More than 450 arrests since surge of federal law enforcement in DC, White House says
There have been over 450 arrests by federal law enforcement in the nation’s capital since 7 August, according to a White House official.
The official says that throughout this period, 68 firearms have been seized, and three known gang members have been arrested – including a MS-13 gang member.
They add that 48 homeless encampments have been cleared, since earlier this month.
On Monday 18 August, the official confirmed to the Guardian that federal officers made 52 arrests.
Key events
Air Force chief of staff General David Allvin announced yesterday that he plans to retire in the fall, a surprise move just halfway into his four-year term leading the military service, Politico reports.
He didn’t give a specific reason for leaving but, as Politico notes, he is now the fourth US military service chief to depart since Donald Trump took office in January (Trump fired the other three). Allvin’s retirement will mark the shortest tenure of an Air Force chief in over three decades.
DC residents question troops’ focus on low-crime areas amid Trump takeover
Kira Lerner
As Donald Trump’s federal takeover of Washington DC’s police entered its second week, and six states vowed to send hundreds of additional national guard troops to assist the administration, residents questioned why federal agents seem to be largely patrolling high-profile but low-crime parts of the nation’s capital.
The Washington Post has tracked where federal forces are patrolling the city, finding that few interactions have been witnessed in the parts of the city with the highest rates of crime. The White House rejected that claim today, saying that “nearly half of non-immigration related arrests have happened in the most crime-hit areas in DC”, but before today, the White House had been releasing data showing many of their arrests were of undocumented immigrants, and few federal agents have been spotted addressing or responding to violent crime.
Instead, Washingtonians have seen officers from the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and other offices standing around prominent tourist sites and nightlife corridors, responding to minor disturbances and creating disturbances of their own.
Over the weekend, several military vehicles were seen outside Union Station, positioned next to where passengers find their ride share vehicles. The Department of Defense posted a photo of a tan Humvee outside the train station on X on Saturday and said: “This We’ll Defend.”
Federal agents and vehicles have also been spotted across the National Mall, including the Lincoln Memorial, where violent crime is virtually nonexistent. Visible confrontations between federal officers and protesters have also occurred along 14th Street, a popular nightlife destination.
Amanda Moore, a Washington-based writer and researcher, wrote on X early on Saturday morning that she witnessed “15 federal agents call an ambulance for a very, very drunk and sick girl” in Dupont Circle, another center of nightlife. Stan Veuger, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute thinktank, joked on X, referring to the “department of government efficiency”: “I was wrong about Doge. The federal government is efficient now.”
In the Mount Pleasant neighborhood, which is home to a large Hispanic population, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) shared a video on Sunday of at least seven agents taking down a banner supporting immigrant neighbors from a public park. “Mount Pleasant melts Ice,” the banner read.
After removing it, a masked agent says: “Mine. We’re taking America back baby.” According to a local reporter and a neighbor’s surveillance camera footage, the agents left a dildo in its place. The banner was quickly replaced.
Missouri attorney general to serve as co-deputy director of FBI
Attorney general Pam Bondi and FBI director Kash Patel have tapped Missouri attorney general Andrew Bailey to serve as co-deputy director of the bureau alongside Dan Bongino, Fox News reports.
Bondi told Fox News, of Bailey:
He has served as a distinguished state attorney general and is a decorated war veteran, bringing expertise and dedication to service. His leadership and commitment to country will be a tremendous asset as we work together to advance President Trump’s mission.
Three US destroyers will arrive off Venezuela coast as part of effort against drug cartels – report
Three US Aegis guided-missile destroyers will arrive off the coast of Venezuela in the next 36 hours as part of an effort to address threats from Latin American drug cartels, two sources briefed on the matter told Reuters yesterday.
According to the sources, the ships are the USS Gravely, USS Jason Dunham and the USS Sampson.
Earlier this month, the New York Times (paywall) reported that Donald Trump had secretly signed a directive to the Pentagon to begin using military force against certain Latin American drug cartels that his administration has deemed terrorist organizations, providing an official basis for the possibility of direct military operations at sea and on foreign soil against cartels.
