Politics

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON, April 27 (Reuters) – Legislation to fund the U.S. Secret Service and other agencies in the Department of Homeland Security will have to be modified before it can pass the House of Representatives, Speaker Mike Johnson said on Monday, raising the possibility of funding delays days after a gunman opened fire at a Washington dinner attended by President Donald Trump. 

The measure, which the Senate twice passed unanimously, is part of a two-pronged Republican effort to end the partial shutdown that has gripped U.S. homeland security operations since mid-February. Negotiations to fund the department failed to reach agreement on reforms for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, following the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens earlier this year.   

The bill would fund all of DHS, with the exception of ICE and Border Patrol. House Republicans had been expected to pick it up this week, after voting on a separate $70 billion funding blueprint for the two immigration enforcement agencies that passed the Senate last week. The House is expected to vote on the budget resolution with funding instructions for ICE and Border Patrol on Wednesday. 

The need to fund the Secret Service has intensified since Saturday’s shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner by a man prosecutors say tried to assassinate Trump. U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has said current money for the department, which also includes the Transportation Security Administration, will run out in early May.   

But Johnson told reporters the Senate legislation to fund all of DHS except for ICE and Border Patrol would have to change.

“We have a modified version that I think is going to be much better for both chambers. It doesn’t change most of the substance. But it makes sure that we’re not going to orphan the primary agencies of DHS,” Johnson told reporters, without providing details.

House Republican hardliners have balked at the Senate legislation, saying they wanted to fund all DHS agencies including ICE and Border Patrol. 

A modified bill would need to be passed again by the Senate, where Democrats could prevent it from receiving the 60 votes necessary to pass most legislation. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Johnson’s counterpart, told reporters the DHS funding bill and the budget blueprint for ICE and Border Patrol would ultimately provide adequate funds for all homeland security operations. 

“We did everything we can to ensure that everything is appropriately funded,” said Thune. “Hopefully that will be enough to get the House in a comfortable position.”

The budget resolution the House is expected to take up this week is the precursor for separate funding legislation for ICE and Border Patrol that would circumvent Senate Democratic opposition through a parliamentary maneuver called budget reconciliation. That funding would run through Trump’s presidency, which ends in January 2029. 

Last year, Republicans passed legislation providing around $130 billion in funding for ICE and Border Patrol, separate from their annual appropriations.

(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Ron DeSantis was once the future of the Republican Party, a battle-tested conservative twice elected as governor of Florida. Then Donald Trump steamrolled him on his way back to the White House.

Now, more than two years after DeSantis ended his presidential campaign and endorsed Trump, the governor is returning to the national spotlight — at least for this week. He’s pushing state lawmakers to redraw Florida’s congressional map as part of a coast-to-coast redistricting battle ahead of November’s midterm elections. His proposal would make it easier for Republicans to win four more seats, equivalent to Democrats’ potential gains from last week’s referendum in Virginia.

With DeSantis’ second term coming to a close, the special legislative session that starts Tuesday is one of his final opportunities to remind Republicans that he could lead the party one day. But there are also plenty of risks ahead for the 47-year-old governor.

Some Republicans are worried that a new map will backfire and make it easier for Democrats to pick up seats. In addition, DeSantis wants lawmakers to increase regulations for artificial intelligence and loosen vaccine requirements, two proposals that have previously stalled in Tallahassee.

Trump may be constitutionally barred from running for a third term in 2028, but that doesn’t mean there’s a clear path for DeSantis, who would likely have Vice President JD Vance or Secretary of State Marco Rubio to contend with in a Republican primary.

“The window for Ron looks reasonably narrow at this point,” said Whit Ayres, who served as DeSantis’ pollster in his first campaign for governor in 2018.

DeSantis, for his part, is embracing the national fight. When House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., last week dared Florida Republicans to go ahead with their special session, the governor punched back with the kind of aggressiveness he showed in the early days of his failed White House bid.

“I will pay for you to come down to Florida and campaign,” DeSantis said of Jeffries. “I’ll put you up in the Florida governor’s mansion. We’ll take you fishing.”

DeSantis unveiled his proposed map to Fox News on Monday even before it had been widely circulated among lawmakers. He argued that the 2020 census shortchanged the state’s population, making it necessary to redraw the lines.

