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Jackson publicly airs grievances with conservative colleagues over Trump-era rulings

2026-04-16 12:35pm EDT / Fox News

The Biden appointee used a Yale Law School speech to target the conservative majority’s shadow docket practices

By Ashley Oliver Fox News

Published April 16, 2026 12:35pm EDT

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Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson accused the Supreme Court this week of using unexplained emergency orders to hand President Donald Trump wins, warning the practice risks eroding public trust in the judiciary.

In a Yale Law School speech made public Wednesday, Jackson, a Biden appointee and frequent dissenter on emergency rulings, repeatedly called the Supreme Court’s use of the emergency docket “problematic” and argued the conservative majority’s decisions were sometimes “utterly irrational.”

The emergency docket, sometimes known as the interim or “shadow” docket, allows litigants to bypass typical court proceedings and seek immediate relief from the Supreme Court in the face of restraining orders and injunctions in the lower courts.

“Given the real world facts that a stay request asks the court to consider, the court’s stay decisions can, at times, come across utterly irrational,” Jackson said. “We cannot expect the public to have faith in our judicial system if, without clear explanation, we consistently greenlight harmful acts.”

JUSTICE JACKSON ACCUSES SUPREME COURT OF ENSURING TRUMP ‘ALWAYS WINS’ IN SCATHING DISSENT

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman on the nation’s highest court, speaks at the 60th Commemoration of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing on Sept.15, 2023, in Birmingham, Alabama.(Butch Dill/Pool/Getty Images)

Jackson emphasized she was not seeking to “praise” or “bury” the emergency docket, but she warned its current use is straying from its historical role, which she said used to be more limited.

“There is a serious concern that the Supreme Court’s modern stay practices are having an enormously disruptive and potentially corrosive effect on the functioning of the federal judiciary’s usual decision-making process,” Jackson, who did not cite Trump by name during her remarks, said.

Jackson also argued the concept of equal justice was being cast aside because “savvy parties” knew how to bypass the lengthy court process and apply for emergency stays at the Supreme Court, unlike average people caught up in legal proceedings.

“If we are not careful, the emergency docket can and will become an end-run around the standard review process, a special avenue that certain privileged litigants can utilize selectively,” Jackson said.

SUPREME COURT EXTENDS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S $5 BILLION FOREIGN AID FREEZE AMID ONGOING LEGAL CHALLENGE

The Supreme Court building is seen in Washington, D.C.(AP/Jon Elswick)

Jackson contended that the modern-day use of the emergency docket “disrespects” lower court judges, allowing the high court to “routinely interfere with lower court cases,” a remark that comes as the Trump administration routinely blasts what it has described as “rogue” district court judges who have stymied the president’s agenda.

“A one-line stay grant that overturns a lower court’s contrary conclusion suggests that the judgment call was so easy that no deliberation or explanation is required, and that suggestion casts aspersions on the tedious work that our colleagues have done,” Jackson said.

The Trump administration has faced hundreds of lawsuits and adverse rulings in the lower courts. While the Department of Justice’s solicitor general’s office often does not elevate cases to the Supreme Court for emergency consideration, when it does, it has won most of the time.

BIDEN-APPOINTED JUDGE AT CENTER OF REPEATED CLASHES WITH TRUMP ADMIN ISSUES NEW IMMIGRATION BLOCK

John Sauer, then- special assistant attorney general at the Louisiana Department of Justice, speaks during a hearing.(Al Drago/Bloomberg)

Through the emergency docket, the Supreme Court has greenlit Trump’s mass firings and curtailed nationwide injunctions. The high court has cleared the way for deportations and immigration stops sometimes criticized as controversial. The justices have also found that the government can, for now, discharge transgender service members from the military.

But Trump has not won out all the time. The justices required the administration to give more notice to alleged illegal immigrants being deported under the Alien Enemies Act and agreed with a lower court that the president improperly federalized the National Guard as part of his immigration crackdown in Chicago.

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In August, Jackson lashed out at the Supreme Court majority for “lawmaking” from the bench in a dissent to an emergency decision to temporarily allow the National Institutes of Health’s cancellation of about $738 million in grant money.

“This is Calvinball jurisprudence with a twist. Calvinball has only one rule: There are no fixed rules. We seem to have two: that one, and this Administration always wins,” Jackson wrote at the time.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and Supreme Court’s public affairs team for comment on Thursday.

Ashley Oliver is a reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business, covering the Justice Department and legal affairs. Email story tips to ashley.oliver@fox.com.

Judge: Trump can’t claim that entire White House ballroom project is needed for national security

2026-04-16T16:49:39.021Z / CNN

By Devan Cole

Updated 48 min ago
Updated Apr 16, 2026, 3:23 PM ET
PUBLISHED Apr 16, 2026, 12:49 PM ET

A crane being used to construct the new White House ballroom is seen next to the White House, on April 5, 2026.

Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

A federal judge has again ordered President Donald Trump to pause construction of a massive new ballroom at the White House, rejecting the president’s “disingenuous” bid to circumvent an earlier ruling against the project by claiming that it needed to proceed for national security reasons.

The ruling Thursday from senior US District Judge Richard Leon is the latest development in a winding legal saga around the controversial ballroom, which the judge said last month was being built unlawfully since Congress hadn’t expressly approved it.

