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Donald Trump Administration
President Donald Trump will gather with House Republicans on Tuesday to ensure they're aligned on their agenda at the start of a critical midterm election year that could alter the course of Trump's final two years in office. GOP lawmakers are hosting a daylong policy forum at the Kennedy Center, the performing arts venue on the other side of Washington from the Capitol. Its board, which is stacked with Trump loyalists, recently voted to rename it the Trump-Kennedy Center, though that move is being challenged in court. The House GOP is convening as they launch their new year agenda, with health care issues in particular dogging the GOP heading into the midterm elections. Votes on extending expired health insurance subsidies are expected as soon as this week, and it's unclear whether the president and the party will try to block its passage. Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., are trying to corral Republican lawmakers at a time when GOP leaders have a thin majority in the ..
The Venezuelan government on Monday sought to show its people and the world that the country is being run independently and not controlled by the United States following its stunning weekend arrest of Nicolas Maduro, the authoritarian leader who had ruled for almost 13 years. Lawmakers aligned with the ruling party, including Maduro's son, gathered in the capital, Caracas, to follow through with a scheduled swearing-in ceremony of the National Assembly for a term that will last until 2031. They reelected their longtime speaker the brother of the newly named interim president, Delcy Rodriguez and gave speeches focused on condemning Maduro's capture Saturday by US forces. If we normalise the kidnapping of a head of state, no country is safe. Today, it's Venezuela. Tomorrow, it could be any nation that refuses to submit," Maduro's son, Nicolas Maduro Guerra, said at the legislative palace in his first public appearance since Saturday. "This is not a regional problem. It is a direct ..
President Donald Trump said on Monday that the US will be receiving more than USD 600 billion in tariffs, asserting that America is far stronger in national security and financially because of the levies it has imposed on countries around the world. We have taken in, and will soon be receiving, more than 600 Billion Dollars in Tariffs, but the Fake News Media refuses to talk about it because they hate and disrespect our Country, and want to interfere with the upcoming Tariff decision, one of the most important ever, of the United States Supreme Court, Trump said in a post on Truth Social. He said that the US is financially and from a national security standpoint far stronger and more respected than ever before because of tariffs. Within months of his second term in the White House, Trump had last year announced a slew of tariffs on imports from countries around the world, saying the US had been unfairly treated and other nations were charging far higher tariffs on American ...
An American military operation in Venezuela killed 32 Cuban officers over the weekend, the Cuban government said Sunday in the first official acknowledgement of the deaths. The Cuban military and police officers were on a mission the Caribbean country's military was carrying out at the request of Venezuela's government, according to a statement read on Cuban state TV on Sunday night. What the Cubans were working on in the South American nation was unclear, but Cuba is a close ally of Venezuela's government has sent military and police forces to assist in operations for years. You know, a lot of Cubans were killed yesterday, US President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he flew Sunday night from Florida back to Washington. There was a lot of death on the other side. No death on our side. Cuba's government announced two days of mourning. Faithful to their responsibilities for security and defence, our compatriots fulfilled their duty with dignity and heroism and f
When deposed Venezuelan leader Nicols Maduro makes his first appearance in a New York courtroom Monday to face US drug charges, he will likely follow the path taken by another Latin American strongman toppled by US forces: Panama's Manuel Noriega. Maduro was captured Saturday, 36 years to the day after Noriega was removed by American forces. And as was the case with the Panamanian leader, lawyers for Maduro are expected to contest the legality of his arrest, arguing that he is immune from prosecution as a sovereign head of foreign state, which is a bedrock principle of international and US law. It's an argument that is unlikely to succeed and was largely settled as a matter of law in Noriega's trial, legal experts said. Although Trump's ordering of the operation in Venezuela raises constitutional concerns because it wasn't authorised by Congress, now that Maduro is in the US, courts will likely bless his prosecution because, like Noriega, the US doesn't recognise him as Venezuela's .
President Donald Trump's military intervention in Venezuela will pose a fresh test of his ability to hold together a restive Republican coalition during a challenging election year. While most Republicans lined up behind the president in the immediate aftermath of the stunning US mission to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and bring him to the United States to face criminal charges, there were signs of unease across the spectrum within the party. In particular, Trump's comments about the US positioning itself to run Venezuela have raised concerns that he is abandoning the America First philosophy that has long distinguished him from more traditional Republicans and helped fuel his political rise. This is the same Washington playbook that we are so sick and tired of that doesn't serve the American people, but actually serves the big corporations, the banks and the oil executives, outgoing GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a former Trump ally, told NBC's Meet the Pre
US President Donald Trump told The Atlantic on Sunday in a telephone interview that Delcy Rodrguez, Venezuela's vice president, could pay a very big price if she doesn't do what he thinks is right for the South American country. That contrasted with the Republican president's comments about Rodrguez on Saturday when he said Secretary of State Marco Rubio had spoken with her and that she was willing to do what the US thinks is needed to improve the standard of living in Venezuela. But Rodrguez has criticised Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro's removal from the country and has demanded that the US return him. Trump told the magazine that if she doesn't do what's right, she is going to pay a very big price, probably bigger than Maduro. The president told the New York Post in an interview Saturday that the US wouldn't need to station troops in Venezuela if she does what we want.
Venezuela's government accused the United States of attacking civilian and military installations in multiple states after at least seven explosions and low-flying aircraft were heard around 2 a.m. local time Saturday in the capital, Caracas. The Pentagon and White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Smoke could be seen rising from the hangar of a military base in Caracas. Another military installation in the capital was without power. People in various neighbourhoods rushed to the streets. Some could be seen in the distance from various areas of Caracas. The whole ground shook. This is horrible. We heard explosions and planes, said Carmen Hidalgo, a 21-year-old office worker, her voice trembling. She was walking briskly with two relatives, returning from a birthday party. We felt like the air was hitting us. Venezuela's government, in the statement, called on its supporters to take to the streets. People to the streets! the statement said. The Bolivarian .
President Donald Trump invited Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi during a phone call Friday to visit the United States this year, the Japanese foreign ministry said, in what would be the ultraconservative leader's first trip to the US since taking office in October. The White House is yet to confirm the call and the invitation. It comes as ties between Japan and China have been strained, ramping up tensions in the region. The US, a close ally of Japan, is seeking to strengthen its ties with Tokyo but also stabilize its relationship with Beijing ahead of a likely trip by Trump to China in April. Beijing staged two-day military exercises in the waters off Taiwan this week. Takaichi, Japan's first female prime minister, infuriated China late last year when she said Chinese military action against Taiwan could be grounds for a Japanese military response, breaking away from former Japanese leaders' strategic ambiguity on the highly sensitive matter. In a statement Friday, the Japane
The US Coast Guard said Friday it's still searching for people in the eastern Pacific Ocean who had jumped off alleged drug-smuggling boats when the US military attacked the vessels days earlier, diminishing the likelihood that anyone survived. Search efforts began Tuesday afternoon after the military notified the Coast Guard that survivors were in the water about 400 miles (650 kilometres) southwest of the border between Mexico and Guatemala, the maritime service said in a statement. The Coast Guard dispatched a plane from Sacramento to search an area covering more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometres), while issuing an urgent warning to ships nearby. The agency said it coordinated more than 65 hours of search efforts, working with other countries as well as civilian ships and boats in the area. The weather during that time has included 9-foot seas and 40-knot winds. The US has not said how many people jumped into the water, and, if they are not found, how far the death toll may ris