Politics

U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson ruled Wednesday that the plaintiffs in Harris v. DeSoto County did not provide enough evidence that DeSoto County district maps were drawn to intentionally dilute Black voting power.

In ruling for DeSoto County, Davidson wrote, “plaintiffs cannot prove their claims for vote dilution pursuant to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, and judgment must be awarded to defendants.”

Davidson’s ruling comes after hearing arguments in the case in March.

The federal lawsuit, filed in September of 2024, alleged that the 2022 DeSoto County electoral map diluted Black voting power in county office elections. The plaintiffs sought a new redistricting plan and special elections for positions on the boards of supervisors and education and for the election commission, plus the offices of constable and justice court judge.

The ruling comes in the wake of the recent U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in Louisiana v Callias. The decision weakened the federal Voting Rights Act’s protections against racially discriminatory redistricting.

The ruling triggered protests and political battles over redistricting and the future of voting rights across the country.

The ACLU of Mississippi released a stateme nt calling the decision in the DeSoto County case “deeply disappointing.”

“The (recent U.S. Supreme Court) Callais opinion pretends to adhere to the text of the Voting Rights Act and only updates the test for proving vote dilution,” the statement read. “In reality, the Supreme Court is directing federal courts to close their eyes and ignore the clear results of discriminatory maps.”

Mike Hurst, state Republican Party chairman, represented DeSoto County in the case. Hurst told MPB the case was nothing more than, “Democrats are mad they can’t win an election in DeSoto County because it’s a Republican county.”

DeSoto County, located just south of Memphis in northwest Mississippi, has been one of the state’s fastest growing counties for years. The Black population of DeSoto also has been growing and now represents more than 30% of the total population of 190,000.

None of the 25 county offices determined by the map is held by a Black person. However, DeSoto County does have a Black sheriff elected countywide, Democratic Black state legislators elected from majority-Black districts and a Black Republican House member elected from a majority-white district. The lawsuit did not address legislative districts.

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This story was originally published by Mississippi Today and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

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By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON, June 25 (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will host a summit on July 15 that will include dozens of countries to discuss ways to counter a resurgence in political violence, a State Department official said on Thursday.

The “ministerial on resurgence of political terrorism” will be held in Washington and Rubio plans to invite representatives of more than 60 countries from regions including the Western Hemisphere, Europe and Asia, the official said.

The summit follows President Donald Trump’s counterterrorism strategy, which he signed in May, focused on identifying and neutralizing what the White House called “violent, secular political ​groups whose ideology is anti-American, radically transgender or anarchist, such as Antifa.”

The State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the global threat has not been adequately addressed in the past.

“Our counterterrorism operating system needs an update to deal with the reality of such threats, to protect American citizens and U.S. national security and interests,” the official said.

U.S. efforts target activity that meets the definition of terrorism: assassinations, kidnapping, violent threats to government, facilities, and law enforcement as well as attacks on critical infrastructure and military personnel, the official said.

After the assassination in September ​of conservative ⁠activist Charlie Kirk, White House aides called for a coordinated effort against unnamed left-wing groups accused of promoting violence.

The White House said the U.S. strategy would also focus on ⁠right-wing groups ​that foment violence.

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

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WASHINGTON, June 25 (Reuters) – U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said on Thursday he will transmit the housing bill to the White House following his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, an Axios reporter said in a post on X.

Johnson’s comments come after Trump on Wednesday canceled a planned signing of the bipartisan legislation aimed at speeding up the construction and availability of more affordable housing in an effort to pressure lawmakers to enact the SAVE America Act.

A source briefed on the matter earlier on Thursday told Reuters that Trump and Johnson were expected to have a conversation related to a pathway for the SAVE America Act and also rescheduling the signing ceremony for the housing bill.

(Reporting by Costas Pitas, Daphne Psaledakis and Steve Holland; Editing by Christian Martinez)

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By Nate Raymond and David Shepardson

BOSTON, June 25 (Reuters) – A federal judge in Boston on Thursday blocked implementation of U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order aiming to tighten rules ‌for mail-in voting, preventing it from taking effect ahead of November elections that will decide control of Congress.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani sided with a coalition of Democratic-led states that argued that the Republican president is trying to unlawfully interfere with the states’ administration of federal elections.

