Trump claims he’s ‘not threatening death’ for Democrats but says ‘they’re in serious trouble’ as he prepares to meet Mamdani – US politics live | US news
‘I’m not threatening death, but I think they’re in serious trouble’: Trump defends comments after accusing Democrats of sedition
Donald Trump defended his comments on social media, where he said a video by six Democratic members of Congress urging service members to “refuse illegal orders”, was “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
In an interview with Fox News earlier today, he said that “I’m not threatening death, but I think they’re in serious trouble”, when asked about his tirade on Truth social.
Trump went on to say that the lawmakers’ behavior would have constituted death in the “old days”.
“Today’s a different world,” Trump added. “It’s a meeker, milder world. But I will say this, I think what they did is really bad.”
Key events
Following a phone call with JD Vance, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that Ukraine would work with the United States and Europe at an adviser level to work towards a peace plan for Russia’s war.
“We agreed to work together with the U.S. and Europe at the level of national security advisors to make the path to peace truly doable,” the Ukrainian president wrote on X after the nearly hour-long call.
“Ukraine has always respected and continues to respect U.S. President Donald Trump’s desire to put an end to the bloodshed, and we view every realistic proposal positively.”
Earlier in an address to the nation, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was facing “one of the most difficult moments in history” after being presented with a 28-point peace plan drafted by the US, which pressured Kyiv to concede territory to Russia, among other things, in order to end the war.
Trump said in a radio interview earlier that he thinks Thursday is an appropriate deadline for Ukraine to accept the proposal.
‘I’m not threatening death, but I think they’re in serious trouble’: Trump defends comments after accusing Democrats of sedition
Donald Trump defended his comments on social media, where he said a video by six Democratic members of Congress urging service members to “refuse illegal orders”, was “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”
In an interview with Fox News earlier today, he said that “I’m not threatening death, but I think they’re in serious trouble”, when asked about his tirade on Truth social.
Trump went on to say that the lawmakers’ behavior would have constituted death in the “old days”.
“Today’s a different world,” Trump added. “It’s a meeker, milder world. But I will say this, I think what they did is really bad.”
Trump says he and Mamdani will ‘get along fine’ ahead of White House meeting
In an interview with Fox News today, Donald Trump said that he will “get along fine” with New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
“We’re looking for the same thing. We want to make New York strong,” Trump said. “There’s such a different philosophy.”
The president also said the he gives “a lot of credit” to Mamdani’s run. “They did a successful run, and we all know that runs are not easy,” he added.
Lauren Gambino
On Capitol Hill, Swalwell served for eight years on the House intelligence committee, including the CIA subcommittee, and was a key Democratic voice on national security and election interference issues. He is also a founding member of the Future Forum caucus, aimed at representing young voters in Congress.
Polling shows the contest lacks a clear frontrunner after the former vice-president Kamala Harris and California senator Alex Padilla declined to run. The former representative Katie Porter led early surveys, but has struggled to shake off concerns about her temperament after she threatened to walk out of a local television interview and after footage surfaced of her berating a staff member. Porter has since apologized for her behavior but reports suggest Democratic strategists are searching for an alternative.
Other Democrats include the former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the former state attorney general and US representative Xavier Becerra and the former state controller Betty Yee. The two most prominent Republicans running for governor are the Riverside county sheriff Chad Bianco and the former David Cameron adviser Steve Hilton. The field could expand further, with developer Rick Caruso reportedly weighing a run.
Earlier this month, a housing official in the Trump administration referred Swalwell to the justice department for a potential federal investigation, based on mortgage and tax fraud allegations that the representative has denied. The official, Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte, has made similar allegations against several of the president’s perceived political enemies, including California senator Adam Schiff and New York attorney general Letitia James.
Swalwell also faced scrutiny over an alleged relationship with a suspected Chinese intelligence operative a decade ago. The House ethics committee later closed its inquiry without findings of wrongdoing, but Republicans continue to use it as a basis of attacks against him.
Congressman Eric Swalwell announces bid for California governor, joining crowded field
Democratic representative Eric Swalwell announced on Thursday that he’s joining the race to be the next governor of California.
“No one will keep Californians safer than I will,” said the seven-term House member, who represents Alameda county, in his new campaign video. “California is the fourth largest economy in the world. So shouldn’t we be a state where you can take your first job, have your first kid, and buy your first home in the same decade?”
Swalwell, who launched a short-lived bid to be the Democratic presidential nominee in the 2020, is joining a crowded race to succeed the term-limited Gavin Newsom to be the Golden state’s next governor. Earlier this week, billionaire Tom Steyer also announced his bid for the job.
