The Trump team’s disdain for court orders is blowing up in court. Accountability has been slow in coming

2026-10-19T22:11:53.656Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/19/politics/trump-flouting-court-orders

A federal judge raked President Donald Trump’s administration over the coals on Monday in a case involving his plans to renovate a public golf course in Washington, DC.

After the administration cut down more than 430 trees without properly notifying US District Judge Ana Reyes, she said last week she was “furious” and issued a court order to stop it.

Then, after Trump on Sunday said construction would begin “immediately” despite the judge’s order, she forced officials to testify on Monday and sought to highlight the apparent unwillingness of Justice Department lawyers to vouch for the administration’s claims in court.

All of this comes as the administration accuses the judge of “egregious” behavior and seeks to remove her from the case.

It’s been quite the scene. But it’s also been a long time coming.

Reyes’ exasperated displays come after a series of similar examples of the administration flouting and even violating court orders.

District judges like Reyes ruled that the administration had violated court orders in at least 31 lawsuits over 15 months, according to an Associated Press investigation in May. That’s in addition to more than 250 other examples of noncompliance that judges have found related to immigration cases.

And the judges finding these violations are often Republican-nominated ones.

Any one of these examples could be understood as a mistake or a mishap. But the growing volume of them — along with Trump and those around him often speaking openly about violating court orders, as Trump did Sunday — suggest there’s something more going on. (A whistleblower last year also claimed that a top DOJ official explicitly spoke about the possible need to ignore court orders.)

At the same time, there’s been no accountability that is seeming to make the administration change its approach. Because this just keeps happening.

Let’s recap some of the high-profile examples of the administration flouting or violating court orders, and what became of them.

Mere weeks into Trump’s second term, a federal judge in Rhode Island found the administration had violated a court order by failing to un-freeze many of the federal grants it blocked after he ordered it to do so.

The conclusion: The judge opted not to hold the administration in contempt of court, but he did issue a warning. He quoted from a 1975 Supreme Court ruling that said: “Persons who make private determinations of the law and refuse to obey an order generally risk criminal contempt even if the order is ultimately ruled incorrect.”

US District Judge James Boasberg ordered the administration to turn around planes that were deporting migrants to a notorious prison in El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act. But the flights continued.

The conclusion: Boasberg initiated contempt hearings, saying that “probable cause exists to find the Government in criminal contempt.” But after a lengthy process that included plenty of stops and starts, two Trump-nominated judges on a divided appeals court ended the inquiry and called it a “clear abuse of discretion.”

US District Judge Paula Xinis found the administration had engaged in “willful and intentional noncompliance” with her orders related to the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whom the administration wrongfully deported to El Salvador, later charged criminally and tried to deport again.

The conclusion: Xinis also repeatedly floated possible contempt. But eventually, in June 2025, Abrego Garcia was returned, despite the administration having previously claimed it didn’t have the power to make that happen.

Around the same time, US District Judge Brian Murphy of Massachusetts said that the administration’s rapid third-country deportations of migrants despite his injunction were “unquestionably violative of this court’s order.” He also accused the administration of manufacturing chaos and trying to evade court orders.

The conclusion: Murphy said he would leave the contempt question “for another day,” but he didn’t proceed with such an inquiry.

Other judges have found hundreds of instances of immigration authorities failing to comply with immigration-related court orders. Patrick Schiltz, the GOP-nominated chief US district judge in Minnesota, said he found more than 200 such instances.

The conclusion: Schiltz at one point took the extraordinary step of summoning Todd Lyons, then the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and threatening him with contempt. But Schiltz canceled the contempt hearing after ICE complied with an order to release a wrongly detained man from Ecuador.

Despite a court order blocking Trump from barring media outlets whose coverage he didn’t like, including CNN, from the White House grounds, those journalists were initially unable to access the grounds. And Trump has since then barred CNN from traveling with him on Air Force One.

The conclusion: The access to the grounds was soon restored as the case proceeds. The access on Air Force One wasn’t explicitly mentioned in the court order, and the White House has continued to block CNN from boarding on its assigned pool days.

Despite another federal judge ruling that the administration had to cancel all future airings of Trump’s controversial taxpayer-funded political ads, the administration was again slow to comply. The ads aired hundreds more times, CNN reported last week.

The conclusion: A Justice Department lawyer apologized “to the court and the plaintiffs,” and no further legal action has been taken.

Trump-appointed US District Judge Stephanie Gallagher of Maryland has found that ICE wrongfully deported more than 50 unaccompanied minors who had blanket court orders barring their removal. And in a separate case, she found it twice wrongfully deported an asylum-seeker to El Salvador, in violation of three court orders.

The conclusion: These two examples appear to be the only ones in which a judge has found the administration in contempt. Gallagher held the administration in contempt for the first one in August, according to Law360, and for the second one a few weeks ago.

Despite those two rulings, the administration has flouted or delayed complying with court orders in three other cases — the media ban, the political ads and now the golf course — since then.

Ex-GOP Kansas governor compares Trump rally to ‘freak show’ while backing Democrat in Senate race

2026-10-19T23:34:06.871Z / CNN Politics

https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/19/politics/video/ebof-bill-graves-kansas

Ex-GOP Kansas governor compares Trump rally to ‘freak show’ while backing Democrat in Senate race

Erin Burnett Out Front

Former Republican Governor of Kansas Bill Graves told CNN’s Erin Burnett that he doubts Donald Trump’s rallies will successfully drive Republican voter turnout. Graves, who is endorsing Democrat Adam Hamilton in his challenge against incumbent Senator Roger Marshall, criticized the current spectacle of the GOP, stating: “Going to a Trump rally is kind of like going to the freak show at the carnival.”

Trump faces bipartisan backlash over waiving Russia sanctions

2026-10-19T17:00:00-0400 / CBS News

Washington — President Trump is getting bipartisan blowback over his surprise decision to waive new sanctions on Russia two days before they were to go into effect.

Congress approved the bipartisan legislation — championed by the late Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who died before it was passed — and it was signed into law by Mr. Trump on Sept. 18. It also comes as a blow to Graham’s legacy, given that the senator, a close friend of Mr. Trump, pushed the legislation as one of his final acts.

