Latest news with #HarrisonFields
Fox News
2 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
Harrison Fields: Look At This Bill As 'One Big, Beautiful Step' In The Right Direction
White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Harrison Fields joins Fox Across America With guest host Paul Gleiser to share his reaction to Tesla CEO Elon Musk's blunt criticism of President Trump's 'one, big beautiful bill', which was passed by the GOP-controlled House last month. 'The president, this administration are immensely grateful to Elon Musk. And his contributions to this administration as an SGE and someone who played a critical role in bringing forth DOGE to the federal government, which has already yielded about $175 billion in savings. And you all have been covering it. We just sent $9.8 billion of recessions to Capitol Hill, which are going to be codifying some of these cuts. So one, we want to thank Elon Musk. Two, we want to acknowledge a simple truth, Elon Musk is a CEO of many companies, including Tesla. He is acting as a businessman and he is speaking in his personal capacity about what will impact his companies. And he is focused on being committed as a CEO. But I'll tell you this, President Trump is the CEO of America. And he owes it to the American people to get this bill passed, because this is exactly what he said he was going to do. And that's our focus here.' To hear their full conversation, check out the podcast!
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Business
- Washington Post
Citigroup drops gun-seller restrictions adopted after Parkland shooting
Citigroup is ending a seven-year-old policy that blocked its banking services for retailers that sold firearms to buyers under age 21 and those who did not pass a background check, reversing a high-profile decision made in the weeks after the 2018 Parkland school shooting. Citi, one of the largest banks in the country, was lauded by gun safety advocates in March 2018 when it announced its policy, which included banning retailers that sold high-capacity magazines or bump stocks, like the one used by the Parkland shooter. Other Wall Street banks soon followed suit. The shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, left 17 students and staff members dead. On Tuesday, Citi reversed course, saying it would no longer have a specific firearms policy. The White House praised the change, which comes as the Trump administration has increasingly pressured banks to drop restrictions it views as unfriendly to conservative causes. 'It's encouraging to see companies like Citi embrace this by ending their discriminatory policies against millions of law-abiding gun owners in America,' White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in an email. 'Any attempt to abridge Americans' constitutional right to keep and bear arms through misguided and targeted politicization is irresponsible, and the Trump Administration is committed to ending these practices once and for all.' Trump regularly suggested on the campaign trail that major banks were hostile to conservatives. While campaigning in 2024, he said he would implement regulations to 'stop banks and regulators from trying to de-bank you.' At the World Economic Forum in January, Trump publicly criticized Bank of America's chief executive, claiming without evidence that the company and others discriminate against conservatives. On Tuesday, Ed Skyler, head of enterprise services and public affairs at Citi, said in a blog post that the company was aware of concerns about 'fair access' to banking services and was making the changes to comply with executive orders as well as new regulations and federal laws related to that issue. The 2018 policy, Skyler wrote, was meant to encourage retailers to adopt best practices around firearms sales as 'prudent risk management' and didn't address the manufacturing of firearms. 'Many retailers have been following these best practices, and we hope communities and lawmakers will continue to seek out ways to prevent the tragic consequences of gun violence,' Skyler wrote. Citigroup adopted the policy in 2018 amid public clamor for businesses to act against gun violence in the wake of the Parkland shooting. Dick's Sporting Goods, Walmart, Kroger and other retailers made changes to their firearms sales policies or dropped gun-related discounts and partnership programs. 'As a society, we all know that something needs to change. And as a company, we feel we must do our part,' Skyler wrote in a 2018 statement announcing the policy. Gun violence prevention advocates said Citi was capitulating to Trump with the policy reversal instead of protecting children. 'Seven years ago, after 17 of my peers and teachers were murdered, Citi found the courage to say 'no more' — no more financing gun sales to teenagers,' Jackie Corin, a Parkland survivor and executive director of the student-led gun-control group March for Our Lives, said in a statement. 'Today, they're saying our lives matter less than their politics.' The White House did not respond to questions about whether the policy change weakened safety measures around gun sales.
