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Johnson says he came ‘this close’ to ejecting Omar and Tlaib from chamber during State of the Union
The House speaker, Mike Johnson, said he came “this close” to ejecting Democratic representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from the chamber during last night’s state of the union over their verbal protests to Trump’s remarks.
Trump told Democrats during the speech that they should be ashamed for not standing, Omar yelled back that he should be ashamed and repeatedly yelled “You have killed Americans!”
Johnson told Fox’s Sean Hannity that the retorts were “shameful”.
“I came this close to stopping them. We could have probably ejected them from the floor. I thought, let their actions speak for themselves,” he said. “If they’d gone a step further, I probably would have ejected them.”
But, he said, he thought they served as a nice “contrast” to Republicans, who were standing and celebrating and chanting throughout the speech.
“I think it was good for them to be there,” he said. “I think it’s good for the American people to see the shame that they brought upon their party and upon themselves.”
Key events
House speaker calls allegations against Gonzales ‘detestable’ and says he’ll speak to him ‘hopefully today’
In comments pretty similar to what he said yesterday, the House speaker, Mike Johnson, has said that he would meet with Tony Gonzales “hopefully today” but that he would let the “due process here to play out as always”.
CNN reported Johnson as saying this morning:
The allegations are alarming and detestable, and I’ve said to him publicly and privately, he’s got to address that directly and head-on with his constituents. There’s a primary there in less than a week, these things will play out. So we’re allowing that to happen.
He had also told CBS Evening News yesterday that the allegations against Gonzales were “detestable”, but “we’re trying to sort it out”, adding that he would let the “due process here to play out as always”.
My understanding is he’s denied a lot of this, and we’re trying to sort it out … Now, it has been reported that the office of congressional conduct is investigating this, and has been for some time. And what we do here is we allow all the facts to play out.
Johnson has faced resisted growing calls from within the GOP to pressure Gonzales, of Texas, to resign over allegations that he had an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide.
Gonzales has previously denied having the affair and said he is being blackmailed, but has not addressed newly released text messages in which he appeared to ask the former staffer for intimate photos and discuss sex acts. He refused to resign yesterday after several GOP lawmakers publicly called for him to go.
The speaker had endorsed Gonzales’ bid for re-election “before any of this came up”. Gonzales faces a tough primary contest on 3 March against Brandon Herrera, a gun rights influencer who almost beat him in 2024.
Trump’s surgeon general nominee grilled over stances on vaccines and autism
Shrai Popat
Casey Means, Donald Trump’s controversial nominee for US surgeon general, is answering questions before lawmakers on the Senate committee for health, labor and pensions today. The surgeon general serves as the nation’s top doctor, responsible for disseminating the latest public health guidance.
Means, who has a medical degree but is not board-certified, and does not have an active medical license, declined to give a simple yes-or-no answer when the committee chair, Republican senator Bill Cassidy, pressed her on whether, if confirmed, she would encourage parents to vaccinate their children with routine shots such as the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. She said:
I’m supportive of vaccination. I do believe that each patient, mother, parent, needs to have a conversation with their pediatrician about any medication they’re putting in their body and their children’s bodies.
When Cassidy asked whether she would state her position more clearly if confirmed, she replied: “I’m not an individual’s doctor, and every individual needs to talk to their doctor before putting a medication in their body.”
Her comments come as measles outbreaks continue across the country, with South Carolina experiencing the worst measles outbreak in more than 30 years amid declining childhood immunization rates.
In response, Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, urged Americans to “take the vaccine, please” earlier this month. In an interview with CNN, Oz issued a rare plea from the Trump administration to insist upon inoculation.
Not all illnesses are equally dangerous and not all people are equally susceptible to those illnesses. But measles is one you should get your vaccine.
While Means insisted that anti-vaccine rhetoric “has never been a part” of her message and said she was “not here to complicate the issue on vaccines”, she repeatedly sidestepped direct questions from lawmakers about whether vaccines cause autism – a theory long discredited by the scientific community and frequently promoted by Trump’s health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.
“The reality is that we have an autism crisis that’s increasing, and this is devastating to many families, and we do not know as a medical community what causes autism,” she said, while acknowledging that there is an overwhelming body of evidence refuting claims that vaccines cause the condition. “I also think that science is never settled, and I think that the effort to look at comprehensive, cumulative exposures into what is causing autism is important.”
For her part, late last night after the speech, the Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar shared a video clip of her yelling that Trump should be ashamed of himself and said: “Donald Trump killed two of my constituents. He is a liar and should be ashamed of himself.”
Omar was referring to the two US citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, whom federal agents killed in Minneapolis during an immigration enforcement surge this year.
