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Senator Mitch McConnell has kept his full salary for more than two months while recovering from a June fall, according to Newsweek. That's more paid time off than most women who give birth in his home state of Kentucky can count on. McConnell was hospitalized in mid-June, moved to rehab, and was discharged in early August to keep recovering at home. He has stayed on the federal payroll the entire time. Congress has no official paid sick leave policy, so members can draw their salary indefinitely while on medical leave. Meanwhile, millions of American women who give birth each year have no guaranteed paid maternity leave, Newsweek reports. Beth Wanner, founder of Mother Cover, said the comparison extends beyond pay. Margaret Quinlan, a professor and director of the Health and Medical Humanities program at UNC Charlotte, told Newsweek McConnell's leave shows what a humane response to a health event looks like: time, pay, and job security -- calling it an exhausting irony that Americans recovering from childbirth cannot count on those same protections. McConnell's office says he continues to need recovery time; he has lived with lasting effects of childhood polio. Supporters say he deserves whatever time is necessary. Critics say it shows how unequally recovery is treated depending on who you are. There is still no federal law guaranteeing paid sick leave or paid parental leave for American workers. Congress can take fully paid medical leave without limit, but has never extended that guarantee to the people it represents.

President Donald Trump voted by mail in Florida's Republican primary, voting records from Palm Beach County show, even as he continues to publicly rail against mail-in voting and push for sweeping restrictions on who can use it. Records show Trump requested his ballot in late July and it was returned on August 13. It is not the first time. He also voted by mail in a Palm Beach County special election earlier this year. Trump has repeatedly called mail-in ballots "inherently corrupt,” including in July this year. He is pushing Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would mandate photo ID and proof of citizenship for federal elections and severely restrict mail-in voting to military personnel, travelers, and those with a disability or illness. His administration is simultaneously asking the Supreme Court to allow a presidential executive order on mail-in voting to take effect before the midterms, after a federal appeals court blocked it earlier this year. The White House called the story a "non-story," with spokesperson Olivia Wales saying Trump participates in Florida elections as a Palm Beach resident but "primarily lives at the White House in Washington, D.C.". Florida's Republican-controlled legislature has not acted on Trump's demands to restrict mail-in voting, maintaining a longstanding state law that allows any registered voter to request a mail-in ballot, though restrictions on ballot collection and additional ID requirements have been added in recent years.

A mysterious bulge visible on President Donald Trump's backside during a Long Island rally on Friday has sparked a fresh wave of online speculation about what was tucked beneath his suit. The odd, box-like shape was spotted in a video posted to X by outgoing press secretary Karoline Leavitt, showing Trump descending from the stage and walking toward the crowd with a rigid-looking protrusion visible through the back of his jacket. The shape appeared to hold its position as he moved. Independent journalist Aaron Rupar was among the first to flag it. "Seriously, what is going on with Trump's rear end here? It looks like he has some sort of contraption back there," he wrote on X. Former conservative lawyer George Conway responded with a single word: "It depends," an apparent reference to the adult diaper brand, while Czech-American tennis legend Martina Navratilova wrote, "That's a big diaper, I think.” Others suggested a colostomy bag or joked about a Brazilian butt lift. The speculation comes as scrutiny of Trump's health has intensified throughout his second term. The 80-year-old has appeared in public with a bruised hand, bulging ankles, and a mysterious neck rash, and has fallen asleep during multiple public events. At the same Long Island rally, Trump appeared to forget the name of the woman he had just endorsed for New York attorney general, calling out from the podium, "Where the he!l are you… Ma'am? Where are you?" 

The Trump administration has permanently halted enforcement of a 2021 bipartisan law requiring private American companies to disclose their ownership structures, gutting a measure designed to prevent criminals from using shell companies to launder money and traffic dr*gs. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Tuesday that the department would no longer collect beneficial ownership data from U.S. companies under the Corporate Transparency Act, and would delete any ownership information already collected. Foreign companies must still report information about foreign owners. Senator Elizabeth Warren called the decision "a gift to cartels, criminals and U.S. adversaries that exploit shell companies to move millions through our financial system." The law had been co-sponsored by Marco Rubio, now Trump's secretary of state, who called it the "most significant anti-corruption and money laundering law in decades." Congress overrode Trump's own veto to pass it during his first term. The move directly contradicts Trump's stated priority of cracking down on financial crime, money laundering and dr*g trafficking.

President Donald Trump blamed former President Joe Biden for the United States' current munitions shortage on Tuesday, claiming that Biden's decision to send weapons to Ukraine is responsible for depleted stockpiles, while deflecting from his own six-month air campaign against Iran. "They talk about munitions—and we’re fine with munitions, we’re fine. But the reason it would be lower—and we’re building them like crazy—but the reason it’s low is [Joe Biden] gave three hundred billion dollars worth to Ukraine," Trump said on the Real America's Voice network. The claim contradicts the military's own situation. The U.S. is currently short on long-range missiles and interceptors because the Trump administration has been firing them at Iran for the past six months. The Center for Strategic and International Studies has stated that the United States has "enough missiles to continue fighting this war under any plausible scenario," undermining both Trump's claim of a critical shortage and his attempt to pin it on Biden. Trump has maintained a contradictory position throughout, simultaneously insisting he inherited a depleted munitions stock and that the country does not have a munitions shortage. He has been pushing for a $1.5 trillion defense budget through Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a request Senate Democrats blocked last month citing the unauthorized Iran war.