The governor’s map, if approved, would reshape districts in Democratic areas around Orlando and Tampa Bay, while also condensing Democratic voters into fewer South Florida districts. The changes could cost Reps. Jared Moskowitz and Debbie Wasserman Schultz, among others, their seats.

The current maps yielded a 20 to 8 Republican tilt in 2024. DeSantis’ version would aim for an advantage of 24 to 4.

DeSantis first announced the special session back in January, months after Trump started pushing Republican-run states to redraw their congressional boundaries. What followed has been a tit-for-tat redistricting battle, with each party looking for an edge in the midterms.

There’s no guarantee that new maps would play out the way parties hope. For example, Texas based its revised lines largely on Trump’s performance in 2024, theoretically redistributing the president’s voters across more districts to pull them into the Republican column. But Trump’s popularity has waned since his reelection, including among Latino voters that figure prominently in the state.

Florida could face a similar conundrum. If the state creates more majority-Republican districts but with thinner margins, it could dilute their advantage and give Democrats more opportunities to win seats, especially if there’s an anti-Trump backlash at the polls this year.

“If Florida moves like it can, the Republicans will at least be even,” said Karl Rove, a former top political adviser to President George W. Bush. If Republicans get too aggressive, “they may lose a seat or two.”

Brian Ballard, an influential Florida lobbyist who has been DeSantis’ top fundraiser, said it’s worth remembering that DeSantis was the muscle behind the 2021 map that expanded Republicans’ advantage in the state to its current levels.

“He’s incredibly smart and capable,” Ballard said. “And he doesn’t get enough credit for that map. He’s done this before.”

Still, DeSantis will be testing his relationships with lawmakers, especially in a state House chamber that has grown more willing to buck the governor in recent sessions. House Speaker Daniel Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton made clear for weeks that they were not drawing their own proposals and would react only to what DeSantis put forward.

Albritton has sent multiple memos to senators reminding them of Florida’s state constitutional limits on redistricting and the requirement that it not be done as a blatantly partisan act. Perez, who convened a redistricting panel last year, has said in recent weeks that he expects something to get done, but he’s been circumspect in his public statements.

“We’re ready to have that conversation,” he recently told WPLG in South Florida, before DeSantis released his proposal.

Besides redistricting, other topics won’t be much easier. DeSantis wants to require tech companies to ensure children cannot interact with chatbots without parental permission. He also wants to prevent AI from generating harmful material for minors. The proposal will put DeSantis at odds with Trump, who wants the federal government to be the regulatory arbitrator of AI technology.

On vaccines, DeSantis wants to add a conscience-based exemption to public school vaccine requirements, similar to the existing religious exemption. The push aligns him with the anti-vaccine portion of the Trump base that was instrumental in pushing the president to tap Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his health secretary.

Versions of DeSantis’ proposals have passed the state Senate previously but did not advance in the state House, where Perez has been skeptical.

Ballard downplayed concerns. What may seem to some as strained relations with certain Republican legislative leaders, he said, is simply measuring DeSantis against the opening years of his tenure.

“I mean, he went from batting a thousand to maybe batting .600,” Ballard said, using a baseball analogy for the governor who played the sport while attending Yale. “That isn’t failure.”

It’s hard to say how the session will affect DeSantis’ relationship with Trump or the president’s supporters.

Trump grew frustrated at DeSantis when they were competing for the Republican presidential nomination, calling him “Ron DeSanctimonious” on the campaign trail. The governor, at least initially, gave conservative establishment figures and key donors an option other than the then-former president.

But Trump seemingly forgave DeSantis when he dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump following his victory in the Iowa caucuses. He even promised to call DeSantis by his actual name.

There’s more bad blood within the White House, though. Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, a Floridian, managed DeSantis’ razor-thin 2018 victory, only for the governor to have a falling out with her.

Wiles did not respond to a request for comment. But Ayres said he’s certain she’s paying attention.

“Donald Trump has a long memory, and Susie Wiles has a longer one,” he said. “And that doesn’t bode well for Gov. DeSantis to be Donald Trump’s Republican successor.”

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WASHINGTON, April 27 (Reuters) – Saturday’s attack at a black-tie Washington gala that featured President Donald Trump did not result in any deaths, but it did raise the question about who would take charge if he or other top members of his administration were harmed.

U.S. law lays out a clear line of succession, which includes top congressional officials and cabinet secretaries.

