Latest news with #InterestingTimes'
The Hill
23-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Trump, Harvard duke it out
Thank you for signing up! Subscribe to more newsletters here A FEDERAL JUDGE on Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration's efforts to ban foreign students from attending Harvard University, the latest in the ongoing feud between President Trump and the nation's oldest and richest school. U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs, an appointee of former President Obama, agreed with Harvard's argument that it would 'sustain immediate and irreparable injury' if the ban was implemented immediately. 'Thus, a [temporary restraining order] is justified to preserve the status quo pending a hearing,' the Boston-based judge wrote. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Thursday notified Harvard it would no longer be able to admit foreign students and that those currently enrolled –– about a quarter of all students –– would have to transfer immediately or leave the country. Princess Elisabeth, the future Queen of Belgium, is among those that would have to leave under the order. 'It is a privilege, not a right, for universities to enroll foreign students and benefit from their higher tuition payments to help pad their multibillion-dollar endowments,' DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. 'The Trump administration is committed to restoring common sense to our student visa system; no lawsuit, this or any other, is going to change that. We have the law, the facts, and common sense on our side.' DHS Secretary Kristi Noem called the move 'a warning to every other university to get your act together,' as the administration seeks to crackdown on antisemitism and political protests. The DHS move is the latest in Trump's bitter feud with Harvard. The administration has revoked billions in research funding and grants earmarked for Harvard, which the school has challenged in court. 'Harvard's going to have to change its ways,' Trump told reporters on Friday. Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), a Harvard alum who has been critical of his school, blasted the Trump administration, accusing them of 'acting just like the most unhinged of the anti-Israel campus protestors last year –– performative, irrational and cruel.' Vice President Vance blasted the courts on the The New York Times's 'Interesting Times' podcast. 'I think you are seeing an effort by the courts to quite literally overturn the will of the American people,' he said. ISRAELI EMBASSY SUSPECT CHARGED The man suspected of fatally shooting two Israeli Embassy workers has been charged with two counts of first degree murder, as well as the murder of foreign officials and other crimes. Authorities say Elias Rodriguez, 31, told them, 'I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza.' Charging documents reveal the gruesome nature of the killing of Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, a young couple who worked for the Israeli Embassy. Jewish members of Congress gathered at the scene Thursday to honor the dead. 'There is no justification ever for terrorism,' said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.). The killings took place amid the broader political debate in Washington about antisemitism and the war in Gaza. Progressive lawmakers that support the Palestinian cause unequivocally denounced the violence. But Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), a steadfast ally to Israel, told Jewish Insider that the progressive left tries 'to hide behind this idea that it's free speech to intimidate and terrorize members of the Jewish community.' Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter connected the killings to the pro-Palestinian protests on campuses, according to Jewish Insider. 'The point of the matter is that on campuses around this country, where ideas — these are the temples of ideas — where smart ideas, intelligent ideas, moral ideas, truthful ideas, are supposed to be taught, we have useful idiots running around in support of the destruction of Israel,' Leiter said. 💡Perspectives: • Wall Street Journal: Two lives cut short by a gunman fixated on Gaza. • The Free Press: Welcome to the global Intifada. • The Guardian: What did you do during the Gaza genocide? • The Hill: I was an Israeli diplomatic staffer. These murders not surprising. • Harvard Crimson: Harvard's international students are people, not pawns. Read more: • Trump ramps up antisemitism crackdown. • DHS blocks Harvard from enrolling international students: What to know. • Judge blocks revocation of international students' legal status. • DHS requests 20,000 National Guard troops to help with deportations. • Columbia violated students' civil rights, government investigation finds. President Trump signed executive orders that aim to bolster nuclear power, including by scaling back environmental reviews. Ukraine and Russia are conducting a major prisoner swap following the direct negotiations held in Turkey last week. The Evening Report will return Tuesday, so enjoy your Memorial Day weekend. To stay up-to-date on the latest, sign up for The Hill's Tipsheet. Click here to get it in your inbox. © AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein Stocks fell Friday after President Trump reignited his trade war, making new threats against the European Union (EU) and phone manufacturers. Trump threatened a new 50 percent tariff on all products from the EU beginning June 1. 