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Trump ally skips UNGA for first time — months after face-to-face with president gave way to bitter clash

September 22, 2026 2:27pm EDT / Fox News

The Italian prime minister’s absence means the two leaders will avoid another face-to-face encounter this week

By Ashley J. DiMella, Fox News

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is not attending the United Nations General Assembly this week, an official confirmed to Fox News Digital.

Meloni’s decision not to attend breaks with a roughly 15-year stretch in which an Italian prime minister took part in the U.N. General Assembly’s annual high-level debate, according to Associated Medias, although the 2020 gathering was held largely virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Meloni said she will not attend the UNGA, citing a packed schedule after attending six summits in three and a half weeks and saying she had “several dossiers” to handle at home.

Meloni’s absence also means the two leaders will avoid another face-to-face encounter after recent international summits put their growing tensions on public display, despite a previously warm relationship.

WORLD LEADERS DESCEND ON NEW YORK FOR UNGA — BUT WHO REALLY HAS AMERICA’S EAR?

President Donald Trump meets with Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, April 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

“We believe the United Nations the basic instrument for achieving peace everywhere. Indeed we want a stronger role United Nations, we are present at many initiatives and we have an Italian candidate at the helm of the FAO”, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said ahead of the summit, according to Italian outlet ANSA. “There is great attention from the Italian side.”

Their spat escalated in June after Trump said Meloni had “begged” him to take a photo at the G7, months after tensions first surfaced publicly when Meloni opposed U.S. military action against Iran and called Trump’s criticism of Pope Leo XIV “unacceptable.”

The two leaders have long had a warmer relationship than Trump has shared with many other U.S. allies, with Meloni notably the only European leader to attend his 2025 presidential inauguration.

In July, Meloni and Trump feuded in the lead up to the NATO summit in Turkey after Trump posted “RESTRAINING ORDER NEEDED,” on Truth, alongside a photo of Meloni looking at him.

TRUMP-MELONI SPAT GROWS OVER CLAIM ITALIAN PM ‘BEGGED’ FOR PHOTO: ‘ASTONISHED’

Meloni said Trump’s statements were “completely made up” and that “neither I nor Italy ever beg.”(Mandel NGAN / POOL / AFP via Getty Images; Bastien Ohier / Hans Lucas / AFP via Getty Images))

“Trump’s statements against Meloni speak for themselves,” Tajani said in July while at a Sky TG24 event. “We are convinced that transatlantic relations go far beyond individual statements.”

The exchange followed a June interview with Italy’s La7 after the G7, when Trump mocked Meloni over what he claimed was her eagerness to take a photo with him.

“She wanted a picture with me so ​badly. I wouldn’t have taken it, but I felt sorry for her,” Trump said at the time to La7 TV channel. “She’s probably happy I talked to her. I didn’t have to talk to her.”

Meloni fired back: “I can only say it is disappointing that he does not show the same determination with the enemies of the West and of the United States, whose leaders he instead treats with far greater indulgence.”

RUBIO TO VISIT ITALY, VATICAN AMID TROOP DRAWDOWN CALL, TENSION WITH TRUMP, POPE LEO: REPORTS

President Donald Trump publicly rebuked Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, accusing her of lacking “courage” and failing to support U.S. efforts against Iran.(Suzanne Plunkett/Pool/Reuters)

“There is one thing he should remember: neither I nor Italy ever beg,” she added.

There have been looming tensions between the two leaders after Meloni distanced herself from the U.S. amid mounting domestic and political pressure over the widening Middle East conflict.

Trump also criticized Meloni for failing to assist the U.S. without letting U.S. forces use Italy’s landing strips and runways, calling it “a great logistical inconvenience.”

“She is doing poorly in Italy with her level of popularity, possibly because she turned down the United States of America, a Country that truly loves and protects Italy, when it came to denying Iran from obtaining or developing a Nuclear Weapon (But so did NATO, for that matter!),” he wrote in June.

