President Donald Trump arrived in Greenville, North Carolina, on Tuesday, the latest stop on his Republican midterm rescue mission.
Trump is hoping that $5,000 checks can boost GOP turnout in the elections — but even some of his devoted fans are doubting those government payouts would arrive. This most recent offer could reveal how much voters still trust him as they decide control of Congress on Nov. 3.
Earlier Tuesday, Trump and Vice President JD Vance announced a $25 million program to encourage the public to blow the whistle on suspected fraud in the U.S. government as they ramp up efforts to end the abuse of federal programs and dollars. The White House said that under the Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program, or WHIP, anyone who submits a tip to fraud.gov that leads to a fraud conviction or a significant federal enforcement action is eligible to receive up to $30,000.
Relations between the U.S. and Ukraine, meanwhile, appear to be at a new low, with Moscow strengthened by Trump’s recent rejection of new Russia sanctions and Kyiv undermined by disruptions in satellite support for its drones during the war.
Here’s the latest:
Trump singles out 2 GOP House contenders in tough races
Trump brought up Laurie Buckhout and Jennifer Balkcom to the stage, who he said were expected to have “close races.”
“We have to get them in. We have to vote for them,” Trump told the crowd.
Buckhout is challenging incumbent Democratic Rep. Don Davis, who narrowly beat her in 2024. Balkcom is the Republican nominee in a western North Carolina district currently represented by Rep. Chuck Edwards, who dropped his reelection bid after an ethics investigation into improper conduct with female staff. Balkcom faces Democrat Jamie Ager, a farmer who has run on a platform partly focused on the continuing recovery from Hurricane Helene.
Trump said House Speaker Mike Johnson asked him to give the two “a special callout tonight because they’re going to have close races.”
Trump also called up the same two candidates to the stage when he campaigned in the state last month.
North Carolina Trump rally ends with return trip planned
The rally ended after the president headlined the event for just under two hours.
Trump said he planned to come back to the hotly contested state ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms.
Whatley contrasts himself with Cooper standing alongside Trump
North Carolina Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley, speaking alongside Trump, contrasted his campaign with Democratic rival Roy Cooper rather than heaping praise on Trump.
Whatley is locked in a tough race in the battleground state, where Republicans have recently pulled back money in an increasingly defensive fight ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms.
Whatley attacked Cooper, a former two-term governor, over his handling of crime.
“Who is Roy Cooper going to stand with? Who is he going to fight for?” Whatley said.
Ramaswamy takes responsibility for ad with Amy Acton’s mother
Republican Vivek Ramaswamy ’s team confirmed late Tuesday that it produced a controversial advertisement featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent in the Ohio governor’s race, Amy Acton.
The campaign also said it will spend $4 million to broadcast the ad despite facing bipartisan rebuke for dredging up Acton’s painful childhood.
Acton, who has said she faced homelessness and sexual abuse as a child, had spent the day pushing back forcefully against the content of the video, the origins of which were initially murky. In it, her birth mother, Donna Arthur, calls her “a liar” and insinuates she has mental health issues.
The ad began circulating overnight, just two weeks before Election Day. Acton, Ohio’s former public health director, is in a tight race against Ramaswamy, a Trump-backed biotech billionaire and 2024 presidential candidate.
Protesters interrupt Trump’s rally
A series of protesters disrupted Trump’s rally in Greenville, North Carolina. The fifth one said: “Gas is too expensive.”
Rally attendees frequently shouted “USA, USA” during the interruptions.
Trump largely focused on crime during his rally speech rather than the economy.
AP data shows more than 13 million early votes cast ahead of midterms
In statistics collected from 44 states, the more than 13.3-million figure now also includes early vote totals from Alaska, Arkansas, South Carolina and Texas.
The total is equal to almost a quarter of all early votes cast ahead of the previous midterm elections in 2022, and roughly 14% of the early votes received for the 2024 presidential election.
