Politics

(WASHINGTON) — Demolition continued Wednesday at the White House to make way for President Donald Trump’s $250 million ballroom, but the renovation is far more extensive than he has let on.

While Trump had said back in July that the ballroom would not “interfere” with the existing building — would be “near it but not touching it” — a White House official confirmed to ABC News that the “entirety of the East Wing will be modernized.”

The extent of the demolition was first reported by The Washington Post, which published new photographs on Tuesday showing bulldozers razing most of the East Wing — what had been home to the first lady’s office, the White House military office and more.

A higher, seven-foot fence was visible Wednesday around the East Wing site, helping to block the demolition from public view.

A White House official said the East Wing was being “modernized” from its 1902 and 1942 constructions to support the ballroom project and the future home of the East Wing. The scope and size of the project, the official said, has always been subject to change as the process developed.

The Office of the First Lady and other East Wing components have been relocated on the White House complex within the White House and Eisenhower Executive Office Building, according to a White House official.

Trump has long wanted to build a ballroom at the White House akin to that at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. Mock-ups for the 90,000-square foot ballroom were unveiled this summer, and Trump said the build would be paid for by him and unidentified donors. The administration has said little since about who exactly is funding the project, sparking ethical and legal questions.

Trump indicated earlier this week that once the project is done, people would be able to walk directly from the White House East Room into the ballroom, suggesting the construction will touch the actual White House — something Trump himself had previously said would not happen.

The construction this week kicked off a torrent of criticism.

Former first lady Hillary Clinton weighed in on Tuesday, writing on X that Trump is “destroying” the White House.

“It’s not his house. It’s your house. And he’s destroying it,” Clinton wrote.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation sent a letter to White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf, whom Trump also appointed to head the National Capital Planning Commission, an executive branch agency that provides planning guidance and reviews development proposals, voicing concerns about the demolition and ballroom plan, calling for a pause.

“While the National Trust acknowledges the utility of a larger meeting space at the White House, we are deeply concerned that the massing and height of the proposed new construction will overwhelm the White House itself — it is 55,000 square feet — and may also permanently disrupt the carefully balanced classical design of the White House with its two smaller, and lower, East and West Wings,” wrote Dr. Carol Quillen, the trust’s president.

The nonprofit organization urged the administration “to pause demolition until plans for the proposed ballroom go through the legally required public review processes, including consultation and review by the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts, and to invite comment from the public.”

Plans for the ballroom have not yet been submitted to the National Capital Planning Commission, despite demolition being already underway. White House official confirmed to ABC News that the White House still intends to submit plans for the build to the commission.

The White House on Tuesday defended the renovations and the construction of the new ballroom in a lengthy press release stating the project is “a bold, necessary addition that echoes the storied history of improvements and additions from commanders-in-chief to keep the executive residence as a beacon of American excellence.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, appearing on Fox News “Jesse Watters Primetime” on Tuesday, called the backlash “fake outrage” and said presidents past have also made changes to the White House.

“He is the builder-in-chief, in large part he was elected back to this People’s House because he is good at building things. He has done it his entire life, his entire career,” Leavitt said. “And construction is a process. At the end, the East Wing which is an entirely separate structure from the Executive Mansion you see behind me, will be more modern and beautiful than ever. And then on top of that, the White House is going to have a big, beautiful ballroom for generations of Americans to come.”

But according to a report from the Wall Street Journal, the Treasury Department (located next to the renovation site) has instructed employees not to share photos of the demolition.

Trump, hosting Senate Republicans for lunch on Tuesday at his newly-renovated Rose Garden Club, celebrated the ballroom build.

“You probably hear the beautiful sound of construction in the back. You hear that? Oh, that’s music to my ears,” Trump said. “I love that sound. Other people don’t like it, I love it.”

ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — There are no plans for President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet “in the immediate future,” a White House official said on Tuesday — calling off a summit that was expected in Hungary in the coming weeks.

Trump announced on Thursday that he and Putin planned to meet again, and predicted it would occur “within two weeks or so.”

First, he said, discussions would take place among senior advisers on both sides.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, held a phone call on Monday. It’s not expected the two will meet in person at this point. 

“Secretary Rubio and Foreign Minister Lavrov had a productive call. Therefore, an additional in person meeting between the Secretary and Foreign Minister is not necessary, and there are no plans for President Trump to meet with President Putin in the immediate future,” the White House official said.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Kremlin downplayed a potential in person meeting between Trump and Putin. The Kremlin said there was never a date set for a summit. 

