Page 45 - Donald Trump Administration

Senate moves to block California clean air, vehicle emission standards

Senate Republicans have voted to establish a new precedent that will allow them to roll back vehicle emission standards in California, including a rule phasing out the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035. The winding series of Senate procedural votes that went late into Wednesday evening could have profound implications for California's longstanding efforts to reduce air pollution. It also established a new, narrow exception to the Senate filibuster even as Republicans have insisted that they won't try to change Senate rules. Democrats strongly objected to the move, delaying the votes for hours as Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., cleared the way procedurally for Republicans to bring up three House-passed resolutions that would block the rules. The Senate could pass the resolutions later this week. At issue are the three California rules phasing out gas-powered cars, cutting tailpipe emissions from medium- and heavy-duty vehicles and curbing smog-forming nitrogen oxide ..

US government didn't follow court order on deportations, says judge

The White House violated a court order on deportations to third countries with a flight linked to the chaotic African nation of South Sudan, a federal judge said Wednesday, hours after the Trump administration said it had expelled eight immigrants convicted of violent crimesbut refused to reveal where they would end up. The judge's statement was a notably strong rebuke to the government's deportation efforts. In an emergency hearing he called to address reports that immigrants had been sent to South Sudan, Judge Brian E. Murphy in Boston said the eight migrants aboard the plane were not given a meaningful opportunity to object that the deportation could put them in danger. Minutes before the hearing, administration officials accused activist judges of advocating the release of dangerous criminals. The department actions in this case are unquestionably in violation of this court's order, Murphy said Wednesday, arguing that the deportees didn't have meaningful opportunity to object to

Trump admin to weigh request for leasing seabed mining of critical minerals

The Trump administration said Wednesday that it will consider selling leases to extract minerals from the seabed off the South Pacific island of American Samoa, a potential first step in a wider industry push to allow deep-sea mining that environmentalists oppose because they say it could irreparably harm marine ecosystems. The Department of Interior said it is responding to an April request from California-based company Impossible Metals for a commercial auction. The company wants to mine the ocean floor for deposits of nickel, cobalt and other critical minerals. Last month, President Trump signed an executive order directing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to fast-track permits for companies to mine the ocean floor in US and international waters. The move comes amid the Trump administration's trade war with China, which controls many critical minerals such as nickel, cobalt and manganese used in high-tech manufacturing, including for military uses. Critical ..

Trump stages another Oval Office ambush, lecturing South Africa's Ramaphosa

Trump has objected to a land bill that Ramaphosa signed late last year that will make it easier for the government to expropriate private property if it's in the public interest

Defense Department accepts luxury Boeing 747 from Qatar for Trump's use

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has accepted a luxury Boeing 747 jet from Qatar for President Donald Trump to use as Air Force One, the Pentagon said Wednesday, despite ongoing questions about the ethics and legality of taking the expensive gift from a foreign nation. The Defense Department will work to ensure proper security measures on the plane to make it safe for use by the president, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said. He added that the plane was accepted in accordance with all federal rules and regulations. Trump has defended the gift, which came up during his recent Middle East trip, as a way to save tax dollars. Why should our military, and therefore our taxpayers, be forced to pay hundreds of millions of Dollars when they can get it for FREE, Trump posted on his social media site during the trip. Others, however, have said Trump's acceptance of an aircraft that has been called a palace in the sky is a violation of the Constitution's prohibition on foreign gifts. Democrats

Trump enlists top US business leaders to boost his image at home, abroad

President Donald Trump isn't the only one who wrapped up a Middle East tour in recent days. A private jet carrying Nvidia's CEO trailed Air Force One across the region. Oil executives and bankers followed, too, as American executives dropped everything cancelling longstanding obligations and zooming into board meetings back home to cozy up to Trump and bolster the image he tried to sell on his first major foreign trip. With Trump back in the White House, a jaunt with the president or a stop in the Oval Office is now as routine for America's business leaders as a speech to an industry conference. Corporate titans are spending more time than ever working to curry favour with the administration as part of their effort to score relief from regulations and tariffs from the transactional president. He, in turn, is happy to use them as supporting cast members as he tries to project the economy as booming at a time when growth is slowing. But putting in time with the US president has no

