Vice President JD Vance on Monday hosted the radio programme of Charlie Kirk, the influential conservative activist who was assassinated last week, telling listeners that the best way he knows how to honour his friend is to be a better husband and father. Vance hosted The Charlie Kirk Show from his ceremonial office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building next to the White House. The livestream of the two-hour programme was broadcast in the White House press briefing room and featured a series of appearances by White House and administration officials who knew the 31-year-old Kirk. Vance, who transported Kirk's body home to Arizona aboard Air Force Two last week, opened by saying he was filling in for somebody who cannot be filled in for, but I'll do my best. The Republican vice president, 41, was especially close to Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, one of the nation's largest political organisations with chapters on high school and college campuses. The two began a friendshi
Vice President JD Vance on Monday jumped onto the conservative movement demanding consequences for those who have cheered Charlie Kirk's killing, calling on the public to turn in anyone who says distasteful things about the assassination of his friend and political ally. "When you see someone celebrating Charlie's murder, call them out," Vance urged listeners on the slain activist's podcast Monday. "And hell, call their employer." Vance's call also included a vow to target some of the biggest funders of liberal causes as conservatives stepped up their targeting of private individuals for their comments about the killing. It marked an escalation in a campaign that some warned invoked some of the darkest chapters of American history. "The government involvement in this does inch this closer to looking like McCarthyism," said Adam Goldstein of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, referring to the 1950s campaign to root out communists that led to false allegations and ..
President Donald Trump said Thursday he has instructed the Commerce Department to change the way the Census Bureau collects data, seeking to exclude immigrants who are in the United States illegally. The Republican president said on his social media platform the census' data collections will be based on modern day facts and figures and, importantly, using the results and information gained from the Presidential Election of 2024, an indication he might try to inject his politics into survey work that measures everything from child poverty to business operations. Trump stressed that as part of the changes people in our Country illegally will be excluded from census counts. His Truth Social post fits into an overall pattern in which he has tried to reshape basic measures of how US society is faring to his liking. Last Friday, Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labour Statistics, Erika McEntarfer, after standard revisions to the monthly jobs report showed that employers added 258,00
US Senate narrowly passes $9 billion Trump budget cut targeting public broadcasting and foreign aid; measure heads to House amid mounting criticism
Trump's comments followed a social media post earlier in the day in which he cast the clamor for documents related to Epstein as a new SCAM and expressed dismay
Trump flip-flops on the release of the 'Epstein files' as his supporters express outrage on the lack of transparency, fuelling speculation about potential cover-ups involving high-profile figures
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
Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja appointed Treasurer and Custodian of Records for Elon Musk's newly launched America Party, aimed at offering an alternative to the two-party political system
Making the announcement on X, Musk cited a poll he conducted showing that 65.4% of respondents supported the idea of launching an 'America Party' right after Trump signed his 'big, beautiful' tax Bill
It is big and it is beautiful, says President Donald Trump. But for many Democratic leaders, the tax break and spending cut package adopted by Trump's Republican allies in Congress Thursday represents the key to the Democratic Party's resurgence. Even before the final vote was tallied, Democratic officials were finalising ambitious plans for rallies, voter registration drives, attack ads, bus tours and even a multiday vigil all designed to highlight the most controversial elements of Trump's big beautiful bill: the deep cuts to the nation's safety net that will leave nearly 12 million more Americans without health coverage and millions of others without food assistance, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Indeed, in political battlegrounds across Alaska and Iowa, Pennsylvania and California, Democrats have already begun to use Trump's bill to bludgeon their Republican rivals. Democrats are promising that the package Trump's biggest domestic policy achievement
Tyler Sherman, a nurse at a rural Nebraska hospital, is used to the area's aging farmers delaying care until they end up in his emergency room. Now, with Congress planning around USD 1 trillion in Medicaid cuts over 10 years, he fears those farmers and the more than 3,000 residents of Webster County could lose not just the ER, but also the clinic and nursing home tied to the hospital. Our budget is pretty heavily reliant on the Medicaid reimbursement, so if we do see a cut of that, it'll be difficult to keep the doors open, said Sherman, who works at Webster County Community Hospital in the small Nebraska town of Red Cloud just north of the Kansas border. If those facilities close, many locals would see their five-minute trip to Webster County hospital turn into a nearly hour-long ride to the nearest hospital offering the same services. That's a long way for an emergency, Sherman said. Some won't make it. Already struggling hospitals would be hit particularly hard States and rura
