Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day, but we will be back on Wednesday to pick up the thread. Here are some of the day’s developments:
Five Democratic lawmakers traveled to Louisiana on Tuesday to meet with Rumeysa Ozturk and Mahmoud Khalil, two graduate students who were arrested by federal immigration officials over pro-Palestinian activism. Representative Jim McGovern called them “political prisoners”.
Donald Trump told reporters he was “entitled” to deport migrants without trials.
Trump brushed off questions about whether he would try to remove the heading of Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, saying: “I don’t want to talk about because I have no intention of firing him”.
Tesla reported that its first quarter profits were down 71% apparently due to anger at the role of CEO Elon Musk in dismantling the federal government.
A federal judge ordered the administration to restore the jobs of journalists at Voice of America, calling the shuttering of the congressionally-funded broadcaster “an affront” to Congress.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio announced a proposed sweeping reorganisation of the US state department as part of what he called an effort to reform it amid criticism from the Trump White House over the execution of US diplomacy.
The US supreme court appeared inclined to rule in favor of religious parents in Maryland seeking to keep their elementary school children out of certain classes when storybooks with LGBTQ+ characters are read.
Four House Democrats who traveled to El Salvador this week were denied visits with Kilmar Ábrego García, a man who the Trump administration wrongly deported from the United States, Representative Maxwell Frost told reporters.
The Trump administration was ordered by a federal judge in Colorado to give Venezuelan migrants detained in that state notice 21 days in advance before any deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, and to inform them of their right to challenge their removal.
JD Vance described the US-India partnership as the cornerstone of global progress, warning that the 21st century could be “a very dark time for all of humanity” if the two countries fail to cooperate.
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Arizona Democrat Yassamin Ansari, back from El Salvador, explained due process to Laura Ingraham, a former supreme court law clerk.
Ansari, who visited El Salvador this week to push for the release of Kilmar Ábrego García, who was wrongly deported by the Trump administration, was asked on Tuesday night by Fox host Laura Ingraham why she made the trip.
“To me, there is nothing more American than due process and the rule of law,” Ansari replied. “The fact that Donald Trump is defying a 9-0 supreme court order that has said very clearly that the United States must facilitate the return of Kilmar Ábrego García is extremely, extremely important and the fact that the president continues to defy that supreme court order.”
Ansari went on to point out to Ingraham, a lawyer who clerked for supreme court Justice Clarence Thomas before her career in television, that “this is also a bipartisan issue”.
“We have had a conservative-leaning supreme court say that he must be returned, a Reagan-appointed judge say that this should be shocking to every American, and also Joe Rogan who has said due process is one of the foundations of our freedom,” Ansari said. “So I want to make sure that the president abides by the law, an actually follows the law.”
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Congressional Democrats visit Mahmoud Kahlil and Rümeysa Öztürk, detained over Gaza solidarity
Five Democratic lawmakers traveled to Louisiana on Tuesday to meet with Rumeysa Ozturk and Mahmoud Khalil, two graduate students who were arrested by federal immigration officials over pro-Palestinian activism and remain in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) detention facilities.
The delegation, led by Representative Troy Carter of Louisiana, also included Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the ranking member on the homeland security committee, which has oversight of Ice, and three lawmakers from Massachusetts, where Ozturk was studying: Representatives Ayanna Pressley and Jim McGovern, and Senator Ed Markey.
After the delegation visited Khalil, who was a spokesperson for Gaza solidarity protesters at Columbia University, at a detention facility in Jena, and Ozturk, who co-wrote an opinion article for the student newspaper at Tufts calling on the school to divest from Israel, at a facility in Basile, the lawmakers spoke in a livestream posted on the YouTube channel of Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts.
“Both of these individuals are political prisoners. They don’t belong here,” McGovern said. “We are hearing from constituents in our districts; we are hearing from people all across the country who are outraged by what is happening. This in not about enforcing the law. This is moving us toward an authoritarian state.”
The delegation was accompanied by Anu Joshi of the ACLU, who pointed out in a Bluesky video filmed on the long drive between the two detention centers: “On purpose, these facilities are super remote, and they’re really hard for lawyers, and family members and friends to get to, to be able to visit their loved ones. Both of our clients in these two facilities are thousands of miles away from their family members, from their lawyers, and that is on purpose.”
“Fifty percent of all people that are in detention in the United States right now are in Louisiana or Texas and most of them are in for-profit facilities,” she added. “This is cruelty by design.”
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As her popularity rises, AOC takes aim at her biggest rival: Fox News
With new polling showing that she is by far the most popular politician in her home state of New York, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posted a video clip on her social media channels on Tuesday in which she heaped scorn on what may be her chief political rival: Fox News.
In the clip, which was taken from her remarks at a “Fight Oligarchy” rally with Bernie Sanders in Folsom, California, last week, Ocasio-Cortez criticized the Fox host Jeanine Pirro for suggesting that millions of dollars in social security payments paid to children are an example of waste or fraud.
“I’ve got a notice for you, Jeanine Pirro. Those babies get social security because their parents died,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “That’s not a waste. That’s humanity. That’s America. That’s the country that we fight for. Those are the promises we make to one another.”
In her remarks, the Bronx-born New York representative also pointed out that Pirro, a former judge, “is from Westchester country, where I went to public school”.
New polling research from Siena College, released on Tuesday, shows that Ocasio-Cortez has a net favorability rating among New York state voters of +14, far outstripping two other New York City natives, the Brooklyn-born Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, who is at -10, and the Queens-born president, Donald Trump, who is at -15.
The same polling also reveals that Ocasio-Cortez has even higher net favorability ratings with Black voters (+37) and Latino voters (+24) in the state, which the MSNBC contributor Rotimi Adeoye suggested could help her do better than the Brooklyn-born Sanders in a Democratic presidential primary.
Whether or not Ocasio-Cortez can use her popularity at home as the foundation for a presidential run, her comments about Pirro, and Trump, at a rally alongside Sanders underscores the sudden centrality of the New York metro area to national politics.