But Mr. Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with Ukraine, and on Monday criticized Ukraine, even as Russia continues to strike civilian sites in Ukraine. “Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine, they haven’t been doing much,” the president told reporters on the White House South Lawn Monday. He added, “We’ve given a lot to Ukraine, they’ve given us nothing.”

In its most recent strikes, Russia recently hit Ukraine energy and infrastructure, as well as a medical clinic, school, metro station and residential buildings, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday.

The economic restrictions were intended to penalize top Russian figures and the biggest buyers of Russian oil and gas as the U.S. seeks to end Russian President Vladimir Putin’s four-year war in Ukraine. But the legislation gives Mr. Trump the authority to waive parts of the law if he certifies to Congress that halting the sanctions is “in the national interests of the United States.”

The Trump administration is facing intense pressure to act to bring down fuel prices ahead of the midterm elections.

“I am hereby waiving the application of such sanctions, restrictions, and duties provided for in the Graham Act,” Mr. Trump said in an executive order issued Friday. “I have submitted to the Congress a certification that the issuance of such a waiver at this time is in the national interests of the United States.”

The order did not explain Mr. Trump’s decision, which came a week after the president eased sanctions on Russia’s energy sector and announced a deal with Putin to import diesel to the U.S. market.

“Beyond irresponsible,” GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said of the president’s latest move, calling it “unconscionable that this administration is capitulating to a Russian dictator who illegally invaded Ukraine and butchers innocent civilians every single day.”

“If the president wants to actually bring down energy prices, he can do it by solving the Iran problem, not by doing a solid for Vladimir Putin,” Tillis added.

The 300,000 tons of diesel the U.S. is buying from Russia is about 2.2 million barrels — and that’s just over half the 4.1 million barrels of diesel the U.S. uses in a single day. And since Ukraine has damaged much of Russia’s refining capacity, it’s unclear when Russia would be able to deliver the fuel. Experts say the deal with Russia will not offset the disruptions to oil supplies resulting from the Iran war.

GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas agrees and said of the sanction waiver, “Lindsey would be appalled.”

“Helping Putin in Ukraine is reckless,” Cornyn said. “He would not stop with Ukraine and our NATO allies would be next. Putin is fanatically committed to restoring Russia’s glory days, calling the collapse of the Soviet Union “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century” and claiming Russia was “robbed” in the breakup.”

Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that he shared his colleagues’ position, arguing that “capitulating to a bully generally means they’re going to make more demands going forward.”

“That’s the problem with taking sort of a business negotiation approach to negotiating with a thug, which is what Vladimir Putin is,” he said.

Several House Republicans also railed against the president’s move.

“The president is prolonging the war, not ending it,” GOP Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska wrote Friday. On Saturday, Bacon added that Mr. Trump’s “agenda is dead.”

“The President has an agenda: supplemental, reconciliation, Ballroom, etc.,” Bacon wrote. “Many of us won’t fund these things knowing he is propping up a dictator’s invasion and throwing an ally under the bus.”

GOP Rep. Michael McCaul, former chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, urged Mr. Trump to reconsider.

“Time and again, we have seen how Putin responds to American concessions: with contempt for the United States and increased violence against innocent Ukrainians,” he said Saturday.

Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the waiver should come as no surprise. Meeks had argued against the bill’s passage, saying it would expand the presidential tariff authorities.

“He has had the power to sanction Russia for years. What he lacks is the will,” Meeks said in a statement Saturday.

“By giving the Russian economy life support, Trump’s deal with the devil keeps getting dirtier,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who represents New York, said in a separate statement.

The president’s decision to waive Russia sanctions was also met with immediate criticism and concern from Zelenskyy. Earlier this month, Mr. Trump said Ukraine should “get a new leader.”

Zelenskyy told reporters last week he thinks the president’s actions that contradict the intent of the Lindsey Graham Act would continue, “unfortunately.”

“It’s unfortunate because we all had great respect for Lindsey,” Zelenskyy said. “He devoted his life to America. We had an excellent relationship with him. And shortly before the tragedy, Lindsey was in Ukraine. He always supported us very strongly and pushed for as much assistance to Ukraine as possible. It’s difficult without him, I’ll be honest. I want to thank both Democrats and Republicans who supported his bill. That was a major victory: this truly bipartisan support. And now, the decision to undo all of this, to block all of it, seems wrong to me. And it definitely helps only the Russians.”

On Sunday, Mr. Trump sought to explain the sanctions waiver by saying he didn’t want to drive Russia away from the negotiating table.

“My decision on Russia is a very simple one,” he wrote on Truth Social in the face of rising public criticism. “I am in the process of negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and don’t want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table.”

But Mr. Trump has long touted a friendlier relationship with Putin, a departure from all of his predecessors. New photos of Mr. Trump with both Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping adorn the White House’s Palm Room, where reporters exit and enter the White House to see the president’s take off and land from Marine One.

Mr. Trump has blasted Ukraine for striking diesel refineries in Russia. He has called on both Ukraine and Russia to end the war, although Russia started it, and could end the war by withdrawing all occupying troops and stopping its attacks.

Mr. Trump is facing political pressure to lower gas prices, two weeks out from midterm elections in which Republicans are expected to struggle. The cost of living and gas prices remain top issues for voters, with the Iran war driving up gas and diesel prices and pushing overall inflation higher, too. Mr. Trump has said the war will end once the midterm elections are over, although it’s unclear how, and that gas prices will drop precipitously then.

At the same time, Ukrainian officials have recently been reporting difficulties with Starlink, the commercial satellite network owned by SpaceX’s Elon Musk, and Starshield, the military version built on the same network.

Zelenskyy said over the weekend that the throttling of Starshield network speeds has meant that Ukraine has been unable to use its interceptors to shoot down Russian Shahed drones, has prompted questions about who was behind the slowdown. Mr. Trump on Friday denied he had limited Ukraine’s access to Starlink, and added he didn’t believe Musk was responsible either.

