President Donald Trump is trying to project brute strength as he turns 80, but mounting political problems at home and abroad are tarnishing his self-styled image as an all-powerful leader.

Trump will celebrate becoming an octogenarian as he hosts an extravagant, $60 million Ultimate Fighting Championship showcase on the White House South Lawn...Read more

For those of us struggling to understand today’s Republican Party, this past week’s primary elections in South Carolina offered a useful case study.

The key developments were these: Rep. Nancy Mace — a former conservative rising star who seems tailor-made for the Trump-era attention economy — finished fifth in her state’s Republican ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Old habits die hard for Republican Rep. Harold Rogers — at least when it comes to earmarks.

Known by his critics as the “Prince of Pork,” the longtime appropriator over the years earned a reputation for bringing largesse to his Kentucky district, catching criticism for funneling tens of millions in earmark money to entities...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Until the June primary for California’s 22nd Congressional District, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee seemed to place little faith in Randy Villegas’ ability to mobilize voters.

The DCCC is the U.S. House Democrats’ fundraising arm.

But by Wednesday morning, following Villegas’ victory over the ...Read more

NEW YORK — Sen. Bernie Sanders plans to headline a Brooklyn rally with Mayor Zohran Mamdani next week to boost his slate of progressive NYC congressional candidates during early voting in the Democratic primaries.

The progressive Vermont senator, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, will join Mamdani at the rally to support candidates Brad ...Read more

NEW YORK — Dan Goldman never imagined running for Congress, until he saw the threat posed by President Donald Trump’s powerful comeback from political oblivion.

The Democratic lawyer and former federal prosecutor said someone like him was needed on Capitol Hill to push back against Trump’s meteoric return to political power after he ...Read more

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to see a debate among the Republican candidates vying to replace him.

But the race’s front-runner, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, has already refused to do so. On Thursday, a campaign spokesperson said it wasn’t Donalds’ job to “legitimize campaigns that have failed to gain meaningful support.” ...Read more

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A Planned Parenthood affiliate is challenging Alaska’s ban on providing medication abortion via telehealth.

Alaska’s state constitution has been interpreted to provide sweeping protections for abortion access under its privacy clause. But a longstanding Alaska statute has been interpreted by the administration of Gov. ...Read more

WASHINGTON — As U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick’s fiercest reelection battle in years got underway in the last two months, the moderate Bucks County Republican has called to restrict President Donald Trump’s war in Iran and for prohibiting a so-called “anti-weaponization fund” that could reward the president’s allies.

He’s talked up ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Senate Armed Services Committee Republicans, in a reversal, voted this week to oppose an NDAA provision that would broaden health care coverage for military families’ fertility treatments, a Democratic senator said Thursday.

“After everything our troops sacrifice for our nation, they should never have to sacrifice their ...Read more

WASHINGTON — A bill that would stop large online platforms from discriminating against outside services has been revived in the Senate after versions in recent years died amid strong opposition from the technology industry.

Judiciary Chair Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., introduced the legislation on Wednesday in...Read more

In northern Oregon, just before dawn in October 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested and shackled two farmworkers on their way to work. The man and woman were Guatemalan citizens who spoke no English and very little Spanish. They spoke Mam, an Indigenous Mayan language.

Despite the man trying to tell an ICE ...Read more

Congress went about its business Tuesday, seemingly oblivious to the massive time bomb ticking in the corner. Will reality set in before the explosion? Voters must demand explanations.

This week, the Social Security Administration issued its annual trustees report on the fiscal state of the program. The news isn’t good. The Social Security ...Read more

ST. GEORGE, Utah — Residents from a state starving for water have become the face of local struggles against Big Tech, locked in protests against a proposed data center that at one point was set to sprawl thousands of acres larger than its infamous Bryce Canyon.

Some are looking for federal guardrails to protect against encroachment on ...Read more

Despite the growing popularity of electric vehicles, such technology continues to receive only scorn and derision from the White House and its acolytes in Congress.

The latest example can be found in a newly unveiled transportation bill that earned a stamp of approval from Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Bellingham, ranking member of the House ...Read more

WASHINGTON — When it comes to congressional earmarks, the big dogs usually eat first.

So it’s no surprise that House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., leads the pack on “community project funding” included in his panel’s fiscal 2027 spending bills, with $188.4 million.

The No. 2 House Republican, Majority Leader Steve ...Read more

In President Donald Trump’s warped worldview, all elections — not just his own — are either won or rigged. Democracy and the will of the people are irrelevant. Trump alone decides who the victor is, otherwise the election was stolen.

The newest exhibit is the fair and square defeat of Los Angeles mayoral contender Spencer Pratt, a self-...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The U.S. political class judges candidates too harshly for past bad behavior, discouraging people from running for office, Hunter Biden said in a forthcoming episode of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s podcast, “This Is Gavin Newsom.”

In a four-minute clip obtained by The Sacramento Bee, Biden referred to reports that one of ...Read more

CHICAGO — Hillary Clinton used an audience at the Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s annual convention to lash out at the Trump administration Thursday, saying Democrats must combat a “revolution to turn the clock back,” a revolution that she said is eroding the building blocks of civil and voting rights established decades ago.

Clinton, a former...Read more