The Latest: Rep. Omar says she will ‘not be silenced’ after Homeland Security searches her home
Federal agents on Monday searched the home of Democratic U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, a startling escalation in a criminal investigation that brings renewed scrutiny to the frequent target of Trump administration derision in the final weeks of her reelection bid.
The Justice Department confirmed that a judicially authorized search warrant of Omar’s home was executed by Homeland Security Investigations but provided no other details. Trump administration officials have repeatedly hinted at the existence of an inquiry targeting the Minnesota representative. Omar called the search an “attempt to target political enemies and weaponize federal law enforcement.”
A senior U.S. official said President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are considering firing U.S. Ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle after a series of reports alleging she has engaged in improper and possibly illegal conduct before and during her tenure in Athens.
And a bipartisan group of senators is calling on the Trump administration to “immediately reverse course” on a plan to purchase diesel from Russia despite a U.S. sanctions law.
The Latest:
The Ohio Republican is facing a stiff challenge from former Sen. Sherrod Brown. Husted, who was appointed in 2024 to replace JD Vance when he ran for vice president, sounded more like a challenger as he raked Brown for the Democrat’s decades in office.
“He’s been in office for over 50 years. Can you name one thing he’s done to make your life better?” Husted asked the Youngstown crowd.
Brown first entered office in 1975 as a member of Ohio’s statehouse.
Trump is scheduled to speak in Youngstown to boost Husted’s campaign. The Republican senator’s struggles in a state the president easily won in all three of his campaigns shows the challenges facing the GOP this election.
More than 100 people chanted “Ilhan! Ilhan!” at an afternoon rally in Minneapolis in support of Omar. Speakers addressed the crowd from the bed of a pickup truck behind a large sign that said, “We Stand With Ilhan.”
“This administration is a violent authoritative regime. Take it from us: We would know. We have been experiencing this for generations,” said Rachel Dionne-Thunder, a member of the Big Stone Cree Nation.
State Sen. Zaynab Mohamed, who was born in Somalia, said the search was a “disgusting attack” and should worry everyone.
“They’re attacking her because she represents what every Somali American can be: a young Somali woman, a young hijabi mom, who can be in Congress, who can be herself, who stands up for her community without fear,” Mohamed said.
The president boarded Air Force One with a pair of Ohio-born celebrities ahead of a rally in Youngstown.
Trump exited Marine One with the former NFL coach and the social media influencer turned boxer.
Gruden was born in Sandusky, Ohio, and won the Super Bowl in 2003 as the head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He previously spoke at Trump’s recent rally in Vandalia, Ohio, near Dayton.
Paul was born in Cleveland, found fame on YouTube and became a boxer who fought the former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.
The president, who is going to China next month to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shenzhen, told reporters that he may meet with Kim Jong Un while he’s in Asia.
Trump said earlier this year that he planned to meet with Kim sometime this year.
Asked if he was considering firing Kimberly Guilfoyle from her post as the U.S. ambassador to Greece, Trump told reporters: “Well, we’re looking at it. We’re not happy.”
A series of recent news reports have alleged that Guilfoyle — who at one point was engaged to Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. — has engaged in improper and possibly illegal conduct before and during her tenure in Athens, including offering to use her influence inside the administration in return for the payment of a large credit card bill.
The president confirmed to reporters that he spoke to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, but he didn’t offer any details about the call. A Saudi-led coalition blamed Iran-backed Houthi rebels in neighboring Yemen for the attack.
Trump, in response to another question about the Houthis, said “they are misbehaving very badly. No good.” But he didn’t say anything about whether the U.S. would respond to the Houthis.
Trump is insisting that an energy ceasefire is in place for Ukraine and Russia, despite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying that Moscow struck his country’s energy sites.
“Well, they agreed,” Trump told reporters. “Because I said, ‘You agree.’ That’s why they agreed, because I said they agree.”
When pressed about the attacks by Russia, Trump said: “Well, I’d have to look at it and see, because there’s been violations on both sides.”
“I understand they’re looking at it very carefully,” the president said of an investigation that sparked federal agents to search the home of the Democratic representative.
Trump said he’d found the congresswoman to “be totally crooked, personally.”
“But that has nothing to do with me. I think she’s a terrible person, just a complainer. She comes from a country that’s a non-country,” Trump continued. “And then she comes over here and she complains about our Constitution.”
He added, “I think she’s a terrible person. But that’s really up to the DOJ. I have nothing to do with it.”
A federal judge on Sunday ordered the Trump administration to cancel any remaining TV commercials in its pro-Trump ad campaign that has cost taxpayers millions.
But even after the judge’s 6:45 p.m. deadline, a few of the spots labeled as paid for by the U.S. government aired on television, data from AdImpact shows.