TRUMP TAUNTS MELONI WITH FRESH PHOTO SALVO AS NATO SUMMIT PUTS ALLIES FACE-TO-FACE

[image_5]

European Council President António Costa, Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, US President Donald Trump, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and European Union President Ursula von der Leyen pose for a family photo during the Group of Seven (G7) Summit at the Kananaskis Country Golf Course in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada on June 16, 2025. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP) (Photo by LUDOVIC MARIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)(Getty Images)

Italy remains a key U.S. security hub in Europe, hosting nearly 13,000 active-duty American service members as of December 2025, according to Defense Manpower Data Center figures, with personnel based in Vicenza, Aviano, Naples and Sicily.

A senior administration official highlighted President Trump’s meetings with other heads of state and engagement with Gulf partners on Iran when asked by Fox News Digital about Meloni’s absence from the conference.

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Tajani is expected to speak at the conference on Wednesday.

Ashley J. DiMella reports on politics for Fox News Digital.

Bipartisan senators press Rubio to prioritize release of American journalist held in Iran

September 22, 2026 1:16 PM EDT / CBS News

By

Olivia Gazis
Olivia Gazis covers intelligence and international security matters for CBS News. Twice Emmy-nominated, she has traveled worldwide with the secretary of state and contributes reporting on intelligence, foreign policy and other security topics across CBS News broadcast, radio, online and streaming platforms.

Read Full Bio

A bipartisan group of senators is urging Secretary of State Marco Rubio to make the release of an American journalist imprisoned in Iran an “urgent priority,” warning that his health has deteriorated and his life could be at risk.

In a letter to Rubio obtained by CBS News, Sens. Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, Republican Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Democrat Jacky Rosen of Nevada and Republican Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania called on the Trump administration to use “all available diplomatic channels” to secure the release of Reza Valizadeh, a U.S.-Iranian dual citizen and former journalist for U.S.-funded broadcaster Radio Farda.

“With every day of continued detention, Mr. Valizadeh’s life is in danger,” the senators wrote. “We are extremely concerned that Iranian authorities could take sudden, arbitrary actions to endanger his life.”

Valizadeh, 49, has been imprisoned in Iran since September 2024, after returning to Tehran earlier that year to visit his aging parents. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for “collaborating with a hostile government,” a charge tied to his work for Radio Farda and alleged cooperation with the United States. The State Department formally designated him as wrongfully detained in May 2025.

The senators said Valizadeh’s health has “significantly deteriorated” at Tehran’s Evin Prison and that he has repeatedly been denied medical care, including an inhaler he needs to treat his asthma.

The State Department did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Undated photo of Reza Valizadeh Photo provided by Radio Farda

Valizadeh has previously described worsening conditions inside Evin in recordings obtained by CBS News. In June, he appealed to the U.S. government to secure his release and said he and other Americans detained there were not receiving adequate medical treatment.

The congressional appeal comes just over two weeks after another American designated as wrongfully detained, Kamran Hekmati, was released from Evin Prison on Sept. 5 after serving roughly half of a two-year sentence. Hekmati remains barred from leaving Iran, and the State Department has called on Tehran to lift the exit ban so he can return to the United States.

In July, Dena Karari, a U.S.-Iran dual citizen who was also barred from leaving Iran on allegations of espionage and collaborating with a hostile state, was released and returned to the U.S. after suffering a heart attack, sources told CBS News.

Rubio said in June that the administration raises the cases of wrongfully detained Americans at “every opportunity,” calling their release a “highest priority,” but he has declined to discuss individual cases, saying that could complicate efforts to free them.

The senators’ push comes as the Trump administration weighs its next steps in the nearly seven-month war with Iran, with the conflict and prospects for renewed diplomacy expected to be raised in meetings this week during the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

“Reza deserves the full attention and support of President Trump and the United States government, and he should be released immediately,” said Ryan Fayhee, Valizadeh’s attorney. “As world leaders gather for the U.N. General Assembly, Iran has an opportunity to demonstrate goodwill through action. The release of Reza would not resolve every issue between our nations, but it could help break a cycle of mistrust that has made it unsafe for Iranian-Americans to visit the country of their heritage,” Fayhee said.

