Politics

By Caroline Valetkevitch

NEW YORK, April 11 (Reuters) – The Manhattan district attorney’s office confirmed on Saturday that it is investigating sexual assault allegations against U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat and a leading candidate for governor of the state.

The San Francisco Chronicle on Friday reported that a woman who previously worked in Swalwell’s district office accused him of two nonconsensual sexual encounters, one while she was employed by him in 2019 and another in 2024 after she had left his staff. She told CNN that he raped her during the 2024 encounter in a New York City hotel.

Swalwell has denied the accusations nL6N40U00G as “absolutely false” and vowed to fight them, but several leading Democrats have urged him to end his bid for governor.

The woman, whom the Chronicle and CNN did not name, was quoted as saying she had been too intoxicated on both occasions to consent, according to the report.

CNN also reported that three other women accused Swalwell of sexual misconduct.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office urged anyone with knowledge of the allegations to contact its special victims division.

In his denial, Swalwell noted that the allegations come ahead of the June primary in the governor’s race. In a large field of candidates from multiple parties, Swalwell has been widely considered one of the leading contenders to advance to a runoff in California’s nonpartisan voting for governor.

The top two finishers in June’s primary will advance to the general election in November, even if they are from the same party.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Sergio Non and Franklin Paul)

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By Nandita Bose

WASHINGTON, April 10 (Reuters) – Americans are souring on the U.S. economy to a degree never before seen, with the stiffest inflation in four years exacerbating the political risk for President Donald Trump, who some administration officials worry has lost focus on affordability problems for voters as he trains attention on the war against Iran.

Few issues resonate with U.S. voters more deeply than price increases, and the latest inflationary upswing is unsettling key insiders at the White House worried about their Republican Party’s prospects in critical midterm elections less than seven months away.

Republican lawmakers and senior White House aides have for months urged Trump to focus more on the economy, which is the top concern for voters. Trump has struggled, however, to show that he feels Americans’ pain and has repeatedly declared victory over inflation, despite official data showing otherwise.

Data from the Labor Department on Friday showed inflation soared in March, the first full month of the war the U.S. and Israel launched against Iran on February 28, which resulted in Tehran choking off a fifth of the world’s oil supply from flowing through the critical Strait of Hormuz.

The resulting upward spike in crude oil prices drove a record-setting increase in gasoline costs across the U.S., Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed, and that pushed headline inflation up by the most since June 2022 when the post-COVID pandemic price surge that ravaged former President Joe Biden’s political prospects hit its peak.

Alongside that, household sentiment over the economy took a nosedive, with the University of Michigan’s benchmark Consumer Sentiment Index sliding to a record low at the beginning of April.

“Demographic groups across age, income, and political party all posted setbacks in sentiment, as did every component of the index, reflecting the widespread nature of this month’s fall,” survey Director Joanne Hsu said in a statement.

And it was not just Trump’s perennial critics among Democrats giving low marks to the state of the economy now and its prospects for the future. The biggest decline was recorded among the survey’s self-identified Republicans, whose sentiment score now sits near its lowest since Trump returned to office in January 2025 after winning back the White House on promises to lower the high prices that dogged Biden through most of his presidency.

Indeed, some top Trump administration officials, including White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, have become increasingly alarmed that not enough effort is being spent on bringing down high prices.

Wiles has privately urged advisers to be more declarative on the economic and political downsides of the war, a White House official told Reuters this week on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations.

Beyond the University of Michigan survey, public opinion polling shows that Americans are increasingly losing confidence in Trump’s stewardship of the economy, which political analysts say could hurt his Republican Party as it fights to retain slim majorities in Congress in the November midterms.

“President Trump has always been clear about short-term disruptions as a result of Operation Epic Fury, disruptions that the administration has been diligently working to mitigate,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said Friday on social media as the White House made an effort to shift focus from gasoline prices. “Prices of eggs, beef, prescription drugs, dairy and other household essentials are falling or remain stable thanks to President Trump’s policies.”

Indeed, food prices were unchanged last month and egg prices have fallen 45% in the last year, the most ever, a fact Trump frequently cites.

But economists do worry that energy costs – unless lowered by a deal with Iran to reopen the strait and restart the flow of oil – could start feeding into a wider inflation breakout if they remain elevated for much longer.