Events such as the September 11, 2001, attacks have raised the possibility that all of these officials could be killed if they were gathered in one place. As a precaution, presidents typically ensure that at least one official serves as a “designated survivor” who does not attend high-profile events, such as the annual State of the Union speech to Congress. 

All members of the line of succession must be at least 35 years old, be natural-born citizens, and must have lived in the U.S. for at least 14 years, according to the U.S. Constitution. The Senate must have also confirmed them. 

LINE OF SUCCESSION

Vice President JD Vance would assume the duties of the president if Trump was killed or otherwise unable to do his job and would serve out the remainder of Trump’s term, until January 2029, according to the Constitution’s 25th Amendment. He also would nominate his own vice president to fill that office.

If both Trump and Vance were incapacitated, House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson would step in, and if he were also incapacitated the next in line would be the Senate president pro tempore, a largely ceremonial post typically held by the longest-serving member from the majority party. Currently, that’s Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who is 92 years old. 

Members of Trump’s cabinet fill out the list, based on how long their agencies have been a part of the U.S. government. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is first here, followed by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The attorney general would be next in line, but it is not clear whether Todd Blanche would qualify, as he was confirmed by the Senate to the Justice Department’s No. 2 position but has not been nominated or confirmed for the department’s top job. 

Beyond that, the order runs: Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of Labor (currently vacant), Secretary of Health and Human Services, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Secretary of Transportation, Secretary of Energy, Secretary of Education, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and finally, Homeland Security Secretary.

DESIGNATED SURVIVOR

To ensure at least one of these people would survive a catastrophic event, presidents choose a cabinet official to sit out high-profile gatherings such as inaugurations and speeches to Congress where Washington’s top officials assemble. This “designated survivor” is not required by law, but has been common practice since the 1980s.

The secretary of agriculture has most commonly been picked for the role since then, according to the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara, while Trump selected Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins in both 2025 and 2026.

Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, while a highlight of the Washington social calendar, typically does not require this sort of treatment. Trump shunned the event through his first 2017-2021 term and boycotted it last year as well.

But Trump attended the event this year, along with Vance, Johnson, Rubio, Hegseth and many other cabinet officials — raising the risk of constitutional chaos had the gunman succeeded in his goal of killing top administration officials. 

However, Grassley did not attend the dinner — ensuring at least one member of the line of succession was not in the room.

(Reporting by Andy Sullivan; Additional reporting by Jacob Bogage and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Daniel Wallis)

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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A man who managed problem-plagued voter registration drives in Pennsylvania ahead of the 2024 presidential election pleaded guilty Monday to three misdemeanor counts and was sentenced to a month in county jail.

Phoenix resident Guillermo Sainz Gurrola was also fined $1,000 and will serve probation for three counts of solicitation of registration, which prosecutors described as offering financial incentives to canvassers who met quotas.

The attorney general’s office said charges of forgery, unsworn falsification, public records tampering and violations of state elections and voter registration laws remain pending against six canvassers. One is also facing an identity theft charge.

Sainz Gurrola’s defense attorney, Timothy M. Stengel, declined comment but said his client apologized in court. Authorities had previously identified him as Guillermo Sainz, but Stengel and the online court docket gave his name as Guillermo Sainz Gurrola.

Stengel said the plea on Monday involved registration drives in Lancaster, Berks and York counties.

In a court affidavit filed with the criminal charges, investigators said Sainz Gurrola, an employee of Field+Media Corps, “instituted unlawful financial incentives and pressures in his push to meet company goals to maintain funding which in turn spurred some canvassers to create and submit fake forms to earn more money.”

Field+Media was funded by Everybody Votes, which has worked to improve voter registration rates in communities of color. The court affidavit said Everybody Votes had fully cooperated with the investigation and that its contract with Field+Media prohibited payments on a per-registration basis.

Sainz Gurrola managed Pennsylvania operations from May to October 2024.

The investigation began in the weeks before the general election when election workers in Lancaster County flagged voter registration forms for potential fraud. Investigators said they appeared to contain false names, suspicious handwriting, questionable signatures, incorrect addresses and other problematic details.

In the homestretch of the presidential contest, then-candidate Donald Trump seized on the case, declaring there had been “cheating” involving “2,600” votes. The actual issue in Lancaster was about 2,500 suspected fraudulent voter registration forms, not ballots or votes.

