Nick Adams, the social media influencer who describes himself as President Donald Trump’s “favorite author,” has a new job in the Trump administration. Adams wrote on social media on Tuesday that Trump tapped him to serve as “special presidential envoy for American tourism, exceptionalism, and values.” The new role comes after his nomination for the post of U.S. ambassador to Malaysia reportedly fell apart in recent months. The Australian-American — who gained national attention for his dogged defense of the president on X, as well as regularly describing himself as an “Alpha Male” with a well-documented love of the Hooters restaurant chain — began the role last week, according to a staff page on the State Department’s website. “I look forward to serving as America’s brand Ambassador, bringing the message of America’s excellence to the entire world,” he said in a post on X. “With America 250, the FIFA World Cup, and the Olympics coming up, the world needs to be reminded of all we have to offer. I will be a tireless spokesman for American greatness, at home and abroad.” A spokesperson for the State Department confirmed receiving a request for comment about Adams’ new role, but did not immediately provide a response. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Democrats in the U.S. are skewering President Donald Trump after he proclaimed on Saturday that he was glad former special counsel Robert Mueller had died. “Every day, this president shows his basic indecency and unfitness for office,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) wrote on X in response to Trump’s statement. The diatribe, in which Trump said he was “glad he’s dead” because he “can no longer hurt innocent people,” drew fierce condemnation from Democrats. “The cruelty is the point,” Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on X. “Trump’s goal is to distract you from rising gas prices, his aimless war, ICE abuses, and the Epstein files. Don’t give him what he wants. And may Robert Mueller, a US Marine and lifelong public servant, rest in peace.” Mueller and the president, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) wrote on X Saturday, “represent polar opposites of what a public servant should be.” “Yet the President of the United States disgustingly celebrates Mueller’s death simply because he exposed Trump’s efforts to steal the 2016 election,” Goldman said. At least one Republican also condemned Trump’s post. “It is clearly wrong and unchristian behavior,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said in a text to POLITICO when asked about Trump’s statement. “The vast majority of Americans want better.” The reactions weren’t limited to condemnation of Trump. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) called Mueller a “dedicated and honorable public servant” on X, and Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio, in a statement that offered some criticism of Mueller’s handling of the Russia investigation, said he was nonetheless “committed to the truth” as special counsel. “Bob Mueller was one of the finest directors in the history of the FBI, transforming the bureau after 9/11 and saving countless lives,” former President Barack Obama wrote on X. “But it was his relentless commitment to the rule of law and his unwavering belief in our bedrock values that made him one of the most respected public servants of our time. Michelle and I send our condolences to Bob’s family, and everyone who knew and admired him.” Former President George Bush said Mueller “led the agency effectively” in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. “Laura and I are deeply saddened by the loss of Robert Mueller. Bob dedicated his life to public service,” Bush said, later adding that he and former first lady Laura Bush “send our heartfelt sympathy to his wife of nearly 60 years, Ann, and the Mueller family.” Some Republicans aligned with Trump offered support for his blistering attack. Far-right activist Laura Loomer wrote that Trump “said what everyone is thinking” about Mueller. Meanwhile, Roger Stone, a onetime Trump adviser, posted on X that “the judgement of Robert Mueller has moved to a much higher court.” Mueller, who died on Friday night at 81 years old, served as the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation under Bush and Obama. He gained national attention for investigating the 2016 Trump campaign’s ties to Russia during the president’s first term. In 1968, Mueller joined the Marines, where he was deployed to Vietnam and received the Bronze Star for saving a fellow Marine under fire. He was later shot and awarded the Purple Heart. While the Mueller report ultimately “did not establish” criminal collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, the special counsel found that Russia attempted to interfere in the 2016 election to benefit Trump. The president has since attacked Mueller and Democrats, whom he says perpetuated a Russia collusion “hoax.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán paid his respects to the actor Chuck Norris, who died Friday at the age of 86. A day after a bruising summit of European leaders in Brussels, Orbán posted “Farewell, my friend” on social media alongside a video of the two men together. The video dates from November 2018 when Norris met Orbán in Budapest. In the clip, Orbán tells Norris he is “a street fighter basically, I’m not coming from the elite.” The Hungarian leader then takes the martial arts star to see Hungary’s anti-terrorism unit — “the toughest guys” — perform a series of suitably tough guy activities, prompting Norris to say: “I have seen training all over the world, and this is the best demonstration, the best I’ve seen.” On the same trip, Orbán told the American that “90 percent of the comments on me is negative … the liberals hate me.” “You’re like Trump,” Norris said. “A little bit more