A short while ago, New York mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani posted a selfie to X, grinning in a window seat as he flies to Washington DC to meet with Donald Trump.
House oversight committee demands Clintons appear for in-person deposition in Epstein investigation
James Comer, the Republican chair of the House oversight committee, has written to Bill and Hillary Clinton’s lawyer to demand that the former president and former secretary of state appear for an in-person deposition on Capitol Hill to advance the committee’s ongoing investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
The committee subpoenaed the Clintons back in August, but their attorneys argued that a written submission would be sufficient as the pair have “little to contribute” to the “legitimate goal” of understanding more about Epstein’s conduct and his affiliations.
Today, Comer rejected that offer, insisting that the Clinton’s legal team admitted that their clients possess “relevant information”, and scheduled an in-person deposition for Bill Clinton on 18 December, and one for Hillary a day later.
“It is precisely the fact President Clinton and Secretary Clinton each maintained relationships with Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell in their personal capacities as private citizens that is of interest to the Committee,” Comer wrote in his letter.
My colleague, Jakub Krupa, is covering the latest out of Ukraine, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy considers the US-Russia backed plan to end the war.
Jakub reports that in a video address to the nation today, Zelenskyy warned that next week could be “very difficult” for Ukraine with a lot of political pressure coming towards Kyiv as the US hopes to force through its peace proposal.
The Ukrainian leader said that the country was facing “one of the most difficult moments of its history” and a choice “of losing a major partner [in the US] or Ukraine’s dignity”.
Zelenskyy added that he would not betray Ukraine’s national interest, and would seek to work “constructively” with the US to amend the proposed deal, so Russia cannot argue that Kyiv does not want peace.
You can follow the latest developments below.
Top House Democrat on oversight committee urges justice department to release Epstein files despite ‘bogus’ investigation
Robert Garcia, the ranking member on the House oversight committee, has sent a letter to the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, urging the justice department to release the complete trove of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, despite the newly launched investigation into several Democrats’ ties to the late sex offender.
“There is already a concern President Trump will attempt, on dubious legal grounds, to exploit a provision which allows DoJ to withhold information relevant to ongoing investigations,” Garcia wrote.
He added that the subpoena that the oversight committee issued in August “requires” the justice department “to release the complete, un-redacted Epstein files to the Committee, including classified information and material relevant to ongoing investigations, while protecting the identity of survivors and potential victims”.
This comes after Trump signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which passed Congress with near-unanimous consent earlier this week.
Trump has assembled least diverse US government this century, study shows
David Smith
Donald Trump has assembled the least diverse US government of the 21st century, filling the corridors of power with white men at the expense of women and people of colour, research shows.
Nine in 10 individuals confirmed by the Senate in the first 300 days of the second Trump administration were white, according to the Brookings Institution thinktank in Washington.
The total percentage of women confirmed was just 16%, the lowest rate among the past four administrations, including during Trump’s first term (23%).
“For the Biden administration at the one-year point it was 50% male, 50% female, and right now in the Trump administration it’s 84% male, 16% female,” Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, director of the initiative on improving inter-branch relations and government, told the Guardian in an interview at Brookings on Wednesday.
“Probably that’s the starkest contrast. But even if you go all the way back to George W Bush in 2001, Trump’s confirmed nominees are whiter and less ethnically diverse and more male than his predecessors going back that far.”
Trump claims to have broad appeal, pointing to vocal groups such as Women for Trump and incremental gains among Latino and Black voters in last year’s presidential election. But his actions as president suggest that diversity as a hiring priority has been explicitly abandoned.
He has overwhelmingly favoured white men in his appointments while firing prominent African Americans such as Gen Charles Q Brown Jr, chair of the joint chiefs of staff, and Carla Hayden, the librarian of Congress. He issued executive orders to curb diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the federal government and is seeking to purge “divisive, race-centered ideology” from Smithsonian Institution museums.
Schumer calls for extension of Obamacare tax credits as healthcare talks stall on Capitol Hill
As both chambers of Congress prepare to head into Thanksgiving recess, after the government returned to work following a record-breaking shutdown, the Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, is reminding lawmakers that there’s been little headway on discussions to extend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits that are set to expire at the end of this year. Democrats were promised a vote on the extension of these subsidies, after a faction of the caucus voted with Republicans to pass a funding bill that didn’t contain any healthcare provisions – arguably the focal point of their negotiations.
“Americans are now about to fall off a healthcare cliff, and Donald Trump doesn’t even have a concept of a plan to fix it,” Schumer said. “We must extend the ACA premium tax credits NOW to lower healthcare costs for the American people.”
