This undated photo from the personal collection of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was part of a group of photos released Friday by House Oversight Committee Democrats.
FRIDAY 12/12/25
Hoosier US Representative? – Wednesday night, President Trump repeated his call for the Indiana Senate to pass congressional redistricting that would potentially have netted the US House two more Republican members in the 2026 midterms. The Indiana House approved the measure, which also was supported by Gov. Mike Braun (R), last week.
“Unfortunately, Indiana Senate ‘Leader’ Rod Bray enjoys being the only person in the United States of America who is against Republicans picking up extra seats, in Indiana’s case, two of them,” Trump Truth Socialed with his usual hyperbole though with a remarkable lack of superfluous capitalization.
Thursday evening, after Trump threatened to cut federal funding -- taxpayer money -- to the state if the senate did not vote his way, Indiana’s supermajority Republican state legislature became the first to reject Trump’s effort to retain a GOP House majority. It voted 19-31 to reject the Indiana House vote, and 21 of those 31 “nay” votes were by Republicans, the Indianapolis Star reports.
Rejection of Trump’s redistricting demand spared Democratic US Reps. André Carson and Frank Muran, Punchbowl News notes. The five Republican House members Texas expects to pick up from its mid-decade redistricting measure is likely to be offset by the five Democratic members from California after the state’s voters approved its own mid-decade redistricting.
The US Supreme Court has yet to rule on a Louisiana Voting Rights Act case, Florida and Virginia will not draw new voting maps until next year, and results of redistricting in Ohio, Utah, Kansas and Missouri are uncertain, Punchbowl News reports.
“We’re heading on the current trajectory to something of a wash,” Cook Political Report Senior Editor David Wasserman told NPR’s Morning Edition.
Trump reacted saying he would support a primary challenger next year against the Republican Indiana Senate leader Rodric Bray.
“I’ve won Indiana all three times by a landslide,” Trump said (per Newsweek). “I wasn’t working on it very hard. I think it would have been nice.”
One of the other 21 Republican state senators who voted against redistricting, Spencer Deery said; “My opposition to mid-cycle gerrymandering is not in contrast to my conservative principles, my opposition is driven by them. As long as I have breath, I will use my voice to resist a federal government that attempts to bully, direct and control this state or any state. Giving the federal government more power is not conservative.”
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Garcia Released – After nearly four months of federal government detention, Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been released from prison. Judge Paula Xinis of the Federal District Court of Maryland ordered Garcia’s release Thursday, The New York Times reports, saying he was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “without lawful authority.”
The Trump administration had promised Garcia would never walk free on US soil again.
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Referendum in Ukraine? – Ukraine’s citizens would have to pass a referendum before the country gives up territory to Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says as European leaders work on a compromise to the Kremlin-friendly peace proposal from Washington, The Kyiv Independent reports. Trump administration negotiators have floated a “compromise” that would have Ukrainian troops leave the Donetsk Oblast and in which Russian forces would refrain from entering.
Zelenskyy seeks through Europe a ceasefire with stronger protections for Ukraine and says any territorial solutions to end Russia’s war must be decided by the Ukrainian people through an election or referendum. –TL
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THURSDAY 12/11/25
Follow the Oil – Attorney Gen. Pam Bondi Wednesday released a video on social media of armed, camouflaged military rappelling onto the Venezuelan oil tanker identified as the Skipper, which comes during the US Military’s largest buildup of naval ships in the Caribbean in many years.
Is regime change next? Some Trump critics believe the administration’s next move is removal of President Nicholás Maduro, who has called the tanker’s seizure “piracy,” as the political opponent from whom he stole last year’s Venezuelan election, Maria Corina Machado, collects her Nobel Peace prize (a day late) in Oslo, Norway.
It was an unnamed administration official who revealed the name of the Venezuelan oil tanker to The New York Times, which reports its data analysis of satellite imagery and photographs show the Skipper has had a history of concealing its whereabouts by falsifying location data. Vessel location transponders indicate the Skipper was anchored in the Atlantic near Guyana and Suriname, according to the NYT.
Some critics believe the Trump administration seized the tanker for its oil. But that’s small beer, veteran diplomat and Council on Foreign Relations President Emeritus Richard Haas told NPR’s Michel Martin on Morning Edition Thursday. Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves, and they aren’t being tapped much, Haas says.
Access for the US refinery industry could change that, which “puts economic interests ahead of foreign policy,” Haas says. He suspects only Russia and China among the world’s nations would welcome US primacy over the Western Hemisphere, especially Latin America, just as they seek to control Europe and Asia, respectively.
As Trump said to Colombia Wednesday, “You’re next.”
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Double-Edge Cuts – The Federal Reserve cut interest rates Wednesday by 0.25 points to 3.5% to 3.75%, as much expected, marking the third cut of 2025. There was dissent among its governing board, with Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee and Kansas City President Jeff Schmid calling for no cut and Fed Gov. Stephen Miran, a longtime Trump ally, favoring a larger cut, yahoo! finance reports.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s term ends next May and President Trump can’t wait to name his replacement.
“I’m looking for somebody that will be honest with interest rates. Our rates should be much lower,” Trump said Wednesday.
The Wall Street Journal notes that Wednesday’s Fed board split suggests that Trump is not guaranteed the president will get both a new chair and lower rates. At the WSJ’s CEO Council Summit Tuesday, Kevin Hassett, the presumed front-runner as Trump’s choice to replace Powell, said: “Suppose that inflation has gone from, say, 2.5% to 4% -- you can’t cut rates then.”
For September, the Consumer Price Index had crept back up to 3%, same as President Biden’s last month in office, after dipping into the mid-twos in mid-2025. There was no October CPI report due to the government shutdown, but November’s CPI will be reported late by the Bureau of Labor Statistics next Thursday, December 18. –Compiled and edited by Todd Lassa