‘This is how we cement President Trump’s agenda’: Tennessee Republicans celebrate state’s new congressional maps – live

Donald Trump spoke on US strikes launched against Iran, saying that the US “knocked the hell out of them”.

Trump gave brief remarks to pool reporters while visiting the Reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC.

On a potential deal with Iran, Trump said that it “might not happen, but it could happen any day. I believe they want the deal more than I do.”

Trump added that ceasefire agreement is still in place, despite the strikes. “They trifled with us today. We blew them away. They trifled. I call that a trifle,” he said.

Trump spoke to reporters in front of construction workers currently renovating the Reflecting pool. The expedited project will fix leaks and add an “American flag blue” coating to the pool.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis has weighed in on the fate of ‘Alligator Alcatraz’.

After the New York Times reported early Thursday that the state’s controversial immigration detention facility could shutter soon, DeSantis appeared to confirm the news.

Speaking on Thursday after a bill signing ceremony at a Florida university, DeSantis said the center was “always designed to be temporary,” according to WTSP, a CBS affiliate in the Tampa Bay area.

“Our goal on this was for that facility to be a bridge to DHS being able to do that themselves,” he said, also lauding the facility for enabling the deportation of 22,000 individuals.

The so-called ‘Alligator Alcatraz’, whose name reflects its swampy locale, has been subject to scrutiny over allegations of poor living conditions and its expensive operational costs.

US Representative Steve Cohen serves as the lone Democrat among Tennessee’s House delegation. The new map will impact his district 9, which to date has encompassed a large swath of Memphis — a majority African-American constituency.

Cohen called the map a “racial gerrymander” and placed blame on Donald Trump.

“Trump knows he HAS To rig the game to keep his majority in November,” Cohen wrote on X. “And the TN GOP was willing to go along with it. It’s shameful. Next stop is the courts.”

State representative Gloria Johnson echoed Cohen’s remarks.

“They’re calling this a special session. I’m calling it a white power rally because it’s a power grab from white supremacists who want to take the voices away from Black voters in Shelby County,” she told WSMV-TV, NBC’s affiliate in Nashville.

Donald Trump is saying “great damage” was done to the Iranian attackers of the US destroyers in the strait of Hormuz.

He also said in a post on his Truth Social platform that the US would knock out Iran “a lot harder and a lot more violently” if it didn’t agree to a peace deal “FAST”.

The US president said the three US destroyers successfully transited out of the Hormuz strait under fire and without damage but there was “great damage” done to the Iranian attackers.

“They were completely destroyed along with numerous small boats, which are being used to take the place of their fully decapitated Navy. These boats went to the bottom of the Sea, quickly and efficiently. Missiles were shot at our Destroyers, and were easily knocked down. Likewise, drones came, and were incinerated while in the air. They dropped ever so beautifully down to the Ocean, very much like a butterfly dropping to its grave!”

Trump also said Iran was being “led by LUNATICS” and repeated his regular theme that Tehran would use a nuclear weapon if it had chance, but said “they’ll never have that opportunity”.

The latest lawsuit also argues that Republican efforts to repeal the ban on redistricting between census cycles was also invalid.

Here’s more information on the lawsuit and repeal argument from Democracy Docket’s Yunior Rivas:

Republicans repealed that prohibition this week in a special legislative session convened by Lee shortly after President Donald Trump ordered Tennessee Republicans to redraw the state’s map.

But the NAACP argues the repeal itself was unconstitutional because Lee’s proclamation calling lawmakers into special session never specifically authorized lawmakers to repeal the anti-redistricting statute.

Under the Tennessee Constitution, lawmakers in a special session may only consider issues specifically identified by the governor.

“The Proclamation does not specify the purpose of repealing Section 2-16-102,” the lawsuit states. “Thus, any actions dependent on such repeal or suspension are impermissible and should be enjoined. This case is staggeringly easy for this Court to decide.”

The challenge seeks to void the repeal, block the new congressional map and stop Tennessee from conducting elections under the newly drawn districts.

The lawsuit also targets another under-the-radar move Republicans made during the special session, suspending a one-year residency requirement for congressional candidates.

Read the full article here.

In the 16-page petition, lawyers for the NAACP Tennessee state conference argued that the state’s recent redistricting violates the Tennessee constitution, specifically Section 2-16-102.

According to counsel, the state’s constitution mandates that the district congressional districts cannot be changed between census periods, when the state is typically divided into districts.

Prior to Thursday, Tennessee’s last apportionment occurred in 2021 after the US 2020 census, court documents state. Thursday’s redistricting is what counsel alleges is a “late-decade congressional redistricting”.

Read the full lawsuit here.

The NAACP chapter in Tennessee has filed an emergency petition in court to block the state’s new congressional map, alleging the latest redrawing is illegal.

