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🔴 BREAKING (3:56 p.m. ET): DNC sues Trump administration over changes to overseas voting form
The Democratic National Committee sued the Trump administration Thursday, alleging that it unlawfully rushed through changes to a federal voting form that could discourage eligible Americans abroad from registering and requesting absentee ballots ahead of the midterm elections.
The lawsuit challenges the removal of a checkbox from the Federal Post Card Application, which allows military and overseas voters to register and request ballots. The deleted option let U.S. citizens living abroad identify themselves as having never lived in the United States.
Previously, voters could choose among four categories: active-duty military personnel and eligible family members, citizens abroad who intend to return, citizens uncertain about returning, and citizens who have never lived in the country. The revised form retains only the first three.
That leaves some eligible voters without a category that clearly describes their circumstances. Laws in 38 states and the District of Columbia have extended voting rights to certain citizens who have never lived in the U.S., often through a parent’s former residence. A June ruling in North Carolina has since restricted that access there.
The Pentagon, which oversees the forms, submitted two emergency requests in August to revise overseas voting paperwork as the deadline for sending ballots approached. The Office of Management and Budget quickly approved the changes. Its record for the registration form shows the request arrived Aug. 26 and was approved Aug. 28, without the usual advance public comment process.
The DNC alleges that the administration’s emergency rationale was a pretext for bypassing required procedures. It is asking a federal court in Washington to declare the changes unlawful and set them aside.
“Trump and Republicans are so desperate to hang on to power that they are trying to eliminate the way some American citizens abroad register to vote and request mail ballots. They know that Americans, both at home and abroad, are going to reject their destructive agenda, and they are scrambling to disenfranchise as much of the electorate as possible by any means necessary,” DNC Chair Ken Martin said.
The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit. In its emergency submission, however, it argued that the revisions were needed to reduce confusion and bring the forms into compliance with federal law.
Voting advocates warn the changes could have the opposite effect, leaving eligible citizens unsure how to complete an application they must sign under penalty of perjury—and discouraging them from voting.
Removing the checkbox does not itself erase eligibility under state law. The Federal Voting Assistance Program has said states may continue processing earlier versions of the forms, and eligible voters may also use alternatives provided by their state.
🔴 BREAKING (3:54 p.m. ET): Trump’s Justice Department reviews whether Nixon was mistreated during Watergate—report
Donald Trump’s Justice Department is reviewing whether the prosecutors who investigated Watergate committed misconduct, turning its attention to the treatment of former President Richard Nixon more than half a century after the scandal forced his resignation.
The review follows a presentation at Justice Department headquarters by Geoff Shepard, a former Nixon aide who has spent years challenging the established account of Watergate. During the two-hour presentation, titled “Watergate As Lawfare,” Shepard advanced his theory that government insiders orchestrated Nixon’s downfall.
A senior department official invited Shepard in September to present his arguments to the Office of Professional Responsibility. A department spokesperson confirmed that the presentation took place. The review remains preliminary, and whether it will become a full investigation is unclear.
Nixon’s own recordings documented his involvement in obstructing the Watergate investigation. The June 23, 1972, “smoking gun” tape captured his effort to have the CIA halt the FBI’s inquiry into the burglary by invoking national security. After the Supreme Court compelled him to surrender recordings, Nixon resigned on Aug. 9, 1974.
🔴 BREAKING (3:46 p.m. ET): ICE bans car chases and requires training for vehicle stops after deadly shootings
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has ordered its deportation officers not to pursue drivers who fail to pull over and to conduct vehicle stops only after completing approved training, following a series of encounters in which officers shot drivers.
The restrictions appear in a Sept. 30 internal memo obtained by The Associated Press, signed by Marcos D. Charles, ICE’s executive associate director, and sent to the agency’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division.
The directive leaves officers no discretion to chase a vehicle that refuses to stop. They are instructed to record the vehicle’s information for further investigation instead of pursuing it.
Officers who have not completed the required training may assist as passengers, but cannot drive vehicles participating in the stop. The guidance also requires vehicles used for stops to have identifying lights and sirens, and officers at the scene to wear activated body cameras.
The restrictions follow repeated instances in which ICE vehicle stops escalated after drivers refused to cooperate or attempted to leave. Since last year, ICE officers have fired their weapons in more than a dozen such encounters, killing at least four people and wounding several others, the reporting found.
ICE and the Department of Homeland Security had not provided an immediate comment on the guidance.
