Suspected gunman identified after being shot dead at Mar-a-Lago – US politics live
US government issues travel warnings for citizens in Mexico amid widespread violence
The Mexican government killed a cartel boss known as “El Mencho”, sparking a wave of retaliatory violence in western Mexico and stranding travelers on Sunday.
The US government urged US citizens in widespread areas of Mexico to shelter in place, saying that US government staff in those areas were also doing so on Sunday and would continue on Monday.
A travel alert from the US embassy in Mexico noted that no airports had been closed, but that roadblocks had affected airline operations, that most flights out of the cities of Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta were canceled, and that rideshares were suspended in Puerto Vallarta.
The alert advised people to “seek shelter” and “minimize unnecessary movements”.
“Americans should keep family and friends advised of your location & well-being,” the travel alert said.
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“Judge Cannon’s decision to permanently block the release of this extraordinarily significant report is impossible to square with the First Amendment and the common law,” Scott Wilkens, senior counsel at the Knight Institute, said in a press release. “There is no legitimate basis for its continued suppression.”
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The institute last year filed a motion to request Cannon lift an injunction that kept the justice department from releasing Smith’s final report, arguing the public has a right to access the records. Since then, it has also asked the court of appeals to reverse a Cannon order that refused to release the report, and separately filed a motion saying Cannon didn’t have authority over the report.
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Jameel Jaffer, executive director at the Knight Institute, said: “A major purpose of the First Amendment is to protect the free discussion of governmental affairs, and the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the First Amendment protects the public’s right of access to documents filed in connection with criminal trials. Given the significance of the Special Counsel’s report, and the role it played in earlier proceedings before Judge Cannon, there is really no question that both the common law and the First Amendment require the report’s release.”
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In a ruling on Monday, US federal judge Aileen Cannon permanently prohibited the justice department from releasing a report put together by former special counsel Jack Smith related to classified documents Trump kept at Mar-a-Lago.
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Cannon, based in Florida, had previously dismissed the case against Trump in mid-2024 because, she concluded, Smith had not been properly appointed to a role as special counsel. Smith continued to prepare a final report based on what he and his team had collected in the investigation, Cannon wrote in her ruling Monday.
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“To say this chronology represents, at a minimum, a concerning breach of the spirit of the Dismissal Order is an understatement, if not an outright violation of it,” she wrote of Smith continuing to create a report.
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Releasing the report would be a “manifest injustice” for the defendants, since the case didn’t go to a jury, she wrote. “The former defendants in this case, like any other defendant in this situation, still enjoy the presumption of innocence held sacrosanct in our constitutional order.”
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The US state department is ordering non-essential US government personnel and their families to evacuate the US embassy in Beirut, Lebanon.
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The state department confirmed the move to Fox News, saying the embassy remains operational and has core staff in place.
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“We continuously assess the security environment, and based on our latest review, we determined it prudent to reduce our footprint to essential personnel. … This is a temporary measure intended to ensure the safety of our personnel while maintaining our ability to operate and assist US citizens,” a state department official told the conservative outlet.
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The killing of “El Mencho” came as the US government had been urging the Mexican government to take more action against cartel drug networks.
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White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X that the US had “provided intelligence support” to the Mexican government in the operation against Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Oseguera Cervantes, who she called “an infamous drug lord and leader within the Jalisco New Generation Cartel” and confirmed he was “eliminated”.
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“El Mencho” was considered a “top target” for both the US and Mexican government because he was a top trafficker of fentanyl into the US, Leavitt said. Trump had designated the Jalisco New Generation Cartel as a foreign terrorist organization last year, she noted.
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In addition to “El Mencho”, three other cartel members were killed, three were wounded and two were arrested, Leavitt said.
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“President Trump has been very clear – the United States will ensure narcoterrorists sending deadly drugs to our homeland are forced to face the wrath of justice they have long deserved,” she said.
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The Mexican government killed a cartel boss known as “El Mencho”, sparking a wave of retaliatory violence in western Mexico and stranding travelers on Sunday.
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The US government urged US citizens in widespread areas of Mexico to shelter in place, saying that US government staff in those areas were also doing so on Sunday and would continue on Monday.
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A travel alert from the US embassy in Mexico noted that no airports had been closed, but that roadblocks had affected airline operations, that most flights out of the cities of Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta were canceled, and that rideshares were suspended in Puerto Vallarta.
