What Happened Today – October 18, 2026

Aerial view of the East Potomac Park golf course in Washington, with sand bunkers, a cart path and blooming cherry trees along the Potomac River waterfront

President Donald Trump’s rendering for East Potomac Park’s public golf course appeared to erase Ohio Drive and a century-old cherry grove, after crews cut down more than 400 trees there. (National Park Service photo)

Emiliano Andrade-Covarrubias had his medicine with him when he was detained, but his daughter says the staff at his ICE jail wouldn’t give it to him. The Dallas painter was jailed in June. Guards found him dead in his Laredo cell Saturday morning. His family learned of his death from the county medical examiner, because … Read more

What Happened Today – October 17, 2026

No Kings protesters at the Lincoln Memorial hold four large black signs spelling VOTE, with a crowd, handmade placards and an inflatable figure behind them.

No Kings protesters spelled out VOTE at the Lincoln Memorial Saturday as the movement turned its day of action toward early voting, 17 days before Election Day. (Victoria Pickering, Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Donald Trump told a Kentucky crowd Saturday that “if the Republicans win,” the Department of War will put $100 million into a Winchester drug plant. The Pentagon didn’t answer questions about the pledge, and the governor’s office said it had no information. In the same speech Trump again promised $5,000 checks to every adult if … Read more

What Happened Today – October 16, 2026

Rendering of the proposed 250-foot Monumental Arch at Memorial Circle in Washington, crowned by a gilded winged figure and two eagles and inscribed "One Nation Under God."

The Interior Department's final rendering of Donald Trump's 250-foot arch at Memorial Circle showed none of the drones, snipers or ammunition he said it would hold. (National Capital Planning Commission)

Today Donald Trump told the people counting California’s midterm ballots that they “will all go to jail for a long period of time.” Nobody has charged them with a crime. Yesterday his Justice Department asked a federal judge to stop the state from counting more than 20,000 mail ballots from voters it calls likely noncitizens. … Read more

What Happened Today – October 15, 2026

Goliath roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia, an orange steel track on teal supports curving above trees with a train of riders at the top

Six Flags Over Georgia closed Goliath, its 200-foot hypercoaster shown here in 2006, after a rider was ejected and killed, and shut similar coasters at other parks. (hagerman, Flickr via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0)

Wisconsin’s local election clerks asked the state what to do if federal agents show up at their polling places. The bipartisan commission answered today. Agents must sign in like any other observer, and clerks should ask them to wear plain clothes instead of uniforms. Its Republican chair says he expects this election to go like … Read more

What Happened Today – October 14, 2026

A National Guard soldier in camouflage directs traffic on a wet street near the National Mall as a woman with an umbrella and a young girl cross behind him.

South Carolina National Guard Spc. Braxton Burkett pulled crossing-guard duty on the National Mall in August, one of 4,500 troops Trump keeps in the capital. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Carlos Parra, The National Guard on Flickr, CC BY 4.0)

A federal judge cleared Mary Comans’ name 20 months after Elon Musk and Kristi Noem wrecked her professional reputation. Comans had served under four presidents of both parties. She was fired as FEMA’s chief financial officer the day after Musk claimed DOGE had caught the agency sending $59 million to “luxury hotels” for migrants. The … Read more

What Happened Today – October 13, 2026

Bank of America branch entrance beneath the Founders Hall sign at the bank’s Charlotte, North Carolina, headquarters

Bank of America’s Founders Hall at its Charlotte headquarters; Treasury fined the bank $1.2 billion after it admitted willfully failing to report over $5 billion in suspicious transactions (Kiran891, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Donald Trump handed out two pardons onstage at a campaign rally in Alaska today. The two Anchorage diesel mechanics pleaded guilty in 2022 to conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act after prosecutors said their shop stripped emissions controls from at least 37 trucks for about $100,000. Trump told the crowd the government wanted them … Read more

What Happened Today – October 12, 2026

President Donald Trump hands a bill to Sharon Simmons, wearing a red DoorDash Grandma T-shirt, on the Oval Office colonnade at the White House

President Donald Trump handed DoorDash driver Sharon Simmons cash in a video promising every adult $5,000 “if the Republicans win,” three weeks before the midterms (Truth Social video screenshot)

