Americano Live: Donald Trump's first 100 days
What is Donald Trump up to now? From trade wars and stock market yo-yos to shouting matches in the White House, it can be hard to keep track. The US president's first 100 days have been predictably riotous. To make sense of it all, The Spectator's deputy editor Freddy Gray and Spectator columnist and bestselling author Lionel Shriver hosted a special edition of Americano Live this week in front of hundreds of Spectator readers and subscribers at Westminster's Emmanuel Centre.
What was the most absurd moment of Trump's second term in the White House so far? Both Shriver and Gray think 'Signalgate' – when a journalist was mistakenly added to a group chat with high-ranking US administration officials – is hard to top.
'Can you imagine including in your private chat one of the most antagonistic journalists in the country to your project and your leader?' Shriver asked the audience, 'I just thought that was astonishing.
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The Guardian
32 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Fresh Los Angeles rallies planned to demand release of arrested union leader
Los Angeles was waking Monday up to another day of high tensions with Donald Trump's administration, the fourth since protests began over efforts by federal immigration authorities' attempts to arrest illegal migrants in the city and a day after the president ordered in the national guard. New rallies against US immigration and customs enforcement (Ice) detentions are planned, with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) announcing an event 'to demand justice for detained immigrants and an end to the ongoing human rights abuses by Ice'. 'We will not be intimidated. We will not be silenced,' the civil rights organisation said in a statement on its website. The rally is set to demand the immediate release of David Huerta, a union leader who it said 'was unjustly arrested and is still being held by the government, and all unjustly detained individuals'. But the political rhetoric over the protests has not cooled. Trump's 'border czar' Tom Homan told Fox News early Monday that Ice 'took a lot of bad people off the street'. 'We arrested a sexual predator, we arrested gang members, we arrested somebody that had an armed robbery conviction,' Homan said, without providing specifics. 'We made LA safer … but you're not hearing any of this. All you're hearing is rhetoric about Ice being racist, Ice being Nazis and terrorists – and Governor [Gavin] Newsom feeds that, just like [Democratic US House minority leader] Hakeem Jeffries says he's going to unmask Ice agents. 'We're not going to stop.' Homan also told NBC News that more raids are coming. 'I'm telling you what – we're going to keep enforcing law every day in LA,' he said. 'Every day in LA, we're going to enforce immigration law. I don't care if they like it or not.' The tensions between elected state and local officials and the federal government showed signs of escalating further after Newsom said he planned to sue the federal government and dared Trump to arrest him. In an interview on MSNBC, Newsom said the lawsuit would challenge Trump's federalizing of the California national guard without the state's consent. 'Donald Trump has created the conditions you see on your TV tonight,' Newsom told the outlet. 'He's exacerbated the conditions. He's, you know, lit the proverbial match. He's putting fuel on this fire, ever since he announced he was taking over the national guard – an illegal act, an immoral act, an unconstitutional act.' Federal law, he said, 'specifically notes they had to coordinate with the governor of the state. 'They never coordinated with the governor of the state.' On Fox News, Newsom said Trump is 'reckless and immoral, and he's taken the illegal and unconstitutional act of federalizing the national guard and putting lives at risk'. Newsom added that he is confident that California's legal challenge would succeed.