Musk said last Wednesday he isn’t responsible for deciding how Starshield is used, writing on X: “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio also told reporters Saturday that the administration had “nothing to do with that.”

On Monday, Mr. Trump said he didn’t know who ordered the interruption, “but I’d like to find out.”

The explanations haven’t satisfied a number of lawmakers, including some Republicans.

Last week, a bipartisan group of nine senators, including Republican Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, John Cornyn of Texas and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, asked the Defense Department inspector general to investigate. They asked the IG to look into “whether actions or decisions by the Department of Defense or its contractors contributed to these dangerous circumstances.”

“Any restrictions on these capabilities, particularly without advance notification, raise serious questions about the Department of Defense’s contractual oversight and its responsibility to ensure continuity of essential services,” the senators wrote in the letter.

Cramer and GOP Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio also joined growing calls for a congressional investigation into the move on “Face the Nation” Sunday.

“There needs to be an investigation; we need to find out who these people are because lives are at risk and lives are lost over these things,” Turner said.

Tillis and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut hosted a video call with Zelenskyy Monday, and said he confirmed that “critical Starlink services remain degraded,” impeding Ukraine’s ability to intercept Russian drones. The senators said Zelenskyy also reported disruptions to U.S. intelligence sharing regarding early warning of Russian ballistic missile launches.

The pair said Zelenskyy also raised “serious concerns” about critical air defense interceptor delays and Mr. Trump’s decision to waive sanctions against Russia.

“Trying to appease a murderous thug like Vladimir Putin will only prolong this war and bring greater casualties,” Tillis and Blumenthal said.

Nikole Killion contributed to this report.

GOP attacks on El-Sayed’s Muslim faith come to a head in heated town hall exchange

2026-10-19T20:50:48.656Z / CNN

The Muslim Brotherhood has become a flashpoint in Michigan’s Senate race, with Republicans trying to cast Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed as sympathetic to interests connected to Islamic terror and El-Sayed arguing that he is being unfairly accused of the same “dual loyalties” that former Presidents John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama once were.

El-Sayed this weekend denounced the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist political movement founded in Egypt in 1928 — first in a heated exchange with a voter, and later when speaking with reporters — after Republicans have sought to highlight his family’s ties to the group and his past comments about it.

“I do want to talk about why they want to make this their closing argument,” El-Sayed told reporters after a rally Sunday in Flint. “They want to speak to a certain implicit dual loyalty. This has a long history in our politics, that notion that people might pray a little bit differently, have a dual loyalty. It was the same thing they did to JFK when he ran for president, the notion that because he was Catholic that he somehow had dual loyalties. They did the same thing to President Obama simply because his father was of Muslim origin, even though his father is an avowed Christian.”

He added: “This is nothing new. This is what they do when they have no message about the real issues in people’s lives.”

Republicans have increasingly drawn attention to El-Sayed’s Muslim faith in the closing weeks of one of the most important Senate races on the 2026 midterm election map.

President Donald Trump, at a campaign rally Friday night, referred to El-Sayed as “Mohammed” and falsely declared that the Democratic former public health official is a “jihadist.” Those comments have become staples of recent Trump rallies and social media comments.

El-Sayed’s Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, said Sunday on CNN that he has “never called him a terrorist” and said he does not “speak for the president.”

But Rogers accused El-Sayed of aligning with the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Muslim Brotherhood is an Islamist movement with global offshoots that once wielded significant political power in Egypt, where it was founded. The movement officially rejects the use of violent means to secure its goals. However, offshoots of the group have been linked to attacks in the past.

Trump signed an executive order in November that initiated a process by which certain chapters or other subdivisions of the Muslim Brotherhood could be considered for designation as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

“You know, he wants to play the victim. This is not about that. This is about the way you think, not the way you pray,” Rogers told CNN’s Dana Bash. “This is about your ideology and how dangerous it is.”

The GOP efforts to tie El-Sayed to the Muslim Brotherhood, and Islamic extremism, burst into the open this weekend at a town hall in Caro.

An attendee repeatedly pressed El-Sayed about the Muslim Brotherhood, saying he had yet to hear the candidate reject the organization.

“Abdul, will you disavow the Muslim Brotherhood?” the man shouted from the crowd.

El-Sayed, after disavowing the movement, blasted the man for implicitly assuming his “dual loyalty.”

“You assume … that because I am Muslim, that somehow I would have some allegiance to something that is not our Constitution,” El-Sayed said. He later added, “For me, that Constitution is the guiding light.”

The audience member walked out after the exchange as the crowd cheered for El-Sayed.

The GOP attacks come after old tweets from El-Sayed’s half-sister resurfaced online, including a post from 2012 in which she described having “an amazing talk with my mom about her activism in the Muslim Brotherhood during the early 70s while she was in college.”

El-Sayed has said he does not know what his mother was doing in Egypt during the 1970s, explaining he was 3 when his parents divorced and didn’t see his mother for years. He was primarily raised in Michigan by his father and stepmother.

El-Sayed in 2012 also signed an open letter supporting then-Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, who had been elected earlier that year with the support of the Muslim Brotherhood after the overthrow of the country’s authoritarian government.

A year earlier, he penned a Huffington Post op-ed calling on the United States to support young Arab protesters in Egypt, and downplaying concerns that supporting democracy there would lead to Muslim Brotherhood control of the nation.

During a recent debate, Rogers pointed out that El-Sayed’s mother worked for the Islamic American Relief Agency, a non-profit that the Treasury Department in 2004 designated as an organization supporting terrorism.

“Are you going after my mom?” said El-Sayed.

“I was going after that organization that was indicted for funneling money to Al Qaeda,” Rogers said. “Look, that’s your mom. My mom worked at a small chamber of commerce. I’ll put my mom up any day for that.”

El-Sayed responded he is a “dad and a doctor” who wants to “get money out of politics, put money in your pocket and pass Medicare for All.” He said Rogers “wants this to be about anything but his own record.”

El-Sayed in recent days also addressed his sister-in-law, Mariam Jukaku, being placed on the federal Terrorism Screening Database — a situation she challenged as part of a 2016 class action lawsuit. It’s not clear why Jukaku, who was once president of UCLA’s Muslim Student Association and is now a home-school teacher and writer in California, was added to the list.

