Voters in Wisconsin are casting the first ballots in a pivotal state supreme court race that will decide whether liberal or conservative justices control the highest court in the state.
The first day of early voting comes two weeks before the April 1 election between the Republican-supported Brad Schimel and Democratic-supported Susan Crawford.
The race, which is in an important presidential battleground state, can be seen as a barometer of public opinion early in Trump’s presidency. The outcome will have far-reaching implications for a court that faces cases over abortion and reproductive rights, the strength of public sector unions, voting rules and congressional district boundaries.
Trump and Putin spoke about “the need for peace and a ceasefire” in the Russia-Ukraine war
The White House said in a statement that Trump and Putin “spoke about the need for peace and a ceasefire in the Ukraine war” in a phone call that lasted over an hour.
“Both leaders agreed this conflict needs to end with a lasting peace,” reads the statement. “The leaders agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire, as well as technical negotiations on implementation of a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea, full ceasefire and permanent peace.”
Putin and Trump also discussed the Middle East, the “need to stop” the proliferation of strategic weapons, and Iran, according to the statement.
Trump administration declines to offer details of deportation flights, argues it did not violate court order
The justice department told the judge considering the legality of deporting suspected Venezuelan gang members that they did not violate his order to stop the planes from departing, but refused to immediately offer more details of their itinerary.
The filings came after judge James Boasberg yesterday gave the administration a deadline of today at noon to share details of how the three planes were allowed to fly to El Salvador even though he ordered that they not depart, and turn back if they were in the air.
In response, Robert L. Cerna, an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (Ice) official based in Texas, said that two of the planes had already left US airspace by the time that Boasberg issued his order, while the third carried migrants who had been ordered deported through the typical legal process – not the Alien Enemies Act, which is at issue in the case Boasberg is considering.
From Cerna’s filing:
On March 15, 2025, after the Proclamation was publicly posted and took effect, three planes carrying aliens departed the United States for El Salvador International Airport (SAL). Two of those planes departed U.S. territory and airspace before 7:25 PM EDT. The third plane departed after that time, but all individuals on that third plane had Title 8 final removal orders and thus were not removed solely on the basis of the Proclamation at issue. To avoid any doubt, no one on any flight departing the United States after 7:25 PM EDT on March 15, 2025, was removed solely on the basis of the Proclamation at issue.
Separately, attorney general Pam Bondi and other top justice department officials signed a notice to Boasberg in response to his demand for details about the planes and their departure time, essentially refusing to provide him with what he wanted:
The Court also ordered the Government to address the form in which it can provide further details about flights that left the United States before 7:25 PM. The Government maintains that there is no justification to order the provision of additional information, and that doing so would be inappropriate, because even accepting Plaintiffs’ account of the facts, there was no violation of the Court’s written order (since the relevant flights left U.S. airspace, and so their occupants were “removed,” before the order issued), and the Court’s earlier oral statements were not independently enforceable as injunctions. The Government stands on those arguments.
Here’s more on the legal wrangling over the deportations, and Donald Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act:
The day so far
Donald Trump escalated his rhetoric against the judicial branch, saying that a federal judge who attempted to block his deportation of suspected Venezuelan gang members should be impeached. The comment prompted a rare public statement from John Roberts, the chief justice of the supreme court, who said impeachment “is not an appropriate response” and that appeals in the case should be allowed to play out. We expect to find out more today about the deportations of the undocumented immigrants to El Salvador, where the government released jarring video of them being manhandled off planes and having their heads shaved. The government continues to argue that the group belonged to Tren de Aragua, whose members Trump has designated for rapid deportation, but family members of some of the men told the Washington Post they had no association with the gang.
Here’s what else has happened today so far:
Despite the rhetoric, impeaching and removing federal judges is exceedingly rare, and Republicans don’t appear to have the votes in the Senate.
Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico’s president, asked the Trump administration not to deport their citizens to a third country, or detain them in Guantánamo Bay.
