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Judge rules Kennedy Center board cannot put Trump’s name on building again

September 15, 2026 / 12:45 PM EDT / CBS News

By Jacob Rosen

Jacob Rosen Justice Department Reporter

Jake Rosen is a reporter covering the Department of Justice. He was previously a campaign digital reporter covering President Trump’s 2024 campaign and also served as an associate producer for “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”

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Jacob Rosen

Washington— A federal judge again blocked the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ Board of Trustees from adding President Trump’s name on the building on Tuesday, finding that a proposed resolution to add Mr. Trump’s name to the building “bucks a federal court order and a statute Congress enacted.”

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper sided with Rep. Joyce Beatty, a board member who sued last year over Mr. Trump’s changes to the Kennedy Center. Beatty, an Ohio Democrat, argued that the board’s recent efforts to recognize the president violate federal law, and her legal team asked Cooper to issue emergency relief blocking the changes.

“Defendants are hereby enjoined from inscribing “renovated and restored by Donald J. Trump” on the main building or renaming the campus the “President Donald J. Trump Plaza,” Cooper wrote in a 22-page opinion. “Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing. The board resolution bucks a federal court order and a statute Congress enacted.”

The board, which is chaired by Mr. Trump and is comprised of his Cabinet members and allies, approved a resolution in August that called for the inscription “Renovated and Restored by President Donald J. Trump” to be placed under the center’s name on the building and for the inscription “Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund” to be added if a $100 million fundraising threshold is met. The resolution also calls for the Kennedy Center’s grounds to be named the “President Donald J. Trump Plaza.”

Cooper declined to rule on whether the inscription of “endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund” could be placed on the building, finding that Beatty did not show that the phrase would be placed on the building “imminently, if at all.”

During arguments on the emergency motion last month, Nathaniel Zelinsky, a lawyer representing Beatty, called the board’s vote to again put Mr. Trump’s name on the center “deja vu” and an act of “outright defiance” of an order from Cooper earlier this year that barred the center’s closure and ordered Mr. Trump’s name to be removed from the building. The Trump administration has appealed that earlier ruling.

The Justice Department said in court last month that “there is no renaming here,” and argued that the proposed inscriptions were meant to honor Mr. Trump because of ongoing and future fundraising efforts by the president to supplement a $257 million congressional stipend for a massive renovation project pushed by the White House.

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/doj-in-court-defend-kennedy-center-board-new-push-add-trump-name-building/

DOJ in court to defend Kennedy Center Board’s new push to add Trump’s name to building

(01:47)

Kennedy Center board votes to close for renovations after chaotic call with Trump

2026-09-15T16:28:43.956Z / CNN

By Kasie Hunt, Sunlen Serfaty, Tierney Sneed

Updated 4 min ago

Updated Sep 15, 2026, 4:02 PM ET

PUBLISHED Sep 15, 2026, 12:28 PM ET

Kennedy Center board votes to close for renovations after chaotic call with Trump

The Kennedy Center board voted to close the center Tuesday after a tense meeting in which President Donald Trump called in to berate a Democratic congresswoman who serves on the panel, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

“It was f**king crazy,” said one source familiar with the exchange between Trump and Rep. Joyce Beatty, whose lawsuit has prevented Trump’s name from being added to the building.

Another source said Trump screamed, blaming Beatty for getting the courts involved and leading to the downfall of the performing arts center. Beatty told Trump he had put the Kennedy Center into deep debt.

The board’s vote and Trump’s call came moments after a federal judge stopped the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees’ latest plan to add Trump’s name to the memorial for President John F. Kennedy.

US District Judge Casey Cooper said a proposal to add an inscription thanking the president for renovating and restoring the institution’s edifice, along with a move to rename the center’s campus after him – “bucks a federal court order and a statute Congress enacted.”

“Simply put, Defendants cannot install memorials for President Trump or anyone or anything else at the Kennedy Center without Congress’s blessing,” Cooper wrote.

Before fully shutting down the Center, however, the board will need to secure a ruling reversing Cooper’s previous court order requiring the that institution stay open while Beatty’s lawsuit proceeds. The Justice Department is expected to file that request by Friday.

Trump says renovation won’t reopen without his name attached

After the board voted, Trump implied that if his name isn’t eventually on the building, the renovations won’t happen.

“The closing will take place immediately, however, the Renovation and Reconstruction, which is a very large and complex job, cannot begin until such time as the D.C. Circuit rules on the Board’s approved name,” the president said on Truth Social.

Trump added that if the court ruling on the name “is a negative one, which it should not be, and is not overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Reconstruction and the Renovation of The Kennedy Center will not take place.” Trump said Justice Department attorneys will request an expedited appeal.

He also said $17 million he raised has been deposited into the Kennedy Center’s account “to keep it afloat” in the meantime.