Leon, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, carved out an exception so that crews could continue working on a highly sophisticated bunker being installed under the proposed ballroom. But Trump had contended that the entire project was covered by that loophole since the above-ground structure “advances critical national-security objectives as an integrated whole.”

Leon forcefully rejected that argument in his latest decision, accusing the president of advancing an “incredible, if not disingenuous” reading of his earlier ruling.

“Defendants argue that the entire ballroom construction project, from tip to tail, falls within the safety-and-security exception and therefore may proceed unabated,” he wrote in the 10-page decision. “That is neither a reasonable nor a correct reading of my Order!”

“National security is not a blank check to proceed with otherwise unlawful activity, and belated assertions that the above-ground ballroom is ‘inseparable’ from an array of security features are not an occasion for this Court to reweigh the equities or reconsider the preliminary injunction!” Leon wrote.

The judge reiterated that crews could continue working on the bunker and could proceed with other work “necessary to ensure the safety, security, and structural integrity of the White House” and its grounds. But he made clear that absent congressional approval of the ballroom, no above-ground construction could continue except work to cover and secure the facilities being built underground.

The Justice Department has appealed Leon’s decision.

Anticipating the appeal, Leon delayed implementation of his ruling for one week. But he warned the White House that any above-ground work that happens during that period may need to be reversed depending on how the case plays out.

“I have no desire or intention to be dragooned into the role of construction manager,” Leon wrote, adding that he trusts the president to implement his order in good faith.

The decision comes several days after a federal appeals court in Washington, DC, instructed Leon to clarify the scope of his March injunction halting work on the nearly 90,000-square-foot ballroom.

The White House had asked the appeals court to shelve that ruling, arguing the entire project “advances critical national-security objectives” because the above-ground structure involves “the use of missile-resistant steel columns, beams, drone-proof roofing materials, and bullet, ballistic, and blast proof glass windows.”

“They also include the installation of bomb shelters, hospital and medical facilities, protective partitioning, and top-secret military installations, air conditioning, heating, venting, and more,” Justice Department lawyers defending the project in a lawsuit against it told the appeals court.

But the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which sued last year to block construction of the ballroom, has repeatedly said Trump is erroneously conflating the bunker with the above-ground addition.

“The lack of a massive ballroom on the White House grounds is not a national-security emergency. Its absence has not prevented any past president from residing in the White House during his tenure over the past two centuries, or from using the prior East Wing bunker for approximately eighty years,” the group told Leon in court papers filed this week.

“The defendants declare that the bunker needs ‘adequate above-ground cover,’ but never explain why only the President’s preferred 70-foot-tall ballroom – and not a simple at-grade slab – would suffice,” lawyers for the Trust wrote.

Carol Quillen, the president and CEO of the group, said in a statement that it’s “pleased the court upheld the preliminary injunction and halted above-ground construction of the White House ballroom until Congress approves the project.”

Trump on Thursday lashed out on social media, calling the move politically motivated and a threat to national security.

He argued in a Truth Social post that the White House lacks a large-scale event space that presidents have “desperately wanted and desired for over 150 years,” and said the planned ballroom is critical for hosting world leaders and major events safely.

Trump said that the ballroom would include extensive security features such as “Bomb Shelters, a State of the Art Hospital and Medical Facilities, Protective Partitioning, Top Secret Military Installations, Structures, and Equipment, Protective Missile Resistant Steel, Columns, Roofs, and Beams, Drone Proof Ceilings and Roofs, Military Grade Venting, and Bullet, Ballistic, and Blast Proof Glass.”

This story has been updated with additional responses.

Rep Ayanna Pressley used a discharge petition to force the vote, and key GOP members signed on

By Adam Pack, Fox News

Haitian national charged in brutal Florida gas station killing

An illegal immigrant from Haiti was charged with killing a female gas station clerk in Fort Meyers, Florida, April 3, 2026. (Fort Meyers Police Department)

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A group of House Republicans defied President Donald Trump on Thursday to support shielding more than 350,000 Haitian nationals from deportation.

Ten GOP lawmakers joined Democrats and one independent to approve legislation that would allow Haitians to be eligible for the temporary protected status (TPS) program for another three years.

Those Republicans included Reps. Mike Lawler and Nicole Malliotakis of New York; Maria Elvira Salazar, Mario Diaz-Balart and Carlos Gimenez of Florida. Don Bacon of Nebraska; Rich McCormick of Georgia; Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania; and Mike Carey and Mike Turner of Ohio. Many in that cohort have large Haitian diaspora communities in their districts.

The TPS program allows foreign nationals whose home countries face humanitarian crises or dangerous conditions to temporarily live and work in the United States without fear of deportation. It does not provide a pathway to citizenship.

President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media outside the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., April 13, 2026.(Salwan Georges/Bloomberg)

SUPREME COURT TO HEAR TRUMP CHALLENGE TO PROTECTED STATUS FOR SYRIAN, HAITIAN NATIONALS IN US

The successful vote comes as the Trump administration has sought to revoke the TPS program for Haiti, arguing that conditions have improved in the country and that granting Haitians legal protections runs counter to American interests. The effort is currently stalled as the TPS termination works its way through the nation’s courts.

The measure is largely symbolic due to resistance from Senate Republicans who are not expected to hold a vote on renewing TPS for Haitians. Trump would almost certainly veto a TPS extension bill that clears Congress.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., a member of the “Squad,” used a legislative maneuver known as a discharge petition to force a chamber vote on the TPS extension bill. The effort would have been futile without the support of a handful of Republicans who signed Pressley’s discharge petition to reach the necessary 218 signatures and trigger a vote.

