Politics

By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON, June 16 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he was willing to send his interim deal to end the war with Iran for review by the U.S. Congress, as lawmakers, including many of his fellow Republicans,  said they were largely in the dark about the pact.

The U.S.-Iran agreement, announced on Sunday, has spurred optimism that a conflict that has killed thousands and disrupted the global economy will soon end. 

According to officials from both countries, the memorandum of understanding would extend a tenuous ceasefire announced in April by another 60 days and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a major shipping route effectively blocked since the U.S. and Israel began attacking Iran on February 28.

But the details remain unclear and the text of the pact has not been released or sent to Congress.

Trump also insisted on Tuesday that Iran would abandon its nuclear weapons program. Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

Democrats have questioned Trump’s latest promise of a peace deal. 

“We’ve been told dozens of times that the war is over and dozens of times we’ve been disappointed,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said as he opened the Senate session on Tuesday.

“It’s been two days since Trump claimed he had reached an ‘understanding’ with Iran and he still hasn’t released any details… about what it actually is,” Schumer said.

Schumer called on the Trump administration to hold a classified briefing for Congress’ “Gang of Eight,” a group of intelligence committee and congressional leaders typically briefed on major national security developments.

Schumer also said officials should brief the entire Congress, and inform the American people.

No plans for any such events have been released.

‘I LIKE THE IDEA’

Trump told reporters in France that he had not thought about sending the memorandum of understanding with Iran to Congress for review but that he would do it. “I like the idea,” he said during his meeting with ​Mohamed ⁠bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the United Arab Emirates, on the sidelines of the G7. 

Trump said he wanted to wait until after a formal signing ceremony expected on Friday.

Trump could be legally obligated to involve Congress. Under the Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act, a 2015 U.S. law passed as Democratic President Barack Obama’s administration finalized an Iran nuclear agreement, any such agreement must be submitted to Congress for review before sanctions can be eased.

That review leaves open the possibility that lawmakers could try to block parts of the deal. 

Some Republican lawmakers have been willing to break with the president, voting with Democrats, unsuccessfully, to force Trump to seek congressional approval for the Iran war.  Under the U.S. Constitution, Congress, not the president, has the power to declare war.

But most Republicans, who hold slim majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives, have shown little appetite during Trump’s second term for challenging his foreign policy.

Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the Senate’s Republican leader, told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday that party members were pressing Trump to provide the text of the MOU.

“We’re trying to get it,” he said, acknowledging that it is unusual for an administration not to share information about such a major development with its own party.

“Since I’ve been in this job, we haven’t had this issue,” Thune said.

Other Republicans joined Democrats in expressing frustration at the lack of information.

“If it’s a secret deal, then how can I take it seriously?” Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina told reporters on Monday evening.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Additional reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Don Durfee and Sanjeev Miglani)

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NEW YORK (AP) — Whenever historian Geoffrey Ward visits the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum to do research, he finds himself caught up in the spirit of FDR himself, the sense of landed contentment and cheerful disarray that helped define his public image.

“It feels like you’re stepping back into his world,” Ward said of the grounds in Hyde Park, New York, that once were home to the Roosevelt family. “The library and home collections reflect all his many interests — stamps, coins, birds he shot and had stuffed as a boy, model ships, children’s books, books about naval history, the pony-drawn sleigh he rode in as a child, and on and on.”

Since FDR helped launch the modern system of presidential sites in the late 1930s, a network of museums and research facilities has grown nationwide, overseen in part by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) but otherwise as varied as the men they honor. They are set everywhere from the scenic Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum in California’s Simi Valley to the small-town setting of the Herbert Hoover Library and Museum in West Branch, Iowa, to the vast Obama Presidential Center that opens to the public on June 19, Juneteenth, in Chicago.

Historian Douglas Brinkley, who says he has visited all of the post-FDR libraries, calls them vital hubs for lectures, research, school tours and tourists.

“Each of the libraries have their own aura,” Brinkley says. “Roosevelt came up with a perfect idea by gifting his home in Hyde Park to the people of America, instead of having his papers stored in a warehouse in Virginia or Maryland. He started a tradition of having them go where the president lived.”

