Trump administration releases FBI records on MLK Jr. despite his family's opposition
The digital document dump includes more than 240,000 pages of records that had been under a court-imposed seal since 1977, when the FBI first gathered the records and turned them over to the National Archives and Records Administration.
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Yahoo
7 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump's approval rating drops to second-term low as support from independents craters
WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump's approval rating has dropped to 37%, according to a new Gallup poll, the lowest mark of his second term as independent voters have increasingly soured on his presidency. The poll, taken July 7 through July 21, was conducted on the heels of Trump's July 4 signing of his "Big, Beautiful Bill" into law and as he's faced an intense backlash over his administration's refusal to release files in the government's case of disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. It marks a 10-point drop from the 47% approval rating Americans gave Trump's job performance at the beginning of his term in January. The poll, a phone survey of 1,002 Americans, has a margin of error of +/- 4 percentage points. More: Trump tussles with Powell during Federal Reserve visit but backs off firing threat Only 29% of independent voters said they approved of Trump's job performance, a 17-point decline from the 46% the president enjoyed among independents at the start of his second term. The 29% approval rating among independent voters is the lowest Gallup has tracked with the group in either of his two terms. Trump has maintained strong support from Republican voters ‒ dropping just one point from 90% in January to 89% ‒ while backing from Democratic voters has slid from 6% to 2%. Trump's approval rating slides on issues including economy An average of recent polls from Real Clear Politics found Trump with a higher approval rating of 52%, compared to 46% of Americans who approve of his job performance. Although Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill" legislation marked a major legislative victory for the president, a CNN poll conducted by SSRS this month found 61% of Americans opposed the megabill, which includes cuts to Medicaid and food stamps and an extension of Trump's 2017 tax cuts estimated to add $3.3 trillion to the debt over 10 years. Trump has also lost support on his handling of most issues. Only 37% of Americans approved of his handling of the economy in July, down from 42% in Gallup's February poll. Trump's favorability rating on immigration decreased from 46% to 38%, his handling of foreign trade from 42% to 36%, his handling of foreign affairs from 44% to 41%, and his handling of the Middle East from 40% to 36%. More: Trump says he hasn't considered pardoning Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell Trump's lowest approval marks are for his handling of the war in Ukraine, 33%, and the federal budget, 29%. More: Trump signs order pushing cities and states to remove homeless people from streets Trump's average approval rating in Gallup polls between April 20 and July 19, was 40% ‒ significantly below the 59% average for all post-World War II presidents elected from 1952 to 2020 at the same point in their first terms. Yet it was a notch above the 39% first-term second-quarter average Trump had in 2017. The latest Gallup poll is a potential warning sign for Trump and Republicans more than one year away from the 2026 midterms, when Democrats hope to win back control of the House of Representatives and Senate. Yet Trump has proven in the past that he has the strength political to overcome poor polling. Trump's lowest approval rating, 34%, came at the end of his first term in January 2021 after he refused to concede the 2020 election and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: President Trump's approval rating reaches low point of second term
Yahoo
7 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Takeaways: US military enters gray area with expanded role at Mexico-US border
NOGALES, Ariz. (AP) — President Donald Trump has thrust the military into a central role in deterring illegal crossings into the U.S. at its southern border. The strategy is playing out in Arizona's border community of Nogales, where an Army scout used an optical scope this week to find a man atop the border wall and sounded the alarm. As the man lowered himself toward U.S. soil between coils of concertina wire, shouts rang out and a U.S. Border Patrol SUV sped toward the wall — warning enough to send the man scrambling back over it, disappearing into Mexico. Such sightings of illegal entry are growing rarer and the rate of apprehensions at the border has fallen to a 60-year low. 'Deterrence is actually boring,' 24-year old Army Sgt. Ana Harker-Molina said, voicing the tedium felt by some soldiers over the sporadic sightings during two days in which The Associated Press embedded with the military on the border. Still, Harker-Molina, an immigrant who came from Panama at age 12 and is now a U.S. citizen, said she believes the deployment of U.S. troops discourages crossings by their mere presence. Military mission expands U.S. troop deployments at the border have tripled to 7,600 and include every branch of the military — even as the number of attempted illegal crossings plummets and Trump has authorized funding for an additional 3,000 Border Patrol agents, offering $10,000 signing and retention bonuses. The military's expanded mission is guided from a new command center at a remote Army intelligence training base alongside southern Arizona's Huachuca Mountains. A community hall there has been transformed into a bustling war room of battalion commanders and staff with digital maps pinpointing military camps and movements along the nearly 2,000-mile border. Until now border enforcement had been the domain of civilian law enforcement, with the military only intermittently stepping in. But since April, large swaths of border have been designated militarized zones, empowering U.S. troops to apprehend immigrants and others accused of trespassing on Army, Air Force or Navy bases, and authorizing additional criminal charges that can mean prison time. The two-star general leading the new mission says troops work closely with U.S. Border Patrol agents in high-traffic areas for illegal crossings — and can deploy rapidly to remote, unguarded terrain. 