Trump threatens to double tariffs on South Korea if they do not pay for Alaska natural gas pipeline As he left the White House for a campaign rally in Alabama on Friday, Donald Trump was asked by a reporter if he had “jumped the gun” by announcing on Wednesday that South Korea had agreed to pay for a $54bn natural gas pipeline in Alaska, only for a Korean official to contradict him on Thursday, saying that Korea had only agreed to “initiate a review” of the possible investment.
“No, I didn’t jump the gun,” Trump replied. “Let’s see if they don’t want to do it. That’s okay with me. I’ll just charge them more.”
When he announced the pipeline project in an Oval Office ceremony on Wednesday, the president claimed that the Korean investment was part of a deal he struck in 2025, to lower tariffs on imports from South Korea in return for billions of dollars of investments in the US.
“They said they didn’t sign it?” Trump asked the reporter on Friday. “Tell them if they don’t sign shortly, I’m going to double it up, okay?”
As he apparently threatened to double tariffs on imports from South Korea, Trump repeated his incorrect claim that tariffs on imports are fees paid by the country that exports goods to the US. In fact, tariffs are, as the US supreme court clarified when it ruled many of Trump’s tariffs an illegal form of taxation on Americans, paid by US importers.
Key events
Closing summary This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day. Here are the latest developments:
Confronted with the fact that South Korean officials say they did not agree to invest $54bn to build a natural gas pipeline in Alaska, as Donald Trump announced they had on Wednesday, the president threatened to double tariffs on South Korean goods imported to the US unless they agree to make the investment.
Ignoring public sentiment, that his war with Iran and failure to tackle inflation has hurt the country, Trump told supporters in Alabama that his second term is “the most successful presidency in history.”
Trump regaled supporters in Alabama with a version of his rally speech that included many of his familiar boasts and grievances, a number of which were based on entirely imaginary claims previously debunked by the Guardian.
A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from constructing a border wall at Big Bend national park in Texas until a lawsuit opposing it is resolved.
Ignoring the economic anxiety of the public, Trump boasted to reporters at the White House that his new helipad is “getting all sorts of awards” and described a massive crane towering over the ballroom he is constructing as “pretty cool”.
Democratic lawmakers push to keep Trump administration from closing archives in California and Illinois Senator Adam Schiff reaffirmed his support on Friday for legislation introduced this week by Democrats that would stop the Trump administration from closing archives of government records in California and Illinois.
“The administration is threatening access to historical and irreplaceable records, including closing down one facility in California that is home to countless photos and family heirlooms,” Schiff said in a statement. “Congress must exercise its oversight power to save decades of regional and national history.”
Schiff and his California colleague Alex Padilla joined two Illinois Democrats, Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin, to introduce the National Archives Protection Act, which would ensure archival records remain accessible to the public.
One of the facilities the administration reportedly plans to close, in the San Francisco Bay area, hosts original records from the US supreme court case United States v. Wong Kim Ark, which affirmed that the constitution grants birthright citizenship to anyone born in the US.
Trump concludes remarks to supporters in Alabama claiming ‘the most successful presidency in history’ The blessed sound of YMCA has just been heard in Mobile, Alabama, signaling that Donald Trump’s rally speech is over.
In his remarks, which included a plea to supporters to “just close your eyes and pretend I’m on the ballot,” Trump mentioned various Republican candidates in passing, but mainly made the case for himself, casting his second term in office as an unalloyed triumph, marred only by “bad press”.
Donald Trump spoke to a less-than-capacity crowd at the Mitchell Center at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama on Friday. Photograph: Jessica Koscielniak/Reuters “If you want to keep America the strongest, most successful nation the world has ever seen – we are right now more respected than at any time in the history of our country, and that’s where the bad press,” Trump said, “you have to vote Republican.”
“Just think of what the Trump administration and our Republican majorities have accomplished in less than two years’ time,” he went on. “Nobody’s ever seen this before. Nobody’s ever done it. We have the most successful- it’s not two years; it’s substantially less – the most successful presidency in history.”
Late in the speech, Trump named Republican candidates and elected officials who were on hand, including senator Katie Britt, who achieved viral fame this week for the look of horror on her face as her colleague Eric Schmitt badly botched an attempt to make former special counsel Jack Smith look bad.
Video of Republican senator Katie Britt’s face during a Senate hearing on 29 September 2026, as a colleague’s conspiracy theory about former special counsel Jack Smith fell apart. Trump then singled out the far-right, anti-Muslim influencer Laura Loomer for praise.