The judge declared key parts of Trump’s order unconstitutional as she found that Trump had exceeded his authority in trying to overhaul procedures for elections, which since the republic’s founding in 1789 have been run by states and local governments.

“The Constitution does not grant the President any specific powers over elections,” wrote Talwani, who was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama.

She said the president lacked any authority to direct the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to compile voter eligibility lists for each state to use and that the U.S. Postal Service had no statutory authorization to adopt any binding regulations on mail-in voting.

Talwani barred the administration from enforcing Trump’s order ahead of the November 3 midterm elections that are set to decide whether Republicans ​can retain control of Congress and ordered it to submit a report by next week describing steps it has taken to comply with her ruling.

Democratic state attorneys general hailed the ruling. They had argued that allowing Trump’s order to stand would force their states to rush to overhaul election systems, causing chaos and likely disenfranchising eligible voters.

“This right to vote is the foundation of our democracy, and today’s decision protects that foundation from another unlawful attack,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, said in a statement.

An appeal is likely. The administration had recently convinced a different judge in Washington, D.C., to not block enforcement of Trump’s order at this time, given that agencies had yet to fully implement it.

“The president’s executive order lawfully protects our elections, and we are confident that we will ultimately prevail in its implementation,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement.

SERIES OF TRUMP ACTIONS TARGETING ELECTIONS

The ruling came a day after another judge in Boston permanently blocked parts of an earlier executive order Trump had signed that would overhaul federal elections by requiring proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote and barring states from counting mail-in ballots received after Election Day.

That 2025 order along with the more recent mail-in voting one he signed on March 31 followed a years-long campaign by Trump to undermine faith in U.S. elections, including the false claim that his 2020 election defeat was the result of widespread voter fraud.

Trump has made winning approval in Congress of a divisive package of voting restrictions called the SAVE America Act his top priority and on Wednesday stunned lawmakers by abruptly cancelling a signing ceremony where they hoped to showcase newly passed bipartisan legislation to address housing costs.

His mail-in ballot order directed DHS to compile and transmit to the states a list of confirmed U.S. citizens eligible to vote in each state, derived from citizenship and naturalization records and other federal databases.

Talwani, in siding with a group of 23 states and the District of Columbia that had sued over Trump’s order, said any list the DHS compiled of citizens would necessarily be incomplete due to privacy restrictions governing the sharing of sensitive personal data collected by government agencies.

Trump’s order also required the USPS to only deliver ballots to voters on each state’s approved mail-in ballot list. USPS recently moved to implement Trump’s directive by issuing new proposed rules requiring states to provide the names and ​barcodes tied to their mail-in ballots.

U.S. Postmaster ‌General David Steiner told Congress on Wednesday that under its proposal USPS would not deliver ballots in states where officials refuse to provide lists of voters who received mailed ballots, but said he would comply with any court order blocking restrictions. 

Trump’s order also directed the U.S. Department of Justice to prioritize the investigation and prosecution of state and local election officials who issue federal ballots to people deemed “not eligible” to vote.

But Talwani said Trump lacked authority under the U.S. Constitution to create new criminal offenses and attempt through his order “to intimidate local election officials to use the necessarily incomplete confirmed citizenship lists as a resource, lest they face criminal prosecution.”

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston and David Shepardson in Washington; additional reporting by Luc Cohenl Editing by David Bario, Nia Williams and Mark Porter)

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By Nate Raymond

June 25 (Reuters) – A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from implementing a new rule that would impose lower federal student loan limits for people pursuing graduate degrees in nursing and other healthcare-related fields.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, D.C., late on Wednesday sided with eight trade organizations, including the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and the PA Education Association that sought to block the rule from taking effect on July 1.

Skye Perryman, whose liberal legal group Democracy Forward represented the plaintiffs, in a statement said the ruling would benefit students pursuing careers in nursing, public health, education, and marriage and family therapy.

“These are key services that the federal government should be supporting by welcoming those who wish to enter them, not creating barriers to vital support,” she said.

The Education Department in a statement said it is reviewing the decision and will take “appropriate action.” It has previously defended the caps as necessary to encourage universities to control costs.