🔴 BREAKING (2:08 p.m. ET): Pentagon excludes Britain, France, and Baltic allies from talks on NATO’s future—report
The Trump administration is leaving Britain, France, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania out of a Pentagon-led meeting in Poland this month, according new reporting from Politico, raising concerns that Washington’s selective invitation list could deepen divisions within NATO.
The gathering is being organized by Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s policy chief, as a “working group focused on Nato’s future.” The report cites six unnamed diplomats familiar with the planning.
Norway, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Germany, and the Netherlands are expected to participate. Colby has already held two similar meetings with those countries this year, using a smaller forum known as the Bergen Group.
The exclusions have left diplomats questioning Washington’s criteria. Britain and France are major European military powers, while the three Baltic countries have made substantial defense investments. Their spending and roles within the alliance have not secured them seats at the table.
A diplomat from an invited country defended the format, saying the group would develop proposals to bring before the full alliance. Colby has likewise presented the initiative as a way to strengthen NATO and expand Europe’s military capacity.
Even some invited allies are questioning the decision to leave other members out, however, with diplomats warning that dividing countries into favored and disfavored camps could further strain relations with the United States.
Neither the White House nor the Pentagon had responded to the Guardian’s requests for confirmation or comment.
One diplomat interviewed offered a blunt warning about the stakes:
“If they try splitting Nato into the good ones and the bad ones, it is dangerous for the U.S.,” the diplomat said. “But for Europe, this is existential.”
🔴 BREAKING (11:35 a.m. ET): D.C. judge permanently dismisses Reflecting Pool case against former Olympian
A Washington judge has permanently dismissed the felony case against former Olympic canoeist David Hearn, barring U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office from reviving the charge that he vandalized the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
D.C. Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman ordered the case dismissed with prejudice Thursday, addressing concerns that President Donald Trump’s pressure could lead prosecutors to pursue Hearn again—even after their own investigation undermined the case.
Edelman cited the extraordinary possibility that Hearn could face a “meritless, politically motivated prosecution” and concluded that leaving the door open to another prosecution would not adequately protect him from harassment.
Hearn’s attorneys have argued that administration officials continued to falsely accuse the Maryland resident of damaging the pool after Pirro moved to drop the case July 31. Trump publicly attacked that decision, saying Pirro “choked” and “folded like an umbrella.”
The prosecution unraveled when Interior Department records pointed to a rushed, defective installation. In their July 31 motion to dismiss, prosecutors said documents supplied after Hearn’s indictment showed that contractor Atlantic Industrial Coatings had installed the lining under pressure to finish before Washington’s America 250 celebrations surrounding Independence Day.
The government’s own account dealt a direct blow to Trump’s insistence that vandals were responsible. Pirro’s office acknowledged that the Interior Department possessed information that, had it been disclosed earlier, would have prevented prosecutors from seeking the indictment.
Prosecutors had sought dismissal without prejudice, which would have preserved their ability to bring the charge again. Edelman’s ruling closes that door.
🔵 ANALYSIS (10:59 a.m. ET): Key takeaways from Trump’s interview with TIME Magazine
Donald Trump defended his administration’s restrictions on the press, attacked a federal judge he appointed, and said increased bombing of Iran after the midterms was “possible” in a wide-ranging interview with TIME published Thursday. The conversation, recorded Sept. 28, also included personal insults aimed at CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, his dismissal of concerns about ammunition shortages, and his claim that he had only just learned of reported warnings to Israel before the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack.
Trump defends press restrictions and attacks a judge he appointed. Trump defended his treatment of the press while denying that his administration was ignoring a court order restoring access for CNN, Politico, and MS Now.
“I believe in an honest press, but I don’t believe in fake news,” he said, without identifying specific reporting errors to substantiate that accusation.
Trump called U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, who temporarily blocked the administration’s ban, “very anti-Trump.” Trump appointed Kelly during his first term, with the judge joining the federal bench in September 2017.
When the interviewer reminded Trump of his own role in that appointment, the president replied: “Yeah, he was. He was. It’s one of those things.”
Trump also rejected the suggestion that continuing to exclude the outlets from certain presidential events amounted to defying Kelly’s order.
“I don’t have to go out of my way, these people write only bad stories,” he said.
White House communications director Steven Cheung argued that the order required the administration to restore the newsrooms’ access to the White House, “but that’s different than allowing the pool into the events in the Oval Office or on Air Force One.”