That was made even more plain on Monday, when Trump responded to a plea from Fox and Friends host Brian Kilmeade to use the power of the federal government to help the Long Island high school he attended keep its Native American mascot. Trump took time out from the financial crisis he ignited with his global tariff war to direct his education secretary, Linda McMahon, to intervene on the side of the Massapequa high school “Chiefs” against the state’s educational authority, which wants to ban Native American mascots and nicknames for public high school sports teams.
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Trump says tariff rates on China will drop 'substantially' but 'won't be zero'
Asked by a reporter about comments from the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, that high tariffs on goods from China are unsustainable and there is likely to be a “de-escalation” in the trade war, Trump said: “That’s true.”
“One hundred forty-five percent is very high, and it won’t be that high,” the president added. “It will come down substantially, but it won’t be zero.”
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Musk says he will step back from government role in May
On the Tesla earnings call, chief executive Elon Musk just said he will step back from his role leading the Trump administration’s so-called “department of government efficiency” starting May.
Musk’s remarks came as the company reported a massive dip in both profits and revenues in the first quarter of 2025 amid backlash to his role in the White House.
On the investor call, Musk said the the work necessary to get the government’s “financial house in order is mostly done.”
“Starting probably next month, May, my time allocation to Doge will drop significantly,” he said.
That said, he expects to spend one to two days a week continuing to do what he referred to as “critical work” at Doge “for as long as the president would like me to do so and as long as it is useful.”
Trump says he is 'entitled' to deport people without trials
Following an emergency order from the supreme court on Saturday blocking his administration from deporting suspected Venezuelan gang members without affording them due process, Donald Trump just told reporters that it is not possible to have trials for all of the people he wants to deport.
Asked by a reporter for the Daily Caller if he is happy with the rate of deportations, Trump thanked her for the question and repeated the baseless claim he has made in the past that foreign nations, including Venezuela and “the Congo”, have “emptied their prisons into the United States” and created an emergency that can only be dealt with by the emergency powers he claims the 1798 Alien Enemies Act affords him.
“We’re getting them out, and I hope we get cooperation from the courts because you know, we have thousands of people that are ready to go out, and you can’s have a trial for all of these people” the president said.
“It wasn’t meant, the system wasn’t meant- and we don’t think there is anything that says … Look, we are getting some very bad people, killers, murderers, drug dealers, really bad people, the mentally ill, the mentally insane, they emptied out insane asylums into our country, we’re getting them out. And a judge can’t say: ‘No, you have to have a trial,’” he continued.
“No, we are going to have a very dangerous country if we are not allowed to do what we are entitled to do,” Trump concluded.
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Trump says he has 'no intention of firing' Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Donald Trump just brushed off questions about whether he would try to remove the heading of Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell. “I don’t want to talk about because I have no intention of firing him,” Trump said.
The prospect of the president compromising the independence of the US financial system by firing the central banker for not cutting interest rates had prompted a downturn in US stocks, bonds and the dollar on Monday.
“This is the perfect time to lower interest rates,” Trump told reporters. But if Powell does not do so, he said, it would not be the end of his time in charge of the central bank.
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Tesla profits drop 71% as carmaker warns ‘political sentiment’ could impact future demand
Elon Musk’s electric car company Tesla reported that its first-quarter profits plunged by more than two-thirds amid a backlash that has hurt sales and sent its stock plunging. The Austin, Texas, company told shareholders of Tuesday that quarterly profits fell by 71% to to $409m. That was a sharp decline from profits of $1.4bn for the same quarter in 2024, before the company’s CEO endorsed and campaigned for Donald Trump.
The company also had a 9% drop in revenue year over year in the first quarter of 2025, my colleague Johana Bhuiyan reports. Company sales plummeted in the first three months of the year. The company suffered a 13% drop in sales, making it the company’s worst quarter since 2022.
Analysts attribute the company’s overall difficulties to a number of factors, but ultimately conclude Elon Musk’s role in the White House has caused a branding crisis for Tesla. The company is at a major crossroads, analysts say, that will only be remedied if Musk leaves his role in the so-called “department of government efficiency”, nicknamed Doge, and returns to Tesla as CEO full time.
Musk is scheduled to leave Doge on 30 May, a strict 130-day cap on his service as a special government employee.
In addition to a drop in sales, a 50% dip in share prices, existing Tesla owners are looking to sell their vehicles in droves, Teslas have been vandalized across the country and in response to ongoing protests of the automaker, the Vancouver International Auto show removed the electronic carmaker from its March lineup. The company also recalled 46,000 Cybertrucks – nearly all that had been sold.
Read more here:
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In his ruling ordering the Trump administration to re-hire Voice of America journalists and resume broadcasts to provide a “reliable and authoritative source of news” to listeners in countries without press freedom, Royce Lamberth, a district court judge appointed to the federal bench by Ronald Reagan, said the executive branch’s “unwillingness to expend funds in accordance with the congressional appropriations laws is a direct affront to the power of the legislative branch”.
“Congress possesses the ‘power of the purse’,” Lamberth wrote. “Here,” he added, citing a previous court ruling, “the defendants’ termination of grants to the Networks and shutting down VOA ‘potentially run roughshod over a “bulwark of the Constitution’” by interfering with Congress’s appropriation of federal funds’.”
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US judge blocks Trump's shutdown of government-funded radio broadcasts
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered Donald Trump’s administration to halt its efforts to shut down government-funded radio broadcasts of Voice of America, Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, and Middle East Broadcasting Networks.
US district judge Royce Lamberth, who is overseeing six lawsuits from employees and contractors affected by the shutdown of US Agency for Global Media, ordered the Trump administration to “take all necessary steps” to restore employees and contractors to their positions and resume broadcasts. USAGM placed more than 1,000 employees on leave after abruptly shutting down the broadcasts in March.
Congress has funded and authorized the broadcasts to provide an “accurate, objective, and comprehensive” source of news in other nations, according to Lamberth’s opinion.