“You can’t postpone what was not scheduled,” a Putin spokesman said.

Meanwhile, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte will be in Washington on Wednesday for a meeting with Trump, according to a NATO news release. A White House official confirmed the meeting. 

The two will discuss the war in Ukraine ahead of a meeting of the Coalition of the Willing in London on Friday, a NATO spokesperson said.

Trump, on the heels of a diplomatic achievement in the Middle East, renewed his efforts to bring the Russia-Ukraine conflict to an end as Moscow’s invasion drags on 3 1/2 years later.

But it appears little has changed since his phone call with Putin last Thursday and his face-to-face meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday.

Zelenskyy was in Washington to make his case for coveted U.S. Tomahawk cruise missiles and other military assets. Zelenskyy said on Monday that the Trump administration decided not to provide Ukraine with the long-range Tomahawks that would give Kyiv the ability to strike deeper inside Russia, but said the “issue is not off the table.”

Still, Zelenskyy described the White House meeting as positive and said he was waiting to see whether he would be invited to join the now-called off sitdown between Trump and Putin in Budapest.

Trump has called for the Russia-Ukraine war to end along its current battle lines, and denied a report from the Financial Times that he insisted Zelenskyy surrender the entire Donbas region to Russia.

On Monday, Trump softened his previous comments when he said he believed Ukraine could win back all its territory currently occupied by Russia.

“Well they could,” Trump said. “They could still win it. I don’t think they will but they could still win it. I never said they would win it. I said they — anything can happen. You know war is a very strange thing. A lot of bad things happen. A lot of good things happen.”

Tuesday’s announcement that a second Trump-Putin summit is side-tabled for now comes just hours after Russia’s top diplomat signaled that the U.S. and Russia are still very far apart with regards to how to end the war with Ukraine.

“Now, Washington is saying that we need to stop immediately and not discuss anything further. We need to stop and let history decide. You see, if we just stop, we will forget about the root causes of this conflict, which the American administration clearly understood when Donald Trump came to power,” Lavrov said.  

ABC News’ Chris Boccia, Michelle Stoddart and Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — One of the biggest impacts of the government shutdown is about to hit tens of millions of the poorest Americans hard: the halting of a critical food assistance program.

Several states are now warning they will be forced to suspend Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits come Nov. 1 if the shutdown continues. 

SNAP, often referred to as “food stamps,” serves roughly 42 million low-income Americans. The program, run by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, issues electronic benefits that can be used like cash to purchase food.

Texas is now warning its millions of recipients that all November SNAP benefits will be halted if the shutdown continues past Oct. 27. 

Pennsylvania officials say they will also not be able to distribute SNAP benefits if the shutdown — now in its 21st day — continues.

“Because Republicans in Washington DC failed to pass a federal budget, causing the federal government shutdown, November 2025 SNAP benefits cannot be paid,” an alert on the state’s Department of Human Services website reads.

Other states such as Minnesota and New York, are issuing similar warnings — saying benefits are “at risk” or “may be delayed” if the shutdown continues.  

SNAP has traditionally been entirely federally funded, but is administered by states. That means the shutdown’s impact on SNAP and when benefits will start to dry up will vary state by state. 

Earlier this month, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children — commonly known as WIC — received $300 million from the White House to help support the program through Oct. 31 amid the shutdown, but now states are projected to run out of funds as early as next month.

WIC — which which help more than 7 million low-income mothers, young children and expectant parents get nutritious foods — is on the verge of running out of money as early as Nov. 1 unless the government reopens or receives additional emergency funding. Previously, the White House said it would use tariff revenue to pay for WIC benefits.

“Without additional funding, State WIC Agencies may be forced to take drastic measures that prevent families from accessing the services they need, such as halting food benefits. This would directly jeopardize the health and nutrition of millions of mothers, babies, and young children,” National WIC Association CEO Georgia Machell said in a statement on Tuesday.

In a letter to state health officials earlier this month, Ronald Ward — the acting head of SNAP — warned that “if the current lapse in appropriations continues, there will be insufficient funds to pay full November SNAP benefits for approximately 42 million individuals across the Nation.”

This has already been a tumultuous few months for SNAP. President Donald Trump’s megabill already cut the program by an estimated $186 billion over 10 years. 

ABC News’ Justin Gomez contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Former President Joe Biden has completed his current course of radiation therapy, a spokesperson told ABC News on Monday. 

