Thank you for following the Guardian US live blog. Here are some of the top moments of the day:
Donald Trump has arrived in Los Angeles and was greeted by Governor Gavin Newsom. Trump was accompanied by the first lady and held an impromptu press conference as soon as he stepped off the plane.
Trump said that he would waive federal permits so people who lost their homes in the Los Angeles wildfires could begin to rebuild as soon as possible. Trump said this on Friday after a tour of the fire-ravaged Palisades community.
Mexico denied a military plane carrying people who were deported from the US access to land in the country on Thursday, NBC News has reported.
While aboard Air Force One en route to tour the devastation from the wildfires in Los Angeles, Trump signed two executive orders targeting abortions. The first would reinstate the Mexico City policy, which prevents international non-governmental organizations that perform or promote abortions from receiving federal funding. The second was an order affirming a longstanding federal policy that the US does not use federal funds to pay for abortions.
The justice department chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, has issued an order to curtail prosecutions against people accused of blocking reproductive rights facilities.In a memo on Friday, Mizelle wrote that prosecutions and civil actions under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (Face) Act will now be permitted only in “extraordinary circumstances” or in cases presenting ”significant aggravating factors”, AP reports.
Donald Trump has suggested paring back or even dismantling the federal response to major disasters, a move that would cut off aid that has largely helped support Republican-leaning states that voted for him in last year’s US presidential election.
Thanks for reading. Have a good weekend.
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Donald Trump said that he would waive federal permits so people who lost their homes in the Los Angeles wildfires could begin to rebuild as soon as possible. Trump said this on Friday after a tour of the fire-ravaged Palisades community.
“I’d ask that the local permitting process be the same. Some of the people were saying they’ll be forced to wait 18 months for their permits …I’m sure you can get it down to not even 18 days,” Trump said as he sat at a table with LA mayor Karen Bass during a roundtable briefing.
This announcement followed the announcement of a $2.5bn aid package signed by Gavin Newsom on Thursday that is meant to expedite the cleanup, inspection and permitting processes so that residents affected by the Eaton and Palisades fires.
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Mexico denied a military plane carrying people who were deported from the US access to land in the country on Thursday, NBC News reported on Friday. According to the outlet:
It was not immediately clear why Mexico blocked the flight, but tensions between the US and Mexico, neighbors and longtime allies, have risen since Donald Trump won the November election. Trump has threatened to slap 25% across-the-board tariffs on Mexico in retaliation for migrants crossing the border the countries share. But he has not yet put them in effect.
Issues between the Trump administration and Mexico have been high since the president’s first administration and these tensions have only grown, with Trump and his allies blaming Mexican and Central American migrants for crime in the US and have vowed to ramp up deportations.
Read the entirety of the NBC News report on the rejected flights here.
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Trump signs executive orders targeting abortions
While aboard Air Force One en route to tour the devastation from the wildfires in Los Angeles, Donald Trump signed two executive orders targeting abortions.
The first would reinstate the Mexico City policy, which prevents international non-governmental organizations that perform or promote abortions from receiving federal funding. This policy, which abortion rights supporters call the “global gag rule”, dates back to the 1980s and is typically implemented whenever Republicans take control of the White House.
The second was an order affirming a longstanding federal policy that the US does not use federal funds to pay for abortions.
The actions come just after he addressed a crowd of thousands of abortion opponents in Washington on Friday to mark the 52nd anniversary of the supreme court’s 1973 decision in Roe v Wade. The decision created a national right to abortion but was overturned by the court in 2022.
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Officials identify 18 of 28 people killed in LA wildfires
The Los Angeles county medical examiner has identified 18 of the 28 people who died in the still-burning Eaton and Palisades fire, the medical examiner’s office announced on Friday.
The deceased people whose names have been released range in age from their late 50s to early 90s. Most died in their homes from smoke inhalation and “thermal injuries”.
These names were released as Donald Trump visited the area to tour the fire-ravaged neighborhoods where the deaths occurred.
The names of those who died can be found here.
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Trump is taking an aerial tour of the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles to see the devastation from the Palisades fire.
The Palisades fire, which began on 7 January and has killed at least 11 people, has burned more than 23,000 acres and destroyed nearly 7,000 structures so far. That blaze is still not completely contained.
Trump lands at Los Angeles airport
Donald Trump has arrived in Los Angeles and was greeted by Governor Gavin Newsom. Trump was accompanied by the first lady and held an impromptu press conference as soon as he stepped off the plane.
“We’re going to do a lot of work and I think you’re going to see a lot of progress,” Trump said, referring to the damage from the wildfires.
Newsom asked for Trump’s support in the recovery effort and emphasized, “It’s not just the folks in Palisades but the folks in Altadena that were devastated.”
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Summary of the day so far
Here’s a recap of the latest developments:
Donald Trump said he would consider signing an executive order to “fundamentally reform” or potentially eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema). Trump, during a visit to Asheville, criticized the agency’s disaster response during a tour of hurricane-damaged areas in western North Carolina. He proposed giving governors more direct responsibility for disaster response, indicating he wants to redirect federal funding straight to states rather than through the federal agency.
The Senate will vote tonight on the nomination of Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s controversial pick for US secretary of defense. Hegseth, a former Fox News host and army veteran, cleared a key procedural hurdle on Thursday but two Senate Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, voted against his nomination amid mounting concerns over his personal history and inexperience.
The state department ordered a sweeping freeze on almost all US foreign aid programs, making exceptions for only aid to Israel and humanitarian food crises. The exceptions did not include life-saving health programs, such as clinics and immunization programs. Suspending funding “could have life or death consequences” for children and families around the world, Oxfam warned.
The interior department said it has officially changed the change of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Alaska’s mountain Denali, the highest peak in North America, has officially been renamed Mount McKinley – the name it was called before Barack Obama changed it in 2015, the department said in a statement.
The Trump administration issued a new round of heavy-handed measures that could rapidly deport immigrants who entered the US through recently established legal pathways, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security memo obtained the New York Times. In no waste of time, Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, posted on X on Friday that “Deportation flights have begun” with official pictures of people boarding a military-style aircraft.
A federal judge banned Stewart Rhodes, the former leader of the far-right Oath Keepers group, and some other January 6 defendants from entering Washington DC, as well as the US Capitol, as a condition of their release from prison. The acting US attorney for the District of Columbia, Ed Martin, intervened on behalf of Rhodes and other members of the militia group, asking US district court judge Amit Mehta to reverse the ban. Rhodes was among 1,500 controversially given blanket pardons or commutations by Trump soon after he was sworn in on Monday.