The senators described Valizadeh’s detention as part of a longstanding pattern by Tehran of targeting journalists and dual nationals, writing that “Iran is not afraid to use American citizens as political pawns.”

“We ask that his freedom and welfare be an urgent priority through all available diplomatic channels with Iranian officials,” they wrote.

Federal indictment handed down in Minnesota related to issue some Dems claim never happens: ‘Hotbed for fraud’

September 22, 2026 2:00pm EDT / Fox News

Mukeshkumar Chaudhari allegedly admitted to voting while telling investigators he is not a US citizen

By Andrew Mark Miller, Kiera McDonald, Fox News

Federal prosecutors charged a Honduran national with voter fraud in California after he allegedly registered to vote under an alias and cast ballots in multiple elections. Fox News’ Matt Finn reports on the federal indictment details, revealing the suspect received a voter registration card using a gym membership. The case highlights ongoing debates surrounding voter identification laws.

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An Indian national was federally indicted by a grand jury in Minnesota for knowingly making the false claim to be a U.S. citizen to vote in the 2024 general election, prompting pushback online and from an expert who spoke to Fox News Digital.

Mukeshkumar Somabhai Chaudhari, according to a DOJ press release earlier this month, falsely claimed U.S. citizenship by signing a voter signature certificate required under state law to vote in Minnesota and voting Nov. 5, 2024.

“The right to vote is a sacred privilege of American citizenship, and every lawful voter deserves an election system in which that right is protected,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in the press release.

MN DEM SENATE CANDIDATE’S VIRAL HIJAB VIDEO TAKES NEW TURN AS WOMAN BESIDE HER FACES MAJOR STATE INVESTIGATION

“The Department will hold accountable those who knowingly make false claims of citizenship in order to vote. The integrity of our elections depends on ensuring that only eligible citizens cast ballots and that every lawful vote is counted.”

Dhillon added in a post on X Tuesday that the Justice Department has “indicted or convicted 67 individuals for election related crimes.”

Earlier this year, Fox News Digital reported that Chaudhari, 39, was facing state perjury and voting violation charges and that he denied he voted when first questioned by authorities but later claimed he “made a mistake” and admitted to voting while also telling investigators he is not a U.S. citizen.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz met with Trump border czar Tom Homan as the administration reshuffled federal immigration leadership in the state.(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Chaudhari, according to investigators, received a voter registration notice from the state of Minnesota in a move that was likely triggered in the system after he obtained his driver’s license. Chaudhari is said to have told authorities that he didn’t learn he should not have voted until his lawyer informed him during his green card process.

“Once again, DOJ is proving that if you look for election fraud, you find election fraud,” Chad Ennis, vice president of Honest Elections Project, told Fox News Digital Tuesday. “The left loves to claim election fraud does not happen. But here we have yet another instance of a noncitizen illegally registering to vote.”

News of the federal indictment spread across social media as well, with some users pointing out that numerous elected Democrats in recent years have downplayed the existence of voter fraud.

“That thing that never happens,” Center for the American Experiment’s Bill Glahn posted on X.

DEMOCRAT NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR SAYS THOUSANDS OF NONCITIZENS DISCOVERED ON VOTER ROLLS, PURGED

https://www.foxnews.com/video/6401949790112

DOJ official blasts NJ scandal, vows ‘broken window’ approach to prosecute every noncitizen voting case

“Tim Walz’s Minnesota is a hotbed for fraud!” political commentator Eric Daugherty posted on X.

Glahn previously spoke to Fox News Digital about his concerns over the lack of safeguards in Minnesota’s voting system, including registered voters being able to “vouch” for up to eight other voters’ residency who want to sign up for same-day voter registration without an ID.

“Only U.S. Citizens are eligible to vote in Minnesota,” the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State told Fox News Digital earlier this year, adding that ineligible voting is “extremely rare.”

