Jill Colvin.

FILE - Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is helped off the stage at a campaign event in Butler, Pa., July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

A year after Trump’s near-assassination, friends and allies see some signs of a changed man

One year after Donald Trump’s near-assassination at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, friends and allies see some signs of a changed man. While largely the same brash Trump, they say he is more attentive and more grateful and speaks openly about how he believes he was saved by God to save the country and serve a second term. And while many who survive traumatic events try to block them from memory, Trump has instead surrounded himself with memorabilia commemorating the episode. He’s decorated the White House and his golf clubs with art pieces depicting the moment after the shooting when he thrust his fist in the air and chanted, “Fight, fight, fight!”

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Supporters of Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani cheer while he speaks at his primary election party, Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)

How Democrats in America’s most Jewish city embraced a critic of Israel for New York mayor

Zohran Mamdani, an outspoken critic of Israel, is the expected Democratic nominee for mayor in America’s most Jewish city and that’s raising alarms among some in the New York’s Jewish community. They’re worried about rising antisemitism and their waning influence. Mamdani’s performance in this past week’s Democratic primary also signals a sea change in the priorities of one of the party’s most loyal voting groups. An ideological realignment has been taking place among American Jews since the Hamas attack on Israel in 2023. And many Democratic voters, including Jews, have grown dismayed by Israel’s conduct in the war.

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FILE -Former Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli speaks after the first Republican debate Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, at Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J. (AP Photo/Mike Catalini, File)

Takeaways from New Jersey election: Trump looms large and signs of Democratic enthusiasm

New Jersey primary voters chose their nominees — and President Donald Trump notched a win in his endorsement belt — in one of two high-stakes governor’s races being held this year. While officials from both parties say November’s general election will hinge on local, pocketbook issues, the outcome will be also closely watched as a harbinger of how both parties might fare in next year’s midterm elections, as a test of Democratic enthusiasm and how the GOP fares without Trump on the ballot. Trump-backed candidate Jack Ciattarelli and Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill will face off in November.

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FILE - Leonard Leo speaks at the National Lawyers Convention in Washington, Nov. 16, 2017. (AP Photo/Sait Serkan Gurbuz, File)

Trump, frustrated with some judges, lashes out at former ally and conservative activist Leonard Leo

President Donald Trump has lashed out at Leonard Leo, the conservative legal activist who has worked to dramatically reshape the country’s courts. Trump is blaming Leo and the group he used to head for encouraging him to appoint judges who are now blocking his agenda. Leo is the former longtime leader of the conservative Federalist Society, who, during Trump’s first term, helped the president transform the federal judiciary and closely advised him on his Supreme Court picks. He is widely credited as an architect of the conservative majority responsible for overturning Roe v. Wade.

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