Diesel fuel costs that have been pushed to within 20 cents a gallon of their record high are a critical cost input for truckers and farmers, and those costs could soon be passed along to consumers in the form of higher food costs.

(Reporting by Nandita Bose; Writing by Dan Burns; Editing by Andrea Ricci )

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By Kristina Cooke and Ted Hesson

WASHINGTON, April 10 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s administration plans to crack down on networks it says help pregnant women lie on visa applications in order to secure U.S. citizenship for their U.S.-born babies, an issue that Trump has highlighted to justify his attempts to restrict birthright citizenship.    

In an internal email sent Thursday and reviewed by Reuters, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ordered investigative agents around the country to focus on a new “Birth Tourism Initiative.” The operation will seek to root out networks that help pregnant foreign nationals come to the U.S. to give birth so their children can receive citizenship, it said.

Trump, a Republican, has kicked off an aggressive push to reduce both legal and illegal immigration after taking office in January 2025. His administration has used the threat of birth tourism as a rationale for attempting to restrict the practice of granting automatic citizenship to children born on U.S. soil.

“Uninhibited birth tourism poses a tremendous cost to taxpayers and threatens our national security,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement, adding that most nations do not provide automatic citizenship at birth.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on any ongoing investigations, but said it was aware that some networks facilitate travel to the U.S. for birth tourism.

“While the act of giving birth in the United States is not unlawful, DHS remains focused on identifying and addressing potential violations of federal law associated with these activities,” a spokesperson said.

No U.S. law outright bars birth tourism, but a federal regulation implemented in 2020 during Trump’s first term prohibits using temporary tourist and business visas for the primary purpose of obtaining U.S. citizenship for a newborn. People who engage in birth tourism schemes could be prosecuted for fraud or other related crimes.

BIRTH TOURISM USED AS RATIONALE TO LIMIT CITIZENSHIP

There are no official figures tallying the number of foreigners who come to the U.S. for the explicit purpose of giving birth and obtaining citizenship for their children, or the cost to taxpayers.

The Center for Immigration Studies, which supports lower levels of immigration, estimated in an analysis in 2020 that between 20,000-25,000 mothers came to the U.S. for birth tourism in a year-long period between 2016-2017. 

There were 3.6 million births in the U.S. in 2025 and birth tourism likely represents a fraction of total births.

Republicans have highlighted allegations of birth tourism as a reason to limit access to U.S. citizenship, which has long been conferred at birth under an amendment to the Constitution. 

Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office that instructed U.S. agencies not to recognize the citizenship of children born in the U.S. if neither parent is an American citizen or legal permanent resident, a sharp break from legal precedent spanning more than a century.

Multiple federal judges blocked the order, sending the case to the Supreme Court for oral arguments last week. U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer, representing the Trump administration, said automatic citizenship had encouraged “a sprawling industry of birth tourism.” 

Sauer said the promise of citizenship for those born in the U.S. had encouraged thousands of people from “potentially hostile nations” to come to give birth, “creating a whole generation of American citizens abroad with no meaningful ties to the United States.”

ICE AIMS TO FIND FRAUD

ICE’s new birth tourism effort  – spearheaded by its Homeland Security Investigations arm – aims to surface cases of fraud, but it is unclear how many cases they might find.

“HIS is advancing efforts to protect the integrity of U.S. immigration and identification systems, specifically targeting fraudulent activities associated with birth tourism schemes,” the email said. The agency said it would seek to disrupt “fraud, financial crimes, and organized facilitation networks that exploit lawful immigration processes.”

In one federal case in 2019, more than a dozen people were charged in a scheme to operate “birth houses” in Southern California that catered to wealthy women from China.

In the case — billed by ICE at the time as the first U.S. prosecution against birth tourism — Chinese national Dongyuan Li pleaded guilty to federal charges in connection with the scheme. She was sentenced to 10 months in prison and released in December 2019.

Another Chinese national, Chao “Edwin” Chen, was sentenced to three years in prison in 2020 but had already fled the U.S. for China, according to ICE.

(Reporting by Kristina Cooke in San Francisco and Ted Hesson in Washington; Editing by Michael Learmonth and Alistair Bell)

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By Daniel Trotta

April 10 (Reuters) – U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat and a leading candidate for governor of the state, on Friday flatly denied accusations of sexual assault by a former congressional staffer as “absolutely false.”

