Trump Says He's Open to Talking to Pope Leo About Immigration
The new pope's brother John Prevost said in an interview with the New York Times last week that Leo is "not happy with what's going on with immigration."
Before he became pope, Leo also posted several times on social media about the topic.
He once reposted a 2021 critique of Trump's immigration policies, calling for "a path rooted in human rights, not exclusion."
In an interview on Air Force One, Fox News' Sean Hannity asked the president: "We have our first American pope - he does seem to disagree with you on immigration. Putting that aside, would you like to talk to him about that?"
Trump answered: "Sure I mean I would. He was really a surprise to us."
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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Los Angeles Times
14 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Trump welcomes Philippine leader Marcos at White House and says he thinks there will be a trade deal
WASHINGTON — President Trump welcomed Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Tuesday at the White House, as the two countries are seeking closer security and economic ties in the face of shifting geopolitics in the Indo-Pacific region. Marcos, who met Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday, is the first Southeast Asian leader to hold talks with Trump in his second term. Marcos' three-day visit shows the importance of the alliance between the treaty partners when China is increasingly assertive in the South China Sea, where Manila and Beijing have clashed over the hotly contested Scarborough Shoal. As the two leaders sat in the Oval Office in front of reporters on Tuesday, Trump said they would be talking about 'war and peace' and trade. 'We're very close to finishing a trade deal, big trade deal, actually,' Trump said. Marcos spoke warmly of the relationship between their two nations and said, 'This has evolved into as important a relationship as is possible to have.' Trump, as he does in many of his appearances, veered off topic as he fielded questions from reporters. In response to a question about his Justice Department's decision to interview Jeffrey Epstein's former girlfriend, Trump launched into a long answer repeating falsehoods about his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election and the Russia investigation during his first term, along with comments about targeting his political adversaries, including former President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. 'After what they did to me, whether it's right or wrong, it's time to go after people,' Trump said, with Marcos sitting nearby. During the two leaders' meeting before news cameras, they didn't reveal details or hang-ups of any possible deal, but Trump called Marcos a 'tough negotiator.' When asked by a reporter how he plans to balance his country's relationships between the U.S. and China, Marcos said there was no need to balance 'because our foreign policy is an independent one.' 'Our strongest partner has always been the United States,' he said. Washington sees Beijing, the world's No. 2 economy, as its biggest competitor, and consecutive presidential administrations have sought to shift U.S. military and economic focus to the Asia-Pacific in a bid to counter China. Trump, like others before him, has been distracted by efforts to broker peace in a range of conflicts, from Ukraine to Gaza. On Tuesday, when asked about the U.S. defense commitment to the Philippines, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Guo Jiakun said: 'Whatever cooperation the U.S. and the Philippines have, it should not target or harm any third party, still less incite confrontation and heighten tensions in the region.' Tariffs also are expected to be on the agenda. Trump has threatened to impose 20% tariffs on Filipino goods on Aug. 1 unless the two sides can strike a deal. On Sunday, before heading to Washington, Marcos said he intended to tell Trump and his administration 'that the Philippines is ready to negotiate a bilateral trade deal that will ensure strong, mutually beneficial and future-oriented collaborations that only the United States and the Philippines will be able to take advantage of,' according to his office. Manila is open to offering zero tariffs on some U.S. goods to strike a deal with Trump, finance chief Ralph Recto told local journalists. The White House said ahead of the meeting that Trump would discuss with Marcos the shared commitment to upholding a free, open, prosperous and secure Indo-Pacific. Before a meeting with Marcos at the Pentagon, Hegseth reiterated America's commitment to 'achieving peace through strength' in the region. Marcos, whose country is one of the oldest U.S. treaty allies in the Pacific region, told Hegseth that the assurance to come to each other's mutual defense 'continues to be the cornerstone of that relationship, especially when it comes to defense and security cooperation.' He said the cooperation has deepened since Hegseth's March visit to Manila, including joint exercises and U.S. support in modernizing the Philippines' armed forces. Marcos thanked the U.S. for support 'that we need in the face of the threats that we, our country, is facing.' China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have been involved in long-unresolved territorial conflicts in the South China Sea, a busy shipping passage for global trade. The Chinese coast guard has repeatedly used water cannons to hit Filipino boats in the South China Sea. China accused those vessels of entering the waters illegally or encroaching on its territory. Hegseth told a security forum in Singapore in May that China poses a threat and the U.S. is 'reorienting toward deterring aggression by Communist China.' During Marcos' meeting Monday with Rubio, the two reaffirmed the alliance 'to maintain peace and stability' in the region and discussed closer economic ties, including boosting supply chains, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said. The U.S. has endeavored to keep communication open with Beijing. Rubio and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met this month on the sidelines of the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations regional forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They agreed to explore 'areas of potential cooperation' and stressed the importance of managing differences. Tang and Price write for the Associated Press. AP writer Chris Megerian contributed to this report.
