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The matchup for New Jersey’s gubernatorial election is set, but looming over the contest will be a name that won’t be on any ballot: Donald Trump.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill, who secured the Democratic nomination in Tuesday’s primary, is already running ads that attack Republican Jack Ciattarelli for his ties to the president. Ciattarelli, who was also the GOP’s nominee in 2021, romped to victory in his party’s primary after successfully cultivating Trump’s support.

In focusing on Trump, Democrats have history on their side. New Jersey voters have a strong tendency to elect governors from the party that doesn’t control the White House. This has been the case in all but two races over the past four decades.

Plus, Democrats have run this playbook successfully in New Jersey before. Eight years ago, during Trump’s first term, Gov. Phil Murphy scored a 14-point win over Republican Kim Guadagno. Murphy had sought to tie Guadagno to Trump, whose approval rating in New Jersey that fall stood at just 33%. (Murphy was also aided by the cratering popularity of outgoing Republican Gov. Chris Christie.)

Republicans are counting on the Trump factor playing differently this time around. And, at least for now, there are some key variables they can point to with optimism.

One is the result of last year’s presidential race, when Trump lost New Jersey by 6 points to Kamala Harris. That was a far cry from his 16-point loss in 2020 and his 14-point defeat in 2016. From the outset of the 2017 gubernatorial race, it was obvious that Trump would be a major electoral liability for the GOP. That’s not as clear this time around.

In fact, a PIX11/Emerson College poll conducted a few weeks ago showed Trump with a 47% job approval rating in New Jersey. That’s far higher than he fared during the 2017 campaign, or for that matter, at any point during his first term. It’s also higher than the 40% approval rating for Murphy, who is term-limited and provides Ciattarelli with his own opportunity to tie his opponent to an unpopular leader.

That said, there hasn’t been any polling in the state since mid-May. It’s possible Trump’s standing has shifted in response to the unrest in Los Angeles. It’s also possible it will shift for other reasons between now and November. For now, though, it appears to be in a different place than in 2017.

A key question is whether Trump’s improved performance in New Jersey last year signals a broader shift in the electorate away from the Democrats and toward the GOP. His gains came heavily from nonwhite voters, particularly Hispanics and Asian Americans, mirroring what happened nationally. But many of these voters had either not voted before or had done so infrequently. Did they come out only because of Trump himself or are they converts to the GOP as a whole?

The early indicators from elections this year have not been very encouraging for Republicans, who have suffered a series of defeats amid high participation from Democratic-friendly demographics that Republicans haven’t been able to match. But those off-year elections have been relatively low-wattage affairs. New Jersey’s gubernatorial race will attract much more interest and overall turnout, giving the GOP a better shot at leveling the playing field.

Republicans can take some heart from voter registration statistics. Since last November, the number of registered Republicans in the state has remained flat, while Democrats have shed just over 60,000 enrollees. This is a reversal from 2017, when Democrats were outpacing Republicans in new registrations.

There’s also some history Republicans can point to. Democrats have controlled the New Jersey governorship for two consecutive terms now, with Sherrill seeking to make it three in a row. This is the sixth time since 1981 that a party has tried for a third straight term. In the previous cases, they all failed to win it.

MIAMI — After four months with President Donald Trump at the helm, Reinerio de la Torre says he’s waiting to see if the president fulfills his promises.

The 56-year-old electrician, who came from Cuba 18 years ago, voted for Trump in November. But he says the president has gone too far with immigration, and he doesn’t like to see hardworking people being deported. De la Torre also disagrees with the partial travel ban on Cuba, saying “visas should be decided case by case.”

“But it’s still early in the presidency and we have to give him time to see what he does,” de la Torre said outside Hialeah’s City Hall, where roosters were heard crowing in the background. The street that runs across from it was recently named after the president.

Patricia, 52, who declined to give her last name, echoed de la Torre’s sentiment. “He is deporting innocent people, and I don’t like the tariffs, but maybe at the end it will be for the better,” she said.

About 70% of Cuban Americans living in Florida voted for Trump in the 2024 election, and his support in Hialeah, a working-class city in Miami-Dade County with a robust Cuban American population, was one of the strongest. Trump held a rally here one year before the election and the rise in support he got helped him become the first Republican president to win Miami-Dade County since George H.W. Bush in 1988.