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The day so far
Pete Hegseth took to the airwaves to hit back against the latest set of bombshell allegations that he shared sensitive military operations – including launch times of fighter jets, bomb drop timings and missile launches – in a Signal group chat with over a dozen people, including his wife and brother. It has since emerged that at least some of that information shared by the defense secretary came from a top general’s secure messages. Speaking on Fox News this morning, the embattled defense secretary deflected, blaming fired Pentagon officials for orchestrating leaks against the Trump administration. He added that evidence from an internal investigation would eventually be handed over to the justice department and “those people will be prosecuted if necessary”. The White House ignored the fact that a lot of criticism of Hegseth is coming from conservatives, and instead doubled down on the suggestion that the leaks were politically motivated and part of a wider “smear campaign” against Hegseth. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt maintained the defense secretary was “doing a tremendous job” and has Trump’s full support. Meanwhile, Democrats – and one House Republican – have called for Hegseth’s resignation for “gross negligence” and calling him “a threat to national security”.
Elsewhere:
Secretary of state Marco Rubio announced a proposed sweeping reorganisation of the US state department as part of what he called an effort to reform it amid criticism from the Trump White House over the execution of US diplomacy. The reorganisation will close a number of overseas missions, reduce staff and minimize offices dedicated to promoting liberal values in a stated goal to subsume them to regional bureaus.
The US supreme court appeared inclined to rule in favor of religious parents in Maryland seeking to keep their elementary school children out of certain classes when storybooks with LGBTQ+ characters are read. Many of the justices in the supreme court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, seemed receptive to the claims by the parents that the lack of opt-outs burdens their religious beliefs. But the court’s three liberal justices raised concerns about how far opt-outs for students could go beyond storybooks in public schools, offering examples of subjects such as evolution, interfaith marriage or women working outside the home that might come up in classes. A ruling is expected in June.
Four House Democrats who traveled to El Salvador this week were denied visits with Kilmar Ábrego García, a man who the Trump administration wrongly deported from the United States, congressman Maxwell Frost told reporters. The Florida lawmaker added that he saw no sign that the US embassy was taking steps to repatriate him, despite judges saying the government should do so.
Donald Trump’s administration has been ordered by a federal judge in Colorado to give Venezuelan migrants detained in that state notice 21 days in advance before any deportations under the Alien Enemies Act, and to inform them of their right to challenge their removal. In a written ruling maintaining a temporary block within Colorado on deportations under the rarely invoked wartime law, US district judge Charlotte Sweeney said the administration must tell the migrants in a language they understand that they have the right to consult a lawyer. She also expressed skepticism that the 24 hours notice that the administration had pledged to provide would satisfy the US supreme court’s 7 April order requiring migrants be given the opportunity to challenge their removals in court.
JD Vance described the US-India partnership as the cornerstone of global progress, warning that the 21st century could be “a very dark time for all of humanity” if the two countries fail to cooperate. In the keynote policy speech of his four-day visit to India, the US vice-president also contrasted the country’s “incredible” potential with a “self-loathing” west. Vance said US and Indian negotiators had finalized “terms of reference” for a bilateral trade agreement that Delhi is urgently seeking, in hopes that it will allow the country to dodge steep tariff increases announced by Trump.
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US supreme court leans toward religious parents who object to elementary school LGBT storybooks
The US supreme court appeared inclined to rule in favor of parents in Maryland seeking to keep their elementary school children out of certain classes when storybooks with LGBT characters are read, Reuters reports.
The nine justices heard arguments on Tuesday in an appeal by parents with children in public schools in Montgomery County after lower courts declined to order the local school district to let children opt out when these books are read.
The parents contend that the school board’s policy of prohibiting opt-outs violates the US constitution’s first amendment protections for free exercise of religion. Donald Trump’s administration backed them in the case.
The supreme court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, has steadily expanded the rights of religious people in recent years, including in cases involving LGBT people. And many of the justices seemed receptive to the claims by the parents that the lack of opt-outs burdens their religious beliefs.
Citing one of the disputed storybooks that portrays a same-sex wedding, conservative justice Samuel Alito – who dissented in the supreme court’s landmark 2015 decision to legalize same-sex marriage nationwide – emphasized that the material promotes a moral message.
The book has a clear message. And a lot of people think it’s a good message, and maybe it is a good message, but it’s a message that a lot of people who hold on to traditional religious beliefs don’t agree with.
Conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett pushed back on the idea that the books were merely exposing children to diverse communities and ideas.
It’s presentation of the idea as fact - that’s different, right? It’s saying, ‘This is the right view of the world. This is how we think about things. This is how you should think about things’.
But the court’s three liberal justices raised concerns about how far opt-outs for students could go beyond storybooks in public schools, offering examples of subjects such as evolution, interfaith marriage or women working outside the home that might come up in classes.
A lawyer for the school board, Alan Schoenfeld, told the justices that the school district is attempting to teach respect for others in a pluralistic society, and that exposure to religiously objectionable content happens every day in elementary school classrooms - whether about women who work outside the home, veterans who fought in violent wars or LGBT characters in storybooks.
The book about a same-sex wedding, Schoenfeld told Alito, “is a story that is being used to teach students that, just as in the 99 of the 100 books that we read about couples (in which) it’s a man and a woman, there also may be a man and a man”.
It was unclear whether the court would issue a narrow ruling requiring lower courts to reexamine the case, or broadly require the opt-outs.
The supreme court is expected to rule by the end of June.
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El Salvador government rejects lawmakers' request to visit Kilmar Ábrego García
Four House Democrats who traveled to El Salvador this week were denied visits with a man the Trump administration wrongly deported from the United States, congressman Maxwell Frost told reporters on Tuesday.
The Florida lawmaker added that he saw no sign that the US embassy was taking steps to repatriate Kilmar Ábrego García, despite judges saying the government should do so.