“She did nothing wrong and was captured on that and then sued and got off,” El-Sayed told Fox News when asked about his wife’s sister being placed on the terrorist watchlist, which was created in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks. “You’ve got this system where folks are guilty until proven innocent because they’ve got different kinds of names, because of the infrastructure that people like Mike Rogers set up.”

CNN’s Jeff Zeleny and Aleena Fayaz contributed to this report.

特朗普对下月与习近平普京举行三方会谈持开放态度

2026年10月20日 07:11 / 联合早报

美国总统特朗普星期一（10月19日）在白宫告诉记者，如果中国国家主席习近平想举行中美俄三国领导人会谈，他就会谈。 （路透社）

美国总统特朗普对下个月在中国深圳举行的亚太经合组织（APEC）峰会期间，与中国国家主席习近平和俄罗斯总统普京举行三方会谈持开放态度。

路透社报道，特朗普星期一（10月19日）在白宫外对记者说：“我们会用（三方会谈）来讨论核武器和无核化问题。如果习主席想谈，我就谈。我肯定我们也会讨论贸易等其他事务。”

《华尔街日报》星期天（18日）引述知情的俄罗斯前情报官员报道，普京10月9日与特朗普通电话时，除了与特朗普达成柴油协议，还提议在11月18日至19日在深圳举行的APEC峰会期间，举行美中俄三方领导人会晤。

克里姆林宫和美国国务卿鲁比奥星期一都证实，确实有关于举行这次会晤的讨论。中国外交部发言人毛宁则称目前没有可以提供的信息。

乌克兰则批评，没有乌克兰参与的美中俄峰会，只会助长普京延长战争的企图。

不过，特朗普也说，他愿意进行三方会谈，但并不完全是为了乌克兰，“因为坦白说，俄罗斯在乌克兰问题上的表现还算可以。”

他还补充说，乌克兰总统泽连斯基“在这件事上没帮上什么忙”，而且“是时候换个人来代表乌克兰进行谈判了”。

美中俄三国领导人此前曾分别举行过双边会晤，但从未举行过正式的三方会谈。

目前，特朗普已同意出席下个月在深圳举行的亚太经合组织峰会，这将是他今年内第二次访问中国，也是同期内第三次与习近平会面。

随着中俄关系日益紧密，特朗普一直试图缓和与北京及莫斯科的冰冷关系。然而，有分析认为，举行三方会谈可能会达成将削弱华盛顿跨大西洋及印太同盟的私下交易，从而引发从欧洲到亚洲的警惕。

不过，若三国能达成协议，也有望缓解全球紧张局势。结束俄乌战争可解除欧洲几十年来面临的最大安全威胁，而达成军控协议则能对这三个拥有全球最大核武库的国家形成约束。

与此同时，特朗普则淡化了在APEC期间与朝鲜领导人金正恩举行另一场会晤的可能性。

他说：“我和他相处得非常好，但我不确定有谁在要求安排会面。”

特朗普此前曾说计划在今年与金正恩会面。朝鲜则已公开表明，不会接受任何旨在说服平壤放弃核武器的谈判。

Reporter’s Notebook: Senate sneaks in one last political play before voters have their say

October 19, 2026 3:07pm EDT / Fox News

Democrats call the Ratepayer Protection Act a ‘political ploy’ with no enforcement to actually lower electricity rates

By Chad Pergram Fox News

Fox News chief congressional correspondent Chad Pergram reports on Senate Democrats blocking data center legislation and a bill barring members from stock trading on ‘Special Report.’

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7 min

In politics, you sometimes just do what you can.

All 100 duly chosen and sworn U.S. senators understood why the Senate met for a week at the end of September.

Yes there was the college sports bill. Yes there was the confirmation of Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling. Yes there was a big hearing with former special counsel Jack Smith.

But you’d be badly mistaken if you thought both sides were really there to hammer out a package to bring down the cost of living for Americans.

Don’t take my word for it. Take the word of the senators.

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: A GUIDE TO THE COLLEGE SPORTS VOTE AND SENATE’S OHIO SHOWDOWN

Former Special Counsel Jack Smith testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building on Sept. 29, 2026, in Washington, D.C.(Getty Images)

You are correct to say that Democrats blocked two bills that Republicans say voters really want. One was a measure to diminish the costs consumers pay for data centers and a plan to restrict stock trades by lawmakers. The latter bill even included a voter ID requirement – crucial to the GOP and its base. But Republican senators knew that Democrats wouldn’t accept these proposals.

This was about politics.

And Democratic senators wouldn’t accept any of the GOP’s legislative propositions, either.

So let’s start with the Ratepayer Protection Act.

Both sides know that voters are tripped out about AI and utterly losing it when it comes to data centers. An internal GOP memo in August revealed that the party was especially leery of what this meant for Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Husted to the Senate last year to succeed Vice President JD Vance. Husted helped foster development of data centers as an official back in the Buckeye State.

So, the final week of the Senate’s session before the midterms crawled with politics.

REPUBLICANS FEAR THEY ‘HAVEN’T DONE A DAMN THING’ TO LOWER PRICES AHEAD OF MIDTERM RECKONING

The U.S. Capitol building is seen on Aug. 7, 2026 in Washington, D.C.(Kevin Carter/Getty Images)

Republicans aimed to curb skyrocketing utility costs associated with the construction of data centers.

“(People) ought to be guaranteed no electricity bills will go up by a cent because of a data center,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. “It sends a clear message that these AI companies and these data centers can’t just come into local communities and strip mine out (land). Raise the electricity rates. Kick people off the grid. Take their water.”

But Democrats say the bill didn’t compel compliance by AI firms. This was just a suggestion that those who build the data centers help foot some of the bill.

“It is a sham. A charade because it has no enforcement,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.

“Everything in that bill can already be done by a state regulator. Or it can already be done by a data center developer. And the bill requires nothing of them,” argued Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va.

I pressed Kaine on if “something was better than nothing.”

He disagreed.

