Trump makes major World Cup announcement that will bring $30 billion boom to U.S. economy

Donald Trump announced on Friday afternoon that the 2026 FIFA World Cup draw will take place in the nation’s capital.

It was previously set to happen in Las Vegas, Nevada.

‘On December 5 of this year the 2025 FIFA World Cup draw will take place at the Kennedy Center… right here in Wahsington, D.C.,’ Trump said in a surprise announcement from the Oval Office.

He said hosting the World Cup is ‘like having many Super Bowls in a short period of time.’

‘Each one of these games essentially is a Super Bowl. Some of them are bigger than Super Bowls, actually,’ Trump said, adding that it will bring a whopping $30 billion economic boom to the U.S.

The president joked that he would soon be renaming the performing arts venue to the ‘Trump-Kennedy Center.’

He also said that his closed meetings at the Kennedy Center on Friday morning were to meet with contractors about ‘fixing’ up the building ahead of the draw.

‘It’s going to be unbelievable. It’s got great bones but it needs a lot of work,’ Trump claimed.

He was flanked by Vice President J.D. Vance and FIFA President Gianni Infantino for the announcement.

Former White House national security adviser John Bolton learned what it means to be at war with a merciless White House on Friday.

The ex-Trump adviser turned acidic critic returned to his home in Bethesda, Maryland nearly eight hours after the FBI raided the property.

Bolton waved to the cameras but did not take questions from the press as he entered his house to greet his wife, who was visibly shaken by the federal dragnet.

The investigation into Bolton centers around whether he illegally shared or possessed classified information, two sources told the New York Times.

Throughout the raid, more than a dozen federal agents were seen carrying boxes in and out of his house. Other agents were spotted entering Bolton’s downtown Washington, DC office.

President Donald Trump revealed Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to attend the 2026 FIFA World Cup game in the United States and issued a new deadline for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.

The president said he was hoping that a meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would happen soon, as he spoke to reporters from the Oval Office on Friday, one week after his historic summit in Alaska with the Russian president.

He said it would clear within the next ‘two weeks’ whether or not the meeting would happen, leaning on a familiar timetable he’s used repeatedly during his second term.

‘I think over the next two weeks, we’re going to find out which way it’s going to go,’ he said. ‘And, I better be very happy.’

The Justice Department on Friday made public transcripts from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s interviews with Ghislaine Maxwell, the former accomplice to Jeffrey Epstein.

Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence, provided no incriminating information on high-profile individuals, according to the bombshell testimony released Friday afternoon.

She also revealed she has no knowledge of a so-called ‘client list,’ which has been used a speculation by conspiracy theorists that her old friend was murdered even though his death was ruled a suicide.

President Donald Trump said Friday that he’s going to ask Congress for $2 billion so Washington, D.C. can be ‘beautified’ around the White House and Capitol Building.

‘We’re going to be raising about $2 billion from Congress, and Congress is happy to do it, and we’re going to wisely spend the money,’ he revealed on Friday.

Later, in the Oval Office, the president said he had already gotten his fellow Republicans, Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson, on board a D.C. beautification spending bill.

He said a contractor had already been decided on and these changes would focus on the looks of the streets.

‘We’re going to head out right from the Capitol and the White House, and look at a circle, and go about three miles out,’ Trump said of the improvement district. ‘It’s going to be beautiful.’

A group that represents moderate Democrats drafted a list of ‘woke’ words that party members should avoid saying if they want to win elections again.

The Third Way released a report that identified more than 40 words and phrases that Democrats are guilty of using and argued that ‘no ordinary person would ever dream of saying’ these terms.

‘Here we are focusing on the eggshell dance of political correctness which leaves the people we aim to reach cold or fearful of admonishment,’ the report said.

Among them are the transgender inclusive expressions like ‘birthing person’ and ‘chest feeding.’ Average Americans would simply say mothers and breast-feeding.

The report pushes Democrats to avoid ‘seminar’-like language, giving examples including ‘cultural appropriation’ and ‘systems of oppression.’