Libraries carry with them a given president’s personality and legacy. Brinkley and others note that while the library archives are managed by NARA, the museum is funded by private donors who are likely to prefer a given president’s more favorable moments be emphasized or less favorable ones softened.

On the Hoover website, a page dedicated to the Great Depression emphasizes that some of the policies enacted by Roosevelt, who easily defeated Hoover for reelection, were first proposed by Hoover. The Richard Nixon library was for years at the heart of a battle between museum administrators and the former president and his supporters over everything from control of his archives to how much space should be dedicated to the Watergate scandal that helped lead to Nixon’s resignation.

Max Boot, author of a 2024 biography of Reagan, contrasted his access to the Reagan archives with the museum itself. The late president’s records were “administered by federal employees in an entirely professional and apolitical fashion. There is no attempt to hide anything.” The museum “naturally focuses on Reagan’s achievements and shortchanges his failures.”

“It’s designed to present a positive portrait. Thus, volumes critical of Reagan are not sold in the library bookstore,” Boot said.

Historian Ted Widmer, a former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton, said, “While it’s inevitable that the presidential libraries will present the highlights of a presidency, there has been some progress toward transparency in recent years.”

He praised the Lyndon Johnson library, located in Austin, Texas, for its willingness to take on LBJ’s widely criticized handling of the Vietnam War. In 2023, the library helped revive interest in one of Johnson’s most notorious campaigns — the 1948 Senate campaign now widely believed to have been stolen — by posting recordings on its website of interviews by Associated Press reporter James W. Mangan with a former Texas election judge who acknowledged certifying false votes that helped LBJ win.

“It is hard to know if future libraries will continue that trend, in an era in which history is increasingly politicized and polarized,” Widmer says. “But it’s healthy for our democracy to encourage the study of history as it really happened — not a sanitized version.”

Obama officials have faced criticism for the center’s size and aesthetic — “The building has an ominous presence, its mostly windowless heft recalling a menacing sci-fi headquarters,” wrote The Guardian’s Oliver Wainwright — and for their decision not to have a NARA facility on site. A substantial amount of the former president’s records are digital, a trend Brinkley expects to continue with future libraries.

As many as 1 million people are expected to visit the center’s 20-acre campus each year, with highlights including a public library branch, an NBA-grade basketball court, a fruit and vegetable garden and a playground. Former President Barack Obama tested out one of the high metal slides in May.

“That was fantastic,” he said after zipping down, according to a video posted to the Obama Foundation’s social media. “I was a little tall for it.”

Obama also decided many of the center’s details and features, from textured stone on the museum’s 225-foot tower to a pair of high-backed reading chairs inside the library. Among his favorite items, though, are charcoal grills that will be available for public use. He floated the idea to the public at a 2017 community meeting, and was met with warm laughs from the hometown crowd.

“We don’t have any folks who grill here?” Obama said at the time. “I thought this was the South Side of Chicago.”

___

Associated Press writer Sophia Tareen in Chicago contributed to this report.

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By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON, June 16 (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate on Tuesday narrowly blocked the latest Democratic-led effort to end the Iran war until it is authorized by Congress, the ninth by Democrats since Israel and the United States began their air attacks on Iran in February.

The Senate voted by 48-47 to block the resolution under the war powers law, which followed a framework agreement announced this week by the White House and Tehran for a further ceasefire and talks to end the conflict.

The vote was largely along party lines, as Republicans Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Rand Paul of Kentucky voted with most Democrats in favor, and Democratic Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania voted no along with most Republicans.

Five senators – Republicans Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Josh Hawley of Missouri, Democrats Michael Bennet of Colorado and Cory Booker of New Jersey and independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont – did not vote.

The vote came as lawmakers waited for President Donald Trump’s administration to provide them with details about a memorandum of understanding announced by Trump on Sunday to end the war.

Democrats and some of Trump’s fellow Republicans have called on the administration to provide them specifics about the plan, with Democrats especially saying they feel they have been left in the dark.

Trump’s Republicans hold slim majorities in both the Senate and House of Representatives. The House also recently backed a resolution that would end the Iran war.

The resolution blocked in the Senate procedural vote on Tuesday was sponsored by Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia.

In a sign of lawmakers’ frustration with the continuing conflict, the Senate on May 19 voted to advance the eighth war powers resolution introduced by Democrats, as the same four Republicans voted with every Democrat except Fetterman in favor of moving ahead.