The trade associations sued after the department published the rule on May 1 in order to implement new federal student loan caps the Republican-led Congress adopted in July 2025 when it passed President Donald Trump’s tax and spending bill known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

That law scaled back a federal loan program for students pursuing graduate degrees, eliminating one type of loan that allowed students to borrow up to the full cost of attendance and imposing new caps on another type of loan.

Under those new limits, borrowing for students enrolled in professional degree programs, such as law schools and medical schools, is capped at $50,000 per year and $200,000 total while students pursuing other graduate degrees are limited to $20,500 per year and up to $100,000 overall.

The Education Department’s rule altered an earlier regulatory definition of what constitutes a “professional degree” to cover only certain degrees in 11 fields, including law, medicine, dentistry and theology.

But Howell, who was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, said that when Congress enacted the 2025 law, it expressly adopted a longstanding regulatory definition for those degrees that the department had been using since 2007.

“By adopting the preexisting definition as it was in effect on a specific date, Congress removed any discretionary authority the Department may have had to narrow the definition for the purpose of determining federal loan caps,” she wrote.

The judge said as a result, the rule ran afoul of the Administrative Procedure Act and had to be set aside before it could take effect.

But she declined to go even further by preventing the new loan caps from being enforced until a new rule is issued, saying she could not remedy the plaintiffs’ “primary frustration” over the decision by Congress to eliminate uncapped borrowing.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Aurora Ellis)

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By John Kruzel

WASHINGTON, June 25 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court handed President Donald Trump a victory on Thursday by backing the federal government’s authority to turn away asylum seekers when officials deem U.S.-Mexico border crossings too overburdened to handle additional claims.

The court, in a 6-3 ruling powered by its conservative justices, overturned a lower court’s finding that the policy violated federal law. The Republican president’s administration has said it may seek to revive the policy, known as “metering,” after it was dropped by Trump’s Democratic predecessor Joe Biden.

The ruling was one of two in immigration-related cases issued by the court on Thursday backing Trump.

The metering policy allowed U.S. immigration officials to stop asylum seekers at the border and indefinitely decline to process their claims. It is separate from a sweeping policy to deny entry to asylum seekers at the border that Trump announced after returning to the presidency last year. That policy also faces an ongoing legal challenge.

Under U.S. law, a migrant who “arrives in the United States” may apply for asylum and must be inspected by a federal immigration official. The legal issue in the current case is whether asylum seekers who are stopped on the Mexican side of the border have arrived in the United States.

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito, who authored Thursday’s ruling, wrote that the answer is “no.”

“In ordinary speech, no one would say that a person ‘arrives in’ a place — for example, a house, a city or a country — before the person enters that place,” Alito wrote. “The context in which the phrase ‘arrives in the United States’ is used in the immigration statutes at issue here supports an ordinary-meaning reading.”

‘MORE PEOPLE WILL DIE’

Alito read a summary of his opinion from the bench, as is customary. Justice Sonia Sotomayor then read a lengthy summary of her dissenting opinion from the bench — an action that signals a justice’s strong opposition to a ruling.

Sotomayor, in a dissent that was joined by fellow liberal justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, wrote that Thursday’s ruling authorizes U.S. immigration officers to refuse to consider asylum applications by “physically blocking (applicants) from stepping foot onto U.S. soil.”

“The consequences of today’s decision are predictable,” Sotomayor wrote.

“More people will die. More people will attempt to cross the border illegally, and some will make it while others will not. More people will be forced to walk along the U.S.-Mexico border in dangerous conditions, trying to find a port that will inspect them. More people will turn back and be subjected to violence because of something they cannot or should not have to change about themselves, such as their race, religion, nationality or political opinion,” Sotomayor wrote.

In an unusual move, Alito then responded from the bench to Sotomayor with an additional defense of the ruling, saying there was much more he would have included in his opinion summary had he known that Sotomayor intended to air her dissent in court.

The other immigration-related ruling issued on Thursday also was authored by Alito. In that one, the court cleared the way for the Trump administration to strip hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants of a humanitarian status that protects them from deportation. At issue was Temporary Protected Status for more than 350,000 people from Haiti and 6,100 from Syria.

‘AN IMPORTANT TOOL’

James Percival, general counsel at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, welcomed Thursday’s ruling, saying it “opens up an important tool to continue securing our southern border.”

