More than 450 arrests since surge of federal law enforcement in DC, White House says
There have been over 450 arrests by federal law enforcement in the nation’s capital since 7 August, according to a White House official.
The official says that throughout this period, 68 firearms have been seized, and three known gang members have been arrested – including a MS-13 gang member.
They add that 48 homeless encampments have been cleared, since earlier this month.
On Monday 18 August, the official confirmed to the Guardian that federal officers made 52 arrests.
Key events
Joseph Gedeon
The US House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, is making the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, and her aggressive immigration enforcement tactics squarely in Democrats’ crosshairs for congressional investigation if they flip the House in the midterms.
Speaking on the Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller recently, Jeffries said Noem would be “one of the first people hauled up to Congress shortly after the gavels change hands” to answer for what he called the Department of Homeland Security’s troubling conduct.
“The lack of respect for due process, for the rule of law, the unleashing of masked agents on law-abiding immigrant communities, and the disappearing of people in some instances, to other countries without any real evidence that criminal behavior took place,” the New York representative said, outlining his concerns about Noem’s leadership.
Since taking office, Noem has aided Trump’s mass deportation efforts by unleashing workplace raids and facilitated fast-tracked removals. In her first 200 days as secretary, she announced that approximately 1.6 million undocumented immigrants had left the US, according to DHS data released last week.
In news from the campaign trail today, we have a Democratic challenger to Susan Collins, the long-serving Republican senator from Maine who is up for re-election in 2026.
A reminder that Collins is a noted moderate, and chair of the Senate appropriations committee, who frequently breaks with the party’s base on a number of key issues: voting against repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the recent $9bn rescissions package pushed by the president, and the confirmation of conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett to the supreme court.
Now, Collins is facing a challenge from Democrat Graham Platner – an oyster farmer, a marine veteran, and political unknown. In an advert launching his campaign today, Platner says he has watched as Maine has become “virtually unlivable” for working-class people. He adds that the “enemy is the oligarchy” and “the politicians who sell us out”. Platner calls out Collins’s perceived moderate stance as a “charade” in his launch video. “The difference between Susan Collins and Ted Cruz is that at least Ted Cruz is honest about selling us out and not giving a damn,” Platner says, addressing the camera from a pushboat.
Platner’s bid is considered a long shot in many ways. He’s never held or run for office, compared to Collins’s almost 30 years in the US Senate. And Platner might be at even more of a disadvantage if Maine’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills, throws her hat in the ring.
However, Platner is staffing up quickly and conscientiously. He’s hired progressive strategists who have experience “successfully running against establishment-favored Democrats”, according to Politico. This includes Morris Katz, an adviser for Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor and media darling.
As we reported yesterday, when the Texas house achieved quorum, Republican speaker Dustin Burrows announced that any Democrats who had left the state in protest – and for whom civil arrest warrants were issued – will only be given permission to leave the legislature if they agree to have a state trooper assigned to them to make sure they return.
However, representative Nicole Collier, of Fort Worth, refused and remained on the house floor Monday night, as my colleague Matthew Pearce reported earlier.
A short while ago, Collier posted a picture to X, showing her makeshift bedroom while she was locked inside the capitol on Monday night.
Representative Gene Wu, the Texas house minority leader also appeared to be supporting Collier throughout the night. Wu posted a picture of ramen, popcorn and dried fruit to X: “Thank you for all who are watching the @TexasHDC livestream. @NicoleCollier95 & I have snacks,” he wrote.
My colleagues, Jakub Krupa and Matthew Pearce, are tracking the latest developments following the president’s busy day of foreign diplomacy at the White House. A reminder that Trump met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy yesterday, along with a cadre of European leaders.
We’re watching out for more details about a possible meeting between Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin, and more negotiations between the US and European allies about security guarantees for Ukraine.
Just a short while ago, Donald Trump wrapped up a phone interview with Fox News, where he repeated his warning that Putin would face a “rough situation” if he did not cooperate in the peace process.
“I hope President Putin is going to be good and if he’s not, that’s going to be a rough situation.
“And I hope that Zelenskyy, President Zelenskyy, will do what he has to do. He has to show some flexibility.”
Trump also said that while Europeans were “willing to put people on the ground,” the US focus was on air operations.
We’re willing to help them with things, especially probably if you could talk about by air, because there’s nobody has the kind of stuff we have.”
Follow along for more.
Trump administration speechwriter linked to hate speech online – report
Adam Gabbatt
A speechwriter for the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has come under scrutiny after he was linked to hate speech online.
Eric Lendrum compared the circumstances of American conservatives to that of enslaved people and Jewish people in Nazi Germany, and in his podcast claimed that the racist great replacement conspiracy theory was “real”, the news outlet Notus reported.
Notus reported that Lendrum began working at the DHS, which is headed by Kristi Noem, in March this year, after previously working at the Department of the Interior during the first Trump administration. The DHS has been at the forefront of Donald Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigration during his second presidency.
