His sister Doris Breay confirmed the death to NBC Boston. Close friend and former campaign manager Jim Segel told the Associated Press that Frank died late Tuesday, May 19, 2026, at his home in Ogunquit, Maine. He had entered hospice in April with congestive heart failure. He is survived by his husband Jim Ready, sisters Ann Lewis and Doris Breay, and brother David Frank.

Frank represented the Boston suburbs from 1981 until he retired in 2013. He chaired the House Financial Services Committee during the 2008 crash and helped write the Dodd Frank overhaul that tightened rules on banks and created new consumer protections. In 1987 he publicly said he was gay, the first sitting member of Congress to do so without being forced out by a scandal. In July 2012 he married Ready in Newton, Massachusetts, becoming the first sitting member of Congress to enter a same sex marriage.

“It was life changing, lifesaving for me,” Frank told NBC News last month. “I think the key to our having made the enormous progress we made in defeating anti gay prejudice had to do with us all coming out and people discovering the gap between our reality and the way we were painted.”

Born March 31, 1940, in Bayonne, New Jersey, he left office with a reputation for biting humor and a willingness to lecture his own party as well as the other side. In his final weeks he kept talking. He told Politico from hospice that one regret stayed with him.

“One of my regrets is that I won’t see the continued implosion of Donald Trump.”

On Boston public radio station WBUR, in an interview published May 14 from that same Maine house, he went further and called the president an “idiot savant.”

“As to Trump, I have developed my theory about him: It’s not just that he’s bad on all these values, but he is an idiot savant,” Frank said. “He has just one talent: an ability to exploit anger that got him into power. But having gotten into power, he’s got nothing left, and that’s why now he’s just floundering.”

He added that he could not think of an issue on which Trump was popular, naming the Iran war, a fight with the Pope, the economy, and even immigration. “His anger, his narcissism, all of the negative parts of his personality have asserted themselves, and he really doesn’t have much of a positive vision of things to offset that.”

Former President Barack Obama posted a tribute on X. “Barney Frank was one of a kind. For more than three decades in Congress, he fought tirelessly for the people of Massachusetts, helped make housing more affordable, stood up for the rights of LGBTQ+ Americans, and helped pass one of the most sweeping financial reforms in history designed to protect consumers and prevent another financial crisis. Barney’s passion and wit were second to none, and our thoughts are with his family today.”

Nancy Pelosi said Frank had called her the month before to tell her he was in hospice. “He has been about idealism and pragmatism to get the job done,” she told NBC. “He was a real mentor to so many of us here.”

Frank spent those last weeks at home, still arguing about how Democrats should win again and still needling the man in the White House. The voice that once filled hearing rooms went quiet on a Tuesday night in Maine.

The letter went out on Monday through the Lord Chamberlain, one of the Palace’s most senior officials. It was circulated to Harry’s team, government departments, military officials and Lord Lieutenants, the King’s representatives around the country.

The wording leaned on the 2020 Sandringham agreement. The Duke and Duchess stepped down from representative duties then, the letter said, and they are no longer working members of the Royal Family. Their charity work is personal. In short, their position is akin to private citizens with commercial and charitable interests.

Harry and Meghan’s spokesperson answered quickly. The couple were a little surprised not to have been told about this in advance, the statement said, and the letter had caught them off guard. Palace sources later told the Daily Mail that this was incorrect. They insisted the Sussexes received the letter before it was published, even if there was no negotiation over the wording. Later reporting put the gap at roughly an hour. The couple’s team got the document, asked whether it had already gone out, and by the time they reached Harry the Palace had already sent it to the media.

Charles has been described as glad to have his son and grandchildren closer. The same warmth has not been attached to Prince William. The brothers have been estranged for years. Kate and Meghan’s relationship has stayed cold. Talk that William would rather keep Harry far from any future coronation has circulated for a long time.

Now a fresh claim has landed on top of the letter itself. Journalist Rob Shuter, writing on his Substack, quoted a source saying William pushed for the clarification. Lord Lieutenancies were asking how Harry and Meghan should be treated. William’s answer, the source said, was brutally simple. Nothing has changed. They are out.