'Their powerful Trade Barriers, Vat Taxes, ridiculous Corporate Penalties, Non-Monetary Trade Barriers, Monetary Manipulations, unfair and unjustified lawsuits against Americans Companies, and more, have led to a Trade Deficit with the U.S. of more than $250,000,000 a year, a number which is totally unacceptable,' Trump posted on Truth Social. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the EU had failed to negotiate in 'good faith' and predicted the new tariffs would 'light a fire' under the EU to reach a deal. Trump also said he'd slap a 25 percent tariff on all Apple products produced overseas if they don't move manufacturing to the U.S. 'I have long ago informed Tim Cook of Apple that I expect their iPhone's that will be sold in the United States of America will be manufactured and built in the United States, not India, or anyplace else,' Trump posted on TruthSocial. 'If that is not the case, a Tariff of at least 25% must be paid by Apple to the U.S. Thank your for your attention to this matter!' Most of Apple's products are produced in China, India and Vietnam. Later in the day, Trump tossed Samsung and others into the mix. 'It would be also Samsung and anybody that makes that product, otherwise it wouldn't be fair,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. 'Again, when they build their plant here there's no tariffs. So they're going to be building plants here.' This comes after several weeks of relative calm on the trade front, with the U.S. and United Kingdom striking a trade deal and Trump suspending most reciprocal tariffs for 90 days to give countries time to negotiate. Bessent said Friday he expects to announce several big new trade deals in the coming weeks and that the U.S. is getting close to restarting negotiations with China. 💡Perspectives: • Whole Hog Politics: The autopsy Democrats actually need. • The Hill: Britain inches back toward Europe with new trade pacts. • The Hill: Economic populism from both parties fails working Americans. • The Liberal Patriot: The futility of the Democratic strategy. • Sasha Stone: Resistance cringe reaches a fever pitch. Read more: • The bond market shakes Wall Street. • Trump greenlights Nippon 'partnership' with US Steel. • Walmart slashing 1.5K corporate jobs. • Trump tariffs set to collide with back-to-school shopping. © AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite It's going to be a chaotic sprint for Congressional Republicans hoping to get President Trump's agenda bill to his desk by July 4. Senate Republicans are already picking apart the legislation after it passed passed the House this week with a 215-214 vote. Their objections hew closely to the divisions that split House Republicans. Some want more spending cuts, including for Medicaid, to address the debt. Some think Medicaid cuts should be off the table. And some oppose the state and local tax deductions (SALT) cap being raised, viewing it as a bailout for high-tax states governed by Democrats. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) can only afford to lose three Republicans. So far, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says he's a hard no because the bill raises the debt ceiling by $4 trillion. 'We've never, ever voted to raise the debt ceiling this much,' he said. 'It's not conservative. I can't support it.' Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) says he can't support a bill that adds to the national debt. 'I couldn't care less if [Trump's] upset,' he told reporters. 'I'm concerned about my children, my grandchildren, and the fact that we are stealing from them…$37 trillion in debt and we're going to add to it as Republicans? That's unacceptable.' Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent laid out the administration's view on the nation's debt. 'We can both grow the economy and control the debt,' he posted on X. 'What is important is that the economy grows faster than the debt. If we change the growth trajectory of the country, of the economy, then we will stabilize our finances and grow our way out of this.' Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) predicted 'considerable changes,' which could complicate the bill's path back through the House. The Hill's Alexander Bolton has the full rundown on the changes Senate Republicans are eyeing. As Republicans debate policy, the political messaging wars are already getting underway ahead of next year's midterm elections. The House GOP's campaign arm is urging members to go back to their districts and aggressively sell the legislation, with a focus on tax cuts, border security and efforts to root out waste and fraud in government programs, including Medicaid. The House Democratic campaign arm is confident the bill will cost the GOP their majority, saying they'll focus on messaging around Medicaid cuts. 'In a desperate, hypocritical attempt to inoculate themselves from their eventual vote in favor of this terrible bill, vulnerable Republicans whined, wrote letters, and filed meaningless resolutions to try and convince their voters they would not cut Medicaid and other vital programs,' the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee wrote in a memo. 