Trump LIVE: Musk slams Pentagon critic who mocked his ultimatum to federal workers
Elon Musk has lashed out after a Pentagon official called the ultimatum email he sent out to federal workers over the weekend, asking them to justify their roles or risk losing them, the 'silliest thing in 40 years.'
'Anyone with the attitude of that Pentagon official needs to look for a new job,' the billionaire snapped on X after the email prompted a confused reaction from department heads.
On Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron is visiting Donald Trump at the White House, with Ukraine likely to be high on the agenda.
Trump has meanwhile announced that former Secret Service agent turned far-right podcaster Dan Bongino will serve as deputy director of the FBI under the bureau's new director Kash Patel.
Bongino, 50, an ex-New York City police officer, has been a familiar presence in right-wing media in recent years, hosting his own Fox News show between 2021 and 2023.
His administration also plans to fire 2,000 employees from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and place all but a select few on administrative leave as of midnight on Monday, after a judge cleared the way for Trump and Musk to go ahead.
In pictures: Emmanuel Macron arrives at White House
The French president has arrived to participate in a G7 Leadership Summit call with Trump.
They'll be speaking together later.
Joe Sommerlad24 February 2025 14:35
Trump takeover sees Kennedy Center ticket sales collapse
The president's move to take control of Washington's John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has reportedly led to a staggering 50 percent drop in ticket sales.
I don't know what else he thought was going to happen.
Here's more from Graeme Massie.
Trump takeover sees Kennedy Center suffer ticket sale collapse, says report
Trump fired the Kennedy Center's leadership upon his return to the Oval Office and put MAGA loyalist in charge of the famed institution
Joe Sommerlad24 February 2025 14:15
Who is Dan 'Razin' Caine, Trump's nominee for top military adviser?
The president has nominated Lt. Gen. Dan 'Razin' Caine to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after firing General Charles Q Brown Jr on Friday.
'Today, I am honored to announce that I am nominating Air Force Lieutenant General Dan 'Razin' Caine to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,' Trump wrote on Truth Social.
'General Caine is an accomplished pilot, national security expert, successful entrepreneur, and a 'warfighter' with significant interagency and special operations experience.'
Here's Katie Hawkinson with everything we know about Caine – and his relationship with Trump.
Who is Dan 'Razin' Caine? Trump's nominee for top military adviser
Caine and Trump first met in 2019, the president recalled during a Conservative Political Action Conference speech
Joe Sommerlad24 February 2025 13:55
Trump to name new FBI Director Patel as ATF head as well
In case you missed this one over the weekend, Kash Patel is going to be kept pretty busy, managing the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) on an acting basis as well as the FBI.
Ariana Baio has more.
Trump to name new FBI Director Kash Patel as ATF head
Conservatives have long criticized ATF for being over regulatory of firearms
Joe Sommerlad24 February 2025 13:35
Musk threatens federal staff who refuse to return to the office
Here's Elon's latest DOGE pronouncement, resuming his attack on employees who work from home:
While we're back on Musk, here's James Liddell with more on his subsequent moves to downplay his weekend email.
Elon Musk admits email to government workers was a rouse
Department of Government Efficiency head says he wants to test whether federal employees are 'capable of replying to an email'
Joe Sommerlad24 February 2025 13:15
John Oliver compares DOGE department to viral Willy Wonka experience
The Last Week Tonight host began his show yesterday by concentrating on Musk and DOGE and comparing the department's 'stark disconnect between marketing and reality' to the notorious Glasgow Willy Wonka experience, which went viral around the world last year after its shoddiness left Scottish children bitterly disappointed and their parents angry.
Here's more from Greg Evans.
John Oliver compares Elon Musk's DOGE department to viral Willy Wonka experience
The comedian said that DOGE has been a 'stark disconnect between marketing and reality'
Joe Sommerlad24 February 2025 12:55
Lara Trump debuts Fox Show with Karoline Leavitt, Tulsi Gabbard and Pam Bondi
The president's ever-busy daughter-in-law made her debut on Fox this weekend and called in a few favors from the administration for her opening episode, interviewing Trump's press secretary, director of national intelligence and attorney general.
