Politics

WASHINGTON, Aug 12 (Reuters) – Two senior Democratic U.S. senators on Wednesday pressed Trump administration officials on why they have paused imposing fresh sanctions on companies, banks and other entities that help Russia evade existing restrictions over its invasion of Ukraine, even though peace talks have not proved fruitful.

• Senators Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, and Christopher Coons wrote the letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The senators say the administration has paused regular, targeted counter-evasion sanctions on Russia for 17 months.

• The U.S. last imposed major sanctions on Russia in October 2025, when the Treasury targeted oil companies Rosneft and Lukoil. The senators believe those sanctions were a one-off and that Russia easily evades them.

• Contacted for comment by Reuters, a Treasury Department spokesperson pointed to the sanctions on Russian oil companies and said the Trump administration will continue to act in the interest of U.S. national security and a peaceful resolution to the war in Ukraine. A State Department spokesperson said the department does not preview potential sanctions actions.

• The senators’ letter cites Bessent telling Congress in February that the administration wanted to “see where the peace talks go” before resuming some counter-evasion sanctions even as the administration imposed sanctions on Iran and Cuba during talks with those countries.

• The letter also cites Rubio saying in May that peace talks between Russia and Ukraine were not fruitful and there were no such talks occurring at the time.

• The letter says there were 111 sets of sanctions on Russia following the February 2022 invasion until January 2025, the month President Donald Trump took office for a second time.

• Sanctions imposed during former President Joe Biden’s term did little to stop Russia.

• Senators ask the officials to respond by August 28 to this question: “If the administration paused regular Russia sanctions because of peace talks, and those talks stalled months ago, why hasn’t the Administration resumed routine and frequent U.S. sanctions to rebuild leverage for a just peace in Ukraine?”

• Senate passed new sanctions legislation on Russia this month, but its future is uncertain as Democrats and some Republicans are concerned it could allow Trump new powers to impose tariffs on goods from U.S. allies including Japan and some countries in Europe.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Stephen Coates)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, the youngest person to hold the role, will leave the Trump administration at the end of the month to spend more time with her young family.

Leavitt, 28, called it a “bittersweet decision” in a social media post Wednesday shortly after President Donald Trump announced she would be stepping down. She recently returned to the White House podium after the birth of her second child, a daughter named Viviana, in May. She also has a 2-year-old son.

“The truth is since returning to the White House after the birth of my daughter, I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy, and attention required of the White House Press Secretary — and that is why I have ultimately made the bittersweet decision to depart the White House and embark on a new chapter in my life,” Leavitt wrote.

Trump did not outline plans for who might replace her in the high-profile role. He said in a social media post of his own that her decision to leave is one “I totally understand and respect!” and indicated she would continue to play a role in his orbit.

“Karoline will now be one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party, as we work to defy History, and conclusively win the Midterm Elections,” the president wrote.

Leavitt worked as a spokesperson for MAGA Inc., a super PAC supporting Trump, before joining his 2024 campaign. In 2022, she ran for Congress in New Hampshire, winning a 10-way Republican primary before losing the general election to incumbent Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas.

During Trump’s first term in office, Leavitt worked as an aide in the White House press office. She then became communications director for New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik.

Leavitt briefed from the White House press room less frequently than some of her recent predecessors. Trump, who regularly engages with reporters during White House events and during his travels, primarily deployed Leavitt to Fox News and other conservative news outlets to trumpet his agenda and take shots at Democrats and the mainstream media.

Trump’s first-term press secretaries included Sean Spicer and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who were known for quarreling with reporters. Another, Stephanie Grisham, never held a briefing. Her successor, Kayleigh McEnany, often lectured the news media during her appearances in the press briefing room.

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By Andrew Chung

Aug 12 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s administration again asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to intervene to fully implement his executive order restricting the use of mail-in ballots ahead of the November midterm elections that will decide ‌control of Congress.

The Justice Department filed a request asking the justices to put on hold a decision made on Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston that blocks the U.S. Postal Service from nationwide enforcement of the directive’s tighter rules for voting by mail.

Trump, a Republican, signed his executive order in March after years of calling for restrictions on voting by mail and pushing the false claim that his 2020 election defeat was the result of widespread voter fraud.

Talwani’s decision on Tuesday, in a case brought by several voting rights groups and represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, effectively expands on an earlier order she issued in June preventing the enforcement of Trump’s order in 23 mostly Democratic-governed states and Washington, D.C., which had also challenged the action as unconstitutional.

