What we're covering
• Ukraine talks: Top Trump administration officials are meeting now with a delegation from Kyiv in Florida. Key sticking points remain despite a mounting US effort to end the Russia-Ukraine war, with a team from Washington expected to visit Moscow later this week.
• Military buildup: President Donald Trump is also maintaining his pressure campaign against Venezuela, which the administration says is aimed at cutting off the flow of drugs from South America. Democratic lawmakers and some Republicans have expressed alarm about Trump’s use of the military in the region as he threatens potential land strikes in Venezuela.
• Immigration crackdown: Trump is doubling down on aggressive anti-immigration policies after last week’s shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, DC. An Afghan national is suspected of carrying out the attack.
GOP lawmaker urges Trump to be a "stronger advocate" for Ukraine as peace talks progress
Republican Rep. Don Bacon says modifications to the US-proposed plan for a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire appear to have made it more mindful of Kyiv’s interests than the original draft.
“I do think that agreement has shifted a little more back toward the middle,” Bacon said today on ABC’s “This Week.”
Bacon, who has consistently advocated for Ukraine, maintained that he is not seeing “moral clarity coming out of the White House” at the moment.
The Nebraska congressman previously told Axios that the original draft of the plan — which was widely viewed as favorable to Moscow — made him seriously consider resignation.
The comments come as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff, and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner hold talks with Ukrainian officials in the Miami area.
Zelensky says "much can change" during flurry of diplomacy on ending Ukraine war
While a delegation from Kyiv meets with Trump administration officials in Florida, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been checking in with other allies today, including NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.
The Ukrainian leader also spoke with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen today.
“We have a shared understanding of the key issues. It also matters that Ursula is paying close attention to the need to strengthen our resilience amid Russia’s constant strikes on our infrastructure and the energy sector,” Zelensky said.
Moscow launched a massive barrage of drones and missiles at Ukraine overnight Friday into Saturday, killing at least three people and leaving large parts of Kyiv without power, according to Zelensky.
Kaine predicts more senators will support limiting Trump's war powers amid tensions with Venezuela
Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine thinks more senators will join his attempts to limit President Donald Trump’s war powers in Central and South America if the president follows through on his threat of military action against Venezuela.
“I do believe the numbers will change,” Kaine said of his resolution with Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff and GOP Sen. Rand Paul to block the potential use of US Armed Forces in the South American country without congressional approval.
Kaine said he would force another vote on the legislation “immediately” should there be US military action in Venezuela.
The Virginia Democrat also led a resolution to rein in strikes on alleged drug boats in the Caribbean and Pacific. He said “the circumstances have changed” in terms of gathering support for that motion, citing a report that the US military carried out a follow-up strike on one of the vessels earlier this year after an initial attack did not kill everyone on board.
What the administration is saying: Attorney General Pam Bondi defended the Trump administration’s escalating military and intelligence campaign in the region today, saying in an interview on “Fox News Sunday” that the US won’t temper its fight against “narco-terrorists.”
Asked about a reported classified memo that outlines expanded authorities for operations inside Venezuela, Bondi declined to elaborate.
DHS secretary defends Trump’s threat to entirely halt migration from some countries
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem defended President Donald Trump’s threat to “permanently pause” migration from some countries to the US, saying the administration’s approach is rooted in concerns about national security and vetting failures.
“These Third World countries don’t have stable governments,” Noem said today on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“Third World countries,” a term used by some to refer to developing nations, has repeatedly been used by Trump as part of his anti-immigration rhetoric.
Some background: Trump said in a social media post Thursday that his administration will work to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover.”
The post came after the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, DC. The shooting suspect is an Afghan national who came to the country after working with the CIA in the Middle East.
It wasn’t immediately clear which specific countries Trump was referring to.
Asked for details, US Citizenship and Immigration Services pointed CNN to 19 countries “of concern” listed in a June presidential proclamation, including Afghanistan.
