Latest news with #Trumpadministration
BBC News
2 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Musk turns on Republicans - and gives Trump's bill a harder path
For 130 days, tech multi-billionaire Elon Musk was a "special government employee" working inside the Trump administration to slash what he said were wasteful government programmes and bloated employment after his abrupt exit last week, he is back on the outside. And it is the Trump administration – and the massive spending legislation the president is currently pushing – that is drawing the ire of this new, seemingly unshackled a series of social media posts on Tuesday, he took aim at Trump's signature tax and spending bill that is being considered by the Senate after House Republicans passed it last month. After saying he couldn't "stand it anymore", Musk called the bill a "disgusting abomination"."Shame on those who voted for it," he said. "You know you did wrong."And on Wednesday afternoon he went a step further, calling on voters to contact their representatives in Congress to voice their opposition. "Bankrupting America is not OK!" he wrote on X. "KILL the BILL."Musk's diatribe against the Trump-backed bill, which includes huge tax breaks and more investment in defence, comes after he spent months pushing for cuts to government his posts, he said the legislation would add to the US budget deficit and saddle Americans with debt. He also warned Republicans who supported, or are planning to support, the bill that "we [will] fire all the politicians who betrayed the American people" in next year's midterm it is that line that could be the most concerning for Republicans. In the House, all but three Republican members backed the bill, which passed by a single vote over unified Democratic Musk turns on the majority of Republicans - after spending hundreds of millions to support their campaigns last year - it could cause headaches for incumbents worried about facing challenges in party primaries and represent a devastating blow to Republican hopes of retaining control of Congress for the second half of Trump's second Musk had offered more measured criticism in an interview last week, this week marks a stark change from the chummy meeting he had with Trump in the Oval Office on Thursday, where he stood, smiling, as Trump expounded on the importance of what he said will be his defining legislative president has yet to respond to Musk, but he is sure to be asked about the comments. So far, however, the White House has been handling the situation delicately. According to US media reports, the White House is attempting to explain Musk's vocal opposition as a response to the bill's cuts to green energy subsidies, including tax credits for electric vehicles like Musk's Tesla cars. Axios, meanwhile, reported that another source of tension is Trump's decision to pull the nomination of Jared Isaacman – a Musk ally – to be head of the US space agency the halls of Congress on Wednesday, established Trump allies were treading a similarly careful path."The bill can be made better, but it's not an abomination," Senator Lindsey Graham, a leading figure within the Republican Party and loyal backer of Trump, told the BBC."Let's pass this bill," he said. "We can make additional cuts to spending as necessary, but I want to put some points on the board. Get the tax cuts, make them permanent, get money, do the border. But [Musk] is right, we should cut more."Speaker Mike Johnson, meanwhile, reportedly spent time pushing back on Musk's criticism of the bill in a closed-door meeting with Republicans. He also tried to reassure members over the billionaire's threats to oust supporters of the bill, according to Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Trump "already knows" Musk's view on the legislation. "This is one big, beautiful bill, and he's sticking to it," she added. Trump may be standing by the legislation, but his task of convincing Senate Republicans to sign off on it will only be more difficult in the face of Musk's opposition. His criticism could encourage Republican budget hardliners in the Senate who were already expressing concern about how Trump's bill will spike the federal deficit by trillions of dollars over the next including Rand Paul of Kentucky, Mike Lee of Utah and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, have said they cannot vote for the House legislation unless it undergoes significant changes. Musk has been amplifying a steady stream of posts by Paul and Lee on X, including one article headlined "It's Rand Paul and Elon Musk vs Donald Trump".If those hardliners have their way and get new spending cuts to popular social programmes, however, centrist Republicans like Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine are likely to matters because, assuming unified Democratic opposition in the US Senate, Republicans can only afford to lose three of the 53 Republicans if they want Trump's bill to would not be drawn on the potential impact of Musk's comments on Wednesday, but she told the BBC he is "an influencer out there, and his words have impact".Liberated from the constraints of his quasi-governmental job, Musk has tossed a powder keg into all these delicate deliberations to bring the disparate Republican factions into some kind of agreement – and it is not the first time. His criticism sank a government spending bill last year, creating problems it took months for Republicans to has said he wants the legislation on his desk to sign by the Fourth of July congressional recess. That could prove to be a tall task, but it is one that has a pressing deadline behind "big, beautiful bill" contains a $4tn increase in the US debt-limit borrowing authority. Treasury department officials say that if that limit is not increased by sometime in August, the nation would face the unprecedented prospect of defaulting on its national noisy opposition has rested, in part, on his warning that the growing US debt is becoming unsustainable. But if his criticism derails the current efforts to pass the bill in Congress, he could speed up that day of financial additional reporting from Brandon Drenon on Capitol Hill Follow the twists and turns of Trump's second term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher's weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. 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Associated Press
