Republicans

• Il Senato ha votato mercoledì 49-50 per bloccare l'estensione dell'azione militare statunitense in Iran; la risoluzione non è passata, nonostante tre Repubblicani si siano uniti ai Democratici in segno di sostegno. • I senatori Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul e Susan Collins hanno appoggiato la risoluzione, mentre il senatore Democratico John Fetterman si è nuovamente opposto allo sforzo del proprio partito. • Il voto ha sottolineato il crescente disagio all'interno del GOP mentre la guerra diventa meno popolare e i prezzi della benzina aumentano, accrescendo la pressione sulla gestione del conflitto da parte di Trump.

• La risoluzione è stata bocciata con un voto di 49-50, con Lisa Murkowski e i colleghi repubblicani Rand Paul e Susan Collins a favore • Mercoledì il Senato ha respinto il settimo tentativo dei Democratici di forzare la fine del coinvolgimento americano nella guerra contro l'Iran, nonostante sia cresciuto il numero di repubblicani contrari alla strategia di Donald Trump. • La risoluzione sui poteri di guerra proposta da Jeff Merkley, senatore democratico dell'Oregon, è stata respinta con un voto di 49-50. Tutti i Democratici, ad eccezione di John Fetterman della Pennsylvania, ne hanno sostenuto l'avanzamento. Continua a leggere...

• I Repubblicani della Camera stanno procedendo con modifiche a un pacchetto per l'edilizia abitativa approvato dal Senato il 12 maggio, anche dopo che il Presidente Trump ha sollecitato l'approvazione della versione originale senza variazioni. • L'iniziativa coincide con le pressioni dell'amministrazione per ottenere 1 miliardo di dollari in fondi per la sicurezza all'interno di un più ampio pacchetto di spesa di linea partitica focalizzato sul contrasto all'immigrazione, che potrebbe supportare il progetto della ballroom di Trump. • Il Direttore della Secret Service, Sean Curran, ha incontrato martedì i Repubblicani del Senato per ottenere sostegno, in vista della scadenza del 1° giugno fissata da Trump affinché i legislatori approvino la normativa.

Il leader repubblicano riconosce le 'probabili conseguenze' per aver resistito alle richieste del presidente degli Stati Uniti di ridisegnare la mappa • I senatori statali della Carolina del Sud hanno sfidato martedì le pressioni di Donald Trump per approvare i piani di ridisegno della mappa congressuale dello stato, dopo che la Corte Suprema degli Stati Uniti ha di fatto annullato il Voting Rights Act. Mentre i repubblicani si affrettano a ridisegnare i distretti chiave, a seguito della decisione della Corte Suprema di rendere inefficace una sezione fondamentale della legge sui diritti civili che preveniva la discriminazione razziale, Shane Massey, leader della maggioranza repubblicana nel senato della Carolina del Sud, ha sostenuto in un discorso straordinario che procedere in tal senso sarebbe contrario agli interessi del suo stato. Continua a leggere...

• Il gruppo per il buon governo Common Cause ha moderato la sua aggressiva difesa della redistribuzione dei collegi, dopo aver sollevato polemiche paragonando il Governatore della California Gavin Newsom ai repubblicani del Texas su questo tema. • L'organizzazione ha affrontato forti critiche per tale paragone, che secondo i detrattori era fattualmente fuorviante e ha danneggiato la sua credibilità come sostenitore non partitico delle riforme. • Il cambiamento di Common Cause riflette il crescente dibattito all'interno della comunità progressista sul fatto che gli standard nazionali di redistribuzione debbano essere applicati uniformemente o tenere conto dei contesti specifici di ogni stato.

Chuck Schumer accusa il GOP di «chiedere alle famiglie lavoratrici di pagare il prezzo mentre Trump incassa i privilegi» in una lettera Politica USA in diretta – ultimi aggiornamenti Chuck Schumer, il principale democratico del Senato statunitense, ha promesso di opporsi a un piano repubblicano di spendere 1 miliardo di dollari in miglioramenti della sicurezza per la sala da ballo che Donald Trump intende costruire nell'ex ala est della Casa Bianca. I fondi dovrebbero essere inclusi in una misura che i repubblicani intendono approvare, la quale allocerebbe circa 70 miliardi di dollari alle agenzie federali che guidano la campagna di deportazione di massa di Trump, con l'intenzione di mantenerle operative per il resto del mandato del presidente. Continua a leggere...

