Border czar says Ice operations will ramp up in blue cities
Border czar Tom Homan said that there will be a “ramp up” of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) operations in Chicago after Labor Day, as well as other Democratic-led cities. He added:
You’re going to see a ramp up of operations continue in New York, operations continuing in LA…Portland, Seattle, all these sanctuary cities that refuse to work with ICE, where we know public safety threats are being released every day into this country.
Homan also confirmed that “there are discussions” taking place about Ice using a naval base north of Chicago as an operations centre. “The planning is still being discussed,” he added.
He also pushed back against the Muriel Bowser’s comments yesterday that masked federal agents in the nation’s capital has not been working. The DC mayor said these tactics have created a “break in trust” between officers and residents.
Homan hit back today: “They’re extremely effective…President Trump’s gonna make DC the model city of the world.”
Key events
My colleague, Marina Dunbar, has been covering the fallout of Susan Monarez’s firing. A reminder that Monarez is contesting her termination – with her lawyers arguing that she won’t leave unless Trump himself removes her from the role.
In the hours following the dispute, four senior CDC leaders abruptly resigned, apparently out of frustration with Robert F Kennedy Jr’s approach to vaccines and his management style.
Here’s Marina’s breakdown of who they are, and why they left the agency.
Dharna Noor
It’s a scary time to work at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), according to one agency worker who anonymously signed a letter of dissent this week.
“We’re anxious, we’re confused, and we’re desperate to get back to doing what we signed up for,” the person told the Guardian.
The staffer was one of 141 current and former Fema employees who signed the letter anonymously for fear of retribution. Thirty-six more placed their names on the letter, and some of them have been placed on a leave of absence.
“I am so proud of my coworkers who signed with their names, but devastated that they’ve been put on administrative leave,” the anonymous worker said. “If my family were impacted by a disaster, these are some of the people I would want working to help them–they believe in the mission so strongly that they put their careers and livelihoods in jeopardy.”
The letter was sent 20 years to the week after Hurricane Katrina lashed the Gulf Coast – and after Fema came under sharp criticism for its failure to provide sufficient aid to victims. The Trump administration’s erosion of Fema’s staff, programs, and autonomy are putting the US at risk of another Katrina-level disaster, says the missive sent this week.
“Katrina was a tragedy,” said the anonymous worker. “One thing you learn quickly in emergency management is that we’re all just one hurricane season, lightning strike, or fault line slip away from tragedy.”
She added: “I would also ask anyone reading this to consider adding their names to the over 4,000 individuals who have signed the Katrina Declaration in support of our requests.”
Read our full report on the crackdown on the dissenters below:
Donald Trump is calling out crime in Chicago again on Truth Social. In a post, he notes that the city saw six homicides over the weekend.
The president chastised the Illinois governor, JB Pritzker, for not asking him for help: “Can this be possible? The people are desperate for me to STOP THE CRIME, something the Democrats aren’t capable of doing.”
According to the office of the Chicago mayor, Brandon Johnson, violent crime in the city has dropped by more than 20% compared to this time last year. The murder rate has fallen by 32%, according to data compiled from the Chicago police department.
A note from the press pool traveling with vice-president JD Vance today. He’s expected to make remarks about the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in La Crosse, Wisconsin, around 2pm ET today.
Last week, you may remember that he was in Peachtree City, Georgia, on a similar tour. The administration has been rebranding the legislation as “Working Family Tax Cuts”.
Border czar says Ice operations will ramp up in blue cities
Border czar Tom Homan said that there will be a “ramp up” of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) operations in Chicago after Labor Day, as well as other Democratic-led cities. He added:
You’re going to see a ramp up of operations continue in New York, operations continuing in LA…Portland, Seattle, all these sanctuary cities that refuse to work with ICE, where we know public safety threats are being released every day into this country.
Homan also confirmed that “there are discussions” taking place about Ice using a naval base north of Chicago as an operations centre. “The planning is still being discussed,” he added.
He also pushed back against the Muriel Bowser’s comments yesterday that masked federal agents in the nation’s capital has not been working. The DC mayor said these tactics have created a “break in trust” between officers and residents.
Homan hit back today: “They’re extremely effective…President Trump’s gonna make DC the model city of the world.”