The Department of Homeland Security did not receive notice from the court in time to cancel those final ad buys, the White House said in an email.
The White House said the ads, which it refers to as public service announcements, will be paid for by outside groups going forward.
The president said he’ll have a “Kansas Style Rally, in Roger’s Honor, very soon,” in a lengthy social media post Monday attacking Democratic candidate Adam Hamilton’s leadership at the nation’s largest United Methodist church.
Marshall’s race is considered a tossup, even though Democrats haven’t won a Senate seat in Kansas since 1932.
Hamilton founded the Kansas City-area Church of the Resurrection in 1990, which has grown to 25,000 members. That’s been among his key selling points as a candidate.
When Trump previously denounced Hamilton as a “lunatic,” Hamilton told a crowd in Topeka, “That is so cool! I love this!”
Rep. Ashley Hinson said “it makes me a little bit nervous anytime we’re talking about relieving a sanction on Russia.”
Hinson is the Republican facing a competitive race for U.S. Senate in Iowa, where $6 diesel prices have become an issue in the campaign against Democrat Josh Turek.
Trump said last week he struck a deal to obtain diesel from Russia, reversing years of U.S. pressure on Moscow over its war with Ukraine.
After touring an ethanol plant in Dyersville, Iowa, Hinson told reporters that fuel prices are a priority for her. But she also said the U.S. should be “strong” on Russia, noting her support for a sanctions package that the House passed last month.
Georgia GOP gubernatorial nominee Rick Jackson hasn’t rushed to share stages with Republican Senate nominee Mike Collins.
But Trump’s trip Friday to Dalton, in north Georgia, will get the two nominees in front of the same audience, their spokesmen confirmed.
Jackson, a self-funding billionaire, is viewed as being in a considerably stronger position against Democratic nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms than Collins is in his challenge of Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff.
Strategists from both parties say Georgia could see a split result this fall.
Despite their different courses, Collins and Jackson both have Trump’s endorsement — at least now. Trump endorsed Collins ahead of the GOP runoff.
Trump had endorsed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones in 2025 and offered his support only after Jackson defeated Jones in a runoff.
Campaign mailers urging Ohio voters to support a socialist U.S. Senate candidate over Democratic nominee Sherrod Brown are being underwritten by a newly incorporated PAC with ties to businesses associated with Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC.
The mailers sponsored by Enough Promises Ohio PAC began arriving in voter mailboxes in recent days.
They promote independent Greg Levy over Brown with messages such as “Join the Revolution” and “Send a Worker to the Senate.”
Levy has condemned the mailers as misleading “dirty tricks.”
Brown is locked in a tight race against Republican Sen. Jon Husted.
Bath Iron Works, a subsidiary of General Dynamics, is a shipyard in Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins’ home state.
It was certified Monday by the Pentagon as having made operational and managerial improvements to allow the department to order a guided-missile Navy destroyer. It would be the second to be built in fiscal year 2027.
Collins is chair of the appropriations committee and is in a competitive campaign for a sixth term against Democrat Troy Jackson.
During debates with Jackson last week, Collins argued that she uses her leadership on the key committee to benefit the Maine economy, while Jackson has criticized her for supporting the Trump administration’s agenda.
Committee staff say the Bath project has a budget of $2 billion to $2.5 billion and is estimated to include roughly 6,800 jobs.
In a statement, Chair Yvette Clarke blamed the search on Trump’s “fixation” on Omar, a vocal critic of the president and his policies. Omar is a member of the caucus.
“The sustained campaign of attacks against Congresswoman Omar by the President and his allies should raise grave concerns about the politicization of federal law enforcement and the use of government power to intimidate political opponents,” the statement read.
“Over the past year alone, (Trump) has repeatedly targeted Somali Americans and the state of Minnesota with vile, racist rhetoric while deploying thousands of armed ICE agents to the Twin Cities in operations targeting Somali American communities, resulting in the deaths of two Americans in broad daylight.”
A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to halt work for a day on a historic D.C. golf course, pending more court action. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes issued the order Monday after a tense three-hour hearing in which she blistered the government for having deceived her with its actions over the holiday weekend.
Responding to Omar’s social media reaction addressing the search, the Republican National Committee posted a screen grab of an X post from Omar in which she wrote, “No one is above the law.”
The screen grab wasn’t dated, but Omar posted that phrase on social media as the House debated Trump’s first impeachment case in 2019.
The Republican Party in Omar’s home state of Minnesota circulated remarks it attributed to Omar from 2023, when she reacted to Trump’s indictment on charges in New York by calling for people to “support accountability and to follow the facts where they lead.”
Across social media, congressional Democrats criticized Trump for the search of Omar’s home.