House GOP pushes Trump tax cuts bill but report says it will add to deficit

House Republicans are pushing to vote on their multi-trillion-dollar tax breaks package as soon as Wednesday, grinding out last-minute deal-making to shore up wavering GOP support and deliver on President Donald Trump's top legislative priority. Trump himself had instructed the Republican majority to quit arguing and get it done, his own political influence on the line. But GOP leaders worked late into the night to convince sceptical Republicans who have problems on several fronts, including worries that it will pile onto the nation's USD 36 trillion debt. A fresh analysis from the Congressional Budget Office said the tax provisions would increase the federal deficit by USD 3.8 trillion over the decade, while the changes to Medicaid, food stamps and other services would tally USD 1 trillion in reduced spending. The lowest-income households in the US would see their resources drop, while the highest ones would see a boost, the CBO said. Republicans prepared to hunker down at the ...

Musk's pullback from politics comes after his last big investment was flop

Wisconsin could go down as billionaire Elon Musk's last big spend on a political campaign. And it was a flop. Musk, the richest person in the world, said Tuesday that he would be spending less on political campaigns. The announcement came as Musk is stepping back from his role in the Trump administration, saying he will spend more time focused on his businesses, and just seven weeks after the candidate he backed in Wisconsin's Supreme Court race lost by 10 percentage points. Democrats in the swing state said Musk's comments show that a party-led effort in this spring's election, dubbed People vs. Musk, succeeded in making Musk and his money toxic. The people have won, said Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler. The biggest funder in Republican politics is taking his toys and going home." Brandon Scholz, a retired longtime Republican strategist in the state, said that at least in Wisconsin, after that court race he deserves to be labelled as toxic. But that doesn't mean

South Africa's leader aims to salvage ties with Trump in White House visit

US President Donald Trump will host South Africa's leader at the White House on Wednesday for a meeting that might be tense after Trump accused the country's government of being racist against white people and allowing a genocide to take place against minority white farmers. South Africa has strongly rejected the allegations and President Cyril Ramaphosa pushed for the meeting with Trump in an attempt to salvage his country's relationship with the United States, which is at its lowest point since the end of the apartheid system of racial segregation in 1994. Trump has launched a series of accusations at South Africa's Black-led government, including that it is seizing land from white farmers, enforcing anti-white policies and pursuing an anti-American foreign policy by supporting Iran and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Ramaphosa said he hopes to correct what he calls damaging mischaracterisations during the meeting, which is Trump's first with an African leader at the White .

Rubio defends Trump's foreign policy amid Gaza aid, South Africa questions

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Democratic senators sparred Tuesday over the Trump administration's foreign policies, ranging from Ukraine and Russia to the Middle East, Latin America, the slashing of the U.S. foreign assistance budget and refugee admissions. Rubio defended the administration's decisions to his former colleagues during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, his first since being confirmed on President Donald Trump's inauguration day. He said America is back and claimed four months of foreign-policy achievements, even as many of them remain frustratingly inconclusive. Among them, the resumption of nuclear talks with Iran, efforts to bring Russia and Ukraine into peace talks and efforts to end the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. America's top diplomat praised agreements with El Salvador and other Latin American countries to accept migrant deportees, saying secure borders, safe communities and zero tolerance for criminal cartels are once again the guidi

Trump keeps increasing claim of Mideast countries' investment amount in US

President Donald Trump loves big numbers and he's always happy to talk them up. Trump, who coined the phrase truthful hyperbole in his book The Art of the Deal, over the last few days has been steadily increasing the amount of money he says that countries in the Mideast pledged to invest in the US when he visited the region last week. He didn't provide underlying details. The figure has gone from $2 trillion last week to potentially $7 trillion as of Tuesday, according to statements by Trump and the White House. A look at how the number has bounced around: THURSDAY: With his Mideast trip still under way, Trump told reporters on Air Force One: We just took in $4 trillion. FRIDAY: A White House statement said Trump's first official trip was a huge success, locking in over $2 trillion in great deals. MONDAY: We brought back about $5.1 trillion," Trump said in remarks to the Kennedy Centre's leadership. That's not bad. And, it's being credited as one of the, maybe, the most successf

