Live updates: Trump threatens Russia with 100% secondary tariffs; Supreme Court allows mass layoffs at Education Department
What to know today
- UKRAINE MISSILES: President Donald Trump announced during a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte that the U.S. will send Patriot missiles to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russian attacks. He also threatened to impose severe secondary tariffs on Russia if the two sides fail to reach an agreement to end the war.
- EDUCATION DEPARTMENT LAYOFFS: The Supreme Court this afternoon said that the Trump administration can move forward with plans to dismantle the Department of Education through mass layoffs. The court’s three liberal justices dissented.
- NEW YORK CITY MAYOR’S RACE: Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that he will continue his candidacy for mayor of New York, as a third-party candidate, after losing to Zohran Mamdani in last month’s Democratic primary. Cuomo will also be competing against Mayor Eric Adams, who’s running as an independent.
- EPSTEIN FILES: The White House said in a statement that top Justice Department officials are working “in lockstep” following reports that Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino clashed over the department’s handling of files related to Jeffrey Epstein.
Landlord seeks to evict Republican congressman over unpaid rent at D.C. apartment
Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., is facing a lawsuit seeking his eviction over alleged failure to pay thousands of dollars in rent at a property in Washington, D.C., according to court papers.
In a complaint filed in D.C. Superior Court last week, Bozzuto Management Company said the congressman did not pay a total of $85,009 in rent between March and July. Monthly rent for the property, according to the court filing, is $20,833.
The management company is asking the court to allow it to evict Mills and for an order requiring that he submit future monthly payments with the court until the case is resolved. An initial hearing is scheduled for Sept. 8.
Rep. Mike Lawler says he wants to meet with Trump before making decision on N.Y. gubernatorial bid
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., told NBC News today that his decision on whether to run for governor is coming “very soon,” adding that he plans on meeting with Trump first.
NBC News previously reported that GOP leaders and the White House would prefer that Lawler, who represents a key swing district, pass on a gubernatorial bid and instead run for re-election in the House. Trump endorsed Lawler for his House seat in May.
House Republican Elise Stefanik, who reported raising over $2 million in the second quarter of 2025, is expected to jump into the governor’s race. Party leaders are less worried about defending her seat, which Stefanik won by 24 percentage points in November.
An appeals court this evening granted a temporary pause on the termination of what’s known as Temporary Protected Status for Afghans living in the United States.
The order from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which extends through next Monday, allows time for both parties in the lawsuit to brief the court on the issue, and for the court to issue a broader ruling before next week’s deadline.
A federal judge in Maryland last week denied a motion seeking a similar pause.
About 11,000 Afghans continue to rely on the protection of Temporary Protected Status to live and work in the United States. They would have lost protection at midnight tonight if not for the court’s ruling. TPS protection for Afghans was first granted in May 2022
The Senate today voted 46-42 along party lines to confirm Whitney Hermandorfer, Trump’s first judicial nominee of his second term, to serve as an appeals court judge for the 6th Circuit. Twelve Senators — seven Republicans and five Democrats — did not vote.
Hermandorfer clerked for Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Samuel Alito, and for Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he sat on the D.C. Court of Appeals. During her Senate confirmation hearing, Hermandorfer said that “it would not be my role” to carry out Trump’s bidding.
Her background contrasts with another nominee in the Senate: Trump’s former personal lawyer Emil Bove, who is the president’s pick to serve on the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals.
During his first term, the Senate confirmed 234 judges nominated by Trump.
Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell sent a letter today to the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee about the central bank’s headquarters renovation that has become a source of controversy in the Trump administration.
In the letter, obtained by NBC News, Powell told Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., that the Fed takes “seriously our commitment to transparency.”
“We respect the critical importance of the constitutionally-derived congressional oversight of our activities, and we are committed to working collaboratively with you,” he wrote, adding that the Fed’s staff will discuss the project in further detail with the Senate Banking Committee soon.
The Trump administration has used the project’s overrun of its budget to argue that Powell is mismanaging the central bank, as the president’s authority to fire Powell is “being looked into.”
Reporting from Washington
Trump administration officials had already reviewed a criminal case against a Utah doctor accused of selling fake Covid vaccination cards and allowed it to proceed before Attorney General Pam Bondi suddenly intervened over the weekend and ordered the case dismissed, a defense attorney said.
Dr. Michael Kirk Moore was on trial last week in a case involving claims that more than $28,000 in Covid-19 vaccinations were destroyed as part of an alleged scheme involving the issuance of fake vaccine cards. Moore was indicted on the charges in 2023.
On Saturday, Bondi announced on the platform X that she was ordering the charges against Moore dismissed, writing that the doctor “gave his patients a choice when the federal government refused to do so.” Bondi said the dismissal “would not have been possible” without Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and thanked Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.
Moore’s attorney, Kathy Nester, told NBC News that she submitted information about the case for review by Justice Department leadership earlier this year after Bondi announced the formation of a “Weaponization Working Group“ to investigate claims of federal law enforcement being used against Trump allies and advocates.