Here they are knocking softballs out of the park:
Joe Sommerlad24 February 2025 12:35
Trump claims Apple's $500bn investment represents 'faith in what we are doing'
He's not sounding any less mad writing in all caps like this – and 'without witch'?
Which witch?
Update: He's since deleted and reposted the above with that typo corrected.
Shouldn't he be prepping for Macron?
Joe Sommerlad24 February 2025 12:30
Thousands of migrants return home after Trump's crackdown on asylum
Migrants who once risked their lives traversing the jungles of the Darien Gap in search of asylum in the U.S. are now returning to their home countries.
After Trump's crackdown on asylum policies, many migrants, primarily from Venezuela and Colombia, have abandoned their attempts to reach North America.
According to authorities, this has resulted in a 'reverse flow' of migrants.
Speedboats are now transporting them from Panama back to Colombia, navigating the dense jungle rivers near the border.
Here's more.
Joe Sommerlad24 February 2025 12:15
Senator calls Musk a 'd***' for federal worker email scheme
I think it's fair to say Minnesota Democrat Tina Smith was not impressed by the billionaire's email antics over the weekend.
Katie Hawkinson has her scathing response.
Senator calls Musk a 'd***' after he asked federal workers to defend their jobs
Joe Sommerlad24 February 2025 11:55
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The Independent
38 minutes ago
- The Independent
Zelenskyy warns oil price surge could help Russia's war effort
A sharp rise in global oil prices following Israeli strikes on Iran will benefit Russia and bolster its military capabilities in the war in Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday in comments that were under embargo until Saturday afternoon. Speaking to journalists in Kyiv, Zelenskyy said the surge in oil prices threatens Ukraine's position on the battlefield, especially because Western allies have not enforced effective price caps on Russian oil exports. 'The strikes led to a sharp increase in the price of oil, which is negative for us,' Zelenskyy said. 'The Russians are getting stronger due to greater income from oil exports.' Global oil prices rose as much as 7% after Israel and Iran exchanged attacks over the past 48 hours, raising concerns that further escalation in the region could disrupt oil exports from the Middle East. Zelenskyy to address concerns with the US Zelenskyy said he planned to raise the issue in an upcoming conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump. 'In the near future, I will be in contact with the American side, I think with the president, and we will raise this issue,' he said. Zelenskyy also expressed concern that U.S. military aid could be diverted away from Ukraine toward Israel during renewed tensions in the Middle East. 'We would like aid to Ukraine not to decrease because of this,' he said. 'Last time, this was a factor that slowed down aid to Ukraine.' Ukraine's military needs have been sidelined by the United States in favor of supporting Israel, Zelenskyy said, citing a shipment of 20,000 interceptor missiles, designed to counter Iran-made Shahed drones, that had been intended for Ukraine but were redirected to Israel. 'And for us it was a blow,' he said. 'When you face 300 to 400 drones a day, most are shot down or go off course, but some get through. We were counting on those missiles.' An air defense system, Barak-8, promised to Ukraine by Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu was sent to the U.S. for repairs but never delivered to Ukraine, Zelenskyy said. The Ukrainian president conceded that momentum for the Coalition of the Willing, a group of 31 countries which have pledged to strengthen support for Ukraine against Russian aggression, has slowed because of U.S. ambivalence over providing a backstop. 'This situation has shown that Europe has not yet decided for itself that it will be with Ukraine completely if America is not there,' he said. Coalition of the Willing offer under consideration The offer of a foreign troop 'reassurance force' pledged by the Coalition of the Willing was still on the table 'but they need a backstop, as they say, from America,' Zelenskyy said. 'This means that suddenly, if something happens, America will be with them and with Ukraine.' The Ukrainian president also said the presence of foreign contingents in Ukraine would act as a security guarantee and allow Kyiv to make territorial compromises, which is the first time he has articulated a link between the reassurance force and concessions Kyiv is willing to make in negotiations with Russia. 'It is simply that their presence gives us the opportunity to compromise, when we can say that today our state does not have the strength to take our territories within the borders of 1991,' he said. But Europe and Ukraine are still waiting on strong signals from Trump. Without crushing U.S. sanctions against Russia, 'I will tell you frankly, it will be very difficult for us,' Zelenskyy said, adding that it would then fall on Europe to step up military aid to Ukraine. Body and prisoner returns follow Istanbul talks In other developments, Russia repatriated more bodies of fallen soldiers in line with an agreement reached during peace talks in Istanbul between Russian and Ukrainian delegations, Russian officials said Saturday, cited by Russian state media. The officials said Ukraine did not return any bodies to Russia on Saturday. Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War confirmed in a statement that Russia returned 1,200 bodies. The first round of the staggered exchanges took place Monday. The agreement to exchange prisoners of war and the bodies of fallen soldiers was the only tangible outcome of the talks in Istanbul on June 2. Russia says push continues Continuing a renewed battlefield push along eastern and northeastern parts of the more than 1,000-kilometer (over 600-mile) front line, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed Saturday that its troops captured another village in the Donetsk region, Zelenyi Kut. The Ukrainian military had no immediate comment on the Russian claim. Russia launched 58 drones and decoys at Ukraine overnight into Saturday, according to the Ukrainian air force, which said its air defenses destroyed 23 drones while another 20 were jammed. Russia's defense ministry said it shot down 66 Ukrainian drones overnight. Attacks have continued despite discussions of a potential ceasefire in the war. During the June 2 talks in Istanbul, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators traded memorandums containing sharply divergent conditions that both sides see as nonstarters, making a quick deal unlikely. ___
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
What's left for the Supreme Court to decide? 21 cases, including state bans on transgender care
The Supreme Court is in the homestretch of a term that has lately been dominated by the Trump administration's emergency appeals of lower court orders seeking to slow President Donald Trump 's efforts to remake the federal government. But the justices also have 21 cases to resolve that were argued between December and mid-May, including a push by Republican-led states to ban gender-affirming care for transgender minors. One of the argued cases was an emergency appeal, the administration's bid to be allowed to enforce Trump's executive order denying birthright citizenship to U.S.-born children of parents who are in the country illegally. The court typically aims to finish its work by the end of June. Here are some of the biggest remaining cases: The oldest unresolved case, and arguably the term's biggest, stems from a challenge to Tennessee's law from transgender minors and their parents who argue that it is unconstitutional sex discrimination aimed at a vulnerable population. At arguments in December, the court's conservative majority seemed inclined to uphold the law, voicing skepticism of claims that it violates the 14th amendment's equal protection clause. The post-Civil War provision requires the government to treat similarly situated people the same. The court is weighing the case amid a range of other federal and state efforts to regulate the lives of transgender people, including which sports competitions they can join and which bathrooms they can use. In April, Trump's administration sued Maine for not complying with the government's push to ban transgender athletes in girls sports. Trump also has sought to block federal spending on gender-affirming care for those under 19 and a conservative majority of justices allowed him to move forward with plans to oust transgender people from the U.S. military. Trump's birthright citizenship order has been blocked by lower courts The court rarely hears arguments over emergency appeals, but it took up the administration's plea to narrow orders that have prevented the citizenship changes from taking effect anywhere in the U.S. The issue before the justices is whether to limit the authority of judges to issue nationwide injunctions, which have plagued both Republican and Democratic administrations in the past 10 years. These nationwide court orders have emerged as an important check on Trump's efforts and a source of mounting frustration to the Republican president and his allies. At arguments last month, the court seemed intent on keeping a block on the citizenship restrictions while still looking for a way to scale back nationwide court orders. It was not clear what such a decision might look like, but a majority of the court expressed concerns about what would happen if the administration were allowed, even temporarily, to deny citizenship to children born to parents who are in the country illegally. Democratic-led states, immigrants and rights groups who sued over Trump's executive order argued that it would upset the settled understanding of birthright citizenship that has existed for more than 125 years. The court seems likely to side with Maryland parents in a religious rights case over LGBTQ storybooks in public schools Parents in the Montgomery County school system, in suburban Washington, want to be able to pull their children out of lessons that use the storybooks, which the county added to the curriculum to better reflect the district's diversity. The school system at one point allowed parents to remove their children from those lessons, but then reversed course because it found the opt-out policy to be disruptive. Sex education is the only area of instruction with an opt-out provision in the county's schools. The school district introduced the storybooks in 2022, with such titles as 'Prince and