Trump police takeover will create ‘immediate, devastating, and irreparable harm’ for DC, federal lawsuit says
According to the federal lawsuit filed by the DC government today, the Trump administration has engaged in “a brazen usurpation of the District’s authority over its own government”.
The suit says that the president’s move to federalise the DC police, and attorney general Pam Bondi’s order to install DEA administrator Terry Cole as “emergency police commissioner”, both “exceed the narrow delegation that Congress granted the President in Section 740”.
A reminder, earlier this week the president invoked Section 740 of the DC Home Rule Act, which grants him a 30-day period to control the district’s local law enforcement if he declares a safety emergency. To get an extension, the president would need Congress’s approval.
The president has said that violent crime in DC – which the justice department says experienced a 30-year low in 2024 – is “the worst it’s ever been”.
The lawsuit also states that Section 740 only requires that the DC mayor “provide services” of the Metropolitan police department (MPD) to federal government, but “does not permit the President to seize control of MPD. Nor does it authorize the President to direct MPD in the policing of local crime.”
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Updated at 14.54 BST
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RFK Jr says no plans for 2028 presidential run
Edward Helmore
Health and human services secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has said he will not repeat his 2024 bid for the presidency in 2028.
The Kennedy family scion ran as nominee for the Democrat party nomination, before switching to become an independent candidate, before switching again to throw his weight behind Donald Trump. Trump later rewarded him with a cabinet level post with a mandate to “Make America Healthy Again”.
“The swamp is in full panic mode. DC lobby shops are laboring fiercely to drive a wedge between President Trump and me, hoping to thwart our team from dismantling the status quo and advancing [Trump’s] ‘Make America Healthy Again’ agenda,” Kennedy Jr said in an X post on Friday.
Kennedy added that the so-called swamp, a Republican term for what they see as an entrenched Washington bureaucracy, was “pushing the flat-out lie that I’m running for president in 2028”.
He continued: “Let me be clear: I am not running for president in 2028. My loyalty is to President Trump and the mission we’ve started. Their attacks on my staff, especially Stefanie Spear – a fierce, loyal warrior for MAHA who proudly serves in the Trump Administration and works every day to advance President Trump’s vision for a healthier, stronger America – are proof we’re over the target.”
Kennedy continued with an overt expression of obeisance for his White House boss and erstwhile political patron.
“We’ll keep moving forward, we’ll keep delivering wins, and no smear campaign will stop us. President Trump is delivering on every promise beyond my wildest dreams — ending war, protecting free speech, rebuilding American industry and the American middle class, delivering transparency and gold standard science, and breaking the grip of entrenched interests,” he wrote.
Kennedy concluded by saying Trump had “made himself the answer to my 20-year prayer that God would put me in a position to end the chronic disease epidemic — and that’s exactly what my team and I will do until the day he leaves office”.
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Updated at 20.49 BST
During Friday afternoon’s hearing on Washington DC’s request for a temporary restraining order seeking to block the Trump administration’s takeover of the city’s law enforcement, the judge suggested that the law likely doesn’t grant the president full control over DC’s police.
“The way I read the statute, the president can ask, the mayor must provide, but the president can’t control,” said US District Judge Ana Reyes, who is overseeing the hearing, according to the Associated Press.
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The Judge overseeing today’s hearing on Washington DC’s request for a temporary restraining order to halt the Trump administration’s takeover of the city’s police force has reportedly taken a brief break and urged both sides to try to come to an agreement.
According to reporting from CNN and the New York Times, Judge Ana Reyes has taken a short recess and has encouraged the attorneys representing both the Trump administration and DC to confer and explore possible modifications.
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Trump-Putin meeting no longer one-on-one
As opposed to a one-on-one meeting, Donald Trump will now be joined by secretary of his state, Marco Rubio, and special envoy Steve Witkoff in his discussion with Vladimir Putin, the White House confirmed.
The meeting will now be three-on-three, with two additional officials on the Russian side as well, Fox News reported.
Then, at a lunch following the meeting, Rubio, Witkoff, treasury secretary Scott Bessent, commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, defense secretary Pete Hegseth and Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles will also be present, the White House said.
This is notable because earlier today Trump noted that Putin was bringing many Russian businessmen with him to Alaska. Trump said he was willing to talk about business and trade with the Russian president, as the inclusion of these members of his cabinet in the meeting potentially demonstrates.