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By John Kruzel

WASHINGTON, April 27 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court formally reinstated on Monday a redrawn Texas electoral map that was designed to add more Republicans to the U.S. House of Representatives, as President Donald Trump’s party seeks to keep control of Congress in the November congressional elections.

The move by the court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, formalizes an interim decision it made in December to revive the map of U.S. House districts in Texas.

The reinstated map – sought by Trump, approved in August 2025 by the Republican-led state legislature and signed by Republican Governor Greg Abbott – could flip as many as five currently Democratic-held U.S. House seats to Republicans.

As they did in December, the court’s three liberal justices dissented from Monday’s ruling.

The Supreme Court reversed a lower court’s decision that had blocked Texas from using the map. The lower court had found the map to be likely racially discriminatory in violation of U.S. constitutional protections. Trump last year prodded Republican lawmakers to redraw state congressional maps to bolster his party’s chances in the midterms. 

The Supreme Court in February allowed California to use a new electoral map designed to give Democrats five more congressional seats after that Democratic-led state redrew its House districts in response to the action by Republicans in Texas. 

Republicans currently hold slim majorities in both chambers of Congress. Ceding control of either the House or Senate to the Democrats in the upcoming elections would endanger Trump’s legislative agenda and open the door to Democratic-led congressional investigations targeting the president.

The process of redrawing maps, known as redistricting, generally occurs once per decade to reflect population changes as measured by the national census conducted every 10 years. Ongoing and recently completed redistricting efforts by Republican- and Democratic-held state legislatures, on the other hand, have been motivated by a desire for partisan advantage.

(Reporting by John Kruzel; Editing by Will Dunham)

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By Joseph Ax

April 27 (Reuters) – Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis proposed a new congressional map on Monday aimed at flipping four Democratic U.S. House of Representatives seats in November’s midterm election, further escalating a coast-to-coast redistricting war that has already reshaped dozens of districts nationwide.

It remains unclear whether the map has enough support in the Republican-controlled state legislature to pass. DeSantis has called lawmakers to convene a special session starting on Tuesday to consider his plan.

The map, which DeSantis first shared with Fox News, would likely give Republicans 24 of the state’s 28 U.S. House seats, up from its current 20-8 majority.

Republicans can afford to lose only two House seats in November’s election to retain a majority. A Democratic-led House could initiate investigations into President Donald Trump’s administration while blocking his legislative agenda.

Last week in Virginia, voters narrowly approved a Democratic-backed map that targets four Republican incumbents there. Republicans have filed several lawsuits challenging the validity of the ballot measure, and the Virginia Supreme Court on Monday heard arguments in one of those cases.

Any successful redistricting in Florida would likely face its own legal challenges. In 2010, voters approved a constitutional amendment explicitly banning lawmakers from drawing district lines for political gain, a practice known as gerrymandering.

A handful of Florida Republicans have expressed concern that an aggressive redrawing could leave some incumbents vulnerable in a Democratic wave year. Democrats have consistently outperformed their 2024 margins in dozens of elections since Trump took office in January 2025.

Virginia and Florida represent what are likely the final battlegrounds in the redistricting war that Trump initiated last summer, when he successfully urged Texas Republicans to install a new map that targeted five Democratic incumbents.

While Republicans appeared to hold the redistricting advantage nationwide, Democrats have managed to fight back to a near-draw, depending on the final outcomes in Virginia and Florida.

Redistricting typically occurs after the end of each decade to account for population shifts in the U.S. Census. Trump’s gambit set off an unprecedented mid-decade cycle that quickly spread to a dozen states, both those controlled by Republicans and by Democrats.

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a voting rights decision by summer that could allow Republican-led Southern states to redraw additional Democratic seats with large minority populations. But any ruling may be too late to have a significant impact on this year’s midterms.

(Reporting by Joseph AxEditing by Bill Berkrot)

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By Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON, April 27 (Reuters) – Two days after a shooting at a dinner that President Donald Trump was attending, Republicans in the U.S. Congress pushed for legislation to fund and speed construction of a White House ballroom, citing increased security concerns. 

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and two fellow Republicans have crafted a bill to mainly finance the construction, which already is underway, at taxpayers’ expense.

“I’d like the vote as soon as possible to accelerate what America needs: A secure facility for the president and others to meet in, to have a good time, to enjoy themselves without putting the nation at risk,” Graham told reporters, adding that underneath the ballroom would be “a lot of military stuff” that he said would include a Secret Service annex.

