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Trump Defends Bid to Put His Name on the Kennedy Center

Associated Press — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 22:37:24 GMT

Trump said the Kennedy Center would require an ongoing subsidy to stay open and suggested it would be his burden to raise money to fill that gap. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)

By Jonathan J. Cooper

President Donald Trump on Friday defended his push to put his name on the Kennedy Center, saying he deserves to be recognized for trying to save Washington's premier performing arts venue after his takeover was blamed for triggering its financial distress.

Trump did not directly respond when a reporter asked whether he planned to demolish the theater, as he's threatened to do, but said “the place is a dump” and he would “do a better job building it than anybody else.”

He said the Kennedy Center would require an ongoing subsidy to stay open and suggested it would be his burden to raise money to fill that gap.

“Why should I do everything and then for the rest of my life, have to go out and raise money?” Trump said.

He said only he could have secured the $257 million that Congress has approved for Kennedy Center repairs.

“I think the Trump administration should be recognized as having saved the Kennedy Center because nobody else could do it,” he added, repeating a comment he made days earlier while campaigning in North Carolina.

The Kennedy Center board, which is aligned with the president, voted Tuesday to close the center indefinitely for repairs hours after a judge blocked their plans to return Trump's name to the building. On Thursday, the judge ordered the Kennedy Center to provide 30 days’ notice before making any major physical changes to the building, including demolishing it.

Trump on Friday called U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper “a very hostile judge."

He spoke in the Oval Office during a health care event as his Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., looked on. The venue was designated by Congress as a memorial for the secretary's uncle, President John F. Kennedy.

“I should be very careful because Bobby is standing right behind me," Trump said. “And I cherish that, too. I actually like the name of Kennedy and Trump, Trump and Kennedy, because it showed bipartisanship. It showed a Republican Party and a Democrat party working together.”

A wave of artists have canceled their Kennedy Center appearances in that past year after the Trump-loyal board added his name to the building's facade, renaming it The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts.

Cooper ruled that Trump's name was illegally added and ordered it removed.

Trump Says U.S. Will Have ‘Permanent Control’ Over Military Presence In Greenland

Gavin J. Quinton — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 21:55:27 GMT

The president has insisted the U.S. take control of the strategic Arctic island in large part to gain access to its key mineral resources and military positioning. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix/AP)

President Donald Trump said the United States has entered into an agreement with the kingdom of Denmark that would give America “permanent control over security, and all other needs” related to the territory of Greenland.

“We will immediately begin the process of developing a large Military presence in the appropriate part of Greenland, of which there are many,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday afternoon.

The two countries were closing in on a deal earlier Friday to increase U.S. military presence on the island, Reuters reported. Trump said the agreement means “no U.S. adversary” could ever generate a military presence or make “sensitive investments” in the territory without approval.

The president has insisted the U.S. take control of the strategic Arctic island in large part to gain access to its key mineral resources and military positioning.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration held talks over the fate of the autonomous Danish territory that ended in a “fundamental disagreement” with Danish representatives — with foreign officials repeatedly asserting that Greenland is “not for sale” — though negotiations resumed this month in a more positive direction.

The three governments are expected to sign the agreement next week at the U.N. General Assembly in New York City, according to a press statement from the office of Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen.

The deal must still be approved by Greenland’s parliament before going into effect, the release said.

"The agreement recognizes Greenland’s interests and our place in international cooperation. It is to the benefit of us all," Nielsen said.

Jump on the Ban-wagon

Marissa Martinez — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 20:59:47 GMT

Fri, 18 Sep 2026 20:59:47 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/afternoon-sun-newsletter/jump-on-the-ban-wagon

President Donald Trump, walking along the White House colonnade this week, said his ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico stemmed from “cumulative stories over the last few years” in which reporters “purposefully write negative news” about the administration. Alex Brandon/AP Photo

Good afternoon. This is the Afternoon Sun newsletter for Sept. 18, 2026. You can get it in your inbox every day by signing up here — it’s free!

THE LATEST

Donald Trump announced he will be banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, citing their “constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS.”

The president told reporters an hour later that the ban would be “a very simple ban. I don’t want them in my office, I don’t want them here.” He also suggested he could ban additional outlets, including The New York Times and The Washington Post.

“You need a free press, you need a fair press and an honest press,” Trump said in the Oval Office.

A slate of governors moved to erect AI guardrails today, including Virginia’s Abigail Spanberger, who signed an order to increase data center oversight, and California’s Gavin Newsom, who ordered the state to accelerate developer regulations.

THE ADMINISTRATION

Trump has been calling MAGA Inc. super PAC funds “my money.” One campaign finance watchdog says that violates federal law in a new FEC complaint.

The Pentagon issued new, narrower testosterone-screening guidance for male troops Thursday, two weeks after abruptly pulling its first version.

The administration has started border wall construction through a section of West Texas’ Big Bend region, despite heavy opposition from the public.

More U.S. troops have died in the Middle East during the Iran war than the Pentagon has disclosed publicly, The Washington Post reports.

The administration cleared a potential $24.3 billion sale of F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, despite U.S. intelligence warnings that China could gain access to the sensitive technology.

A nonprofit group with ties to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. solicited payment from companies in exchange for access to top HHS officials at an upcoming event, Bloomberg News reports.

THE COURTS

The NAACP, labor unions and other advocacy organizations sued the Trump administration, seeking to stop the potential deployment of federal agents at voting locations.

A federal judge aired doubts today that the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund is as dead as the Justice Department has insisted it is.

Former board members of the Institute of Peace filed an emergency plea to stop the Trump administration from affixing the president’s name onto its headquarters.

An immigration officer pleaded not guilty to charges that he lied to the FBI about being attacked before he shot a Venezuelan man during the Minneapolis immigration crackdown.

HE DIDN’T SAY SAUERKRAUT

https://x.com/JohnCornyn/status/2100966193607721113

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Nationals Sign Ace Cade Cavalli to a Four-Year Contract Extension

Jesse Dougherty — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 20:59:37 GMT

Nick Wass/AP Photo

ST. LOUIS — The Nationals and Cade Cavalli have agreed to a four-year extension, the team announced Friday.

Cavalli will make $47 million over those years, according to a person familiar with the terms, though the deal also includes a club option for the 2031 season. If that option is eventually exercised, the contract could be worth up to $70 million, according to that person. That means Cavalli could be atop the Nats' rotation for the next half decade.

The right-hander, a first-round pick for the Nationals in 2020, has been one of the most consistent young starters in the league this season — and at times one of the most dominant. In 162 ⅔ innings, he has a 3.12 ERA. Since the start of August, he has a 2.06 ERA in eight starts, including an eight-inning, 10-strikeout gem against the Cubs on Aug. 13. The next outing, facing the Rangers, Cavalli, 28, struck out 11 in six innings.

Those were flashes of a shut-down ace. They also help explain why the Nationals wanted to extend him now, more than three years before he would have hit the free-agent market. The deal buys out Cavalli's last three years of arbitration eligibility, then will keep him in Washington for at least one more season. The Athletic first reported the figures of the extension.

And beyond extending a promising young pitcher, the deal is a step forward for the Nationals, who have often struggled to retain homegrown talent. They are, of course, now run by Paul Toboni, who is finishing his first season as the team's president of baseball operations. This is the first extension brokered by Toboni and his front office.

Cavalli starts against the Cardinals for the Nationals in St. Louis on Friday night.

Judge Rules the EPA Illegally Terminated a $7 Billion Solar Program

Associated Press — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 20:52:02 GMT

In May, solar supplied more of the nation’s electricity than coal. Joshua A. Bickel/AP

By Jennifer McDermott

The Trump administration illegally terminated a $7 billion Solar for All program intended to make solar power accessible to more than 900,000 lower-income Americans, a federal judge in Rhode Island ruled Friday.

The Environmental Protection Agency rescinded the Solar for All funds in August 2025 after President Donald Trump’s massive tax and spending law passed in Congress a month earlier, with Administrator Lee Zeldin calling the Biden-era grant program a “boondoggle.”

District Judge Mary McElroy wrote in the ruling that Congress clearly intended the EPA to continue administering the Solar for All grants that were already obligated. The EPA acted contrary to this intent and without any other statutory authority when it terminated the program, McElroy wrote. She vacated the termination.

The EPA said Friday it is reviewing the decision and considering options for appeal.

The lawsuit filed in Rhode Island by the Rhode Island AFL-CIO labor organization and others — including the public interest law center Rhode Island Center for Justice and the nonprofit Solar United Neighbors — highlighted the importance of the program for local workforces and lower-income communities seeking access to clean-energy project funding.

Patrick Crowley, president of the Rhode Island AFL-CIO, called the decision “a big victory” for states across the country.

“If and when the program does get up and running, there will be thousands and thousands of union jobs created across the United States,” he said Friday. “We were proud to be the lead plaintiff.”

Clean, affordable power like solar shouldn’t be a luxury, said Alex St. Pierre, vice president for environmental justice at Conservation Law Foundation, one of the nonprofit legal advocacy groups representing the plaintiffs.

“Communities have waited long enough,” St. Pierre said in a statement. "Nearly every family is looking for ways to cut their energy bill. These dollars should go where Congress intended: toward lower energy bills, less climate pollution, good jobs and cleaner air.”

In May, for the first time, solar supplied more of the nation’s electricity than coal.

The Trump administration has targeted a host of programs and policies dedicated to clean energy. The $7 billion Solar for All program was part of the $27 billion “green bank,” formally known as the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. It was established in the Democratic-backed climate law passed in 2022 under former President Joe Biden. The attorneys general of more than a dozen states also sued over the canceled solar program funding. A federal judge in Washington dismissed the case for lack of jurisdiction in June. The plaintiffs have appealed.

The other $20 billion, also canceled by the Trump administration, was slated for eight community development banks and nonprofit organizations for tens of thousands of projects to combat the effects of climate change, such as residential energy efficiency projects to larger-scale investments such as community cooling. A divided federal appeals court said last month that the Trump administration improperly terminated the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, handing a win to a coalition of nonprofits picked to run the effort.

Pentagon Failed to Disclose at Least Four Service Members Deaths: Report

Angie Orellana Hernandez — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 20:32:21 GMT

The Pentagon’s casualty database says at least 18 American service members have died in the Middle East since the U.S. and Israel began strikes on Iran on Feb. 28. Mark Schiefelbein/AP

The Pentagon has not disclosed the deaths of at least four additional service members who have died in the Middle East amid the ongoing military operations in Iran, The Washington Post reported Friday.

The Defense Department has faced questions about its transparency regarding the number of military fatalities and injuries that have been released regarding the war in Iran, which has lasted for nearly seven months with no clear end in sight. In July, The New York Times reported that the Pentagon did not disclose an episode of three Iranian strikes in Jordan that injured dozens of service members.

Details remain unclear on the four additional deaths that have not been disclosed, including when and how they died, officials told the Post, which said it granted the officials anonymity to discuss the matter. One official told the outlet that not all of the deaths are directly related to the Iran war but have involved American personnel who were present in the Middle East during hostilities.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Washington Sun, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dismissed the Post’s report.

“This is DISGUSTING and FAKE,” he wrote on X. “Shame on the Washington Post — they’re worse than Iranian state media.”

The Pentagon’s casualty database says at least 18 American service members have died and more than 400 troops have been injured in the Middle East since the U.S. and Israel began strikes on Iran on Feb. 28. The Pentagon classified four of the 18 deaths as “Overseas Operation” given that they occurred after the Trump administration reached a ceasefire deal with Iran.

The ceasefire has since collapsed due to ongoing violence in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Pentagon also has been slow to acknowledge destruction of military infrastructure caused by Iranian attacks. Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao told The Epoch Times earlier this month that the Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain sustained extensive damage following repeated Iranian attacks since February, despite the Pentagon initially saying these strikes have not significantly disrupted operations.

