Trump's bill could relocate a Smithsonian space shuttle
The Smithsonian criticized the plan, estimating the true cost could exceed $300 million and warning of significant damage risk due to the complexity of the transfer.
Former astronaut Garrett Reisman also opposed the move, deeming it 'ludicrous and unnecessary' and suggesting the funds should instead be invested in NASA's science program.
The provision was backed by Texas Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, with Cornyn's spokesperson disputing the Smithsonian 's cost estimate and suggesting a much lower figure of $5-8 million.
Cruz stated the move would honor Houston's historical significance in America's human spaceflight program.
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The Independent
29 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump set to impose tariffs up to 70 percent on dozens of nations
President Donald Trump is set to resume tariffs of up to 70 percent on dozens of countries, as many of the trade deals have not materialized. Trump said the White House would be sending out about '10 or 12' letters on Friday to countries where trade deals are not yet in place ahead of the July 9 deadline. The president didn't specify which countries in his remarks to reporters Thursday evening. 'So we're going to start sending letters out to various countries starting tomorrow,' Trump told reporters at Andrews Air Force Base on returning from a rally in Iowa, according to The New York Times. 'They'll range in value from maybe 60 or 70 percent tariffs to 10 and 20 percent tariffs.' In April, Trump put a 90-day pause on the 'reciprocal' tariffs he announced on so-called 'Liberation Day' after the move spooked the stock market.
Daily Mail
30 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Inside Donald and Melania's festive Fourth of July weekend plans filled with family, fireworks and a surprise
Flags, fireworks and a ferris wheel. Children splashing and shouting in the swimming pool. A giant inflatable slide. Barbecue smells in the air. Red, white and blue cupcakes for dessert. This America at its most nostalgic and it's where President Donald Trump will celebrate the Fourth of July weekend, his private golf club in New Jersey. He'll start the day at the White House. He and Melania Trump will host a picnic for military members in the afternoon and then watch the fireworks from the White House. And, as a surprise for the soldiers, the White House has arranged a military flyover of F-12, F-35s and one B2 bomber, the same type of plane that conducted the nuclear strikes in Iran. But then they'll head to Bedminster, landing there Friday evening. They'll spend the weekend at their private cottage on the property - a location special to both of them as Trump acquired the property when they were a couple. Trump's Bedminster National Golf Club sits on 500 acres in the New Jersey countryside. This is horse country. There are rolling green hills, dirt roads, and quaint cottages. But, for Donald Trump, it's a haven filled with cheering supporters and golf. Much, much golf. In addition to the tee time and the holiday festivities, the president will get some family time. Bedminster is where the Trump clan camps out in the hot summer months, staying at private cottages and driving their personalized golf carts. Trump's golf club all out for the holidays, as shown in online photos of previous Memorial Day and July 4th parties: the giant swimming pool is open for splashing and a massive American flag decorates the barn that sits behind it. A ferris wheel known as 'The Wonder Wheel' spins and lights up the night sky. Massive tents on the law have an American feast: roasted meat, patriotic cupcakes, and there are fire pits at night to roast marshmallows. Kids can go down the giant inflatable slide or run under the red, white, and blue balloon arch. There is a dress code: Men are required to wear shirts with collars and sleeves, slacks or mid length shorts must be no shorter than two inches above the knee. Hats must be forward facing. Cargo shorts/pants are not permitted. Women can wear dresses, skirts, slacks, or shorts with the same two inch rule. For President Trump, Marine One will fly him directly to the property and sit him down outside the clubhouse, where supporters can cheer and capture the moment on their cell phones. There are two golf courses he can play on. Golf carts are the preferred methods of transportation - the president drives his own with Secret Service agents following him. The property is important to Donald and Melania as Trump bought it when they were a couple. The Trumps spend the summers there with Barron. They have a cottage on the property where Melania would dine with Barron and her parents while Trump glad-handed in the clubhouse, noted Mary Jordan in her book 'The Art of Her Deal.' Amalija Knavs - when she was alive - would cook dinner for the foursome, who would speak in Slovenia to one another. And, it was Bedminster that Melania insisted Trump be brought after an assassination attempt on his life in Butler, Pa., on July 13, 2024. Melania wasn't at the campaign rally. But she spoke to Trump when he was in the hospital and she argued repeatedly with the head of Trump's Secret Service detail, Sean Curran, to bring him to Bedminster. She won, Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf reveal in their forthcoming book '2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America.' The Washington Post published early excerpts. Dubbed the 'Summer White House,' Trump's Bedminster Trump National Golf Club is a haven for the entire family, who stay in private 'cottages' on the property. Jared and Ivanka have their own cottage, near the president's and first lady's. There are other guest houses for the remaining Trump children to use, making a family compound on the property. The president expanded his cottage by 500 square feet a few years ago after getting approval to add a second-floor balcony and a porch. It also has a large turret and picture windows. The Secret Service added a red brick wall around it for security reasons. Ivanka and Jared also expanded their cottage to add a basement and extra bedrooms to accommodate their growing family. Their home now has an expanded master bedroom, bath and dressing room, two new bedrooms (for a total of five), a study and a ground floor veranda. The couple married on the property in 2009. The club is open for membership. The initiation fee runs $125,000, the Wall Street Journal reported. Members can stay on the property, renting rooms or one of the smaller cottages. It's a popular wedding venue with a large ballroom for the reception. There's a converted barn and old stable that make great backdrops for photos. In 2014, the Trumps received approval to build a family cemetery at the club. It's where Ivana Trump is buried. The original proposal for the cemetery plans included a mausoleum with 10 plots and a 19ft tall stone obelisk. Trump bought the property from a developer in 2002. The golf course was being built when he purchased it. He turned it into a private country club. The course has been home to two LIV Golf Tournaments. Previously called Lamington Farm, it had once been owned by John DeLorean, who created the winged-door DeLorean sports car of 'Back to the Future' fame.