Graham added that private donations could be used for “buying china and stuff like that.” Of the $400 million, Graham said, $332 million would be taxpayer funds that he said would be paid for by using “customs fees” on imported goods.

“I’ve never felt the sense of threat that exists today,” Graham said, arguing that Trump would not have to leave the secured White House grounds for large events being held in Washington.

Neither Trump nor the White House hosted Saturday’s dinner, which had around 2,600 guests. Trump has already torn down the historic East Wing of the White House to begin construction of a massive White House ballroom, which would seat a maximum of 1,000 guests.

Trump previously had said that private donations would pay for the estimated $400 million cost of the ballroom project that he has demanded.

Graham said he wants a vote on a stand-alone ballroom funding bill. But if that is defeated, he said he would consider an alternate route. He did not rule out trying to put the $400 million in a bill Republicans are pushing that would circumvent the need for Democratic support in the narrowly divided Senate.

Republican Representative Chip Roy of Texas said in a posting on X on Sunday that a budget bill Graham and Republicans are pushing through Congress should include the ballroom. That measure would move through the Senate under a special procedure allowing passage by a 51-vote majority, instead of a 60-vote supermajority most bills face. Republicans hold 53 of the Senate’s 100 seats.

That bill is mainly aimed at funding two Department of Homeland Security law enforcement agencies through fiscal year 2029.

On March 31, a federal judge ruled that the 90,000-square-foot project could only go forward if Congress approved it.

On Sunday, freshman Republican Senator Tim Sheehy of Montana said he would seek fast Senate approval of a bill providing for construction of Trump’s ballroom. His move would require the consent of all senators — a procedure that often fails on controversial legislation.

So far, Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania is the only Democrat in the chamber who has publicly indicated his support for the ballroom that would be built on the site of the demolished White House East Wing.

Some House Republicans were also drafting legislation to ensure completion of Trump’s project.

On Saturday night, Trump was set to deliver a speech at the annual dinner of the White House Correspondents’ Association. The event ended abruptly after a man was apprehended inside the hotel where the event was held and he allegedly fired shots at a U.S. Secret Service agent.

Shortly after the shooting, Trump held a press conference in the White House and said that security concerns were more justification to continue building his ⁠ballroom.    

(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Michael Learmonth, David Gregorio and Stephen Coates)

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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The Virginia Supreme Court was hearing arguments Monday on a Republican challenge to a congressional redistricting plan approved by voters last week that could help Democrats win as many as four additional U.S. House seats.

The case contends that the Democratic-led General Assembly violated procedural requirements by placing the constitutional amendment before voters to authorize mid-decade redistricting. If the court agrees that lawmakers broke the rules, it could invalidate the amendment and render last week’s statewide vote meaningless.

The Virginia court proceedings mark the latest twist in a national redistricting battle between Republicans and Democrats seeking an advantage in a November election that will determine whether Republicans maintain their narrow majority in the U.S. House.

President Donald Trump urged Texas Republicans to redraw districts to their favor last year in an attempt to win several additional House seats. That set off a chain reaction of similar moves in other states, leading to the voter approval last week of Virginia’s new map.

Next up is Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has included congressional redistricting on the agenda for a special session of the GOP-controlled Legislature beginning Tuesday.

On Sunday, Trump said he was in favor of the Florida attempt and criticized the Virginia amendment that was pushed by Democrats.

“It’s a very bad thing for our country. Very, very bad,” he told Fox News Channel’s “The Sunday Briefing.”

So far, the two major parties have battled to a near draw. Republicans think they could win up to nine more seats under revised districts in Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Ohio. Democrats think they could win as many as 10 additional seats under new districts in California, Utah and Virginia. But legal challenges remain in both Virginia and Missouri.

Virginia currently is represented in the U.S. House by six Democrats and five Republicans who were elected from districts imposed by a court after a bipartisan redistricting commission failed to agree on a map after the 2020 census. The new districts, which narrowly won voter approval last Tuesday, could give Democrats an improved chance to win 10 districts.

At issue before the state Supreme Court is whether those districts should be invalidated because of the process used by lawmakers.

Because the state’s redistricting commission was established by a voter-approved constitutional amendment, lawmakers had to propose a new constitutional amendment to redraw districts themselves. That required approval of a resolution in two separate legislative sessions, with a state election sandwiched in between, to place an amendment on the ballot.