Rep. Laura Gillen, D-N.Y., sponsored the resolution on the House floor.

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., listens to testimony from Minnesota lawmakers about fraud investigations in their home state during a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 7, 2026, in Washington, D.C.(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

JUDGE HALTS HOMELAND SECURITY PLAN TO END TEMPORARY PROTECTED STATUS FOR SOUTH SUDAN

The president has also spotlighted the killing of a Florida woman by a Haitian illegal immigrant earlier in April. The suspect, Rolbert Joachim, 40, reportedly received TPS status during the Biden administration.

“An Illegal Alien Criminal from Haiti, who was released into our Country by the WORST President in History, Crooked Joe Biden, and the Radical Democrats in Congress, just beat an innocent woman to death with a hammer at a gas station in Florida,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

“This one killing should be enough for these Radical Judges to STOP impeding my Administration’s Immigration Policies, and allow us to END THIS SCAM ONCE AND FOR ALL.”

Proponents of the measure argued that Haitians, who have been granted work authorization through the TPS program, have a positive economic impact on communities.

“I’ve heard from healthcare providers and business leaders across Nebraska who are concerned about the impact this would have on patient care and our economy,” Bacon, who is retiring, told Fox News Digital.

“I don’t see the goodness of deporting people who are here legally, who are working and who contribute to our country.”

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., came close to resigning over his anger with the Trump administration’s 28-point plan to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.(Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images)

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But the majority of House Republicans have stood by the Trump administration’s decision to revoke the TPS program for Haiti.

“Members of Congress have a sacred and exclusive duty to our American constituents, not to foreign nationals,” Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., who is running for governor, told Fox News Digital.

Latest effort to rein in Trump on Iran falls short in House vote

April 16, 2026 / 1:58 PM EDT / CBS News

Washington— The latest vote in the House to block President Trump from taking further military action against Iran narrowly failed Thursday as the war approaches its third month and the off-ramp remains uncertain.

The war powers resolution, introduced by Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, failed in a 213 to 214 vote, with one voting present. One Republican voted with nearly all Democrats, just shy of the support it needed for passage.

It’s the latest test of Congress’ support for the war that Mr. Trump has claimed for weeks would be over “soon.”

Democrats in both the House and Senate stressed a renewed urgency to reining in the president’s authority on Iran after he threatened last week to eradicate a “whole civilization” unless the regime agreed to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a critical channel for global oil trade. Since then, peace talks between the U.S. and Iran collapsed in Pakistan amid a fragile two-week ceasefire and the U.S. has placed a blockade on vessels using Iranian ports.

Last week’s episode, in which Mr. Trump threatened to attack Iran’s civilian infrastructure, prompted some Republicans to express unease, but had little effect on how they voted on the president’s war powers authority. A Democratic-led resolution in the Senate also failed in a Tuesday vote, with just one Republican supportive of it.

House Democrats tried to pass Meeks’ measure last week via unanimous consent during a brief pro forma session, but were blocked from even offering it as the presiding Republican quickly gaveled out of session.

Meeks’ resolution would have directed the president to remove U.S. armed forces from hostilities against Iran, unless explicitly authorized by Congress.

Three Democrats who voted against the last war powers resolution in early March — Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Greg Landsman of Ohio and Juan Vargas — backed Thursday’s effort to limit Mr. Trump on Iran.Rep. Jared Golden of Maine was the lone Democrat in opposition.

“The cost of inaction was far too high to tolerate. But now it’s time to be done,” Landsman said in a statement last month announcing his switch.

Cuellar said his change of heart was not a rebuke, but a “reaffirmation of Congress’ constitutional role.” But he also attributed his decision to a lack of clear exit strategy and answers from the administration about its objectives.

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky also voted in favor, while Republican Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio voted present. Massie and Davidson were the only two House Republicans to break with Mr. Trump in the March vote.

Meeks said after the vote he expected Davidson to remain supportive. He told reporters, “I expected him to hold, but I’ll have a conversation with him now.” Meeks added that he’s been trying to flip Golden “for a period of time” and those conversations will continue.

In a statement, Golden said the resolution could undermine negotiations with Iran to end the war.

“The purported aim of this and other war powers resolutions is to stop the hostilities. Thankfully, the United States and Iran are currently in a ceasefire, and we are negotiating over critical questions of national security and international order,” he said. “At this moment, a resolution like this would weaken our hand.”

Some Republicans have indicated they could shift their votes if the war continues beyond the statutory 60-day deadline, which falls on May 1. The 1973 War Powers Resolution — which Congress passed in response to the Vietnam War as a check on the president’s power to enter armed conflict without consent from the legislative branch — capped any unauthorized engagement at 60 days. But the law has widely been viewed as unconstitutional by presidents from both parties.

Meeks said Thursday that he planned to file another war powers resolution.

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/white-house-insists-iran-peace-talks-will-continue-despite-rising-tensions-over-strait-of-hormuz/

How Trump and Hegseth are complicating the GOP’s pope pushback

2026-04-16T17:52:17.964Z / CNN

Analysis by

Aaron Blake

Updated 1 hr 31 min ago
Updated Apr 16, 2026, 2:37 PM ET
PUBLISHED Apr 16, 2026, 1:52 PM ET

Donald Trump Pete Hegseth Religion

Pope Leo XIV arrives at Bamenda Airport in Bamenda, Cameroon, on Thursday.