“A great Republican strategist, a great person, a killer,” Trump said. “When she’s angry at you, it’s a very terrible situation. Laura Loomer. Thank you. Laura. She’s great.”
Loomer, an influential outside Trump adviser whose extreme views and statements led to criticism of Trump during the 2024 campaign, when she traveled with him to events, posted a photograph of herself with Trump on Air Force One earlier in the day.
Trump regales supporters in Alabama with familiar tales, some imaginary Donald Trump is regaling supporters in Alabama with a version of his rally speech that includes many of his familiar boasts and grievances, a number of which are based on entirely imaginary claims.
To take one example, Trump once again claimed that he was instantly blamed for high prices by the media after just one day in office.
“I took over and in my first news conference on January 21st … a day after that beautiful day we had in quite cold weather, the inauguration. A day later, I had a news conference and they said, ‘affordability’. I said, ‘I just got here. What do they mean?’” Trump insisted, despite the fact that he was, in fact, asked no questions about affordability at all during that news conference.
Donald Trump attends a rally, ahead of the midterm elections, at The Mitchell Center at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, Alabama on 2 October. Photograph: Jessica Koscielniak/Reuters In the first weeks of his administration, Trump repeatedly claimed that prices were dropping and then, at a cabinet meeting two months into his second term, claimed for the first time that he had been unfairly blamed for high egg prices. “When I came in, after one week, they were screaming at me about eggs. Eggs had nothing to do with me,” the president said on 24 March 2025. He has repeated the false claim that reporters blamed him for high food prices dozens of times since.
Later in the address, Trump said, as he has dozens of times since he visited Saudi Arabia in May 2025, that the Saudi king had praised him for almost instantly turning around the US economy.
“Less than two years ago, our country was dead,” Trump told supporters in Alabama on Friday night. “Remember that? I told you, the king of Saudi Arabia was talking to me. He said, you know, ‘Sir, just a short time ago, your country was dead. The whole Middle East, the whole world was laughing at you. And now you have the hottest country anywhere in the world.’”
As the Guardian has reported previously, Trump did not meet the Saudi king, who is elderly and not often seen in public, during his visit last year. Instead, he was hosted by the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. There is also no evidence that the Saudi prince made this statement to Trump, but there is video of Trump making a version of that claim to bin Salman during an address to a US-Saudi investment event in Riyadh on 13 May 2025.
“The days of economic misery under the last administration are rapidly giving way to the greatest economy in the history of the world,” Trump said before directly addressing the crown prince in the audience. “We are rocking. The United States is the hottest country, with the exception of your country, I have to say, right? … No Mohammed… You’re hotter. At least as long as I’m up here, you’re hotter. But groceries, gasoline, energy and all other prices are down with no inflation. We have no inflation.”
Two weeks after his return to the US, Trump began saying that this observation had been made not by him, but to him. “I went to Saudi Arabia,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on 28 May 2025. “The king told me, he said, ‘you got the hottest com-’ we have the hottest country in the world right now.,” Trump said. “Six months ago this country was stone cold dead. We had a dead country.”
As he repeated the story, again and again, Trump began to also attribute his own claim, that the US was “dead” under Joe Biden, to the Saudi king as well. In remarks at the Nato summit in the Hague in June 2025, Trump insisted that the Saudi king had told him: “A year ago, your country was dead. You had a deadhead running it. You had a country that was dead”.
Since then, Trump has repeated the tale dozens of times.
Donald Trump is basking in cheers from his supporters in Alabama where he started by fondly recalling his first visit to Alabama in 2015, when he spoke to 30,000 wildly enthusiastic fans at a football stadium in Mobile, including a school teacher smiling broadly while holding her infant up to Trump. An image of that moment went viral on social media, in an early indication of how deep Trump’s support might be.
As Donald Trump’s war against non-partisan reporting on his presidency continues, the White House released a supercut of him insulting CNN a dozen times since he returned to office last year, and posted it on a government YouTube channel on Friday.
The video, which shows Trump railing against the people running the news network, soon to be controlled by his supporters, also includes a clip from June of the president deriding one CNN correspondent, the former Daily Caller journalist Kaitlan Collins, because she “never smiles” while asking him questions.
A White House video of Donald Trump insulting CNN a dozen times. Senator Tommy Tuberville, an Alabama Republican, just concluded remarks at the campaign rally in Mobile Donald Trump is headlining.