California, not surprisingly, led with 1.7 million ballots, with Florida next at 1.1 million. At roughly 1 million votes each, next were Georgia and Texas, both states with pivotal U.S. Senate races on Nov. 3.
Bill Clinton campaigns for Jolly as Democrats send $1 million
Former President Bill Clinton was in Florida encouraging voters to make David Jolly the state’s first Democratic governor in decades.
“I think we ought to give David Jolly a chance,” Clinton said at an event in Hollywood, Florida, casting the Republican in the race, Rep. Byron Donalds, as a reliable ally of Trump.
Clinton was in the state as the Democratic Governors Association gave $1 million to Jolly’s campaign. Jolly, who has waged an unexpectedly competitive campaign against Donalds, pressed the national party for financial support over the summer, arguing he could return Florida to its longtime swing state status.
DGA spokesperson Kevin Donohoe said Jolly has “run an aggressive, grassroots campaign that has given him a clear path to victory.”
A Democrat hasn’t been elected Florida governor since 1994.
Trump says he’s the reason Whatley is running for North Carolina Senate seat
Trump said at a North Carolina rally that it was his encouragement that led Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley to run in the battleground state.
“I’m the one that got him into this,” Trump said.
The rally comes after the Senate Republicans’ top campaign spending group pulled back in North Carolina.
Whatley, a former Republican National Committee chairman, faces former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.
The Senate seat is open because Republican incumbent Thom Tillis decided not to seek reelection after clashing with Trump over his tax breaks and spending cuts legislation.
NASCAR driver Richard Petty accompanies Trump at North Carolina rally
Trump traveled to his rally Tuesday with NASCAR legend and North Carolina native Richard Petty.
Petty, a NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee, is the latest sports figure to accompany the president at one of his rallies. Among those attending his rallies were Danica Patrick and Ted Nugent last night in Park City, Kansas; Floyd Mayweather Jr. in Bullhead City, Arizona; and Jake Paul and Jon Gruden in Youngstown, Ohio.
Trump arrives at North Carolina campaign rally site
The president is set to speak at the rally with Republican candidates in Greenville, North Carolina.
Air Force One did a flyover above the crowd gathered at the Pitt-Greenville Airport before it landed just before 7 p.m.
Before Trump’s arrival, several candidates addressed the crowd, including Michael Whatley, the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate. Whatley faces Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper.
Ruben Gallego says high gas prices have voters worried
Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego says Americans are feeling palpable fear over gas prices and predicts they will punish Republicans at the ballot box.
The Arizona senator and potential 2028 presidential candidate held a news conference at a Phoenix gas station Tuesday to highlight the rise of gas and diesel prices since the Iran war started.
A lot of voters are at gas stations anxiously watching the numbers tick up, waiting for the click that signals the tank is full, he said.
“The idea that they’re not going to bring that to the voting booth, I think it would be very naive on both sides,” Gallego said, adding that voters felt the same anxiety during Democrat Joe Biden’s presidency.
Arizona has two battleground House districts, and the state’s Democratic governor, secretary of state and attorney general are looking to hold onto offices they narrowly won four years ago.
Trump signs bill creating Chiricahua National Park
The nation’s 64th national park features towering rock spires formed from an ancient volcanic eruption in what is now southeastern Arizona. It’s part of the historical territory of the Chiricahua Apache Tribes and covers 19 square miles (49 square kilometers).
Native Americans referred to the site as the Land of Standing-Up Rocks, and early settlers called it Wonderland of Rocks. The name Chiricahua comes from the surrounding mountains.
President Calvin Coolidge named the site a national monument in 1924 under the federal Antiquities Act. President Franklin D. Roosevelt expanded it in 1938.
Its redesignation Tuesday as a national park comes amid deep cuts to the National Park Service workforce under Trump. Maintenance projects at many sites — including Chiricahua — have been ranked “low priority” by officials who have instead focused on projects wanted by the White House, including repairs to the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
The legislation creating Chiricahua National Park was sponsored by Arizona Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani and garnered broad bipartisan support.