Also ‘therapy-speak’ was discouraged, with terms like ‘microaggressions’ – subtle racism – ‘privilege’ and ‘holding space’ making the naughty list.

‘The intent of this language is to include, broaden, empathize, accept, and embrace,’ the report argued. ‘The effect of this language is to sound like the extreme, divisive, elitist, and obfuscatory, enforcers of wokeness.’

President Donald Trump signaled Friday which American city he would federalize next after doing so in Washington, D.C.

‘When we’re ready we’ll go in and we’ll straighten out Chicago, just like we did D.C.,’ Trump told reporters Friday afternoon during a World Cup event.

The president indicated that the plan wasn’t fully in action, as he hadn’t yet reached out to Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson.

He did call the Democrat names in the Oval Office.

‘Chicago is a mess. You have an incompetent mayor. Grossly incompetent and we’ll straighten that one out probably next, that will be our next one after this and it won’t even be tough,’ Trump said.

‘And the people in Chicago, Mr. Vice President, are screaming for us to go. They’re wearing red hats, just like this one. But they’re wearing red hats,’ Trump said.

The Chicago mayor’s office did not immediately respond to the Daily Mail’s request for comment.

Attorney General Pam Bondi handed over to the House Oversight Committee on Friday thousands of pages from the Jeffrey Epstein files, a spokesperson confirmed to the Daily Mail.

It represents the first trove of files meant to be made public by Congress in a bid to increase transparency in the fallout from Bonid’s botched Epstein files review.

Committee Chairman James Comer plans to make the documents public after review and redaction.

John Bolton arrived back at his home just before 3:00 p.m. on Friday.

Shortly after FBI agents left the premises following a nearly eight hour raid of his home in Bethesda, Maryland, the former National Security Advisor was seen returning.

He smirked and waved, but did not take any questions shouted by the press.

Donald Trump said he does not know anything about the John Bolton FBI raid, but compared it to the one at his own Mar-a-Lago.

‘I purposely don’t want to really get involved in it. I’m not a fan of John Bolton,’ he said.

‘My house was raided also… So I know the feeling. It’s not a good feeling.’

President Donald Trump says he instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi to do what she can to keep the Jeffrey Epstein case ‘totally open.’

But he cautioned that there are people in the documents who are ‘innocent’ and ‘don’t deserve to be’ in the files.

‘Innocent people shouldn’t be hurt – but I’m in support of keeping it totally open. I couldn’t care less,’ Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday.

‘You’ve got a lot of people who could be mentioned in those files that don’t deserve to be, because he [Epstein] knew everybody in Palm Beach,’ Trump said in reference to his home city. ‘I don’t know anything about that.’

‘But I have said to Pam and everybody else, give them everything you can give them because it’s a Democrat hoax. It’s just a hoax.’

The Justice Department is preparing to send its first trove of Epstein files to the House Oversight Committee by the end of the day.

Trump held up a photo of himself standing next to Putin during their meeting in Alaska at his World Cup announcement.

‘He may be coming and he may not, depending on what happens,’ Trump said of the Russian president.

Referring to the photo, Trump said, ‘I thought it was a nice picture of him. OK, of me, but nice of him.’

Donald Trump suggested that he will use federal law enforcement to crack down on crime in other major cities.

‘I think Chicago will be our next, and then we’ll help with New York,’ he said.

Donald Trump held the World Cup trophy during his Oval Office announcement on Friday, an honor usually reserved for countries that win it.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino said, ‘Only the FIFA presidents, presidents of countries, and then those who win can touch it because it’s for winners only. And, since you are a winner, of course you can as well.’

Trump picked up the trophy and said, ‘It’s pretty heavy.’

Donald Trump warned D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser that she won’t stay in her position much longer if she doesn’t help with the crime crackdown.

‘Mayor Bowser better get her acts straight, or she won’t be mayor very long,’ the president said on Friday.

‘Because we’ll take it over with the federal government. Run it like it’s supposed to be run,’ he told reporters gathered in the Oval Office for his announcement on the location change of the 2026 FIFA World Cup draw.