The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, also said today that a potential government stake would not oblige US businesses to purchase Intel chips.
“The last thing we’re going to do is take a stake and then try to drum up business,” he told CNBC. “The stake would be a conversion of the grants and maybe increase the investment into Intel to help stabilize the company for chip production here in the US. There’s no talk of trying to force companies to buy from Intel.”
US pursuing stake in struggling chipmaker Intel, commerce secretary says
Blake Montgomery
The US government is pursuing a stake in Intel, the US commerce secretary said today, confirming reports of discussions between officials and the company that have circulated for the better part of a week.
The Trump administration wants to convert funding from the Chips and Science Act, which funds research and manufacturing of semiconductor chips in the US, into equity in the struggling tech company, according to Howard Lutnick.
Intel was once a leader in producing computer processors, but is now seen as a laggard behind the likes of Nvidia, which last month became the first public company in history to scale a $4tn valuation after a stratospheric stock market rise.
The US commerce secretary criticized the structure of the Chips Act, signed into law in 2022 under Joe Biden, telling the CNBC financial news network:
Why are we giving a company worth $100bn this kind of money? What is in it for the American taxpayer? And the answer Donald Trump has is we should get an equity stake for our money. So we’ll deliver the money which was already committed under the Biden administration, we’ll get equity in return for it.
Shares in Intel rallied 7.5% in New York.
The conversion of the funding would not confer governing rights typical of a company’s largest shareholder to the federal government, according to Lutnick. “It’s not governance, we’re just converting what was a grant under Biden into equity. Non-voting,” he said.
Lutnick did say the goal of the equity stake would be much the same as that of the Chips Act, bluntly stating: “We need to make our own chips here. We cannot rely on Taiwan.”
Texas house schedules vote for GOP-drawn congressional map for next Wednesday
According to the Texas house calendar, a vote on the gerrymandered congressional maps, that led several Democratic lawmakers to break quorum, has been scheduled for Wednesday 20 August.
It’s already attracted the ire of Democrats who say that Texas Republicans have made mid-decade redistricting their priority, and sidelined efforts to provide relief for victims of the July floods that devastated parts of the state.
“They PROMISED flood victims’ families that they would ‘prioritize flooding above all else’,” said Democratic representative John Bucy III. “These special sessions have never been about helping Texans – they’re about helping Trump.”
Joseph Gedeon
The US House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, is making the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, and her aggressive immigration enforcement tactics squarely in Democrats’ crosshairs for congressional investigation if they flip the House in the midterms.
Speaking on the Bulwark Podcast with Tim Miller recently, Jeffries said Noem would be “one of the first people hauled up to Congress shortly after the gavels change hands” to answer for what he called the Department of Homeland Security’s troubling conduct.
“The lack of respect for due process, for the rule of law, the unleashing of masked agents on law-abiding immigrant communities, and the disappearing of people in some instances, to other countries without any real evidence that criminal behavior took place,” the New York representative said, outlining his concerns about Noem’s leadership.
Since taking office, Noem has aided Trump’s mass deportation efforts by unleashing workplace raids and facilitated fast-tracked removals. In her first 200 days as secretary, she announced that approximately 1.6 million undocumented immigrants had left the US, according to DHS data released last week.
In news from the campaign trail today, we have a Democratic challenger to Susan Collins, the long-serving Republican senator from Maine who is up for re-election in 2026.
A reminder that Collins is a noted moderate, and chair of the Senate appropriations committee, who frequently breaks with the party’s base on a number of key issues: voting against repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the recent $9bn rescissions package pushed by the president, and the confirmation of conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett to the supreme court.
Now, Collins is facing a challenge from Democrat Graham Platner – an oyster farmer, a marine veteran, and political unknown. In an advert launching his campaign today, Platner says he has watched as Maine has become “virtually unlivable” for working-class people. He adds that the “enemy is the oligarchy” and “the politicians who sell us out”. Platner calls out Collins’s perceived moderate stance as a “charade” in his launch video. “The difference between Susan Collins and Ted Cruz is that at least Ted Cruz is honest about selling us out and not giving a damn,” Platner says, addressing the camera from a pushboat.
