More than 450 arrests since surge of federal law enforcement in DC, White House says
There have been over 450 arrests by federal law enforcement in the nation’s capital since 7 August, according to a White House official.
The official says that throughout this period, 68 firearms have been seized, and three known gang members have been arrested – including a MS-13 gang member.
They add that 48 homeless encampments have been cleared, since earlier this month.
On Monday 18 August, the official confirmed to the Guardian that federal officers made 52 arrests.
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The Trump administration wants to convert funding from the Chips and Science Act, which funds research and manufacturing of semiconductor chips in the US, into equity in the struggling tech company, according to Howard Lutnick.
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Intel was once a leader in producing computer processors, but is now seen as a laggard behind the likes of Nvidia, which last month became the first public company in history to scale a $4tn valuation after a stratospheric stock market rise.
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The US commerce secretary criticized the structure of the Chips Act, signed into law in 2022 under Joe Biden, telling the CNBC financial news network:
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Why are we giving a company worth $100bn this kind of money? What is in it for the American taxpayer? And the answer Donald Trump has is we should get an equity stake for our money. So we’ll deliver the money which was already committed under the Biden administration, we’ll get equity in return for it.
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Shares in Intel rallied 7.5% in New York.
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The conversion of the funding would not confer governing rights typical of a company’s largest shareholder to the federal government, according to Lutnick. “It’s not governance, we’re just converting what was a grant under Biden into equity. Non-voting,” he said.
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Lutnick did say the goal of the equity stake would be much the same as that of the Chips Act, bluntly stating: “We need to make our own chips here. We cannot rely on Taiwan.”
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According to the Texas house calendar, a vote on the gerrymandered congressional maps, that led several Democratic lawmakers to break quorum, has been scheduled for Wednesday 20 August.
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It’s already attracted the ire of Democrats who say that Texas Republicans have made mid-decade redistricting their priority, and sidelined efforts to provide relief for victims of the July floods that devastated parts of the state.
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“They PROMISED flood victims’ families that they would ‘prioritize flooding above all else’,” said Democratic representative John Bucy III. “These special sessions have never been about helping Texans – they’re about helping Trump.”
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My colleagues, Jakub Krupa and Matthew Pearce, are tracking the latest developments following the president’s busy day of foreign diplomacy at the White House. A reminder that Trump met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy yesterday, along with a cadre of European leaders.
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We’re watching out for more details about a possible meeting between Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin, and more negotiations between the US and European allies about security guarantees for Ukraine.
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Just a short while ago, Donald Trump wrapped up a phone interview with Fox News, where he repeated his warning that Putin would face a “rough situation” if he did not cooperate in the peace process.
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“I hope President Putin is going to be good and if he’s not, that’s going to be a rough situation.
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“And I hope that Zelenskyy, President Zelenskyy, will do what he has to do. He has to show some flexibility.”
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Trump also said that while Europeans were “willing to put people on the ground,” the US focus was on air operations.
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We’re willing to help them with things, especially probably if you could talk about by air, because there’s nobody has the kind of stuff we have.”
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Follow along for more.
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A speechwriter for the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has come under scrutiny after he was linked to hate speech online.
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Eric Lendrum compared the circumstances of American conservatives to that of enslaved people and Jewish people in Nazi Germany, and in his podcast claimed that the racist great replacement conspiracy theory was “real”, the news outlet Notus reported.
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Notus reported that Lendrum began working at the DHS, which is headed by Kristi Noem, in March this year, after previously working at the Department of the Interior during the first Trump administration. The DHS has been at the forefront of Donald Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigration during his second presidency.
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In the gap between his government roles, Lendrum was a frequent online presence, hosting a podcast, posting on X and Telegram, and writing a blog on the website American Greatness. In one post from December 2021, Lendrum defended people who participated in the January 6 insurrection, claiming they faced “persecution for their patriotism”.
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“It has been said that the most surefire way to create an authoritarian regime is to completely dehumanize a significant portion of the population, so that their subsequent enslavement by the state will not face any larger resistance,” Lendrum wrote. “It was true during slavery, it was true during the Holocaust, and it is true now.
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There have been over 450 arrests by federal law enforcement in the nation’s capital since 7 August, according to a White House official.
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The official says that throughout this period, 68 firearms have been seized, and three known gang members have been arrested – including a MS-13 gang member.
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They add that 48 homeless encampments have been cleared, since earlier this month.
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On Monday 18 August, the official confirmed to the Guardian that federal officers made 52 arrests.