It’s unclear at this time if any additional radiation therapy will be needed, the spokesperson added. 

A short video of the former president ringing a bell to signify the completion of his course of radiation was posted on Ashley Biden’s Instagram story, with the caption: “Rung the bell! Thank you to the incredible doctors, nurses, and staff at Penn Medicine. We are so grateful!”

It was reported on Oct. 11 that Biden had been undergoing radiation therapy in addition to hormone treatment. A source familiar with his treatment said Biden had begun radiation therapy a few weeks before it was reported.

The former president’s office in May announced his prostate cancer diagnosis, which has spread to his bones, noting that while it was an aggressive form, “the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management.”

Later in May, the former president told reporters his treatment was underway. 

“It’s all a matter of taking a pill, one particular pill, for the next six weeks and then another one,” Biden said in May.

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(WASHINGTON) — The nomination of Paul Ingrassia, a former far-right podcast host and President Donald Trump’s pick to serve as the lead of the Office of Special Counsel, appears to be in jeopardy with Senate Majority Leader John Thune casting doubt that the embattled nominee will be confirmed.

Ingrassia, whom Trump nominated in May to lead the independent watchdog agency empowered to investigate federal employees and oversee complaints from whistleblowers, has his scheduled confirmation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Thursday. It comes just days after a Politico report alleges Ingrassia sent racist text messages — including reports that he said that the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday should be “tossed into the seventh circle of hell” and said he has “a Nazi streak.”

A lawyer for Ingrassia, Edward Paltzik, would not confirm to ABC News that the messages were authentic. He added that even if the texts were authentic, they were “clearly” meant as “self-deprecating and satirical humor” aimed at liberals.

ABC News has not independently verified the messages.

Asked if the White House should pull Ingrassia’s nomination, Thune said, “I hope so.”

“He’s not going to pass,” Thune said Monday.

The White House has not responded to a request for comment on Thune’s comments.

ABC News exclusively reported in February about how Ingrassia, in his role as White House liaison to the Department of Justice, was pushing to hire candidates at the Justice Department who exhibited what he called “exceptional loyalty” to Trump.

His efforts at Justice Department sparked clashes with Attorney General Pam Bondi’s top aide, Chad Mizelle, leading Ingrassia to complain directly to Trump, sources told ABC News.

Ingrassia was pushed out of the Justice Department and reassigned as the White House liaison to the Department of Homeland Security, where he was serving prior to Trump announcing his new role, according to a White House official familiar with the matter. 

Ingrassia, if he cleared a vote by the Senate Homeland Security Committee, would need 50 votes to be confirmed by the Senate. There’s already a number of senators signaling they won’t support his nomination.

It’s still unclear if Ingrassia would even have the support he needed to pass out of committee to get a vote of the full Senate. 

Republican Sen. Rick Scott, who sits on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, told reporters Monday that he doesn’t support Ingrassia’s nomination.

Asked point blank if he supports him, Scott gave a curt, “No, I do not.”

Sen. Ron Johnson, another Republican member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, also told ABC News he won’t support Ingassia’s nomination.

“I wouldn’t vote for him. His nomination should not have gotten this far. Hopefully it is pulled,” Johnson said. 

Johnson declined to provide details on why he wouldn’t vote for Ingrassia.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul, who chairs the committee, side-stepped directly answering questions about whether Ingrassia would still appear before the panel for confirmation on Thursday.

“You know, we are going to wait and see how things turn out, and we will find out more on Thursday,” Paul said when asked if Ingrassia’s hearing would go forward. 

Paul has declined to say whether or not he would support Ingrassia.

Asked Tuesday if he thought the White House should pull Ingrassia’s nomination from consideration, Paul said that was up to the administration to determine.

“That’s going to be their decision,” he said. “We are waiting to find out what their decision will be.”

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(WASHINGTON) — There are no plans for President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to meet “in the immediate future,” the White House said in a statement on Tuesday — calling off a summit that was expected in Budapest in the coming weeks.

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

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(WASHINGTON) — Steve Bannon hasn’t worked in the White House for years, but he played a pivotal, and previously unreported, role in the explosive meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier this year that changed the course of U.S. policy toward Ukraine.

The story is first reported in an excerpt in The Atlantic magazine from ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl’s upcoming book, “Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign that Changed America.”