More documents related to the assassination of John F Kennedy Jr should be released today, Trump told reporters on Monday.
Impeachments of federal judges are rare, removals are even rarer, and political considerations make it unlikely that Congress would ever remove a federal judge during Donald Trump’s term.
Impeaching and removing a federal judge follows largely the same procedure as it would for a president. In order to remove a judge, the House of Representatives would have to vote to impeach them by a simple majority. The Senate would then hold a trial, after which they would need a two-thirds majority of members to vote to convict the judge and remove them from the federal bench.
While the GOP controls the Senate, they hold only 53 seats, and would need significant Democratic support to reach the 67-vote threshold for convictions – something that is unlikely to happen at Trump’s bidding.
Impeachments and convictions are exceedingly rare, in general. According to federal court data, only 15 judges have ever been impeached, and eight convicted.
Supreme court chief justice Roberts says impeachment 'not an appropriate response' after Trump comment
Chief justice of the supreme court John Roberts has issued a rare public statement after Donald Trump this morning suggested a federal judge who attempted to block his administration’s deportation of suspected Venezuelan gang members should be impeached.
Without referencing the president, Roberts said:
For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.
Roberts is considered part of the court’s conservative bloc and has repeatedly joined rulings that Trump supports, perhaps most notably last year’s decision granting presidents immunity for official acts. However, Roberts also has a record of defending the judiciary from Trump’s attacks, such as this episode from his first term:
Mexico’s government has asked the Trump administration not to send any of its deported citizens to Guantánamo Bay, or any other country besides their own, Reuters reports.
President Claudia Sheinbaum made the request after the US government deported more than 200 suspected Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador, which agreed to take them in exchange for $6m.
Donald Trump has said he wants to detain tens of thousands of migrants at Guantánamo Bay, which is best known as the site where foreigners arrested in the US “war on terror” were imprisoned:
Trump says to expect release of more JFK assassination records today
Donald Trump said that his administration will release tens of thousands of records today related to the assassination of John F Kennedy Jr, which he does not expect to be redacted.
“You got a lot of reading. I don’t believe we’re going to redact anything,” the president told reporters as he visited the Kennedy Center performing arts venue in Washington DC.
He added that he expected about 80,000 pages to be released. “They’ve been waiting for that for decades, and I said during the campaign I’d release them and I’m a man of my word, so, tomorrow you have the JFK files.”
Trump is indeed a man of his word in this respect, as was Joe Biden:
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Donald Trump has been on the phone with Russian president Vladimir Putin for the past hour, a senior White House official said.
“President Trump is currently in the Oval Office speaking with President Vladimir Putin of Russia since 10:00amEDT. The call is going well, and still in progress,” deputy White House chief of staff Dan Scavino wrote on X.
The call between the two leaders is seen as crucial to the peace agreement Trump is hoping to forge in Ukraine. Here’s more about it:
Fans of one-hit wonders and 90s music will no doubt recognize Semisonic’s 1998 hit, “Closing Time”.
You can still hear it on the radio, at baseball games and, most recently, in a video the White House released to advertise their zeal for deporting people.
The Minnesota-based band is not a fan, writing on X:
We did not authorize or condone the White House’s use of our song “Closing Time” in any way. And no, they didn’t ask. The song is about joy and possibilities and hope, and they have missed the point entirely.
In a court filing submitted yesterday, an official with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) acknowledged that not all the alleged Venezuelan gang members are suspected of committing crimes in the United States.
“While it is true that many of the [Tren de Aragua] members removed under the [Alien Enemies Act] do not have criminal records in the United States, that is because they have only been in the United States for a short period of time,” wrote Robert L Cerna, the acting field office director for Ice’s enforcement and removal operations in part of Texas.
“The lack of a criminal record does not indicate they pose a limited threat. In fact, based upon their association with TdA, the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose. It demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile.”
