The Center Square staff discuss Pres. Trump, Congress, and tariff policy in 2025.

Amid a national housing crisis, the Biden administration’s Department of Housing and Urban Development produced guidelines encouraging property owners to forgo some fair housing practices to favor Afghan refugees, the Trump administration argues in a new directive terminating previous guidelines. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, under fire for failing to prevent a massive welfare fraud scheme in his state, was in Seattle on Tuesday as the special guest at Gov. Bob Ferguson’s fundraising luncheon, telling those in attendance Somalis were being "demonized" and vowing to bring more into his state. The Trump administration has proposed $12 billion in federal aid to American farmers, with many undergoing what Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins described as an economic crisis. And more...

Two National Guard members from West Virginia were shot Wednesday afternoon near the White House, the state's governor confirmed. After a story was published last week claiming that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth ordered a second strike on an alleged Venezuelan drug boat to kill those remaining, both Hegseth and the Pentagon reiterated their defense of the War Department’s actions as completely legal. States that refuse to turn over data on food stamp recipients will lose all SNAP funding, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced Tuesday. And more...

With the record-long government shutdown finally over, Republicans are ramping up conversations about how to reform Obamacare and address the rising cost of insurance premiums. Congress on Tuesday agreed to pass a bill by unanimous consent requiring the U.S. attorney general to release all documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Responding to Americans' frustrations over high grocery prices, President Donald Trump issued an executive order Friday exempting more than 200 food products from tariffs. And more...

With the longest government shutdown in history finally over, federal agencies are slowly bringing affected services back online and hoping to resume normal operations by the end of next week. President Donald Trump has again floated the idea of sending Americans $2,000 from tariff revenue, but a new analysis suggests the import taxes won't bring in enough money to cover the proposed checks. The U.S. House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol cost almost twice as much as previously reported, including spending taxpayer funds for TV news producers and documentary filmmakers to create videos dramatizing its case against President Donald Trump, an investigation by The Center Square found. And more...

Self-proclaimed democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani will be the next mayor of New York City after taking down the former Democrat New York governor for a second time on Tuesday. For the 14th time, U.S. Senate Democrats on Tuesday filibustered Republicans’ funding bill to reopen the government, guaranteeing that the ongoing shutdown will be the longest in U.S. history. The U.S. Supreme Court gave President Donald Trump's tariff authority a chilly reception on Wednesday, with his economic agenda hanging in the balance and businesses and consumers watching for higher prices. And more...

President Donald Trump feels confident the flow of fentanyl from China will be curbed following a “great meeting” with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea. Despite opposition from major federal labor unions, Senate Democrats blocked Republicans’ Continuing Resolution to reopen and fund the government for the 13th time Tuesday. The California Public Employees' Retirement System for state employees lost 71% of its $468 million investment in a clean energy and technology private equity fund, state records show, but CalPERS won’t explain how. And more...

President Donald Trump’s plans to “restore election integrity” and prevent voter fraud include banning mail-in voting and requiring that voters present identification at the polls. Wisconsin has paid billions of dollars in recent years for outside investors to manage most of the state's retirement funds even though it has an expansive team of highly paid investment employees, according to state data. Senate Democrats are set to block Republicans’ government funding bill for the 12th time Wednesday, keeping the federal government shut down despite tens of millions of low-income Americans at risk of losing food stamps or early childhood education assistance. And more...

The man accused of firebombing the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion in Harrisburg pleaded guilty to attempted murder, aggravated arson and terrorism on Tuesday. It’s been two weeks since the federal government shut down, and lawmakers are no closer to reaching a deal after U.S. Senate Democrats voted down Republicans’ funding bill for the eighth time Tuesday. A new poll shows that President Donald Trump’s approval rating reached 48% in October, a number mostly bolstered by Republicans. And more...

President Donald Trump expressed a desire to designate Antifa a foreign terror organization; now, a U.S. senator is urging Secretary of State Marco Rubio to make it happen. U.S. senators have left town for the weekend and will not vote again on a federal funding bill until Tuesday, meaning the ongoing government shutdown will stretch into its third week. Despite federal pushback for diversity, equity and inclusion programs, Illinois has spent millions of dollars in the past few years for new, high-paying government jobs to increase the amount of state contracts that go to businesses owned by racial minorities, women and people with disabilities, an investigation by The Center Square found.

As the government shutdown enters its second day, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., defended Republican leaders’ refusal to concede to Democrats’ health care policy demands in exchange for their votes on federal funding. A hard deadline has been set for Hamas to agree to a peace deal proposed by President Donald Trump and accepted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, warning this is their “last chance.” The results of a May executive order aiming to reform drug pricing are beginning to materialize, per an administration announcement Tuesday. And more...