This article has been updated with a post from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Trump Administration Clears Saudi F-35s Sale Despite Intelligence Warnings

Hamed Ahmadi — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 19:23:46 GMT

U.S. intelligence officials raised concerns that Saudi Arabia’s growing military and technology ties with China could create opportunities for Beijing to obtain information about the F-35 fighter jet. (Fatima Shbair/AP)

The Trump administration has formally cleared a potential $24.3 billion sale of F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, moving ahead despite U.S. intelligence warnings that China could gain access to some of the military’s most sensitive technology.

The State Department notified Congress on Thursday of the proposed sale of 48 F-35s, opening a 30-day congressional review period. The package also includes 49 Pratt & Whitney engines, secure communications equipment, electronic warfare support, training and other services.

The move comes after U.S. intelligence officials raised concerns that Saudi Arabia’s growing military and technology ties with China could create opportunities for Beijing to obtain information about the advanced fighter jet.

A recent U.S. intelligence assessment warned about Chinese military access to Saudi bases and Chinese technology in the kingdom’s telecommunications infrastructure, according to The New York Times. The assessment raised questions about whether sensitive F-35 systems could be adequately protected if the aircraft are based in Saudi Arabia.

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, a senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Thursday that the sale should not go forward “when our own intelligence community is warning that it could put the crown jewels of American military technology within reach of the Chinese Communist Party.”

Congress is also investigating a separate incident involving sensitive F-35 technology and China after parts being shipped from Australia to the U.S. for repairs were diverted to Hong Kong this summer. Some of the components remain missing.

The State Department says the sale would strengthen Saudi homeland defense, improve interoperability with U.S., regional and NATO forces, and help Riyadh deter threats. It also says the deal “will not alter the military balance in the region.”

That assertion could draw scrutiny because Israel is the only country in the Middle East operating the F-35. If the sale is completed, Saudi Arabia would become the second — and the first Arab country — to fly the fifth-generation stealth fighter.

U.S. law requires the government to consider Israel’s qualitative military edge when approving major weapons sales to other countries in the region.

The State Department also says the sale would not hurt U.S. military readiness or require additional permanent U.S. personnel in Saudi Arabia.

President Donald Trump first publicly announced plans to sell F-35s to Saudi Arabia in November, ahead of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to Washington. The White House later said Trump had approved a broader defense package that included future F-35 deliveries.

The formal notification brings the deal much closer to completion but does not make the sale final. Congress now has 30 calendar days to review the proposal and can try to block it through a joint resolution of disapproval.

Congressional opposition to Saudi weapons sales is not new, but the F-35 deal raises a different set of concerns because of the sensitivity of the aircraft’s technology.

The potential sale also comes as Saudi Arabia faces growing security threats from Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis. Fighting between Saudi-backed forces and the Houthis has intensified, and Saudi territory has come under drone and missile attacks.

Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney would be the main contractors for the jets and engines, respectively.

Trump Says He Will Ban Three Major Media Outlets From the White House

Gavin J. Quinton — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 19:20:50 GMT

It is currently unclear what the ban would constitute, as Trump’s post did not include additional details. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo)

President Donald Trump announced he will immediately ban media outlets CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, accusing the organizations of publishing “constant” false reports.

“Media Outlets shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States,” he wrote Friday afternoon on Truth Social. “Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow.”

Trump’s post did not include additional details. When reporters later asked about how the ban would work in practice, the president said it would be “a very simple ban. I don’t want them in my office, I don’t want them here.”

Trump said the ban had stemmed from “just cumulative stories over the last few years” in which reporters “purposefully write negative news” about the administration.

“You need a free press, you need a fair press and an honest press,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office an hour after his initial announcement.

The president also suggested he could ban other outlets, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, which he said will "probably not" be on display anymore in the White House.

The White House referred The Washington Sun to Trump's comments in the Oval Office when asked for additional details.

"CNN stands fully behind our White House team and their fair and accurate reporting,” the outlet said in a statement. “We have a right under the U.S. Constitution to do that reporting without hindrance or interference from the government. Should the ban which President Trump threatened go ahead, it would be an illegal assault on that fundamental and constitutionally-protected right."

Trump has had a contentious history with prohibiting media access to his administration, issuing wide orders and subpoenas to individual reporters that have resulted in multiple legal challenges over the last two years. The White House barred reporters from unescorted access to the West Wing press office last year and revoked The Associated Press from covering presidential events, an order that was reversed when the outlet challenged the decision in federal court.

The Pentagon in June deemed its press office a “classified space” to restrict journalist access, following a 2025 crackdown on defense reporters meant to curb leaks, after which many turned in their press credentials in protest.

In his Truth Social post, the president characterized Politico as the recipient “of an illegal and ridiculous $8 Million Dollar subscription” that he deemed “corruption.” In February 2025, the White House canceled $8 million in Politico subscriptions and products paid for across multiple federal agencies, saying the move was part of a wider effort to stop wasteful government spending.

“The claims that POLITICO received government subsidies are false and have been thoroughly debunked,” the outlet wrote in a statement, saying it will “vigorously defend” its First Amendment rights.

The president’s announcement came two days after Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-North Carolina) said some members of Congress want to bar reporters from the Speaker’s Lobby, a crucial area off the House floor for journalists to question lawmakers.

White House Correspondents' Association President Jacqui Heinrich said in a statement that the organization was standing in defense of colleagues at CNN, MS NOW and Politico who are “being singled out for doing their jobs.”

Vance Says Voters Can't Trust 'Crazy' Democrats to Fix the Country

Associated Press — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 18:58:21 GMT

“Let's send the crazy packing and get them out of Washington, D.C.," Vice President JD Vance said. (Anna Moneymaker/Pool Photo via AP)

By Josh Boak and Seung Min Kim

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — Vice President JD Vance on Friday mounted a vigorous defense of the Trump administration's policies and Iowa GOP candidates on the November ballot, arguing that the Democrats had turned into the party of “lunatics," in his second trip to the politically consequential state this year.

While in Iowa, Vance tried to nationalize the elections, invoking Democratic candidates in other states such as Kansas, Texas and New York at a time when the state's Democratic ticket has tried to keep its focus local. But he took plenty of swings at Iowa Democrats, saying their candidate for governor, Rob Sand, was a “career politician" and not a moderate, despite his public persona.

“Let's send the crazy packing and get them out of Washington, D.C., and get them out of Des Moines,” Vance told the crowd at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, located on the western edge of the once-Republican stronghold state. Iowa has found itself with competitive races for the Senate and the governor’s mansion this year.

Zach Lahn, the GOP nominee for governor, campaigned alongside Vance, who showered him with effusive praise. But missing was Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, the party’s Senate candidate, who did not attend the rally Friday due to previously scheduled events, according to her campaign.

Council Bluffs is home to Josh Turek, the Democratic nominee for the Senate who represents the area in the Statehouse.

“It’s no mystery why Vance is here,” Turek wrote in a fundraising appeal ahead of Vance’s visit. “It’s because his billionaire bosses are terrified that their grip over Iowa is slipping — and with it, their narrow Senate majority.”

Vance spoke about job growth under the Trump administration and was greeted with cheers for the administration’s work on immigration and border security. Continuing on his laundry list of White House accomplishments, Vance mentioned the administration’s work to get “most favored nation” prescription drug prices and highlighted the policies on not taxing tips or overtime and protecting Social Security.

In the agriculture-heavy state, Vance said he was perhaps “most proud of what we’ve been able to do for Iowa farmers,” pointing to efforts by the administration to open up more global markets to American-grown food.

Still, Vance urged voters to be patient.

“Whenever you hear me talk during this midterm campaign, I’ll say Rome was not built in a day because we know there’s a lot of work to do,” Vance said.

Vance took his first trip to the state as vice president in May, campaigning alongside Rep. Zach Nunn, one of the party’s most endangered incumbents this year. Nunn and Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, another Iowa Republican, voted earlier this week in a symbolic measure to halt the war in Iran, underscoring how the military conflict that Trump launched is causing political troubles for his own party.

The vice president has been one of the most visible surrogates on the midterm campaign trail, jetting to locations such as Kansas, Wisconsin and his native Ohio to promote Republican candidates and the administration’s achievements.

Friday’s rally location is in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District, which is being vacated by Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra after his failed bid for governor. Democrat Dave Dawson and Republican Chris McGowan are vying for the seat. That race is not considered one of the more competitive races in this election.

Vance’s visit to the state shows Republican candidates are in political trouble in November, said Katie Smith, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, in a statement.

“Iowans have had enough of their D.C.-first, Iowa-last priorities and will hold them all accountable for their agenda that’s caused skyrocketing prices at the pump, grocery stores, and doctor’s office,” Smith said.

___
Associated Press writer Hannah Fingerhut contributed to this report from Des Moines, Iowa.

Montgomery County Police Chief Abruptly Resigns

Justice Covert — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 18:54:32 GMT

Stephanie Scarbrough/AP

Montgomery County Police Chief Marc Yamada is stepping down from his position effective immediately, marking an abrupt end to the role he’s held for the past two years.

County Executive Marc Elrich announced Yamada’s resignation in a statement Friday, thanking him for nearly four decades of service to the Montgomery County Police Department. He did not say why Yamada is resigning.

Yamada could not be immediately reached for comment.

The sudden resignation came just before the Montgomery County inspector general released an investigation into alleged misconduct by a Montgomery County Police Department executive. They did not name the executive, but Elrich suggested the subject was Yamada, who previously faced whistleblower complaints about his use of funds on a trip to Las Vegas.

The report concluded the executive had been absent from work for at least five days to attend an out-of-state conference in June 2026 without taking leave or adjusting their schedule to make up the time.

Investigators found the executive had invited a relative also employed by the county to a conference along with several other high-ranking MCPD employees, where they attended a golf tournament. The executive also admitted to drinking two alcoholic beverages during the tournament, the report states.

Photographs posted on the event’s website show the executive in civilian clothing and apparently unarmed, according to the report.

Inspector General Megan Davey Limarzi recommended the county determine whether to recover the executive's 40 hours of pay, clarify time and attendance expectations, update its policy to require all supervisors to review and approve timecards and implement a policy clarifying when employees may attend social events during work hours.

Elrich said he had selected Assistant Chief Darren Franke to serve as the MCPD’s acting chief of police until a permanent replacement is appointed.

The police department released a statement following Elrich’s announcement saying it received notification that Yamada had resigned.

“During this leadership transition, the department will continue its day-to-day operations and remain focused on serving Montgomery County,” the statement read. “We also remain committed to transparency, accountability and maintaining the public’s trust as we move forward.”

Yamada was appointed in May 2024, becoming the county’s 18th police chief. The department, with roughly 1,100 personnel, serves more than 1 million residents across a 507-square-mile jurisdiction.

This article has been updated with details from a Montgomery County inspector general report.

D.C. Preservation Official Says Trump Needs to Scrap His Arch for a Smaller Monument

Kendall Staton — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 18:39:11 GMT

If a monument project must proceed, Lewis said, it should be the two columns proposed a century ago, rather than Trump’s massive arch. (Harrison Design)

Local preservationists are pushing back against President Donald Trump’s plan to construct a massive triumphal arch and asking him instead to consider building slender columns to protect the capital’s visual harmony.

Trump officials have repeatedly cited a 1925 Congress-approved plan to erect the pillars as justification for his proposed 250-foot arch at Memorial Circle, outside of Arlington National Cemetery. In a letter on Wednesday, Andrew Lewis, an official in D.C.’s Historic Preservation Office, called Trump’s plan “antithetical” to the 1925 design proposal and said the arch would limit the historic view corridor.

If a monument project must proceed, Lewis said, it should be the two columns proposed a century ago, rather than Trump’s massive arch, to maintain visual unity.

“The proposed Triumphal Arch would effectively replace much of the important view with a frame — a massive frame that would significantly narrow and restrict, if not completely obstruct portions of the view corridor,” said the letter, first reported by The Washington Post on Friday.