Trump and his vice-president, JD Vance, indicated that the justice department would no longer prosecute anti-abortion activists in separate addresses to the March for Life rally. “No longer will our government throw pro-life protesters and activists – elderly, grandparents, or anybody else – in prison,” Vance told the thousands-strong crowd that gathered on the National Mall, which included members of the white nationalist group Patriot Front. Meanwhile, the justice department’s chief of staff issued an order to curtail prosecutions against people accused of blocking reproductive rights facilities.
The supreme court has agreed to consider whether the country’s first publicly funded religious charter school should be allowed to open in Oklahoma. The case, led by two Catholic dioceses, could open the door to allowing public funds to directly flow to religious schools and transform the line between church and state in education.
Trump held a call with the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, last week in which he insisted he was serious in his determination to take over Greenland, according to a Financial Times report. The call was described by senior European officials as “fiery” with Trump being aggressive and confrontational. Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, said his country had agreed to discuss the question of Greenland after his first call with the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, on Friday.
Marco Rubio also spoke with China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, on Friday in the first publicly disclosed contact between an official in the second Trump administration and a Chinese counterpart. A US readout of the call said Rubio “emphasized that the Trump Administration will pursue a US-PRC relationship that advances US interests and puts the American people first.” A Chinese readout said the two also discussed Taiwan, with Wang reportedly telling Rubio that Beijing will never allow Taiwan to be separated from mainland China.
The Trump administration withdrew a Biden administration proposal to ban menthol cigarettes in the US, according to a filing by the office of information and regulatory affairs. Menthol cigarettes have also faced scrutiny for their disproportionate impact on the health of Black communities, and for their role in luring young people to smoking.
Trump said he had pulled federal security protection for the former top US health official Anthony Fauci, who served as the nation’s top infectious disease official during the Covid-19 pandemic and had served seven US presidents. Trump said he would “certainly not take responsibility” if something was to happen to Fauci or John Bolton, his former national security adviser whose security detail he has also terminated.
The supreme court has agreed to consider whether the country’s first publicly funded religious charter school should be allowed to open in Oklahoma.
The case, led by two Catholic dioceses, could open the door to allowing public funds to directly flow to religious schools and transform the line between church and state in education.
A lower court blocked the establishment of St Isidore of Seville Catholic virtual school, ruling that its funding arrangement violated the constitution’s first amendment limits on government endorsement of religion.
The online school had planned to start classes for its first enrollees last fall, with part of its mission to evangelize its students in the Catholic faith.
Charter schools in Oklahoma are considered public schools under state law and draw funding from the state government.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett has recused herself from the case but did not explain why.
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Donald Trump ordered the Gulf of Mexico to be renamed the Gulf of America and Alaska’s Mount Denali as Mount McKinley on Monday, something he promised earlier this month at a press conference.
In his inaugural address on Monday, Trump said the former Republican president William McKinley “made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent – he was a natural businessman”.
While Trump can direct the US geological survey to change how it denotes the Gulf of Mexico, such a name change would be unlikely to be recognized internationally.
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Interior department says Gulf of Mexico officially renamed Gulf of America
The Trump administration’s interior department said it has officially changed the change of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Alaska’s mountain Denali, the highest peak in North America, has officially been renamed Mount McKinley – the name it was called before Barack Obama changed it in 2015, the department said in a statement.
Donald Trump, on his first day in office on Monday, signed an order to rename the 617,800 sq mile Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s 20,000ft mountain Denali. The interior department said:
In accordance with President Donald J Trump’s recent executive order, the Department of the Interior is proud to announce the implementation of name restorations that honor the legacy of American greatness, with efforts already under way. As directed by the president, the Gulf of Mexico will now officially be known as the Gulf of America and North America’s highest peak will once again bear the name Mount McKinley.
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The justice department chief of staff, Chad Mizelle, has issued an order to curtail prosecutions against people accused of blocking reproductive rights facilities.
In a memo on Friday, Mizelle wrote that prosecutions and civil actions under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (Face) Act will now be permitted only in “extraordinary circumstances” or in cases presenting ”significant aggravating factors”, AP reports. He said:
President Donald Trump campaigned on the promise of ending the weaponization of the federal government and has recently directed all federal departments and agencies to identify and correct the past weaponization of law enforcement.
Mizelle also ordered the immediate dismissal of three civil Face Act cases related to blockades of clinics in Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
It comes a day after Trump announced he would pardon anti-abortion activists convicted of blockading abortion clinic entrances.
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Donald Trump’s pledge to rename the highest mountain in North America has sparked backlash among some Indigenous Alaskans and Alaskan lawmakers, including Republicans.
Trump reiterated his intentions to rename Denali back to Mount McKinley during his inaugural address. Barack Obama had dubbed the mountain Denali during his presidency, undoing the 1917 designation made in honor of the 25th president, William McKinley.
The declaration of renaming has proved to be highly controversial. The Koyukon, an Alaska Indigenous Athabascan group, referred to the mountain as Denali for centuries before McKinley took office or Alaska became a US state.
Alaska News Source reported research that suggested that Alaskans are against changing the name back to McKinley by about a two-to-one margin, despite Alaska being a state that is overwhelmingly supportive of Republicans.
Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Friday to create a taskforce to review the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) and recommend changes, according to a report.
The order establishes a group called the Fema Review Council, Semafor reports, who will be directed to issue a report on how the federal disaster response agency currently functions and ultimately recommend changes, including reorganizing or getting rid of the agency altogether.
Trump, in comments earlier today, said he would consider signing an executive order to “fundamentally reform” or potentially eliminate Fema, calling the agency “not good” and a “disaster”.
“I think we’re going to recommend that Fema go away,” the president told reporters in Asheville, North Carolina.
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The acting secretary of homeland security, Benjamine Huffman, has invoked a seldom-used provision of federal law to make it easier to deputize state and local police to carry out immigration enforcement, Reuters reports.
In a memo seen by Reuters, Huffman, who took over leadership of the department after Donald Trump was inaugurated, cited a “mass influx” of migrants to the United States, though aspects of his order remains unclear.
Enforcement of immigration law is the job of the federal government, though some Republican-led states have passed laws to allow state and local police to check the paperwork of suspected undocumented migrants.