“It seems like the embassy is pretty much in the dark on this entire operation,” Frost said. US government officials in the country informed them that the Salvadoran government had turned down their request to visit Ábrego García, because their trip had not been deemed an official congressional delegation by the House’s Republican leaders.
“We heard directly from the people on the ground in El Salvador, working on behalf of the administration, that they have not been told to do anything in terms of facilitating his return, and that’s complete defiance of the supreme court,” Frost said. Earlier this month, the justices had ordered Donald Trump to “facilitate” Ábrego García’s return to the US, but the president has refused to do so.
Frost was joined on the trip by fellow Democratic lawmakers Robert Garcia, Yassamin Ansari and Maxine Dexter. After their request to visit Ábrego García was denied, Frost said they requested that the Salvadoran government regularly report on his condition, and not long after, the US government told a court that they would provide updates on his health and whereabouts.
“We didn’t get everything we wanted, but we’re happy we were able to get, at least, knowing where he’s at and that he’s okay, because it’s really important for the family, his wife, who’s a US citizen, and his two children,” Frost said.
Last week, Chris Van Hollen, a Democratic senator representing Maryland, where Ábrego García lived before his deportation, visited him in El Salvador. At least two House Republicans have traveled to the country in recent days to praise president Nayib Bukele’s efforts to take in deportees from the United States, though none met with Ábrego García.
Frost said he expects more Democratic lawmakers to visit the country soon.
Trump administration must give some Venezuelan migrants 21 days' notice before deportations, judge rules
A federal judge in Colorado directed Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday to give Venezuelan migrants detained in that state notice 21 days in advance before any deportations under a law historically used only in wartime, and to inform them of their right to challenge their removal.
Reuters reports that in a written ruling maintaining a temporary block within Colorado on deportations under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, US district judge Charlotte Sweeney said the administration must tell the migrants in a language they understand that they have the right to consult a lawyer.
During a hearing on Monday, Sweeney expressed skepticism that the 24 hours notice that the administration had pledged to provide would satisfy the US supreme court’s 7 April order requiring migrants be given the opportunity to challenge their removals in court.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Trump in a social media post on Monday claimed the government “cannot give everyone a trial” before deporting them. He wrote:
We would need hundreds of thousands of trials for the hundreds of thousands of Illegals we are sending out of the Country. Such a thing is not possible to do.
The supreme court previously ordered the administration to give any migrants it planned to deport under the Alien Enemies Act notice and the chance to challenge their removals in court. The court did not specify how much notice migrants were to be given.
The American Civil Liberties Union, representing the migrants held in Colorado, had asked Sweeney to require the administration to provide notice 30 days in advance. That timetable was in line with the procedure that the US government used the last time the Alien Enemies Act was invoked, during World War Two, to intern and deport people of Japanese, German and Italian descent.
The law authorizes the president to deport, detain or place restrictions on individuals whose primary allegiance is to a foreign power and who might pose a national security risk in wartime.
On Saturday, the supreme court weighed in again, blocking what advocates said was the imminent removal of dozens of Venezuelans held in Texas without due process.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Russia for further talks later this week with Russian president Vladimir Putin about the war in Ukraine, Leavitt says.
She adds “we’re hopefully moving in the right direction” on Ukraine while noting that Trump has expressed “frustrations with both sides” in his drive to seal a halt to the fighting.
Donald Trump plans to speak with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi to express his “heartfelt condolences” after suspected militants opened fire on tourists in Kashmir, killing at least 28 people, Leavitt says.
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Leavitt claims the administration is “doing very well with respect to a potential trade deal with China”.
The administration is “setting the stage for a deal with China”, she says, but fails to offer further detail on what that means exactly.
Leavitt says there are 18 trade proposals “on paper” on the table.
The White House trade team is holding meetings with 34 countries this week, she adds.
Asked if the FBI is going to be investigating the leaks that Hegseth earlier said could be prosecuted, Leavitt says you would have to ask the Department of Justice and says the leaks were “unacceptable behavior”.
Pete Hegseth 'doing a tremendous job', says White House, despite latest security lapse
Asked about the fact that the three top Pentagon officials - including two of Hegseth’s closest aides - who were fired after an investigation into alleged leaks were “Hegseth’s own guys”, Leavitt doubles down that they “leaked against their boss to news agencies in this room”. She says the administration “will not tolerate leaks to the mainstream media when it comes to sensitive information”.
She says that Pete Hegseth is “doing a tremendous job” and bringing “monumental change” to the Pentagon. “That’s why we’ve seen a smear campaign against the secretary of defense from the moment that President Trump announced his nomination,” she says.
Let me reiterate the president stands strongly behind secretary Hegseth and the change that he is bringing to the Pentagon and the results that he’s achieved thus far speak for themselves.
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On Thursday this week, Trump will host the Norwegian prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre at the White House to discuss “trade and regional security”.
Leavitt notes this will be the 13th state visit of Trump’s second term so far.
Trump will also travel to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE from 13-16 May.
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Trump to attend funeral of Pope Francis
Trump will leave Friday morning for Rome and return on Saturday evening following the funeral of Pope Francis, Leavitt says.
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The White House news briefing with press secretary Karoline Leavitt is due to start shortly. I’ll bring you all the key lines here.
Pete Hegseth says leak probe may lead to US prosecutions
Reuters is reporting that Pete Hegseth has warned of possible prosecutions of former senior advisors who were fired during a probe into leaks of Pentagon information to the media, saying evidence would be handed over to the Department of Justice once the investigation is completed.
Dan Caldwell, who was one of Hegseth’s top advisors, and two other senior officials were fired on Friday after being escorted out of the Pentagon. They have denied any wrongdoing and said they have been told nothing about any alleged crimes.
Hegseth, who is facing growing calls to resign after coming under fire for using messaging system Signal to discuss plans to attack Yemen’s Houthi group, left open the possibility that individuals could be exonerated during the investigation but played down those chances. He told Fox News:
If those people are exonerated, fantastic. We don’t think - based on what we understand - that it’s going to be a good day for a number of those individuals because of what was found in the investigation.