In January, a judge in rural Tazewell County, in southwestern Virginia, ruled that lawmakers failed to follow their own rules for adding the redistricting amendment to a special session last fall. Circuit Judge Jack Hurley Jr. also ruled that lawmakers failed to initially approve the amendment before the public began voting in last year’s general election and that the state had failed to publish the amendment three months before the election, as required by law. As a result, he said, the amendment is invalid and void.

The Virginia Supreme Court placed Hurley’s order on hold and allowed the redistricting vote to proceed before hearing arguments on the case. Republicans have filed at least two additional legal challenges, which also are winding their way through the courts.

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Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri. Associated Press reporter Allen G. Breed contributed.

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By Jana Winter, Steve Holland and Steve Gorman

WASHINGTON, April 26 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the suspect accused of trying to attack administration officials at a black-tie gala on Saturday night was a “pretty sick guy” who had been flagged to law enforcement by family members.

Trump said in TV interviews that the suspect, whom an official identified as 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen, of Torrance, California, had posted what Trump described as an “anti-Christian” manifesto.

“He was a Christian, believer, and then he became an anti-Christian, and he had a lot of change,” Trump told CBS’ “60 Minutes” program. “He was probably a pretty sick guy.”

In the manifesto, Allen calls himself the “Friendly Federal Assassin” and said he planned to attack Trump administration officials, prioritizing them from highest-ranking to lowest but excluding FBI Director Kash Patel, a law enforcement official told Reuters. Allen cited Christian theology as he said he was trying to protect those harmed by the administration’s policies.

“Turning the other cheek when *someone else* is oppressed is not Christian behavior; it is complicity in the oppressor’s crimes,” the manifesto read, according to the official.

The manifesto, which was sent to members of Allen’s family shortly before the attack, mocked the “insane” lack of security at the Washington Hilton, where the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was held, the official added. Allen was arrested at the scene.

“Like, the one thing that I immediately noticed walking into the hotel is the sense of arrogance,” the manifesto’s author reportedly wrote. “I walk in with multiple weapons and not a single person there considers the possibility that I could be a threat.”

The chaotic events raised fresh questions about the security of top U.S. officials, many of whom were gathered in the hotel’s expansive ballroom. Trump seized on the attention brought by the incident to promote his planned White House ballroom as a safer venue for such events.

“This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House. It cannot be built fast enough!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. 

The suspect traveled by Amtrak train from Los Angeles to Chicago and then to Washington, checking into the Hilton on Friday, acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said on multiple Sunday talk shows, adding that Trump and top members of his administration were the likely targets. Train passengers in the United States are not required to pass through airport-style metal detectors.

Amtrak said it is cooperating with the investigation.

POLITICAL VIOLENCE

Officials have said the suspect fired a shotgun at a Secret Service agent at a security checkpoint in the Washington Hilton hotel before being tackled and arrested.

Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Cabinet officials were rushed out as the incident unfolded. The Secret Service agent who was shot escaped serious injury because the bullet struck his protective vest, Trump said.

Trump, who had boycotted the media gala in the past, has requested that the dinner be rescheduled within 30 days. White House Correspondents’ Association President Weijia Jiang of CBS said the group’s board would determine their next steps.

The suspect will be charged in federal court on Monday with assault of a federal officer, discharging a firearm and attempting to kill a federal officer, Blanche said, adding he did not know if there was an Iran connection to the attack. Further federal indictments will be coming later, Blanche said.

Saturday’s incident was another reminder of a rising tide of political violence in the United States in recent years. Conservative political activist Charlie Kirk was shot dead at a rally last September, just months after the June 2025 slaying of Democratic Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband and the wounding of a Minnesota state senator.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted in the days following Kirk’s murder found Americans believe increasingly harsh rhetoric surrounding politics is encouraging violence in the U.S.

A White House official said law enforcement officials who interviewed Allen’s sister were told he had a tendency to make radical statements, had attended an anti-Trump “No Kings” protest and referred to a plan to do “something” to fix issues with today’s world.

Trump suggested the protest might have spurred the suspect to action. “Part of the reason you have people like that is you have people doing No Kings,” he told CBS. “I’m not a king.”

Around the world, leaders condemned the attack and expressed relief that Trump and all present were safe. 

A planned U.S. visit by King Charles of Britain scheduled to start on Monday will proceed, Trump and British officials said.

