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Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US Chief Justice Roberts underscores defense of judiciary amid Trump's attacks
By Andrew Chung BUFFALO (Reuters) -U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts underscored his defense of the American judiciary on Wednesday amid verbal attacks by President Donald Trump and his allies on judges who have impeded aspects of his sweeping agenda, again stating that impeachment is an inappropriate response to unfavorable rulings. Trump, some fellow Republicans in the House of Representatives and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk have advocated impeaching some of the judges who have issued decisions against the president's policies since he returned to office in January, a process in Congress that could lead to removal from the bench. "Impeachment is not how you register disagreement with decisions," Roberts said during remarks at a judicial event in Buffalo, New York. Roberts, who leads the Supreme Court and its 6-3 conservative majority, did not mention Trump by name. But his comments echoed the rare rebuke issued by Roberts of the president in March after Trump called for the impeachment of a judge who had ordered his administration to halt the removal of Venezuelan migrants under a 1798 law called the Alien Enemies Act. Trump also labeled the judge a "Radical Left Lunatic." The Supreme Court increasingly is being called upon to intervene in major legal disputes involving the president, whose aggressive agenda and flurry of executive orders often have been stymied by lower courts. Critics have accused the administration of defying lower court orders and even a Supreme Court ruling involving Trump's crackdown on immigration. Roberts on Wednesday indicated that the appeals process - not impeachment - is the proper way to deal with adverse rulings. "That's what we're there for," Roberts said, answering questions posed by a federal judge before an audience of lawyers and other members of the judiciary. Roberts, who was born in Buffalo and raised in Indiana, also spoke about the importance of the independence of judges in the U.S. system of government that separates the powers of the president, Congress and the judiciary. "This job is to obviously decide cases, but in the course of that, to check the excesses of Congress or the executive, and that does require a degree of independence," Roberts said, drawing applause from the crowd. Roberts engaged in a wide-ranging conversation addressing numerous subjects including the relationship among the court's nine justices, which he said were strong despite sometimes sharp words exchanged by those in the majority and in dissent in major cases. Members of the court's conservative and liberal blocs often are on opposite sides in the most important decisions. Trump's administration is contending with more than 200 lawsuits challenging his policies. His Justice Department has in turn flooded the Supreme Court with requests seeking emergency relief to enforce his policies. It has filed 13 such requests in just over 15 weeks since Trump returned to office. That number is unprecedented and shows no signs of abating, Georgetown University law professor Stephen Vladeck, who has studied the Supreme Court's emergency docket, wrote in a blog post. The court on Tuesday handed Trump a major victory when it allowed his ban on transgender people serving in the military to take effect. It also has permitted the administration to cut millions of dollars in teacher training grants - part of Trump's crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives - and to fire thousands of probationary employees as he moves to slash the federal workforce. The justices, however, declined to let the administration withhold payment to foreign aid organizations for work they already performed for the government, and required it to "facilitate" the release from custody in El Salvador of a man wrongly deported to that country. The justices also issued a decision to halt deportations of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act after lawyers reported that the government was poised to imminently remove some in violation of the Supreme Court's prior order. The court is scheduled to hear arguments on May 15 in Trump's bid to broadly enforce his executive order to restrict automatic birthright citizenship. (Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Will Dunham)
Fox News
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
How Donald Trump tried to court the Atlantic – and why the liberal magazine landed an interview