The administration has consulted D.C. and Virginia’s preservation offices as part of a required federal review.

Officials with the National Park Service previously said construction of the arch would negatively impact dozens of historic sites in the area, including the Arlington Memorial Bridge, the Lincoln Memorial and the National Mall. Earlier this week, the agency sent a letter to the local historic preservation offices saying that despite the arch’s projected visual consequences, construction should proceed as planned.

In his letter, Lewis said the Park Service lacks a complete understanding of how the arch will affect nearby areas and disputed the Park Service’s assertion that the arch’s significance is “location dependent.”

“The language used to describe the nature of the adverse effects significantly underestimates the degree to which the integrity of the affected historic properties would be diminished,” the letter said. “For example, the arch would not merely be ‘prominently visible.’ Instead, it would visually overwhelm the surrounding historic context.”

The two-column monument approved in 1925 would have accentuated the existing views and monuments at the time, including the Lincoln Memorial. Approved decades after Reconstruction, they also aimed to represent the country’s reunification, with one pillar representing the North and the other the South — an intention Lewis said Trump’s proposed arch does not meet.

Officials with a nonprofit historic preservation group sent their own letter to the Park Service on Wednesday: Judy Chesser and Paul Edmondson, officials with Committee of 100 on the Federal City, said the agency is failing to meet its legal obligations to consider alternative structures and locations for the project.

An Interior Department spokesperson said it has followed all laws and has received robust public feedback, with over 100,000 responses.

“To infer this process is unlawful shows a lack of understanding of the facts,” the spokesperson said in a statement to The Washington Sun.

Lewis said despite mounting negative feedback, the Park Service doesn’t seem to be adequately acknowledging “fervent opposition” expressed by the majority of the public. A recent Historic Preservation Office review showed opposition to the arch has been expressed by residents of all 50 states and most U.S. territories, according to Lewis’ letter. Locally, 93% of the 11,000 comments from D.C. residents strongly oppose the arch.

A federal commission stacked with Trump allies has already approved the arch plan. A second commission still has to give final approval, though the construction process itself has already prompted an escalating legal battle.

DOJ Can’t Convince a Judge That ‘Anti-Weaponization’ Payments Are Dead

Derek Hawkins — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 18:31:57 GMT

A judge sounded skeptical of the government’s bid to throw out a lawsuit challenging the fund and a related tax-immunity deal for Trump and his family. (Aaron Schwartz/Sipa via AP Images)

A federal judge aired doubts Friday that President Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund is as dead as the Justice Department has insisted it is.

“The issues that underlie this case are still alive and kicking, in my view,” U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Virginia said at a hearing.

Brinkema seemed skeptical of the government’s bid to throw out a lawsuit challenging the fund and a related tax-immunity deal for Trump and his family on the grounds that the case is moot.

The judge didn’t rule on the government’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, saying an order could come in the near future. But she indicated she wasn’t convinced that administration officials had fully abandoned the fund — or, at least the idea of steering taxpayer money to people claiming to have been unfairly targeted by federal authorities.

The Justice Department created the fund in May under a highly unusual settlement in a separate case in Florida between Trump, the DOJ and the IRS over the leak of Trump’s tax returns years earlier. The federal judge in the Florida case recently rebuked the agreement as the product of collusion among the parties and manipulation of the legal process to benefit Trump and his allies.

The fund was designed to compensate people who claimed they were wrongfully investigated or prosecuted, a group that lawmakers and legal advocates argued could include people who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. The immunity deal also purported to insulate Trump, his family and businesses from tax liabilities.

Attorney General Todd Blanche repeatedly said the fund was not moving forward following rulings from multiple judges against blocking the settlement, at least temporarily, and after scrutiny from Democrats and Republicans in Congress.

“It’s dead,” Blanche told lawmakers at his Senate confirmation hearing in July. He followed up with a two-page order in August claiming to rescind the fund and modify the agreement.

In court Friday, Brinkema said she was satisfied that the fund itself “now is gone” after hearing Blanche’s congressional testimony. But she questioned, as she has throughout the litigation, whether the Trump administration could create a “functional equivalent” of the fund through another mechanism.

She zeroed in on the possibility that the administration could use the federal Judgment Fund, which pays court judgments and settlements against the government, to compensate people the administration favors.

She appeared to allude to a recent payout the Justice Department made to an anti-abortion activist who was convicted during the Biden administration of blocking access to an abortion clinic. The activist, Paul Vaughn, received a seven-figure settlement in July. He had been pardoned by Trump while his case was on appeal.

“This concept of taxpayer money being used to promote particular political viewpoints,” the judge said, “that’s the gravamen, as I understand it.”

She also said administration officials had contradicted Blanche’s assurances that the fund was not proceeding. Trump has said he wished the fund could continue, and Blanche has defended the underlying idea of redressing what he called “victims of a Department of Justice that was absolutely weaponized.”

At one point, Brinkema balked at a suggestion by DOJ attorney Andrew Block that there was no remedy for the plaintiffs to seek in the case. Brinkema floated the idea of requiring a “neutral” official, outside the Justice Department, to oversee the Judgment Fund and ensure payouts are handled properly.

But she said the litigation was nowhere near that stage.

Democracy Forward, a legal advocacy group, filed the lawsuit challenging the fund in May. The plaintiffs include a former federal prosecutor who handled several Jan. 6 cases.

Two rulings by Brinkema over the summer blocked the Trump administration from implementing the fund while the litigation proceeds.

Democracy Forward later added new plaintiffs and allegations to the case calling the tax-immunity deal unlawful. They argue the deal will put IRS employees in an “untenable position by compelling them to carry out unlawful orders” to terminate tax audits. Part of Friday’s hearing involved whether IRS employees from the Treasury Department’s union have the legal right to join the lawsuit.

In their motion to dismiss, DOJ lawyers said the lawsuit isn’t viable because it targets an anti-weaponization fund that “has never existed and will not exist.”

They also argued that the plaintiffs did not have legal standing to challenge Trump’s immunity deal, which the DOJ described as a “third-party settlement agreement to a civil action in another district with which they have a policy disagreement.”

“The Justice Department and Attorney General have now said countless times, in public, to this Court in briefs, and to Congress in sworn testimony, that the idea of the Anti-Weaponization Fund at the heart of this case is dead and will not go forward,” they wrote. “The time has come to stop this inquisition.”

Border Wall Construction Is Beginning in Texas' Big Bend Region

Associated Press — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 18:03:52 GMT

Some Texans are fighting against the Trump administration's plans to build a border wall in the Big Bend region. Rebecca Santana/AP

By Rebecca Santana

COMSTOCK, Texas — The Trump administration has started building the border wall through a west Texas section of the Big Bend region, marking the first major construction in an area of the U.S.-Mexico border where the administration's plans have met with heavy opposition.

The start of construction marks an important milestone in the administration's $46 billion plan to line the border with walls, barriers, roads and technology as it seeks to make good on a key campaign promise by President Donald Trump to finish the wall. And it comes as Customs and Border Protection says it has doubled the pace at which it is building the wall across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Customs and Border Protection said in a statement to The Associated Press that “border wall panel installation is underway” in a 47-mile stretch of Hudspeth County in west Texas known as Big Bend 1. There are a total of five project areas that make up the roughly 500-mile Big Bend region stretching from an area of Hudspeth County south of El Paso to Lake Amistad.

The agency did not say when the panels had been installed. On a map on the agency’s website where it posts updates of wall construction across the entire southern border, a photo showed a crane lifting one of the 30-foot tall steel wall panels into place while construction workers looked on.

The new activity was separate from a border infrastructure project in the nearby Big Bend National Park, where the administration has temporarily suspended construction in an attempt at outreach to opponents.

In the broader Big Bend region of Texas, CBP has run up against concerted opposition from landowners, environmental groups, business owners and ranchers who say the remote region isn't a high traffic area for illegal immigration.

Activists said Friday they would continue opposing the border infrastructure projects in the rest of the Big Bend region, even as the panels were being installed.

Clara Benson, one of the founders of the No Big Bend Wall Coalition which has been fighting against CBP’s plans, said in an interview Friday that the organization had been receiving reports of trucks moving supplies into the remote area along the Rio Grande and that contractors had been clearing yards to stage supplies.

But speaking from Washington, D.C. where she and others in the coalition were meeting with lawmakers, she said that the organization and others would continue to fight the wall-building plans across the region.

“We will continue to fight for this land no matter what the outcome is. We will continue fighting to the end,” said Benson. “You talk to people in west Texas and they say even if they put it up, we’ll fight for them to take it down. So this fight is not over.”

The news comes as the administration is speeding forward with a plan to line the entire border with a combination of 30-foot tall steel bollard walls, barriers designed to stop vehicles from crossing the border, new patrol roads and various technologies to deter and detect migrants or smugglers from crossing the border.

Customs and Border Protection said that they are building an average of 12 miles of barriers a week across the 2,000-mile border with Mexico and recently hit a milestone of 200 miles of new barriers built since the second Trump administration took office.

The 12-miles a week average is double the pace that the agency's head, Rodney Scott, cited earlier this year.

The agency has faced opposition from environmental groups, a small town that worries the wall will cause flooding in its area, Native Americans who say the construction is disturbing sacred sites and landowners who say the construction will infringe on their land.

In Texas much of the opposition has centered on the agency's plans for Big Bend National Park, in the state's southwest on the Rio Grande that is a draw for tourists from around the world. But up and down river outside the park, much of the land is owned by private landowners, many of whom have pushed back against the government's efforts.

Earlier this week, landowners, ranchers and business owners in the Big Bend region along with a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the region’s landscape and heritage sued to stop the administration’s plans.

Activists and landowners have also shown up at county meetings to push their elected officials not to cooperate with contractors hired by CBP to build the wall, and many landowners have refused to allow government officials or contractors onto their land to survey it.

Trump Calling MAGA Inc. Funds ‘My Money’ Spurs FEC Complaint

Taylor Giorno — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 17:43:36 GMT

Trump has repeatedly staked his claim to control of the super PAC’s funds, including on Sept. 4 in the Oval Office. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo)

In early September, President Donald Trump told reporters that his super PAC, MAGA Inc., had close to $1 billion — which he described as “my money.”

A campaign finance watchdog says that statement, among others Trump has made in the past few months asserting personal control of the super PAC, violated federal law, according to a new complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission this week.

Federal officeholders are prohibited from soliciting, directing or spending funds controlled by outside groups like MAGA Inc., which can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money. The Campaign Legal Center pointed to Trump’s previous comments in their filing, as well as private and public meetings involving PAC spending and fundraising efforts.

“Trump’s public statements are thus a remarkable admission of a serious campaign finance violation,” Campaign Legal Center wrote in the complaint, which was first reported by The New York Times.

MAGA Inc. spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer called the complaint “frivolous” in a statement to The Washington Sun and dismissed Campaign Legal Center’s “smears” against the Trump administration.

“MAGA Inc. fully complies with the law,” Pfeiffer said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment .

Trump has repeatedly staked his claim to control of the super PAC’s funds. In addition to his Oval Office comments Sept. 4, the president corrected Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman in August when Sherman characterized MAGA Inc. as being controlled by Trump’s allies during a sit-down interview.

“Not my allies, I control it,” the president interjected.

A couple weeks after that, on Aug. 21, Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One that he would pour “a lot” of MAGA Inc. money into the midterms.

“I’ll be spending a lot of that money for — and my own money — but I’ll be spending a lot

of that money for candidates that I think are good, Republican candidates,” Trump said.

The FEC does not have enough commissioners to conduct an investigation or otherwise act on the complaint.

While Trump nominated two Republicans in February, a Senate committee has not scheduled a hearing to advance the commissioner candidates — and it is unlikely to do so before the 2026 election.

