Trump posthumously honored conservative activist Charlie Kirk with the Presidential Medal of Freedom about a month after he was fatally shot at a campus event.

Pope Leo lays waste to “clickbait,” an Israel-backed group makes big plans to target Christians online and more — all in this week’s Tuesday Tech Drop.

Eric Trump’s controversial remarks — declaring that his father is guided by God and praising what he describes as a divinely orchestrated series of events leading America to this moment — are being blasted by a group of hundreds of national security experts. “I can’t tell you how many things are lining up,” the President’s son told right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson. “I mean, think about the fact that this book came out on Charlie Kirk’s birthday, on the same day as we have peace in the Middle East,” he said, of his new book. “You know, I mean, so many different factors are all coming together at once in the most unthinkable, unbelievable journey.” “Look how much better humanity and our world is,” under Trump, he claimed. “You know, we’re saving Christianity. We’re saving God, we’re saving the family unit. We’re saving this nation. I mean, you know, DEI is out the window, Benny. You know, I mean, you no longer have Colin Kaepernick kneeling for the national anthem,” Trump continued. “You no longer have Budweiser going, woke as h–, all of this is dead.” Trump claimed a resurgence in church attendance, and “a return to people, you know, valuing their children, and valuing society, and believing in the white picket fence, and what the American dream represents, and what the American dream stands for, and American exceptionalism, and peace around the world, and that people can coexist with one another without having to, you know, pick up arms and destroy each other for no reason whatsoever, other than, you know, incompetent, and, you know, and egotistical governments.” “It’s a beautiful time, and he will go to heaven for all of that,’ he said of his father. “God absolutely guided this journey.” The Steady State, a group of over 330 former national security officials, slammed the Trump scion’s remarks. “Eric Trump is not talking politics,” they wrote. “Instead, he’s declaring a new moral order.” “Framing Trump as God-guided and destined for heaven, he claims America has been ‘saved’ from DEI, protest, and pluralism. This is prophetic, authoritarian language,” they warned. “Dissent becomes evil, and their victory becomes divine destiny.” Former Obama head speechwriter turned political commentator Jon Favreau remarked, “We’ve moved rather quickly from ‘God saved Trump’ to ‘Trump is saving God,’ which I guess is the foundation of the new MAGA religion?” Author Jennifer Erin Valent, winner of a Christian writers’ award commented, “No one ‘saves’ God. Every Christian should know that and be repulsed by the very assertion.” — (@)

President Trump’s threats to provide the missiles to Ukraine, whether he follows through on them or not, are a sign of his growing frustration with Moscow.

Former special counsel Jack Smith has, for the first time, publicly defended the investigation he led into President Donald Trump, calling it “ludicrous” to suggest the work was politically motivated. He also criticized the current Department of Justice's actions. “I worked in the department for years — Republican, Democrat, Republican. I was the acting U.S. attorney in the first Trump administration in Tennessee. Nothing like what we see now has ever gone on. This case in New York City, where the case against [NY Mayor Eric Adams] was dismissed in the hopes that he would support the president’s political agenda. I mean, just so you know, nothing like it has ever happened that I’ve ever heard of,” he said. Smith made these remarks on October 8 during a panel discussion at University College London. They gained renewed attention Tuesday after being highlighted on MSNBC. Meanwhile, Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee asked Smith Tuesday to sit for a hearing as part of a broader GOP push against Trump’s perceived opponents. In a Tuesday letter, Rep. Jim Jordan (R‑OH) accused Smith’s Trump prosecutions of being “partisan and politically motivated.” His scrutiny deepened after reports that Smith’s team requested FBI analysis of the phone records of several Republican lawmakers during the Jan. 6 insurrection. Smith, serving as special counsel, had indicted Trump on two fronts in 2023: one alleging efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and another accusing improper retention of classified documents at Mar‑a‑Lago.

The panel’s Republican chairman, Representative Jim Jordan, accused the former special counsel of “prosecutorial misconduct and constitutional abuses.”

Hamas has not yet publicly agreed to or signed anything that specifies how it would disarm, but Trump suggested he had received verbal assurances the group would.

Multiple sources tell NPR that as part of the Trump administration's latest reduction-in-force, the U.S. Department of Education has gutted the office that handles special education.

By his own account, Trump is offering $20 billion to Argentina to help its politically aligned president, Javier Milei, who faces a possible financial crisis and a legislative election on Oct. 26.

The United States has struck another boat off the coast of Venezuela, President Donald Trump announced Tuesday, continuing a series of deadly attacks that have drawn questions about their legality.