Los Angeles Times
14 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
3 things that should scare us about Trump's fake video of Obama
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First, it is flat-out racist. In it, Obama is ripped out of a chair in the Oval Office and forced onto his knees, almost bowing, to a laughing Trump. That imagery isn't hard to interpret: America's most esteemed Black man — who recently warned we are on the brink of losing democracy — forced into submission before our leader. The video comes as Trump claims that Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, has uncovered a 'treasonous conspiracy in 2016' in which top Obama officials colluded with Russia to disrupt the election. Democrats say the claim is erroneous at best. Advertisement If you are inclined to give Trump the benefit of the doubt, right before this scene of Obama forced to kneel, a meme of Pepe the Frog — an iconic image of the far-right and white supremacy — flashes on the screen. Not subtle. But also, not the first time racism has come straight from the White House. On Monday, the Rev. Amos Brown, pastor of San Francisco's Third Baptist Church and a student of Martin Luther King Jr., reminded me that not too long ago, then-President Woodrow Wilson screened the pro-KKK film 'The Birth of a Nation' at the executive mansion. It was the first film screening ever held there, and its anti-Black viewpoint sparked controversy and protests. That was due in no small part to a truth that Hollywood knows well — fiction has great power to sway minds. Brown sees direct similarities in how Wilson amplified fictional anti-Blackness then, and how Trump is doing so now, both for political gain. Advertisement 'Mr. Trump should realize that Obama hasn't done anything to him. But just the idea, the thought of a Black person being human, is a threat to him and his supporters,' Brown told me. Brown said he's praying for the president to 'stop this bigotry' and see the error of his ways. I'll pray the great gods give the reverend good luck on that. But, on the earthly plane, Brown said that 'the more things change, the more they remain the same.' Trump courted the Black vote and has his supporters among people of all colors and ethnicities, but he's also played on racist tropes for political success, from stoking fear around the Central Park Five, now known as the Exonerated Five, decades ago to stoking fear around Black immigrants eating cats and dogs in Ohio during the recent election. It's an old playbook, because it works. Reposting the image of Obama on his knees is scary because it's a harsh reminder that racism is no longer an undercurrent in our society, if it ever was. It's a motivator and a power to be openly wielded — just the way Wilson did back in 1915. But the differences in media from back in the day to now are what should raise our second fear around this video. A fictional film is one thing. An AI-generated video that for many people seems to depict reality is a whole new level of, well, reality. Advertisement Voices Chabria: What this formerly undocumented congressman understands about patriotism that Trump doesn't Garcia, who represents Long Beach, was recently was chosen by his Democratic peers for the minority party's top job on the powerful House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The fear of deepfakes in politics is not new. It's a global problem, and in fairness, this isn't the first time (by far) Trump or other politicians have used deepfakes. Trump last year reposted an image of Taylor Swift endorsing him (which never happened). Also last year, during the election and the height of the Elon Musk-Trump bromance, the billionaire posted a fake photo of political challenger Kamala Harris dressed in what looked like a communist military uniform. Trump himself has not been immune. In 2023, Eliot Higgins, the founder of the investigative outlet Bellingcat, said he was toying with an AI tool and created images of Trump being arrested, never thinking it would go viral (especially since one image gave Trump three legs). Of course it did, and millions of people looked at these fake pictures, at least some assuming they were real. The list of deepfake political examples is long and ominous. Which brings us to the third reason Trump's latest use of one is unsettling. He clearly sees the effectiveness of manipulating race and reality to increase his own power and further his own agenda. Advertisement Obama on his knees strikes a chord all too close to the image of Latino Sen. Alex Padilla being taken to the floor by federal authorities a few weeks ago during a news conference. It bears chilling resemblance to the thousands of images flooding us daily of immigrants being taken down and detained by immigration officers in often violent fashion. Videos like this one of Obama are the normalizing, the mockery, the celebration of the erosion of civil rights and violence we are currently seeing being aimed at Black, brown and vulnerable Americans. There is nothing innocent or unplanned about these kinds of videos. They are a political weapon being used for a purpose. Because when repetition dulls our shock of them, how long before we are no longer shocked by real images of real arrests?
The Hill
14 minutes ago
- The Hill
AstraZeneca investing $50B in US, Trump calls it an ‘honor'
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