The Latest: Trump talks about the future of TikTok; White House to announce autism findings

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President Donald Trump says billionaires like Rupert Murdoch and Michael Dell could be part of deal in which the U.S. will take control of TikTok.

Trump discussed the deal on Fox News, highlighting the potential involvement of Murdoch and his son Lachlan. He also mentioned Oracle founder Larry Ellison’s involvement, which was previously disclosed.

The deal aims to keep TikTok operating in the U.S. amid concerns about data security and manipulation by Chinese authorities.

Congress has passed legislation for a TikTok ban, but Trump has signed orders allowing it to operate while negotiations continue. Trump credits the social media site for helping him connect with young voters.

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ABC will reinstate Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show in the wake of criticism over his comments about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, officials with the network said Monday.

“We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday,” said a statement from the network.

ABC suspended Kimmel indefinitely after comments he made about Kirk, who was killed Sept. 10, in a monologue. Kimmel said “many in MAGA land are working very hard to capitalize on the murder of Charlie Kirk” and that “the MAGA gang” was “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.”

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The White House is standing behind “border czar” Tom Homan following reports that he had accepted $50,000 from undercover agents posing as businesspeople during an undercover FBI operation last year, leading to a bribery investigation that was shut down by the Trump administration Justice Department.

MSNBC first reported Saturday that Homan had accepted the cash during a 2024 encounter with undercover agents who were posing as businesspeople seeking government contracts that Homan suggested he could help them get in a second Trump term.

Two people familiar with the investigation, who were not authorized to discuss a sensitive law enforcement inquiry by name, confirmed details of it to The Associated Press on Monday.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt characterized Homan’s encounter with the undercover agents as an effort by the Biden administration to “entrap one of the president’s top allies and supporters, someone who they knew very well would be taking a government position.”

She said the White House and Trump stand by Homan “100 % because he did absolutely nothing wrong.”

The Supreme Court said Monday it will consider expanding President Donald Trump’s power to shape independent agencies by overturning a nearly century-old decision limiting when presidents can fire board members.

The justices have allowed the Republican president to carry out some high-profile firings while lawsuits play out, signaling the conservative majority is poised to overturn or narrow a 1935 Supreme Court decision that found commissioners can only be removed for misconduct or neglect of duty.

The high court agreed to take up the case of Rebecca Slaughter, a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission who was reinstated by lower courts under a 90-year-old ruling known as Humphrey’s Executor. In that case, the court sided with another FTC commissioner who was fired by Franklin D. Roosevelt as the president worked to implement the New Deal. The justices unanimously found commissioners can be removed only for misconduct or neglect of duty.

▶ Read more about independent agencies

Leavitt said Trump “is aware” of an offer by Russian President Vladimir Putin to extend by a year an arms control treaty limiting both sides’ nuclear capabilities.

She said, “I think it sounds pretty good” but that Trump “wants to make some comments about it himself” and that she’d “let him do that” when the president speaks to reporters in the Oval Office during an unrelated announcement on autism coming up later Monday.

Leavitt said the White House had gotten a letter from Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro but would not detail its contents.

Venezuela said over the weekend that Maduro wrote to Trump, rejecting implications his government was involved in drug trafficking.

“I think there were a lot of lies that were repeated by Maduro in that letter,” Leavitt said.

She added, “We view the Maduro regime as illegitimate” and that Trump “has clearly shown that he’s willing to use any and all means necessary to stop the illegal trafficking of deadly drugs from the Venezuelan regime.”

Trump previously announced fetal U.S. strikes on alleged drug smuggling vessels associated with Venezuela, and the president said Friday that a third strike took out another vessel, without providing location details.

A federal judge on Monday rule that the Trump administration can’t continue to keep work paused on a major offshore wind farm for Rhode Island and Connecticut.

Work on the nearly completed Revolution Wind project has been stopped since Aug. 22, when the Interior Department halted the project over unspecified national security concerns.

Both the developer and the two states sued in federal courts seeking to resume the project. Danish energy company Orsted sought a preliminary injunction in U.S. District Court in Washington that would allow the project to move forward.

Judge Royce Lamberth granted it, citing likely irreparable harm to the plaintiffs.

▶ Read more about offshore wind farm

Several U.S. allies, including Canada, Australia and Britain, have announced support for a Palestinian state, putting them at odds with Trump.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt says Trump feels such recognition won’t do anything to secure release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas, nor will it end the war between Israel and Hamas.

He also believes such recognition rewards the militant group operating in Gaza.

“So he believes these decisions are just more talk and not enough action from some of our friends and allies,” Leavitt said, adding that Trump would address the issue in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is denying that President Donald Trump is attempting to weaponize the Justice Department by urging his attorney general to go after his perceived political foes.

Leavitt was asked at a White House briefing Monday about a social media post over the weekend that Trump directed at Attorney General Pam Bondi in which he demanded action on investigations related to public officials including former FBI Director James Comey, Sen. Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

His post came one day after the top federal prosecutor in charge of the Eastern District of Virginia resigned his position amid pressure to bring charges against James in a mortgage fraud investigation.