Elizabeth Warren and Gretchen Whitmer campaign for Democrats in Nevada
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer joined Nevada Democratic candidates Tuesday for a get-out-the-vote event at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, campus.
They encouraged attendees to support Democrats on the ballot, and to support Ballot Question 6, which would codify abortion rights in the Nevada Constitution.
Whitmer told the crowd that UNLV students could make the difference in the competitive governor’s race between Democratic candidate Aaron Ford and Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo.
“It’s up to you how you’re going to spend the next 14 days, but I implore you: don’t let any day go to waste. Don’t let any moment go to waste,” she said.
Other potential 2028 presidential candidates are flocking to the key battleground state ahead of the midterms. Former Vice President Kamala Harris, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., will also be in Nevada this week.
Judge rejects Trump administration bid to dismiss air pollution lawsuit against xAI data center
A civil rights lawsuit alleges that Elon Musk’s xAI company is illegally running dozens of natural gas turbines to power a $20 billion AI data center in Mississippi.
The NAACP and other groups say xAI failed to get a permit for the turbines, which are located near homes, schools and churches in the Memphis area, violating the federal Clean Air Act.
The Justice Department moved to dismiss the case, saying the plant is needed to power an artificial intelligence data center that is “critical” to the U.S. economy and military.
U.S. District Judge Debra Brown denied the motion, but granted a separate request allowing the Justice Department to remain in the case.
A Justice Department spokesperson said late Tuesday that “the executive branch, in coordination with states (not the NAACP of Mississippi), retains ultimate control over enforcement of the Clean Air Act.”
Democratic candidate for Wisconsin governor rallies college students as early voting starts
David Crowley was joined by U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin for the rally on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus on the first day of early voting in the battleground state.
Crowley and his Republican challenger, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, urged supporters to cast their absentee ballots in person during the two-week early voting period. About 96,000 fewer absentee ballots have been requested by mail this year compared with 2022.
Crowley blames the drop on attacks against the U.S. Postal Service made by the Trump administration.
“A lot of people are reluctant to actually mail in their ballot,” he says.
Gavin Denning, a 19-year-old sophomore at UW, voted on Tuesday before attending the Crowley event. He says the chance to vote in person before Election Day is a “great opportunity” that he was glad to take advantage of.
Trump won’t say why Hegseth met with Netanyahu
Trump says he can’t discuss what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke about at their meeting on Monday.
“I can’t do that now,” Trump said when asked about the meeting on Tuesday.
While the Pentagon wouldn’t confirm the meeting, Doron Spielman, a spokesperson for Netanyahu’s office, told the AP the meeting was warm and that Hegseth thanked Israel on behalf of Americans for hosting U.S. troops.
Spielman also said they discussed offensive and defensive capabilities regarding threats in the region.
The meeting comes as Trump has signaled a willingness to resume hostilities with Iran following the U.S. midterm elections.
Republican Wisconsin Rep. Derrick Van Orden says Iran war making it harder for GOP to win
Van Orden said in a debate Tuesday that the war, which he supports, is “making it exponentially harder for Republicans to keep the House and Senate.”
Van Orden is a retired Navy SEAL who spent 26 years on active duty before being elected to Congress in 2022. Democrats are targeting his western Wisconsin swing district this year with political activist Rebecca Cooke, repeating the 2024 election Cooke narrowly lost.
Van Orden says, given his military background, “I know about war,” and he believes the U.S.’s stated intention of stopping Iran from developing a nuclear weapon is justified. He says Cooke is unwilling to ever go to war, even when it’s necessary.
Cooke, a part-time server and former small business owner, says she believes in diplomacy and economic sanctions first.
But Van Orden says diplomacy and sanctions didn’t work in Iran.
“They only respond to this horrible thing that is war,” he said.
Trump says it’s too early to think about endorsing his successor
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump was asked whether he would endorse Vice President JD Vance if Vance runs to succeed him.