• I repubblicani stanno perseguendo aggressivamente l'ottenimento di seggi extra alla Camera attraverso il ridisegno dei collegi, ma la strategia potrebbe rivelarsi contro in modo significativo. • Questa spinta rischia di energizzare i democratici e di alienare nuovi elettori chiave, portando potenzialmente a perdite nette invece che a guadagni. • Ciò assume importanza nel contesto delle battaglie di metà mandato, poiché potrebbe minare il controllo del GOP sulla Camera nonostante le mappe favorevoli in alcuni stati.

Il senatore Chris Van Hollen e altri legislatori democratici stanno abbracciando una politica che difficilmente avvantaggia la classe media. • È prevedibile che all'interno del partito democratico ci sia una fase di profonda riflessione dopo la sconfitta nelle elezioni del 2024. • Il vantaggio di Donald Trump rispetto a Kamala Harris nella percezione degli elettori riguardo alla competenza economica (per quanto appaia ora perplesso dopo un anno di politiche erratiche) era destinato a ispirare una richiesta di ripensare il programma del partito. • Tuttavia, questi dubbi stanno spingendo i Democratici lungo un percorso pericoloso, verso l'adozione di una strategia di tagli fiscali che rischia di compromettere il progetto di realizzare una società più sana ed equa. Continua a leggere...

• Republicans have secured an edge in national redistricting battles following U.S. Supreme Court ruling on April 29 striking down a Black-majority congressional district in Louisiana and Virginia Supreme Court invalidating a voter-approved Democratic map. • The Louisiana decision prompted Republican Gov. Jeff Landry to postpone the May 16 congressional primary, allowing lawmakers to revise House districts and eliminate minority-protected seats under weakened Voting Rights Act provisions. • Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed revised U.S. House districts on May 4, boosting GOP chances to win four additional seats, while Republicans eye up to 14 net gains across Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, and Tennessee.

Legislature has eliminated the state’s one Democratic, Black-majority congressional districtSign up for the Breaking News US email Good morning, and welcome to our live coverage of US politics. Tennessee’s Republican-dominated legislature passed redistricting maps on Thursday, eliminating the state’s one Democratic, Black-majority congressional district as GOP lawmakers scramble to improve their fortunes ahead of the November midterms.The new map splits Shelby County, the home of Memphis, a majority-Black city that played a critical role in the civil rights movement, into three separate Republican-leaning districts. Continue reading...

Move comes days after supreme court ruling weakened Voting Rights Act protections against racial gerrymanderingUS politics live – latest updatesTennessee’s Republican-dominated legislature passed redistricting maps on Thursday, eliminating the state’s one Democratic, Black-majority congressional district a week after the US supreme court effectively gutted a major section of the Voting Rights Act.The move cracks Tennessee’s ninth congressional district, which covers Memphis, into three pieces, each of which contains almost exactly a third of the city’s Black voters. The new maps mean that all nine of Tennessee’s congressional districts are Republican-leaning. Continue reading...

Such a move could reshape the electoral map ahead of the midterms by carving up a majority-Black congressional districtSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxHello and welcome to the US politics live blog.Republican lawmakers in Tennessee are poised to push through a plan later today that would carve up a majority-Black congressional district.Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged suicide note was released Wednesday. A federal judge has unsealed an alleged suicide note by Jeffrey Epstein, the first time the document has been made public.The Trump administration has claimed that migration has made Europe an “incubator” for terrorism, according to a recently published report on counter-terrorism strategies. The administration will focus counter-terrorism efforts on drug cartels.Republican politicians in Tennessee released a new congressional voting map that could go into effect before the midterm elections this November. The proposed map would eliminate the state’s only Democratic-controlled district by carving up a majority-Black voting bloc based in Memphis.More information was released on the suspect charged in connection to Monday’s shooting near JD Vance’s motorcade. The Texas man accused of firing a gun at law enforcement officers near the Washington monument this week was walking along the path of JD Vance’s motorcade before the shooting and made a vulgar remark about the White House after the confrontation, according to a court filing on Wednesday.The FBI’s director, Kash Patel, has allegedly given out customized bottles of bourbon at events, including ones where he is working in a official capacity, according to a report from the Atlantic.Donald Trump will be hosting the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, for a visit, a White House source confirmed to the Guardian. Trump and Lula, who was elected in 2023, will discuss “economic and security matters of shared importance”, the source said. The meeting is expected to take place this Thursday. Continue reading...