While Trump’s support among Cuban Americans remains strong and few seem to regret their vote, worries over immigration policies have begun to creep up among the multiple voters NBC News spoke to, especially among more recent arrivals.

Cuban Americans began flocking toward Trump in big numbers during his first presidency, as he tightened U.S. sanctions against Cuba, banning flights to most of the island and restricting remittances. A hard-line policy is welcomed by many Cuban Americans who fled the communist-run island.

A historic wave has brought well over half a million of Cuban migrants to the U.S. since 2022. Cubans had long been allowed to become U.S. residents fairly easily through the Cuban Adjustment Act, but now Trump’s immigration policies have left some Cuban immigrants in legal limbo.

Trump also revoked the legal status of migrants who entered the U.S. through the Biden-era CBP One app, which temporarily allowed migrants to live in the U.S., and ended the parole program that gave temporary legal status to 532,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.

While the U.S. has been deporting Cubans regularly since 2017, some recent deportations have surprised some. News of families being separated or a former political prisoner’s parole being revoked have alarmed some in the community.

Trump administration’s partial travel ban on Cuba now makes it impossible for Cubans to gain a visa to visit family, something that was already cumbersome since the U.S. stopped processing visas at the Havana embassy in 2017. For most visas, Cubans had to travel to a third country, often Guyana, which is out of reach for most Cubans.

But Cuban Americans voted for Trump for more than hard-line policies against Cuba, and most seemed content with his presidency thus far.

Mirta Marino, 78, a retired bank worker, said, “Trump is making tough policy decisions, but they are necessary to fix the country.”

She said many Cubans come to this country claiming political persecution but frequently visit the island after they become U.S. residents. Marino, who came in 1980 during the Mariel boatlift, said she never returned. She also believes some people come to this country and take advantage of benefits without working.

A few miles away in the city of Doral, known for its concentration of Venezuelans, many patrons at the popular El Arepazo restaurant are still firmly supporting Trump as well.

Rodrigo Torres, 22, a business owner, said he feels bad for all the Venezuelans affected by Trump’s immigration policies, but he said it helps to get the criminals out of the country.

About half of the people deported in February did not have criminal records and more than half of those in ICE detention have no criminal charges or convictions, according to ICE data.

“There are people getting deported for no reason,” Torres said. “But I would still vote for Trump over Harris.”

Like in Hialeah, a solid majority in Doral voted for Trump in 2024. The city is home to one of the president’s resorts, where he held events and rallies before the election.

Venezuelans may be the group most impacted by Trump’s immigration policies. Since he was campaigning, Trump regularly talked about Venezuelan gangs in the U.S.

“They’re sending us our criminals from Caracas, Venezuela,” Trump said at a July 2024 rally in Doral, claiming Venezuela had sent “all of their drug dealers, their criminals, and most of their prisoners into our country.”

Once in office, Trump used an 18th-century wartime law to send hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants to a maximum security prison in El Salvador, alleging they had ties to the gang Tren de Aragua — something many of the migrants’ families and attorneys have disputed. The men have not been allowed to disprove any gang affiliation or contact attorneys or families. Trump also revoked special legal protections known as Temporary Protected Status for about 350,000 Venezuelans who had been living and working legally in the U.S.

Outside El Arepazo, Carolina Villalobo said she did not vote in the presidential election because she is not yet a citizen, but said she never liked Trump.

“He is very aggressive,” she said. “I agree the country has to be cleaned out and the criminals should be deported, but it should be done with more tact.”

But among her extended family, including siblings and nephews, she’s alone.

“My entire family continues supporting Trump,” Villalobo said.

‘They certainly are feeling the pressure’

The firm support for Trump in South Florida is not surprising to Fernand Amandi, a Democratic consultant and pollster in Miami.

“I haven’t seen a single person who voted for Trump in November of 2024 come out and say: I made a mistake,” he said. “What I have seen is a tremendous amount of rationalization, justification and unwillingness to admit that their votes have contributed to this situation that is now impacting a lot of families and a lot of people directly.”

In order to have a substantial number of voters change their minds, Amandi said, there would have to be a situation in which the economy hits rock bottom and it’s personally affecting them.

Regardless, Democrats are already taking jabs at Republican lawmakers in South Florida that are up for re-election in November 2026. Recently, a group called Keep Them Honest launched an ad campaign on Miami highways and radio criticizing Republican Reps. Mario Díaz-Balart, Carlos Giménez and Maria Elvira Salazar over their support for Trump.

