What we covered here
• Middle East meeting: President Donald Trump held a meeting at the White House on plans for post-war Gaza today. His son-in-law Jared Kushner and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair participated, sources said.
• CDC director ousted: Dr. Susan Monarez, who was sworn in on July 31, is being ousted, sources say, with several other top agency officials announcing their resignations on Wednesday.
• Tariffs on India doubled: Trump hit India with a 50% tariff on imports, weeks after instituting a 25% baseline tariff. He previously said this latest round seeks to punish India for importing Russian oil during Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
• DC takeover: The Department of Transportation is planning to “reclaim” management over Washington’s Union Station. It comes as Trump has escalated the deployment of troops in the nation’s capital.
Trump has become obsessed with eliminating mail-in voting. His 2024 victory was built on it.
President Donald Trump’s obsession with eliminating mail-in voting continued Tuesday, but he left out a notable point: His 2024 victory was built, in part, by voters who cast mail-in ballots for him.
Nearly one in three Americans cast their ballots by mail last fall, according to the US Election Assistance Commission, in red states and blue states alike.
The president has repeatedly called for the elimination of mail-in voting, despite the fact that elections are administered by state and local officials, not the federal government.
On Tuesday, he cited mail-in voting in Colorado as a reason he was moving US Space Command to Alabama, where mail-in voting is not widely available.
“The problem I have with Colorado, one of the big problems, is they do mail-in voting,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “So they have automatically crooked elections.”
Not mentioned: The fact that reliably red Utah, for example, is among the states where most voters have cast their ballots by mail since 2019. Last year, he carried the state by more than 20 points.
Our live coverage of Trump’s presidency has ended for the day. Follow the latest updates or read through the posts below.
Trump doesn't want National Guard on city streets "indefinitely," Vance says
President Donald Trump does not want the National Guard to remain on city streets “indefinitely” Vice President JD Vance told USA Today in an interview Wednesday.
“We don’t want, indefinitely, to put National Guardsmen on the streets of our cities. We just want to make those streets more safe,” Vance said.
The comments come as the administration in recent days has escalated its crackdown on crime in DC and threatened action in other major US cities with executive orders and other moves.
US National Guard members deployed to Washington, DC, started carrying their sidearms on Sunday, a spokesperson for the Joint Task Force carrying out the mission told CNN. On Monday, Trump signed an executive order tasking his secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, with establishing “specialized units” in the National Guard that will be “specifically trained and equipped to deal with public order issues” — a signal he intends to expand the military’s role in domestic law enforcement activities. And the Trump administration has been planning for weeks to send the National Guard to Chicago, two officials told CNN.
CDC Director Dr. Susan Monarez is being ousted just weeks into her tenure
Dr. Susan Monarez, who was sworn in as director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on July 31, is being ousted, according to three sources familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition that they not be named because they were not authorized to share the information.
Her departure was quickly followed by the resignation of of several high-level veteran agency officials, leaving the CDC leaderless at a perilous time.
Morale, which was already low after deep staff cuts this spring, plummeted after a gunman opened fire on the agency’s main campus in Atlanta on August 8, pocking the buildings with hundreds of bullet holes and killing DeKalb County police officer David Rose. Shortly afterward, a further 600 employees got official termination notices.
The US Department of Health and Human Services said in a post on X on Wednesday, “Susan Monarez is no longer director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We thank her for her dedicated service to the American people. [HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] has full confidence in his team at @CDCgov who will continue to be vigilant in protecting Americans against infectious diseases at home and abroad.”
Monarez’s attorneys, Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell, said in a statement that “Dr. Monarez has neither resigned nor received notification from the White House that she has been fired, and as a person of integrity and devoted to science, she will not resign.”
The ouster was first reported by the Washington Post.
This report has been updated with additional developments.
Jared Kushner and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair join Oval Office meeting on Gaza
President Donald Trump discussed Gaza and a post-war plan for the strip for more than an hour today in the Oval Office with son-in-law Jared Kushner, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and top administration aides, a person familiar with the discussion said.