Rep. Ilhan Omar says she will not be silenced after federal agents searched her home today. Last month Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin put his hand on a MAGA influencer’s shoulder and promised that “something’s going to happen” to the Minnesota Democrat. His agents arrived before sunrise with a warrant, three weeks before she faces … Read more

What Happened Today – October 11, 2026

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stands amid twisted pipes and rubble at the bombed Darnytska heat and power plant in Kyiv, Ukraine.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte surveyed Kyiv’s bombed Darnytska power plant in February; Russia hit a Kharkiv plant hours after Trump announced an “energy ceasefire.” (Ministry of Energy of Ukraine, Mev.gov.ua, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

A federal judge used the Sunday of a holiday weekend to order Donald Trump’s taxpayer-funded TV ads off the air. Trump told his budget director to find the money, and Homeland Security came up with $20 million that Congress had appropriated for border security. One spot was his 2024 campaign ad warning of a “final … Read more

What Happened Today – October 10, 2026

President Donald Trump, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at St. Peter’s Basilica in 2025, said Ukraine should get “a new leader” after Zelensky called easing Russian diesel sanctions a “gift to Putin.” (Photo: Office of the President of Ukraine, CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, president.gov.ua)

Donald Trump’s Justice Department announced an antitrust investigation today into the TV pool networks that refused to cover for CNN. Last month Trump banned CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House. ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox News answered by suspending the pool coverage they share, and a federal judge restored the three outlets’ … Read more

What Happened Today – October 9, 2026

Aerial view of the East Potomac Park golf course in Washington, with sand bunkers, a cart path and blooming cherry trees along the Potomac River waterfront

The National Park Service scheduled cuts of up to 529 trees on East Potomac Park’s public golf course while calling Trump’s redesign of it only a “potential project.” (National Park Service photo)

Donald Trump cleared Russia to sell diesel to the world after a call with Vladimir Putin. With Ukrainian peace negotiators in Miami today, his Treasury Department opened the market to Russian diesel for six months, only three weeks after Trump signed a law to cut off Russia’s oil money. Last month he demanded that Ukrainian … Read more

What Happened Today – October 8, 2026

Cassidy Hutchinson in a white blazer testifies at a microphone behind a “Ms. Hutchinson” nameplate at the June 28, 2022, January 6 committee hearing.

Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified before the January 6 committee in June 2022, testimony about Donald Trump the Justice Department has now taken to a grand jury. (U.S. House Select Committee photo)

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wants Americans to watch a firing squad kill a man on a Pentagon livestream. The execution of the Fort Hood shooter is set for 1 p.m. Central on the Thursday after Thanksgiving, the hour he opened fire in 2009. No execution in America has ever been televised, and the last public … Read more

What Happened Today – October 7, 2026

Kimberly Guilfoyle, U.S. ambassador to Greece, in a red dress at a clear podium with microphones beside white marble columns

Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle pushed a Trump donor to wire $100,000 to her Amex card days before her Senate confirmation hearing, according to messages the Wall Street Journal reviewed. (U.S. Embassy Greece photo)

The day after Donald Trump promised to stop paying for his TV ads with tax money, a fifth one aired, ending with “Paid for by the U.S. Government.” Congress set that money aside for border security, but the White House moved $20 million of it into a fund for commemorative events. When both parties objected, … Read more

What Happened Today – October 6, 2026

Cornell University students hold protest signs reading "Justice for Jane Doe," "Alcohol is not consent" and "We want sentences not essays" at a rally on Ho Plaza in Ithaca, New York

Thousands rallied on Cornell University's Ho Plaza over an alleged fraternity gang rape, a day before trustees hired former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates to review the school's response (John4Numbers, CC0 via Wikimedia Commons)

Federal immigration agents have jailed at least 506 American citizens since January 2025. The Department of Homeland Security says it is “NOT arresting U.S. citizens by mistake.” ProPublica confirmed every one of them, at least 70 children among them. Thirty-six were held a day or longer without reaching a lawyer or their families, and about … Read more

What Happened Today – October 5, 2026

Soldiers and first responders carry a wounded US soldier on a table toward an ambulance in a Fort Hood parking lot after the 2009 shooting.