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The alert advised people to “seek shelter” and “minimize unnecessary movements”.
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“Americans should keep family and friends advised of your location & well-being,” the travel alert said.
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President Donald Trump has launched a fresh attack on the US supreme court following its decision to strike down his tariffs.
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Writing on Truth Social, he crowed that the court had “accidentally and unwittingly” given him “far more powers and strength” as a result of its ruling.
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He said that other tariffs can be used in a “much more powerful and obnoxious way”.
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In his typical rambling style, Trump wrote:
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The supreme court (will be using lower case letters for a while based on a complete lack of respect!) of the United States accidentally and unwittingly gave me, as President of the United States, far more powers and strength than I had prior to their ridiculous, dumb, and very internationally divisive ruling.
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For one thing, I can use Licenses to do absolutely “terrible” things to foreign countries, especially those countries that have been RIPPING US OFF for many decades, but incomprehensibly, according to the ruling, can’t charge them a License fee – BUT ALL LICENSES CHARGE FEES, why can’t the United States do so? You do a license to get a fee! The opinion doesn’t explain that, but I know the answer! The court has also approved all other Tariffs, of which there are many, and they can all be used in a much more powerful and obnoxious way, with legal certainty, than the Tariffs as initially used.
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Our incompetent supreme court did a great job for the wrong people, and for that they should be ashamed of themselves (but not the Great Three!). The next thing you know they will rule in favor of China and others, who are making an absolute fortune on Birthright Citizenship, by saying the 14th Amendment was NOT written to take care of the “babies of slaves,” which it was as proven by the EXACT TIMING of its construction, filing, and ratification, which perfectly coincided with the END OF THE CIVIL WAR. How much better can you do than that?
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But this supreme court will find a way to come to the wrong conclusion, one that again will make China, and various other Nations, happy and rich. Let our supreme court keep making decisions that are so bad and deleterious to the future of our Nation – I have a job to do.
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The Moore County Sheriff’s Department in North Carolina said a relative of Martin’s reported him missing early on Sunday morning.
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In a statement posted to Facebook, the Moore County Sheriff’s Office wrote:
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The Moore County Sheriff’s Office confirms that on February 22, 2026, at approximately 1:38 a.m., a relative of 21-year-old Austin Tucker Martin approached a deputy at a local business and reported him missing. He was subsequently entered into a national missing person database.
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Following that report, federal authorities informed the Sheriff’s Office that they are conducting an active investigation in Florida involving Martin. At their request, the missing person case information has been turned over to federal investigators.
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The Moore County Sheriff’s Office had no prior history involving Martin before the missing person report.
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The New York Times is reporting that Austin Tucker Martin graduated from Union Pines High School in Cameron, North Carolina, in 2023, and started an artwork company last June that specialised in handmade drawings of golf courses.
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According to its website, Fresh Sky Illustrations:
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Is an artwork company that mainly focuses on bringing to life the hopeful feeling of being on a golf course by illustrating golf course scenes and providing framed copies of handmade works in various golf course gift shops while handling personal commissions on the side.
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Combining the aesthetics of the sunny outdoors, and old digital aesthetics from the mid 2000s, Fresh Sky Illustrations hopes to awaken a sense of hope and comfort with this handcrafted webpage design.
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Martin, who lived in a part of North Carolina renowned for its golf courses, was a registered voter, although state voting records indicate he wasn’t affiliated to a particular party.
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The 21-year-old was described by his cousin Braeden Fields as “very quiet” and inexperienced with guns.
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“He doesn’t even know how to use a gun. He’s never used a gun,” Fields, 19, told ABC station WTVD hours after Martin had been killed.
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Fields said the family are “big Trump supporters” and that Martin has an older brother in the military.
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Martin “never really talked about … he didn’t want to get into politics,” Fields said, adding that Martin worked at a golf course, preparing it for the season, and liked to send his paychecks to charity.
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“We grew up together, practically,” Fields said. “I never, I wouldn’t believe that he would do something like this. Mind-blowing.”
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Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of US politics.
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The armed man who US Secret Service agents killed yesterday after allegedly breaching the secure perimeter of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida has been identified in media reports as Austin Tucker Martin, a 21-year-old illustrator from Cameron, North Carolina.
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Although the US president often spends weekends at the oceanfront resort, he was at the White House in Washington during this incident, as was first lady Melania Trump.