Despite family members of some of the deported Venezuelans insisting their relatives were not in any gang, Cerna argued all of the deportees had specifically been identified as part of Tren de Aragua, members of which Donald Trump has said should be removed under the Alien Enemies Act.
“ICE did not simply rely on social media posts, photographs of the alien displaying gang-related hand gestures, or tattoos alone,” Cerna wrote.
Updated
The Trump administration says the more than 200 undocumented immigrants flown to El Salvador are “terrorists” who belong to Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang.
But the Washington Post spoke to relatives of four of those arrested, who said they are Venezuelans who escaped their country’s economic collapse and were living in Dallas, before being arrested just days ago. The relatives deny that they belong to the gang or any other violent group.
From the Post’s story:
The four friends grew up within blocks of each other in Venezuela, playing soccer and bouncing between one another’s homes. As the nation deteriorated, they journeyed to the United States and were eking out a new life in Dallas, where they worked long hours and shared a townhouse.
Then, on Thursday, armed officers showed up at their home, arrested them and took them to a Texas detention center, Mervin Yamarte, 29, told his mother by phone. The family members do not know their charges, and the men’s names do not appear in federal, state or local criminal court records.
What happened next horrified their families. Yamarte said they were asked to sign deportation papers and agreed, thinking that they would soon be back with their children and loved ones in Venezuela. But a day later, his mother saw a jarring video released by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele showing alleged gang members being violently pulled off planes from the United States and dragged to a mega-prison notorious for allegations of human rights abuses.
Mercedes Yamarte spotted her son.
He appears for only a second, but she has no doubt it is him. He is kneeling and wearing a ripped black shirt. His head has been shaved. An officer stands behind him. He appears to be wincing.
“I didn’t have words,” Mercedes Yamarte said Monday, her voice strained. “I couldn’t speak.”
…
“If there are people with criminal records, then look for them,” Mercedes Yamarte said. “But the innocent shouldn’t have to pay for the rest.”
With the help of the Senate, Donald Trump has the opportunity to appoint judges he approves to the federal judiciary, potentially tilting it towards the right, the Guardian’s David Smith reports:
Donald Trump is poised to reshape the US judiciary over the next four years through hundreds of potential appointments of rightwing judges, a progressive advocacy group has warned.
The analysis by Demand Justice comes with the courts already facing extraordinary pressure. The Trump administration has suffered several legal setbacks and was accused of violating a judge’s order by deporting about 250 Venezuelan alleged gang members to El Salvador.
Trump, a Republican, appointed 226 judges to the federal courts during his first term as president. The total was narrowly eclipsed by his successor, Joe Biden, with 228 including record numbers of women and people of colour.
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Trump calls for impeachment of judge weighing Alien Enemies Act deportation case
Donald Trump has called for the impeachment of the judge handling lawsuits over his administration’s deportation of suspected Venezuelan gang members, a significant escalation of rightwing attacks on the judiciary.
While allies of the president such as Elon Musk have repeatedly said judges who rule against him should be impeached, this appears to be the first time the president has backed such calls publicly. Trump’s post on Truth Social does not name the judge, but seems to reference James Boasberg, the Washington DC-based justice who was appointed by Barack Obama and attempted to prevent the government from deporting the alleged gang members under the Alien Enemies Act. Here’s what Trump wrote:
This Radical Left Lunatic of a Judge, a troublemaker and agitator who was sadly appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, was not elected President - He didn’t WIN the popular VOTE (by a lot!), he didn’t WIN ALL SEVEN SWING STATES, he didn’t WIN 2,750 to 525 Counties, HE DIDN’T WIN ANYTHING! I WON FOR MANY REASONS, IN AN OVERWHELMING MANDATE, BUT FIGHTING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MAY HAVE BEEN THE NUMBER ONE REASON FOR THIS HISTORIC VICTORY. I’m just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do. This judge, like many of the Crooked Judges’ I am forced to appear before, should be IMPEACHED!!! WE DON’T WANT VICIOUS, VIOLENT, AND DEMENTED CRIMINALS, MANY OF THEM DERANGED MURDERERS, IN OUR COUNTRY. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!