Trump ire directed at judge as well

An August 13 proposal adopted by the board would have affixed the text “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump” to the center’s facade. After initially planning to add the inscription this month, the board’s lawyers told Cooper it would wait until October 8 so he could rule on the legality of such a move.

The legal wrangling is the latest development in a lawsuit brought by Beatty, an ex-officio member of the board. In remarks outside of court before Cooper’s ruling, Beatty said she would oppose any new attempts by the board to put his name on the building.

During the phone call with the Kennedy Center board, the president also took aim at Cooper, an appointee of Barack Obama, sources said.

Trump also blasted the judge on social media.

“A very hostile and conflicted Judge (What else is new?) seems like he won’t let that happen, in which case, unfortunately, the Building is destined to doom,” the president said on Truth Social.

Cooper held off on ruling on one part of the August 13 resolution – a proposal adding an additional inscription honoring “The Trump Kennedy Center Fund” once $100 million was raised by the endowment.

Since the fund has not raised any money yet, ruling on that proposal was “premature,” Cooper said. Instead, he is ordering notification if that fundraising threshold is met, with at least 60 days notice before the text can be added.

CNN’s Alejandra Jaramillo contributed to this report.
This story has been updated with additional developments.

Texas Republican’s post on Asian Americans at UT Austin sparks accusations of racism

2026-09-15T18:18:06.057Z / reuters.com

WASHINGTON, Sept 15 (Reuters) – A Republican nominee for a Texas office drew bipartisan criticism after posting a photo from a University of Texas football game that critics called racist, portraying ​the Austin campus as dominated by foreign students contrary to enrollment data.

Bo French, the Republican nominee for Texas railroad commissioner, drew a sharp rebuke from fellow Republicans ‌as well as Democrats after posting a crowd shot at a University of Texas football game, while suggesting that what appeared to be students of South Asian descent reflected a large foreign-born or international student presence on campus.

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“I heard UT graduation this year looked like this. I didn’t believe it. The problem is now obviously far worse than anyone imagined,” French posted to his X account. He went on to claim that UT prioritizes foreign students in ​admissions and feared Texans were losing opportunities at the university.

“I weep for the families in Texas who can’t get into UT because they prioritize foreigners over Texans,” he said.

But ​enrollment figures released by the University of Texas at Austin show international students account for less than 10% of the total student body. Total ⁠enrollment reached 55,000 students for the fall 2025 semester, including 5,140 international students. Texas residents make up 80.5% of all enrolled students.

For the undergraduate class, international students make up 4.3%, and ​a state law requires 90% of every incoming freshman class to be Texas residents. UT Austin automatically admits the top 5% of performers — who are also Texas residents — at every high school in ​the state.

The Texas legislature designed the initiative to promote diversity without explicitly considering race. As in most of the country, Texas high school students are separated by geography, income and demographics, and by guaranteeing admission to top students at each high school, the statewide policy helps ensure universities draw from a broad cross-section of Texas communities.

That means more than 90% of students at UT Austin are domestic, and more than four out of every five are ​Texans.

Vedant Nair, 24, who graduated from UT in 2024, said his parents immigrated to Oklahoma in the 1990s from Mumbai so his father could pursue an MBA at Oklahoma State University. Nair ​was born in Oklahoma City and recalls running around in a child-size OSU Cowboys football helmet and driving a mini John Deere tractor. His upbringing, he said, was no different than those of his fellow Texans ‌after his ⁠family moved to Dallas in elementary school.

Attending UT Austin was a dream come true, and a normal, American experience, he said.

“If you stripped away my name and skin color, I think my story is pretty similar to a lot of other Texans at massive public high schools,” Nair said. “The point is that myself, and all the other kids in that picture, are just regular American kids.”

University spokespeople and French did not respond to a request for comment.

The debate touches on a broader political argument that non-U.S. citizens are “displacing” American students at elite public universities, and the country at large.

French’s remarks drew ​criticism from political figures and other social media ​users, who characterized the posts as racist ⁠or xenophobic.

Rodney Coates, a sociology professor at Miami University in Ohio, said French’s comments echoed longstanding anti-immigrant and anti-Asian narratives in the U.S. that have historically portrayed minority groups as threats to opportunities for others.

“It’s easier to come up with a racist argument to organize a group of people ​under the presumption that, hey, they’re hurting your chances,” Coates said. Such appeals often have little to do with the people being targeted ​and instead seek to ⁠mobilize voters by portraying them as victims. “Hate is one of the easiest means of organizing,” he said.

University figures show white students made up about 31.5% of enrollment in 2024 to 2025, Hispanic students 25.5% and Asian students 22.4%.

University reporting treats race and ethnicity separately from international student status, meaning most students categorized as Asian are U.S. citizens or permanent residents rather than international students.