The administration has already asked the Supreme Court to pause the June decision. In its brief filing on Wednesday, the Justice Department urged the Supreme Court to lift that decision and make clear that the ruling applies to the judge’s action on Tuesday as well.

The administration contends that the lawsuits are premature as federal agencies have not yet taken any concrete actions that impact the plaintiffs, and so any harm they allege is speculative.

Trump’s executive order directed the Department of Homeland Security to compile and ​transmit to the states a list of U.S. citizens eligible to vote in each state, and the Justice Department to prioritize investigating and prosecuting state and local election ​officials who issue ballots to people deemed “not eligible” to vote in federal elections. 

It also required the Postal Service to ​deliver ballots only to voters on ⁠each state’s approved mail-in ballot list. The Postal Service recently moved to implement Trump’s directive.

In siding with the voting rights groups on Tuesday, Talwani wrote that the executive branch of the federal government had no authority to regulate elections, a responsibility that the U.S. Constitution assigns to individual states.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Nia Williams)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, the youngest person to hold the role, will leave at month’s end, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday.

Leavitt, 28, just recently returned to the White House after taking a brief leave for the birth of her second child in May.

Leavitt, who served Trump as a press aide during his first go-around in the White House, has been one of the most visible advocates of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement. The Republican president described her as one of his “most trusted aides” in a social media post announcing her departure.

He said Leavitt “will be departing her role at the end of the month so she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family, a decision I totally understand and respect! Karoline will now be one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party, as we work to defy History, and conclusively win the Midterm Elections.”

Leavitt recently returned to work after taking leave following the birth of her second child, a daughter, in May. She also has a two-year-old son.

“The truth is since returning to the White House after the birth of my daughter, I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy, and attention required of the White House Press Secretary — and that is why I have ultimately made the bittersweet decision to depart the White House and embark on a new chapter in my life,” Leavitt said in a social media post.

Trump did not outline plans for who might replace her in the high-profile role.

PHOTO- FILE – White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, July 16, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — David Crowley’s razor-thin primary win over a democratic socialist sets up a Wisconsin governor’s race against a Republican congressman who has voted with President Donald Trump 100% of the time, potentially giving moderate Democrats an ideal matchup as Trump’s approval ratings sag in the swing state.

Crowley overcame Francesca Hong in dramatic fashion in Tuesday’s primary, stunning pundits and pollsters who had long placed Hong as the front-runner. That means Crowley’s challenger, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, must pivot to face a Democrat known for working across the aisle with Republicans as the county executive in Milwaukee, the state’s largest source of Democratic voters.

After a unity event with Hong and others on Wednesday, Crowley pledged to build a broad coalition — including Hong’s progressive backers — to take on Tiffany by zeroing in on the Republican’s support for the Make America Great Again movement.

“This isn’t establishment versus progressive. This isn’t insider versus outsider,” Crowley said. “This is Democrats defeating a MAGA extremist in Congressman Tom Tiffany and that’s what we should be focusing on moving forward.”

It will be easier for Tiffany to pivot away from his ties with Trump and unpopular federal policies because he’s running for governor and not Congress, said former Republican Gov. Scott Walker, a Trump supporter.

“He’s got to be on point, on message every time that comes up, and say, ‘That’s not what’s on the ballot,’” Walker told The Associated Press. “What’s on the ballot is who’s going to be governor the next four years.”

But former Republican state Senate Majority Leader Dale Schultz, who opposes Trump, said Crowley makes the path “way harder for Tiffany.”

“It’s going to force the campaign back to the issues that people care about like affordability, the war in Iran and the cost of healthcare,” Schultz said.

Tiffany represents a broad swath of Wisconsin’s rural, conservative north woods. Trump won the state in 2024 and 2016, but lost in 2020. All three elections were decided by less than a percentage point. Crowley’s win on Tuesday was even more narrow — about half a point, further cementing Wisconsin’s reputation for close elections.

Democrats savored the shift in focus from their chaotic primary to the general election against Tiffany, an opponent they’ve long seen as vulnerable. They hope to capitalize on Trump’s low approval ratings to retain control of the governor’s office and flip both chambers of the Legislature to earn full control of Wisconsin state government for the first time since 2010.

Just as Crowley highlighted his Republican opponent’s ties to Trump, Tiffany began the general election campaign with a message connecting Crowley to Hong.

“I’ve said all along that there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between these Democrat candidates,” Tiffany said in a statement Wednesday. “His record in Milwaukee County shows exactly what Wisconsin would get: mismanage the government, run up the bill, and raise your taxes to pay for it.”

