
Trump news at a glance: immigration agents to ‘flood' US sanctuary cities as marines withdraw from LA
Tom Homan, Donald Trump's hardline border tsar, vowed to 'flood the zone' with Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (Ice) agents, saying: 'Every sanctuary city is unsafe. Sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals and President Trump's not going to tolerate it.'
In Los Angeles, meanwhile, 700 active-duty US marines was being withdrawn, the Pentagon confirmed, more than a month after Trump deployed them to the city against the objections of local leaders.
Here's more on these and the day's other key Trump administration stories at a glance.
Tom Homan has vowed to 'flood the zone' of sanctuary cities with Immigration, Customs and Enforcement (Ice) agents in an all-out bid to overcome the lack of cooperation he said the government faced from Democrat-run municipalities in its quest to arrest and detain undocumented people.
The pledge from Donald Trump's hardline border tsar followed the arrest of two undocumented men from the Dominican Republic after an off-duty Customs and Border Protection officer suffered gunshot wounds in an apparent robbery attempt in New York City on Saturday night.
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The Pentagon confirmed to the Guardian on Monday that the full deployment of 700 active-duty US marines was being withdrawn from Los Angeles more than a month after Donald Trump deployed them to the city in a move state and city officials called unnecessary and provocative.
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The president's signature tax and spending bill will add $3.4tn to the national debt over the next decade, according to new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released on Monday.
Major cuts to Medicaid and the national food stamps program are estimated to save the country $1.1tn – only a chunk of the $4.5tn in lost revenue that will come from the bill's tax cuts.
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A legal group founded by Trump adviser Stephen Miller has requested the justice department investigate 'illegal DEI practices' at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
In a letter to the justice department's civil rights division, America First Legal asked an assistant attorney general to investigate and issue enforcement actions against the prestigious medical university for embracing 'a discriminatory DEI regime as a core institutional mandate'.
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Almost 300 current and former US Nasa employees – including at least four astronauts – have issued a scathing dissent opposing the Trump administration's sweeping and indiscriminate cuts to the agency, which they say threaten safety, innovation and national security.
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The Trump administration has released records of the FBI's surveillance of Martin Luther King Jr, despite opposition from the slain Nobel laureate's family and the civil rights group that he led until his 1968 assassination.
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An artist who first accused Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell of sexual assault almost three decades ago has told the New York Times that she had urged law enforcement officials back then to investigate powerful people in their orbit – including Donald Trump.
The artist, Maria Farmer, was among the first women to report Epstein and his partner Maxwell of sexual crimes in 1996 when, according to the new interview with the Times, she also identified Trump among others close to Epstein as worthy of attention.
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Harvard University appeared in federal court on Monday to make the case that the Trump administration illegally cut $2.6bn from the college – a major test of the administration's efforts to reshape higher education institutions by threatening their financial viability.
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Michael Bloomberg is calling on Senate Republicans to oust Robert F Kennedy Jr from his post as Trump's health secretary.
The US Federal Reserve is pushing back against claims from the White House that it is undergoing extravagant renovations with a video tour showing the central bank's ongoing construction.
Hunter Biden gave a profanity-laced interview during which he attacked George Clooney, denied owning the cocaine found in the White House and spoke about his father's last efforts in the 2024 race before dropping out.
Catching up? Here's what happened on 20 July 2025.