Hell hath frozen over: At the White House the other day, Donald Trump "was launching a charm offensive, directed mainly at Goldberg," as in Jeffrey Goldberg, the Atlantic's editor-in-chief. "There was none of the name-calling or hostility he regularly levels at our magazine." That's according to Atlantic reporters Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer, who wrote the magazine's cover story, which was posted yesterday. For all the insights gleaned from the interview, nothing is more fascinating than how it came about. They called the president on his cell phone. (Wha? Who do I have to court to get that? The reporters ain't saying.) Trump says he did the initial phone interview to see if the liberal magazine could be fair. So I'm here to pronounce that the entire, seemingly endless piece is fair. The president hasn't taken a shot at it on Truth Social, at least so far. He has, however, ripped new polls from the "Failing New York Times" and "ABC/Washington Post" as "FAKE POLLS FROM FAKE NEWS ORGANIZATIONS," saying they should be "investigated for ELECTION FRAUD, and add in the Fox News Pollster while you're at it." His lowest approval rating, in the Post-ABC survey, was 39 percent. Meanwhile, we may now look back on Trump's 2024 victory as inevitable, but after Jan. 6 it was anything but. On the cell call, "The president seemed exhilarated by everything he had managed to do in the first two months of his second term." And then came the transaction: "As ever, Trump was on the hunt for a deal. If he liked the story we wrote, he said, he might even speak with us again." Goldberg describes the session: "What I found in this particular meeting was a Trump who was low-key, attentive, and eager to convince us that he is good at his job and good for the country. It isn't easy to escape the tractor beam of his charisma, but somehow we managed, and we asked him what needed to be asked. "But squaring Trump the Charmer with the Orcish Trump we more frequently see is difficult…Trump posted on the social-media platform he owns that Ashley is a 'Radical Left Lunatic' (she is not) and that Michael 'has never written a fair story about me, only negative, and virtually always LIES' (also false). It is our task at the Atlantic not to be bullied by these sorts of attacks." The most interesting Trump sound bite is his comparison of the two terms: "The first time, I had two things to do—run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys. And the second time, I run the country and the world." Parker and Scherer did many other interviews, such as with Steve Bannon. "Our reality is that we won," and he cited the conspiracy theory that the FBI had incited the crowd on Jan. 6. The reporters said that was simply untrue. "Now, here's the interesting thing," Bannon said. "Who's won that argument? I think we have… "This time it's 'Hey, f**k you, Greenland's ours…When you've come back from such long odds, you clearly feel, 'I can do anything.' " What about the four criminal investigations, including the conviction on the weakest one – Alvin Bragg's hush money case? Trump says his numbers kept going up. "Shockingly, yes," Trump said. "Normally, it would knock you out. You wouldn't even live for the next day. You know, you'd announce your resignation, and you'd go back and 'fight for your name,' like everybody says—you know, 'fight for your name, go back to your family.' …Yeah, it made me stronger, made me a lot stronger." He also said in the phone interview: "I got indicted five different times by five different scumbags, and they're all looking for jobs now, so it's one of those things. Who would have thought, right? It's been pretty amazing." After the 2016 election, Trump told oil executives at Mar-a-Lago: If I'm not president, you're f***ed. Look at your profit-and-loss statements. You realize what would have happened to you if she was president? What's wrong with you?") She was Kamala Harris, of course. One turning point: When he went to East Palestine, Ohio after the derailment of a train carrying toxic chemicals, while Joe Biden didn't do squat. On the Kennedy Center: "I didn't really get to go the first time, because I was always getting impeached or some bulls**t, and I could never enjoy a show." So he fired the Democrats and made himself chairman. All right, enough quotes. Wait, one more that captures the tone of the piece: "I got 38 percent of the male Black vote. Nobody knew that was possible. That's a lot. I got 56 percent of Hispanics. How about that one? Every county along the Texas border is Hispanic. I won every one of them." Though every single number he cited was wrong, the general thrust of his observation was correct." The reporters chronicled how things have gone south for the president, especially on tariffs and the economy, and how he pressured Hill Republicans into backing his nominees with primary threats. After the March phone interview, the reporters tried Trump's cellphone again. Just got voice mail. But at 1:38 am, he tried them back. No message. Trump believes he can win over even his worst enemies. In 2015 or 2016, I watched him make a beeline in the New York green room for Karl Rove, who was very rough on him. At worst, he thinks, he can neutralize the person. Or soften him or her up for the next time. He enjoys the challenge. The mainstream media almost uniformly can't stand Donald Trump. He does invite some of his own negative headlines, while providing unprecedented access, but much of the press is back in Resistance mode. Still, the Atlantic's original pitch is undeniable, that he's "The Most Consequential President of the 21st Century."