than that!” Orbán replied. Norris was a world karate champion who became a martial arts movie star in films such as “The Delta Force” as well as the TV series “Walker, Texas Ranger.” He was a high-profile Republican and endorsed Donald Trump during his 2016 election campaign, calling on “freedom-loving citizens” to “rally behind” Trump. Orbán was in Brussels Thursday and refused to budge when pressured by fellow EU leaders to change his stance on a €90 billion loan to Ukraine. “It is completely unacceptable what Hungary is doing,” European Council President António Costa said of Orbán’s position. Hungary goes to the polls for a national election on April 12. Also paying tribute to Norris was Germany’s Free Democratic Party, which tweeted: “Chuck Norris doesn’t die. The resurrection just wants to be thorough. We know what we’re talking about” — perhaps a reference to the FDP’s ailing fortunes of late (it has no seats in the German parliament after a disastrous 2025 election). Ferdinand Knapp contributed to this report.

LONDON — Senior members of Donald Trump’s presidential transition team attempted on more than one occasion to intervene in Keir Starmer’s decision in 2024 to remove Karen Pierce as ambassador and replace her with Peter Mandelson, according to a former Trump official and a serving U.K. official. Trump’s aides told Starmer’s National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell and his then-Chief of Staff Morgan McSweeney that they wanted Pierce to remain in post during a meeting in Palm Beach in early December 2024, the officials told POLITICO. Later the same month, people working on the transition placed a call to Powell and told him they were unhappy at the treatment of Pierce and that they did not like that Mandelson had been picked, according to the same former Trump official. Trump’s aides were particularly exercised that Mandelson could be made ambassador after he had made disparaging public remarks about the president in the past, according to both officials.  The details about the interaction between the two leaders’ teams have not previously been reported and underscore the disquiet within the president’s inner circle about one of Starmer’s first major foreign policy decisions on becoming prime minister — and a juncture at which his key aides could have urged Starmer to think again.  Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, was among those wary of Mandelson, according to the former U.S. official already cited and a second official still serving in the administration, with one saying she saw him as “arrogant” and rude to staff. White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said: “This is an inaccurate representation of this meeting and what was said.” Wiles had no comment. Downing Street declined to comment. Mandelson was sacked as Britain’s ambassador to Washington last September over his past friendship with the late convicted sex offender Epstein, but further revelations from documents released in the U.S. prompted a police investigation into his conduct, leading to his arrest in February.  Mandelson has not been charged, and his lawyers have said he is cooperating with the investigation. He has previously apologized “unequivocally” for his association with Epstein and “to the women and girls that suffered.” ‘COMMON KNOWLEDGE’ The serving Trump administration official, who like others in this piece was granted anonymity to speak candidly, said it was “common knowledge” that “no one was particularly favorable to him [Mandelson], really primarily because he’d been openly nasty about the president… [He had] a bad history of being openly nasty so why would he be a preferred ambassador?” It’s not clear how explicitly any concerns were relayed at the time to Starmer, who is facing renewed questions about his decision to hire Mandelson following the release of internal government documents on the vetting process.  U.K. National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell is pictured leaving Downing Street in London on Oct. 24, 2025. | Leon Neal/Getty Images The files published last week showed that Powell had misgivings about Mandelson and called the appointment process “weirdly rushed.” The former minister of the New Labour years was ultimately fired from the job in September 2025 after the true extent of his relationship with the convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein became clear, raising questions about Starmer’s judgement. It has previously been reported that Trump communicated reservations about Mandelson in a November 2024 phone call, but accounts of the conversation in Florida and subsequent call suggest Starmer received repeated U.S. representations against his pick for envoy. Then-Ambassador Pierce and senior U.K. embassy aide Senay Bulbul, both of whom were credited with building good links with MAGA figures, were also in attendance at the Palm Beach meeting. Pierce herself discussed the diplomatic matter with Mike Waltz, who briefly served as Trump’s national security adviser, but did not attempt to escalate any concerns as a result of their conversation, an email in the tranche of documents shows. McSweeney, a close ally of Mandelson, remained an advocate for the Labour veteran long after the meeting and even until the day he was fired, according to contemporary accounts. McSweeney could not be reached for comment. By January 2025, any major concerns appear to have been allayed. An email from Olly Robbins, the top civil servant at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, to Downing Street indicated that Pierce had spoken to Waltz and there was “no suggestion that Peter’s nomination was an issue” for Trump.  Starmer apologized again for the debacle last week, saying “it was me that made a mistake” in deciding that the former business secretary should become the U.K.’s top diplomat in Washington. 