While the DC shooting suspect came to the US in 2021 under a relocation program launched by the Biden administration, he was granted asylum earlier this year under the Trump administration, law enforcement officials tell CNN.
More from Noem: The DHS secretary argued on NBC that instability in developing nations — and what she described as the inability of those countries to aid in vetting migrants — has created unacceptable risks.
Noem said the Trump administration is also reviewing asylum cases and will deport people with pending claims if it’s necessary.
CNN’s Kaanita Iyer contributed to this post.
New round of talks begins with Rubio stressing the importance of Ukraine's post-war future
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has kicked off another round of high-level talks with Ukrainian officials today aimed not only at ending the war, but “creating a pathway forward that leaves Ukraine sovereign, independent, and prosperous,” he told reporters.
The top US diplomat, speaking at the start of the meeting outside of Miami, Florida, said the two delegations would be building from progress already made.
“This is about ending a war in a way that creates a mechanism and a way forward that will allow (Ukraine) to be independent and sovereign, never have another war again, and create tremendous prosperity for its people, not just rebuild the country, but enter an era of extraordinary economic progress in the country,” Rubio said, noting the country has “tremendous economic potential.”
Top Ukrainian official Rustem Umerov told reporters there had been “great progress” and thanked the US negotiating team.
For context: The meeting is the second round of high-level talks between the Ukrainian and US delegations in as many weeks. It is the first since Andriy Yermak, a top advisor to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and lead Ukrainian negotiator, resigned.
Sen. Klobuchar says Trump is trying to "stoke division" with immigration comments
Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar rebuked President Donald Trump for a Truth Social post on Thanksgiving that accused Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of entering the United States illegally and mocked her hijab.
Trump’s post also referred to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz using a slur that demeans people with disabilities.
“These words shouldn’t even be repeated by anyone, much less a president of the United States,” Klobuchar told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”
For his part, Walz called attacks by Trump a “badge of honor” this morning in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” though he said that as a former educator, he worries about the impact of the president’s language on kids.
“We have fought three decades to get this out of our schools. Kids know better than to use it,” Walz said, referring to the slur. “But look, this is what Donald Trump has done. He’s normalized this type of hateful behavior and this type of language.”
This post has been updated to reflect Walz’s remarks.
Investigators believes DC shooting suspect was "radicalized" in the US, Noem says
The suspect accused of shooting two National Guard members near the White House was “radicalized” after arriving in the United States, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said today.
Asked about the probe into the suspected shooter on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Noem said investigators are still going through information, adding, “I will say we believe he was radicalized since he’s been here in this country.”
The suspect, who was identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is an Afghan national. Noem said investigators believe he was radicalized within his local community in Bellingham, Washington, though she did not provide any details on what that may have entailed.
When pressed on if there was a vetting process in place to approve the asylum request during the Trump administration, Noem said: “the vetting process all happened under Joe Biden’s administration.”
More on the suspect: According to officials, Lakanwal entered the US in 2021 under a relocation program launched by the Biden administration following the American military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
He was granted asylum earlier this year under the Trump administration after applying in 2024, multiple law enforcement officials have told CNN.
Democratic senator calls Trump’s execution warning over message to service members "ridiculous"
Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly called President Donald Trump’s warning that “seditious” activity is punishable by death — prompted by a video the senator participated in urging service members not to follow illegal orders — “obviously ridiculous.”
Kelly and five other Democratic lawmakers with military or intelligence backgrounds published the video reminding members of the military of their duty to disobey illegal orders, prompting the furious response from Trump and a military review by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Hegseth should be fired, Kelly told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” this morning.
Asked by Bash if he has been contacted by the FBI, which has also launched a probe, Kelly said he’s received communication that amounts more to “intimidation,” with a request to come in for an interview but no point of contact.
“I’m not backing down. These guys don’t scare me. They’re not serious people,” he said of Trump and Hegseth.