“I don’t think we’ve ever talked about it. You know, who would believe that?” Trump said of Vance, who was standing behind him.
He called Vance “a very talented person” and “a very good person,” but said it was too soon to talk about the future.
“It’s early, very early right now. We have to get through the midterms. We’ll see how it goes,” he said.
Vance told journalist Mark Halperin in an interview that he still hasn’t decided about running, but if he does, he expects Trump would back him.
Ohio Democratic gubernatorial candidate condemns uncredited ad featuring estranged mother
Dr. Amy Acton, the Democratic candidate for governor in Ohio, is pushing back against an unattributed ad circulating online that features her long-estranged mother calling her “a liar” and insinuating she has mental health issues.
The ad began circulating overnight Tuesday, two weeks before Election Day.
Ohio’s former public health director is in a tight race with Republican billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy. His campaign did not address whether it knew who produced and paid for the spot, but said Acton has “some serious problems with the truth.”
Acton and her brother blamed the ad on the Ramaswamy campaign, accusing them of “a despicable low” by turning sexual abuse she endured as a child into a political talking point.
Trump says ‘it’s time’ for Ukraine to agree to a deal with Russia
The U.S. president is upping the pressure on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to make a deal with his country’s Russian invaders after relations between the two men soured again.
“We want Zelenskyy to make a deal,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’ve given a lot to Ukraine. We’ve gotten absolutely nothing back except grief, death, tremendous monetary loss.”
He says if that doesn’t happen, “I think it’s going to be a very bad thing.”
He also claimed Europe is growing weary of the conflict, though European countries have been trying to offset any scaling back of U.S. supplies.
Trump says ‘just stick with me’ on potential Hubbard freedom
The president says he has spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin about Stephen Hubbard, who is the first American known to be convicted of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine.
“Just stick with me … I don’t want to talk about it,” Trump said about a potential deal to free Hubbard, who was sentenced in Russia to nearly seven years in prison in 2024.
He confirmed the administration has been “focused” on Hubbard, saying, “It’s time to have Mr. Hubbard back.”
Trump on Le Pen: ‘She’s the conservative voice’
The U.S. president left the door open to backing far-right French leader Marine Le Pen, a potential front-runner in next spring’s presidential election.
“Well, I don’t know her. I haven’t met her,” Trump said Tuesday when asked about a potential endorsement.
Still, he said he believed she was badly treated and said she was the victim of weaponization. Trump didn’t elaborate, but Le Pen was found guilty twice of embezzling public funds in France.
“She’s the conservative voice,” Trump added.
Trump ultimate decider for fraud rewards, Trump says
The president says he’ll be the “arbitrator” of who deserves the reward money for his new anti-fraud initiatives.
“I am going to do something which I think people will like,” Trump said. “I will be the arbitrator of all these decisions.”
The White House earlier Tuesday said the Justice Department will administer the program. Successful whistleblowers can receive up to $30,000, and Trump insisted they will get their money “immediately.”
Rubio accuses Iran of using Nazi tactics in the Strait of Hormuz by targeting commercial shipping
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is accusing Iran of using Nazi tactics in the Strait of Hormuz by targeting commercial shipping, which he says is a throwback to World War II.
In an interview with the Indian outlet Network18, Rubio said Tuesday that people should pay more attention to what Iran is doing and trying to do to close the strait.
“We have a nation-state that is openly saying, ‘We are targeting commercial vessels; we are trying to kill sailors who have nothing to do with the war; we are trying to sink commercial ships,’” Rubio said. “You haven’t seen that since the second world war. They are doing Nazi U-boat tactics. And that’s what the world should be rallying around and condemning.”
By contrast, he said that U.S. forces in the region are defending commercial shipping and the vast majority of attempted Iranian attacks have been thwarted.
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This story was first published on Oct. 20, 2026. It was updated on Oct. 21, 2026, to correct the name of an outlet to which U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave an interview in India. The outlet is Network18, not News1.