“We had to go all the way to SCOTUS to vindicate the principle that an alien is not ‘in the United States’ until he is, in fact, in the United States,” Percival said, using shorthand for the Supreme Court of the United States. “We have yet AGAIN been vindicated by the Supreme Court.”

Melissa Crow, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, said the ruling “should sound the alarm for anyone who cares about human rights and the rule of law.”

The ruling, Crow said, “suggests the president may unilaterally override decades of established law and trample on people’s legal rights if doing so suits his political agenda.”

A MIGRANT SURGE

U.S. immigration officials began turning away asylum seekers at the border in 2016 under Democratic former President Barack Obama amid a migrant surge. The metering policy was formalized in 2018 during Trump’s first term in office, with border officials authorized to decline processing asylum claims when the government decides it is unable to handle additional applications. Biden rescinded the policy in 2021.

The Trump administration has said it likely would resume metering “as soon as changed border conditions warranted that step,” without ⁠providing specifics. Trump has pursued hardline immigration policies since his return to office last year.

The advocacy group Al Otro Lado launched the long-running legal challenge in 2017. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2024 ruled that federal law requires border agents to inspect all asylum seekers who “arrive” at designated border crossings, even if they have not yet crossed into the United States, and the metering policy violated that obligation.

The Supreme Court also backed Trump in several immigration-related rulings issued on an emergency basis since his return to the presidency, including allowing him to deport migrants to countries other than their own and to revoke temporary legal status for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants.

The court is expected to rule by around the end of June on the legality of Trump’s directive to restrict birthright citizenship in the United States.

(Reporting by John Kruzel; Editing by Will Dunham)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump formally kicked off celebrations for America’s 250th anniversary on Wednesday night by working to get the country excited again.

The president hosted a rally on Washington’s National Mall, including a series of booming flyovers by stealth bombers, music from military bands, and Lee Greenwood singing “God Bless the USA.”

“There has never been anything like the United States of America, and together we are making it bigger and better and stronger and far more exceptional than ever before,” Trump said.

He said he’d restored the country to greatness, proclaiming, ”Nobody’s laughing at us anymore.”

As he does in all rally speeches, Trump championed his crackdown on the U.S.-Mexico border and opposition to transgender rights. However, perhaps in a nod to the anniversary celebrations, he was far less critical of Democrats than usual.

“The American Dream is alive again. It’s something that nobody thought they’d be saying when you went through that last four years of incompetence,” Trump said.

The president also mentioned effort to revamp the Reflecting Pool near the Lincoln Memorial and build a ballroom at the White House.

Trump wrapped his speech in less than half an hour. Still, he found time to note that he’ll again be addressing a Washington rally on July Fourth, imploring, “Your favorite president will be speaking so please show up.”

For Wednesday’s speech, the crowd was contained to a segment of the National Mall. From the stage, Trump could likely see the neon colors of the giant Ferris wheel erected in front of the Capitol.

Trump is working to convince Americans ahead of critical November elections that he’s put the unpopular Iran war in the rearview mirror, with oil prices easing as the Strait of Hormuz has started to reopen in the wake of an interim deal to end the war with Tehran.

The rally launched weeks of celebrations about America and its 1776 founding as part of “The Great American State Fair” on the mall, the national park that stretches from the U.S. Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial.

The president himself told the crowd, “This is the beginning of the golden age of America.”

Organizers distributed rectangular cardboard American flags that some attendees used for shade before the sun went down and Trump took the stage.

On the menu for the crowd: burgers, sausages and turkey legs. The program felt like a summer concert, except for the variety of American flag-themed outfits, from overalls to skirts to hats. There were also plenty of “Make America Great Again” hats.

Attendees included Karen and Brian Ontrap, who drove 500-plus miles from northwest Ohio with their children. They planned the trip in January to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary and, for some in the group, see Washington for the first time.

Karen Ontrap said the pair support the president “100%.”

PHOTO – President Donald Trump wraps up his speech at the opening of the Great American State Fair, Wednesday, June 24, 2026, on the National Mall in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

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NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani stepped into the national spotlight this week as an ascendant political force within the Democratic Party.

Democratic leaders aren’t so sure that’s a good thing.