'It was all a lie.' Trump figures to play a big role in the midterm elections. He's amassed a $600 million campaign war chest and aims to raise $1 billon in total. 💡Perspectives: • New York Post: Spending is still out of control. • American Spectator: Take the win on the 'big, beautiful bill'. • The Wall Street Journal: How the Senate can improve the House bill. • The Washington Post: Trump hands Democrats their midterms message. • Los Angeles Times: The 'big, beautiful bill' is a big, ugly mess. Read more: • Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' faces a swarm of Senate GOP objections. • House takes sledgehammer to green energy tax credits. Here's who's talking Sunday… NewsNation's 'The Hill Sunday': Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) and Ambassador Wendy Sherman. CNN's 'State of the Union': Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.); Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). CBS's 'Face the Nation': Speaker Johnson (R-La.) and Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.). Fox's 'Fox News Sunday': Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Speaker Johnson. Someone forward this newsletter to you? Sign up to get your own copy: See you next time!
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Vance: Courts trying to ‘literally overturn the will of the American people'
Vice President Vance waded into the tug-of-war between the courts and executive branch in an interview published earlier this week, warning that the courts should pull back or risk stepping on the will of the American people. In a conversation about immigration enforcement with The New York Times's 'Interesting Times' podcast, Vance said two principles core to the nation could slide into 'real conflict' unless district courts 'exercise a little bit more discretion' or the Supreme Court intervenes. The first is that courts interpret the law, he said. The second is that the American people 'decide how they're governed.' 'That's the fundamental small-d democratic principle that's at the heart of the American project,' Vance said. 'I think that you are seeing, and I know this is inflammatory, but I think you are seeing an effort by the courts to quite literally overturn the will of the American people.' The vice president clarified it's 'not most courts' contributing to the problem. But he questioned whether the Supreme Court understands its role in checking lower courts, in addition to the executive branch. 'I saw an interview with Chief Justice [John] Roberts recently where he said the role of the court is to check the excesses of the executive,' Vance said. 'I thought that was a profoundly wrong sentiment. That's one-half of his job. The other half of his job is to check the excesses of his own branch. 'You cannot have a country where the American people keep on electing immigration enforcement and the courts tell the American people they're not allowed to have what they voted for,' he continued. 'That's where we are right now.' The White House and judiciary have been locked in a battle over the separation of powers. President Trump's onslaught of executive actions have prompted hundreds of lawsuits, many which challenge his expansionist view of presidential power. While his Justice Department has contended the president possesses sole authority over the executive branch, with little recourse for the courts to check that power, dozens of judges from the district courts to the Supreme Court have stepped in. Vance said the administration would keep working Trump's immigration agenda through the courts. The ultimate goal, he said, is not to deport the 'gross majority' of noncitizens in the U.S., calling that a 'secondary metric of success.' Instead, he said he hopes to establish a 'set of rules and principles' that the courts affirm, so there is an infrastructure in place allowing the mass deportation of noncitizens. 'That, to me, is real success,' Vance said. 'But I think whether we're able to get there is a function, of course, of our efforts, but also the courts themselves.' The vice president also touched on two of the administration's most controversial immigration moves: the use of the wartime Alien Enemies Act and Kilmar Abrego Garcia's mistaken deportation. The Alien Enemies Act is a 1798 law that lets authorities summarily deport migrants amid an 'invasion' or 'predatory incursion' by a foreign nation. Vance said he believes the wartime law is misinterpreted, and that to have an invasion does not require '5 million uniformed combatants,' which he admitted are not present. However, he suggested thousands of noncitizens and their families 'very intentionally' came to the U.S. to cause or profit from violence, and the courts should trust the administration's assessment of the situation. 'I think that the courts need to be somewhat deferential,' Vance said. 'In fact, I think the design is that they should be extremely deferential to these questions of political judgment made by the people's elected president of the United States.' Regarding Abrego Garcia's mistaken deportation to El Salvador, the vice president acknowledged courts' holdings that the administration made a mistake in deporting him and that the Supreme Court directed them to 'facilitate' Abrego Garcia's return. He said he 'sat in lunch' with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele to discuss the Maryland man's return, but Bukele didn't budge. 'Bukele basically said, 'I don't want to send this guy back. I think he's a bad guy. He's my citizen. He's in a prison in El Salvador, and I think that's where he belongs,'' Vance said. 'And our attitude was, OK, what are we really going to do? Are we going to exert extraordinary diplomatic pressure to bring a guy back to the United States who's a citizen of a foreign country who we had a valid deportation order with?' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
