Business and defence deals top the agenda as Trump lands in Riyadh
NewsFeed Business and defence deals top the agenda as Trump lands in Riyadh
US President Donald Trump is in Saudi Arabia, on the first day of his three-nation Middle East tour. Defence deals and political talks are on the agenda. Trump will also visit Qatar and the UAE.
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Al Jazeera
an hour ago
- Al Jazeera
Trump orders investigation of Biden's actions as president
United States President Donald Trump has ordered an investigation of Joe Biden's actions as president, alleging aides masked his predecessor's 'cognitive decline' and raising doubts over his use of an autopen to sign documents. The investigation, announced Wednesday, is the latest escalation in Trump's long-running campaign to discredit the former president by claiming he was mentally incompetent, and suggesting his use of a mechanical pen made his orders invalid. The probe was announced in a presidential memorandum directing Trump's White House counsel David Warrington and Attorney General Pam Bondi to look into whether 'certain individuals conspired to deceive the public about Biden's mental state and unconstitutionally exercise the authorities and responsibilities of the President'. The memo claimed that Biden's aides 'abused the power of Presidential signatures through the use of an autopen to conceal Biden's cognitive decline'. 'The American public was purposefully shielded from discovering who wielded the executive power, all while Biden's signature was deployed across thousands of documents to effect radical policy shifts,' the memo stated, describing the alleged 'conspiracy' as 'one of the most dangerous and concerning scandals in American history'. Biden, who revealed last month he is fighting cancer, said the allegations were 'ridiculous' and suggested Trump's claims were a smokescreen to deflect attention away from a bill that would extend tax cuts for the rich. 'Let me be clear: I made the decisions during my presidency. I made the decisions about the pardons, executive orders, legislation, and proclamations. Any suggestion that I didn't is ridiculous and false,' the 82-year-old said in a statement. His aides said using mechanical pens was a well established legal practice to sign presidential documents. The US Justice Department has recognised the use of an autopen to sign legislation and issue pardons for decades, The Associated Press news agency reported. Trump repeatedly attacked Biden during his 2024 presidential campaign as lacking the mental acuity to hold top office. While Biden's aides strongly rejected the allegations during his time in office, his poor performance during a debate on the campaign trail prompted public perceptions that he was not up to the job, and he later bowed out of the race. Trump has frequently called for his opponents to be investigated, and has directed the US Justice Department to probe his critics in the past. Biden issued pardons for his brothers and sister shortly before leaving office, in a bid to shield them from potential retribution under Trump, who has falsely claimed that the 2020 presidential race he lost to Biden was rigged.
Al Jazeera
2 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Fact check: Will ‘big beautiful bill' really allow Trump to delay election?
A liberal group and social media users shared posts that say President Donald Trump's 'one big beautiful bill' for tax and spending would let him reschedule or eliminate elections. 'If the Senate passes the 'one big beautiful bill' and Trump signs it, that's it. It becomes law,' said the viral graphic on Meta and X. 'And here's what that really means. He can delay or cancel elections – legally.' The post included a long list of other claims about what the bill would accomplish; for this fact-check, we are focusing on the elections claim. The group Being Liberal, which calls itself 'one of the oldest social media liberal political brands', took down the graphic after we reached out for comment. The group told us it didn't create the post and removed it because the elections claim wasn't accurate. The earliest reference for the graphic we found online was from an anonymous blog post on May 23. The bill does not give Trump power to delay or cancel elections, an action that would be unconstitutional. 'The bill would not directly give the president any authority over elections,' said Eric Kashdan, senior legal counsel at the Campaign Legal Center, a group that advocates for voting rights and this year sued the Trump administration over a voter registration executive order. A spokesperson for House Speaker Mike Johnson, Griffin Neal, told PolitiFact, 'The bill obviously does not provide the President of the United States with the authority to cancel or delay elections.' The US House passed the tax and spending bill May 22 and it now moves to the Senate, where lawmakers could make changes. Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the Senate majority leader, said he hopes the bill can be sent to Trump by July 4. The bill includes one provision related to democracy and checks and balances; it would expand the executive branch's power by curtailing judges' ability to hold people in contempt of court. Provision critics said it could take away the courts' power to restrain the federal government if it violates the Constitution or breaks the law. We found no provision in the bill that says the president can delay or cancel an election. In July 2020, amid the pandemic and a surge in voting by mail, Trump floated the idea of delaying the election. At the time, he was running for re-election. But the Constitution empowers Congress to set the date by which states must choose their presidential electors, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service found in 2020. 