The exact contours of the plan weren’t immediately clear.
Steve Witkoff, the president’s foreign envoy who first revealed the meeting on Tuesday evening, also participated.
Rubio reaffirmed US' "unwavering commitment to Israel’s security" in meeting with Israeli FM
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio reaffirmed to Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar “the United States’ unwavering commitment to Israel’s security,” according to a State Department readout of their meeting Wednesday.
“The Secretary discussed key issues in Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria. Additionally, the Secretary discussed the importance of countering Iran’s malign influence,” the readout said. “Secretary and Foreign Minister Sa’ar agreed that continued close cooperation between their countries is vital to the security and prosperity of the region.”
The two officials met for under an hour today as Israeli military operations in Gaza continue and diplomatic negotiations to end the war remain stalled.
Sa’ar said it was a “very good meeting” but did not provide further details as he left the State Department on Wednesday afternoon.
Asked about a plan for a Palestinian state, Sa’ar remarked, “There won’t be any.”
UN Security Council members, except for US, call for Gaza ceasefire
Every member state of the United Nations Security Council, except for the United States, called for a ceasefire in Gaza and expressed their alarm at the “man-made” famine in the enclave at a joint press conference Wednesday.
Persaud was joined at the podium by representatives from Slovenia, Algeria, China, Denmark, France, Greece, Pakistan, Panama, South Korea, Russia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, and the United Kingdom.
“This is a man-made crisis,” Persaud continued. “The use of starvation as a weapon of war is clearly prohibited under international humanitarian law.”
Ondina Drobic, deputy permanent representative from Slovenia, added that the group calls for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all remaining hostages, for Israel to open Gaza to humanitarian aid, and for Israel to pull back its plans to invade and occupy Gaza City.
“The humanitarian emergency must be addressed without delay and Israel must reverse course,” Drobic said. “We have seen what is possible to achieve during a ceasefire.”
White House explains its reasoning for reclaiming control over DC's Union Station
The Department of Transportation is planning to reclaim management over Washington, DC’s, Union Station to “restore it as a transportation hub that benefits our nation’s capital,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told CNN.
“President Trump pledged to Make D.C. Safe & Beautiful Again, and under Secretary Duffy’s leadership, the Department of Transportation is taking historic action to reinvest in Union Station and restore it as a transportation hub that befits our nation’s capital,” he added.
It’s the latest move by a Trump administration that has taken increasing action to assume more control over DC, including taking over the DC Metropolitan Police Department and deploying the National Guard.
The DOT has owned Union Station since the early 1980s, but its control has been gradually reduced under various agreements and leases.
Rubio speaks with European counterparts ahead of looming Iran snapback sanctions decision
Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke Wednesday with his German, French, and British counterparts ahead of the looming decision by the European countries on whether to trigger snapback sanctions on Iran.
On the call, “all reiterated their commitment to ensuring that Iran never develops or obtains a nuclear weapon,” according to a brief State Department readout.
Germany, France, and the United Kingdom – the E3 countries – told the United Nations that they are ready to reimpose sanctions that were lifted under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal unless Tehran returns to negotiations and allows international inspections of its facilities. If triggered, the process would take 30 days to take effect.
Officials from the E3 met with Iran in Geneva on Tuesday. A source said the meeting did not yield significant progress.
Inspectors from the UN’s nuclear watchdog are back on the ground in Iran, but Iran’s foreign minister denied that an agreement was reached on “new cooperation” between Iran and the IAEA.
Trump has been briefed on Minneapolis school shooting
President Donald Trump said this morning that he has been briefed on the shooting at a Catholic school in south Minneapolis, adding that he will continue to monitor the “terrible situation.”
Trump spoke by phone with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz this morning, a White House official said.
Vice President JD Vance said he is also at the White House monitoring the shooting, saying in a post on X, “We’re at the WH monitoring the situation in Minneapolis. Join all of us in praying for the victims!”
Follow live updates on the shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis here.
