Trump administration to review state laws that harm economy, Justice Department says
The DOJ will conduct the effort along with the White House's National Economic Council, it said, adding that it was also soliciting public comments for possible solutions.
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The Independent
29 minutes ago
- The Independent
Putin gave curt three-word response to reporters who tried to ask him questions about invasion of Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a short response to reporters' questions about his invasion of Ukraine during his summit withPresident Donald Trump in Alaska. As the pair met in Alaska, MSNBC reported that journalists shouted various questions at Putin about the invasion of Ukraine and his talks with the president, including, 'How can President Trump trust you?' The translator told MSNBC that Putin responded with a dismissive three word response: 'Let it go, let it go.' Putin and Trump met for nearly three hours on Friday at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage to discuss Russia's war on Ukraine, which began more than three years ago. The pair announced 'great progress' had been made, but they still did not reach a ceasefire agreement. Before the meeting, Trump told Fox News that he 'won't be happy' walking away 'without some form of a ceasefire.' The president then changed course early Saturday morning, writing on Truth Social that he will now advocate for a peace agreement, rather than a ceasefire. Trump greeted Putin on a red carpet at the military base on Friday afternoon. Putin, in a surprise move, didn't ride to the base in his own limousine. Instead, he rode with Trump inside his armored vehicle known as 'The Beast.' There, the pair had a chance to talk privately en route to the summit. Trump was originally set to have a one-on-one meeting with Putin, but they instead held a three-on-three discussion. Trump was accompanied by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and aide Yuri Ushakov joined Putin. Putin and Trump both appeared optimistic after their meeting. Trump noted that there were 'many points that we agreed on,' but there were still 'a couple of big ones that we haven't quite gotten there.' 'We've made some headway,' Trump said Friday. 'So there's no deal until there's a deal. I will call up NATO in a little while. I will call up the various people that I think are appropriate. And I'll, of course, call up President Zelensky and tell him about today's meeting.' Putin described Ukraine, which he ordered a full-scale invasion of in February 2022, as Russia's 'brotherly nation' in his statement following the talks. 'I agree with President Trump, as he has said today, that naturally, the security of Ukraine should be ensured as well,' Putin said, via a translator. 'Naturally we are prepared to work on that, I would like to hope that the agreement that we've reached together will help us bring closer that goal and will pave the path towards peace in Ukraine.' Now, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to arrive in Washington, D.C. on Monday to meet with Trump himself. Trump told Fox News on Friday he would advise Zelensky that he has 'gotta make a deal' with Russia. 'Russia's a very big power,' Trump added. 'And they're not.' Trump insisted on Truth Social on Saturday that the talks went well, including a debrief afterwards with Zelensky and other European leaders, as he argued that a peace agreement rather than a ceasefire was the preferred response. 'The meeting with President Vladimir Putin of Russia went very well, as did a late night phone call with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, and various European Leaders, including the highly respected Secretary General of NATO,' Trump wrote. 'It was determined by all that the best way to end the horrific war between Russia and Ukraine is to go directly to a Peace Agreement, which would end the war, and not a mere Ceasefire Agreement, which often times do not hold up,' he said.
The Guardian
30 minutes ago
- The Guardian
RFK Jr denies 2028 presidential ambitions after attacks from Trump influencer Laura Loomer
The US health and human services (HHS) secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, has fended off an attack by conservative firebrand and Donald Trump influencer Laura Loomer by issuing a statement of fealty to the president which calls it 'a flat-out lie' that he is running for the White House in 2028. Kennedy, 71, had been under pressure since Loomer, 32, expressed concern in a recent Politico interview that Stefanie Spear, a top aide of the HHS secretary, was trying to 'utilize her position to try to lay the groundwork for a 2028 RFK presidential run'. Loomer's vigilante pressure campaigns within the White House have cost a number of Trump administration figures their jobs, including customs and border protection official Monte Hawkins as well as Food and Drug Administration vaccine regulator Vinay Prasad. Hawkins had been accused by Loomer of having an 'anti-Trump, pro-open borders and pro-[diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI] bias'. And she had labelled Prasad a 'progressive leftist saboteur' before he was later reinstated by the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles. Loomer told Politico that while she is realistic about neutralizing Kennedy, his deputies were vulnerable. 'I'm not naive enough to think that the president is going to get rid of RFK, but I will say that … there are concerns about some of the staffing decisions over at HHS,' she remarked. A White House official told the outlet that they 'would not be surprised if [Kennedy is] thinking about' running again after his 2024 candidacy prior to aligning himself with Trump. But the official claimed they 'don't think anyone thinks it's a real threat'. Kennedy responded on Friday, saying he would not strive for the presidency in 2028. The Kennedy family scion ran in 2024 for the Democratic party nomination before switching to become an independent candidate – and then cast his lot with Trump. Trump – who in the run-up to his second presidential election victory dismissed Kennedy as a 'radical left liberal' – rewarded him with a cabinet level post as well as his 'make America healthy again' (Maha) mandate. 'The swamp is in full panic mode,' Kennedy Jr said in an X post. 'DC lobby shops are laboring fiercely to drive a wedge between President Trump and me, hoping to thwart our team from dismantling the status quo and advancing [the Maha] agenda.' Kennedy added that the so-called swamp, a Republican term for an entrenched Washington bureaucracy, was 'pushing the flat-out lie that I'm running for president in 2028'. 'Let me be clear: I am not running for president in 2028,' he added. 