Reuters
34 minutes ago
- Reuters
Trump's vision for a twin-engine F-55 fighter jet faces reality check
WASHINGTON, June 9 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's vision of a new, twin-engine version of Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter jet may need to be scaled back due to cost and engineering realities, according to two people familiar with the matter. Speaking in Doha last month, Trump said the new "F-55" would feature "two engines and a super upgrade on the F-35." However, there is a caveat, with Trump saying, "if we get the right price." Trump was not shown a twin-engine redesign of the F-35, the two sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter. Developing such a jet would require an extensive overhaul, running into billions of dollars and taking years to complete, the sources said. Lockheed Martin (LMT.N), opens new tab had briefed Trump on a possible upgrade to the F-35 during multiple meetings before the Doha event, the people said. The proposal included just one "advanced" engine, a redesigned nose and forward fuselage, and a new sensor suite. Trump's reference to the "F-55" - the designator of the jet - caught officials and industry insiders off guard, particularly the mention of twin engines, a feature Trump has said he prefers for safety in case one engine fails. Lockheed is exploring the development of two new fighter jet variations, according to industry experts and the two sources. The proposed F-55 emerges against a backdrop of intensifying global competition in military aviation. China continues rapid development of its J-36 and J-50 stealth fighters, while Russia advances its Su-57 program despite economic constraints. After Doha, Lockheed acknowledged Trump's comments with measured enthusiasm, stating, "We thank President Trump for his support of the F-35 and F-22 and will continue to work closely with the Administration to realize its vision for air dominance." A Wall Street analyst tracking what might replace Lockheed Martin's (LMT.N), opens new tab F-35, said "it sounds like Trump has asked DoD to consider a twin-engine variant of the F-35 'if we get the right price,'" according to a note from TD Cowen. Shifting the F-55 to two engines would initiate a costly and lengthy redesign of the F-35's airframe - and while it would make the jet fast, it would delay production by years, industry experts and one of the people said. Lockheed CEO James Taiclet had told investors in an April call that the company was exploring a "fifth-generation-plus" fighter concept that would apply technologies developed for its unsuccessful F-47 bid to enhance the F-35 platform. These new technologies would make it much harder to export the F-55, the people said, adding that they are still highly controlled. "We're basically going to take the chassis and turn it into a Ferrari," Taiclet told analysts in April, claiming such an approach could deliver 80% of next-generation capability at half the cost. Boeing (BA.N), opens new tab beat out Lockheed to win the contract for Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD), now named the F-47 which will be America's first sixth-generation fighter and intended to replace Lockheed Martin's F-22 Raptor. Because Lockheed lost the NGAD competition it is able to leverage its production plans for new jets. Lockheed had production spaces already lined up, the people said, and the president was made aware the company was poised to move ahead. "Lockheed is much further along than he realized," one of the people said. The timing of the F-55 announcement raises questions about how it fits into existing defense procurement plans and budgets. The Pentagon is already managing multiple high-cost aviation programs, including the ongoing F-35 program, the new F-47 development, and potentially the Navy's next generation carrier-based fighter jet - F/A-XX. For Lockheed Martin, the F-55 concept represents a critical opportunity to maintain relevance in the high-end fighter market after significant setbacks in next-generation competitions. Boeing's NGAD, which was just awarded and therefore is not in mass production yet, is expected to eclipse the F-22's capabilities, and so would F-55, the person said, making it a formidable fighter jet.
NBC News
an hour ago
- NBC News
Southern Baptists target porn, sports betting, same-sex marriage and 'willful childlessness'
Southern Baptists meeting this week in Dallas will be asked to approve resolutions calling for a legal ban on pornography and a reversal of the U.S. Supreme Court's approval of same-sex marriage. The proposed resolutions call for laws on gender, marriage and family based on what they say is the biblically stated order of divine creation. They also call for legislators to curtail sports betting and to support policies that promote childbearing. The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant denomination, is also expected to debate controversies within its own house during its annual meeting Tuesday and Wednesday — such as a proposed ban on churches with women pastors. There are also calls to defund the organization's public policy arm, whose anti-abortion stance hasn't extended to supporting criminal charges for women having abortions. In a denomination where support for President Donald Trump is strong, there is little on the advance agenda referencing specific actions by Trump since taking office in January in areas such as tariffs, immigration or the pending budget bill containing cuts in taxes, food aid and Medicaid. Remnants of the epic showdown in Dallas 40 years ago Southern Baptists will be meeting on the 40th anniversary of another Dallas annual meeting. An epic showdown took place when a record-shattering 45,000 church representatives clashed in what became a decisive blow in the takeover of the convention — and its seminaries and other agencies — by a more conservative faction that was also aligned with the growing Christian conservative movement in presidential politics. The 1985 showdown was "the hinge convention in terms of the old and the new in the SBC," said Albert Mohler, who