But he also said that he was not ready to expand commercial ties unless the fighting stops in Ukraine. “I noticed he’s bringing a lot of business people from Russia, and that’s good,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One earlier. “I like that because they want to do business, but they’re not doing business until we get the war solved.”
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Updated at 19.54 BST
Trump and Putin land in Alaska ahead of pivotal Ukraine war meeting
The plane transporting Vladimir Putin and other Russian government officials landed in Anchorage, Alaska, a short time ago, and Air Force One has just now touched down at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.
Putin’s meeting with Donald Trump is due to kick off in less than an hour. This will be their first meeting of Trump’s second term in office – and their seventh in total.
Donald Trump taking questions from reporters aboard Air Force One earlier en route to Alaska. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
My colleague Shrai Popat is covering all the latest over on our dedicated blog, which you can follow here:
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Updated at 19.30 BST
Judge hears DC’s challenge to Trump’s federal takeover of police department
Protesters that were gathered near the Metropolitan police headquarters in Washington DC have spilled down into the streets around the federal courthouse, where the emergency hearing challenging the takeover began moments ago.
The city’s suit argues that Donald Trump’s move to federalize the city’s police department was a “brazen usurpation of the district’s authority” that exceeded the president’s authority.
The city’s motion for a temporary restraining order includes a declaration by the Metropolitan police chief, Pamela Smith, in which she said the department was unaware of the president’s plans to take control of the force “until he announced it at a press conference”, according to the New York Times.
Per the Times, Smith said that Pam Bondi’s order installing a federal official as an “emergency police commissioner” also came without warning. “In my nearly three decades in law enforcement, I have never seen a single government action that would cause a greater threat to law and order than this dangerous directive,” she wrote.
I’ll bring you more from the hearing as we get it.
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Updated at 19.29 BST
California Democrats set to unveil new map that would give them five more seats in Congress
Sam Levine
California Democrats are set to unveil a new map today that could allow the party to claim up to five additional seats in Congress, according to multiple reports.
The new map would transform the districts currently held by Republican representatives Darrell Issa, Kevin Kiley, Ken Calvert and Doug LaMalfa into Democratic-friendly districts, the Washington Post reported. It would also add more Democratic voters to the districts currently represented by Republican David Valadao. Valadao won the district by about seven points in 2024 and Donald Trump carried it by an even smaller margin.
At least two of the districts, the ones currently represented by Issa and Valadao, could still be competitive in November, according to Punchbowl News.
Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled his plan to move ahead with the effort yesterday, which will require California voters to approve a constitutional amendment. Under the state’s constitution, redistricting is handled once per decade by an independent commission.
The referendum, if approved, would allow California to adopt new maps in response to other states, such as Texas, changing their district lines. Redistricting would revert back to the commission after the 2030 census.
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Updated at 19.15 BST
Hundreds of demonstrators have gathered outside the Metropolitan police headquarters in Washington DC, here are some pictures:
People protest against Trump’s federal takeover of the Metropolitan police department and deployment of the national guard in Washington DC. Photograph: Ken Cedeno/ReutersA protester holds an umbrella with ‘FREE DC’ written on it. Photograph: Ken Cedeno/ReutersPeople attend a protest hosted by the Free DC Project activist group near the Metropolitan police department headquarters. Photograph: Anna Moneymaker/Getty ImagesA protester in Washington DC. Photograph: Ken Cedeno/ReutersShare
Updated at 19.08 BST
David Smith
in Anchorage, Alaska
I am now sitting in a press tent where TVs are showing what is presumably the stage for a post-summit press conference.
The stage has a blue backdrop with the words “pursuing peace” printed in white several times. There are two lecterns with microphones on a beige floor as well as US and Russian flags. Staff are carrying out sound checks.
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Updated at 18.43 BST
Redistricting fight continues as Texas governor Abbott calls second special legislative session
As we previewed earlier, Texas governor Greg Abbott called a second special legislative session this afternoon, in an effort to hike pressure on Democratic lawmakers who have fled the state to stymie Republican plans to redraw political maps at the behest of Donald Trump.
Trump wants to use redistricting to help maintain the GOP’s slim control of Congress in next year’s midterm elections, but the plan has sparked strong opposition from Democrats who have threatened to retaliate.
Abbott said in a written statement that the second session would begin at noon local time today and that producing new maps that could give Republicans five more seats in Congress was on the agenda.