Hegseth said there had been a number of leaks that triggered the investigation, including about military options to ensure US access to the Panama Canal and Elon Musk’s visit to the Pentagon.
We said enough is enough. We’re going to launch a leak investigation. We took it seriously. It led to some unfortunate places, people I have known for quite some time. But it’s not my job to protect them. It’s my job to protect national security.
He said evidence would eventually be handed over to the Department of Justice.
When that evidence is gathered sufficiently - and this has all happened very quickly - it will be handed over to the DOJ and those people will be prosecuted if necessary.
Caldwell had played a critical role as an adviser to Hegseth and his importance was underscored in a leaked text chain on Signal disclosed by The Atlantic last month. In it, Hegseth named Caldwell as the best staff point of contact for the National Security Council as it prepared for the launch of strikes in Yemen.
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Former vice-president Al Gore compared the Trump administration with Nazi Germany, in scathing comments made Monday about the president’s use of power during remarks about climate change.
During a speech at an event to mark the beginning of San Francisco’s Climate Week, Gore, an established climate advocate, said that the Trump administration was “trying to create their own preferred version of reality”, akin to the Nazi party during the 1930s in Germany, Politico reported.
Gore said during his speech at the city’s Exploratorium museum:
I understand very well why it is wrong to compare Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich to any other movement. It was uniquely evil, full stop. I get it. But there are important lessons from the history of that emergent evil.
Gore’s comments come as three former presidents have publicly condemned the Trump administration over the past two weeks.
Donald Trump said he spoke with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, about trade and Iran.
The call went “very well”, Trump said in a Truth Social post, adding that the pair are “on the same side of every issue”.
The Department of Homeland Security denied detained Columbia University graduate and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil permission to attend the birth of his first child, according to documents seen by multiple outlets.
Instead, Khalil experienced the birth via a telephone call from a Louisiana detention facility more than 1,000 miles away from the New York hospital where his son was delivered.
In a statement released on Monday evening, Khalil’s wife Noor Abdalla said:
I welcomed our son into the world earlier today without Mahmoud by my side. Despite our request for ICE to allow Mahmoud to attend the birth, they denied his temporary release to meet our son. This was a purposeful decision by ICE to make me, Mahmoud, and our son suffer.
According to emails reviewed by the New York Times, Khalil’s lawyers suggested several ways in which he could have attended the birth, including allowing him a two-week furlough while wearing an ankle monitor and requiring scheduled check-ins. The request was denied by the New Orleans field office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Pete Hegseth blames ousted officials for leaks in latest Signal chat scandal
Embattled US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has defended his most recent use of the encrypted messaging app Signal to discuss sensitive military operations, blaming fired Pentagon officials for orchestrating leaks against the Trump administration.
In an interview with former colleagues at Fox News on Tuesday morning, Hegseth suggested the problems stem from former officials, appointed by this administration, for leaking information to damage him and Donald Trump, adding that there was an internal investigation and that evidence would eventually be handed to the justice department. He asked:
When you dismiss people who you believe are leaking classified information… why would it surprise anybody if those very same people keep leaking to the very same reporters whatever information they think they can have to try to sabotage the agenda of the president or the secretary.
In a statement posted on X over the weekend, the three dismissed top officials – Dan Caldwell, Colin Carroll and Darin Selnick – wrote that they were “incredibly disappointed” by the way they were removed, adding that “unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door.”
Hegseth, in the interview, also confirmed the news that his chief of staff Joe Kasper will stay at the Pentagon, but it’s “going to be in a slightly different role”.
The controversy stems from recent reporting in the New York Times, after a second Signal chat was identified where he is again believed to have shared sensitive operational details about strikes against Houthis in Yemen – including launch times of fighter jets, bomb drop timings and missile launches – with a group of 13 people, including his wife, brother and personal lawyer, some of whom possessed no security clearance.
Hegseth dismissed those reports in the interview, characterizing criticism as politically motivated attacks. He told Fox and Friends:
No one’s texting war plans. What was shared over Signal then and now, however you characterize it, was informal, unclassified coordinations for media coordination among other things.
It has since emerged via NBC News that the sensitive information the defense secretary shared in that group chat came from a top general’s secure messages.
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Here is Rubio’s full statement.
Today is the day. Under @POTUS’ leadership and at my direction, we are reversing decades of bloat and bureaucracy at the State Department.
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) April 22, 2025
These sweeping changes will empower our talented diplomats to put America and Americans first. pic.twitter.com/CGWz3JrYwu
Marco Rubio announces sweeping reorganisation of US state department
The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has announced a proposed reorganisation of the US state department as part of what he called an effort to reform it amid criticism from the Trump White House over the execution of US diplomacy.
The reorganisation will close a number of overseas missions, reduce staff and minimise offices dedicated to promoting liberal values in a stated goal to subsume them to regional bureaus.
Rubio said in a statement:
The sprawling bureaucracy created a system more beholden to radical political ideology than advancing America’s core national interests. That is why today I am announcing a comprehensive reorganization plan that will bring the Department in to the 21st Century.
This approach will empower the Department from the ground up, from the bureaus to the embassies. Region-specific functions will be consolidated to increase functionality, redundant offices will be removed, and non-statutory programs that are misaligned with America’s core national interests will cease to exist.
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Don Bacon of Nebraska, a prominent Republican on the House armed services committee, on Monday became the first GOP lawmaker to publicly suggest Trump should fire Hegseth. He told Politico that the chaos at the defense department is reigniting Republicans’ fears about his leadership abilities.
I’m not in the White House, and I’m not going to tell the White House how to manage this … but I find it unacceptable, and I wouldn’t tolerate it if I was in charge.
Democrats call for Hegseth to resign as Republicans echo Trump's support for secretary
Despite rumbles in the Pentagon over Pete Hegesth’s ability to do his job, Republican lawmakers have largely followed Donald Trump’s lead and backed the controversy-mired defense secretary while Democrats are calling for his resignation.