Salazar has been publicly critical about some of Trump’s immigration policies and all three lawmakers have a meeting scheduled with Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem this week.

“They certainly are feeling pressure, they certainly are feeling some backlash, but I’m not quite sure yet it’s to the point where it has made them feel like they are in existential political danger,” said Amandi of the Florida Republican members of Congress. “We see it in their lack of engagement or confrontation with the Trump administration directly … they’re not criticizing the policies or Trump, saying this is out of control and unacceptable.”

U.S. immigration officials said they detained Khaby Lame, one of the world’s most popular TikTok personalities, last week and told him to leave the country after they said he “overstayed the terms of his visa.”

The Italian-Senegalese creator, whose real name is Seringe Khabane Lame, entered the U.S. on April 30, according to a spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He was granted “voluntary departure” on Friday after he was detained by agents at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas.

Lame did not respond to requests for comment made by NBC News. He has not publicly commented on the reported detainment and subsequent departure.

Lame has continued to post on social media in the days since he reportedly left the U.S. His most recent Instagram story appears to have been posted from Brazil.

Sharks Celebrities Mgmt, which is among the listed agency representatives for the creator, claimed the ICE report is “fake news,” telling NBC News in an email that Lame “did not visit the USA this month to begin with.” They said the “the name mentioned is not his birth name.”

It’s unclear when Lame was last in the U.S. but he did attend the Met Gala in May.

Lame has 162.2 million followers on TikTok, where he grew a massive following during the pandemic after being laid off from a factory job in Italy. The 25-year-old, who is also a goodwill ambassador for the humanitarian aid organization UNICEF, is known for his comedic videos that often use the hashtag, “learnfromkhaby.”

The news comes amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration in the U.S., including efforts to detain travelers arriving at the border, including airports.

In recent months, social media users have recounted their interactions with immigration officials and shared their fears about traveling back to the U.S. during a period of heightened vigilance at U.S. entry points and borders.

Lame is one of the more high-profile people to date to be detained. Last month, Hasan Piker, one of the top political pundits on Twitch, said that he was stopped and questioned by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport after a trip to France.

The Turkish American streamer, who is vocal on a number of political and social issues, said he was asked about his views, including whether he supports President Donald Trump. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said at the time that “claims that his political beliefs triggered the inspection are baseless.”

Immigration raids have also ramped up across the U.S., including in Los Angeles, where protests have continued for days as demonstrators push back on the Trump administration’s aggressive round-up efforts.

President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he planned to start “phasing out” the Federal Emergency Management Agency after the hurricane season and that states would receive less federal aid to respond to natural disasters.

Trump also said he planned to distribute disaster relief funds directly from the president’s office.

“We’re going to do it much differently,” Trump said in a briefing at the White House in response to a question about when he planned to eliminate FEMA and what his message was to governors regarding states bearing more disaster-relief costs.

“We’re going to give out less money,” he said.

“We’re going to give it out directly. It’ll be from the president’s office. We’ll have somebody here, could be Homeland Security.”

In an apparent reference to his plans to wind down the disaster-relief agency, Trump added: “I’d say after the hurricane season we’ll start phasing it out.”

The U.S. hurricane season officially began on June 1 and lasts through November. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast last month that this year’s season would be above normal with as many as 10 hurricanes.

Trump’s comments were among the most direct to date indicating his intention to significantly downsize if not outright eliminate FEMA, which has an annual budget of around $30 billion and employed more than 20,000 people, including reservists, prior to layoffs earlier this year.

Distributing funds directly from the White House would also mark a departure from current protocols, under which FEMA oversees the dissemination of financial aid to the states following the president’s declaration of a disaster.

Also at the briefing, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said that FEMA “fundamentally needs to go away as it exists” and that governors were being encouraged to work together to respond to disasters.

“We’re building communication and mutual aid agreements among states … so that they can stand on their own two feet with the federal government coming in in catastrophic circumstances with funding,” Noem said.

FEMA is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

HONG KONG — A life-size Labubu figure has been sold in China for more than $170,000, a record for the highly sought-after toothy monster toy boosted by celebrities.

The 4-foot-tall mint green doll, whose price included a 15% commission, was traded in Beijing on Tuesday at what was billed as the world’s first auction dedicated to Labubu collectibles. Event organizer Yongle Auction said the life-size doll, which is made of hard plastic PVC, is the only one of its kind.