The Guardian
40 minutes ago
- The Guardian
The desperate drive to secure passports for thousands of US-born Haitian kids – before it's too late
Inside a church a few blocks south of downtown Springfield, Ohio, about 30 concerned Haitians, church leaders and community members have gathered on a balmy summer evening to try to map out a plan. It's been just a few days since Kristi Noem, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, announced that Haitian nationals with temporary protected status (TPS) would face termination proceedings in a matter of months. By 2 September, they would be forced out of the US. On 1 July, a federal judge in New York blocked the Department of Homeland Security's attempt to end TPS for Haitian nationals. However, that's done little to alleviate the growing sense of fear: in May the supreme court sided with the Trump administration in a similar case, lifting a ruling that had previously prevented 350,000 Venezuelans on TPS from being forced to leave the country. From pew to pew inside the church, booklets containing advice to help prepare families for raids and immigration enforcement actions are passed around. Three immigration law advocates from a local firm are bombarded with questions such as what to do when in the presence of suspected Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers. Among the group is a small number of charity volunteers working to avoid a potential humanitarian disaster: that thousands of US-born Haitian children could become stateless, or separated from their families. 'In the last several months we realized that the closer we got to the deportations and revocation of statuses meant that all these people who have babies … if they don't have passports for their children, how are they going to take them out of the country with them?' says Casey Rollins, a volunteer at the local St Vincent de Paul chapter. 'All you have to look at is the previous [Trump] administration.' A Reuters report from 2023 found that nearly 1,000 children separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border in 2017 and 2018 had never been reunited. Springfield is home to about 1,217 and counting American-born Haitian children under the age of four, with several thousand more dependants under the age of 18. While the number of adults in the Ohio town of 60,000 people legally in the country on TPS is not known, local leaders estimate 10,000 to 15,000 Haitian nationals have come to Springfield, drawn by employment opportunities, since 2017. In April, data provided by the Springfield city school district to the Springfield News-Sun found that the district had 1,258 students enrolled as English language learners in K-12 schools, though that doesn't mean all are children of Haitian descent. For three months, Rollins, volunteers at Springfield Neighbors United and others have been working with dozens of Haitians who turn up at charity organizations seeking advice and help every day. One of the most requested issues from parents, Rollins says, is figuring out how to apply for birth certificates for their children, before it's too late. 'If we can't stop the deportations, we want to help get them a passport. That way, if they are deported or go to Canada or another welcoming nation, they'd be able to take the child,' she says. 'If it takes three or four months [to complete the bureaucratic process from securing a birth certificate to acquiring a passport], we have got to get moving on this.' With no prepared and notarized family plan or custodial arrangements in place, vulnerable children could be at risk of being placed in custody as dependants of the state and then being placed with foster families indefinitely. Adding further angst for Haitians is the supreme court's ruling on 27 June limiting injunctions nationwide against the Trump administration's efforts to end birthright citizenship. The humanitarian and security situation in Haiti has been dire for more than a decade. Due to the longstanding war-like conditions prevalent there, successive administrations had been extending TPS for Haitians in the US since 2010. However, based on a recent review by US Citizenship and Immigration Services in consultation with the Department of State: 'The environmental situation in Haiti has improved enough that it is safe for Haitian citizens to return home,' a homeland security spokesperson claimed on 27 June, when the decision to end TPS for the more than 500,000 Haitian nationals in the US was announced. That's despite the state department posting a 'Do not travel' status update for Haiti that has been in place since last year that finds: 'Since March 2024, Haiti has been under a State of Emergency. Crimes involving firearms are common in Haiti. They include robbery, carjackings, sexual assault, and kidnappings for ransom.' Commercial flights to Haiti's main international airport in Port-au-Prince have been halted due to the adverse security situation. Members of the Haitian community in Springfield say that flying people to regional airports would leave them open to attacks. 'It's an illusion for people to say that Haiti is safe now. There's over a million Haitians internally displaced. People living in shelters without water and food. They've been displaced by the violence. Even the US embassy cannot operate properly,' says Viles Dorsainvil, the executive director of the Haitian Community Help & Support Center in Springfield. 'They are not here because they want to be here, but because the situation pushed them away. I don't understand why the Department of Homeland Security says the situation has improved. It's just not true.' Experts say the likelihood of a repeat of the scenes that saw families pulled apart and children held in cages at the southern border, as happened during the first Trump administration, is low. However, the potential alternatives are not much more comforting. 'Haitians have entered lawfully. But if the administration follows through with its threats to put people who entered lawfully in expedited removal, that would subject many Haitians to mandatory detention,' says Katie Kersh, managing attorney for the non-profit Advocates for Basic Legal Equality. 'If they have US citizen children, that would result in separation, and I don't think that we are equipped to handle all of those children. We don't have many family detention facilities.' In April, the Clark County Combined Health District estimated that approximately 10,000 Haitians were residing in Springfield. Prior reports suggested some Haitians had left the Ohio city for Canada and elsewhere following the election of Donald Trump in November. Last month, Springfield's Republican mayor, Rob Rue, lamented that Trump 'can't keep our city out of his mouth'. The volunteers have only completed a handful of passport applications so far, having been awaiting the supreme court ruling on birthright citizenship on 27 June. But they are crippled by fear. 'It's a double-edged sword,' says Rollins of the effort they are trying to get going. 'If we do nothing, that's bad. But we are terrified that it could be shut down by the administration.'