President Donald Trump said Thursday that he's thinking of staging a UFC match on the White House grounds with upwards 20,000 spectators to celebrate 250 years of American independence. We have a lot of land there, said Trump, a UFC enthusiast who has attended several of its mixed martial arts matches in recent months and is close friends with Dana White, the league's president. Trump announced his plan in Iowa during the kickoff for a year's worth of festivities to celebrate America's 250th birthday on July 4, 2026. The Republican president also announced a culminating festival on the National Mall in Washington, and a separate athletic competition featuring high school athletes from across the country. So every one of our national parks, battlefields and historic sites are going to have special events in honour of America 250. And I even think we're going to have a UFC fight," Trump said. "Think of this on the grounds of the White House. We have a lot of land there," he said, ad
During a marathon overnight session, lawmakers cleared a final procedural hurdle needed to begin debate on the bill in a 219-213 vote at around 3:30 a.m. ET (0730 GMT)
The House sprang back to action late Wednesday after a prolonged stalemate as Republican leaders spent the afternoon and evening working furiously to convince sceptics to support President Donald Trump's tax and spending cuts package and send it to his desk by the Fourth of July deadline. The day evolved into one of fast starts and hard stops, as Speaker Mike Johnson recalled lawmakers to Washington. GOP leadership vowed immediate consideration of the 887-bill, eager to seize on the momentum of its passage the day before in the Senate. But after a quick procedural vote in the morning, the chamber stood idle for more than seven hours as GOP lawmakers met with Trump at the White House and others shuttled in and out of the speaker's office for private meetings. The American people gave us a clear mandate, and after four years of Democrat failure, we intend to deliver without delay, the top four House GOP leaders said after the Senate passed the bill Tuesday, thanks to Vice President JD
Musk warned that the proposed cuts to EVs and other clean energy credits would be "incredibly destructive" to the country, destroying millions of jobs and giving "handouts to industries of the past"
The Senate's long day of voting churned toward evening Monday, with Republican leaders grasping for ways to shore up support for President Donald Trump's big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts while fending off proposed amendments from Democrats who oppose the package and are trying to defeat it. The outcome was not yet in sight. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota acknowledged the Republicans are figuring out how to get to the end game". And House Speaker Mike Johnson signalled the potential problems the Senate package could face when it is eventually sent back to his chamber for a final round of voting, which was expected later this week, ahead of Trump's July 4 deadline. I have prevailed upon my Senate colleagues to please, please, please keep it as close to the House product as possible, Johnson, the Louisiana Republican, said as he left the Capitol around dinnertime. It's a pivotal moment for the Republicans, who have control of Congress and are racing to wrap
Donald Trump's decision to strike Iran's nuclear sites reignites debate over the 1973 War Powers Resolution and raises questions about presidential authority and potential impeachment
Congressional Republicans and at least one Democrat immediately praised President Donald Trump after he said Saturday evening that the US military bombed three sites in Iran. Well done, President Trump, Sen Lindsey Graham of South Carolina posted on X. Texas Sen John Cornyn called it a courageous and correct decision. Alabama Sen Katie Britt called the bombings strong and surgical. Oklahoma Sen Markwayne Mullin posted: America first, always. The Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, Roger Wicker of Mississippi, said Trump has made a deliberate and correct decision to eliminate the existential threat posed by the Iranian regime. Wicker posted on X that we now have very serious choices ahead to provide security for our citizens and our allies. The quick endorsements of stepped up US involvement in Iran came after Trump had publicly mulled the strikes for days and many congressional Republicans had cautiously said they thought he would make the right decision. Senate Majorit
President Donald Trump wants his big, beautiful bill of tax breaks and spending cuts on his desk to be signed into law by the Fourth of July, and he's pushing the slow-rolling Senate to make it happen sooner rather than later. Trump met with Senate Majority Leader John Thune at the White House earlier this week and has been dialling senators for one-on-one chats, using both the carrot and stick to nudge, badger and encourage them to act. But it's still a long road ahead for the 1,000-page-plus package. His question to me was, How do you think the bill's going to go in the Senate? Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said about his call with Trump. Do you think there's going to be problems? It's a potentially tumultuous three-week sprint for senators preparing to put their own imprint on the massive Republican package that cleared the House late last month by a single vote. The senators have been meeting for weeks behind closed doors, including as they returned to Washington late Monday, to revi
New legislation proposes $150 billion in defence spending, funds for Trump's border wall, deep cuts to student loans and federal pensions, and expanded drilling on public lands