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Trump attacks House over Iran war powers resolution

Donald Trump has said “four bad Republicans” joined forces with the Democrats to pass a “meaningless” resolution limiting his war powers.

The Republican-led US House of Representatives voted to block the president from continuing the war against Iran, reflecting growing concern among members of his party about the three-month-old conflict.

The House voted 215 to 208, as four Republicans voted with Democrats in favor of the war powers resolution, which directs Trump to withdraw US troops from Iran unless Congress declares war or authorizes the use of military force.

In his latest Truth Social outburst, Trump said:

Yesterday, in a meaningless vote, the House voted, 4 bad Republicans and all of the Dumocrats, to limit my War Powers, right in the middle of my final negotiations to end the War with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Who would do such an unpatriotic thing. They know where the negotiations stand.

The Democrats are fueled by Trump Derangement Syndrome. They would rather have our Country fail than give me another, of many, victories. The four Republicans, that’s a whole other story – They’re GRANDSTANDERS! They should be ashamed of themselves. MAGA!!! President DJT

Key events

We’re also keeping an eye on the US supreme court, which may announce decisions at 10am ET. I’ll bring you any key developments as they come.

Despite Donald Trump asserting that this will happen “very quickly”, after two months in the acting role Todd Blanche will face an uphill battle to get his nomination to be attorney general through the Senate.

Since taking over from Pam Bondi in April, he has no doubt bent over backwards to demonstrate his loyalty to the president, intensifying the drive to prosecute Trump’s perceived political foes that started under Bondi (including his securing a second indictment of former FBI director James Comey, after the first was thrown out by a judge), and signing off on the $1.8bn “anti-weaponization fund” (promptly scrapped following a mini GOP revolt) and the highly contentious provision granting Trump, his family and his businesses immunity from IRS audits.

Retiring Republican senator Thom Tillis, who sits on the Senate judiciary committee, which will make the decision on Blanche’s nomination, told Politico last month that the fund was “an embarrassment” and would “absolutely” be “in the mix” when he came to consider a new permanent attorney general.

“I want to know whose fingerprints were on it,” Tillis went on, referring to what he called “bogus” lawsuits, including against Comey. “Anything where they were in the decision loop, yeah, they got a lot of questions to answer to get my support.”

Trump to nominate Todd Blanche to be attorney general

At a private White House event last night, Donald Trump confirmed that he will move to nominate his acting attorney general and former personal lawyer, Todd Blanche, to be the nation’s top law enforcement officer today.

White House deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino posted a video of Trump announcing the nomination as he spoke in the Rose Garden.

“He’s acting attorney general,” Trump said. “Tomorrow I’m instructing Dan and everybody else that’s involved in that very complicated process, which is going to be, I think, very quickly, that we are going to make him permanent attorney general.”

Todd Blanche testifies before a House committee hearing on 2 June. Photograph: Nathan Posner/Shutterstock

Blanche assumed leadership of the justice department after Trump fired Pam Bondi in April amid tension over the department’s handling of the Epstein files and frustration that it was not moving forcefully enough against his supposed political enemies.

He has faced backlash from Republican senators over the DOJ’s now-scuttled plan to create a $1.8bn fund for victims of alleged government “weaponization”. He told lawmakers on Tuesday that the DOJ would not be moving forward with the fund, which had sparked fierce bipartisan opposition and threatened to derail a $72bn funding package for Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Blanche would need near-unanimous Republican support in the Senate, which the party controls by a narrow 53-47 margin.

Trump’s announcement comes after he said in a podcast interview broadcast yesterday that he was likely to nominate Blanche to the permanent position.

Trump baselessly alleges cheating in California elections as millions of votes still being counted

Donald Trump has claimed – without evidence – that there is cheating going on in California’s elections as the “votes are all tied up” and “may not be in for weeks”, and that the US Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles is investigating.

He wrote on his Truth Social platform:

There’s BIG cheating by the Dumocrats in California. Votes are all tied up. May not be in for weeks. Under investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles. Why the vote counting DELAY???