Patrick Meinhardt/AFP/Getty Images

Republicans have largely settled on a two-sided response to explain away President Donald Trump’s potentially blasphemous post depicting himself as Jesus, as well as his feud with Pope Leo XIV over the Iran war.

Trump’s now-deleted post was ill-advised, they concede. But also, the pope should stay in his lane.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday trampled all over those points — and reinforced that the Trump administration is the side blurring the lines between theology and politics, practically demanding a more direct clash with the pope.

That clash appears to be arriving, with Pope Leo increasingly sounding an alarm that the Trump administration is misappropriating God’s will.

In an Iran war briefing Thursday, Hegseth likened the media covering the war skeptically to Pharisees who plotted against Jesus — searching for an excuse to persecute him even as Jesus performed a miracle.

“I sat there in church and I thought, our press are just like these Pharisees,” Hegseth said.

Of course, for the metaphor to work, Trump would have to be Jesus. And this is now the third time in two weeks the administration has painted such a picture. Trump himself posted and later deleted an image of himself as Jesus, healing a sick man, and earlier this month his spiritual adviser Paula White-Cain likened Trump to Jesus at a White House Easter event.

And despite Republicans like Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Vice President JD Vance arguing that the pope should stick to theology while politicians stick to politics, the Trump administration appears increasingly bent on casting the Iran conflict as a holy war blessed by God.

That makes for an awkward argument: While Pope Leo shouldn’t judge wars, Trump and Hegseth are allowed to judge God’s will.

Here’s a brief recap (with a tip of the cap to CNN’s Zachary B. Wolf, who has been documenting this for weeks):

• Hegseth has said the military strikes are being “carried out under the protection of divine providence.”
• He has quoted a Psalm which says, “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle.”
• At a Christian service at the Pentagon recently, Hegseth cited imprecatory psalms — basically, prayers seeking God’s retribution against foes — which included asking for God to “break the teeth of the ungodly” and for God’s “overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”
• At another service Wednesday, the Defense secretary recited a vengeful prayer he said was shared with him that appears to echo a notorious Samuel L. Jackson character’s monologue in “Pulp Fiction.”
• He on Thursday suggestively cited a pair of rescue missions of American airmen as “miracles, you might say.”
• Hegseth previously drew parallels between one of those rescues and Jesus’ resurrection.
• Trump has punctuated his own remarks by saying, “glory be to GOD.”
• And the president later wagered that God supports the war because “God wants to see people taken care of.”

The pope appears to have noticed this trend.

Mere minutes after Hegseth’s comments at the briefing Thursday morning, Pope Leo posted a pointed comment from a speech he had just delivered in Bamenda, Cameroon.

“Jesus told us blessed are the peacemakers,” the pope said. “But woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic or political gain — dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.”

Indeed, the pope hasn’t been content just to criticize the Iran war; he has previously warned against invoking God’s will to justify it.

In his Palm Sunday address in late March, he referred to Jesus as someone “whom no one can use to justify war.”

“God does not bless any conflict,” he added last week. “Anyone who is a disciple of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is never on the side of those who once wielded the sword and today drop bombs.”

Mourners attend the funeral of a civilian killed in US-Israeli strikes, in Tehran, Iran, on March 29.

Majid Saeedi/Getty Images

The Vatican said last week that the pope’s comments weren’t just about any one person. And indeed, there are plenty of examples of people waging war while claiming to do so on behalf of a god. It’s kind of a historical trend.

But it’s one that the Trump administration has clearly decided to resurrect in US foreign policy. And that has set up a war of wills between the Trump administration and the Catholic Church.

“The pope can say what he wants, and I want him to say what he wants, but I can disagree,” Trump told reporters at the White House Thursday.

The administration badly wants to pitch this war as a holy one — likely looking to garner more backing from a broadly skeptical American public, including lukewarm Trump supporters.

In fact, Hegseth has been speaking in such terms dating back to a book he published in 2020 called, “American Crusade.” In that book, Hegseth approvingly cited a pope having blessed the crusades.

“The pope, the Catholic Church, and European Christians chose to fight — and the crusades were born,” Hegseth wrote. “Pope Urban II urged the faithful to fight the Muslims with his famous battle cry on their lips: ‘Deus vult!,’ or ‘God wills it!’”

(You might remember the controversy over Hegseth’s “Deus vult” tattoo during his confirmation process last year.)

Hegseth concluded the paragraph by lamenting a papacy and a Catholic Church that bears little resemblance to the one from the days of Urban II.

“Europe was twice bailed out by America in world wars,” Hegseth said, “and the pope today leads interfaith services.”

These days, the pope seems quite anxious to at least partake in a rhetorical fight.

The administration’s decision to not just launch a thinly justified war, but to claim to be doing so with the blessings of God, appears to be spurring Leo to weigh in more forcefully. It’s one thing to go against God’s will, after all; it’s another to do so while claiming affirmatively that it is God’s will.

That means that Republicans who might have hoped this would be a one- or two-day story — and that they could put the pope in his place and move on — appear unlikely to get their wish.

