5 standout moments from the Hill Nation Summit

News 5 standout moments from the Hill Nation Summit Comments: by Ryan Mancini - 07/15/26 8:12 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Ryan Mancini - 07/15/26 8:12 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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Lawmakers and Trump administration officials took to the stage at the second Hill Nation Summit on Wednesday in Washington, meeting with reporters at The Hill and NewsNation to talk about the news of the day.

The event was a bipartisan gathering where lawmakers and officials could celebrate their accomplishments and also take a critical eye toward what work still needs to be done.

Many guests praised President Trump, while others criticized the administration’s actions, all with an eye toward the midterm elections in the fall, which could see a shift in which party controls either or both chambers of Congress.

Republicans are not shying away from Trump

GOP lawmakers and party officials showered Trump with praise over his administration’s successes, with no mention of some of the criticisms held by some members of the party toward his policy items.

Experts generally describe midterms as the litmus test for how a president is doing. Though Trump is seeing lower approval ratings than ever before, the upcoming Republican midterm convention to be held in Dallas in September will be “his event,” RNC Chair Joe Gruters told NewsNation’s Kellie Meyer on Wednesday.

“The party exists for the president, so whatever we do, it’s for his and his administration’s benefits. So yeah, he’ll be there front and center,” he added, calling the event a “Trump-a-palooza.”

Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), the chair of the House Republican Conference, also praised the president for being what she called a “very calculated individual.”

“Everything that man does, I believe in my heart of hearts, I didn’t think this until I got to know him, it’s all calculated,” McClain told The Hill’s Emily Brooks. “It’s all by design.”

Handling ICE after recent fatal shootings

Two recent fatal shootings involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Texas and Maine, along with the third death of a man pursued by ICE before he was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer in Florida, have renewed calls from Democratic lawmakers to reform the agency, while others have said it should be dismantled altogether.

“ICE is an agency that’s gripped with a culture of violence, very aggressive — it’s almost like the violence is endemic in the very DNA of it right now, and I think it needs to be dismantled,” Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) told NewsNation’s Libbey Dean.

Espaillat said that lawmakers would listen to witnesses who saw what happened to Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston last week to better understand what is “going on with this rogue agency.”

Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), the chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, said his panel is conducting oversight of ICE following the two recent shootings resulting from two traffic stops, a tactic which the agency reportedly halted. Trump contradicted this on Wednesday, calling the strategy “most effective.”

“As long as… those officers are focused on what they told us they were focused on, and they are, I don’t have a problem with them doing traffic stops,” he said.

The New York Republican said he wants details on the status of ICE’s implementation of body camera requirements for officers, a program former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem pledged to expand nationwide in February.

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) and its role in American society, which is shaping to be the latest technological race, was among the most talked-about topics during Wednesday’s summit.

Rep. Kat Cammack (R-Fla.) said most of China’s citizens have integrated AI into their daily lives thanks to a national diffusion strategy, something she said the U.S. could create without extra spending on AI infrastructure.

“China and Russia and Iran would love nothing more than for us to say, absolutely, no data science,” Cammack, a member of the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, told NewsNation’s Connell McShane. “And that is because it is a cognitive warfare. They will never ever militarily be able to take us over. But they can do the things that they want to do and overtake the United States in a number of different ways…”

Cammack said there is an effort to undermine the development of AI data centers and acknowledged that “there are certainly concerns” over the environmental impact data centers have. But the AI “slop” pushed out online “has signatures that go back to Iran and China” and is designed to “diminish our capacity.”

“It is a national security issue, it is an economic issue, it is an innovation issue,” she said. “This is a competitive issue. It is a litany of issues.”

Not everyone, however, was open to a sweeping integration of AI being integrated into U.S. society.

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) said he was still freaked out by the shift toward AI three years after writing such in an op-ed. He noted on Wednesday that there’s “no standard” for regulating AI and said Congress should step in.

“I think the American people are expecting Congress to actually regulate in this area, and it’s interesting when you see even how this legislation was titled about balancing guardrails versus innovation,” he said. “There has been zero balance. I cannot name a single law passed this term by House Republican leadership that has any guardrails on AI, on anything.”

Possible midterm outcome

Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ) announced that Democrats could reclaim control of the House while Republicans hold a loose grip on the Senate, with Vice President Vance holding the tie-breaking vote, after the fall midterms

DDHQ forecasts Democrats clinching a 226-209 advantage in the House and predicts a 50-50 split between Republicans and Democrats in the Senate.

Republicans are confident that their financial and policy prowess will win the day, with credit to simple electioneering and redistricting battles to give Republicans an advantage in keeping control of the House.

“So, you know, the left, when they’re out of power, they’re more motivated,” Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), the chair of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said. “We’ve got to drive up the motivation for our side. And part of that’s just communicating what’s at stake in this election. I’m not concerned that we can’t do that.”

Democrats benefit from Trump’s low approval ratings, but they will need to win three seats to take back the House. The party has seen some progress in creating new House district maps that could give them the edge in November, most notably in California, where the passage of Proposition 50 last year gives the Golden State a chance at four or five pick-ups.

Van Hollen 2028?

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) was among the only presumptive 2028 Democratic candidates for president to attend the summit. Though he did not announce a formal run, he said he recently visited Iowa and was asked to go to New Hampshire, two states that occupy early slots on the primary calendar.

“So, I’m very much in listening mode, because I’ve been encouraged, but that’s not a good reason to run,” Van Hollen told The Hill’s Alexander Bolton. “The reason to run is that you want to change things for the better. You love our country, which I do, and so I am, as I said, kicking the tires because I do think at this moment, I think this is a critical moment for our country.”

He offered a critical take on what his party could do going into the 2028 election season, to go beyond speaking out against Trump’s policies.

“I don’t think the Democratic Party has done a good job of letting people know what we stand for,” the senator said. “And I think the conventional views of left versus right have become outdated.”

Van Hollen is among several Democrats rumored to run as the party’s presidential nominee. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), former U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel and former Vice President Kamala Harris are all considered potential contenders, though none have announced if they will run.