The same source told Shuter that the Sussexes had underestimated how much influence William still holds behind palace walls. They’re starting to question whether this return can work. William can close doors faster than they expected. William has won, for now. Harry and Meghan are back in Britain, but they’re not back in the royal family.

That last part is gossip dressed as certainty. The letter itself is real. BBC and Reuters both reported its contents and the Sussex reaction. What remains unproven is whether William personally forced his father’s hand. No official statement from the King or the Prince of Wales has said so.

The video went up on Truth Social over the Labor Day weekend as part of a longer montage. In it Trump lines up footage of other leaders he wants to look uncaring, then cuts to himself hugging veterans, greeting police, and standing close to people who need help. One of the clips is King Charles.

The Charles footage is from July 2020. The then Prince of Wales and Camilla were visiting an Asda distribution centre in Bristol to thank staff keeping food moving during the early months of Covid. A worker talking to Charles suddenly folded and fell backward.

The version Trump shared is cut so it looks as if Charles throws his hands up and walks off. The full recording shows something else. Charles reached out to try to catch the man. He stayed right there while first aid arrived. He only stepped back after his security team told him the worker was all right. The man recovered quickly and later carried on the conversation.

People who have followed Trump’s comments on the royals found the post odd. He welcomed Charles and Camilla to the White House earlier this year and has repeatedly taken the king’s side in the family rift with Harry and Meghan. The sudden use of six year old edited tape left many asking what message he meant to send.

The clip is already spreading again. Some viewers see it as another late night posting burst. Others wonder why a president who calls the king a friend would circulate footage that makes him look heartless.

Trump and Prince Harry have never been close. The Duke has criticized him in the past, and years earlier Trump raised the possibility of deportation over questions about Harry’s visa application and past admissions of drug use. Groups like the Heritage Foundation had even pushed for access to the prince’s immigration records, arguing he may have received special treatment.

The couple left their California home and landed back in Britain last week. Reports place them in the Cotswolds, with some suggesting they are staying at a property linked to Ellen DeGeneres. Trump, who has often spoken warmly of the late Queen Elizabeth and King Charles, made clear he was glad to see them go.

Speaking to reporters after a press conference on Wednesday, Trump said he was happy about the move. “I was not a fan,” he continued. He spoke of his strong relationship with the Queen and with King Charles, whom he has known for years and called a “great, great guy.” Trump then said Harry and Meghan had treated the royal family with great disrespect. “I didn’t like it,” he added. “If I were the royal family, I would not have taken them back.”

The comments mark Trump’s first public reaction since the Sussexes returned to the UK six years after stepping back from royal duties.

“This is official, effective immediately,” Trump said after signing. He added that the White House had “filed all the necessary papers” and notified everyone it needed to notify.

The order comes in the middle of a trade fight with Canada. After talks collapsed last week, the United States imposed 50 percent tariffs on about $20 billion of Canadian goods. Ottawa has promised matching tariffs next month.

Asked what message he was sending Canada, Trump said, “No message. As you know, Canada has been ripping us off for a long time on trade. They don’t pay for anything, and they want to be treated like a state, but they’re not a state.”

The order itself argues that the deepest parts of the lake sit in U.S. waters and that the United States “claims most of the Lake’s volume.” It also calls the lake “an integral asset to American exploration, settlement, commerce, and defense.” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names have 30 days to update the official Geographic Names Information System. The U.S. Geological Survey said later Thursday that electronic federal documents already reflect the new name.

That change only binds the U.S. government. It does not force Canada, New York, mapmakers, or anyone else to follow it.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney answered within hours. “The name Lake Ontario comes from the Wendat word Ontari’io, which, appropriately, means ‘the lake is beautiful, the lake is big.’ The name is more than 400 years old, predating both the Confederation of Canada and the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America,” he wrote.

“We know that America is changing. Their trading relationships, their foreign policies, their national monuments, their hydronyms. Canadians also know that naming reality means calling it Lake Ontario, then, now and always.”

Industry Minister Mélanie Joly had already drawn a line earlier in the week: “We’ll always call it Lake Ontario. Period. We’re proud of our Great Lakes.”

New York Governor Kathy Hochul was just as blunt. “New York won’t be calling it that.”