Leavitt told reporters at the White House that Trump was merely trying to demand accountability. She denied that he had weaponized the Justice Department and instead blamed his predecessor, Joe Biden, for having done that.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has met with Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa who is in New York this week as the first Syrian leader to attend the United Nations General Assembly in nearly 60 years.

Neither man spoke as they posed for photos ahead of their U.S.-hosted meeting at Rubio’s midtown Manhattan hotel.

The last time a Syrian head of state attended the General Assembly was in 1967. That was before the 50-year rule of the Assad family dynasty, which came to an end in December when then-President Bashar Assad was ousted in a lightning insurgent offensive led by al-Sharaa. Assad’s fall also brought to an end nearly 14 years of civil war.

Since then, al-Sharaa has sought to restore ties with Arab countries and the West, where officials were initially wary of his past ties with the al-Qaida militant group. The rebel group he formerly led, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, was previously designated by the United States as a terrorist group.

The State Department waived Assad-era visa restrictions on Syria for al-Sharaa and his delegation for them to participate in the general assembly’s high-level week, which kicks off on Tuesday.

Trump flies to New York City later Monday to be in place for what White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said will be a “major speech” to the world body on Tuesday on the “renewal of American strength around the world” under his leadership.

Leavitt said Trump will also hold one-on-one meetings with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and the leaders of Ukraine, Argentina and the European Union.

Trump on Tuesday will also hold a group meeting with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan.

He’ll return to Washington after hosting a reception Tuesday night with more than 100 world leaders.

The Trump administration is appealing an appellate court panel’s ruling that it cannot use an 18th century wartime law to speed deportations of people it says belong to a Venezuelan gang.

The administration appealed the 2-1 ruling from the panel on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals — one of the most conservative in the nation — to the entire circuit. In doing so, the administration opted against an immediate appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The administration argues the majority of the panel erred in second-guessing President Donald Trump’s determination that the gang constitutes an “invasion” or “predatory incursion” under the Alien Enemies Act.

Federal Communications Commission chairman Brendan Carr is denying that he threatened to revoke ABC’s local station licenses if the broadcasting company did not fire late night host Jimmy Kimmel, despite saying last week that “these companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel or there is going to be additional work for the FCC ahead.”

“Jimmy Kimmel is in the situation he’s in because of his ratings. Not because of anything that’s happened at the federal government level,” Carr said at the Concordia Annual Summit.

Carr said late night television hosts abandoned their role as “court jesters that make fun of everybody” and became “court clerks, where they were enforcing a very narrow, sort of partisan view.”

“And that’s not for me, ultimately, to judge,” Carr said. “That’s for the ratings and the audience to judge.”

Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, appeared before the Security Council for the first time Monday, making his debut after his nomination faced months of delays and procedural hurdles before he was confirmed late last week.

Waltz spoke during the emergency meeting of the U.N.’s most powerful body on the topic of Russia’s recent incursion into Estonian airspace.

“As we said, nine days ago, the United States stands by our NATO allies in the face of these airspace violations,” the former Republican congressman said.

“And I want to take this first opportunity to repeat and to emphasize the United States and our allies will defend every inch of NATO territory.”

The event, scheduled for 4 p.m., will be closely watched by scientists and advocates.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised earlier this year to determine the cause of autism by September.

The announcement alarmed experts because Kennedy has promoted discredited theories that routine childhood shots cause the developmental disability.

Speaking at a memorial for Charlie Kirk on Sunday, Trump said “I think we found an answer to autism.”

On the flight back to Washington, he suggested that children receive too many vaccines.

“It’s like you’re shooting up a horse,” he told reporters.

Trump praised Charlie Kirk as a “great American hero” and “martyr” for freedom as he and other prominent conservatives gathered Sunday evening to honor the slain conservative political activist whose work they say they must now advance.

The memorial service for Kirk, whom Trump credits with playing a pivotal role in his 2024 election victory, drew tens of thousands of mourners, including Vice President JD Vance, other senior administration officials and young conservatives shaped by the 31-year-old firebrand.

“He’s a martyr now for America’s freedom,” Trump said in his tribute. “I know I speak for everyone here today when I say that none of us will ever forget Charlie. And neither now will history.”

Kirk was assassinated at a Sept. 10 appearance on a Utah college campus.

Trump’s long-standing pledge to take on those he perceives as his political enemies has prompted debates over free speech, media censorship and political prosecutions.

From late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s ouster to Pentagon restrictions on reporters and an apparent public appeal to Attorney General Pam Bondi to pursue legal cases against his adversaries, Trump has escalated moves to consolidate power in his second administration and root out those who have spoken out against him.

In a post on social media this weekend addressed to Bondi, Trump said “nothing is being done” on investigations into some of his foes.

Ryan Routh texted his three adult children and his fiancee separately to tell them he loved them, according to cellphone records, shortly before authorities say he was spotted by a U.S. Secret Service agent, who identified Routh as the man who tried to assassinate President Donald Trump at his Florida golf course.

Later that same day, Routh called his fiancee from the Palm Beach County jail to tell her about his arrest, but she already knew. “Everybody knows, it’s been hours,” the woman can be heard saying on a recording of the call. “The whole world knows.”

Routh is r epresenting himself in federal court after being charged with trying kill Trump and is set to present his defense Monday.

Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida rested their case Friday.