Lonnie Bunch III, the 14th secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, will step down by the end of the year, he announced Tuesday. Bunch, 73, is the first Black person and the first historian to lead the world's largest museum organization. His departure follows months of mounting pressure from the Trump administration, including an executive order seeking the removal of what it called improper ideology and an August 28 letter warning that federal agencies may stop working with the Smithsonian unless its leadership changes. Bunch, who has worked at the Smithsonian for 38 years, said the decision was his own and not tied to that pressure. Senator Alex Padilla said Congress must defend the institution's independence.
The share of Republicans who strongly approve of President Donald Trump and his handling of the Iran war has dropped sharply in recent months, according to a new NBC News Decision Desk Poll. The survey found that Trump's pool of most ardent supporters is shrinking as Americans give him low marks on his overall job performance and on the war. Across the full electorate, 66 percent of Americans disapprove of Trump's actions in the conflict, while 33 percent approve. The findings signal growing political risk for the White House as the military campaign in Iran continues with no clear endpoint, and they arrive as the administration faces legal fights and an active election season at home.
The Trump administration on Sunday again asked the Supreme Court to allow new restrictions on mail-in voting ahead of the November midterm elections. It is the third time the administration has sought the high court's intervention in the dispute over an executive order that voting rights groups and Democratic-led states say intrudes on state election authority. Lower courts have blocked key parts of the order, and a federal appeals court said it “directs unprecedented levels of involvement by federal officials in how states administer elections.” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson set a fast deadline for responses. North Carolina began mailing absentee ballots on Friday, and control of both chambers of Congress is at stake in November.
The Pentagon has put about 50 members of the Joint Staff through polygraph tests as part of an investigation into leaks about the U.S. military campaign against Iran, according to officials familiar with the effort. The tests took place in August after news reports detailed shrinking stocks of long-range missiles and Patriot interceptors. The Joint Staff employs between 1,500 and 2,000 people, making the sweep an unusually wide search. People with knowledge of the effort said the tests were also meant to discourage future leaks. No one has been publicly identified as the source, and officials have not said whether the tests produced an admission. The New York Times first reported the polygraph sweep.
The US Postal Service is rushing to build a computer system to screen mail-in ballots ahead of November's midterm elections, even as courts weigh challenges to the executive order behind it. A whistleblower told Congress the system is being built in about three months when it would normally take a year or more, and that a single scanning glitch could turn away entire batches of ballots. The system grew from President Donald Trump's March executive order, which requires states to give USPS lists of voters eligible to receive mail ballots. More than two dozen Democratic state attorneys general and voting rights groups have sued over the order. Senators called the project perilously rushed and potentially unlawful.
US officials deported British far-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos to the United Kingdom on Friday, a day after Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested him at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport. The Department of Homeland Security said Yiannopoulos entered the US legally in May 2019 but overstayed, and an immigration judge ordered his removal on July 22 after he missed a hearing. The 41-year-old former Breitbart editor and one-time aide to rapper Ye has been a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. Rival commentator Laura Loomer claimed credit for the arrest. Yiannopoulos has not commented since returning to Britain.
The House passed a stopgap funding measure on Tuesday that keeps federal agencies running through December 11, removing the threat of a government shutdown before the November midterm elections. The bill passed with broad bipartisan support and now heads to President Donald Trump's desk. It funds the government at current levels past the October 1 start of the new fiscal year and blocks the White House from finalizing a rule that would put political appointees in charge of approving federal grants. Lawmakers said acting a month early avoids the chaos of last year's record-long shutdown and lets incumbents campaign without shutdown politics hanging over them. Two larger spending battles are expected at the end of the year.
President Donald Trump says the United States has struck a deal with Venezuela to take control of 65 billion barrels of oil reserves. The announcement comes as the president faces pressure over spiking gas prices and the approaching midterm elections. Venezuelan opposition figures have pushed back against reports that the US wants a large stake in the country's oil and gas sector. The deal, if realized, would give American companies access to one of the world's largest oil reserves. Trump framed the agreement as a step to lower energy costs, while critics question how it would be enforced in a country under international sanctions. Venezuela's government has not confirmed the terms, and the details have not been published.
British provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos has been deported to the United Kingdom, a day after US immigration agents arrested him at New Orleans airport. The Department of Homeland Security said he overstayed his visa after entering the country legally in 2019 and failed to appear for an immigration hearing, leading a judge to order his removal in July. The 41-year-old, once a vocal supporter of President Trump and a defender of ICE, was believed to be heading to a concert by rapper Ye when he was detained. His removal marks a fall for a figure who spent years urging tough enforcement of immigration laws.
President Trump has signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario as 'Lake America', drawing immediate pushback from lawmakers and state officials. House Democrats introduced legislation to reverse the order, arguing the president has no authority to unilaterally rename a body of water shared with Canada. New York officials say they will ignore the new name in state documents. The order is part of a broader pattern of renaming moves that have stirred controversy this year. Legal experts note that Congress controls official federal naming through the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, leaving the order on shaky legal ground. The dispute now heads to Congress and the courts, with both sides digging in.