The attacks on the judiciary have prompted US Marshals to up their protection of judges, amid fears they may prompt violence:
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The Trump administration turned the deportation of suspected Venezuelan gang members into a spectacle by sending around video of them arriving in El Salvador and being manhandled off the plane and into a detention facility.
It appears to be part of a plan to encourage undocumented immigrants in the United States to leave voluntarily. Another aspect of the plan is the CBP Home app, which was formerly used under a different name by the Biden administration to manage arrivals of asylum seekers. Under Donald Trump, it has been rebranded and is now intended to facilitate departures of immigrants without visas, and the White House just released video of the president encouraging them to make use of it:
People in our country illegally can self-deport the easy way, or they can get deported the hard way, and that’s not pleasant.
Here’s more about the app:
Attorney general says deportation flights will 'absolutely' continue as noon deadline nears
The Trump administration faces a deadline of 12pm ET to provide federal judge James Boasberg with more information about the three flights carrying suspected Venezuelan gang members that were allowed to depart the United States over the weekend.
The case is the latest instance of the Trump administration apparently defying a court order – something top administration officials are making no apologies for.
In an interview with Fox News on Monday, attorney general Pam Bondi said that the White House was “absolutely” hoping to continue similar deportation flights. The suspected gang members were deported to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act, which cuts through much of the usual due process required by immigration law.
“These are foreign terrorists. The president has identified them and designated them as such, and we will continue to follow the Alien Enemies Act,” Bondi said.
Updated
Donald Trump plans to sign more executive orders at 3.30pm today.
It’s the only event on his White House schedule and currently listed as closed to the press, but Trump is known to use the signing as an opportunity to invite reporters into the Oval Office and take their questions.
Updated
The US defense department webpage celebrating a Black Medal of Honor recipient that was removed and had the letters “DEI” added to the site’s address has been restored – and the letters scrubbed – after an outcry.
But defense department officials have continued to argue publicly that it is wrong to say that diversity is a strength and that it’s essential to dismantle all “diversity, equity and inclusion” efforts.
On Saturday, the Guardian reported that US army Maj Gen Charles Calvin Rogers’s Medal of Honor webpage led to a “404” error message – and that the URL had been changed, with the word “medal” changed to “deimedal”.
Rogers, who died in 1990, served in the Vietnam war, where he was wounded three times while leading the defense of a base. Then president Richard Nixon awarded him the Medal of Honor, the country’s highest military honor, in 1970, making him the highest-ranking African American to receive it, according to the West Virginia military hall of fame.
On Saturday, the webpage honoring him was no longer functional, with a “404 – Page Not Found” message appearing along with the note: “The page you are looking for might have been moved, renamed, or may be temporarily unavailable.”
Updated
Doge breaks into US Institute of Peace building after White House guts board
The Trump administration fired most of the board of the US Institute of Peace (USIP) and sent its new leader into the Washington DC headquarters of the independent organization on Monday in its latest effort targeting agencies tied to foreign assistance work.
The remaining three members of the group’s board – defense secretary Pete Hegseth, secretary of state Marco Rubio and national defense university president Peter Garvin – fired president and CEO, George Moose, on Friday, according to a document obtained by the Associated Press.
An executive order that Donald Trump signed last month targeted the organization, which was created by Congress more than 40 years ago, and others for reductions.
Current USIP employees said staffers from Elon Musk’s so-called “department of government efficiency” entered the building despite protests that the institute is not part of the executive branch. USIP called the police, whose vehicles were outside the building on Monday evening.
Updated
Kremlin says Putin and Trump to speak later today
Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump will hold a phone call between 9am and 11am EDT on Tuesday to talk about settling the Ukraine conflict and normalising relations between Russia and the United States, the Kremlin said.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said there was already a “certain understanding” between the two leaders, based on a phone call they held on 12 February and on subsequent high-level contacts between the two countries.