That measure, led by Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, faces another procedural vote before coming up for a vote on passage in the Senate. Congressional aides said its sponsors were still working on gathering support, while waiting for more information about peace negotiations.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Gov. Mike DeWine on Tuesday used his bully pulpit to call for an end to the death penalty in Ohio.

The 79-year-old Republican cited his expertise on the issue as a former county prosecutor, member of both chambers of Congress and Ohio attorney general, as well as his seven years as governor.

But DeWine’s support for a policy change is far from assured to make waves, even in a state controlled by his own party. That is because DeWine is more moderate than many younger Republicans in the state, whose political aspirations rely on endorsements from President Donald Trump, a staunch death penalty supporter.

Here’s a closer look at DeWine and his place in Ohio’s political landscape:

DeWine was first elected to public office in 1976, when he became prosecuting attorney in Greene County, where he grew up. He still lives in the historic home there where he and his wife, who had eight children, hosted a summer ice cream social each year to encourage and celebrate GOP candidates and officeholders. The event ended its 50-year run just last weekend.

When DeWine was elected to the state Senate in 1980, Ohio had no death penalty law. The old one had been declared unconstitutional, and DeWine was instrumental in writing the new one, which cleared both legislative chambers with overwhelming bipartisan majorities. It has been in effect now since 1981.

He said Tuesday that he always believed the moral justification for the death penalty was its potential to deter violent crime.

During his four terms in the U.S. House, DeWine supported federal legislation signed by President Ronald Reagan that expanded the number of crimes eligible for the death penalty. As a U.S. senator, he backed a bill signed by President Bill Clinton that attempted to speed up the review of capital cases in federal courts.

In between those positions, DeWine was lieutenant governor of Ohio under storied Republican Gov. James Rhodes.

He took a brief break from politics after losing a Senate reelection bid to Democrat Sherrod Brown in 2006, before being elected Ohio attorney general in 2010. In that role, he said Tuesday, he “vigorously” carried out the state’s death penalty law.

Since he became governor in 2019, problems obtaining lethal injection drugs have led to an unofficial moratorium on executions in the state, which last conducted one in 2018.

DeWine may be the titular head of the Ohio Republican Party, but that doesn’t mean his party always listens to him. Particularly in the Trump era, he has presided over a party rife with internal divisions.

Clashes became particularly fierce during the COVID-19 pandemic, when DeWine and then-state Health Director Amy Acton — now the Democratic nominee for governor — presided over one of the most rigorous virus responses in the country in early 2020. Within months, a faction of Republicans had mutinied against DeWine’s mandates, particularly over business closures, threatening to pass a bill limiting his powers or even to impeach him.

In 2023, after DeWine struck down a ban on gender-affirming care and transgender athletes participating in girls’ sports, the Republican-dominated state Legislature easily overrode his veto.

The divisions have also been seen in this year’s critical elections.

DeWine had tried to position popular former Ohio State Buckeyes football coach Jim Tressel as a potential successor, appointing the moderate Republican as lieutenant governor last year. But the state GOP rushed to back Trump-endorsed biotech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy in the race in May 2025, before Tressel had even made up his mind whether to run. DeWine endorsed Ramaswamy in January.

DeWine said Tuesday that he had not shared his decision to call for an end to the death penalty with Ramaswamy, now the GOP gubernatorial nominee. The recent effort by the Trump administration to take on Medicaid fraud has found DeWine defending his administration’s work on the issue, even as Ramaswamy, Ohio-born Vice President JD Vance and GOP lawmakers take aim at Ohio’s existing fraud-fighting efforts.

Among proponents of DeWine’s push to end the death penalty in Ohio were a host of fellow Republicans, including some staunch conservatives.

“For many years, I was a proponent of the death penalty,” former congresswoman and current state Rep. Jean Schmidt said in a statement. “My views changed because of the risks of executing an innocent person, the exorbitant costs, and my belief in the sanctity of life. The death penalty is no longer a policy worth preserving.”

Former Ohio Auditor and Attorney General Jim Petro cited wrongful convictions among the flaws that make the death penalty no longer tenable.

Former Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, the great-grandson of President William Howard Taft and grandson of “Mr. Republican” Sen. Robert A. Taft Sr., also sided with DeWine.