New polls reveal broad partisan split over Trump's approach to crime
Two new polls find a broad partisan divide over whether the federal government should be involved in fighting crime in America’s cities, even as a large share say they see crime in urban areas as a major problem.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll finds just 36% of Americans support “federal officials bringing the Washington, DC local police under federal control citing a public safety emergency,” while 38% support “deploying National Guard troops from other states to Washington, DC for law enforcement efforts.”
But an AP-NORC poll finds most (55%) view it as acceptable for the government to “use the US military and National Guard to assist local police.” Fewer (32%) feel that way about the federal government taking “control of local police departments.”
In both polls, GOP support for federal involvement in local policing far outweighs support among independents or Democrats.
A broad majority of Americans (81%) say crime is a major problem in large cities according to the AP-NORC poll, with 66% seeing it as a major problem for the US overall.
Trump “absolutely has authority” to fire Fed's Lisa Cook, Hassett says
Director of the White House National Economic Council Kevin Hassett told reporters today that President Donald Trump “absolutely has authority” to dismiss Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook because of allegations of mortgage fraud.
He added that Cook is a “partisan,” claiming she shows an allegiance to the Democratic party.
“I think that, you know, if it were me, and I had made mistakes on the mortgage forms, I would either deny it because it was not true, or I would go on leave until people resolved it,” Hassett said, adding that “the fact that she’s not doing that now suggests that she is being partisan.”
Earlier, when asked if Trump’s firing of Cook — a Fed policymaker appointed by former President Joe Biden in 2022 — poses any risk to the political independence of the Fed, Hassett told CNN’s John Berman that he disagreed.
CNN”s Bryan Mena contributed to this post.
Judge rules Kilmar Abrego Garcia can’t be deported until early October
A federal judge is planning to have Trump administration officials testify in early October about the government’s efforts to re-deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia and is prohibiting his removal from the US for several more weeks.
US District Judge Paula Xinis on Wednesday set an evidentiary hearing for October 6.
Trump accuses George Soros of backing "violent protests" without evidence
President Donald Trump accused George Soros and his son of supporting “violent protests” and called for racketeering to be brought against them without providing any evidence for his claims.
Officials with Soros’ Open Society Foundations network denied that it pays people to protest, saying in a statement that some of the groups it supports undertake “peaceful civic engagement, which is critical to the strength of our democracy.” But the Soros network does “not pay people to protest or directly train or coordinate protesters,” it added.
In a subsequent statement, the group said, “Allegations to the contrary are false, and the threats against our founder and chair are outrageous.”
Part of Trump’s justification for the extraordinary mobilization of the National Guard and Marines in Los Angeles in June was his often baseless claim that demonstrators were paid. Trump allies have run with such claims and linked the supposedly paid protesters to left-wing groups and figures like Soros.
Trump’s latest threat against his perceived political enemies comes after he threatened to investigate former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie over a decade-old political scandal, earlier this week.
This post has been updated to include Soros’ Open Society Foundations response to Trump’s accusations.
Bessent repeats call to "review" the Fed after Trump's firing of Lisa Cook
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday reiterated his call to review the Federal Reserve as an institution just days after President Donald Trump fired Governor Lisa Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud.
“I’ve encouraged Chair Powell to do this on an internal basis before there is an external review,” Bessent told Fox Business on Wednesday. “This is the kind of thing that needs to be addressed,” he said, referring to Cook’s situation.
In a letter posted on social media Monday, Trump said he has determined there is enough cause to fire Cook, who was appointed to the Fed’s Board of Governors in 2022 by former President Joe Biden. Trump said “I do not have such confidence in your integrity.” The Justice Department has said it plans to investigate the allegations of mortgage fraud, first raised by Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, but so far, Cook has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
“We haven’t heard her say ‘I didn’t do it,’ — she just keeps saying, the president can’t remove her,” Bessent said. “The Fed is an unaccountable institution, and its relationship with the American people depends on a high level of trust, and incidents like this puncture that trust.”