23-05-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Vance: Courts trying to ‘literally overturn the will of the American people'
Vice President Vance waded into the power tug-a-war between the courts and executive branch in an interview published earlier this week, warning that the courts should pull back or risk stepping on the will of the American people. In a conversation about immigration enforcement with the New York Times's 'Interesting Times' podcast, Vance said two principles core to the nation could slide into 'real conflict' unless district courts 'exercise a little bit more discretion' or the Supreme Court intervenes. The first is that courts interpret the law, he said. The second is that the American people 'decide how they're governed.' 'That's the fundamental small-d democratic principle that's at the heart of the American project,' Vance said. 'I think that you are seeing, and I know this is inflammatory, but I think you are seeing an effort by the courts to quite literally overturn the will of the American people.' Taking a step back, the vice president clarified that it's 'not most courts' contributing to the problem. But he questioned whether the Supreme Court understands its role in checking lower courts, in addition to the executive branch. 'I saw an interview with Chief Justice Roberts recently where he said the role of the court is to check the excesses of the executive,' Vance said. 'I thought that was a profoundly wrong sentiment. That's one-half of his job. The other half of his job is to check the excesses of his own branch. 'You cannot have a country where the American people keep on electing immigration enforcement and the courts tell the American people they're not allowed to have what they voted for,' he continued. 'That's where we are right now.' Vance's remarks come as the White House and judiciary have been locked in a battle over the separation of powers. Trump's onslaught of executive actions have prompted hundreds of lawsuits, many which challenge his expansionist view of presidential power. While his Justice Department has contended that the president possesses sole authority over the executive branch, with little recourse for the courts to check that power, dozens of judges from the district courts to the Supreme Court have stepped in. Vance said that the administration would keep working President Trump's immigration agenda through the courts. The ultimate goal, he said, is not to deport the 'gross majority' of noncitizens in the U.S., calling that a 'secondary metric of success.' Instead, he said he hopes to establish a 'set of rules and principles' that the courts affirm, so there is an infrastructure in place allowing the mass deportation of noncitizens. 'That, to me, is real success,' Vance said. 'But I think whether we're able to get there is a function, of course, of our efforts, but also the courts themselves.' The vice president also touched on two of the administration's most controversial immigration moves: the use of the wartime Alien Enemies Act and Kilmar Abrego Garcia's mistaken deportation. The Alien Enemies Act is a 1798 law that lets authorities summarily deport migrants amid an 'invasion' or 'predatory incursion' by a foreign nation. Vance said he believes that the wartime law is misinterpreted, that to have an invasion does not require '5 million uniformed combatants,' which he admitted are not present. However, he suggested that thousands of noncitizens and their families 'very intentionally' came to the U.S. to cause or profit from violence, and the courts should trust the administration's assessment of the situation. 'I think that the courts need to be somewhat deferential,' Vance said. 'In fact, I think the design is that they should be extremely deferential to these questions of political judgment made by the people's elected president of the United States.' Regarding Abrego Garcia's mistaken deportation to El Salvador, the vice president acknowledged courts' holdings that the administration made a mistake in deporting him and that the Supreme Court directed them to 'facilitate' Abrego Garcia's return. He said he 'sat in lunch' with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele to discuss the Maryland man's return, but Bukele didn't budge. 'Bukele basically said: I don't want to send this guy back. I think he's a bad guy. He's my citizen. He's in a prison in El Salvador, and I think that's where he belongs,' Vance said. 'And our attitude was: OK, what are we really going to do? Are we going to exert extraordinary diplomatic pressure to bring a guy back to the United States who's a citizen of a foreign country who we had a valid deportation order with?'