30-05-2025
- General
- Associated Press
Trump's list of 'sanctuary jurisdictions' includes some that support his immigration policies
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Officials in communities from rural to urban and red to blue blasted the Trump administration's list of 'sanctuary jurisdictions' with many saying they've been outspoken supporters of the president and his stringent immigration policies. Officials who back President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown questioned how their jurisdictions wound up on a list of more than 500 that the Department of Homeland Security says are obstructing enforcement. Several communities were misspelled, including Cincinnati, which was spelled Cincinnatti. Jim Davel, administrator for Shawano County, Wisconsin, said the inclusion of his heavily Republican community must be a clerical error. 'We have no idea how we got on this list whatsoever right at this point,' Davel said. 'I think it was just a big mix up, probably some paperwork or something.' Meanwhile, those with policies protecting immigrants also pushed back, saying they are doing right by their communities. 'This is simply the latest attempt by the Trump administration to strong-arm cities like Seattle into changing our local policies through bluster and threats to critical federal funding for public safety and homelessness,' Bruce Harrell, the city's mayor, told The Associated Press in an email. 'It's not going to work — the law is on our side — and we will not hesitate to protect our people and stand up for our values.' The list was published as the Trump administration ramps up efforts to follow through on the president's campaign promises to remove millions of people who are in the country illegally. It came out as Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced major leadership changes, and after a White House official said the administration wanted to drive daily immigration arrests significantly higher. The administration says each jurisdiction on the list will receive formal notification that the government has deemed them noncompliant and if they're believed to be in violation of any federal criminal statutes. Some communities don't know why they were included The list was compiled using a number of factors, including whether the localities identified themselves as sanctuary jurisdictions, how much they complied with federal officials enforcing immigration laws, if they had restrictions on sharing information with immigration enforcement or had any legal protections for people in the country illegally, according to Homeland Security. But communities said the list doesn't appear to make sense. In California's Orange County, the city of Huntington Beach is on the list even though it has sued the state over its policies that protect immigrants and its City Council supports Trump. But the nearby city of Santa Ana, which has policies to protect members of its sizable immigrant community, is not. In North Dakota, seven mostly small, rural counties wound up on the list, including Slope County, which has about 700 people and overwhelmingly voted for Trump in 2024. County officials reached out to Republican Gov. Kelly Armstrong's office to see what steps to take next, and plan to discuss the matter next week with the county state's attorney, County Commission Chairman Scott Ouradnik said. Other communities defend their policies that protect immigrants Communities supportive of immigrants said their policies aren't just about immigrants but all residents by ensuring anyone who is a victim or witness feels they can come forward and report crime. States including California, Illinois and Washington, which have such policies, are on the list. In Hartford, Connecticut, Mayor Arunan Arulampalam said the capital city's laws and policies have enhanced the vibrancy and safety of the community. The city bars people's immigration status from being used to deny city services and police can't arrest people solely because of immigration status. 'While my administration remains laser-focused on real solutions that protect our community, it is clear that current federal policies do not share this commitment to safety and threaten to undermine the gains we have made,' Arulampalam said in a statement. Nithya Nathan-Pineau, an attorney with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, said it's unclear what criteria were used to formulate the list or define the concept of sanctuary nor what legal action the government plans to take against the jurisdictions. 'It seems quite arbitrary because not all of these states or specific jurisdictions have a policy that limits cooperation with ICE,' Nathan-Pineau said. 'It's pretty clear that this is another attempt to intimidate and bully.' What is a sanctuary jurisdiction? There's no clear definition of what a sanctuary jurisdiction is, but the term generally applies to state and local governments that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. It originated in the 1980s with U.S. churches that housed Central Americans who fled civil wars. Last month, Trump signed an executive order requiring the secretary of Homeland Security and the attorney general to publish a list of states and local jurisdictions that they considered to be obstructing federal immigration laws. The list is to be regularly updated. Federal departments and agencies, working with the Office of Management and Budget, would then be tasked with identifying federal grants or contracts with those states or local jurisdictions that the federal government identified as 'sanctuary jurisdictions' and suspending or terminating the money, according to the executive order. ICE, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, enforces immigration laws nationwide. The agency often seeks state and local help in alerting federal authorities of immigrants wanted for deportation and holding them until those authorities are able to take custody. ___ Taxin reported from Santa Ana, California, and Bellisle from Seattle. Associated Press writers Jack Dura in Bismarck, North Dakota, David Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, Gisela Salomon in Miami and John O'Connor in Springfield, Illinois, contributed.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Elon Musk announces exit from US government role