That distinction—between access to the White House grounds and admission to particular presidential events—is also central to the Associated Press’ ongoing court fight. The administration barred the AP from the Oval Office, Air Force One, and other so-called “intimate spaces” last year after the news organization continued using Gulf of Mexico rather than adopting Trump’s preferred name, “Gulf of America.”
Trump leaves door open to ICE agents at polling places, invoking Insurrection Act. Donald Trump. declined to rule out federal immigration agents appearing at polling places during the upcoming midterm elections, while separately leaving open the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act ahead of Election Day. Asked directly whether he planned to dispatch ICE agents to polling sites, Trump replied: “Haven’t thought of it.” When pressed on whether he would rule out declaring an emergency ahead of the midterms absent widespread violence, Trump responded: “I don’t rule anything out or in. We’ll see.” After the interviewer raised the Insurrection Act, Trump added: “I could use it. A lot of people think I should use it sometimes.”
The remarks follow comments last month from Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who said ICE agents would not patrol polling places but could be deployed to a voting site in response to a specific threat or to serve a warrant on someone agents were already pursuing.
Whatever authority the Insurrection Act provides to deploy troops domestically, federal election law separately places strict limits on armed federal personnel at polling sites. 18 U.S.C. § 592 generally prohibits federal officials from bringing or keeping troops or armed personnel at an election site except to repel armed enemies, while separate statutes prohibit military interference with elections and voter intimidation.
Trump singles out Kaitlan Collins for personal attacks. Trump’s complaints about coverage also turned personal. He singled out CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins, adding to his attacks on female journalists during his second term.
“I can name 100 great things I’ve done. I never get good press. I never get fair press. Doesn’t have to be good. All it has to be is fair,” he said. “So at a certain point, you say, ‘what’s the purpose of like this crazy Kaitlan Collins?’ She’s a very average person. She’s the most unhappy young person I’ve ever seen.”
More bombing after the midterms is “possible,” Trump says. Trump also defended the continuing war with Iran, offering no clear timetable for its end after rejecting Tehran’s latest ceasefire proposal as “not good enough.”
Asked whether he planned to intensify bombing after the midterm elections, Trump said it was “possible.”
With the war entering its seventh month, he dismissed reports of Pentagon concerns about dwindling munitions supplies, even as he acknowledged that stocks of some ammunition were lower than others.
“I would say it was mostly fake news,” Trump said. “Some forms of ammunition are a little bit lower than other forms. We have that middle grade and upper middle grade, which is very powerful, which is stronger than it’s ever been before. There is ammunition that President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy wouldn’t take, but it’s very powerful ammunition.”
Trump says he had only just heard of warnings before the Oct. 7 attack.
The president also claimed that “today”—referring to the day of the Sept. 28 interview—was the first time he had heard reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received warnings before the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
The interviewer challenged that claim, pointing out that Trump has “access to the highest intelligence” and pressing him about reports that Egypt and the United Arab Emirates had warned Netanyahu in late September 2023 that Hamas was preparing a major operation.
Trump expressed disbelief rather than addressing the reported warnings.
“I can’t imagine this,” Trump said. “I don’t think so … I think if he would have known, he would have done something about it. Certainly, he would have had people at least alert.”
Trump says GOP candidates ‘are going to win’ if he campaigns for them. Trump expressed confidence that Republicans can hold control of Congress in November, telling TIME that his own campaigning could make the difference in competitive races. “I think we’ll do OK if I campaign, and I intend to. If I campaign … you don’t give me enough credit. When I campaign, I give people a lot,” Trump said. “If I campaign for people, those people are going to win.”
Trump made a similar appeal at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas last month, urging supporters to “pretend I’m on the ticket” as the party fights to retain its House and Senate majorities.
His confidence comes despite difficult national polling for both the president and his party. A September Reuters/Ipsos poll put Trump’s approval rating at 32%, with particularly weak ratings on the cost of living and the war with Iran, while Democrats held an 8-point advantage over Republicans on the generic congressional ballot. Polls remain snapshots of voter sentiment rather than predictions of individual races.
🔴 BREAKING (10:25 a.m. ET): Renee Good’s family files two lawsuits over her killing, naming U.S. government and Trump officials
Renee Good’s family filed two federal lawsuits Thursday over her killing in Minneapolis, seeking damages from the United States and alleging that senior Trump administration officials helped orchestrate an enforcement campaign that led to her death.
