Page 26 - Trump Administration

Appeasing the US at the expense of Beijing won't be tolerated, warns China

China has strongly condemned any nation that reaches a trade deal with the Trump administration that may compromise Beijing as US-China trade war escalates

Pete Hegseth's Pentagon faces 'full-blown meltdown,' warns ex-spokesman

The warning from John Ullyot, who resigned last week after initially serving as Pentagon spokesman, followed statements by three top officials who were reportedly fired amid inquiry into leaks

Tesla bull issues 'code red,' urges Musk to step back from DOGE role

Tesla shares have fallen 43 per cent since January 17. When the company reports earnings Tuesday, it will face questions about volume sales for 2025

Trump draft order proposes radical reshaping of US State Department

Some employees writing on a foreign service-dedicated Reddit page also expressed doubt about how such an order could be implemented

Ex-advisers to Hegseth decry 'baseless attacks' after ouster in leak probe

Three former senior advisers to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth decried on Saturday what they called baseless attacks after each was escorted from the Pentagon in an expanding probe on information leaks. Dan Caldwell, a Hegseth aide; Colin Carroll, chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg; and Darin Selnick, Hegseth's deputy chief of staff were among four officials in Hegseth's inner circle who were ousted this past week. While the three initially had been placed on leave pending the investigation, a joint statement shared by Caldwell on X said the three were incredibly disappointed by the manner in which our service at the Department of Defense ended. Unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door. At this time, we still have not been told what exactly we were investigated for, if there is still an active investigation, or if there was even a real investigation of leaks' to begin with, the post said. Former .

Thousands rally across US in fresh wave of protests against Trump policies

Nearly a fortnight after the first wave of demonstrations, protesters returned to the streets to express frustration over Trump's policies

JD Vance visits Vatican after Pope's rebuke of Trump migrant crackdown

US Vice President JD Vance is meeting with the Vatican No. 2 official, following a remarkable papal rebuke of the Trump administration's crackdown on migrants and Vance's theological justification of it. Vance, a Catholic convert, was due to meet Saturday with the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin. There was speculation he might also briefly greet Pope Francis, who has begun resuming some official duties during his recovery from pneumonia. Vance was spending Easter weekend in Rome with his family and attended Good Friday services in St. Peter's Basilica on Friday after meeting with Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni. Francis and Vance have tangled sharply over migration and the Trump administration's plans to deport migrants en masse. Francis has made caring for migrants a hallmark of his papacy and his progressive views on social justice issues have often put him at odds with members of the more conservative US Catholic Church. Vance, who converted in 2019, identifie

Supreme Court blocks, for now, new deportations under 18th century law

The Supreme Court on Saturday blocked, for now, the deportations of any Venezuelans held in northern Texas under an 18th century wartime law. In a brief order, the court directed the Trump administration not to remove Venezuelans held in the Bluebonnet Detention Centre until further order of this court. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented. The high court acted in an emergency appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union contending that immigration authorities appeared to be moving to restart removals under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Two federal judges refused to step in and the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has yet to act. The American Civil Liberties Union on Friday unsuccessfully asked two federal judges to order the Trump administration not to deport any Venezuelans held in northern Texas under an 18th century wartime law, contending that immigration authorities appeared to be moving to restart removals despite the US Supreme Court's restrictions on how

Trump admin makes major cuts to Native American school research projects

At least USD 1.6 million in federal funds for projects meant to capture and digitise stories of the systemic abuse of generations of Indigenous children in boarding schools at the hands of the US government have been slashed due to federal funding cuts under President Donald Trump's administration. The cuts are just a fraction of the grants cancelled by the National Endowment for the Humanities in recent weeks as part of the Trump administration's deep cost-cutting effort across the federal government. But coming on the heels of a major federal boarding school investigation by the previous administration and an apology by then-President Joe Biden, they illustrate a seismic shift. If we're looking to Make America Great Again,' then I think it should start with the truth about the true American history, said Deborah Parker, CEO of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition. The coalition lost more than USD 282,000 as a result of the cuts, halting its work to digiti

Judge orders Trump admin to clarify firings not due to poor performance

A US district judge in San Francisco on Friday ordered the Trump administration to provide probationary workers fired en masse a written statement saying they were not terminated for performance reasons, but as part of a government-wide termination. Judge William Alsup is overseeing a lawsuit brought by labour unions and nonprofits contesting the mass firings of thousands of probationary workers in February under Republican President Donald Trump. In March, Alsup ordered six federal agencies to reinstate probationary workers because their terminations were directed by the Office of Personnel Management, which did not have the authority to fire workers at any other agency but its own. The US Supreme Court last week blocked Alsup's order requiring the administration to return those terminated employees to work, but did not decide whether the firings were unlawful. Alsup was particularly upset that the firings of probationary workers many young and early in their careers followed an

