MORNING REPORT

Monday, September 28 | By Jared Gans

View Online | Sign up

Listen and Subscribe:

In today's issue:

▪ Trump’s frustration grows in Florida

▪ Senate’s last week in town

▪ Possible terrorist attack prevented

▪ The administration’s ‘magic’ words

Trump lashes out as Florida GOP candidates seek distance

President Trump fumed online over the weekend as Republicans face warning signs in Florida, going after a key ally who broke with him on immigration and brushing off the idea that another is trying to keep him at arm’s length.

Once a key battleground, the Sunshine State has increasingly shifted red since Trump’s first term. With an expected favorable midterm environment, Democrats are hoping they may be able to pick off a few House seats and even have a shot at winning statewide for the first time in years.

One of those potentially vulnerable House Republicans is Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (Fla.), who released an ad earlier this month accusing Trump of “going too far” in his immigration crackdown. She said the Hispanic voters who helped him get elected in 2024 “feel betrayed today.”

Salazar said last week that the president was “very receptive” to her warning about Hispanic voters and was a “gentleman” about it. But he seemingly changed his tune Saturday, reposting several other Truth Social users who criticized Salazar and suggested Trump shouldn’t support her anymore.

“She is nothing but a back stabber,” a post from one user read.

“Primary her in two years and see how she likes to keep criticising Trump then,” another reposted comment read.

Trump also reposted a Washington Post story detailing how Salazar is receiving backlash from some of her constituents who are frustrated with her for breaking with the president.

While few Republicans have been so strident in their breaks with Trump, Salazar is among a growing group within the president’s party seeking more distance from the White House in anticipation of a rough midterm election in November.

Salazar’s fellow Florida House Republican, Rep. Byron Donalds, who is running for governor, raised eyebrows after a few references to Trump were removed from his website.

The old layout of the website highlighted Trump’s endorsement of Donalds in a top banner, while the new one only shows his endorsement along with the ones that Donalds received from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and others.

A Donalds campaign spokesperson said the congressman is still proud to have the president’s support and is focusing on the issues that matter most to Floridians. Donalds called Trump’s agenda “common sense” shortly after the website change when questioned about it.

Trump, in another post over the weekend, accused media outlets of reporting “Another Fake Story.”

“If Florida thought the story that Byron ‘dropped’ me was true, he would lose the Election, and that would be a terrible thing because he’s going to be a fantastic Governor!” he wrote on Truth Social.

Donalds and Salazar are trying to fend off Democratic opponents who are seeking to pull off what seemed to be longshot victories.

Salazar represents a district that has been solidly Republican for years, but two elections forecasters have shifted her district’s rating from “likely Republican” to “lean Republican” in the past week.

Democrats are now eyeing a handful of potential flip opportunities in Florida, despite Republicans redrawing the state’s congressional map earlier this year to favor themselves.

Some mixed polling has also suggested the Florida gubernatorial race, in which Donalds is facing former Rep. David Jolly, a Republican-turned-Democrat, could be more competitive than originally expected.

Decision Desk HQ even shifted its rating of the race to “Toss Up” last week as some polls showed a close contest. The race has since gone back to “lean Republican.”

A recent poll showed the Senate race tied. Though a possible outlier, it stoked optimism that Democrat Angie Nixon has a shot of upsetting Sen. Ashley Moody (R-Fla.).

Flipping a statewide race in Florida may be too much for Democrats even in a good year, but a close race at the top of the ballot may help candidates further down, even in a district like Salazar’s.

In both races, the Hispanic vote may prove pivotal. Trump made notable gains with this demographic in 2024 as part of his strong victory in the state.

But as The Hill’s Julia Mueller reports for Insider, the GOP now seems to be losing ground with the key voting bloc. Sign up for Insider and read more here as Mueller explores a potentially seismic shift that complicates the party’s path in Florida, Texas and elsewhere.

▪ The Hill: Trump’s polls sink further in warning sign to GOP.