First responders turned a table into a stretcher to carry a wounded soldier at Fort Hood, Texas, where Nidal Hasan killed 13 and wounded more than 30 in 2009. (US Army photo by Sgt. Jason R. Krawczyk)

A Nebraska crowd cheered today when Donald Trump said, “Let them take out Los Angeles.” He was talking about what the war with Iran costs Americans. He added, “Let them take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay.” More than five million people live in those two cities. Earlier in the … Read more

What Happened Today – October 4, 2026

US Air Force B-1B Lancer bomber with a DY tail code rolling down the runway at RAF Fairford in England, green fields and trees behind it

A B-1B Lancer from the 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron landed at RAF Fairford in May 2023, the British base every US bomber left Sunday after warnings of an Iran-backed plot (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Eugene Oliver)

Air Force crews flew every American bomber out of England on Sunday, some before the tankers meant to refuel them on the way home were in the air. Commanders ordered them back from RAF Fairford after new warnings of an Iran-backed plot against the base, a week after British police arrested five men nearby. For … Read more

What Happened Today – October 3, 2026

American flags flying above a red and white Lukoil gas station canopy in New York City

American flags flew over a Lukoil station in New York in 2008, long before Vladimir Putin pitched Jared Kushner on a sale including Lukoil's roughly 200 US stations. (Photo: Foma, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped)

Vladimir Putin pitched Donald Trump’s son-in-law on a Russian oil deal at the Kremlin last month. The Treasury Department rejected a bid for Lukoil’s refineries and gas stations last November, calling the would-be buyer “the Kremlin’s puppet.” This time the leading bidders include an Emirati royal who is effectively Jared Kushner’s business partner, and the … Read more

What Happened Today – October 2, 2026

Kayaker paddling the Rio Grande between towering limestone cliffs of Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend National Park, Texas

A kayaker paddled through Santa Elena Canyon on the Rio Grande, where a federal judge halted Big Bend border barrier construction two days after Homeland Security lifted its own pause. (National Park Service photo)

Reporters started a private school in Arkansas with $45 and an American flag. They aren’t teachers and don’t intend to run a school. ProPublica and three local newsrooms wanted to see how easily states approve new private schools and send them tax money. They tried in three states and succeeded in two. In West Virginia, … Read more

What Happened Today – October 1, 2026

Renee Good, in a knit hat, red hoodie and plaid jacket, looks out the open driver's window of her maroon SUV at the ICE agent filming her in Minneapolis.

Renee Good, a Minneapolis mother of three, spoke to ICE agent Jonathan Ross from her SUV about 26 seconds before he shot her, in a frame from his own video (Wikimedia Commons).

Renee Good’s family sued Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem and Tom Homan today over her killing by a federal immigration agent in Minneapolis. The day before she died, the administration sent 2,000 immigration agents into the Twin Cities. The suit calls her death the “predictable and intended product” of that operation. She stopped across the street … Read more

What Happened Today – September 30, 2026

Signature page of Trump's AI pact showing his signature above the typo "President of the Unites States," with signatures from Dario Amodei, Mark Zuckerberg, Greg Brockman and Elon Musk.

President Donald Trump signed the AI pact he called "almost like a constitution" over a typed title reading "President of the Unites States," beside four tech leaders' signatures. (White House image)

Attorney General Todd Blanche wants the judges who caught ICE breaking 96 court orders blocked from hearing any of its cases. Today Blanche accused all but one of Minnesota’s federal judges of misconduct for talking to the New York Times about Operation Metro Surge. In January, Judge Patrick Schiltz, a George W. Bush appointee, counted … Read more

What Happened Today – September 29, 2026

Former special counsel Jack Smith testifies at the witness table before the Senate Judiciary Committee

Former special counsel Jack Smith told the Senate Judiciary Committee he had proof beyond a reasonable doubt of Trump's "serious crimes," as Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt called him a "dirtbag." (C-SPAN)

Donald Trump wants the man who brokers America’s deportation deals in Africa to be his ambassador to Cameroon. Christian Ehrhardt runs the State Department’s Office of Remigration. Cameroon signed on last December, agreeing to take up to 1,000 people who aren’t from there, the same day the US approved nearly $400 million in health aid. … Read more

What Happened Today – September 28, 2026

Smoggy downtown Los Angeles skyline behind a US Route 101 Hollywood highway sign over heavy traffic

Smog hung over traffic on US Route 101 entering downtown Los Angeles, as the Transportation Department finalized a fuel economy rollback its own analysis says will raise emissions (Downtowngal/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0).