On Lisa Cook’s lawsuit challenging her firing, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement that Donald Trump found cause to remove the governor “who was credibly accused of lying in financial documents from a highly sensitive position overseeing financial institutions.”
A reminder that Cook hasn’t been charged with a crime. Her lawyers say that she wasn’t given the ability to properly respond to the mortgage fraud allegations in a letter from Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
Trump floats national convention for Republicans ahead of 2026 midterms
On Truth Social today, Donald Trump extolled the “great success” the GOP is experiencing.
“We have raised far more money than the Democrats, and are having a great time fixing all of the Country Destroying mistakes made by the Biden Administration, and watching the USA heal and prosper,” the president wrote.
He also said that he’s “thinking of recommending a National Convention to the Republican Party, just prior to the Midterms.” An event which traditionally takes place every four years to select the party’s presidential nominee.
A notable feature of Cook’s lawsuit against the president is that Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, and the rest of the board. are also listed as defendants.
Cook’s lawyers underscore that while the president has the right to remove a governor of the board “for cause”, Donald Trump only cited a referral letter from Bill Pulte, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which alleges that Cook made false statements on a mortgage agreement.
The claims made in Director Pulte’s referral letter are unsubstantiated allegations that about conduct that predates her [Cook’s] Senate confirmation, and Governor Cook has never been given an opportunity to address them.
Cook’s lawyers argue that “unsubstantiated mortgage fraud allegations” – that allegedly took place prior to her tenure on Fed’s the board of governors – do not amount to “cause” needed for the president to fire Cook.
They also note that Cook only “found out about the attempt to remove her through President Trump’s Truth Social post,” which they say afforded her “neither a notice nor a hearing” guaranteed by the Federal Reserve Act.
Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook files lawsuit challenging Trump’s bid to fire her
Callum Jones
Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook has filed a lawsuit claiming Donald Trump has no authority to fire her.
The lawsuit – filed by Cook in federal court in Washington on Thursday – sets the stage for a legal battle over the US president’s extraordinary bid for greater control of the central bank.
We’ll get you the latest details as we go through the lawsuit.
Minneapolis woke on Thursday to the aftermath of the mass shooting at a Catholic school in which two children were killed and 17 people injured, stunning the close-knit community and prompting the FBI to investigate the act as domestic terrorism and a hate crime targeting Catholics.
A shooter at the Annunciation Catholic school in the south of the city killed two children, aged eight and 10, in church pews during morning mass. Fourteen other children, aged six to 15, were injured, two of them critically, though officials said they were expected to survive. Police said the suspect, Robin Westman, 23, killed themself and was found dead behind the church.
Online posts indicate that Westman’s mother worked at the church until 2021. The Minneapolis police chief, Brian O’Hara, told Minneapolis ABC affiliate KSTP that his office believes Westman had been a student at Annunciation.
“This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshipping,” O’Hara, said. “The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible.”
He said the incident took place just before 8.30am during a service marking the first week of school. The pews had been packed with teachers, parents and children listening to a psalm. Just before the congregants were to proclaim “Alleluia”, bullets were fired through the windows.
“Down! Everybody down!” someone shouted as children ducked for cover behind wooden pews. One student threw himself on top of a friend and was shot in the back. A youth minister called her husband to say goodbye. People used a wooden plank to barricade a door and fled to a gymnasium.
The shooting went on for several minutes, according to a man who lives near the church and said he heard as many as 50 shots.
The three injured adults were parishioners in their 80s, officials said.
Read the full report from my colleagues below:
Attorney general says 105 arrests made in DC on Wednesday
Attorney general Pam Bondi said that federal law enforcement made another 105 arrests in DC on Wednesday, including seizing 12 illegal firearms.
Bondi said that this brings the arrest tally to 1,283 – since 7 August, when Trump ordered federal officers to start sweeping the streets of Washington DC.
Bernie Sanders says CDC chief’s firing is ‘outrageous’
Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an Independent, who serves as the ranking member on the health, education, labor and pensions (Help) committee, said that Robert F Kennedy Jr’s attempt to fire Susan Monarez was “outrageous”.
“The Sen. HELP Committee must hold a hearing with Kennedy & the CDC Director as soon as possible. Vaccines save lives. Period,” Sanders said on X.