The Supreme Court is set to hear Louisiana v. Callais on Wednesday, marking a rare re-argument in a voting rights dispute that could undermine one of the last protections against racial vote dilution in the U.S. The case centers on whether the court will allow Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which bars practices that weaken minority voting power, to be challenged and effectively dismantled. In an article for Slate Magazine published Tuesday, political strategist Max Flugrath argued that the Supreme Court’s decision to rehear the case signals a deliberate effort to dismantle Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, a provision designed to protect against racially discriminatory districting. "If the justices remove the Voting Rights Act, it will hand the Trump regime a powerful tool to permanently weaken fair representation," the article read. Flugrath said by reopening arguments, the court’s conservative majority appears to telegraph an intent to strike down a core legal tool used to challenge maps that dilute the voting power of communities of color. Flugrath warned that eliminating Section 2 would have sweeping consequences. He said that combined with Republican gerrymandering efforts, its removal could enable the GOP to seize as many as 27 additional safe House seats — with at least 19 of those directly linked to the loss of Section 2 protections — locking in one‑party control of the House for decades, according to analyses from Fair Fight Action and Black Voters Matter Fund. He noted that in Louisiana, the case began when a court ruled the state’s map unlawfully weakened Black voters’ influence, ordering legislators to redraw it to include a second majority-Black district. When state lawmakers complied and produced a remedial map, Flugrath recounted, a group of non‑Black voters sued again, claiming that the remedy itself constituted unconstitutional racial discrimination. Flugrath condemned the logic of that suit, calling its reasoning a twist on the very constitutional amendments designed to guard against racial exclusion. He observed that lower courts had accepted it, and that both Louisiana’s Republican leaders and original plaintiffs had pushed for overturning the ruling — though after the court agreed to rehear the matter, the same officials reversed course to ask the justices to invalidate Section 2 outright. Flugrath cited Justice Clarence Thomas’ dissent from the rehearing order, which he said frames the choice as either allowing what Thomas calls “patent racial gerrymandering” or admitting that a Section 2 violation “is insufficient to justify a race‑based remedy.” "The danger isn’t theoretical," the writer said. He noted that Thomas is saying that even proven racial discrimination in political maps cannot justify race-conscious remedies. He also referred to Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s suggestion that race‑based protections under Section 2 cannot persist indefinitely, indicating they may support stripping its authority. Flugrath argued that if the court sides with the challengers, lawmakers who design maps to suppress minority participation could claim that race-conscious remedies themselves violate constitutional equal protection. He described this as a new defense of discriminatory maps that would block challenges not only to congressional maps but also to redistricting in state legislatures, city councils and school boards nationwide. Flugrath warned: "If the far-right justices’ reasoning prevails, politicians who gerrymander to silence voters of color will have a new defense: Fixing racial discrimination is discrimination itself. It’s an Orwellian logic that would make it nearly impossible to challenge unfair maps." He added: "The result would essentially be a return to the pre-1965 Jim Crow playbook, masked in pseudo-constitutional language." "Fair maps, free elections, and a representative Congress remain the most powerful tools we have to stop the Trump regime’s push for authoritarianism — but only if we use them," the writer concluded.

The remote village of Kipnuk planned to use the money to protect against flooding. On Sunday, it was inundated.

Former Special Counsel Jack Smith spoke out for the first time about the investigation into President Trump. MSNBC Justice and Intelligence Correspondent Ken Dilanian joins Katy Tur to share more on Smith's conversation with former FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissman.

U.S. President Donald Trump's schedule, on Tuesday afternoon, October 14, included a meeting with visiting Argentine President Javier Milei in the White House. The Trump Administration is giving Argentina, whose currency, the peso argentino, has suffered major problems in recent years, a $20 million bailout. The Associated Press (AP) reported, "Experts say Milei comes to the White House with two clear objectives. One is to negotiate U.S. tariff exemptions or reductions for Argentine products. The other is to see how the United States will implement a $20 billion currency swap line to prop up Argentina's peso and replenish its depleted foreign currency reserves ahead of crucial midterm elections later this month." Here are five of the wildest moments from Trump's Tuesday afternoon at the White House. 1. Trump angrily attacked ABC News reporter. When an ABC News reporter tried to ask Trump a question, he angrily responded, "After what you did with (George) Stephanopoulos to the vice president of the United States, I don't take questions from ABC Fake News." Trump was referring Stephanopoulos' interview with Vice President JD Vance, which went downhill fast when Vance refused to directly answer a question about border Czar Tom Homan. 2. Trump chastised 'nasty' Stephanopoulos for Vance interview. Trump went into detail about Stephanopoulos' interview with Vance, telling reporters, "JD had a very nasty person interviewing him, and we can't let that happen. It's just inappropriate to cut off a highly respected vice president of the United States, mid-sentence. I guess it's one way to win an argument." 3. Trump joked about visiting the beach in South America. When a reporter asked Trump if he wanted to visit Argentina, he joked about his weight and responded, "My body is a little bit larger than [former President Joe Biden’s]. I'm not sure it would be appreciated on the beach." 4. Trump vowed to keep supporting Argentina. When a reporter asked Trump for his message to Argentina, he responded, "We love them. We will be there for them." 5. Trump praised Argentina president as a 'very great leader.' Trump has had volatile relations with some of the United States' allies, including Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (who he berated during one White House meeting but was much friendlier to during a subsequent one). Trump, however, didn't hesitate to praise Milei on October 14. When a reporter asked for his views on the right-wing Argentine president, he praised him as a "very great leader." — (@)

The operation follows Senate Republicans’ narrow defeat of a measure that aimed to prevent the administration’s actions on legal grounds.

After a viral photo sparked mockery online, the Texas Military Department benched some National Guard troops who had been tapped last week for President Donald Trump’s authoritarian crackdown in Chicago.