical for their children,” she added.
Carrizales, whose organization partners with school districts to create more welcoming and safe schools for K-12 immigrant students, said, “Not having these kids receive the support that they need is going to end up hurting us all.”
But as families and school officials brace for potential crackdowns this school year, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told ABC News that no arrests have been made on K-12 school grounds during Trump’s second term and ICE has yet to raid any K-12 campuses. According to McLaughlin, the majority of DHS’ arrests so far either have prior criminal convictions or pending criminal charges against them.
McLaughlin also warned that no K-12 students who are U.S. citizens should fear deportation or ICE raids, even if their parents are undocumented.
“If you are here in the United States legally, there’s no immigration enforcement, because you’re here in the country legally,” she said.
In Trump’s first full day back in office, DHS lifted its longstanding restrictions that kept ICE from conducting raids on schools and other sensitive areas, including churches and hospitals. McLaughlin said the decision was made to ensure immigration agents weren’t hamstrung from doing their jobs.
“This actually should be a good thing for all communities,” she said. “Why would you want a criminal to take safe harbor in a hospital or house of worship or a school? I mean, why would you want someone to go ‘Oh, they won’t get me here, so I’m going to go and take safe harbor there.'”
During the last school year and more recently during summer learning, Carrizales and Alday said student absenteeism spiked in Texas school districts because of fear of federal law enforcement. As the fears continue, many schools are concerned that projected enrollment for this school year could drop, according to Carrizales.
Attendance has also plagued LAUSD, board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin said. Families are now navigating the virtual learning options the district offers.
Franklin said undocumented families have heightened anxiety about visiting schools during back-to-school night and other parent-teacher obligations.
“They’re struggling with the question of do I come to this one event that could be helpful for my child or do I ensure that I am here for them when they get home at the end of the day and it’s a no brainer for those who are genuinely fearful,” Franklin told ABC News.
“It’s permeating brown communities, in particular, [and] our Black immigrant communities, our Asian immigrant communities, of which there are many in Los Angeles,” she added.