Hegseth orders review of Afghanistan withdrawal, Kabul airport bombing

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered another review of the U.S. military's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, and of the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport that killed American troops and Afghans. President Donald Trump and Hegseth have repeatedly blasted the Biden administration for the withdrawal, which Hegseth said Tuesday was disastrous and embarrassing. He said the new review will interview witnesses, analyze the decision-making and get the truth. There have already been multiple reviews of the withdrawal by the Pentagon, U.S. Central Command, the State Department and Congress, which have involved hundreds of interviews and studies of videos, photographs and other footage and data. It's unclear what specific new information the new review is seeking. The Abbey Gate bombing during the final days of the Afghanistan withdrawal killed 13 U.S. service members and 170 Afghans, and wounded scores more. It triggered widespread debate and congressional criticism, fuele

Trump heading to Capitol Hill to persuade GOP for his 'big, beautiful' bill

President Donald Trump is heading to Capitol Hill early Tuesday to seal the deal on his big, beautiful bill," using the power of political persuasion to unify divided House Republicans on the multitrillion-dollar package that is at risk of collapsing ahead of planned votes this week. Trump has implored GOP holdouts to STOP TALKING, AND GET IT DONE. But negotiations are slogging along and it's not at all clear the package, with its sweeping tax breaks and cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and green energy programmes, has the support needed from the House's slim Republican majority, who are also being asked to add some USD 350 billion to Trump's border security, deportation and defence agenda. Conservatives are insisting on quicker, steeper cuts to federal programmes to offset the costs of the trillions of dollars in lost tax revenue. At the same time, a core group of lawmakers from New York and other high-tax states want bigger tax breaks for their voters back home. Worries about piling

James Comey calls Instagram post controversy 'bit of a distraction'

Former FBI director James Comey says that he's still a bit bewildered over how a seemingly innocent Instagram shot of shells arranged in the sand led to allegations by Donald Trump among others that he was calling for the president's assassination and to an interview with the Secret Service. It's been a bit of a distraction, honestly, Comey said with a weary laugh Monday night during an appearance at a Barnes & Noble on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Comey was promoting FDR Drive, a crime novel coming out this week. One of the book's themes, ironically, is weighing the potential of speech to incite others to violence. Comey, whom Trump fired in 2017 amid an FBI investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump's first presidential campaign, explained Monday that he and his wife, Patrice, had been returning from a walk on the beach last Thursday when they came upon some shells organised in a way that resembled numbers, including 86. They speculated over whether it was a home

Charles Kushner, father of Trump's son-in-law, confirmed as envoy to France

The Senate has confirmed real estate developer Charles Kushner, the father of President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, to serve as ambassador to France. Charles Kushner was pardoned by Trump in December 2020 after pleading guilty years earlier to tax evasion and making illegal campaign donations. Prosecutors alleged that he hatched a scheme for revenge and intimidation after discovering his brother-in-law was cooperating with federal authorities in an investigation, hiring a prostitute and arranging to have the encounter recorded with a hidden camera and sent to his own sister, the man's wife. Kushner, who was confirmed 51-45, is the founder of Kushner Companies, a real estate firm. His son Jared is a former White House senior adviser to Trump who is married to Trump's eldest daughter, Ivanka. When he announced his intention to nominate Charles Kushner in November, Trump called him a tremendous business leader, philanthropist, & dealmaker. Charles Kushner will head to ...