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A polling place(Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“When an individual completes a voter registration application, they attest that they meet all eligibility requirements, including that they are a U.S. citizen,” the office said. “Before casting a ballot, one must again swear to their eligibility before they are allowed to vote.

“If a noncitizen attempts to vote in an election, they will be caught and held to account. Penalties for voting while ineligible may include deportation, a permanent bar on future citizenship, a fine of up to $10,000, and up to five years in prison.”

If convicted, Chaudhari faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on each of the two counts he faces.

Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.

White House fraud task force will remove more than 760,000 Obamacare enrollees, some of whom may not exist

2026-09-22T17:46:14.436Z / CNN

A White House task force will remove hundreds of thousands of enrollees from Affordable Care Act coverage, citing widespread fraud, Vice President JD Vance announced Tuesday alongside Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

The action will save $2.2 billion in improperly paid federal subsidies, Vance said at a news conference.

Some of these more than 760,000 people are so-called phantom enrollees who don’t exist, while others may have been enrolled without their knowledge, Oz said.

The Trump administration will also suspend brokers and agents involved in improperly signing up enrollees and place a six-month moratorium on new brokers and agents, he added. The Biden administration in 2024 also suspended hundreds of brokers and agents for suspected fraud, which ramped up after federal subsidies were made more generous in 2021.

Another 419,000 people will be subject to additional verification, including making sure they meet the income thresholds and are legal residents.

The latest move comes as Republicans are trying to show they are cracking down on healthcare fraud, including in Medicaid and Medicare, ahead of the midterm elections in November. The action will save taxpayers money, strengthen the federal health insurance programs and ensure that those who need health coverage have access to it, GOP officials argue.

The steeply rising cost of healthcare is among voters’ top concerns, and Democrats are highlighting their opponents’ support of sweeping cuts to Medicaid as part of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” and the expiration of the enhanced Obamacare premium subsidies this year. The two measures are expected to result in millions of people losing their coverage in coming years.

Moreover, healthcare premiums for Obamacare, employer-based coverage and Medicare soared for 2026 and are expected to jump again for the coming year — adding to Americans’ affordability woes.

Some 19.2 million people were enrolled in Affordable Care Act coverage as of February, according to the latest data from the Department of Health and Human Services — down from 21.8 million people the same period the year before. Enrollment nearly doubled after the enhanced subsidies were launched.

As part of the enhancement, lower-income Americans could sign up for coverage with no premiums and higher-income ones became eligible for assistance for the first time.

Criminals, largely brokers and agents, took advantage of this enhanced assistance and began enrolling enrollees and switching them to different plans without their knowledge. Some were unaware of the changes.

The Biden administration suspended 850 brokers and agents suspected of fraud in 2024, though Trump officials later quietly reinstated several hundred of them.

The Affordable Care Act has long been a target for Trump, who unsuccessfully sought for years to repeal it and then to weaken it.

One of the president’s healthcare advisors from his first administration, Brian Blase, has been releasing reports about widespread enrollment fraud in the Affordable Care Act. His think tank, Paragon Health Institute, has pointed out that nearly 12 million policyholders had no medical claims in 2024, suggesting these were “phantom enrollees.”

Oz echoed this argument, saying 35% of enrollees never used the program — about twice the traditional rate of those with insurance. Oz also noted that 1.1 million enrollees did not have Social Security numbers on file. Going forward, all applicants must include their Social Security numbers, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is adding more guardrails for brokers and agents seeking to enroll people, he said.

Now that ACA’s enhanced premium subsidies have expired, only people who earn less than 400% of the poverty level are eligible for assistance. That equates to $62,600 for an individual and $128,600 for a family of four.

Brad Woodhouse, president of advocacy group Protect Our Care, said in a statement that the task force is “a political stunt designed to throw even more people off their coverage while pretending to save taxpayers’ money.”

ICE officer who shot Venezuelan man in Texas wasn’t wearing a body camera, sources say

September 22, 2026 2:52 PM EDT / CBS News

By
Camilo Montoya-Galvez Immigration Correspondent

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who shot a Venezuelan delivery driver in Austin, Texas, on Sunday was not wearing a body camera at the time of the shooting, sources familiar with the investigation told CBS News.