And it may be tough for Crowley to connect with the young people who were among the nearly 40% of primary voters who supported Hong, Republican strategist Rusty Schultz predicted.

“Making sure they come out in November will be no small feat,” he said.

Crowley, 40, often notes on the campaign trail that he grew up in poverty in the poorest ZIP code in Wisconsin on Milwaukee’s north side, his parents struggled with drug abuse and mental health issues, and his family was evicted multiple times.

Elected to the state Assembly in 2016 at the age of 30, Crowley served just over three years before being elected as Milwaukee County executive. In 2023, Crowley worked closely with the Republican-controlled Legislature to pass a bipartisan deal that sent more state aid to Milwaukee and local communities.

Crowley launched his bid for governor 11 months ago. But he dropped out of the race on July 8, saying he didn’t see a path to victory. He rejoined it on July 18, less than a month before Tuesday’s primary. With the backing of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers, a fellow moderate who crisscrossed the state with him in the final week, Crowley made a case that he was the better matchup against Tiffany.

“Obviously Hong was the never-ending gift in terms of one gaffe after another, wasn’t really ready for primetime,” Walker said. “But Crowley didn’t get any real scrutiny either.”

Crowley shared a meal with Hong, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan and others at a unity event outside Madison before embarking on a statewide tour. Evers, who is not seeking a third term as governor, had another commitment and did not attend.

Crowley became the first Black person to win a major party nomination for Wisconsin governor. Now he’s vying to become the first Black governor of the state and just the fourth Black governor elected in the country’s history.

“This historic moment is not lost on me. But I’m not even thinking about that because we’ve still got work to do,” Crowley said. “The job is not done. The job is not finished. My job is not to become the first, and if I do become the first, my job is to make sure I’m not the last.”

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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt will leave the administration at the end of the month to spend more time with her family, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday.

Leavitt, 28, is the youngest person to hold the role. She was a press aide during Trump’s first term and has been one of the most visible advocates of his “Make America Great Again” movement. Trump did not outline any plans for who might replace her.

Meanwhile, Trump said he slipped away from Air Force One after a trip last month in Turkey because the Secret Service and military wanted him on a “different plane” due to a threat he insisted did not scare him.

He downplayed the extraordinary nature of the subterfuge involved in his flight, which saw him stow away in an airport catering container to sneak onto another plane while Air Force One was sent into the sky, essentially as a decoy.

Here’s the latest:

An Army Apache helicopter crashed in a central Texas field on Wednesday, killing both people on board and sparking a wildfire that forced several homes to be evacuated, officials said.

Officials from nearby Fort Hood announced that the AH-64 Apache helicopter had crashed. Cliff Coleman, spokesperson for the Bell County Sheriff’s office confirmed that both occupants died.

No cause of the crash was immediately announced. Fort Hood’s criminal investigation division was leading the investigation, Coleman said.

The helicopter did not hit any homes or other structures when it crashed, Coleman said.

“Our immediate priority is securing the site and supporting the initial response efforts,” said Brig. Gen. Ethan Diven, acting commanding general. “Our thoughts are with the crew and their families as we await further information.”

The Trump administration conducted another lease sale Wednesday for oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Sixteen companies submitted 69 bids totaling nearly $100 million.

The sale was the third in the past year under Trump’s big tax and spending law adopted by congressional Republicans.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the sale underscores the administration’s commitment to “an active offshore energy strategy” and continues a tradition of offshore drilling helping to power transportation, manufacturing and small businesses.

An oil industry lobbying group hailed the sale as a “vote of confidence in American energy.”

Environmental groups denounced it as a giveaway to the oil and gas industry, which is already pulling in windfall profits due to the war in Iran.

A Pentagon review has found that U.S. airstrikes targeting Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen last year killed more than 150 civilians.

The unclassified assessment was sent to Congress as part of an annual report on civilian casualties and was obtained by The Associated Press.

The Pentagon review focused on three airstrikes in April 2025 that were launched during the U.S. campaign against the Houthis. The militants were attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea as well as Israel. A total of 153 civilians were killed and 243 were injured.

The report comes as concerns rise over civilian casualties by military campaigns under the Trump administration, including a strike on an Iranian primary school in the opening days of this year’s war that killed up to 168 people.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is urging Latin American countries not to recognize the International Criminal Court as the U.S. military targets alleged drug traffickers in the region.