And it might be time to come up with a new talking point.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

Judge faults Trump for ‘brazen’ bid to continue ballroom construction

2026-04-16 17:14:59 UTC / Reuters

By Jan Wolfe

April 16, 2026 5:14 PM UTC Updated 52 mins ago

节点运行失败

The construction of U.S.President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom continues in Washington, D.C., U.S., January 12, 2026. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

April 16 (Reuters) – A federal judge on Thursday again ruled that U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to build a White House ballroom ​without congressional approval was unlawful, faulting the Republican president for asserting that ‌national security requirements demanded the project move forward.

In a 10-page order, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon modified the wording of an injunction he issued on March 31 that had ordered construction to stop, to address ​Trump and federal agencies’ “brazen” and “disingenuous” interpretation of that earlier ruling.

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The National Trust ​for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit charged by Congress to help preserve historic ⁠buildings, sued the administration, asserting Trump exceeded his authority when he razed the historic White ​House East Wing last October and began construction of the planned 90,000-square-foot ballroom, which ​is costing more than $400 million and being funded by corporate donors.

Leon said he was clarifying the scope of his earlier order to stop “above-ground construction of the planned ballroom” but not “below-ground construction of national security facilities.”

The judge’s ​original March 31 order said much of the work needed to stop but that ​crews could continue “construction necessary to ensure the safety and security of the White House.”

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Trump and federal ‌agencies then ⁠asserted in court filings that the judge’s national security exception applied to the entire project because of elements of the ballroom like missile-resistant columns and drone-proof roofing.

The Trump administration also argued that the ballroom and a planned military bunker underneath it are a “single, ​coherent whole.”

Leon wrote in ​Thursday’s order that ⁠Trump and federal agencies “now seek to turn this exception on its head and unreasonably insist that the entire ballroom project may proceed.”

“I ​cannot possibly agree,” the judge wrote.

Trump on Thursday called Leon a “highly ​political” and “out ⁠of control” judge.

“The Ballroom is deeply important to our National Security, and no Judge can be allowed to stop this Historic and Militarily Imperative Project,” Trump said on Truth Social.

The ⁠National ​Trust for Historic Preservation had asked Leon to clarify ​his earlier injunction. After Trump appealed, an intermediate appeals court last week had also instructed Leon to revisit ​its scope, citing Trump’s arguments about national security.

Reporting by Jan Wolfe; editing by David Gaffen

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Harris stops in key presidential primary state after leaving door wide open to 2028 run

April 16, 2026 3:04pm EDT / Fox News

Harris told Rev Al Sharpton last week she’s ‘thinking about’ seeking the presidency again in 2028

By Paul Steinhauser Fox News

Former Vice President Kamala Harris is sparking more speculation about whether she will launch another presidential run in 2028 by making stops this week in a crucial presidential primary state.

Harris is in Columbia, South Carolina, on Thursday after making stops Wednesday in Greenville. For more than two decades, South Carolina has been one of the key early-voting states in the Democratic Party’s nominating calendar, and visits by potential presidential contenders generate buzz about their national ambitions.

The South Carolina swing by the former vice president comes less than a week after she dropped a tantalizing comment at the first major cattle call of Democratic presidential contenders.

HARRIS DROPS BIGGEST HINT YET ABOUT 2028

Former Vice President Kamala Harris is questioned by National Action Network founder the Rev. Al Sharpton, on April 10, 2026, in New York City.(AP)

“I might. I might. I’m thinking about it… I’ll keep you posted,” Harris said last Friday at the National Action Network’s 35th Anniversary Convention last Friday, when asked by the event founder, the Rev. Al Sharpton, if she would seek the presidency in 2028.

Harris, who replaced then-President Joe Biden as the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee but later lost the election to President Donald Trump, was greeted by the crowd with chants of “run again.”

The civil rights organization’s gathering gave Harris and eight other Democratic White House hopefuls an opportunity to speak directly to an influential group of Black leaders and activists who are key members of the Democratic Party’s base.

Black voters are also key players in South Carolina’s Democratic Party electorate. And Harris, the first female and Black vice president in the nation’s history, received a warm welcome when she arrived Wednesday at a South Carolina Democratic Party fundraiser and reception in Greenville.

HARRIS, NEWSOM, STIR 2028 SPECULATION AT MAJOR DEMOCRATIC PARTY MEETING

Former Vice President Kamala Harris speaks with patrons during a stop at Crave restaurant ahead of a South Carolina Democratic Party fundraiser on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, in Greenville.(Meg Kinnard/AP Photo)

Harris is holding a book tour event on Thursday for her memoir, “107 Days,” her look back at her abbreviated 2024 campaign.

Harris was mostly out of the headlines for a couple of months after the end the Biden administration. She began stepping back into the political spotlight last spring and summer, including headlining Democratic National Committee fundraisers.

Her decision last summer to pass on launching a 2026 gubernatorial campaign in her home state of California was seen as clearing the runway for a 2028 presidential bid. Her nationwide book tour has helped keep her visible while building email lists and boosting donor interest.

The former vice president’s current southern swing also includes fundraising appearances for the state Democratic Parties in Georgia and North Carolina, two crucial general election battlegrounds.

Harris narrowly lost both those states and the five other key battlegrounds to Trump in the 2024 election.

Pointing to Harris’ schedule, a veteran strategist in the former vice president’s political orbit recently told Fox News Digital, “Of course we are reading tea leaves.”

21 DEMOCRATS WHO MAY RUN FOR THE WHITE HOUSE IN 2028

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6393116414112

‘Dems are panicking’ over possibility of Kamala 2028

The strategist, who asked to remain anonymous to speak more freely, said, “No one knows what she is planning to do for 2028, but until she tells us herself, she is going to continue to travel, speak up about the issues she cares about the most.”