Karl reports on a meeting of Trump’s national security team shortly before Zelenskyy’s visit to Washington in February where Trump stopped the meeting and asked then-national security adviser Michael Waltz to “get Steve Bannon” on the phone.

“Hey, Steve, I’ve got the boys here,” Trump said. “I’m going to put you on speaker.” 

Trump, keeping Bannon on speakerphone for half an hour, had the MAGA firebrand make his case to the national security team against the deal, and Zelenskyy, who he referred to as “that punk.”

 “I f—— hate it,” Bannon said, arguing that the deal “ties us to Ukraine.”

“If that punk comes here, he’s going to want a security guarantee,” Bannon said of Zelenskyy to Trump and his top advisers. He told the group they “can’t trust Zelenskyy” or “any of the Europeans.”

The previously unreported conversation set the tone for Trump’s combative meeting in the Oval Office with Zelenskyy, which devolved into a tense shouting match in front of reporters and television cameras.

“You’re not acting at all thankful,” Trump said to the Ukrainian leader. “You’re gambling with World War III.”

Zelenskyy left the meeting early that afternoon, and the relationship between the United States and Ukraine was at an all-time low since the start of the conflict with Russia.

While their relationship recovered — Zelenskyy visited the White House this past week seeking more American military assistance — the moment underscored the volatile dynamic between the two leaders, and the abiding influence of Bannon over Trump’s thinking.

In “Retribution,” Karl also reports that Bannon managed to keep in touch with Trump and his camp discreetly from federal prison, while he served four months after he was found guilty of contempt of Congress.

Bannon developed a “coded” system that allowed his daughter and top aide to pass along messages to Trump via the limited email communications he was allowed in prison, which were subject to review by the Bureau of Prisons, according to the excerpt of Karl’s book in The Atlantic.

“Bannon claims that an investigative officer at Danbury — an official he described as ‘pure MAGA’ — had warned him that his communications were being reviewed by ‘Main Justice,’ otherwise known as the Biden administration,” Karl writes.

“So he developed a coded system to let ‘the girls’ know which messages were to be passed on to Trump or to those around him, in particular the aide Boris Epshteyn: “I had just a system to get to Boris, kind of in quasi-code, through [daughter Maureen] into [aide Grace Chong],’ he said. Was there literally a code word? ‘Well, we had — ‘ he began, before catching himself. I don’t — the Bureau of Prisons could go back through it. We had a way that they could get to him,'” Karl writes.

According to Karl, Bannon used the system to tell Trump campaign officials he thought they were making a “huge mistake” by trying to “reduce tensions” across the country after the July 2024 assassination attempt against then-candidate Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Editor’s note: Profanity included in the book has been altered for this account and some text has been edited for style. “Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign that Changed America,” by ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl, is being published Oct. 28 and is available for preorder at Penguin Random House.

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(WASHINGTON) — One of the biggest impacts of the government shutdown is about to hit tens of millions of the poorest Americans hard: the halting of a critical food assistance program.

Several states are now warning they will be forced to suspend Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits come Nov. 1 if the shutdown continues. 

SNAP, often referred to as “food stamps,” serves roughly 42 million low-income Americans. The program, run by the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, issues electronic benefits that can be used like cash to purchase food.

Texas is now warning its millions of recipients that all November SNAP benefits will be halted if the shutdown continues past Oct. 27. 

Pennsylvania officials say they will also not be able to distribute SNAP benefits if the shutdown — now in its 21st day — continues.

“Because Republicans in Washington DC failed to pass a federal budget, causing the federal government shutdown, November 2025 SNAP benefits cannot be paid,” an alert on the state’s Department of Human Services website reads.

Other states such as Minnesota and New York, are issuing similar warnings — saying benefits are “at risk” or “may be delayed” if the shutdown continues.  

SNAP has traditionally been entirely federally funded, but is administered by states. That means the shutdown’s impact on SNAP and when benefits will start to dry up will vary state by state. 

Earlier this month, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children — commonly known as WIC — received $300 million to help support the program amid the shutdown. The White House said it would use tariff revenue to pay for WIC benefits, which help more than 6 million low-income mothers, young children and expectant parents get nutritious foods.

“We welcome efforts to keep WIC afloat during the shutdown, but families need long-term stability, not short-term uncertainty. We still don’t know how much funding this measure provides, how quickly states will receive it, or how long it will sustain operations. There is no substitute for Congress doing its job,” National WIC Association CEO Georgia Machell said in a statement.