Spanberger Pushes New Data Center Guardrails in Virginia

Taylor Giorno — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 17:14:42 GMT

“We are in a place where day by day community members are demanding action,” Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger said. Steve Helber/AP

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed an executive order on Friday implementing a “data center accountability framework” after urging by conservation groups that have been fighting for greater oversight of data centers in the state.

The executive order would ban the use of non-disclosure agreements that have made it harder for the public to follow proposed data center development. The order would also expedite development of data center noise regulations and direct a review of diesel and other backup generators used to power data centers.

Much of the plan requires approval by the Virginia General Assembly, which won’t convene again until January. But Spanberger told reporters at a news conference Friday that “the state has to show leadership”

“We are in a place where day by day community members are demanding action,” said Spanberger, who was joined by representatives from conservation groups. “As localities continue to have the option of choosing to reject or accept applications for data centers to come into their communities, it’s vital that the state actually provide a framework for them to be able to make those thoughtful decisions.”

Data centers have been in Virginia for decades. Loudoun, Prince William and Fairfax counties — a region now known as “Data Center Alley” — are home to more than 300 data centers. Virginia is one of several states that offers a sales and use tax exemption for data center equipment, including servers, mainframes, cabling, HVAC systems and water storage tanks.

But this spring, souring public sentiment spurred some legislators to try to take away the tax exemption, which saved Virginia data centers $1.9 billion last year. While they ultimately weren’t successful in repealing the exemption, Spanberger signed into law a first-of-its-kind tax on data center energy consumption.

There’s also been change at the local level.

On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors in Loudoun County, which has the highest concentration of data centers in the world, voted to advance a resolution pausing new data center development for 12 months.

And in early July, Blackstone’s QTS abandoned plans to build a massive data center campus on the edge of Manassas National Battlefield Park, a historic Civil War battle site. Bloomberg first reported the developer had walked away from the project, which had been ensnared in a yearslong legal battle.

Data center developers and operators, as well as the labor unions that see the projects as incredible opportunities for their members, have been doing damage control amid the backlash.

Virginia Connects, the state arm of the Data Center Coalition, a data center industry group, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads this spring trying to turn around public perception, to no avail.

Nicole Riley, director of Virginia government affairs at the Data Center Coalition, said the organization and its members “share Gov. Spanberger’s goals of ensuring that Virginia can compete for the significant economic opportunities presented by responsible data center development while protecting the interests of residents, communities, and ratepayers across the Commonwealth.”

“However, significant and abrupt policy changes without meaningful stakeholder engagement could prove unworkable and jeopardize the real tangible benefits this industry can create,” Riley added in a statement.

The response from environmental watchdogs in Virginia was largely positive.

Connor Kish, director of the Sierra Club’s Virginia chapter, told reporters that creating a framework is “critical” for addressing backlash from communities that have expressed frustration with noise pollution and environmental impacts, data centers’ impact on electricity prices and a lack of transparency into new data center development.

“The world's largest corporations are capable of doing better, and today marks a shift towards that accountability,” Kish said.

The framework is “a meaningful step forward,” said Brennan Gilmore, executive director at Clean Virginia, a nonprofit that supported Spanberger’s election but has been critical of her data center policy.

“The real test will come in the months ahead as the Governor works with the legislature to flesh out details on who pays, who bears risk, and what conditions must be met for continued data center development,” Gilmore said in a statement.

This article has been updated with additional comments.

Newsom Orders California to Accelerate AI Oversight Standards

Gavin J. Quinton — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 17:05:10 GMT

The governor has leaned into his confrontations with Trump over the past few years, often using their bouts to elevate his national profile and position himself as a leading Democratic foil. (Jeff Chiu/AP Photo)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order Friday to accelerate state oversight of AI, exploring emergency “kill switches” for models and challenging President Donald Trump's hands-off approach amid rising industry safety fears.

The move follows Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s call to “pace the frontier” of AI development so safety measures can catch up as well as warnings from researchers that companies are losing control of increasingly powerful systems that could “kill all humans” in the coming years.

“The fact that these labs are directly issuing urgent warnings about the risks of AI should be deeply concerning to everyone.” Newsom said on X. “And while Trump sits by and does nothing, California is signing nation-leading laws to provide the accountability this moment demands.”

The executive order seeks to “dramatically accelerate” state oversight of safety and security risks in AI systems by tasking a group of industry experts to build a safety plan for the state within 60 days.

Newsom asked the task force to explore the possibility of requiring third-party watchdogs to develop safety plans for leading AI companies. The order paves the way for California to force companies to develop a kill switch that could shut down frontier models in case of a security failure.

In his signature fashion, Newsom delivered the announcement alongside accusations that Trump is asleep at the wheel, adding that Washington has abdicated its responsibility to protect Americans.

Trump made his position clear on Monday when he asserted that his presidency is the only guardrail needed for AI. In a post from his Truth Social account, he called alarm bells from industry leaders “a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers,” adding, “The only one that is happy about it is China.”

The governor has leaned into his confrontations with Trump over the past few years, often using their bouts to elevate his national profile and position himself as a leading Democratic foil as he weighs a potential run for president.

This week, the AI debate has shaped the 2028 Democratic field as potential contenders scramble to carve out their own lanes on the issue.

On Friday, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed an executive order to increase oversight over the state’s data centers. And fellow Democratic governors have recently followed suit: Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapirocalled for strict federal safeguards while Maryland Gov. Wes Moore is eyeing more regulation. Others have turned to Congress, like former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who claimed lawmakers have been sitting on their hands, and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who issued a public plea on Friday for more action from D.C.

Newsom signed a separate law Thursday forcing advertisers to disclose the use of AI-generated actors and recently approved rules requiring developers to report serious incidents.

The California governor faces a Sept. 30 deadline to sign a massive package of 20 strict AI regulations, including measures prohibiting automated hiring and firing decisions, curbing surveillance tools and regulating mass AI-driven layoffs.

DCA, Dulles and BWI All Rank Below Average in Customer Survey

Kendall Staton — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 15:47:06 GMT

Francis Chung/POLITICO/AP

Don’t expect to see a lot of happy faces in a D.C.-area airport.

The region’s three airports each ranked below average in a new customer satisfaction survey from analytics company J.D. Power. The list is based on responses from nearly 25,000 travelers to questions about “wayfinding,” terminal facilities, airport staff and retail shops.

Airports are ranked among others of a similar size. All three in the D.C.-area were considered in the “large” category with 10 to 32.9 million annual passengers.

Locally, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport had the best ranking, though it still came in the bottom third of the list, taking spot 18 out of 24 for large airports. Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport came in right behind that in slot 19, and Washington Dulles International Airport ranked the worst of the local options at 21 on the list.

DCA and BWI both recently completed renovation projects. Dulles is up next, with a $22.5 billion makeover spearheaded by President Donald Trump slated to begin next year.

When the project was announced, Trump called Dulles “one of the worst airports anywhere in the world” and said neither Republicans or Democrats want to “be subject to this airport because this airport is a terrible place to be.”

Reagan National Airport is still dealing with the aftermath of a fatal 2025 collision that killed 67 people and drew attention to high-density flight traffic. The runway is one of the busiest in the nation. Virginia’s senators introduced a bill to Congress proposing limiting flights at the airport to improve safety.

Pentagon Issues Male-Only Testosterone Guidance After Scrapping Its First Version

Hamed Ahmadi — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 15:17:44 GMT

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth previously called for more testosterone screening. Kevin Wolf/AP

The Pentagon issued new, narrower testosterone-screening guidance for male troops Thursday, two weeks after abruptly pulling its first version.

The Defense Health Agency guideline leaves female service members out for now and makes clear that men 30 and older will not automatically receive a testosterone blood test. Instead, the Pentagon is requiring a symptom and risk-factor screening, with laboratory testing used to determine whether troops have a deficiency.

Men under 30 can also be screened if they request it or if a clinician sees a reason to evaluate them.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s original announcement did not distinguish between male and female troops. The Pentagon says separate guidance for female service members is still under review.

That is a notable change from the guidance the Pentagon published earlier this month and removed the next day. That version included separate pathways for men and women and called for mandatory testosterone blood tests for men 30 and older. The female pathway covered hormonal issues, low energy availability and menstrual problems.

The Pentagon said at the time that it had temporarily rescinded the document to make updates. Tim Parlatore, a senior adviser to Hegseth, later said the guidance had been posted “inadvertently” and needed more input to make sure it reflected current medical science.

Under the replacement, men 30 and older will first receive a structured assessment of symptoms and risk factors. A diagnosis requires symptoms consistent with low testosterone and low hormone levels measured on two separate days.

The guidance also tells clinicians to account for factors such as illness, severe sleep deprivation and extreme physical stress, which can temporarily lower testosterone levels.

Hegseth ordered the department in July to make testosterone screening mandatory during periodic health assessments for active-duty and reserve service members 30 and older, casting the effort as part of a broader push to improve health and military readiness.

Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said Thursday that identifying and treating “suboptimal hormone levels” would help strengthen troops’ performance and maximize military readiness.

But the program drew questions from doctors and lawmakers over whether the Pentagon had shown a medical need to screen such a large population.

The Endocrine Society recommends against routine testosterone screening for men in the general population and says a diagnosis should be based on symptoms and repeatedly low testosterone levels.

A group of Senate Democrats also pressed Hegseth in July for the scientific basis of the policy, its cost, the testing protocols and evidence that screening or treatment would improve military readiness.

JD Vance Returns to Iowa

Associated Press — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 14:08:29 GMT

Vice President JD Vance will be the headliner at a midterm rally in Council Bluffs. Jacquelyn Martin/AP

By Josh Boak And Seung Min Kim

Vice President JD Vance is headed to Iowa for the second time this year to campaign for Republican majorities in Congress as he lays the groundwork for his own political ambitions.

Vance will be the headliner Friday at a midterm rally in Council Bluffs, on the western edge of the once-Republican stronghold state, which has found itself with competitive races for the Senate and the governor’s mansion this year.

Council Bluffs, located along the Missouri River, is home to Josh Turek, the Democratic nominee for the Senate who represents the area in the Statehouse.

But his opponent, Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, will not attend the rally Friday due to previously scheduled events, according to her campaign.

Zach Lahn, the Republican nominee for governor, will attend. He is in a competitive race against Democrat Rob Sand, the state auditor and one of the party’s most highly touted candidates.

Vance took his first trip to the state as vice president in May, campaigning alongside Rep. Zach Nunn, one of the party’s most endangered incumbents this year. Nunn and Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, another Iowa Republican, voted earlier this week in a symbolic measure to halt the war in Iran, underscoring how the military conflict that Trump launched is causing political troubles for his own party.

At the May event, Vance touted the administration’s tax and tariff policies at a steel manufacturing facility while warning that this year was “not a normal election” and “not a normal political environment.”

The vice president has been one of the most visible surrogates on the midterm campaign trail, jetting to locations such as Kansas, Wisconsin and his native Ohio to promote Republican candidates and the administration’s achievements.

Friday’s rally location is in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District, which is being vacated by Republican Rep. Randy Feenstra after his failed bid for governor. Democrat Dave Dawson and Republican Chris McGowan are vying for the seat. That race is not considered one of the more competitive races in this election.

Vance’s visit to the state shows Republican candidates are in political trouble in November, said Katie Smith, a spokesperson for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, in a statement.

“Iowans have had enough of their D.C.-first, Iowa last priorities and will hold them all accountable for their agenda that’s caused skyrocketing prices at the pump, grocery stores, and doctor’s office,” Smith said.

___
Associated Press writer Hannah Fingerhut contributed to this report from Des Moines, Iowa.

NAACP Sues to Keep Federal Agents Away From Voting Locations

Angie Orellana Hernandez — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 13:48:59 GMT

Alex Brandon/AP

The NAACP, labor unions and other advocacy organizations sued the Trump administration on Friday, seeking to stop the potential deployment of federal agents at voting locations during the midterm elections.

