Lawsuit seeks records of Trump administration handling of Epstein case
The group Democracy Forward sued the Justice Department and the FBI for senior administration officials' communication about Epstein documents and any regarding correspondence between him and Trump.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, appears to the be first of its kind. The group says it submitted requests under the Freedom of Information Act for the records related to communications about the case in late July that have not yet been fulfilled.
'The court should intervene urgently to ensure the public has access to the information they need about this extraordinary situation,' said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of the Democratic-aligned group, in a statement. The federal government often shields records related to criminal investigations from public view.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Democracy Forward has filed dozens of lawsuits against Trump's Republican administration, challenging policies and executive orders in areas including education, immigration and healthcare.
The Epstein case has been subject to heightened public focus since the Justice Department said last month it would not release additional documents from the case, despite assurance from Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi.
The decision sparked frustration and anger among online sleuths, conspiracy theorists and elements of Trump's base who had hoped to see proof of a government cover-up.
The Trump administration has sought to unseal grand jury transcripts, though that has been denied by a judge in Florida. U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg in West Palm Beach said the request to release grand jury documents from 2005 and 2007 did not meet any of the extraordinary exceptions under federal law that could make them public.
A similar request for the work of a different grand jury is pending in New York.
The House Oversight Committee has also subpoenaed the Justice Department for files on the investigation, part of a congressional probe that lawmakers believe may show links to Trump and other former top officials.
Since Epstein's 2019 death in a New York jail cell as he awaited trial for sex trafficking charges, conservative conspiracists have stoked theories about what information investigators gathered on the wealthy financier and who else knew about his sexual abuse of teenage girls.
Trump has denied prior knowledge of Epstein's crimes and says he cut off their relationship long ago, and he has repeatedly tried to move past the Justice Department's decision not to release a full accounting of the investigation. But lawmakers from both major political parties have continued to call for full disclosure.
Whitehurst writes for the Associated Press. Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this story.
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The Hill
22 minutes ago
- The Hill
Politics without shame: Gerrymandering makes hypocrisy a political punch line
Former diplomat and Democratic senator Adlai Stevenson once remarked that 'a hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a speech for conservation.' If so, this week in politics was nothing but the worst form of stump speeches. In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) declared that the move by Texas Republicans to redistrict mid-decade was a 'legal insurrection of our U.S. Capitol.' In Texas, Democratic State Rep. Jolanda Jones (D) must have felt 'insurrection' did not quite capture the infamy. Instead, she insisted, 'I will liken this to the Holocaust.' Others repeated the Democratic mantra that it was the death of democracy. That includes former President Barack Obama, who had said nothing when Democrats made his own state the most gerrymandered in the union. In Illinois, surrounded by Texas legislators who had fled their state to prevent a legislative quorum, Gov. JB Pritzker (D) bellowed that gerrymandering was an attempt to 'steal' congressional seats and to 'disenfranchise people.' It did not matter that the stump Pritzker and Texas Democrats were standing on in Chicago is located the most gerrymandered state in the country. The redistricting law, signed by Pritzker left Republicans with just three of the state's 17 congressional seats, even though they won nearly half the votes in the last election. What is missing in any of this is any sense of shame. The most telling moment came when Pritzker went on the Stephen Colbert's show on CBS — a show that offered him a reliably supportive audience and a long track record of 86 percent of jokes slamming conservatives or Republicans. Pritzker received roaring cheers when he said that he was protecting democracy from Texas gerrymandering. Colbert then showed him the map of Illinois, which features ridiculously shaped, snaking districts that stretch across the state — all drawn to maximize Democratic performance in elections. Pritzker just shrugged and joked how they had kindergarteners design it. Colbert and the audience laughed uproariously. So let's recap. Pritzker had just declared gerrymandering a threat to democracy. He followed up by making a joke of his own unparalleled gerrymandering. The New York audience cheered both statements. Some of the outrage by Democrats seemed part of a comedy routine. In Massachusetts, Gov. Maura Healey pledged to retaliate by gerrymandering her heavily gerrymandered state. The problem? It is already so badly gerrymandered that there are no Republican House members in the state — there haven't been any since the 1990s. We have reached the point in our age of rage where one's hypocrisy can be openly acknowledged but then dismissed with a chuckle. It is not cheap to lock Republicans out completely in heavily Democratic states. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) quickly pledged to order a new round of gerrymandering in a state where Republicans constituted roughly 40 percent of the congressional vote in 2024 but received only about 17 percent of the House seats. To reduce the Republicans to near zero would require passage of a ballot proposition, costing more than $200 million, even as California faces a budget crisis and a deficit greater than $20 billion. And that may prove to be just a fraction of the true cost. In response to the gerrymandering, Democratic strategist James Carville seemed to call for what Texas State House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu (who fled to Illinois) described as ' launching nukes at each other.' Carville insisted that once the Democrats retake power, they should 'unilaterally add Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia as states' and pack the Supreme Court to guarantee that the Republicans can never win again. He is not the first Democrat to openly advocate such a plan. In an October 2020 interview, Harvard law professor Michael Klarman explained how Democrats needed to use their power to enact 'democracy-entrenching legislation,' which would ensure that 'the Republican Party will never win another election.' Perhaps you can appreciate the unintended humor there. But Professor Klarman noted that Democrats would still have to gain control of the Supreme Court to make such legislation stick. What is striking about the Carville interview is that he was describing rigging both the legislative and judicial branches, all in the name of democracy. Carville admitted that 'in isolation,' each of these ideas may be objectionable and open 'Pandora's box.' However, when done together, they somehow become acceptable. It is akin to saying that burning a home is arson, but torching a city is urban renewal. Nevertheless, Carville declared: 'If you want to save democracy, I think you got to do all of those things because we just are moving further and further away from being anything close to democracy.' Again, no one listening to such unhinged ranting would fail to see the hypocrisy. What is chilling is that no one really cares. You can stack the Supreme Court and the Congress. You can gerrymander legislative and congressional maps. You can even engage in ballot cleansing by barring Republican and third-party candidates from elections. You can do all of that and still claim to be righteously defending democracy. You can even commit the most venal acts as a form of virtue signaling … even though there is not a scintilla of virtue in what you are saying. There may be one benefit to Carville and his counterparts in opening up Pandora's Box. In the story, Pandora released an array of evils on the world, including sorrow, disease, vice, violence, greed, madness, old age, and death. However, few recall the last thing to escape the jar and perhaps the thing that the vengeful Zeus least wanted humanity to have: hope. It is possible that citizens will finally get fed up listening to these self-righteous hypocrites and join together to end gerrymandering once and for all. Rather than yield to our rage, reason could still prevail in this country in barring or at least limiting partisan redistricting. When we do that, these clear-cutting politicians will not have a stump to stand on.
Politico
an hour ago
- Politico
California's redistricting reality
Presented by With help from Eli Okun, Bethany Irvine and Ali Bianco Good Saturday morning. This is Emily Schultheis, guest authoring from the West Coast. Get in touch. DRIVING THE DAY DEMS' GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: If California Gov. Gavin Newsom succeeds in putting mid-decade redistricting to a statewide vote this November, it will become the most consequential decision on any American ballot in 2025 — and the clearest opportunity for voters to opine about President Donald Trump's agenda ahead of the 2026 midterms. In an off year mostly devoid of big-ticket contests — the races for New Jersey governor, Virginia governor and New York City mayor are the only other elections this fall garnering any sort of national attention — a vote in the state of 40 million people at the heart of Trump resistance stands to become a major draw for money and national attention. Asking Californians to hand Democrats as many as five additional seats — Newsom's response to Texas Republicans' plan to boost GOP seats in the state — gives a starring role not just to California, but also to its distinctive brand of direct democracy. The state's century-old ballot measure system, the most developed in the nation, has morphed into a multimillion-dollar industry with a set of campaign challenges and dynamics that's distinct from your typical candidate race. (Your Saturday Playbook guest author, a reporter with POLITICO's California-based ballot measures team, will fully admit she expected a much quieter summer.) While most Golden State voters also didn't expect to head to the