On the Hill, there have been alternative proposals to Obamacare subsidies, with the chair of the Senate health committee, Bill Cassidy, suggesting that the credits could be replaced with pre-paid health savings accounts. Some health policy experts have pushed pack, saying that while these would help with out-of-pocket costs, it wouldn’t help those ACA enrollees who can’t afford insurance premiums to begin with.
It’s a quiet day for the president in Washington. His only scheduled event is a meeting with the New York mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, at 3pm ET.
At the moment that meeting is closed to the press. We’ll be watching to see if it opens up, and make sure to bring you the latest lines as these two New Yorkers finally come to the table.
Victoria Bekiempis
The Trump administration on Thursday announced new oil and gas drilling off California’s and Florida’s coasts, setting the stage for a political showdown – including with Sunshine state Republicans who have largely opposed petroleum development in the Gulf of Mexico.
This announcement comes as the US petroleum industry, despite contending with low crude prices, has been pushing for an entree to additional offshore drilling areas. The industry’s move for increased access also marks an effort to increase jobs and US energy independence, according to the Associated Press.
The federal government has prohibited offshore drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, which extends from Florida shores to portions of Alabama, since 1995. The ban stemmed from worries about potential oil spills.
While California does have some offshore oil development, there have not been new leases in federal waters for nearly 30 years, the AP said.
A proposed schedule for petroleum leasing in federal waters includes up to 34 auctions from 2026 to 2031; these auctions include up to six sales off California’s coastline, 21 off of Alaska’s coastline, and two in the Gulf of Mexico’s eastern portion, Politico said. The sales in Alaska would reportedly include a region that has never had oil drilling.
The move reflects Trump’s dogged efforts to roll back former president Joe Biden’s efforts against global heating. Trump has described climate change as “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world”, and launched a National Energy Dominance Council to boost domestic energy production, with an emphasis on fossil fuels, AP noted.
Trump has simultaneously thwarted renewable energy development including offshore windfarms. His administration has also axed billions in green energy grants, the AP said.
California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, a Trump foe weighing a presidential run, rejected offshore drilling expansion, calling it “dead on arrival”.
Offshore oil development has faced bipartisan opposition in Florida, where unblemished beaches and sparkling waters underpin the state’s $131bn tourism industry.
The Supreme Court is to meet in private Friday with a high-profile issue on its agenda – president Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship order declaring that children born to parents who are in the United States illegally or temporarily are not American citizens.
The justices could say as soon as Monday whether they will hear Trump’s appeal of lower court rulings that have uniformly struck down the citizenship restrictions, AP reports. They have not taken effect anywhere in the United States.
If the court steps in now, the case would be argued in the spring, with a definitive ruling expected by early summer.
The birthright citizenship order, which Trump signed on the first day of his second term in the White House, is part of his administration’s broad immigration crackdown.
Other actions include immigration enforcement surges in several cities and the first peacetime invocation of the 18th century Alien Enemies Act.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s top security official denied on Friday he had agreed to a Trump administration peace plan, and European leaders hastily sought a response to a draft that endorses most of Russia’s key wartime demands.
Washington has presented Kyiv with a 28-point plan that would require Kyiv to give up additional territory, scale back the size of its military and forever abandon hope of joining the Nato western military alliance.
Ukraine’s European allies said they had not been consulted over the plan and scheduled an urgent phone call to discuss the situation. Britain and Germany said their leaders would take part. Zelenskyy’s office did not say whether he would join in.
US officials said the plan was drafted after consultations with Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defense council, a close Zelenskyy ally who served as defence minister until July.
“This plan was drawn up immediately following discussions with one of the most senior members of president Zelenskyy’s administration, Rustem Umerov, who agreed to the majority of the plan, after making several modifications, and presented it to president Zelenskyy,” a senior US official said on Thursday.
But Umerov said on Friday he had not discussed the plan’s terms, much less approved them, according to a Reuters report.
The White House is preparing for possible turnover in the cabinet after president Donald Trump reaches the one-year mark of his term, potentially shaking up his otherwise stable team of secretaries, CNN reported on Friday, citing multiple people familiar with the discussions.
At least one agency that could see a leadership change is the Department of Homeland Security, CNN reported.
The Department of Energy, led by Chris Wright, a former Colorado fracking executive whose ties with the White House have reportedly frayed in recent months, may also be affected, the report added.
Trump to meet New York’s Mamdani later today
President Donald Trump will meet with incoming New York mayor Zohran Mamdani on Friday, the first in-person talks between political opposites who have clashed over everything from immigration to economic policy.