The petition, which was filed in Davidson County Chancery Court, argues that the redistricting efforts from Republican legislators is a violation of the state’s constitution, according to court documents.

In a statement on the lawsuit, NAACP general counsel Kristen Clarke said:

It is a direct attack on our democracy and our Constitution to dismantle majority-Black districts. A democracy without Black representation is not a democracy…Black communities in Tennessee have been silenced and brutalized for centuries. This is where the KKK was born and where MLK was assassinated. Black residents were faced with racial violence and legal suppression every single day. And to vote, they were met with poll taxes and literacy tests designed to keep them silent. We’re outraged that the State, rather than seeking a more just and fair system, is seeking to roll Tennessee back to a time when many of us didn’t have equal rights. We will fight this map, tooth and nail.

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers in South Carolina have started the process of extending their legislative session to redraw the state’s congressional map, an attempts to eliminate the only Democratic House district.

Democratic congressman Jim Clyburn announced the move in a series of posts to X:

Republicans in the South Carolina state legislature began the process of extending their session to allow for the redrawing of the state’s congressional map — with one goal in mind: eliminating the state’s only Democratic House district that is occupied by a Democrat.

Clyburn noted that South Carolina’s sixth district, which is also majority-Black, is in jeopardy amid redistricting attempts.

Speaking about the plans to redraw, Clyburn added in a subsequent post:

This fight is bigger than one district. It’s about whether our democracy belongs to the people, or to politicians who change the rules when they don’t like the results. We cannot let them succeed.

The official Democrat social media on X has commented on the Tennessee’s redrawing of its districting map.

The post read:

Republicans in Tennessee have officially passed a new congressional map, carving up the only majority-Black district just days after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act.

This is another shameful power grab by the GOP in their attempt to rig the midterms.

Democrats have largely decried the new map, which eliminated the only Democratic and majority-Black district in the state.

Eric H. Holder, the US attorney general from 2009 to 2015, has commented on Tennessee’s latest redistricting map:

Memphis is not just any city; it holds a central place in the national story of our quest for racial justice in this country and how, over time, we have increasingly achieved civil, voting, and economic rights for all Americans. Black citizens protested, marched and died there for the right to vote.

We are not the same country we were in years past, but what is being done to Memphis by Tennessee Republicans—at the behest of the White House—shows that the protections once afforded by Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act do indeed remain necessary to this day.

Now, Memphis is going to be connected to another dark chapter in our country’s story, one where we are entering a revised, modern-day Jim Crow, where politicians act with impunity to diminish the voting power of Black and Latino communities across the country. Republicans want us to believe that Tennessee’s newest and repressive gerrymander is justified for partisan reasons—as if that were somehow consistent with the best of American democracy. The reality is that there is no moral justification that can be made for knowingly splitting apart a historically Black community and drowning out its votes by pairing it with extremely wealthy, predominantly white suburbs hundreds of miles away. In fact, it is immoral.

Tennessee Republicans shamelessly and happily racing to diminish the voting power of Black citizens shows just how detrimental the Roberts Court’s decision to gut the Voting Rights Act is to our democracy. The Court has put in place a nefarious permission structure. This move by Tennessee will be the first of many immoral, flagrant racial gerrymanders that we will see from Republican-led states unless and until we can enact federal legislation to protect the rights of voters and to reform an out-of-control and unprincipled Supreme Court.

Make no mistake, this fight will be hard, it will be long, and there will be setbacks as well as many victories. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’ But the arc does not bend on its own. It’s now on us, again, to do the necessary work to pull that arc towards justice—together.

Republican senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee shared his endorsement of Taylor in a post on X. Resharing Taylor’s announcement that he would run for Congress in the redrawn ninth district, Hagerty said:

By sending [Taylor] to Congress, the Ninth Congressional District will have a conservative fighter who will stand up for our communities and deliver results where they matter most.

Republican senator Martha Blackburn of Tennessee also wrote several posts on X in support of Taylor:

I’ve vowed time and time again to make Tennessee America’s conservative leader. Electing [Taylor] to serve Tennessee’s Ninth Congressional District is how we get that done. I’ve had the privilege of working with Senator Taylor for many years now, and one thing has remained true: he loves Tennessee, he’s ready for the job, and he’s exactly who President Trump needs in Washington. It’s an honor to give Brent my complete and total endorsement. Let’s get this done!

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) formally pled not guilty on Thursday to charges related to allegations the organization committed fraud and conspired to money launder.

The 11-count indictment filed last month accuses the civil rights organization of committing fraud in connection to a program in which it paid informants to monitor rightwing extremist groups. The program no longer exists.