In the gap between his government roles, Lendrum was a frequent online presence, hosting a podcast, posting on X and Telegram, and writing a blog on the website American Greatness. In one post from December 2021, Lendrum defended people who participated in the January 6 insurrection, claiming they faced “persecution for their patriotism”.
“It has been said that the most surefire way to create an authoritarian regime is to completely dehumanize a significant portion of the population, so that their subsequent enslavement by the state will not face any larger resistance,” Lendrum wrote. “It was true during slavery, it was true during the Holocaust, and it is true now.
More than 450 arrests since surge of federal law enforcement in DC, White House says
There have been over 450 arrests by federal law enforcement in the nation’s capital since 7 August, according to a White House official.
The official says that throughout this period, 68 firearms have been seized, and three known gang members have been arrested – including a MS-13 gang member.
They add that 48 homeless encampments have been cleared, since earlier this month.
On Monday 18 August, the official confirmed to the Guardian that federal officers made 52 arrests.
Trump approval rating at lowest level of second term – poll
According to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, Donald Trump’s approval rating sits at 40% – the lowest level of his second term so far. It’s a seven percentage point drop since his inauguration in January.
The survey – which was conducted over six days in the middle of August – showed that only 42% of respondents approved of the president’s performance on crime, while 43% said he was doing a good job on immigration policy.
Two more GOP-led states send national guard troops to DC
The Republican governors of Louisiana and Tennessee will send hundreds of their national guard troops to assist federal law enforcement in DC – to help assist the president’s “crime crackdown”.
They join Mississippi, Ohio, West Virginia and South Carolina – who have all sent national guard troops to DC.
In a statement, Louisiana governor Jeff Landry announced that he would send 135 troops to assist the president’s “mission of restoring safety and peace in our nation’s capital”. He added that “our capital is a reflection of our nation’s respect, beauty, and standards. We cannot allow our cities to be overcome by violence and lawlessness.”
It’s important to note that New Orleans, Louisiana’s largest city, actually had the second-highest rate of homicide throughout the entire country in 2023 and 2024, according a recent report from Rochester Institute of Technology – which uses FBI and local agency data.
Meanwhile, according to the Associated Press, a spokesperson for Tennessee governor Bill Lee said that the governor had granted a request from the Trump administration for the state’s national guard members “to assist with monument security, community safety patrols, protecting federal facilities, and traffic control”.
This means that six Republican states have now sent national guard troops to the capital. The Trump administration has underscored that soldiers will not be making arrests, but assisting law enforcement and protecting federal buildings.
Today will be an arguably quieter day for the president – his only agenda item today is a bill signing at 1pm ET. This won’t be open to the press, but we’ll let you know if that changes.
Otherwise, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will hold a press briefing, also at 1pm ET today.
A federal judge in Miami issued a split decision in a lawsuit over the legal rights of detainees at the “Alligator Alcatraz” immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades, dismissing part of the suit and also moving the case to a different jurisdiction.
US District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz issued the decision late Monday, writing in a 47-page ruling that claims the detainees at the facility don’t have confidential access to their lawyers or to hearings in immigration court were rendered moot when the Trump administration recently designated the Krome North processing center near Miami as a site for their cases to be heard.
Joseph Gedeon
India Walton has a warning message for progressive Democrats during Donald Trump’s second presidency: don’t water down your politics to win over the establishment.
The Democratic socialist who stunned the Democratic establishment by defeating a four-term incumbent mayor in the Buffalo, New York, primary in 2021 believes moderating her leftwing message cost her the general election. It’s a lesson that carries new weight now that Zohran Mamdani secured his own victory in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary earlier in the summer and inspired thousands of other progressive candidates to also run for office.
After disrupting the political base in the US by beating incumbent mayor Byron Brown in Buffalo’s Democratic primary, she says she pivoted toward the center – and lost.
Read the full story here:
Victorinox, maker of Swiss army knives, is considering moving part of its production to the US to lessen the impact of import tariffs on its business, the company’s CEO told the Wirtschaftswoche business magazine.
“We are looking into carrying out directly on site individual processing steps at the end of the value chain, such as the final cleaning and packaging of commercial knives,” Carl Elsener said in an interview.
“That would reduce the value of the goods on which we have to pay customs duty by 10% to 15%,” he added.
Switzerland has been particularly hard hit by Washington’s trade policy under president Donald Trump, who earlier this month ratcheted up U.S. tariffs on Swiss imports to 39%.
The US is an important market for Swiss machinery, watches and chocolate.
Victorinox, which makes commercial knives as well as its well known pocket knives, generates 13% of its revenue in the country.
Lauren Almeida
SoftBank has agreed to invest $2bn (£1.5bn) in Intel, amid reports that Donald Trump’s administration is also considering a stake in the struggling US chip maker.
The Japanese technology investor announced the multibillion-dollar deal on Tuesday, in a move expected to give it a 2% stake in the business.
Shares in the chip maker, which is listed in New York, rose by more than 5% in after-hours trading, while shares in the Tokyo-listed SoftBank dropped by about 4%. Intel is valued at more than $100bn.