JD Vance called Democrats’ refusal to stand when Trump said they should stand for US citizens a “sad commentary” on the Democratic party.
Speaking to Fox News today, the vice-president said it was a “shame” that Democrats didn’t stand in what will surely serve as a moment crafted for Republicans to attack the left during the midterms.
“Something that I saw, that probably most TV viewers didn’t see, was really the cowardice, because there were a few Democrats who sort of politely clapped,” he said. “They didn’t want to stand up. I guess maybe they were worried about being primaried by the far-left fringe of their party. But they were all looking around … They were all looking around for cues from their colleagues because they didn’t have the courage to stand on their own.”
He said none of them had the “courage” to stand when the rest of their party wasn’t.
“They won’t even have the courage of their convictions,” he said. “They lean on the person to their left and their right rather than actually have some conviction. That is, unfortunately, what’s true about Democrats in Washington today.”
Chuck Schumer says Trump is ‘not protecting Americans’
The Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, said Democrats were right to remain seated when Trump called on the crowd to stand if they believed in protecting US citizens over undocumented immigrants, a line that Republicans are now using to call out Democrats.
“Bottom line is very simple, we agree we need to protect Americans. He’s not,” Schumer told CNN this morning. “By his reckless ICE agency in Minnesota, two Americans were killed. Americans are being pulled out of their cars and beaten. Americans’ houses, the doors are being knocked down without a warrant. And no other police department in America, run by Americans, has done what ICE has done.”
“So, yes, we want to protect Americans. He’s not doing it. And that’s why the American people are against what ICE is doing.”
Alas, the supreme court rulings issued today were on smaller cases. We’ll continue to watch this week and beyond for these big rulings we’re waiting on, which carry consequences for voting rights and executive power.
Supreme court announcing decisions in number of cases
We are watching for potential rulings from the US supreme court this morning.
Some of the remaining cases we’re looking out for today could be:
Johnson says he came ‘this close’ to ejecting Omar and Tlaib from chamber during State of the Union
The House speaker, Mike Johnson, said he came “this close” to ejecting Democratic representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib from the chamber during last night’s state of the union over their verbal protests to Trump’s remarks.
Trump told Democrats during the speech that they should be ashamed for not standing, Omar yelled back that he should be ashamed and repeatedly yelled “You have killed Americans!”
Johnson told Fox’s Sean Hannity that the retorts were “shameful”.
“I came this close to stopping them. We could have probably ejected them from the floor. I thought, let their actions speak for themselves,” he said. “If they’d gone a step further, I probably would have ejected them.”
But, he said, he thought they served as a nice “contrast” to Republicans, who were standing and celebrating and chanting throughout the speech.
“I think it was good for them to be there,” he said. “I think it’s good for the American people to see the shame that they brought upon their party and upon themselves.”
More journalists and media workers killed in 2025 than in previous 30 years of data collected
A new report from the Committee to Protect Journalists shows more journalists and media workers were killed in 2025 than any previous year since the committee started collecting data more than 30 years ago.
The committee found 129 members of the press killed in 2025, two-thirds of them by Israel. Of those killed by Israel in 2025, more than 60% were Palestinians reporting from Gaza, the report said.
“The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has committed more targeted killings of journalists than any other government’s military since CPJ began documentation in 1992,” the report said.
At least 104 of those counted in the report were killed in conflict, including in Ukraine, where four journalists were killed, and Sudan, where nine were killed.
The group has categorized 47 of those killings as targeted, the highest number of journalists killed deliberating for their work in the past decade. This rise in journalist deaths globally is “fueled by a persistent culture of impunity for attacks on the press,” citing few transparent investigations into these targeted killings.
The group said the rise in deaths comes alongside a near-record of journalists being jailed in 2025 as well.
“Journalists are being killed in record numbers at a time when access to information is more important than ever,” said Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of CPJ. “Attacks on the media are a leading indicator of attacks on other freedoms, and much more needs to be done to prevent these killings and punish the perpetrators. We are all at risk when journalists are killed for reporting the news.”
US diplomats ordered to work against foreign nations’ attempts to regulate how US tech companies handle data
A newly revealed diplomatic cable calls on US diplomats to work against attempts by foreign nations to regulate how US tech companies handle their citizens’ data, as “data sovereignty initiatives” gather steam in Europe over security concerns.
More from Reuters:
President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered U.S. diplomats to lobby against attempts to regulate U.S. tech companies’ handling of foreigners’ data, saying in an internal diplomatic cable seen by Reuters that such efforts could interfere with artificial intelligence-related services.