Ryan Routh was found guilty of all charges in a plot to kill Donald Trump by a federal jury that needed little time to reach a verdict Tuesday afternoon. Government funding negotiations came to a standstill Tuesday after President Donald Trump cancelled talks with Democratic congressional leaders, saying no meeting “could possibly be productive” given their demands. Discretionary spending by Illinois state leaders has increased more than $16 billion since J.B. Pritzker became governor nearly seven years ago. And more...

Tyler James Robinson, the 22-year-old suspect charged in the assassination of conservative leader Charlie Kirk, remained silent and emotionless as he appeared before Judge Tony Graf Tuesday afternoon, soon after paperwork was filed showing prosecutors’ intent to seek the death penalty. President Donald Trump is designating Antifa a “major terrorist organization,” he announced in a social media post Wednesday evening. Despite a Trump administration executive order defunding gender ideology in public education, Los Angeles Unified School District materials instruct elementary children how to be transgender activists, warn parents that failing to support "gender-affirming care" could endanger their children, and the district allows students to socially transition at school without parental notification, an investigation by The Center Square found. And more...

Authorities on Friday confirmed the suspect in the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk is in custody. Chilling video of the Aug. 22 stabbing death of Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail has drawn increased awareness of the incident. The Make America Healthy Again Commission released a sweeping strategy Tuesday to nationally improve children’s health, which includes more than 120 initiatives – including advancing research on autism, pesticides, vaccine injury and water quality – aimed at that end. And more...

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his administration will ask the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to quickly take up his appeal on tariff authority after two lower courts rejected his claims of broad authority to issue import duties under a 1977 law. Ryan Routh, North Carolinian and resident of Hawaii charged with trying to assassinate Donald Trump during the last campaign season, begins his defense Monday in a Florida federal courtroom. As the Illinois Freedom Caucus and Chicago Flips Red join forces to invite President Donald Trump’s crime cleanup efforts into Chicago, some residents say federal assistance is needed in the city. And more...

Two weeks after declaring “Liberation Day” in Washington, D.C., to combat crime, President Donald Trump signed executive orders to end cashless bail in the nation’s capital, while taking steps to eliminate it throughout the country. Washington Solicitor General Noah Purcell is the focus of a Washington State Bar Association complaint alleging misconduct for responding on Attorney General Nick Brown’s behalf in a separate bar complaint, and directly communicating with private law firm Perkins Coie without its attorney’s consent. Before Hurricane Katrina ravaged the coast, the New Orleans population was about 460,000. Twenty years later, the city has dropped to about 380,000 as it continues to rebuild. And more...

The White House has helped open the channels of communication between Russia, Ukraine and the rest of Europe, but the details of any resolution to the Russia-Ukraine war remain murky. Casting a ballot may look different for millions of American voters in the 2026 midterm elections if Republican-led states follow President Donald Trump’s wish to abolish mail-in voting and electronic voting machines. More than a week after President Donald Trump declared “Liberation Day” in Washington, D.C., his administration is touting the operation as a success as more Republican governors commit National Guard troops. And more...

The president declared a crime emergency in D.C. and said the National Guard will soon patrol the streets in an effort to curb crime. For the first time in many years, the Pierce County Republican Party will not have a booth at the Washington State Fair in Puyallup, Wash. As President Donald Trump’s tariff policies come into effect, July’s Consumer Price Index showed overall consumer prices rose 2.7% annually, slightly lower than forecasted by economists. And more...

The FBI on Thursday agreed to assist with locating Texas Democrats who fled the state to prevent the Texas House from reaching a quorum and conducting official business. Since California Gov. Gavin Newsom took office in 2019, state debt payments on unemployment benefits have gone from zero to nearly $600 million this year, and could soon result in annual payroll tax increases of nearly $500 per employee, according to an analysis by The Center Square. Right before leaving for its week-long August recess, the U.S. Senate passed a minibus containing three out of the 12 annual government funding bills.

Energy advocates are pleased by the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to repeal the Obama-era Endangerment Finding that has imposed strict regulations on the automobile industry and cost the nation $1 trillion, with one saying the move could lead to the end of EPA greenhouse gas regulations via the Clean Air Act in general. The end of a six-month suspension of a policy that for years allowed for the auto-deletion of Microsoft Teams or instant messages at Washington state agencies after one week is approaching. Newly declassified intelligence documents indicate that Hillary Clinton, her 2016 presidential campaign managers, and a top member of a George Soros group plotted to fabricate the Trump-Russia collusion campaign to distract the public from Clinton’s email scandal. And more...