“No. You shouldn’t trick people. And this is not even something,” replied Kaine. “It’s nothing,”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., piled on with, “The Ratepayer Protection Act is a fraud. It does not require any protections at all. While Americans are demanding real guardrails on AI and data centers, Republicans are offering a toothless messaging bill.”

The bill is laced with midterm politics. Democrats claim Republicans called the vote to throw a lifeline to Husted.

Many Senate Republicans were ready for the Senate to leave town for the midterms. But they hedged their bets around the data center bill. And, Husted.

“Can you say 110 precent this is not a vote to help Jon Husted in Ohio?” yours truly inquired of Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D.

“I think it will help him,” replied Hoeven. Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., agreed with Hoeven.

“The one thing I’ll just say is that this is clearly a political ploy,” said Kim. “This is not something that’s good for the American people. But it’s certainly good for Sen. Husted.”

DATA CENTERS COULD BE THE SLEEPER ISSUE OF THE 2026 MIDTERM ELECTIONS

Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, spoke to Fox News Digital about Republican efforts to keep Ohio red in a challenging political landscape.(Fox News Digital/Andrew Mark Miller)

The tilt between Husted and former Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, is one of the nation’s most contentious Senate contests.

“I don’t think that there’s a secret that Sen. Husted is trying to pass a piece of legislation so he could go home and run a campaign ad,” said Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M.

Husted conceded as much.

“We gave everybody a chance to do something about affordability and the Democrats blocked it. So we’ll go campaign on it,” said Husted.

So yes. The Senate’s last week of session was about the midterms.

“Has there ever been a late September or October before an election that wasn’t all politics?” asked Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C.

The evolving positions on the data center bill by Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., may be an example of that.

Welch was a yea when asked about the legislation on September 23 , after it overwhelmingly cleared the House.

“I support it and I’d be glad to vote on it,” said Welch.

But the Vermont Democrat flipped to nay when the issue approached a roll call vote on the floor.

“Why did you change? I asked Welch.

“Well, two things. One, they won’t allow us to have an amendment. And the problem with this bill is that it has no teeth,” he replied.

So the question is whether the sides prefer action. Or, if they’d rather have the issue. In fact it could be argued that Husted may have scored some political capital, deploying the blocked bill as a foil in an effort to contrast himself to Democrats.

“It ought to be something that should be a no brainer here on the floor of the Senate,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

TRUMP’S DATA CENTER PUSH FRACTURES CONGRESS AS LOCAL ANGER EXPLODES: ‘GRASPING AT STRAWS’

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks at a press conference with Senate Republican leaders following a policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on April 21, 2026.(Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)

It’s rare that competitive Senate contests pivot on a solitary issue. And certainly an individual debate or vote. Democratic Maine Senate nominee Troy Jackson is pushing Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, on her vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. It was one of the most factious confirmation battles in history. But Collins won reelection in 2020. That vote was eight years ago.

A vote like the one on the data center measure just before the election can plant a seed in the mind of voters. And since Republicans were struggling on affordability – and then AI and data centers emerged as an issue – forcing this vote was probably the best political play the GOP had at its disposal. In campaigns, you do all you can.

Let’s say for a moment that Husted loses narrowly to Brown in two weeks. And maybe Republicans would have held the Senate had Husted prevailed. Perhaps exit polling reveals that voters wished Republicans had done more on affordability. Party insiders would then accuse the Senate GOP brass of political malpractice by denying Husted a chance to make his case.

It was the best Husted could do. And the best Senate Republicans could do.

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It may not work. But at least Republicans can say they did what they could.

Chad Pergram currently serves as Chief Congressional Correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC). He joined the network in September 2007 and is based out of Washington, D.C.

Walz-era fraud scandal takes center stage as Klobuchar, GOP rival clash in debate: ‘Why didn’t you do more?’

2026-10-19T14:29:19-04:00 / Fox News

The GOP primary winner pressed Klobuchar on waste and fraud tied to Tim Walz’s pandemic-era welfare programs

By Paul Steinhauser, Andrew Mark Miller Fox News

Published October 19, 2026 2:29pm EDT

Tim Walz says he chooses to ‘accept responsibility’ for how Minnesota fraud was handled

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz lamented both how the fraud scandal in his state was handled and how it has emboldened Republicans.

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Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Republican state House Speaker Lisa Demuth traded fire over Minnesota’s massive fraud scandal as they faced off for the first time on the debate stage in the race to replace embattled Gov. Tim Walz.

The race is unfolding against the backdrop of the state’s welfare assistance fraud scandal, which has attracted national attention for nearly a year and prompted Walz, a two-term Democrat, to abandon his 2026 re-election bid.The fraud schemes, involving pandemic-era social services, siphoned hundreds of millions, and potentially billions, of taxpayer dollars from federal and state programs in Minnesota.

Demuth is aiming to become the first Republican in twenty years to win a gubernatorial election in the blue-leaning Midwestern state. Polls indicate Klobuchar holding an upper single digit lead over Demuth, and the Fox News Power Rankings rate the race Likely Democrat.

Demuth, during the first half of the debate, repeatedly steered the conversation to the fraud scandal.

FRAUD EXPERT EXPOSES HOW HIDDEN NETWORKS DROVE MINNESOTA FRAUD

Lisa Demuth and Amy Klobuchar faced off in their first debate on Oct. 19.(REUTERS/Tim Evans ; Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“We have allowed a culture of waste and fraud to go on far too long and we can’t keep going this way,” she said, as she worked to link Klobuchar to Walz, who has taken full responsibility for the scandal.

“Klobuchar, referring to Walz, said, “I have been very clear. I would have caught that fraud. I would have done something about it. We have very different backgrounds.”

Demuth asked her rival, “You could have reached out to the governor and said I think we have a problem in Minnesota… Why didn’t you do more.”

And Demuth asked, “Why weren’t you at the hearings about fraud in your own Senate Judicial Committee hearing when we had Minnesotans who were concerned about fraud.”