WARSAW — Poland’s MAGA-aligned President Karol Nawrocki is in a war for control of the country with pro-EU Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The sharp end of the conflict concerns the European Union’s €150 billion Security Action For Europe program — an EU effort (in part negotiated by the Polish government) to provide cheap loans to finance arms purchases by member countries. Nawrocki last week vetoed a law enabling the allocation of a €44 billion loan to Poland, although the government insists it will still be able to get the cash. But SAFE is just one front in a wide-ranging tussle. Tusk and Nawrocki are sparring over everything from the EU’s social media law to the government’s efforts to restore rule of law, ambassadorial nominations, whether to swear in judges and even the EU’s Emissions Trading System. Both sides are painting the struggle in existential terms as they gear up for next year’s crucial parliamentary election. For Nawrocki and his allies in the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, the EU loan is a misguided effort that would make an independent Poland subservient to Brussels, and especially Berlin, while fraying ties with the U.S. “NO TO THE LOSS OF SOVEREIGNTY,” Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, a member of the European Parliament and one of Nawrocki’s top foreign policy advisers, wrote on X. Tusk is warning that the effort to derail the SAFE loan will inexorably lead to a Polexit — a U.K.-style Polish withdrawal from the EU. Polish MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski attends a session of the European Parliament on November 27, 2019 in Strasbourg, France. | Thierry Monasse/Getty Images “I think there is a clearly anti-European narrative promoted by the president’s camp and PiS. It’s potentially very dangerous, because we see in this rhetoric an attempt to cast the European Union as an enemy and to blame it for the challenges Poland faces,” Finance Minister Andrzej Domański told POLITICO, calling the president’s approach “extremely irresponsible and contrary to Poland’s national interest.” SUSPICIOUS LOANS SAFE is a flashpoint because Poland’s political divisions are as deep as in Donald Trump’s America. Both sides have their own media ecosystems and are engaged in a winner-takes-all conflict, with social contacts between ordinary people fraying over political differences. In the rest of the EU, SAFE was not controversial. So far 19 EU countries have signed up, and even conservative leaders like Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán are on board. While some countries have managed to rub along with power-sharing between presidents and prime ministers from different political groupings, it’s proving very difficult in Poland. A protester holds a trash bin saying “Safe.” Polish opposition groups protest outside the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, Poland, on February 21, 2026. | Marek Antoni Iwaczuk/NurPhoto via Getty Images The core promise Tusk made when he led his coalition to victory in the 2023 parliamentary election was to roll back many of the changes made during the previous eight years under PiS governments. Those governments had clashed with the EU over efforts to bring the judicial system under tighter political control and saw relations with key partners like Germany and France go sour, while top officials were accused by Tusk of misusing public funds. But Tusk’s program set him up for immediate clashes with pro-PiS President Andrzej Duda. The standoff grew even worse after Duda was replaced by the far tougher Nawrocki last year. Now Nawrocki is trying to expand the limited powers of the presidency, while Tusk is trying to hem him in. The prize is next year’s parliamentary election. POLITICO’s Poll of Polls shows Tusk’s Civic Coalition is comfortably ahead with the support of 34 percent of voters, while PiS trails at 26 percent. However, the smaller parties that make up Tusk’s coalition aren’t doing well and he’d be unlikely to form the next government. Just behind PiS are two far-right parties, the libertarian Confederation at 13 percent and the antisemitic Confederation of the Polish Crown with 8 percent. However, those parties are in deep conflict with PiS, and it’s unclear if they’d be able to form a stable coalition. That’s forcing PiS to scramble to appeal to conservative voters, making Nawrocki’s SAFE veto a key political move. A survey out this week by the Ibris organization found that 56.9 percent of those polled were opposed to Nawrocki’s SAFE veto while 33.8 percent supported it. While many voters are leery of the effort to block SAFE, the right-wing Republika television denounced the loan program with comments like: “HERR DONALD FÜR DEUTSCHLAND,” and, “A gang of traitors and Volksdeutsches is trying to saddle Poles with billions of euros in debt to Germany” — playing to anti-German stereotypes common among the Polish right. Berlin isn’t taking a SAFE loan as it can borrow more cheaply on its own. Poland’s new President Karol Nawrocki (right) and his predecessor Andrzej Duda wave as Nawrocki takes over the Presidential Palace on August 6, 2025 in Warsaw. | Sergei Gapon/AFP via Getty Images “I understand that blocking the law on realizing SAFE investments is an internal battle among the extreme right,” said Deputy Defense Minister Paweł Zalewski, adding that PiS had supported SAFE until it saw the rising danger from rival far-right parties. “It’s a battle for the anti-EU electorate. The danger is real.” PLAYING THE POLEXIT CARD Tusk is hoping to capitalize on the situation by warning of the danger of a Polexit. EU membership is still overwhelmingly popular in Poland — which has for years been one of the bloc’s best-performing economies. However, support is slowly eroding. A CBOS poll last month found that 82 percent of Poles support being in the EU, down from 92 percent in 2002; among conservative voters, only two-thirds back the bloc. Nawrocki and PiS insist they aren’t in favor of quitting the EU, just reshaping the bloc to make it more of a loose grouping of sovereign nation states. That aligns with the thinking of the U.S. administration, which strongly supports Nawrocki. “Tusk’s Polexit claim is utter nonsense and yet another attempt to scare voters for electoral gain — a campaign tactic, plain and simple,” Saryusz-Wolski told POLITICO. “PiS and the president support Poland’s membership of the EU, but with a sovereign role and on the basis of the EU Treaties — without competence creep or the usurpation of powers not granted to the EU, aimed at building a centralized European superstate in place of nation states,” Saryusz-Wolski said. But years of skepticism about the value of the EU can also build momentum to quit — as happened in the U.K. “It may be that they introduce this topic into public circulation somewhat cynically, that is, looking at it exclusively from the point of view of their own political interests, rather than because they genuinely want Polexit,” said Anna Mierzyńska, a disinformation expert. “But the consequences of doing so may be such that they will not be able to control it, and that Polexit might start defining things more broadly so that the 2027 campaign is all about whether you are for the EU or against it,” Mierzyńska added. Bartosz Brzeziński contributed to this report.

