The Latest: Judge orders Trump to end California National Guard deployment in Los Angeles

California argued that the president was using Guard members as his personal police force in violation of a law limiting the use of the military in domestic affairs. The administration said courts could not second-guess the president’s decision that violence during the protests made it impossible for him to execute U.S. laws with regular forces and reflected a rebellion, or danger of rebellion.

The Latest:

Trump says US seized oil tanker off coast of Venezuela

The president told reporters about the seizure as he appeared at an unrelated White House roundtable Wednesday afternoon.

He did not immediately offer additional details.

The announcement comes as the administration has undertaken a large military buildup and a series of deadly strikes on boats that it has alleged are carrying drugs in the Caribbean.

What would the Miami mayor-elect tell Trump?

Democrat Eileen Higgins’ victory in Miami’s mayoral election deals a blow to Trump.

The Republican president has appeared dismissive on economic worries, blaming Democrats for using the term “affordability” as a “hoax.” Higgins said she would tell Trump to “think deeply” and that the concerns are real.

Higgins has been very critical of Trump on immigration and is vowing to look at legal options to end an agreement between city police and federal immigration agents.

▶ Read more on what Higgins’ win means for Trump.

The New York Times says it won’t be deterred from writing about Trump’s health

The Times has done a handful of stories on that topic recently, including an opinion column that said Trump is “starting to give President Joe Biden vibes.”

In a Truth Social post, Trump said it might be treasonous for outlets like the Times to do “FAKE” reports about his health and “we should do something about it.”

The news outlet said Wednesday it won’t be deterred by Trump’s “false and inflammatory language” from writing about the 79-year-old president’s health.

▶ Read more about The Times and Trump

Oil companies offer $278M for Gulf drilling rights

It’s the first offshore lease sale in the region since 2023.

Wednesday’s Department of Interior auction was the first of 30 sales planned for the Gulf under Republican efforts to ramp up U.S. fossil fuel production.

The sale came after the Trump administration announced plans to allow new drilling off Florida and California for the first time in decades, drawing pushback including from Republicans worried about impacts on tourism.

Wednesday’s sale was mandated by the sweeping tax-and-spending bill approved by Republicans over the summer.

Thirty companies submitted bids, including industry giants Chevron, Shell and BP.

Bove faces judicial ethics complaint over attending Trump’s Pennsylvania speech

Judge Emil Bove’s attendance at Trump’s speech Tuesday in Pennsylvania violated the federal Code of Judicial Conduct, a courts ethics watchdog said in a complaint filed Wednesday.

Gabe Roth, executive director of Fix the Court, said in the complaint that Bove’s presence at the event that included charged partisan attacks violated the code’s admonitions to judges to refrain from political activity and avoid even the appearance of impropriety.

“It should have been obvious to Judge Bove, either at the start of the rally or fairly close to it, that this was a highly charged, highly political event that no federal judge should have been within shouting distance of,” Roth’s complaint said.

Trump appointed Bove, the president’s former lawyer, to a lifetime seat on the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The complaint was filed with the 3rd Circuit’s judicial council.

Fed cuts key interest rate but signals higher bar for future reductions

The move that could attract ire from Trump, who has demanded steep reductions to borrowing costs.

In a set of quarterly economic projections, Fed officials signaled they expect to lower rates just once next year.

Wednesday’s cut reduced the rate to about 3.6%, the lowest it has been in nearly three years.

Miami mayor-elect calls anti-immigrant rhetoric ‘distressing’

Democrat Eileen Higgins won the Miami mayor’s race on Tuesday, defeating a Republican endorsed by President Donald Trump to end her party’s nearly three-decade losing streak and give Democrats a boost in one of the last electoral battles ahead of the 2026 midterms.

In a briefing the day after her historic win as the first woman elected mayor of the south Florida metropolis, Eileen Higgins decried elected officials’ use of “language that is demeaning, that is cruel, that is disrespectful about the people who live in the city of Miami.”

She also called Miami “the tip of the spear of the affordability crisis in America.”

