The Latest: Trump promises to campaign for Republicans despite sagging popularity

President Donald Trump urged Republican lawmakers facing tough reelection campaigns to run on his record in the White House despite his sagging popularity, and he pledged to campaign in all of the roughly three dozen contests that are likely to determine control of Congress.

Also, a federal judge in Boston is hearing arguments Thursday on whether to extend her prohibition against the U.S. Postal Service requiring states to use a new mail balloting system for the midterms as part of an executive order by Trump. The hearing in the closely watched case comes the day before the first state begins sending mail ballots to voters.

Here’s the latest:

AP Source: ICE officer charged with lying to investigators in the shooting of Venezuelan man

Federal prosecutors have charged a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer with lying to investigators about the events leading up to the shooting of a Venezuelan man during the Minneapolis immigration crackdown earlier this year, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

The person was not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity. The person said Christian Castro, the officer who authorities say shot Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg in January, has been charged with making false statements to federal investigators.

The federal charges follow Castro’s release from jail last week after Texas’ governor refused to immediately sign an extradition warrant to hand him over to Minnesota authorities, who’ve charged him separately with assault and false reporting of a crime related to the same shooting.

Federal authorities had initially accused Sosa-Celis and another man of beating an officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel during the confrontation. But federal prosecutors dropped charges against the men after video evidence showed the officers may have lied about the encounter, and officials opened an investigation.

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— Alanna Durkin Richer

US House drops two weeks from its September schedule

House Republican leaders announced Thursday that they’re cutting their schedule short as they campaign to keep their majority in midterm elections.

House lawmakers who returned to Washington from their five-week August recess this week will now be in session only one additional week ahead of the November election, the week of Sept. 14. Members will then head back to their districts to campaign.

The Senate has been out of session since Aug. 8 and will return Sept. 14 for a three-week session ahead of the election.

Trump claims the US has ‘virtually unlimited’ munition stockpiles

In a Truth Social post, the president insisted the U.S. has “virtually unlimited amounts of Mid to High Grade Ammunition,” for its war against Iran.

Trump added, “In addition, we are producing Munitions at levels never seen before. We are stockpiling and preparing for any contingency that could happen.”

Earlier this week, Trump in an exchange with reporters suggested the U.S. could find creative ways to deal with munition shortages if necessary.

“But we can always take from other sources,” Trump told reporters Monday. “But I don’t think we’re going to need it because nobody’s going to mess with us. Nobody.”

The Associated Press reported last week, citing a U.S. defense official in Europe and a NATO official, that the U.S. military is experiencing a “beyond critical” shortage of advanced missile interceptors in Europe that’s largely driven by Trump’s war with Iran.

Trump administration pushes to remove tax exemption for private colleges with DEI policies

The administration is proposing a new rule that would strip private schools and colleges of their tax-exempt status if they provide targeted help to students based on their race, a significant escalation in the White House’s campaign to eradicate diversity programs directed at Black, Hispanic and other minority students.

The Treasury Department proposed the change Thursday in a new regulation that, if made final, would kick in after May 2027. The rule is broadly aimed at ending any policies or programs that help students because of their race, and it specifically says such benefits in admissions, scholarships and facilities “would be incompatible” with the rule.

It’s the latest attempt by the Trump administration to pressure schools and colleges to weed out diversity, equity and inclusion policies that had become common before Trump returned to the White House with a promise to end them. Trump officials have used Civil Rights-era laws to unwind the policies, saying they discriminate against white and Asian American students.

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Venezuelans’ pride is bruised by deal to give US one-fifth of their oil reserves

Nothing has shaped what it means to be Venezuelan today more than oil.

For more than 100 years, in good times and bad, Venezuelans’ identity has been built around the belief that their country’s bountiful oil resources belong to the people, not a government or a company.

This belief, and a troubled nation’s pride, took a bruising last week when acting President Delcy Rodríguez agreed to give the United States control of roughly one-fifth of Venezuela’s oil reserves — the largest in the world.

While the deal could eventually generate billions of dollars for an oil industry and economy wrecked by years of mismanagement, many Venezuelans see it as a surrender. Some say they’re not surprised; they believe gaining control of Venezuelan oil was the ultimate objective when President Trump ordered U.S. forces to capture then-President Nicolás Maduro at the beginning of the year, leaving Rodríguez in charge.

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Trump administration ratchets up its fight to get more oil flowing from California

Its latest salvo is a federal review of California’s coastal management program, which is run largely by a state commission that’s had a powerful role for decades in shaping development along the coast. Environmental advocates fear federal officials could use the review to strip the California Coastal Commission of its ability to have a say in projects involving federal agencies that affect the state’s rugged coastal bluffs, pristine beaches and world-class surfing spots.

The administration, citing a need for energy security and job creation, has already announced plans for new offshore oil leases in California as well as Florida, where the federal government hasn’t allowed drilling since 1995 because of concerns about oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico.

Trump officials also helped a Texas firm jump-start an old pipeline system that had been idled since its 2015 rupture caused one of California’s worst oil spills, blackening beaches for 150 miles (240 kilometers) from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles and polluting habitat for endangered whales and sea turtles.