Tuberville, who is running for Alabama governor against Democrat Doug Jones, urged Trump supporters to “go out and vote” in the midterms to send a message “to all the states across the country that we’re here as Alabamians, and we’re here to stay.”
“And if you want to move here, move, but don’t bring you down politics with you when you come,” Tuberville added.
Alabama added 30,000 new residents in 2025, AL.com reported, “thanks to a continued influx of new arrivals from other states.”
“You’re here for a treat tonight from a guy that again I call my friend,” the former football coach said. “Everybody’d give up on him after the first election,” Tuberville added, apparently in reference to Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.
Tuberville was one of the Republican senators Trump called during the Capitol riot on January 6 2021 to urge him to help delay the certification of Biden’s electoral college victory, according to the House select committee that investigated Trump’s effort to overturn the results of that election.
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from constructing a border wall at Big Bend national park in Texas on Friday. US District Judge Kathleen Cardone’s ruling means that the construction will have to cease until a lawsuit opposing it is resolved.
In August, crews contracted by US Customs and border protection (CBP) began bulldozing at the mouth of Big Bend National Park’s famed Santa Elena Canyon. The plan was to construct new border security infrastructure, which was dubbed the “smart wall”.
The plan was met with swift backlash from local leaders and landowners for its fast-moving plans. Construction was briefly paused in mid-August but resumed at the beginning of September.
In a statement following Judge Cardone’s ruling, Tiernan Sittenfeld, the CEO of the National Parks conservation association, said:
double quotation mark Today’s court ruling halting the destruction is a victory for Big Bend and for all of America’s national parks. While national park advocates are grateful for this halt to border construction in Big Bend, the devastating toll it has already taken on this national park must be studied and remediated. The administration must repair the damage it has done to the beautiful, fragile desert ecosystems that make Big Bend National Park one of America’s most iconic places.”
Trump personally directed spending of taxpayer funds on ads celebrating himself – report Donald Trump personally directed the use of $20m in taxpayer funds to purchase advertising time on national television to air a series of political ads that celebrate his presidency in the run-up to the midterm elections, the New York Times reported on Friday.
The campaign, which has featured four pro-Trump ads so far, has been called illegal government propaganda by critics.
“The money for the ads was freed up on Sept. 19, when the Office of Management and Budget shifted $20 million in Customs and Border Protection funds to a budget category called One Big Beautiful Bill Commemorative Events,” the Times reported, citing anonymous sources familiar with the spending.
The first pro-Trump ad, broadcast on Fox News last week, uses audio of Trump telling supporters in Las Vegas last month: “Together we will defeat communism, socialism and Marxism in America,” and a rapid-fire montage of images of Trump beneath the onscreen text: “America will never be a communist country,” as a chorus sings the words “love me”, taken from a song of that name by JMSN. In the original speech, Trump explicitly identified the enemy as “Dumocrat communists in Congress”.
The last 10 seconds of the ad included text at the bottom the screen saying: “Paid for by the US government.”
A still image from a White House-produced ad for Donald Trump. Photograph: White House The second ad was a White House produced highlight reel of Trump’s address at Mount Rushmore on the weekend of 4 July.
The third ad was a recycled 2024 Trump campaign ad showing a moody, black-and-white shot of Trump staring into the camera as the soundtrack plays the closing riff of a campaign speech he gave dozens of times in 2023 and 2024. The ad was played on giant screens during the 2024 Republican national convention before Trump’s speech accepting his party’s nomination.
The most recent ad, first broadcast this week, is a celebration of Trump’s decision to start a war with Iran, and features audio taken from the president’s 28 February declaration that the United States military had begun major combat operations there. That ad concludes with images of Iranians in New York celebrating the initial strikes the next day. It makes no mention of the fact that the war is ongoing, seven months later.
A screenshot from a Trump administration ad showing supporters of his war on Iran celebrating in New York on 1 March 2026. Photograph: White House As fears grow over US economy, Trump calls his ballroom project ‘pretty cool’ and claims his new helipad ‘is getting all sorts of awards’ Donald Trump is now flying to Alabama for a campaign rally but, before he left the White House, he took a moment, as fears grow over a US economy that added just 29,000 jobs last month, to boast about his new helipad and point to a massive crane towering over the White House ballroom he is constructing.
Donald Trump pointed to the construction site of the White House ballroom on Friday before leaving for Mobile, Alabama. Photograph: Kylie Cooper/Reuters “I hope you like what you’re seeing here,” Trump told reporters, pointing to the new helipad. “That’s getting all sorts of awards,” he said, without explaining who, exactly, was handing out awards for White House home improvement projects.
