Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem denied the indisputable fact that U.S. Citizens had been "arrested or detained" as part of President Donald Trump's deportation operations.
During a Thursday press conference in Indiana, Noem insisted that ICE agents carrying out deportations would "continue to operate and will continue to do this work until there is no longer anybody out on our roads and in our communities that's here illegally."
When pressed about the detention of U.S. Citizens, the secretary flatly made a false statement.
"There's no American citizens have been arrested or detained," she said. "We focus on those that are here illegally. And anything that you would hear or report that would be different than that is simply not true and false reporting."
Earlier this month, ProPublica found more than 170 cases of U.S. citizens being detained during raids and protests this year.
"About two dozen Americans have said they were held for more than a day without being able to phone lawyers or loved ones," the outlet noted. "While the tally is almost certainly incomplete, we found more than 170 such incidents during the first nine months of President Donald Trump's second administration."
Many more reports have documented the arrest of Americans, with many describing their experiences.
DHS does not track how many U.S. citizens are held by immigration agents.
Democratic governors are quietly sharing worries that President Donald Trump intends to disrupt next year's congressional elections, according to a political insider.
The president told U.S. troops this week that he was prepared to send "more than the National Guard" into American cities as he escalates a confrontation with Democratic-led local governments, and MSNBC's John Heilemann told "Morning Joe" that high-ranking officials are growing concerned about whether free and fair elections would take place in 2026.
"Trump has essentially taken theattitude and pursued policiesin line with the attitude of, 'I'm the president, I can dowhatever I want," Heilemann said. "You know, we've talked foryears about the expandingpurview of executive power in America, but Trump is so far atthe extreme of that.This is clearly one of the largest areas where that's the case."
"Youknow, when Trump decided tonationalize the National Guard, to federalizethe National Guard in California, in Los Angeles, thefirst of these moves, it was the first time that a president had overridden the wishes of a governor ofa state since back in the civil rights era, when troops were federalized totry to integrate some of theschools in Alabama and otherstates in the South. So there is a not in our lifetimes precedent for this, and Trump has not just done it once, but is now doing it pretty much everywhere."
Those aggressive moves against Democratic-led states and cities have provoked some dark fears among the president's political opponents, Heilemann said.
"That is raising the specter you're talkingabout, which is, in the medium term, is this part of a strategyto try to steal, effectively,or at least put your thumb very,very firmly on the scale of the 2026 midtermelections, but also with thenormalization project," Heilemann said. "We're not even a year in, andwe've had multiple cities wherewe've seen this happen.
"In thecourse of the next three years, is the longer term objective to getto a place where troops on American streets havebecome so normalized that not only have the 2026 midterms been affected, butthat the 2028 presidentialelection could be affected,with Trump basically saying, 'Thewhole country is in a state ofemergency and I'm going todeclare martial law and nothave the 2028 presidentialelection.'"
"That is the fear of alot of people in theprogressive camp, that this is where it's going," he added, "and I don't mean just wild-eyedprogressives, I mean a lot of Democratic governors arealready starting to whisperthat and say that to reporters,that that's where they thinkthis is really headed over thecourse of the next three years."
Host Jonathan Lemire said he's been hearing the same concerns in his own reporting.
"That sentiment is outthere, a terrifying one, and onethat will be worth obviouslykeeping an eye on in the months and years ahead," Lemire said.
Whoopi Goldberg said she caught herself before dropping a swear word live during "The View" on Thursday.
The co-hosts were discussing their upcoming interview with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), an extreme conservative who has shocked by recently landing on the left side of issues like food security and affordable healthcare.
They showed a clip of another conservative, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) echoing Democratic sentiment that "no child should go to bed hungry."
"People in Washington are starting to say, 'My constituents,'" said Goldberg about lawmakers. "They're starting to remember why they're there. Because you don't get there without people putting you there and remembering that those same people can pull you out of there."
"I don't know how many things we agree on, but I know the one thing that she and I and all of us at this table agree on is this should not be affecting the American people. These are decisions that you don't have the right to .... up," Goldberg said, mouthing a word that can't be broadcast while partially covering her mouth.
After the commercial break, Goldberg immediately addressed the non-comment after a major response online and phone.
"Just so we're all clear, our people just got a call saying, 'Whoopi just said a bad word! Do you have a comment?' I didn't say the bad word. I did not say it," Goldberg said, coming back from a commercial.