The administration has sought more federal control over elections as part of President Donald Trump’s plans to address his unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud. Trump, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and other senior administration officials have not shut down the idea of deploying troops or federal agents to polling places in November, prompting Democratic lawmakers to plan resistance efforts.

The NAACP’s lawsuit is asking a federal court in Washington to stop the Trump administration from “deploying agents in a manner that unlawfully intimidates voters or anyone urging

or aiding voters,” according to court records.

“The result is predictable: voters across the country—particularly Black, Latino, and

Asian voters, naturalized citizens, and members of mixed-status families—are afraid to vote, help others vote, and participate in civic life,” the lawsuit says, arguing that the result is “unlawful voter intimidation” in violation of the Voting Rights Act.

The White House referred The Washington Sun to February comments from then-press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said she has not heard Trump “discuss any formal plans” to station federal immigration agents outside of polling locations and said asking about it was a “very silly hypothetical question.”

New Legal Fight: Should Trump's Name Be Etched on the Institute of Peace?

Angie Orellana Hernandez — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 13:40:07 GMT

The exterior of the United States Institute of Peace is seen with the name of President Donald Trump, Tuesday, June 9, 2026, in Washington. (Rod Lamkey, Jr./AP)

Former board members of the United States Institute of Peace filed an emergency plea to a federal court late Thursday to stop the Trump administration from affixing President Donald Trump’s name onto its headquarters.

The emergency motion mirrors the legal battle waged at the Kennedy Center, where Trump allies on the performing arts venue’s board of trustees have argued that recognizing the president is necessary to secure his fundraising prowess. Trump has also doubled down that his administration should be recognized, stirring concerns that the temporarily shuttered Kennedy Center will be demolished unless federal courts allow the inscription of Trump’s name.

In their filing Thursday, the ousted USIP board members said they were filing an emergency motion for “one, narrow reason: to prevent Appellants or those acting on their behalf from carrying out plans to carve President Trump’s name into the façade of the iconic USIP headquarters building.”

The board members said they learned new information that the Trump administration had “taken steps to prepare to carve the President’s name” onto the building, including the submission of a formal work request and the selection of a contractor.

White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement that USIP was "aptly" renamed after Trump and “will stand as a powerful reminder of what strong leadership can accomplish for global stability.”

“Frivolous litigation to stymie these efforts should be rejected,” Kelly said.

Trump moved to rename the USIP after himself in December amid his administration’s efforts to dismantle the congressionally funded nonprofit. Secretary of State Marco Rubio praised the change at the time, writing on X that the new signage shows how Trump “will be remembered by history as the President of Peace.”

This article has been updated with a comment from the White House.

Inside the Play That Made the Commanders' Tyler Owens Go Viral

Martenzie Johnson — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 13:11:36 GMT

Commanders safety Tyler Owens went viral for a standout special teams rep in Sunday's season opener. (Abbie Parr/AP)

J.J. Watt called it “legitimately one of the greatest football plays I've ever seen.” Tom Brady sang its praises on national TV. Michael Irvin labeled it an “insane effort” that should lead to more playing time.

Commanders safety Tyler Owens went viral this week for the one type of football play that very rarely garners attention, let alone internet fame: a special teams rep. But when you see a player fight his way through a double-team, plow over said double-team and deliver a Goldberg-esque spear — all within about 10 seconds — no superlative seems hyperbolic.

https://x.com/NFL/status/2099248175085498563But what was it like on the field? The Washington Sun spoke with Owens, his teammates and coaches about what happened in real time.

In the second quarter of Sunday’s game against the Eagles, Owens — one of two gunners, along with Percy Butler — lines up on the right side of the field for a punt. Two Eagles jammers, Darius Cooper and Jonathan Jones, line up directly across from him.

Punter Tress Way: Before every punt, I look out there and I see who's on Percy and I see who's on [Owens]. And whenever I see T.O. doubled, the first thing that goes in my head for those guys on the other side of the ball is, “good luck.”

Special teams coordinator Larry Izzo: I saw he was doubled early. I saw him split it, and then my eyes kind of went back deeper down the field to where the ball was.

Head coach Dan Quinn: I didn't see the start of it on the field. Might have caught the corner where he beat the [double team] to go down the field

Cooper and Jones cocoon Owens for 10 yards, not allowing him to break free up the field, but Owens continues to charge forward.

Owens: The first three punts I was backside, so I was inside releasing. They had caught on. The [punt] before they were holding me bad — they had to jump on me. They already knew where I was going, so on that [play] I tried to give them something different, and they still played it good, so I just had to fight through it.

Izzo: John Glenn, coach of the gunners, does a great job with our guys every week of working the tools. All the different releases, whether it's an outside release, inside release, stretch, split. So there's a lot that goes into it, a lot of practice time that led to that play. But what you saw there was just a sheer will not to be blocked.

While holding off Jones with his right arm, Owens stiff-arms Cooper to the ground. He then steps over Cooper, gets pushed from behind by Eagles linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. and stiff-arms Jones into the ground as well — all while maintaining his balance. Meanwhile, Eagles return man Britain Covey fields the punt.

Butler: I just ran down, and the returner came inside off of me. So I knew he was going into the net [of Commanders defenders]. So I'm like, “Shit, he finna get fucked up.”

Longsnapper Tyler Ott: Normally, I'm not one of the first ones down there in coverage, but just tried to make sure that the returner had to go back into the middle of the field.

Safety Jeremy Reaves: I'm controlling the middle, and I got [Covey] to turn back, stop his feet.

Owens: I was trying to keep as much space off of me as I could.

As Covey is funneled toward the middle of the field, he runs straight into a charging Owens, who is flanked by Reaves and linebacker Jordan Magee. Covey jumps in the air and is speared backward by Owens, with Magee coming over the top to finish him off.

Way: I saw him knock that second to last guy down, and then when I saw Covey make that cut, and T.O. was right there, I was like, “Here we go.”

Linebacker Kain Medrano: When I saw Tyler, I knew [Covey] was going to get put on his back.

Tight end Ben Sinnott: I had a crazy angle right in front of me. And I'm like, “OK I might be able to make a tackle here,” and then [Owens] comes up and smokes him.

Tight end Colson Yankoff: I just saw bodies flying, and then smacking the dude. It was awesome. It was phenomenal.

Reaves: When he jumped, I knew somebody was gonna be there. I ain't know who, but I had a feeling it was gonna be [Owens] or [Butler].

Owens: I see him running towards me, and I'm getting ready to fit him up. And then [Reaves] is flying in, and then Jordan funneling in. So he didn't really have nowhere to go. So I just put my shoulder on him.

Ott: I ended up on the ground. I turned back, and I got to see the aftermath of basically a suplex.

Butler: It reminded me of the Nick Bellore play from last year when we played the Giants. I just seen him wrap him up and kind of like [the WWE finishing move] RKO — because I was finna go get in on it from the back, but I was like, “Nah, let me let him finish him off.” I was just hyped for my boy.

Linebacker Leo Chenal: I was late down there. I didn't see it, to be honest, but I saw a bunch of guys just getting excited. I knew with T.O. in the area it's probably T.O.

Whether they saw it in the moment or watched it later on replay, players and coaches knew the play was special.

Yankoff: He's a dude that we rely on heavily on those units and that's why. He's a dog, he's a freak athlete.

Chenal: I agree with the sentiment that it's one of the best special teams plays I've ever seen. You pull two guys as a gunner, and then going down there, perfect form tackle. Doesn't get better than that.

Quinn: And it was so him, like, “Oh, thanks, man. That's what I do.” Like it was like no big deal. And you're like, “Man, this is a really big deal.” It was a really cool play and I got to see it probably like everybody else did from the network feed afterwards. And it was one of my favorite plays in a long time on special teams for sure.

Izzo: This is my 30th year in the NFL. I have to say, it was probably the most impressive play on special teams that I've seen, to my memory. This was just a complete ass-whooping.

Warren Buffett Steps Down as Berkshire Hathaway Chairman

Associated Press — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 11:09:13 GMT

Buffett will remain a director. (Nati Harnik/AP)

By Michelle Chapman

Warren Buffett is stepping down as chairman of Berkshire Hathaway after serving in the role for more than 50 years.

Buffett, 96, will become chairman emeritus and will take on his new role immediately, the company said Friday. His son, Howard, will become Berkshire Hathaway’s new chairman. Howard Buffett has been on the Berkshire Hathaway board since 1993.

Warren Buffett will remain a director. He had served as Berkshire Hathaway’s chairman since 1970.

Buffett stepped down as CEO of the company late last year. He was succeeded by Greg Abel.

“I have served Berkshire since 1965," Buffett said in a letter to shareholders. “Sixty-plus years in, I still have the best job in the world. That is not something many people my age can say, and I have never felt better about what comes next.”

Buffett said that he is confident with Abel and his son Howard leading Berkshire Hathaway.

“Greg runs the company; Howard will guard its culture and values – both worth more than anything on our balance sheet,” he said. “Think of Howard as a policy the shareholders own and hope never to claim against.”

Buffett's fortune has been amassed through Berkshire Hathaway stock. It was worth more than $140 billion in July 2026.

He has already given away roughly $66 billion worth of stock since 2006.

Mystics 110, Sky 80: Game Recap

Associated Press — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 10:47:59 GMT

Washington Mystics center Shakira Austin on May 10. Daniel Kucin Jr./AP

CHICAGO (AP) — Shakira Austin scored 20 points, Kiki Iriafen finished with 18 points and 11 rebounds, and the Washington Mystics beat the Chicago Sky 110-80 on Thursday night in their first game since the FIBA World Cup break.

The Mystics (25-16), tied with Dallas for sixth in the WNBA standings, moved a half-game ahead of New York. The top four have home court advantage in the best-of-three first round of the playoffs, which begin Sept. 27.

Courtney Vandersloot led Chicago with 14 points and Sydney Taylor scored 12. Kamilla Cardoso and Gabriela Jaquez each added 10 points.

Iriafen, who had her 21st double-double this season, grabbed four offensive rebounds to set a franchise single-season record with 115.

Austin made a layup in the opening minute to break Washington’s single-season scoring record. The 6-foot-5 center went into the game with 657 points this season, which tied the previous mark set by Sonia Citron in 2025.

Georgia Amoore and Michaela Onyenwere added 12 points apiece and Cotie McMahon scored 11 for the Mystics. Citron (personal reasons) did not play.

The Sky (15-26) have lost four in a row following a season-high three consecutive wins.

DiJonai Carrington (foot) did not play for Chicago.

‘Safe and Beautiful’

Martin Austermuhle, Jenny Gathright, Zara Norman — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 10:31:00 GMT

Fri, 18 Sep 2026 10:31:00 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/metro-newsletter/safe-and-beautiful

A federal surge left some D.C. residents on edge. (Photo courtesy of Allison Shelley)

Good morning. This is The Washington Sun Metro newsletter for Sept. 18, 2026. You can get it in your inbox every day by signing up here — it’s free!

In today’s newsletter: A federal show of force, Bowser’s legacy and the Goodman League.

Capital Weather’s Daily Digit: 6/10. Humidity may be slow to drop, but at least we’re headed the right direction. A warm day with a mix of clouds and sun, plus only an isolated shower. Read the full forecast.

THE LATEST

A federal surge into a D.C. neighborhood has left some parents on edge.

Students, staff and parents at Bruce-Monroe Elementary School at Park View were surprised Thursday morning by a sudden influx of federal agents and National Guard troops in the neighborhood, all assisted by a low-flying U.S. Park Police helicopter circling above.

“Some parents asked them what they were doing. They said they were being a friendly face and keeping the neighborhood safe and beautiful,” a parent told The Washington Sun’s Martin Austermuhle.