A post on Senate Republican’s X account today, blamed “disgruntled” former employees for the bad press: “Secretary Pete Hegseth is a veteran who is implementing President Trump’s America first agenda. Disgruntled former employees at the Pentagon are trying to undermine the agenda that Americans voted for.”
Yesterday senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee blamed the left: “Of course the left, libs, and leakers are angry with Pete Hegseth. He is a strong @SecDef who is shaking up the status quo at the Pentagon to fight back against America’s greatest threats. Our military and nation are stronger because of his courage to serve.”
Senate intelligence committee chair Tom Cotton claimed former Pentagon employees were “trying to undermine” both Hegseth and Trump’s agenda. And Cory Mills, a member of House armed services committee, said on X: “I fully stand with and support @SecDef.”
However, reacting to that NBC News report, Democratic representative Angie Craig said Hegseth should be fired for “gross negligence” which had put US service members at risk: “He never should’ve been hired in the first place, but his gross negligence in putting our service members at risk is more than enough to be fired for.”
And Debbie Wasserman Schulz also called for his resignation: “Pete Hegseth’s incompetence is a threat to our national security. He needs to resign immediately.”
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Sensitive information Pete Hegseth shared with wife and brother came from top general's secure messages - report
As Pete Hegseth continues to find himself in hot water over Signal-gate, despite Donald Trump’s vocal backing, NBC News reports that the sensitive information the defense secretary shared in a group chat with over dozen people including his wife and brother came from a top general’s secure messages.
Per NBC’s report, minutes before US fighter jets took off to begin strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen last month, army general Michael Erik Kurilla, who leads US Central Command, used a secure US government system to send detailed information about the operation to Hegseth.
The material Kurilla sent included details about when US fighters would take off and when they would hit their targets. He provided Hegseth – as he is supposed to - with information he needed to know and did so using a system specifically designed to safely transmit sensitive and classified information. Hegesth then used his personal phone to send some of that same information to at least two group text chats on the Signal messaging app, NBC reports citing three US officials with direct knowledge of the exchanges.
The sequence of events raises new questions about Hegseth’s handling of the information, which he and the government have denied was classified. In all, according to NBC’s sources, less than 10 minutes elapsed between Kurilla giving Hegseth the information and Hegseth sending it to the two group chats, one of which included other cabinet-level officials and their designees — and, inadvertently, the editor of The Atlantic magazine. The other one was composed of Hegseth’s wife, brother and attorney and some of his aides.
Hegseth shared the information on Signal despite, NBC News has reported, an aide warning him in the days beforehand to be careful not to share sensitive information on an non-secure communications system before the Yemen strikes.
Trump insisted there was no controversy on Monday at the White House Easter Egg roll:
Pete’s doing a great job; everybody’s happy with him. There’s no dysfunction.
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IMF slashes global growth forecasts due to Trump trade tensions
The International Monetary Fund has slashed its forecasts for global growth this year and in 2026, due to the disruption caused by Donald Trump’s trade war.
The IMF is now predicting that growth across the world economy will fall to 2.8% this year, down from 3.3% in 2024, followed by 3% growth this year. Back in January, the Fund had forecast 3.3% growth in both 2025 and 2026.
It blames the direct effects of the new trade measures and their indirect effects through trade linkage spillovers, plus heightened uncertainty, and deteriorating sentiment.
In its latest World Economic Outlook, the Fund says:
The swift escalation of trade tensions and extremely high levels of policy uncertainty are expected to have a significant impact on global economic activity.
Growth in advanced economies is now projected to be 1.4% in 2025, half a percentage point lower than it forecast in January.
The report also shows how Trump has pushed up the US effective tariff rate to the highest in over 100 years – above the levels which compounded the Great Depression.
The IMF warns, soberly, that the outlook is dominated by “intensifying downside risks”.
Its World Economic Outlook says:
Ratcheting up a trade war, along with even more elevated trade policy uncertainty, could further reduce near- and long-term growth, while eroded policy buffers weaken resilience to future shocks.
Divergent and rapidly shifting policy stances or deteriorating sentiment could trigger additional repricing of assets beyond what took place after the announcement of sweeping US tariffs on April 2 and sharp adjustments in foreign exchange rates and capital flows, especially for economies already facing debt distress.
Broader financial instability may ensue, including damage to the international monetary system.
US supreme court to weigh objections to elementary school LGBT storybooks
The supreme court will hear arguments today from parents in Maryland who want to keep their elementary school children out of certain classes when storybooks with LGBT characters are read in the latest case involving the intersection of religion and LGBT rights.
The justices are due to consider an appeal by parents with children in public schools in Montgomery County after lower courts declined to order the local school district to let children opt out when these books are read.
The parents contend that the school board’s policy of prohibiting opt-outs violates the constitution’s first amendment protections for free exercise of religion.
The supreme court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, has steadily expanded the rights of religious people in recent years, sometimes at the expense of other values like LGBT rights. For instance, the court in 2023 ruled that certain businesses have a right under the first amendment’s free speech protections to refuse to provide services for same-sex weddings.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation secularism advocacy group in a filing to the supreme court supporting the school board said:
Parents should not have the constitutional right to micromanage their children’s education to ensure that all secular education materials conform with their personal religious beliefs.
Such a rule would be boundless because “almost any book or idea - however commonplace or innocent - likely contradicts some religious ideals”, the group said.
The supreme court is expected to rule by the end of June. For more on this story, see the New York Times (paywall).
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Donald Trump said overnight that he was planning to travel to Vatican for the funeral of Pope Francis, which is expected to take place on Saturday.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said:
Melania and I will be going to the funeral of Pope Francis, in Rome. We look forward to being there!
As Politico notes, “the president’s confirmed attendance means a procession of world leaders will now seek to use the occasion to grab some precious face time with the man upending global economics and security”.