As progressives cheered across the nation, some of the most powerful Democrats in the country, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, downplayed the impact of Mamdani’s victories on Tuesday, when the 34-year-old democratic socialist mayor’s slate of congressional candidates defeated three establishment favorites — including two incumbents — in primary contests. He had even more victories in state legislative races, where he successfully backed five other candidates.

It was a stunning sweep for Mamdani, just six months into his first term, that will expand his influence in Washington and Albany. The mayor said Wednesday that he hopes to export his policies and politics to other states, while demanding major changes across the Democratic Party.

“Working people are struggling across the country,” Mamdani said. He added that he hopes to help “write a new chapter in our party’s history, where working people are back at the heart of that struggle. And I I believe that will be key in not just the midterms coming up in November, but also in the years to come.”

The mixed reaction from Democratic leaders as they grappled with the fallout from Mamdani’s success exposed the depth of the divide between the party’s progressive and establishment wings, who are at odds over how Democrats should govern — and how to win elections — over the final two years of the Donald Trump presidency.

Indeed, Democrats hope to avoid an all-out intraparty civil war ahead of the November midterms, especially with Republicans fighting amongst themselves over Trump’s war in Iran, how to address the affordability crunch and the president’s costly efforts to build a massive White House ballroom.

The Mamdani resistance from senior Democrats was not subtle.

“The effort to nationalize New York is going to fail,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut. “What’s happening in New York will be really irrelevant by the time of the elections in November.”

Rep. Marc Veasey of Texas, a vice chair of the New Democrat Coalition, was similarly dismissive, saying progressives were playing checkers while moderates were playing chess.

“No one in DSA is trying to win in a red-to-blue seat, or in a tough general election matchup,” Veasey said, referring to democratic socialist candidates.

Democrats’ left flank said the party’s latest nominees should be welcomed with open arms.

“What I would like to see, and what I think would be actually productive and beneficial, is a congratulations to these people, a commitment to welcome them in, to understanding the perspectives that they bring,” said Rep. Summer Lee, a 38-year-old progressive from Pennsylvania.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who campaigned alongside Mamdani and his allies last week, said New York’s results sent a clear message.

“The American people, in New York and increasingly all over the country, are sick and tired of status quo establishment politics,” he said. “I think you’re gonna continue to see it.”

Trump saw an opportunity to stir the pot from the Oval Office, telling reporters that the Democrats were “going radical left” and Mamdani’s choices are “really communist.”

He marveled at the defeat of Rep. Dan Goldman, a former top lawyer during Democrats’ first impeachment of Trump. Goldman was defeated by Brad Lander, an ally of Mamdani.

“When they go more liberal than Dan Goldman, they’re really into Never Neverland,” he said.

Mamdani backed three anti-establishment congressional challengers in a political gamble that his own team acknowledged was risky. He won them all.

Goldman, a two-term incumbent, was swiftly defeated by Lander, a former city comptroller.

U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, who leads the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, was toppled by Mamdani’s most polarizing pick, Darializa Avila Chevalier, a democratic socialist who once helped organize pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University.

Antonio Reynoso, the handpicked successor of U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez, lost to another democratic socialist, Assembly Member Claire Valdez.

The entire Mamdani slate promised to “abolish ICE,” condemned Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza and vowed to “tax the rich.”

“Voters are just pissed off,” Lander said in an interview. “They want people who show who they’re fighting for, and really get out and fight for things that matter in the lives of working people.”

Cheering the extent of Mamdani’s success, progressive leaders called on the Democratic Party’s leadership in Washington — and its next crop of presidential candidates — to adopt meaningful changes in the weeks and months ahead.

Indeed, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a potential presidential candidate, said it would be “silly” for his party not to draw meaningful conclusions from New York’s results.

“The voters are clearly telling us they want us to be bolder — bolder in the policies we’re proposing and bolder in the tactics we use to fight authoritarians,” he said.

And yet the Mamdani critics within the party were not hard to find.

Jeffries, who is in line to become the next House speaker if Democrats win the House majority this fall, reiterated his opposition to Mamdani’s slate in repeated interviews and media appearances.

“He’s got work to do in terms of the conversations that he’s going to have with members of Congress moving forward,” Jeffries, the No. 1 House Democrat jabbed, even as he said they have a good working relationship.