'My loyalty is to President Trump and the mission we've started.' And he defended Spear. He said 'attacks on my staff, especially Stefanie Spear – a fierce, loyal warrior for Maha who proudly serves in the Trump administration and works every day to advance President Trump's vision for a healthier, stronger America – are proof we're over the target.' Kennedy also offered an overt expression of obeisance to his White House boss and political patron. 'We'll keep moving forward, we'll keep delivering wins, and no smear campaign will stop us,' he wrote. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion In July, the Wall Street Journal reported that Kennedy was planning to remove all the members of an advisory panel that determines what preventive health measures insurers are obliged to cover, reportedly viewing them as too 'woke', a pejorative Republican term for progressive. The crossover of the administration's anti-DEI campaign into healthcare came after an essay in the American Conservative magazine recommended the removal of taskforce members, saying it was embedded 'left-wing ideological orthodoxy'. Among the points it raised was the taskforce's use of term 'pregnant persons' and mention of a 'lasting psychological impact and stigma of enslaved Black women being forced to act as wet nurses'. HHS announced earlier in August it was halting $500m in mRNA vaccine research. And it has also moved to revive a taskforce on childhood vaccine safety, though vaccine injuries are known to be extremely rare. Known as 'Trump's Rasputin' in some circles, Loomer views Kennedy's vaccine skepticism as surging from the left – and not in pure ideological terms. She disputes that he views the issue correctly as a rightwing one, though the two may act in confluence. She has previously labelled Kennedy, in the New York Times, as 'a very problematic person' who 'is running a shadow presidential campaign' from his office. 'There's been some things that have happened,' Loomer told Politico. 'There's been several things that have happened at HHS that are contradictory to the initial promises made.'
Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
Zelenskiy braces for perilous Trump talks in Washington on Monday
LONDON/KYIV, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy flies to Washington on Monday under heavy U.S. pressure to agree a swift end to Russia's war in Ukraine but determined to defend Kyiv's interests - without sparking a second Oval Office bust up with Donald Trump. The U.S. president invited Zelenskiy to Washington after rolling out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin, Kyiv's arch foe, at a summit in Alaska that shocked many in Ukraine, where hundreds of thousands have died since Russia's 2022 invasion. The Alaska talks failed to produce the ceasefire that Trump sought, and the U.S. leader said on Saturday that he now wanted a full-fledged peace deal and that Kyiv should accept because "Russia is a very big power, and they're not". The blunt rhetoric throws the weight of expectation squarely back onto Zelenskiy, putting him in a potentially perilous position as he returns to Washington for the first time since his talks with Trump in the Oval Office spiralled into acrimony in February. The U.S. president upbraided Zelenskiy in front of world media at the time, saying Ukraine's leader did not "hold the cards" in negotiations and that what he described as Kyiv's intransigence risked triggering World War Three. Trump's pursuit of a quick deal now comes despite intense diplomacy by the European allies and Ukraine to convince the U.S. president that a ceasefire should come first and not - as sought by the Kremlin - once a settlement is agreed. The New York Times, citing two senior European officials, reported on Saturday that European leaders were also invited to attend Monday's meeting between Trump and Zelenskiy. Reuters could not immediately confirm the report. Trump briefed Zelenskiy on his talks with Putin during a call on Saturday that lasted more than an hour and a half, the Ukrainian leader said. They were joined after an hour by European and NATO officials, he added. "The impression is he wants a fast deal at any price," a source familiar with the conversation told Reuters. The source said Trump sought to convince Zelenskiy to agree to the idea of a deal in which he would withdraw troops from the partially-occupied eastern Donetsk region that Russian troops have been trying to capture for years. Zelenskiy replied that was not possible, the source added. Kyiv has publicly dismissed the idea of withdrawing from internationally recognised Ukrainian land they control as part of any deal. Donetsk region, Ukrainian officials say, serves as a fortress holding back Russian advances deeper into Ukraine. Oleksandr Merezhko, head of the Ukrainian parliament's foreign affairs committee, told Reuters by phone that Trump's emphasis on a deal rather than a ceasefire carried great risks for Ukraine. "In Putin's view, a peace agreement means several dangerous things – Ukraine not joining NATO, his absurd demands for denazification and demilitarisation, the Russian language and the Russian church," he said. Any such deal could be politically explosive inside Ukraine, Merezhko said, adding he was worried that Putin's international isolation had ended. Avoiding a repeat of the Oval Office acrimony is critical for Zelenskiy to preserve the relationship with the U.S., which still provides military assistance and shares intelligence. For Ukraine, robust security guarantees to prevent any future Russian invasion lie at the foundations of any serious peace settlement. Two sources familiar with the matter said that Trump and the European leaders discussed potential security guarantees for Ukraine that would be outside NATO but similar to the alliance's Article 5 during their call on Saturday. NATO, which Kyiv seeks to join, though Trump has made clear that will not happen soon, regards any attack launched on one of its 32 members as an attack on all under its Article 5 clause. One of the two sources, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said European leaders were seeking clarity on what kind of U.S. role this guarantee would involve, but that there were no details yet. Zelenskiy has repeatedly said a trilateral meeting with the Russian and U.S. leaders is crucial to finding a way to end the full-scale war launched by Russia in February 2022. Trump this week voiced the idea of such a meeting, saying it could happen if his bilateral talks in Alaska with Putin were successful. "Ukraine emphasizes that key issues can be discussed at the level of leaders, and a trilateral format is suitable for this," Zelenskiy wrote on social media on Saturday.