Speaking at a gathering in Panama of the Americas Counter Cartel Coalition, Hegseth argued that those efforts “are 100% lawful under the laws of armed conflict.” He faces questions at home about the legality of carrying out deadly strikes on small boats accused of trafficking drugs.

It’s not clear from Hegseth’s remarks what, if anything, the ICC has done to stymie U.S. operations in the region. He encouraged the nearly 20 countries assembled “to leave the ICC and reject their attempts to rob your governments and your courts of your sovereignty.”

The Trump administration is pushing a campaign to “dismantle” the world tribunal in retaliation for warrants the court has issued for top Israeli officials over the war in Gaza and investigations into U.S. personnel in Afghanistan.

Leavitt recently returned to work after taking a short leave following the birth in May of her second child, Viviana.

She also has a 2-year-old son.

“The truth is since returning to the White House after the birth of my daughter, I have felt in my heart that I cannot be the best mom my two young children deserve while devoting the constant time, energy, and attention required of the White House Press Secretary — and that is why I have ultimately made the bittersweet decision to depart the White House and embark on a new chapter in my life,” Leavitt said in a social media post.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, the youngest person to hold the role, will leave the administration at the end of the month, Trump announced Wednesday.

Leavitt, who served Trump as a press aide during his first term in the White House, has been one of the most visible advocates of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement. The Republican president described her as one of his “most trusted aides” in a social media post announcing her departure.

He said Leavitt “will be departing her role at the end of the month so she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family, a decision I totally understand and respect! Karoline will now be one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party, as we work to defy History, and conclusively win the Midterm Elections.”

The lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court alleges that Trump’s deal with his media company to post first on his Truth Social platform violates the Constitution.

The suit brought by two media groups comes after Truth Social started charging Wall Street firms as much as $100,000 a month for a new service allowing early access to the president’s posts so they can trade off them.

Truth Social says the lawsuit is an attempt by left wing activists to silence the president.

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The latest volley was a letter coming from the Justice Department to the district council challenging their view that the use of the military is unnecessary because crime was already falling.

That letter counters letters the council sent last month to governors who have troops in town supporting Trump’s 2025 surge. The June letter asked governors to bring their people home, citing $3 million a day costs and the lack of a crime emergency.

Wednesday’s missive disputed that: “D.C. is a much safer place no matter what you say.”

The president activated the guard and pulled in federal law enforcement with a crime emergency declaration on Aug. 11, 2025. The deployment was recently extended until January 2029 and will cost an estimated $1.4 billion.

The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez is warning Republicans that deporting vulnerable people who don’t have a criminal record could lose them the Latino vote in the midterm elections.

Rodriguez is a conservative pastor from California and president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

In an op-ed for the Christian Post on Wednesday, he said that not everyone the administration is arresting and deporting is a criminal. Many, he said, are “construction workers, healthcare professionals and Sunday school teachers who have been rooted in this country for 20 years or more.”

“This does not mean open borders,” he said. “It means the mechanisms of enforcement must be proportional, just, and morally defensible.”

Rodriguez said there is “still time to course correct.”

“When indiscriminate enforcement becomes the story, it hands the moral high ground to the progressive Left and confirms their most damaging narrative about the Right.”

Primary results in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Connecticut have reiterated that Democratic voters are hungry for change, even as they remain divided over the party’s ideological future.

Progressives secured a major victory in Minnesota but fell short in Wisconsin, while a longtime Connecticut congressman was ousted by a younger challenger.

The results followed similar outcomes this year in places such as Michigan that showed an appetite for turnover that cuts across the party’s ideological divisions.

They also highlighted the growing influence of younger voters, who have been particularly drawn to progressive candidates.

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The Trump administration says it will resume a leadership role in an international bloc opposed to abortion that had been established in Trump’s first term but then abandoned by President Joe Biden.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Wednesday the U.S. would serve as the “secretariat” for the Geneva Consensus Declaration. The Geneva consensus was created in 2020 with great fanfare from then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “to secure meaningful health and development gains for women; to protect life at all stages; to defend the family as the fundamental unit of society.”

Critics, however, saw it as a way for the U.S. to further push Trump administration goals to limit family planning initiatives and ban abortion.

Participation in Geneva Consensus was one of the first Trump administration actions rescinded by Biden when he took office in early 2021.

The winner of Wisconsin’s Democratic primary race for governor immediately tied his Republican opponent to President Trump in his first public comments since his razor-thin victory.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley told supporters Wednesday he intends to build a broad coalition to defeat Republican Tom Tiffany, who’s voted 100% in line with Trump.

