Author: potus

WASHINGTON — Defense Department officials say troops who cheered and jeered Tuesday at President Donald Trump’s political statements at a rally at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, did not violate military regulations, but a former military legal officer said they did just that. During the speech, uniformed soldiers yelled in support of Trump’s political statements and booed former President Joe Biden and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. “Do you think this crowd would have showed up for Biden? I don’t think so,” Trump said to boos about Biden. Trump made other comments about Newsom and about Karen Bass, the mayor of Los…

As the United States faces possible retaliatory attacks from Iran, a “brain drain” in top Justice Department and FBI national security and counterterrorism units could reduce their ability to prevent potential terror and cyber attacks from Tehran, according to six former senior DOJ and FBI officials.Staff levels in the DOJ National SecurityDivision’s Law and Policy section have dropped by as much as two-thirds, two former DOJ officials said. Its counterintelligence and export control section — which tracks foreign espionage in the U.S. by Iran and other foreign rival — has lost about a third of its workforce, two former DOJ…

Nationals of the following 12 countries will be blocked from entering the United States: Afghanistan, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, the Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.In addition, nationals of seven other countries will be barred from coming into the United States permanently or under several visa programs: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.The executive order goes into effect at 12:01 am ET.Addressing reporters Thursday at the White House alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump said he implemented the new ban now because “it can’t come soon enough.”“Frankly, we want to keep bad…

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump in recent weeks directed the Pentagon to give him military options for destroying Iran’s nuclear enrichment program as the president, frustrated with the pace of negotiations, leaned into taking action.Trump has said his foreign policy is about ending wars, not starting new ones, and he had believed he could cut a deal with Tehran — replacing the nuclear deal agreed to in 2015 under President Barack Obama, which Trump ended in 2018 — that would end Iran’s path to creating a nuclear weapon.But by last month, Trump had begun to decide that talks were not…

President Trump will host a White House roundtable today to highlight a provision in the massive Republican domestic policy bill that would seed $1,000 into investment accounts for all newborn American children.The so-called “Trump Accounts” will be created for every U.S. citizen child born between Jan. 1, 2024 and Jan. 1, 2029, as part of a pilot program included in the bill that passed the House last month.The government’s $1,000 investment will go into an index fund account that tracks the overall stock market, controlled and owned by the child’s guardians. Additional contributions of up to $5,000 annually are allowed,…

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said he was “uninvited” to an annual White House picnic typically attended by members of Congress and their families, framing the move to reporters Wednesday as retribution for his opposition to key components of President Donald Trump’s agenda.“They’re afraid of what I’m saying, so they think they’re going to punish me, I can’t go to the picnic, as if somehow that’s going to make me more conciliatory,” Paul said. “So it’s silly, in a way, but it’s also just really sad that this is what it’s come to. But petty vindictiveness like this, it makes you…

California Democrats pushed back after President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard to respond to anti-immigration raid protests in the Los Angeles area, with Gov. Gavin Newsom arguing that Trump is trying to “manufacture a crisis.””Trump is sending 2,000 National Guard troops into LA County — not to meet an unmet need, but to manufacture a crisis. He’s hoping for chaos so he can justify more crackdowns, more fear, more control,” Newsom said in a Sunday post on X, where he also urged people to “stay peaceful.”Newsom’s comments come after Trump deployed the National Guard despite the governor’s opposition. Guard…

Vance, Wiles and others have looked for job candidates in some of the traditional places, including inside the White House and on Capitol Hill, according to the second former U.S. official, a defense official and a congressional aide.Some candidates have been judged politically problematic, the former U.S. official and others familiar with the process said. For example, the White House personnel office has disqualified some for not being MAGA enough, according to the former U.S. official and a current U.S. official familiar with the process.In addition to trying to assist him with hiring, the White House has taken multiple other steps to help…

Sen. Alex Padilla disputed the White House’s account of the events surrounding his forcible removal from a press conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem Thursday in Los Angeles, pushing back against key details about what exactly preceded his handcuffing by federal law enforcement agents.Both the White House and Noem said Padilla failed to identify himself to security, yelled and lunged toward Noem, all accusations that the California senator denied in his first interview after the incident — on MSNBC with NBC News’ Jacob Soboroff.”That’s ridiculous. It’s a lie, but par for the course for this administration,” Padilla began.”They…

The sister of a woman allegedly murdered by six noncitizens said President Donald Trump’s administration is targeting the wrong people for deportation and is not doing enough to get the worst of the worst off U.S. streets, even as authorities embark on a massive deportation effort.Tiffany Thompson, whose sister Larisha Sharrell Thompson was shot and killed in South Carolina last month, said she was angered that while deportations have played a central role in Trump’s administration, more hadn’t been done to target those who were charged in the killing — particularly the alleged ringleader, who faced a previous charge before…