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Congressional Democrats are expanding their probe of whether donors were promised special access or other favors in exchange for gifts to President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom and other projects.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts) and Richard Blumenthal (Connecticut) and Rep. Robert Garcia (California) on Tuesday asked Meredith O’Rourke, a longtime Trump ally who has helped raise money for his top projects, to explain whom she solicited for donations, what she told those potential donors and whether their gifts affected their access to Trump.
“The fundraising operation that President Trump reportedly directs with your assistance reeks of potential corruption and the potential for quid pro quo politics,” the Democrats wrote to O’Rourke.
The Washington Post previously obtained and published a list of all major donors to Trump’s ballroom, including contributors who have benefited from regulatory decisions, government contracts and, in one case, a pardon for a family member.
Democrats’ letter to O’Rourke, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, is the latest indicator of how they plan to investigate Trump and his allies after they take control of Congress in January and gain the power to issue subpoenas. Democrats have previously asked O’Rourke to share information about her fundraising operation, but they said this week she did not respond to their questions.
O’Rourke, who worked for Trump during his 2024 presidential campaign, has been a top fundraiser for many of Trump’s planned projects, including his ballroom, triumphal arch, a massive statuary garden and renovations to East Potomac Golf Links. Trump has sought to rush the projects by obtaining private funding rather than seeking money from Congress.
Asked about Democrats’ inquiries, O’Rourke referred questions to a spokesperson, who shared a statement.
“President Trump is the most successful fundraiser in political history, and he is deeply grateful to his donors, but one thing has never changed: He can’t be bought,” O’Rourke’s spokesperson said. “The Democrats’ accusations are absurd, baseless and full of hypocrisy.”
Donald Trump Jr. is leaving his role as an adviser to the prediction market platform Kalshi, the company announced Thursday, citing his investment firm’s increased stake in its competitor, Polymarket.
“We have mutually agreed to end Don’s advisory role after his firm’s significant investment in a competitor this past summer. We are grateful for his contributions in helping us market Kalshi to more customers,” a Kalshi spokesman said in a statement.
Trump Jr.’s investment firm 1789 Capital backed Polymarket in August 2025, and he joined its advisory board. A year later, 1789 invested again, prompting Kalshi to open the talks that led to his exit, Kalshi representatives said.
The departure comes as Democrats are expected to increase oversight of prediction market companies, and raise questions about who can regulate these growing exchanges and how they police unusual trading patterns and possible insider trading.
Kalshi named Trump Jr. as an adviser days before his father’s January 2025 inauguration and quoted the younger Trump as saying the campaign knew it had won in 2024 by watching the prediction market.
SAN FRANCISCO — Advanced Micro Devices, the primary competitor to Nvidia when it comes to designing chips for the artificial intelligence industry, has seen its shares rise more than 30 percent in recent days as investors bet that it would benefit from the struggles of now-ousted Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
The two companies are linked by more than business: AMD CEO Lisa Su is a first cousin of Jensen Huang. Both were born in Taiwan before each of them separately moved to the United States as children and later became chip engineers.
AMD and Nvidia emerged in the 1990s as the two dominant makers of graphics processing units, or GPUs, specialized chips for computer games. Huang worked at AMD for a time before co-founding Nvidia in 1993. Su joined AMD in 2012 and become CEO in 2014, after previously working at IBM and other companies.
Nvidia was quicker to realize the potential for GPUs to power AI models by tapping into the AI boom and becoming the world’s first $4 trillion company.
Huang resigned Thursday morning, four days after admitting to being unfaithful to his wife amid reports that he had a relationship with a technology executive at an Nvidia customer whom the U.S. government suspected of being a Chinese spy.
A spokesperson for Nvidia did not respond to a request for comment.
The Department of Health and Human Services will invest millions to research and develop psychedelic drugs as mental health treatments, a growing interest for the Trump administration, officials announced Wednesday.
