News Recap: What You May Have Missed in September

Written By: Jacqueline Salazar Romo

September 25, 2025

Bank Phrom/Unsplash

If you’re too overwhelmed to look through the headlines, then let’s catch you up! Here’s a brief (or at least, as brief as a news cycle of this enormity can be) but not all-encompassing collection of US-based news and events from the past two-ish weeks, spanning from September 9th to September 24th:

September 9th:

A 2003 letter from Donald Trump dedicated to American financier Jeffrey Epstein on his 50th birthday was surfaced by Epstein’s estate executors after calls from the House Oversight Committee to have them release the documents in their possession. The White House has passionately denied any ties to the letter, claiming that the president “did not draw the picture, and he did not sign it.” The letter features a voice-over transcript of a possible conversation between the two men, with a crude drawing of a child-like female body surrounding the text and Trump’s signature at the bottom. There is mounting pressure on Trump to be transparent about his connection to Epstein, who was infamously responsible for a sex trafficking operation spanning decades.

September 10th:

Right-wing provocateur and media personality Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley University. A co-founder of the conservative mobilization organization Turning Point USA, Kirk was notorious for his debates with ideologically opposed college-age youth, hoping to persuade them to vote for and/or support the Republican Party and conservative-minded political candidates.
On the same day, a teenager attending Evergreen High School near Denver, Colorado shot two of his classmates before committing suicide. As per NBC News, “The Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism said over the weekend that the attacker ‘expressed Neo-Nazi views’ online and that his TikTok accounts ‘were filled with white supremacist symbolism.’”

September 11th:

This date marked the 24th anniversary of the September 11th attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Rumors circulated about Donald Trump’s disengaged presence at a 9/11 memorial event in Washington, D.C., with some viewers on social media speculating that he seemed to be presenting signs of a stroke after they noted facial drooping and an amiss expression. The Administration did not address these rumors.

September 12th:

After an intense 33-hour manhunt, authorities arrested 22-year-old Tyler Robinson as the man allegedly responsible for Charlie Kirk’s murder. He was taken into custody and is being held without bail at the Utah County Jail, with multiple right-wing voices calling for an expedited trial and even the death penalty. Plenty of premature assumptions regarding his background and motivations arose following a press release in which FBI Director Kash Patel and Utah officials disclosed details of evidence before the possibility of a trial, causing many to express concern that this might jeopardize the selection of a fair and impartial jury. Among these assumptions, right-wing media speakers were quick to speculate that the shooter was affiliated with the LGBTQ+ community, and more specifically, the transgender community, claims that have not been substantiated.

September 20th:

Terrorism claims against Luigi Mangione were dropped on September 16th, and since then, his legal representatives have been calling for the judge to remove the possibility of the death penalty. Despite U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s persistence in having Mangione face capital punishment, the 27-year-old’s defense team “argues federal prosecutors have ‘violated Mr. Mangione’s constitutional and statutory rights’ by ‘staging a dehumanizing, unconstitutional perp walk,’” with prosecutor Karen Friedman Agnifilo claiming that the case has been “fatally prejudiced” given its highly publicized and politicized nature and reporting. Mangione is alleged to be responsible for the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024.

September 21st:

Members of the Trump Administration and other high-profile conservative personalities attended and spoke at Charlie Kirk’s memorial service, which took place at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. There is far too much to talk about here, so stay tuned for a more in-depth conversation that will be linked post-publishing.

September 22nd:

In a press conference, Trump and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made unsubstantiated claims that acetaminophen (commonly found in Tylenol) and “folate deficiency” could be causing autism, among other public health disinformation sentiments targeting medicine and vaccine efficiency. These claims are especially concerning to medical experts globally, as acetaminophen is one of the few pain relief drugs that can be used by pregnant people with (previously) no associated risk to the fetus or its development.
The Justice Department closed an investigation on former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Thomas Homan (Trump’s designated “border czar” from January 2017 to June 2018), who was presumably caught accepting a $50,000 bribe from undercover FBI agents pretending to be business executives.
Speaking with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow to promote her latest book, 107 Days, Kamala Harris likened Trump to a “communist dictator” during her interview with the host. She also seemed tepid in fully endorsing NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, agreeing that he “should be supported” as the Democratic nominee, but then being quick to mention other rising political candidates, saying that Mandani is “not the only star” and calling for Democrats to not “lose sight of the stars throughout our country who are right now running for [political offices].”