As Monarez is a Senate-confirmed official (the first CDC director to receive this stamp), removal from office can only come from president, or an impeachment process by Congress. Monarez’s lawyers say that her termination is “legally deficient”, since it didn’t come from Trump himself.
Donald Trump doesn’t have any public-facing events today, according to his official schedule. He’s due to sign executive orders later, but that remains closed to the press. If anything changes we’ll bring you the latest.
We can expect to hear from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt at 1pm today. She’ll hold a briefing, and we can expect questions on several topics: the school shooting in Minneapolis that killed two children and injured 17 people on Wednesday, the fallout of the CDC director’s firing, and the latest on foreign policy – particularly after Russian airstrikes on Kyiv killed at least 12 people overnight.
CDC chief Susan Monarez refuses to resign amid ‘targeted’ ousting
Hello, I’m Shrai Popat, and welcome to today’s coverage of US politics live.
The US’s top public health agency was plunged into chaos on Wednesday after the Trump administration moved to oust its leader, Susan Monarez, sworn in less than a month ago. But her lawyers said she would not resign and that she was being “targeted” for her pro-science stance.
Monarez, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was ousted on Wednesday evening, according to a statement from Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that offered no explanation its decision.
“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 said in an unsigned statement posted to social media. Her lawyers pushed back in a statement, saying she had “neither resigned nor received notification” from the White House of her termination.
Monarez, who was confirmed by the Senate just last month, appeared to have run afoul of Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, after she declined to support sweeping changes to US vaccine policies, according to reporting from the Washington Post and the New York Times.
“First it was independent advisory committees and career experts. Then it was the dismissal of seasoned scientists. Now, Secretary Kennedy and HHS have set their sights on weaponizing public health for political gain and putting millions of American lives at risk,” her lawyers, Mark Zaid and Abbe David Lowell, said in a statement. “When CDC director Susan Monarez refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives and fire dedicated health experts, she chose protecting the public over serving a political agenda. For that, she has been targeted.”
Democratic senator Patty Murray, who serves on the Senate health committee called for Kennedy to be fired and said he is “a dangerous man who is determined to abuse his authority to act on truly terrifying conspiracy theories and disinformation”.
“If there are any adults left in the White House, it’s well past time they face reality and fire RFK Jr,” Murray said.
Meanwhile, Dr Mandy Cohen, a former CDC director under president Joe Biden, said: “We lost exceptional leaders who have served over many decades and many administrations. The weakening of the CDC leaves us less safe and more vulnerable as a country.”
The ousting has set off a wave of departures within the agency, with at least three other CDC leaders publicly resigning after the HHS announcement.
The most explosive resignation letter came from Dr Demetre Daskalakis, who stepped down as the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, according to Inside Medicine, an industry newsletter that obtained the full statements.
“I am not able to serve in this role any longer because of the ongoing weaponizing of public health. You are the best team I have ever worked with, and you continue to shine despite this dark cloud over the agency and our profession,” Daskalakis wrote. “Please take care of yourself and your teams and make the right decisions for yourselves.”
Read our full report here:
In other developments:
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Former British prime minister Tony Blair has attended a White House meeting with Donald Trump to discuss plans for postwar Gaza, the Guardian understands. After stepping down as prime minister in 2007, Blair took on the role of Middle East envoy until 2015 and spent time in Jerusalem trying to formulate a plan for a two-state solution.
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National guard troops have spent their last days of the summer mulching cherry trees, collecting trash and clearing homeless camps across Washington DC, as Donald Trump’s federal takeover of the capital evolved the guard from makeshift cops to armed jacks of all trades.
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Republicans in California are proposing a “two-state solution” for the Golden state, in a move that is unlikely to go anywhere but is reflective of partisan divisions amid a nationwide battle over control of Congress.
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The US Food and Drug Administration has approved updated Covid vaccines but has placed new restrictions on who can get them.
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Florida’s immigration jail known as “Alligator Alcatraz” will probably be empty of detainees within days, a state official has said, indicating compliance with a judge’s order last week that the facility must close.
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The Fulton county commission in Georgia will be fined $10,000 a day for violating a court order to appoint two Republicans associated with Trump-aligned groups pushing voter fraud conspiracies to the county’s election board.
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