▪ The Hill: Trump faces growing Republican dissent in the heartland.

3 Things to Know Today

Trump and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei had dinner together Sunday evening at the White House in the aftermath of Amodei’s warnings about the risks posed by AI development. Trump has mostly dismissed concerns from lawmakers and industry leaders, who are pushing for more regulation.
The White House aired another taxpayer-funded ad ahead of the midterms during two NFL games Sunday, featuring Trump saying, “this is the final battle,” CNN reported. This is at least the third such ad to be released recently, leading to scrutiny from Democrats, some Republicans and a government watchdog group.
SpaceX is planning to launch the world’s most powerful rocket, known as Starship, into orbit this morning for the first time. The company plans for the rocket to make about six orbits over a nearly 10-hour period. The launch window will open at 8:15 a.m. EDT, provided no setbacks.

LEADING THE DAY

BUSINESS TIME: The Senate is expected to hold a final vote today on key bipartisan legislation creating federal oversight for college athletics as one of its last major acts before its recess ahead of the midterms.

The upper chamber will depart Washington at the end of the week for a monthlong recess. The Hill’s Sudiksha Kochi reports for Insider that Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is hoping to make the most of its remaining days.

The Protect College Sports Act, which was introduced by Cruz and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), would implement several measures concerning the NCAA and its schools and athletes. It would protect the NCAA from antitrust lawsuits, set caps on revenue sharing and allow schools to have retention funds for their star players.

The bill would also require agents to register with a state before representing student-athletes and cap their fees at 5 percent and guarantee scholarships for 10 years after eligibility, allowing athletes to complete their degrees after their playing days are over.

The legislation has received pushback from some groups, including the Congressional Black Caucus, NAACP and AFL-CIO. But the Senate comfortably moved to advance the bill earlier this month in a 74-24 vote, making it likely to pass again on the final vote Monday.

“Not everyone got everything they wanted. Frankly, I didn’t. And neither did my counterpart, ranking member Maria Cantwell. But this is what legislating means,” Cruz said in remarks defending the bill last week.

Presuming the bill does pass, it would still need to get through the House before reaching the president’s desk.

▪ The Hill Insider: Sports betting companies face image crisis this NFL season.

▪ The Hill Insider: How political tensions derailed the Clarity Act.

AIR BASE ARREST: Five men were arrested Sunday on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack on an air base in the United Kingdom used by the U.S. for some actions against Iran.

London Metropolitan Police said officers received a call at 12:45 a.m. local time related to three suspicious vehicles that seemed to be traveling toward RAF Fairford, a U.K.-owned base operated by the U.S. under a longstanding agreement. The base has been used by U.S. bombers for limited strikes against Iranian missile sites.

Officials are investigating a link between the arrests and Iran as a possibility. Iran previously indicated that it considered the base to be a legitimate target.

Trump praised law enforcement for making the arrests, calling it “fantastic.” He said the federal government had been investigating the men.

Police feared an explosion was coming and arrested the men on suspicion of violating the U.K.’s Explosives Act. Aerial footage from Sky News seemed to show a bomb disposal robot traveling between the three vehicles.

▪ BBC: U.K. foreign secretary tells Iran minister ‘hostile activity’ won’t be tolerated.

▪ The Wall Street Journal: Iran pressed to make nuclear concessions to revive talks.

THE HILL EXCLUSIVE: A pair of House Republicans are calling on the Trump administration to resume sanctions on a Russian-owned refinery in Serbia.

The Hill’s Laura Kelly reports GOP Reps. Joe Wilson (S.C.) and Keith Self (Texas) sent a letter to the Treasury Department on Friday pushing against extended sanctions relief for Serbia’s Russian-owned energy company, NIS.

The U.S. has repeatedly issues sanctions waivers for NIS since the company was blacklisted in January 2025. NIS supplies 80 percent of Serbia’s energy needs but is majority owned by the U.S.-sanctioned energy giants Gazprom Neft and Gazprom.