Experts say the move signals the Trump administration is reverting to a more confrontational approach as some foreign countries seek limits around how Silicon Valley firms process and store their citizens’ personal information – initiatives often described as “data sovereignty” or “data localization.“
In the State Department cable, dated February 18 and signed by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the agency said such laws would “disrupt global data flows, increase costs and cybersecurity risks, limit Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cloud services, and expand government control in ways that can undermine civil liberties and enable censorship.“
The cable said the Trump administration was pushing for “a more assertive international data policy” and that diplomats should “counter unnecessarily burdensome regulations, such as data localization mandates.”
Some countries will face 15% tariffs, says US trade representative Jamieson Greer
Some countries will see a 15% tariff, US trade representative Jamieson Greer said Monday on Fox Business Network. He didn’t give any further details on which countries could see this higher rate, which would be an increase from an across-the-board 10% tariff Trump imposed after the US supreme court ruled against some of his tariffs.
“Right now, we have the 10% tariff. It’ll go up to 15 (%) for some and then it may go higher for others, and I think it will be in line with the types of tariffs we’ve been seeing,” Greer told the network.
He also said trade officials for the US and Canada spoke on Wednesday and expected to meet soon to discuss an agreement on trade.
“They have a few ideas on how they might want to have a deal with us. We’re obviously open to that,” Greer said.
Donald Trump made history again on Tuesday evening, delivering the longest State of the Union address on record.
But while the president declared the ‘golden age of America’, many Democrats boycotted the event, telling the country Republicans are ‘making your life harder’.
The Guardian’s Jenna Amatulli talks to Rolling Stone’s Nikki McCann Ramírez about Trump’s claims, the Democrats’ rebuttal, and how the speech will land with a divided nation…
Iran’s negotiating delegation, led by foreign minister Abbas Araqchi, has left Tehran for Geneva to take part in a third round of nuclear negotiations, state media reported on Wednesday.
The United States has deployed a vast naval force near the Iranian coast ahead of possible strikes on the Islamic Republic. US president Donald Trump said last week that he was giving Tehran about 10 to 15 days to make a deal.
The talks are set to take place on Thursday in Geneva, a senior US official said on Monday, with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner slated to meet with the Iranian delegation for the negotiations.
Tom Phillips
Donald Trump has claimed authorship of the Mexican military raid that led to the killing of the country’s most wanted man, the cartel boss known as El Mencho.
The drug lord, whose real name is Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, died after a special forces operation in the Mexican state of Jalisco on Sunday which triggered an explosion of violence in at least 20 of Mexico’s 32 states.
“We’ve … taken down one of the most sinister cartel kingpins of all,” Trump boasted during his State of the Union address on Tuesday.
Mexico’s government has said the US provided “complementary intelligence” that led its troops to the cartel leader’s mountain hideout and the New York Times has reported that information about the drug trafficker’s location came from the CIA. But no US troops were directly involved in the assault and Mexico’s president has denied the operation was launched as a result of months of pressure and threats from Trump, calling such claims “almost laughable”.
However, during his speech the US president presented the killing of the leader of the Jalisco New Generation cartel as one of his numerous “wins”, claiming his administration was “restoring American security and dominance in the western hemisphere”.
“For years, large swaths of territory in our region, including large parts of Mexico, really large parts of Mexico, have been controlled by murderous drug cartels. That’s why I designated these cartels as foreign terrorist organisations and I declared illicit fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction,” Trump said.
“With our new military campaign we have stopped record amounts of drugs coming into our country and virtually stopped it completely coming in by water or sea.”
Trump also boasted of the capture of Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro – who he had spuriously labelled a ‘narco-terrorist’ – at the start of the year.
“In January, elite American warriors carried out one of the most complex spectacular feats of military competence and power in world history. No one’s seen anything like it. Foreign leaders – I won’t tell you – called me and they said, ‘Very impressive,’” Trump said, calling the operation “an absolutely colossal victory for the security of the United States”.
Plenty of medals were dished out last night during Trump’s State of the Union address before Congress, with some of the recipients including service members and an Olympic athlete. The US president also expressed his continued interest in awarding himself the Medal of Honor, “but I was informed I’m not allowed to give it to myself”.
Here are some of last night’s honourees:
Iran hits back at Trump ahead of Geneva talks
Trump’s comments on Iran have unsurprisingly provoked the ire of Tehran officials, which does not bode well for the nuclear talks scheduled for tomorrow.
The third round of indirect talks between the US and Iran will be attended by Trump’s special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, along with Iranian officials. It is set to be held in Geneva and mediated by Oman.
The talks are taking place against the backdrop of increasing US military presence in the Middle East, with Trump previously warning “bad things” would happen if Iran does not agree to a nuclear deal.
Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker, said his country remained committed to negotiations but that it was prepared to retaliate if the US threatened military action.
“If you choose the table of diplomacy – a diplomacy in which the dignity of the Iranian nation and mutual interests are respected – we will also be at that table,” he said, according to Iranian media.
“But if you decide to repeat past experiences through deception, lies, flawed analysis and false information, and launch an attack in the midst of negotiations, you will undoubtedly taste the firm blow of the Iranian nation and the country’s defensive forces.”
Earlier, Esmail Baghaei, the Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson, likened the Trump administration to Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister, for conducting a “disinformation and misinformation campaign” against Tehran.
“Whatever they’re alleging in regards to Iran’s nuclear programme, Iran’s ballistic missiles, and the number of casualties during January’s unrest is simply the repetition of ‘big lies’,” he wrote on X.
David Smith
Why the longest-ever State of the Union address was the most inconsequential
He wanted to give the king’s speech. Donald Trump entered the US House chamber on Tuesday like a medieval monarch, with Republicans lined up eager to touch his royal robes (or, in two cases, grab a selfie with him). But within moments, the illusion was shattered.
As the US president strolled by, soaking up adulation, Democratic representative Al Green of Texas held aloft a handwritten sign: “Black people aren’t apes!” – a reference to Trump recently sharing a racist video depiction of Barack and Michelle Obama.
When the first State of the Union address of Trump’s second term got under way, Republicans moved in on Green menacingly and tried to tear the sign away. But he persisted until being escorted out for the second year in a row. As he departed, there were more acrimonious exchanges with Republicans, a few of whom tried to start a chant of “USA! USA!”
It was the first but not the last time that a person of color would take a stand during the wannabe autocrat’s record 107-minute speech while others remained silent or raucously egged him on. It was a night where Trump again sought to poison US politics and divide Americans along various fault lines, none more inflammatory than race.
Key takeaways from Trump’s State of the Union speech
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During his one hour and 47 minute speech, the longest State of the Union address ever delivered, Donald Trump proclaimed a “turnaround for the ages” in his first year back in office, despite low public approval ratings and voter concerns over the state of the economy.
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A resolute Trump sought to paint over the affordability concerns at the centre of upcoming midterm elections by insisting the good times are here. “Inflation is plummeting. Incomes are rising fast. The roaring economy is roaring like never before,” he said. Many voters, however, disagree, with recent polling showing the population harbouring significant doubts about his priorities.
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The US president took aim at the Democrats, branding them as “crazy”, unelectable and anti-American. Several Democrats walked out early – Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia, posted on Bluesky that he “couldn’t sit through an hour of Trump’s lies”.
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Trump spent about three minutes talking about Iran without offering any clarity on his intentions regarding a possible attack against Tehran. He said he prefers to “solve this problem through diplomacy”, which did little to explain why he has assembled the largest US military presence in the Middle East in decades.
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The former reality TV star welcomed several guests during his speech to present numerous presidential medals to “extraordinary American patriots”. These included the men’s hockey team that just won gold medals at the Winter Olympics, and a national guard soldier who survived a fatal shooting in Washington.
We factchecked some of the claims made by Trump during his speech, click on the link below to find out more:
Opening summary
Good morning and welcome to our US politics live blog.
Iran has accused the US of spreading “big lies” about its missiles programme, after Donald Trump claimed Tehran was building weapons that could strike the US.
During his State of the Union speech last night, the US president said Iran has “already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they’re working to build missiles that will soon reach” the US.
He described Iran as “the world’s number one sponsor of terror” and claimed at least 32,000 protesters were killed during recent unrest in the country.
The Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei rejected those claims, without mentioning Trump directly.
“Whatever they’re alleging in regards to Iran’s nuclear programme, Iran’s ballistic missiles, and the number of casualties during January’s unrest, is simply the repetition of ‘big lies’,” he posted on X.
His remarks came just a day before Iran and the US are due to hold a third round of Oman-mediated nuclear talks in Geneva. Trump said he preferred to solve tensions through diplomacy but that the US has not heard Iran say “those secret words – we will never have a nuclear weapon”.
Iran has repeatedly denied seeking a nuclear weapon and maintains that uranium enrichment is a sovereign right, but evidence over the years suggests it has tested materials and components directly related to the development of nuclear weapons.
Trump did little to explain why he has amassed the largest amount of US military power in the Middle East since the invasion of Iraq in 2003. While he apparently has been weighing a military strike against Iran in recent weeks, he only spent about three minutes talking about Tehran in his near two-hour speech last night.
Read our full report on Trump’s State of the Union address here:
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