The auction sold all 48 lots for total sales of 3.73 million yuan, or about $520,000, with nearly 1,000 collectors making bids either in person or online, Yongle said in a statement Wednesday. The event came amid a global frenzy over Labubu, which is sold in “blind boxes” by Chinese toy company Pop Mart.

The “intense” bidding showed the “growing momentum of pop art in the auction market,” Yongle said, adding that it will start holding Labubu auctions “regularly.”

The Labubu item that received the second-highest bid was another life-size figure that sold for more than $130,000 and measured 5 feet tall. Coming in third was a set from a series called “Three Wise Labubu” — one doll crossing its arms, one making a peekaboo gesture, and one covering its mouth — that sold for more than $80,000 including commission.

The success of Labubu at auction reflects the “growing presence” of art toys in the market and the progress of Hong Kong and mainland China in setting trends in contemporary culture, said Felix Kwok, a registered auctioneer of China and the founder of Art and Culture Exchange.

“In a somewhat stagnant art auction market, this development is both stimulating and indicative,” he told NBC News via messaging app.

Created in 2015 by Hong Kong-born artist Kasing Lung, Labubu is one of “The Monsters” in his children’s book series inspired by Nordic mythology. With high, pointed ears and serrated teeth, the small monster is “kind-hearted and always wants to help, but often accidentally achieves the opposite,” according to Pop Market.

Labubu dolls are often sold in “blind boxes,” sealed packages whose contents are revealed only upon opening. In the U.S. store, one blind box from a recent collection retails for $27.99, while a set of six costs $167.94, though prices can more double on resale sites such as eBay.

The dolls have also been popularized by celebrities such as Rihanna and Lisa from the South Korean girl group Blackpink, both of whom have been spotted sporting Labubu charms on their handbags.

Despite the global trade disruptions caused by U.S. tariffs, fans have continued to line up at Pop Market shops across the world to buy Labubu dolls. Last month, the Chinese retailer even paused Labubu sales in all 16 shops in the U.K. to avoid safety issues following reports of disorderly lines and fights.

In the first three months of this year, Pop Market’s overseas revenue rose almost 480% overall compared with a year earlier, and nearly 900% in the Americas, according to its quarterly report.

As Labubu’s popularity soars globally, Wang Ning, the founder of Pop Market, became $8 billion richer between 2024 and 2025, a fivefold increase in his wealth, according to Forbes.

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. — A bison gored a man Tuesday after a large group of visitors got too close to the animal in Yellowstone National Park, officials said.

The 30-year-old from Randolph, New Jersey, was treated for minor injuries after being gored around 9:45 a.m. in the Old Faithful area, according to a park statement.

Park officials didn’t release the man’s name or condition, saying what happened was under investigation and no more information was available for release.

He was the second person gored by a bison already this spring in Yellowstone. A 47-year-old Cape Coral, Florida, man had minor injuries after being gored in the Lake Village area May 7.

Bison gored at least two people in Yellowstone last year including an 83-year-old South Carolina woman who was seriously injured. A bison gored an Arizona woman in the park in 2023.

Yellowstone bison injured two people in 2022.

Bison have injured more people in Yellowstone than any other wild animal. They can run up to 35 mph, faster than the men’s world record in the 100-meter dash.

Standing up to 6 feet tall and weighing up to 2,000 pounds, they are North America’s biggest land animal.

Park regulations require visitors to keep at least 25 yards away from bison and other large herbivores and 100 yards away from wolves and bears.

Hundreds of masked rioters attacked police and set homes and cars on fire in the Northern Irish town of Ballymena on Tuesday, in the second successive night of disorder that followed a protest over an alleged sexual assault in the town.

Seventeen officers were injured, bringing to 32 the number hurt since the violence began Monday following a large protest over an alleged sexual assault in the town.

Two 14-year-old boys appeared in court that day, accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl. The charges were read to the teenagers via a Romanian interpreter, the BBC reported. A lawyer told the court that the two teenagers denied the charge. They were remanded in custody until July 2.

Police are investigating attacks on properties Monday that saw four houses damaged by fire as racially-motivated “hate crimes”.