Trump has already federalized D.C. and brought in National Guard troops and agents with the DEA, FBI, HSI, ATF and U.S. Marshals to help symie crime in the District.

Donald Trump addressed his White House renovations during his Oval Office announcement on Friday.

After revealing that the 2026 FIFA World Cup draw will take place on December 5 at the Kennedy Center, he discussed the changes he made to the Oval Office.

‘You see the way this is looking?’ he said. ‘I can’t tell you how much that gold cost, a lot of money… this beautiful office needed it.

‘When we took it over, it was dirty, not clean. I immediately changed the chair and had this beautiful desk renovated.

‘Look at all of these great paintings of great presidents; they were all in the vaults.’

FBI agents have been raiding John Bolton’s Bethesda, Maryland residence for six hours.

Starting at 7:00 a.m. on Friday, agents descended on the home of Trump’s former National Security Advisor.

Now going into the afternoon, agents are still on scene and in Bolton’s home collecting evidence as part of a naitonal security investigation.

Some were seen entering the home with empty boxes.

Vice President JD Vance confirmed the administration is investigating former national security advisor John Bolton, but denied that it is in retalition for his criticism of Trump.

‘We’re in the very early stages of an ongoing investigation into John Bolton. I will say we’re going to let that investigation proceed,’ Vance told NBC News’ ‘Meet the Press.’

‘We are investigating Ambassador Bolton, but if they ultimately bring a case, it will be because they determine that he has broken the law.

‘We’re going to be careful about that. We’re going to be deliberate about that, because we don’t think that we should throw people — even if they disagree with us politically, maybe especially if they disagree with us politically — you shouldn’t throw people willy-nilly in prison. You should let the law drive these determinations, and that’s what we’re doing.’

Donald Trump said he would fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook ‘if she doesn’t resign,’ as she attends the annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with Chair Jerome Powell on Friday.

On Wednesday, Cook was accused by an administration officials of falsely claiming two homes as primary residences in 2021.

‘I’ll fire her if she doesn’t resign,’ Trump said.

Trump has relentlessly demanded that the Fed cut its key interest rate, which he’s said would reduce interest rate costs on the government’s massive $37 trillion debt pile as well as boost the housing market.

The president can’t fire a Fed governor over a disagreement on rates, but can ‘for cause,’ which typically means malfeasance or neglect of duty.

Donald Trump will announce that the 2026 World Cup draw will be moved from Las Vegas, Nevada to Washington, D.C., White House officials confirmed.

The president wants the draw to happen at the Kennedy Center now that he chairs the board of the performing arts venue.

Earlier the White House teased that Trump would make a secretive announcement from the Oval Office on Friday.

After visiting the White House Historical Association Museum on Friday morning, Trump went across town to the Kennedy Center for business that was closed to the press.

A woman carrying a ‘No Kings’ poster demonstrating outside of John Bolton’s home was heckled by a passing car.

‘Trump uses FBI for vengence. #NoKings,’ her poster said.

A man driving by told the woman the economy is flourishing and claimed we are safer than we’ve ever been.

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino called out ‘public corruption’ amid raid on John Bolton.

‘Public corruption will not be tolerated,’ he said on X.

Donald Trump was photographed with a large patch of foundation covering his hand on Friday.

In July, the White House revealed the president had been diagnosed with a vein condition after growing concern over the bruising and makeup that appeared on his hand at several events.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president was checked out by his doctor after noticeable ‘swelling’ and revealed that Trump has been diagnosed with ‘chronic venous insufficiency.’

She said it’s a ‘common condition’ in individuals over the age of 70 and there was ‘no evidence’ of deep vein thrombosis or arterial disease.

Donald Trump wore a hat that says he ‘was right about everything’ as he made a few surprise visits around Washington, DC on Friday.

The signature MAGA red hat is embroidered with white lettering that says, ‘Trump was right about everything.’

Resuraced video showed John Bolton told MSNBC that Donald Trump did not care about the classification process during the FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago.

The FBI appeared to be moving cars in John Bolton’s driveway as they continue their raid of his home.

During an interview on ABC’s ‘This Week’ on August 10, John Bolton was asked by Jonathan Karl about his concerns over being targeted by the Trump administration.