'Since 1845, Congress has required states to appoint presidential electors on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November, which represents the date by which voters in every state must cast their ballot for President,' the report said. Congress still has that power, said Edward Foley, an Ohio State University constitutional law professor. The Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 added a new definition of 'Election Day' that makes it clear that a voting extension can occur only through state law specified in advance and under tightly restricted conditions, such as a catastrophe, Foley said. That means Election Day 'cannot otherwise be cancelled or delayed' and the president plays no role in any alteration of Election Day, Foley said. Congress can change the Election Day date by enacting a new statute, as it did with the Electoral Count Reform Act, Foley said. Erwin Chemerinsky, a University of California, Berkeley law professor, told PolitiFact nothing in the bill lets Trump cancel or delay elections. 'The Constitution provides that elections for Congress be held every two years and for President every four years,' Chemerinsky said. 'There is no constitutional authority to cancel elections.' The bill includes a different provision that some experts called a threat to democracy, but not at the ballot box. Section 70302 would make it harder for judges to find a defendant in contempt of court for ignoring a judge's orders. Here's how: The legislation would require plaintiffs to pay a security bond before a judge could find the defendant in contempt of court. That would mean judges could no longer waive the security bond requirement, something that frequently happens in cases against the government. The section references a federal rule that says a court may issue a preliminary injunction or temporary restraining order only if the plaintiff pays a security bond to cover costs and damages by any party 'found to have been wrongfully enjoined or restrained'. A security bond is an insurance policy to protect someone wrongfully accused of wrongdoing from financial losses during litigation, Kashdan said. The courts can require plaintiffs to pay money that the court holds until the end of the litigation 'If they win, they get their money back,' Kashdan said. 'If they lose, and the person they sued had a right to do whatever it was they were prevented from doing during the lawsuit, they get to keep that money to help compensate them for any losses they experienced during the litigation.' However, 'those seeking such court orders generally do not have the resources to post a bond, and insisting on it would immunise unconstitutional government conduct from judicial review,' wrote Chemerinsky for the website Just Security, which publishes a Trump litigation tracker. 'It always has been understood that courts can choose to set the bond at zero.' A March White House memo that criticised organisations for suing the federal government said enforcement of the security bond rule 'is critical to ensuring that taxpayers do not foot the bill for costs or damages caused by wrongly issued preliminary relief by activist judges and to achieving the effective administration of justice'. The House bill provision raised concern among groups that have defended the judiciary's role to provide a check on Trump's power. As of May 23, at least 177 court rulings have temporarily paused Trump administration actions, according to The New York Times. Social media posts say the Republican tax and budget bill will let Trump 'delay or cancel elections – legally'. We found nothing in the bill that would let Trump cancel or delay elections. A provision would make it harder for judges to hold people in contempt of court, but that is not the same as cancelling elections. Only Congress can change a presidential election's date, not the president, and this bill doesn't change that. We rate this statement False.
Al Jazeera
2 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
US presses NATO to agree defence spending hike
United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has pressed NATO members to agree to Donald Trump's demand for a major increase in defence spending ahead of a summit later this month. The US president has said NATO allies should boost investment in defence to 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), up from the current target of 2 percent. 'To be an alliance, you got to be more than flags. You got to be formations. You got to be more than conferences. You need to be, keep combat-ready capabilities,' Hegseth said as he arrived for a meeting of defence ministers in Brussels on Thursday. 'We're here to continue the work that President Trump started, which is a commitment to 5 percent defence spending across this alliance, which we think will happen,' Hegseth said, adding: 'It has to happen by the summit at The Hague later this month.' In an attempt to compromise with the new target, NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte has proposed that members of the military alliance boost defence spending to 3.5 percent of GDP and commit a further 1.5 percent to broader security-related spending. 'We have to go further and we have to go faster,' Rutte told reporters on Wednesday. 'A new defence investment plan will be at the heart of the NATO summit in The Hague,' he added. Reporting from Brussels, Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra said for some European countries, including Spain, Germany and Belgium, meeting a 5 percent target will be 'extremely difficult'. 'But they have decided they are going to further coordinate their military strategy particularly when it comes to acquiring air defence systems, long-range missiles and also train their troops to be ready for the potential of any geopolitical change,' Ahelbarra said. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, European NATO members have been steadily increasing their defence spending. Ahelbarra said European members are 'concerned' that Russia remains the 'biggest threat to stability in the region'. Diplomats have said that countries are attempting to negotiate the timeline to achieve the 5 percent target. Rutte has proposed reaching the target by 2032, which some countries consider too late, while others think it's unrealistic, considering current spending and industrial production levels. Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovile Sakaliene said on Wednesday that the 2032 target was 'definitely too late, and pushed for a target of 2030 at the latest. Swedish Defence Minister Pal Jonson told reporters on Thursday that Stockholm also wants to see the bloc reach the 5 percent target by 2030. Meanwhile, NATO officials have estimated that, on average, meeting the new targets would cost countries between 3.5 and 3.7 percent of GDP.