It isn’t clear why the president is alleging that there’s cheating going on, as he seems to be referring to the fact that the votes are still … being counted. He could also be referring to the number of mail-in votes still to be counted. We all know how he feels about that (though he himself is not above a postal vote), and Democrats tend to vote by mail in greater numbers than Republicans.

As my colleague Uwa Ede-Osifo reports this morning, the California governor’s race remains unsettled, as state election officials continue to sift through uncounted primary ballots – a process that could take days or even weeks as voters eagerly await the results.

Polls indicated that British-born conservative pundit Steve Hilton was narrowly leading the race, followed by former US human services and health secretary Xavier Becerra. Billionaire Tom Steyer trailed behind the pair. Under California’s primary system, the top two vote-getters will advance to the general election.

The question of which two will face off in November may be unanswered for weeks, according to election officials. Per state law, California counties must finish counting ballots by 15 June, but certain ballots are exempt from that deadline. For example, mail-in ballots postmarked by election day and received by 9 June are valid and can be processed beyond the deadline.

The ongoing tabulation also did not stop Trump from declaring victory for his favored candidate yesterday.

“Congratulations to Steve Hilton on coming in first, last night, in the California Vote for Governor,” he wrote in a Truth Social post. “If Californians are smart, which I know they are, they will put Steve into the Governor’s Mansion, and watch their State get better at a rate that has probably never been seen before.”

Trump attacks House over Iran war powers resolution

Donald Trump has said “four bad Republicans” joined forces with the Democrats to pass a “meaningless” resolution limiting his war powers.

In his latest Truth Social outburst, Trump said:

Yesterday, in a meaningless vote, the House voted, 4 bad Republicans and all of the Dumocrats, to limit my War Powers, right in the middle of my final negotiations to end the War with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Who would do such an unpatriotic thing. They know where the negotiations stand.

The Democrats are fueled by Trump Derangement Syndrome. They would rather have our Country fail than give me another, of many, victories. The four Republicans, that’s a whole other story – They’re GRANDSTANDERS! They should be ashamed of themselves. MAGA!!! President DJT

Heather Timmons

American consumers are angry. Nearly 80% of Americans had a service or product problem in 2025, and about two-thirds of those felt “rage” about it, according to the “National Consumer Rage” survey.

Many consumers feel they are constantly fighting against an onslaught of overcharges, customer service hassles, shoddy products and billing mistakes that always seem to go in the company’s favor. All of this comes against a background of soaring prices and rising inflation.

There’s a stew of factors at work behind the rise in consumer rage: company consolidation, regulatory rollbacks, years of court decisions that limit consumer power, tech-enabled cost cuts, private equity takeovers, Covid-era business model changes, a moribund media and the rise of AI customer service, to name a few. But there is hope, too.

In the coming weeks, the Guardian plans to examine some of the causes behind this rising epidemic of consumer frustration, the impact on Americans’ lives, the watchdogs on the beat, and potential solutions:

Michelle R Smith

Three scientific papers that raised questions about vaccine safety and were used by the Trump administration to justify controversial changes to US vaccine policies have over the last two months been removed, retracted or placed under investigation by the journals that published them.

In some cases, the actions occurred years after scientists first raised alarms about the studies’ scientific merits.

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary who has been a leader in the anti-vaccine movement for decades, relied on two of the studies that are now facing scrutiny for a 2023 book he co-wrote that argued unvaccinated children were healthier than children who had been vaccinated. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cited one of the papers when it changed its long-held position that vaccines do not cause autism, cutting against the scientific consensus. And all three papers were cited by an anti-vaccine lawyer who called for changes to the childhood immunization schedule before an influential federal vaccine advisory panel.

It was not clear why the journals have not acted until now. Scientists who previously criticized the papers said the actions are a positive step, as public health officials and physicians across the US are reporting a rise in vaccine-preventable diseases such as whooping cough and measles. They argue that the three studies have been used by the anti-vaccine movement to plant seeds of doubt with parents, eroding confidence in the safety of life-saving vaccines.