He vowed to fight the allegations in a post on X, while apologizing to his wife for unspecified “mistakes in judgment in my past.”

Several leading Democratic politicians responded to the accounts of sexual assault by urging Swalwell to end his campaign for governor. Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of the Democrats in the House, called for an investigation.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported on Friday that a woman who previously worked in Swalwell’s district office accused him of two nonconsensual sexual encounters, one while she was employed by him in 2019 and another in 2024 after she had left his staff.

The woman, whom the newspaper did not name, was quoted as saying she had been too intoxicated on both occasions to consent, according to the report.

The former staffer later told CNN that Swalwell had raped her during the later encounter, which Swalwell strongly denied.

“I was pushing him off of me, saying no,” the woman told CNN on camera but in shadow to disguise her appearance. When asked how he responded, the woman said, “He didn’t stop.”

Swalwell denied the assertions.

“These allegations of sexual assault are flat false. They are absolutely false. They did not happen. They have never happened,” Swalwell said in a video post. “I will fight them with everything that I have.”

He noted that the allegations come ahead of the June primary in the governor’s race, saying he was the frontrunner.

“For over 20 years, I have served the public as a city councilman, as a member of Congress and as a prosecutor who went to court on behalf of victims, particularly on behalf of sexual assault victims,” Swalwell said.

He said he was not a “saint” and that he had “certainly made mistakes in judgment in my past, but those mistakes are between me and my wife, and to her, I apologize deeply for putting her in this position.”

The accusations have jolted the campaign.

U.S. Senator Adam Schiff, another nationally prominent Democrat, withdrew his endorsement and urged Swalwell to leave the race. The California Teachers Association, the largest teachers’ union in the state, suspended its support. The House Democratic leadership, including Jeffries, said Swalwell should “immediately end his campaign.”

In a large field of candidates from multiple parties, Swalwell has been widely considered one of the leading contenders to advance to a runoff in California’s nonpartisan voting for governor. The top two finishers in June’s primary will advance to the general election in November, even if they are from the same party.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California; Additional reporting by Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru. Editing by William Mallard)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — In Hungary, President Donald Trump and his top officials used social media and an election-eve trip to Budapest to promote the country’s far-right prime minister in his reelection campaign.

In Argentina, the U.S. administration worked to prop up the country’s financial markets to the tune of $20 billion — then Trump threatened to pull the assistance if its elections didn’t go his preferred way.

And in Honduras, he backed a conservative former mayor for president — and pardoned a predecessor from the same political party as Hondurans were preparing to vote.

In his second term, Trump has made a public flex of his political influence abroad on a scale that few if any U.S. presidents have exerted, trying to marshal power that he’s used domestically to sway races in Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe.

Using endorsements to reward loyal and like-minded leaders, he has shattered a U.S. tradition of avoiding overt involvement in the internal politics of other countries, and made the use of some foreign policy tools more about politics than about advancing U.S. interests, according to his critics.

“The impact of that is to really cheapen a relationship,” said David Pressman, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Hungary during the Biden administration. Pressman, who was on the ground in Budapest as Orban publicly backed Trump in 2024, said Hungarian positions on key issues such as Ukraine felt “infused through a political U.S. rubric,” rather than articulated as sovereign foreign policy.

The most significant test yet of Trump’s political power abroad may come Sunday, when voters in Hungary render a verdict on Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s bid for a fifth term. Orbán was the first European leader to back Trump during his 2016 run and remained a close ally even during Trump’s period of political exile, making sojourns to see him in south Florida and again endorsing the Republican in his 2024 comeback race.

“I love Hungary and I love that Viktor,” Trump said this week as Vice President JD Vance, visiting Budapest, put him on speakerphone at a rally with more than 1,000 Orbán supporters.

Trump has long reveled in his status as kingmaker in the Republican Party. Now, he boasts that foreign leaders come to him seeking his approval.

“I love it when I give endorsements and people win,” Trump said last month at a summit with several Latin American leaders whom he had backed.

Often, his picks share his policy views, like fellow immigration hard-liners Orbán and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, or the chainsaw-wielding Argentine President Javier Milei, who used the tool to illustrate his zeal to slash spending.

Trump and his officials have often used the Conservative Political Action Conference as a stage for promoting their foreign political friends.