Daily Mail
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Trump's astonishing late night phone call to political reporters as they prepped 100 day post-mortem
President Donald Trump pocket dialed a reporter at 1.28am after refusing to take his call - and later joked it was 'another Signal thing.' Trump was being courted by two political reporters at The Atlantic around the same time his senior appointees unintentionally added the magazine's editor-in-chief to a high-stakes Signal chat discussing war plans in Yemen. Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer were working on a piece about Trump's first 100 days in office and his ascendance back to the White House. But access to Trump was proving difficult. He'd been ducking their calls and flatly refusing their attempts to interview him when they managed to get his personal cellphone number. 'Don't ask how we got his number,' they eventually wrote. They'd managed one lengthy chat with Trump after calling that number before the Jeffrey Goldberg scandal broke on March 24. Then, they were met with silence again. That is until Scherer's phone pinged at 1.28am on April 12. 'Had he been calling to ask if we'd seen what had transpired—the display of obeisance from these gladiators, and from his base?' the pair wrote in their final piece. 'Or was this merely a late-night pocket dial? His team declined to clarify.' Ultimately, the duo and Goldberg were invited to the Oval Office on April 24 to meet with Trump for a final interview. Scherer seized the opportunity to get to the bottom of the mystery, asking: 'Did you mean to call me at 1:30 in the morning after the UFC fight?' Trump was bewildered by the question, Scherer wrote, and appeared unaware that he'd even done so. 'Oh, no, that's another - that sounds like another Signal thing,' Trump answered. The lighthearted reference to the Signal scandal offers an insight into how Trump privately responded to the saga. He publicly backed his senior administration officials - Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz - but was reportedly privately seething about the embarrassing mishap. Ultimately, three staffers would go on to lose their jobs as a result of the incident. Trump criticized both journalists on TruthSocial after they first asked to interview him While Parker and Scherer did manage to land coveted interviews with the President, it almost wasn't to be, with Trump taking to TruthSocial in March to dismiss the duo. 'Ashley Parker is not capable of doing a fair and unbiased interview. She is a Radical Left Lunatic, and has been as terrible as is possible for as long as I have known her,' Trump wrote March 17. 'Likewise, Michael Scherer has never written a fair story about me, only negative, and virtually always LIES.' One protester holds a sign at a demonstration asking 'Are we great yet?' Trump's MAGA pledge was to Make America Great Again It is unclear what made Trump change his mind, but the pair think getting his personal cellphone number may have played a part. 'All we can say is that the White House staff have imperfect control over Trump's personal communication devices,' they wrote. In the interview, Trump reportedly told them what the biggest difference is for him this time around. 'The first time, I had two things to do—run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys,' he said. 'And the second time, I run the country and the world.'
Newsweek
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Newsweek
How to Get an Interview With Donald Trump: Just Call Him
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. White House officials frequently say Donald Trump is the "most accessible" president ever – and judging by how easy he can be to get on the phone, they're not wrong. In a new interview with Trump to coincide with his 100th day in office, journalists from The Atlantic magazine revealed how the unscheduled conversation came together: with a simple phone call out of the blue. Trump answered his personal cell phone on a Saturday morning late last month while at his country club in Bedminster, New Jersey the same way most people do when they pick up an unknown number. "Who's calling?" the president of the United States asked, according to the magazine. On the other end of the line were the two Atlantic reporters with whom Trump had previously agreed to an interview, Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer. But just days before the planned White House sitdown, Trump unloaded on the pair on Truth Social. President Trump welcomes the 2025 Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles at the White House on Aprill 28. President Trump welcomes the 2025 Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles at the White House on Aprill 28."Ashley Parker is not capable of doing a fair and unbiased interview," Trump wrote. "She is a Radical Left Lunatic, and has been as terrible as is possible for as long as I have known her." Trump also fiercely criticized Scherer, claiming the writer had never penned a "fair" story about him, while deriding The Atlantic as a "third rate magazine" that would soon fold. But the leader of the free world picked up himself when the pair called on a lark days later, delivering on an impromptu interview the White House had previously cancelled. That appeared to be water under the bridge by the time Parker and Scherer got Trump on the line, with the journalists reporting he was "eager to talk about his accomplishments" while acknowledging in a rare bit of self-reflection how his second administration felt different. "The first time, I had two things to do — run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys," Trump told the magazine. "And the second time, I run the country and the world." The story of how The Atlantic interview came to pass reflects how unusually reachable Trump has always been to reporters — an accessibility that he has carried with him to the Oval Office a second time, and one that comes with considerable security risks, according to experts who spoke to Newsweek. 