Category: Politics

President Donald Trump and his allies are increasingly pressuring Republican-controlled legislatures in several states to secure more GOP seats in order to strengthen the party’s majority in the US House, sparking a nationwide redistricting battle.

The Republicans in charge of the legislature in North Carolina moved swiftly on Monday to go forward with a new congressional map, joining an increasing number of states that are redistricting in advance of the midterm elections next year. The map will be sent to the House after a vote by the state’s Senate on Tuesday morning.

Targeting the US House district currently held by Democratic Representative Don Davis, the proposed design seeks to give Republicans the upper hand in 11 of North Carolina’s 14 House seats, up from the current 10. The most recent Republican-controlled state to start redistricting in the middle of the decade is the Tar Heel State. After next year’s legislative elections, Democrats only need to flip a few seats to seize control of the House, as the president’s party usually loses ground in midterm elections.

On Monday, Republican Sen. Ralph Hise of North Carolina, who is supervising the map-drawing, made a blunt admission of the high stakes. During a Senate election committee meeting on Monday, he stated, “The motivation behind this redraw is simple and singular: draw a new map that will bring an additional Republican seat to the congressional delegation.”

Hise went on to say that if Democrats win the House, they will “torpedo President Trump’s agenda.” The Trump “has called on Republican-controlled states across the country to fight fire with fire,” according to Hise. That call is answered by this map. The map and Trump’s travels across the nation were denounced by Democrats as a blatant attempt to seize power.

The Ongoing State-by-State Battle

Lawmakers wearing deep red with a map aiming to elect five more Republicans to Congress, Texas launched this year’s political arms race. Republicans in Missouri have also drawn new lines to increase the number of GOP representatives in the state’s congressional delegation. Both are being challenged in court, and Missouri activists are attempting to get the map overturned by means of a petition drive.

California, which started a redistricting campaign in response to Texas, has so far shown the strongest opposition among Democrats. To convince voters to temporarily ignore congressional boundaries created by an independent panel next month and give Democrats up to five additional US House seats, a multimillion-dollar advertising and get-out-the-vote effort is now in progress.

When it comes to the number of states that potentially have their maps redone, Republicans have a distinct advantage over Democrats. In 23 states; compared to 15 for Democrats; the GOP controls both houses of the legislature and the governor’s office.

Other Republican states are also considering new maps, including as Kansas, where lawmakers have approved $460,000 to support a special session that would target four-term Representative Sharice Davids, the state’s only Democrat in Washington. To call a special session, two-thirds of the state Senate and House must concur.

The White House has asked the Republican-controlled state legislature to target at least one of the Democratic-held seats in Indiana, where Republicans have a 7-2 advantage in the US House. JD Vance, the vice president, has made two trips to the state to influence lawmakers. Ohio and Utah, two other Republican-controlled states, are also embroiled in redistricting disputes that started prior to Trump’s election.

Political Tensions Rise Among Democrats in North Carolina

North Carolina Republicans have hurried to comply with Trump’s requests.  Democratic Governor Josh Stein is not able to veto the maps under North Carolina law. Last week, state lawmakers started working on a map, and on Monday morning, a Senate elections committee openly discussed it for the first time.

The map “would give the fantastic people of North Carolina the opportunity to elect an additional MAGA Republican in the 2026 Midterm Elections, which would be A HUGE VICTORY for our America First Agenda, not just in North Carolina, but across our Nation,” the president wrote last week on Truth Social, expressing his admiration for the map.

At a celebration of the United States Marine Corps’ 250th anniversary on Saturday in California, Vice President JD Vance encountered some opposition from Governor Gavin Newsom due to a live artillery display. Fighter aircraft, helicopters, Navy ships, and live fire from a towed howitzer were all part of the Camp Pendleton show, which the Marines described as the biggest in ten years in the continental United States.

Due to “extreme life safety risk and distraction to drivers, including sudden unexpected and loud explosions,” Newsom shuttered a portion of Interstate 5 in Southern California. “It is not only wrong, but it is also dangerous to fire live rounds over a busy highway,” said Newsom, a Democrat who has often clashed with the Trump administration, in a statement.

The assertion that the demonstration was unsafe was refuted by Vance’s office. The Marine Corps considered the exercise “an established and safe practice” and “part of routine training at Camp Pendleton,” according to a statement from Vance’s communications director, William Martin, to CNN.

“Gavin Newsom is free to oppose the training exercises that guarantee our Armed Forces are the most lethal and deadly fighting force in the world,” Martin added. “Given his dismal record of failure as governor, it would not be surprising that he would stoop so low.”

“I would not be here today, I would not be the vice president of the United States, I would not be the man I am today were it not for those four years that I served in the Marine Corps,” Vance, the first Marine to hold the position, said in remarks from Camp Pendleton about his time in the military.

After graduating from high school, Vance joined the military, serving four years in the Marines before going on a combat correspondent tour in Iraq in 2005. He also addressed the Trump administration’s battle against “woke” elements of the military in his remarks. “We are not stronger because of our diversity,” Vance stated. “It is our shared goal, our shared mission, and the fact that everyone here is loyal to the Marine Corps.”

A similar argument was made by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who spoke before Vance. “When I look out at this throng, I notice a wide variety of faces. The fact is, you are not strong because of your diversity. Hegseth remarked, “Never has been. Your unity of purpose is your strength.”

The Pentagon has repressed diversity initiatives and reversed attempts to eliminate toxic culture in the military that have been underway for the past ten years since President Donald Trump took office again in January. Vance also gave a message from the president at Saturday’s festivities, blaming Democrats, especially Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, for the weeks-long government shutdown.