The initiative was part of President Donald Trump’s D.C. Safe and Beautiful Task Force, which since August 2025 has used federal resources to more aggressively fight crime in the city. Authorities say declining crime numbers this year prove it’s working.

But critics say the deployment into residential neighborhoods like Park View — and around a school whose student body is predominantly Latino — is too much.

“They see these people and the vests and they think ICE. They are in a constant state of fear,” said one person.

“As a parent, I don’t want my kids to get used to armed guards patrolling the street,” added another.

Ward 1 council member Brianne Nadeau criticized the federal show of force. “It’s time for federal agents to leave our communities alone,” she said.

That’s not likely to happen anytime soon, though. Trump has pledged to keep the National Guard in D.C. until 2029, for one. But Janeese Lewis George, the Democratic nominee for mayor, has said she will more aggressively fight federal interference in the District and will immediately end cooperation between D.C. police and federal law enforcement agencies.

FROM THE COURTHOUSE

Questioning heated up Thursday in the bribery trial of Ward 8 council member Trayon White. Defense attorney Warren Gary Kohlman pressed FBI informant and star government witness Allieu Kamara on his trustworthiness and called his testimony “a performance.” Kamara struck back, repeatedly accusing Kohlman of putting words in his mouth.

Kohlman’s arguments took further shape: When asking Kamara about his meetings with White, which the FBI filmed because Kamara was secretly acting as an informant, Kohlman highlighted the parts of the video that made his client more sympathetic. White can be heard expressing hesitation about taking the money, and often looked distracted while Kamara discussed plans for future kickbacks.

Kamara, quick to dispute the defense at every turn, replied, “[White] put the money in his pocket and took it.”

Kohlman also attempted to frame exchanges of money as relatively commonplace — and not necessarily evidence of bribery — because of Kamara’s history of giving White generous campaign contributions in cash. And he raised questions about Kamara’s character, pressing him on billing issues with his D.C. government contracts and allegedly fraudulent tax returns.

Kamara testified that he indeed had a checkered past, committing fraud with pandemic loans and bribing several government officials. But he said he made an agreement with the U.S. government that he would tell the truth and cooperate with them, in exchange for the possibility of a lesser sentence for those crimes.

“If Trayon goes to jail, it doesn’t matter. If Trayon walks out of here, it doesn’t matter,” he said. “All I have to do is tell the truth.”

FROM THE DISTRICT

Trump’s proposed triumphal arch will negatively affect nearby historic sites. The National Park Service said it should be built anyway, The Sun’s Kendall Staton reports. The project, part of Trump’s campaign to reshape D.C., has faced legal pushback for its potential to obstruct the view of Arlington National Cemetery. WAMU reports that some are worried the arch’s proximity to DCA will further complicate an already crowded airspace.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is in legacy-building mode. In a letter to the D.C. Council, Bowser said that in her final three months in office she would push forward with long-awaited development projects involving Chevy Chase, Poplar Point and the Frank D. Reeves Center on U Street. She’s also promising a bill to finance the renovation of Nationals Park to turn it into a "state-of-the-art venue that competes with newer facilities."

A federal judge ordered the Kennedy Center yesterday to provide a detailed update on its “temporary closure” and emergency repairs by Wednesday, but denied a request for an emergency hearing, The Sun’s Angie Orellana Hernandez and Torrie Herrington report. The order comes less than a day after new photos of Trump renewed fears that he plans to demolish the Kennedy Center as part of his bid to attach his name to the institution.

The Metro’s Yellow Line will be shut down over the next two weekends to work on the route’s rail infrastructure as part of WMATA’s new infrastructure program, The Sun’s Justice Covert reports.

FROM VIRGINIA

A former youth minister for a Northern Virginia church faces federal child-exploitation charges after authorities said he sexually groomed multiple boys across the country under the guise of spiritual guidance, Covert reports.

FROM MARYLAND

Trump rescinded an Obama-era executive order on Wednesday that has long directed federal agencies’ restoration of the Chesapeake Bay, the Banner reports.

METRO MOMENT

Reddit DC cat (1470x1350, AR: 1.09)This week, a Redditor sought help to fetch a kitten stranded beneath an overpass in Navy Yard. After an hourslong effort involving the fire department, the SPCA and many good Samaritan civilians, he was saved. The Sun talked to the husband-wife team who finally got him down. (Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.)

What brought you onto the scene?

Danielle Joray: I volunteer with A Cat’s Life Rescue in PG County, I'm their trapping coordinator. There's a Facebook page called the DC Community Cat Club — it's a bunch of not only cat lovers but rescue people — and somebody had reposted the Reddit thread.

Andrew Marquesen: Danielle sent me the photo of the poor little cat sticking its head over the edge. I was working probably, like, a mile from there, and we were kind of having a slow day anyway. I was able to obtain a trap, got some cat food and headed down there.

What did it take to get the kitten down?

Marquesen: We couldn't see where it was. You could just hear it meowing. The Brandywine Valley SPCA showed up; we basically devised a plan to box the cat in by putting a trap on either side of that little ledge that the cat was on, just hoping he was hungry enough that he would not pass up the food. Maybe like 10 minutes later, the cat walked into the trap.

Where is he now?

Joray: He's at the BV SPCA. They named him London; he's going to get adopted. People were already offering to adopt him, which is awesome, but it's been a really slow time for all rescues in the area for adoptions.

Marquesen: This one was high-profile because it was in a busy area of town and up on an overpass, but as far as cat rescue stories go, this really wasn't that extraordinary of a story. There's a lot of cats that are rescued from similar perils that need to find homes as well.

Have an image from around D.C. you want to share? A question for our reporters? An “only in D.C.” moment? Tell us about it.

SPORTS

D991C51B-A1A2-4F56-BCAA-270DDB32923F copy 2.jpg (1458x972, AR: 1.50)

The Goodman League is an institution in Southeast D.C. The long-running basketball league, played in Barry Farm, is a way for the community to connect, relax and enjoy some hoops. But Barry Farm, like so many D.C. neighborhoods, is quickly changing. And the league, approaching its 50th anniversary season next year, now faces an uncertain future. The Sun’s Shamira Muhammad talked to the league’s organizers and supporters about what it takes to keep a tradition alive.

By now, you may have seen the viral special teams play from Sunday’s Commanders game. It was made by Tyler Owens, a third-year safety. J.J. Watt, an NFL analyst and future Hall of Famer, called it “legitimately one of the greatest football plays I've ever seen.” But what was it like on the field? The Sun’s Martenzie Johnson talked to Owens, his teammates and his coaches to put together a moment-by-moment breakdown of a rep to remember.

Alex Ovechkin addressed his recent appearance in a pro-Putin ad, saying at Capitals training camp Thursday that he supports his home country of Russia and wants “peace and love for everybody,” The Sun’s Emma Baccellieri reports. When asked about the blowback Ovechkin has received, Caps GM Chris Patrick said, “I feel bad for him. … It may not be a popular sentiment among people critiquing him right now, but it’s a hard situation for him.”

What to Watch This Weekend

Friday

MLB: Nationals at Cardinals, 8:15 p.m. (MLB.TV)

Saturday

MLB: Nationals at Cardinals, 7:15 p.m. (MLB.TV)

NCAAF: Maryland vs. Virginia Tech, 7:30 p.m. (FS1)

MLS: D.C. United vs. Charlotte, 7:30 p.m. (Apple TV)

Sunday

NFL: Commanders at Cowboys, 4:25 p.m. (Fox 5)

MLB: Nationals at Cardinals 2:15 p.m. (MLB.TV)

WNBA: Mystics at Fever, 4 p.m. (Monumental)

NWSL: Spirit at Chicago Stars, 5 p.m. (ESPN)

NFL: Colts at Chiefs, 8:20 p.m. (NBC)

Thank you for reading! If you liked this newsletter, please forward it to a friend. If someone shared it with you, please sign up — it’s free! Got a tip or comments to share? Email us at metro@washsun.com.

The newsletter was produced by Andrew Burton, Michael Errigo and Nikie Johnson.]]>

Working Hard or Hardly Working?

Evan McMorris-Santoro, Jasmine Wright, Manuela Silva — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 10:01:00 GMT

Fri, 18 Sep 2026 10:01:00 GMT https://www.washingtonsun.com/newsletters/working-hard-or-hardly-working

The U.S Capitol. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Today’s notice: Congress’ surprisingly good attendance record. An exclusive look at a DNC fundraising haul. Hegseth’s guy is probably not going to be Army secretary. Inside Democrats’ fight to change House seniority rules. And: Go west, data centers, to build on public lands.

THE LATEST

Surprise! Congress did something functional. Attendance has been impressive in both chambers, with members being present for about 97% of the votes this Congress, The Washington Sun’s data cruncher Andrew Van Dam shows us today with charts made from data assembled by Voteview. If these numbers hold — likely but not guaranteed, as attendance often falls during the holidays — it’ll be the second-best record ever, behind only the COVID-proxy-vote-assisted 2021-2022 cycle.

YAgdB-this-congress-had-excellent-attendance-.png (900x910, AR: 0.99)Speaker Mike Johnson has repeatedly called this “the most productive Congress in 80 years,” citing giant pieces of legislation snaked through the Capitol’s thin majorities through a combination of presidential threats and reconciliation rules.

Attendance was a big part of that. Leadership regularly needed as many members as they could scrounge up to pass bills with narrow margins. And they did it! Not that the public is all that grateful, mind you — polls show Americans still generally seem to think Congress is not doing much that they like.

Attendance is “the bane of any leader’s job,” former Harry Reid staffer Jim Manley told The Sun’s Manuela Silva. Manley said that in his time working for Reid, just as important as who showed up to floor votes was who showed up to committee meetings and votes. For example, the farm bill finally moved out of the Senate Agriculture Committee this week once Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) returned.

Who missed the most votes? Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Florida) in the House and McConnell in the Senate. Both were born in 1942, and both have well-publicized health issues.

EfBtq-who-missed-the-most-votes-.png (900x846, AR: 1.06)

More: Congress Hears an Apocalyptic Prediction From the ‘Godfather of AI’ • Federal Judges in Minnesota Speak Out Against Trump’s DOJ in Rare Interviews • Texas Democrat Sees a Fundraising Surge Following Opponent’s Racist Posts

Open tabs:

FROM THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL

First on The Sun: Democratic donors are giving to the DNC again. The Democratic National Committee notched two of its highest grassroots fundraising months in a midterm cycle in years, bringing in more than a combined $14 million in July and August, The Sun’s Elena Schneider reports. The haul even surpassed the DNC’s total during the same period in 2018, when Democrats gained about 40 House seats.

Fundraising support from potential 2028ers helped, including Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Sens. Chris Murphy and Mark Kelly.

But this haul is merely a drop in the bucket. The DNC faces a massive funding gap with its chief rival, the Republican National Committee — not to mention Donald Trump’s own war chest, which has started to flood the zone with ads.

FROM THE HILL

It’s not looking good for Sean Parnell. Republican senators are pushing back on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s preferred choice for next Army secretary, The Sun’s Joe Gould reports. Parnell has been serving as a close adviser to Hegseth and is the Pentagon’s top spokesperson, but there’s not much interest on the Hill in giving him a promotion.

“It’s hard for me to imagine that could possibly happen,” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota) said of Parnell’s chances of being confirmed if he’s nominated.

FROM A POTENTIAL FUTURE

Younger House Democrats make their move. “It’s an uphill battle, but I think the tide is turning,” a House Democrat working on a plan to wrest top committee slots from senior members next Congress told The Sun. Our Oriana González and Stephen Neukam go inside the effort to give younger, fresher faces a chance in the spotlight if the party wins control.

Term limits for a given member serving as either a committee chair or ranking member are an obvious solution, and one that the House Republican Conference has employed for years. But Democrats pushing for similar rules in their caucus are up against an entrenched seniority system backed by some older members and powerful groups like the Congressional Black Caucus.

