BREAKING: Judge allows Trump’s mail-in ballots plan to proceed, at least for now
Sen. Darline Graham defeated Rep. Ralph Norman in South Carolina’s Republican Senate primary runoff.
A federal judge today allowed Trump, at least temporarily, to move forward with his effort to exert federal control over mail-in ballots ahead of the midterm elections.
The decision by Boston-based U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani to lift an injunction that applied nationwide follows a Supreme Court decision favoring Trump in a similar case on Monday.
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A coalition of Democratic-led states filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration this morning over a new rule that requires states to enroll mail-in voters with the U.S. Postal Service and meet certain design standards for ballots.
UCG / UCG/Universal Images Group via G
“The rule introduces new mailpiece preparation requirements and data reporting standards for Federal Ballot Mail that must be satisfied prior to presenting Outbound Federal Ballot Mail for acceptance into the mailstream,” the USPS rule, finalized Friday and published in the Federal Register today, states.
If a state doesn’t comply, the plaintiffs allege in the lawsuit, “USPS will not deliver those ballots.”
The rule requires states to enroll every eligible mail voter with USPS, which would then compile them into state-specific lists, the states note in the lawsuit. It also sets design requirements for envelopes in which ballots are mailed, “including the requirement to use trackable Intelligent Mail barcodes, and provides that USPS must pre-approve States’ ballot envelope designs,” the states note.
The states are asking a federal judge to issue an order finding the USPS rule unlawful, “because it violates the separation of powers, contravenes the States’ sovereignty and authority over elections under the United States Constitution, commandeers States’ election officials to implement a presidential program, is arbitrary and capricious and contrary to statute.”
The lawsuit, filed today, is separate from the ongoing litigation related to this issue in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. Plaintiffs in those cases have also asked judges to block the USPS rule.
The U.S. Secret Service has confirmed it is aware of a video circulating on Iranian state media that appears to threaten the life of Trump’s youngest son, Barron Trump.
“The U.S. Secret Service is aware of the video and investigates anything that can be perceived as a threat toward our protectees,” spokesperson Nate Herring said in a statement. “Out of concern for operational security, we do not discuss matters of protective intelligence.”
Since Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in February on the first day of U.S.-Israeli strikes, threats against Trump and members of his family have repeatedly appeared in Iranian media.
The agency’s knowledge of the Barron Trump threat was previously reported by CNN.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said in an interview on Fox News that the Department of Justice will continue to defend Trump’s White House ballroom construction project and his executive order to impose restrictions on mail-in voting.
Hannah Beier / Getty Images file
This week, the Supreme Court lifted a lower court judge’s block of an executive order that would create a list of eligible voters ostensibly based on citizenship records and require the U.S. Postal Service to send ballots only to those listed.
“This is what the American people expect President Trump and expect this country to be doing when it comes to election integrity and making sure that we are extraordinarily vigilant about who is voting and that they’re eligible to vote,” Blanche said.
Last week, the high court also temporarily blocked lower court rulings that would have held up aboveground construction on Trump’s White House ballroom project as the justices consider next steps, which could come any day.
“We’re going to continue to build the ballroom,” Blanche told Fox News, citing the Supreme Court’s decision.
Second lady Usha Vance said in an interview that aired on “Fox & Friends” this morning that the best political advice she has given her husband, Vice President JD Vance, was to “take a little bit of a social media break.”
Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance. Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images file
“A piece of advice I’ve been giving him since he encountered social media, because it just, the constant flow of stuff is just so exhausting,” she said.
The vice president gave up social media for Lent, she said, adding that she thought “it was a really enjoyable experience for him to kind of step back to get information less constantly and just get it in bursts or aggregated in different ways.”
“I personally think it helped him have some perspective about various things that he was thinking about,” she said. “So I think that’s a great thing that he could do periodically, just to make sure that he’s really able to think through everything without drinking information through a firehose.”
The vice president has garnered controversy on social media before, including a viral comment that resurfaced during the 2024 presidential campaign. In 2021, when Vance was running for Senate, he referred to then-Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats as “childless cat ladies” in an interview on Fox News, later posting iterations targeting other people on social media. In fact, Harris has two adult stepchildren.
Vance later disavowed that comment, saying in his most recent book that it was “one of the dumbest things I ever said.”
In his interview with Glenn Beck, Trump reminisced about Dolly Parton, who died yesterday at age 80.
Dolly Parton on the set of the Oprah Winfrey Show in Chicago in 1991. Paul Natkin / Getty Images file
“She was unique. I mean, she was amazing and to lose her, it’s like you lose a member of the family,” Trump said. “You know, we all knew her so well. I knew her a little bit. She wasn’t a very political person. She really liked me, I will tell you.”
The president has ordered that American flags be lowered across the nation for one week in her honor.
