Page 29 - Donald Trump Administration

Trump to ask US Supreme Court for expedited ruling to save tariffs

Trump told reporters that the US would appeal to the high court for relief as soon as Wednesday because "it would be a devastation for our country" if the appeals court ruling was left in place

House committee releases some Epstein files as survivors meet lawmakers

The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday publicly posted the files it has received from the Justice Department on the sex trafficking investigations into Jeffrey Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, responding to mounting pressure in Congress to force more disclosure in the case. Still, the files mostly contain information that was already publicly known or available. The folders contained hundreds of image files of years-old court filings related to Epstein and Maxwell. They also included video files appearing to be body cam footage from police searches as well as recordings and summaries of law enforcement interviews with victims detailing the abuse they said they suffered. The committee's release of the files showed how lawmakers are eager to act as they return to Washington after a monthlong break. They quickly revived a political clash that has flummoxed House Republican leadership and roiled President Donald Trump's administration. House Republican Speaker Mike

Trump ties to reforms: Mexico's first female prez reviews a year in office

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum celebrated her government's handling of its tumultuous relations with the Trump administration, progressive gains and controversial judicial reforms in her first state of the nation address Monday. Sheinbaum, who is nearing the end of her first year in office, notably left out some of the major problems still simmering in Mexico, including ongoing cartel violence plaguing much of the country and democratic concerns over wider concentration of executive power. Mexico's first female president took office in October and has led the Latin American nation of 131 million at a time of radical global shifts. Despite that, the 63-year-old progressive leader has enjoyed soaring approval rates between 70% and 80% in Mexican polls. Things are going well, and they're only going to get better, she promised. Here are some of the top takeaways from Sheinbaum's State of the Nation address. Navigating the Trump era Chief among Sheinbaum's challenges has been ...

Trump's policies spark protests in multiple US cities on Labour Day

Protesters took to the streets in multiple US cities on Labor Day to criticize President Donald Trump and demand a living wage for workers. Demonstrations in Chicago and New York were organized by One Fair Wage to draw attention to the struggles laborers face in the US, where the federal minimum wage is USD 7.25 an hour. Chants of Trump must go now! echoed outside the president's former home in New York, while protesters gathered outside a different Trump Tower in Chicago, yelling No National Guard and Lock him up! Large crowds also gathered in Washington D.C. and San Francisco. In New York, people gathered outside Trump Tower, which has become a magnet for protests and remains a prominent symbol of the president's wealth, even though the president hasn't lived in the Manhattan skyscraper for years. Demonstrators waved signs and banners calling for an end to what they said is a fascist regime. In Washington, a large crowd gathered with signs saying Stop the ICE invasion and an ...

Trump plans hefty tax on imported drugs, risking higher prices, shortages

President Donald Trump has plastered tariffs on products from almost every country on earth. He's targeted specific imports, including autos, steel and aluminium. But he isn't done yet. Trump has promised to impose hefty import taxes on pharmaceuticals, a category of products he's largely spared in his trade war. For decades, in fact, imported medicine has mostly been allowed to enter the United States duty-free. That's starting to change. US and European leaders recently detailed a trade deal that includes a 15 per cent tariff rate on some European goods brought into the United States, including pharmaceuticals. Trump is threatening duties of 200 per cent more on drugs made elsewhere. Shock and awe' is how Maytee Pereira of the tax and consulting firm PwC describes Trump's plans for drugmakers. This is an industry that's going from zero (tariffs) to the potential of 200 per cent.' Trump has promised Americans he'll lower their drug costs. But imposing stiff pharmaceutical tariffs

Brahmins profiteering off Indians: Trump adviser Navarro justifies tariffs

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro alleged Indian refiners profit from Russian crude, calling India a 'laundromat for the Kremlin'

Samsung, SK Hynix drop as US revokes chip equipment permits for China

Trump administration's move would revise what's known as the validated end user, or VEU, rules, handicapping the ability to make chips in China and jeopardizing it's access to certain technologies

