https://washingtonsun.com/trump-white-house Trump White House en-US Thu, 10 Sep 2026 12:58:59 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/media/jimmy-kimmel-interview-james-talarico-air-abc-fcc-texas-senate-campaign-brendan-carr Angie Orellana Hernandez Kimmel said he would instead upload the segment on YouTube. Thu, 10 Sep 2026 12:58:59 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/media/jimmy-kimmel-interview-james-talarico-air-abc-fcc-texas-senate-campaign-brendan-carr An interview that Jimmy Kimmel conducted with Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico will not air on television amid an ongoing legal dispute between ABC and the Federal Communications Commission, the late-night talk show host said during a Wednesday monologue.

ABC and its parent company Disney sued the FCC on Aug. 18 over accusations that it was threatening broadcast licenses in violation of the First Amendment. The complaint, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., alleged the FCC had “waged a retaliatory campaign against ABC for a single reason: it disapproves of what ABC broadcasts.”

Kimmel said due to ongoing threats from the FCC against himself, his show and ABC, he would instead upload his interview with Talarico on YouTube.

“And thank goodness we have that,” Kimmel said, “because in the America we live in right now, that is the best that we can do until November, of course.”

The FCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kimmel and President Donald Trump have shared a contentious relationship stretching back to Trump’s first campaign for office. Since Trump’s return to the presidency last year, the FCC and its chair Brendan Carr have waged a pressure campaign against ABC and Disney that centers around the company’s broadcast licenses.

After the FCC moved to review the broadcast licenses of the network’s owned and operated television stations — years before they were set to expire — ABC accused the commission in a regulatory filing of “retaliating against ABC for the exercise of its First Amendment rights.”

Top Trump administration officials have also targeted the network over its workplace diversity practices, Talarico’s appearance on daytime talk show “The View,” and for remarks Kimmel made in September 2025 after conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s death, which resulted in a brief suspension of his show.

In April, Trump again called on ABC to fire Kimmel after he joked that first lady Melania Trump had the “glow of an expectant widow.” Both Trumps said the remark was a call to violence before the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, while Kimmel defended the remark as a reference to the age gap in their relationship.

“I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject,” Kimmel said on his show in April following the criticism. “I think a great place to start to dial that back is having a conversation with your husband about it."
]]> https://washingtonsun.com/trump-white-house/trump-dividend-americans-vote-republican Gavin J. Quinton The president said the payments would come from the economic successes that Democrats will halt if they take back Congress. Thu, 10 Sep 2026 02:30:39 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/trump-white-house/trump-dividend-americans-vote-republican President Donald Trump promised to pay every American adult $5,000 if Republicans keep their majorities in Congress in November’s midterms.

“Here is my promise,” Trump said Wednesday, “if the Republicans win the House of Representatives and the United States Senate, both of them — because of our tremendous economic success, like in history, we've never had anything like what's happening, but because of our tremendous strength and success economically — I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000.”

“That alone should win the midterms,” Trump said, speaking at the party’s midterm convention in Dallas. He added the only condition on the payment, which he dubbed the “Trump dividend,” is that Americans must spend that stimulus in the United States.

There are about 245 million adult citizens in America, meaning Trump’s promise would cost more than $1.2 trillion.

Speaking at the novel Republican midterm convention, Trump compared the proposed payments to a company distributing cash to shareholders and credited his economic policies and tariffs with making them possible.

Federal law bars anyone from offering financial compensation to persuade a voter to cast their ballot in favor of or against a particular candidate.

Trump did not specify when the payments would arrive or detail how the program would be funded. He has previously teased a stimulus payment from tariff money.

Wednesday’s proposal came midway through the president’s remarks in Dallas, where he cast November’s midterms as a choice between preserving his agenda and surrendering gains on immigration, taxes and public safety.

There, he urged Republicans to vote as though he was on the ballot.

“If we lose,” Trump warned, “you're going to lose your border, you're going to lose your tax cuts, you're going to lose your safety and security, you're going to lose your wealth.”

He also pledged to show up for some 35 competitive congressional races before November, promising rallies and town halls to help Republican candidates.