At a CPAC gathering in Warsaw last year, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem urged Poles to vote for conservative Karol Nawrocki, and implied that the future of the U.S. military presence in Poland could hinge on the election’s outcome. Nawrocki would go on to win.

In Hungary last month, Trump greeted CPAC attendees with a video message from behind the Resolute Desk, urging support for Orbán.

“The prime minister has been a strong leader who’s shown the entire world what’s possible when you defend your borders, your culture, your heritage, your sovereignty and your values,” Trump said. He later added, “I hope he wins, and I hope he wins big.”

The White House defended Trump’s approach as a sign of transparency.

“President Trump is a great American statesman who will speak or work with anyone, and he makes no secret about those he likes or supports,” spokeswoman Anna Kelly said. “Many individuals who align with President Trump’s ideology are getting elected to top offices around the world because everyone wants to replicate his immeasurable success on behalf of the American people,” she said.

Few foreign leaders have amassed as much political support from the Trump administration as Orbán. The U.S. president has fired off multiple Truth Social posts promoting the prime minister, whose hard-right authoritarian approach to governance has endeared him to Trump, as did his fealty to the U.S. president even when Trump was out of power.

“Hungary: GET OUT AND VOTE FOR VIKTOR ORBÁN,” Trump posted Thursday night. On Friday, he said his administration “stands ready to use the full Economic Might of the United States” to help Hungary’s economy, if Orbán and Hungarians need it.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as a senator, once aired concerns about “democratic erosion” under Orbán. Nonetheless, Rubio endorsed him in February and promoted the “very, very close personal relationship and working relationship” between Trump and the prime minister.

During Vance’s two-day swing to Budapest this week, he made the administration’s endorsement of Orbán explicit even as he decried foreign election interference from the European Union.

“Of course we’re going to work with whoever wins the Hungarian election because we love the people of Hungary and it’s an important relationship,” Vance told reporters. “But Viktor Orbán is going to win the next election in Hungary, so I feel very confident about that and about our continued positive relationship.”

But Orbán had been trailing in independent polls ahead of the April 12 election and Trump — whose push to acquire Greenland and war in Iran have made him unpopular throughout Europe — may have less sway than he once had.

Past administrations have used different methods to influence power abroad. For instance, the Central Intelligence Agency under President Dwight D. Eisenhower helped engineer a 1954 coup that forced out Guatemala’s president, Jacobo Arbenz.

There have been rare cases when past presidents made their support explicit, such as when former President Bill Clinton backed Russian President Boris Yeltsin’s 1993 move to dissolve parliament and set up new legislative and presidential elections.

But Trump’s political engagement abroad is without precedent, said James Lindsay, a distinguished senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“Trump is just different than other presidents, and he’s viewed differently than other presidents, and that is a strength you can take advantage of,” Lindsay said.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said Trump’s blatant involvement in elections abroad should be viewed as part of the what the administration called the “‘Trump Corollary’ to the Monroe Doctrine” in its national security strategy released in December. The 1823 Monroe Doctrine, named for President James Monroe, has been used to justify U.S. military interventions in Latin America.

Kaine, who was a missionary in Honduras at a time of deep covert U.S. involvement in Latin America, called the doctrine “poison language” for the region. “It’s violating best practice,” he said. “America has been deeply involved in regime support, opposition and regime change in the Americas for centuries, and it is not a legacy that we should be proud of.”

Sometimes Trump’s support for foreign candidates has come with more than an endorsement.

In October, Trump was particularly blunt about his intent to withhold assistance for Argentina if Milei’s political coalition didn’t prevail in legislative elections that month. Shortly before Milei’s visit, the administration had finalized a $20 billion currency swap line, aid that had drawn fierce criticism from U.S. farmers and Democratic lawmakers.

“If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina. OK?” Trump told a reporter as he hosted Milei at a White House lunch.

In the final days of last year’s Honduran elections, Trump not only made his preference for Nasry Asfura clear, but also emphasized that “the United States will not be throwing good money after bad” if Asfura lost. Both Milei and Asfura were successful in their respective elections.

Trump also announced a pardon for former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez for U.S. drug trafficking and weapons convictions. “This cannot be allowed to happen, especially now, after Tito Asfura wins the Election, when Honduras will be on its way to Great Political and Financial Success,” Trump wrote on social media.

