Doris Miller’s family ‘shocked’ by Navy’s reported consideration of honoring Trump instead of black war hero – live | US politics

Chief Justice John Roberts is allowing the White House to continue construction on Donald Trump’s controversial $400m ballroom project for now, the Associated Press reports, as the supreme court considers the Trump administration’s emergency request to intervene in lawsuits over the project.

The brief, one-page document does not detail Roberts’ reasoning or lay out a timeline for a fuller decision from the high court.

Lower courts had ordered a halt to the project, finding that it must have congressional approval. That ruling was set to take effect today.

The administration has argued that the president has total authority to renovate the White House and other federal buildings as he sees fit and that the ballroom project must be completed due to national security concerns.

When Trump first announced the plans for a new ballroom, he did not emphasize national security.

He also said the project would be funded by private donations, including from himself. But in June it was revealed that the administration had quietly redirected $352m in federal funds designated for the Secret Service toward the project, after Congress explicitly refused to provide $1bn in funds for it.

Five people whom the US attempted to deport to Liberia this week resisted getting off the plane and were instead ⁠transported to Equatorial Guinea, another African ⁠country to which the ​Trump administration is removing migrants it cannot legally send home, two sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters.

The incident represents an early snag in Washington’s plan to send up to 1,200 so-called third-country ⁠deportees to Liberia, one of the largest such deals it has struck in Africa despite criticism from immigrants’ rights advocates.

Third-country deportees have, in most cases, obtained legal protection against repatriation after US immigration judges ruled they risked torture ⁠or other abuses in their home countries.

Liberia announced on Tuesday that it had agreed to receive deportees and that the first group of 20 ​would arrive on Thursday. But a Liberian official, speaking on condition ‌of anonymity because of the sensitivity of ‌the matter, told Reuters today that only 15 deportees disembarked.

At least five others – three Cuban men, one Brazilian man and one Cameroonian ‌woman – refused to get off the plane in Liberia, according to three sources familiar with the incident, one of whom was a Honduran deportee on the flight.

Authorities then told them they would be flown to the US, but the plane instead headed to Malabo, in Equatorial Guinea, where the five were forced to disembark against their will, two of the sources said.

Liberia’s information ministry did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on Friday.

The five are now being held with more than 30 other migrants whom the Trump ‌administration had previously sent to Equatorial Guinea under a deal that, like others in Africa, has been denounced by human rights groups and advocates who say many of the deportees are ultimately repatriated.

In May, human rights experts at the United Nations issued a rare public appeal to Equatorial Guinea, urging the country to halt its plans to return US deportees to their home countries, where they face political violence, torture and death.

The US state department said ​it remained “unwavering in our commitment to end illegal and mass immigration and bolster America’s border security”.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said all the migrants “were deported to a safe third country”, adding: “If a judge finds an illegal alien has no right to be in this country, we are going to remove them. Period.”

Further to CNN’s report that the US Navy is considering renaming an aircraft carrier set to honor WWII hero Doris Miller to potentially being named after Donald Trump instead, the outlet has interviewed the black Pearl Harbor hero’s great nephew.

Thomas Bledsoe told CNN the potential move is “quite a shock” and that the family were not notified beforehand. “Not only was it a shock, but it was also shocking that we found out from a new outlet [and not] from the Navy,” he said.

But this isn’t just about a name on a ship, he added.

It’s about an opportunity and a goal. It’s about what it means to be an American and it’s also about how we as a community can grow as one.

Less than three months to go until the midterms, voters are thinking about grocery prices, the Iran war and… datacenters.

This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks to historian Jill Lepore about how this latest AI backlash could influence those all-important elections in November. Are we seeing the beginning of the end of the ‘artificial state’?

US Senator Tim Sheehy, a Montana Republican and a cattle rancher, has come out against a plan announced Friday by Donald Trump to allow for an increase in imported ground beef.

”I’ve advised President Trump against this course of action for a year because American ranchers have been struggling against the packer monopoly for decades, and this will further harm them – most of whom are MAGA Republicans,” Sheehy wrote on X. “The President’s heart is in the right place on wanting lower prices for the American people, and beef prices have been impacted by the Mexican screwworm. But the reality is this action will make it more difficult for American ranchers to rebuild our herd and bring prices down for the American people. And most importantly, this will harm our ranching families who feed the nation.”

Trump announced a plan on Truth Social to allow 300,000 metric tonnes of beef to be imported without tariffs over the next 90 days, to be sold for hamburger at a 25 percent discount to current prices. Trump offered this agreement with an unnamed source as measure to lower prices while “as we work to rebuild this herd and help our ranchers.”

The US beef cattle herd is near historic lows, and beef prices have skyrocketed over the last year. The average price of ground beef in American cities is around $7.12 a pound, an increase of 9.4 percent year-over-year according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The NAACP has weighed in on efforts by the Trump administration to strip the name of a Black WWII hero from a carrier under construction.

