Trump administration live updates: President departs for first foreign trip; China and U.S. agree on tariffs pause
What to know today
President Donald Trump departed on the first major foreign trip of his second term this morning, heading first to Saudi Arabia and then Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
The United States and China have agreed to a 90-day pause on most of the tariffs they have imposed on each other since last month, a big step toward easing the trade war between the two countries.
Trump signed an executive order that aims to lower prescription drug prices, and discussed the measure at a news conference with Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Trump mocked Democratic backlash over his administration's decision to accept a Boeing super luxury jet, estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, from Qatar to use as Air Force One.
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The Sun
10 minutes ago
- The Sun
Trump doesn't rule out arresting California Gov Gavin Newsom over LA riot chaos and says he had to save city from mob
DONALD Trump refused to rule out arresting California Governor Gavin Newsom over his handling of the Los Angeles riots. The pair have been trading blows since Newsom slammed Trump's decision to send federal troops into the city to quell immigration raid rioters. 8 8 8 8 Trump has sent around 4,000 of the National Guard and 700 Marines into LA, where they have clashed violently with protesting mobs and been given to make arrests The Governor accused Trump of manufacturing the flare-ups, saying his actions were "akin to authoritarian regimes" - and was dismissed as "incompetent" in return. He vowed his state is "suing Donald Trump" for "creating fear and terror to [...] violate the US constitution". Trump has previously toyed with the idea of arresting Newsom, and refused to rule it out in an interview with the New York Pos t. Trump's border czar Tom Homan had warned that anyone, including public officials, would be arrested if they obstructed federal law enforcement. On Sunday, Newsom goaded Trump over the threats, saying in a MSNBC interview: "Come after me, arrest me. Let's just get it over with, tough guy." Asked directly if he is going to arrest and charge Gavin Newsom, Trump said: "Well, he's not doing a good job. "In theory you could, I guess. It's almost like a dissipation of duties. Nobody's ever seen anything like it." Before Wednesday's interview, Newsom shared his thoughts on the arrest threats. He said: "The President of the United States just called for the arrest of a sitting Governor. Anti-ICE raid protest carnage spreads across US as Texas deploys National Guard & LA declares curfew after riots "This is a day I hoped I would never see in America. I don't care if you're a Democrat or a Republican this is a line we cannot cross as a nation this is an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism." Trump follow up with a brutal takedown of Newsom's record in office - which included blaming him for the devastating wild fires that ravaged parts of LA in January. Trump said: "First he had his wildfires that burned down half the place [...] I told them water, get the water from the pacific north west [...] I got the water to go down. "They were using environmental as a reason not to give water. They were protecting a certain type of fish - which by the way has not done well. "He should have done it [redirected the water supply] in my first term. You wouldn't have had the fires." 8 8 8 Interviewer Miranda Devine then asked about a much-disputed phone call between Trump and Newsom - with each swearing to a different version of events. The President claimed he rang to discuss sending in National Guardsmen - but Newsom branded him a "stone-cold liar". Newsom insists he "kept trying to bring up" the situation in LA, but that Trump veered onto other subjects. However, Trump doubled down today and said: "Of course I did [talk about it]. The phone call was to deploy the troops. "I said: 'You're city is burning down, your state is in bad trouble.' "All I want is him to do a good job [...] he's doing a poor job." In an effort to checkmate Newsom, Trump brandished a screenshot showing a 16-minute call between the two at 1:23am on June 7. Newsom does not dispute that the call happened - but maintains that Trump "never once brought up the National Guard". Trump landed other personal jibes, mocking the California High-Speed Rail project which has run over budget and claiming that, without him, Newsom "wouldn't have LA". He said: "Between the fires and the riots, there would be nothing left. You have a governor that's incompetent, a mayor that's highly incompetent." 8
The Independent
13 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump's plan to begin 'phasing out' FEMA after hurricane season burdens states, experts warn