NIS applied for another waiver last week ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline.

“Furthermore, Serbia continues to maintain close political and economic ties with Russia and, unlike most European countries, has not imposed sanctions on Moscow following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022,” Wilson and Self said.

▪ The Hill Insider: Russia intensifies hybrid war beyond Ukraine.

▪ The Atlantic: The hidden state Russia is building inside Ukraine.

WHEN & WHERE

The president will make an announcement at 2 p.m. He will participate in a print interview at 3:30 p.m.
The House will convene at noon for a pro forma session.
The Senate will meet at 3 p.m.

ZOOM IN

THE MAGIC WORDS: The Trump administration has increasingly leaned on “national security” as a buzzword when providing its rationale for a wide range of controversial actions.

That was most recently on display last week following Trump’s ban on CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House. The president first made clear that his reasoning was because of frustration with their reporting, but he soon shifted to an argument about national security.

“Fake News people and publications that only write negatively, and who violate our National Security by writing false and defamatory stories with unknown ‘sources,’ shouldn’t be allowed access to the most important Office anywhere in the World,” he said in a Truth Social post.

Trump has also made that argument for why the White House needs a ballroom, why he needs to build a massive arch, why he must be allowed to issue a sweeping tariff plan and why National Guardsmen must be deployed domestically.

But The Hill’s Sophie Brams reports that argument may be wearing thin in the courts.

“When the administration makes outlandish claims on the whole range of public policy matters, it’s natural that courts would scrutinize its national security claims more carefully,” said Matthew Waxman, a law professor at Columbia University and former national security official during the George W. Bush administration.

The administration has seen some success in making this argument. Waxman noted that the Supreme Court tends to avoid “second-guessing” the executive branch on national security issues, giving it wide deference.

But when the argument is stretched, the administration could run into trouble, Brams reports.

▪ The Hill: Appeals court sides with Pentagon on Anthropic blacklisting.

▪ The Hill: CNN said reporters were barred from press pool on Air Force One.

ELSEWHERE

‘EVERYTHING UP FRONT’: Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the president rejected Iran’s ceasefire proposal over the weekend because Tehran asked for “everything up front.”

Waltz told CNN’s Jake Tapper during his “State of the Union” appearance Sunday that Iran wanted immediate relief from billions of dollars in sanctions. He said they also wanted snapback sanctions from the United Nations that have been in place for years to be lifted.

Trump confirmed Saturday that he turned down a ceasefire proposal, saying it “wouldn’t be acceptable.” The proposal would have reopened the Strait of Hormuz and resumed nuclear talks in exchange for the U.S. lifting its blockade of Iranian ports, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The deal would have instituted a seven-day ceasefire during an initial trust-building phase.

“They want to make a deal where they open the strait immediately because they’re losing so badly,” Trump told reporters.

Waltz said Iranian officials are “miscalculating” that Trump is taking politics into consideration.

He said on NBC News’s “Meet the Press” that Iran’s proposal was a “cynical attempt to put something on the table that they knew was unacceptable.”

The Journal reported that Trump has told aides that a renewed bombing campaign against Iran will likely happen after the midterms.

▪ NBC News: Iranian foreign minister says Iran ready for diplomacy or war.

OPINION

United in debt: America has become a nation of fake rich people, John Mac Ghlionn writes in The Hill.
The future is here: What will a Millennial-Gen Z majority mean for America? Adam Brandon writes in The Hill.

THE CLOSER

And finally … Major League Baseball has reportedly approached the Trump administration about hosting a baseball game at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

The Washington Post reported that the administration has scouted locations inside the park located in the Rocky Mountains. An MLB official told the Post that the league approached the administration following the success of other stand-alone events, such as the Field of Dreams game in Iowa.

The White House told the outlet that MLB asked if hosting a game at a national park was possible and is not being directed by the administration, nor is it a priority. Still, if it were to happen, constructing a sports facility at Grand Teton could set a new precedent for the use of vast national park land, the Post reported.