Sen. Kelly suggests second strike on suspected drug boat could be a war crime
Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly says he would not have carried out a reported follow-up strike on a suspected drug boat in the Caribbean had he been given the order.
“It seems to,” Kelly, who served in the Navy for 25 years, told CNN’s Dana Bash this morning when asked if that second strike constitutes a war crime.
CNN has reported that the US military carried out a second strike on a suspected drug vessel operating in the Caribbean on September 2 after an initial attack did not kill everyone on board.
Pressed on if he would have carried out the order to execute a second strike, Kelly responded, “No, no,” adding, “and I’m a guy who — I have sunk two ships.”
More context: Kelly and five other Democratic lawmakers published a video recently reminding service members of their duty to disobey illegal orders, prompting a furious response from President Donald Trump and an FBI investigation.
The second strike reporting also comes as Trump ramps up his rhetoric against Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Trump has made the regime in Caracas central to his case for the boat strikes and potential other military action in the Caribbean, saying it’s all part of an effort to curb the flow of migrants and drugs from South America to the US.
The key sticking points to watch as the US hosts another round of Ukraine talks
While President Donald Trump’s team has heralded “tremendous progress” toward ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian source with direct knowledge of the negotiations told CNN last week that substantial gaps remain even between the delegations from Washington and Kyiv.
There are at least three crucial areas where significant differences remain, the source said, including the sensitive issue of whether Ukraine would surrender key territories in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, annexed but not yet conquered by Russia.
Differences also remain over the controversial US proposal for Ukraine to limit the size of its military to 600,000, as outlined in the original draft of Trump’s 28-point plan.
That plan also called for Ukraine to renounce its ambition to become a member of NATO, a longtime Kremlin demand that the source told CNN remains unacceptable to the Ukrainian side.
Meanwhile, in Moscow: Those three issues — the surrender of annexed territory, the demilitarization of Ukraine and its permanent exclusion from NATO — are Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most-cited reasons for waging the war in the first place.
Putin has shown little signal he’s ready to offer concessions on those fronts, saying the war will only end “once Ukrainian troops withdraw from the territories they occupy.”
That leaves glaring sticking points when a US team is expected to visit Moscow for talks with Putin later this week, regardless of what happens during today’s meetings between the US and Ukraine in Florida.
Catch up on other developments from the Trump administration
President Donald Trump will return to the White House later today after spending Thanksgiving at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
His arrival at the White House, along with first lady Melania Trump, is expected around 5:50 p.m. ET.
There have been no shortage of developments on the politics front, however. Here’s what else we’ve been reporting over the weekend:
- President Donald Trump has been accused of interfering in Honduras’ presidential election by the ruling leftist Liberty and Refoundation Party (LIBRE) party’s candidate, Rixi Moncada. The US president made two statements on social media urging Hondurans to vote for Nasry Asfura, the right-wing National Party’s candidate for president.
- Northwestern University will pay $75 million as part of a settlement with the Trump administration to restore previously frozen federal funding and end a monthslong investigation over government allegations of “unlawful discrimination,” including “race-based admissions” and a “hostile” environment for Jewish students, the Department of Justice announced Friday.
- The president continued his effort to delegitimize actions taken during Joe Biden’s presidency, claiming in a social media post that he is “cancelling all executive orders, and anything else that was not directly signed” by his predecessor.
- SNAP recipients are now receiving their November benefits after disruption caused by the government shutdown. But some may lose their food assistance completely as states began implementing an expansion of the program’s work requirements mandated in the Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill,” signed into law by Trump this summer.
- Iran has decided to boycott the 2026 World Cup draw in Washington, DC, next week because the US denied visas to members of its delegation, the state-run IRNA news agency reported on Friday.
A delegation from Kyiv is in the US for peace talks. Here’s what you should know
Top officials in President Donald Trump’s administration will meet with a Ukrainian delegation in the Miami area today, a White House official told CNN.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff, and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will participate in the talks, the official said.