The image French shared was a ⁠screenshot from a by the official athletics account at UT Austin. He did not include information identifying the citizenship, immigration status, ​residency or enrollment status of any individuals shown.

For Nair, the unfortunate part of French’s post was that it criticized a high point in school-pride history: the football team defeated The Ohio State University, the No. 1-ranked football team in the ​country.

“I don’t think there is anything more American than people in cowboy hats yelling their heads off after one of the greatest comeback wins in college football history,” he said.

https://x.com/TexasLonghorns/status/2098981262325170663

U.S. confirms for the first time that it has deployed weapons in space. China and Russia have responded.

2026-09-15T13:06:00-0400 / https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-confirms-weapons-in-space-china-russia-respond/

The United States has confirmed for the first time that it has deployed weapons in space, prompting separate warnings from China and Russia.

Air Force Secretary Troy Meink told the Air and Space Cyber Conference in Maryland on Monday that the U.S. has fielded “on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the Joint Force against hostile adversary action.”

Meink did not detail what the weapons were or how they work. In 2024 the U.S. said Russia was developing a new anti-satellite weapon that could be launched from space. At the time, the White House said the danger wasn’t imminent.

But reports of the anti-satellite weapon reflected longstanding worries about space threats from Russia and China, given that much U.S. infrastructure is dependent on satellite communications.

In his remarks, Meink also said the Air Force was adding more autonomous systems to its capabilities and predicted the service would look “radically different” by 2032. For example, he foresaw one-way attack drones replacing artillery as the “primary killer.”

“We are increasing readiness against existing threats,” he said.

Meink also said that AI “competes with some of the world’s top programmers, cyber operators and hackers. And these technologies are revolutionizing the battlefield. They allow countries that would not have had the resources in the past to quickly adapt and scale their combat capabilities.”

As a result, the U.S. military “must increase our combat power and innovate faster than anyone else, affordably,” Meink said.

President Trump created the Space Force in 2019.

China and Russia issue warnings

China on Tuesday warned against turning outer space into a “battlefield” and Russia said it must be “free from any weapon” after the United States confirmed that it has arms deployed in orbit above the Earth.

Analysts said that the revelation by Washington confirmed an open secret but the timing of the announcement risked exacerbating tensions with Beijing and the risk of a weapons race in space.

China’s foreign ministry opposed the move, warning against the “weaponization of outer space, turning it into a battlefield, as well as an arms race there.”

“We urge the U.S. side to stop expanding its military capabilities and preparing for war in outer space,” ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun told a news briefing.

Russia called Tuesday for space to be kept “free of any weapons.”

“We are counting on broad international consolidation to continue working toward the complete demilitarization of space,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

What are the U.S. capabilities?

The U.S. statement did not provide concrete details about what weapons are deployed in space and how many.

“Space control encapsulates the mission areas required to contest and control the space domain — employing kinetic and non-kinetic means to affect adversary capabilities,” the statement said.

“These capabilities can be employed for offensive and defensive purposes,” it added.

Non-kinetic means could include lasers to blind satellites, or even electromagnetic or cyber jamming of their data links.

Why does the U.S. want weapons in space?

For Washington, both Russia and China — its two main geopolitical rivals — pose potential threats to U.S. interests in space.

China “develops and operates space and counterspace capabilities as part of a military modernization strategy,” according to the U.S. Space Force.

Russia, meanwhile, “views space as a warfighting domain and believes space supremacy will be a decisive factor in future conflicts,” it said.

The militarization of space is as old as the space race itself — as soon as the USSR’s Sputnik was launched into orbit as the first probe in space in 1957, Washington and Moscow began exploring ways to both arm and destroy satellites.

India in March 2019 said it had destroyed a low-orbiting satellite, following in the footsteps of Russia, China and the U.S., in a missile test that proved the nation was among the world’s most advanced space powers.

“China will not stand by and do nothing”

Song Zhongping, an independent military commentator based in Hong Kong and former Chinese army instructor, told AFP the announcement was “no surprise at all” as the fact that the U.S possesses such weapons “has long been an open secret.”

“The only difference is that the U.S. used to keep it ambiguous, whereas now it has gone public, which shows that Washington is no longer trying to hide it,” he added.

“China will not stand by and do nothing,” he warned, noting Beijing already has its own space station in orbit.

“Whether China deploys weapons in space will depend entirely on whether the United States moves in that direction,” he said.

The Wall Street Journal reported Beijing supplied Iran with satellite imagery that enabled Tehran to precisely target military facilities and kill U.S. servicemembers in Jordan in July — a claim China has denied.

Can weapons in outer space be regulated?

The biggest worry was once about nuclear weapons in space, but the superpowers and other countries signed the Outer Space Treaty in 1967, banning weapons of mass destruction in orbit.