'We don't have a (labor) union, there's no limit on how many hours we can work in a day, how many shifts we can man,' said Army Maj. Gen. Scott Naumann. 'We can fly people into incredibly remote areas now that we see the cartels shifting' course. Stopping the 'got-aways' At Nogales, Army scouts patrolled the border Tuesday in full battle gear — helmet, M5 service rifle, bullet-resistant vest — with the right to use deadly force if attacked under standing military rules integrated into the border mission. Underfoot, smugglers for decades routinely attempted to tunnel into stormwater drains to ferry contraband into the U.S. Naumann's command post oversees an armada of 117 armored Stryker vehicles, more than 35 helicopters and a half-dozen long-distance drones that can survey the border day and night with sensors to pinpoint people wandering the desert. Marine Corps engineers are adding concertina wire to slow crossings, as the Trump administration reboots border wall construction. Naumann said the focus is on stopping 'got-aways' who evade authorities to disappear into the U.S. in a race against the clock that can last seconds in urban areas as people vanish into smuggling vehicles, or several days in the dense wetland thickets of the Rio Grande or the vast desert and mountainous wilderness of Arizona. The rate of apprehensions at the border is slowing down, Naumann acknowledges. But, he says, it would be wrong to let up, that crossings may rebound with the end of scorching summer weather. 'We're having some successes, we are trending positively,' he said of the mission with no fixed end-date. Militarized zones are 'a gray area' The Trump administration is using the military broadly to boost its immigration operations, from guarding federal buildings in Los Angeles against protests over ICE detentions, to assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Florida to plans to hold detained immigrants on military bases. Dan Maurer, a law professor at Ohio Northern University and a retired U.S. Army judge advocate officer, says it's all part of a 'muscular' strategy by Trump to show his political base he is serious about a campaign promise to fix immigration. The results are both norm-breaking and unusual, he said. The militarized zones at the border sidestep the Posse Comitatus Act, an 1878 law that prohibits the military from conducting civilian law enforcement on U.S. soil. 'It's in that gray area, it may be a violation — it may not be. The military's always had the authority to arrest people and detain them on military bases,' said Joshua Kastenberg, a professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law and a former Air Force judge.
Yahoo
7 minutes ago
- Yahoo
'Doomsday mom' Lori Daybell given 2 life sentences in murder conspiracy trials
Lori Daybell was sentenced to two life sentences in Arizona on Friday for conspiring with her late brother to kill her fourth husband, who was fatally shot in 2019, and her niece's ex-husband, who survived a failed drive-by shooting that same year. Daybell was found guilty of two counts of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder in two separate trials in Maricopa County this spring. She was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years for each conviction, to be served consecutively, the judge said.. "In the face of such profound damage, a long prison sentence is not merely a punishment, it is a necessary affirmation that our society values justice, protection and the sanctity of human life," Judge Justin Beresky, who presided over both trials in Phoenix, said before handing down the sentences. The so-called "doomsday mom" is already serving multiple life sentences after being convicted in 2023 of murdering two of her children. Prosecutors in the Idaho trial argued that she and her current husband, Chad Daybell, thought the children were possessed zombies and murdered them in 2019 so that they could be together. She was also found guilty of stealing Social Security survivor benefits allocated for the care of her children after they went missing. Similarly, prosecutors in Maricopa County argued that she conspired with her brother to kill her estranged husband of 13 years, Charles Vallow, so she could get his $1 million life insurance policy and be with Chad Daybell, an author of religious fiction books whom she married four months after the deadly shooting. Prosecutors further said she invoked their "twisted" religious beliefs as justification for the murder and gave her brother "religious authority" to kill Vallow because they believed he was possessed by an evil spirit they referred to as "Ned." MORE: 'Doomsday mom' Lori Daybell found guilty in murder conspiracy trial In the first of her Arizona trials, Lori Daybell argued that her brother, Alex Cox, shot Vallow in self-defense in her home in Chandler, Arizona, in July 2019. She was then found guilty in a second trial of scheming with Cox to kill Brandon Boudreaux, the ex-husband of her niece. Three months after Vallow's killing, Boudreaux called 911 to report that someone driving by in a Jeep shot at his vehicle outside his home in Gilbert, Arizona, missing his head by inches. Prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum that Boudreaux continued to live in fear following the failed attempt on his life, wondering if Cox would "return to finish the job." Cox died from natural causes later in December 2019. Motives were money and sex, prosecutor says Lori Daybell, 51, did not take the stand or call any witnesses in either trial, in which she represented herself. In her closing statement, she argued that her family has been struck by tragedy and that she did not conspire to commit any crime. In remarks ahead of the sentencing, Maricopa County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Treena Kay disputed Lori Daybell's repeated claims that this was a "family tragedy." "A family tragedy does not involve the intentional killing of a person," Kay said. "A family tragedy does not involve working with an accomplice to commit first-degree premeditated murder. And a family tragedy does not involve conspiring with others to kill." She said Lori