Little was immediately known about the alleged shooter’s background, but social media posts indicated he had worked at C2 Education, a national private test preparation and tutoring service. C2 Education said in a statement that it was cooperating with law enforcement investigators. 

Washington Interim Police Chief Jeffery Carroll said the suspect was armed with a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives. 

Allen had purchased two handguns and a shotgun and stored them at his parents’ home, the White House official said.

The suspect lived with his parents in a two-story house on a tree-lined street with picket fences and craftsman-style homes in the historic district of Torrance, a seaside town in the South Bay area of greater Los Angeles.

Neighbors in the middle-class neighborhood on Sunday said they were only casually acquainted with him and his parents, with most saying they never spoke to him beyond a brief hello or waving to them as they gave Halloween candy to trick-or-treaters.

(Additional reporting by Bo Erikson, Kanishka Singh, David Shepardson, Tim Reid, Steve Gorman, Jasper Ward, Gram Slattery, Andrea Shalal and Katharine Jackson in Washington, Nichola Groom in Los Angeles and Mike Spector in New York; Writing by David Lawder, Tim Reid and Andy Sullivan; Editing by William Mallard, Sergio Non, Ross Colvin, Caitlin Webber, Bill Berkrot, Deepa Babington and Nick Zieminski)

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April 26 (Reuters) – Republican Senator Thom Tillis on Sunday said he would allow Senate confirmation of Federal Reserve chair nominee Kevin Warsh to go forward after the Department of Justice on Friday dropped an investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell that Tillis viewed as a threat to the central bank’s political independence.

Tillis had vowed to block any Fed nominee from confirmation as long as the probe remained open.

“I am prepared to move on with the confirmation of Mr. Warsh,” Tillis, who represents North Carolina, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I think he’s going to be a great Fed chair.”

The decision ends months of limbo for Warsh and clears a path for his Senate confirmation by May 15, when Powell’s leadership term ends.

Powell disclosed in January that the DOJ had opened a criminal investigation into his management of a $2.5 billion renovation of two Fed buildings in Washington. In a blunt video released on a Sunday evening, Powell called it intimidation and part of the Trump administration’s attempts to pressure the Fed into cutting interest rates.

A federal judge in March blocked the DOJ’s subpoenas, finding they were issued for the improper purpose of getting Powell to lower rates or resign. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said she would appeal and just last week signaled publicly she would press on with the investigation.

On Friday, however, she said on X that she was ending it and would ask the Fed’s own inspector general, already months into its own review of the renovations, to take over.

Tillis said he received assurances from the Justice Department that the case was “completely and fully settled” and that the appeal would not be used to reopen the investigation.

He added in a post on X following the interview that the inspector general probe was “appropriate.”

“I have confidence it will be conducted thoroughly and professionally,” he said.

Tillis’ objections had never been about Warsh himself, whom he described at his confirmation hearing on Tuesday as having “impeccable” credentials.

CONFIRMATION EXPECTED WITH TILLIS SUPPORT

Warsh, a Fed governor from 2006 to 2011, has promised to overhaul the Fed’s approach to monetary policy and to cooperate more closely on non-monetary policy matters with the Treasury and other parts of government.

He told lawmakers at his hearing that Trump did not try to get him to promise to lower interest rates, though he also said he was not worried that tariffs were contributing to inflation, and suggested that Fed policymakers may be using measures of inflation that overestimate price pressures.

With Tillis’ support, the Senate Banking Committee’s Republicans now have the majority they need to outvote unified Democratic opposition and advance Warsh’s nomination to the full Senate, where Republicans are expected to confirm him.

With about three weeks to go before Powell’s chair term ends, during one of which the Senate is scheduled to be on recess, the timeline is tight. The Senate has only once before confirmed a Fed nominee in less than three weeks. 

Powell has said he would serve as temporary chair should Warsh not be confirmed before May 15.

Once Warsh is installed as Fed chair, Powell may still stay on as a governor under a term that runs for another year and a half.

“I have no intention of leaving the Board until the investigation is well and truly over, with transparency and finality,” Powell said last month. 

Pirro said on Friday that she may resume her investigation depending on the inspector general’s findings. Senate Democrats Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Dick Durbin of Illinois on Friday called that statement a threat of “future baseless investigations” into Powell or any other Fed governor.

(Reporting by Nichola Groom in San Marino, California and Ryan Patrick Jones in Toronto; Editing by Katharine Jackson and Bill Berkrot)

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