President Donald Trump suggested on Friday that his newly minted press secretary, Katie Zacharia, might not stay on the job much longer. Trump said he told Zacharia that she didn’t have to do this job and that if he were her, he would reconsider the position. Zacharia faced mounting questions about her background and resume during her first week on the job.
Trump made the comment to reporters as he departed Washington to campaign in Georgia on Friday
for a rally with top Republican candidates in a state that has long been the epicenter of the president’s false claims about election fraud.
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Trump told reporters Friday that he didn’t order restrictions on a satellite communications system that is used by Ukraine’s military, causing its drones to lose speed.
The president also doubted the disruption came from Elon Musk, who owns Starshield, SpaceX’s military-grade version of the Starlink satellite internet service and the backbone of Ukraine’s drone operations and communication.
The sudden restrictions alarmed Ukraine’s military and government officials this week, with commanders reporting lost drones and disrupted missions.
“Well, I don’t know if it was anybody, but it wasn’t me, and I don’t think it was Elon,” Trump said outside the White House before leaving for Georgia. “And from what I understand, it’s the same as it’s always been.”
Some of the president’s most faithful supporters gathered in Dalton, Georgia, say they don’t understand the widespread frustrations over the economy. And where there are problems, they place elsewhere.
“I think it’s a heck of a lot better than it was under Joe Biden. That’s for sure. Or any other Democrat president for that matter,” argued Dianne Leveridge, who said voted for Trump three times would do it again if she could.
Leveridge acknowledged high gas prices but said “the oil’s moving” and that “the oil companies aren’t playing fair.”
Cindy Massengill, 67, said Trump is “doing as good as he can do with the fight he has to fight” against Democrats in Congress.
Republicans control the House and Senate.
Alabama and Arizona officials said their election agencies were among several that received letter s with the substance this week. In both cases, the states said the substance was tested and found to be safe.
Wisconsin officials on Thursday said they had a similar finding after testing powder sent to them.
That doesn’t mean the incidents aren’t serious, said Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes at a press conference Friday.
“Yesterday’s attack was not a harmless prank,” Fontes said. “It was an apparent attempt to disrupt our elections and intimidate the public servants who make them possible. And while we are grateful that the contents of the package were not harmful, the fear it caused was real. But, let me be absolutely clear: We will not be intimidated.”
The president, gaggling with reporters ahead of his departure to Georgia on Friday, said he planned to talk with his newly minted press secretary about whether she would stay in the job.
“I told Katie in my opinion she was treated very unfairly,” Trump said, noting that Zacharia has been “brutalized by the media.”
Trump said he told Zacharia that she didn’t have to do this job and that if he were her, he would reconsider the position.
“I just think the press has been very tough on Katie and I said, ‘there’s no reason you have to go through this,’ ” he said.
The Republican congressman and Senate hopeful said he has no reservations about supporting Trump’s actions against Tehran, regardless of the economic fallout.
“I will never side with an Islamic regime terrorist that at the end of the day wants to kill us,” he said. “I’ve got kids and grandkids, and I don’t want them to grow up with this mess.”
Asked specifically if higher prices — on diesel, gasoline and other products — have been worth it, Collins responded, “The high price is our future. The high price is my kids being able to grow up. Those people were close to getting a nuclear weapon, and they would have used it.”
There is no public evidence for Collins’ assessment of Iran’s nuclear program, and it runs counter to those of the U.N. nuclear watchdog and U.S. intelligence agencies.
The Republican congressman will need more than core Trump voters to defeat Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff.
But Collins said Friday in Dalton, Georgia, that he’s thrilled to have Trump in the state. Collins added a message for any Republican or conservative who thinks he should separate himself from Trump.
“I tell ’em they’re going to lose, because we’re going to win this race,” Collins said. “We’ve got the votes. They’re there. This state is red. We just gotta make sure that people understand it’s time to go vote.”
Collins acknowledged the obvious spending gap with Ossoff. The incumbent has raised more than $80 million and could surpassed the $100 million mark. Collins, meanwhile, has depended almost entirely on national Senate Republican PACs for his TV advertising.
“We knew we were always going to be outspent,” Collins said. “But I guarantee you one thing: Ain’t nobody gonna outwork me.”
Ernesto Soberón Guzmán, Havana’s diplomat to the U.N., told reporters that his American counterparts are planning to hold an event Monday at the world body under the guise of highlighting Cuba’s so-called oppression.