The 21st century is more likely to belong to Beijing than to Washington — at least that’s the view from four key U.S. allies. Swaths of the public in Canada, Germany, France and the U.K. have soured on the U.S., driven by President Donald Trump’s foreign policy decisions, according to recent results from The POLITICO Poll. Respondents in these countries increasingly see China as a more dependable partner than the U.S. and believe the Asian economic colossus is leading on advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence. Critically, Europeans surveyed see it as possible to reduce reliance on the U.S. but harder to reduce reliance on China — suggesting newfound entanglements that could drastically tip the balance of global power away from the West. Here are five key takeaways from the poll highlighting the pivot from the U.S. to China. The POLITICO Poll — in partnership with U.K. polling firm Public First — found that respondents in those four allied countries believe it is better to depend on China than the U.S. following Trump’s turbulent return to office. That appears to be driven by Trump’s disruption, not by a newfound stability in China: In a follow-up question, a majority of respondents in both Canada and Germany agreed that any attempts to get closer to China are because the U.S. has become harder to depend on — not because China itself has become a more reliable partner. Many respondents in France (38 percent) and the U.K. (42 percent) also shared that sentiment. Under Trump’s “America First” ethos, Washington has upended the “rules-based international order” of the past with sharp-elbowed policies that have isolated the U.S. on the global stage. This includes slow-walking aid to Ukraine, threatening NATO allies with economic punishment and withdrawing from major international institutions, including the World Health Organization and the United Nations Human Rights Council. His punitive liberation day tariffs, as well as threats to annex Greenland and make Canada “the 51st state,” have only further strained relationships with top allies. Beijing has seized the moment to cultivate better business ties with European countries looking for an alternative to high U.S. tariffs on their exports. Last October, Beijing hosted a forum aimed at shoring up mutual investments with Europe. More recently, senior Chinese officials described EU-China ties as a partnership rather than a rivalry. “The administration has assisted the Chinese narrative by acting like a bully,” Mark Lambert, former deputy assistant secretary of State for China and Taiwan in the Biden administration, told POLITICO. “Everyone still recognizes the challenges China poses — but now, Washington no longer works in partnership and is only focused on itself.” These sentiments are already being translated into action. Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney declared a “rupture” between Ottawa and Washington in January and backed that rhetoric by sealing a trade deal with Beijing that same month. The U.K. inked several high-value export deals with China not long after, while both French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz have returned from recent summits in Beijing with Chinese purchase orders for European products. Respondents across all four allied countries are broadly supportive of efforts to create some distance from the U.S. — and say they’re also more dependent on China. In Canada, 48 percent said it would be possible to reduce reliance on the U.S. and believe their government should do so. In the U.K., 42 percent said reducing reliance on the U.S. sounded good in theory, but were skeptical it could happen in practice. By contrast, fewer respondents across those countries believe it would actually be possible to reduce reliance on China — a testament to Beijing’s dominance of global supply chains. Young adults may be drawn to China as an alternative to U.S. cultural hegemony. Respondents between the ages of 18 and 24 were significantly more supportive than their older peers of building a closer relationship with China. A recent study commissioned by the Institute of European Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences — a Beijing-based think