An ICE officer shot Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a 28-year-old native of Venezuela who federal officials said has a deportation order, in the upper torso on Sunday afternoon while Garces Perez was working for DoorDash, according to local authorities and his attorney.

The shooting was the latest involving federal agents enforcing President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration and has sparked protests in Texas, as well as calls for accountability and a transparent, independent investigation.

The lack of body camera footage from the ICE officer who shot Garces Perez — a detail first reported by The Atlantic — is likely to escalate concerns about the shooting.

Law enforcement officers retreat as people protest ICE on Sept. 20, 2026, in Austin, Texas. Brandon Bell / Getty Images

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin had said earlier this month that all ICE officers would be equipped with body cams by the end of September.

“We’re getting close,” Mullin said at a press conference in New York. “By the end of September, I’m pretty sure we will be there.”

Representatives for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to inquiries on the ICE officer not wearing a body camera.

Garces Perez’s medical condition has also been subject of controversy. Following his hospitalization on Sunday, the Venezuelan man was taken into ICE custody, with DHS alleging that he’s in the U.S. illegally with a final deportation order.

Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas said Garces Perez was transferred back to a hospital on Monday after complaining about not having feeling on the left side of his body and believing that the bullet was still lodged in his back.

On Tuesday, Castro said Garces Perez had been transferred back to ICE’s South Texas Detention Complex in Pearsall, noting he’s scheduled to visit the man Wednesday.

“Today, he tells me he is receiving only Tylenol and ibuprofen for pain,” Garces Perez’s attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, wrote on X on Tuesday. “He remains in isolation, on a flat bed, and without the tablet he previously used to communicate.”

Lincoln-Goldfinch filed a habeas petition seeking Garces Perez’s release from ICE custody on constitutional grounds. On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Orlando Garcia ordered Garces Perez to attend an in-person hearing on the habeas claim next Wednesday, Sept. 30, effectively blocking ICE from deporting him until then.

Trump administration says most refugees accepted in 2027 will be White South Africans

2026-09-22T19:37:56.899Z / CNN

By Priscilla Alvarez

Updated 8 min ago

Updated Sep 22, 2026, 3:53 PM ET

PUBLISHED Sep 22, 2026, 3:37 PM ET

In this file photo, newly arrived South Africans listen to US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Troy Edgar as they deliver welcome statements in a hangar at Atlantic Aviation Dulles near Washington Dulles International Airport on May 12, 2025 in Dulles, Virginia. Dozens of white South Africans, also called Afrikaners, accepted an invitation from the Trump Administration to come to the United States as refugees.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images/File

The Trump administration has informed Congress it intends to accept 17,500 refugees, primarily White South Africans, in fiscal year 2027, according to a report submitted Tuesday and obtained by CNN.

President Donald Trump has previously said that nearly all refugees admitted to the United States would be White South Africans, radically reshaping a decades-long program that had largely serviced people fleeing war, persecution or other dangers.

Refugee advocates argue that the administration’s focus on one group has excluded vulnerable populations worldwide. South African authorities have strongly denied claims of White genocide.

In its report to Congress, the State Department said admissions will “primarily be Afrikaners from South Africa,” arguing that they face discrimination in their home country.

“The United States anticipates that Afrikaners from South Africa will fully assimilate into the United States in a manner that preserves taxpayer resources for U.S. citizens and does not anticipate other countries resettling Afrikaners,” the report states.

Resettlement under the proposed ceiling is expected to cost approximately $500 million, according to the report.

The administration increased the refugee cap for South Africans earlier this year to 17,500 from a limit of 7,500 for all refugees, informing Congress of the change through an emergency determination.

CNN previously reported the refugee program, largely shuttered for the rest of the world, has sparked diplomatic spats, prompted a scramble to open a processing site in South Africa, generated highly unusual requests from applicants and produced high denial rates, due in part to criminal records among some applicants, according to more than a dozen people familiar with the program.

