Trump doubles down on Canada trade war as talks remain stalled – US politics live

Congressman James Comer said the US Department of Justice is investigating Ilhan Omar and her “entire family”.

In an interview with the rightwing podcaster Benny Johnson, the chair of the House oversight committee referenced a “discrepancy” on a financial disclosure form and said the Minnesota congresswoman was seeking “earmarks for things that would have benefited the Somali community that have already been identified in committing fraud in Minnesota”.

Omar has long been the subject of attacks and criticism from the politicians on the right, including JD Vance, who have accused the representative of immigration fraud, among other accusations. The Democrat has also frequently faced xenophobic attacks from Donald Trump.

Earlier this year a man sprayed her with vinegar as while was speaking at an event. She told the Guardian in December 2025 that she faced no death threats during Joe Biden’s presidency, but that changed when Trump returned to office.

“Now they are back up, and so there is a clear correlation between [Trump’s] presidency and the political violence that we see and the political danger that a lot of members of Congress and electeds feel across the country,” she said at the time.

A US judge has blocked Donald Trump’s latest effort to restrict birthright citizenship.

Deborah Boardman issued a preliminary injunction, preventing the Trump administration from enforcing the president’s new executive order, which he signed after the US Supreme Court rejected a previous effort.

The new order targets so-called “birth tourism”, and seeks to make children of people who work for foreign governments and those classified as an “alien enemy”, among other groups, ineligible for automatic citizenship.

Boardman said the order was “almost certainly unconstitutional”.

“This ​Court must, once again, preliminarily enjoin enforcement of the President’s most recent attempt to strip the right to citizenship from them,” she wrote.

Patagonia, the outdoor clothing and gear company, has joined a lawsuit challenging Donald Trump’s decision to significantly reduce the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah, removing protections from nearly 3m acres.

In July, the president approved the reduction of the sites by 90%, clearing the way to open the land to oil and gas companies. He argued in his proclamations that doing so would allow lands to be “put to a higher-priority use” and that they contained critical minerals important to “ resource independence …[and] national security”.

Patagonia said it was joining the lawsuit to put a stop to what it described as illegal orders that “betray Tribal sovereignty”.

“We will not stand idly by while anti-public lands crusaders attempt to exploit these lands for their extractive-industry friends or disrespect tribal nations,” Ryan Gellert, the company’s CEO, said in a statement.

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House Democrats rejected a constitutional amendment proposed by Republicans to ensure the size of the supreme court is permanently capped at nine justices. It failed 212-206.

As Reuters pointed out, the proposal was part of a Republican effort to make the supreme court a campaign issue ahead of the November midterms. The GOP was quick to seize on the issue with the National Republican Congressional Committee claiming in a statement that House Democrats “want to pack the Supreme Court with liberal justices so they can follow through on their radical socialist agenda”.

“Give House Democrats an ounce of power, and they’ll use every bit of it to fundamentally transform America into an unrecognizable socialist hellscape,” spokesperson Mike Marinella said.

Congressman Jamie Raskin argued Republicans were seeking to “cement their stacked and packed MAGA Supreme Court majority into the Constitution and strip away yet another basic power the Framers gave to Congress”.

“After sycophantically surrendering to Donald Trump our war powers, spending powers, tariff powers, and powers over federal buildings, to name a few, now they want to give up a power we have had since the Republic was founded: the power to decide how many Justices will be on the Supreme Court.”

Nithya Raman, the progressive Los Angeles city councillor challenging Mayor Karen Bass, has received an endorsement from the city’s chapter Democratic Socialists of America.

The Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday that the organization endorsed Raman after more than 60% of voters in an online election among chapter members backed her for mayor.

The decision came after significant debate given her relationship with the chapter – she has long been a DSA member but the organization censured her in 2024 for pursuing an endorsement from a Democrats for Israel group. The DSA LA endorsement is expected to boost Raman’s campaign, as the organization has a significant volunteer base.

Raman beat out reality TV personality Spencer Pratt to advance to the November election against her former political ally Bass.