President Donald Trump 's plan to begin 'phasing out' the federal agency that responds to disasters after the 2025 hurricane season is likely to put more responsibilities on states to provide services following increasingly frequent and expensive climate disasters, experts said. 'We want to wean off of FEMA and we want to bring it down to the state level,' Trump said Tuesday in an Oval Office appearance with administration officials about preparations for summer wildfires. Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have repeatedly signaled their desire to overhaul, if not completely eliminate, the 46-year-old Federal Emergency Management Agency. While there has been bipartisan support for reforming the agency, experts say dismantling it completely would leave gaps in crucial services and funding. 'It just causes more concern on how states should be planning for the future if the federal government's not going to be there for them,' said Michael Coen, FEMA chief of staff during the Obama and Biden administrations. Disaster response is already locally led and state-managed, but FEMA supports by coordinating resources from federal agencies, providing direct assistance programs for households and moving money to states for repairing public infrastructure. Trump said Tuesday he wants to 'give out less money,' and to 'give it out directly,' sidestepping FEMA programs. He said he did not know who would distribute the funds, saying they could come 'from the president's office' or DHS. 'I was left with the impression that he doesn't really understand the scale of what FEMA manages on a yearly basis with a budget of over $30 billion,' said Coen. Dismantling FEMA, or even changing how much of the costs it shares with states in the event of a major disaster declaration, would require action from Congress, including amending the 1988 Stafford Act, which outlines FEMA's roles and responsibilities and the cost share between the feds and the states. Declaring fewer major disasters or giving less federal support could put an untenable financial burden on states, said Sara McTarnaghan, principal research associate at the Urban Institute. 'Very few of them would have had enough funds set aside to anticipate the federal government stepping back from its historic role in disaster recovery for major events,' McTarnaghan said. A recent Urban Institute analysis found that between 2008-2024, quadrupling the economic threshold of when major disasters are declared would have shifted $41 billion in public assistance costs alone to state and local governments. 'I think the trade off for states and communities is going to be, do we accept a less full recovery or do states draw on other resources to meet these goals and needs, perhaps at the cost of investments in other kinds of social programs or functions of the state,' said McTarnaghan. Not all states will be able to generate much more revenue, she added. 'The confluence of states that have really high disaster exposure and states that have relatively limited fiscal capacity are overlapping in many ways,' she said. 'That's the case for a lot of states along the Gulf Coast that we're concerned about going into hurricane season but also the case for some Midwestern states that face issues with severe convective storms.' Trump dismissed the idea that states can't handle the bulk of disasters on their own. 'The governor should be able to handle it and frankly if they can't handle the aftermath, then maybe they shouldn't be governor,' he said. He suggested that some of the gaps could be filled by more collaboration among states. Noem said FEMA is building communication and mutual aid agreements among states 'to respond to each other so that they can stand on their own two feet.' A national mutual-aid structure called the Emergency Management Assistance Compact already exists, but its operations are typically reimbursed by the federal government, said Coen. 'There's already robust communication between states. The confusion is what they can expect from the federal government.' Regarding the current hurricane season, which began June 1, Noem said FEMA 'stands prepared.' But there have already been changes to how the agency operates. It suspended its door-to-door canvassing program that helped enroll survivors for assistance. More than 2,000 FEMA staff, around one-third of the full-time workforce, have left or been fired since January. After severe weather this spring, some states waited as long as eight weeks for their disaster declaration requests, and several requests are still pending. Trump has not approved any requests for hazard mitigation assistance since February, a typical add-on to individual and public assistance that helps states build back in more resilient ways. A FEMA review council established by Trump and co-chaired by Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will submit suggestions for reforms in the next few months, according to Noem. In its first meeting in May, Noem told the group of governors, emergency managers, and other officials primarily from Republican states that Trump is seeking drastic change. 'I don't want you to go into this thinking we're going to make a little tweak here,' she said. 'No, FEMA should no longer exist as it is.' ___
Reuters
22 minutes ago
- Reuters
Judge says Trump cannot detain Columbia protester Khalil, but delays release order
NEW YORK, June 11 (Reuters) - A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that the Trump administration cannot use U.S. foreign policy interests to justify its detention of Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, but said his order would not take effect until Friday. Khalil was arrested on March 8 after the State Department revoked his green card under a little-used provision of U.S. immigration law granting the U.S. secretary of state the power to seek the deportation of any noncitizen whose presence in the country is deemed adverse to U.S. foreign policy interests. He has since been held in immigration detention in Louisiana. Khalil was the first known foreign student to be arrested as part of Trump's bid to deport foreign students who took part in pro-Palestinian protests that swept U.S. college campuses after Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack on Israel and Israel's subsequent military assault.