polls this fall, they are used to weighing in on a bevy of complicated and often arcane issue questions every two years — while also voting on marquee matters with national implications like legalizing recreational cannabis in 2016, banning same-sex marriage in 2008 or fundamentally reshaping the state's tax landscape back in 1978. Newsom has to take redistricting back to voters in the first place, versus just getting the state legislature's stamp of approval, thanks to the quirks of the California system. Policy made via ballot measure can only be amended by ballot measure, meaning the independent redistricting commission established by a pair of constitutional amendments in 2008 and 2010 needs signoff from the electorate. (The governor is quick to note that this proposal wouldn't permanently replace the existing independent commission: It would put in place temporary maps until the 2030 Census, and would only be triggered if Texas moves forward with its plan.) California ballot measure nerds know that what appears to be a standard partisan fight — Newsom and national Democrats on the 'Yes' side against Trump and national Republicans on the 'No' side — will be a more complex effort to wrangle coalitions that, on redistricting issues, haven't always fallen along party lines. Unlike candidate races, where voters are casting ballots for a personality and a party label as much as anything else, veteran Sacramento-based ballot measure consultant Brandon Castillo says issue questions are 'abstractions' without obvious personalities attached. So it will be up to Newsom and whoever leads the 'No' side (also an open question) to define the stakes in ways that appeal to the state's solidly Democratic electorate. For instance, former GOP California Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneggercould play a starring role in the 'No' campaign alongside good government groups like California Common Cause that are often more aligned with Democrats. Then again, this isn't your average ballot measure. Partisan politics will likely be 'heavily in play here' in a way that 'normally doesn't factor into ballot measures,' Castillo told Playbook. There are also no limits on political spending in ballot-measure races, meaning the redistricting fight could reach eight figures — or more. A 2020 ballot contest over classifications for rideshare workers drew a record $200 million in spending from Uber, Lyft and DoorDash — a sum that even surpasses many highly competitive Senate campaigns around the country. Newsom is betting that California voters' distaste for Trump will be enough to get them to back his plan and show up at the polls in an off year. From Medicaid cuts to frozen funding for universities like UCLA to the ICE raids keeping residents on edge in Los Angeles, there's no shortage of fodder to fuel progressive Californians' desire to push back against the Trump administration. 'I think the voters will approve it,' Newsom told reporters yesterday. 'I think the voters understand what's at stake ... with Donald Trump.' That's why Newsom is billing his effort as a necessity for protecting American democracy from opportunistic Republicans seeking to tilt the scales in their favor — a point he underscored Friday afternoon in Sacramento when he hosted Texas Democrats who left the state to avoid voting on Republicans' redistricting plan there. 'It wasn't our decision to be here, it's a reaction,' Newsom said. 'We are trying to defend democracy as opposed to see it destroyed district by district.' Timing will be tight. To get the measure before voters in November, California's Legislature would have to put it on the ballot by Aug. 22, only five days after members return from summer recess. We'll know within the next two weeks whether this is really going to happen, although Democratic legislative leaders have indicated they're on board. If it does, California will have a chance to 'reshape the national political landscape,' Castillo said. 'We in California like to say that we're different, that we're national trendsetters. Certainly in this instance, we are.' 9 THINGS THAT STUCK WITH US 1. RUSSIA-UKRAINE LATEST: Trump plans to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska next Friday as the U.S. hopes to broker a ceasefire agreement that would end the war in Ukraine, per Bloomberg. The stakes are high for the face-to-face summit — which will be Putin's first invitation onto U.S. soil in nearly a decade. Still, 'Trump didn't reveal additional sanctions on Russia or tariffs on its energy purchasers as he announced the summit, despite having declared a Friday deadline for the Kremlin to agree to a ceasefire.' The announcement comes after Putin presented the Trump administration this week with his own proposal for a ceasefire 'demanding major territorial concessions by Kyiv — and a push for global recognition of its claims — in exchange for a halt to the fighting,' per WSJ. 'European officials expressed serious reservations about Putin's proposal, which would require that Ukraine hand over eastern Ukraine, a region known as the Donbas, without Russia's committing to much other than to stop fighting.' And Ukraine's willingness to compromise could complicate things Trump suggested on Truth Social that a peace deal could include some 'swapping' of territories with Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared that Ukraine 'will not give their land to occupiers,' NBC's Freddie Clayton reports. 