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Acting US attorney for Washington DC Ed Martin has released a statement comparing Donald Trump’s commutations of the Oath Keeper’s militia members’ sentences to Joe Biden’s last-minute pardons of his family members Trump’s political enemies.
“If a judge decided that Jim Biden, General Mark Milley, or another individual were forbidden to visit America’s capital-even after receiving a last-minute, preemptive pardon from the former President – I believe most Americans would object. The individuals referenced in our motion have had their sentences commuted – period, end of sentence,” Martin said in a statement obtained by Politico.
Martin has argued against a judge’s order that prevents several members of the militia, including founder Stewart Rhodes from being in Washington DC or the Capitol building.
State department halts all new aid funding after Trump order
The state department has ordered a halt to funding for almost all aid programs, citing an executive order Donald Trump signed on Monday, the Associated Press reports.
Only aid to Israel and humanitarian food crises are excluded under the policy, with all other US aid programs told to keep running only until they exhaust the funding they currently have.
Here’s more, from the AP:
The sweeping order threatened a quick halt to countless projects globally aiding health, education, development, job training and other efforts by the United States, the largest provider of foreign aid. It appears to begin enforcement of a pledge to eliminate aid programs that President Donald Trump judges not to be in U.S. interests.
The order — sent in a cable to U.S. embassies worldwide and obtained by The Associated Press — prohibits new government spending, which appears to limit programs to running only as long as they have cash on hand.
Some leading aid organizations on Friday were interpreting the directive as an immediate stop-work order for U.S.-funded aid work globally, a senior aid organization official said. Many would likely cease operations immediately so as not to incur more costs, the official said.
The official was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Justice department asks judge to drop ban on Oath Keepers militia members entering US Capitol - report
Acting US attorney for Washington DC Ed Martin has intervened on behalf of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and other members of the militia group, Politico reports.
In a just-filed motion, Martin asked federal judge Amit Mehta to reverse a ban he imposed on the militia members that prevents them from entering the US Capitol or Washington DC.
Martin argues that Donald Trump’s commutation of the group’s sentences preclude any such ban from being enforced, according to a filing. We’ll see how Mehta responds.
This post has been corrected to note that Martin is the acting US attorney for Washington DC, not the acting attorney general.
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Another reason for Donald Trump to be cautious when it comes to unraveling the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema): his Republican predecessor George W Bush’s experience with the botched response to Hurricane Katrina.
The storm 20 years ago inundated New Orleans in one of the worst natural disasters of its time, and Bush’s administration was widely seen as botching the federal response. His administration’s Fema chief, Michael Brown, wound up being relieved of his role coordinating the response to the disaster and later resigned.
The storm struck just less a year after Bush had won a second term in the 2004 election, and majorities in both houses of Congress. Coupled with dissatisfaction over Bush’s handling of the Iraq war, voters handed control of Congress back to the Democrats in the 2006 midterms – exactly the sort of scenario Trump would surely like to avoid.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is the latest part of the federal government in Donald Trump’s crosshairs. But as the Guardian’s Oliver Milman and Dharna Noor report, the president may want to tread carefully:
Donald Trump has suggested paring back or even dismantling the federal response to major disasters, a move that would cut off aid that has largely helped support Republican-leaning states that voted for him in last year’s US presidential election.
Trump said that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) had “not done their job for the last four years” and that there would be “a whole big discussion very shortly, because I’d rather see the states take care of their own problems”.
In an interview with Fox News, the US president said of Fema that “all it does is complicate everything” and that even states who resoundingly backed him, such as Oklahoma, should be primarily left to deal with the aftermath of major storms, floods and fires.
“I love Oklahoma, but you know what? If they get hit with a tornado or something, let Oklahoma fix it,” Trump said. “And then the federal government can help them out with the money. Fema is getting in the way of everything.”
Shifting the burden of disaster aid to the states, an idea outlined by the rightwing Project 2025 manifesto before the election, would hit Republican-leaning states hardest, federal spending figures suggest.
Donald Trump said he was “proud to be a participant” in the overturning of Roe v Wade as he addressed anti-abortion activists at the March for Life rally in Washington DC.
Trump, in a prerecorded video address, said he would “again stand proudly for families and for life” in his second term.
“Six courageous justices of the Supreme Court of the United States returned the issue to the state legislatures and to the people where it belongs,” he said.
Also addressing the crowds on Friday vice-president JD Vance said Trump had “delivered on his promise of ending Roe”, describing him as the most pro-family, most pro-life American president of our lifetimes”.
“America is fundamentally a pro-baby, a pro-family and a pro-life country,” Vance added.
In their speeches to the March for Life on Friday, the largest anti-abortion gathering in the US, Donald Trump and vice-president JD Vance avoided making sweeping policy announcements about limiting access to abortion.
However, both men indicated that the Department of Justice would no longer enforce the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, or the Face Act, against anti-abortion protests.
That law, passed in the 1990s amid a spate of high-profile anti-abortion violence, penalizes individuals who threaten, obstruct or injure someone who is trying to access a reproductive health clinic, or who vandalize a clinic.
Anti-abortion activists, Vance told a roaring crowd, “should never have the government go after them again.”
On Thursday, Trump pardoned a number of anti-abortion activists convicted of blockading a clinic in defiance of the Face Act. Those convictions had fueled demands by activists to repeal the act entirely.
Vance and Trump – who spoke remotely, via a recorded message – garnered the biggest cheers by far from the thousands of people who rallied on the National Mall.
Although Trump repeatedly flip-flopped on abortion rights during the 2024 campaign, angering the anti-abortion leaders who supported him during his first time, the movement’s enthusiasm for the new president was clearly undiminished.
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Denmark in 'crisis mode' after Trump's 'fiery call' over Greenland - report
We reported earlier that Denmark has agreed to discuss the question of Greenland with Washington, according to Danish foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen after his first call with the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio.
Trump also spoke to the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, last week in which he insisted he was serious in his determination to take over Greenland, the Financial Times reports.
Trump spoke to Frederiksen for about 45 minutes in a call that was described as “fiery”, the paper writes, citing senior European officials.
The conversation between the two went very badly, the officials said, adding that Trump had been aggressive and confrontational. “It was horrendous,” a source told FT.
One person said the Danes “are utterly freaked out” by Trump’s call with Frederiksen. Another told the paper:
The intent was very clear. They want it. The Danes are now in crisis mode.