Daybell's motives were the same ones usually seen in murder cases: money and sex, saying that the deaths of Vallow and Boudreaux would have financially benefited her and her niece, respectively. "Although this defendant denies it, her text messages and her own actions show that these were her motives," Kay said. Lori Daybell continued to maintain her innocence in remarks ahead of the sentencing. "I want everyone to know that I mourn with all of you. I am sorry for your pain. Losing those close to you is painful, and I acknowledge all of the pain, and I do empathize, I feel it, too," she said. "If I was accountable for these crimes I would acknowledge it." She claimed she was prevented from presenting her side in the trials, which the judge said was "not true." "When she says that she couldn't get a fair trial in Maricopa County, that is not the truth," Beresky said ahead of handing down the sentence. She also questioned the necessity of additional life sentences on top of the multiple life sentences she's serving in Idaho. "Now I will serve seven life sentences -- will that be enough? Will that be enough?" she asked. To that point, the judge said, "Justice demands not only recognition of the pain inflicted, but a firm response that upholds the dignity of every victim harmed by the actions of someone who has shown blatant disregard for humanity." He said she has "left a wake of destruction" across multiple states and the "amount of contemplation, calculation, planning, manipulation that went into these crimes is unparalleled in my career." "Your powers of manipulation are profoundly destructive, one that undermines trust, distorts truth and can erode the very foundations of healthy relationships and society," he said. "The impact of your manipulation has been devastating, insidious and far-reaching and perhaps still unknown." The sentencing hearing comes after failed attempts at getting new trials on both counts. After being convicted of conspiring to kill Vallow, she also unsuccessfully tried to remove Judge Beresky from the case, claiming he was biased against her. She frequently clashed with the judge while representing herself during the trials. During the second trial, Beresky at one point removed her from the courtroom after she became combative during discussions about her character. The judge had warned that if she referred to herself as having "great character," that could open the door for the state to introduce evidence to rebut that character, including regarding her previous convictions in Idaho. Both Lori and Chad Daybell were found guilty of first-degree murder for the deaths of her children in separate trials in Fremont County, Idaho. Joshua "J.J." Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 16, went missing months after Charles Vallow was killed. Their remains were found on an Idaho property belonging to Chad Daybell in June 2020 following a monthslong search. They were also found guilty of conspiring to kill Chad Daybell's first wife, Tamara Daybell, who died in October 2019 -- two weeks before Lori and Chad Daybell married in Hawaii. Chad Daybell was found guilty of murdering her. Lori Daybell is currently serving life in prison without parole, while Chad Daybell was sentenced to death for the three murders and now awaits execution on Idaho's death row. Emotional victim impact statements Several of Lori Daybell's relatives addressed the court ahead of the sentencing. In grief-stricken, at times angry remarks, they touched on the loss of Vallow as well as JJ, whom Lori Daybell and Vallow had adopted, and Tylee, a child from Lori Daybell's third marriage. Her eldest son, Colby Ryan, from her second marriage, remembered Vallow as a generous man. "My father, Charles Vallow, cared for his family. He took care of our family, and he made sure we had a good life," Ryan said. He said his mother told him Charles Vallow had died from a heart attack, before he learned the truth, and spoke about the pain of losing his father and then his siblings. "I'm here to tell you the effect that this has had on me. In simple terms, each one of my family members was taken from us all in one swoop," Ryan said. Regarding his mother, he said it "must be a very sad life to smile your way through all the pain you've caused." "Rather than being able to acknowledge the pain that she has caused, she would rather say that Charles, Tylee and JJ's deaths were a family tragedy and not her evil doing," he said. "Quite frankly, I believe that Lori Vallow herself is the family tragedy." One of Vallow's sisters, Susan Vallow, said the day her brother died "changed my life forever." "My brother's death was a deliberate act of evil and self-seeking financial gain. Your greed has caused so much pain to this day," she said virtually. Kay Woodcock, another one of Charles Vallow's sisters and JJ's biological grandmother, read a letter she wrote from the perspective of JJ in court. "I can't be here to read this letter, because I am dead. I was murdered by the defendant Lori Daybell, or as I used to call her, mom," she read. "See, there are a whole lot of tragedies that have happened to my family, and all of them are the result of my mom's actions." Vallow "never would have let her hurt me, and I know he died protecting me," the letter said. "I should be 13 years old now, but I'm forever seven," she read. At the end of the letter, she screamed at Lori Daybell, "I trusted you!" before breaking down in tears. MORE: 'Doomsday mom' Lori Daybell delivers closing argument in murder conspiracy trial Her husband, Larry Woodcock, his anger visceral, called Lori Daybell a "narcissist, psychopath, delusional murderer." "You're nothing, murderess," he said. "I can't stand you." Following remarks by several members of his family, including his siblings and current wife, Boudreaux addressed how the attempted murder has impacted him. "The betrayal by someone connected to my family has left me battling overwhelming emotions over the years," he said, his voice shaky. "I felt fear, paranoia. I lived with constant vigilance, loneliness, regret, sadness, depression, anger, heartache and embarrassment." He said he has chosen to forgive Lori Daybell so he can be a better father, husband, son, neighbor and friend. "But I had never seen any remorse or acknowledgement from Lori," he said.