‘Well, I think he’s already come after me and several others in withdrawing the protection that we had,’ Bolton said.

‘So I think, and I said in the new foreword to the paperback edition of my book, I think it is a retribution presidency.’

Roger Stone asked John Bolton ‘How does it feel’ to have your home raided bright and early in the morning shortly after the news broke of an FBI raid at the property of Trump’s former national security advisor.

‘Good morning. John Bolton. How does it feel to have your home raided at 6 o’clock in the morning?’ Stone said on X.

Notably, the raid on Bolton’s home started around 7am.

In 2019, Stone was arrested after an early morning raid on his Florida home in connection with Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian meddling during the 2016 presidential election.

Stone was convicted of those charges, but had his sentence commuted by Trump and was later pardoned.

John Bolton served as Donald Trump’s national security adviser from April 2018 to September 2019.

Before joining the Trump administration, he served as the US ambassador to the UN from 2005 to 2006 during the George W Bush administration.

In the 1980s, Bolton served as an assistant attorney general during the Ronald Reagan administration.

Bolton was the third person to take on the role in Trump’s first administration and clashed with the president over Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea.

After parting with the administration, Bolton, a Republican, became a vocal critic of Trump.

In June 2020, Bolton published a memoir about his time working for Trump called The Room Where it Happened.

The first Trump administration had unsuccessfully sought to block the publication of a Bolton book that it said contained classified information.

In September 2020, Trump’s first-term Justice Department opened a probe into the book. However, during the Biden years, his DOJ did not pursue the investigation further.

Once back in office, Bolton was stripped of his security clearances and Secret Service protection.

Trump’s Executive Order specifically cited Bolton’s memoir as part of stripping the security clearances of former intelligence officials.

He said Bolton’s ‘reckless treatment of sensitive information’ undermined national security because it risked exposing classified material.

President Donald Trump responded to the raid of his former National Security Adviser John Bolton on Friday by calling him a ‘lowlife’ and ‘not a smart guy.’

During a visit to the White House Historical Association Museum on Friday, the president told press that he will be briefed on the FBI raid later in the day, but admitted he didn’t know it was happening until it was in the news.

‘He’s very bad at what he does,’ Trump claimed.

‘He doesn’t talk, he’s like a very quiet person except on television and then he can say something bad about Trump. He’ll always do that. But he doesn’t talk, he’s very quiet,’ Trump told reporters.

The investigation into Former National Security Advisor John Bolton is over whether he illegally shared or possessed classified information, two sources told the New York Times.

FBI agents raid Bolton’s Maryland home at 7am on Friday. Several agents were seen carrying boxes in and out of his house.

Other agents were spotted entering Bolton’s Washington, DC office.

One of John Bolton’s neighbors told the Daily Mail that the FBI’s raid on his Maryland home is ‘karma’ for not testifying during Trump’s impeachment.

‘It’s disruptive, it’s ridiculous, obviously it is to persecute an enemy,’ the neighbor named Holly said.

‘However, I will say, if he would have testified in the first impeachment hearing, maybe we wouldn’t be here, so there is a little bit of karma.’

Donald Trump visited The People’s House, an immersive White House experience by the White House Historical Association, on Friday.

The attraction is less than a block away from the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue.

It wasn’t clear what he was doing there and the visit wasn’t on his official schedule.

Trump was spotted on video posted on social media walking into the building with his chief of staff Susie Wiles.

The association has a gift shop and a replica of the Oval Office as part of its educational center about the White House.

Attorney General Pam Bondi added on to a message from FBI Director Kash Patel shortly after FBI agents launched a raid on the home of Trump’s Former National Security Advisor John Bolton.

‘America’s safety isn’t negotiable. Justice will be pursued. Always,’ Bondi said while reporting Patel’s message.

The FBI Director said, ‘NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission.’

FBI agents were pictured walking inside the back entrance of John Bolton’s Washington, DC office while others searched his home.

Three FBI agents were spotted carrying boxes into John Bolton’s house, then leaving a few minutes later.