“People and organizations intent on spreading vaccine misinformation have been very savvy in their misuse of scientific terms, such as ‘gold-standard science’”, and publishing flawed studies to give their claims the appearance of credibility and confuse the public, said Dr Karina Top, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Alberta. “These papers are poor science, it appears the authors are making the data fit their hypothesis that vaccines are harmful.”

Leftwing US commentator calls decision to ban him from UK ‘Kafkaesque’

Geneva Abdul

A leftwing US political commentator has described the UK government’s decision to ban him from entering the country as “haunting and hilarious” and “Kafkaesque”.

Cenk Uygur, the founder and a host on Young Turks, a well-established progressive media outlet, was banned earlier this week from entering the UK to attend a speaking engagement alongside Hasan Piker, a Twitch streamer who has become a popular figure on the US political left.

The decision by the Home Office to cancel their electronic travel authorisations (ETA) because their presence in the UK “may not be conducive to the public good” has led to questions over government censorship of free speech, been criticised by the Green party leader, Zack Polanski, as “grim”, and described by the free speech advocates Index on Censorship as a “worrying escalation”.

When asked about the government’s decision on Thursday morning by Sky News, Uygur said: “It’s both a little bit haunting and hilarious at the same time.

“I don’t really know what I’m being charged with here,” he added. “Am I really not going to be allowed in Britain from now on? And how is someone who is almost religiously for nonviolence a threat to the public order?”

The government has not commented on the specific reasons for the ban against Uygur, who travelled to the UK in 2025. Both Uygur and his nephew, Piker, were due to appear at SXSW London and will now speak virtually at an event run by the Oxford Union Society which they were due to attend.

California governor’s race remains unresolved as vote count continues

Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.

The race to become California’s next governor in the Senate remains up in the air, with voters potentially waiting weeks until the results are known.

State election officials continue to work through the uncounted primary ballots, a process that could take days or weeks, as the polls give British-born conservative pundit Steve Hilton a narrow lead.

He is followed by former US human services and health secretary Xavier Becerra, while billionaire Tom Steyer continues to trail behind the pair. Under California’s primary system, the top two vote-getters will advance to the general election as they bid to replace incumbent Gavin Newsom.

The question of which two will face off in November may be unanswered for weeks, according to election officials. Per state law, California counties must finish counting ballots by 15 June, but certain ballots are exempt from that deadline. For example, mail-in ballots postmarked by election day and received by 9 June are valid and can be processed beyond the deadline.

An estimate of the number of remaining unprocessed ballots is expected on Thursday. Faced with a crowded slate of gubernatorial contenders, many Democratic voters held on to their mail-in ballots up until election day as they weighed which candidate had the best chance of reaching one of the top two slots.

The ongoing tabulation also did not stop Donald Trump from declaring victory for his favored candidate.

“Congratulations to Steve Hilton on coming in first, last night, in the California Vote for Governor,” he wrote in a Wednesday Truth Social post. “If Californians are smart, which I know they are, they will put Steve into the Governor’s Mansion, and watch their State get better at a rate that has probably never been seen before.”

Read the full story here:

In other developments:

A leftwing US political commentator has described the UK government’s decision to ban him from entering the country as “haunting and hilarious” and “Kafkaesque”. Cenk Uygur, the founder and a host on Young Turks, a well-established progressive media outlet, was banned earlier this week from entering the UK to attend a speaking engagement alongside Hasan Piker, a Twitch streamer who has become a popular figure on the US political left.
The US House of Representatives delivered a stunning rebuke to Donald Trump over his war on Iran on Wednesday, as representatives backed a move to force him to seek approval from Congress or withdraw US forces.
Before signing an executive order related to customs in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump took seven minutes to reassure an anxious public, beset by worries about a protracted war with Iran, surging gasoline prices and rising inflation, that progress has been made on at least one front: the resurfacing of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is nearly complete.
The president also took time to once again attack the CNN host Kaitlan Collins for not smiling in his presence and blamed her network for the suicides of four January 6 defendants.
The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, refused to say whether Trump, his family and his businesses would still get immunity from IRS audits after the administration yesterday abandoned plans for a $1.8bn fund that would have benefited the president’s allies.
Bessent did confirm that he threatened to beat up a fellow administration member, Bill Pulte, last summer.