The department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, which funds high-risk, high-reward research projects, will invest up to $4.9 million in ibogaine, a psychedelic that has been touted for its potential to treat military veterans with traumatic brain injuries.
The funding will support the development of an ibogaine-based product to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, and future awards are expected that will focus on treating substance use disorders.
The drug is illegal in the United States, but President Donald Trump hailed it in April in an Oval Office announcement, where he ordered efforts to boost federal research on psychedelics.
The National Institute of Mental Health also is offering $20 million to support the research of rapid-acting psychotropic interventional drugs including ketamine, esketamine, psilocybin and “other emerging treatments for serious mental illnesses,” according to HHS.
Activists have pushed to loosen rules around researching psychedelic drugs as they’ve drawn interest for their potential to treat mental health issues, particularly among veterans.
“Veterans have told us ibogaine changed their lives,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy said in a statement. “Their experiences demand serious scientific investigation.”
Ibogaine carries safety risks including heart rhythm problems, according to HHS, and “its potential benefits require rigorous evaluation.”
Staffers at Washingtonian magazine voted Thursday to strike, according to the labor union that represents them, after a five-year effort to negotiate a contract with the publication’s management.
In a press release, the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, which is part of the Communications Workers of America and represents employees at The Washington Post, said the primary area of disagreement concerns a minimum salary for unionized members.
The magazine’s guild — which includes staffers in the newsroom, art and digital departments — is asking for a $60,000 minimum salary, while it says parent company Washingtonian Media and CEO Catherine Merrill have offered $42,500. The guild called the offer “completely inadequate for anyone living in the Washington, DC, area.”
Merrill wrote in a statement that Washingtonian has “bargained in good faith with the Guild for several years, and we have reached agreement on many points of a future contract.”
“Real differences remain on many issues, large and small, including wages, hours and management rights. The Guild represents 16 Washingtonian employees,” she wrote. “We respect their right to make their voices heard through this one-day action, and we will continue to bargain in good faith to secure Washingtonian’s future in an industry, print media, that remains very challenging.”
The guild is still finalizing the date for the one-day strike, according to Kathleen Floyd, a spokeswoman for the Washington-Baltimore News Guild.
It’s picture day at the U.S. Capitol.
New House members, who will be sworn in on Jan. 3, stepped off their buses bright and early this morning to climb the House steps and pose for their class photo.
The incoming lawmakers are in town this week and next for new member orientation. They’re attending a series of sessions to learn how to, well, be a member of Congress. They’re also learning the dynamics on the Hill, weighing which caucuses to join and connecting with the press corps.
There’s some fun stuff, too — no shortage of receptions and events honoring the new members.
The social dynamics are already fascinating. This is the largest set of incoming first-term House members since 1992, according an analysis of data compiled by Adam Bonica, a professor at Stanford University, Ballotpedia and Washington Post reporters.
On the steps this morning, it was clear friendships are already emerging. Members stood chatting and posing for photos together after the full class portrait.
Kevin Crowe and Luke Connors contributed to this report.
A grizzly bear and her three cubs were behind the attack that killed two women in British Columbia this month, Canadian authorities said.
Jennifer Balcarras, 48, and her daughter Selah Reed, 20, were found dead in Bella Coola earlier this month.
Officials captured and assessed local bears, and determined via DNA testing that the four bears were “all actively involved” in the attack, Inspector Jeff Tyre of the British Columbia Conservation Officer Service told an online briefing Tuesday.
The mother bear was in her teens, while the three cubs had all been born in the past year, Tyre said. He added that the bears were killed to protect the public, because bears involved in fatal attacks on humans “cannot be rehabilitated or relocated.”
“Our investigation also found that this attack likely involve predatory behavior, which I can tell you is very rare,” Tyre said. “That is to say, we don’t know how it started, but we know how it ended.”
Terry Webber, chief administrative officer for the Nuxalk Nation, said the incident was “deeply re-triggering for our community ,” following a separate grizzly attack on a school group in the same area last year.
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