FORMER NFL SIDELINE REPORTER PUTS MINNESOTA’S SENATE SEAT IN PLAY FOR REPUBLICANS

Gov. Tim Walz speaks during the 10th Austrian World Summit climate conference at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria, on June 16, 2026.(Anadolu via Getty Images)

Klobuchar, pushing back, highlighted that “the minute that the fraud went public, I did something that was real….. I called the justice department and asked for more resources. The senator said her actions led to more federal prosecutors assigned to investigate the fraud scandal. “That’s doing the real work,” she emphasized.

Responding to Demuth’s claims of missing hearings, which Fox News Digital reported on earlier this year, Klobuchar said, “I’ve been at a dozen hearings where I’ve raised or asked questions about fraud. The particular hearing that was raised here was a subcommittee that I was not even on.”

Demuth also pledged to fire “all of the commissioners in the state of Minnesota” in order to start “fresh” after the fraud scandal.

The two candidates also sparred over healthcare, with Demuth pointing to Klobuchar’s support of ObamaCare as being tied to the rising healthcare costs in the state.

“We must recognize that our healthcare costs have exploded across the country and in Minnesota because of the Affordable Care Act,” Demuth said. “The senator said that it would bring the cost of our healthcare down, we could access whatever we needed and it would be more affordable. That is absolutely untrue where we find ourselves today.”

The two candidates, in what was billed as a business forum hosted by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, also took aim at each other over high gas prices, healthcare, paid family and medical leave, and efforts to cap insulin costs.

On state taxes, both seemed in agreement.

“Tax hikes are absolutely off the table for me,” Demuth emphasized.

Klobuchar said, “I’ve made clear I’m not going to increase taxes.” And she touted, “I’ve been willing to take on my own party on taxes in the past.”

Klobuchar launched her gubernatorial campaign in January, three weeks after Walz, who served as the Democrats’ 2024 vice presidential nominee, dropped his re-election bid.

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The sun shines on the Minnesota State Capitol on Monday, Feb. 12, 2024, in St. Paul, on the opening day of the 2024 session of the Minnesota Legislature. Lawmakers have a relatively modest agenda ahead after a momentous 2023 session that saw Democrats use their newfound full control of the statehouse to enact an ambitious list of their priorities.(Steve Karnowski/Associated Press)

Klobuchar, who was first elected to the Senate in 2006, won all four of her Senate elections by healthy margins, including a nearly 16-point re-election in 2024. Before serving in the Senate, Klobuchar was elected twice as county attorney in Hennepin County, Minnesota’s most populous.She also ran unsuccessfully for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

She captured nearly 90% of the vote in the August Democratic primary against a large field of longshot rivals.

Demuth, who was first elected to the Minnesota House in 2018, has served as GOP leader in the chamber since the start of 2023 and as speaker for the past year and a half,

In the GOP gubernatorial primary, Demuth topped a crowded field, defeated by 11-points second place finisher Mike Lindell, the My Pillow founder and former CEO who is a close ally of President Donald Trump and who joined the president in denying former President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 White House race. Trump endorsed Lindell a month before the August 11 primary.

Paul Steinhauser covers the national campaign trail from coast to coast for Fox News

Smithsonian screening dispute puts museum’s commitment to diverse views on trial: ‘Right kind of Black?’

October 19, 2026 3:12pm EDT / Fox News

Filmmaker Eli Steele says NMAAHC has rebuffed his request while regularly screening progressive films like ’13th’

By Robert Schmad, Fox News

A filmmaker is questioning why the Smithsonian’s African American history museum has yet to screen his documentary challenging progressive views on race and racial identity.

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FIRST ON FOX — A Black conservative filmmaker is challenging the Smithsonian to explain why his documentary questioning progressive views on race has yet to secure a public screening at its African American history museum, which has previously showcased films examining systemic racism.

“White Guilt,” directed and co-produced by Eli Steele, is based on a book by his father, noted Black conservative academic Shelby Steele. The younger Steele, who is Black, Jewish and deaf, has drawn on his own experiences to challenge prevailing views on race and identity.

The documentary argues that White guilt over America’s racial history, along with fears of being labeled racist, has pushed institutions to prioritize racial identity over individual merit.

The dispute comes as the Smithsonian faces mounting pressure from President Donald Trump and his administration over allegations of ideological bias in its portrayal of American history. The White House has accused the institution of promoting progressive narratives and threatened to restrict federal support, escalating a broader battle over whose perspectives are represented in the nation’s museums.

SMITHSONIAN AMERICA 250 EXHIBIT FEATURES 3X MORE LIBERAL ITEMS THAN CONSERVATIVE ONES

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., has previously hosted public screenings of documentaries exploring race and American history.(Al Drago/Getty Images)

Steele provided communications to Fox News Digital showing that the museum declined his proposed screening dates and offered him a private rental option instead. The filmmaker says the museum has yet to respond to his request for alternative dates for a public screening.

“The film is professionally shot, the quality is there. A comparable film that they’ve shown is ’13th,’ which itself is a very controversial film,” Steele told Fox News Digital. “So that’s the big question we have here: Do we have viewpoint diversity or do we not? Do you have to be the right kind of Black to be shown at the Smithsonian?”

“That’s the big question that we have to address in this room. But I hope that it’s not about any of that,” he continued.

The filmmaker has questioned the apparent decision to not screen his film, given that the museum has allowed numerous other films with more progressive messages to have public screenings, though stopped short of accusing the museum of ideological discrimination.

“13th,” the film mentioned by Steele, is featured in educational and public programming at the NMAAHC. It argues that the 13th Amendment’s exception permitting forced labor as punishment for a crime enabled racial control to persist after slavery by allegedly criminalizing Black behavior.

Other films shown by the NMAAHC in public screenings include such titles as “Hidden Figures” in 2016, “I Am Not Your Negro” in 2017 and “Faith in Blackness: An Exploration of AfroLatine Spirituality” in 2023, the latter presented in partnership with the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

LIBERAL FACULTY STILL HUGELY OUTNUMBER CONSERVATIVES IN HIGHER EDUCATION: REPORT

The North American Values Institute is urging the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture to back out of an education retreat over a controversial workshop leader.(Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

While Steele was hesitant to speculate as to why his film hadn’t been scheduled for a public screening, other Black conservatives saw the museum’s handling of his request as part of a familiar pattern.