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Democrats are promising a big agenda. Their unity is already being tested

Beginning on Day One, House Democrats plan to “hold the crooks accountable.”

That’s the promise House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has made, previewing an ambitious agenda with oversight of President Trump’s administration and legislation to address the high costs of living, if Democrats seize majority control from Republicans in the midterm elections.

But first, the Democratic leaders have to ensure they can keep their own politically diverse — and sometimes rebellious — big-tent caucus in line, which was tested this week. Two go-their-own-way Democrats bucked the party on a routine procedural vote, angering colleagues and raising a red flag about potential party divisions to come.

“His greatest challenge will be governing,” Ashley Etienne, a former top aide to Nancy Pelosi during her historic tenure as House speaker, said of Jeffries.

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US trade deficit widens despite Trump’s tariffs

The U.S. trade deficit widened to $88.6 billion in July, up 24% from June and the highest since March 2025 when Trump was just beginning to ramp up import taxes to protect American industry from foreign competition. An investment boom in artificial intelligence is drawing in imports of computers and computer and telecommunications equipment.

Overall, U.S. imports rose 2.8% in July and exports dropped 2.1%.

Still, the January-July deficit — the gap between what the U.S. buys from and what it sells to other countries — is down nearly 30% from a year earlier.

Billionaire investor Leon Black sues House committee over Epstein investigation

Black refused to appear for a sworn deposition before Congress on Thursday and instead sued the House Oversight Committee, asking a federal court to block subpoenas issued as part of its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.

The House Oversight Committee served Black with two subpoenas following a closed-door interview in June after lawmakers said he refused to answer questions about nondisclosure agreements.

Black’s lawsuit argues the subpoenas exceed the committee’s authority by seeking private information.

“The Committee is on a fishing expedition that oversteps its authority and completely ignores its responsibility,” Black’s attorney, Susan Estrich, said in a statement.

Unemployment claims tick up to 206,000 but remain at historically low levels

The Labor Department reported Thursday filings for benefits ticked up to 206,000 last week from a revised 204,000 the week before. The four-week average of claims, which smooths out week-to-week volatility, rose modestly to 207,250 last week.

Claims for jobless benefits are a proxy for layoffs, and economists watch them because they can be a sign of where the job market is headed. For the past year, claims have mostly stayed within a historically low range of 200,000 to 230,000 a week.

Companies, remembering the worker shortages that followed the end of COVID-19 lockups, are still reluctant to let go of staff. The unemployment rate is low at 4.1%.

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Trump’s plan for a fence at Lafayette Park near White House gets review by federal panel

The latest pieces of President Trump’s wide-ranging Washington makeover are set for an airing Thursday in front of a federal panel that already has blessed other big-ticket plans from the designer-in-chief.

The National Capital Planning Commission, which this spring approved Trump’s White House ballroom proposal after he razed the Executive Mansion’s East Wing without authorization, will discuss a proposed fence around Lafayette Park in front of the White House.

The panel also will review a proposed underground security screening center for White House visitors. It’s the first time the commission will take up either idea, and votes aren’t expected. But the commission and the separate U.S. Commission of Fine Arts thus far have not been an obstacle for Trump’s plans for the capital.

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Trump fact-checks his own commerce secretary on Iran war deaths

The president took the unusual step of correcting a misleading statement by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who had said in an interview that no U.S. forces had died in the Iran war.

“Sec. Lutnick had Venezuela on his mind when he said nobody was killed,” Trump posted on social media. “18 people were killed in Iran!”

Lutnick had said in a Wednesday CNBC interview that no Americans had died in the conflict that began at the end of February. But Lutnick in his remarks was specifically talking about the Iran war, which he called “an economic chokeout.”

Federal judge considers whether to extend ban against US Postal Service mail voting changes

A federal judge in Boston will hear arguments Thursday on whether to extend her prohibition against the U.S. Postal Service requiring states to use a new mail balloting system for the midterms as part of an executive order by President Donald Trump.

The hearing in the closely watched case comes the day before the first state begins sending mail ballots to voters.

U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani is considering whether to order a preliminary injunction that would bar the Postal Service from requiring the new system to be used for the midterms. Last week, she imposed a 14-day temporary restraining order to keep it from being used. That order expires next week as more states begin sending out mail ballots.

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Trump promises to campaign for Republicans and says they have a winning midterm message

President Donald Trump on Wednesday urged Republican lawmakers facing tough reelection campaigns to run on his record in the White House despite his sagging popularity, and he pledged to campaign in all of the roughly three dozen contests that are likely to determine control of Congress.

Voters’ dim views of the economy and the war in Iran have put Republicans in a tough spot as the midterm election season enters its final stretch. But during a dinner in the Rose Garden, one of the spaces he has controversially renovated since returning to office last year, the president told his party’s most vulnerable lawmakers they had a triumphant story to tell voters.

“All you have to do is talk about it, and you’re going to win and you’re going to win big,” Trump said a week before the party gathers in Dallas for an unusual midterm convention.

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