• Southern Republicans are pressing forward with election-year House redistricting efforts, including an aggressive gerrymander in Tennessee demanded by Trump. • The moves come amid widespread protests and legal challenges, with PBS reporting on resistance in multiple states. • These changes could reshape congressional seats ahead of the 2026 midterms, potentially benefiting GOP majorities.

Though Trump’s popularity has dwindled, staying loyal to him seems to still be a winning strategy among the GOPBy just about every measure, Donald Trump’s sway with US voters has slipped since he won re-election two years ago, but there’s one place where his power remains unmatched: within the Republican party.The latest evidence of his ability to control who’s in and who’s out in the GOP came on Tuesday, when primary voters in Indiana ousted five of seven state senators who had last year defied the president’s demand to redraw the state’s congressional maps and gerrymander the state’s last two Democratic representatives out of their seats. Continue reading...

New immigration enforcement package could fund security of $400m ‘East Wing modernization project’Senate Republicans have released a new immigration enforcement funding package that includes a proposed $1bn that could go to security measures related to the $400m ballroom that is part of Donald Trump’s “East Wing modernization project”.Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican who chairs the Senate judiciary committee, released the funding plan on Monday, as part of a wider bill the Republican party plans to pass along party lines to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other agencies involved in the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts. Continue reading...

Future of Calvin Duncan’s position as the clerk of New Orleans’ criminal district courthouse remains unclearLouisiana Republicans eliminated an elected position days before a Democratic exoneree who overwhelmingly won the New Orleans-based post was set to take office on Monday.A temporary restraining order did allow the exoneree, Calvin Duncan, to take office as scheduled Monday as the clerk of New Orleans’ criminal district courthouse – though it remained unclear how long his tenure may prove to be. Continue reading...

In Ohio, where Haitians have helped revive the economy, vulnerable Republicans are reluctant to toe the Trump lineFor months Carl Ruby, a pastor at a church in Springfield, Ohio, and a prominent supporter of the city’s estimated 10,000 Haitian immigrants, had been trying to contact his local congressman, Republican Mike Turner.Ruby had long hoped for an opportunity to explain in person the difficulties facing Haitians in Springfield and how that community had helped revive the struggling town. Continue reading...

US announced withdrawal of 5,000 soldiers last week after German chancellor said US was being ‘humiliated’ by IranDonald Trump has threatened to withdraw more US troops from Germany after stunning European leaders and some senior members of his own party by last week announcing the withdrawal of 5,000 soldiers from Germany.The move left 30,000 US troops still in the country, according to CNN. But Trump threatened on Saturday that more cuts were coming. “We are going to cut way down, and we’re cutting a lot further than 5,000,” he told reporters on Saturday. Continue reading...

House panel divided on whether Trump should pardon Maxwell so she can cooperate with Epstein investigationThe possibility of clemency for Jeffrey Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, however unlikely, has long outraged survivors and their advocates who view the former British socialite’s lengthy jail sentence as giving them some justice in the long-running saga.Recent reporting that a pardon for Maxwell is now being discussed supportively in some circles, however, has highlighted how Epstein and Maxwell remain a political minefield for Republicans and Donald Trump – while presenting yet another blow to survivors’ fight for transparency. Continue reading...

• Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has proposed new congressional district maps designed to strip Democrats of additional House seats in the state. • The redistricting effort is part of a broader coast-to-coast battle over legislative boundaries ahead of the 2026 midterms, with competing proposals from both parties. • In Virginia, voters narrowly backed a Democratic remap that threatens several Republican incumbents, demonstrating the high stakes of redistricting.

• Republicans are using a legislative maneuver that would bypass a Senate filibuster to send billions of dollars to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), according to POLITICO reports from Washington on May 1, 2026. • The move is intended to strengthen ICE enforcement capacity amid President Trump’s fixation on keeping a Republican House majority in the upcoming midterms and comes as the administration faces criticism over border and deportation policies. • Critics warn the approach could cement highly restrictive immigration enforcement for years, while the GOP argues it will bolster security and hold the administration to its campaign promises.

