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President Donald Trump is holding a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday, as his administration grapples with a slew of major political issues that have come to the fore since the top officials last convened less than eight weeks earlier.
The meeting comes as bipartisan scrutiny ramps up over the administration’s decision to fire multiple missile strikes on an alleged Venezuelan drug-running boat in early September.
The White House said Monday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authorized Adm. Frank Bradley to order a second strike on the boat, which reportedly killed survivors of the initial attack.
Some experts and lawmakers have said the “double-tap” strike could constitute a war crime. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, a Republican, vowed on Monday to conduct oversight on the military action. The White House maintains the strikes were legal and conducted “in self defense.”
The last Cabinet meeting was held on Oct. 9, in the middle of what became the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
The shutdown, which ended on Nov. 12 after 43 days, centered on a dispute over enhanced Affordable Care Act health-insurance subsidies, which are set to expire by the end of the year. The logjam broke after enough Democrats backed a funding deal that included a guarantee from the Senate’s GOP majority to allow a vote in December on a bill of Democrats’ choosing.
Numerous polls showed more Americans blamed Republicans for the shutdown, which overlapped with a string of blowout victories for Democrats in key elections in early November. The sweeping GOP rout set off alarm bells within Trump’s party, which hopes to keep its slim congressional majorities after next year’s midterms.
The shifting dynamics have drawn focus to Tuesday’s special election for a congressional seat in a deep-red Tennessee district, which appears to have grown competitive despite backing Trump by 22 points in 2024.
Days after the partisan shutdown fight ended, Congress surprisingly came together to back a bill ordering the Department of Justice to release its files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump, a former friend of Epstein’s who had fumed about the growing push to disclose the government’s records on the deceased financier, ultimately told Republicans to vote for the bill. He signed it Nov. 19, starting a 30-day timer for Attorney General Pam Bondi to publicly release unclassified files relating to Epstein and his convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s apparent openness to a U.S.-brokered peace plan with Russia is raising hope that an end to the yearslong land war in Europe could be coming into view.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner were seen on Tuesday morning in Moscow, where they were expected to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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