Yesterday, California’s Democratic governor Gavin Newsom unveiled a redistricting plan in his state that he says would give Democrats there five more Congressional seats, possibly offsetting Republican gains in Texas.
Democratic members of the Texas House left the state earlier this month to deny Republicans the quorum needed to vote on legislation. Republicans have maintained control over Texas politics for more than two decades, and Democrats in the state have broken quorum several times, trying mostly in vain to halt deeply conservative legislation.
Abbott said that redistricting plans, legislation to increase flash flood safety in the wake of devastating flooding last month, and other legislative work remains undone because Democrats had refused to show up.
“We will not back down from this fight,” Abbott said. “That’s why I am calling them back today to finish the job.”
Many of the more than 50 Texas Democrats who fled the state have been staying in Illinois, out of reach of civil arrest warrants that could be acted on within Texas.
When the Democrats might return remains unknown.
The Texas House Democrats said in a written statement yesterday that they will only return to Texas if their state’s special legislation is ended and once California’s redistricting maps were introduced.
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Updated at 18.35 BST
Congressional Democrats introduce resolution to end Trump’s ‘raw power grab’ in DC
House and Senate Democrats introduced a joint resolution today to terminate Trump’s federalization of the DC Metropolitan Police Department.
Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Eleanor Holmes Norton, the nonvoting delegate from the District of Columbia, and representative Robert Garcia of California are leading the effort in the House, while senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland introduced the legislation in the Senate.
The resolution, which has little chance of advancing under the Republican-controlled Congress, says the president “has failed to identify special conditions of an emergency nature that compel the use of the Metropolitan Police Department for Federal purposes in the District of Columbia”.
Under the District of Columbia Home Rule Act, a president can order DC’s mayor to give him temporary control of the police, but Congress can terminate that authority.
In their resolutions, the lawmakers cite statistics showing that violent crime is at a 30-year low in DC as evidence that there is no emergency to justify the president’s actions.
“The only emergency here is a lawless president experiencing a growing public relations emergency because of his close friendship with Jeffrey Epstein and his stubborn refusal to release the Epstein file despite his promise to do so,” said Raskin, the top Democrat on the judiciary committee.
“Trump was AWOL when the District of Columbia actually needed support from the National Guard to protect it from an insurrectionist mob on January 6,” Van Hollen said.
He called Trump’s moves “an abuse of power” and a “raw power grab”. “It is a direct attack on the ability of the people of the District of Columbia to govern their own affairs,” he said.
ShareDavid Smith
in Anchorage, Alaska
Greetings from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, a cold war-era military installation on the outskirts of Anchorage, Alaska, that will play host to Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin today.
I am among an estimated 700 journalists from all over the world. We were greeted at the Anchorage international airport by the sight of a majestic brown bear slain by Governor Mike Dunleavy and displayed as a trophy in a glass case.
The media gathered downtown at 5.30am local time today and were bused to the air force base under a big sky with picturesque mountains. The airbase is like a small city with housing, children’s playgrounds, nondescript three-storey lodgings, a church with stained glass windows and great grassy expanses. The temperature is a crisp 50F.
Journalists gather near the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, which will host the Trump-Putin meeting in Anchorage, Alaska. Photograph: China News Service/Getty Images
Earlier, Reuters reported: “The Kremlin press pool was housed in an Alaska Airlines Center, where a semi-open-plan room was subdivided by partitions and some reporters were seen making their own camp-style beds. They were fed for free at a nearby university campus, Russian reporters said.”
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson was crucial to countering the Soviet Union during the cold war. It continues to play a role today, as planes from the base still intercept Russian aircraft that regularly fly into US airspace. Putin’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, arrived in a sweatshirt with “CCCP” – the Russian letters for USSR – across the front.
Today’s meeting could prove a win-win for the two leaders. Putin, an alleged war criminal who had been an international pariah, gets to meet the US president on American soil. Trump, for his part, gets to play global statesman in a massive media spectacle where no one is talking about Jeffrey Epstein (well, almost no one).
Demonstrators hold placards during a protest in solidarity with Ukraine in Anchorage, Alaska. The one on the left reads: ‘Attn: Epstein diversion (WTF?)’ Photograph: Nathaniel Wilder/ReutersShare
Updated at 18.42 BST
Trump says he wants ‘to see a ceasefire rapidly’, adding he’s ‘not going to be happy if it’s not today’
Donald Trump was asked earlier what would make his summit with Vladimir Putin a success. He told reporters aboard Air Force One:
I can’t tell you that.