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At a press conference on Sunday morning, Ric Bradshaw, the sheriff of Palm Beach county, said that the suspect was carrying a gas canister and a shotgun.
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Bradshaw later confirmed Austin’s identity after initially withholding it until officials could notify his family, according to the Washington Post.
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Austin’s family in North Carolina had reported him missing in the early hours of Sunday morning, according to the Moore County Sheriff’s Office.
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As my colleague Richard Luscombe notes in this story, Bradshaw told reporters that two Secret Service agents and one of his deputies went to the north gate of the property at about 1.30am ET (06:30 GMT) after a security detail alerted them that a person was within an inner perimeter.
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There, they confronted a white male carrying a shotgun and a gasoline can, Bradshaw said.
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“He was ordered to drop those two pieces of equipment that he had with him, at which time he put down the gas can (and) raised the shotgun to a shooting position,” the sheriff said.
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“At that point in time, the deputy and the two Secret Service agents fired their weapons and neutralized the threat. He is deceased at the scene.”
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A motive has not beeen determined by investigators, who are being led by the FBI. The security breach follows two assassination attempts against Trump during his 2024 presidential campaign.
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First Amendment group slams judge’s ruling on Smith report: ‘no legitimate basis’
The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, which had sought to get the final report by Jack Smith released, called the ruling from Judge Aileen Cannon to permanently bar its release an affront to the first amendment.
“Judge Cannon’s decision to permanently block the release of this extraordinarily significant report is impossible to square with the First Amendment and the common law,” Scott Wilkens, senior counsel at the Knight Institute, said in a press release. “There is no legitimate basis for its continued suppression.”
The institute last year filed a motion to request Cannon lift an injunction that kept the justice department from releasing Smith’s final report, arguing the public has a right to access the records. Since then, it has also asked the court of appeals to reverse a Cannon order that refused to release the report, and separately filed a motion saying Cannon didn’t have authority over the report.
Jameel Jaffer, executive director at the Knight Institute, said: “A major purpose of the First Amendment is to protect the free discussion of governmental affairs, and the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the First Amendment protects the public’s right of access to documents filed in connection with criminal trials. Given the significance of the Special Counsel’s report, and the role it played in earlier proceedings before Judge Cannon, there is really no question that both the common law and the First Amendment require the report’s release.”
Judge permanently bars DoJ from releasing Jack Smith’s report on Trump documents
In a ruling on Monday, US federal judge Aileen Cannon permanently prohibited the justice department from releasing a report put together by former special counsel Jack Smith related to classified documents Trump kept at Mar-a-Lago.
Cannon, based in Florida, had previously dismissed the case against Trump in mid-2024 because, she concluded, Smith had not been properly appointed to a role as special counsel. Smith continued to prepare a final report based on what he and his team had collected in the investigation, Cannon wrote in her ruling Monday.
“To say this chronology represents, at a minimum, a concerning breach of the spirit of the Dismissal Order is an understatement, if not an outright violation of it,” she wrote of Smith continuing to create a report.
Releasing the report would be a “manifest injustice” for the defendants, since the case didn’t go to a jury, she wrote. “The former defendants in this case, like any other defendant in this situation, still enjoy the presumption of innocence held sacrosanct in our constitutional order.”
Let’s step back a bit, to the tariffs ruling on Friday.
Trump had asserted he had sole power to enact a set of tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Some of those tariffs were massive, depending on the country and product, and his authority was challenged in court by businesses, trade groups and Democratic attorneys general.
The US supreme court, which is majority conservative, ruled against Trump, saying tariffs like the ones Trump attempted needed congressional approval. The creators of the constitution gave this “taxing power” to Congress.
The ruling was a major loss for Trump and his agenda, and the fallout for it on global trade is unclear, as the president has made moves and comments since the ruling to retaliate. He imposed a 15% tariff on all countries under a different tariff authority, increased from 10%.
After the ruling, countries that stuck trade deals with the US under the threat of the massive IEEPA tariffs sought clarity on how to proceed, as the US trade negotiator said that any deals “remain in place”. On Monday, Trump threatened other countries that he could use other tariffs in a “much more powerful and obnoxious way” if he wanted.
President Donald Trump is still mad about the US supreme court ruling against him on tariffs.