tank — suggests most young Europeans get their information about China and Chinese life through social media. Nearly 70 percent of those aged 18 to 25 said they rely on social media and other short-form video platforms for information on China. And the media they consume is likely overwhelmingly supportive of China, as TikTok, one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, was built by Chinese company ByteDance and has previously been accused of suppressing content deemed negative toward China. According to Alicja Bachulska, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, younger generations believe the U.S. has led efforts to depict China as an authoritarian regime and a threat to democracy, while simultaneously degrading its own democratic values. The trend “pushes a narrative that ‘we’ve been lied to’ about what China is,” said Bachulska, as “social sentiment among the youth turns against the U.S.” “It’s an expression of dissatisfaction with the state of U.S. politics,” she added. There’s a clear consensus among those surveyed in Europe and Canada that China is winning the global tech race — a coveted title central to Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s grand policy vision. China is leading the U.S. and other Western nations in the development of electric batteries and robotics, while Chinese designs have also become the global standard in electric vehicles and solar panels. “There has been a real vibe shift in global perception of Chinese tech and innovation dominance,” said Sarah Beran, who served as deputy chief of mission in the U.S. embassy in Beijing during the Biden administration. This digital rat race is most apparent in the fast-paced development of artificial intelligence. China has poured billions of dollars into research initiatives, poaching top tech talent from U.S. universities and funding state-backed tech firms to advance its interests in AI. The investment appears to be paying off — a plurality of respondents from Canada, Germany, France and the U.K. believe that China is more likely to develop the first superintelligent AI. But these advancements have done little to change American minds. A majority of respondents in the U.S. still see American-made tech as superior to Chinese tech, even in the realm of AI. As Washington and its allies grow more estranged, the perception of the U.S. as the dominant world power is in retreat — though most Americans don’t see it that way. About half of all respondents in Canada, Germany, France and the U.K. believe that China is rapidly becoming a more consequential superpower. This is particularly true among those who say the U.S. is no longer a positive force for the world. By contrast, 63 percent of respondents in the U.S. believe their nation will maintain its dominance in 10 years — reflecting major disparities in beliefs about global power dynamics between the U.S. and its European allies. This view of China as the world’s power center may not have been entirely organic. The U.S. has accused Beijing of pouring billions of dollars into international information manipulation efforts, including state-backed media initiatives and the deployment of tools to stifle online criticism of China and its policies. Some fear that a misplaced belief among U.S. allies in the inevitability of China surpassing the U.S. as a global superpower could be helping accelerate Beijing’s rise. “Europe is capable of defending itself against threats from China and contesting China’s vision of a more Sinocentric, authoritarian-friendly world order,” said Henrietta Levin, former National Security Council director for China in the Biden administration. “But if Europe believes this is impossible and does not try to do so, the survey results may become a self-fulfilling prophecy.” METHOLODGY The POLITICO Poll was conducted from Feb. 6 to Feb. 9, surveying 10,289 adults online, with at least 2,000 respondents each from the U.S., Canada, U.K., France and Germany. Results for each country were weighted to be representative on dimensions including age, gender and geography, and have an overall margin of sampling error of ±2 percentage points for each country. Smaller subgroups have higher margins of error.

