Trump urges Texas Republicans to vote for Ken Paxton in runoff election
As Texas heads to the polls for the primaries, Trump reminded his supporters to vote for Attorney General Ken Paxton, amid other posts Tuesday Morning.
“Texas, Vote for Ken Paxton, our Country’s BEST Attorney General!” Trump posted.
Key events
The United States Space Force has awarded a $2.29 bn contract to Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which would see the tech billionaire’s aerospace and artificial intelligence company build a satellite communications network to connect military sensors and weapons platforms around the world.
SpaceX has previously won several military contracts for work on satellite communications. Here’s more of our previous reporting on the subject:
Vice President JD Vance held a roundtable for state attorneys general on anti-fraud initiatives Tuesday afternoon. Democratic attorneys general declined, reported the Washington Examiner, claiming it was not a good-faith effort.
About two dozen Democratic lawmakers wrote a letter to Vance, saying:
“While we would appreciate the opportunity to engage in serious discussions, the invitation was provided with less than one business day’s notice with no agenda. This short notice does not match the spirit of collaboration that has long defined our joint efforts with federal partners. Accordingly, we respectfully decline to attend at this time.”
Here's a recap of the day so far:
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Two Republican-led efforts to redraw congressional maps in Alabama and South Carolina hit setbacks. In Alabama, a federal court said the proposed map could not be used because it was drawn to intentionally discriminate against Black voters. The South Carolina Senate voted against redrawing the state’s congressional map due to political and administrative reasons.
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Trump completes annual physical after year of public attention to health issues. Trump, the oldest inaugurated president in US history, completed a physical exam on Tuesday at Walter Reed national military medical center, amid questions around his health. “Everything checked out PERFECTLY,” the US president declared in a social media post.
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Trump urges Texas Republicans to vote for Ken Paxton in runoff election. As Texas heads to the polls for the primaries, Trump reminded his supporters to vote for Attorney General Paxton, who is running against John Cornyn, the incumbent.
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Trump administration considers asking federal workers to sign NDAs. The goal of asking federal employees to sign nondisclosure agreements is to prevent them from sharing confidential information with journalists.
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Iran says US broke ceasefire with overnight strikes, with impact on peace talks unclear. Further to that, while Donald Trump continues to insist that a peace deal is close, Iran has accused the United States of violating the ceasefire after conducting what the US called “self-defense” strikes overnight.
Michael Sainato
The goal of asking federal employees to sign nondisclosure agreements is to prevent them from sharing confidential information with journalists.
The office of personnel management (OPM), the human resources office for the US government, released a draft nondisclosure agreement designed for federal agencies to use with new and existing employees. Under the draft agreement, the administration could pursue civil and criminal penalties against employees who violate it. The US government would be entitled to all “royalties” that employees receive from disclosing information that violates the agreement, according to the draft.
The OPM did not immediately offer further explanation.
The draft form is the latest step in the president’s effort to exert more control over US government workers and the flow of information to the public.
“This move is rooted in concerns that unauthorized disclosures of sensitive government information are disrupting agency operations and eroding trust across government,” an OPM spokesperson, McLaurine Pinover, said in an email to Reuters.
Former government employees would need “written permission from an authorized agency official” to speak to journalists about information the Trump administration deems “confidential” after leaving their jobs, according to the draft. Former employees who violate that rule could be subject to civil and criminal penalties.
South Carolina Senate rejects Trump's push to reshape congressional districts
The South Carolina Senate voted against redrawing the state’s congressional map in order to gain an additional Republican seat, the AP reported.
The push to redraw the map had come from Trump but senators had political concerns with the new boundaries – they didn’t think the new boundaries would guarantee Republican success.
Additionally, there were administrative concerns; with primaries only about a month away and early voting starting even sooner, new maps would mean conducting another statewide primary for US House races in August.
Trump’s push for South Carolina comes as other states are also redrawing their maps in the hope of impacting election results.
Thomas Massie, the conservative Kentucky congressman filed to run again for the US House of Representatives in 2028, less than a week after losing to Donald Trump’s handpicked challenger, Ed Gallrein, 55-45 in a bruising primary.
The US president celebrated last week as Massie – a Republican thorn in his side – became the latest to be ousted from office by his political operation. “He deserves to lose,” claimed Trump.
But Massie, who has seven months left in Congress, has made clear he plans to remain engaged.
“I filed with FEC for the 2028 House race,” he wrote on social media on Monday. “This allows me to raise funds to continue my political operations supporting my position as a current office holder and as a potential candidate for federal office. I haven’t made a final decision about which office to seek, if I run.”
Discussion has emerged about Massie’s potential as a US presidential candidate in a post-Trump political environment, despite his loss last Tuesday.
The National Redistricting Foundation applauded the federal court’s blocking of Alabama’s attempt to bring back a 2023 congressional map.
Marina Jenkins, the executive director of the Foundation, said:
“Alabama must use its 2023 court-adopted map—a map with two Black opportunity districts—in this year’s elections. Make no mistake, the fight for justice is far from over in states across the country where politicians are enacting gerrymanders on top of gerrymanders to erase equal representation for communities of color. The message from this panel is clear: courts must fulfill their independent duty to protect voters’ rights, not just rubber-stamp state officials’ efforts to use the Supreme Court’s Callais decision as an excuse to draw Black voters out of a say in our democracy.”