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp suspended his state’s gas tax today for the third time this year. His emergency order blames “global markets” and never mentions the war with Iran, now seven months old. The only federal action it cites is the energy emergency Donald Trump declared on his first day back in office. Also today, … Read more

What Happened Today – September 27, 2026

Two Air Force pilots in a red-lit B-52 cockpit approach the runway at RAF Fairford, England.

B-52 pilots approached RAF Fairford's runway in 2022; British police arrested five men Sunday suspected of preparing a terrorist act near the base US bombers use against Iran. (Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Corban Lundborg)

The White House spent $319,000 of your money to run one of Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign ads during Sunday’s NFL games. The 30-second spot is nearly identical to the one his campaign aired two years ago, black and white, Trump walking down a hallway while his voice promises a “final battle” against “globalists” and “warmongers.” … Read more

What Happened Today – September 26, 2026

Yellow South of the Border billboard reading "Bear up a leetle longer, 16 mi" with a cartoon Mexican in a sombrero and a white polar bear

A South of the Border billboard near Dillon, South Carolina, counted down the miles with a sombrero-wearing cartoon Mexican, the caricature the attraction has sold to tourists since 1949. (John Margolies, Library of Congress)

North Carolina’s Columbus County set up a checkpoint Thursday night and asked Latino drivers where they were born. Electrician Javier Carbajal showed a deputy his license on the drive home from work and was ordered out of the car anyway. His passenger, also an electrician, couldn’t produce papers and was taken. Siembra NC counts at … Read more

What Happened Today – September 25, 2026

Map of the Persian Gulf with the Strait of Hormuz circled and labeled "Trump Strait" between Iran, Oman and the United Arab Emirates

Donald Trump posted a map labeling the Strait of Hormuz the "Trump Strait" on Friday, as he rejected Iran's seven-day plan to reopen it and expected to resume bombing. (Truth Social)

The Supreme Court voted 6-3 to let Homeland Security use a searchable citizenship database built from Social Security data to check voters before the midterms. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in dissent that burdening even a few lawful voters outweighs the “nonexistent harm” of stopping the government from doing what it likely has no authority … Read more

What Happened Today – September 24, 2026

Stacks of white file boxes piled beside a toilet and marble sink in a gilded Mar-a-Lago bathroom

Donald Trump kept boxes holding classified documents in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom, his 2023 indictment showed, and a grand jury investigating his investigators wants the FBI agents who searched the club. (Justice Department photo)

Republican Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas wants ICE to call the sheriff before it comes to town. Agents started pulling people over in Dodge City, Garden City and Liberal before dawn Tuesday, and local police learned about it the same way everyone else did. A meatpacking plant delayed its shifts, and the Dodge City schools … Read more

What Happened Today – September 23, 2026

Red brick facade of Ford's Theatre on 10th Street in Washington, D.C., where President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865

Ford's Theatre in Washington, where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, reportedly surfaced on an aides' list of sites to carry Donald Trump's name, a report he called a "ridiculous lie." (Photo by ajay_suresh, CC BY 4.0)

Police in Springfield, Missouri, handcuffed a woman at Monday night’s city council meeting and ticketed her for a disturbance, listing the evidence as “middle finger to mayor.” She came to speak against the city’s 41 Flock license plate cameras, but the council had just voted to shelve a review of them and cancel public comment … Read more

What Happened Today – September 22, 2026

Side-by-side photos of Sen. John Curtis in his official Senate portrait and Donald Trump Jr. speaking at AmericaFest 2025 in Phoenix

Sen. John Curtis, a Utah Republican, asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate Donald Trump Jr. after ProPublica reported a Putin-allied oligarch bankrolled his Bahamas wedding weekend. (Official Senate portrait; Xuthoria/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Donald Trump stood before the United Nations General Assembly today and asked the world’s leaders whether he should drive Iran “into hell.” He framed it as a choice between a deal and the decision to “annihilate the Islamic Republic,” and told the room the deal would probably come “right after the election.” Iran, he said, … Read more

What Happened Today – September 21, 2026

Donald Trump surrounded by press pool reporters, cameras and microphones outside the White House

Donald Trump fielded questions from a packed press pool outside the White House in April, the kind of scene his new ban erased from Monday's helipad ceremony. (Official White House photo)

Donald Trump cut the ribbon on his new White House helipad Monday with a pair of golden scissors, but nobody could understand a word he said. He’d banned CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House three days earlier, and every other network in the TV press pool refused to take CNN’s scheduled slot. … Read more