“You know, I liked her a lot, and I thought it was a natural thing to lower the flags,” he told Beck.
Trump reiterated his interest in renaming Lake Ontario as “Lake America.” He first made the push to rename the lake yesterday as tensions between the U.S. and Canada ratcheted up after trade talks fell apart.
“You saw the Lake Ontario. You know, people thought I was kidding,” Trump said, referring to his comments from yesterday. “Maybe I wasn’t, because the last one you saw was the Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of America.”
“So now we have a gulf and we have a lake,” he said.
Trump has accused Canada of having unfair business practices that hurt the U.S. economy. Canada accused the U.S. of trying to change trade terms during last week’s talks, which it framed as unfair.
Lake Ontario has had its name for centuries. The name first appeared on maps in the 1600s. Even if Trump changed the name in the U.S., the rest of the world could continue calling the lake by its longtime name.
Sailboats on Lake Ontario yesterday. Adrian Kraus / AP
Trump said that CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s unannounced trip to Moscow is “sort of semi-routine.”
Speaking to conservative radio show host Glenn Beck, Trump was asked why Ratcliffe is there and to put to rest some rumors about the trip, including that Russian President Vladimir Putin is going to test NATO’s resolve and strike England as well as something related to Iranian sanctions.
“Well, none of the above,” Trump said on Beck’s radio show. “He’s there, you know, very sort of semi-routine. I hate to disappoint people. We would like to see the war with Ukraine end. That’s a war would have never started, Glenn.”
Trump said in an interview on “The Glenn Beck Program” that he does not believe Iranian Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei is dead.
“I don’t think he’s dead,” Trump said. “He was very seriously wounded — the left side of his body, the arm, the leg, the whole thing. He was very seriously wounded, but I don’t think he’s dead.”
“And if he is, they’re putting on a pretty good show because they talk about, you know, going back to talk to him all the time,” he said.
The White House has previously said that the ayatollah was wounded. Khamenei has not been seen publicly during the war, and his exact condition is unclear. Iranian officials have said that he was injured in the February strike that killed his father.
The Atlantic published a story today questioning if Khamenei was still alive.
The U.S. military attacked a boat suspected of being used to smuggle drugs in the Caribbean Sea, killing four people, as the Trump administration continues its monthslong campaign against alleged traffickers in Latin America.
The attack yesterday brings the number of people who have been killed in boat strikes by the U.S. military to at least 227 in 68 strikes since the Trump administration began targeting those it calls “narcoterrorists” almost a year ago. As with most of the military’s statements on strikes in the eastern Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, U.S. Southern Command said it targeted the alleged drug traffickers along known smuggling routes.
The military did not provide evidence that the vessel was ferrying drugs. A video posted on X showed an image of what appeared to be a moving boat followed by a flash.
Yesterday’s strike came just two days after the U.S. military carried out a strike on a vessel in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing two people accused of trafficking drugs. That action came after a pause of more than two months in the U.S. campaign against alleged smugglers.
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Nurse N’Kiyla Jasmine Thomas has won the Democratic Senate primary runoff in Oklahoma, NBC News projects, securing another win for the party’s democratic socialist wing.
Thomas, a 31-year-old member of the Chickasaw Nation, defeated attorney and minister Jim Priest, 70, in the contest, despite being drastically outspent. The two advanced to a runoff after neither clinched a majority of the vote in the initial June primary.
N’Kiyla Jasmine Thomas. N’Kiyla Jasmine Thomas for U.S. Senate 2026
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Former state Sen. Mike Mazzei has secured the Republican nomination for governor in Oklahoma, NBC News projects, a victory for Trump’s preferred candidate.
Mazzei narrowly defeated state Attorney General Gentner Drummond by about 2,000 votes in the GOP primary runoff.
The initial June primary was also tight. Drummond finished in first place by just more than 1,000 votes over Mazzei. Since no candidate in the crowded field secured a majority, the race went to a runoff.
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Former teacher Dan J. Sullivan will join Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan and Democratic challenger Mary Peltola on the general election ballot in Alaska’s Senate race, NBC News projects.
Republicans have criticized the other Sullivan’s candidacy as a potential ploy to confuse voters in a key battleground race, which he has denied. Alaska’s election system might also blunt the impact of any confusion. The top four candidates, regardless of party, advance from Alaska’s all-party primary to a ranked-choice general election, meaning voters could rank both Sullivans.
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Sen. Darline Graham defeated Rep. Ralph Norman in South Carolina’s Republican primary runoff, NBC News projects, a victory for Trump, who recruited, endorsed and campaigned for her following her brother Lindsey Graham’s death six weeks ago.
With nearly all of the vote tallied, Graham was leading Norman roughly 52% to 48%.
At her election night party in Columbia, Graham paid tribute to her late brother and credited Trump for getting her across the finish line.
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NBC News