“They might be winning by a little, or losing by a little, or tied,” Trump said. “We can win every one of those races, but I’m going to go to every one of those states for congressmen and for senators.”

That effort, he said, would include returning to Texas to campaign for Ken Paxton for Senate.

Trump touted his economic record, celebrated immigration wins, predicted a swift end to the Iran war and called opposition to transgender women in women’s sports “one of our greatest sound bites of all time.”

More than anything, he said, Trump worried Democrats might switch their positions before Election Day: “I’m petrified that they’ll change.”

“The choice in this election is very, very simple. Democrats are asking you to vote for their failed far-left agendas,” Trump said. “And I'm asking you to let us finish the job we began with the greatest two years in the history of the presidency.”

This story has been updated with further comments from President Trump.]]> https://washingtonsun.com/policy/blanche-speech-republican-convention Derek Hawkins The Justice Department said the attorney general’s appearance is in his “personal capacity” and had been “approved by ethics.” Wed, 09 Sep 2026 23:15:50 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/policy/blanche-speech-republican-convention Attorney General Todd Blanche is set to speak Wednesday night at the most partisan of events — the Republican Party’s midterm convention — weeks after a Senate confirmation fight that focused largely on his potential to politicize the Department of Justice.

Blanche is scheduled to take the stage between 7 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET at what has been billed as a “Trump-a-palooza.” He is appearing on a roster of speakers that includes numerous congressional candidates, other administration officials and President Donald Trump himself.

His planned remarks at the arena in Dallas represent a sharp departure from Justice Department norms and would have been barred by department policy had Trump administration officials not quietly changed the rules last year, according to former DOJ officials.

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee criticized the move, accusing Blanche of violating federal law — ostensibly the Hatch Act, which restricts the political activities of federal employees. “Amazing how far the DOJ has fallen,” the committee’s Democrats said on social media.

In response, the Justice Department said Blanche was appearing in his “personal capacity,” that his appearance was legal and had been “approved by ethics.”

Blanche already broke with DOJ tradition last month when he spoke at a political rally in New York and praised a Republican candidate for governor.

His speech Wednesday is without modern precedent. In 1964, then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy spoke at the Democratic National Convention, but to pay tribute to his late brother, former President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated the previous November.

Attorneys general and other senior law-enforcement leaders generally don’t participate in overtly political events to avoid the appearance of using the immense weight of the Justice Department to tip the balance in an election, former DOJ officials said.

“The idea that Todd Blanche could speak at this type of event and people not take it as an official speech of his office is pure fiction,” said Joseph Tirrell, a former DOJ senior ethics official. “And he could very well ruin the fiction altogether if he says anything that makes clear he’s speaking in his official capacity, or if he starts talking about election enforcement. If he mentions where he works, if he mentions activities or programs by the Department of Justice, even if he says good things about protecting elections and making sure they’re as free and fair, that’s crossing the line.”

Blanche's close alignment with Trump, including his role as the president's former criminal defense lawyer, came up repeatedly in his confirmation hearing over the summer. Democrats pressed him on whether he could be trusted to maintain the Justice Department's historic independence from the White House.

During the proceeding, Blanche fumbled a softball question on the issue from Sen. John Kennedy (R-Louisiana), saying of Trump, "I'm his lawyer," before correcting himself to say he “was his lawyer, and now I’m the deputy attorney general.” In a “Meet the Press” interview after his confirmation, Blanche refused to say he’d act independently from the White House.

The Hatch Act limits the political activities of two groups of federal employees: those known as “less restricted” and “further restricted.”

The “less restricted” group includes most career employees in the executive branch, as well as some political appointees, who are permitted to advocate for candidates or political organizations as long as they don’t do so in their official capacity.

The “further restricted” group covers officials in leadership positions. This includes national security leaders and others directly involved in law enforcement, as well as Federal Election Commission officials and other agency heads, who must adhere to much tighter limits.

Long-standing DOJ policy considered all political appointees in the department — even those who weren’t Senate-confirmed — as falling into the latter category. The policy was written more than 20 years ago and reauthorized with minor tweaks across Republican and Democratic administrations.