'The answer to Ukraine's territorial question is already in the constitution of Ukraine,' Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. 'No one will and no one can deviate from it. Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier.' 2. REDISTRICTING ROUNDUP: As the Lone Star State's redistricting fight continues, Texas House Democrats are pushing back against Gov. Greg Abbott's bid to oust them from office, with state Rep. Gene Wu, arguing in court papers filed yesterday 'that Abbott's plan would violate the Texas Constitution, which leaves it to the legislature to discipline its own members,' POLITICO's Kyle Cheney reports. Wu argued the lawmakers who exited the state in an effort to thwart the GOP-led redistricting plan are not abandoning office, as Abbott has claimed. Instead, the quorum break 'is not an abdication of their duty but an affirmation of it.' The Granite State steps back: New Hampshire GOP Gov. Kelly Ayotte has ruled out joining the procession of states redrawing their districts ahead of next year's midterms, per POLITICO's Aaron Pellish. ''The timing is off for this, because we are literally in the middle of the census period,' she said in an interview with WMUR. 'And when I talk to people in New Hampshire … it's not on the top of their priority list.'' 3. TRADING SPACES: Trump's wielding of tariffs may have been broader than previously understood, 'encompassing an array of national security goals as well as the interests of individual companies,' WaPo's David Lynch and Hannah Natanson report. An internal document shows that State Department officials had discussed insisting that U.S trading partners vote against an international attempt to cut down greenhouse gas emissions. Meanwhile, in a separate 'eight-page list of 'supplemental negotiating objectives,' U.S. officials acknowledged that potential accords would cover issues, including military basing, 'not traditionally found in a trade agreement.'' The view from K Street: Over two dozen nations dropped big money on lobbyists with ties to Trump as they scrambled to avert heavy tariffs this year, but 'in most cases, the spending has gotten them nowhere,' POLITICO's Caitlin Oprysko and colleagues report. 'The new model is punishing India. After bringing longtime Trump adviser Jason Miller on board in April, the nation has nonetheless been walloped by Trump over the past two weeks.' And while 'Canada's provinces stocked up on lobbyists and the country has still been hammered by Trump,' Mexico 'relied instead on President Claudia Sheinbaum's personal relationship with Trump — a direct approach that worked better.' 4. NOT LONG FOR IT: Billy Long is out as Trump's IRS commissioner after less than two months on the job. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will now serve as the embattled agency's acting commissioner. Long is set to be named as the U.S. ambassador to Iceland, POLITICO's Nicole Markus and Brian Faler report. Long was the 'sixth leader this year of an agency that has been wracked by budget cuts and other controversies, with tens of thousands of employees heading for the exits. … He had little previous experience in tax or running large organizations, and had been heavily involved in promoting a scandal-plagued tax credit for businesses that had been subject to a sweeping crackdown by the IRS.' 5. HIGH TIME?: 'Trump Weighs Reclassifying Marijuana as Less Dangerous Drug,' by WSJ's Josh Dawsey: 'At a $1 million-a-plate fundraiser at his New Jersey golf club earlier this month, Trump told attendees that he was interested in change … Such a shift, which the Biden administration started pursuing but didn't enact before leaving office, would make it much easier to buy and sell pot and make the multibillion-dollar industry more profitable. The guests at Trump's fundraiser included Kim Rivers, the chief executive of one of the largest marijuana companies, Trulieve, who encouraged Trump to pursue the change and expand medical marijuana research … Trump listened and said he was interested.' 6. MIDDLE EAST LATEST: Despite decades of failed attempts to find enough oil in Pakistan to boost the nation's economy, Trump announced on Truth Social yesterday that the U.S. and Pakistan will work together to 'develop their massive oil reserves,' WaPo's Rick Noack and Shaiq Hussain report from Islamabad. The cold water: 'After a long history of setbacks and failures, few here believe Pakistan will ever become an oil exporter.' While Pakistani officials are embracing the announcement, 'among commentators here, disbelief and in some cases mockery have prevailed. Some suspect Trump is sending a message to neighboring India, Pakistan's more populous and more economically influential archrival.' 7. HITTING THE ROAD: Senate Majority Leader John Thune is planning to take a delegation of Senate GOP freshmen to Europe later this month to visit NATO countries, The Washington Examiner's David Sivak scoops. 'The senators will be making stops in Denmark, Norway, and Finland … [and] a stop in Estonia … The trip is significant, in part, for the countries where senators will be visiting. The travel coincides with increasingly strained relations between Washington and the Kremlin, and each is a member nation of NATO.' 8. THE OREGON TRAIL: 'Some Democrats want new leadership. Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden says he has what it takes to resist Trump,' by AP's Claire Rush: 'Wyden is in his fifth decade in Congress and showing no inclination to step aside even as pressure builds on aging Democratic officeholders to give way to a new generation. He says he plans to seek another term in 2028, when he will be 79 years old. … After a recent town hall in Wasco in conservative Sherman County, Wyden said questions about age are 'fair game for debate' but that he is still up to the job and the fight against Republican President Donald Trump's policies.' 9. DISTRICT DISSENT: ''Disproportionate' and 'extreme': DC officials protest Trump's policing incursion,' by POLITICO's Ben Johansen, Irie Sentner and Nicole Markus: '[D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton] called the use of federal agencies 'a disproportionate overreaction that's offensive to D.C.,' and At-Large Councilmember Christina Henderson called it an 'extreme' move. … Still, the silence from most members comes as District officials contend with competing interests: defending the city's right to rule itself and not angering the president.' CLICKER — 'The nation's cartoonists on the week in politics,' edited by Matt Wuerker — 18 funnies GREAT WEEKEND READS: — 'The Most Nihilistic Conflict on Earth,' by The Atlantic's Anne Applebaum: 'Sudan's devastating civil war shows what will replace the liberal order: anarchy and greed.' — 'Donald Trump, Master Builder of Castles in the Air,' by The New Yorker's Susan Glasser: 'The Mar-a-Lago-fication of the White House may be the least bad part of the President's legacy.' — 'It Was a Promising Addiction Treatment. Many Patients Never Got It,' by Shoshana Walter for NYT Magazine: 'How political red tape and a drug company's thirst for profits limited the reach of a drug that experts believe could have reduced the opioid epidemic's toll.' — 'The Cult of Kill Tony,' by Slate's Luke Winkie: 'Tony Hinchcliffe's fame skyrocketed after he made a joke that spooked even Donald Trump. In Texas, I watched how he became the most powerful comic in America.' — 'He could have been the GOP's voice on crime, but his faith intervened,' by WaPo's Emily Davies: 'Phillip Todd, a staffer for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), was nearly killed in a random attack in D.C. He took two years to figure out what he wanted to say.' — 'Twenty Years After the Storm,' by The Atlantic's Clint Smith: 'What home meant before, and after, Hurricane Katrina.' — 'Could the U.S. Have Saved Navalny?' by WSJ's Drew Hinshaw and Joe Parkinson: 'As the Biden administration deliberated, friends of the famous Russian opposition leader rallied behind an audacious plan to spring him from Putin's gulag.' — 'American Nazis: The Aryan Freedom Network is riding high in Trump era,' by Reuters' Aram Roston and Jim Urquhart: 'With Donald Trump's return to power, a neo-Nazi group buoyed by his rhetoric is expanding its reach and changing the face of white extremism in America. Its leaders: a Texas couple, both born to Ku Klux Klan leaders.' — 'How Trump's War on Higher Education Is Hitting Community Colleges,' by Ben Austen for NYT Magazine: 'Measures intended to punish elite universities are inflicting collateral damage on the nation's two-year colleges, which educate 40 percent of all undergraduates.' TALK OF THE TOWN IN MEMORIAM — 'William H. Webster, Who Ran Both the F.B.I. and the C.I.A., Dies at 101,' by NYT's Tim Weiner: 'President Jimmy Carter chose Mr. Webster — a federal judge, a moderate Republican and a Christian Scientist — in large part because he projected probity and integrity, qualities that matched the president's self-image. … Mr. Webster later said that it took several years before he could control 'the Hoover hard hats,' as he called the old guard, and wrestle the bureau into the realm of the rule of law.' — 'Apollo 13 moon mission leader James Lovell dies at 97,' by AP's Don Babwin: 'One of NASA's most traveled astronauts in the agency's first decade, Lovell flew four times — Gemini 7, Gemini 12, Apollo 8 and Apollo 13 — with the two Apollo flights riveting the folks back on Earth.' FROM THE ARCHIVES — 'Rarely seen photos of JFK Jr. and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy's secret wedding,' by CNN's Jacqui Palumbo, with photos by Carole Radziwill: 'Though additional images and anecdotes have trickled out over the years, a trove of snapshots has been shared exclusively with CNN ahead of the network's premiere of its three-part CNN Original Series 'American Prince: JFK Jr.,' airing on August 9.' TRANSITIONS — Jake Jordan is now research director for the AFL-CIO. He previously was deputy research director for the Biden White House and is a Gretchen Whitmer alum. … Sam Chan is now deputy comms director for Mikie Sherrill's New Jersey gubernatorial campaign. She is a Michigan Dems and Roy Cooper alum. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) … Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.) … Social Security Commissioner Frank Bisignano … NYT's Julian Barnes and Ken Vogel (5-0) … Ann Selzer … Kathleen Matthews … Heidi Elswick … Lockheed Martin's Marcel Lettre … SmartPower's Brian Keane … Tim Tagaris … Bill Burton … Sharon Wagener … Kerry Troup … POLITICO's Jordan Hoshko … David Sours … Fred Brown of Dezenhall Resources … Courtney Bradway of HHS … former Reps. John Sweeney (R-N.Y.) (7-0) and Charles Djou (R-Hawaii) … Mike Mears … William Smith … Gable Brady … Rhonda Bentz of the Consumer Brands Association … Kate Leone … Lindsay Singleton of Singularity Public Affairs … Lauren Horan of the White House … Ann E.W. Stone … Virginia Pancoe … Fight Agency's Rebecca Kirszner Katz … Amy Rutkin … Mercury's Dan Bank … Chris Cuomo … Oracle's Joel Hinzman … Hoda Kotb THE SHOWS (Full Sunday show listings here): Fox News 'Sunday Morning Futures': VP JD Vance … Rep James Comer (R-Ky.) … Miranda Devine. FOX 'Fox News Sunday': New York Gov. Kathy Hochul … Texas Gov. Greg Abbott … Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) … Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.). Panel: Francesca Chambers, Horace Cooper, Matt Gorman and Marie Harf. NBC 'Meet the Press': Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker … Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) … Eric Holder. Panel: Lanhee Chen, Neera Tanden, Carol Lee and Tony Plohetski. CBS 'Face the Nation': Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) … Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) … Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova … Jerome Adams. MSNBC 'The Weekend': Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) … Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) … Texas state Rep. Jolanda Jones … Texas state. Rep. James Talarico … Beto O'Rourke. CNN 'State of the Union': Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) … Matthew Whitaker. Panel: Kristen Soltis Anderson, Ashley Allison, Scott Walker and Mo Elleithee. NewsNation 'The Hill Sunday': Rep. Dave Min (D-Calif.) … Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) … Kurt Volker. Panel: Tyler Pager, Margaret Talev, Charles Lane and Sabrina Siddiqui. Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@ or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn't happen without our editor Zack Stanton, deputy editor Garrett Ross and Playbook Podcast producer Callan Tansill-Suddath.
Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
Mexico Quashes Fears of US Military 'Invasion'
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The U.S. military will not enter Mexico, the country's president has said, after it was reported Donald Trump had authorized such a move to tackle Latin American drug cartels. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said that her country would cooperate with the U.S. "but there will be no invasion." Her comments follow a report in The New York Times that the U.S. president had secretly signed a directive to begin using military force on foreign soil. Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment. President of Mexico Claudia Sheinbaum at Palacio Nacional on August 06, 2025 in Mexico City, Mexico. President of Mexico Claudia Sheinbaum at Palacio Nacional on August 06, 2025 in Mexico City, It Matters The Trump administration has pledged to crack down on drug trafficking, targeting Latin American gangs, which it has declared foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs). In recent months, Mexico has worked with the U.S. to curb the illegal flow of both migrants and drugs through the countries' border but the U.S using the military to target the groups would mark a significant escalation in enforcement. Sheinbaum's comments set down a red line over the reported but unconfirmed Trump policy at a tricky diplomatic time as the U.S. leader imposes tariffs on trading partners. What To Know The New York Times, citing sources close to the matter,reported that Trump had directed the Pentagon for military operations at sea and on foreign soil to target cartels. This reported directive, which has not been confirmed, appears to follow an executive order Trump had earlier signed designating eight drug cartels as terrorist entities, six of which are Mexican. The U.S. Embassy in Mexico said in a statement Friday both countries would use "every tool at our disposal to protect our peoples" from drug trafficking groups without giving further details. But Sheinbaum told reporters that the U.S. "is not going to come to Mexico with their military," which would be "absolutely off the table." Brandan Buck, Cato Institute foreign policy research fellow, previously told Newsweek that such a unilateral action by the U.S. "would assuredly fail to stem the flow of drugs into the United States while causing significant diplomatic fallout." In May, Sheinbaum had said she had rejected Trump's offer of direct U.S. military assistance, saying that "our territory is inalienable." U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson said on X that fentanyl seizures at the border were down and noted the collaboration between Sheinbaum and Trump. What People Are Saying Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum: "There will be no invasion—that is rejected, absolutely United States is not going to come to Mexico with troops." U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson in a statement Friday: "We are united. We will use all the tools at our disposal to protect our peoples, working collaboratively, as two sovereign allies." White House spokesperson Anna Kelly in a statement to Newsweek on Friday said that Trump's "top priority is protecting the homeland, which is why he took the bold step to designate several cartels and gangs as foreign terrorist organizations." What Happens Next The White House has not yet addressed the reported directive.