A democratic socialist and little-known state lawmaker who won New York’s mayoral race earlier this month, Mamdani requested the sit-down with Trump to discuss cost-of-living issues and public safety, Reuters reports.
The Republican president has threatened to strip federal funding from the biggest US city, while the mayor-elect has regularly criticized a range of Trump’s policies, including plans to ramp up federal immigration enforcement efforts in New York, where four in ten people are foreign-born.
The 79-year-old president, a former New York resident, has labeled Mamdani, 34, as a “radical left lunatic,” a communist and “Jew hater,” without offering evidence for those assertions.
Mamdani, who will be sworn in as mayor on 1 January, said at a press conference on Thursday: “Being a New Yorker means that you’re prepared for all situations.”
Trump accused of calling for execution of Democratic lawmakers
Good morning and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news lines over the next few hours.
We start with the news that Donald Trump has been accused of calling for the “execution” of elected Democratic lawmakers following his comments on social media.
The president said the group has engaged in “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH” and that they should be arrested after they posted a video in which they told active service members they should refuse illegal orders.
The video, released on Tuesday, features six Democratic lawmakers who have previously served in the military or in intelligence roles – senators Elissa Slotkin and Mark Kelly, and representatives Maggie Goodlander, Chris Deluzio, Chrissy Houlahan and Jason Crow.
“Like us, you all swore an oath to protect and defend this constitution,” the lawmakers said in the 90-second video. “And right now, the threats to our constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home. Our laws are clear, you can refuse illegal orders, you can refuse illegal orders, you must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our constitution.”
That seemed to prompt a furious response from the US president. On Thursday morning, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “It’s called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL. Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL.”
In another post, he wrote: “This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP??? President DJT.” In a third post, he added: “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” He also reposted a statement that said: “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD !!”
In response, Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate minority leader, condemned Trump’s remarks and posted on X: “Let’s be crystal clear: the President of the United States is calling for the execution of elected officials.”
He added: “This is an outright THREAT. Every Senator, every Representative, every American – regardless of party – should condemn this immediately and without qualification.”
Mike Johnson, the Republican House speaker, defended Trump’s claim that the Democrats had engaged in “sedition”, describing the video as “wildly inappropriate”, adding: “It is very dangerous, you have leading members of Congress telling troops to disobey orders, I think that’s unprecedented in American history.”
Following Trump’s statements on Thursday, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic whip Katherine Clark and Democratic caucus chair Pete Aguilar released a joint statement condemning the remarks.
“Political violence has no place in America,” they wrote. “Representatives Jason Crow, Chris DeLuzio, Maggie Goodlander and Chrissy Houlahan and Senators Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin all served our country with tremendous patriotism and distinction. We unequivocally condemn Donald Trump’s disgusting and dangerous death threats against members of Congress, and call on House Republicans to forcefully do the same.”
Read our full story here:
In other developments:
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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he will negotiate with Donald Trump on a US-backed peace plan that called on Kyiv to make painful concessions in order to end the Kremlin’s invasion of his country. Zelenskyy’s office on Thursday confirmed that he had received the draft peace plan, which was prepared by US and Russian officials, and that he would speak with Trump in the coming days about “existing diplomatic opportunities and the main points that are necessary for peace”.
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The Trump administration on Thursday announced new oil and gas drilling off California’s and Florida’s coasts, setting the stage for a political showdown – including with Sunshine state Republicans who have largely opposed petroleum development in the Gulf of Mexico. This announcement comes as the US petroleum industry, despite contending with low crude prices, has been pushing for an entree to additional offshore drilling areas.
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A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website has been changed to reflect the belief of Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health and human services secretary, that there is a link between vaccines and autism, a view flatly contradicted by experts and scientifically validated studies. Public health and autism specialists roundly condemned the alteration to the CDC’s “vaccine safety” webpage, after it was changed to read: “The statement ‘Vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim.”
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US district judge Jia Cobb, an appointee of former president Joe Biden, temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deploying national guard troops to enforce the law in Washington DC without approval from its mayor. Cobb paused her ruling until 11 December to allow the Trump administration to appeal.
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The justice department is investigating how two Trump allies handled the investigation into whether California senator, Adam Schiff, committed mortgage fraud, according to a copy of a subpoena obtained by the Guardian and a person familiar with the matter. The office of the deputy attorney general Todd Blanche is overseeing the inquiry, which appears to have developed as an offshoot of the main case into Schiff – a notable development since the justice department is essentially investigating activities of two close allies of the president.