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
'Profoundly Wrong': JD Vance Tears Into John Roberts' Assessment Of The Role Of Courts
Vice President JD Vance on Monday denounced John Roberts' recent comments about the role of the judiciary, accusing the Supreme Court chief justice of echoing a 'profoundly wrong sentiment,' while asserting that the courts need to be 'deferential' to President Donald Trump. Roberts, earlier this month, spoke about the importance of judicial independence in the face of relentless attacks on judges. In the Constitution, the judiciary 'is a co-equal branch of government, separate from the others, with the authority to interpret the Constitution as law and strike down, obviously, acts of Congress or acts of the president,' Roberts explained. 'Its job is to, obviously, decide cases but in the course of that check the excesses of Congress or of the executive, and that does require a degree of independence,' he continued. Vance shared his strong disagreement with that assessment. 'I thought that was a profoundly wrong sentiment,' Vance said during an interview with The New York Times' 'Interesting Times' podcast recorded during his trip to Rome. 'That's one-half of his job,' he added. 'The other half of his job is to check the excesses of his own branch. You cannot have a country where the American people keep on electing immigration enforcement and the courts tell the American people they're not allowed to have what they voted for. That's where we are right now.' Vance claimed he was making a 'philosophical point' while suggesting that the courts are standing in the way of enacting the Trump legislative agenda. 'I think that you are seeing, and I know this is inflammatory, but I think you are seeing an effort by the courts to quite literally overturn the will of the American people,' he added. The vice president also defended the administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act to ramp up deportations despite the legal setbacks it's faced. In a 7-2 decision Friday, the Supreme Court denounced how the administration has been using the 18th century wartime law to quickly remove Venezuelan and Salvadoran immigrants with little to no due process. But Vance said the courts ought to be 'somewhat deferential' to Trump, especially on this issue. 'In fact, I think the design is that they should be extremely deferential to these questions of political judgment made by the people's elected president of the United States,' he added. Vance's comments come as the Trump administration has come under fire for ignoring court rulings and undermining the rule of law. A Massachusetts judge on Wednesday accused the Department of Homeland Security of 'unquestionably' violating a court order when it quietly flew eight migrants to South Sudan. A federal judge also blasted the Justice Department after Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Ras Baraka was charged with trespassing at an immigration detention center, only for the DOJ to drop the charges a few days later. John Roberts Says Kids These Days Don't Appreciate The Rule Of Law John Roberts Dismisses Attacks On The Courts With 1 Important Reminder
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Vance says Roberts is ‘profoundly wrong' about judiciary's role to check executive branch
Vice President JD Vance called Chief Justice John Roberts' comments earlier this month that the judiciary's role is to check the executive branch a 'profoundly wrong sentiment' and said the courts should be 'deferential' to the president, particularly when it comes to immigration. 'I thought that was a profoundly wrong sentiment. That's one half of his job, the other half of his job is to check the excesses of his own branch. And you cannot have a country where the American people keep on electing immigration enforcement and the courts tell the American people they're not allowed to have what they voted for,' Vance told New York Times opinion columnist Ross Douthat on the 'Interesting Times' podcast, which was taped on Monday. Vance was responding to Roberts' remarks at an event in Buffalo, New York, where the chief justice stressed the importance of judicial independence. 