Hegses Boat Strike Watchtower

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President Donald Trump is holding a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday, as his administration grapples with a number of major political issues that have surfaced in the less than eight weeks since senior administration officials last convened.

The meeting came amid increased bipartisan scrutiny over the administration’s decision to launch multiple missile attacks on suspected Venezuelan drug-smuggling vessels in early September.

The White House announced Monday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has authorized Navy Adm. Frank Bradley to order a second attack on the boat where survivors of the first attack were said to have died.

Some experts and lawmakers say the “Double Tap” attack could constitute a war crime. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, a Republican, vowed Monday to monitor the military action. The White House insists the airstrike was legal and carried out “in self-defense.”

The last Cabinet meeting was held on October 9, during the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

The shutdown, which lasted 43 days and ended Nov. 12, centered on a dispute over enhanced health insurance subsidies in the Affordable Care Act that are set to expire at the end of the year. The impasse was broken after enough Democrats backed a funding deal that included a guaranteed Senate Republican majority to allow the Democratic-chosen bill to be voted on in December.

A growing number of Americans blame Republicans for the government shutdown, according to numerous polls, and this coincided with a series of landslide victories for Democrats in key elections in early November. The Republicans’ overwhelming defeat set off alarm bells within President Trump’s party, which hopes to maintain its slim parliamentary majority after next year’s midterm elections.

The shift in power has focused attention on Tuesday’s special election for a U.S. House seat in Tennessee’s reddish district, which looks increasingly competitive despite favoring Trump by 22 points in 2024.

Days after a partisan shutdown fight ended, Congress surprisingly rallied to support a bill that would order the Justice Department to release files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump, a former friend of Epstein’s and enraged by the government’s growing push to release records about the deceased investor, ultimately told Republicans to vote in favor of the bill. He signed the bill on Nov. 19, starting a 30-day timer for Attorney General Pam Bondi to publicly release unclassified files on Epstein and convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.