'It's Sloppy' The Atlantic did not specify how it obtained Trump's cell number, but noted how White House staff have "imperfect control" of his personal communication devices. Some cybersecurity experts told Newsweek they were troubled by the report, especially considering how many people and entities could likely access the president's personal number. "If he's just using a standard Google or Android device, you have to assume there must be multiple governments listening to his every call, not the U.S. government," said Lee McKnight, an associate professor at Syracuse University's School of Information Studies. Even if the phone is secure, like most devices used by military and other government officials, McKnight said he's still concerned about how widely Trump's cell number has been disseminated. "That doesn't get away from the issue — who has access to the number?" McKnight asked. "Who can reach him directly? How many people can? That's been his freewheeling style — he's always been known to like to be, you know, reachable and bypass the normal filters of protecting somebody in the office of the president from all kinds of folks." If Parker and Scherer managed to track down Trump's cell number, other reporters in Washington and New York would likely have the digits as well, creating potential vulnerabilities, McKnight said. Donald Trump talks on the phone in the McLaren garage prior to the F1 Grand Prix of Miami at Miami International Autodrome on May 05, 2024, in Miami, Florida. Donald Trump talks on the phone in the McLaren garage prior to the F1 Grand Prix of Miami at Miami International Autodrome on May 05, 2024, in Miami, Florida. AFP/Getty Images "In general for cybersecurity, the weakest link is the problem," McKnight said. "So even if the chain around him is secure, now there's all kind of potential bad scenarios happening." If someone can reach the president directly, AI-powered deepfakes of world leaders could potentially be used against Trump, McKnight said. "It's sloppy," he said. "From a cybersecurity point of view, the Trump administration has been incredibly sloppy." McKnight noted how Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic's editor in chief, had previously been mistakenly added to a Signal group chat with White House national security officials that discussed sensitive military plans. North Korea, China, Russia, Iran and "other bad actors" are most likely taking heed, he said. "That's my major concern," McKnight said. McKnight believes amateur sleuths or hackers already know Trump's cell number, which could lead to unsolicited spoofing calls or other threats – much like the fake phone call the son of Altanta Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich made on Friday to NFL prospect Shedeur Sanders. "So, you could have an audio deepfake of Putin, with little snippets of Putin's voice and interacting with it for whatever purpose," McKnight said. "You could walk through that scenario. It could be other world leaders, but deepfakes. If it's just Trump directly, he doesn't have time, he's a busy guy. Cybersecurity's not his thing, he shouldn't be the one filtering who's real and who's not on his own personal device. That's just not prudent." Matthew Hicks, an associate professor of computer science at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, said he didn't see Trump's personal cell phone as a potential security threat so long as he limits whom he contacts to reporters, friends and associates "Now, if he is giving orders via a personal cellphone, that could open the door to an attacker who can use a SIM swap attack to steal the president's personal cellphone number then deepfakes to issue executive orders, acting as him," Hicks said. Hicks also questioned how extensively Trump used the device. "I can assure you that any adversary that we care about already has this phone number," Hicks told Newsweek. "I think the important question is what the device is used for; if it is just to chat with reporters and friends, then I don't see the threat." Messages seeking additional details from the White House about Trump's usage of his personal cell phone were not returned Monday. Attempts to reach Trump directly on Monday were unsuccessful. "This is not president trump," Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., told Newsweek in a text message, declining further comment.
RNZ News
27-04-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Trump vs the Judiciary: is a constitutional crisis looming?
Photo: AFP/KEVIN LAMARQUE The Trump administration has been agressively challenging the judiciary in the United States since taking office in January. Just last week, US officials arrested a Wisconsin county judge and charged her with helping a man in her court evade immigration authorities. In another instance last month, a federal judge's order not to deport a group of Venezuelan men, was ignored by the administration. The President then went on to call for the impeachment of the judge who issued the order, describing him on social media as a "Radical Left Lunatic." Recently, the Republican-led House voted to limit district court judges' ability to issue nationwide injunctions. Some legal scholars in the United States are worried a constitutional crisis is looming , where the executive branch regards court orders as optional. Adam Liptak covers the Supreme Court for the New York Times - he is a graduate of Yale Law School, he practiced law for 14 years before joining The Times in 2002.