Canadian maritime attorney Marc Isaacs put it simply: the Americans can call it whatever they want. It is still Lake Ontario.

The name is not a Canadian invention. European maps used versions of it in the 1600s. The province of Ontario was later named after the lake, not the other way around. Surface area is split almost down the middle, with a slight majority on the Canadian side. Volume is a different argument because the U.S. side is deeper.

Trump compared the move to last year’s order renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. Google and Apple followed that one for U.S. users. Most of the world did not.

Then he floated a bigger idea. “If you think about it, we have a gulf and we have a lake. Now all we need is an ocean. So maybe we’ll have to change the name of the Atlantic and/or the Pacific. Maybe we’ll change them both.”

For now, U.S. federal maps, contracts, and databases will say Lake America. Canada, New York, and most everyone else will keep saying Lake Ontario.

On a rainy Tuesday they all gathered for a ceremonial military review on the White House South Lawn, the kind of formal honor America reserves for visiting heads of state. The weather had shifted from the previous day’s sunshine into a proper drizzle that felt distinctly British, and that was when Camilla offered a remark that left Melania momentarily at a loss for words.

This visit marked the third formal state occasion the two women have shared. It was also the first time Queen Camilla had stepped inside the White House since King Charles took the throne. The day before, while the men held private talks, Melania had taken Camilla to the tennis pavilion to look at historical artifacts. Their earlier encounters, including a tour of Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House and the Royal Library during the Trumps’ trip to Britain the previous year, had been polite and pleasant without ever turning especially close.

Royal author Elizabeth Holmes noted that both women seemed content to stay out of the spotlight. “Neither one of them is stealing any of the spotlight here,” she told CNN. “In this case, Charles and Trump are very much the focal point.” She added that the pair appeared to be simply fulfilling the supporting roles expected of them rather than building any deep personal bond.

As the four of them took their seats on the raised platform that rainy morning, Donald and Charles sat on one side while Camilla and Melania settled in beside each other. Lip reading expert Nicola Hickling later told the Daily Mail what she saw in the footage. When they prepared to sit, Camilla observed, “Oh, it’s rather wet.” Melania agreed that it “certainly is,” and the two shared a quick laugh. Then Camilla added, “We shall have soggy bottoms,” referring to the damp chair cushions beneath them.

Melania looked briefly stunned. She asked, “What did I just hear?” before repeating the phrase with clear confusion: “Soggy bottoms?”

The expression comes straight from The Great British Bake Off, the popular television show known for its gentle humor about imperfect pastry. Queen Camilla is a known fan of the program, and the lighthearted line seemed to catch the American first lady completely off guard for a second before the two women smiled again.

She was last seen on July 19 when she joined President Donald Trump at the 2026 World Cup final. Since that appearance she has not accompanied him to several high profile events, including the dignified transfer of fallen service members and the White House Correspondents Dinner.

An NBC News analysis published on August 17 found that Melania has made fewer public appearances during Trump’s current term than she did at the same point in his first presidency. Her office has declined to detail how she has spent the time away, though senior adviser Marc Beckman offered a brief explanation that the first lady prioritizes results over appearances.

The absence has also drawn renewed attention to Trump’s close working relationship with executive assistant Natalie Harp. Harp earned the nickname The Printer because she often follows the president with a portable printer so he can review hard copies of articles, posts and messages. Reports of personal notes she left for him have fueled speculation in recent months.

In their book Regime Change, authors Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan wrote that one note said “You are all that matters to me.” Others reportedly included “I don’t ever want to let you down” and “I want to bring you joy.” Trump has also been quoted saying that Harp “will never leave” him.

Harp’s brother Preston has spoken publicly about the dynamic, describing it as unhealthy. He told the Daily Beast that while much of the media focuses on whether the relationship is scandalous, he sees it instead as an infatuation based on a shared ideology of American exceptionalism.

Despite the month away from cameras, Melania has continued advancing several policy efforts. These include expanding children’s access to artificial intelligence, improving the foster care system, combating non consensual intimate imagery, and helping reunite children separated from their families during the Russia Ukraine war. Her most recent public remarks came on June 11 when she launched the Fostering the Future Accounts.