"She just thought it," Joy Behar quipped.
"Oh, yes, I did," Goldberg admitted. "I know you're waiting for something to happen. Could you just watch the show? I'd appreciate if you'd just watch the show and then you'll know what really went on and do play it back the 50 times that you're going to do. Let's be realistic."
"The complaint came from a viewer?" Behar asked.
"No, from our fans who sit and wait for something to report on the. So I just have to clean that up for them," Goldberg said.
MAGA influencer Katie Miller, the wife of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, suggested that President Donald Trump's government could deport progressive pundit Cenk Uygur after she became frustrated with him during a television debate.
On Wednesday's episode of Piers Morgan Uncensored, host Morgan noted that Israel had recently responded to the death of an IDF soldier after Palestinians allegedly violated a ceasefire agreement.
"They murdered children because one of their SS soldiers was killed!" Uygur said. "And it wasn't even by Hamas. Are you kidding me, Piers? They're occupying 53% of Gaza right now. So shouldn't they get the hell out of Gaza? So one of their SS soldiers was killed, and we're supposed to shed a tear for the occupiers? In reality, they murdered 46 children! They murdered 46 children today, Piers!"
"Yeah, but you know what, Cenk, when you call the IDF SS soldiers and you compare them directly to the Nazis and you know they're Jewish, I'm not Jewish and I find that horrible," Morgan replied.
"So Israel does not get a pass on committing another genocide because Jewish people suffered the Holocaust," Uygur insisted. "What happened in the Holocaust was disgusting. It was horrible."
"You better check your citizenship application and make sure everything is correct!" Miller chimed in, suggesting Uygur could be deported. "Because you'll be just like Ilhan Omar."
"That does not mean that Israel, pretending to represent Jews across the world, gets to commit another genocide upon a totally innocent people," Uygur said.
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough bashed President Donald Trump's administration for carrying out a series of military strikes on alleged drug smuggling boats near Venezuela.
The U.S. military has killed at least 60 people in the strikes over the past two months as Trump pressures Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who the administration claims is illegitimate and the leader of a drug-trafficking organization, and the "Morning Joe" host accused them of "lying" about the situation.
"It's bizarre," Scarborough said. "I mean, you look at where the drugs are coming in from Central and South America, the vast number of them are not coming from Venezuela. The suggestion that you're going to stop fentanyl trafficking and the trafficking of cocaine and other drugs by blowing up boats off the coast of Venezuela is just complete lunacy and everybody knows it."
"Democrats and Republicans alike know they're lying," he added. "This isn't about a drug war."
Washington Post columnist David Ignatius compared the administration's posture to the 1823 foreign policy doctrine established by President James Monroe declaring that North and South America should be free from European influence.
"This is about flexing yourmuscles in your own hemisphere," Ignatius said.
"The Wall Street Journalcleverly described this as the'Donroe Doctrine,' playing offthe Monroe Doctrine, whichasserted that the thishemisphere, North and South America is our space andnobody's allowed to to infringeon it, and Trump, as in somany other ways, seems to bemoving back to the 19th century, and those definitions ofAmerican foreignpolicy at a time when U.S.interests are so clearlythreatened in Europe by a veryaggressive advancing Russia,and in Asia by by a growing Chinese threat. All this focuson Central, Latin America isjust hard to understand."
President Donald Trump is "on shaky ground" with a key part of his base because he's failed to deliver on two big promises during his second term, according to a pollster.
John Della Volpe, Polling Director at the Harvard Kennedy School, discussed Trump's recent polling among young men, who were a key part of his winning coalition in 2024, on a new episode of "The Daily Beast Podcast." Volpe said that Trump's failures to reduce the cost of living and his mishandling of the Jeffrey Epstein files have caused his support among this key demographic to suffer.
"As much work as I think Democrats have to do, Republicans are on shaky ground with young people, with younger men," Volpe said. "And what we all need to appreciate is that the voters in 2028 and many of the voters in 2026 weren't part of the 2024 election."
"Those voters came of age during the Biden term," he continued. "The post-COVID effect, isolation, loneliness, inflation, a feeling that America was weaker, not stronger."
