Trump administration live updates: US expands ‘narco’ boat strikes to Pacific as at least 34 killed in war-like campaign – UK Times

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) dodged when The Independent asked him about Trump’s attack on cattle ranchers.

Trump took a swipe at cattle ranchers on Wednesday on Truth Social. This comes as many Republicans have expressed concerns about Trump’s proposal to import beef from Argentina.

“The Cattle Ranchers, who I love, don’t understand that the only reason they are doing so well, for the first time in decades, is because I put Tariffs on cattle coming into the United States, including a 50% Tariff on Brazil,” he said. “If it weren’t for me, they would be doing just as they’ve done for the past 20 years — Terrible! It would be nice if they would understand that, but they also have to get their prices down, because the consumer is a very big factor in my thinking, also!”

Trump’s proposal on Argentina comes as the administration has put in place a $20 billion bailout for the beleaguered Latin American country run by his ally President Javier Milei.

But Cruz, who hails from the state that produces the most beef in the United States, dodged when asked about it.

“I love Texas ranchers. Texas is the national powerhouse when it comes to cattle ranching, and I’m confident Texas will continue to lead the way,” he told The Independent. When pressed about Trump’s remarks, he said “he can speak for himself.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a massive critic of Trump’s Argentina bailout, criticized the beef policy.

“President Trump dumps on American farmers to help Argentina, and now he plans to dump on American ranchers. What happened to America First? It appears to be ‘Argentina First’ over the White House,” she told The Independent.

As several states look to redraw maps ahead of next year’s midterm elections, Indiana may not be able to do the same.

Despite reported pressure from the White House, a spokesperson for the state’s Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray told Politico: “The votes aren’t there for redistricting.”

In North Carolina on Wednesday, the GOP-led legislature passed a new congressional map that could give Republicans an extra seat in the 2026 midterm elections. The state follows Texas’ lead, where the GOP could pick up five Republican seats with the redrawn map approved last month.

Meanwhile California Democrats are trying to counteract those moves. Next month, voters in the Golden State will get to decide whether to approve a map that could see five House seats go to Democrats.

President Donald Trump demanded the Justice Department pay him $230 million in compensation for the past federal probes into him, the New York Times reported.

California Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia, ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, issued a statement Wednesday in response to the report, demanding an investigation into “this gross abuse of power.”

“It’s outrageous and completely out-of-touch that President Donald Trump is focused on building himself a private $250 million ballroom – all while millions of Americans are about to lose their healthcare,” he said, referring to the government shutdown that has dragged on for 22 days.

“Instead of working with Democrats in Congress to re-open the government, the Trump Administration is more focused on the destruction of the White House, also known as the ‘People’s House, covering up the Epstein files, and using our agencies to kidnap immigrants and U.S. citizens,” Garcia continued.

“We must immediately investigate this gross abuse of power, and ensure accountability for the American people.”

Asked about the demand, which was first reported by the New York Times, the president said Tuesday: “I don’t know about the numbers. I don’t even talk to them about it. All I know is that they would owe me a lot of money. But I’m not looking for money. I’d give it to charity or something.”

Jake Lang, a former January 6 defendant who is running for the U.S. Senate in Florida, has said he believes the Proud Boys should be deputized to “bounty hunt illegal immigrants.”

“I would deputize the Proud Boys and the January 6 Patriots to bounty hunt illegal immigrants,” Lang explicitly told Newsweek.

“We would offer a bounty and work with local sheriffs and deputize and give legal access to be able to have these people join en masse and be able to work alongside federal law enforcement to provide tips, to provide information, and to go out and make the arrests of these illegal immigrants.”

Joe Sommerlad has the story.

The Department of War conducted a “lethal kinetic strike” on a vessel suspected of “narco-trafficking” in the Eastern Pacific on Tuesday, Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Two people on board the vessel were killed in the strike, which was conducted in international waters, he said in a social media post. No U.S. forces were harmed.

The vessel was “known by our intelligence to be involved in illicit narcotics smuggling, was transiting along a known narco-trafficking transit route, and carrying narcotics,” Hegseth added.

“Just as Al Qaeda waged war on our homeland, these cartels are waging war on our border and our people. There will be no refuge or forgiveness—only justice,” he said, posting a video of the strike.

The latest strike — what is believed to be the eighth attack since September — raises the death toll from the administration’s attacks to at least 34 people.

Alex Woodward has the story.

North Carolina’s legislature passed a new congressional map that could give Republicans an extra seat in the 2026 midterm elections.

On Wednesday, the state’s House passed the bill 66 to 48, just one day after the state Senate did the same.

“Now here we are in NC, doing a fifth redistricting in five years. It’s not because of the census. It’s not because of a court order. It’s because of a command from a president. Unprecedented in US history,” state Democratic Rep. Marcia Morey, a Democrat from Durham, said, according to CNN.

“The motivation behind this redraw is simple and singular: drawing new map that will bring an additional Republican seat to the North Carolina Congressional delegation,” state Sen. Ralph Hise, the Republican who prepared the map, said, NBC News reported.

The state’s Democratic Governor Josh Stein does not have the ability to veto the map.

In California, voters will get to decide on November 4 whether to approve a map that could see five House seats go to Democrats. There, the party is hoping to counteract efforts in Texas, where the GOP could pick up five Republican seats with the redrawn map approved last month.

GOP Senator Lindsey Graham broke with President Donald Trump on sending Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine on Wednesday.

Graham spoke to The Independent about sending missiles to President Volodymyr Zelensky to push back against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine.

Graham, a Trump loyalist and a Russia hawk, couched his words in support for Trump’s proposal for Ukraine.

“I think it’s pretty clear to me that President Trump’s proposal of ceasefire in place is fair, that Putin has said ‘no,’” he said. “So if I were president Trump, I would make it harder for Putin to stay on the battlefield. I’d give them the tomahawks. I’d do a lot more things to put pressure on Putin.”

Graham’s words come after Trump hosted Zelensky at the White House. Prior to that, Trump had floated sending Tomahawks to Ukraine. But he said Putin did not seem pleased with it.

Trump has become increasingly frustrated by Putin’s unwillingness to end the war.

President Donald Trump urges cattle ranchers to “get their prices down” in a new Truth Social post:

The Cattle Ranchers, who I love, don’t understand that the only reason they are doing so well, for the first time in decades, is because I put Tariffs on cattle coming into the United States, including a 50% Tariff on Brazil.

If it weren’t for me, they would be doing just as they’ve done for the past 20 years — Terrible! It would be nice if they would understand that, but they also have to get their prices down, because the consumer is a very big factor in my thinking, also!

Over the weekend, Trump said he was weighing importing “some beef” from Argentina, which would “bring our beef prices down.”

U.S. beef prices have been high for as imports have been reduced due to a flesh-eating pest in cattle herds in Mexico and the tariffs that Trump imposed on Brazil.

Read more about the ongoing beef here.

It was clear from the outset that Donald Trump’s administration would include high-ranking government officials who either endorsed his false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, or refused to publicly admit he lost.

The president continues to hammer a baseless narrative that the election was rigged against him, vowing publicly that it must never “happen again” as he deploys officials to prepare for midterm elections with the balance of power in Congress — and his agenda — at stake.

Before she was tapped as Trump’s “election integrity” official at the Department of Homeland Security, Heather Honey reportedly told a group of right-wing activists in March that the president could declare a “national emergency” to effectively take control of local election administration.

She said the move would follow an “actual investigation” of the 2020 election, if it revealed “manipulation” of the results, according to The New York Times, which had a recording of the call.

Alex Woodward has the story.