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Whistleblowers say the Trump administration is destroying documents related to the president’s construction projects before Democrats take control of Congress. House Republicans voted to block Thomas Massie’s impeachment resolution against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. ICE agents detained a Wisconsin State Patrol trooper. And the Trump administration is withholding $112 million in Medicaid funding from Minnesota.
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Trump Is Destroying Documents Before Democrats Take Over
The president who kept classified documents in a bathroom is now accused of not keeping documents at all.
Whistleblowers have told House Democrats that the Trump administration is already destroying key documents related to the president’s construction projects in Washington, D.C., CNN reports. The projects include a proposed $250 million ballroom, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovation, the East Potomac Golf Links course, and the arch.
Whistleblowers told Congress that Interior Department employees regularly shred documents and use disappearing Signal messages. They described a culture in which officials “are terrified of written records.”
California Rep. Jared Huffman, the ranking member on the House Natural Resources Committee, plans to send preservation letters to four federal agencies and to private companies that have donated to the projects, including Lockheed Martin and John Deere. Recipients will have to certify that they are preserving records and recovering any deleted information.
Democrats will assume control of both houses of Congress in January following their midterm election victories last week. Huffman told CNN that his committee could block some of the projects, adding that Democrats “have standing to go to court if we have to.”
House Republicans Vote to Kill Pete Hegseth Impeachment Resolution
The only thing harder than impeaching a defense secretary during wartime is getting every Democrat to show up for work.
House Republicans voted 211 to 204 Tuesday to send the impeachment resolution against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to the Judiciary Committee, putting the effort on hold. The only Republican to vote with Democrats to keep the resolution alive was Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who introduced it.
The eight articles of impeachment accused Hegseth of waging war against Iran without congressional authorization. The articles also accused him of ordering killings related to the Caribbean boat strikes and of involvement in the kidnapping of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
At least one House Republican told MS NOW privately that Hegseth should resign, and a second GOP lawmaker said many members wanted to take the vote. Another said the slim Republican majority was the only thing preventing the vote from succeeding.
Eleven Democrats were absent for the vote, giving Republicans the edge they needed. Among those missing were Nancy Pelosi and Haley Stevens.
ICE Detains Wisconsin State Patrol Trooper at Airport Despite Valid Work Authorization
The asylum program was built for white South Africans, and it still didn’t work.
ICE officers arrested 21-year-old Wisconsin State Patrol trooper Carel Van Der Merwe at the Dane County Regional Airport Thursday. Van Der Merwe was born in South Africa and holds federal work authorization that will not expire until 2030.
Van Der Merwe joined the State Patrol in 2025 and is based at the Tomah office in western Wisconsin. His lawyer, Marc Christopher, described the detention as “unconscionable” and said Van Der Merwe and his family had been following the legal process for seven years.
DHS characterized the arrest as a “targeted enforcement operation,” saying Van Der Merwe had overstayed his original entry authorization in 2019. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, a Republican, said he reached out to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and demanded the trooper’s immediate release.
Of the 16,292 people who have been admitted to the United States under asylum rules so far this year, all but five were white South Africans. The administration plans to accept another 17,500 Afrikaner refugees from South Africa in the next 12 months.
Trump Blocks $112 Million in Medicaid Funding to Minnesota
The agency that hasn’t returned Minnesota’s calls in over a year would like to discuss accountability.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is withholding $112 million in Medicaid money from Minnesota, claiming the state failed to produce adequate documentation in dozens of cases. The move is part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to block hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid funding to Democratic-led states this year.
In a letter to Minnesota’s temporary human services commissioner John Connolly, CMS cited claims with mismatched dates and missing signatures. Connolly questioned how the agency determined which claims to challenge, noting that it examined just 330 out of more than 6 million high-risk claims that quarter.
CMS also has not lifted two prior funding freezes to Minnesota totaling $350 million. Connolly said his office has contacted CMS numerous times over the past year trying to resolve it, and hasn’t gotten a response.
Minnesota has 60 days to appeal the denial. If Minnesota doesn’t receive the money from CMS, it may have to ask healthcare providers to pay it back.
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Revolution Wind Becomes Third Major U.S. Offshore Wind Farm to Reach Full Operation. Danish energy company Ørsted’s 704-megawatt offshore wind farm off the coast of Connecticut and Rhode Island, Revolution Wind, began producing at full capacity in October. The $6.2 billion project is the third U.S. offshore wind farm to begin commercial operations, joining South Fork Wind in New York and Vineyard Wind in Massachusetts. The project was completed despite repeated efforts by the Trump administration to stop it, including a stop-work order from the Interior Department in August 2025 citing unspecified national security concerns, which a federal judge overturned a month later. The farm is expected to provide enough power for more than 350,000 homes in New England.