Since then, Russia, the United States, China and India have explored ways to fight in space outside of that treaty, including by targeting rivals’ satellites, which are key for military communications, surveillance and navigation.

“There is a regulatory vacuum because Article 4 of the 1967 treaty only forbids weapons of mass destruction and nuclear weapons in orbit,” said space law expert Laetitia Cesari.

She said the topic would likely be on the agenda at the next U.N. disarmament meeting in November.

“Moscow and Beijing have been wanting to work for about 20 years on a treaty to prevent the placement of weapons in space,” while “Western states are trying instead to work on the notion of responsible behavior,” Cesari said.

The U.S. announcement “will likely give impetus to the restrictive approach that Moscow and Beijing are pushing for,” she added.

Kamala Harris viciously mocked with resurfaced bumbling ‘two words’ explanation of AI after desperate call

September 15, 2026 12:23pm EDT / Fox News

Social media users resurfaced her 2023 explanation of AI after she urged Trump to pursue a treaty with China

By Peter Pinedo Fox News

Former Vice President and failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris is being mocked over a resurfaced clip of her “two letters” explanation of artificial intelligence after she posted a call to slow its development.

Harris, who previously served as the Biden administration’s AI czar, posted a lengthy statement on AI on Monday. In her post, Harris called for President Donald Trump to “do his job to protect America’s interests by pursuing a treaty with countries like China to stop dangerous uses of AI, limit the speed of its development, and adopt global standards for testing.”

In response, social media users recalled Harris’ attempt at explaining AI as vice president in 2023.

“I think the first part of this issue that should be articulated is AI is kind of a fancy thing,” Harris said. “First of all, it’s two letters. It means artificial intelligence, but ultimately what it is is it’s about machine learning.”

WATCH: KAMALA HARRIS TORCHED OVER ‘ZERO SENSE’ WNBA PEP TALK IN LATEST ‘WORD SALAD’ MOMENT

Former Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a panel discussion at the Austrian World Summit of the Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative on June 16, 2026, in Vienna, Austria.(Joe Klamar / AFP via Getty Images)

She continued, saying, “And so, the machine is taught — and part of the issue here is what information is going into the machine that will then determine — and we can predict then, if we think about what information is going in, what then will be produced in terms of decisions and opinions that may be made through that process.”

“So,” she went on even further, “to reduce it down to its most simple point, this is part of the issue that we have here is thinking about what is going into a decision, and then whether that decision is actually legitimate and reflective of the needs and the life experiences of all the people.”

After Harris’ X post on Monday, conservative influencer “Western Lensman” reposted the 2023 video of Harris, writing, “Kamala Harris on AI when it’s not a written statement crafted by a team of consultants.”

National security and global economics expert Kyle Bass reacted, “There’s not a chance in hell Kamala wrote this. Have you ever heard her say ‘frontier,’ ‘advancing,’ and ‘intelligence’ in the same sentence? Until now, her misfits had never produced anything this un-Kamala and then posted it on social media.”

Columnist S.L. Kanthan wrote, “One of the dumbest women now wants America to voluntarily slow down progress in AI.” He posted another video of Harris explaining cloud storage.

Harris said, “No longer are you necessarily keeping those private files in some file cabinet that’s locked in the basement of the house. It’s on your laptop, and it’s then, therefore, up here in this cloud, that exists above us, right?”

Author and national security expert Sarah Adams commented on Harris’ AI post, writing, “No one is looking for your thoughts on ‘intelligence.’”

Another user, influencer Andrew Aziz, and several others suggested that Harris’ post itself was AI-generated.

KAMALA HARRIS DIVES INTO MIDTERM FIGHT ONLY TO GET ROASTED FOR NEVER HAVING ‘AN ORIGINAL THOUGHT IN HER LIFE’

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris stand together at the White House ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump on Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington, D.C.(Getty Images)

In her post, Harris wrote that AI is “advancing at an alarming speed,” emphasizing what she characterized as industry leaders’ call to “responsibly slow the pace of frontier AI development.”

She wrote that “a slowdown is critical in order to ensure AI serves the public interest,” saying, “Pacing AI development does not mean giving up on this technology’s potential to produce life-saving benefits in fields like medicine — some of which we are already seeing. Rather, it is about setting up sensible guardrails so that AI does not completely escape human control and endanger our safety and collective future.”

Besides action from Trump, Harris called on Congress to “work at an urgent pace” to provide AI oversight, saying, “The United States must continue to lead the world in developing AI technology even as we seek to impose common-sense safety standards.”

Harris is not the only prominent Democrat to have called for increased AI regulation recently. Former President Barack Obama urged Democrats during a private fundraiser in New York City on Thursday to place artificial intelligence near the center of their political agenda ahead of the midterms and the 2028 presidential race while warning that the technology could become dangerous without greater oversight as voters increasingly raise concerns about jobs, privacy and data centers.