“They basically can vote, they can donate money, they can put campaign signs in their yard, and that’s really about it,” said Tirrell, who served as the Department of Justice’s ethics director until then-Attorney General Pam Bondi fired him last summer. “They can speak about a candidate in personal capacity, but they can’t do it in coordination with a campaign.”

Officials in the DOJ’s upper echelons were discouraged from attending even relatively small events to avoid the appearance of bringing the department’s imprimatur to a political campaign. Tirrell said he advised DOJ officials in prior administrations not to speak at local holiday events because others on the speaker docket were elected officials running for office. Even that presented an ethical concern, he said.

“That’s how far away from crossing the boundary we tried to keep people,” Tirrell said. “Even appearing on stage by a podium with a candidate for office was considered too fine a line. Even during the first Trump administration, this is the advice that was provided and this is the advice that was heeded, because they hadn’t taken the step to rescind that rule.”

Stacey Young, a former longtime Justice Department trial attorney who now heads the DOJ alum network Justice Connection, said DOJ leaders from both parties had long held political appointees to a high standard when it came to keeping partisan politics out of government.

“The American people must trust that the department's legal judgments are impartial and insulated from politics,” she said in a statement. “The Attorney General knows this, yet sees no problem speaking at political rallies in New York and now at the RNC. These actions are extremely damaging to the department he leads, whether they comply with the letter of DOJ's recently weakened policy or not.”

Former Attorney General Eric Holder called Blanche’s speech "disgraceful" in brief comments to NewsNation on Tuesday. “Attorneys general don’t talk about political things,” Holder said. “He shouldn’t be there.”
]]> https://washingtonsun.com/courts/states-usps-ballot-herculean Adora Brown In a Supreme Court filing, they say damage to the election outweighs the government’s fears about the possibility of voter fraud. Wed, 09 Sep 2026 22:34:47 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/courts/states-usps-ballot-herculean Nearly half the states and voting rights groups are warning the Supreme Court that it might be impossible to comply with a new U.S. Postal Service rule for the midterm elections.

Amid the Trump administration’s legal push to implement the rule, new filings on Wednesday from 23 states, the District of Columbia and voting groups stressed that the USPS has not developed key parts of the system that would heap additional work on state election officials.

“The efforts that state and local elections officials would have to undertake to even begin an attempt at compliance are herculean,” the filing from the states says.

“Each step of this process is fraught with an extreme risk of error,” it continues. “And even if state and local officials were somehow able to implement the new rule perfectly, there is a high risk of technical breakdown, ineptitude, and delay on the part of USPS.”

The Trump administration has asked the justices to lift a lower court decision that has blocked key parts of the USPS rule through Election Day, Nov. 3. It is the latest development in a legal clash that has already been to the Supreme Court once, and now puts the issue back before the justices.

The states argue the harms to the election outweigh the government’s fears about the possibility of voter fraud. In the published rule, the USPS wrote that it has the legal authority to carry out the rule, “whether or not voter fraud is common or uncommon.”

That, the filing says, unravels the administration’s argument that there will be “irreparable harm” if the courts don’t allow the USPS to enforce the rule.

With the midterm elections just weeks away, the states and voting groups emphasize that complying with new rules on how to vote by mail could disenfranchise millions of voters.

That includes an approval process for ballot envelopes — which many states have already purchased for their primaries and may have to return — and upgrading systems to comply with a new Intelligent Mail barcode, or IMb, for every ballot.

For California, that requirement would mean updating the systems in all 58 counties. California’s statewide voter-registration system “is not currently equipped to receive IMb information for individual voters from county election management systems,” the state’s filing says, and those county systems are not prepared “to store and transmit” IMb information.

The process also requires uploading the information of every eligible voter into the USPS Ballot Portal. That database is untested and completely new to election officials, who will need to train staff on how it’s used, the states told the justices.

North Carolina has already begun to mail out ballots, and a handful of other states are mailing ballots in September.

