Politics

Trump on Texas redistricting: ‘We are entitled to five more seats’

Published

11 months ago

August 5, 2025

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said Republicans were “entitled to five more seats” in Texas, in one of his first public comments on the state’s new proposed congressional map.

Trump had remained quiet on the state’s redrawn map since it was introduced, despite brewing commotion over the Republican partisan gerrymander that prompted dozens of state Democratic lawmakers to flee the state in a last-ditch attempt to block the map’s passage over the weekend.

The map could net Republicans as many as five seats in the state. It has triggered an arms race across the country, with Democratic-controlled states — most notably California — pledging to gerrymander their own maps in response.

“We have an opportunity in Texas to pick up five seats. We have a really good governor, and we have good people in Texas. And I won Texas,” Trump told CNBC’s Squawk Box. “I got the highest vote in the history of Texas, as you probably know, and we are entitled to five more seats.”

Texas Republicans last week unveiled a new congressional map of the state that, if passed by the state’s legislature, would boost the party’s chances of maintaining control of the House in the 2026 midterms. It came after pressure from the Trump aides to redraw the map, along with the Department of Justice alleging that the previous map could be illegal, even as Trump makes it clear the redraw is predominantly driven by politics.

Scores of Democratic state lawmakers left the state in an attempt to stop Republicans from implementing the map by denying the legislature a quorum. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has repeatedly vowed to expel the absent Democrats from the legislature if they fail to return to the state for its ongoing special session.

Trump on Tuesday bashed the departed Democrats, some of whom fled to Illinois on Sunday, calling the situation “terrible.”

Andrew Howard contributed to this report.

Politics

Orange gush: KC mayor parties with the Dutch

Published

33 minutes ago

June 25, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas danced with Netherlands fans to their famous song “Links Rechts” ahead of the Orange Walk in Kansas City’s Power & Light District on Thursday. The Dutch supporters — along with the Scots and the Norwegians — have been some of the most exuberant in backing their team around the U.S. One local told the Kansas City Star that the experience topped a Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade.

Politics

How much longer can Donald Trump go missing from the World Cup?

Published

48 minutes ago

June 25, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Some of soccer’s biggest names have to come to play at the World Cup: Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland, Vinícius Júnior and now even Cristiano Ronaldo have left their mark on the score sheet.

But one key player who loomed over just about every step of pre-tournament preparations has been notably invisible: Donald Trump.

Pre-tournament fears that the American president would trample on the soccer jamboree have, so far, proved largely unfounded after the first two weeks of competition. Trump has yet to attend a match, and even as the U.S. team mounts its best World Cup performance in decades he has done little to claim the success as his own.

Aside from persistent complications surrounding the Iran squad’s entry and exit to the U.S. for games, and the ban on a Somali referee from entering the country before the tournament started, political incidents involving the Trump administration and soccer — or leaders of other World Cup countries, including the neighboring co-hosts with whom he often spars — have been few and far between.

No ICE arrests around matches. No heavy-handed policing like soccer fans sometimes suffer in Western Europe. No beef between Trump and Democratic leaders of cities and states where some of the tournament’s highest-profile matches have been played.

As one European-based senior sports executive told Blue Light News last year about the administration and the World Cup, “Why would they want to f—k it up?”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio attended the USMNT’s opener against Paraguay in Los Angeles, while Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — along with other senior Cabinet officials — was at the American match vs. Australia in Seattle. Though Trump himself hasn’t been to a game yet, he did send the U.S. squad a message of support at the start of the tournament.

In an interview last week with Blue Light News, Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Maura Healey said her administration had worked with the U.S. government “around transportation funding, security funding. That’s the way it should be. There should be that kind of work and coordination.”

Trump allies are on the same page as the tournament progresses serenely through the group stage, beyond continued griping about high ticket prices and transport to and from some stadiums.

“It’s been really good to see the coordination, certainly from a law enforcement perspective,” said Andrew Giuliani, head of the White House’s World Cup task force, as he praised cooperation with police and security services in blue states like New York, New Jersey and California, where the administration doesn’t “agree eye to eye with the mayors and the governors.”

“It’s fun to see moments where the country can come together as well, and I think this is one of those great moments over our 250th birthday where that can happen,” he added.

This week, FIFA chief Gianni Infantino confirmed what many have expected: Trump plans to attend the final on July 19 and help present the winner’s trophy. Can a president who loves the spotlight stay away til then?

Politics

Meloni allies fail to take over Italian soccer

Published

1 hour ago

June 25, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

The most high-profile team to miss out on the 2026 World Cup, Italy, is picking a new crop of officials to revamp its discredited soccer association — as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s allies failed in their bid to take more control over the body.

Veteran sports official Giovanni Malagò, a former president of the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) for more than a decade, overcame opposition from Italy’s right-wing government to become the new president of the Italian soccer association (FIGC) earlier this week.

Malagò’s key challenge is to mend ties with Italian Sports Minister Andrea Abodi, with whom he has clashed in the past and who publicly questioned Malagò’s soccer credentials. Until the very last minute, Meloni’s government tried to block Malagò from clinching the FIGC’s top job — but ultimately failed.

In a soccer-mad country where the sport carries outsized cultural weight, Italy’s failure to qualify for the World Cup turned into a proxy battle over governance, reforms, investment and the Meloni administration’s willingness to extend political influence into independent institutions.

Frustrated Italian soccer fans, who have seen their country miss out on qualifying for the last three World Cups, just want Malagò to pick Italy’s new head coach.

The favorites for the job are Roberto Mancini and Antonio Conte — two soccer grandees who both previously coached the Italian national team. Another soccer legend, former AC Milan captain Paolo Maldini, is being touted for a new job as a bridge between the FIGC and the players, according to Italian media.

But that’s not the only item sitting in Malagò’s in-tray.

Italy must nominate five stadiums capable of hosting matches at Euro 2032, which it will co-organize with Turkey, by an October deadline. That’s potentially problematic given that Europe’s governing body, UEFA, warned that Italy could lose its role as co-organizer unless it upgrades its dilapidated soccer infrastructure.