In a letter to state health officials earlier this month, Ronald Ward — the acting head of SNAP — warned that “if the current lapse in appropriations continues, there will be insufficient funds to pay full November SNAP benefits for approximately 42 million individuals across the Nation.”

This has already been a tumultuous few months for SNAP. President Donald Trump’s megabill already cut the program by an estimated $186 billion over 10 years. 

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(NEW YORK) — Former Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., was freed from prison last week thanks to his federal fraud sentence being commuted by President Donald Trump — but he may not be free from criminal prosecution on the local level.

Prosecutors on Long Island are not ruling out the possibility of bringing local charges, however, the district attorney’s office in Nassau County, which is home to part of the district Santos represented, declined to say what, if anything, prosecutors might be investigating that could warrant state charges.

“Since first learning of George Santos’ actions, I have been at the forefront of bringing him to justice,” Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said in a statement. “I am proud of the work my office has done, and the conviction achieved in partnership with the U.S. Attorney’s office. While the office cannot comment on ongoing investigations, suffice it to say that I remain focused on prosecuting political corruption wherever it exists regardless of political affiliation.”

A spokeswoman for Donnelly’s office declined to elaborate. 

 Santos was three months into a seven-year prison sentence for deception, fraud and lying to Congress when Trump intervened, noting Santos had the “courage, conviction and intelligence to always vote Republican.”

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

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<figure><img src=”https://s3.amazonaws.com/syndication.abcaudio.com/files/2025-10-20/GETTY_Adelita%20Grijalva_102025.jpg” alt=””><figcaption>Rebecca Noble/Getty Images</figcaption></figure><p>(WASHINGTON) — Speaker Mike Johnson is resisting calls to swear in Democratic Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, saying Monday that he will administer the oath of office to her after the Senate votes to reopen the government.</p><p>As Democrats decry the almost monthlong delay, Johnson has maintained that he is “following the Pelosi precedent” — when three Republicans who had won special elections during recess waited until the House returned to session before then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi swore them into office.</p><p>Grijalva won her special election on Sept. 23 — four days after Johnson dismissed lawmakers following House passage of the clean continuing resolution to fund the government. Since the last vote in the House, Republicans have canceled 14 days of legislative business — including four days this week — as the impasse drags on.</p><p>”Rep. Grijalva won her race in the I think it was the last week of September after we had already gone out of session, so I will administer the oath to her, hope on the first day we come back [to] legislative session,” Johnson said in a news conference Monday. “I’m willing and anxious to do that.”</p><p>While the question has followed the speaker throughout the shutdown, Johnson has shrugged off the delay, denying that his decision is related to Grijalva’s intent to become the 218 signature on a discharge petition forcing a vote to release the Department of Justice’s full Jeffrey Epstein file.</p><p>”Instead of doing TikTok videos, she should be serving her constituents. She could be taking their calls. She can be directing them, trying to help them through the crisis that the Democrats have created … by shutting down the government,” Johnson said.</p><p>Last week, Grijalva rejected Johnson’s assertion that she can still represent her constituents while she waits to be sworn in to office, contending she cannot carry out some basic functions of her office until she is seated.</p><p>”We have no access to government email, casework systems, and other basic infrastructure. Moreover, we cannot sign any leases for in-district offices to provide constituent services,” Grijalva wrote in a statement to ABC News on Friday. “He is piecemealing the most basic tools of a functioning office — handing me the keys to a car with no engine, no tires, and no fuel. This would all be resolved if he simply did his job, swore me in, and stopped protecting pedophiles. I can’t do my job until he does his.”</p><p>On Monday, Johnson put the onus on House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries to give his new members “guidance and direction” on how to begin operating their office.</p><p>”That call was apparently never made,” Johnson said. “I don’t know if the Democrat leader’s office didn’t inform her of that, but the I found out this morning that the person who runs that office and the chief administrative office is on furlough because they voted to shut the government down, and so that person didn’t reach out affirmatively, but now it’s been sorted out, and I’m told they’re going to her office today.”</p><p>On ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl pressed Johnson on why the House couldn’t return to do some regular business outside any shutdown-related work.</p><p>”I refuse to allow us to come back and engage in anything until the government is reopened, when the Democrats do the right thing for the people,” Johnson told Karl.</p><p>Asked when Johnson would swear in Grijalva, the leader told Karl, “As soon as we get back to legislative session, when Chuck Schumer allows us to turn the lights back on.”</p><p>Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.</p>