Trump insists he’s ‘not joking’ a couple of third time period and hints at ‘methods’ regardless of constitutional limits: Live updates

After nearly all of the US Institute of Peace staff were fired on Friday, Judge Beryl Howell is scheduling a status conference over a lawsuit that seeks to block DOGE from gutting the quasi-government agency.

Howell did not grant a restraining order to prevent what plaintiffs described as a hostile “takeover” of the agency’s building, but she railed against DOGE for trying to “strong arm” and threaten security guards with criminal investigations when Elon Musk’s team tried to get into its headquarters.

“I mean, this conduct of using law enforcement, threatening criminal investigations, using arms of law enforcement … probably terrorizing employees and staff at the institute, when there are so many other lawful ways to accomplish the goals … why?” she said. “Just because DOGE is in a rush?”

Howell will hold a hearing on Tuesday morning.

China, Japan and South Korea agreed to jointly respond to U.S. tariffs, a social media account affiliated with Chinese state broadcaster CCTV said on Monday.

The comments came after the three countries held their first economic dialogue in five years on Sunday, seeking to facilitate regional trade as the Asian export powers brace against U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

Japan and South Korea are seeking to import semiconductor raw materials from China, and China is also interested in purchasing chip products from Japan and South Korea, the account, Yuyuan Tantian, said in a post on Weibo.

Such is the Trump Tower-sized self-conceit of Donald J Trump that for weeks – if not months – he could not see what virtually the whole of the rest of the world could: Vladimir Putin was playing him like a cheap violin, writes The Independent’s Associate Editor, Sean O’Grady.

Trump, seemingly mesmerized by the Russian leader, gave his friend everything he wanted: dominance in Ukraine, aside from a carve-out for US mineral interests; a Russian zone of influence in Europe; the abandonment of NATO and other allies.

All of that in return for the Russians scaling back their nuclear arsenal and giving the Americans a free run at acquiring Greenland and Canada (even if they are not Russia’s to give away and won’t ever happen).

That looked to be the kind of grand bargain Trump was looking for, but Putin overplayed his hand.

Read the full piece below:

The White House Correspondents Association condemned the Trump administration’s attempts to regulate which news outlets may access Donald Trump and the White House, calling its recent attempt to change seating in the briefing room a “wrong-headed effort.”

Following reports that the White House plans to shake up seating assignment in the briefing room – seemingly to give newer media, which may favor the president more access while pushing outlets they disapprove of further back.

The move would upend a precedent that the WHCA, an organization independent from the administration, chooses seating assignments based on the outlet’s audience.

Prominent seats are coveted because it is easier to catch the press secretary and ask tougher questions. Correspondents from larger and widely circulated news organizations typically get those seats.

“If the White House pushes forward, it will become even more clear that the administration is seeking to cynically seize control of the system through which the independent press organizes itself, so that it is easier to exact punishment on outlets over their coverage,” the WHCA said in a press release on Monday.

It is unclear what the new seating chart will look like or if the White House plans to remove some bigger news outlets from seats.

Donald Trump has again thrown support behind Randy Fine, the GOP candidate for Tuesday’s special election to represent Florida’s 6th Congressional District.

The Florida state Representative is battling for the seat left open by embattled National Security adviser Mike Waltz in what critics deem a pivotal test of the president’s first two months in office.

“​Randy Fine has my Complete and Total Endorsement!,” the president said on X on Monday, in a post recycled from his Truth Social last week.

Read the full post below:

Judge James Boasberg has set a hearing on Thursday for administration officials to show cause why they shouldn’t be held in contempt for violating his court orders to turn deportation flights around after the president invoked the Alien Enemies Act. Last week, Trump demanded the Supreme Court lift the judge’s restraining order to resume those removals, arguing that the case “presents fundamental questions about who decides how to conduct sensitive national-security-related operations in this country.”“

The Constitution supplies a clear answer: the President. The republic cannot afford a different choice,” the petition states.

Texas Representative Jasmine Crockett shredded Donald Trump hours after he claimed that he was “not joking” about seeking a constitutionally barred third term.

The Democrat, who is one of Trump’s most vocal adversaries, took to X on Sunday and told the president – and former star of The Apprentice – that running for the White House isn’t a reality show.

“So, that’s actually not allowed,” Crockett said. “The Constitution isn’t optional, sir. This isn’t a reality show — it’s reality. Two terms, that’s it.”

As the White House continues to make clear Donald Trump’s territorial ambitions over Greenland, one Democrat is wondering just how much of the globe could be on the president’s agenda.

Seth Moulton, a congressman from Massachusetts and member of the Armed Services Committee in the House, questioned whether Trump’s stated national security concerns justifying his calls for Greenland to be annexed by the United States would be taken further — even as he conceded that there were legitimate concerns about the presence of Russian forces in the Arctic.

He spoke with CNN’s Jessica Dean and quipped that Donald Trump could apply the rationale of seeking to constrain Russian forces to justify territorial claims around the world.

The Independent’s Washington, D.C. Correspondent John Bowden has more:

Donald Trump branded Susan Crawford, the liberal candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court election, a “DISASTER” while hailing Brad Schimel, the conservative candidate, “above all SANE.”

On Wednesday, voters in Wisconsin will cast their ballots in the highly contentious and consequential election, which is widely regarded as one of the first major tests of the second Trump term.

“Brad Schimel’s Opponent, Susan Crawford, is a DISASTER! She is so Far Left that even her own Party, the Radical Democrats, don’t want ANYTHING to do with her, he wrote on Truth Social Sunday.

“Wisconsin Values are perfectly represented by Brad Schimel. He is Conservative, Strong and, above all, SANE. His Opponent is a Liberal Lunatic who will throw our Country, and the State of Wisconsin, into TOTAL CHAOS. Vote for Brad Schimel!”

So far, MAGA megadonor Elon Musk has poured an estimated $20 million into Schimel’s campaign coffers.

The Supreme Court race has dwarfed previous spending records for a U.S. judicial election, with more than $81 million spent in the campaign. The previous record was set in Wisconsin two years ago and was estimated at $51 million.