By law, the Fed is accountable to Congress, and the Fed chair updates congressional lawmakers twice a year through a hearing on the central bank’s actions and economic outlook.
Bessent has previously called for a review of the Fed. It’s unclear what that would entail specifically — whether it would include an audit or a review of the central bank’s policy decisions.
Trump's top economic adviser defends administration's stake in Intel and India tariffs
A key adviser of President Donald Trump doubled down on the administration’s decision to invest in Intel and slap tariffs on India.
In an interview with CNN’s John Berman, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said that the federal government’s $8.9 billion investment in Intel common stock, announced earlier this week, means American taxpayers are “going to have a stake (in) their future success.”
Trump’s India tariffs: When asked about the massive new tariffs on India — which went into effect Wednesday, doubling levies to 50% — Hassett said trade talks with the country’s leaders “haven’t been particularly productive.”
“It’s still a work in progress to see where it’s gonna end up, but it’s part of a program to put pressure on Russia to get a peace deal,” he said. Trump has said the tariff hikes on India seek to punish the country for importing Russian oil and indirectly financing Russia’s war with Ukraine.
Experts say US economic stability is "on the line": Listen to the latest episode of CNN One Thing
President Donald Trump’s attempt to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook has worried some top economists.
Hear Justin Wolfers, University of Michigan Professor of Public Policy and Economics, explain how recent events in Turkey can show just how bad things can get for everyday citizens when politics mix with monetary policy.
Department of Transportation plans to take over DC's Union Station
The Department of Transportation is planning to reclaim the management over Washington, DC’s Union Station, a move coming after President Donald Trump has escalated the deployment of troops in the nation’s capital.
The department is renegotiating a cooperative agreement with the Union Station Redevelopment Corporation — the nonprofit organization that oversees the station — and Amtrak, and it expects “a formal action” confirming the DOT’s renewed control by September.
The DOT has owned Union Station since the early 1980s but its control has reduced under various agreements and leases. The Union Station Redevelopment Corporation has controlled the parking structure but received little revenue, according to the DOT.
Morning brief: Here's what you missed yesterday
Good morning! If you missed yesterday’s top headlines, here’s a quick recap to start your day.
- Soldiers in Washington, DC, yesterday “completed beautification projects” across areas in the nation’s capital, according to the Joint Task Force in DC.
- Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook’s attorney will file a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s firing of her.
- The Justice Department is asking to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Proud Boys over January 6. Read about it here.
- The Trump administration is resuming the years-old practice of so-called “neighborhood checks” for people applying for United States citizenship, according to a newly released government memo.
- A federal judge threw out an aggressive, unusual lawsuit the Trump administration brought earlier this year against all 15 federal judges in Maryland. The administration appealed the dismissal yesterday.
- Trump has called for Harvard University to pay a $500 million settlement to restore its federal funding.
- The president congratulated Cracker Barrel on scrapping its new minimalist logo.
- FEMA placed several employees on administrative leave effective immediately, a day after they signed an open letter warning Congress that Trump’s overhaul of the agency could lead to catastrophic failures in disaster response.
Trump hits India with punishing 50% tariff
President Donald Trump made good on his threat to double tariffs on imports from India to 50%, a move that could endanger relations with one of America’s most important trading partners and send consumer prices higher.
This comes just weeks after Trump instituted a new 25% baseline tariff on Indian goods. Levies on India, the world’s fifth-largest economy, are now among the highest the United States charges across all countries.
The latest round of tariffs on India seeks to punish the country for importing Russian oil and helping Russia finance its war with Ukraine, Trump has previously said.
The US leader recently held separate meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to help broker a deal to end their years-long war. However, the talks remain at an impasse.
American firms — and, more recently, consumers — are already seeing higher costs resulting from Trump’s tariff campaign while the health of the labor market has deteriorated. The ramped-up levies on Indian goods could worsen both effects.
New Delhi signaled it would retaliate against Trump’s tariffs earlier this month, when Trump initially vowed to impose what he referred to as “secondary sanctions.”