“And the best of all,” the president continued, turning to point at the ballroom construction site. “Look at that. You see the new crane? The red boom, that’s one of the biggest cranes in the world; that lifts up the steel for the roof. Pretty cool, right?”
Trump expresses sympathy for Cornell students accused of rape, ‘because they won’t get a fair shake’ from New York attorney general Letitia James Speaking to reporters as he left the White House for Alabama on Friday, Donald Trump expressed sympathy for the Cornell University students accused of gang-rape, saying “they won’t get a fair shake” from Letitia James, the state’s attorney general, who has been charged with investigating the alleged gang-rape as a special prosecutor.
Trump was asked by the Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy to comment on the appointment James by Kathy Hochul, the New York governor.
“Letitia James is a corrupt person,” Trump replied. “I feel badly for whoever she’s looking at, because they won’t get a fair shake.”
The president has harbored an intense hatred of James since she won a civil fraud lawsuit against him and his family real estate business in 2024, when a New York state judge ruled that he was liable for conspiring to commit fraud by inflating his net worth to obtain favorable loan terms.
Trump ended the brief exchange with reporters after taking that question from Doocy. Earlier this week, Trump suggested that Doocy would be a good fit for the job of defending him as his White House press secretary.
Trump threatens to double tariffs on South Korea if they do not pay for Alaska natural gas pipeline As he left the White House for a campaign rally in Alabama on Friday, Donald Trump was asked by a reporter if he had “jumped the gun” by announcing on Wednesday that South Korea had agreed to pay for a $54bn natural gas pipeline in Alaska, only for a Korean official to contradict him on Thursday, saying that Korea had only agreed to “initiate a review” of the possible investment.
“No, I didn’t jump the gun,” Trump replied. “Let’s see if they don’t want to do it. That’s okay with me. I’ll just charge them more.”
When he announced the pipeline project in an Oval Office ceremony on Wednesday, the president claimed that the Korean investment was part of a deal he struck in 2025, to lower tariffs on imports from South Korea in return for billions of dollars of investments in the US.
“They said they didn’t sign it?” Trump asked the reporter on Friday. “Tell them if they don’t sign shortly, I’m going to double it up, okay?”
As he apparently threatened to double tariffs on imports from South Korea, Trump repeated his incorrect claim that tariffs on imports are fees paid by the country that exports goods to the US. In fact, tariffs are, as the US supreme court clarified when it ruled many of Trump’s tariffs an illegal form of taxation on Americans, paid by US importers.
Kash Patel commissioned classified report to examine FBI’s alleged ‘failures’ – report FBI director Kash Patel has reportedly commissioned a classified report to examine where the agency “fell short” and to ensure “those failures are not repeated”, according to MS Now, citing unnamed current and former officials and a copy of an internal memo.
The officials told MS Now that while they don’t know the contents of the report, they expect it includes the FBI work into the Russia investigation and the more recent special counsel investigations involving the alleged mishandling of classified documents, and attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
The sources also said that by formalizing the so-called “Patel Report”, it will be more difficult to challenge long-running political arguments within the FBI.
Hakeem Jeffries has joined the chorus of Democrats using today’s job report to slam the Trump administration’s economic agenda.
“Inflation is up, job creation is down and the reckless war of choice in Iran has been a disaster,” said the House minority leader, who is hoping for his party to reclaim the majority in the lower chamber this November. “Republicans have crashed the economy.”
Here’s a recap of the day so far
New figures, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, show that the number of new jobs added in the US was weaker than expected, while unemployment saw an uptick. The US added 29,000 new jobs in September, significantly fewer than the roughly 90,000 economists forecasted. Unemployment increased slightly to 4.2% – up by 0.1 point compared with last month’s data.
Democrats quickly slammed the figures as emblematic of Donald Trump’s “failing economic agenda”. Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate banking committee, added that the president’s leadership “keeps pushing prices up”. Meanwhile, Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, noted that “American families are being squeezed on all sides by Trump’s disastrous economy”, in response to Friday’s figures.
The White House, however, projected confidence about the latest figures. Taylor Rogers, a spokesperson, highlighted the addition of “9,000 manufacturing jobs and 12,300 factory construction jobs over the month” as proof that Donald Trump’s “reindustrialization agenda is working”. She noted that “wages are up over last year” – despite the fact they have not kept up with inflation.