If she does run again in 2028, Harris would be considered one of the early frontrunners in what’s expected to be a crowded and competitive race for the Democratic nomination.

The Republican National Committee (RNC) is giving thumbs down to the White House hopefuls.

“Democrats are kicking off the 2028 primary by parading Kamala Harris and a roster of failed governors trying to outrun their own records,” RNC national press secretary Kiersten Pels told Fox News last week as she pointed to potential contenders who appeared at Sharpton’s convention.

Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in the swing state of New Hampshire. He covers the campaign trail from coast to coast.

Federal judge blocks above-ground White House ballroom construction

April 16, 2026 / 3:43 PM EDT / CBS News

By Jacob Rosen, Jacob Rosen Justice Department Reporter

Jake Rosen is a reporter covering the Department of Justice. He was previously a campaign digital reporter covering President Trump’s 2024 campaign and also served as an associate producer for “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”

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Jacob Rosen, Arden Farhi

Arden Farhi Washington bureau managing editor

Arden Farhi is the managing editor for CBS News’ Washington bureau. He has covered several presidential campaigns and the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations. His executive producer credits include “The Takeout with Major Garrett” and the CBS News original podcast “Agent of Betrayal,” and his work has been recognized with two Emmy Awards, a DuPont Award and a NY Festivals gold medal.

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Arden Farhi

A federal judge on Thursday said above-ground work on the White House East Wing must stop, but underground construction on a presidential bunker can continue.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, who in March temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s construction of a 90,000-square-foot ballroom to replace the White House’s East Wing, clarified his order Thursday after a federal appeals court ordered him to reconsider the national security implications of halting the construction.

In revising his order, Leon allowed “above-ground construction strictly necessary to cover, secure, and protect such facilities” underground and said construction on national security facilities that would be located underneath the ballroom can continue, “provided that any such construction will not lock in the above-ground size and scale of the ballroom.”

Waterproofing, water management, structural reinforcement and sealing off exposed construction areas are allowed, Leon said.

President Trump responded to the ruling on Truth Social: “This highly political Judge, and his illegal overreach, is out of control, and costing our Nation greatly. This is a mockery to our Court System! The Ballroom is deeply important to our National Security, and no Judge can be allowed to stop this Historic and Militarily Imperative Project.”

Leon’s order stopping construction was set to be enforced starting April 14, but on Saturday, a three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia extended the stay three days to allow for the administration to seek Supreme Court review.

The panel ordered Leon to clarify how his order impacts the Trump administration’s plans for presidential safety and security during the construction project.

Lawyers for the Justice Department argued in their appeal of Leon’s order that his ruling “would imperil the President and national security and indefinitely leave a large hole beside the Executive Residence.” They argued that the new East Wing plan “advances critical national-security objectives,” to protect the president and sensitive below-grade military facilities from “hostile attacks via drones, ballistic missiles, bullets, biohazards.”

Leon’s new order has been stayed for seven days to allow the government to appeal, and the Justice Department filed an appeal Thursday.

President Trump announced plans for a privately funded White House ballroom last summer and unexpectedly demolished the East Wing in October. The National Trust for Historical Preservation sued to block construction of a new East Wing late last year.

Trump put Vance in charge of Iran peace talks. He’s now quizzing people on his vice president’s performance

2026-04-16 3:56 PM ET / CNN

By Kristen Holmes, Kevin Liptak

US Vice President JD Vance arrives for a meeting with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad, Pakistan, for talks about Iran, on April 11.

Jacquelyn Martin/Pool/Reuters

With Vice President JD Vance, a one-time Iran war skeptic, now tasked with brokering a deal to end it, President Donald Trump has been monitoring his progress closely and inquiring with various friends and advisers how they’d rank his performance, according to three people familiar with the conversations.

The president has wondered aloud how they think Vance compares to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a potential rival for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination, these people said.

Never over the course of Trump’s second term has his second-in-command been more in the spotlight than in the past week, when a pair of foreign visits and a dust-up between the president and the leader of the world’s Catholics — of which Vance is one — placed him squarely at the center of Trump’s whirlwind.

For now, Trump seems to have full confidence in Vance’s negotiating abilities, with the vice president on standby to return to Pakistan to resume negotiations with Iran if a deal appears to be coming together, according to sources familiar with the talks.

But the president, who spoke by phone with Vance as many as a dozen times during the first round of talks in Islamabad last weekend, has made clear he’s watching carefully.

“If it doesn’t happen, I’m blaming JD Vance,” Trump said, somewhat in jest, of an Iran deal during an Easter lunch this month. “If it does happen, I’m taking full credit.”

As momentum builds for another round of talks with Iran, the White House voiced full support for Vance’s role.

“Vice President Vance continues to show why President Trump has tapped him to lead the Iran negotiations along with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. His ability to take on some of the biggest challenges head-on makes him an invaluable member of the Administration full of top performers,” White House communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement. Cheung traveled to Pakistan with Vance last weekend.

Navigating the fray poses a challenge for Vance. The staunch Trump loyalist has publicly defended a war he argued against in private, and backed Trump’s criticism of Pope Leo XIV, even amid outcry from some of his fellow Catholics.

Yet on both fronts, Vance has also offered positions that — while not at odds with his boss — allow for a degree of distinction.