Trump has repeatedly floated a pardon for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including in a formal letter and during a speech to the country’s parliament. Netanyahu is enmeshed in a far-reaching corruption case that includes allegations of fraud, breach of trust and bribery. He faces what could be a tough reelection campaign this year.

A fiery Vance speech in the early weeks of the Trump administration strained ties with Germany when, at the Munich Security Conference, he criticized mainstream German parties for refusing to work with a far-right party.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz later said it was not the place for a U.S. leader to “say something like that to us in Germany.”

“I wouldn’t do it in America, either,” Merz said.

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By Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON, April 10 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s profanity-laced threats to wipe out Iran’s civilization have led some Democrats to discuss attempting to remove him from office by using the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Such an effort would be an uphill struggle, since doing so would require the support of Trump’s fellow Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress. Despite his falling overall public approval, some 82% of Republicans are happy with his presidency.

Trying to remove him from office could also hold political peril for Democrats – who twice tried and failed to remove Trump from office by impeaching him during his first term.

Here is a look at the amendment and the issues:

WHAT IS THE 25TH AMENDMENT?

The 25th Amendment was ratified in 1967. It was introduced after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and is intended to clarify the process of presidential succession, ensuring that the United States always has a functioning president and vice president.

The Constitution’s original presidential succession clause did not address vice presidential vacancies. Between President George Washington’s first term in 1789 and 1967, the vice presidency was vacant for more than 37 years cumulatively because of death, resignation, or succession to the presidency, according to the Congressional Research Service. 

HAS THE 25TH AMENDMENT EVER BEEN INVOKED?

Presidents have invoked Section 3 of the amendment – dealing with circumstances in which the president is unable to discharge their responsibilities – when they knew they would be incapacitated due to medical procedures, such as in 2021, when then-President Joe Biden underwent a colonoscopy.

But Section 4, covering the involuntary removal of a president, has never been invoked. Section 4 allows the vice president and a majority of the president’s cabinet, or, alternatively, the vice president and a majority of another unspecified body designated by Congress, to declare a president unable to discharge the powers and duties of their office.

However, if the president contests that decision, Congress must assemble to decide the issue within 48 hours and two-thirds majorities of both the Senate and House of Representatives must agree that the president is incapable. If not, the president resumes their duties.

HAS THIS BEEN TRIED BEFORE?

Some Democrats, including Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, called for then-Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the 25th Amendment after Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

But the calls came to nothing. Trump also was impeached twice by the Democratic-majority House, over charges he improperly withheld aid to Ukraine and over the Capitol riot, but there were too few Republican senators willing to back the charges to muster the two-thirds majority necessary to convict him either time.

Trump was elected to a second term in November 2024, winning 312 Electoral College votes to 226 for Biden’s vice president, Kamala Harris. 

Scott Anderson, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said an attempt to use the 25th Amendment would fail without a massive Republican defection, as it would need the approval of two-thirds majorities in both the House and Senate.

“It’s a political no-go,” he said.

Trump’s Republicans hold slim majorities in both the Senate and House.

WHAT IS THE POLITICAL RISK?

House Democrats planned a members-only briefing on Friday on “Trump administration accountability” and the 25th Amendment.

But as they fight for control of the House and Senate in November’s midterms, Democratic lawmakers have been trying to focus on policy – such as promoting job growth, fighting inflation and broadening the availability of childcare – rather than presenting themselves mostly as the resistance to Trump.

“We are in the minority. So bringing forward impeachment right now, while he is guilty of a litany of high crimes and misdemeanors, I don’t think is the best use of our time,” Democratic Representative Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania told a news conference on Thursday.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, a close Trump ally, criticized Democrats over the issue in a statement on Friday. “Congressional Democrats have no message, no vision, and no leadership, and they are offering nothing to the American people except an irrational hatred of President Donald Trump,” Johnson said.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; editing by Michael Learmonth and Rosalba O’Brien)

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NEW YORK (AP) — In his first 100 days in office, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has governed with a star power unusual in politics.

Crowds of supporters show up to his news conferences. Basic municipal services have been infused with newfound excitement. Celebrities help him promote his agenda.

In the process, he’s been able to notch a few notable early wins. And he’s reached a detente, at least for now, with President Donald Trump, a mercurial leader with an affinity for celebrities.