September 23rd:

Trump made several inflammatory comments amid his rambling at the United Nations General Assembly. Among them, he remarked that climate change is “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world;” pushed back against countries that recognized Palestine as a state; and spewed xenophobic rhetoric while scolding international representatives over their “[crises] of uncontrolled migration,” saying that “[their] countries are going to hell.”
A satirical pop-up statue depicting Trump and Epstein jovially holding hands, titled “Best Friends Forever,” mysteriously appeared near the National Mall, reflective of the ongoing discourse about the President’s camaraderie with the infamous sex offender.

September 24th:

A shooting took place at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office based in Dallas, Texas. This incident is still under investigation. Reportedly, there have been two deaths and one victim in serious condition, and the shooter is presumed dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem took to posting on Twitter: “For months, we’ve been warning politicians and the media to tone down their rhetoric about ICE law enforcement before someone was killed. These horrendous killings must serve as a wake-up call to the far-left that their rhetoric about ICE has consequences. Comparing ICE Day-in [sic] and day-out to the Nazi Gestapo, the Secret Police, and slave patrols have consequences…”. However, other platform users have been critical of her divisive phrasing, additionally clarifying that the victims appear to have been immigrant detainees and not ICE officials, as Noem indirectly claimed.

September 14th:

Four days after suggesting that people experiencing mental illnesses or homelessness should be executed, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade apologized for his “extremely callous” statements. After Fox and Friends co-host Lawrence Jones suggested these individuals should “either accept the publicly funded programs to help in their situation or be jailed,” Kilmeade replied with “Involuntary lethal injection or something… Just kill ’em.” These cruel and dehumanizing remarks were made during a discussion about the killing of 23-year-old Ukrainian immigrant Iryna Zarutska.

September 15th:

Trump signed an order to deploy the National Guard to Memphis, Tennessee, citing “anti-crime efforts” through federal intervention measures. This normalization of increased military presence has raised concerns about the overstepping of presidential power amid state affairs, especially as the city has many advocates and representatives who have expressed strong opposition to this action. The news is especially frustrating to the city’s authorities, as the Memphis Police Department reported “historic crime reductions” and an overall crime rate dropping to a “25-year low.”

September 16th:

The body of Demartravion “Trey” Reed, a 21-year-old Black Mississippi college student, was found hanging from a tree on the Delta State University campus. While campus investigators were quick to dismiss the death as a suicide, some call for a more thorough investigation, including his family along with civil rights attorneys and state representatives, who all seek transparency and justice for his tragic death. Former NFL star and activist Colin Kaepernick will reportedly be covering the cost of a second independent autopsy once Reed’s body has been released.
In the latest when it comes to censorship and erasure, the Trump Administration has reportedly ordered for the removal of a reproduction of “The Scourged Back” (1863), a harrowing photograph of a freedman known as Peter whose scarred back is a paramount testament to the bloodied legacy of slavery—and yet another piece (from countless) of Black history that Trump has sought to erase in his second term alone.
FBI Director Kash Patel testified to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee under oath that there was “no credible information” that Jeffrey Epstein (see September 9th information) trafficked women and minors “to anyone but himself.”

September 17th:

ABC suspended late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel over comments amidst a censorship campaign by right-wing media. While the show has been reinstated since, it wasn’t before the Walt Disney Company faced great public outrage and backlash, with ABC’s parent company allegedly “[losing] close to $5 billion from its stock market value overnight” due to consumer boycotts and widespread controversy, as per Al Jazeera and Unilad.
A decisive 214-213 vote ended a GOP-led measure to “formally condemn Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and remove her from her committees” after Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) ascribed defamatory claims about Charlie Kirk to Omar and ardently pushed for her censorship and removal, as per Politico.
In more unserious news, cryptocurrency investors installed a temporary 12-foot golden statue of Donald Trump holding a Bitcoin outside of the US Capitol after the Federal Reserve reportedly brought down interest rates by 0.25%.

September 18th:

Trump’s visit to the United Kingdom, which began two days prior, concludes. The pompous affair made headlines for being the first time historically that a second-term U.S. President was extended an invitation to revisit the Crown.

September 19th:

The United States vetoed an otherwise unanimous Security Council resolution by the United Nations calling for an “immediate, unconditional and permanent” ceasefire in Gaza. Despite mounting pressures from humanitarian organizations and the growing acknowledgement of Palestinian genocide on a global scale, the United States stood as the vehement supporter of Israeli “defense” against fourteen other members of the U.N. body.
On a domestic level, U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday dismissed Donald Trump’s $15-billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times, deciding that “a legal complaint… [is not] a protected platform to rage against an adversary.