“The biggest difference between me and the congressman is I’m loyal to the people of Wisconsin. I’m not loyal to MAGA,” Crowley said referring to Trump’s Make America Great Again movement.

Tiffany began the general election campaign with a message connecting Crowley to Francesca Hong, a the democratic socialist Crowley narrowly defeated.

“I’ve said all along that there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between these Democrat candidates,” Tiffany said in a statement.

Scott, who also serves as chair of the chamber’s political arm, said on social media Wednesday morning that he’d voted for Darline Graham in Tuesday’s special Republican Senate primary.

Graham has been serving in an interim role since her brother Sen. Lindsey Graham’s death last month. Scott called his fellow South Carolinian “a conservative stalwart” who “represents our beloved state with class, humility, and dignity.”

Graham and Rep. Ralph Norman will go head to head in an Aug. 25 GOP runoff. The winner of that contest faces Democrat Annie Andrews in November.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced the creation of a State Department task force to combat “birth tourism,” a Trump administration phrase for foreign women coming to the United States with the intention of giving birth to a child on U.S. soil in order to secure their child’s American citizenship.

Trump and his administration have fought unsuccessfully in courts to end “birthright citizenship,” which gives U.S. citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil. Despite those legal setbacks, Trump has continued the fight to end the practice.

In a social media post Wednesday, Rubio said the new task force would “review the activity of visa holders, dismantle illegal birth tourism networks, and put an end to this heinous abuse of our nation’s laws.”

He said that since the task force was created last month, it had already taken action to revoke the visas of more than 600 people suspected of being involved in birth tourism schemes.

Presidents have regularly tested the confines of their office, pushing their security advisers to visit war zones as a show of American presence and their own leadership. Usually, this happens in the form of trips that aren’t announced until the president is deemed to be out of harm’s way.

What’s different this time is that Trump was covertly separated from the rest of his travelers — including the press pool meant to provide independent coverage of the president — and, instead of informing the public about what occurred once the risk had passed, the White House still hasn’t fully revealed what took place.

Commanders in chief have sometimes kept overseas trips covert for security reasons, with schedules and logistics kept classified until after for safety reasons. But the fact that Trump’s whereabouts were concealed at the time and for weeks afterward is believed to be unprecedented.

“We have absolutely seen the president fly on unmarked or decoy planes before, into Iraq, Afghanistan, other war-zone-like places,” said Garrett M. Graff, author of “Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government’s Secret Plan to Save Itself — While the Rest of Us Die.”

“But this was an ongoing secret that I don’t think we’ve ever seen before.”

After hiding in the catering vehicle and being moved to the other plane, Trump stopped in Britain, sneaked back aboard the presidential plane undetected, and even later scoffed when asked about potential danger.

“If I go, you go. Right?” he told reporters then — gliding past the fact that if the plane had been shot down, the president wouldn’t have been aboard.

U.S. inflation slowed last month and a measure of underlying price pressures also cooled, suggesting higher oil and gas prices from the Iran war are only having a limited impact on broader costs in the economy.

Consumer prices rose 3.4% in July from a year ago, down slightly from 3.5% in June, the Labor Department said Wednesday. But inflation is still higher than before the Iran war began in February, when it was 2.4%. On a monthly basis, prices rose just 0.1% from June to July.

Inflation has been pushed higher by a series of shocks to the economy, including President Trump’s tariffs imposed last spring, higher gas prices stemming from the Iran war, and a surge in investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure that has boosted computer chip prices. The key question for the inflation-fighters at the Fed — not to mention for consumers struggling with high gas and grocery prices — is how quickly those one-time effects will fade.

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President Trump pivoted the nation’s attention back to vaccines this week with an executive order that aims to scale back the childhood immunization schedule and space out shots into separate visits.

After acting to overhaul the nation’s vaccine policy and guidance, the Trump administration had recently largely stepped back from additional changes to focus on less controversial subjects, raising questions over the political impetus behind and implications of the Republican president’s renewed focus on vaccines.

For well over a decade, Trump has expressed his view — against medical groups’ guidance — that childhood vaccines should be administered in smaller doses over a long period of time. The executive order sought to bear out that discredited theory.

While the move could endear Trump to some “Make America Healthy Again” voters who want more flexibility on immunizations, it’s also already attracting attacks designed to hurt Trump’s aligned candidates in November’s midterm elections.