Wisconsin, which has to send out ballots by Sept. 17, added in the filing that it would be impossible for it to comply.

“Wisconsin’s envelopes could only become mailable under the new USPS rule if the State’s elections officers could ‘print and hand-affix stickers with the Rule-compliant IMb codes on’ each envelope,” the filing said. “But that labor-intensive solution invites errors that risk disenfranchising voters.”

Voting rights groups added that the changes this close to an election would disenfranchise eligible voters, particularly those who “must vote by mail due to age, disabilities, language-assistance needs, college attendance, residence in rural areas, and other reasons.”

The USPS has made it clear that if a batch of ballots has errors, which could include thousands of ballots, the ballots will not be delivered. With no margin for error but a lack of safeguards for states that would have to use new technology and systems, voting rights groups expressed little confidence that the new rules would not disrupt the voting process.

“And even if compliance were possible, the members would still face substantial risk of disenfranchisement, given the high likelihood that millions of ballots will be rejected from the Rule’s rushed implementation and zero-tolerance verification regime,” voting rights groups said in the filing. “Disenfranchisement is not only ‘predictable,’ it is ‘Unavoidable.’”
]]> https://washingtonsun.com/trump-white-house/trump-census-stop-collecting-race-ethnicity-data Natalie Alms The administration wants to stop collecting data widely seen as fundamental to public policy, scientific study, market research and more. Wed, 09 Sep 2026 21:33:36 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/trump-white-house/trump-census-stop-collecting-race-ethnicity-data For the first time, the federal government wants to stop collecting race and ethnicity information about Americans as part of the nation’s census, a move that could undercut market research, public policy, scientific study, civil rights enforcement and more.

In a proposal published Wednesday, the Census Bureau argued that collecting demographic data doesn’t advance the “fundamental” purpose of the decennial census to dole out seats in the House of Representatives.

Among its citations for the planned change is the Supreme Court decision that limited states’ ability to draw minority-majority districts by gutting a key section of the Voting Rights Act.

The census proposal confirmed researchers’ fears that President Donald Trump would target race and ethnicity data collection as an extension of the administration's efforts to systematically scrub LGBTQ+ data from government datasets, as The Washington Sun has previously reported.

“The census is our nation’s denominator,” Denice Ross, the U.S. chief data scientist in the Biden administration, told The Sun. It’s the “foundation for all analyses about demographics.”

Prohibiting questions in the decennial census about race, ethnicity or sexual orientation is one half of a sweeping, two-part proposal. The Census Bureau is also proposing to exclude noncitizens without a green card from the population count.

Both changes would have massive implications for the American public.

The removal of many non-U.S. citizens from apportionment data — which would probably be challenged in court — would affect how seats are allocated in the House of Representatives and how Electoral College votes are distributed.

Many states also use federal census data for redistricting, and race and ethnicity data is used to inform public policy, market research and more.

Race and ethnicity breakdowns in maternal mortality data, for example, are difficult to interpret without the baseline provided by the decennial census, said Ross, who now works on federal data policy at the Federation of American Scientists. She worries that other federal agencies will now also stop collecting race and ethnicity data in forms and surveys.

“There’s no substitute for the census data on this,” said Howard Fienberg, the senior vice president for advocacy at the Insights Association, which represents the market research industry.

That industry, he said, relies on demographic data from the census to benchmark studies.

“That’s trillions of dollars in the economy that’s being put at risk if they don’t have the decision-making tools that we’re able to provide,” Fienberg said. “Procter and Gamble is not going to figure out this new breakfast cereal by talking to every single person in the country.”

Scientists also use the race and ethnicity data collected in the census to study things like population aging, adolescent development and more, said MaryJo Mitchell, the director of government affairs for the Population Association of America, which represents researchers like demographers, economists and epidemiologists.

Demographic data from the census is fundamental to even getting started by creating a representative sample, she said.

“We're looking at undoing centuries of standard census practices that have really defined what it means to have a decennial census,” she told The Washington Sun of the proposed changes. Every decennial census, which began in 1790, has included questions on race.

The other half of the new proposal resurrects failed attempts from the first Trump administration to change who is counted in the census.