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Daily Mail
18 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Trump breaks silence on his 'great friend' Hulk Hogan's sudden death
President Donald Trump reacted to the news of legendary professional wrestler Hulk Hogan 's death on Thursday after the news reached the White House. 'We lost a great friend today, the 'Hulkster,' Trump wrote on social media on Wednesday afternoon. 'Hulk Hogan was MAGA all the way — Strong, tough, smart, but with the biggest heart.' 'He entertained fans from all over the World, and the cultural impact he had was massive,' Trump wrote, praising his 'absolutely electric speech' from the Republican 2024 National Convention. 'To his wife, Sky, and family, we give our warmest best wishes and love. Hulk Hogan will be greatly missed!' he concluded. Hogan's death also prompted Vice President JD Vance to pay tribute to the famous wrestler. 'Hulk Hogan was a great American icon. One of the first people I ever truly admired as a kid,' Vance wrote on social media. 'The last time I saw him we promised we'd get beers together next time we saw each other. The next time will have to be on the other side, my friend! Rest in peace.' Hogan, who's real name is Terry Bollea, famously endorsed Trump at the Republican National Convention in 2024, delighting the president's supporters by appearing on stage waving an American flag prior to his speech. The famous American figure, who did not voice his support for Trump in his first election, revealed that the failed assassination attempt of the president in Butler, Pennsylvania inspired him to endorse the president in his reelection campaign. 'What happened last week, when they took a shot at my hero, and they tried to kill the next president of the United States, enough was enough and I said let Trumpamania run wild brother!' he shouted as he ripped off his t-shirt to show a Trump branded tank top. Hogan said he and Trump had known each other for over 35 years, recalling the moments during his wrestling career at some of his hotel and casino venues. 'I just had a flashback man, this is really tripping,' Hogan told the crowd. 'You know the last time I was onstage Donald Trump was sitting ringside at Trump Plaza,' Hogan said recalling one of presidents old casino hotels in Atlantic City. In 1988 and 1989, the WWE's WrestleMania events were hosted near Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Hogan pointed to Trump's record in his first term as evidence that he would return to office and enforce the border and be tough on crime. 'So all you criminals, all you low-lifes, all you scumbags, all you drug dealers and all you crooked politicians need to answer one question for me. What you gonna do when Donald Trump and all the Trumpamaniacs run wild on you brother?' he said in Milwaukee. Hogan also spoke at Trump's Madison Square Garden rally in New York City, just a week before the presidential election. 'You something Trumpmaniacs, I don't see no stinkin' Nazis in here, I don't see no stinkin' domestic terrorists in here, the only thing I see in here are a bunch of hard workin' men and woman that are real Americans brother,' he said at the Madison Square Garden Rally in New York City. Hogan also attended the president's inauguration, and one of his inauguration balls in Washington, DC in January. 'We have our country back!' Hogan celebrated on Fox News at the president's Liberty Ball as he ripped the sleeves of his tuxedo. 'We're going to get everything back to where it should be.'


The Independent
20 minutes ago
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Caitlin Clark still has no timetable for return following further medical evaluation this week
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. Your support makes all the difference.


The Independent
20 minutes ago
- The Independent
‘I'm 94 years old and will not be intimidated': Has Trump met his match in Rupert Murdoch?
Lamenting the inconvenient truth that his parent company had joined a slew of other institutions in capitulating to Donald Trump's capricious demands, Jon Stewart threw out a rallying cry this week after his late-night cohort Stephen Colbert was canceled amid Paramount's desperate push to complete an $8 billion merger. 'Sack the f*** up,' the Daily Show star exclaimed, calling for media conglomerates to stop running scared and stand up to the president's legal bullying, which CBS employees have described as a 'Trump shakedown.' Could it be that Stewart has already found his unlikely champion in the form of a nonagenarian right-wing media mogul who was the driving force behind Trump's rise to power? That is increasingly looking like that might be the case. Feeling emboldened by Paramount and Disney paying him off to settle easily winnable lawsuits, the president followed through on his days-long threat and sued Rupert Murdoch on Friday for $10 billion after the Wall Street Journal published a much-anticipated story about Trump's 'bawdy' birthday letter to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Before firing off his defamation suit, the president spent the previous few days desperately trying to get Murdoch and his paper to kill the story, which promised to further fan the flames of the controversy over the administration's handling of the Epstein files as it detailed Trump's lengthy kinship with the disgraced financier. 'This is not me. This is a fake thing. It's a fake Wall Street Journal story,' Trump shouted at WSJ editor-in-chief Emma Tucker two days before the story was published. 'I'm gonna sue the Wall Street Journal just like I sued everyone else.' Following the bombshell report's publication last Thursday night, the president whined on Truth Social that Murdoch told him 'he would take care of it,' but apparently 'did not have the power to do so.' Despite legal experts saying he has an exceptionally weak case and that it could backfire by exposing him to further scrutiny in the Epstein matter, the president went ahead and fired off his latest legal tantrum on Friday. Meanwhile, not only has the Wall Street Journal and its publisher Dow Jones stood by its reporting, but the paper dropped another blockbuster on Wednesday by revealing that Attorney General Pam Bondi informed Trump in May that his name appeared several times in the Epstein files. That story further helps explain why the administration reversed course this month and decided against revealing more documents in the Epstein case. It also appears that Murdoch himself has indicated behind the scenes that he has no plans to back down anytime soon. 