US may recognise Russian control of Crimea under proposed peace deal

The potential concession is the latest signal that President Donald Trump is eager to cement a ceasefire deal

Venezuelan detainees ask US Supreme Court to halt El Salvador deportations

Lawyers for the men filed their requests less than two weeks after the Supreme Court let Trump resume trying to deport alleged Tren de Aragua gang members under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798

Trump official urges probe of NY attorney general over mortgage transaction

In the summer of 2023, New York Attorney General Letitia James helped her niece buy a modest house in Norfolk, Virginia, by becoming a co-borrower on the mortgage loan. A top housing official in the Trump administration has now seized on a document in that transaction to argue that James should be prosecuted for bank fraud, asking the US Justice Department in a letter to open a criminal investigation into the Democrat. The request for an investigation comes as the administration has pursued a campaign of retribution against President Donald Trump's longtime foes in the legal world. James won a $454 million judgment against Trump last year in a lawsuit claiming he had lied about the value of his assets on financial statements given to banks. James called the allegations against her baseless." It is nothing more than a headline, nothing more than retaliation against all the actions I have taken successfully against Donald Trump," she said Wednesday in an interview on the New York cab

Lawsuit challenges Trump administration crackdown on international students

A class action lawsuit filed Friday asks a federal court to reinstate the legal status of international students caught up in a Trump administration crackdown that has left more than a thousand fearful of deportation. The suit filed by several American Civil Liberties Union affiliates seeks to represent more than 100 students in New England and Puerto Rico. "International students are a vital community in our state's universities, and no administration should be allowed to circumvent the law to unilaterally strip students of status, disrupt their studies, and put them at risk of deportation, said Gilles Bissonnette, legal director of the ACLU of New Hampshire. At schools around the country, students have seen their visas revoked or their legal status terminated, typically with little notice. About 1,100 students at more than 170 colleges, universities and university systems have been affected since late March, according to an Associated Press review of university statements, ...

Trump to invoke Schedule F to make it easier to fire some federal workers

President Donald Trump is preparing to make one of the controversial personnel changes laid out in the conservative Project 2025 blueprint for his second term. He plans to reclassify 50,000 federal employees under what's known as Schedule F, which means they'll have less civil service protection. The proposal follows an executive order signed at the beginning of his term, and it's expected to be published in the Federal Register on Friday afternoon. Trump announced the move on social media before the rule was published Friday. If these government workers refuse to advance the policy interests of the President, or are engaging in corrupt behavior, they should no longer have a job, he wrote on his Truth Social platform. This is common sense, and will allow the federal government to finally be run like a business.' Administration officials argue that it's necessary to increase accountability in the workforce. The change is expected to make it easier to replace career employees who hav

Trump defies court orders on deportation, judges launch investigations

Judges have called out the White House's disregard for their rulings against the deportation flight to El Salvador carrying US citizen Abrego Garcia

Pentagon axes $5.1 bn 'wasteful' IT deals with Accenture, Deloitte, others

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth estimates the Pentagon will save nearly $4 billion from the terminated IT and consulting contracts deemed non-essential

Trump escalates threat to fire US Fed Chair Jerome Powell: Here's why

Donald Trump has long pressured the Fed Chair to cut interest rates, especially after the administration imposed global tariffs on trade partners

Trump admin seeks expansion of nation's immigration detention system

Amid rural Louisiana's crawfish farms, towering pine trees and cafes serving po'boys, nearly 7,000 people are waiting at immigration detention centers to learn whether they will be expelled from the United States. If President Donald Trump's administration has its way, the capacity to hold tens of thousands more migrants will soon be added around the country as the US seeks an explosive expansion of what is already the world's largest immigration detention system. Trump's effort to conduct mass deportations as promised in the 2024 campaign represents a potential bonanza for private prison companies and a challenge to the government agencies responsible for the orderly expulsion of immigrants. Some critics say the administration's plans also include a deliberate attempt to isolate detainees by locking them up and holding court proceedings far from their attorneys and support systems. The acting director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, Todd Lyons, said at a border .

Baltimore judge temporarily limits DOGE access to social security data

A federal judge on Thursday imposed new restrictions on billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, limiting its access to Social Security systems that hold personal data on millions of Americans. US District Judge Ellen Hollander issued a preliminary injunction in the case, which was brought by a group of labour unions and retirees who allege DOGE's recent actions violate privacy laws and present massive information security risks. Hollander had previously issued a temporary restraining order. The injunction does allow DOGE staffers to access data that's been redacted or stripped of anything personally identifiable, if they undergo training and background checks. During a federal court hearing Tuesday in Baltimore, Hollander repeatedly asked the government's attorneys why DOGE needs seemingly unfettered access to the agency's troves of sensitive personal information to uncover Social Security fraud.