The Census Bureau proposed adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census, an effort the Supreme Court blocked. Trump also tried in his first term to remove immigrants without lawful status from the apportionment count, although that effort was ultimately not implemented.

The latest proposal would mean that people such as refugees, people seeking asylum, undocumented immigrants and people in the U.S. with work or student visas would not be included in the data used to divide up seats in the House among the states.

How exactly the Census Bureau plans to exclude certain people from its products is unclear.

The Census Bureau says it is considering drawing on records across the government, including information housed at the Department of Homeland Security, as well as commercial data to determine people’s legal status.

Accurately linking up different datasets is extremely difficult, however, said Beth Jarosz, the vice president of the Association of Public Data Users, meaning that U.S. citizens could be flagged as noncitizens if the Census Bureau undertakes this data-matching exercise.

“They would absolutely, in essence, disenfranchise people accidentally,” Jarosz said.

The proposal also says the Census Bureau “could” add a question about legal status on the census questionnaire itself.

Research has found that adding a citizenship question to the decennial census would reduce the number of respondents and disproportionately affect populations that are already hard to count, like those without documentation.]]> https://washingtonsun.com/trump-white-house/trump-gas-prices-drop-after-the-midterm-elections Associated Press The president said gas prices will be "tumbling downward" after the election. Wed, 09 Sep 2026 19:34:13 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/trump-white-house/trump-gas-prices-drop-after-the-midterm-elections By AAMER MADHANI

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that oil prices that have surged because of the Iran war likely won’t come down until after U.S. midterm elections.

Oil prices on Wednesday jumped more than 3%, pushing international Brent crude past the $100 threshold for the first time since July as salvos between the U.S. and Iran escalated.

“Right after the election, oil prices are going to be tumbling downward,” Trump said. “I think it’s going to take a little bit longer than the midterm.”

Trump, in an exchange with reporters before traveling to Dallas for the midterm Republican convention, added that he believes Iran will finally relent after the pivotal elections are held in the U.S.

“I think the war’s going to end immediately after the election because they can’t hold out any longer,” Trump said.

The president at the outset of the war said it would last a matter of weeks. The conflict is now in its seventh month. The U.S.-Israel war against Iran has led to a dramatic slowdown of Gulf oil moving through the Strait of Hormuz, which about 20% of the world’s petroleum passed through prior to the conflict.

The comments were a striking acknowledgment from Trump about the conflict as his Republican administration faces mounting pressure to address high gas prices as the war in Iran grinds on with no conclusion in sight.

Trump last week downplayed the conflict as “small potatoes" even as Republicans expressed concern the war will loom large with voters left navigating elevated gas prices and higher inflation.

The U.S. has tapped its strategic petroleum reserves, which in early August fell below 300 million barrels, down by more than 100 million barrels since the start of 2026.

Trump's prediction that the war won't be wrapped up until after Nov. 3 comes after Vice President JD Vance last week steered clear of predicting that the conflict would be over by the midterm elections, in which Republicans are trying to hang on to their narrow majorities in Congress.

Vance told reporters he didn’t want to set “artificial timelines” for the war's end.

“But when you ask, ‘When will this end?’ You’re asking me a question like, ‘When will the Iranians stop shooting at ships?’” Vance said. “I think the reality is, I don’t know the answer to that question. You would have to ask the Iranians.”

U.S. benchmark crude on Wednesday gained 2.4%, pushing the price to $95.25 a barrel, and U.S. gasoline prices rose sharply overnight.

The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline ticked up 7 cents overnight t o hit $4.22, now more than a dollar above what it cost at this point last year, according to AAA.

Diesel prices, which can have an outsize impact on consumers because it is used in shipping and production, hit an all-time high Friday and have continued to climb since. The average price per gallon rose to $5.94 overnight, up 9 cents from Friday.

Jet fuel has become so expensive that U.S. and international carriers have cut flights while raising fares and fees.