PBS, NPR stations struggle with Trump's funding cut; scramble for support

Coping with a sudden loss in federal funding, PBS affiliate KSPS in Spokane, Washington, faced a surprise extra hurdle. Many of its contributing members at one point almost half lived in Canada, and they were withdrawing support out of anger at President Donald Trump's desire to make the country the 51st member of the United States. When Congress decided this summer to eliminate USD1.1 billion allocated to public broadcasting, it left some 330 PBS and 246 NPR stations, each with unique issues related to their communities and history, to figure out what that means. Many launched emergency fund drives and are heartened by the response. The national NPR and PBS networks are reducing expected dues payments, and a philanthropic effort focused on the hardest-hit stations is taking shape. No stations have shut down, but job and programming cuts are already beginning. In Spokane, KSPS has always tried to keep its requests for member donations separate from appeals for public funding. Not

Trump's Nobel ego trip and 50% tariff penalty: What hurt US-India ties?

A testy Trump-Modi phone call over Pakistan ceasefire and Nobel claim may have strained India-US relations, according to a report by the New York Times

Japanese minister halts visit after Trump demands Japan buy rice from US

Japan has cancelled a planned visit to Washington amid tensions over US demands for Tokyo to increase American rice imports

US envoys spark diplomatic tensions, White House not doing much about it

Do not antagonise one's opponents unnecessarily, a basic principle of diplomacy says. But as the United States faces a trade war with China and various tensions overseas, President Donald Trump's emissaries are increasingly ticking off allied countries and being called to account. Just this week, no fewer than three US envoys scrambled to extricate themselves from diplomatic hot water. Denmark's foreign minister summoned the top US diplomat in the country to answer for reports that at least three people with connections to Trump have been carrying out covert influence operations in Greenland, a Danish territory. France summoned the US ambassador, Trump in-law Charles Kushner, over his letter to President Emmanuel Macron alleging the country has not done enough to fight antisemitism. And the American ambassador to Turkiye, longtime Trump friend Tom Barrack, apologised Thursday for using the word animalistic while calling for a gaggle of reporters to quiet down during a press confere

What happens to Trump's tariffs now that US appeals court calls it illegal?

President Donald Trump has audaciously claimed virtually unlimited power to bypass Congress and impose sweeping taxes on foreign products. Now a federal appeals court has thrown a roadblock in his path. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled Friday that Trump went too far when he declared national emergencies to justify imposing sweeping import taxes on almost every country on earth. The ruling largely upheld a May decision by a specialised federal trade court in New York. But the 7-4 appeals court decision tossed out a part of that ruling striking down the tariffs immediately, allowing his administration time to appeal to the US Supreme Court. The ruling was a big setback for Trump, whose erratic trade policies have rocked financial markets, paralysed businesses with uncertainty and raised fears of higher prices and slower economic growth. Which tariffs did the court knock down? The court's decision centres on the tariffs Trump slapped in April on almost all US tr

EPA fires employees who publicly criticised agency policies under Trump

The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday fired at least eight employees who signed a letter criticising the agency's leadership under Administrator Lee Zeldin and President Donald Trump. Following a thorough internal investigation, EPA supervisors made decisions on an individualized basis,' an EPA spokeswoman said Friday in a statement. The so-called declaration of dissent, signed by more than 170 employees in late June, contains inaccurate information designed to mislead the public about agency business,' spokeswoman Molly Vaseliou said. Thankfully, this represents a small fraction of the thousands of hard-working, dedicated EPA employees who are not trying to mislead and scare the American public. The EPA "has a zero-tolerance policy for career officials using their agency position and title to unlawfully undermine, sabotage and undercut the will of the American public that was clearly expressed at the ballot box last November,' she added. Vaseliou declined to say how many .