“The mindless violence witnessed over the past two nights in Ballymena is deeply concerning and utterly unacceptable,” Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable Jon Boutcher said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Hate-fueled acts and mob rule do nothing but tear at the fabric of our society… This behavior must stop.”

One Romanian resident told the Irish Times on Tuesday that she was putting a British flag on her front window in a bid to prevent being targeted. Another door had a British and Filipino flag with a message saying “Filipino lives here”, a photograph in The Belfast Telegraph showed.

Five people were arrested on suspicion of riotous behavior in Ballymena, located 45 kilometres (28 miles) from the capital Belfast, following one arrest there on Monday, police said on Wednesday.

Police in Northern Ireland sporadically come under attack whenever tensions rise in parts of the British region, 27 years after a peace deal ended three decades of sectarian bloodshed there.

Officers in riot gear and driving armored vans responded on Tuesday with water cannon and non-lethal rounds, known as attenuated energy projectiles, after being attacked by petrol bombs, scaffolding and rocks that rioters gathered by knocking down nearby walls, a Reuters witness said.

One house was burned out and a police officer vomited after leaving another in a different part of the town that rioters had attempted to set alight, the witness added.

A number of cars were set on fire and one lay upside down in flames as police sirens blared throughout the town past midnight.

Separate protests Tuesday blocked off some roads in Belfast, another Reuters witness said.

Bins were set alight and bottles and masonry thrown at police following protests in the towns of Newtownabbey and Carrickfergus, police said. Police also reported some incidents in north Belfast.

The British government and local politicians condemned the violence.

“The terrible scenes of civil disorder we have witnessed in Ballymena again this evening have no place in Northern Ireland,” Britain’s Northern Ireland Minister Hilary Benn said on X.

Tony Meola knows the pressure of competing in front of his home fans. Back in 1994, when the United States hosted the FIFA World Cup, Meola, the national team’s starting goalkeeper, and his teammates had not one but two jobs: beat the competition and help grow the game.

“It was relentless,” he told NBC News. “Twenty-four hours a day for a year leading into the World Cup. Promotion of the game, events. We never stopped.”

His team did its part off the field — the event shattered attendance records even though soccer wasn’t the most popular sport at the time — and it made it out of the group stage before it lost 1-0 to eventual champion Brazil. Though it wasn’t the result it wanted, that squad is credited for helping generate major interest and participation in the sport stateside.

Meola had dreams of one day seeing the U.S. men’s national team become perennial contenders. But more than 30 years later, with the country (along with Canada and Mexico) hosting the 2026 World Cup next June, he says there’s still as much up in the air as there was two decades ago.

“I don’t feel like we’re ready right now,” Meola, now an analyst for CBS Sports Golazo Network, said of the current U.S. team. “I want to see progression over the next year and go into [the World Cup] with as few question marks as possible, not going in there sort of fearing what’s going to happen.”

Meola is far from the only former USMNT player to share some skepticism one year out. His co-hosts on the soccer podcast “Call It What You Want,” Charlie Davies and Jimmy Conrad, also expressed concern. So did Fox Sports, MLS and Apple commentator Maurice Edu.

Taylor Twellman, the lead soccer analyst for Apple TV, put it more bluntly.

When he was asked how the United States stacks up right now with the top countries in the world, he told NBC News: “They’re not in the conversation with any of them. … They don’t see themselves as a contender.”

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When North America was awarded the rights to the 2026 World Cup in June 2018, Carlos Cordeiro, then the president of U.S. Soccer, called it a “rare and important moment to demonstrate that we are all truly united through sport.”

It also guaranteed more eyeballs on the host countries. According to FIFA, the average global live audience for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar was 175 million viewers. The final between Argentina and France drew 1.5 billion viewers, dramatically more than the most recent Super Bowl (127.7 million).

And with the 2026 World Cup final taking place at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, this was the perfect time to showcase just how far the U.S. men’s team has come. Especially with the “Golden Generation” of players entering their prime.

That term — attached to rising stars like Christian Pulisic, Weston McKennie, Sergiño Dest, Gio Reyna, Timothy Weah, Antonee Robinson, Matt Turner and Tyler Adams — recognizes what was expected to be the best core in program history.

They showed glimpses of brilliance during the 2022 World Cup, a run that ended in the Round of 16, but they were all young. Now, four years older, with experience both internationally and for European clubs, they are expected to help lead a deep World Cup run.

