Page 42 - Donald Trump Administration

Trump authorises AG Pam Bondi to release Epstein grand jury records

Donald Trump's move follows growing pressure from supporters demanding transparency in the Jeffrey Epstein case and calls to release grand jury testimony

Trump won't recommend special counsel in Epstein case, says spokeswoman

President Donald Trump will not recommend a special counsel in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, a White House spokeswoman has said, turning aside calls for further action in an inquiry that has roiled the Justice Department and angered supporters who had been expecting a treasure trove of documents from the case. The rejection of a special counsel is part of an effort by the White House to turn the page from continued outrage from corners of Trump's base over the Justice Department's refusal last week to release additional records from the investigation into Epstein, a well-connected and wealthy financier who killed himself in jail in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. Officials also said Epstein did not maintain a much-hyped "client list" and said the evidence was clear he had died by suicide despite conspiracy theories to the contrary. Trump on Wednesday sought to clamp down on criticism from his own supporters about his administration's handling of the ...

Trump checked for lower leg swelling, diagnosed with common vein condition

President Donald Trump recently underwent a medical checkup after noticing "mild swelling" in his lower legs and was found to have a condition common in older adults that causes blood to pool in his veins, the White House has said. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Thursday that tests by the White House medical unit showed that Trump has chronic venous insufficiency, which occurs when little valves inside the veins that normally help move blood against gravity gradually lose the ability to work properly. Leavitt also addressed bruising on the back of Trump's hand, seen in recent photos covered by makeup that was not an exact match to his skin tone. She said the bruising was "consistent" with irritation from his "frequent handshaking and the use of aspirin". Trump takes aspirin to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. She said during her press briefing that her disclosure of Trump's medical checkup was meant to dispel recent speculation about the 79-year-old president's

Trump admin tells embassies to limit criticism of foreign elections

The State Department is pulling back from commenting on or criticising elections overseas unless there is a clear and compelling US foreign policy interest in doing so. In new guidance issued Thursday to all US embassies and consulates abroad, the department said that those outposts should refrain from issuing statements that invoke any particular ideology and that what they may say must be in line with President Donald Trump's stated position that the US will respect the sovereignty of all foreign nations. "Consistent with the administration's emphasis on national sovereignty, the department will comment publicly on elections only when there is a clear and compelling US foreign policy interest to do so," according to the cable, a copy of which was shared with The Associated Press. The department has for decades issued statements highly critical of or questioning the legitimacy of certain elections, notably in authoritarian countries. That is changing as the Trump administration has

Trump admin pulls $4 bn federal funding for California bullet train project

The Trump administration has revoked federal funding for California's high-speed rail project, intensifying uncertainty about how the state will make good on its long-delayed promise of building a bullet train to shuttle riders between San Francisco and Los Angeles. The US Transportation Department announced it was pulling back USD 4 billion in funding for the project, weeks after signalling it would do so. Overall, a little less than a quarter of the project's funding has come from the federal government. The rest has come from the state, mainly through a voter-approved bond and money from its cap-and-trade programme. President Donald Trump and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy both have slammed the project as a "train to nowhere". "The Railroad we were promised still does not exist, and never will," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "This project was Severely Overpriced, Overregulated, and NEVER DELIVERED." The loss marks the latest blow to California by the Trump administration, wh

Justice dept fires Maurene Comey, prosecutor on Diddy, Epstein cases

The Justice Department has fired Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI director James Comey and a prosecutor in the federal cases against Sean "Diddy" Combs and Jeffrey Epstein, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. There was no specific reason given for her firing from the US attorney's office in the Southern District of New York, according to one of the people who spoke to the AP on Wednesday on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters. Her termination comes shortly after she prosecuted Combs, who was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges. The rapper was convicted of lesser prostitution-related offences. The Justice Department recently appeared to acknowledge the existence of an investigation into James Comey, though the basis for that inquiry is unclear. He was abruptly fired by Trump during his first administration in 2017.

US sends third-country deportees to small African kingdom of Eswatini

The United States has sent five men to the small African nation of Eswatini in an expansion of the Trump administration's third-country deportation programme, the US Department of Homeland Security said on Tuesday. The US has already deported eight men to another African nation, South Sudan, after the Supreme Court lifted restrictions on sending people to countries where they have no ties. In a late-night post on X, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the men, who are citizens of Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen and Laos, had arrived in Eswatini on a plane. She said they were all convicted criminals and individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back. There was no immediate comment from Eswatini authorities over any deal to accept third-country deportees or what would happen to them in that country. The Trump administration has said it is seeking more deals with African nations to take deportees from the US. Some have pushe

Trump admin fires 17 immigration court judges across 10 states, says union

Seventeen immigration court judges have been fired in recent days, according to the union that represents them, as the Trump administration pushes forward with its mass deportations of immigrants in the country. The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents immigration court judges as well as other professionals, said in a news release that 15 judges were fired "without cause" on Friday and another two on Monday. The union said they were working in courts in 10 different states across the country California, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Texas, Utah and Virginia. "It's outrageous and against the public interest that at the same time Congress has authorised 800 immigration judges, we are firing large numbers of immigration judges without cause," said the union's President Matt Biggs. "This is nonsensical. The answer is to stop firing and start hiring." The firings come as the courts have been increasingly at th

Trump strikes trade deal with Indonesia, imposes 19% tariff on imports

Trump has sent tariff letters over the last week to multiple trading partners, increasing pressure on negotiators ahead of an Aug. 1 deadline for higher duties to take effect