She is expected to reappear today in the White House Rose Garden alongside IndyCar and Fox Corp to announce a partnership connected to her foster care initiative.

President Donald Trump made the announcement first on social media, calling her one of his most trusted aides and saying he totally understands and respects her choice. He added that she will stay on as one of his top outside advisors and remain an influential voice in the Republican Party.

The timing has raised some eyebrows because Leavitt only recently returned from maternity leave. She welcomed her second child, a daughter, in May and was back at the podium less than a month before the news broke. At 28 she remains the youngest person ever to hold the press secretary job, a role she took on when Trump returned to office.

In her own statement Leavitt called the position the honor and adventure of a lifetime. She thanked the president for the chance to work so closely with him and said balancing motherhood with such a demanding job has been both rewarding and challenging. She explained that since coming back after her daughter’s birth she has felt she cannot give her two young children the attention they deserve while meeting the constant demands of the White House role. That is why she made the bittersweet decision to leave and start a new chapter.

While the official explanation centers on family, a short video that surfaced online has fueled plenty of online chatter. The clip appears to show Leavitt on Marine One with Trump and his longtime aide Natalie Harp just hours before the resignation became public. In the footage Leavitt sits across from them, speaks briefly toward Harp, yawns, and points in her direction. Both women glance at their phones during the exchange. Viewers on X quickly shared the video and offered their own takes, with some claiming she looked isolated or worried and others floating theories that something more was going on behind the scenes.

As of now no one has confirmed whether the conversation captured on that video had any connection to Leavitt’s decision. Trump has publicly praised her work and described her departure as a personal choice he supports. Leavitt herself has framed the move around her children and the desire to be the best mother she can be. The video has simply added an extra layer of speculation to an already surprising announcement.

Leavitt only recently returned to the White House after maternity leave following the birth of her second child, a daughter, in May. She also has a two year old son. In her own message on X she opened up about the real reason behind the move. She said serving as press secretary has been the honor and adventure of a lifetime.

Being a mother and welcoming a new baby while handling one of the most demanding jobs in the world has been the most rewarding yet challenging season of her life. The truth is that since coming back to the White House after her daughter’s birth she has felt in her heart that she cannot be the best mom her two young children deserve while giving the constant time, energy and attention the job requires. That is why she made the bittersweet decision to leave and start a new chapter.

Trump praised her heavily. He said she will now serve as one of his top outside advisors and an influential voice in the Republican Party as they work to win the midterm elections. He called her a real leader in the White House who has done a phenomenal job fighting for justice, liberty and freedom since 2018, including during the 2024 reelection campaign. In his words she has been one of the best White House press secretaries in the history of the office.

At 28, Leavitt made history as the youngest person ever to hold the position when she took the job last year. Before that she worked as a press aide in Trump’s first administration, served as his 2024 campaign spokesperson, and once ran for Congress in New Hampshire. No replacement has been named yet. During her maternity leave other officials including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stepped in to handle briefings.

The post showed Biden on a golf course bent over near a pile of dirt after what looked like a missed shot. Trump’s caption simply read “Biden isn’t even a 100 Handicap.”

Screenshots of the post spread quickly across X. Some users reacted with anger. One wrote that Joe Biden is in the process of dying a very painful death and this guy is trying to rag on him. Others asked why the president stays so focused on someone who is no longer in office. A few supporters pushed back, saying people were overreacting to a golf joke and pointing to the record of the previous administration.

The timing added fuel to the reaction. Around the same period Hunter Biden sat down with the BBC and spoke about his father’s health. He said the cancer has metastasized into his bones and further. It is very painful and very debilitating in many respects. Watching it has been hard on the family, Hunter explained, adding that he wishes his dad would complain more because the situation is not good. Even so he noted that Joe Biden is still doing speaking engagements and remains deeply committed to the country.

Biden, now 83, was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in May 2025. The disease had already reached the bone by the time doctors found it. He has been receiving radiation and hormone therapy. His upcoming book Promise Me, America is set to come out after the November midterms. In it he plans to discuss the challenges the nation faced and the decisions he made, including why he chose to step aside from seeking another term.

The post has once again raised questions about where the line sits when political rivals are dealing with serious illness.