Live updates: Trump prepares for ‘listening exercise' with Putin in Alaska on Friday
BRUSSELS — European leaders on Wednesday are seeking to impress upon President Donald Trump one key point before he meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska: The West cannot — must not — negotiate away Ukrainian territory, especially for nothing in return.
As Trump floats 'land swaps,' Kyiv's European backers have rejected a Russian proposal to trade Ukrainian land for an undefined truce. And they have issued declarations that 'international borders must not be changed by force.'
Of the more than 2,000 events that take place each year at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, one looms above all the others: the Kennedy Center Honors. One of the center's largest fundraisers, the annual black-tie gala and television broadcast is a magnet for A-listers and prominent Washingtonians.
Since taking over the Kennedy Center in February, President Donald Trump has vowed to put his mark on the honors — and changes are underway.
The White House will launch a sweeping review of Smithsonian exhibitions, collections and operations ahead of America's 250th-birthday celebrations next year — the first time the Trump administration has detailed steps to scrutinize the institution, which officials say should reflect the president's call to restore 'truth and sanity' to American history.
A divided appeals court panel on Tuesday said the Trump administration's U.S. DOGE Service can access sensitive data held by federal agencies, rejecting concerns that the move runs afoul of privacy law.
In a 2-1 decision, a panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit concluded that plaintiffs in the case, a group that includes labor unions and individual people receiving government benefits, had failed to show they could prevail in their legal challenge.
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New York Post
5 minutes ago
- New York Post
Trump is right about border and criminals, but he's losing voters with mass deportations
President Donald Trump delivered on his key campaign promise: Securing the border. Yet the only thing falling faster than illegal crossings has been his approval rating on immigration. The problem: Instead of building on his win at the border with more popular arrests of criminal threats inside the country, the administration is going after migrants indiscriminately. Democrats can't deny it: The border crisis is over. Border Patrol arrests have fallen nearly 90% since December to near-record lows. Nonetheless, only 40% of voters approved of the president's handling of immigration in a July Quinnipiac poll, while 55% disapproved. The 15-point approval deficit contrasts with a +1 rating in the January Q-poll. Other polls show similarly dramatic declines. Of course, people don't actually want more illegal immigration. Polls consistently show that the president is the most trusted on the border. Instead, it's the deportations from within the United States driving the discontent. Quinnipiac's July poll found that only 38% approve of how the administration is handling deportations. That doesn't mean voters back the other side — 84% of disagree with Democrats who want to suspend deportations completely, according to a March Pew Research Center poll. But Trump emphasized that he would prioritize ending 'sanctuary and protection for dangerous criminals' — the position of 81% of voters. Unfortunately, most voters don't believe the president is doing that right now. Even as late as June, voters told CBS News they thought that the president was prioritizing 'dangerous criminals' over peaceful immigrants 53%-47%. By mid-July, it was 44%-56% the other way — an 18-point swing in a month. What happened? Voters started to see how the priorities shifted. According to The Post's reporting, agents were instructed in late May to focus on 'quantity over quality' to meet a 3,000-per-day 'goal' set by the White House. ICE was advised to target people looking for work at Home Depot and to raid businesses in industries likely to employ illegal workers. Rather than scooping up violent criminals recklessly sent back to the streets by New York City or even cleaning out the homeless shelters costing New York taxpayers a fortune, ICE is arresting immigrants who are helping power the Trump economy. Since the White House ordered the change, there has been a dramatic escalation in arrests of people without criminal records. In June, the number of immigrants arrested without criminal convictions was 1,100% higher than it was even in 2017 during the first Trump term: nearly 6,000 per week. Yet there are still half a million illegal immigrants with criminal convictions out there to remove — and ICE should locate them before spending its time and resources on workers. It's common sense: ICE agents told The Post that the policy was 'leading them to leave some dangerous criminal illegal migrants on the streets.' Setting aside politics and crime, Trump has already publicly acknowledged there's an economic downside to these non-criminal deportations. 'Our aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long-time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,' he said in June, referencing farms, hotels, and leisure businesses. The president is correct. Besides the border, the president's other primary election issue was inflation. And immigrants reduce inflation — not, as critics claim, by depressing wages for American workers, but by increasing production of goods and services. When supply decreases, prices go up for consumers, as we painfully saw throughout the pandemic. Immigrant workers also benefit their American counterparts: Companies invest more when there is enough labor to quickly construct and fully man facilities, and Americans end up in better jobs as managers and supervisors when immigrant workers fill lesser-skilled jobs. Booting the nearly 2 million illegal-immigrant construction workers will pull Americans out of those better-paying jobs, not into the labor force. Whatever the immigration politics are, Trump's midterm success will ultimately depend most on his economic outcomes. Americans re-elected him because they remember his first term before the pandemic as a period of stable wage and job growth — but random mass deportations are both politically unpopular and economically destabilizing. Although the president has promised 'changes are coming' on deportations, none have yet occurred. In April, Trump floated the idea that employers might be able to sponsor their illegal workers for visas if the workers leave the country and return legally. That's a great starting point: If no employer is willing to vouch for them, deportation likely won't have much economic downside. The president has diagnosed the problem. He's come up with a viable solution. And the One Big Beautiful Bill shows he's capable of navigating controversial legislation across the finish line. With the economy slowing and midterms looming, there's no reason to wait. David J. Bier is Director of Immigration Studies at the Cato Institute.
New York Times
5 minutes ago
- New York Times
Pence Welcomes Trump's D.C. Deployment of National Guard
Former Vice President Mike Pence, who pushed for earlier deployment of National Guard troops to the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, riots, said on Sunday that he welcomed President Trump's recent decision to send federal troops to Washington to combat crime. In an interview on CNN's 'State of the Union,' Mr. Pence was asked about Mr. Trump's aggressive push of federal troops compared with his lack of urgency on Jan. 6, when it took hours for the Guard to arrive. In response, Mr. Pence inhaled and shrugged his shoulders. 'Well, Jan. 6 was a tragic day, but I know we did our duty that day, I wish the president would have done more,' he said. 'But I welcome his decision to deploy the National Guard and essentially federalize the D.C. Police Department.' 'I think is important what the president is doing and I fully support it,' he added. 'I think the American people welcome the president taking decisive action to ensure the streets of our nation's capital are safe.' Back on Jan. 6, an angry mob chanting 'hang Mike Pence' at one point came within 40 feet of the vice president. Mr. Pence was critical in trying to move National Guard forces to the Capitol, but Mr. Trump initially refused, even as police officers were overrun. Last week, Mr. Trump said he needed to send federal troops to protect Washington because the nation's capital had been overrun with 'violent gangs and blood thirsty criminals,' misstating crime data to justify the action. Already, 800 National Guard troops have been deployed from the D.C. National Guard. At Mr. Trump's request, an additional 700 troops are being deployed by the governors of West Virginia, South Carolina and Ohio, all of whom are Republicans.
Fox News
5 minutes ago
- Fox News
Red states join Trump's DC crime crackdown
Former Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf comments on President Donald Trump's federal crackdown on crime in Washington, D.C., and his reaction to some red states sending National Guard troops to the area for assistance.