Markets reacted after the U.S. military reported striking five Iranian tankers in response to attempted missile attacks on a Navy warship and after attacks by an Iranian-backed Houthi rebel group ignited fires at oil facilities in Saudi Arabia.
___

AP writer Cathy Bussewitz contributed reporting.
]]> https://washingtonsun.com/trump-white-house/maria-bartiromo-firing-fox-news Torrie Herrington Administration officials conveyed to the network that the firing was “totally unacceptable,” White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said. Wed, 09 Sep 2026 19:21:33 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/trump-white-house/maria-bartiromo-firing-fox-news A top adviser to President Donald Trump said this week that unnamed White House officials called Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott to complain following the network’s ouster of longtime personality Maria Bartiromo.

It’s the latest twist in a long and complicated relationship between the Trump-era White House and Fox News, and comes after reports suggested Bartiromo’s ouster was a result of her decision to share newsroom communications about coverage with the White House.

Peter Navarro, Trump’s senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, made the claim during an appearance Tuesday on Newsmax’s “Greg Kelly Reports.” He also claimed the incident was evidence that Fox News was suppressing pro-Trump coverage and had abandoned its role as a conservative agenda-setter.

“Suffice it to say that Suzanne Scott got a call, and basically the White House let her know that that kind of thing is totally unacceptable,” Navarro said.

He later added: “The bigger story here is, forget about anybody thinking that Fox is a conservative network that’s friendly to MAGA, that’s friendly to Trump.”

Navarro’s comments came days after Fox announced that Bartiromo was no longer with the company after more than 12 years there. The network called her departure a “business decision” but did not provide a specific reason.

In an op-ed published Tuesday, Navarro said Bartiromo had planned to interview him about Trump’s July 16 speech, in which the president discussed debunked allegations of Chinese interference in the 2020 election. Navarro said Bartiromo later sent him internal guidance telling Fox Business staff not to promote the speech or discuss the 2020 election, which he passed along to other White House officials. Bartiromo’s disclosure of internal coverage decisions ultimately led to her firing, the media newsletter Status reported.

Bartiromo’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, has disputed that she was fired, saying reports that she was no longer a Fox employee were “absolutely and unequivocally false.”

Navarro nevertheless blamed Scott for what he described as a broader effort to keep Trump-focused coverage within limits.

“Suzanne Scott is the enforcer,” Navarro said on Newsmax, arguing that Fox will give its audience conservative programming while avoiding some of the issues most important to Trump and his supporters.

Fox has faced costly legal battles over its coverage of the 2020 election, and Bartiromo was among the Fox personalities named in several lawsuits alleging the network promoted false claims about voting-machine companies. Fox settled Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit for $787.5 million in 2023, while a separate Smartmatic case remains pending.

Trump has defended Bartiromo since her departure, calling her a “total professional” and “true warrior.”

Navarro has gone further, portraying Bartiromo’s exit as evidence that Fox is pulling back from some of the issues that have defined Trump’s relationship with the network.

“The muzzling of Maria Bartiromo by Fox News Media Chief Executive Suzanne Scott should be a wake-up call to every Fox viewer who believes the network is pro-Trump and pro-MAGA,” he wrote.]]> https://washingtonsun.com/trump-white-house/white-house-takes-down-build-the-wall-video-game-trump-tetris-lawsuit-threat Avani Kalra The change came after Tetris said it takes “copyright infringement very seriously.” Wed, 09 Sep 2026 16:39:49 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/trump-white-house/white-house-takes-down-build-the-wall-video-game-trump-tetris-lawsuit-threat The White House took down a mass deportation-themed video game called “Build the Wall” from its arcade website this week, just days after The Tetris Company implied its design may represent copyright infringement.

The game was placed on the website as part of a larger rollout of themed games based on President Donald Trump’s agenda. In the game similar to Tetris, players stacked bricks to build a wall to prevent a “zombie border siege.”

Immediately after the game was posted to the White House website, Tetris pushed back, writing that the company was not involved in the creation of the game and takes “copyright infringement very seriously.”