But as Mamdani, a Democrat, marks an early milestone in his mayoralty, it remains to be seen whether he’ll be able to leverage his fame into achieving the progressive policy proposals that propelled him to office.

Though he still has staunch critics, many of whom still view his past criticisms of the police department and Israel as major problems, Mamdani has been able to ease concerns among at least some skeptics.

“It’s early but so far, so good,” said Jay Jacobs, chair of the state’s Democratic Party, who made waves for not endorsing Mamdani during the election. “We may not agree on everything philosophically, but he is getting the job done.”

As the mayor approached his 100th day — long a benchmark for judging an administration’s opening vision — his team has moved to highlight the administration’s commitment to the everyday responsibilities of the job.

While much of those duties are typical for his local office — picking up trash, plowing snow and filling potholes — the 34-year-old mayor has leaned on his knack for viral content creation to drive interest and awareness of government programs.

To hype up his child care program for 2-year-olds, Mamdani recruited Cardi B to help judge a jingle contest that will determine the initiative’s theme song. His slick social media videos helped recruit thousands of new snow shovelers as a storm bore down on the city. A public service announcement he made brought more than 50,000 new subscribers to the city’s emergency alert system in a single week.

A few weeks ago, alongside Natasha Cloud of the New York Liberty, Mamdani announced a bracket-style competition where people could vote on small projects for him to come and personally fix on his 100th day.

On Friday, Mamdani selected a winner — a garbage-filled lot in the Bronx — and helped pick up some of the junk with a sanitation crew, following a celebratory event that featured an overflowing trash can mascot and a cheerleading squad.

“I think every single day it’s an opportunity to meet the needs of New Yorkers,” he said. “And what we’ve seen over the course of this 100 days is that New York City wants to see a city government that is able to meet the biggest needs and the smallest needs.”

The celebrity status, though, can also prompt backlash. During a bitter cold snap, his surprise appearance on “The Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon was seen by some as insensitive at a moment when the death toll of homeless New Yorkers was rapidly rising.

“Too much styling and profiling,” said Curtis Sliwa, a Republican who ran against Mamdani during last year’s election, noting longstanding problems with street homelessness, public housing and infrastructure.

Still, Sliwa, who hammered Mamdani during the campaign but recently appeared in a comedy skit with the mayor during the City Hall press corps’ annual roast, appeared to give Mamdani some credit, even if it came with a caveat.

“We just had Eric Adams, swagger man who’d party to the break of dawn, and now we have a guy who seems like he’s got a normal working schedule,” said Sliwa, referencing the city’s previous mayor. “So having Zohran as the alternative, I think for a lot of people even if they disagree with him, there’s some stability.”

On the night of Mamdani’s election party, hundreds packed the streets, some spontaneously, waiting for a glimpse of the mayor-elect leaving the venue. Departing campaign aides were cheered, by name, well after midnight. One attendee likened the street party to Beatlemania.

“I feel like I’m at a presidential inauguration,” said Medhavie Agnihotri, a 25-year-old tech consultant. “This is the first time in a while I’ve felt this hope.”

His star power has not appeared to wane since then.

Outside City Hall, New Yorkers and tourists frequently stop for selfies, peering through the iron gates in search of the mayor.

This week, on the mayor’s 97th day in office, a crowd gathered in the lobby of the busy Bellevue hospital in Manhattan to watch as Mamdani announced the city would start transferring Rikers Island jail detainees with serious medical illnesses to a specialized unit at the hospital.

He entered to woos and applause from the onlookers, as many held up cellphones to record videos of the mayor. Dozens more watched along from a set of elevated walkways.

One man, Ricardo Granados, a 67-year-old retiree, was on his way to take his son to a medical appointment but stopped to see what all the hubbub was about just before the news conference started. He appeared delighted to learn the mayor was going to show up, saying he met Mamdani previously when Mamdani was campaigning in his neighborhood.

“I’m extremely fond of him. I think he’s going to make a real difference,” Granados said. “He wants to find out who needs what and he wants to help.”

___

AP writer Jake Offenhartz contributed to this story

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WASHINGTON, April 10 (Reuters) – Two Democratic U.S. senators have called on the federal commodities markets watchdog to investigate lucrative recent trading activity on oil markets since March 23 that closely coincided with White House moves in the Iran war, adding to pressure from opposition party members on possible insider trading, according to a letter released Friday.