Campaigning as a Democrat in the officially nonpartisan race, Higgins on Tuesday defeated a Republican endorsed by Trump, ending Democrats’ nearly three-decade losing streak leading the Hispanic-majority city. Higgins said she has heard of many people in Miami who were worried about family members being detained.

UK, Australia are ‘full steam ahead’ on submarine deal with US

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has kicked off a series of meetings with British and Australian counterparts in Washington that are aimed at moving forward with the large nuclear submarine building and technology sharing pact between the three nations known as known as AUKUS.

Ahead of the meetings, the British defense minister said he’s “all in” following a U.S. review of the deal.

“Those reviews are now done,” U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey told reporters Wednesday. He added that “all three of us are now determined to reboot AUKUS with a new commitment and a new determination in particular to deliver.”

The deal was originally inked in 2021. The Pentagon recently determined that the agreement was in the U.S. national security interest.

It includes the sale of three U.S.-built nuclear-powered submarines to Australia starting in 2032.

Crockett running for Senate is ‘greatest’ thing for GOP, Speaker Johnson says

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., talks to reporters outside his office in the Capitol, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

“I’m absolutely delighted that Jasmine Crockett is running for Senate in Texas,” Johnson said, eagerly rubbing his hands together.

The House GOP speaker called the liberal firebrand “the face of the Democratic Party,” and compared Crockett to New York’s new mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.

“Good luck with that,” he said. “What Jasmine is trying to sell will not be purchased by the folks in Texas, that is my prediction.”

He said, “I want her to have the largest, loudest microphone that she can every single day,” he said, “and we look forward to having that election down there.”

Speaker Mike Johnson has yet to see boat strike video

The Republican speaker said he missed the classified briefing with Hegseth and Rubio this week because he was working with House GOP lawmakers on their emerging health care proposals.

Johnson would not say if the video should be widely released, in part because he said he had not viewed it.

“We’ll see,” he said.

Because of his timing conflict with the classified briefing, he said Hegseth and Rubio would meet with him separately at a later date.

US secretary of state rules out ‘woke’ Calibri font

Marco Rubio has ordered that all diplomatic correspondence must return to the more traditional Times New Roman font.

It reverses a Biden-era shift to the less formal typeface that Rubio said was wasteful, confusing and unbefitting the dignity of official U.S. government documents.

His cable sent to all U.S. embassies and consulates Tuesday said the 2023 shift to the sans serif Calibri font was the result of misguided diversity, equity and inclusion policies pursued by his predecessor, Antony Blinken. Rubio’s cable, obtained by The Associated Press, said Blinken’s switch “was promised to mitigate accessibility issues for individuals with disabilities.”

It says the change had cost the department $145,000 but offered no supporting evidence. The cable was first reported by The New York Times.

Vance to speak about affordability in Pennsylvania next week

The vice president is expected to give a speech in Allentown in the vein of Trump’s remarks Tuesday night to focus on the economy and assure voters that the administration is working to address inflation, according to his office.

On the road in Pennsylvania, Trump tried to emphasize his focus on combating inflation, yet the issue that has damaged his popularity couldn’t quite command his full attention. He meandered during his remarks, asking why the U.S. couldn’t take in more immigrants from Scandinavia and using an expletive to describe countries such as Haiti and Somalia.

Budget office puts cost of health subsidy extension at nearly $83 billion over 10 years

A three-year extension of expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits would increase federal deficits by nearly $83 billion over the next decade, according to a new estimate from the Congressional Budget Office.

The Senate will vote on competing health plans on Thursday. The three-year extension of the subsidy is being pitched by Senate Democrats, but it is not expected to pass.

The CBO also estimates that enacting the Democratic plan would increase the number of people with health insurance by about 400,000 next year, 3 million in 2027 and 4 million in 2028.

Gross premiums, the amount consumers would pay before a tax credit is applied, have already been set for 2026. But CBO says they would fall by 5.7% in 2027 and 9% in 2028, because people who enroll in ACA plans would be healthier than they would be without the extension.