Trump at UN: Threats, diplomacy and ‘super intelligence’

2026-09-22T16:45:24.932Z / https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-un-threats-diplomacy-super-intelligence-2026-09-22/

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 22 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump used his address to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday to defend the US-Israeli campaign against Iran while laying out his foreign policy priorities. Here are the major issues he addressed in ​a 37-minute speech:

• IRAN. He warned he could annihilate Iran without a peace deal and predicted one ‌would be reached after US midterm elections on November 3 when the makeup of Congress will be decided.

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• UKRAINE. About Russia’s war in Ukraine, he said, “We’re working very closely with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine, and we will get that one done,” adding, “It’s ​going to happen, I think, more quickly than people understand.”

• ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. He said the US ​government would use the term “super intelligence” instead of artificial intelligence and repeated his view that ⁠AI safety warnings are a hoax. “We’re leading now over China by a lot and everyone else,” he said. “I’m ​not going to stifle growth of something that will be bigger than the Industrial Revolution.” He said US law enforcement ​agencies would rein in the sector if needed.

• INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT. He urged member nations of the International Criminal Court to withdraw – he used the word “resign” – and condemned what he called an “out of control institution” and “an evil group of people.” He said the ​US would not allow military service members to be subject to what he called show trials by an anti-American ​tribunal.

• DRUG WARS. He said he was “reasserting American power” to make the region safer by taking out cartels, which the US ‌has designated ⁠terrorist organizations. “Like ISIS, they should be killed, exiled or detained as enemy combatants without the possibility of release,” Trump said, “which is what we’re doing.”

• VENEZUELA. He characterized his administration’s actions in Venezuela as a great victory and a potential warning to others. “Our actions in Venezuela are proof that the United States will no longer permit threats to ​America to gain a foothold ​anywhere in the Western ⁠Hemisphere, and if necessary, we will use our unmatched military might to secure the vital national interests of the United States,” he said.

• CUBA. He called Cuba a ​failed state and, touting greater US involvement in the region, adding: “Communism will never be ​coming to America, ⁠but freedom will be coming to Cuba.” Members of the Cuban UN delegation walked out.

• MEXICO. He called Mexico an epicenter of regional drug cartel violence.

• THE UN ITSELF. He touted what he described as sweeping UN reforms under his ⁠administration, including ​budget cuts and staff reductions, while attacking international organizations and efforts ​to create global taxes. “The United Nations has great, great potential. I’ve said that for many years. But it must stop imposing the far-left agenda ​of globalist bureaucrats who nobody ever elected,” he said.

Reporting by Reuters correspondents; Editing by Howard Goller and Don Durfee

Trump administration to welcome up to 17,500 more White South Africans as refugees

September 22, 2026 / 3:35 PM EDT / CBS News

By Camilo Montoya-Galvez Immigration Correspondent

The Trump administration is planning to welcome up to 17,500 additional White Afrikaners from South Africa as refugees over the next 12 months, according to a notice sent to Congress on Tuesday and obtained by CBS News.

The State Department informed congressional officials that the Trump administration is planning to allocate 17,500 refugee spots for fiscal year 2027, and that they will “primarily” go to Afrikaners, who President Trump has claimed are being oppressed for being White. Fiscal year 2027 starts in October.

While the second Trump administration has effectively shut down the U.S. refugee resettlement program for most people fleeing persecution and violence around the world, it has made an exemption for Afrikaners, resettling thousands of them over the past year and a half.

Trump administration officials have portrayed Afrikaners as victims of racial oppression in post-apartheid South Africa. The South African government has consistently denied persecuting the ethnic minority, made up of descendants of European settlers, mostly from the Netherlands.

“Afrikaners face the seizure of agricultural property without compensation; government policies designed to dismantle equal opportunity in employment, education, and business; and hateful rhetoric fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored minorities,” the State Department said in its notice to Congress.