WHO chief defends $2.1 bn budget after US cuts, compares with cost of war

Stripped of U.S funding, the World Health Organization chief on Monday appealed to member countries to support its extremely modest request for a USD 2.1 billion annual budget by putting that sum into perspective next to outlays for ad campaigns for tobacco or the cost of war. After nearly 80 years of striving to improve human lives and health - which critics say it has done poorly or not enough -- the U.N. health agency is fighting for its own after U.S. President Donald Trump in January halted funding from the United States, which has traditionally been WHO's largest donor. Two-point-one billion dollars is the equivalent of global military expenditure every eight hours, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. Two-point-one billion dollars is the price of one stealth bomber, to kill people. And USD 2.1 billion is one-quarter of what the tobacco industry spends on advertising and promotion every single year. Again, a product that kills people, he told the WHO's annual

Trump alleges 'genocide' in South Africa, even Afrikaner farmers scoff

Days before South Africa's president meets with U.S President Donald Trump at the White House this week, Afrikaner farmers at the center of an extraordinary new U.S refugee policy roamed a memorial to farm attacks in their country's agricultural heartland, some touching the names of the dead both Black and white. Here in Bothaville, where thousands of farmers gathered for a lively agricultural fair with everything from grains to guns on display, even some conservative white Afrikaner groups debunked the Trump administration's genocide and land seizure claims that led it to cut all financial aid to South Africa. The bustling scene was business as usual, with milkshakes and burgers and tow-headed children pulled in wagons. The late President Nelson Mandela South Africa's first Black leader stood in Bothaville over a quarter-century ago and acknowledged the increasing violent attacks on farmers in the first years following the decades-long racial system of apartheid. But the complex

Trump admin to pay $5 mn to settle suit over Babbitt's shooting in Capitol

The Trump administration has agreed to pay just under USD 5 million to settle a wrongful death lawsuit that Ashli Babbitt's family filed over her shooting by an officer during the U.S Capitol riot, according to a person with knowledge of the settlement. The person insisted on anonymity to discuss with The Associated Press terms of a deal that have not been made public. The settlement will resolve the USD 30 million federal lawsuit that Babbitt's estate filed last year in Washington, D.C. On January 6, 2021, a Capitol police officer shot Babbitt as she tried to climb through the broken window of a barricaded door leading to the Speaker's Lobby. The officer who shot her was cleared of wrongdoing by the U.S Attorney's office for the District of Columbia, which concluded that he acted in self-defense and in the defense of members of Congress. The Capitol Police also cleared the officer. Settlement terms haven't been disclosed in public court filings. On May 2, lawyers for Babbitt's esta

JD Vance delivers Donald Trump's letter inviting Pope Leo XIV to visit US

US Vice President JD Vance extended an invitation to Pope Leo XIV to visit the United States during a meeting at the Vatican on Monday ahead of a flurry of US-led diplomatic efforts to make progress on a ceasefire in Russia's war in Ukraine. Vance gave the first American pope a letter from US President Donald Trump and the first lady inviting him. The Chicago-born pope took the letter and put it on his desk and was heard saying at some point, in the video footage of the meeting provided by Vatican Media. Vance, who converted to Catholicism in 2019, also gave the Augustinian pope a copy of two of St. Augustine's most seminal works, The City of God" and "On Christian Doctrine, the vice president's office said. Another gift: A Chicago Bears T-shirt with Leo's name on it. As you can probably imagine, people in the United States are extremely excited about you, Vance told Leo as they exchanged gifts. Leo gave Vance a bronze sculpture with the words in Italian Peace is a fragile flower,

US reinstates international student records but many remain stranded

After the government terminated his legal status in the US, one student abruptly lost his laboratory job in Houston and, fearing detention, he returned to his home country in south Asia on a one-way ticket. The Trump administration later reversed course in its expansive crackdown on international students, but there was a major obstacle. The student cannot return because his American visa was revoked. Without it, he's stranded, said the student, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. As the government begins reinstating students' records, many face a daunting and complicated path toward rebuilding their lives. For those who left, there is no guarantee they can return. Others have faced challenges reenrolling in school and returning to jobs. Mental anguish from their ordeals linger, as do feelings of vulnerability. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has expanded the grounds for terminating a student's legal status, leaving many to fear they could be targeted .