Trump indicators government order increasing IVF entry forward of joint Hannity interview with Musk: Live updates
Donald Trump’s White House has revealed in a court filing that billionaire Elon Musk is not an employee of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and has no decision-making authority,
Musk’s role in the administration is limited to that of an employee and senior adviser to the president, according to the filing.
That clarification comes as Michelle King, the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) acting commissioner, stepped down from her role at the agency over DOGE‘s requests to access Social Security recipient’s private personal information and top American and Russian officials are set to hold talks in Saudi Arabia about ending the war in Ukraine.
Trump loyalist Peter Navarro, senior counselor to the president for trade and manufacturing, is meanwhile becoming an increasingly influential figure within the administration and guiding much of Trump’s policies on trade, which are threatening rifts with America’s allies, according to a new report.
Navarro, a China hawk who served in the first Trump administration and was jailed for ignoring a January 6 subpoena last year, “has been catapulted into the trade hot seat, orchestrating an early suite of tariffs and probes that bear the hallmarks of his particular enthusiasms,” writes The Financial Times.
Even Fox News thinks Trump border czar’s ‘prosecution’ threat against AOC is ‘baseless’
The conservative network’s legal analyst Jonathan Turley surprisingly pushed back on Trump border czar Tom Homan’s suggestion that Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could face prosecution for hosting a webinar on immigrants’ legal rights, calling his threat “baseless” and “an assault on free speech rights.”
Turley, a longtime defender of Donald Trump whom the president has regularly cited as a favorite legal expert, offered up his somewhat shocking defense of Ocasio-Cortez as Homan has spent days raging about her efforts to make undocumented migrants aware of their rights amid the Trump administration’s mass deportation raids.
The progressive lawmaker’s webinar, part of her “Know Your Rights” campaign, provides “important information” to immigrants about their legal rights during interactions with ICE officers.
This includes invoking the Fifth Amendment, refusing to share personal information and asking for an attorney if detained.
Justin Baragona has more.
How many people Trump has fired from FAA as plane crashes rattle Americans
The Trump administration has fired several hundred Federal Aviation Administration employees as Americans reel from a series of plane crashes in recent weeks.
Probationary employees – that is, those who were hired less than a year ago – were fired via email on Friday, according to a statement from David Spero, president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union.
The firings came just days before a Delta Airlines flight crashed at the Toronto Pearson International Airport, flipping over onto its roof as it attempted to land.
At least 18 people were taken to the hospital after the Monday afternoon crash, including two adults and one child with critical injuries.
Astonishingly, everyone on board survived.
Here’s more from Katie Hawkinson.
Musk blasts the Left’s ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ as ‘completely irrational’ in Fox sit-down
In case you missed this one earlier, here’s Gustaf Kilander on Elon’s comments about encountering hostility to the president in the wild, which, he says, means “you can’t reason with people.”
There will be more of Trump and Musk on Sean Hannity’s show again tonight.
Fox News host Jessica Tarlov says young Trump voter reached out to her to express his regrets
A 20-year-old college student who voted for the president told Fox News co-host Jessica Tarlov he was frustrated with the level of chaos in the new administration just two weeks into the president’s term.
Tarlov, a liberal co-host of The Five, revealed on her podcast Raging Moderates last week that the “college student from the Midwest” said the new Trump administration was not what he was anticipating.
Here’s more from Ariana Baio.
Republican congressman compares young DOGE staffers to U.S. soldiers fighting in WWII in car crash interview
Some truly unhinged stuff from Tennessee representative Tim Burchett on CNN just now as he sought to defend Trump, Musk and DOGE and attack the network for its coverage of their antics.
President of NYU College Republicans resigns after calling Barron Trump ‘an oddity’
The head of the New York University (NYU) College Republicans has resigned after calling Donald Trump’s youngest son an “oddity on campus.”
Kaya Walker described NYU freshman Barron Trump to Vanity Fair last week as “sort of like an oddity on campus,” adding “he goes to class, he goes home.”
She also told the magazine that one of her professors joked that the first son “doesn’t really belong here,” referring to the school’s historically liberal politics.
Kelly Rissman has more.
Watch: Rubio says U.S. and Russia to work to reopen missions in Washington and Moscow
Here’s an update from Trump’s Secretary of State in Riyadh, where he and other American officials are sitting down with their Russian counterparts in the interest of repairing relations and, eventually, hopefully, bringing the Ukraine war to an end.
DOGE claims it found $4.7 trillion in Treasury payments that are ‘untraceable’
Elon Musk’s non-official advisory body has said that it found $4.7 trillion in untraceable Treasury payments that were missing a critical tracking code.
The Department of Government Efficiency, tasked with slashing bureaucracy and reining in federal spending, said that transactions were missing the Treasury Account Symbol: an identification code used to classify all transactions of the federal government.
Here’s more from James Liddell.
Republican fury over return of Tom Hanks’ Trump supporter on SNL50
The Hollywood actor has riled Donald Trump supporters on Sunday with the return of his MAGA-touting hillbilly character on Saturday Night Live (SNL).
The veteran was one of dozens of SNL alums who appeared on the sketch show’s 50th anniversary special over the weekend.
In one skit, Hanks appears as a man named Doug on a parody game show called Black Jeopardy hosted by Kenan Thompson.
The sketch originally aired in a 2016 episode.
For the part, Hanks wore a red “Make America Great Again” hat in addition to a flannel shirt and T-shirt with a bald eagle on it.
Here’s more from Brittany Miller.
Trump’s crypto-related ventures by the numbers
From crypto sceptic to “crypto president,” Donald Trump has embraced digital currencies in an unprecedented way for a president, promising to make the U.S. the global hub for digital assets.
Trump’s pro-crypto stance includes pledges to implement crypto-friendly policies, aiming to attract investment and innovation in the sector.
However, his embrace extends beyond policy, with the Trump name now attached to a crypto token and other crypto-themed products.
Here’s an overview of e-coin exploits.
Source: independent.co.uk