Former NSA John Bolton’s wife, Gretchen Smith Bolton, appeared to be given a rude awakening on Friday morning when the FBI rolled up to raid their home in Bethesda, Maryland.

Gretchen was spotted at the front door interacting with the federal agents, then walking away as they entered the home.

George Conway, estranged husband of Trump ally Kellyanne Conway, spoke with the Daily Mail outside John Bolton’s in the middle of the FBI raid.

He said Bolton should be held accountable if he is illegally storing classified documents ‘the way Trump should have’ during his Florida case.

‘If he’s got classified documents, my view is well, he has to answer for that if he’s got them, the way Trump should have,’ Conway said.

‘On the other hand, if it’s just about harassing him because he said uncomplimentary things about Trump… that’s not legit.

Donald Trump made a cryptic Truth Social post just hours after the FBI raided the home of his former national security advisor.

‘The United States is the “Hottest” Country anywhere in the World. There is no other Country that is even close…And just think, one year ago, we were a “DEAD” Country, with no hope of ever seeing GREATNESS AGAIN! But that all changed on Election Day, November 5th, 2024. LANDSLIDE!!!’ the president said.

The director of the Office of Personnel Management, Scott Kupor, said that 300,000 federal jobs will be cut by the end of the year.

‘That’s roughly like 2.4 million to start and ending roughly about 2.1 million,’ he told the New York Times on Thursday.

He said a bulk of the resignations came from the incentives first introduced by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), and most would be officially separated by the end of September, and others by the end of the year.

The Trump administration started sending emails to thousands of federal workers in January, offering them a chance to voluntarily vacate their government posts while remaining on the payroll for months.

John Bolton served as Donald Trump’s National Security Advisor from April 2018 until September 2019.

In response, Bolton has become one of the former officials that Trump has taken aim at since getting back into office this year.

Trump’s Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard stripped Bolton of his security clearance.

On his first day back in office on January 20, 2025, Trump ordered the clearances be revoked of the 51 former intelligence officials who signed a 2020 letter suggesting the Hunter Biden laptop story was Russian disinformation.

In June 2020, Bolton published a memoir about his time working for Trump called The Room Where it Happened.

The president tried to block its publication, claiming Bolton breached a nondisclosure agreement he signed as a condition of his employment. He also argued that the memoir endangered U.S. national security.

In September 2020, Trump’s first-term Justice Department opened a probe into the book. But during the Biden years, his DOJ did not pursue the investigation further.

Trump’s Executive Order once back in office specifically cited Bolton’s memoir as part of stripping the security clearances of former intelligence officials.

He said Bolton’s ‘reckless treatment of sensitive information’ undermined national security because it risked exposing classified material.

Amid the feud with his former top national security aide, Trump also revoked his Secret Service protection, saying at the time: ‘We’re not going to have security on people for the rest of their lives. Why should we?’

He called Bolton a ‘very dumb person’ and a ‘warmonger.’

Shortly after FBI agents launched a raid on the home of Trump’s Former National Security Advisor John Bolton, FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X.

‘NO ONE is above the law… @FBI agents on mission,’ he said.

Although it is unclear if he was referring to the search on Bolton’s home, Patel wrote a 2023 book that included Bolton in a list of ‘members of the Executive Branch Deep State.’

The president is scheduled to make an unknown announcement at 12pm ET in the Oval Office on Friday.

It is the only event listed on Trump’s public schedule and it is unclear what the announcement will be about.

The announcment comes just hours after the FBI launched a raid on the home of Trump’s Former National Security Advisor, John Bolton.

The FBI raided Donald Trump’s Former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s home on Friday morning.

Bolton, who served as President Donald Trump’s NSA from April 2018 until September 2019, has been at odds with Trump ever since parting with the first administration.

The raid is part of the FBI’s investigation into the former Trump official involving classified documents.

‘NO ONE is above the law… FBI agents on mission,’ FBI Director Kash Patel wrote in a post to X.

Bolton was home at the time of the 7.00 am raid on his DC-area house, a source familiar with the matter told the Daily Mail.