Trump comments to end mail-in voting are part of a strategy to ‘sow distrust’, says ACLU
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) – one of the country’s largest civil rights organisations – has issued a statement criticising the the president’s posts to social media that threaten to end mail-in voting and end the use of voting machines. They deem his attacks as “part of his strategy to sow distrust in our elections and prevent voters from holding him accountable”.
Here’s the full statement from Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project:
“Mail-in voting remains a vital safeguard of our democracy. It ensures that voters with disabilities, those without transportation access, and others who rely on its flexibility and access can exercise their right to vote. President Trump’s attempts to undermine a safe, proven, and reliable method of voting — that he himself uses — along with his attacks on voting technology, are just another part of his strategy to sow distrust in our elections and prevent voters from holding him accountable. We are prepared to protect mail-in voting in court against unfounded and unconstitutional attacks, as we have in Pennsylvania, Mississippi, and other states. Access to mail-in voting is necessary to a fair and inclusive electoral process.”
Key events
Richard Luscombe
A federal judge in Miami heard arguments on Monday that detainees at the remote immigration jail in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz” are routinely subjected to human rights abuses and denied due process before being deported.
The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), is one of two separate actions before the courts that could lead to the closure of the controversial facility celebrated by Trump for its harsh conditions.
District court judge Kathleen Williams is expected to rule this week in the other case, brought by an alliance of environmental groups and a Native American tribe, claiming that the immigration jail has inflicted irreversible damage to the fragile wetlands.
Earlier this month, Williams issued a temporary restraining order against the state of Florida halting new construction and expansion of the tented camp, although its operations for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (Ice) were allowed to continue.
The jail currently holds an estimated 700 detainees.
European leaders have begun arriving at White House. Mark Rutte, NATO’s secretary general, was the first to arrive, followed by Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and Keir Starmer, the prime minister of the United Kingdom.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to be last to arrive.
Democratic lawmakers in Texas have returned to the state, ending a walkout that broke quorum and blocked Republican efforts to redraw congressional maps at the behest of Trump.
Texas House of Representatives minority leader Gene Wu, chairperson of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, said in a statement that Democrats had returned and had “rallied Democrats nationwide to join this existential fight for fair representation.”
But Texas governor Greg Abbott on Friday already called a second special legislation session in another attempt to rework the state’s congressional maps in an effort to give Republicans another five seats in Congress.
Texas House Democrats left the state earlier this month to deny Republicans the quorum needed to vote on redistricting legislation, a tactic taken several times but is usually unsuccessful.
Gavin Newsom, California’s Democratic governor, unveiled his own redistricting plan on Thursday that he said would give Democrats there five more congressional seats.
Newsmax to pay $67m to Dominion to settle 2020 election defamation lawsuit
Sam Levine
The conservative outlet Newsmax has agreed to pay $67m to Dominion voting systems to settle a defamation suit over lies about voting in the 2020 election.
The settlement came as the case was headed to trial. Earlier this year, Delaware superior court judge Eric Davis ruled that Newsmax had defamed the voting technology by broadcasting false claims about its equipment after the 2020 election. A jury would have considered whether Newsmax was liable for damages. Dominion had sued the outlet for $1.6bn.
“We are pleased to have settled this matter,” Dominion said in a statement to CNN.
In a lengthy statement of its own, Newsmax was defiant, saying it chose to settle not because it was admitting wrongdoing, but because it believed Davis wouldn’t give the company a fair trial.
“Newsmax believed it was critically important for the American people to hear both sides of the election disputes that arose in 2020,” the company said in a statement. “We stand by our coverage as fair, balanced, and conducted within professional standards of journalism.”
Dominion obtained a $787.5m defamation settlement from Fox in 2023 on the eve of a defamation trial in Delaware.
Newsmax agreed to pay $40m to settle a defamation case against Smartmatic, another voting equipment company, last year. One America News, another far right outlet, also settled a defamation case with Smartmatic last year.
Fox is currently defending itself in a pending defamation suit against Smartmatic.
Trump comments to end mail-in voting are part of a strategy to ‘sow distrust’, says ACLU
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) – one of the country’s largest civil rights organisations – has issued a statement criticising the the president’s posts to social media that threaten to end mail-in voting and end the use of voting machines. They deem his attacks as “part of his strategy to sow distrust in our elections and prevent voters from holding him accountable”.