"So that was what younger men and many younger women brought into the electorate," he added. "That's a lot of how they made their decisions based upon that reaction. Well, today's high school students, young college students, young people in the workforce, their political identity is being developed through the first year of the Trump 2.0 term, and mostly all of it is negative.
Former GOP analyst Tim Miller, host of "The Bulwark Podcast," threw Rep. Nancy Mace's (R-SC) own words back at her on Wednesday after she made a series of statements on social media about her support for gay marriage.
On Tuesday, Mace tweeted, "Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve," a popular refrain from the religious right that belittles gay marriage. Her post earned a Community Note on X, which provided examples of when Mace previously voted in favor of protecting gay marriage.
Miller threw a few more of Mace's words back at her during a new episode of "Bulwark Takes" on Wednesday.
"This is a deeply sad woman just looking for attention," Miller said.
He then went through a short montage of Mace's previous posts on X where she claimed to support gay rights. For instance, a post from 2021 reads, "I support LGBTQ rights. Nobody should be discriminated against."
"Religious liberty, gay rights, and transgender equality can all coexist," Mace's post added.
"At this point, she's even pro-trans," Miller said. " Noting also it's 2021, so Biden is president. This is not during the Romney campaign, and this is after Trump 1.0, and she is talking about how she wants dignity for everybody, trans, gays, straights, and religious people."
Miller also displayed a tweet where Mace shared a South Carolina Pride flag.
He also noted that Mace's tone about marriage began to change after one of her friends got divorced. That was when she became more self-deprecating about marriage, having been through two divorces herself, Miller noted.
"That's Nancy's trajectory from 'Equality for everybody, miss pride, love trans people,' to 'Go ahead and get married if you want, gays, it's miserable.'" Miller said.
President Donald Trump's polling has fallen into the 30s amid a series of government crises and unpopular decisions, hitting a new low for his second term — but there is still a key factor he has that many other presidents with similar popularity crashes did not, former GOP speechwriter Tim Miller told MSNBC's Chris Hayes on Wednesday.
This comes despite constant GOP taunts of Trump possibly running for an illegal third term, something that Miller argued is far from a sign of strength.
"Part of the kind of Jedi mind trick about a third term is a kind of projection, so that that never enters anyone's head," said Hayes. "Like, oh, there might be a day after this kind of political thing. There might be a battle for who succeeds him. It does seem to me they've been successful so far, but I do wonder how long they can stave that off."
"I do think that this whole third-term talk is a sign of his utter weakness, right?" said Miller. "This idea that, like, even that it would be plausible that they would think that their best option would be an 83-year-old king in four years, it just shows a lack of confidence about who might replace him and whether they can keep the coalition together."
"I think the thing that protects him from lame-duckism, and the thing that protects him from these Republicans abandoning him ... is that unlike other presidents at 39 percent, like, his poll numbers are not dropping equally across the board," Miller continued. "You know, when George W. Bush's numbers dropped, you know, after Katrina and the Iraq War started to go bad. Republicans, independents, Democrats ... were kind of going down on him equally. That is not the case now, right? Like, Trump is still at 90 percent with Republicans. And it's just his Democratic approval rating is two, and the independent rating is dropping to 40, to 30, right?"
"And so as long as the Republican number is 90, these Republicans aren't going to move, right?" he added. "And that number is not going to change. And the lame-duckism won't come into play unless there's real material harm done to them. And we're seeing some of that in farm country and elsewhere. But I just think that that's — I think that's the one thing that's protecting him from just total weakness at this point."
Vice President JD Vance hinted that a student's girlfriend ought to be deported unless she meets certain criteria during a speaking engagement at the University of Mississippi on Wednesday.
Vance spoke at a Turning Point USA rally on Ole Miss' campus. During a question-and-answer segment, one student asked about Vance's views on legal immigration and a merit-based immigration system. The student also mentioned that his girlfriend is a legal immigrant studying at the school who wants a green card.
"My honest view is that right now America, thanks in part to the Biden border invasion and in part to bad immigration policies, but right now we have let in too many immigrants to the United States," Vance said. "That is just a fundamental reality."
"You asked about your girlfriend, and I don't know the full details of your situation, but my view is that there are people who want to come to the United States and enrich America, but we have got to get our overall numbers way down," Vance said. "I am married to the daughter of immigrants...I do believe that some immigrants can come here and enrich America."