US court finds Trump's tariffs 'illegal', but levies in place for now

Federal judges ruled Trump exceeded authority by invoking emergency law, but tariffs remain in place pending further appeals to the Supreme Court

Trump moves to cancel $4.9 bn in foreign aid, clashing with US Congress

US President Donald Trump seeks to cancel $4.9 bn in foreign aid using a 'pocket rescission', bypassing Congress. Lawmakers say the move is illegal under US budget law

Zelenskyy seeks talks with Trump, EU leaders on slow progress towards peace

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday said that Ukrainian officials want to meet with US President Donald Trump and European leaders next week to discuss recent developments in efforts to end the three-year war with Russia. The proposed meetings appeared designed to add momentum to the push for peace, as Zelenskyy expressed frustration with what he called Russia's lack of constructive engagement in the process while it continues to launch devastating aerial attacks on civilian areas. Trump has bristled at Russian leader Vladimir Putin's stalling on an US proposal for direct peace talks with Zelenskyy, and said a week ago he expected to decide on next steps in two weeks if direct talks aren't scheduled. Trump complained last month that Putin talks nice and then he bombs everybody. But he has also chided Ukraine for its attacks, and a major Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight from Wednesday to Thursday that killed at least 23 people drew no public ...

Chicago is in Trump admin's sights for its next immigration crackdown

President Donald Trump's administration plans to surge officers to Chicago for an immigration crackdown in its latest move to expand the federal law enforcement presence in major Democratic-run cities, according to two US officials. The operation in the country's third-largest city is expected to last about 30 days and could start as early as September 5, a Department of Homeland Security official told The Associated Press on Friday. Another US official said the timing for what could be a sustained immigration enforcement effort resembling this summer's operations in Los Angeles is awaiting final approval. Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss plans that had not been made public. Chicago is home to a large immigrant population, and both the city and the state of Illinois have some of the country's strongest rules against cooperating with federal government immigration enforcement efforts. That has often put the city and the state at odds with Trump's ...

US revokes visas of Palestinian president, other officials ahead of UNGA

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has revoked the visas of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and 80 other officials ahead of next month's annual high-level meeting of the UN General Assembly, where the Palestinians previously have been represented. A State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss visa issues that are normally confidential, disclosed Friday that Abbas and other officials from the Palestinian Authority were among those affected. The move is the latest in a series of steps the Trump administration has taken to target Palestinians with visa restrictions and comes as the Israeli military declared Gaza's largest city a combat zone. The State Department also suspended a program that had allowed injured Palestinian children from Gaza to come to the US for medical treatment after a social media outcry by some conservatives. The department said in a statement earlier that Rubio also ordered some new visa applications from Palestinian officials, ...

US appeals court rules Trump's tariffs illegal, but keeps them in place

A federal appeals court ruled Friday that President Donald Trump had no legal right to impose sweeping tariffs on almost every country on earth but left in place for now his effort to build a protectionist wall around the American economy. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled Trump wasn't legally allowed to declare national emergencies and impose import taxes on almost every country on earth, a ruling that largely upheld a May decision by a specialised federal trade court in New York. It seems unlikely that Congress intended to ... grant the President unlimited authority to impose tariffs, the judges wrote in a 7-4 ruling. But they did not strike down the tariffs immediately, allowing his administration time to appeal to the Supreme Court. The president vowed to do just that. If allowed to stand, this Decision would literally destroy the United States of America, Trump wrote on his social medial platform. White House spokesman Kush Desai said Trump had acted lawfu

Trump admin plans to remove 700 unaccompanied migrant children: Senator

The Trump administration is planning to remove nearly 700 Guatemalan children who had come to the US without their parents, according to a letter sent Friday by Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon. The removals would violate the Office of Refugee Resettlement's child welfare mandate and this country's long-established obligation to these children, Wyden told Angie Salazar, acting director of the office within the Department of Health and Human Services that is responsible for migrant children who arrive in the US alone. Unaccompanied children are some of the most vulnerable children entrusted to the government's care, the Democratic senator wrote, asking for the deportation plans to be terminated. In many cases, these children and their families have had to make the unthinkable choice to face danger and separation in search of safety. Quoting unidentified whistleblowers, Wyden's letter said children who do not have a parent or legal guardian as a sponsor or who don't have an asylum case alread