The Ukrainian side will be led by Rustem Umerov, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, who Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed following the resignation of his top aide on Friday.
How we got here: Today’s meetings mark the latest step in a flurry of diplomacy that kicked off this month after a plan put forward by Trump triggered alarm in Kyiv, as the original draft heavily favored Russia.
Ukraine is hoping to build on developments from subsequent meetings in Geneva, where Kyiv and its European allies put forward a counter-proposal. Zelensky and the Ukrainian delegation involved in the talks voiced a more upbeat assessment following the Geneva meetings, and Rubio indicated the draft was a “living, breathing document” that was evolving based on their input.
Keep in mind: There’s no indication yet of Russia’s openness to the terms being discussed by the allies.
A US team is expected to visit Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin this week.
Meanwhile: The talks come after Ukraine said its underwater drones struck two tankers belonging to Russia’s so-called shadow fleet in the Black Sea on Friday and Saturday. Both tankers sustained critical damage, said a Ukrainian security source, adding that “this will deal a significant blow to the transportation of Russian oil.”
Russia launched its largest barrage of drones and missiles in a month across Ukraine, killing at least three people overnight Friday into Saturday, according to Zelensky.
Large parts of the Ukrainian capital were without power yesterday.
Trump is maintaining pressure on Venezuela this weekend
Another key storyline we’re monitoring for today’s coverage involves the Trump administration’s military buildup in the Caribbean.
President Donald Trump is keeping up a pressure campaign on Venezuela, days after implying US land strikes on the country could be imminent. He issued a broad directive on social media yesterday, warning airlines, pilots and criminal networks to avoid Venezuelan airspace.
The big picture: This is the latest turn of the wheel in the administration’s efforts to force Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro out of office. Officially, Trump says he is working to cut down on illegal flows of migrants and drugs — but regime change is a possible side effect of those efforts.
Venezuela’s foreign minister denounced Trump’s airspace message, calling it a “colonialist threat” constituting an “extravagant, illegal, and unjustified aggression against the people of Venezuela.”
Trump previously said he’s signed off on plans for the CIA to operate inside the South American nation. And the US president designated Maduro and his government allies as members of a foreign terrorist organization, a move administration officials argue will give the US expanded military options.
Some key context on Trump’s latest comment: The US can’t close another country’s airspace.
The Federal Aviation Administration did issue a warning last week to major airlines of a “potentially hazardous situation” when flying over Venezuela and urged them to exercise caution. Direct flights by US passenger or cargo carriers to Venezuela have been suspended since 2019, but some US airlines fly over the country for South American flights.
Trump is escalating his anti-immigration crackdown after National Guard shooting
In the wake of the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, DC, last week, President Donald Trump has argued he has a mandate to toughen immigration enforcement even further.
The suspect in the attack is an Afghan national who came to the US in 2021 after working with the CIA in the Middle East.
Before the shooting: Trump made vows to deport tens of millions of people central to his reelection platform.
Since taking office, he’s overseen removal flights, Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in major US cities, and an executive order suspending the refugee program, though some in the administration have been frustrated over lagging immigration arrests.
In the hours following the shooting: An emboldened Trump painted a picture of a country with millions of “unvetted” migrants. Trump vowed a crackdown to expel them and “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries.”
In a few days since, we’ve seen the following:
• All asylum decisions halted: The director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced a halt on asylum application decisions, saying it’s to ensure that migrants are vetted and screened “to the maximum degree possible.”
• Visas paused: The State Department says it has paused the issuance of visas for travelers with Afghan passports.
• Green cards under review: The US immigration service also announced that it will reexamine all green cards issued to people from 19 countries “of concern,” including Afghanistan.
Keep in mind: While Trump makes the case for more stringent checks and limitations on people entering the US, sources tell CNN that the suspect in the National Guard shooting cleared numerous rounds of vetting, including earlier this year when he was approved for permanent asylum in the US by the Trump administration.