But some remain hesitant to say this group can pull it off. To this point, it lacks a true signature win and has come up short in recent competitions. In last summer’s Copa América, which the United States hosted, the USMNT failed to get out of the group stage after losses to Uruguay and Panama.

The result raised questions about whether this roster was talented enough to get over the hump.

“You can’t be a ‘Golden Generation’ until you do something that hasn’t been done before,” Davies told NBC News.

Edu said: “I felt like the ‘Golden Generation’ tag was coined based on the potential. And now some of these guys are coming into their prime, so that potential has to be realized. Everything, to me, now revolves around what happens next summer.”

To help them reach their potential, the program moved on from longtime coach Gregg Berhalter and replaced him with Mauricio Pochettino. His hiring was seen as a huge deal, as Pochettino, who is Argentine, has managed on some of the biggest stages of world soccer: Tottenham Hotspur, Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea.

So far, the results have been mixed.

He has five wins and four losses in nine games, but the team disappointed in March with two losses in the CONCACAF Nations League Finals. The team has also dropped four games in a row — including a 4-0 loss to Switzerland on Tuesday — though the lineups were far from full strength, with certain stars, like Pulisic, not playing.

U.S. Soccer Sporting Director Matt Crocker said Pochettino’s “reputation stands for itself.” It’s far too early in the process to critique the job he’s done.

“We have a great generation of young players that we want to turn potential into performance, and we couldn’t have had and asked for a better coach to come in and have the ability to do that,” Crocker said. “Now, he just needs to have the time with the players and the games and the experiences to hopefully be ready for next summer, which is our objective.”

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One year away from the biggest tournament in sports, the USMNT’s on-field product is still far from sorted.

The most important position to be decided may be goalkeeper.

Turner, who started in the 2022 World Cup, is once again expected to have that role. But after a year when he played sparingly as a backup for Crystal Palace, some wonder whether his lack of playing time will have him fit for next summer. Reports this week say Turner has agreed to join the French squad Lyon.

Nobody knows goalie play better than Meola, who said, “There are a lot of questions.”

“In general, we’ve gone into World Cups either knowing who our No. 1 is or two or three guys battling for the position. That’s been the rotation since 1990. This particular group, I think we’re unsettled in that position,” he said.

If Turner gets consistent action at Lyon, he should be that guy again in 2026. Patrick Schulte, Zack Steffen and Matt Freese are the likeliest next options.

Meola’s other position group to watch is center back. Out wide, Robinson and Dest are near locks, but the middle of the field is still anyone’s guess. Candidates include Chris Richards, Tim Ream, Mark McKenzie, Miles Robinson or Cameron Carter-Vickers.

“There’s just too many question marks in the middle of the field at the moment,” Meola said. “If I’m going to focus on one, that would be it.”

Edu and Davies said they want to see how the next 12 months play out at center forward. The USMNT won a hard-fought battle with England to get Monaco’s Folarin Balogun (who has dual citizenship), but after him there are many names to consider in Ricardo Pepi, Patrick Agyemang, Haji Wright, Damion Downs and Josh Sargent.

“Even if there’s question marks in other positions, if we feel good about the No. 9 position, I think that gives us a hell of a chance,” Edu said.

Conrad is similarly focused on the middle of the field, this time at center midfield. Pochettino could go with McKennie, Yunus Musah, Johnny Cardoso, Tanner Tessman, Diego Luna or Malik Tillman.

He had one prediction that might shock fans.

“Gio Reyna … I’ll throw him in there, but at this moment I don’t expect him to make the team. That’s my big shock,” Conrad said. “I’ll put my flag in the ground and say he’s got a lot of work to do to get into this team for 2026, which would probably be a surprise to many, but I just think there’s other players that are playing well and could fit the system a little bit better at this current moment.”

Even though questions abound in the middle, Conrad said he feels great outside.

“I would put our outside backs internationally against anybody,” he said. “Our strength, in terms of our starters, is Antonee Robinson, Sergiño Dest and then into Christian Pulisic and Timothy Weah. I feel confident going up against any nation with our outside players.”

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This summer, the USMNT has CONCACAF Gold Cup matches followed by friendlies in September, October and November. Players will then compete for their clubs, either in Major League Soccer or abroad, and then return for more friendlies before the World Cup.

The final roster, capped at 26 players, will be set 10 days before the tournament.