NEW ON THE WASHINGTON SUN

There are more data centers being considered for public lands than previously known. The Bureau of Land Management is reviewing proposals covering at least 17,600 acres of public land across six states: Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming, The Sun’s Mara Hoplamazian and Jade Lozada report. There are at least 12 data center projects under consideration, they write, and almost all the proposals appear to be in early stages. Last week we reported on the all-out effort to open up public lands to data center development.

More: Trump Administration Allows Inadvertent Killing of Endangered Species • DOJ Officials Brush Off a Judge’s Contempt Warning in the Epstein Files Case • Josh Shapiro Calls for Federal Government to Place ‘Strict Guardrails’ on AI

NOT US

Barn Burners: Can the Democrats harness the new prairie populism? By Kyle Paoletta for Harper’s
Mansions, Jets, and the Secret White House Watch: The New Status Symbols of Trump’s Washington, by Aidan McLaughlin for Vanity Fair
Trump emphasizes crime in midterm push in North Carolina, by Isaac Arnsdorf, Katherine Doyle and Cleve R. Wootson Jr. for The Washington Post

Thank you for reading! If you liked this edition of The Washington Sun Newsletter, please forward it to a friend. If this newsletter was shared with you, please sign up — it’s free! Have a tip? Email us at tips@washsun.com. And as always, we’d love to hear your thoughts at newsletters@washsun.com.

The newsletter was produced by Brett Bachman and Andrew Burton.]]>

Trump Is Considering More Data Centers on Public Lands Than Previously Known

Mara Hoplamazian, Jade Lozada — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 09:33:00 GMT

Building data centers on public lands, as well as supporting infrastructure like access roads and water pipelines, has emerged as a priority for the Trump administration. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

Update: After publication, Valar Atomics reached out to The Washington Sun and confirmed it had submitted an application for survey access at a 10,200 acre site in Utah for nuclear power development and a data center. After considering the site, the company has decided to no longer pursue the project, a spokesperson for the company told The Sun.

The Trump administration is considering proposals for at least 12 data centers and data center-related infrastructure projects to be built on federal public lands — far more than previously known.

The Bureau of Land Management is reviewing data center-related proposals covering at least 17,600 acres of public land across six states — Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming, according to public records of right-of-way proposals reviewed by The Washington Sun.

Many of the projects under consideration haven’t been previously reported, and aren’t easily accessible on BLM’s website. Several local officials told The Sun they weren’t aware of the federal government’s deliberations, prompting transparency concerns among community advocates.

“If there are places where communities think it is appropriate to build data centers, focus on those,” said Aaron Weiss, director of the conservation group Center for Western Priorities. “The Trump administration needs to stop cutting the public out of public land management. The solution is more public notice and more opportunities for stakeholders to shape projects on the front end.”

Building data centers on public lands, as well as supporting infrastructure like access roads and water pipelines, has emerged as a priority for the Trump administration, which directed BLM officials to identify lands that could be suitable. The administration has pushed to accelerate data center infrastructure development despite public backlash and mounting fears around artificial intelligence.

Public lands in the U.S. are required to be managed for multiple uses, which have historically included mining, logging, energy production and livestock grazing. Building data centers on public lands is unprecedented, however.

Some of the proposals are for projects under development on a mix of private and public lands that have approvals from local officials. But local officials and advocates in Utah, Arizona, Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming told The Sun they weren’t aware of many of the projects.

In Utah, a nuclear energy startup appears to be proposing two data centers powered by small nuclear reactors. In Arizona, BLM is considering four proposals for data center-related infrastructure that could collectively use more than 3,000 acres of public land.

Almost all of the proposals appear to be in early stages. A BLM spokesperson said each proposal will be evaluated under the National Environmental Policy Act process to ensure potential environmental impacts are “understood, disclosed and appropriately addressed.”

“This process helps protect natural resources while enabling responsible infrastructure development that can deliver benefits to the American people, such as expanded broadband capacity, improved electrical reliability, and support for growing technology-driven economies,” the spokesperson said.

The NEPA process includes public notice and a comment period, though the Trump administration has rolled back NEPA regulations and narrowed opportunities for public input.

Exact locations for the projects, as well as the scope and size of each project, will be publicly available once the NEPA process is underway. So far, only one data center on public land has been approved, and that project, in Nevada, is on hold following a legal challenge.

While some projects involve building full data centers on public lands, others would involve only infrastructure to support data centers. In Wyoming, Prometheus Hyperscale has submitted proposals for rights-of-way for an access road, telecommunications line and water pipeline on public lands.

The largest proposal appears to be a 10,200-acre project from Valar Atomics, a nuclear power start-up that has received support from the Department of Energy for their efforts to quickly develop technology for small nuclear reactors.

That company is proposing a data center co-located with small nuclear reactors at a site near Green River, Utah. Valar Atomics has a second proposal for another data center combined with nuclear reactors in Utah called the “Raceway Gigasite,” which doesn’t currently have an estimated size.

Valar Atomics has publicly announced a smaller project with Nvidia that they say will show off technology meant to conserve water.

Valar Atomics did not respond to a request for comment before publication.

There is little public awareness of those projects in Utah, said Lexi Tuddenham, executive director of HEAL Utah, an environmental advocacy group.

“It’s really, really hard to find information about this stuff, and I think it’s representative of the way the industry in general is operating with a lack of transparency that I think is really deeply concerning,” she said. “Both the AI industry and the nuclear industry, which seem to be in this unholy alliance right now.”

Other proposals include four data center-related infrastructure projects in Arizona, one data center in Idaho, at least three in Nevada and one in Oregon. At least four projects are proposed by Copia Power, a developer that has historically worked on renewable energy projects. Copia withdrew a proposal for another data center in Wyoming this summer.

Copia declined to comment for this story.

In Idaho, Rhea Data, a subsidiary of Nevada-based Arevia Power, proposed a 4,000,000-square-foot multi-building data center on 3,226 acres of public lands a few miles south of Boise, according to a BLM spokesperson. The development would include a natural gas power generation facility and electrical facilities to connect to the Idaho Power Company, a local utility.

That project is also connected to a sprawling utility-scale solar energy project proposed by another subsidiary of Arevia Power, which is also seeking a right-of-way on public lands, according to BLM.

The data center projects raise concerns among environmental advocates that new data centers will increase energy rates for locals, and that the data centers and nonrenewable energy sources that could power them will intensify pollution.

“If there were to be more [data centers], I honestly don’t know what that would even look like,” said Lisa Young, director of the Sierra Club’s Idaho chapter. “Would that mean even more gas plants? Would that mean turning back on coal plants longer? What does that mean for our water resources? It’s honestly kind of apocalyptic to think about.”

Arevia Power did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

In Oregon, BLM is considering a right-of-way application from Copia Power for a data center on public lands. Data centers are no stranger to Oregon, where 142 centers are operating or planned, according to an April Pew Research Center study.

But Ben Brint, the senior climate program director at the Oregon Environmental Council, had never heard of using federal public lands to build one.

“In Oregon, this would be a really bad precedent,” Brint said. “Some very large percentage of the state is public lands, and if we’re starting to allow that, that’s large swaths of the state that really could be at risk of further development.”

The DNC Gets a Fundraising Boost After Months of Struggle

Elena Schneider — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 09:30:00 GMT

Bastiaan Slabbers/Sipa USA via AP

The Democratic National Committee racked up two of its biggest grassroots fundraising months in a midterm cycle this summer, bringing in more than $14 million combined in July and August.

The grassroots totals surpassed what the DNC hit in those two months in 2018, the midterm cycle during President Donald Trump’s first term, according to data the committee shared first with The Washington Sun. The committee also hit 1 million unique individual donors for the cycle this summer, a traditionally sleepy time for fundraising.

The surge got some help from several potential 2028 presidential candidates who lent their fundraising muscle to the party committee’s efforts, a DNC official said, including Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy. Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, another potential 2028 candidate, helped to raise $640,000 through a contest to win a trip to Washington, D.C., and tour the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum with him.

But the DNC’s strength with small-dollar donors doesn’t close the gaping hole in the party committee’s bank account, especially when compared to the Republican National Committee. As of July, the DNC had $16 million in cash on hand, but $18 million in debts. The RNC ended July with more than $130 million in cash.

Both committees will file their full financial fundraising disclosures for August with the Federal Election Commission on Sunday.

The DNC has faced months of bad headlines, including its financial woes and its botched 2024 election autopsy. DNC Chair Ken Martin, who has endured a rocky tenure atop the committee, indicated to allies last month he was open to overhauling how the DNC raised money, including bringing in more fundraising talent.

“I’d rather not be in the red, but if you look at ActBlue versus WinRed totals, you wouldn’t come away thinking Democrats are underfunded,” said Kenneth Pennington, a Democratic digital fundraising consultant, referring to the small-dollar donation platforms affiliated with the Democratic and Republican Party respectively. “When you look at the spending advantages on the hard side that Democrats have, they’re sizable. Where we’re falling behind is on some of the soft side stuff, party support stuff, that has historically been driven by big donors.”

Pennington also said that the DNC’s grassroots fundraising is a sign of voter enthusiasm that will translate into votes come November, just as it did in 2018. That confidence is born out in public and private polling, where Democrats regularly hold an intensity advantage. Republicans are anxiously eying Democrats’ voter turnout surge throughout the 2026 primary season as another indicator for that enthusiasm edge.

“I’m feeling good about our party’s base, that’s motivated, donating $20 by huge numbers of people, rather than the party that’s raising money by Elon Musk cutting one check,” he added.

So far, the DNC has raised nearly $16 million more from small-dollar donors at this point in the cycle than it did in 2018, $52.3 million to $36.6 million, when Democrats netted 40 congressional seats.

“While Republicans rely on billionaire donors to try and bail them out from their unpopular policies and tanking approval ratings, Democrats are powered by grassroots donors,” Martin said in a statement shared with The Sun. “It’s clear they are fired up heading into the midterms.”

In D.C.’s Barry Farm, Basketball Is Played Against a Changing Backdrop

Shamira Muhammad — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 09:15:00 GMT

The Goodman League is a long-running summer tradition in Southeast D.C. (Courtesy of Earnest Hooks)

As afternoon turned to evening on a warm Sunday in early September, vendors started setting up around the Barry Farm Recreation Center in Southeast D.C. They unpacked bottles of top-shelf liquor and mixers. They erected tents to sell soul food, jollof rice and Caribbean plates. One covered a table with shea butter, holistic remedies and a book of D.C. slang.

A short time later, people from around the District started to pass by, making their way to the final game of the year for the Goodman League, a long-running outdoor basketball league that has become an iconic summer tradition in this part of the city. They had come to watch basketball but also to connect and celebrate, many of them former residents of the Barry Farm area.

The bleachers filled well before tipoff of that night’s game, a championship meeting between the fan-favorite Street Athletes against the World Class Ballers. The pregame soundtrack featured exclusively go-go as fans hugged friends and sparked up hazy, herbal clouds. One woman started circulating with homemade drinks she called “ring-a-lings.” Not far from the court, one couple set up a playpen for their toddler, who peered out at the action.

Parking started to get scarce, and many drivers resorted to double-parking or pulling up on sidewalks. Miles Rawls, the league’s commissioner and de facto commentator, grabbed the mic and warned about potential towing.

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“Whoever has that Porsche down at the bottom, tend to your vehicle,” he announced to the growing crowd.

Rawls took over as commissioner in 1996, nearly 20 years after the league was founded. The court, widely referred to as the “Barry Farm coliseum,” was once next to the Barry Farm Dwellings, a sprawling, 400-unit public housing complex built in the 1940s. But those buildings were demolished in 2019 as part of the New Communities Initiative created under Mayor Muriel Bowser. Now, the coliseum sits in the shadow of two new apartment buildings — tangible proof that Barry Farm, like so many neighborhoods in the city, is changing.