DeWine “has been thoughtful and given this issue the careful consideration it needs,” Taft said.

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By Patricia Zengerle and Erin Banco

WASHINGTON, June 17 (Reuters) – Republicans are pushing for swift Senate confirmation of President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead U.S. intelligence, Jay Clayton, but Democrats said they would wait until his nomination hearing on Wednesday before deciding how to proceed. 

Trump nominated Clayton, the top U.S. attorney for Manhattan, to be Director of National Intelligence (DNI) less than a week ago, amid a political firestorm over the loyalist he had picked to fill the role temporarily.

That close ally, Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte, has no national security experience. Even some Republicans expressed concerns that he could “weaponize” top-secret intelligence to target Trump’s perceived political foes.

Trump’s decision to pick Clayton to oversee the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies was greeted with relief. Clayton lacks extensive national security experience but is broadly respected by Democrats and Republicans.

Democrats said on Tuesday that they intended to question Clayton closely, but held off on passing judgment before his Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.

“I favor a full vetting… a thorough examination of all of the issues,” Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, a senior Democratic member of the panel, told reporters.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Democrats would decide how to proceed only after the hearing. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota and other Republicans want Democrats to agree to waive Senate rules to allow a vote on Clayton as soon as this week.

Thune told a news conference on Tuesday that Clayton is “eminently qualified” and that his position as U.S. attorney meant that he deals with intelligence matters.

APPOINTMENT TIED TO SURVEILLANCE LAW

His quick confirmation could also help pave the way for the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows law enforcement to collect foreign intelligence that can include information about Americans without judicial authorization.

Democrats had said they would withhold the votes to renew Section 702 while Pulte was acting DNI.

“It needs to be fixed quickly, and I hope that the Democrats will work with us in order to make that happen,” Thune said.

Clayton currently serves as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, one of the most coveted positions for prosecutors in the Justice Department. His office is overseeing the case against former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was seized in a lightning raid on January 3.

Clayton could face questions about Maduro at the hearing, as well as his decision to falsely claim on television shortly before his nomination that there may have been fraud in the counting of votes in the Los Angeles mayoral race.

Vote counts are often delayed in California because mail-in ballots can be postmarked by Election Day but received up to seven days later.

Trump has recently repeated similar claims about the election and recycled unproven claims that the 2020 presidential race was stolen from him, which Democrats warn could be a sign he will seek to interfere in future elections.

It is still unclear if Pulte, the federal housing regulator, will spend any time as interim director after Tulsi Gabbard’s last day, June 19. Gabbard, a former Democrat without deep intelligence experience, was accused by Democrats of using her post to advance Trump’s drive to retaliate against his perceived enemies and push debunked election fraud claims.

Clayton also is likely to be closely questioned about plans to sharply cut staffing of the DNI’s office, or even eliminate it completely.

Trump had said that he wanted Pulte to make cuts during his time as interim director.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Erin Banco; Additional reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Don Durfee and Sanjeev Miglani)

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ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Republicans are waging their latest fight over party identity in runoffs Tuesday that decide the nominees to face U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff and defend the governor’s office against former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms.

President Donald Trump is at the center of each contest.

In the Senate race, the president made a late endorsement of Rep. Mike Collins, a second-term congressman who calls himself a “MAGA warrior,” over Derek Dooley, a first-time candidate and former football coach who has the backing of outgoing Gov. Brian Kemp.

Trump picked his candidate for governor 10 months ago, endorsing Burt Jones, the Georgia lieutenant governor who was part of Trump’s attempt to overturn his 2020 defeat to former President Joe Biden. In that race, it was Kemp who made a late-hour endorsement, announcing his support for Jones on Sunday.

The power of Trump’s endorsement — and Kemp’s — is being tested by billionaire Rick Jackson, whose campaign has spent more than $100 million, mostly out of his own pocket, to win the nomination.

Georgia is key to the national fight for control of Capitol Hill. Ossoff, first elected in the 2020 cycle, is the only Democratic senator running in a state Trump won in 2024; Democrats desperately need to keep his seat if they hope to notch a net gain of four seats in order to have a majority.

Republicans’ choice hinges on a familiar debate over electability, with Dooley, 58, insisting his newcomer status is a benefit.