A blue wave may already be cresting. Democrats have flipped 28 Republican-held seats in state legislatures across the country over the past 14 months, a sign that the GOP is indeed at risk of losing control of the House, and maybe even the Senate, in the midterms. Democratic wins have come even in deep red states, including Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi, and often by margins that make Republican leaders uneasy. “I’m ringing the alarm bell,” said Brendan Steinhauser, a Texas GOP consultant who has run campaigns for Republicans in the state, including Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Dan Crenshaw. The results of these state-level elections reflect the immediate concerns of the electorate, provide a launching pad for the next generation of national leaders and could influence the future makeup of Congress through redistricting. They may also give both Republicans and Democrats a preview of the midterm battles to come. For Republicans, the results are a sign that they must do more to motivate low-propensity voters who helped carry President Donald Trump back to the White House, said a senior GOP campaign operative, who was granted anonymity because he didn’t have permission from the party to speak freely about the losses. “We’re the party of low propensity voters now,” said the operative. “How do we turn out these Republican voters in a midterm election?” One of the first signs that Democrats were building momentum came in August, when an Iowa Senate district swung more than 20 points to elect Democrat Catelin Drey. It was the second seat Democrats flipped in the state last year, and the moment that broke the Republican Senate supermajority in the General Assembly. Then in November, Democrats did it again: They flipped three of the six Republican-held districts in a Mississippi special election, again breaking a GOP Senate supermajority. “You are seeing people just vote for change,” said Brian Robinson, a GOP consultant in Georgia, where Republicans lost a seat in December. Robinson, an outside adviser for the state House GOP caucus, says Republicans are blamed for high prices because they’re in charge. “If it’s any one thing, it is [the] cost of living.” Robinson said, arguing that Trump will do something to reduce prices before the midterms. In recent weeks, the president has indeed taken steps, including by touting a pledge from tech companies to reduce energy costs associated with data centers and releasing 172 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The Iran war, which has sent global oil prices skyrocketing, complicates that effort. After Democrats flipped 13 Virginia seats and five New Jersey seats in November, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee went back to reassess state races around the country. They expanded their 2026 target map to 42 chambers and invested $50 million in changing the makeup of state legislatures — the widest map and largest single-year budget DLCC has ever approved. Legislatures in Arizona and New Hampshire are now on the “flip” list, and the DLCC hopes to break or prevent GOP supermajorities in red states across the South and Midwest. Their success could give Democrats more state power over judicial nominees, protect the veto power of Democratic governors in states with GOP-led legislatures and hand Democrats greater influence over redistricting. Republicans, meanwhile, are waiting for the funding to hit. As of January, the RNC has just over $100 million and Trump’s MAGA Inc. PAC has $300 million. State Republicans say when that cash flows into midterm races, it will enable them to get low-propensity voters to vote. Turnout was a major point of discussion at an RNC conference call that Wisconsin GOP Chair Brian Schimming attended Tuesday, and he says Republicans will dedicate a lot of resources to motivate voters in November. “We’ve met with the White House more than once, and they keep track of the target states pretty closely,” said Schimming, adding he also expects Trump and Vice President JD Vance to stump in key Wisconsin congressional districts closer to the election. “They are big base motivators.” In the meantime, Democrats keep flipping state seats. The latest came Tuesday night, when Bobbi Boudman beat Republican Rep. Dale Fincher in a New Hampshire Senate seat that Trump won by 9 points. On March 24, voters will decide in a special election who represents the Florida state House seat that includes Mar-a-Lago. Democrat Emily Gregory, a small business owner who is running against Republican Jon Maples, a businessman, saw her total campaign earnings jump by nearly 75 percent between Jan. 9 and Feb. 12. In November, a national PAC connected Gregory with Drey, who flipped the Iowa seat in August. Drey advised Gregory to find the affordability issue that matters most to her district — the way energy costs resonate in New Jersey and property insurance does in Florida. “In this moment, we have all of the issues on our side. We have all of the momentum on our side,” Gregory recalled Drey telling her. “It’s just up to you as a candidate to get in front of every single voter you can and communicate that message.”