Here’s the full statement from Sophia Lin Lakin, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project:
“Mail-in voting remains a vital safeguard of our democracy. It ensures that voters with disabilities, those without transportation access, and others who rely on its flexibility and access can exercise their right to vote. President Trump’s attempts to undermine a safe, proven, and reliable method of voting — that he himself uses — along with his attacks on voting technology, are just another part of his strategy to sow distrust in our elections and prevent voters from holding him accountable. We are prepared to protect mail-in voting in court against unfounded and unconstitutional attacks, as we have in Pennsylvania, Mississippi, and other states. Access to mail-in voting is necessary to a fair and inclusive electoral process.”
Ahead of a busy afternoon at the White House, here’s a list of the European leaders arriving shortly. They’ll also take part in a larger meeting with Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
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European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen
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Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni
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French president Emmanuel Macron
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UK prime minister Keir Starmer
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German chancellor Friedrich Merz
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Finnish president Alexander Stubb
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NATO secretary general NATO Mark Rutte
DC’s mayor shows signs of pushback since federal takeover
In recent days, DC mayor Muriel Bowser has shown small but concerted signs of pushback against the Trump administration following last week’s federal takeover of the Metropolitan police department (MPD), and deployment of national guard Troops.
Over the weekend, Bowser posted on X: “American soldiers and airmen policing American citizens on American soil is #UnAmerican”.
This came just a day after the DC attorney general Brian Schwalb filed a lawsuit against the Trump White House, alleging a “hostile takeover” of the city’s police when drug enforcement administrator Terry Cole was named “emergency police commissioner”. The justice department ultimately agreed to keep DC police chief Pamela Smith in charge, after a federal judge threatened to block the order.
At a press conference on Friday, Bowser said she was “encouraged” by the administration’s decision to renege on the management of the MPD. She also described last week’s federal takeover as “unsettling and unprecedented” in a letter to residents published on social media. Bowser also characterised the administration’s actions as an “authoritarian push”, having taken a measured approach to the president’s invocation of Section 740 of the Home Rule Act.
Trump is continuing to rail against his critics on Truth Social, repeating his common refrain that the war in Ukraine would have “never happened” if he were president in 2022.
“I am doing wrong on the Russia/Ukraine MESS, that is Sleepy Joe Biden’s war, not mine,” he wrote. “Despite all of my lightweight and very jealous critics, I’ll get it done — I always do!!!”
The president has just posted on Truth Social ahead of today’s meetings with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and a key group of European leaders at the White House. In his post, he raged against the “fake news”, saying they wouldn’t credit him even if he got Russia to “surrender”.
Here’s his post in full:
I am totally convinced that if Russia raised their hands and said, ‘We give up, we concede, we surrender, we will GIVE Ukraine and the great United States of America, the most revered, respected, and powerful of all countries, EVER, Moscow and St. Petersburg, and everything surrounding them for a thousand miles, the Fake News Media and their Democrat Partners would say that this was a bad and humiliating day for Donald J. Trump, one of the worst days in the history of our Country.’ But that’s why they are the FAKE NEWS, and the badly failing Radical Left Democrats. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!
My colleague, Jakub Krupa, is covering the lead-up to these crucial meetings in detail.
Trump’s plans to target mail-in ballots and voting machines have little legal standing
Sam Levine
Donald Trump said on Monday that he will lead a movement to get rid of mail-in ballots, but as president, there’s little he can legally do to take on the practice.
The US constitution gives states the power to regulate the “The Times, Places and Manner” of federal elections. Congress can override those rules by passing federal laws. The constitution gives the president no power in setting federal elections standards and courts have already blocked a March executive order seeking to unilaterally change election practices.
Perhaps previewing a legal argument, Trump said on Truth Social on Monday “the States are merely an ‘agent’ for the Federal Government in counting and tabulating the votes.” That is not what the constitution says and is not an interpretation of the law that courts have ever endorsed.
Trump also suggested on Monday he would end the use of voting machines, but offered few details about what the alternative would be. He said he would replace them with “watermarked paper”. Several localities in the US have tried using hand counts to verify ballot totals, but have found them to be costly, take more time and less accurate than using voting tabulators. Nearly all of the ballots cast in the 2024 election were cast on paper.
Texas House to reconvene second special session today
As California plans to fight back against Texas’s efforts to redraw their maps, Democrats who left the Lone Star state to break quorum in protest have now returned home from various blue states.