“This is something that is moving very fast in private hands, and if we don’t get on top of it, I think can be dangerous,” Obama said. “If we do get on top of it, I do think it’s beneficial. I genuinely think it’s going to accelerate, for example, drug development in ways that can help us cure diseases. I do think that this can help us figure out pathways for a clean energy future.”

ANTHROPIC CEO CALLS ON AI INDUSTRY TO SLOW DOWN TECH RACE, DRAWING SUPPORT FROM ELON MUSK, SAM ALTMAN

President Donald Trump, left, and Jensen Huang, co-founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia Corp., in the Cross Hall of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, April 30, 2025. Trump is hosting CEOs and industry leaders who have committed to investing in the US at the “Invest in America” event.(Photographer: Ken Cedeno/UPI/Bloomberg)

Meanwhile, Trump on Monday rejected growing calls for safeguards and restrictions on AI, declaring that the technology needs a “STRONG AND SMART” president rather than additional restraints.

“The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

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He suggested that “there is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China,” adding, “WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS! We are leading China, and all others, and will continue to do so.”

Fox News Digital’s Lindsay Kornick and Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.

Peter Pinedo is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.

blob:https://www.foxnews.com/21e6083a-228f-46ce-ab4f-d1882cf0f086

US Congress Democrats probe Russian oligarch financing of Trump Jr. wedding parties

2026-09-15T19:21:35.307Z / Reuters

By Richard Cowan and Alexandra Ulmer

September 15, 2026 7:21 PM UTC Updated 15 mins ago

Donald Trump Jr. and his partner Bettina Anderson sit on the day U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks to U.S. embassy personnel and business leaders at Deerfield Residence, the residence of the U.S. Ambassador to Ireland, in Dublin, Ireland, September 12, 2026. REUTERS/Kylie Cooper/File Photo

Summary

• Bettina Trump says Kremlev paid for two after-parties, not wedding itself
• Schumer called the arrangement a national security threat and possible foreign bribe
• Democrats are preparing broader ethics inquiries into Trump family businesses

WASHINGTON, Sept 15 (Reuters) – Democrats in the U.S. Congress launched an investigation ‌this week into reports that a Russian oligarch paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for the wedding celebrations of President Donald Trump’s son earlier this year.

The Democrats’ move comes on the heels of an article by ProPublica, opens new tab that ​Umar Kremlev, a wealthy Russian businessman and president of the International Boxing Association, paid for ​wedding festivities for Donald Trump Jr. in the Bahamas in May.

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The report said ⁠that Kremlev has close ties to the Russian government.

“Why is a Russian oligarch and friend ​of Vladimir Putin financially supporting the President’s son? What does Umar Kremlev expect in return for funding ​this three-day wedding in the Bahamas?” Representative Robert Garcia wrote on Tuesday in a social media post.

Garcia is the senior Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and is expected to chair the panel if Democrats ​win a majority in the House of Representatives in November’s midterm elections.

A representative for Don Jr ​declined to comment.

His wife, Bettina Trump, said in an Instagram post on Monday that Kremlev was a friend who ‌had ⁠extended an “extraordinarily generous wedding gift,” stressing that Kremlev had paid for two after-parties, not the wedding itself.

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Kremlev and the IBA did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.

The president, who did not attend his son’s wedding, said in a statement that he did not know Kremlev and that ​the wedding controversy was “not a ​big deal!”

Aides to ⁠Republican Representative James Comer of Kentucky, who chairs the committee, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Garcia and other leading House Democrats already ​have been gearing up for probes into Trump, his family and ethics ​questions that ⁠have arisen since the start of the president’s second term in January 2025.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York on Tuesday called the wedding arrangement “so corrupt, so venal, so endangering our national security.”

In ⁠a speech ​to the Senate, Schumer added, “You’re dealing with a Russian oligarch, ​not just a cousin who’s giving you a gift…sometimes a wedding gift is a bribe from a foreign autocrat.”

Reporting by ​Richard Cowan and Alexandra Ulmer; additional reporting by Nandita Bose; Editing by Michael Learmonth and Cynthia Osterman

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Iran war could cost $2 billion per month, Congressional Budget Office estimates

September 15, 2026 / 3:44 PM EDT / CBS News

The war with Iran could cost approximately $2 billion to $3 billion per month for as long as it continues, according to a report released by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office on Tuesday. The report estimates those costs could rise when there are tit-for-tat exchanges of fire with Iran.

The office estimated the war between Feb. 28 and Aug. 1 has directly cost the U.S. about $38 billion, a figure that does not include repairing U.S. bases in the region damaged during the conflict. In addition, the office estimates inflation during the first quarter of 2027 could be 0.5% higher than what was projected before the war because of rising energy prices.