Confronted by hecklers decrying the administration’s Middle East policy at a Turning Point USA event in Georgia this week, Vance deflected the criticism onto the Biden administration. But later in the event, he acknowledged the Iran war’s unpopularity.

“I recognize that young voters do not love the policy we have in the Middle East,” he told the half-empty arena. “I understand.”

In the lead-up to last weekend’s marathon talks with Iran in Pakistan, Vance downplayed his role in the negotiations as merely “answering a lot of phone calls.”

Yet when Trump convened a Cabinet meeting on March 26, it was Vance he turned to first for an update on the war, not his secretaries of state or defense. By then, the vice president had been in regular contact with Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, to work through proposals to bring the hostilities to an end.

First responders inspect a residential building hit in an earlier US-Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, on March 27.

Vahid Salemi/AP

At the time of the Cabinet meeting, Vance’s initial hesitation about launching a new foreign war was well known. Trump had even acknowledged it, shrugging it off as a minor difference in viewpoint.

“He was, I would say, philosophically a little bit different than me,” Trump explained in early March. “I think he was maybe less enthusiastic about going, but he was quite enthusiastic.”

Still, some Trump allies say they have been watching carefully for signs of Vance placing any daylight between himself and the president, on Iran or other issues that have caused consternation among some conservatives.

At the event in Georgia this week, Vance was pressed on Trump’s spat with the pope, which many Christians, Republicans and even vocal Trump supporters have pushed back on.

“I have a lot of respect for the pope. I like him. I admire him. I’ve gotten to know him a little bit,” Vance, soon to release a book about finding his Catholic faith, said. “It doesn’t bother me when he speaks on issues of the day, frankly, even when I disagree with how he’s applying particular principles.”

If it was a milder approach to the pontiff than Trump, who was clearly bothered by Leo’s criticism of the Iran war and his immigration policy, it also came with a warning: “I think it’s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology,” Vance said, drawing questions even from fellow Republicans.

“When he talks about matters of theology? Isn’t that his job?” a puzzled Senate Majority Leader John Thune asked a day after. He suggested the Trump administration drop its ongoing disagreement with the pontiff, which could offend Catholic Republicans and other GOP voters.

“I’d stay focused,” Thune said, “on economic issues – the pocketbook issues that I think most Americans care about and let the church be the church.”

Economic issues are exactly what Vance and the rest of the White House once thought they would be focused on this year, as midterm elections approach and voters express unease about the cost of living.

Vice President JD Vance speaks during a Turning Point USA event in Athens, Georgia, on April 14.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The Iran war, and subsequent rising gas prices, has only exacerbated many of the concerns. But the administration’s attempts to shift focus back toward domestic matters have been halting. Vance, who had not carried out many high-profile foreign policy assignments for the administration before now, found himself flying abroad twice in the last week on missions that yielded disappointing results.

After an overnight flight, a day of meetings and a campaign rally for embattled Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Vance returned to his lodgings in Budapest last Tuesday and worked late into the night trying to bring a two-week ceasefire agreement with Iran across the finish line.

“I was up very late last night talking about that,” he admitted last Wednesday, after arriving a few minutes behind schedule to address a room of university students.

While the ceasefire staved off Trump’s promise to wipe out Iran’s entire civilization, Vance’s subsequent 52-hour trip to Pakistan failed to produce a final agreement ending the war.

And as he was flying home, it became clear his late foray into Hungary’s election did not yield the result he and Trump were hoping for.

Vance framed Orban’s decisive loss as expected and said the trip was still worthwhile.

“We didn’t go because we expected Viktor Orban to cruise to an election victory,” Vance said during an interview on Fox News. “We went because it was the right thing to do to stand behind a person who had stood by us for a very long time.”

Still, the decision to insert himself so directly into a foreign campaign that, by his own admission, was headed toward defeat will do little to quiet questions about the ability of Vance — and by extension, Trump — to sway voters, in Hungary or the United States.

Now at record-low approval ratings, both men see ending the Iran war as an imperative to boosting Republicans’ flagging fortunes in the midterm elections, according to people familiar.

Speaking in Georgia, Vance didn’t detail his own misgivings about the war or his long-held opposition to starting foreign conflicts. Instead, he encouraged young disillusioned Trump supporters to focus on other areas of the president’s record.

“I’m not saying you to have to agree with me on every issue,” he said.

“What I am saying is: Don’t get disengaged because you disagree with the administration on one topic. Get more involved, make your voice heard even more. That is how we ultimately take the country back.”

US eyes Iran fast boats with ‘kill’ tactics tested in Venezuela drug-boat strikes

2026-04-16T14:26:08-04:00 / Fox News

Trump compared the approach to the ‘quick and brutal’ campaign against drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean

By Morgan Phillips Fox News

Published April 16, 2026 2:26pm EDT

Hegseth tells Iran to ‘choose wisely’ on peace talks

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth warned Iranian leaders to “choose wisely” on whether to accept a peace deal with the U.S. on Thursday.

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The U.S. is preparing to take on Iran’s fast-attack boats using a playbook it already has tested in another theater — lethal strikes on small vessels tied to drug trafficking networks in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.

Since September 2025, U.S. forces have conducted dozens of deadly strikes on suspected drug-trafficking vessels, part of a broader military campaign targeting cartel-linked networks. The U.S. campaign against drug-trafficking boats offers a glimpse of how American forces handle small, fast-moving targets at sea.