“Academia is not what it was years ago when I went to graduate school, when it touted itself as a marketplace for ideas,” Carol Swain, a retired Black conservative professor and prominent media commentator, told Fox News Digital. “There would always be a token conservative included. And I have found over the years that conservatives were tolerated less and less. And if they were black, at some point they were not tolerated at all.”

“When you look at an institution like the Smithsonian, that’s supposed to belong to all of us, to all Americans, you would think that it would be open to divergent views,” Swain, who spent her career at institutions such as Princeton and Vanderbilt, continued. “That is not what we find.”

Wall Street Journal columnist and Manhattan Institute senior fellow Jason Riley shared a similar perspective.

FORMER DEMOCRATIC STAFFERS, DEI LEADERS SHAPE SMITHSONIAN LEADERSHIP AMID POLITICAL FIRESTORM

For Trump, the battle over the Smithsonian is part of a broader push to restore what he calls a more patriotic telling of American history across federally funded cultural institutions.(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

“I think the type of people who run the Smithsonian Institute are part of the broader liberal intelligentsia in this country that prevails in academia, prevails and the media. And this is not a point of view. That they take kindness to,” Riley told Fox News Digital. “In fact, this film takes some rather direct shots at that group of people. So there might be some self-interest here. It might cut a little too close to these folks.”

“I do think that they have a vested interest in putting forward a narrative out there to advance a political agenda. And I think that’s what’s really going on here at places like the Smithsonian,” Riley continued, citing his experience as a Black commentator who has spent his career sparring with White liberals.

TRUMP V. SMITHSONIAN: A TIMELINE OF HOW THE WHITE HOUSE FIGHT OVER ‘WOKE’ HISTORY UNFOLDED

Filmmaker Eli Steele directed “White Guilt,” a documentary based on his father Shelby Steele’s work examining race, identity and the role of White guilt in American society.(Fox News Digital)

Both Riley and Swain argued that viewing the film could do a service to White progressives by challenging their assumptions about race and forcing them to confront whether their preferred policies are actually helping Black America. Riley stated that the Black Americans who regularly attend the NMAAHC could benefit from Steele’s film as it challenges the popular assumption that they are blocked from social mobility by virtue of their race.

In recent months, the Smithsonian has been the target of criticism from Republican elected officials, including the president, who argue that the institution has allowed political bias to overshadow the neutral presentation of history, an argument some within the organization reject, claiming that they are simply presenting the good and the bad aspects of the American story. As part of its effort to pressure the Smithsonian over what it describes as ideological bias, the Trump administration has threatened to restrict federal support, including discretionary grants and cooperation from federal agencies.

While Riley and Swain raised questions about the Smithsonian’s motives, the museum told Steele that his proposed dates were unavailable but did not explain whether it would consider alternative dates for a public screening, according to correspondence reviewed by Fox News Digital.

Steele and his team reached out to the Smithsonian in late August about a public screening of their film, receiving a response within the day directing them to fill out an event application form, according to correspondence reviewed by Fox News Digital.In early September, they submitted a completed application form and provided two possible dates for a screening.

About two weeks later, the NMAAHC responded by informing them that neither date was available for a public screening, according to the correspondence. After Steele’s team asked about alternatives, the museum offered them the option of renting space for a private screening at a quoted cost of $35,000, according to correspondence reviewed by Fox News Digital, rather than arranging a museum-sponsored public screening.

INSIDE THE BEHEMOTH SMITHSONIAN MUSEUM NETWORK DRAWING FIRE FROM THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION

Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution Lonnie Bunch listens during an event at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History on Feb. 20, 2026, in Washington, D.C. Mrs. Trump donated her second inaugural dress to the museum, which was designed by fashion designer Herve Pierre, who also designed her first inauguration dress.(Getty Images)

When Steele and his team clarified that they wanted a public screening and signaled flexibility on their requested dates, they received no response from the museum, per correspondence reviewed by Fox News Digital.

“Answering email does not take that much time,” Steele told Fox News Digital.

“I watched the film last night. It’s a well-made and powerful representation of ideas that Shelby Steele has been developing over the last 40 years,” Glenn Loury, an African American professor at Brown University who has described himself as “conservative-leaning,” told Fox News Digital. “Those ideas — about how racial identity interacts with the pursuit of ‘black power’ and the quest for ‘white innocence’ in the West — are vividly illuminated through the film’s exploration of a number of exemplary cases.”

“The arguments advanced via Steele’s eloquent narration in the film are not beyond questioning, but they are invariably provocative and insightful,” he continued. “It would certainly be an appropriate use of the platform of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture to screen this documentary, as a means of provoking critical engagement with its themes from all corners of the political/ideological spectrum.”

IN PICTURES: HISTORIC SMITHSONIAN MUSEUM PACKED WITH WOKE POLITICAL MESSAGING ON RACE AND GENDER

A video playing at the entrance of the National Museum of American History’s Entertainment Nation exhibit features scantily clad women and a clip from the feminist thriller The Handmaid’s Tale.(Fox News Digital)

NMAAHC did not respond to a request for comment when reached by Fox News Digital.

“My father, Shelby Steele, was born into segregation and has spent decades examining how America has changed, how far we have come, and what still divides us. ‘White Guilt,’ drawing on his 2006 book, brings that work to the screen,” Steele said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. “We approached the Smithsonian’s African American museum because we believe that conversation belongs there. Sharing his life’s work in a museum dedicated to the history he lived would mean a great deal to both of us.”

“Our proposal remains open, and we would appreciate an answer.”

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Manchin bucks Schumer, throws support behind Republican Democrats want to oust

The former Democrat-turned-independent told voters Collins ‘is not a Trump senator’ ahead of her race against Troy Jackson

October 19, 2026 12:46pm EDT / Fox News

By Alex Miller

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A top Senate Republican whom Democrats are salivating at the chance to unseat is getting an unexpected assist from a former member of their own party, delivering a political snub to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Former Sen. Joe Manchin, who left the Democratic Party to become an independent before retiring from the Senate, is making a swing into Maine to support Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the lawmaker’s campaign confirmed to Fox News Digital.