The CBO noted that replacing munitions accounts for the majority of the $21.7 billion in costs incurred during the war.

In particular, the CBO said the large expenditure of interceptor missiles used to defend against incoming missiles leaves behind a “reduced inventory of interceptors for several years.”

“The shortfall would become especially problematic if a conflict arose with an opponent whose arsenal included large numbers of ballistic and cruise missiles,” according to the report, which pointed out that China maintains such an arsenal and could employ it if there were a conflict over Taiwan.

The report said a comparison of the reported use of interceptors with the number the Pentagon has purchased indicates the U.S. has “probably used between one-half and two-thirds of its inventory of those munitions since June 2025.” Those munitions include Patriot and THAAD interceptors as well as the Navy’s Standard Missiles 3 and 6.

The White House and the Pentagon have downplayed concerns about depleted weapons inventories. President Trump on Truth Social said, “We have virtually unlimited amounts of mid- to high-grade ammunition, far more than we can ever use.” Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of forces in the Middle East, recently told “60 Minutes,” “I’m not concerned at all. We’re well-armed and ready for any contingency.”

The CBO said the Defense Department did not respond to requests for information.

The CBO analysis was released a day after the Pentagon inspector general published a report that said the Pentagon’s Office for Acquisition and Sustainment concluded the use of munitions in the conflict has led to “strategic inventory shortfalls and revealed industrial base bottlenecks for munitions resupply.”

The CBO estimates it will cost $21.7 billion to replace the munitions used in the conflict through Aug. 1: $7.3 billion for the land-attack cruise missiles, $13.1 billion for the missile-defense interceptors and $1.2 billion for other munitions.

It will also cost about $1.9 billion to replace lost equipment, according to the report, including a THAAD air defense radar destroyed by Iran. The CBO noted the radar can cost roughly $500 million and is essential for the battery to take down missiles. If the Pentagon decides to request supplemental appropriations to replace lost aircraft with newer versions, the total cost could rise from $1.9 billion to $3.3 billion.

If the war continues at a relatively low intensity, it could cost roughly $2 billion to $3 billion each additional month, according to the report. Monthly costs could rise if there is an escalation similar to the one in July, which saw repeated tit-for-tat strikes. The CBO said the war in July cost about $3 billion.

In June, the Trump administration sent Congress an $87.6 billion supplemental funding request that included $67 billion for the Department of Defense for needs related to the Iran war.

Republicans are trying to provide up to $73 billion in new funding for the war through the party-line reconciliation process, but the House-adopted budget blueprint to initiate the process has been stalled in the Senate.

The CBO released its estimate in response to a request from Democratic Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, who is the ranking member on the House Budget Committee.

“Donald Trump’s disastrous war in Iran has already taken the lives of brave American servicemembers and left others wounded. Beyond that human toll, this nonpartisan CBO report makes clear that the war has also cost American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars and counting, while continuing to drive up costs,” Boyle said in a statement to CBS News.

Jaala Brown and Caitlin Yilek contributed to this report.

Trump says Kennedy Center will close ‘immediately’ for reconstruction, pending court ruling on renaming

2026-09-15T19:31:45.554Z / CNN Politics

Kennedy Center board votes to close for renovations after chaotic call with Trump

The Kennedy Center board voted to close the center Tuesday after a tense meeting in which President Donald Trump called in to berate a Democratic congresswoman who serves on the panel, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The board’s vote and Trump’s call came moments after a federal judge stopped the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees’ latest plan to add Trump’s name to the memorial for President John F. Kennedy.

The salsa account of a surprise GOP nominee amplified a post implying execution for alleged Trump ‘traitors’

2026-09-15T16:00:29.134Z / CNN

A Republican congressional nominee in a closely divided Michigan district deleted social media accounts containing thousands of posts that include a yearslong pattern of inflammatory and conspiratorial rhetoric — including amplifying a post that appeared to raise the possibility of the death penalty for political opponents of President Donald Trump.

Thomas Smith, a 75-year-old retired General Motors employee and Flint-area small-business owner, became the surprise Republican nominee last month after an improbable primary victory over the Trump-endorsed candidate despite suspending his campaign before Election Day.

A CNN KFile review of some 13,000 archived posts from Smith’s now-deleted accounts uncovered a substantially broader pattern of far-right rhetoric than previously reported, including repeated accusations of treason, attacks on Muslim Americans and Islam, birther-style conspiracy theories about Barack Obama, and posts in which Smith said he had been awakened before dawn with a message from God for conservative radio host Dan Bongino.

Smith will face first-term Democratic Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet in a district that split its ticket in 2024: McDonald Rivet won her House race by roughly 6 points, while Trump carried the district over Kamala Harris by 3 points. Despite the district’s R+1 partisan lean and its recent history of close elections, the Cook Political Report moved the race from “Lean Democratic” to “Likely Democratic” after Smith’s primary victory.