“Our commander in chief, Donald J. Trump, sent me greetings today, and he wanted me to tell each and every one of you that he loves you, that he is proud of you, and that he will do everything in his power to ensure that you receive the compensation you deserve,” Vance stated. According to CNN, the Department of Defense is still paying troops with “unobligated research development testing and evaluation funds” while thousands of federal employees are still on furlough or working for no pay.

President Donald Trump brought the contentious legal battle over his authority to use such troops on American territory before the justices for the first time on Friday when he pleaded with them to permit him to deploy the National Guard in Chicago. At a time when the government is trying to send the National Guard to several US cities, the filing sets up a confrontation over presidential authority.

Following a slew of rulings from lower federal courts, the emergency appeal temporarily halts the administration’s operations on the basis that Trump exaggerated the necessity of mobilizing the National Guard. The 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals, located in Chicago, upheld a temporary injunction against that endeavor on Thursday.

In a lawsuit concerning his attempt to send the guard to Chicago, Trump appealed to the Supreme Court. The lower court ruling “improperly impinges on the president’s authority and needlessly endangers federal personnel and property, “according to the administration’s appeal.

The case brings the dispute before the Supreme Court, which has rarely made decisions regarding such deployments but has frequently deferred to the president on security-related issues and the definition of a national emergency.

In order to execute the deployment while the high court reviews the matter, the administration requested a prompt order. The Trump administration contends in the appeal that lower courts were unlawfully interfering with the president’s power to manage federalized guard members.

Overseeing the President’s Use of Commander-in-Chief Authority

“The judicial branch is in the untenable position of controlling the military chain of command and judicially micromanaging the exercise of the president’s commander-in-chief powers, including the decision about which military forces the president can deploy,” the administration claimed, referring to the lower court order that temporarily blocked the deployment.

The appeal claims that federal officials in Chicago “have been threatened and assaulted, attacked in a harrowing pre-planned ambush involving many assailants,” using powerful language to characterize the situation. Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the court, “Federal agents are compelled to frantically rush to protect themselves and federal property, diverting resources from their law-enforcement mission to conduct protective operations instead.”

This framing begins in sharp contrast to the decision earlier this month from US District Court Judge April Perry, which detailed the circumstances on the ground. Biden nominee Perry cited what she called “a troubling trend of defendants’ declarants equating protests with riots and a lack of appreciation for the wide spectrum that exists between citizens who are obstructing, assaulting, or doing violence, and those who are observing, questioning, and criticizing their government.”

The Department of Justice has mostly relied on the 1827 Martin v. Mott Supreme Court ruling to support the deployments. During the War of 1812, Jacob Mott, a member of the New York militia, defied President James Madison’s command to mobilize. Mott claimed that Madison had miscalculated the threat, but the SCOTUS rejected this claim, ruling that “the authority to decide whether the exigency has arisen belongs exclusively to the president.”

A Range of Honest Judgment

Sauer stated in the administration’s appeal on Friday that Trump’s present deployments are “squarely controlled” by that decision. The Trump administration has contended that federal courts are not even allowed to examine a president’s decisions to raise the alarm because of this.

However, the US states contesting those rulings have mocked the idea that the demonstrations against ICE personnel are like an invasion by foreign troops.  Additionally, they cited Sterling v. Constantin, a 1932 ruling in which judges examined a former Texas governor’s choice to use the National Guard to close some of the state’s oil fields in an effort to reduce output.

The Supreme Court decided in that instance that courts could examine deployment choices that were outside of a “range of honest judgment.” It was unclear at first how quickly the Supreme Court would decide the issue, but it asked state and municipal officials to respond by Monday night, which is quicker than normal. Since regaining power in January, Trump has filed emergency cases in which the conservative court, which has a 6-3 record, has sided with him.

According to several official sources, U.S. President Donald Trump met with the top four congressional leaders at the White House on Monday to discuss the impending government shutdown, but the meeting ends with no deal. His final meeting with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries comes as government funding is set to expire tomorrow night, with both sides remaining entrenched in their positions.

Earlier this week, the president canceled a meeting with the Democratic leaders Jeffries and Schumer. He called the Democratic demands ridiculous and unserious, and said that they scrapped the meeting, which made it unproductive.

Previously, CNN reported that the decision came after President Trump spoke with Thune and Johnson on a call, during which both Republicans argued against making an agreement with the Democrats. However, the Monday meeting will house all top leaders.

In a Saturday statement, Schumer and Jeffries reiterated that Democratic leaders are willing to meet at any time, anywhere, and with anyone to negotiate a bipartisan spending deal that meets the needs of the American people.

On Friday, Schumer called Thune to push for a meeting, an advisor for the minority leader said. It will be the first time Trump and Schumer have spoken since the beginning of the president’s second term, and the first time Jeffries has met with him in person.

Enhanced Affordable Care Act Premium Subsidies

Although the GOPs control the White House and the Capitol Hill, they require at least seven Democrats in the Senate to join them to approve a spending package under the chamber’s rules.

Schumer is insisting that any funding bill include an extension of the enhanced Affordable Care Act premium subsidies, along with other provisions, to secure his party’s support. Republican leaders are seeking a seven-week extension of funding, along with additional funds for security for the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

If the deadlock is not resolved, the looming government shutdown could be unlike any other recent memory. Although no two government shutdowns are identical, the White House Office of Management and Budget, along with the Trump administration, has indicated a willingness to adopt a different approach. They are encouraging companies to reduce their workforce in programs that lack funding and do not align with the Trump administration’s priorities.

The government shutdowns are no strangers to Trump, and the most recent one occurred during his initial term, starting in late December 2018 and lasting more than a month, around 35 days, the longest on record.