“The charges against the SPLC are provably wrong; they are based on inaccurate facts and a misapplication of law,” Bryan Fair, the organization’s interim president and CEO, said in a statement. Our informant program was successful in accomplishing its purposes: Threats and attacks were prevented, criminal activity was stopped, and information was gathered to dismantle the efforts of hate and extremist groups. There is no question that the information the SPLC shared with law enforcement saved lives.”

Legal experts have said the case against SPLC is weak. Trump and allies have nonetheless touted the case to attack the organization and raise doubts about rightwing extremism.

Republican state senator Brent Taylor announced that he would run for Congress in the re-drawn ninth district, launching a challenge against the incumbent Democrat, Steve Cohen, who has represented the district since 2007.

The newly passed congressional map now splits up Shelby county, where Memphis sits, into three districts – effectively separating a majority-Black voting bloc.

“As your Congressman, I will continue to fight every single day to ensure the liberals’ harmful, negligent policies never take root in Tennessee,” said Taylor, who has served in the state Senate since 2022. “I’ve cleaned up the streets of Memphis, and now I’m ready to clean up Washington DC.”

Tennessee’s two GOP senators, Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty immediately endorsed Taylor’s bid for national office.

There had been some tension ahead of the Trump and Lula’s meeting, particularly on the Brazilian side, as relations between the two have fluctuated since Trump began his second term.

Last year, the US president imposed an additional 40% tariff on Brazil, widely seen as an attempt to influence the trial of his former ally, the Brazilian ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, over an attempted coup.

Some had feared Trump might stage a kind of “ambush” with Lula at the White House, citing examples of his contentious meetings with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa.

But, according to reports so far, the meeting between Trump and Lula went better than expected: what had been scheduled as a brief meeting followed by a lunch ended up running for nearly three hours.

Although it was Lula’s fourth visit to the White House – during his non-consecutive third term he was received twice by George W Bush and once by Barack Obama – it was his first under Trump. The Brazilian president posted photos in which he and Trump appear smiling and shaking hands.

In response to the Tennessee General Assembly passing a new congressional map, one of the state’s two Republican senators heralded the news.

“This is how we cement President Trump’s agenda and usher in America’s Golden Age here in Tennessee, and how we become America’s conservative leader,” said Marsha Blackburn, who has served in the US Senate since 2019, is a fierce ally of the president, and is running for governor in this year’s midterm elections.

Donald Trump issued a post on Truth Social, summarizing his meeting with the Brazilian President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The summit was initially open to the press. But, after what appeared to be a three-hour delay, members of the Brazilian media left the White House.

“We discussed many topics, including Trade and, specifically, Tariffs,” Trump wrote on social media. “The meeting went very well. Our Representatives are scheduled to get together to discuss certain key elements. Additional meetings will be scheduled over the coming months, as necessary.”

Following from the House’s earlier vote, the Tennessee Senate has now passed the new congressional maps that gut the state’s lone Democratic, majority-Black district.

The new plan splits up the 9th congressional district, represented by Steve Cohen in the US Congress, into three Republican constituencies.

As my colleague, George Chidi, notes, the district had closely occupied the south-west corner of the state. Now three districts snake out from Memphis’ dense center, with two crossing the Tennessee River to reach Nashville’s suburbs 200 miles away.

“If Republican policies are so great, why are we changing the lines to rig elections?” asked Vincent Dixie, a state representative from Nashville, during debate on Thursday, pleading for Republicans to refrain. “Where is your humanity in this?”

• Donald Trump will welcome Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, to the White House on Thursday. The meeting, which appears to be running behind, will be an opportunity for the Brazilian president to meet with Trump to avert steep US tariffs ahead of an October election where Lula will face-off against the son of his imprisoned predecessor, Jair Bolsanaro.

• Following Marco Rubio’s closed-door meeting with Pope Leo XIV, the state department said that the pair discussed the “situation in the Middle East and topics of mutual interest in the Western Hemisphere”, according to a readout from spokesperson Tommy Pigott. “The meeting underscored the strong relationship between the United States and the Holy See and their shared commitment to promoting peace and human dignity,” he said.

• House lawmakers in the Tennessee General Assembly voted to pass new maps that gets rid of the a majority-Black congressional district in the state. The ninth district is also the only Democratic controlled consituency in Tennessee. The new plan splits up Shelby county – home to Memphis – into three Republican-controlled districts. The Tennessee Senate will now vote on the maps before they’re ratified.

• Susan Collins – the five-term Republican senator from Maine facing a competitive re-election race – has released her first television spot ahead of the midterms. In the ad, she highlights her seniority in the upper chamber, and notes the millions of dollars she has steered towards Maine as chair of the influential Senate appropriations committee. On Wednesday, Collins also revealed a decades-old medical condition she said affects her appearance, but not her ability to do her job.

The White House press pool notes that they have still not be called to gather at that Oval Office for the bilateral meeting with Donald Trump and Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.