“It is a politically motivated exercise, organized in a questionable manner whose clear purpose is to target Cuba, promote a hostile narrative against our country, and use the premises of the United Nations to advance political agenda of the United States government against a sovereign member state,” he said in his remarks, while holding a copy of the U.S. invitation sent out to other member states.
The press statement reflects the heightened tensions between U.S. and Cuba as the Trump administration continues to impose a punishing oil blockade against the island country while officials mull whether to pursue regime change.
Asked on “Fox & Friends” if she had the president’s confidence after a rocky start to her job, including scrutiny over claims that she’s a lawyer, the new White House press secretary said: “I hope to be able to build the trust and confidence of everyone around me.”
She also said she wasn’t asked about passing the bar before getting the job. It’s unclear when the next press briefing will be, she said.
Zacharia was also asked about the administration’s investigation into Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar and declined to answer questions, deferring to the Justice Department.
The Democrat is starting a federal fundraising committee, although his campaign says it’s to help fellow Democrats win congressional races and recapture the U.S. House majority.
Shapiro is running for reelection in the Nov. 3 midterm election and is considered a heavy favorite to beat Republican Stacy Garrity. He has campaigned for Democrats in four hotly contested congressional races in Pennsylvania.
His campaign says that with Pennsylvania at the center of Democrats’ opportunity to flip the U.S. House, Shapiro is adding a “new tool” — the committee — to provide more direct support to congressional candidates.
Paperwork to establish the committee, New Path PAC, was dated Tuesday and had zero contributions reported as of Friday.
Trump took time away from campaigning for the midterm elections to have dinner Thursday with Kid Rock, comedian Bill Maher and sports analyst Stephen A. Smith.
Speaking Friday on “Fox & Friends,” Kid Rock called the meal “epic” and said they had some laughs and tough conversations.
“One thing we all wholeheartedly agreed on is that socialism and communism has no place to have a foothold in our government,” he said.
The musician also said that the president seeking to end diversity, equity and inclusion efforts — frequently referred to as DEI — could hurt donations to historically Black colleges and universities.
“I’ll go out on a limb and say, I’m speaking for President Trump and the administration, saying, no, no. Not only do we support, we want to encourage corporations to continue funding HBCUs and donating to them because we know how important education is,” he said.
Of all the Republican members of Congress who represent swing districts, there may be none as closely linked to President Donald Trump as Scott Perry of Pennsylvania.
Perry backed Trump’s signature tax-cutting laws in 2017 and 2025. He’s aggressively defended Trump’s war with Iran. And when Trump tried to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential election victory in 2020, Perry sought to invalidate Pennsylvania’s electoral votes and elevate an acting attorney general who would act on conspiracy theories.
Now the question is whether Perry’s ties to Trump will be his undoing in a midterm election where the president is dramatically unpopular and Perry faces a second challenge from Democrat Janelle Stelson after he narrowly defeated the former local television anchor two years ago.
Asked if he needed to differentiate himself from an unpopular Trump to win, Perry brushed off the question.
“I speak for myself. I don’t speak for him, and he doesn’t speak for me,” Perry told The Associated Press.
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President Donald Trump says he wants voters to pretend that he’s on the ballot in this year’s midterm elections.
His rivals are doing their best to help his case.
Democratic candidates and their allies have spent more than $163 million since Sept. 1 on television advertising that mentions the Republican president, according to an Associated Press analysis of data from AdImpact, which charts media spending.
That includes airing ads that reference Trump on broadcast, cable and streaming nearly 180,000 times, the data shows. Republicans, meanwhile, have run ads that talk about the president just 16,000 times, at an estimated cost of $11 million, over the same period.
It’s a noticeable silence about the party’s dominant yet unpopular leader.
Many of the Democrats’ ads accuse Republican opponents of siding with the president over voters, particularly on issues like tariffs and the Iran war, which they blame for jacking up costs.
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Democrat Mary Peltola said the U.S. should be doing all it can to help support Ukraine and not bolster Russia. The Alaska U.S. Senate candidate said a Trump administration plan to buy diesel from Russia was “foolish.”
“I do not think there’s any way, shape or form the U.S. should be buying anything from Russia,” she said.
Peltola made the comments during a late Thursday debate with Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.
Sullivan said he’s been “one of the strongest supporters of Ukraine” before pivoting to national security and saying Democrats were always “cutting our military, undermining readiness.”
He said he opposed buying diesel from Russia.
The two major candidates in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race agreed Thursday that President Donald Trump is not allowed to seek a third term.