A spokesperson for Frederiksen told the FT they did “not recognize the interpretation of the conversation given by anonymous sources”.
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The Trump administration has withdrawn a Biden administration proposal to ban menthol cigarettes in the US, according to a filing by the office of information and regulatory affairs.
The Food and Drug Administration proposed a ban on the sale of flavored cigars and menthol cigarettes in 2022 after several health advocacy groups said they were highly addictive, and played a role in luring young people to smoking.
Menthol cigarettes have also faced scrutiny for their disproportionate impact on the health of Black communities, Reuters reports.
The news agency quotes Yolonda Richardson, CEO of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, as saying:
It is deeply disappointing that a final rule was not issued in a timely manner. ... it is more critical than ever that states and cities step up their efforts to end the sale of menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products.
Susie Wiles, Donald Trump’s chief of staff, has denied Elon Musk a permanent office in the West Wing of the White House, according to a Times report.
Wiles, whose role as gatekeeper to the president wields great influence, has made it clear that she does not welcome “people who want to work solo or be a star”, the paper writes.
Musk, who has been put in charge of the “department of government efficiency” (Doge), had been angling for his own office within yards of the Oval Office, it says.
But his senior leadership team will be based in the Eisenhower executive office building, which is in the White House grounds but a short walk away from the main complex, it says.
Asked if Musk would be getting an office in the West Wing, Trump said earlier this week: “No. He’s getting an office for about 20 people that we’re hiring to make sure that these [savings] get implemented.”
Denmark’s foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen agreed with his US counterpart, Marco Rubio, to discuss the question of Greenland at a later time, the country’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
The two spoke for 20 minutes on Friday, discussing Ukraine, European security, and the Middle East.
The statement in Danish said that while “Arctic security was not on the agenda,” the two agreed it would be discussed on another occasion, and Greenland would also be involved in talks.
Denmark has been on high alert about the US administration’s intentions towards Greenland since Donald Trump’s comments suggesting he would want to take control over the territory.
Earlier this week, he again said it was “a wonderful place,” that the US “needs for international security”.
Members of the white nationalist group Patriot Front have gathered in Washington DC for the annual anti-abortion March for Life rally.
A white supremacist and neo-fascist hate group, Patriot Front emerged as a rebrand of the neo-Nazi organization Vanguard America in the aftermath of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
According to the SPLC, the Patriot Front “represents one of the most prominent white supremacist groups in the country”.
A slew of big-name conservative men are addressing March for Life, the largest anti-abortion rally in the US.
Senate majority leader John Thune, House speaker Mike Johnson and Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, are all amping up the thousands of marchers who gathered on the National Mall on Friday.
But the name to get the biggest cheers so far belongs to a man who isn’t there: Donald Trump.
“It is a new golden age in America, now we have President Donald J Trump back in the White House —“ Johnson started to say, only to be interrupted by rapturous cheers from the crowd.
Johnson praised Trump for pardoning and freeing anti-abortion activists who were convicted of illegally blockading clinics. He also flagged one of Trump’s new executive orders, which declares that there are only two genders and incorporates the language of fetal personhood, a legal doctrine that holds that embryos and fetuses deserve full legal rights and protections.
“I don’t know if you saw his executive order — it defines life as beginning at conception rather than birth,” Johnson said, to immense cheers.
Friday marks the first time that both the US Senate majority leader and the House speaker have spoken to the March, which has gathered annually for more than 50 years. Vice-president JD Vance is expected to address the crowd in person, while Trump is set to deliver a video message.
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, spoke with China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, on Friday in the first publicly disclosed contact between an official in the second Trump administration and a Chinese counterpart.
Wang told Rubio that Beijing and Washington should implement the “important consensus” reached between the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and Donald Trump, according to a readout of the call by the Chinese foreign ministry.
“I hope you would conduct yourself well and play a constructive role in the future of the Chinese and American people and in world peace and stability,” Wang reportedly told Rubio.
Wang also said that China has “no intention of surpassing or replacing anyone, but we must defend our legitimate right to development,” the Chinese ministry said.
The two also discussed Taiwan, it said. Wang reiterated that Beijing will never allow Taiwan to be separated from mainland China, and warned the US to handle related matters carefully, the ministry said.
The Trump administration is issuing a new round of heavy-handed measures that could rapidly deport immigrants who entered the US through recently established legal pathways, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security memo obtained the New York Times.
The directive, signed by the acting homeland security secretary Benjamine Huffman, grants Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officials unprecedented authority to expedite deportations for immigrants who entered the country with government authorization through two key Biden-era programs.
The newly reported memo instructs Ice officials to identify and potentially deport immigrants who have been in the country for over a year and have not yet applied for asylum, in effect sidestepping traditional immigration court proceedings.
In no waste of time, Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, posted on X on Friday that “Deportation flights have begun” with official pictures of people boarding a military-style aircraft.
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Dr Anthony Fauci did not have Secret Service protection, but his security detail – which Donald Trump ended last night – was being provided and paid for by the National Institutes of Health, CNN reports.
Fauci, who served as the nation’s top infectious disease official, has continued to face ongoing threats due to his role during the Covid-19 pandemic.
He has previously spoken about the need for round-the-clock security protection after receiving “credible death threats” that included his wife and daughters.
In 2022, a West Virgina man was sentenced to prison for sending emails threatening Fauci and his family would be “dragged into the street, beaten to death, and set on fire”.
The Republican senator Rand Paul had publicly called for Fauci’s security detail to be terminated. In a post on X on Thursday, Paul wrote:
Today I sent supporting information to end the 24 hr a day limo and security detail for Fauci. I wish him nothing but peace but he needs to pay for his own limos.
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Trump, taking questions from reporters in Asheville, was asked about reports that he terminated Dr Anthony Fauci’s security detail last night.
“When you work for government, at some point your security detail comes off. You can’t have it forever,” Trump replied.
Asked if he would feel responsible if something was to happen to Fauci or John Bolton, his former national security adviser whose security detail he also ended earlier this week, Trump said:
No. They all made a lot of money. They can hire their own security too … I can give them some good numbers of very good security people.
“Certainly I would not take responsibility,” he added.
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Trump says he will sign executive order to 'fundamentally overhaul' or 'get rid' of Fema
Donald Trump said he will sign an executive order to begin the process of “fundamentally reforming and overhauling” or “maybe getting rid of” the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema).