“We have got to get the best candidate to beat Jon Ossoff,” Dooley said at a campaign stop Monday. “The Republican Party has not won a Senate race in 10 years. … We have to learn some lessons from that.”

Before becoming a college and NFL coach, Dooley hailed from a storied family in Georgia sports lore. His father was legendary University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley.

The younger Dooley also has criticized Collins for a House ethics complaint accusing the congressman of abusing taxpayer money by paying the girlfriend of a former top aide for a congressional job she allegedly did not perform. An initial inquiry yielded a referral of the matter to the House ethics committee.

Collins, the son of a congressman, celebrated his endorsement from Trump. But he argues that his record actually makes for the best contrast with Ossoff, especially on immigration, and can attract a broader coalition.

“We’ve got a great organization with the right voting record and the right message,” he said.

Collins, 58, sponsored the 2025 Laken Riley Act, which requires immigrants accused of certain crimes to be held without bond. The law is named for a Georgia nursing student killed in 2021 by a man who had entered the U.S. illegally. Ossoff voted against the measure before flipping to back it after Trump returned to the White House.

Collins also emphasizes his ownership of a trucking company, saying it’s exposed him to the struggles workers and business owners endure. “We must protect Americans first, protect our people, put them first, get the federal government off the backs of hardworking men and women out there,” he said.

Whoever wins the nomination will face an immediate campaign finance gap and depend heavily on national GOP resources. By the end of May, neither GOP hopeful had reached $5 million in fundraising and both had less than $2 million on hand. Through late April, the last time Ossoff had to file before his uncontested primary, the senator had raised $60.4 million and had $32.5 million on hand.

Voters Jenny Beth Martin and Debbie Dooley — who has no relation to Derek Dooley — were split over which Republican has the best chance of defeating Ossoff.

Martin, who supported Collins, says energizing the conservative base is necessary to protect Republican majorities that aren’t populated with Republican “anti-Trumpers” or “liberals like Jon Ossoff.”

But Debbie Dooley, who voted for Derek Dooley, said Collins has too much baggage and is too closely tied to the far-right to win.

“He will drag down the whole Republican ticket in Georgia,” she predicted. “This is about actually winning. It’s not about just following Donald Trump.”

The president’s preferred primary candidates have a strong record so far in 2026. But none have faced a self-funded rival with Jackson’s spending power.

Jackson, a 71-year-old business owner, amassed a fortune from his company that provides contract healthcare personnel, and he’s used it to blanket television and online platforms with ads. Appealing to hardcore Trump supporters, he’s pledged that immigrants in Georgia illegally will be “deported or departed.” He promises a slew of tax cuts. And previewing a potential general election argument, he’s played up his biography as a product of the state foster care system and featured his grandchildren advising him on how to make friendlier ads.

Jones, 47, comes from a wealthy family but is running a more modest campaign. Framing himself as a “proven leader,” Jones proposes eliminating Georgia’s state income tax — without detailing how he’d make up the revenue. And he trumpets his presidential seal of approval and time as a University of Georgia football player in the 1990s. As lieutenant governor, Jones pushed legislation that ultimately did not pass but would have disqualified Jackson’s company from receiving taxpayer-funded contracts.

Trump did not travel to Georgia to campaign with Jones but he’s given the lieutenant governor a fresh round of support on social media and called in to a telephone rally during the early voting period.

“Burt was strongly committed to my Campaign in 2016, 2020, and 2024, and worked tirelessly to help us WIN. He has been with us from the very beginning,” Trump posted on Truth Social last week.

Georgia’s secretary of state race is open for the first time since Trump’s attempts to subvert the 2020 election, famously pressuring outgoing Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,800 votes” to overtake Biden. Raffensberger refused.

For his potential successor, Republicans are left to choose between an outright election denier, Vernon Jones, and a state lawmaker, Tim Fleming, who avoids explicitly disputing the president’s 2020 election lies.

Jones, a perennial candidate who was once a Democrat, embraced Trump’s “stop the steal” movement and says he stands “with those who believe there was election fraud.” Fleming, who once served as deputy secretary of state, says there were “irregularities” in 2020, a word choice that has become code for Republicans who want neither to ratify nor call out Trump’s errant claims.