Calling it “unprecedented, but unfortunately not surprising,” Michigan Rep. Debbie Dingell wrote that Trump had “repeatedly targeted Congresswoman Omar with hateful rhetoric, contributing to death threats and violence.”
Arizona Rep. Adellita Grijalva said it represented “the latest — and darkest — chapter of Trump’s racist political persecution against Ilhan Omar and the entire Somali-American community.”
Saying Trump was “weaponizing our government against his perceived political opponents,” Colorado Rep. Jason Crow referenced the administration’s unsuccessful attempt to indict him and other congressional Democrats for a video calling on service members to defy “illegal orders.”
The deal between Moscow and Washington on exports of Russian diesel and fresh U.S. criticism of Ukraine’s leader mark important political victories for the Kremlin.
While the size of Russia’s diesel exports is relatively small and unlikely to significantly impact prices, the revenue will help Moscow replenish its war coffers.
More importantly, it will undermine efforts by Kyiv and its European allies to put up a united front to Putin.
Remarks by Trump suggesting that Ukraine should get a new leader also strengthen the Kremlin’s hand.
Fellow progressive Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California also called it “disturbing” that the Trump administration is “targeting Muslim Americans and a Muslim American woman legislator.” Khanna made the remarks in a video posted on social media.
Khanna added that “any decent American needs to stand up and speak out.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York called the search of Omar’s home “an unprecedented abuse of power,” saying Trump’s administration had long “launched slanderous attacks” against the Minnesota Democrat.
Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib said the search is “exactly what a fascist police state does.”
Omar, Tlaib and Ocasio-Cortez are part of The Squad, a group of progressive lawmakers who have endured repeated attacks from Trump, dating back to his first term.
Both Tlaib and Ocasio-Cortez off on their social media posts by saying, “I stand with Ilhan.”
Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who oversees the Catholic Church’s pastoral services to Catholics in the U.S. military, is condemning the proposed livestream of the firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan.
Broglio also is stipulating that any Catholic soldier assigned to the firing squad should ask to be excused from that duty, which he described as contrary to the teachings of the church. He joins other Catholic leaders in speaking out against the death penalty and the livestream plans.
Hasan, an Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people in 2009 at Fort Hood in Texas, is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on Dec. 3.
“The US military generally enjoys a good reputation in the world,” Broglio said. “Is there really a value to throwing them in the same boat with terrorists by broadcasting the image of the execution of a man in a wheelchair to the whole world?”
“This raid by Trump’s DHS is an outrageous abuse of power and an unprecedented escalation in the weaponization of federal law enforcement to target political enemies,” Jacklyn Rogers, Omar’s spokesperson, said in a statement. “For a decade, Donald Trump has relentlessly targeted Congresswoman Ilhan Omar with inflammatory rhetoric, repeatedly putting a target on her back. Now, those attacks have escalated to a pointless federal raid. The Congresswoman has done nothing wrong. No president should be able to use the power of the federal government to intimidate his political enemies.”
“For ten years, Trump has targeted me with baseless lies and smear campaigns,” she said. “This is just the latest escalation in his campaign of political intimidation. I will not be silenced.”
Trump and fellow Republicans from the highest ranks of party leadership have repeatedly and publicly criticized the Somali-born Omar over her status as an immigrant and her progressive views. Trump as recently as this past weekend brought up Omar at a rally in Tennessee, where he attacked her upbringing and suggested that Vice President JD Vance “and our people” were investigating her.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said last month that there was an “ongoing investigation” related in part to whether Omar lied on her immigration forms and that “something’s going to happen.”
“For years, Donald Trump and far-right extremists have relentlessly targeted Congresswoman Omar with vile personal attacks and baseless accusations,” House Democratic leaders said in a statement. “Now, less than 30 days until the midterm election, his violent mass deportation machine has descended upon the home of a duly elected Member of Congress and her family.”
The search of the Minnesota congresswoman ’s home so close to next month’s midterm contests that will determine control of the House and Senate was swiftly condemned by top Democrats in Congress and raised questions about the timing given longstanding Justice Department protocol to avoid overt investigative steps involving political candidates in the direct run-up to an election.
As of Sept. 25, YouTube, Meta, TikTok and X had all refused advertisements for the film paid by its distributor, Bleecker Street. YouTube and Meta later reversed course, saying the trailer had been flagged for “political content.”
There are also concerns about whether “Musk” will eventually land on HBO as originally planned, in the aftermath of the Skydance merger created by Paramount’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery. CEO David Ellison’s father, Larry Ellison, is friendly with Musk.
“Would Musk be able to call Larry or David and say, you know, don’t put this doc on? Yeah,” Gibney said in an interview with the AP.
Gibney wrote on X that his film is “about a ‘free-speech absolutist’ who has threatened a lawsuit to try to stop the film from being seen.”
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