In two additional posts on Truth Social this morning, after a lengthy screed earlier, Trump went after the court and threatened other countries with more tariffs if they tried to renegotiate terms because of the court ruling.
“Any Country that wants to ‘play games’ with the ridiculous supreme court decision, especially those that have ‘Ripped Off’ the U.S.A. for years, and even decades, will be met with a much higher Tariff, and worse, than that which they just recently agreed to,” he said. “BUYER BEWARE!!!”
In another post, he wrote that he didn’t need to get congressional approval for more tariffs, a central argument in the court case he lost.
“As President, I do not have to go back to Congress to get approval of Tariffs. It has already been gotten, in many forms, a long time ago! They were also just reaffirmed by the ridiculous and poorly crafted supreme court decision!”
Dan Crenshaw, a Republican representative from Texas, praised the operation against “El Mencho” and the Jalisco New Generation cartel, saying that cartel was “the most violent and deranged cartel in Mexico”.
“Over the past year most of the attention has been on the Sinaloa cartel,” Crenshaw wrote on X. “This is a much needed refocusing on CJNG. Both are major traffickers of fentanyl, but CJNG is more like ISIS than the mafia. They are ruthlessly violent, currently terrorizing all parts of Mexico to intimidate the government back into submission.”
He urged Congress to take action on bills, including his, that would support more military and law enforcement work in Mexico, saying the Mexican government was “finally” a “solid partner” in confronting the cartels.
“We are finally taking them on. It won’t be over soon. But it’s about time we started.”
US orders evacuation of non-essential personnel from embassy in Beirut
The US state department is ordering non-essential US government personnel and their families to evacuate the US embassy in Beirut, Lebanon.
The state department confirmed the move to Fox News, saying the embassy remains operational and has core staff in place.
“We continuously assess the security environment, and based on our latest review, we determined it prudent to reduce our footprint to essential personnel. … This is a temporary measure intended to ensure the safety of our personnel while maintaining our ability to operate and assist US citizens,” a state department official told the conservative outlet.
US ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson shared a statement commending the Mexican government for its operation against “El Mencho”, praising the security forces for their “professionalism and resolve”.
“I express my respect and solidarity with the Mexican officials and service members who confront these criminal elements every day, often at great personal risk,” he said. “This operation underscores a clear reality: criminal organizations that poison our people and threaten our nations will be held accountable.”
He said cooperation between the US and Mexico was at “unprecedented levels”.
US senators and representatives across the political spectrum highlighted travel warnings from the US governmenttelling their constituents to shelter in place, enroll in a travel advisory program and contact their offices for any assistance needed.
Many elected officials and the US government directed people to sign up for the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, a free service where US nationals can enroll their trip abroad details so the US state department can contact them in case of emergency.
US ‘provided intelligence support’ to Mexican government in operation against ‘El Mencho’, White House says
The killing of “El Mencho” came as the US government had been urging the Mexican government to take more action against cartel drug networks.
White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt said on X that the US had “provided intelligence support” to the Mexican government in the operation against Nemesio ‘El Mencho’ Oseguera Cervantes, who she called “an infamous drug lord and leader within the Jalisco New Generation Cartel” and confirmed he was “eliminated”.
“El Mencho” was considered a “top target” for both the US and Mexican government because he was a top trafficker of fentanyl into the US, Leavitt said. Trump had designated the Jalisco New Generation Cartel as a foreign terrorist organization last year, she noted.
In addition to “El Mencho”, three other cartel members were killed, three were wounded and two were arrested, Leavitt said.
“President Trump has been very clear – the United States will ensure narcoterrorists sending deadly drugs to our homeland are forced to face the wrath of justice they have long deserved,” she said.
US government issues travel warnings for citizens in Mexico amid widespread violence
The Mexican government killed a cartel boss known as “El Mencho”, sparking a wave of retaliatory violence in western Mexico and stranding travelers on Sunday.
The US government urged US citizens in widespread areas of Mexico to shelter in place, saying that US government staff in those areas were also doing so on Sunday and would continue on Monday.
A travel alert from the US embassy in Mexico noted that no airports had been closed, but that roadblocks had affected airline operations, that most flights out of the cities of Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta were canceled, and that rideshares were suspended in Puerto Vallarta.
The alert advised people to “seek shelter” and “minimize unnecessary movements”.
“Americans should keep family and friends advised of your location & well-being,” the travel alert said.