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According to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, Donald Trump’s approval rating sits at 40% – the lowest level of his second term so far. It’s a seven percentage point drop since his inauguration in January.
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The survey – which was conducted over six days in the middle of August – showed that only 42% of respondents approved of the president’s performance on crime, while 43% said he was doing a good job on immigration policy.
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The Republican governors of Louisiana and Tennessee will send hundreds of their national guard troops to assist federal law enforcement in DC – to help assist the president’s “crime crackdown”.
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They join Mississippi, Ohio, West Virginia and South Carolina – who have all sent national guard troops to DC.
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In a statement, Louisiana governor Jeff Landry announced that he would send 135 troops to assist the president’s “mission of restoring safety and peace in our nation’s capital”. He added that “our capital is a reflection of our nation’s respect, beauty, and standards. We cannot allow our cities to be overcome by violence and lawlessness.”
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It’s important to note that New Orleans, Louisiana’s largest city, actually had the second-highest rate of homicide throughout the entire country in 2023 and 2024, according a recent report from Rochester Institute of Technology – which uses FBI and local agency data.
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Meanwhile, according to the Associated Press, a spokesperson for Tennessee governor Bill Lee said that the governor had granted a request from the Trump administration for the state’s national guard members “to assist with monument security, community safety patrols, protecting federal facilities, and traffic control”.
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This means that six Republican states have now sent national guard troops to the capital. The Trump administration has underscored that soldiers will not be making arrests, but assisting law enforcement and protecting federal buildings.
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The Department of Justice (DoJ) has agreed to provide to Congress documents from the Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking investigation, a key House lawmaker said Monday, announcing a move that appears to avert, at least temporarily, a potential separation of powers clash, AP reports.
\n The records are to be turned over starting Friday to the House oversight committee, which earlier this month issued a broad subpoena to the justice department about a criminal case that has long captivated public attention, recently roiled the top rungs of Donald Trump’s administration and been a consistent magnet for conspiracy theories.
\n “There are many records in DoJ’s custody, and it will take the department time to produce all the records and ensure the identification of victims and any child sexual abuse material are redacted,” the Kentucky representative James Comer, the Republican committee chair, said in a statement. “I appreciate the Trump administration’s commitment to transparency and efforts to provide the American people with information about this matter.”
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Good morning and welcome to the US politics live blog. My name is Matthew Pearce and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news over the next few hours.
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We begin with news that Texas Democrats who ended a walkout found themselves shadowed by law enforcement officers to keep them from repeating the protest that stalled Republican efforts to redraw congressional districts and fulfil President Donald Trump’s desire to reshape U.S. House maps.
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Republicans in the Texas House forced returning Democrats to sign what the Democrats called “permission slips,” agreeing to around-the-clock surveillance by state department of Public Safety officers to leave the floor. However, Democratic Rep. Nicole Collier, of Fort Worth, refused and remained on the House floor Monday night.
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The Democrats’ return to Texas puts the Republican-run Legislature in position to satisfy Trump’s demands, possibly later this week, as California Democrats advance new congressional boundaries in retaliation.
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Lawmakers had officers posted outside their Capitol offices, and suburban Dallas Rep. Mihaela Plesa said one tailed her on her Monday evening drive back to her apartment in Austin after spending much of the day on a couch in her office. She said he went with her for a staff lunch and even down the hallway with her for restroom breaks.
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“We were kind of laughing about it, to be honest, but this is really serious stuff,” Plesa said in a telephone interview with Associated Press. “This is a waste of taxpayer dollars and really performative theatre.”
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Collier, who represents a minority-majority district, said she would not “sign away my dignity” and allow Republicans to “control my movements and monitor me”.
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“I know these maps will harm my constituents,” she said in a statement. “I won’t just go along quietly with their intimidation or their discrimination.”
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The tit-for-tat puts the nation’s two most populous states at the center of an expanding fight over control of Congress ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The battle has rallied Democrats nationally after infighting and frustrations among the party’s voters since Republicans took total control of the federal government in January.
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In other developments:
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Donald Trump has ruled out a ceasefire in Ukraine as Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his European allies visited the White House to push for US-backed security guarantees as part of any long-term peace deal. The US president, who only last week warned Russia of “very severe consequences” if Vladimir Putin failed to agree to a halt to the fighting, made clear on Monday he had reversed his position. More here.
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Missouri attorney general Andrew Bailey announced Monday that he will step down to become co-deputy director of the FBI. Bailey will share the role with deputy director Dan Bongino, as the FBI continues to draw headlines over the ongoing case tied to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Bailey said his last day in office will be 8 September. Missouri governor Mike Kehoe will announce his appointment for Bailey’s replacement on Tuesday.