Democrats will choose between Dana Barrett, a Fulton County commissioner, and Penny Brown Reynolds, a former state judge in Fulton County who also served in the Biden administration as deputy assistant secretary for civil rights for the Department of Agriculture.

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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s attorney for the 2020 campaign in Wisconsin and two former aides all pleaded not guilty Tuesday to felony forgery charges for their roles in a fake elector scheme designed to overturn Trump’s loss in the swing state.

Jim Troupis, a former judge who was Trump’s Wisconsin campaign attorney, Mike Roman, Trump’s director of Election Day operations in 2020, and Ken Chesebro, a former Trump legal adviser, all entered the pleas in Dane County Circuit Court.

Troupis, who lives in the Madison area, appeared in person. Roman and Chesebro appeared via Zoom.

The Wisconsin fake electors case is moving forward even as others in the battleground states of Michigan and Georgia have faltered. A special prosecutor last year dropped a federal case alleging Trump conspired to overturn the 2020 election. Another case in Nevada is still alive.

The fake elector scheme, under which Republican electors in battleground states submitted documentation to Congress attesting that Trump had won their states even though he lost to Joe Biden, originated in Wisconsin.

Troupis, Chesebro and Roman argue that they committed no crime and were just trying to keep their options alive in case a court ruled that Trump had actually won the state.

But prosecutors allege that the three defendants defrauded the 10 Wisconsin Republican electors who cast their ballots for Trump in 2020.

Prosecutors contend that Troupis, Chesebro and Roman lied to the electors about how the certificate they signed would be used as part of a plan to submit paperwork to then-Vice President Mike Pence, falsely claiming that Trump had won the battleground state that year.

A majority of the electors told investigators that they did not believe their signatures on the elector certificate would be submitted to Congress without a court ruling, the complaint said. Also, a majority said they did not consent to having their signatures presented as if Trump had won without such a court ruling, the complaint said.

The arraignment on Tuesday came two years and two weeks after the first charges were brought against the three by Wisconsin Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul. Troupis, Chesebro and Roman face 11 felony forgery charges which are each punishable by up to six years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Troupis and Roman both filed motions seeking to relocate the trial from Dane County, which includes Madison, to neighboring Jefferson County, saying negative publicity had tainted the potential jury pool.

Trump carried Jefferson County by 15 percentage points in 2020. He lost Dane County by nearly 53 points.

“This case is headed to trial,” Troupis attorney Joe Bugni wrote in Troupis’ motion. “No question. Neither side is going to blink. And when we get to trial, Troupis has the right to a fair and impartial jury.”

Troupis and Roman also argued that one of the 11 felony counts against them should be dropped because Trump issued a pardon for any federal crimes related to their work on the fake elector scheme. They argued that the state can’t prosecute them over the casting of electoral votes, which is a federal process, and therefore Trump’s pardon applies.

Trump also pardoned Chesebro.

The judge said Tuesday he would set a schedule to hear arguments on those motions.

The state charges against the Trump attorneys and aide are the only ones in Wisconsin. None of the electors have been charged. The 10 Wisconsin electors, Chesebro and Troupis all settled a lawsuit that was brought against them by Democrats seeking damages.

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By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON, June 16 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s administration said on Tuesday it was moving some oversight of special education and civil rights enforcement away from the U.S. Education Department as it further dismantled the agency.

Here are some details:

• The Education Department said the Justice Department will handle civil rights enforcement and student privacy protection and the Department of Health and Human Services will handle special education initiatives for students with disabilities.

• Late last year, the Education ​Department announced new partnerships with other federal ​departments to share or transfer the functions it performed.

• Trump promised during his 2024 election campaign to dismantle the Education Department, saying he aimed to shrink the federal government’s role in education in favor of more control ​by the ⁠states.

• The Trump administration has gutted staffing at the agency.

• The Education Department’s statement on Tuesday said its latest actions aim to “reduce federal bureaucracy.”

• Trump’s dismantling of the Education Department has been criticized by education advocates while civil rights advocates have been critical of his crackdown on diversity initiatives in the government and private sector.

• Trump has used the Education Department and other federal agencies to launch probes against universities and schools over a range of issues like pro-Palestinian protests against Israel’s assault on Gaza, diversity practices, climate initiatives and transgender policies.