Nobody is more important in that decision than Crocker, the technical director. Previously with English club Southampton and the England national team, he’s focused on getting the best product possible on the field by next June.

He said questions around particular positions don’t really matter because nobody is truly locked in at this point.

“I don’t think that exists 12 months out from a World Cup,” he said. “You’re trying to build depth in the squad but also continue to monitor players’ performances. We need to know who the best three players are at every position. In the build-up to a major tournament, there will always be a player that hits form; there might be a player that gets an injury. So you’ve got to be ready.”

Twellman, a forward on the national team from 2002 to 2008, said his concerns aren’t based solely on the talent level in specific position groups. It comes down to results, and the team simply hasn’t gotten enough of them for him to be confident heading into a World Cup.

“There’s just a sense of apathy around the United States men’s program,” he said. “And I don’t think that’s a hot take.”

Crocker said he has heard some of the negative discourse around the program but “can’t control the outside noise.”

“Our job, both as staff and as players, is to almost sort of look within ourselves, to continue to work as hard as we possibly can, continue to try and improve in training every day to put the performances in that we need to every day,” he said. “We would love everybody to be great supporters and start to talk positively about the team, but we’d also know that we have a responsibility through our performances to control that narrative, as well.”

A trio of states with Democratic governors viewed as potential 2028 presidential candidates have taken steps in recent weeks to freeze or cut government-funded health care coverage for undocumented immigrants.

Democratic Govs. Gavin Newsom of California, JB Pritzker of Illinois and Tim Walz of Minnesota have largely attributed the proposals to budget shortfalls stemming from original plans to expand health care to immigrants without legal status.

But the moves also occur against the backdrop of broader debate within the Democratic Party over how to handle immigration, an issue that dragged it down in the last election and that President Donald Trump and the GOP have continued to try to capitalize on.

The plans, which would scale back health care coverage for undocumented immigrants in the three Democratic-led states just years after it was expanded, have angered progressives and immigrant advocacy groups, who warn the party risks alienating its base — particularly as protests against Trump’s deportation plans break out around the country.

The latest development came in Minnesota on Tuesday, after both chambers of the Legislature passed a bill to end state-funded health care for undocumented adults.

The bipartisan effort advanced through the Republican-controlled House and the Democratic-controlled Senate as part of attempts to balance the state budget. It now goes to Walz, who has said he’ll sign it.

The bill would end undocumented adults’ eligibility for MinnesotaCare — the state-funded health insurance program for low-income residents — effectively reversing one of the signature policy wins Walz secured during a landmark legislative session in 2023, when Democrats were in full control of state government. Undocumented children would remain eligible to enroll in the program under the legislation.

In California, Newsom unveiled a budget plan last month that would cut back on health care benefits for undocumented immigrants — a stark reversal from his promises of universal health care for all the state’s residents, regardless of their immigration status.

Newsom’s plan in his 2025-26 budget has called for freezing enrollment for undocumented adults to receive the full scope of the state’s Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal. Newsom’s office has said the changes would apply only to new applicants over age 19, that existing enrollees wouldn’t be kicked off their plans and that the freeze, which would begin next year, wouldn’t apply to people enrolled in limited plans.

Newsom’s proposed changes also included a new $100 monthly premium for adults 19 and older with “unsatisfactory immigration status” beginning in 2027.

His expansion of Medi-Cal has cost far more than his administration anticipated. Newsom has said the changes will help to balance the state’s budget, which has run a multibillion-dollar shortfall that he has blamed on Trump’s tariffs, as well as growing costs from higher enrollment in Medi-Cal.

Meanwhile, Illinois remains on track by the end of the month to end a program — called Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults — that provides state-funded health care coverage for more than 30,000 low-income adults who are living in the state without documentation.

Similarly, the program in Illinois was more expensive than expected when it was created in 2021. Pritzker’s latest budget, which the Democratic-led Legislature passed last month, proposed eliminating it by July 1.

While the moves would help those states recalibrate their budgets, a sweeping Trump-backed domestic policy bill moving through Congress proposes slashing Medicaid funding for states that provide health care coverage to undocumented immigrants. Trump also signed an executive order this year targeting undocumented immigrants’ access to government assistance programs.

In response to questions from NBC News, Newsom spokesperson Elana Ross reiterated his statement in his initial announcement of the changes last month that “instead of rolling back the program — meaning cutting people off for basic care — we’re capping it.”