'I'm 94 years old and I will not be intimidated,' Murdoch said, the Washington Post reported, citing three people familiar with the Fox News owner's private conversations. While the Post also notes that the president's latest volley in his all-out war on the media 'crosses a new Rubicon' as he is 'lashing out at one of his most powerful media allies,' what it really lays bare is how the Trump-Murdoch relationship has always been one of convenience between two men who see themselves as the leading figure in the conservative movement. Trump's lawsuit, and Murdoch's potential willingness to fight it to the end, could be the final crescendo to the fraught alliance between the two right-wing titans. As Puck's Dylan Byers observed this week, unlike the multi-tiered conglomerates or overleveraged companies that have bent the knee to Trump recently, 'the 94-year-old media titan is a different kind of defendant' as he has 'the resources, the freedom, and the fortitude to wage a legal fight with the president.' 'I don't think he has any intention of settling. Why would he?' one Murdoch source told Byers, noting that the mogul could 'relish the fight' against Trump. At the same time, it appears that both Trump and Murdoch understand how important it is to keep Fox News – Murdoch world's crown jewel – out of the fray for the time being. The president's lawsuit was carefully compartmentalized to avoid pulling in the right-wing network – which the president enjoys a symbiotic relationship with and uses as a staffing agency for his administration. All the while, Fox News has all but ignored the ongoing Epstein saga in recent days and has largely avoided mentioning either the Wall Street Journal's story or the president's lawsuit against their boss, which has also led the White House to punish Fox's sister publication by pulling their reporters off the travel press pool. Instead, the network's pro-Trump hosts have gone all in on trumpeting the administration's efforts to distract from the Epstein mess – specifically glomming onto Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's misleading and false claims that the Obama administration engaged in a treasonous 'coup' with its Russia election interference assessment. In fact, the network has mentioned former President Barack Obama three times more than Epstein since Gabbard released her report. Additionally, senior members of the Trump administration have continued to flock to Fox News for softball interviews and friendly sitdowns that have completely sidestepped the Epstein controversy. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who has blasted Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal repeatedly over the Epstein-Trump story, was asked to react to Hunter Biden's profane podcast appearance in two separate Fox News interviews. This odd dichotomy prompted NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo to press attorney Alejandro Brito – who is representing the president in his lawsuit – why Trump's allies 'keep using Fox News' if Murdoch is so 'inimical to the cause' and essentially public enemy #1. Brito essentially shrugged and dodged Cuomo's pointed question. According to the New York Times, people close to the president have said that he 'considers Fox News — and for that matter, The New York Post, another business owned by Mr. Murdoch — to be in a separate, friendlier category, where he has warm relations with various personalities.' For example, on the same day Trump filed his lawsuit, the president promoted his close pal Sean Hannity's show, urging his followers to watch later that evening because Hannity 'really gets it.' In the end, Murdoch has barely constrained his disdain for Trump over the years, and has at times hoped to even make him a 'non-person' within GOP politics – especially when the reality star-turned-MAGA king has damaged Fox News' balance sheet. Early on in Trump's political rise, Murdoch hoped to stop the former Apprentice star dead in his tracks with the first Republican primary debate of the 2016 presidential race. 'This has gone on long enough,' he told his then-lieutenant Roger Ailes, directing the Fox News chief to have the moderators pummel Trump with hard-hitting questions. Of course, after Trump publicly attacked Megyn Kelly following the debate and the right-wing base ate it up, Murdoch and the network eventually relented and sided with the eventual president over their star anchor. The on-again/off-again friendship, meanwhile, would continue over the course of the next decade. After keeping things congenial throughout Trump's first term, tensions once again escalated between the two following the 2020 presidential election, which saw Fox News become the first network to call the battleground state of Arizona for Joe Biden. That decision resulted in a domino effect that saw Fox News' ratings briefly collapse as furious MAGA supporters fled to fringe right channels that would peddle Trump's election lies, eventually leading to the Dominion lawsuit against Fox News – which began trumpeting election fraud conspiracies to lure back viewers – that would cost Murdoch $787.5 million. Following Trump's exit from office in 2021, the two men barely talked for years, and Trump was even given a 'soft ban' from appearing on Fox for a period of time. Murdoch also attempted to use his vast media empire to back potential challengers to Trump for the 2024 presidential nomination, particularly Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. The Fox News audience, however, was having none of it and Trump easily secured the nomination – and Murdoch's backing once more. Still, even before Trump decided to take Murdoch to court, the president continued to air his gripes about the coverage he was receiving from the mogul's news outlets – especially the Wall Street Journal. Hosting Murdoch in an Oval Office meeting in February, Trump groused when a reporter asked about a recent WSJ op-ed blasting him for starting the 'dumbest trade war in history.' 'I'm going to have to talk to him about that,' Trump grumbled with Murdoch sitting mere feet away. Amid the president's ongoing assault on legacy and mainstream media outlets, whether it's coercing news organizations to settle frivolous lawsuits or pressuring billionaires to change their newspapers' editorial direction or defunding public media groups, some have wondered if Murdoch will stand up and be the improbable savior of the First Amendment. 'Is this what we have come to—depending on Rupert Murdoch to stand up for press freedom?' Tina Brown, the former editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair and The Daily Beast, wrote recently. 'Amidst the Trumpian slide towards authoritarian bullying of the press, it raises the increasingly urgent question of whom we can turn to keep independent journalism alive.'