Giddy House Republican operatives vowed to weaponize Mamdani and his slate to undercut the Democratic brand in competitive midterm elections across the country, while other Republican officials warned their party to pay attention to this pivotal moment in the nation’s politics.

“Republicans need to wake up. What we saw last night in New York can only be called one thing: a socialist uprising sweeping the Democrat Party,” said Sen. Bernie Moreno of Ohio. “If Republicans don’t act now, we will lose this country as we know it.”

Meanwhile, Trump seemed to worry more about Mamdani’s growing national profile than his democratic socialist policies.

“Mayor Mamdani pulled through 3 solid Communists, and has received loud and universal applause from the Fake News Media. Congratulations Mr. Mayor!” the Republican president wrote on social media. “I went 16-0 last night, helping to elect wonderful American Patriots, and the Media doesn’t say a word.”

Meanwhile, Mamdani dismissed broader concerns that his success would undermine the Democratic Party’s fight to win control of Congress this fall.

“We’ve heard from Republicans time and again that they’re going to try and make these candidates the face of the Democratic Party. To them, I say that we are ready for that,” he said. “For far too long we have been told that it is not possible to fight for working people and win. These candidates have shown that they can.”

And yet some Democrats were clear-eyed about the work that lies ahead to bring the party together as new divisions flared in the wake of Mamdani’s success.

“We have to respect the voters. They made their decision,” said Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont.

“The challenge that we have,” he continued, “is to build the different points of view together, all in service of helping people who are struggling to pay their bills to get more economic security. The challenge of unity is enormous. But that’s our challenge.”

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Brown reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Steven Sloan contributed to this report.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans who were berated by President Donald Trump over opposition to his war in Iran held a late-night vote Wednesday to try to appease him, rejecting a war powers resolution a day after a similar measure passed.

Trump harangued GOP senators face to face earlier in the day for allowing a vote to block his war in Iran on Tuesday, further escalating a feud that has diverted GOP efforts to focus on election-year affordability issues and brought much of the chamber’s business to a halt. He exchanged particularly harsh words with Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, one of four Republicans who had voted with Democrats on the measure.

Hours later, though, Cassidy was invited to receive a personal briefing on the war at the White House from Vice President JD Vance and envoy Steve Witkoff. Cassidy then returned to the Capitol to vote against a separate but nearly identical war powers resolution.

“I want to thank Vice President Vance and Special Envoy Witkoff for the thorough briefing this afternoon on Iran. I appreciate the quick invitation to the White House to address many of my concerns,” said Cassidy, who lost reelection last month after Trump endorsed his opponent, in a post on X.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican who has repeatedly voted with Democrats to halt the war, voted present this time “to give the President more space and leverage to negotiate a lasting peace,” he said on X. The measure failed 47-50-1 just before midnight on Wednesday, and the Senate then left town for a two-week recess.

It’s unclear whether the move will be enough to appease Trump, who had called the Republicans “losers” for voting against his war and had called Cassidy a “lunatic” at the lunch after their tense exchange. But the vote was a clear signal to the president from Republican senators who still want to placate him, despite increasing tensions in recent weeks and his decision Wednesday morning to reverse himself and delay signing a housing bill that received overwhelming bipartisan support.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and a small group of his Senate GOP colleagues called Trump after the vote. Thune told reporters that the president was “pleased with the outcome.”

Trump later thanked Thune in a social media post and noted that Cassidy and Paul had switched their votes. “This vote puts Iran on notice!” he wrote.

The war powers measure blocked by the Senate on Wednesday was on a separate track from the nearly identical resolution adopted on Tuesday, which had also been passed by the House. Both votes were largely symbolic, and the measures do not carry the full force of law.

Invited by Florida Sen. Rick Scott to speak at a GOP luncheon in the Capitol, Trump had signaled ahead of time that he would use the closed-door meeting to push senators to pass his proof-of-citizenship voting bill. But the conversation was more focused on Tuesday’s vote on war powers.

Most Republicans stayed quiet. But Cassidy stood up and defended his vote.

“I stood and said, ‘You have not told the American people what’s going on,’” Cassidy told reporters after the meeting. “This was supposed to last four weeks, it’s lasted four months. Our original objectives have not been achieved.”

