Author: potus
The Trump administration asked a federal court in New York last night to lift an order that restricts political appointees’ access to Treasury Department payment databases. “Limiting access by Treasury’s senior leadership, as just described, is overbroad and unnecessary to maintain the status quo,” lawyers at the Justice Department wrote in a memo filed in court. They continued, “Nonetheless, it is important that high-level political appointees, such as the Secretary, his Chief of Staff, the Deputy Secretary, and the Undersecretaries, can receive data from such systems to the extent necessary for the performance of their job duties.”The lawyers wrote that…
By Louis Jacobson and Amy Sherman | PolitiFactPublished On 10 Feb 202510 Feb 2025In his Super Bowl Sunday interview, President Donald Trump defended efforts by Elon Musk to slash the federal budget, including at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and he said more is coming. Trump told Bret Baier of Fox News that “maybe in 24 hours” he would tell Musk, the billionaire leading the Department of Government Efficiency, to “check the Department of Education” and the “military”. “We’re going to find billions, hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud and abuse,” Trump said in the interview, taped at Mar-a-Lago,…
Iran doesn’t seek war, but it will not bow to US efforts to tear its revolution down, says President Masoud Pezeshkian.Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has accused the United States of making fake diplomatic overtures while trying to undermine his government. Addressing a crowd in Tehran to mark the 46th anniversary of the Iranian revolution on Monday, Pezeshkian said US President Donald Trump was trying to bring the country “to its knees”. Iran has grown increasingly frustrated at Trump for bringing back the “maximum pressure” campaign he started against the country during his first term. The move seeks to nullify Iran’s…
Confusion, alongside some elation, reigns in Israel’s public and political class that remains unclear as to what United States President Donald Trump’s comments about Gaza really mean. For the extreme right and ultra-Orthodox factions of Israeli politics, the idea makes sense – that the population of Gaza be displaced to make way for the US to oversee some kind of reconstruction that they assume would ultimately be for the people of Israel. Some analysts, however, saw the dysfunction in Trump’s bombastic remarks about land he has no claim to and that is inhabited by its people, pointing out that such…
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Palestinians in Gaza would not have a right to return under his plan for U.S. “ownership” of the war-torn territory, contradicting other officials in his administration who have sought to argue Trump was only calling for the temporary relocation of its population.Less than a week after he floated his plan for the U.S. to take control of Gaza and turn it in “the Riviera of the Middle East,” Trump, in an interview with FOX News’ Bret Baier that was set to air on Monday, said “No, they wouldn’t” when asked if Palestinians in…
French President Emmanuel Macron greets journalists after meetings with guests at the Elysee Palace before the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France, July 26, 2024. REUTERS/Yara NardYara Nardi | ReutersFrance’s artificial intelligence sector will receive 109 billion euros ($112.6 billion) of private investment in the “coming years,” President Emmanuel Macron announced Sunday ahead of the country’s global AI summit.Speaking with French broadcaster TF1, Macron described the multibillion-euro pledge as “the equivalent for France of what the United States announced with Stargate,” referring to U.S. President Donald Trump’s massive $500 billion private AI investment project.The U.S.…
United States President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order freezing aid to South Africa, citing a recent land expropriation law passed by the country that the American leader and his allies claim discriminates against white farmers. But the aid block is only the culmination of a series of pressure points between the US and South Africa that were building up even during the administration of former President Joe Biden, and have now exploded under Trump. We track the slide in bilateral ties between the two nations and explore what each of them risks losing if relations spiral further.…
Gail Collins: Bret, we’ve spent so much time agreeing about President Trump, it’s been great — at least for argument’s sake — that you can come up with specific presidential actions where you’re now pro-Trump. While I tend to irrationally object to every single thing he does.Well, maybe not so irrationally. But today, tell me how you feel about the latest sweeps to save money by shutting down humanitarian aid overseas and offering buyouts to the entire C.I.A. work force.Bret Stephens: I’m not pro-Trump. He scares me. There are days when I wake up and think: If this goes on…
For all of the shock and awe of President Trump’s first weeks back in office, much of it should come as little surprise. Many of his actions are extensions of his first-term agenda, when he pledged to crack down on immigration and bolster the country’s advantage in international trade.But in a few important ways, Mr. Trump’s return to power has been signified by some profound ideological swings as he moves to remake Washington, America and the world. On both the domestic front and in foreign affairs, Mr. Trump has shifted to a different, even more aggressive approach toward the role…
Shortly after 3 a.m., a battering ram burst open the door to a 14th-floor apartment and three men dressed in the black tactical gear of the Chilean police rushed in. Brandishing guns, they grabbed Ronald Ojeda in front of his wife and 6-year-old son and dragged him away in his underwear.Mr. Ojeda, a 32-year-old former Venezuelan Army officer, was a political dissident living under asylum in a middle-class neighborhood of Chile’s capital, Santiago. He had tried to organize plots to topple Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s autocratic leader, and weeks earlier, Mr. Maduro’s government had publicly labeled him a traitor.When his wife…