The complaints were filed in U.S. District Court in Minnesota by her partner, Becca Good, and her brother, Brent Ganger, acting as trustee for her surviving relatives. Good, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen and mother of three, was fatally shot Jan. 7 by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Jonathan Ross during Operation Metro Surge.
The lawsuit against the United States brings a wrongful-death claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act, alleging battery, assault, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and negligence. It seeks compensation for Good’s suffering before her death and the losses sustained by her family.
The second complaint names Ross, Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, Corey Lewandowski, Tom Homan, Todd Lyons, Greg Bovino, and 10 unidentified federal agents. Invoking the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, it alleges a coordinated effort to target Minnesota’s Somali and Hispanic communities and silence people who observed, documented, or protested immigration operations.
The family alleges that Good was turning her vehicle away from Ross when he fired through the windshield, then twice more through the open driver’s-side window. The complaints also allege that agents failed to provide medical aid and prevented a bystander who identified himself as a physician from helping her.
The civil rights suit places responsibility beyond the officer who fired the shots, alleging that Good’s killing grew out of an operation designed to intimidate targeted communities and their neighbors. Those allegations have not been adjudicated.
🔴 BREAKING (10:08 a.m. ET): Supreme Court takes up Trump’s policy of detaining immigrants without bond hearings
The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to review the Trump administration’s mandatory detention policy, taking up a dispute over the government’s authority to hold immigrants without an opportunity to seek release on bond while pursuing their deportation.
The case, Rhoney v. Barbosa da Cunha, concerns immigrants already living in the United States who entered without being formally admitted. The justices will decide whether federal law requires their detention throughout removal proceedings or generally allows them an individual hearing before an immigration judge to determine whether they can be released while their cases proceed.
The administration’s policy has divided the federal appeals courts as its immigration crackdown continues. Nine of the 11 numbered circuits have rejected the government’s interpretation, concluding that immigrants in these circumstances generally are entitled to bond hearings.
The 5th and 8th U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals reached the opposite conclusion, holding that immigrants who entered without authorization and remain in the country without lawful admission fall under a provision requiring detention while their deportation cases are pending.
Thursday’s order grants review; the justices have yet to decide whether the policy is lawful.
🟢 Opening Summary:
WASHINGTON (Oct. 1, 2026) — Good morning, and welcome to The Developer’s U.S. news and politics live blog.
The White House has again blocked CNN from covering President Donald Trump as part of the rotating press pool, removing the network from Thursday’s travel assignment while a court order temporarily halting the administration’s White House press ban remains in effect.
CNN had been scheduled to accompany Trump to Texas and Oklahoma, covering the president on behalf of the broader press corps. The network appeared on the rotation released Sunday but was removed from the White House’s subsequent schedule for the trip.
The exclusion follows a temporary restraining order issued by U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, requiring the administration to restore White House press credentials for CNN, Politico, and MS NOW. That order remains in effect until Oct. 8. Its scope covers access to White House grounds, however, leaving the fight over presidential travel unresolved. Officials also prevented CNN from boarding Air Force One over the weekend, when the network was assigned to provide pool coverage.
Meanwhile, Trump and Vice President JD Vance are heading to heavily Republican territory Thursday to try to revive enthusiasm among GOP voters ahead of next month’s midterm elections.
Trump’s stops in Texas and Oklahoma begin what he has described as a 32-day campaign blitz, while Vance will rally in Florida. The destinations underscore the party’s difficulties: Its two highest-ranking officials are campaigning in places where Republican candidates would ordinarily expect comfortable victories but now face more competitive races.
Republicans have grown increasingly pessimistic about their prospects in an election that will determine control of Congress. Trump has repeatedly brushed aside concerns about the cost of living and gas prices as his unpopular war in Iran drags on.
The president’s explanation for his party’s troubles is that Republicans have failed to sell a record he considers a success.
“We’re not getting the word out,” he told reporters on Wednesday. “I mean, we’re just not getting it.”
“I’ve done a very bad job of explaining how good the country is doing,”
We’ll update this live blog frequently as news comes in. Check back throughout the day, and refresh the page for the latest developments.
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Exactly, division is the goal. If only all the invited countries refuse (we shall see, doubtful they have the guts).
Thanks Donny! 💙❤️
Very hard to explain the inexplicable. Don’t believe your eyes and your finances instead believe what I say, seems not to be convincing anymore. The Snake Oil salesman in chief needs to move on and find a new believing audience. It seems he’s overstayed his welcome. True both with the American Public and the countries in the Middle East who bought protection from the US and are failing to get it.