Donald Trump celebrated the news that Apple had fulfilled his request to rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America” for Maps app users in the US following an executive order that came amid rising trade tensions between the US and Canada.

“Apple Maps has just announced that it has changed the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America, so now that very important change of names, between Google Maps and Apple Maps, is complete, ratified, and binding,” Trump said in a post online on Wednesday afternoon.

It’s unclear what the president meant by “ratified” and “binding”.

Read more on Apple’s decision here:

Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva has slammed new border wall construction near Quitobaquito Springs on the Tohono O’odham Nation’s ancestral lands.

“This morning, bulldozers are tearing through protected lands to make way for Trump’s second border wall — just 0.7 miles east of Quitobaquito Springs and getting closer,” Grijalva said in a statement, which included a link to video apparently showing this construction. “This is tribal land. It does not belong to Trump.”

Grijalva said that authorities and private contractors had gone onto sovereign tribal lands despite objections from the Tohono O’odham Nation.

“This level of disrespect is shameful and will go down as a stain on our nation’s history and its treatment of Indigenous Peoples,” Grijalva’s statement also said. “This isn’t just about a wall.

“It’s about erasing people, cultures, and bulldozing over tribal sovereignty.”

Department of Homeland Security secretary Markwayne Mullin said he was on a plane that made an emergency landing.

Mullin’s disclosure was in an X post on Wednesday that shared another account’s description of this incident.

“A Coast Guard aircraft has landed safely at DCA after declaring an emergency in the air C101 had lost its right engine mid-flight and diverted to Reagan Airport for an immediate landing. All 14 members on board have landed safely,” @TheDMVLive posted just before 2 pm local time.

Just over an hour later, Mullin posted: “The United States Coast Guard pilots made the single engine landing feel routine. No panic, just straight professionalism. After we landed, the pilots told me that was a first for them! We could not have been in better hands.”

The Trump administration rejected New York’s request for help related to a major snowstorm that caused $168m in damage, governor Kathy Hochul said.

“Another day, another denial of critical federal assistance for New York by the Trump Administration,” Hochul said in a statement Wednesday. “Just one day after calling out President Trump and Secretary Mullin for continuing to withhold $87 million in counterterrorism funding, my Administration was informed today that FEMA has officially denied our appeal for a Major Disaster Declaration following the February blizzard that caused more than $168 million in damages and placed a serious financial burden on communities across New York City, Long Island and the Mid-Hudson.”

“This storm met every FEMA threshold for federal assistance, yet the Trump Administration continues to play political games and betray every New Yorker who believes that the federal government is there to protect and support them,” Hochul also said. “By refusing to intervene and grant our request, President Trump has told every New Yorker who weathered this major storm and the first responders, utility crews and emergency management staff who worked tirelessly to keep our communities safe that you do not matter to him.”

“But let’s be clear, Republican members of Congress across New York are also enabling this neglect,” Hochul also said. “Their continued silence and refusal to break with the President is a direct betrayal of the communities they were elected to serve.”

“It is past time these members of congress demand that the President grant this disaster declaration and deliver every dollar of relief their constituents are owed.”

The Guardian has reached out to The White House and FEMA for comment.

President Trump has weighed in on the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s move to Britain, saying at a press conference that: “I’m happy about it”.

“I was not a fan,” Trump said in response to a reporter’s query, during a question-and-answer session following a press conference with travel executives. “I had a very good relationship with the Queen, really good. I got to know her very well. A really good relationship with King Charles – I knew him as Prince Charles and King Charles. I’ve known him for a long time.”

Trump, describing Charles as a “great, great guy,” said he thought Prince Harry and Meghan Markle “treated the royal family with great disrespect.”

“I didn’t like it,” he also said, adding, “ If I were the royal family, I would not have taken them back.”

The couple’s move back to England comes six years after they left for the US. The King is reportedly looking forward to spending more time with them in a personal capacity, but Harry and Meghan will remain private individuals as they previously gave up their official royal duties.