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China urges Japan to help fight US tariffs together, as US ‘very optimistic’ about ongoing US-Japan trade talks
Chinese premier Li Qiang has sent a letter to Japanese prime minister Shigeru Ishiba calling for a coordinated response to Donald Trump’s tariff measures, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported on Tuesday.
The letter, sent via the Chinese embassy in Japan, stressed the need to “fight protectionism together”, Kyodo reported, citing multiple Japanese government officials. The foreign ministries of both countries did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Beijing warned countries on Monday against striking a broader economic deal with the United States at its expense, saying it will take “resolute and reciprocal” countermeasures against countries that do so, ratcheting up its rhetoric in a spiralling trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.
Japan, one of Washington’s closest allies, was among dozens of countries targeted by Trump’s sweeping tariffs earlier this month and has begun negotiations with the US to try and resolve the issue.
The new US ambassador to Japan, George Glass, said on Tuesday he is “very optimistic” about ongoing tariff talks between Washington and Tokyo, ahead of the second round of the negotiations expected later in the month.
After meeting with Ishiba at the premier’s office, Glass told reporters that the two countries are in a “golden age” both “economically and friendship-wise”.
The Japanese government is considering expanding tariff-free imports of American-grown rice as part of negotiations over higher levies imposed by Washington, sources familiar with the matter told Kyodo on Tuesday.
Relations between Beijing and Tokyo have been strained in recent years by a range of issues from territorial disputes to trade tensions.
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George Clooney has said he is unconcerned about the persistent verbal abuse levelled at him by Donald Trump, after the president labelled him a “fake movie actor” on Truth Social.
Speaking to Gayle King on CBS Mornings, Clooney said: “I don’t care. I’ve known Donald Trump for a long time. My job is not to please the president of the United States. My job is to try and tell the truth when I can and when I have the opportunity. I am well aware of the idea that people will not like that.”
He continued: “People will criticise that. Elon Musk has weighed in [about me]. That is their right. It’s my right to say the other side.”
Trump’s attacks on Clooney renewed last summer, after the latter’s op-ed piece in the New York Times urging Joe Biden to step down for re-election. The actor wrote that Biden could continue with his work furthering democracy by allowing an alternative, younger Democratic candidate to run, who might stand a greater chance of beating Donald Trump.
“So now fake movie actor George Clooney, who never came close to making a great movie, is getting into the act,” posted Trump. “He’s turned on Crooked Joe like the rats they both are.”
Harvard sues Trump administration over efforts to ‘gain control of academic decision-making’
Harvard University has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging it is trying to “gain control of academic decision-making at Harvard”.
The university is fighting back against the administration’s threat to review about $9bn in federal funding after Harvard officials refused to comply with a list of demands that included appointing an outside overseer to ensure that the viewpoints being taught at the university were “diverse”. Harvard is specifically looking to halt a freeze on $2.2bn in grants.
The lawsuit comes as the Trump administration has sought to force changes at multiple Ivy League institutions after months of student activism centered around the war in Gaza. The administration has painted the campus protests as anti-American, and the institutions as liberal and antisemitic, which Harvard’s president, Alan Garber, refuted.
White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement that the “gravy train of federal assistance” to institutions like Harvard was coming to an end.
“Taxpayer funds are a privilege, and Harvard fails to meet the basic conditions required to access that privilege,” Fields said.
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Political website the Hill is this morning reporting some misgivings among senior Republicans after Donald Trump increased his attacks on Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell amid market turmoil sparked by Trump’s tariff decisions.
It quotes a Republican source saying: “Republicans on the banking committee and even the financial services committee have a lot of faith in Powell and think it would be ill-advised to undermine his economic agenda by dismissing Powell or prematurely cutting rates.”
A Republican strategist told the Hill that high profile criticism of the Fed “usually backfires”, and that among older-school Republicans “people are thinking, ‘This isn’t going to work’”.
Of talk of replacing Powell, the strategist said: “The market is all based on emotions and vibes, so getting rid of that stability amidst everything else would be very bad.”
It isn’t clear that Trump has the legal power to dismiss and replace Powell in any case.
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JD Vance warns 21st century could be 'a very dark time for all of humanity'
Speaking in India, JD Vance has warned that the 21st century could be “a very dark time for all of humanity” depending on the decisions made over global trade and global partnerships at this juncture.
The US vice-president said “We are now officially one quarter into the 21st century, 25 years in, 75 years to go. And I really believe that the future of the 21st century is going to be determined by the strength of the US-India partnership.
“I believe that if India and the United States work together successfully, we are going to see a 21st century that is prosperous and peaceful. But I also believe that if we fail to work together successfully, the 21st century could be a very dark time for all of humanity.
“So I want to say it’s clear to me, as it is to most observers, that president Trump, of course, intends to rebalance America’s economic relationship with the rest of the world.
“That’s going to cause, fundamentally, will cause profound changes within our borders, in the United States, but of course, within other countries as well.
“But I believe that this rebalancing is going to produce great benefits for American workers. It’s going to produce great benefits for the people of India.
“And because our partnership is so important to the future of the world, I believe president Trump’s efforts, joined, of course, by the whole country of India, and prime minister Modi, will make the 21st century the best century in human history. Let’s do it together.”
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JD Vance has told an audience in India that the US is seeking to export more energy into the Indian market, criticising previous US administration polices, claiming they had been “motivated by a fear of the future”.
Vance drew applause by praising Indian prime minister Narendra Modi for being “a tough negotiator”, and said “He drives a hard bargain. It’s one of the reasons why we respect him.”
He continued by saying “We don’t blame prime minister Modi for fighting for India’s industry, but we do blame American leaders of the past for failing to do the same for our workers, and we believe that we can fix that to the mutual benefit of both the United States and India.”
During the speech, the vice-president said “As president Trump is fond of saying, America has once again begun to drill, baby, drill. And we think that will be to the benefit of Americans, but will also benefit India as well. Past administrations in the United States of America, I think, motivated by a fear of the future, have tied our hands and restricted American investments in oil and natural gas production.”