“Doris Miller earned his place in American history through courage, sacrifice, and service. Donald Trump only wants to serve himself,” said NAACP president Derrick Johnson.

This is a slap in the face to every war hero and every service member who has worn the uniform. It’s beyond comprehension for a president to want his own name on a Navy ship while our armed forces are living in deteriorating conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. For generations, millions of Black women and men have proudly served in the United States military, defending freedoms that too often were not even afforded to them, their families, or their communities. Donald Trump is making a mockery of that legacy by treating military service as another opportunity for personal branding. Our brave service members signed up to defend the nation, not the fragile ego of one man. America deserves better than this.

A movement opposing automatic license plate reader cameras popularized by Flock Safety and other vendors is concluding a week of action with demonstrations across the country.

Activists held rallies from the Boston area to Pasadena, California this week. A city council meeting in New Bedford, Massachusetts “erupted into chaos” Thursday as activists demanded an end to the city’s ALPR contract. Civil liberties advocates organized protests outside Columbus City Hall during city council deliberations. Activists in Reno scheduled forums.

Flock Safety is headquartered near Atlanta, which has one of the most extensive municipal camera networks of any large city in the world. Activists held a rally on the steps of city hall, while Flock held its annual conference a mile away at the Signia Hilton hotel near the Georgia World Congress Center.

Journalists were barred from attending the conference. However, YouTube provocateur and Flock antagonist Benn Jordan posted a digital surveillance van across the street, electronically capturing much of the conference from outside, He also employed a drone to photograph and identify people emerging from the meeting, including a former Minnesota state senator.

Justice Department subpoenas targeting New York Attorney General Letitia James ⁠office remain blocked after the US appeals court on Friday upheld a ⁠lower court’s ⁠injunction against the probe, Reuters reports.

James filed civil lawsuits against Donald Trump and his family business, as well as the National Rifle Association, both of which were found liable in succeeding trials. When Trump took office in 2025, the Justice Department began investigating James in turn, initiating a criminal investigation ​into potential civil rights violations associated ​with ‌those cases, Reuters ​reported ​at the time.

In January, US District Judge Lorna G Schofield blocked subpoenas requested by John Sarcone, the acting US attorney for the Northern District of New York, and disqualified him from the case.

The Department of Education is taking steps to strip the American Bar Association of its power to accredit law schools, reports the Wall Street Journal, a move that administration supports say is meant to break a “cartel” in higher education while detractors describe as an attack on the legal profession and a political stunt.

“Any final decision to reject the ABA is two steps and several months away; the outcome isn’t certain,” reports the WSJ. “The Education Department’s initial recommendation goes next to a panel that reviews accreditors, which then makes a recommendation to Undersecretary of Education Nicholas Kent.”

Conservative lawmakers have feuded with the ABA over its diversity, equity and inclusion requirements for law schools, a conflict that escalated in Donald Trump’s second term as president. The ABA suspended Standard 206 of its accreditation rules last April in the wake of an executive order requiring universities to end DEI practices.

Trump has demanded a permanent end to the rule, not a suspension. The ABA’s House of Delegates voted to consider eliminating the rule this year, but rejected an outright repeal of the rule on August 6.

President Donald Trump announced a plan to temporarily drop tariffs on imported ground beef in a Truth Social post early Friday morning.

Today, I concluded a deal to substantially lower the price of ground beef for working American families,” the president posted. “As everyone knows, under President Biden, beef prices soared at their fastest rate and the American beef herd fell to its smallest size in modern history. As we work to rebuild this herd and help our ranchers, for the next 90 days, the United States will allow up to 300,000 metric tons of product for ground beef to be imported with no out of quota tariff. We have a commitment that this beef will be sold at 25 percent below current market prices. This deal will reduce prices for Americans while giving space for our Great American Beef Herd to grow again. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP

Trump’s post characteristically leaves out key details.

He does not say with whom this deal has been struck. The term product for ground beef is not the same thing as a package of hamburger you can pick up at the supermarket.

US consumers eat about 30 pounds of ground beef per capita in a year, or about 1.1 million metric tonnes in 90 days. Trump’s announcement would reflect a 27 percent increase in supply. But the announcement does not state plainly that this is new supply, only that this supply would come in without tariffs.

The likeliest partner of the US on beef imports – Australia – produced about 3 million metric tonnes of beef for 2026, a record. Under current trade arrangements, Australian exporters can export up to 449,909 metric tonnes of beef (combined WTO and AUSFTA entitlements) to the United States without tariffs in 2026.

Given constraints in refrigerated container shipping logistics, it is unclear how soon this beef could be brought to an American market, a detail left unstated in Trump’s post.

A naval aircraft carrier under construction is slated to bear the name of an enlisted sailor, the first for an African-American. Or was.

The Navy is planning to replace Doris Miller’s name on the ship, possibly with that of president Donald Trump, CNN reports. No carrier in the US Navy has ever been named for a sitting president.