The two men “went back and forth,” Cassidy said, and he “matched his tone and volume.” Cassidy said that he eventually de-escalated, but he did not want to be bullied.

“I am voting for war powers until I get a briefing,” he said afterward.

Trump repeatedly told Cassidy to sit down, according to a person familiar with the private meeting who was not authorized to discuss it. At one point, the president called the senator a “lunatic.”

Publicly, Trump said afterward that they had “a really great meeting.” But he hinted at the discord.

“We like everyone in the room,” Trump told reporters on his way out. “I don’t like a few people, but that’s OK.”

The luncheon capped weeks of friction between Trump and Senate Republicans and added a new layer of frustration as Tuesday’s vote was the first time the Senate had adopted a war powers resolution on the Iran war. Trump made clear he was in no mood to compromise before it even started, calling off a scheduled signing ceremony on a housing bill that passed both chambers overwhelmingly this week and that GOP lawmakers were touting as an election-year achievement.

Republican senators were eager for a conciliatory meeting with the president after escalating tensions in recent weeks. But Trump upended their plans when he declared on social media just beforehand that he wouldn’t sign the legislation until they send him the SAVE America Act, his bill to require proof of citizenship for all voters.

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis said he doesn’t know why Trump is holding the housing bill “hostage” for the voting bill that “will never pass in this Congress.”

“It makes no sense to me,” Tillis said as he walked into the luncheon.

Thune said the housing legislation, which aims to lower costs, is “an affordability issue,” and that ”eventually I hope he finds a way to sign it.”

It’s unclear if Trump might veto the legislation or if the late Wednesday night vote will change his outlook. But by rejecting a public bill signing, Republicans worry that Trump is indicating a level of indifference to voters’ affordability concerns heading into November’s midterm elections.

Trump’s move on the housing bill is his latest reversal after weeks of being at odds with Senate Republicans.

Trump has blocked the Senate from confirming one of his own nominees, asked them to fund parts of his White House ballroom project despite opposition and forced them to defend the Iran war even as they question the strategy and endgame.

Trump has also helped whittle down his own support in the Senate after endorsing primary challengers to two GOP incumbents who were previously reliable votes for his agenda — Cassidy and Texas Sen. John Cornyn. Both men have become more critical of Trump since losing reelection.

“If we’re going to win the midterm elections, we need to get on the same page,” Cornyn said ahead of the meeting. “We’re not on the same page now, and that I think is dangerous.”

Trump has pressed Republicans for months to kill the Senate filibuster and focus on the proof-of-citizenship voting bill, even though Thune has repeatedly told him that neither has the votes.

While Thune remains popular in his conference and cordial with the president, he has spent much of his time lately telling Trump what he doesn’t want to hear. Thune said Tuesday that while Trump and some in their conference want to see the voting bill pass, “it’s just not realistic.”

Thune devoted weeks of floor time to the voting bill earlier this year and has said he supports it. But he has repeatedly said there aren’t enough votes to scrap the filibuster that triggers a 60-vote threshold to pass most bills in the 53-47 Senate. And Democrats are uniformly opposed to the bill.

“I think people at some point have to come to grips with that,” Thune said.

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Associated Press writers Josh Boak and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

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DETROIT (AP) — Michigan can keep a lid on the personal information of registered voters, a federal appeals court said Wednesday in the latest defeat for the Trump administration, which has been trying to get key details from dozens of states.

The release of birth dates, driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers is not covered by a law cited by the U.S. Justice Department, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in a 2-1 opinion, upholding the decision of a federal judge in Lansing, Michigan.

In addition to Michigan, judges so far have rejected efforts in Maryland, Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon, Rhode Island and Wisconsin. In Georgia, a judge dismissed a lawsuit because it had been filed in the wrong city, prompting the government to refile elsewhere.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, said the federal government only could receive a list of registered voters, similar to any member of the general public.

The Trump administration said it wants the personal information of voters to ensure that Michigan is complying with federal election law. In a court filing, it cited “anomalies” and other complaints.

Attorneys for Michigan, however, said the government has other goals, including the creation of a national voter file and sharing information with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to see if noncitizens have signed up and voted.

At least 13 states have either provided or promised to hand over their voter registration lists to the government, according to the Brennan Center for Justice and Associated Press reporting: Alaska, Arkansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming.

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