Judge orders Trump to end California National Guard troop deployment in Los Angeles

The Trump administration must return control of the troops to the state, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco ruled Wednesday.

Breyer granted a preliminary injunction against Trump’s extraordinary move to use state Guard troops without the governor’s approval. He put the decision on hold until Monday.

California argued that conditions in Los Angeles had changed since Trump first took command of the troops and deployed them in June. The administration initially called up more than 4,000 California National Guard troops. By late October, only a 100 or so remained in the Los Angeles area. Justice Department lawyers said they are still needed to protect federal personnel and property.

The Republican administration extended the deployment until February while also trying to use California Guard members in Portland, Oregon.

3rd judge grants Justice Department request to unseal records from Epstein’s 2019 sex trafficking case

Secret grand jury transcripts from Jeffrey Epstein’s 2019 sex trafficking case can be made public, a judge ruled Wednesday, joining two other judges in granting the requests involving investigations into the late financier’s sexual abuse.

U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman reversed his earlier decision, citing a new law that requires the government to open its files on Epstein and his longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell. The judge previously cautioned that the 70 or so pages of grand jury materials slated for release are hardly revelatory.

Different judges ordered the release of records from Maxwell’s 2021 sex trafficking case and from an abandoned Epstein federal grand jury investigation in the 2000s.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act Trump signed last month created a narrow exception to rules that normally keep grand jury proceedings confidential.

Kamala Harris shifting focus of 2026 tour to the future in latest sign she could run for president again

According to a Harris aide, the 2024 Democratic nominee’s national tour will not focus as heavily on her defeat to Trump and her resulting campaign memoir, “107 Days.” Instead, Harris will talk about the state of the country, what she’s heard from voters during the first leg of her book tour and future solutions to national problems.

The shift could fuel speculation about her 2028 presidential ambitions. Harris announced 15 tour stops beginning Jan. 13 in New Orleans and continuing through March 3 in her hometown of Oakland, California.

That’s where she announced her unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 2019. She dropped out before nominating contests began but Joe Biden tapped her as his running mate in 2020, and she was elected as the first woman to hold national office.

Michigan Democrat introduces impeachment articles against RFK Jr.

Rep. Haley Stevens said in a video posted on X Wednesday that the Health and Human Services secretary “has got to go.”

Stevens, who is running for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat, calls Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “the biggest, self-created threat to our health and safety,” citing “skyrocketing” health care costs and the “gutting” of research.

Stevens, who represents a suburban Detroit district, is part of House Democrats’ 2019 freshman class that flipped dozens of Republican-held seats to deliver a Democratic majority that reshaped Trump’s first presidency, including twice impeaching him.

Narrowly defeating her opponent in 2020, she cruised to reelection in 2022 and 2024 after her district was redrawn and became more favorable to Democrats.

Soccer peace prize for Trump triggers complaints about FIFA president to ethics investigators

FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s public support for Trump and a peace prize awarded to the U.S. president are the subjects of formal complaints to the global soccer body’s ethics investigators.

FairSquare, a London-based human rights nonprofit, said Tuesday it filed requests for investigations into Infantino’s alleged breaches of FIFA’s statutory duty to be politically neutral. FIFA said its ethics committee does not comment on potential ongoing cases, and could not confirm receiving the complaint.

FIFA’s ethics code calls for a ban from soccer of up to two years for violating the duty of neutrality. But it’s unclear if FIFA’s current ethics investigators and judges will take up the case — they’re seen by some observers to operate with less independence than their predecessors a decade ago when then-president Sepp Blatter was removed from office.

▶ Read more about the FIFA leader and Trump

Mamdani ally launches primary bid against Democratic House incumbent

The outgoing comptroller of New York City is challenging U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman in a Democratic primary for a liberal district in lower Manhattan and northwest Brooklyn.

Brad Lander, a progressive ally of Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, in a video and social media posts promised Wednesday to offer “courageous leadership in the face of Donald Trump’s attacks on New Yorkers.”