In a statement, Texas House minority leader Gene Wu, who is also chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, said: “We killed the corrupt special session, withstood unprecedented surveillance and intimidation, and rallied Democrats nationwide to join this existential fight for fair representation — reshaping the entire 2026 landscape”
The Texas House is set to reconvene and attempt to achieve quorum at 12pm CT today. The state’s governor, Greg Abbott, immediately called a second special session on Friday, saying that House Democrats were “delinquent” and that he will “continue to use all necessary tools to ensure Texas delivers results for Texans”.
Meanwhile, over the weekend, a Texas judge barred former congressman Beto O’Rourke and his political organization from sending money out of the state after it fundraised for the Democratic state lawmakers who left Texas.
Washington DC restaurants suffer sharp drop in diners since Trump crackdown
Adam Gabbatt
The number of people eating at restaurants in Washington DC has plummeted since Donald Trump deployed federal troops to the city, according to data, as the president’s purported crackdown on crime continues.
Research by Open Table found that restaurant attendance was down every day last week compared with 2024, with the number of diners dipping by 31% on Wednesday, two days after Trump ordered the national guard to patrol Washington.
Trump announced the move on 11 August, claiming that Washington had been “overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs and homeless people”. His claims contradicted official statistics which show that violent crime in the capital is at a 30-year low.
Data from Open Table shows that the number of people making online reservations dropped by 16% on Monday compared with the previous year. The number fell by 27% on Tuesday and 31% on Wednesday, as military vehicles and armed troops were deployed to the city.
On Friday, Democrats introduced a joint resolution to end what they described as “egregious attacks on DC home rule”, stating that Trump was overreaching in his actions in Washington.
California legislature to consider special election and new map proposals
State lawmakers in California are set to return from recess today to get to work in considering a special election in November, and approving a new congressional map.
This is part of the overall redistricting race that California governor Gavin Newsom pushed for in order to offset Texas’s efforts to redraw their own map and pick up five more GOP house seats in the process.
Legislators have a deadline for the end of this week – 22 August – to approve these bills.
My colleague, Jakub Krupa, is bringing you the latest developments as Volodymyr Zelenskyy travels to the White House today for a meeting with the president, as well as a wider sit-down with Trump and a cadre of European leaders.
The president is set to welcome those leaders at 12pm ET at the White House, Trump will then greet Zelenskyy at 1pm ET, before holding a bilateral meeting with him at around 1:15pm ET. We can then expect a photo opportunity with all the leaders and the president at around 2:30pm ET, followed by a wider meeting at 3pm ET.
Anna Betts
As the new academic year is about to begin at most universities across the United States, many international students are navigating a mix of anxiety and uncertainty as the Trump administration’s crackdown on higher education and immigration continues.
The Guardian asked international students studying in the US to share how they are feeling as they prepare to return to campus. Some described how policy shifts have derailed their academic plans, while others said that they were now reconsidering whether the US is a place where they want to pursue their academic futures.
“Leaving the US after I receive my degree is increasingly a top priority,” said Andre Fa’aoso, a 20-year-old student from Auckland, New Zealand, who is entering his third year at Yale University.
“I have not been thinking too far into the future because I know policy settings are subject to change overnight, and I might wake up to find Yale at the center of a feud with the administration, with my right to study and remain in the US used as a pawn to leverage concessions from universities.”
While Fa’aoso is looking forward to resuming his studies, he said that his return to the US “is shadowed by a genuine nervousness about what it may be like to go through the US border in just over two weeks”.
“I am remaining optimistic that I will go through without a hitch,” he said, adding: “But a part of me has been preparing for what might happen if I get pulled into secondary screening or detained for some arbitrary reason, and I’m not alone in that thought process.”
Trump says he will sign order targeting mail-in ballots, voting machines ahead of 2026 elections
Donald Trump said on Monday he would sign an executive order ahead of next year’s midterm elections, saying he would lead “a movement” targeting mail-in balloting and voting machines across the country.
“I am going to lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, and also, while we’re at it, Highly Inaccurate, Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES,” he wrote in a social media post
The US special envoy to Lebanon said Monday that his team would discuss the long-term cessation of hostilities with Israel, after Beirut endorsed a US-backed plan for the Hezbollah militant group to disarm.
Tom Barrack, following a meeting with Lebanese president Joseph Aoun, also said Washington would seek an economic proposal for post-war reconstruction in the country, after months of shuttle diplomacy between the US and Lebanon.
Barrack is also set to meet with prime minister Nawaf Salam and speaker Nabih Berri, who often negotiates on behalf of Hezbollah with Washington.