What Happened Today – September 20, 2026

ICE officers in a jacket marked POLICE ICE escort a detainee in leg shackles toward a deportation aircraft on an airport tarmac at night

ICE officers walked a shackled detainee to a deportation flight, the removal DHS said awaits Wilber Garces Perez after an agent shot him in Austin and a hospital released him. (Official ICE photo)

An ICE agent shot a DoorDash driver in Austin just before 1 p.m. today, and by 4:30 the hospital had released him into ICE custody. Wilber Garces Perez, 28, was shot in the torso in the middle of a delivery. Hospital staff walked his wife and his lawyer off the property when they came to … Read more

What Happened Today – September 19, 2026

Still from Department of Defense surveillance video showing a US missile descending toward a boat in the Caribbean Sea

A US missile closed in on a Caribbean boat that the military said carried drugs but offered no evidence, bringing the death toll from 69 strikes to at least 231. (Still from Department of Defense video)

Iran-backed Houthis fired a ballistic missile at Riyadh today, three days after Donald Trump said “hopefully we’re toward the end” of the war. Saudi Arabia says it shot the missile down. By evening, American embassies in nine countries were warning citizens that airspace across the region could close, and the State Department said the fighting … Read more

What Happened Today – September 18, 2026

Toni Morrison reading documents at a National Council on the Arts meeting, black and white NEA file photo

Nobel laureate Toni Morrison served on the National Council on the Arts in the 1980s, decades before a Georgia superintendent pulled her novel from school libraries after reading only excerpts. (NEA file photo)

Donald Trump announced three big wins on Friday and oversold every one of them. He banned CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House “effective immediately.” By evening nobody had left, and his own press office didn’t know the details. He said Denmark gave America “permanent control” of Greenland. Denmark says it agreed to … Read more

What Happened Today – September 17, 2026

Donald Trump's name in metal letters above the United States Institute of Peace sign on the building's stone facade

Donald Trump's name topped the Institute of Peace facade after the State Department renamed it in December 2025, months before the institute's ousted board sued to stop the engraving. (State Department photo via X)

A federal judge told Donald Trump he cannot tear down the Kennedy Center without asking 30 days in advance. Trump said Wednesday the building would “end up being ripped down” without his name on it. Hours later a photographer caught him on Air Force One reading a poster that said “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED,” and by … Read more

What Happened Today – September 16, 2026

Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh at the podium as reporters raise their hands at the FOMC press conference on September 16, 2026

Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh took questions after the Fed's first rate hike since 2023, a unanimous quarter point 12 days after Donald Trump demanded cuts. (Official Federal Reserve photo)

Congress sent its first Epstein contempt case to Donald Trump’s Attorney General on the day a judge warned he could be next. Billionaire investor Leon Black paid Jeffrey Epstein more than $170 million between 2012 and 2017. He walked out of a closed-door interview with Congress in June and skipped the deposition where members planned … Read more

What Happened Today – September 15, 2026

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent testifies before a House committee on September 15, 2026

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told a House committee Tuesday that Donald Trump's $5,000 checks would not add to the $40 trillion debt, then declined to explain how. (C-SPAN)

Donald Trump’s Pentagon stopped answering questions about his war, so the troops and the accountants answered for him. The Congressional Budget Office says the Iran war has cost $38 billion through August 1, and it noted the Defense Department refused to answer its questions. The report found the war has used at least half of … Read more

What Happened Today – September 14, 2026

Empty 18-square-foot metal mesh cage on artificial turf inside a fenced yard at the Alligator Alcatraz detention site in Florida

Homeland Security inspectors photographed this 18-square-foot cage at Alligator Alcatraz in January, where 79 detainees were caged in conditions the watchdog called unprecedented at ICE sites (DHS Office of Inspector General photo).