“I think, frankly, that Fema is not good,” Trump told reporters in Asheville, North Carolina.
I think when you have a problem like this, I think you want to use your state to fix it and not waste time calling Fema … I think we’re going to recommend that Fema go away.
He went on describe Fema as a “big disappointment”. “They cost a tremendous amount of money. It’s very bureaucratic, and it’s very slow,” he said.
Trump terminates security detail for Dr Anthony Fauci
Donald Trump has terminated security detail for Dr Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, CNN reports.
Fauci had his security protections revoked on Thursday night, the outlet writes, citing a source.
He has since hired his own private security that he will have to pay for himself, it says.
Since returning to the White House, Trump has ended security details for several of his former administration officials, including his former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, former top aide Brian Hook, and John Bolton, his former national security adviser.
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Donald Trump reiterated his call for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) to cut oil prices, claiming that it would help bring an end to the war in Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters in Asheville, North Carolina, Trump said:
We want to see Opec cut the price of oil, and that will automatically stop the tragedy that’s taking place in Ukraine. It’s a butchering tragedy for both sides.
Trump made similar comments during an online address to the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, where he called on Opec to cut the cost of oil, in order to choke off revenues to Russia and halt the conflict in Ukraine.
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Asked about LA fires, Trump says he wants voter ID and changed water policies from California
Trump, speaking to reporters in Asheville, North Carolina, also said he wanted to secure two things from California in exchange for wildfire aid: voter identification laws and changes to water policy in the wake of the wildfires.
I want to see two things in Los Angeles. Voter ID, so that the people have a chance to vote, and I want to see the water be released and come down into Los Angeles and throughout the state.
“After that, I will be the greatest president that California has ever seen,” he said.
Trump has repeatedly claimed falsely that the California governor, Gavin Newsom, and other officials have refused to provide water from the northern part of the state to fight the fires.
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Trump says he wants to see states 'take care' of disasters themselves
Donald Trump said he would like to see states take care of disasters themselves as he made his first presidential trip of his second administration to hurricane-battered North Carolina on Friday.
Trump, speaking to reporters, accused the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) of having “really let the country down” as he prepared to meet with emergency responders and tour the “massive amount of damage” left by Hurricane Helene. He said:
I like the concept [of] when North Carolina gets hit, the governor takes care of it. When Florida gets hit, the governor takes care of it. Meaning the states take care of it.
He continued:
I’d like to see states take care of disasters, let the state take care of the tornadoes and the hurricanes and all of the other things that happen.
Asked if he expected to ask Congress for additional aid for North Carolina and California, Trump claimed that the aid will go through his administration instead of Fema.
The aid will go through us. So rather than going through Fema, it will go through us.
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In his first interview after his release from prison, Enrique Tarrio thanked Donald Trump for pardoning him for his role in planning the January 6 riot, saying he “literally gave me my life back”.
Now that he is out, the Proud Boys leader wants revenge, he told Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist host of Info Wars. He said:
The people who did this, they need to feel the heat, they need to be put behind bars, and they need to be prosecuted.
“Success is going to be retribution,” he added. “We gotta do everything in our power to make sure that the next four years sets us up for the next 100 years.”
In the days since the leaders of far-right militia groups were freed from prison, they and their organizations are regrouping and figuring out how to build back momentum now that Trump is back in office. They are emboldened by the mass pardons for the insurrectionists and are planning their next moves.
Judge bars Oath Keepers founder from entering Washington DC after prison release
A federal judge has barred the former leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group, Stewart Rhodes, and several other January 6 defendants from going into Washington DC or the US Capitol without the court’s approval.
US district judge Amit Mehta issued the order after Rhodes visited the Capitol on Wednesday, a day after he was released from prison as part of Donald Trump’s sweeping clemency order.
Rhodes was convicted of seditious conspiracy for his role in the attack on the Capitol and sentenced to 18 years in prison.
The judge’s order today also applies to other members of the Oath Keepers group who were convicted of charges that they participated in a violent plot to attack the Capitol.
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Donald Trump is heading to Los Angeles today to survey fire damage, and reportedly invited along California’s Democratic senator Adam Schiff, a leading antagonist who he has insulted repeatedly.
Politico broke the news yesterday, along with Trump’s invitation to the state’s other senator, Democrat Alex Padilla. Both declined, with their offices saying they needed to remain in Washington to vote.
As he departed the White House this morning for the trip that will also take him to hurricane-ravaged areas of North Carolina, a reporter asked Trump why he invited Schiff, given their bad blood. Trump replied:
I don’t know. Is he going? Is he going? I don’t know. I mean, I really don’t know. You know, if he’s going to be there it would be cheaper but I didn’t invite him. Somebody did.
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Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury is the top Democrat on a subcommittee that will support the “Department of government efficiency” (Doge), the Elon Musk-backed initiative to streamline the federal government.
In an interview with CNN today, Stansbury said she believes the quasi-governmental department is less interested in efficiency, and more interested in policies that will benefit Musk and other wealthy businesses:
We believe that they’re going to use the Doge subcommittee to eviscerate the federal workforce. We think they’re going to go after federal departments, agency heads. We think they’re going to go after the retirement benefits and use it also to restructure the government as a way to be essentially a personal piggy bank for Elon Musk. I mean, I think none of us really understand why Elon Musk is even interested in restructuring the government, except for that he has billions of dollars in federal contracts. And I think it’s notable that up until the inauguration, he was operating his arm of DOGE out of SpaceX, which is the company that he has billions of dollars in front of the federal government with.
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Trump weighing deploying up to 10,000 troops to US-Mexico border - report
The Trump administration may deploy as many as 10,000 troops to the US-Mexico border and construct detention facilities for migrants on military bases, CBS News reports.
The president earlier this week sent 1,500 active-duty troops to the border, adding to a preexisting deployment authorized under Joe Biden. The memo circulating in government says Trump may dramatically expand the troop presence to make good on his campaign promise of stopping border crossers. Here’s more, from CBS:
The internal Customs and Border Protection memo dated Jan. 21 indicates there’s a plan to dispatch “~10,000 soldiers” to help the agency’s mission at the southern border. The Trump administration, according to the document, has submitted an “[u]nrestrained request” for the Pentagon to surge resources and personnel to assist CBP with technology and infrastructure.
