A groundswell of voices have come to the same conclusion: Kristi Noem must go. Democratic Party leaders, top advocacy organizations and even some of the most centrist lawmakers in Congress are calling for the Homeland Security secretary to step aside after the shooting deaths in Minneapolis of two people who protested deportation policy. It's a defining moment in her tenure at the department. Few Republicans are rising to Noem's defense. House Democratic leaders said she should be fired or face impeachment proceedings. But President Donald Trump gave no indication Noem's job is in jeopardy. He praised Noem for helping close the U.S. border to illegal entries.
By MARY CLARE JALONICK and KEVIN FREKING Associated Press
A partial government shutdown is looming at week's end. And now Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has laid out a list of demands for the Department of Homeland Security as the Senate heads toward a crucial Thursday vote on whether to move forward with the spending legislation that funds DHS and a swath of other government agencies. Schumer says Democrats are asking the White House for an enforceable code of conduct for federal agents conducting immigration arrests and a requirement that they identify themselves to the public. Republicans will need Democratic votes to keep the government open when funding runs out at midnight Friday.
President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown has contributed to a year-to-year drop in the U.S. growth rate as the nation's population hit nearly 342 million people in 2025. That's according to population estimates released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The 0.5% growth rate for 2025 was a sharp drop from 2024's almost 1% growth rate, which was the highest since 2001 and was fueled by immigration. The 2024 estimates put the U.S. population at 340 million people. Immigration increased by 1.3 million people last year, compared with 2024's increase of 2.8 million people. Trump made a surge of migrants at the southern border a central issue in his winning 2024 Republican presidential campaign.
On Jan. 23, 1870, approximately 200 Piegan Blackfoot tribe members, mostly women, children and older adults, were killed by U.S. Army troops under the command of Major Eugene Mortimer Baker in Montana, in what became known as the Baker Massacre.
Some of Donald Trump's handpicked appointees who have a say in his White House ballroom project are asking questions about design and scale, even as they broadly endorsed the president's vision for a massive expansion. Members of the Commission on Fine Arts asked the project's lead architect on Thursday to come back to them with 3D scale models of the White House complex including the proposed addition, and to include the Treasury Department and Eisenhower office buildings that flank the White House. Separately, historic preservationists are challenging the project in federal court.
A House committee has advanced resolutions to hold former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress over the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. The Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee approved the contempt of Congress charges in bipartisan votes. It sets up a potential vote in the House. Democrats were split on the measures. A number of progressive lawmakers called for full transparency in the Epstein investigation even if it meant threatening a former Democratic president if he refuses to testify.
President Donald Trump on Friday said he would like to keep his top economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, at the White House rather than potentially nominate him to replace Jerome Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve. Trump's comments, while not clearly definitive, have upended expectations around the extensive search the White House has undergone to find a new Fed chair, one of the most powerful financial positions in the world. The president's remarks have boosted the prospects for Kevin Warsh, a former Fed governor and already a top contender for the position.