The Supreme Court won’t let Donald Trump’s post office decide who gets a mail ballot. A federal judge froze his Postal Service rule for this election, and Monday the Court refused to lift that freeze. The rule would have let the post office refuse any ballot from a voter the state had not first reported … Read more

What Happened Today – September 13, 2026

NSA National Security Operations Center watch floor at Fort Meade with monitors and agency seals

The National Security Operations Center at Fort Meade, shown on its 50th anniversary in 2023, watched the world around the clock as the NSA prepared its biggest reorganization in a decade around AI and China. (NSA photo)

Donald Trump’s hand-picked board says the Kennedy Center goes broke unless his name goes back on the memorial. He took over the institution 18 days into his term. A judge ruled in May that Congress alone can rename it. Crews pried his name off in June, and a tarp has hidden the sign ever since. … Read more

What Happened Today – September 12, 2026

FEMA headquarters building at 500 C Street SW in Washington, DC, with the agency sign and Homeland Security seal

FEMA headquarters in Washington, the agency Homeland Security tried to cut in half over FEMA's own objections before a federal judge ruled the plan illegal Friday. (GAO photo)

The officials who planned to cut FEMA in half deleted their Signal messages about it. Judge Susan Illston ruled Friday that their plan broke the law. She found that Donald Trump’s Homeland Security Department stripped FEMA of control over its own people and committed the agency to getting rid of more than 10,000 employees, with … Read more

What Happened Today – September 11, 2026

Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani crouch beside a toddler in a school uniform at a Manhattan 2-K childcare provider on opening day.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani greeted a toddler in Little Dominican Republic on the first day of free 2-K, a program some providers are running before the city has paid them. (Courtesy New York Governor's office)

Todd Blanche got his job by promising senators in writing that his $1.8 billion payout fund was dead. Forty days later, on a Friday night, his Justice Department filed a two-line notice appealing the ruling that Donald Trump sued himself and the government never defended the case. The department’s first appearance is to appeal the … Read more

What Happened Today – September 10, 2026

Entrance to Berkeley Law at the University of California with Benjamin Cardozo's inscription on studying the precepts of justice carved above the doors

Benjamin Cardozo's words on the precepts of justice greeted students at UC Berkeley Law, where the Justice Department accused the school of favoring Black applicants, 51 of its 1,128 students. (Art Anderson, CC BY-SA 3.0)

It took the US Supreme Court to make Missouri count 305,000 of its own voters’ signatures. They filed a petition in December protesting a map that carved up a Democratic seat in Kansas City at Donald Trump’s urging. Missouri’s secretary of state sat on it for eight months, then rejected it on primary day. When … Read more

What Happened Today – September 9, 2026

Sea otter floating in algae at Elkhorn Slough estuary near Moss Landing, California

A threatened sea otter floated in Elkhorn Slough near Moss Landing, California, habitat that nearly two dozen states sued to keep protected under the Endangered Species Act. (Robert Scoles, ESNERR/NOAA)

Leitaea Lowrimore needed a lawyer to find a doctor who would keep her alive. Three emergency rooms in two states refused to treat the Oklahoma mother over six days in February. She had an ectopic pregnancy, one growing outside the womb, which ruptures and bleeds without treatment. One doctor said it could cost him “10 … Read more

What Happened Today – September 8, 2026

Natalie Harp leans over a laptop on Donald Trump's Oval Office desk while JD Vance looks on

Assistant to the President Natalie Harp leaned over Donald Trump's Oval Office desk last August, several months before he handed her $45,000 in cash as a "holiday gift." (Official White House photo by Daniel Torok)

A Border Patrol analyst in Spokane read a stranger’s bank activity, and a Montana trooper found a reason to pull him over. Nobody knows how a federal agent in Washington and a state trooper in Montana came to be talking about one black Chevy on Interstate 90, because the government won’t say. We know it … Read more

What Happened Today – September 7, 2026

Map posted by Donald Trump showing the American flag covering Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Iceland and the Caribbean, labeled United States of America and Gulf of America

Donald Trump posted this map painting Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Iceland and the Caribbean as American territory on Labor Day, hours before Canada's tariffs on US goods took effect. (Truth Social)

Donald Trump answered Canada’s tariffs with a Truth Social post, and the tariffs took effect anyway. Ottawa’s levies on $20 billion in American goods went live at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday, matching the 50% he put on Canadian wine, cement and hockey sticks last month. On Monday he posted “NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE … Read more

What Happened Today – September 6, 2026

Trump Truth Social post showing a map of New Mexico with Mexico crossed out and replaced by America

President Donald Trump posted this map renaming New Mexico "America" on Sunday, then called the state "one of the great vote cheating states of all time." (Truth Social, @realDonaldTrump)

Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Sunday to let the Post Office refuse to deliver or return ballots that were already in the mail. North Carolina started mailing ballots on Friday. A federal judge blocked the Postal Service rule the same day because no state can comply with it in time. It requires every … Read more

What Happened Today – September 5, 2026

Equal Earth projection world map with country borders and no labels, showing Africa at its true size relative to Greenland

An Equal Earth map showed Africa at 14 times the size of Greenland, the proportion the U.S. alone rejected in a 164-1 UN vote to retire the Mercator map (Equal Earth map by Tom Patterson, public domain).