Reuters
3 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Trump seeks to reshape judiciary as first nominees face Senate
June 3 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's first batch of judicial nominees since returning to the White House is set to go before a U.S. Senate panel as the Republican looks to further reshape a judiciary whose members have stymied parts of his agenda. Five of the 11 judicial nominees Trump has announced so far are slated to appear on Wednesday before the Republican-led U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, which will weigh whether to recommend them for the full Senate's consideration. Those nominees all have conservative bona fides that their supporters say will help Trump shift the ideological balance of the judiciary further to the right after making 234 appointments in his first term, which was a near-record for a president's first four years in office. Trump's first-term appointees included three members of the U.S. Supreme Court, which since gaining a 6-3 conservative majority has curtailed abortion rights, rejected affirmative action policies on university campuses and limited the power of administrative agencies. White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement that Trump was committed to "restoring integrity to the judicial system, which begins with appointing America First judges, not unelected politicians in robes." Among Wednesday's nominees is Whitney Hermandorfer, who as a lawyer serving under Tennessee's Republican attorney general has defended the state's abortion ban and challenged federal protections for transgender youth. Hermandorfer, who is nominated to a seat on the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, will appear before the Senate panel with four nominees to fill trial court vacancies in Missouri. Those include Joshua Divine, Missouri's solicitor general, who challenged Democratic former President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness efforts and has defended abortion and transgender healthcare restrictions. The hearing comes days after Trump broke with conservative legal activist Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, who advised Trump on judicial appointments in his first term. 'I am so disappointed in The Federalist Society because of the bad advice they gave me on numerous Judicial Nominations,' Trump wrote. 'This is something that cannot be forgotten!" Leo in response said he was grateful Trump transformed the courts. He said the judiciary "is better than it's ever been in modern history, and that will be President Trump's most important legacy." Trump's attack on Leo came a day after a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade that included a Trump-appointed judge blocked most of his tariffs. It is one of several rulings White House officials describe as part of a "judicial coup" by judges who have blocked his policies. Mike Davis, whose conservative Article III Project backs Trump's judicial nominees, said that in his second term Trump "doesn't need to appease the D.C. establishment with weak and timid judges." "He is picking bold and fearless judges, like Emil Bove, who will follow the Constitution instead of seeking establishment favor." Bove, a Justice Department official who previously served as Trump's defense lawyer in the New York criminal trial over hush money paid to a porn star, was nominated last week to join the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. His nomination drew criticism from Democrats and Ed Whelan, a conservative legal commentator who in a piece in the National Review called Bove's nomination "disturbing." "Clearly you have some folks agitating for MAGA-type nominees, and the White House will be open to those folks so long as they also have good legal qualifications," Whelan said in an interview. But he said most of Trump's nominees, as well as candidates in the pipeline, have fit within the rubric of what Trump would have sought in his first term. "It's going to be very hard for Trump to pick people other than people with traditional conservative qualifications," Whelan said.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
PBS sues Trump over funding cuts to public media and alleges First Amendment violation
PBS sued the Trump administration over an executive order to cut public media funding. The lawsuit said the order violates the First Amendment and targets PBS for its content. CPB grants make up 16% of PBS's budget; NPR filed a similar complaint. The Public Broadcasting Service is suing the Trump administration over an executive order that would eliminate federal funding for public media. The nonprofit filed a lawsuit Friday in a US District Court in Washington, DC. The lawsuit argues that the administration has violated the First Amendment by targeting PBS and lacks the authority to influence funding decisions made by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. "The EO makes no attempt to hide the fact that it is cutting off the flow of funds to PBS because of the content of PBS programming and out of a desire to alter the content of speech," according to the lawsuit. "That is blatant viewpoint discrimination and an infringement of PBS and PBS Member Stations' private editorial discretion," the complaint read. According to the complaint, CPB grants comprise around 16% of PBS's $373.4 million annual budget. The CPB allocates around $535 million in federal funding annually to NPR and PBS. PBS is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief from Trump's executive order and asking the court to declare the order unconstitutional. NPR has also already filed a similar complaint. "After careful deliberation, PBS reached the conclusion that it was necessary to take legal action to safeguard public television's editorial independence, and to protect the autonomy of PBS member stations," PBS said in a statement to Business Insider. The lawsuit is a part of ongoing tensions between the Trump administration and public media. Last month, the CPB sued Trump over attempts to remove board members. "The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers' dime," Harrison Fields, Principal Deputy Press Secretary, told Business Insider in a statement. "Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS." Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
7 days ago
- Business
- Business Insider
PBS sues Trump over funding cuts to public media and alleges First Amendment violation
The Public Broadcasting Service is suing the Trump administration over an executive order that would eliminate federal funding for public media. The nonprofit filed a lawsuit Friday in a US District Court in Washington, DC. The lawsuit argues that the administration has violated the First Amendment by targeting PBS and lacks the authority to influence funding decisions made by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. "The EO makes no attempt to hide the fact that it is cutting off the flow of funds to PBS because of the content of PBS programming and out of a desire to alter the content of speech," according to the lawsuit. "That is blatant viewpoint discrimination and an infringement of PBS and PBS Member Stations' private editorial discretion," the complaint read. According to the complaint, CPB grants comprise around 16% of PBS's $373.4 million annual budget. The CPB allocates around $535 million in federal funding annually to NPR and PBS. PBS is seeking declaratory and injunctive relief from Trump's executive order and asking the court to declare the order unconstitutional. NPR has also already filed a similar complaint. "After careful deliberation, PBS reached the conclusion that it was necessary to take legal action to safeguard public television's editorial independence, and to protect the autonomy of PBS member stations," PBS said in a statement to Business Insider. The lawsuit is a part of ongoing tensions between the Trump administration and public media. Last month, the CPB sued Trump over attempts to remove board members. "The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is creating media to support a particular political party on the taxpayers' dime," Harrison Fields, Principal Deputy Press Secretary, told Business Insider in a statement. "Therefore, the President is exercising his lawful authority to limit funding to NPR and PBS."