* The letters from Senator Elizabeth Warren, the topDemocrat on the Senate Banking Committee, and Senator SheldonWhitehouse, cited reporting by Reuters and other news outlets onunusually large commodity and equities trades that closelypreceded major White House decisions on Iran, Venezuela andtariff impositions, which experts said was suspicious. * Representatives for the U.S. Commodity Futures TradingCommission did not immediately respond to a request for commentbut the agency’s new enforcement director said last month thatpolicing insider trading would be a priority. * The White House has denied wrongdoing and said Thursday ithad warned staff against leveraging inside information. * “This is now a recurring concern during the Trumpadministration,” the letter, dated Thursday, said, calling onthe CFTC to furnish answers to series of questions aboutinvestigative steps and market surveillance. * The letter follows last week’s query from DemocraticSenators Mark Warner and Adam Schiff to the Securities andExchange Commission and Defense Department Inspector General,raising similar questions.

(Reporting by Douglas Gillison in Washington; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )

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By Patricia Zengerle and Richard Cowan

WASHINGTON, April 9 (Reuters) – U.S. House of Representatives Republicans on Thursday blocked a Democratic effort to end U.S. attacks on Iran, as Donald Trump’s party continued to prevent efforts to rein in the Republican president’s war powers.

Representative Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican, presided over an abbreviated “pro forma” House session, ending it before a group of Democrats could seek to pass by unanimous consent the resolution, which would have called for an end to the U.S. military operation.

While Thursday’s action was largely symbolic, top Democrats in the House and Senate have vowed to force war powers votes again when they return from recess next week.

Congressional Democrats have tried and repeatedly failed in recent months to pass war powers resolutions to force Trump to obtain lawmakers’ authorization before launching military operations, in both Venezuela and Iran.

Trump’s threat early this week that “a whole civilization will die” intensified concern among Democrats, dozens of whom called for Trump’s removal from office. The 1949 Geneva Conventions on humanitarian conduct in war prohibit attacks on sites considered essential for ‌civilians.

“Threatening genocide is not a negotiating tactic,” Representative Sara Jacobs, a California Democrat, told a news conference outside the Capitol after the pro forma session, held because Congress is out of Washington for the two-week Easter recess.

Trump announced that he had agreed to a ceasefire in the U.S.-Israel war on Iran on Tuesday, less than two hours before his deadline for Tehran to reopen the blockaded Strait of Hormuz or face devastating attacks on its civilian infrastructure.

The White House says Trump’s actions are legal and within his rights as commander-in-chief to protect the U.S. by ordering limited military operations. 

Iran says its nuclear program is peaceful. The Trump administration has sought to portray the war as a decisive victory, although the top U.S. general said U.S. troops stood ready to resume fighting. 

Trump’s fellow Republicans hold slim majorities in both the Senate and House, and have almost unanimously backed all of his policies. 

Although the U.S. Constitution says that Congress, not the president, can declare war, that restriction does not apply for short-term operations or if the country faces an immediate threat.

A RETURN TO IMPEACHMENT?

Almost since the beginning of Trump’s second term on January 20, 2025, Democrats have lashed out as they accused him of usurping Congress’ constitutional powers over federal spending and setting tariffs on foreign imports while testing limits on his military operations. Trump has also threatened to take over Greenland and end U.S. membership in NATO.

But one line nearly all Democrats in Congress refused to cross — until now — was even uttering the word “impeachment” in regard to Trump.

During Trump’s first presidency, representatives twice impeached him, only to see Senate Republicans acquit him of abusing his powers and other charges.

Now, Democrats are openly raising the question of impeachment and encouraging use of the U.S. Constitution’s 25th Amendment to relieve Trump of his duties, at least temporarily.

Their fears of voter backlash for again trying to impeach Trump have diminished since he threatened to bomb Iran into the “Stone Age” and wipe out all of Iranian civilization.

Impeachment “is a constitutional provision to rein in an unscrupulous, thoughtless president,” Democratic Representative Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania said at the press conference.

“There is literally a list of high crimes and misdemeanors that he has committed,” she said, referring to the conditions for impeachment that could be weighed if Democrats win control of the House in November’s elections.