I don’t know it’s there’s nothing set in stone. I want certain things. I want to see a ceasefire.
This is not to do with Europe. Europe’s not telling me what to do, but they’re going to be involved in the process, obviously, as well Zelenskyy, but I want to see a ceasefire rapidly.
I don’t know if it’s going to be today, but I’m not going to be happy if it’s not today. Everyone said it can’t be today, but I’m just saying I want the killing to stop.
I’m in this to stop the killing. You know, we’re not putting up any money. We’re making money. They’re buying our weapons, and we’re sending them to Nato, and Nato is sending us big, beautiful checks.
But that I don’t care about … But what I do care about is they lost last week 7011 people, almost all soldiers; 36 people in a town which got hit by a missile.
Over 7,000 soldiers. It’s crazy.
You can watch the clip here.
Donald Trump boarding Air Force One to head to Alaska to meet with Vladimir Putin. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/ReutersShare
Updated at 18.01 BST
Trump says he ‘would walk’ if Putin meeting doesn’t go well
Donald Trump has told Fox News’s Bret Baier that if his meeting with Vladimir Putin doesn’t go well today, he would walk.
“We’re going for a meeting with President Putin in Alaska. And I think it’s going to work out very well, and if it doesn’t I’m going to head back home real fast,” Trump said.
Asked by Baier if that means he would walk if it doesn’t go well, the president replied: “I would walk, yeah.”
Trump earlier confirmed his threat of “severe” consequences for Russia if it fails to show willingness to seriously talk about the end of war in Ukraine.
He told reporters on Air Force One:
Economically severe. It will be very severe. I’m not doing this for my health, okay, I don’t need it. I’d like to focus on our country, but I’m doing this to save a lot of lives. Yeah, very severe.
Donald Trump boarding Air Force One earlier today en route to his meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Photograph: Luis M Alvarez/APShare
US aid cuts to Ukraine raise risk of waste and fraud, say watchdogs
USAID is concerned that the Trump administration’s cancellation of independent aid monitoring contracts for Ukraine has increased the risk of waste, fraud and abuse, according to three US watchdog agencies.
“The termination of third-party monitoring contracts has further limited USAID’s ability to oversee programs,” the state department, Pentagon and USAID inspectors general said in a report issued today.
The US Agency for International Development was the main American agency that administered civilian foreign aid for more than 60 years. It is being dismantled by the Trump administration – which claims to be tackling waste, fraud and abuse in federal spending – and is scheduled to be closed on 2 September.
The three inspectors general submit quarterly reports to Congress on their oversight of US civilian support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s full-scale invasion launched in February 2022.
In January, Donald Trump froze all US foreign assistance programs pending a review of their alignment with his “America first” policies, and ordered the dismantling of USAID, which stopped disbursing funds in July.
As part of this decision, Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” oversaw the termination of 83% of USAID programs, including some that supported Ukraine.
The watchdogs’ report said that USAID managed $30.2bn in direct support for the Ukrainian government’s budget, and provided a guarantee that secured a $20bn loan for Kyiv.
It said that in the three months ending 31 June, 25 civilian aid programs for Ukraine were terminated, while 29 active programs, five under stop-work orders and four of unknown status were transferred to the state department.
The terminated programs included contracts with third parties that provided independent tracking of USAID funds to ensure that they were spent as intended and that helped “inform both current and future decision-making”, it said.
“USAID said that without independent monitoring, it cannot verify that programs are being implemented in line with award terms, increasing the risk of waste, fraud and abuse,” the report said.
This is especially true in conflict-affected areas “where there is a heightened potential for diversion of funds”, it warned.
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Updated at 17.43 BST
White House defends federal takeover of police in Washington
A federal judge will hold a hearing today on the lawsuit filed by the DC government – challenging the Trump administration’s federal takeover of the DC, including Pam Bondi’s move to install the DEA chief Terry Cole as “emergency police commissioner”. Judge Ana Reyes will hold today’s hearing at 2pm ET.
In response to the lawsuit, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said the following in a statement to the Guardian:
The Trump Administration has the lawful authority to assert control over the D.C. Police, which is necessary due to the emergency that has arisen in our Nation’s Capital as a result of failed leadership. The Democrats’ efforts to stifle this tremendous progress are par for the course for the Defund the Police, Criminals-First Democrat Party.
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Updated at 17.17 BST