That shift underscores the potential that Smith’s digital history — largely erased from public view after his unexpected nomination — could loom over a race Democrats might otherwise have struggled to hold.

One of the starkest examples came in February 2025. The account, JarHeadSalsa, named for the Flint salsa business Smith owns with his son, reposted a message addressed to Trump: “Do whatever it takes to take our country back from those who sought to have it destroyed.”

“There are traitors within who deserve to be put on trial for treason,” the post added. “What’s the punishment for treason again?”

A person convicted of treason can be punished by death or be imprisoned for no less than five years.

Smith repeatedly identified himself by name on both JarHeadSalsa accounts as the operator.

One racist repost that Smith shared urged the deportation of the “Somali infestation” of America.

Smith’s own posts could also veer into the unusual.

On three consecutive days in May 2024, he wrote that he had been “awakened at 4:30 AM with a message from God for Dan Bongino.” The message, addressed to the conservative broadcaster who later became deputy FBI director, told Americans of different races that they were “brothers and sisters in Christ” and was signed simply: “God.” Smith posted versions of it again weeks later.

Smith’s posts at times reflected an intense interest in precious metals and mining stocks. Over nine days in February 2025, he posted at least 30 times about Barrick Gold. He tagged dozens of accounts as he urged administration officials and others to help the Canadian mining company move its corporate domicile to the US, including five times to a non-verified account styled as Trump’s granddaughter Kai:“Kai, Can you get this info to your Grandpa.”

Around the same time, Smith asked gold advocate Peter Schiff for investment advice, writing: “60% of my nest egg is in gold silver or copper mining stocks, am I okay?”

The Detroit News reported last week on Smith’s now-deleted JarHeadSalsa social media accounts, including posts supporting efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The newspaper also reported that Smith attended Trump’s January 6, 2021, “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington. He later repeatedly shared posts claiming the attack was part of a government setup, staged by federal agents.

Talking Points Memo previously reported Smith’s attendance and some of his social media history, in which Smith denied entering the Capitol or restricted grounds.

Smith did not disavow his older social media activity when responding to The Detroit News. “People can dig through every 10-year-old tweet I ever wrote. That is fine,” he told the newspaper, before criticizing McDonald Rivet’s voting record.

In response to questions from CNN, Smith said in a statement, “Like thousands of peaceful patriots, I attended President Trump’s rally in Washington. After braving the cold for several hours and listening to the President, I returned to my hotel. I did not enter the Capitol or trespass on restricted grounds. My focus is on delivering common sense results for Michigan and defeating Abdul El-Sayed’s partner in socialism Kristen McDonald Rivet at the ballot box this fall.”

Smith’s campaign has undergone a visible reboot since his surprise primary victory on August 4.

On July 16, after what he called“prayerful consideration,” Smith announced he was suspending his campaign and endorsed opponent Al Lemmo, urging his supporters to unite behind him. But Smith remained on the ballot and won anyway, taking about 50% of the vote. Smith later said he was at Lemmo’s election night party when the returns showed him winning and that, by 2 a.m., Republicans had assigned him two campaign managers. He quickly announced he was reentering the race.

His campaign operation has since gotten a serious makeover.

A bare-bones website featuring a district map, a short biography, and links for donations and yard signs has been replaced by a polished red-and-blue site with volunteer sign-ups, fundraising appeals and detailed issue pages. The new site declares, “Tom is in this race to WIN,” and centers his platform on “The Constitution, Faith, Freedom,” while emphasizing constitutional rights, border enforcement, lower taxes and reduced federal spending.

But the professionalized campaign now being built around Smith stands in sharp contrast to the record he left behind online — including his posts before and after January 6.

Two weeks before the Capitol attack, Smith urged others to join him in DC: “Having millions of supporters surrounding the Capitol will be epic. The left needs to see what they are up against.” Sixteen months later, in April 2022, he cited on Truth Social his own presence there to vouch for what happened: “I was there on Jan. 6th and I agree. The Capitol was surrounded before Trump quit speaking.”

The February 2025 post suggesting Trump opponents be punished for treason was hardly the only time Smith’s account amplified accusations that political figures were traitors.

In July 2024, he reposted a message declaring that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer “is a traitor.” Last November, after several Democratic lawmakers urged service members to refuse illegal orders, Smith’s account reposted a message calling Rep. Maggie Goodlander a “traitor.” Days later, it amplified another calling for Sen. Mark Kelly, a retired Navy captain, to be stripped of his rank and court-martialed for sedition.

He also shared numerous reposts accusing former President Barack Obama of treason, including one labeling him a“Shadow President.” Another declared that “Treason charges are coming,” tagging Obama and adding “you are f**ked,” while asking whether he ordered Trump to be assassinated. Another repost on Truth Social called former Rep. Eric Swalwell treasonous and for him to be jailed.

