Democratic governors quietly prep extensive plans to counter Trump
CNN
Diplomatic and depressed as they have been in public, a small group of Democratic governors are deep into behind-the-scenes preparations and deliberations over how to balance the politics of pushing back on what they are expecting from President-elect Donald Trump’s next turn in the White House.
Diplomatic and depressed as they have been in public, a small group of Democratic governors are deep into behind-the-scenes preparations and deliberations over how to balance the politics of pushing back on what they are expecting from President-elect Donald Trump’s next turn in the White House. Since long before the election, they’ve been poring through Project 2025 — it’s helpful, several Democratic governors told CNN, to have a blueprint in public. They’ve been studying their own executive powers and state laws. They’ve been collaborating on how to shame any extreme Trump actions in the court of public opinion, rather than debating the principles, as often happened when Democrats took on Trump last time. They’ve been stockpiling the abortion medication mifepristone in secret warehouses and rehearsing their answers for if and when the incoming White House tries to nationalize their state police or National Guard units for use in deportation raids; some are planning to flat out refuse, while others intend to argue that the officers are busy with other work keeping the people in their states safe. (None have fully wrapped their heads around how it would work if units from other states are sent in and set themselves up for showdowns on the state borders.) “Really, we have no idea what’s coming down the pike,” said Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, the chair of the Democratic Governors Association. Some are already going deeper. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker frustrated several of his counterparts by trying to get them to sign on to a group he started postelection to push back on Trump, but only Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed on as a co-chair. Pritzker has his staff exploring ideas such as blocking GPS tracking on apps for women who may be traveling to the state to get abortions, so that there would not be records to potentially subpoena back home. “We all have apps on our phones that track where we go. If an attorney general or US attorney wanted to pull that data and determine whether someone drove from Indiana to an abortion clinic in Illinois, we can protect people and their privacy,” he told CNN. How the technology of that might work, though, isn’t clear — and that goes for a number of the more innovative ideas being workshopped.
National Guard troops deployed to Washington, DC, can remain there for now, after a federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily froze a judge’s ruling that would have soon required them to leave the city’s streets.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s bad week just got worse. That’s after the long-awaited release Thursday of an inspector general’s report on his sharing of highly sensitive military attack plans on the unclassified app Signal earlier this year.
President Donald Trump has hired a new architect for the White House ballroom amid disputes between the president and his architect originally contracted to complete the project, several sources have told CNN.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information that could have endangered US troops through his use of Signal to discuss attack plans, a Pentagon watchdog said in an unclassified report released Thursday. It also details how Hegseth declined to cooperate with the probe.
If nothing else, the controversy over the Trump administration’s second strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean has surfaced a long-overdue debate about its already legally dubious first strikes.
Two top House lawmakers emerged divided along party lines after a private briefing with the military official who oversaw September’s attack on an alleged drug vessel that included a so-called double-tap strike that killed surviving crew members, with a top Democrat calling video of the incident that was shared as part of the briefing “one of the most troubling things” he has seen as a lawmaker.
Authorities in Colombia are dealing with increasingly sophisticated criminals, who use advanced tech to produce and conceal the drugs they hope to export around the world. But police and the military are fighting back, using AI to flag suspicious passengers, cargo and mail - alongside more conventional air and sea patrols. CNN’s Isa Soares gets an inside look at Bogotá’s war on drugs.
Young Americans are “a generation under profound strain” with little confidence in institutions and widespread economic concerns, according to a Harvard Institute of Politics survey of adults younger than 30 released Thursday.
As lawmakers demand answers over reports that the US military carried out a follow-up strike that killed survivors during an attacked on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, a career Navy SEAL who has spent most of his 30 years of military experience in special operations will be responsible for providing them.
The murder trial of Brian Walshe, who is accused of killing and dismembering his wife in 2023 continues. Follow for live updates.
The FBI arrested a person Thursday who investigators believe planted pipe bombs near the Republican and Democratic National Committee headquarters the night before the 2021 US Capitol riot.
Lawyers for the New York attorney general’s office are expected to appear in federal court in Albany on Thursday to try to disqualify a US attorney from investigating the state’s civil case against President Donald Trump.
A new poll shows more than 70% of Republicans with Obamacare coverage don’t want their enhanced premium subsidies to expire.