Pritzker’s office said in an email that “this year, passing a balanced budget required the difficult decision that reflects the reality of Trump and Republicans tanking our national economy and attempting to strip away healthcare.”

A Walz spokesperson didn’t respond to questions about Minnesota’s plan, which was the result of a compromise after Republican lawmakers had pushed to end the entire MinnesotaCare program.

“No one got everything they wanted,” Walz said last month after he reached a tentative deal with Republicans on the budget, which was finalized in a special session this week. “There were very difficult conversations about issues that were very dear to each of these caucuses. But at the end of the day, we were able to come to this agreement.”

Blowback from the left

Immigrant advocacy groups have panned the moves, saying they risk further imperiling the broader health care system, and blasted Democrats for succumbing to Trump’s attacks.

“We urge state leaders to build on their progress, rather than placing the health of their residents at risk,” said Tanya Broder, the senior counsel for health and economic justice policy at the National Immigration Law Center. “Particularly as extremist politicians scapegoat and target immigrants, we are counting on state officials to do the right thing and hold the line.

“As states increasingly have recognized, a community’s health and well-being depend on ensuring that everyone has access to health care. Immigrants pay billions of dollars in federal, state and local taxes, yet many are excluded from critical health care programs,” she added. “Terminating state coverage for immigrants will compromise our collective health, as well as the health care infrastructure that serves all of us.”

Some progressives questioned whether the moves were part of a broader strategy by the three governors to move to the right on the broader issue of immigration, which polling has shown still remains one of Trump’s strongest issues.

They said they could face a backlash from their base by departing from positions on supporting immigrant communities and expanding health care.

“It really feeds into the conservative narrative that undocumented immigrants are a drain on our communities,” said Jennifer Driver, a senior director at the State Innovation Exchange, a progressive legislative policy group. “This assumption that by moving more to the middle or to the right that you’re going to recruit some people back — I think it’s a miscalculation.

“The frustration that you’re seeing in the Democratic base is due to this kind of this waffling, this kind of idea that ‘OK, yes, we are progressive — but only in some moments,’” Driver added.

Other strategists suggested it remained too early to gauge whether a broader shift was in play as governors and other lawmakers positioned themselves for potential 2028 White House bids, and they emphasized that the threats blue states face from Trump are serious.

“The Trump administration is squeezing the hell out of states,” said Jeff Blodgett, a Minnesota-based Democratic strategist who was a campaign manager for the late Sen. Paul Wellstone and the state director for both of Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns. “There’s just a lot of concern about current and future budgets given what the federal government is doing to states.”

Austrian authorities were searching Wednesday for answers to why a 21-year-old gunman shot dead 10 people in a rampage at his former high school before killing himself, one of the worst outbreaks of violence in the country’s modern history.

Police said the man, armed with a shotgun and a pistol, acted alone. They are scouring his home and the internet for clues to why he opened fire on the school in Austria’s second city of Graz on Tuesday, before shooting himself in a bathroom.

The incident was hard to properly take in, said a religious studies teacher at the school, Paul Nitsche, who left his classroom before the gunman tried to enter, and briefly saw him trying to shoot the lock off another door.

“This is something I couldn’t even imagine before, that’s what the situation was like as I ran down the stairwell, I thought to myself: ‘This wasn’t real,’” he told national broadcaster ORF.

Some Austrian media have said the young man, who has not been identified, apparently felt bullied, though police have yet to confirm this. Austrian authorities said the suspect never completed his studies at the school.

He left a farewell note that did not reveal the motive for the attack, police said, adding that a pipe bomb found at his home was not functional.

Franz Ruf, director general of public security, said investigations into the motive were moving swiftly.

“We don’t want to speculate at this point,” he told ORF on Tuesday night.

Around 17 minutes elapsed between the first emergency calls received by police about shots being fired at the school and the scene being declared safe, Ruf said.

Details of the attack have emerged slowly.

Austrian police said victims were found both outside and inside the school, on various floors. About a dozen people were injured in the attack, some seriously.

Austria declared three days of national mourning, with the shootings prompting a rare show of solidarity among often bitterly divided political parties. Parents of pupils and neighbors of the school struggled to make sense of the event.

Hundreds came together in Graz‘s main square on Tuesday evening to remember the victims. Others left flowers and lit candles outside the school. Dozens also queued to donate blood for the survivors.