The citation awarding Doris Miller the Navy Cross from his actions at Pearl Harbor reads:

While at the side of his Captain on the bridge of the battleship U.S.S. WEST VIRGINIA, Mess Attendant First Class Doris Miller, despite enemy strafing and bombing and in the face of a serious fire, assisted in moving his Captain, who had been mortally wounded, to a place of greater safety, and later manned and operated a machine gun directed at enemy Japanese attacking aircraft until ordered to leave the bridge.

The Navy cook had no formal training on the 50-cal. He reportedly shot down four to six Japanese bombers, nonetheless. Miller died at sea in 1943 with two-thirds of the crew lost to a Japanese torpedo aboard the Liscome Bay. His family has long advocated for his award to be upgraded to a Medal of Honor.

Cuba Gooding Jr. portrayed him in the 2001 film “Pearl Harbor.”

Social media reaction has been sharply negative about the reported change to use Trump’s name, with a popular comment on Reddit summarizing sentiment: “Hmmm, who should the 20 billion dollar navy ship be named after? The Navy War Hero? Or the draft dodger?”

US senator Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat and retired Navy officer, wrote in a post on X:

Dorie Miller’s bravery at Pearl Harbor is legendary and resulted in him being awarded the Navy Cross. This aircraft carrier shouldn’t be renamed at all, let alone for Donald Trump, who has denigrated servicemembers like Dorie Miller who have paid the ultimate price.

Donald Trump is in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and set to deliver some remarks in support of Republican fill-in senator Darline Graham.

Earlier this week, the sister of the late Lindsey Graham said during a debate that she was “not that informed on national security” – a statement that she repeated even as gasps and boos rolled through the venue.

Darline Graham is facing off in a special Republican runoff next week against the ultra-conservative representative Ralph Norman, who once advocated for martial law to keep Joe Biden from the presidency after his election win in 2020.

The Guardian’s Rachel Leingang and Sam Levine report that former officials and voting rights experts are expressing skepticism over a pledge by the Trump administration to dispatch 1,000 monitors across the country to scrutinize November’s US midterm elections.

“I’m skeptical they’ll actually get to 1,000. Even if they did, that wouldn’t be so different from the number in prior years; that’s a national number suitable for observing but not nearly enough to disrupt; and local election officials can, and will, toss anyone who makes trouble,” said Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles who has worked on voting rights issues at the justice department and White House.

“As in the primaries, the most anyone should expect from this group is a handful of suits standing quietly in the back of the room.”

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of US politics.

Following a bitter intra-party battle, progressive Aisha Wahab has been elected to Congress in a special election to fill the seat formerly held by Eric Swalwell, who resigned in April after facing sexual misconduct allegations (he has denied the allegations).

Though Wahab, the first Muslim woman and Afghan American elected to the California legislature, held a major lead throughout the race over over her main opponent, Melissa Hernandez, Hernandez’s campaign received a significant boost as Super Pacs connected to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) poured money into the race.

Some congressional Democrats were quick to congratulate their new colleague.

“House Democrats look forward to welcoming you to the 119th Congress as we fight for an Affordable America,” Hakeem Jeffries, House minority leader, posted on X.

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal posted that she couldn’t wait to work with Wahab on Medicare and “to fight back against ICE’s cruelty, and to end forever wars”.

“Her grassroots, people-powered campaign fought millions from Aipac and dark money groups afraid of her courage and leadership. That’s exactly why my Medicare For All Pac invested $225,000 to help her cross the finish line. She is an amazing advocate for kids, working people, and for the glorious diversity that is our country. She can’t be bought and she’ll fight back even when it’s tough,” Jayapal said.

Noticeably missing in the aftermath of Wahab’s victory is congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, chair of California’s Democratic delegation, who released a video ahead of the election on Tuesday accusing Wahab of acting in her own self-interest when she opposed the Democratic House delegation’s plan to elect a caretaker to the vacant seat.

In other developments:

• Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, who turned on the president in 2019, when he compared him to a mobster during congressional testimony, executed another 180-degree turn, showering the president with praise during a friendly conversation between the two men on Cohen’s New York City radio show.

• The White House faced fresh questions over whether Donald Trump’s closest aide, Natalie Harp, had access to US government secrets without security clearance.

• At a Rose Garden event to promote Melania Trump’s advocacy for foster children, the first lady opened with a joked about her lack of recent public appearances, as her husband looked on with something less than rapt attention.

• One week after Trump ordered his navy secretary to redesign a new aircraft carrier, the USS Doris Miller – to scrap the modern electromagnetic system used to launch fighter jets, and install old-fashioned steam-powered catapults instead – CNN reports that the navy is considering another change to the same ship: removing the name of Miller, a Black sailor known for his heroism during the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, and naming it instead the USS Donald Trump.

• The non-partisan Cook Political Report updated its midterm election forecast to rate the US Senate races in both Texas and Iowa, which had leaned in favor of Republicans, as toss ups that could break for Democrats.