This championship game marked the final contest of the 2026 season, with a murky future ahead. Although Rawls has already spent time plotting his institution’s 50th anniversary next summer, he’s unsure how the league will fit into the neighborhood. But there will be plenty of colder months to worry about that — ahead of the championship game, with a mic in his hand, he had nothing but pride.

“World Class Ballers … Street Athletes … live from the coliseum [in] Southeast D.C. where I was what?!” he asked the crowd.

“Born and raised!” they responded

Bittersweet

Detrice Belt, the president of the Barry Farm Tenants and Allies Association, attended the first game of the Goodman season in May, and that was enough.

“It's very bittersweet,” she said. “It's bittersweet because you see some faces that you haven't seen, and then you don't see a lot of faces because people can't get there. [Others] have died.”

Belt remembers what the summer league was like before. Neighbors would walk to the games and go home for food. Everyone knew where the candy lady was located. Parking wasn’t necessary but if it got crowded, nobody worried about a tow. But the neighborhood is different now. The townhomes that loomed over the basketball court are gone. So is the corner store. So is the candy lady.

Belt has left, too. Despite her position in the tenants association, she no longer lives in Barry Farm. In 2019, Belt was one of the last residents to leave the Dwellings. She gave her two pit bulls to family and accepted the city's help in moving herself, her daughter and her nearly 30-year-old turtle into a new building in Northeast D.C. The city continues to pay for the storage of some of her belongings and has offered her a spot at one of the neighborhood’s new apartment buildings. But Belt said she’s waiting for a townhome, like the one she had before. Besides, she’s not sure what the neighborhood will look like in a few years.

“A lot of people don't want to return,” she said. “Because it was such a nightmare of being pushed out. So you don't know if you're going to get pushed out again by these new people, by the homeowners, by the new rules of the developers, because the rules will change.”

The new community is being developed through a public-private partnership between the D.C. Housing Authority and the Preservation of Affordable Housing, a nonprofit. It will be a mix of rentals, private homes and affordable housing.

goodman_league.jpg (8091x6000, AR: 1.35)

Maia Shanklin Roberts, a vice president of real estate development for POAH, emphasized that the redevelopment is focused on safeguarding institutions like the Goodman League.

“You can't ignore the trauma of the relocation and the demolition of the buildings,” she said. “Everything that we do is about restoring and repairing the relationship between community and the project, because we now have to build a new relationship.”

Roberts said she’s confident that providing the community more amenities will help rebuild trust: a grocery store, a community center, discounted rent on brick-and-mortar sites for Ward 8 businesses. But it’s also clear that the new Barry Farm will probably be made up of people unaware of the area’s history or traditions.

“[The Goodman League] is an institution, but we also have new residents and new people that live in Ward 8 and Anacostia and the surrounding community who want to be a part of the project,” Roberts said.

She admits that developers did not factor the league or its impact into the original plans. She has developed a relationship with Rawls, even raising the idea of moving the league to another location within the community. But those talks have not been fruitful.

“What I have now accepted as developer is that it is going to be there, and so what we need to do is create a place,” Roberts said.

Now, Roberts’ team is working with landscape designers to create better lighting and amenities around the current court. She’s not sure if parking will ever improve.

‘I Wanna Thank You’

By the game’s third quarter, it became clear that the World Class Ballers were going to win the Goodman League title. As the team built its lead, children took over the court with every timeout, taking their own shots in front of the crowd. Even as the score grew lopsided, Rawls tried to keep his commentary light.

“Put him on spin cycle, extra heavy, tumble, no dryer sheets!” he screamed after a highlight play.

Rawls, who considers himself to be a “day-by-day type of guy,” said he’s not planning to worry about next summer until the spring. But the end of this season had made him wistful.

“Throughout the week and all of that, that's when it’ll really hit me,” he said. “It's been a spectacular week, a spectacular season and a great 30 years.”

It was after 11 p.m. when the game ended. Final score: World Class Ballers 80, Street Athletes 73. A few fans, upset about the local Street Athletes team going down, hurled bottles onto the court. Ring-a-lings flew through the air. Rawls got on the mic, warning them to stop.

“Whoever it is, if you hit the wrong motherfucker, it's gonna be a problem,” he said. “It's a good motherfucking game. Great season. Don't do that bama shit.”

As the debris continued raining down, he issued the threat he reserves for when he is most upset.

“Somebody hit me with something, I'm telling you right fucking now — when I move my shit indoors next year, y'all gone wonder why,” he said.

Eventually, the commotion died down and a more laid-back, cookout vibe took over. Maze and Frankie Beverly’s “I Wanna Thank You” played over speakers as fans hugged goodbye. Wayne Hall, the father who set up the playpen, started packing it away. He played in the league until 2002, and said it was a blessing to be able to still come to the Goodman games with his toddler, who watches from “his own space.”

Hall’s partner, Northeast native Lyndsay Briscoe, said she has been coming to the games for at least 16 years. Now that she has two young children, she loves being able to include them in what she sees as a quintessentially D.C. tradition. She said people have long questioned the viability of the Goodman League in a changing D.C., but she’s hoping her son will have a chance to follow in his father’s footsteps.

“Like, ‘Hey, Mom, I want to have something to do after camp,’” she imagined her son saying. “‘I want to go down to the Goodman League and play with my friends.’”

As a go-go version of “I Wanna Thank You” played over the speakers and the last visitors headed to their cars, Rawls took a second to consider the future of the league, the neighborhood and all of the fans who had just left his basketball court.

“If the neighborhood is still Barry Farm, they’re coming for the Goodman League,” he said. “That's what they're here for. When you build a good product, the people are going to follow you, no matter where you go.”

Inside House Democrats' Push to Kick Old People Out of Leadership

Oriana González, Stephen Neukam — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 09:04:00 GMT

Rep. Bennie Thompson has chaired the House Committee on Homeland Security since 2005 and favors the seniority system. (Mariam Zuhaib/AP Photo)

Insurgent House Democrats are opening a new front in the generational war roiling the party, pushing to put term limits on committee leadership roles.

When the lawmakers return to Washington after the midterms, some Democrats plan to bring up a proposal in their caucus organizational meetings that would limit how many years leaders remain in top committee stops, according to multiple House Democrats familiar with the plans.

“It will only happen if members approve it. It’s an uphill battle, but I think the tide is turning,” said one of the House Democrats who was granted anonymity to address internal deliberations. “We are working on it. It’s a very touchy topic.”

A second House Democrat said that next Congress, “there’ll be many more members that are five terms or less” and there is an “appetite” to add limits so that younger and newer members can move up.

The new discussion around term limits comes at a time when the Democratic base is calling for new faces in the party and multiple incumbents have lost primaries to younger, more progressive candidates. Already, Democrats are starting to mount challenges for top committee slots: Rep. Jahana Hayes of Connecticut announced she’d challenge Rep. Bobby Scott of Virginia for the top job on the House Education and Workforce Committee. Scott ascended to that position in 2015.

Unlike Democrats, Republicans impose a strict six-year limit on lawmakers serving as chairs or as ranking members when their party is in the minority. The first House Democrat said the limits could be similar to Republicans’ but without counting the years as ranking members, though the details on the restrictions are still being worked through. The lawmaker also said that an additional proposal is to allow committee leaders who have reached their limit to request a waiver.

Rep. Mike Levin of California, the chair of the House Democratic Committee on Caucus Rules, said the panel has held multiple listening sessions where the seniority issue came up.

“There are a number of members that obviously have great interest in this. There’s been discussion of grandfathering in everybody who’s already in a ranking member or chair position,” Levin said. “There’s others that disagree with that, so there’s been no consensus on that, nor has there been any finalized proposal or anything like that. We’re still working on it.”

Levin said that the committee would work with members who are interested in the rule change to “formulate specific proposals that will be voted on.” Once there is a proposal, it will be voted on by the entire caucus rules committee, and then brought to the full House Democratic caucus for a vote in November.

“My hope is that we can build some internal consensus on what would be fair, or I should say, not just what would be fair, but what would actually earn the support of our members,” Levin added.

The issue is especially touchy for Congressional Black Caucus members who have historically supported seniority rules. Those rules have helped secure top slots for Black members who were long denied power in Congress. And the proposal comes as fewer Black lawmakers are expected in the next Congress because of Republicans’ redistricting efforts, potentially reducing the caucus’ influence.

Maryland Rep. Glenn Ivey told The Washington Sun that a proposal for term limits is a “mixed bag,” pointing at the House GOP’s practices.

“Watching what the Republicans are doing, they’re just playing musical chairs sometimes with these committee chairmanships to sort of circumvent what the goal is,” Ivey said. “On the Democratic side, we’ve had very young members — Robert Garcia for example — rise to the top.”

Three Democrats pointed to Rep. Frank Pallone (D-New Jersey), who has been the top Democrat in the House Energy and Commerce Committee since 2015, as one of the biggest opponents to term limits.

“Over the years, he’s been very adamant that he is against it. Very, very adamant, and talks to all the members saying, ‘Don’t be for it,’” a third House Democrat told The Sun. “He feels like he’s waited a long time to get there and he doesn’t want it to change.”

In a statement to The Sun, Pallone said, “our current system is democracy — every two years, members have the freedom to run and vote for the best person to lead committees based on merit. Open campaigns lead to healthy debate, diverse leaders, and a stronger caucus.”

Other senior Democrats are also likely to challenge the term limits efforts in November.

Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, a popular House Democrat who has been the top Democrat of two powerful committees — first the Oversight Committee and now Judiciary — called himself “a pretty good example of why we don’t need term limits, because we do have real and open elections on the Democratic side.”

“There are people who may want to run for a chairmanship who feel like there's too much of a presumption of seniority, and it’s only a presumption, it’s a rebuttable presumption,” Raskin added. “I can see where it's coming from, but we've also seen a lot of turnover and fluidity in the ranking positions and the chair positions.”

Yet, Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, who has been the top Democrat in the House Homeland Security Committee since its inception in 2005, told The Sun, “I got to be chair based on my seniority on the committee.”

“If you ask Bennie Thompson, I support seniority and the current rule. But I will say if you want to debate it and put it to a vote, officer. Fine. That doesn't mean I'll change my vote,” Thompson added.

Some of the lawmakers in line to become chairs if Democrats win the majority in November, such as Garcia, a younger member from California, are not opposed to limits.

“I’ve told folks already in the caucus that I could support that,” said Garcia, who is in line to chair the House Oversight Committee. “I’ve told folks already in the caucus that I could support that.”

“As a new person, I think that having new leaders and there being a debate on that is healthy,” Garcia added.

Previous attempts by Democrats to place term limits on committee chairs have failed. Illinois Rep. Bill Foster led an effort in 2022 to set a six-year limit for committee leaders, counting time served as chair and ranking member together. House Democrats rejected the proposal in a 138-63 vote.

The fact that the proposal got support from around a third of the caucus signaled that such an effort would “eventually” succeed, the third anonymous House Democrat told The Sun.

“A lot of the younger members don’t want to be in Congress for 30 years before they get a chance to chair a major committee. My guess is that if it doesn’t change this time, it’s definitely changing the next time,” the lawmaker said. “It’s just a matter of time. People are watching their Republican classmates come in and have opportunity to chair major committees and leave instead of having to be here for a long time.”

Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee,opposes committee leadership term limits and told The Sun that House Democrats have “created many opportunities” for younger members to move up.

Under the current House Democratic caucus rules, each committee must have a vice chair or vice ranking member position that goes to a member who has served in the committee for five terms or less and is considered “an opportunity for a junior Member to gain insight and experience into the workings of the committee.”

“Contrary to some belief, it does take a little bit of time to understand how this place functions,” Meeks said. “I sat and I watched and I learned for a long period of time.”

But not all Democrats want to wait long to rise through the ranks.

“A lot of us don’t want to stay here forever,” the third House Democrat said.