Knight' and 'Uncle Bobby's Wedding.' The case is one of several religious rights cases at the court this term. The justices have repeatedly endorsed claims of religious discrimination in recent years. The decision also comes amid increases in recent years in books being banned from public school and public libraries. A three-year battle over congressional districts in Louisiana is making its second trip to the Supreme Court Lower courts have struck down two Louisiana congressional maps since 2022 and the justices are weighing whether to send state lawmakers back to the map-drawing board for a third time. The case involves the interplay between race and politics in drawing political boundaries in front of a conservative-led court that has been skeptical of considerations of race in public life. At arguments in March, several of the court's conservative justices suggested they could vote to throw out the map and make it harder, if not impossible, to bring redistricting lawsuits under the Voting Rights Act. Before the court now is a map that created a second Black majority congressional district among Louisiana's six seats in the House of Representatives. The district elected a Black Democrat in 2024. A three-judge court found that the state relied too heavily on race in drawing the district, rejecting Louisiana's arguments that politics predominated, specifically the preservation of the seats of influential members of Congress, including Speaker Mike Johnson. The Supreme Court ordered the challenged map to be used last year while the case went on. Lawmakers only drew that map after civil rights advocates won a court ruling that a map with one Black majority district likely violated the landmark voting rights law. The justices are weighing a Texas law aimed at blocking kids from seeing online pornography Texas is among more than a dozen states with age verification laws. The states argue the laws are necessary as smartphones have made access to online porn, including hardcore obscene material, almost instantaneous. The question for the court is whether the measure infringes on the constitutional rights of adults as well. The Free Speech Coalition, an adult-entertainment industry trade group, agrees that children shouldn't be seeing pornography. But it says the Texas law is written too broadly and wrongly affects adults by requiring them to submit personal identifying information online that is vulnerable to hacking or tracking. The justices appeared open to upholding the law, though they also could return it to a lower court for additional work. Some justices worried the lower court hadn't applied a strict enough legal standard in determining whether the Texas law and others like that could run afoul of the First Amendment.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Farage: Iranian people deserve better than current brutal regime
Mr Farage rarely intervene on foreign policy issues, with his party having predominantly focussed on domestic matters affecting voters. The Reform leader tore into the now defunct Iran nuclear deal which was agreed in 2015 between the US, the UK and EU on one side and Iran on the other. Under the agreement Western nations agreed to lift sanctions on Tehran in return for it agreeing to give up its nuclear weapons programme. Donald Trump, the US president, withdrew his country from the agreement, which was struck by Barack Obama, his predecessor, in 2018, effectively terminating it in all but name. Mr Trump described the pact, which Israel was strongly opposed to, as 'a horrible one-sided deal that should never, ever have been made'. Mr Farage said: 'To understand Israel's action against Iran we need to recognise the total failure of the deal struck a decade ago. 'The USA, EU and British Government's naïve agreement allowed Iran to fund multiple terrorist groups and to speed up their nuclear programme. 'The Iranian regime wants to wipe Israel and its people off the map and are close to nuclear capability. Who can blame Israel from trying to stop this?' He added: 'The Iranian people deserve better than the current brutal regime.' Mr Farage's remarks indicated support for Iranian opposition figures, many of whom are in exile, who have called for the overthrow of the mullahs. 'Israel has a right to self-defence' Iran has been run as a religious dictatorship since the overthrow of the previous monarchy in 1979 in what became known as the 'Islamic Revolution'. The country is currently led by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, known as the supreme leader, under whose watch it has pursued its nuclear ambitions. Tehran has also supported and financed networks of terror organisations across the Middle East, including Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Sir Keir expressed 'grave concerns' about Tehran's nuclear programme during a call with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, on Friday. A Downing Street spokesman said: 'The Prime Minister spoke to the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, this afternoon following last night's events. 'The Prime Minister was clear that Israel has a right to self-defence and set out the UK's grave concerns about Iran's nuclear programme. 'He reiterated the need for de-escalation and a diplomatic resolution, in the interests of stability in the region.'