Trump says medical check-up went 'perfectly'
Donald Trump has said “everything checked out perfectly” following his 6-month physical examination at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. He wrote on Truth Social:
Just finished my 6 month physical at Walter Reed Military Medical Center. Everything checked out PERFECTLY. Thank you to the great Doctors and Staff! Heading back to the White House. President DJT
Last month a Washington Post/ABC News/Ipsos poll found that less than half of US adults think Trump has the mental sharpness or physical health to serve effectively.
“I think concern for the president’s physical health is probably at an all-time high, and I think advanced physical age is the No. 1 concern,” Dr Jeffrey Kuhlman, who served as a White House physician under former presidents Barack Obama, George W Bush and Bill Clinton, told the Associated Press.
Kuhlman said a complete physical would include advanced heart testing, screening for common cancers and a cognitive assessment . The White House had not disclosed what Trump’s check-ups would entail.
“President Trump is the sharpest and most accessible President in American history who is working nonstop to solve problems and deliver on his promises, and he remains in excellent health,” White House spokesperson Davis Ingle said in a statement issued to the AP ahead of the check-up.
Iran says US broke ceasefire with overnight strikes, with impact on peace talks unclear
Further to that, while Donald Trump continues to insist that a peace deal is close, Iran has accused the United States of violating the ceasefire after conducting what the US called “self-defense” strikes overnight.
Iran’s foreign ministry said US strikes in Iran’s southern Hormozgan province, where Iranian media reported sounds of explosions in the early hours of Tuesday, represented a “gross violation” of the tenuous ceasefire that has been in place for nearly seven weeks.
The US airstrikes are a sign of “bad faith and unreliability” as negotiations continue, the ministry said, as it warned: “The Islamic Republic of Iran will leave no act of aggression unanswered.”
The US military said it acted with restraint in defensively targeting missile launch sites and boats placing mines.
The development leaves progress on a peace deal murky, and we’ll bring you any updates throughout the day as we get them.
Both sides had previously indicated progress on a memorandum of understanding that could halt the war and restart shipping through the blockaded strait of Hormuz, while giving negotiators 60 days to negotiate more complex issues including Iran’s nuclear programme.
Iranian media reported that Iran’s negotiators had also been pushing for the memorandum to include the release of billions of frozen assets at talks in Qatar.
You can also follow our Middle East live blog for more coverage:
US strikes Iran as Trump faces backlash over ‘disastrous’ peace deal plan - podcast
The United States has launched fresh strikes on Iran despite suggestions that a peace deal could be within reach. Donald Trump faces growing criticism from Republicans over the proposed plan to end the war, which reportedly contained major concessions from Washington. But could an agreement still be imminent?
In today’s edition of The Latest podcast, Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour.
President Trump raised the cap on refugee admissions for the current year by 10,000, a move aimed at allowed more white South Africans into the US, a signed presidential determination seen by Reuters disclosed.
White South Africans of Afrikaner ethnicity are in dire circumstances in the majority-Black country, because of ‘incitement of racially motivated violence’ by the South African government and political parties, said the document which was dated May 21.
Trump halted refugee admissions from around the globe when he took the presidential oath in 2025, but soon launched a program that specifically brought white South Africans into the US.
The total cap on the number of white South African refugee admissions into the US for the 2026 fiscal year is now 17,500.
The Supreme Court won’t intercede in an discrimination lawsuit that Brian Flores, the Miami Dolphins head coach, filed against the NFL, the AP reported Tuesday.
The NFL had appealed to the Court, asking that the case be handled through an arbitration process instead of open court in New York.
Flores filed his lawsuit against the league and three teams in February 2022, claiming that the league is “rife with racism,” with regards to its hiring of Black coaches. At least two more Black coaches joined his lawsuit later.
Federal court blocks new Republican-friendly voting map in Alabama
Alabama cannot use a new Republican-friendly map in this year’s midterm elections because it was drawn to intentionally discriminate against Black voters, a panel of three federal judges ruled on Tuesday.
The decision blocks Alabama from using a congressional map lawmakers passed in 2023 but never went into effect because the same court found it was drawn with intent to discriminate. Alabama was eventually ordered to adopt a map with two majority-Black districts that both elected Democrats After the US supreme court gutted a major provision of the Voting Rights Act in April, Alabama took the extraordinary step of moving its imminent congressional primary and sought to use the 2023 congressional map this year.
The state is likely to appeal to the US supreme court.
But Tuesday’s ruling is significant because the judges said the supreme court’s landmark ruling on the Voting Rights Act did not permit Alabama to use the map.
“We cannot see our way clear to requiring Alabamians to cast their votes in the 2026 elections under a districting plan tainted by intentional race-based discrimination,” the court wrote in its opinion.
While the Senate race between Republican Senator John Cornyn and Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general is generating a lot of attention, especially after the President endorsed Paxton, there are several other important races in Texas today:
One race is between Representative Al Green, 78, who has served 11 terms as a Democrat and Christian Menefee, 38, who has been serving his first term as a representative since earlier this year when he won a special election.
The two sitting members of Congress are opposing each other because the recent Republican redistricting shuffled their districts.
Previously Green represented Texas’ ninth district and now he’s racing for a nomination from the 18th. Green has long been among Trump’s top critics, and was the first member of Congress to call for his impeachment, as early as 2017. He used to represent a majority African American district and has long fought for civil rights.
Menefee and Green have stood apart on their stance on crypto. While Green has opposed pro-crypto bills, in a January questionnaire, Menefee told Stand With Crypto:
“We should make sure the next generation of blockchain innovation is built in America.”
Within a month, a crypto Pac had donated more than $1.5m to his campaign – a boost of roughly 60%.
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