Collins is locked in a tight race against former Maine state Sen. Troy Jackson as she seeks a sixth term in the upper chamber. The race has remained close after it was shaken up earlier this year when Graham Platner dropped out after a sexual assault allegation rocked his campaign.

‘OH, SHUT UP!’: DEMOCRAT SNAPS AT COLLINS AFTER HECKLER DRIVES MAINE SENATE DEBATE OFF THE RAILS

Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., leaves the U.S. Capitol for a private meeting between Senate Democrats and President Joe Biden’s senior advisors on July 11, 2024, in Washington, D.C.(Getty Images)

Manchin’s visit on the trail with Collins, first reported by Semafor, comes as Schumer and Democrats have tried to paint Collins as a rubber stamp for President Donald Trump, though she has often broken with the president during his second term, most notably on his signature legislation, the “one big, beautiful bill.”

Manchin told the outlet that his appearance alongside Collins, whom he served with during the entirety of his career in the upper chamber, was meant to demonstrate to Maine voters that Collins has a bipartisan track record that was instrumental in advancing key legislation, like his infrastructure package passed under former President Joe Biden, and blocking Trump’s policy desires, like repealing Obamacare.

SCHUMER’S ‘NUMBER ONE TARGET’ SAYS VOTERS WILL SEE HER DEMOCRAT SENATE CHALLENGER AS TOO EXTREME

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“She is not a Trump senator,” Manchin said.

His foray onto the campaign trail in Maine on Wednesday will come just 24 hours before another major surrogate for Democrats will make her way to Vacationland: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Jackson has had other progressive heavyweights join him on the campaign stump, too, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.

“Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez represent the far left of the national Democratic Party,” Collins spokeswoman Blake Kernen told Fox News Digital. “That they are all campaigning in Maine for Troy Jackson tells voters exactly how he would govern.”

SCHUMER SAYS HE’S NOT GOING ANYWHERE, BUT HIS OWN CANDIDATES AREN’T READY TO BACK HIM

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is locked in a tight race against former Maine state Sen. Troy Jackson as she seeks a sixth term in the upper chamber.(Ryan Murphy/Getty Images; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“Senator Manchin campaigning for Senator Collins is a testament to her record of effective, independent leadership and commitment delivering results that have greatly benefited Maine and America,” she continued.

Manchin’s decision to stump for Collins serves as a sharp rebuke to Schumer and the Democratic Party and comes after his years of serving as a thorn in the side of Democratic leadership and previous Democratic administrations while he was still in the Senate.

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In his memoir released last year, Manchin tore into former President Barack Obama, Biden and Schumer, particularly over Schumer’s support for nuking the filibuster. That reasoning is why he wrote that he “wanted Republicans to win the Senate majority in 2024.”

“I believed it was the only hope for preserving the Senate as an institution,” Manchin said. “I truly believed that, if in power, Republicans would uphold the filibuster, the last guardrail preventing total partisan rule.”

Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.

Violent far-left riots in France are ‘chilling warning’ for Americans at home, Mike Johnson says

October 19, 2026 12:04pm EDT / Fox News

The House speaker compared far-left groups in France to ‘socialist Democrats’ who are pro-illegal immigration

By Elizabeth Elkind, Fox News

France riots foreshadow America’s future under leftist rule, Ben Domenech warns

Fox News contributor Ben Domenech reacts to Vice President JD Vance’s warning about the unrest in France and argues the U.S. should reject similar immigration policies.

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The violent riots rocking France are a dark harbinger of what could happen in the United States if Democrats win the midterms, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is warning.

The top leader in the House of Representatives compared the far-left groups plunging France into chaos to the socialist insurgency that’s gripped the Democratic Party. And the coming election, he argued, is the best way to prevent the same scenes from playing out in the U.S.

“France is descending into chaos because they wanted OPEN BORDERS — just like the socialist Democrats in America,” Johnson posted on X. “What we are witnessing is a chilling warning for all Americans of what happens if the radical Marxist insurgent left gets their way.”

FRANCE’S VIOLENT STUDENT PROTESTS RAISE WARNING FOR AMERICA: ‘A CAUTIONARY TALE’

Far-left groups were blamed for plunging nationwide demonstrations into violent chaos in France over the weekend.(Lucas Sansberro/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images; Tobias Canales/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images)

He blamed the riots on France having overly lax rules for illegal immigration, an issue that proved pivotal in Republicans’ 2024 victories here at home.

“America is not merely in a battle of political ideologies — it’s a battle for the preservation of our civilization, our freedoms, and our way of life. If Democrats take back control, it will be open borders and criminal illegals overrunning our country, many of whom want to destroy it,” Johnson said.

More than 500,000 people took to the streets in various cities and towns across France this weekend, protesting high living costs and the price of education, among other issues.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, speaks to members of the media after a meeting with House Republicans at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on July 15, 2026.(Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

French authorities said 1,800 people were arrested nationwide, with over 800 of those in the capital city of Paris alone.

VIOLENCE ERUPTS AT FRANCE PROTESTS AS MACRON WARNS UNREST IS BEING EXPLOITED

Photos and videos showed centuries-old buildings being destroyed as protesters set fire to public property and looted stores.

France’s centrist government blamed far-left groups for fomenting the violence.

LIMOGES TOWN HALL ‘LARGELY LOST’ AFTER FAR-LEFT RIOTERS SET HISTORIC BUILDING ON FIRE AMID FRENCH UNREST

Pedestrians walk along a street covered in debris a day after nationwide protests against the “high cost of living” in Marseille on Oct. 18, 2026.(Thibaud Moritz/AFP/Getty Images)

And images showing some protesters carrying Algerian, Palestinian and Moroccan flags have led figures on the right to blame France’s immigration policies.

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“What’s happening in France is the progressive political agenda at its natural conclusion. When you build a massive welfare state while increasing your population through third-world migration, it isn’t long before basic social order collapses,” Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, posted on X.

Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.

Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com