Platner’s bid is considered a long shot in many ways. He’s never held or run for office, compared to Collins’s almost 30 years in the US Senate. And Platner might be at even more of a disadvantage if Maine’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills, throws her hat in the ring.
However, Platner is staffing up quickly and conscientiously. He’s hired progressive strategists who have experience “successfully running against establishment-favored Democrats”, according to Politico. This includes Morris Katz, an adviser for Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor and media darling.
As we reported yesterday, when the Texas house achieved quorum, Republican speaker Dustin Burrows announced that any Democrats who had left the state in protest – and for whom civil arrest warrants were issued – will only be given permission to leave the legislature if they agree to have a state trooper assigned to them to make sure they return.
However, representative Nicole Collier, of Fort Worth, refused and remained on the house floor Monday night, as my colleague Matthew Pearce reported earlier.
A short while ago, Collier posted a picture to X, showing her makeshift bedroom while she was locked inside the capitol on Monday night.
Representative Gene Wu, the Texas house minority leader also appeared to be supporting Collier throughout the night. Wu posted a picture of ramen, popcorn and dried fruit to X: “Thank you for all who are watching the @TexasHDC livestream. @NicoleCollier95 & I have snacks,” he wrote.
My colleagues, Jakub Krupa and Matthew Pearce, are tracking the latest developments following the president’s busy day of foreign diplomacy at the White House. A reminder that Trump met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy yesterday, along with a cadre of European leaders.
We’re watching out for more details about a possible meeting between Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin, and more negotiations between the US and European allies about security guarantees for Ukraine.
Just a short while ago, Donald Trump wrapped up a phone interview with Fox News, where he repeated his warning that Putin would face a “rough situation” if he did not cooperate in the peace process.
“I hope President Putin is going to be good and if he’s not, that’s going to be a rough situation.
“And I hope that Zelenskyy, President Zelenskyy, will do what he has to do. He has to show some flexibility.”
Trump also said that while Europeans were “willing to put people on the ground,” the US focus was on air operations.
We’re willing to help them with things, especially probably if you could talk about by air, because there’s nobody has the kind of stuff we have.”
Follow along for more.
Trump administration speechwriter linked to hate speech online – report
Adam Gabbatt
A speechwriter for the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has come under scrutiny after he was linked to hate speech online.
Eric Lendrum compared the circumstances of American conservatives to that of enslaved people and Jewish people in Nazi Germany, and in his podcast claimed that the racist great replacement conspiracy theory was “real”, the news outlet Notus reported.
Notus reported that Lendrum began working at the DHS, which is headed by Kristi Noem, in March this year, after previously working at the Department of the Interior during the first Trump administration. The DHS has been at the forefront of Donald Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigration during his second presidency.
In the gap between his government roles, Lendrum was a frequent online presence, hosting a podcast, posting on X and Telegram, and writing a blog on the website American Greatness. In one post from December 2021, Lendrum defended people who participated in the January 6 insurrection, claiming they faced “persecution for their patriotism”.
“It has been said that the most surefire way to create an authoritarian regime is to completely dehumanize a significant portion of the population, so that their subsequent enslavement by the state will not face any larger resistance,” Lendrum wrote. “It was true during slavery, it was true during the Holocaust, and it is true now.
More than 450 arrests since surge of federal law enforcement in DC, White House says
There have been over 450 arrests by federal law enforcement in the nation’s capital since 7 August, according to a White House official.
The official says that throughout this period, 68 firearms have been seized, and three known gang members have been arrested – including a MS-13 gang member.
They add that 48 homeless encampments have been cleared, since earlier this month.
On Monday 18 August, the official confirmed to the Guardian that federal officers made 52 arrests.
Trump approval rating at lowest level of second term – poll
According to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, Donald Trump’s approval rating sits at 40% – the lowest level of his second term so far. It’s a seven percentage point drop since his inauguration in January.
The survey – which was conducted over six days in the middle of August – showed that only 42% of respondents approved of the president’s performance on crime, while 43% said he was doing a good job on immigration policy.