THE AFFORDABILITY ‘CRISIS’

Democrats are attempting to link their efforts to rein in Trump on Iran to affordability, as disruptions in shipments of oil and natural gas have caused a run-up in U.S. gasoline prices and agricultural products such as fertilizers — on top of the long list of other high consumer prices.

“We’re spending millions of dollars on Patriot missiles to intercept drones that Iran launches from the back of a pickup truck and costs ten or $20,000, while at the same time in our home state of Virginia 33,000 Virginians have lost our health insurance, said Democratic Representative James Walkinshaw.

He was referring to Republicans blocking the renewal of an expired federal subsidy that lowered Americans’ “Obamacare” health insurance premiums.

(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Richard Cowan, editing by Deepa Babington, Michael Learmonth and Cynthia Osterman)

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A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit from the U.S. Department of Justice seeking Massachusetts’ state voter rolls, marking the latest setback in a wide-ranging effort by the Trump administration to collect detailed data on the nation’s voters.

The ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Leo Sorokin marks at least the fifth time a judge has rejected similar attempts by the Justice Department. Sorokin, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, said the U.S. attorney general’s office did not take the necessary steps required to access voter rolls, as outlined in federal law.

“Put simply, the statute requires a statement of why the Attorney General demands production of the requested records,” Sorokin wrote. That statement has to be factual, “not just a conceivable or possible basis.”

In an emailed response, the Justice Department said it “does not comment on ongoing litigation.”

It has said it’s seeking the voter data as part of an effort to ensure election security, but Democratic and Republican officials in several states have refused, saying the demand violates state and federal privacy laws. Some have raised concerns that federal officials will use the sensitive data for other purposes, such as searching for potential noncitizens.

During a hearing last month in Rhode Island, a DOJ attorney told a federal judge that the department was seeking unredacted voter roll information so it could be shared with the Department of Homeland Security to check citizenship status. DHS over the past year has beefed up the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, program, for just this purpose.

“Our intention is to run this against the DHS SAVE database,” DOJ attorney Eric Neff told U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy during a March 26 hearing challenging the federal government’s authority to access the voter data.

The Justice Department has sued at least 30 states and the District of Columbia seeking to force release of the data, which includes dates of birth, addresses, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers.

At least 12 states have either provided or promised to provide their detailed voter registration lists to the department, according to the Brennan Center: Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.

In the Massachusetts case, the the judge found that the Justice Department failed to follow the requirements for demanding the voter rolls set by a 1960 civil rights law.

That law, enacted as part of an effort to end racial discrimination in elections, says state voter records must be made available for inspection by the U.S. attorney general if the office includes a statement outlining why the information is being demanded and how it will be used.

The department’s letter demanding Massachusetts’ voter data made no reference to the Civil Rights Act and didn’t cite any concerns about the way Massachusetts complied with federal voting laws, the judge said. Most importantly, it didn’t include any factual basis for the demand, Sorokin wrote.

In court documents, the Justice Department said it was demanding the data to check for “Massachusetts’ possible lack of compliance” with federal voter registration list requirements. It also said the Civil Rights Act was designed to be an investigatory tool to identify federal election law violations and argued that the U.S. attorney general can’t be required to prove a violation before seeking evidence of one.

“These arguments miss the point,” Sorokin wrote.

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell called the ruling a decisive win for voters and the rule of law.

“The privacy of our voters is not up for negotiation, and I will continue to defend the integrity and security of our elections from the Trump Administration’s cruel and harmful agenda,” she said in a news release.

Four federal judges in other states have dismissed similar lawsuits from the Department of Justice.

A federal judge in Michigan found the laws cited by the Justice Department do not require the disclosure of the voter records sought by the federal government. A federal judge in California said the administration “may not unilaterally usurp the authority over elections,” which the Constitution gives to the states and Congress. A federal judge in Oregon said the federal government was not entitled to unredacted voter registration lists containing sensitive data.

A federal judge in Georgia dismissed a DOJ lawsuit because he found it had been filed in the wrong city. The federal government then refiled the lawsuit in the city specified by the judge; that case is ongoing.

The Justice Department has appealed the Oregon, California and Michigan dismissals.

___ Boone reported from Boise, Idaho. Associated Press writer Kimberlee Kruesi in Providence, Rhode Island, contributed to this report.

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