Smith repeatedly amplified birther-style rhetoric, including a repost in September 2024 calling the Biden administration an “evil Kenyan-run White House” — an apparent reference to Obama and the long-running false conspiracy theories that he was born in Kenya and that he secretly ran the Biden White House.

Days later, he reposted a message describing“this illegitimate government led by the Kenyan.” In November, weeks after the election, he shared another one referring to “the corruption and injustice of this Kenyan-run White House.”

Other posts viciously targeted Muslim Americans.

In December 2025, Smith reposted a message that read:“Islam is a cancer that has no place in our Christian nation.” Five weeks later, he shared another from the same account calling to“Eliminate every demonic violent liberal terrorist and deport the corrupt Somali infestation from American soil.”

In May 2024, Smith reposted a debunked image falsely purporting to show Rep. Ilhan Omar at an al Qaeda training camp, alongside a post denouncing “Satan’s evil Islam” and telling “Patriots” to circulate it.

Some of the anti-Islam rhetoric came directly from Smith’s account rather than through reposts.

On August 2 — two days before the Republican primary, when Smith had already suspended his campaign but remained on the ballot, the account posted, “why is pedophilia wrong on Epstein’s island but not in Islam?”

Bernie Sanders says the potential danger of AI is “probably greater” than nuclear weapons

September 15, 2026 / 3:14 PM EDT / CBS News

Washington — The potential danger artificial intelligence poses to humans is “probably greater” than the threat posed by nuclear weapons, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said Tuesday.

Sanders made the comments in an interview with CBS News political correspondent Caitlin Huey-Burns ahead of his speech at the Pro-Human Assembly conference on AI. Sanders said he plans to introduce legislation next week to permanently ban super intelligence, meaning AI smarter than humans and capable of escaping control. The bill would also pause advanced AI development. As a consequence for violations, Sanders is proposing 20 years in prison.

“Well, when you are dealing with a technology that can threaten the future of humanity and when you have laws hopefully that will be passed that say, ‘You know what, you can’t break the law.’ And if you do break a law which threatens the future of humanity, I don’t think it is wrong to say that there should be stiff penalties attached to that,” Sanders said.

Huey-Burns pointed out that those penalties are the same length as for those charged with illegal nuclear weapons development. Sanders said “the analogy is appropriate, exactly.”

“You want to develop a nuclear weapon that could threaten humanity, you should be punished,” Sanders said. “If you are moving forward on an AI development that could threaten humanity, you should be punished.”

Huey-Burns asked Sanders if he equates these two things — AI and nuclear weapons.

“No, I think AI, the potential danger of AI, is probably greater than nuclear weapons,” Sanders responded.

Sanders has been one of the most vocal opponents of rapid AI development, although in recent days, an increasing number of Republicans are speaking out, too. The Pro-Human Assembly featured staunch conservatives like Republican Rep. Chip Roy and Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn, as well as Democrats. House Speaker Mike Johnson said he thinks he and top AI company leaders will meet with President Trump at the White House “within the next week.”

The uptick in politicians’ conversations about the technology comes after AI researcher Jacob Coxon publicly resigned from Anthropic, which makes the AI app Claude, and said that artificial intelligence, while safe for people to use now, could one day threaten humanity as the technology grows more powerful. Other Anthropic employees agreed with his concerns. On Saturday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei called for a slowdown in the frontier AI labs, which was quickly echoed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk.

President Trump, however, dismissed concerns about rapid AI development, calling them a “HOAX,” and said all that’s needed is a strong and intelligence president.

Sanders said he hopes his colleagues in Congress understand the urgency of the situation.

“I hope that they understand that you gotta listen to the people who know the most, the people who have developed this technology, the people who are telling us, we are losing control of the technology we developed. And I think when you have a president, Mr. Trump, who talks about this as a hoax, I think it is embarrassingly stupid for the leader of this country to hold that position. You listen to the people who know the most, and you act accordingly.”

But Sanders said these tech CEOs can’t regulate themselves.

“Look, let’s be clear — they are pushing forward and have pushed forward for years to make as much money as they can,” he said. “And they have done very well. These are all the wealthiest people on the planet. And I think in a democratic society you’re going to have to have government intervening very strongly.”

Sanders said he does use AI himself for research, and said it has some benefits.

“There are benefits to AI,” he said. “And I think there are very positive benefits for healthcare and other areas. The goal is to make sure that we gain the benefits of AI for all of our people. And not just allow AI to be developed to benefit the pocketbooks of the wealthiest people on earth.”

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/the-current-state-of-ai-regulations-as-trump-pushes-back-on-safety-concerns/

The current state of AI regulations as Trump pushes back on safety concerns

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