Do you remember the 21st night of September? Donald Trump stood at Charlie Kirk’s memorial that night and told tens of thousands of mourners, “I hate my opponents, and I don’t want the best for them.” The same day his administration announced it would tie Tylenol to autism. If either one has blurred into everything … Read more

What Happened Today – September 4, 2026

Booking photo of ICE agent Christian Castro in an orange jail uniform from the Cameron County Sheriff's Office

ICE agent Christian Castro pleaded not guilty to six counts of lying about shooting a Venezuelan man through a Minneapolis front door, then went free on $75,000 bond. (Cameron County Sheriff's Office photo)

Police in Arlington, Virginia, opened a criminal investigation of ICE agents this week for a beating the federal government calls “necessary force.” José Mejía Hernandez was walking to a bus stop one morning last month when two men in plain clothes got out of an unmarked car. He ran. He says he remembers a jolt … Read more

What Happened Today – September 3, 2026

Official portrait of former Justice Department pardon attorney Liz Oyer in front of an American flag

Former pardon attorney Liz Oyer sued the Justice Department today, saying it fired her in 2025 for refusing to fake an "independent review" to restore Mel Gibson's gun rights. (Official Department of Justice photo)

Every judge on Missouri’s Supreme Court agreed that the congressional map Donald Trump wanted has never been the law. Missouri redrew its map last year at Trump’s request to erase the Democratic district in Kansas City. More than 300,000 voters responded with a petition demanding a referendum, which under the state constitution freezes a law … Read more

What Happened Today – September 2, 2026

US Mint rendering of the 2026 Trump $1 coin, with Donald Trump's portrait on the front and the presidential seal on the back

The US Mint began selling $1 coins with Donald Trump's face after its own advisory committee refused to review the design, the first sitting president on US currency since 1926. (US Mint rendering)

Donald Trump’s Justice Department told the states to turn in their immigrants or their neediest families will lose their welfare checks. Every state shares $16.4 billion in cash aid for needy families. For 28 years only welfare offices had to report undocumented immigrants to Washington. Now every state agency must, including the DMV and the … Read more

What Happened Today – September 1, 2026

USS Abraham Lincoln flight deck lined with fighter jets as the carrier arrives at Laem Chabang port in Thailand

The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln arrived in Laem Chabang, Thailand, for its first port call after 286 days at sea, most of them in the Iran war. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Gage Thomas)

Sailors walked off the USS Abraham Lincoln onto a pier in Thailand today after 286 days at sea with no port call at all. Carriers normally pull into port about every six weeks to take on supplies and let the crew ashore. The Lincoln left San Diego the week before Thanksgiving, got sent to the … Read more

What Happened Today – August 31, 2026

White House bowling alley after its 2019 renovation, with a single lane, tufted blue sofas and a Be Best sign on the wall screen

The White House bowling alley, renovated in 2019 under First Lady Melania Trump, drew a $1.1 million lighting contract this year, 12 years after Republicans killed an Obama-era renovation. (Official White House photo, Andrea Hanks)

Construction crews at the White House are working 20 hours a day on a ballroom the Chief Justice says is likely illegal. Five justices let the work continue Monday by ruling that nobody has the right to sue over it, but never decided whether the ballroom is legal. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that federal … Read more

What Happened Today – August 30, 2026

Donald Trump interviewed by NBC's Kristen Welker in a Wisconsin barn with farm equipment behind them

Donald Trump walked out of this June 5 Meet the Press interview with NBC's Kristen Welker in an Eau Claire, Wisconsin, barn, and Sunday asked the FCC to punish her. (Official White House photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)

Donald Trump asked the FCC to punish a journalist for doubting him. Kristen Welker reported on NBC that his primary endorsement record was mixed. Six of his candidates lost Republican primaries in August. Trump called her a “Hostess,” accused her of “purposeful inaccuracy,” and said she would be reported to the FCC “for rebuke or … Read more