"But, here's the problem. We don't even know how many illegal aliens we have," Vance said. "I've heard estimates as high as 50 million. When something like that happens, you have to let your society cohere a little bit and find a sense of identity, for all the newcomers to assimilate into American culture. Until you do that, you have to be careful about any additional immigration."
“Job gains have slowed this year, and the unemployment rate has edged up but remained low through August,” the US central bank said in a statement about the Federal Open Market Committee cutting the benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 3.75-4%, its lowest level in three years. “Inflation has moved up since earlier in the year and remains somewhat elevated.”
When the Fed slashed the federal funds rate last month, economist Alex Jacquez warned that it would “do little to address” the “economic turmoil” created by President Donald Trump. On Wednesday, the former Obama administration official, who is now chief of policy and advocacy at the think tank Groundwork Collaborative, again took aim at the US leader.
“The Fed’s decision only confirms what Americans already know—the economy is slowing, job growth has stalled, prices keep climbing, and consumers are pulling back because they’re out of options,” Jacquez said in a statement. “Trump’s reckless economic agenda is pushing our economy to the brink, and working families are paying the price.”
Another rate cut in December is not guaranteed, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday after officials delivered their second consecutive interest-rate reduction to support a softening labor market https://t.co/sDBXPJywogpic.twitter.com/JFBu6ewzRB — Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) October 29, 2025
US HouseBudget Committee Ranking Member Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.) similarly said in a Wednesday statement that “today’s rate cut is yet another warning sign about the sorry state of Donald Trump’s economy.”
“Nearly half of all states are now in or near recession, inflation is climbing, and the labor market is losing strength,” Boyle noted. “This is all a direct result of Trump’s reckless tariff taxes and his chaotic economic agenda.”
“At the same time, working families are facing the largest spike in health insurance premiums in our nation’s history,” he stressed. “I’ll keep fighting to lower costs, protect affordable healthcare, and make sure every American has access to a good-paying job.”
“While he is not in the room to vote on Fed interest rates, President Trump’s shadow looms large over the Federal Reserve and many members seem eager to please him,” Chopra said. “While Gov. Lisa Cook is fighting back, markets seem to understand that the Fed’s decision-making will be heavily shaped by the whims of the White House.”
Trump is trying to oust Cook from the Fed’s Board of Governors, which her lawyers call “unprecedented and illegal.” The US Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in her case in January; in the meantime, earlier this month, the justices allowed her to remain in her post.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' decision to intervene in a case concerning President Donald Trump's efforts to deploy federal troops to Portland, Oregon, stunned one legal analyst on Wednesday.
Adam Klasfeld, editor-in-chief of All Rise News, discussed the court's decision to review the case en banc with progressive YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen during a podcast interview on Wednesday. The decision effectively halts the troop deployment because the litigation remains ongoing.
"It's an extraordinary action," Klasfled said. "For the full court, for an en banc court to intervene at this stage means that they think that the original panel was so misguided that they had to intervene at this stage. And it comes right after Trump's DOJ had to admit in an embarrassing two-page letter that the statistics they cited in order to justify sending the troops to Portland were entirely bogus."
Trump deployed troops to Portland earlier this month under the guise that the city had become a "war zone." The state sued the administration, and a district court judge issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the deployment. A three-judge panel overturned that order on Oct. 20.
However, Klasfeld said the administration had to walk back some of the claims it made while under oath.
"Courts don't like to be misled," Klasfeld said. "And here the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the entire en banc bench, intervened immediately and said, 'We're going to reinstate the federal judge's order.' And that's probably why we're at the stage we are right now."
MAGA influencer Candace Owens called out President Donald Trump on Wednesday because of the president's seeming disinterest in keeping the public informed about the investigation into conservative activist Charlie Kirk's killing in September.
Owens discussed the administration's "silence" about the investigation during a new episode of her podcast, "Candace." She blamed the influence of the "pro-Israel lobby" for keeping the investigation under wraps.
"I knew spiritually, from the moment Charlie Kirk passed, that we were never going to get the full story from officials," Owens said. "I can't explain it. I felt that way. And then when Trump rushed to Truth Social-out that AI-generated photo of him and Charlie with the Star of David in the background, I just knew. I knew the investigation into who murdered Charlie Kirk was 'officially' over."