The first group of Afrikaners from South Africa to arrive for resettlement listen to a speech at Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia on May 12, 2025. SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

Last week, the U.S. imposed new sanctions on South African officials who it said were responsible for discriminating against Afrikaners.

The Afrikaner resettlement effort is projected to cost the U.S. government $500 million, the notice to Congress said.

“The United States anticipates that Afrikaners from South Africa will fully assimilate into the United States in a manner that preserves taxpayer resources for U.S. citizens and does not anticipate other countries resettling Afrikaners,” the notice read.

Mr. Trump has alleged that Afrikaners face a “genocide” in South Africa. In a tense Oval Office meeting last year, he confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on the claims, showing him a video that spotlighted murders of farmers in the country.

Those claims have been strongly disputed. A “60 Minutes” report earlier this year featured Afrikaners who rejected the notion that White people are facing a “genocide” and said murders on farms were linked to a broader crime problem in South Africa that harms members of all races.

What is the White House press pool and how does it work?

September 22, 2026 / 3:51 PM EDT / CBS News

By Sara Cook
Sara Cook is a White House producer and multi-platform reporter for CBS News. She has covered three presidential campaigns and the Obama, Biden, and Trump administrations.

Washington — President Trump’s move to ban CNN, MS NOW and POLITICO from the White House has highlighted the role of the press pool, a rotating group of reporters tasked with documenting and distributing information about what the president does and says each day.

Mr. Trump announced Friday that he would be cutting off the three outlets’ access to the White House, citing what he said was their “constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!” CNN, MS NOW and POLITICO jointly filed a lawsuit challenging the move Monday, arguing that the ban violated the First Amendment and their reporters’ due process rights.

They’ve asked the court to immediately order the White House to restore their journalists’ press credentials and access. A hearing on their request is set for Wednesday.

CNN is one of five television networks — with CBS News, ABC News, NBC News and Fox News — that make up the TV pool and was supposed to travel to New York as part of the pool to cover Mr. Trump’s attendance at the United Nations General Assembly. But with CNN kicked off the trip because of the president’s ban, the four other networks decided to suspend the TV pool altogether in solidarity with CNN colleagues.

CBS News, ABC News, CNN, Fox News and NBC News said in a statement Monday, “The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government. No administration should reject a news organization because it objects to its reporting.”

Here is what to know about the White House press pool:

What is the White House press pool?

The press pool is a group of journalists that rotates daily and covers the president every day. The pool is made up of print, wire, and digital reporters, still photographers, and broadcast and radio journalists who ask the president questions, compose short dispatches about what he does and says, and disseminate information to the broader White House press corps, which can then share those details with the public.

Because some spaces, like the Oval Office or Air Force One, are too small to accommodate all of the reporters who cover the president, the press pool serves as their eyes and ears. The pool travels with the president in the U.S. and abroad, providing a historical record.

At the White House, the pool may on any given day head into the Oval Office or the Cabinet Room when Mr. Trump holds meetings, delivers remarks or signs executive orders. But when the president is traveling, an out-of-town pool flies on Air Force One and accompanies Mr. Trump when he spends weekends at his South Florida resort, holds events across the country, attends summits with allies or meets with foreign leaders overseas.

On some weekends, the pool will load into vans and travel with Mr. Trump to his golf course in Virginia, where they may catch glimpses of him as he exits and enters the White House.

Pool reporters were in Dallas when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and a car carrying the group arrived at the hospital roughly six minutes after shots were fired, according to an account from Merriman Smith of United Press International.

The press pool was also with President George W. Bush on Sept. 11, 2001, and a small group of reporters who were part of the broader pool that day went with the president on Air Force One to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska in the wake of the terror attacks.

Dana Bash, CNN chief political correspondent, recalled in an interview with “CBS Mornings” traveling with Bush to China and said the 43rd president made “such a big deal about freedom of the press and showing, not just saying, but showing how important it was by having us in as many meetings as he could.”

“He wanted to show China what it is like and how important it is,” she said. “Now here we are and the current president is about to host the current Chinese leader and he is going to do so after having banned three news networks. What does that tell the Chinese, never mind countries around the world? It’s about us, but it’s also about leadership.”