The memo also says the Defense Department “may” convert its bases into “holding facilities,” presumably to help CBP detain migrants who crossed into the U.S. illegally.
Additionally, the memo shows the Trump administration is planning to dramatically expand detention capacity at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is expected to be at the center of Mr. Trump’s promised mass deportations.
According to the document, ICE officials want 14 new detention facilities with the capacity to hold up to 1,000 migrants each and another four able to accommodate as many as 10,000 immigrant detainees each.
Chicago was said to be an initial target of the mass deportations Donald Trump promised on his first day in office.
But the promised raids did not wind up taking place, and it’s unclear if and when they will. Politico reports that the word in the Illinois state government is that Trump is interested more in spectacle than substance when it comes to immigration enforcement.
“It’s not like anyone with the Trump administration is picking up the phone and calling us and saying ‘Here’s the plan,’” an Illinois state official told Politico.
“They’re looking for a PR stunt.”
Donald Trump’s threats to carry out mass arrests in cities that have curtailed cooperation with immigration authorities have spread fear throughout communities, the Guardian’s Maanvi Singh reports:
Chicago’s Lower West Side felt uneasily quiet this week.
Christina Alejandra, a dancer and local business owner in the city’s artsy, majority Mexican American neighborhood, wondered whether it was because of the freezing temperatures, or the impending threat of immigration raids.
The city has been preparing for weeks for a crackdown, after Donald Trump’s new administration made clear that so-called sanctuary cities – communities like Chicago that refuse to hand over immigrants to federal authorities – would be the first targets of its mass-deportation program.
But the fear didn’t really hit Alejandra, who’s 26 and undocumented, until Monday, inauguration day, as Trump began unleashing a barrage of new immigration restrictions. “I’ve never been scared like this before,” she said. The Guardian is not publishing Alejandra’s full name to protect her and her family from immigration enforcement.
Chicago and surrounding areas have seen raids before, including during the first Trump administration. “But this feels different,” Alejandra said. “The way he and his supporters are riled up. There’s a shift happening.”
Such worries have been stirred up in immigrant communities across the US in recent days, amid a flood of new executive orders setting strict limits on who can enter the US, who can stay here and who can call themselves an American, setting off unprecedented waves of panic within the country and at its borders.
Moments after the president was sworn into office, asylum seekers waiting to enter the country learned that their appointments to meet with Customs and Border Protection had been cancelled – and images of devastated and desperate people at the border made a stark diptych with the inaugural ceremonies.
Republican lawmaker proposes constitutional amendment allowing Trump third term
Republican congressman Andy Ogles has proposed a constitutional amendment that would allow Donald Trump to serve a third term in office.
The Tennessee lawmaker said he was making the proposal because he thinks Trump has done such a great job over the past few days:
President Trump’s decisive leadership stands in stark contrast to the chaos, suffering, and economic decline Americans have endured over the past four years. He has proven himself to be the only figure in modern history capable of reversing our nation’s decay and restoring America to greatness, and he must be given the time necessary to accomplish that goal. To that end, I am proposing an amendment to the Constitution to revise the limitations imposed by the 22nd Amendment on presidential terms. This amendment would allow President Trump to serve three terms, ensuring that we can sustain the bold leadership our nation so desperately needs.
The amendment is written in such a way that the three other living presidents who have served two terms – Bill Clinton, George W Bush and Barack Obama – would not be eligible to run again.
It is very difficult to amend the US constitution, and it remains to be seen if Ogles’s idea is to be taken seriously.
Donald Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, has announced that “deportation flights have begun,” and shared photos of people lining up to board a military aircraft.
Deportation flights have begun.
— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) January 24, 2025
President Trump is sending a strong and clear message to the entire world: if you illegally enter the United States of America, you will face severe consequences. pic.twitter.com/CTlG8MRcY1
Leavitt’s comment was light on details, but perhaps she means they have begun under Trump administration, as there was plenty of deporting going on during Joe Biden’s just-concluded presidency:
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Senate may vote on confirming Hegseth to lead defense department this evening
The Senate may take a final vote on confirming Pete Hegseth to lead the Pentagon this evening.
Yesterday, the Republican-controlled chamber narrowly voted to begin debate on the former Fox News host’s nomination, which has been dogged by a sexual assault allegation and other reports of poor behavior. Two Republican senators and all Democrats voted against confirming Hegseth, but that wasn’t enough to stop the nomination from proceeding.
A vote on his final confirmation could take place at 9pm ET. Here’s the latest on his nomination:
US health agency employees are now banned from nearly all travel and certain agencies and programs have been ordered to stop issuing new contracts and grants until further notice.
The limits on travel and spending, announced internally on Wednesday, add to previous indefinite halts on external communications, including publishing new reports or even posting to social media, and on reviewing and approving new medical research, a nearly $50bn industry in the US.
Employees of the 13 agencies overseen by US Health and Human Services (HHS) may only travel to return from assignments or to escape life-threatening situations. That means regular meetings with state and local health officials, training sessions and grant reviews are now on hold.
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70% of Americans do not approve of Musk in government
Many Americans agree that the federal government is beset by inefficiency, corruption and needless bureaucracy, but they are less sure about whether aspiring trillionaire Elon Musk is the right person to tackle it.
An Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research poll shows only 30% adults in the USA strongly or somewhat approve of Donald Trump’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (Doge), which Musk leads.
The poll also shows, despite prevailing wisdom on some social media sites, that Americans aren’t particularly worried about “deep state” actors undermining Trump’s Republican agenda. They’re also unmoved about cuts to large numbers of federal jobs and moving federal agencies outside Washington.
Only one-third of US adults have a favourable view of Musk, the world’s richest person. Approximately half of Americans think of Musk and Trump in unfavourable terms. US adults broadly think it’s a bad thing if the president relies on billionaires for advice about government policy, according to the poll.
About 60% of those polled say this would be a “very” or “somewhat” bad thing, while only about one in 10 call it a very or somewhat good thing, three in 10 are neutral.
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The United Nations says the right to seek asylum is “universally recognised” after Trump suspended all refugee admissions and halted the US asylum programme.
“All states are entitled to exercise their jurisdiction along their international borders, [but] they need to do so in line with their human rights obligations,” UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani says, according to AFP news agency.
“The right to seek asylum is a universally recognised human right,” she adds.
On Monday, Trump signed an executive order suspending the Refugee Admissions Program, saying the US “lacks the ability to absorb large numbers of migrants, and in particular, refugees, into its communities”.