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Donald Trump on Monday announced that lawyers are drafting an executive order to eliminate mail-in voting, days after Vladimir Putin told him US elections were rigged because of postal ballots. In a White House meeting alongside Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump said: “We’re going to start with an executive order that’s being written right now by the best lawyers in the country to end mail in ballots because they’re corrupt.” More here.
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The number of people eating at restaurants in Washington DC has plummeted since Donald Trump deployed federal troops to the city, according to data, as the president’s purported crackdown on crime continues. More here.
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Key events
The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, also said today that a potential government stake would not oblige US businesses to purchase Intel chips.
“The last thing we’re going to do is take a stake and then try to drum up business,” he told CNBC. “The stake would be a conversion of the grants and maybe increase the investment into Intel to help stabilize the company for chip production here in the US. There’s no talk of trying to force companies to buy from Intel.”
US pursuing stake in struggling chipmaker Intel, commerce secretary says
Blake Montgomery
The US government is pursuing a stake in Intel, the US commerce secretary said today, confirming reports of discussions between officials and the company that have circulated for the better part of a week.
The Trump administration wants to convert funding from the Chips and Science Act, which funds research and manufacturing of semiconductor chips in the US, into equity in the struggling tech company, according to Howard Lutnick.
Intel was once a leader in producing computer processors, but is now seen as a laggard behind the likes of Nvidia, which last month became the first public company in history to scale a $4tn valuation after a stratospheric stock market rise.
The US commerce secretary criticized the structure of the Chips Act, signed into law in 2022 under Joe Biden, telling the CNBC financial news network:
Why are we giving a company worth $100bn this kind of money? What is in it for the American taxpayer? And the answer Donald Trump has is we should get an equity stake for our money. So we’ll deliver the money which was already committed under the Biden administration, we’ll get equity in return for it.
Shares in Intel rallied 7.5% in New York.
The conversion of the funding would not confer governing rights typical of a company’s largest shareholder to the federal government, according to Lutnick. “It’s not governance, we’re just converting what was a grant under Biden into equity. Non-voting,” he said.
Lutnick did say the goal of the equity stake would be much the same as that of the Chips Act, bluntly stating: “We need to make our own chips here. We cannot rely on Taiwan.”
Texas house schedules vote for GOP-drawn congressional map for next Wednesday
According to the Texas house calendar, a vote on the gerrymandered congressional maps, that led several Democratic lawmakers to break quorum, has been scheduled for Wednesday 20 August.
It’s already attracted the ire of Democrats who say that Texas Republicans have made mid-decade redistricting their priority, and sidelined efforts to provide relief for victims of the July floods that devastated parts of the state.
“They PROMISED flood victims’ families that they would ‘prioritize flooding above all else’,” said Democratic representative John Bucy III. “These special sessions have never been about helping Texans – they’re about helping Trump.”
Joseph Gedeon
The US House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, is making the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, and her aggressive immigration enforcement tactics squarely in Democrats’ crosshairs for congressional investigation if they flip the House in the midterms.
Speaking on the Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller recently, Jeffries said Noem would be “one of the first people hauled up to Congress shortly after the gavels change hands” to answer for what he called the Department of Homeland Security’s troubling conduct.
“The lack of respect for due process, for the rule of law, the unleashing of masked agents on law-abiding immigrant communities, and the disappearing of people in some instances, to other countries without any real evidence that criminal behavior took place,” the New York representative said, outlining his concerns about Noem’s leadership.
Since taking office, Noem has aided Trump’s mass deportation efforts by unleashing workplace raids and facilitated fast-tracked removals. In her first 200 days as secretary, she announced that approximately 1.6 million undocumented immigrants had left the US, according to DHS data released last week.
In news from the campaign trail today, we have a Democratic challenger to Susan Collins, the long-serving Republican senator from Maine who is up for re-election in 2026.
A reminder that Collins is a noted moderate, and chair of the Senate appropriations committee, who frequently breaks with the party’s base on a number of key issues: voting against repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the recent $9bn rescissions package pushed by the president, and the confirmation of conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett to the supreme court.