Lander scheduled a public speech about his campaign Wednesday evening near his home in Brooklyn. He’s been eyeing a challenge to Goldman since he lost the Democratic mayoral primary to Mamdani this summer.

Lander and Mamdani endorsed one another during the mayoral primary in an effort, as part of the city’s ranked choice voting system, to join forces against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who at the time was the front-runner.

Texas Senate race shows Democrats split on Trump in midterms

A Dallas congresswoman opened her Senate campaign by telling voters that she “has gone toe to toe with Donald Trump.” Her Democratic primary opponent insisted that Americans are tired of “politics as a blood sport.”

The divergent approach highlights how U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett and state Rep. James Talarico are navigating a race where Democrats hope to break a three-decade losing streak in Texas. It also reflects a broader divide within the party, with some candidates continuing to focus on Trump while others barely mention his name.

Figuring out the best approach will be critical for Democrats who are seeking control of Congress next year and already maneuvering for the 2028 presidential race.

▶ Read more about how Trump features in races around the country.

Federal Reserve likely to cut rates as Trump eyes a new chair

The bigger question for financial markets and the economy is what Chair Jerome Powell may signal Wednesday regarding the central bank’s next steps.

This would be the third cut in a row and bring the Fed’s key rate to about 3.6%, the lowest in nearly three years. For Americans struggling with high borrowing costs for homes, cars, and other large purchases, rate cuts could reduce those costs over time — though it’s not guaranteed.

This week’s meeting could presage a much cloudier path ahead. The government shutdown delayed two months of jobs and inflation data, leaving the Fed with much less information on hiring and inflation. And with Powell’s term as chair ending in May, Trump will nominate a replacement, possibly as soon as this month, who will almost certainly push for lower borrowing costs.

Elon Musk says he would not lead DOGE again

The mega billionaire says the overall effort was only “somewhat successful.”

Musk made his comments to Katie Miller, a conservative operative who works for Musk and is married to Trump adviser Stephen Miller.

“I don’t think so,” Musk said when she asked on her podcast whether he’d restart the now-shuttered Department of Government Efficiency. Musk said DOGE identified billions in “zombie payments” but wasn’t able to enact his promised sweeping reduction of the federal footprint.

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO, who also owns X, said he’d focus on business instead. Musk acknowledged that his businesses, especially Tesla, faced backlash because of DOGE’s unpopularity.

Things turned in his favor after he left the Trump administration. Tesla shareholders approved a pay package that could make Musk the world’s first trillionaire.

Democrats add House seats to their 2026 target list

Emboldened by recent elections, Democrats are adding more Republican-held House districts to 2026 midterm target list.

Several additions result from recent gerrymandering by state legislatures: Republican Darrell Issa’s California district, North Carolina seats held by Republicans Greg Murphy and Chuck Edwards, and a newly drawn open seat in Texas.

Sacramento Democrats redrew Issa’s seat to their favor. Murphy’s and Edwards’ districts also became less solidly Republican when GOP lawmakers in Raleigh strengthened Republican chances elsewhere. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also added Florida Republican Laurel Lee’s district.

Trump won there and in the newly added Texas seat by double digits in 2024, but Democrats note that in elections across the country this year, their candidates made double-digit gains compared to the presidential election.

Democrat wins by huge margin over Trump-endorsed candidate for Miami mayor

Voters elected Eileen Higgins by a margin of about 19 percentage points on Tuesday, defeating a Republican endorsed by President Donald Trump to end her party’s nearly three-decade losing streak and give Democrats a boost in one of the last electoral battles ahead of the 2026 midterms.

“We are facing rhetoric from elected officials that is so dehumanizing and cruel, especially against immigrant populations,” Higgins told The Associated Press after her victory speech in the Hispanic-majority city that may become the home of Trump’s presidential library. “The residents of Miami were ready to be done with that.”

The victory provides Democrats with some momentum as the GOP looks to keep its grip in Florida. “Tonight’s result is yet another warning sign to Republicans that voters are fed up with their out-of-touch agenda that is raising costs,” Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin said in a statement.