The move blocked 1,600 approved Afghan refugees from moving to the States, while over 3,000 others are waiting in Albania to be resettled.
The UNHCR said yesterday that “refugee resettlement is a life-saving measure”, and they are “ready to continue our work with the new administration to find solutions for refugees”.
Unity, in this sense, is the threshold requirement for people to live together in a free society, it is the solid rock, as Jesus said, in this case upon which to build a nation. It is not conformity. It is not a victory of one over another. It is not weary politeness nor passivity born of exhaustion. Unity is not partisan.
Rather, unity is a way of being with one another that encompasses and respects differences, that teaches us to hold multiple perspectives and life experiences as valid and worthy of respect; that enables us, in our communities and in the halls of power, to genuinely care for one another even when we disagree. Those across our country who dedicate their lives, or who volunteer, to help others in times of natural disaster, often at great risk to themselves, never ask those they are helping for whom they voted in the past election or what positions they hold on a particular issue. We are at our best when we follow their example…
German politician suggests Canada joins the EU
Germany’s former foreign minister has suggested that Canada be invited to join the European Union, giving voice to an unlikely proposition that has quietly circulated since Donald Trump began floating the idea of Canada becoming the US’s 51st state.
Speaking to Germany’s Pioneer Media, Sigmar Gabriel pointed to the shifting geopolitics ushered in by Trump’s second term. “We should invite Canada to become a member of the European Union,” said Gabriel, adding: “They are more European than some European member states anyway.”
Gabriel, who was also Germany’s vice-chancellor from 2013 to 2018, said it was an idea worth pursuing, even if Canada is not geographically located in Europe. “I would give it a try. Canada is an enormously important country. It is, by the way, a strategic Arctic border state … We need to gather allies. That also applies to our free trade agreements.”
His suggestion echoed an opinion column published earlier this year in The Economist and which argued that the union would be beneficial for both as “Canada is vast and blessed with natural resources but relatively few people, while the EU is small, cramped and mineral-poor’.
On Thursday Trump again called on Canada to join the US as he addressed the Davos economic forum in Switzerland by video link: “As you probably know, I say, ‘You can always become a state, and if you’re a state, we won’t have a deficit. We won’t have to tariff you.’”
Canadian officials have repeatedly slammed any such suggestion, with one minister describing it as something out of a “Southpark episode.” Polls carried out in recent weeks on both sides of the border have suggested that the vast majority of Canadians and many Americans disapprove of the idea.
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Moscow rejects president Donald Trump’s suggestion that a settlement in Ukraine can be achieved by falling oil prices
In an address to the annual World Economic Forum on Thursday, Trump said that the OPEC+ alliance of oil exporting countries shares responsibility for the ongoing Ukrainian War due to keeping oil prices too high. Trump said that “if the price came down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately”.
Asked about Trump’s comments, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “The conflict doesn’t depend on oil prices,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters. “The conflict is ongoing because of the threat to Russia’s national security, the threat to Russians living on those territories and the refusal by the Americans and the Europeans to listen to Russia’s security concerns. It’s not linked to oil prices.”
Asked to comment on Trump’s claim that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is ready for a deal, Peskov said: “Zelenskyy can’t be ready for a deal.” He added: “In order to reach a settlement it’s necessary to conduct talks, and Zelenskyy forbade himself to hold talks by his own decree.”
On Wednesday, Trump threatened Russia with more tariffs, taxes and sanctions if they don’t end the war.
Peskov said that the Kremlin was paying close attention to Trump’s statements, insisting Moscow “remains ready for an equal dialogue, for a mutually respectful dialogue”.
“This dialogue took place between the two presidents during Trump’s first presidency. And we are waiting for signals that we have not received yet,” Peskov said.
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Spare a thought for the grifters. Those sad Brits who have spent years toadying up to Donald Trump in the belief they had been admitted into his gilded inner circle. Those men and women who bravely posted selfies on X as they arrived in Washington in the belief they would be attending the inauguration of The Donald.
There was Liz Truss looking like a cheap Paddington Bear in a blue coat and red Maga hat announcing her arrival in DC. Only to go mysteriously silent when she discovered she hadn’t made the cut. Not just to the Rotunda where the main action was being staged but also not to the overspill area in the Capitol where guests could follow proceedings on TV. Presumably Lizzie was left to watch the action on her phone in a McDonald’s somewhere downtown…
Russia open to nuclear talks
Russia says it is open to negotiating nuclear disarmament, the BBC reports.
The Russian government will work with Washington, but only if the nuclear weapons of the UK and France are on the negotiation table, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
Peskov’s comments come in the aftermath of US president Donald Trump’s announcement on Thursday that he wanted to work towards reducing nuclear arms.
Trump indicated that Russia and China could possibly support reducing their own nuclear arsenals.
Peskov said: “We are certainly interested in starting the negotiation process as soon as possible.”
But he also added: “In the current situation, all nuclear capacities need to be taken into account. In particular, it’s impossible to hold a conversation without taking into consideration the nuclear capacities of France and the United Kingdom. The current realities make it necessary.”
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In a series of newly unearthed podcasts, Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary, appears to endorse the theocratic and authoritarian doctrine of “sphere sovereignty”, a worldview derived from the extremist beliefs of Christian reconstructionism (CR) and espoused by churches aligned with far-right Idaho pastor Douglas Wilson.
In the recordings, Hegeth rails against “cultural Marxism”, feminism, “critical race theory”, and even democracy itself, which he says “our founders blatantly rejected as being completely dangerous”.
For much of the over five hours of recordings, which were published over February and March 2024, Hegseth also castigates public schools, which he characterizes as implementing an “egalitarian, dystopian LGBT nightmare”, and which podcast host Joshua Haymes describes as “one of Satan’s greatest tools for excising Christ from not just our classrooms but our country”.
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Trump to address America’s largest anti-abortion rally
President Donald Trump is due to make a speech via video link to the March for Life rally, America’s largest annual anti-abortion rally later on Friday.
The president pardoned 23 anti-abortion activists a day before the March for Life in Washington DC.
Trump is not the first president to address the rally. Previous Republican presidents, including George W Bush and Ronald Reagan, have addressed the group remotely. However, in 2020, Trump became the first US president to attend the rally in person.
The annual rally began in 1974 after the legalisation of abortion established in Roe v Wade.