The question arose in a debate between Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman. Some people were wearing or selling T-shirts and sweatshirts emblazoned with “Trump 2028 (Rewrite the Rules)” at Trump’s rally for Sullivan in Wasilla.
The candidates were asked if they’d support a third term. Both said no.
Peltola said the law calls for two terms. Sullivan, a former state attorney general and Trump ally, said a third term would be unconstitutional.
Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan questioned the use of notes during a debate late Thursday by his main opponent in his reelection bid.
Democrat Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman, referred numerous times to a stack of notes during the one-hour debate, seemingly reading from them at times. At one point, Sullivan asked: “We weren’t supposed to get these questions beforehand, were we?”
The moderator said neither had received any questions in advance. Peltola said she was prepared.
After the debate, Sullivan brought the issue up again. “You can’t cue card your way to the U.S. Senate,” he told reporters.
Sullivan has tried to characterize Peltola as ineffective during her time in the U.S. House.
The Peltola campaign released a statement saying Sullivan had “copied” answers from Peltola in a prior meeting, but “this debate he got mad that she was too prepared.”
At a packed rally in Texas on Thursday, James Talarico compared his U.S. Senate campaign to David — who fought Goliath — as the Democrat faces more than $158 million in outside spending by Republican leadership and the world’s richest man, Elon Musk.
Talarico told rallygoers under bright lights that David may not have had Goliath’s strength, but he had a slingshot.
“You are my slingshot,” he continued, without mentioning Musk or the other spending against him. “We are going up against our own Goliaths.”
The description falls in line with Talarico’s past rhetoric painting politics not as right versus left, but the ultrawealthy versus everyone else, as he tries to become the first Democrat to win statewide in over 30 years. Talarico’s own campaign has raised record amounts of money in one of the nation’s more expensive and competitive Senate races.
The national conversation around Talarico’s campaign has evolved over the past months. Initially, the state lawmaker was considered just the latest of several Democratic candidates over the past years who gave the party hope of flipping Texas, only for that hope to deflate come Election Day.
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Alaska’s major U.S. Senate candidates clashed over the Iran war, soaring consumer prices and personal credibility Thursday during a high-stakes debate in a contest that will play into control of the closely divided chamber.
Two-term Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan said the war needs to end soon, and he wants the Strait of Hormuz to open and a deal to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Democrat Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman, said an agreement is “so far out of sight” and lamented the deaths of 20 military personnel.
“This war is driving up our energy bills and hurting Alaskans with no end in sight,” she said.
Sullivan said the best way to bring down energy costs “is to produce more Alaskan energy by and for Alaskans.”
The debate followed contours of Senate contests around the country, with Peltola blaming the Trump administration for rising gas and consumer prices and pulling back from traditional alliances around the globe, while Sullivan warned that Democratic leadership in Congress would undercut the military and curb domestic energy production.
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New White House press secretary Katie Zacharia on Thursday defended her legal background and justified her truncated inaugural briefing as she navigates a rocky first week as the president’s chief spokeswoman.
Zacharia sat down for an interview with conservative media. She told the conservative Human Events outlet that she did not have time to get fully prepared ahead of her first briefing on Tuesday and that it was always the plan to keep it short because President Donald Trump would field questions from journalists later that morning.
“It was absolutely my goal to keep it short, considering he is his own best spokesperson, and he would love -- and does love -- gaggling with the media as he goes to Marine One,” Zacharia said. “So I wanted to give ample deference and not barge into his time.”
The initial briefing materials were given to Zacharia on Monday evening, then completed Tuesday at 8 a.m., less than two hours before she would appear before the White House press corps. She had been up since 3 a.m. preparing, Zacharia said.
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Donald Trump’s midterm campaign blitz arrives in Georgia on Friday for a rally with top Republican candidates in a state that has long been the epicenter of the president’s false claims about election fraud.
In Dalton, the population center of conservative northwest Georgia, Trump will appear with Senate candidate Mike Collins and gubernatorial nominee Rick Jackson as part of the White House effort to boost Republican enthusiasm in an election that could reshape the final years of Trump’s second presidency.
“President Trump is the unequivocal leader, best messenger, and unmatched motivator for the Republican Party,” said White House spokesperson Davis Ingle.
Yet unlike some of Trump’s recent trips to solidly Republican states — Alabama, Montana, Tennessee — Georgia is a critical battleground. That means Jackson, a billionaire businessman, and Collins, a two-term congressman, need more than Trump stalwarts to defeat their respective Democratic opponents, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Sen. Jon Ossoff.
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