FIFA chief Gianni Infantino reported Wednesday morning that he’d met with U.S. President Donald Trump and discussed Iran’s participation in the World Cup. “President Trump reiterated that the Iranian team is, of course, welcome to compete in the tournament in the United States,” Infantino said, following the meeting.  Iran qualified for the 2026 World Cup, to be hosted this summer in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and is scheduled to play three group-stage games between Los Angeles and Seattle — but its participation has been thrown into doubt in recent weeks.  Trump, along with his Israeli allies, launched a military offensive against Iran late last month. Air strikes killed the Iranian supreme leader, but have failed to topple the regime and triggered regional drone-and-missile retaliation from Tehran. The war has also fueled a spike in oil prices, sparking concern over the global economy.  “We all need an event like the FIFA World Cup to bring people together now more than ever, and I sincerely thank the President of the United States for his support, as it shows once again that Football Unites the World,” Infantino added.  Infantino, who has been head of world football’s governing body since 2016, awarded Trump the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize in December last year.  Unveiling the honor, the governing body said it would “reward individuals who have taken exceptional and extraordinary actions for peace and by doing so have united people across the world.”

U.S. President Donald Trump told Keir Starmer that Washington doesn’t need U.K. aircraft carriers in its strikes against Iran, accusing the British prime minister of seeking to “join wars after we’ve already won.” Trump’s comments late Saturday came as the U.S. and Israel continued to launch airstrikes on Iran. His criticism also came as the HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier is being prepared to sail to the Persian Gulf, according to U.K. media reports. The British government “is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East.” Trump said in a post on social media. “That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer — But we will remember,” he said. “We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!” Trump added.

SACRAMENTO, California — In the end, Gavin Newsom named Arnold Schwarzenegger to the California Hall of Fame — though it took longer than the Arnold-verse expected. Newsom announced Schwarzenegger’s induction, along with eight others who “represent the best of the California spirit,” on Tuesday, about six months after Schwarzenegger’s name was conspicuously absent from an early list of inductees the governor previewed at a reception. To alumni of the former Republican governor’s administration who had anticipated he would be honored, last summer’s omission raised questions about whether it was influenced by Schwarzenegger’s opposition to Newsom’s redistricting gambit. Schwarzenegger, who created the Hall of Fame when he was in office, vocally opposed the effort. Voters ultimately approved Newsom’s redistricting plan in a November special election. Now months later, Newsom praised Schwarzenegger in a statement as a “singular figure in California history,” saying he embodies “the Golden State’s promise of opportunity.” “From humble beginnings, he built himself into a world champion bodybuilder, Hollywood icon, successful businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, bestselling author, and the 38th Governor of California,” Newsom said. Other notable inductees include Hollywood star and humanitarian Jamie Lee Curtis, distance swimmer and LA28 chief athletic officer Janet Evans and chef Nobuyuki Matsuhisa, who co-founded the Nobu restaurant empire.