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Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan won the Minnesota Democratic Senate primary on Tuesday in the latest victory for an insurgent progressive over the party’s establishment.

Flanagan defeated centrist U.S. Rep. Angie Craig with a pledge to fight the influence of corporations and confront Trump.

“For months now, I have been telling you that this campaign was about the many versus the money,” Flanagan said as she celebrated her victory in Minneapolis. “Well guess what? The many just won.”

The outcome was another sign of progressive energy among Democratic primary voters. It comes a week after Abdul El-Sayed won a bitter and divisive primary in Michigan that fired up the left and fueled anxiety among party leaders that Democrats will alienate moderate swing voters.

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President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he slipped away from Air Force One after a trip last month in Turkey because the Secret Service and military wanted him on a “different plane” due to a threat he insisted didn’t scare him.

Trump downplayed the extraordinary nature of the subterfuge involved in his flight, which saw him stow away in an airport catering container to sneak onto another plane while Air Force One was sent into the sky, essentially as a decoy.

He also downplayed the risk to the people — White House officials, security and support staff, and reporters — he left on the plane.

“They wanted me to go on a different flight, different plane,” Trump told reporters after returning from an event in Ohio, saying he had little choice in the matter.

“I guess there was a threat out there. I didn’t really ask too much about it,” he said. “I get a lot of threats.”

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Aug 12 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt would depart her role at the end of the month to spend more time with her family.

“Serving as the White House Press Secretary over the past year and a half has been the honor and adventure of a lifetime,” Leavitt said in a post on social media site X.

“Karoline will now be one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party, as we work to defy History, and conclusively win the Midterm Elections,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

Leavitt joined Trump’s 2024 campaign and served as transition spokeswoman before Trump selected her to be White House press secretary, becoming the youngest person to be appointed to the role.

(Reporting by Ismail Shakil and Christian Martinez;Editing by David Ljunggren)

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Aug 11 (Reuters) – Lindsey Graham’s sister Darline Graham advanced to the runoff for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination in South Carolina, according to U.S. media projections on Tuesday.

Graham will be one of two candidates to advance to the runoff in August, as no one is set to gain more than 50 percent of the vote.

(Reporting by Costas Pitas; Editing by Michael Learmonth and Lincoln Feast)

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NEW YORK, Aug 11 (Reuters) – Minnesota Republicans chose state Representative Lisa Demuth as their nominee for governor, defeating former MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell who had the endorsement of U.S. President Donald Trump, according to U.S. media projections.

She will face Democratic nominee Senator Amy Klobuchar in the November general election.

(Editing by Michael Learmonth; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

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By Bo Erickson

WASHINGTON, Aug 11 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he secretly switched planes in Turkey last month at the direction of the U.S. Secret Service, but that the plane he ultimately flew on was still more vulnerable than Air Force One.

Following a NATO summit in Ankara, Trump was transferred from Air Force One to a military plane via a catering truck in an extraordinary deception prompted by an Iranian assassination threat, U.S. media reported.

The White House did not disclose the change and it remained a secret until the Washington Post first reported it on Monday. Some media commentators questioned whether the operation left Trump’s aides and journalists traveling with him at risk aboard the plane presumed to be carrying the president.

“I think actually the plane that I flew on was at greater risk,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday. “I think it was at greater risk because that would be the plane I think that they would be more likely to go for.”

After a day of social media memes portraying Trump as hiding out in the catering truck, the image-conscious president, who often promotes memes of himself as a bold and courageous leader, said he was following the direction of the Secret Service, the agency that protects the president.

“Well, it’s only up to Secret Service. I just follow what they’d like to do, so I go by Secret Service and the military,” Trump said.

“I guess there was a threat out there. I didn’t really ask too much about it. I get a lot of threats,” Trump said.

The White House said at the time that the president was flying aboard Air Force One from Turkey to Britain. But moments after Trump boarded the plane, he left it in secret via the catering truck and boarded another aircraft for the flight to Britain, the Post said on Monday, quoting unnamed sources.

Trump had taken a newly renovated Qatari-donated jet to Ankara for the NATO summit but unexpectedly announced he would use an older Air Force One when departing the country, a move that prompted questions about the newer plane’s security.

The trip to NATO was the first international travel for the new plane, whose speedy upgrades triggered questions over its cost and security, and took place as hostilities escalated with Iran, which borders Turkey.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh and Jasper Ward in Washington; Additional reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Christian Martinez; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Tom Hogue, Ross Colvin and Lincoln Feast.)

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