Officials now suggest similar tactics could be used against Iranian vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.

President Donald Trump made that link explicit in a Truth Social post Monday, warning that any Iranian boats approaching the blockade would be “immediately ELIMINATED, using the same system of kill that we use against the drug dealers on boats at Sea … It is quick and brutal.”

EX-OBAMA ADVISOR SAYS IRAN COULD TARGET GULF OIL FACILITIES AS TRUMP BLOCKADE SQUEEZES REGIME

Since the campaign began, U.S. Southern Command has carried out dozens of strikes on vessels, killing more than 160 people and destroying dozens of boats. Those operations rely on surveillance, rapid targeting and precision strikes, capabilities that could also be used in the Gulf.

But in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, U.S. forces are targeting nonstate actors with limited ability to respond. In the Strait of Hormuz, they would be confronting Iran’s military — armed, organized, and operating in one of the most strategically sensitive waterways in the world.

Applying that approach in the Persian Gulf, against a state-backed military force, carries far higher risks.

The Trump administration’s blockade of Iranian ports, which began Monday, has pushed U.S. forces into close proximity with the one part of Iran’s navy that has largely survived weeks of strikes: its fast-attack boat fleet.

U.S. and Israeli operations have effectively gutted Iran’s conventional navy, with more than 155 vessels sunk during the conflict, according to U.S. assessments.

Applying that approach in the Persian Gulf, against a state-backed military force, carries far higher risks.(Yalda Moaiery/AFP via Getty Images)

Still, what’s left of Iran’s naval threat looks very different from what the U.S. has already destroyed.

Large surface ships — frigates, corvettes and other major vessels — have taken the brunt of the strikes. But those ships were never the centerpiece of Iran’s strategy in the Gulf.

The focus has long been on smaller, faster platforms.

“We should think in the thousands,” said Farzin Nadimi, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “If you include very small boats up to more capable fast-attack craft, the total could reach 3,000 to 4,000 vessels.”

HEGSETH WARNS IRANIAN LEADERS TO ‘CHOOSE WISELY’ ON DEAL WITH US: ‘WE ARE LOCKED AND LOADED’

Of those, he said, roughly 800 vessels to 900 vessels are capable of carrying anti-ship missiles, making them the most dangerous segment of the fleet.

“They are dispersed along the coastline and islands, and protected in hardened tunnel complexes,” Nadimi said.

Some boats are stored in underground facilities and launched directly into the water. Others are kept on trailers in dry tunnels — or moved inland entirely.

“Some of these boats have been dispersed into civilian areas, in buildings that are large enough to hide them,” he said.

Mobility, concealment and hardened infrastructure make the fleet far harder to eliminate than larger, fixed naval assets.

The environment only makes the problem harder.

Iran also has developed tactics to complicate targeting, including dispersal, deception and the potential use of drones and coordinated swarm attacks.

Naval units from Iran and Russia conduct a rescue simulation of a hijacked vessel during joint naval drills at the Port of Bandar Abbas near the Strait of Hormuz in Hormozgan, Iran, Feb. 19, 2026.(Iranian Army/Anadolu/Getty Images)

The Strait of Hormuz narrows to roughly 20 miles at its tightest point, forcing ships into predictable lanes. Tankers, cargo vessels, and military ships all move through the same space, often with little time to determine whether an approaching boat is a threat.

Iran’s fast boats are designed for exactly that kind of environment.

They can blend into civilian traffic, disperse along the coastline, and regroup quickly — turning what looks like routine maritime activity into a potential confrontation.

So far, Iran appears to be holding back.

“They are now in a very defensive mode … trying to preserve what they have and keep them away from U.S. surveillance,” Nadimi said.

That includes dispersing vessels, limiting movements, and avoiding detection by U.S. drones and other intelligence assets. But as peace negotiations drag on, that posture may not last.

When Iranian fast boats move toward U.S. or commercial vessels, the encounter can unfold quickly.

U.S. forces rely heavily on surveillance — tracking movements from the coastline and identifying potential threats before they reach open water.

That’s where the comparison to drug-boat operations begins to make sense.

U.S. forces are likely monitoring Iran’s coastline closely, allowing them to detect and potentially strike fast boats as they mobilize.

In some cases, that could mean hitting boats before they ever reach the shipping lanes.

“These boats are vulnerable to air power, but they are also armed and can use tactics to limit that vulnerability,” said Nadimi.

US military drone strike to drug-carrying submersible in the Caribbean on Thursday.(Credit: President Donald Trump via Truth Social)

Unlike drug-trafficking vessels, Iranian fast boats are part of a state-backed military force and may carry rockets, anti-ship missiles, or defensive systems such as shoulder-fired anti-aircraft weapons.

“We can assume many of these boats carry systems like MANPADS,” Nadimi said. MANPADS — short for man-portable air defense systems — are shoulder-fired missiles capable of targeting aircraft.

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The Strait of Hormuz remains one of the world’s most critical shipping routes, and even limited disruption can ripple through global energy markets.

With Iran’s fast-boat fleet still largely intact and U.S. forces now enforcing a blockade, the next phase of the conflict may hinge on fast-moving encounters at sea.

Iran has not publicly responded to Trump’s comments about targeting fast boats using tactics used in counter-narcotics operations, and a ceasefire remains in effect while the U.S. and Iran attempt to negotiate a longer-term peace deal.