Also today, G7 leaders agreed to release up to 100m barrels of diesel reserves within four months, to mitigate the ongoing energy crisis as a result of the US-Israel war on Iran. On Truth Social, Trump welcomed the news after urging European allies to release their diesel reserves as fuel prices continue to rise, and he weighed an export ban. The president added that “the process will begin immediately”.
The top Republican aligned Super Pac, the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), will pause it’s multimillion-dollar ad spend in North Carolina in support of Michael Whatley, the GOP nominee for the open US Senate seat, according to multiple reports. The SLF initially announced a $71m investment in the North Carolina race back in April – noting that Whatley – the former chair of the Republican National Committee with backing from Donald Trump – was a “battle-tested leader”. Semafor first reported the news that SLF shifting its spending priority, and is now reserving a seven-figure sum for the Senate race in Kansas – which has become increasingly competitive as Trump’s approval rating hits a record low nationwide.
Ahead of Donald Trump heading to Mobile, Alabama today, it’s worth pointing out a new poll from AP-Norc which shows that a majority of Americans blame the president for their struggle with the cost of living. More than 60% of respondents say that the economy is worse off since Trump took office, and 52% of Republicans surveyed say that the president’s handling of the cost of living has been worse than expected.
Environmental groups sue Trump administration for slashing fuel economy rules A group of environmental organizations have sued the Trump administration over its recent move to slash clean-car rules that had been aimed at reducing planet-heating emissions and boosting electric vehicles.
On Monday, the administration relaxed the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (Cafe) standards that regulate how far new vehicles need to travel on a gallon of gasoline.
Donald Trump said last week that the less stringent mileage requirements would “take the waste out of building cars in America” and save families “thousands on a new, beautiful and safe car”, while boosting auto production in the US.
Trump has repeatedly pledged to end what he falsely calls an EV “mandate”, referring incorrectly to Joe Biden’s target that half of all new vehicle sales be electric by 2030. No federal policy has mandated auto companies to sell EVs.
Sean Duffy, the US transportation secretary, hailed the new initiative – called Freedom Means Affordable Cars – which the agency said would reduce the average cost of new vehicles by $1,300, and save consumers $138bn over the next five years.
The lawsuit is currently a petition to review the Department of Transportation’s move.
New polling shows that a majority of Americans blame Trump for cost of living struggle Ahead of Donald Trump heading to Mobile, Alabama today, it’s worth pointing out a new poll from AP-Norc which shows that a majority of Americans blame the president for their struggle with the cost of living.
This also comes as the latest jobs report shows tepid growth and a rise in unemployment. What’s more, wage growth has not kept up with inflation.
More than 60% of respondents say that the economy is worse off since Trump took office, and 52% of Republicans surveyed say that the president’s handling of the cost of living has been worse than expected.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) – which serves as the official campaign arm for House Democrats – moved eight districts on their map of targets this midterm cycle to “in play”.
Their list now includes, Virginia’s sixth, Washington state’s fifth, North Carolina’s 13th, Kansas’s second, Texas’s ninth, Oklahoma’s fifth, New Jersey’s second and Michigan’s first. This means the DCCC has identified 66 critical districts as competitive, in order for Democrats to reclaim control of the lower chamber.
While some forecasters expect the party to win the House, many of the competitions are neck-and-neck. The last time Democrats saw a so-called “blue wave” was in 2018 – when they flipped 41 seats.
Top Republican Super Pac pauses ad spend in North Carolina, focuses on Kansas – reports The top Republican aligned Super Pac, the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF), will pause it’s multimillion dollar ad spend in North Carolina in support of Michael Whatley, the GOP nominee for the open US Senate seat, according to multiple reports.
Democrats are hoping to flip the Tar Heel state in the upcoming midterm elections, where they need to net four seats in order to reclaim control of the Senate. Roy Cooper, North Carolina’s former governor, is the Democratic nominee and is leading Whatley in every poll, in some cases by double digits.
The SLF initially announced a $71m investment in the North Carolina race back in April – noting that Whatley – the former chair of the Republican National Committee with backing from Donald Trump – was a “battle-tested leader”. Semafor first reported the news that SLF shifting its spending priority, and is now reserving a seven-figure sum for the Senate race in Kansas – which has become increasingly competitive as Trump’s approval rating hits a record low nationwide.
While a Democrat hasn’t won a Senate seat in the Sunflower state in almost a century, the race between Republican incumbent Roger Marshall and his Democratic challenger, pastor Adam Hamilton, has become more of a concern for the GOP. The Cook Political Report, a prominent election forecaster, downgraded the competition from “leans Republican” to “likely Republican” at the end of September.