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While some have praised Donald Trump for issuing “full, complete and unconditional” pardons for the 1,500 individuals involved in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, Pamela Hemphill has pushed back.
Hemphill, who was also arrested on January 6, has refused to accept Trump’s pardon, instead deciding to take responsibility for the role she played in trying to overturn the 2020 election results which made Joe Biden victorious over Trump.
“Absolutely not,” Hemphill, 71, told the Guardian on Thursday.
“It’s an insult to the Capitol police officers and to the rule of law and to the nation. It contributes to the propaganda that it was a peaceful protest, that the DoJ is weaponized against them and against Trump.”…
Trump prepares to tour wildfire damage in Los Angeles after criticising California’s water policy
Trump has erroneously claimed that California could have mitigated the wildfires sooner if it hadn’t been for redirecting water to the Pacific Ocean. The president was referring to the water federally managed by the Central Valley Project.
However, the agency mostly supplies farms and doesn’t carry water to Los Angeles. Meanwhile, The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California says it has ample storage to meet the region’s water needs.
In the first hours of his second term, Trump encouraged federal officials to route more water to the crop-rich Central Valley and densely populated cities in the southern part of the state, even threatening to withhold federal disaster aid unless state leaders change their approach on water.
He has continued to question how California’s water managed. Last year on his Truth Social platform, he criticized the “rerouting of MILLIONS OF GALLONS OF WATER A DAY FROM THE NORTH OUT INTO THE PACIFIC OCEAN, rather than using it, free of charge, for the towns, cities, & farms dotted all throughout California”.
Trump has suggested that state officials “ turn the valve ” to send more water to the city. But state water supplies are not to blame for hydrants running dry and a key reservoir near Pacific Palisades that was not filled
California’s water system is complicated.
Most of the region’s water is in the north, while the bulk of the state’s population is in the drier south. Los Angeles is the second driest city in America and relies on water from elsewhere. As does the dry Central Valley, where most of California’s produce is grown.
Two complex systems of dams and canals move rain and melted snow from the mountainous north to the south. One is managed by the federal government, the Central Valley Project, while the other is operated by the state of California and known as the State Water Project. Both systems channel water through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, an estuary supporting wildlife, including salmon and the delta smelt.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power also manages its own aqueducts that draw water from the eastern Sierra Nevada. The Federal government decides how much water is routed to the delta to protect threatened species and how much goes to Central Valley Project users, mostly farms. That project does not supply water to Los Angeles.
However, Trump insists the state lets too much water go to the ocean rather than cities and farms.
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The US Department of State has banned consular posts from flying any flags other than that of the US as part of the Trump administration’s pledge to crack down on diversity efforts in government institutions.
A cable seen by the Guardian titled “One flag policy” appears to target several instances during the Biden administration when gay pride and Black Lives Matters flags were flown at embassies abroad.
Gay pride flags were also on display at the White House during a 2023 Pride month celebration held on the south lawn, sparking a backlash from conservatives…
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Gavin Newsom signs $2.5bn relief package as Donald Trump set to visit LA
Gavin Newsom has signed a $2.5bn relief package to help areas of Los Angeles recover from the devastating fires that have been burning for nearly two weeks. The funds were announced during a press conference on Thursday in Pasadena, just outside Altadena, the town hit hardest by the Eaton fire, which ignited on 7 January.
The signing of the bipartisan aid package comes a day before Donald Trump is set to visit the fire-torn areas and amid continued criticism of the California governor and other state officials’ management of the state’s water supply. It also follows a new blaze, the Hughes fire, which sparked on Wednesday morning and quickly grew. It is now 36% contained and has burned nearly 10,400 acres (4,209 hectares), according to Cal Fire.
The largest of the recent Los Angeles-area blazes ignited on 7 January, ripping through the Pacific Palisades neighborhood in Los Angeles and killing 11 people. The Eaton fire, which broke out the same day near Altadena, killed 17 people.
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Trump gives Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials powers to quickly deport migrants allowed into the country temporarily by Biden
According to an internal government memo obtained by the New York Times, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials will have powers normally reserved for encounters at America’s border with Mexico to quickly remove migrants.
Stephen Miller, a White House deputy chief of staff and the architect of Trump’s hard-line immigration policies, has made clear that he opposed both programs.
“Here’s an idea: Don’t fly millions of illegal aliens from failed states thousands of miles away into small towns across the American Heartland,” Miller said on social media in September.
Reacting to the memo, Tom Jawetz, a senior lawyer in the Homeland Security Department in the Biden administration, said: “In addition to raising serious legal concerns, subjecting people who played by the rules to a summary deportation process is an outrageous and unprecedented betrayal.”
Karen Tumlin, the director of the Justice Action Center, an immigrant advocacy group, said the decision was a mistake: “American communities have opened their hearts and homes for people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Afghanistan and Ukraine,” she said. “Punishing people who did everything the government asked, and many of whom had US-based sponsors, to this summary deportation procedure is appalling.”
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Nick Brown, the Washington state attorney general, spoke outside after a federal judge temporarily blocked Donald Trump’s executive order redefining birthright citizenship.
“We came to the courthouse today to defend the United States constitution. To defend democracy in America and to defend what it means to be an American citizen,” Brown said.
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In the first few days of his presidency, people tried to challenge and reason with Donald Trump – suing his administration, questioning his decisions to reporters and pleading to him for mercy. But does Trump care what his critics think? Jonathan Freedland speaks to Susan Glasser of the New Yorker about what we can expect from a leader who goes it alone…
Trump says he’d 'rather not’ impose tariffs on China
US president Donald Trump says he would “rather not” impose tariffs on China, after repeatedly pledging to hit the nation with hefty import levies.
Trump said he could make a deal with America’s biggest economic rival because “we have something that they want, we have a pot of gold”.
“We have one very big power over China, and that’s tariffs, and they don’t want them, and I’d rather not have to use it. But it’s a tremendous power over China,” he said in an interview with Fox News which aired on Thursday in the United States.
When Trump took office he said 10% tariffs on all Chinese imports could kick in by 1 February – and on the campaign trail touted a levy as high as 60%.
On Friday Beijing called for the US and China to resolve their differences through “dialogue and consultation”.
“China-US economic and trade cooperation is mutually beneficial,” foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said.
“Trade wars and tariff wars have no winners and don’t serve anyone’s interests or the world’s interests,” she added.