“At Tetris we believe in the power of connection and bringing people together, not dividing them,” the company wrote on X. “To our fans everywhere: we love you, we see you, and we’re grateful to have you in our community.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Sun. Other Trump administration video games, which also resemble popular titles, remain on the White House arcade website.]]> https://washingtonsun.com/trump-white-house/natalie-harp-holiday-bonus-cash-gift Avani Kalra The bonuses were $45,000 each and marked as a “cash gift” for the holidays. Wed, 09 Sep 2026 13:55:46 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/trump-white-house/natalie-harp-holiday-bonus-cash-gift President Donald Trump gave hefty holiday bonuses to several White House aides, including his executive assistant Natalie Harp, financial disclosures released by the Trump administration on Tuesday show.

The bonuses totaled $45,000 each and were given to Harp and two other young staffers — communications adviser Margo Martin and Deputy Director of Oval Office Operations Chamberlain Harris.

The financial disclosure forms also show that Harp, Martin and Harris each receive a $150,000 salary. The bonuses were marked as a “Cash Gift for the Holidays” on the disclosure forms.

Director of Oval Office operations Walt Nauta also received a $20,000 bonus, according to the disclosure forms. He makes $175,000 a year.

The White House said in a statement that Trump has a longstanding practice of giving Christmas gifts to people in his orbit, both while working in government and during his time in the private sector.

“The gifts at issue here have nothing to do with any of these individuals’ official government duties, and therefore are entirely permissible under relevant legal and ethical standards,” a White House official said.

Harp has come under increased scrutiny over the last few months for her position at the White House. She is known as Trump’s “human printer” and carries around a portable device to provide Trump with hard copies of flattering news articles and social media posts.

The 35-year-old was one of few staffers that accompanied Trump on a catering truck as he secretly swapped planes to fly from Turkey to the United States in July, The Washington Post reported.

There is no apparent precedent for U.S. presidents giving staff employed by the White House large cash payments.]]> https://washingtonsun.com/trump-white-house/transportation-duffy-ford-china-warning Gavin J. Quinton Ford called the transportation secretary’s letter a “wrongheaded attempt to capture headlines” and said it contains numerous factual errors. Wed, 09 Sep 2026 00:32:47 GMT https://washingtonsun.com/trump-white-house/transportation-duffy-ford-china-warning Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has warned Ford Motor Company about maintaining “questionable foreign alliances” with Chinese companies amid calls from the Trump administration to reshore its manufacturing operations.

In a recent letter to Ford CEO Jim Farley, Duffy derided the company’s recent deals with China-backed auto manufacturers, and said Ford “fails to act as [a] reliable partner” to the American public.

“The company’s recent strategic decisions paint a troubling picture of a foundational American brand actively intertwining its future with Chinese state-backed enterprises,” Duffy wrote in the letter sent Sept. 3 and released publicly Tuesday.

Ford pushed back sharply in a statement to NOTUS on Tuesday, calling Duffy’s letter an error-filled and “wrongheaded attempt to capture headlines.”

The company said it produces more vehicles in the United States and employs more American workers than any other automaker.

Ford has been under continued pressure from the White House to return to domestic supply chains and manufacturing, and recently announced it would relocate manufacturing operations of its Lincoln models from China to the United States by 2030.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick recently celebrated the announcement as a tariff success, but Duffy asserted the four-year timeline “leaves an unacceptable, multi-year window of reliance on Chinese manufacturing while depriving skilled American workers of vital manufacturing jobs.”

Duffy went on to highlight Ford’s dependence on licensed technology from Chinese battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited — a company that appears on the Defense Department’s list of banned companies. He also criticized Ford over a new deal with Chinese automotive company Geely Auto to build zero-emission vehicles at a Ford factory in Spain.

Ford defended its arrangement with Chinese battery makers, saying its Michigan battery hub is owned and operated by Ford and can’t be classified as a foreign-owned manufacturing operation. The company said Duffy’s assessment of its operations in Spain are also fraught.

“Ford supports the Trump administration’s vision for advancing American innovation and manufacturing,” Ford’s response states. “Had Secretary Duffy reached out before issuing his letter to the press, we would have been happy to share more details about Ford’s U.S. commitment.”]]>