Vote comes as 60-day deadline looms, with two GOP backing limits and dispute over whether ceasefire pauses clockUS politics live – latest updatesThe Republican-led Senate on Thursday again blocked a Democratic attempt to stop Donald Trump’s war in Iran, rejecting a war powers resolution that would have limited the conflict until Congress authorizes further military action.The vote was 47-50, with two Republicans – Susan Collins, a senator of Maine, and Rand Paul, of Kentucky – voting in favor and one Democrat – John Fetterman, of Pennsylvania – opposing it. Continue reading...

Vote comes on same day the US supreme court rolls back a key provision of the Voting Rights ActThe Florida legislature approved a new congressional map intended to maximize Republicans’ advantage in the state as part of the national redistricting battle that Donald Trump launched before this year’s midterms.The vote came just two days after the governor, Ron DeSantis, unveiled his proposal and the same day the US supreme court rolled back a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. The decision could make it harder for Democrats to challenge Republican efforts to redraw congressional districts in ways that limit the influence of voters of color. Continue reading...

Decision gives mapmakers in Republican states power to crack districts into pieces and dilute votes into oblivionThe Voting Rights Act was a political peace compact written in John Lewis’s blood.The Callais v Landry decision by the US supreme court, which set aside much of section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, whitewashed that blood from history, along with that of thousands of other Americans who fought segregationist white supremacists at lunch counters and bus stations and courthouses for political equality. Continue reading...

Redrawn map could flip up to five seats to Republicans as Trump’s party seeks to keep control of CongressThe US supreme court formally reinstated on Monday a redrawn Texas electoral map that was designed to add more Republicans to the US House of Representatives, as Donald Trump’s party seeks to keep control of Congress in the November congressional elections.The move by the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, formalizes an interim decision it made in December to revive the map of US House districts in Texas. Continue reading...

Bill clears 50–48 vote to boost ICE and CBP funding as Democrats oppose and shutdown continuesUS politics live – latest updatesSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailSenate Republicans on Thursday approved a plan to fund Donald Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants for the remainder of his term and pave the way for an end to the ongoing shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).The budget resolution adopted along a near party line vote in the early morning hours sets the stage for Congress to craft legislation allocating as much as $140b to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), two agencies at the forefront of Trump’s mass deportation agenda that have been without funding since mid-February, when the DHS shutdown began. Continue reading...

Republicans deploy measure known as budget reconciliation to push through plan without backing from Democrats during lengthy late-night voteHello and welcome to the US politics live blog.The Senate voted to adopt a $70bn budget plan to fund ICE and Border Patrol as part of a new effort to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).We have a multistep process ahead of us, but at the end Republicans will have helped ensure that America’s borders are secure and prevented Democrats from defunding these important agencies.Instead of pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into ICE and Border Patrol, Republicans should be working with Democrats to lower out-of-pocket costs.The Pentagon announced, without explanation, that “Secretary of the Navy John C Phelan is departing the administration, effective immediately”. The head of the US navy, which is now enforcing a wartime blockade of Iranian ports, was replaced by a former Maga political candidate, Hung Cao, now acting secretary of the navy.The surprise announcement brought renewed attention to Cao’s 2023 comments that that “witchcraft” had “taken over” Monterey, California.Virginia’s attorney general, Jay Jones, promised to appeal an injunction issued by a circuit court judge that temporarily blocks the state from certifying the results of the Tuesday’s redistricting referendum.As jet fuel prices spike amid the ongoing energy crisis sparked by Donald Trump’s war on Iran, two Republican senators, Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton, denounced a proposed US government bailout of budget carrier Spirit Airlines.Representative David Scott, a Democrat from Georgia, has died at the age of 80. He is the fifth member of Congress to die in office within the last year. Continue reading...

• House Republicans openly questioned President Donald Trump's mid-decade redistricting strategy on Wednesday, following a Democratic victory in Virginia on Tuesday that threatens the GOP's slim House majority. • The Virginia vote paves the way for as many as four Republican seats to be lost, intensifying GOP concerns about the redistricting war Trump sparked. • Republican lawmakers are now expressing misgivings about the strategy, signaling potential fractures within the party over Trump's aggressive electoral positioning ahead of the November midterms.