'The judiciary is a coequal branch of government, separate from the others with the authority to interpret the Constitution as law, and strike down, obviously, acts of Congress or acts of the president,' Roberts said at the event. The judiciary's role, Roberts added, is to 'decide cases but, in the course of that, check the excesses of Congress or of the executive and that does require a degree of independence.' Vance's interview with The Times, which was taped in Rome after he attended the inaugural mass for Pope Leo XIV, also delved into the vice president's Catholic faith and how it shapes his role as a political leader. While Vance said he believes the administration has 'an obligation to treat people humanely,' he also said it's an 'open question' how much due process is 'due' to undocumented immigrants. 'I've obviously expressed public frustration on this, which is yes, illegal immigrants, by virtue of being in the United States, are entitled to some due process,' Vance said. 'But the amount of process that is due and how you enforce those legislative standards and how you actually bring them to bear is, I think, very much an open question.' On Friday, the Supreme Court blocked President Donald Trump from moving forward with deporting a group of immigrants in northern Texas under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act – a win for Venezuelans who feared they were going to be removed under the wartime authority. The administration invoked the powers earlier this year to speed deportations of alleged gang members and has cited national security concerns. Asked about the justification for using those legal authorities to deport people, Vance conceded that 'we don't have 5 million uniform combatants.' But he pointed to thousands of migrants who he said, without evidence, 'intentionally came to the United States to cause violence' to argue that courts need to be deferential to the president on what he called a 'public safety' issue. 'I think that the courts need to be somewhat deferential. In fact, I think the design is that they should be extremely deferential to these questions of political judgment made by the people's elected president of United States,' Vance said. 'People under appreciate the level of public safety stress that we're under when the president talks about how bad crime is.' When asked how he would define success on immigration after Trump's term, Vance also pointed to the courts. 'Success, to me, is not so much a number, though, obviously I'd love to see the gross majority of the illegal immigrants who came in under Biden deported,' Vance said. 'Success, to me, is that we have established a set of rules and principles that the courts are comfortable with and that we have the infrastructure to do that, allows us to deport large numbers of illegal aliens when large numbers of illegal aliens come into the country.' Vance acknowledged he's sometimes had to reconcile his faith with the administration's policy decisions while going on to defend its actions on immigration. 'I understand your point and making these judgments, if you take the teachings of our faith seriously, they are hard. I'm not going to pretend that I haven't struggled with some of this, that I haven't thought about whether, you know, we're doing the precisely right thing,' Vance told Douthat. 'The concern that you raise is fair, there has to be some way in which you're asking yourself as you go about enforcing the law – even, to your point, against a very dangerous people – that you're enforcing the law consistent with, you know, the Catholic Church's moral dictates and so forth.' Douthat interjected, 'And American law and basic principles.' 'Most importantly, American law,' Vance said. Asked about his disagreements on immigration with Popes Francis and Leo, Vance – who said he was wearing a tie Francis gifted him before his death – said that you have to 'hold two ideas in your head at the same time' about enforcing border laws and respecting the dignity of migrants. 'I'm not saying I'm always perfect at it. But I at least try to think about, okay, there are obligations that we have to people who, in some ways, are fleeing violence or at least fleeing poverty. I also have a very sacred obligation, I think, to enforce the laws and to promote the common good of my own country, defined as the people with the legal right to be here,' Vance said. 'I really do think that social solidarity is destroyed when you have too much migration too quickly,' he added. 'And so that's not because I hate the migrants, or I'm motivated by grievance. That's because I'm trying to preserve something in my own country where we are a unified nation.'