"Find me just one person with a platform who is pro-Israel who says 'I want the investigation into [Kirk's] death to continue,'" Owens continued. "It's a bit weird, right?" Dogs, very silent right now. And there's a steak on the ground, and they're not moving."
Owens added that Trump's decision to declare a national day of remembrance for Kirk was another sign that the government "is not trying to solve what happened here."
"I think it's crap," Owens said. "It's never good when the feds are lining up to give you a holiday. Martin Luther King, Jr. vibes. I definitely think the feds killed Martin Luther King Jr... I don't like it. The best way to honor Charlie Kirk is to figure out who killed him."
A House Republican stammered Wednesday when he was confronted with a Republican's remarks undercutting President Donald Trump's claim about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, as the program is just days away from losing funding amid the ongoing government shutdown.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper was interviewing Rep. John Rose (R-TN) when the GOP lawmaker paused to try and respond to a question about how Congress could extend the multibillion-dollar pool used for emergencies to fund SNAP, including government shutdowns.
Tapper had just wrapped an interview with Sariya Birdine, a Tennessee food stamp recipient, when he asked Rose his reaction.
"Her basic take is not to assign partisan blame," Tapper said. "It's just you and your colleagues are paid to solve these problems and make sure that they're not. People like her kids are not pawns in this fight."
"Twenty-nine days — for 29 days, Republicans in the Senate have kept the government shut down. And it's really deplorable to see them using people like Mrs. Birdine as pawns, if you will, or leverage as the Democrats refer to it, to try to get what they want. And, you know, we know that Republicans, with the help of one Democrat in the House, passed a bill to keep the government open 40 days ago. And unfortunately, Chuck Schumer decided that a shutdown made sense for Democrats. And he's played this game. Using the American people as fodder to accomplish what he wants to accomplish politically. And it's really shameful."
Tapper referred to the $6 billion contingency fund under the Department of Agriculture that the Trump administration said could be accessed — until Sept. 30 — but now they say those funds aren't for that.
"The top Senate Appropriations Republican Susan Collins, says her team's analysis is that the Department of Agriculture can use that fund. Shouldn't you support using that contingency fund to pay for SNAP? So kids like Sariya's that we just heard from don't go hungry?" Tapper asked.
"Well, that — that certainly seems tempting, but the — the fund $5.6 billion is not nearly enough to cover the cost in the short run," Rose responded, stumbling before blaming Democrats again.
"And secondly, that fund is there for emergencies. And we have a hurricane bearing down on us now. And so if we use those funds here, then there won't be able to be used elsewhere. We see Democrats make these trade-offs all the time, where they pick winners and losers with funds like this. And so I think we have to be careful if we take something that's there for an emergency and use it when the answer is simple you know, the Senate is in Washington, you know, five or six senators could join all the Republicans and get this done and reopen the government and spare people like miss Birdine and her family, her 5-year-old and her 6-year-old from the suffering that the Democrats are using, the Schumer shutdown should end. I think they miscalculated. They need to just take stock of that. We've seen this mistake over and over in the past, and it just doesn't work to use people as leverage in these situations."
"I get that the $6 billion in contingency funding is a short-term solution," Tapper said. "Only 2 or 3 weeks worth of SNAP funds. But that means a lot to those kids. And if Sen. Susan Collins says they can use it, she's the head appropriator on this matter. She says they can use it for this. Why not just do it? We're talking about an emergency situation here of kids and seniors and disabled people and veterans being able to eat."
That's when the Republican lawmaker then pointed to the Trump administration's talking points and tried to shift blame on his opponents again — ignoring that Collins has already admitted that the funding was actually available.
"Well, my understanding is Sen. Collins may — may be right, but my understanding is that the administration made the assessment that those funds could not be used for this purpose. And more importantly, that they're — they're to make way or to provide for emergencies. And so I think, again, we need to just get back, get the Senate to get us back in business. And you know, that's — that's the easy for five or six Democrats. And then we can negotiate on these bigger questions that they want to talk about. But as long as they keep the government shut down, they're holding all of America hostage for their political, their frankly, their progressive, radical, left-wing agenda. And — and so, you know, this needs to end and they need to quit hurting everyday working Americans like Ms. Birdine."
In Rose's district, there are 76,000 SNAP benefit recipients and more than 700,000 recipients in Tennessee.