He then called for India to change its policies on non-tariff barriers to specific US product sectors, including ethanol and small modular nuclear reactors.
Vance is speaking at the Rajasthan International Center in Jaipur.
JD Vance says Trump seeks to 'rebalance global trade' while announcing progress on US-India trade talks
JD Vance, the US vice-president, has said in India that the Donald Trump administration is seeking “to rebalance global trade”, and announced that in talks with India’s prime minister Narendra Modi the pair had “officially finalised the terms of reference for the trade negotiation.”
Vance said “we want to partner with people and countries who recognize the historic nature of the moment we’re in, of the need to come together and build something truly new, a system of global trade that is balanced, one that is open, and one that is stable and fair”.
He continued: “America’s partners need not look exactly like America, nor must our governments do everything exactly the same way, but we should have some common goals.”
He said: “Critics have attacked my president, president Trump, for starting a trade war in an effort to bring back the jobs in the past, but nothing could be further from the truth. He seeks to rebalance global trade so that America, with friends like India, can build a future worth having for all of our people together.”
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JD Vance is currently speaking in India. You can watch it here:
Democratic party Rep Haley Stevens has launched her US senate campaign in Michigan, claiming that Donald Trump’s economic policies are “putting tens of thousands of Michigan jobs at risk.”
Stevens is aiming to make the case that she will protect the state’s crucial auto industry, and said in a campaign video criticising what she described as the “chaos and reckless tariffs” coming out of the administration.
“We absolutely need to put an end to the chaos agenda,” she said in an interview with the Associated Press.
Stevens will face State Sen Mallory McMorrow and former gubernatorial candidate and public health official Abdul El-Sayed in the Democratic primary, while Republican Mike Rogers will also stand, having lost to Sen Elissa Slotkin by just 19,000 votes last time out.
The winner of the contest will replace Democratic senator Gary Peters, who is retiring at the end of his term.
A judge in New York has placed a temporary halt on a plan to allow federal immigration agents to operate within the Rikers Island jail complex.
New York mayor Eric Adams has insisted that the presence of ICE will assist investigations into gang-related activities, but a lawsuit against the plan has accused him of entering into a “quid pro quo” deal with the Trump administration over the plan.
Agents previously had access to the jail, but this was ended in 2014 under New York City’s sanctuary laws.
Political analyst at CNN, Stephen Collinson, has said that defense secretary Pete Hegseth looks “safe – for now.”
Writing for the news network, Collinson said:
President Donald Trump spent huge political capital getting Hegseth confirmed because the Pentagon chief mirrors Trump’s own riotous political identity and instincts. The point of his selection was to show the conventions and traits that normally define top national security officials don’t apply in the president’s tear-it-down second term.
This is why Hegseth seems safe for now. It’s not entirely surprising that the former Fox News anchor isn’t acting like the kind of national security official who guards sensitive information with their life.
But firing Hegseth three months into a tenure that started with national security experts warning he was dangerously unprepared to lead the Pentagon would force an embarrassed Trump to admit he’d made a mistake.
And, critically, Hegseth has not yet committed the unpardonable transgression that led to the departure of two Trump first-term defense secretaries – trying to thwart the president.
Dow Jones index on course for worst April since 1932 amid tariff trade war
The Dow Jones index closed down 971 points last night, dropping 2.4% while the Nasdaq declined 2.5% as investors continue to be spooked by the Trump administration’s tariff-driven trade policies.
On Monday, Donald Trump decried Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell as “Mr Too Late” for not dropping interest rates. Powell has angered Trump by saying that his administration’s tariff policy would most likely lead to higher inflation and slower growth.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Dow Jones index is on course for “its worst April performance since 1932”, and that the downward trend is because “few [investors] think the administration’s negotiations with trade partners will yield results soon enough to ease the strain.”
It quoted Scott Ladner, chief investment officer at Horizon Investments, saying “It’s impossible to commit capital to an economy that is unstable and unknowable because of policy structure.”
Writing for the Journal, Hannah Erin Lang said “The mood on Wall Street is darkening … Bearishness levels – or expectations that stock prices will fall – among ordinary investors have hovered above 50% for eight consecutive weeks”. That, she reported, is the longest bear majority since records began in 1987.
Trump backs Hegseth as administration denies it is suffering 'dysfunction'
US president Donald Trump has said he backs beleaguered defense secretary Pete Hegseth as the row over his use of the Signal messaging deepended, amid a series of chaotic missteps from the administration with grave consequences.
A legal battle with Harvard University appears to have been triggered by a letter sent to the university from the administration prematurely, people have been wrongfully deported, and the IRS has run through a succession of leaders in record time.
Trump said criticism of Hegseth was “fake news” and that pursuing the issue was a “waste of time”. Hegseth has been accused of sharing military details in two different Signal chat groups.
Harrison Fields, a spokesperson for the White House, denied the administration was dysfunctional, saying “You can’t have this many results with high levels of dysfunction”. He did not specify which results the administration was proud of.
A government professor at Georgetown University told the New York Times that it had been reasonable to expect that a Trump administration “more disciplined this time around”. A lack of senior officials and advisers in position around Trump, many of whom have been replaced by campaigning loyalists, compared to his first term, is being blamed in some quarters for the chaotic performance.
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Welcome and opening summary …
Welcome to the Guardian’s rolling coverage of US politics and the second Trump administration. Here are the headlines …
President Donald Trump has backed defense secretary Pete Hegseth over his discussions of military information on the Signal platform, saying concerns are a “waste of time”. The White House has denied media reports that it was already in the process of seeking a replacement for Hegseth
More than 100 presidents of US colleges and universities have signed a statement denouncing the Trump administration’s “unprecedented government overreach and political interference” with higher education
The Office of Special Counsel has told federal employees it will be droppings its inquiry into the firing of thousands of government staff by the Trump administration
The Wall Street Journal reports that investors believe the Dow Jones index is heading for its worse April since 1932, over doubts with the Trump administration’s tariff-driven trade policy