• Civil rights advocates have also condemned Trump’s reshaping of cultural and historical institutions, saying his actions and executive orders are reversing decades of social progress and undermining the acknowledgment of critical phases of American ​history.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Nia Williams)

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WASHINGTON, June 16 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump has invoked the Defense Production Act to address constraints in weapons supply and development for munitions production and supply chains, according to a memo made public on Tuesday.

The move comes amid growing concern in Washington about the capacity of U.S. weapons manufacturers to meet demand.

Solid rocket motors, igniters and guidance systems are among the most critical and capacity-constrained sub-systems needed for weapons production, both for legacy systems and future modernization programs.

“I hereby find that conditions exist which may pose a direct threat to the national defense or its preparedness programs,” Trump said in a June 11 memorandum to the Pentagon chief.

He cited “limited production capacity, fragile supply chains, long-lead dependencies, and related production bottlenecks.”

The memo to the defense secretary delegates authority to pursue voluntary agreements with private industry aimed at shoring up the defense industrial base.

The Defense Production Act allows the president or those granted authority to consult with representatives of industry, business, and other interests to establish voluntary agreements to help provide for the national defense, but only when conditions exist that may pose a direct threat.

(Reporting by Ryan Patrick Jones, Mike Stone and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Rod Nickel)

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By Jason Lange

WASHINGTON, June 16 (Reuters) – As the U.S. approaches its 250th birthday next month, two out of five Americans do not believe it will endure another 250 years beyond that, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that highlighted deep divisions over how the nation views itself.

The four-day poll, which concluded on Monday, comes amid the polarizing pageantry that President Donald Trump has brought to celebrations for July 4, which will mark 250 years since the people who became known as the founding fathers of the U.S. declared their independence from Britain.

Trump has put himself at the center of many of the events to mark the anniversary, including staging a White House cage match on his birthday on Sunday. On Monday he said he would be the main attraction at a July 4 celebration in Washington that will also serve as a political rally for the Republican as his party looks to keep control of Congress in November’s midterm elections.

Trump has framed his presidency as a bid to save America from being destroyed by Democrats. Democratic leaders contend it is Trump who is the danger to democracy and allege he is using federal law enforcement to target political critics.

Some 38% of respondents in the poll – including 40% of Democrats and 26% of Republicans – said they didn’t think the U.S. will exist as a single country 250 years from now. Just 62% thought their nation would last.

Trump has accused Democrats — and especially the prior presidential administration of Democrat Joe Biden — of illegally targeting his allies, including those involved in the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, which was an attempt to overthrow Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election. Republicans also point to multiple assassination attempts against Trump as evidence that the leader’s opponents are bent on violence.

MANY SEE DEMOCRACY IN DANGER OF FAILING

Two-thirds of respondents — including 85% of Democrats and 50% of Republicans — said they agreed with a statement that American democracy was in danger of failing. The overall share seeing democracy at risk was up from 57% in a poll conducted in August of last year, with the increase driven by more Republicans worried about democracy’s staying power.

Trump for years has claimed falsely that his 2020 loss was the result of widespread voter fraud and has been pushing for changes to voting laws.

Some 77% of poll respondents said it was likely that political violence would increase in the next five years.

GREATEST COUNTRY IN WORLD?

The poll also showed the share of Americans who see the country as a global standout is on the decline. Some 30% of respondents said they considered America the greatest country in the world, down from 38% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in November 2017, during Trump’s first term in office. The share of Democrats with this view fell to 11% from 26%, while the share of Republicans held steady at about six in 10.

A majority of Americans — including three-quarters of Democrats and half of Republicans — said they thought the events celebrating the country’s 250th anniversary had grown too political.

Americans were also divided along more mundane matters like how to celebrate Independence Day. Some 52% of Republicans said their celebrations would include wearing red, white and blue clothing – the colors of the U.S. national flag – compared to 20% of Democrats. Republicans were more likely than Democrats to say they planned to attend a fireworks show — 46% to 28%.

The poll, which was conducted online, gathered responses from 1,537 U.S. adults nationwide and its results had a margin of error of 3 percentage points in either direction.

(Reporting by Jason Lange; editing by Scott Malone and Deepa Babington)

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