“But there are also a large number of questions regarding the further normalisation of our bilateral relations, and a settlement on Ukraine. All of this will have to be discussed by the two presidents,” Peskov told reporters.
“The leaders will speak for as long as they deem necessary,” he said.
The Trump administration has removed former surgeon general Vivek Murthy’s advisory on gun violence as a public health issue from the US Department of Health and Human Services’ website.
This move was made to comply with Donald Trump’s executive order to protect second amendment rights, a White House official told the Guardian.
The “firearm violence in America” page, where the advisory had been posted, was filled with data and information about the ripple effects of shootings, the prevalence of firearm suicides and the number of American children and adolescents who have been shot and killed. Now, when someone reaches the site they will be met with a “page not found” message.
When it was originally released last summer, Murthy’s advisory was met with praise from violence prevention and research groups and was lambasted by second amendment law centers and advocacy groups that argued the Biden administration was using public health as a cloak to push forward more gun control.
“This is an extension of the Biden Administration’s war on law-abiding gun owners. America has a crime problem caused by criminals,” the National Rifle Association (NRA) said in a statement posted to X on 25 July 2024.
Updated
Trump pledges overhaul of Kennedy Center in first visit as board chair
Donald Trump visited the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Monday for the first time since making himself its new chair, threatening to shutter an expensive new addition and describing the marble Washington landmark as being in “tremendous disrepair”.
Trump presided over the center’s board meeting in a demonstration of his takeover of an institution that has long enjoyed bipartisan support in Washington, Reuters reported.
Trump, a former real estate executive, criticised an expansive addition built on the Kennedy Center complex for lacking windows and suggested closing it.
He said the center would improve physically over time, however, and he encouraged people to attend shows there.
“This represents a very important part of DC, and actually our country,” he said when asked why he was making time to come to the Kennedy Center with so many other things on his plate. “I think it’s important to make sure that our country is in good shape and is represented well.”
Last month, Trump became chair of the Kennedy Center after pushing out billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein. He fired its longtime president, Deborah Rutter, and installed his former ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, as interim president.
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Judge issues fresh deadline to White House over Venezuelan deportations row
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news over the next couple of hours.
We start with news that a federal judge has given the Trump administration a deadline of today to provide details about plane loads of Venezuelans it deported despite orders not to, in a brewing showdown over presidential power.
Donald Trump claims the deported Venezuelans are members of the prison gang Tren de Aragua, which he designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
The White House on Saturday published a Trump proclamation that invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to declare the gang was conducting irregular warfare against the US, Reuters reported.
Later on Saturday, US district judge James Boasberg issued an order blocking the deportations but the flights continued anyway and 261 people were flown to El Salvador.
A Trump administration lawyer argued both that the judge’s initial oral ruling to block the flights was superseded by a more sparsely written order issued later and that the government had the legal right to continue with flights once they had left US airspace.
Since taking office in January, Trump has sought to push the boundaries of executive power, challenging the historic checks and balances between the US branches of government.
Read our latest story here:
In other news:
Trump announced on Truth Social that he was ending secret service protection for Joe Biden’s adult children, Ashley Biden and Hunter Biden.
Trump also said the government would release all of the remaining classified documents related to the assassination of President John F Kennedy on Tuesday, something he had pledged to do during his campaign.
Trump also said Joe Biden’s pardon of January 6 committee lawmakers was “void”, and his press secretary later said, without evidence, that the former president may not have been of sound mind when he gave it.
Meanwhile, the CEO of the non-profit US Institute of Peace said Monday that employees of Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” had “broken into our building” as part of an escalating standoff over the legal status of the institute and whether Musk has authority over it.
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate minority leader, has reportedly cancelled a book tour as he faces protests from members of his own party for providing votes crucial to the passage of a Republican spending bill.
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