Mr. Trump is set to host Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House on Thursday.

Reporters who make up the pool are given a “call time” for when they must arrive at the White House in the morning to start the day. White House press staff then announce a “lid” at the end of the day, which typically signals when there will not be any more movements or appearances by the president for the pool to cover.

Who decides which outlets are in the pool?

For years, the White House Correspondents’ Association, which was created in 1914, selected the news outlets that served in the pool. But in February 2025, the White House announced that its press office would choose the organizations participating in the pool.

The change came after the White House said it would no longer allow the Associated Press in the Oval Office or the press pool after the wire service declined to revise its Stylebook to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. Mr. Trump signed an executive order last year directing the name change.

The AP sued over its loss of access, but a federal appeals court said last year that the White House could keep the wire service out of the Oval Office and other restricted spaces. The litigation is ongoing.

Since the White House started deciding which news outlets would be part of the daily pool rotation, several smaller, right-leaning organizations have begun participating. On Monday, for example, Real America’s Voice was part of the out-of-town pool that traveled with the president to New York, and
“The Lila Rose Show,” a podcast, was part of the in-town pool.

Now, on any given day, the pool currently consists of one broadcast correspondent and crew, a “secondary” television correspondent, three print, wire, or “new media” reporters, a radio journalist and four still photographers.

The makeup of the television pool has not changed, though, and is still composed of five networks: CBS News, ABC News, NBC News, Fox News and CNN.

What kind of information is disseminated by the pool?

While the pool consists of more than a dozen different journalists, not all are responsible for writing and sending dispatches from events they attend with the president to be distributed to the press corps more widely.

When the White House took over responsibility for deciding which outlets could be part of the pool, it added “secondary” television and “new media” slots. The reporters working for those outlets may ask questions of the president and attend events open to the pool. But they do not shoot or distribute footage, or disseminate editorial material to the broader press corps.

Reporters in the print pool, which includes over 30 outlets like the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the Daily Mail and the Daily Caller, will compile information into emails that are shared with White House Correspondents’ Association members and passed along by the White House press office.

Sometimes, these pool reports may be mundane, like when they share the exact time Mr. Trump left the White House and boarded Marine One. Other times, they include questions asked of the president in the Oval Office and his answers, or who was in the room but out of view of the television cameras.

The designated radio pooler, meanwhile, distributes audio and editorial notes to radio colleagues in the press corps.

For the five broadcast networks that make up the television pool, crews will capture footage of the president that is then distributed to the other members of the TV pool and their affiliates and subscribers. Only these networks have set up and maintained the physical infrastructure to transmit footage from the White House and when traveling with the president to affiliates.

Who covers the cost of expenses for the TV pool?

News organizations pay the expenses for their reporters participating in the pool, including for travel aboard Air Force One. Media outlets also foot the bill for hotels, food and other transportation for their journalists in the pool.

The television networks also provided the machinery — cameras, audio equipment, and transmission infrastructure — installed at the White House that allows audio and video of the president to be transmitted to the public.

What happens when there is no TV pool coverage?

The public got a glimpse Monday of what it looks like when there is no television pool to cover the president.

Mr. Trump participated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new helipad on the White House South Lawn. While video footage from the White House showed the president flanked by construction workers, without the television pool mics, viewers couldn’t hear his remarks at all over the sound of the helicopter.

Trump ‘is his own worst enemy’: Ex-judge previews WH media ban hearing

2:44 PM EDT, Tue September 22, 2026 / By Sam Meyer, CNN

Trump ‘is his own worst enemy’: Ex-judge previews WH media ban hearing

Saying that ‘President Trump is his own worst enemy’, former federal judge John E. Jones III unpacks the arguments in Wednesday’s court hearing on the Trump administration’s ban of CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House complex.

CNN’s “NewsNight” panel also debates the White House’s ban on certain media outlets, comparing it with other recent free speech controversies, including those involving Macklemore and social media bans.