Trump admin to allow resumption of H20 AI chip sales to China: Nvidia

The development comes amid a preliminary trade deal between the US and China last month, which sought China to resume the exports of rare earth and the US to relax its export curbs

US imposes 17% duty on Mexican tomatoes hoping to boost local production

The US government said Monday it is placing a 17 per cent duty on most fresh Mexican tomatoes after negotiations ended without an agreement to avert the tariff. Proponents said the import tax will help rebuild the shrinking US tomato industry and ensure that produce eaten in the US is also grown there. Mexico currently supplies around 70 per ccent of the US tomato market, up from 30 per cent two decades ago, according to the Florida Tomato Exchange. But opponents, including US companies that grow tomatoes in Mexico, said the tariff will make fresh tomatoes more expensive for US buyers. Tim Richards, a professor at the Morrison School of Agribusiness at Arizona State University, said US retail prices for tomatoes will likely rise around 8.5 per cent with a 17 per cent duty. The duty stems from a longstanding US complaint about Mexico's tomato exports and is separate from the 30 per cent base tariff on products made in Mexico and the European Union that President Donald Trump announc

US Supreme Court allows Trump to cut nearly 1,400 Education Department jobs

The Supreme Court is allowing President Donald Trump to put his plan to dismantle the Education Department back on track and go through with laying off nearly 1,400 employees. With the three liberal justices in dissent, the court on Monday paused an order from US District Judge Myong Joun in Boston, who issued a preliminary injunction reversing the layoffs and calling into question the broader plan. The layoffs will likely cripple the department, Joun wrote. A federal appeals court refused to put the order on hold while the administration appealed. The high court action enables the administration to resume work on winding down the department, one of Trump's biggest campaign promises.

Trump admin defends immigration policies after California worker's death

Trump has vowed to deport millions of people in the country illegally and has executed raids at work sites including farms that were largely exempted from enforcement during his first term

Republican governors push DOGE programmes, embrace cost-cutting brand

The brash and chaotic first days of President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, once led by the world's richest man Elon Musk, spawned state-level DOGE mimicry as Republican governors and lawmakers aim to show they are in step with their party's leader. Governors have always made political hay out of slashing waste or taming bureaucracy, but DOGE has, in some ways, raised the stakes for them to show that they are zealously committed to cutting costs. Many drive home the point that they have always been focused on cutting government, even if they're not conducting mass layoffs. I like to say we were doing DOGE before DOGE was a thing, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said in announcing her own task force in January. Critics agree that some of these initiatives are nothing new and suggest they are wasteful, essentially duplicating built-in processes that are normally the domain of legislative committees or independent state auditors. At the same time, some governors are using

Trump visits Texas flood area, defends officials amid questions on response

President Donald Trump on Friday toured the devastation from catastrophic flooding in Texas and lauded state and local officials, even amid mounting criticism that they may have failed to warn residents quickly enough that a deadly wall of water was coming their way. Trump has repeatedly promised to do away with the Federal Emergency Management Agency as part of his larger pledges to dramatically shrink the size of government, and he's fond of decrying officials in Democrat-run states hit by past natural disasters and tragedy. But the president struck a far more somber and sympathetic tone while visiting America's largest Republican state highlighting the heartbreak of what happened while effusively praising elected officials and first responders alike. The search for the missing continues. The people that are doing it are unbelievable, Trump, seated with officials around a table with emblazoned with a black-and-white Texas Strong banner, said at a makeshift emergency operations ..

US State Department lays off over 1,300 employees under Trump admin's plan

The US State Department fired more than 1,300 employees on Friday in line with a dramatic reorganization plan from the Trump administration that critics say will damage America's global leadership and efforts to counter threats abroad. The department sent layoff notices to 1,107 civil servants and 246 foreign service officers with assignments in the United States, according to a senior department official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters. Notices said positions were being abolished and the employees would lose access to State Department headquarters in Washington and their email and shared drives by 5 p.m., according to a copy obtained by The Associated Press. As employees packed their belongings, dozens of former colleagues, ambassadors, members of Congress and others spent a warm, humid day protesting outside. Holding signs saying, Thank you to America's diplomats and We all deserve better, they mourned the institutional loss from the cuts and .

Google to offer heavy discount for cloud computing services to US govt

In April, Google agreed to offer a 71% discount till September 30 to US federal agencies for its business apps package that could generate up to $2 billion in savings if there is govt-wide adoption

Brazil can survive without US trade, says Lula amid Trump tariff threat

In televised interviews, Lula struck a defiant tone, saying Trump must respect Brazil's sovereignty and cannot act as if he owns other nations

Nato to fully fund US weapons sent to Ukraine under new deal, says Trump

In recent days, Trump has expressed frustration with Russian President Putin over the lack of progress towards ending the war sparked by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022

Brazil vows retaliatory tariffs if Trump goes through with 50% import taxes

Brazilian President Luiz Incio Lula da Silva said Thursday that he will impose retaliatory tariffs on the United States if President Donald Trump follows through on a pledge to boost import taxes by 50% over the South American country's criminal trial against his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro. Lula said he will trigger Brazil's reciprocity law approved by Congress earlier this year if negotiations with the US fail. If there's no negotiation, the reciprocity law will be put to work. If he charges 50 (per cent tariffs) from us, we will charge 50 from them, Lula told TV Record in excerpts of an interview that will be fully aired later in the day. Respect is good. I like to offer mine and I like to receive it. Lula's comments raise the risk of a tariffs war erupting between the two countries, similar to what has happened between the US and China. Trump has vowed to respond forcefully if countries seek to punish the US by adding tariffs of their own. The tariffs letter that Trump sent to