became a key agent in the denomination's rightward shift as longtime president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Attendance this week will likely be a fraction of 1985's, but that meeting's influence will be evident. Any debates will be among solidly conservative members. Many of the proposed resolutions — on gambling, pornography, sex, gender and marriage — reflect long-standing positions of the convention, though they are especially pointed in their demands on the wider political world. They are proposed by the official Committee on Resolutions, whose recommendations typically get strong support. A proposed resolution says legislators have a duty to "pass laws that reflect the truth of creation and natural law — about marriage, sex, human life, and family" and to oppose laws contradicting "what God has made plain through nature and Scripture." To some outside observers, such language is theocratic. "When you talk about God's design for anything, there's not a lot of room for compromise," said Nancy Ammerman, professor emerita of sociology of religion at Boston University. She was an eyewitness to the Dallas meeting and author of "Baptist Battles," a history of the 1980s controversy between theological conservatives and moderates. "There's not a lot of room for people who don't have the same understanding of who God is and how God operates in the world," she said. Mohler said the resolutions reflect a divinely created order that predates the writing of the Scriptures and is affirmed by them. He said the Christian church has always asserted that the created order "is binding on all persons, in all times, everywhere." Southern Baptist views more politically viable today Separate resolutions decry pornography and sports betting as destructive, calling for the former to be banned and the latter curtailed. At least some of these political stances are in the realm of plausibility at a time when their conservative allies control all levers of power in Washington and many have embraced aspects of a Christian nationalist agenda. A Southern Baptist, Mike Johnson, is speaker of the House of Representatives and third in line to the presidency. At least one Supreme Court justice, Clarence Thomas, has called for revisiting the 2015 Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. Other religious conservatives — including some in the Catholic postliberal movement, which has influenced Vice President JD Vance — have promoted the view that a robust government should legislate morality, such as banning pornography while easing church-state separation. And conservatives of various stripes have echoed one of the resolution's call for pro-natalist policies and its decrying of "willful childlessness which contributes to a declining fertility rate." Some call for eliminating Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission Some preconvention talk has focused on defunding the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, the Southern Baptist Convention's public policy arm, which has been accused of being ineffective. Ten former Southern Baptist presidents endorsed its continued funding, though one other called for the opposite. A staunchly conservative group, the Center for Baptist Leadership, has posted online articles critical of the commission, which is adamantly anti-abortion but has opposed state laws criminalizing women seeking abortions. The commission has appealed to Southern Baptists for support, citing its advocacy for religious liberty and against abortion and transgender identity. "Without the ERLC, you will send the message to our nation's lawmakers and the public at large that the SBC has chosen to abandon the public square at a time when the Southern Baptist voice is most needed," said a video statement from the commission president, Brent Leatherwood. A group of Southern Baptist ethnic groups and leaders signed a statement in April citing concern over Trump's immigration crackdown, saying it has hurt church attendance and raised fears. "Law and order are necessary, but enforcement must be accompanied with compassion that doesn't demonize those fleeing oppression, violence, and persecution," the statement said. The Center for Baptist Leadership, however, denounced the denominational Baptist Press for working to "weaponize empathy" in its reporting on the statement and Leatherwood for supporting it. Texas pastor Dwight McKissic, a Black pastor who shares many of the Southern Baptist Convention's conservative stances, criticized what he sees as a backlash against the commission, "the most racially progressive entity in the SBC." "The SBC is transitioning from an evangelical organization to a fundamentalist organization," he posted on the social media site X. "Fewer and fewer Black churches will make the transition with them." Amendment to ban churches with women pastors An amendment to ban churches with women pastors failed in 2024 after narrowly failing to gain a two-thirds supermajority for two consecutive years. It is expected to be reintroduced. The denomination's belief statement says the office of pastor is limited to men, but there remain disagreements over whether this applies only to the lead pastor or to assistants as well. In recent years, the convention began purging churches that either had women as lead pastors or asserted that they could serve that role. But when an SBC committee this year retained a South Carolina megachurch with a woman on its pastoral staff, some argued this proved the need for a constitutional amendment. (The church later quit the denomination of its own accord.) The meeting comes as the Southern Baptist Convention continues its long membership slide, down 2% in 2024 from the previous year in its 18th consecutive annual decline. The organization now reports a membership of 12.7 million members, still the largest among Protestant denominations, many of whom are shrinking faster. More promising are Southern Baptists' baptism numbers — a key spiritual vital sign. They stand at 250,643, exceeding pre-pandemic levels and, at least for now, reversing a long slide.