The US government is reportedly also considering taking a stake in Intel. It could be as high as 10%, according to Bloomberg.
Read the full story here:
Department of Justice to begin handing over Epstein files to Capitol Hill
The Department of Justice (DoJ) has agreed to provide to Congress documents from the Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking investigation, a key House lawmaker said Monday, announcing a move that appears to avert, at least temporarily, a potential separation of powers clash, AP reports.
The records are to be turned over starting Friday to the House oversight committee, which earlier this month issued a broad subpoena to the justice department about a criminal case that has long captivated public attention, recently roiled the top rungs of Donald Trump’s administration and been a consistent magnet for conspiracy theories.
“There are many records in DoJ’s custody, and it will take the department time to produce all the records and ensure the identification of victims and any child sexual abuse material are redacted,” the Kentucky representative James Comer, the Republican committee chair, said in a statement. “I appreciate the Trump administration’s commitment to transparency and efforts to provide the American people with information about this matter.”
A Florida man who fatally stabbed a friend during an argument in 2022 over Donald Trump’s businesses having gone bankrupt, is facing possibly spending the rest of his life in prison after being convicted of murder.
Donald Jamesbrown Henry, 38, awaits a sentencing hearing tentatively scheduled for October after jurors found him guilty Friday of second-degree murder in the killing of Shawn Popp, whose death came to be regarded by some as an example of the havoc that politics can wreak on interpersonal relationships in the US.
Henry’s conviction, under Florida law, requires him to serve at least 16 years and nine months in prison without the possibility of parole. The state’s maximum punishment for second-degree murder is life imprisonment.
Read the full story here:
Hurricane Erin is forcing evacuations on North Carolina’s Outer Banks as it threatens to whip up wild waves and tropical force winds. Forecasters say the monster storm will turn away from the eastern U.S. and won’t make landfall, but they predict it will churn up dangerous rip currents along North Carolina’s barrier islands and could swamp roads with waves of up to 15 feet.
Coastal flooding is expected to begin today and continue through Thursday on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Erin was a Category 3 hurricane with 115 mph winds early Tuesday.
Texas Democrats shadowed by law enforcement officers to stop them repeating protests
Good morning and welcome to the US politics live blog. My name is Matthew Pearce and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news over the next few hours.
We begin with news that Texas Democrats who ended a walkout found themselves shadowed by law enforcement officers to keep them from repeating the protest that stalled Republican efforts to redraw congressional districts and fulfil President Donald Trump’s desire to reshape U.S. House maps.
Republicans in the Texas House forced returning Democrats to sign what the Democrats called “permission slips,” agreeing to around-the-clock surveillance by state department of Public Safety officers to leave the floor. However, Democratic Rep. Nicole Collier, of Fort Worth, refused and remained on the House floor Monday night.
The Democrats’ return to Texas puts the Republican-run Legislature in position to satisfy Trump’s demands, possibly later this week, as California Democrats advance new congressional boundaries in retaliation.
Lawmakers had officers posted outside their Capitol offices, and suburban Dallas Rep. Mihaela Plesa said one tailed her on her Monday evening drive back to her apartment in Austin after spending much of the day on a couch in her office. She said he went with her for a staff lunch and even down the hallway with her for restroom breaks.
“We were kind of laughing about it, to be honest, but this is really serious stuff,” Plesa said in a telephone interview with Associated Press. “This is a waste of taxpayer dollars and really performative theatre.”
Collier, who represents a minority-majority district, said she would not “sign away my dignity” and allow Republicans to “control my movements and monitor me”.
“I know these maps will harm my constituents,” she said in a statement. “I won’t just go along quietly with their intimidation or their discrimination.”
The tit-for-tat puts the nation’s two most populous states at the center of an expanding fight over control of Congress ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The battle has rallied Democrats nationally after infighting and frustrations among the party’s voters since Republicans took total control of the federal government in January.
In other developments:
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Donald Trump has ruled out a ceasefire in Ukraine as Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his European allies visited the White House to push for US-backed security guarantees as part of any long-term peace deal. The US president, who only last week warned Russia of “very severe consequences” if Vladimir Putin failed to agree to a halt to the fighting, made clear on Monday he had reversed his position. More here.
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Missouri attorney general Andrew Bailey announced Monday that he will step down to become co-deputy director of the FBI. Bailey will share the role with deputy director Dan Bongino, as the FBI continues to draw headlines over the ongoing case tied to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Bailey said his last day in office will be 8 September. Missouri governor Mike Kehoe will announce his appointment for Bailey’s replacement on Tuesday.
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Donald Trump on Monday announced that lawyers are drafting an executive order to eliminate mail-in voting, days after Vladimir Putin told him US elections were rigged because of postal ballots. In a White House meeting alongside Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump said: “We’re going to start with an executive order that’s being written right now by the best lawyers in the country to end mail in ballots because they’re corrupt.” More here.
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The number of people eating at restaurants in Washington DC has plummeted since Donald Trump deployed federal troops to the city, according to data, as the president’s purported crackdown on crime continues. More here.