Now, Collins is facing a challenge from Democrat Graham Platner – an oyster farmer, a marine veteran, and political unknown. In an advert launching his campaign today, Platner says he has watched as Maine has become “virtually unlivable” for working-class people. He adds that the “enemy is the oligarchy” and “the politicians who sell us out”. Platner calls out Collins’s perceived moderate stance as a “charade” in his launch video. “The difference between Susan Collins and Ted Cruz is that at least Ted Cruz is honest about selling us out and not giving a damn,” Platner says, addressing the camera from a pushboat.
Platner’s bid is considered a long shot in many ways. He’s never held or run for office, compared to Collins’s almost 30 years in the US Senate. And Platner might be at even more of a disadvantage if Maine’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills, throws her hat in the ring.
However, Platner is staffing up quickly and conscientiously. He’s hired progressive strategists who have experience “successfully running against establishment-favored Democrats”, according to Politico. This includes Morris Katz, an adviser for Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor and media darling.
As we reported yesterday, when the Texas house achieved quorum, Republican speaker Dustin Burrows announced that any Democrats who had left the state in protest – and for whom civil arrest warrants were issued – will only be given permission to leave the legislature if they agree to have a state trooper assigned to them to make sure they return.
However, representative Nicole Collier, of Fort Worth, refused and remained on the house floor Monday night, as my colleague Matthew Pearce reported earlier.
A short while ago, Collier posted a picture to X, showing her makeshift bedroom while she was locked inside the capitol on Monday night.
Representative Gene Wu, the Texas house minority leader also appeared to be supporting Collier throughout the night. Wu posted a picture of ramen, popcorn and dried fruit to X: “Thank you for all who are watching the @TexasHDC livestream. @NicoleCollier95 & I have snacks,” he wrote.
This was my night, bonnet and all, in the #txlege. #thisisme pic.twitter.com/46YgqbMUk8
— Nicole Collier (@NicoleCollier95) August 19, 2025
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My colleagues, Jakub Krupa and Matthew Pearce, are tracking the latest developments following the president’s busy day of foreign diplomacy at the White House. A reminder that Trump met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy yesterday, along with a cadre of European leaders.
We’re watching out for more details about a possible meeting between Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin, and more negotiations between the US and European allies about security guarantees for Ukraine.
Just a short while ago, Donald Trump wrapped up a phone interview with Fox News, where he repeated his warning that Putin would face a “rough situation” if he did not cooperate in the peace process.
“I hope President Putin is going to be good and if he’s not, that’s going to be a rough situation.
“And I hope that Zelenskyy, President Zelenskyy, will do what he has to do. He has to show some flexibility.”
Trump also said that while Europeans were “willing to put people on the ground,” the US focus was on air operations.
We’re willing to help them with things, especially probably if you could talk about by air, because there’s nobody has the kind of stuff we have.”
Follow along for more.
Trump administration speechwriter linked to hate speech online – report
Adam Gabbatt
A speechwriter for the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has come under scrutiny after he was linked to hate speech online.
Eric Lendrum compared the circumstances of American conservatives to that of enslaved people and Jewish people in Nazi Germany, and in his podcast claimed that the racist great replacement conspiracy theory was “real”, the news outlet Notus reported.
Notus reported that Lendrum began working at the DHS, which is headed by Kristi Noem, in March this year, after previously working at the Department of the Interior during the first Trump administration. The DHS has been at the forefront of Donald Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigration during his second presidency.
In the gap between his government roles, Lendrum was a frequent online presence, hosting a podcast, posting on X and Telegram, and writing a blog on the website American Greatness. In one post from December 2021, Lendrum defended people who participated in the January 6 insurrection, claiming they faced “persecution for their patriotism”.
“It has been said that the most surefire way to create an authoritarian regime is to completely dehumanize a significant portion of the population, so that their subsequent enslavement by the state will not face any larger resistance,” Lendrum wrote. “It was true during slavery, it was true during the Holocaust, and it is true now.
More than 450 arrests since surge of federal law enforcement in DC, White House says
There have been over 450 arrests by federal law enforcement in the nation’s capital since 7 August, according to a White House official.
The official says that throughout this period, 68 firearms have been seized, and three known gang members have been arrested – including a MS-13 gang member.
They add that 48 homeless encampments have been cleared, since earlier this month.
On Monday 18 August, the official confirmed to the Guardian that federal officers made 52 arrests.
Trump approval rating at lowest level of second term – poll
According to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, Donald Trump’s approval rating sits at 40% – the lowest level of his second term so far. It’s a seven percentage point drop since his inauguration in January.
The survey – which was conducted over six days in the middle of August – showed that only 42% of respondents approved of the president’s performance on crime, while 43% said he was doing a good job on immigration policy.
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