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Donald Trump Administration
A coalition of President Donald Trump's critics, including a fired prosecutor and a college professor acquitted of assaulting federal agents at a protest, sued Friday to block payouts from a new USD 1.776 billion settlement fund for Trump allies claiming to be victims of a weaponised government. The lawsuit adds fuel to a mounting backlash against the Trump administration's creation of an "Anti-Weaponisation Fund" to resolve the Republican president's lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns. Plaintiffs' attorneys from the legal advocacy group Democracy Forward are seeking a court order halting the fund's implementation and preventing the Trump administration from disbursing any payouts from it. The federal suit, filed in Alexandria, Virginia, claims there is no legal basis or accountability behind the fund. "The unlawfulness that has imbued the Anti-Weaponization Fund from its inception requires that it be wholly dismantled," the suit ...
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday said that despite 'good signs' in Iran talks, 'other options' remain on the table. Being careful not to sound overtly optimistic, Rubio told reporters Thursday that while Pakistan and other regional allies are hard at work to bring a diplomatic resolution on Iran, with some officials travelling to Tehran today, Washington remains ready with alternative plans. "The president's preference is to do a good deal. That's his preference. It's always been his preference. If we can get a good deal done, that would be great," he said. "But if we can't get a good deal, the president's been clear he has other options." Rubio said that Iran's plan to toll Strait of Hormuz would make deal 'unfeasible' Talking to reporters on the tarmac in Florida, Rubio once again blasted Tehran's effort to financially benefit from its chokehold on the critical waterway. "No one in the world is in favour of a tolling system. It can't happen. It would be unacceptable
US authorities have shut down an India-based call centre operation that allegedly defrauded hundreds of elderly Americans of millions of dollars through tech support scams, following a years-long investigation that led to the conviction of five "telemarketing fraudsters". In a social media post on Wednesday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Boston said that the probe also resulted in the arrest and conviction of a former employee of the call routing company used by the fraudsters. It said the call centre scam targeted hundreds of elderly victims in the US and abroad and defrauded them of millions of dollars, and two senior executives who operated a business that enabled it have just admitted to turning a blind eye to this widespread fraud. "This comes after an FBI Boston investigation that has resulted in the arrests & convictions of a former employee of their call routing company, and five India-based telemarketing fraudsters," it said. American senior citizens deserve ..
The Pentagon is drawing down thousands of troops in Europe by cancelling deployments to Poland and Germany as opposed to yanking forces already stationed there, US officials say, as President Donald Trump has tussled with allies over the Iran war and called for changes. Several U.S. officials confirmed that 4,000 troops from the Army's 2nd Armoured Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division were no longer en route to Poland this week. The Trump administration had previously said it was cutting US forces only in Germany, and the decision spurred questions and criticism in both Warsaw and Washington. Two officials told The Associated Press that the deployments were canceled after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a memo directing the Joint Chiefs of Staff to move a brigade combat team out of Europe. One of them said the choice of which unit was left to military leaders. Besides the Army combat team based in Fort Hood, Texas, the memo also led to the cancellation of an upcoming ...
US President Donald Trump said his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping was "100 per cent correct" in his assessment that the US was a nation in decline, but the remarks referred to the years of his predecessor Joe Biden. "When President Xi very elegantly referred to the United States as perhaps being a declining nation, he was referring to the tremendous damage we suffered during the four years of Sleepy Joe Biden and the Biden Administration, and on that score, he was 100 per cent correct," Trump said in a post on Truth Social. He said the US "suffered immeasurably with open borders, high taxes, transgender for everybody, men in women's sports, Diversity-Equity-Inclusion (DEI), horrible trade deals, rampant crime, and so much more!" Trump asserted that the US has seen "an incredible rise" during the first 16 months of his administration and pointed to record stock markets and 401(k)s, military victories, renewed economic strength and what he described as a booming job market. Trump als
The Senate confirmed President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, bringing new leadership to the world's most powerful central bank at a fraught moment for the global economy. Warsh was confirmed Wednesday in a largely party-line vote. His nomination had been thrown into doubt in recent months after Republican Sen Thom Tillis of North Carolina said he would block the nomination while the Justice Department investigated Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The Powell probe was dropped in April, clearing the way for the Senate to confirm Warsh. Senate Majority Leader John Thune urged colleagues to support Warsh during a floor speech Wednesday morning, saying it's critical that a Fed chair "understand not only the macro" but also "appreciate the microeconomy: and that's the hardworking Americans, their jobs and their livelihoods". "Kevin Warsh is just such a person," Thune said. Warsh, 56, a former top Fed official, will become chair at an unusually difficult time fo
US President Donald Trump sought to project Vice President J D Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as a perfect team for the presidential elections in 2028. "Is it gonna be JD? Is it gonna be someone else? I don't know," Trump said while hosting a dinner for law enforcement leaders across the country in the Rose Garden on Monday evening. The president then went on to conduct an impromptu poll, drawing laughter from the attendees. "Who likes JD Vance?" and "Who likes Marco Rubio?", he asked as attendees cheered for their favourite choice. "Sounds like a good ticket," Trump added, clarifying that neither candidate has his endorsement. "That was a perfect ticket. By the way, I do believe that's a dream team, but these are minor details. That does not mean you have my endorsement under any circumstance." "I think it sounds like presidential candidate and vice presidential candidate," the president said. Trump is known to put up the Vance-Rubio question to his close circles in t
President Donald Trump on Monday nominated David Cummins to head the Transportation Security Administration - which has had a rocky few months as employees went without paychecks and security lines grew long at airports across the country. Cummins, who worked as a senior vice president at Serco, a government contractor that works with local and federal agencies, would take over a TSA bruised by the longest partial government shutdown in history which ended late last month. During periods of the shutdown, employees at the TSA, currently overseen by acting administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill, went without pay, thousands didn't show up to work and hundreds quit entirely. It left travellers frustrated over delays and missed flights and politicians pointed fingers over who was to blame for shutting down the Department of Homeland Security. Cummins has experience in transportation at Serco, and says on a LinkedIn profile, which appears to have been taken down, that he was co-awarded a "dozen
The Interior Department is cancelling a rule that put conservation on equal footing with development, as President Donald Trump's administration eases restrictions on industries and seeks to boost drilling, logging, mining and grazing on taxpayer-owned land. The 2024 rule adopted under former President Joe Biden was meant to refocus the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management, which oversees about 10 per cent of land in the US. It allowed public property to be leased for restoration in the same way that oil companies lease land for drilling. But Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has said the rule could have blocked access to hundreds of thousands of acres (hectares) of land - preventing energy and timber production and hurting ranchers who graze on public lands. Supporters argued that conservation had long been a secondary consideration at the land bureau, neglecting its mission under the 1976 Federal Lands Policy Management Act. While the bureau previously issued leases for ..