Elon Musk announced on May 29 that his time as a special government employee in the Trump administration is coming to an end, thanking U.S. President Donald Trump for the "opportunity to reduce wasteful spending." The billionaire, who oversaw the Department of Government Efficiency's (DOGE) massive layoffs and cuts across government agencies, said the department's mission will continue. "The DOGE mission will only strengthen over time as it becomes a way of life throughout the government," Musk wrote on his social platform X. The later days of Musk's 130-day tenure, which is set to conclude on May 30, were accompanied by growing tensions between the world's richest man and senior members of the Trump administration, reportedly including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Musk also criticized a massive Trump-backed domestic policy bill passed by the Republicans in the House of Representatives last week, saying the legislation "increases the budget deficit, not just decreases it, and undermines the work that the DOGE team is doing." A White House official confirmed to Reuters that the owner of Tesla, X, and SpaceX is departing the administration. His exit, described as quick and unceremonious, was reportedly decided on a senior staff level and without a conversation with Trump, who previously repeatedly praised the billionaire. The businessman was one of the most visible figures of Trump's election campaign and the early days of his administration, leading the effort to dismantle the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the U.S.'s chief foreign aid agency. USAID was vital in providing humanitarian relief worldwide and funded thousands of programs supporting human rights, democracy, education, civil society, and infrastructure development. Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, USAID has provided Ukraine with $2.6 billion in humanitarian aid, $5 billion in development assistance, and more than $30 billion in direct budget support, helping to rebuild schools after Russian attacks, pay for bomb shelters, advanced medical equipment for hospitals and much more. Musk eventually scaled down his public presence amid dropping popularity ratings and slumping Tesla profits. The businessman has also been vocal on the Russia-Ukraine war. While initially declaring support for the invaded country and providing his Starlink satellite communications, he gradually adopted pro-Russian and anti-Ukrainian talking points. Musk spread narratives that President Volodymyr Zelensky has minimal support in the country, despite numerous polls showing otherwise, and accused the Ukrainian president of perpetuating a "never-ending draft meat grinder." The billionaire has also repeatedly campaigned against military aid for Kyiv, claiming it only prolongs the war. Read also: Trump admits to protecting Russia from 'really bad things' during Ukraine peace talks We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Judge blocks Trump administration's ban on Harvard accepting international students
A US federal judge on Friday blocked the government from revoking Harvard University's ability to enroll foreign students just hours after the elite college sued the Trump administration over its abrupt ban the day before on enrolling foreign students. US district judge Allison Burroughs in Boston issued the temporary restraining order late on Friday morning, freezing the policy that had been abruptly imposed on the university, based in nearby Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Thursday. Meanwhile, the Trump administration has accused Columbia University of violating civil rights laws, while overseas governments had expressed alarm at the administration's actions against Harvard as part of its latest assault on elite higher education in the US. Related: Harvard v Trump: takeaways from university's legal battle over international student ban Harvard University announced on Friday morning that it was challenging the Trump administration's decision to bar the Ivy League school from enrolling foreign students, calling it unconstitutional retaliation for the school previously defying the White House's political demands. In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston, Harvard said the government's action violates the first amendment of the US constitution and will have an 'immediate and devastating effect for Harvard and more than 7,000 visa holders'. 'With the stroke of a pen, the government has sought to erase a quarter of Harvard's student body, international students who contribute significantly to the university and its mission,' Harvard said in its suit. The institution added that it planned to file for a temporary restraining order to block the Department of Homeland Security from carrying out the move. The Trump White House called the lawsuit 'frivolous' but the court filing from the 389-year-old elite, private university, the oldest and wealthiest in the US, said: 'Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard.' Harvard enrolls almost 6,800 foreign students at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Most are graduate students and they come from more than 100 countries. Meanwhile, the Department of Health and Human Services' office for civil rights late on Thursday cited Columbia University, claiming the New York university acted with 'deliberate indifference towards student-on-student harassment of Jewish students from October 7, 2023, through the present', marking the date when Hamas led the deadly attack on Israel out of Gaza that sparked a ferocious military response from the Jewish state, prompting prolonged pro-Palestinian protests on US streets and college campuses. 'The findings carefully document the hostile environment Jewish students at Columbia University have had to endure for over 19 months, disrupting their education, safety, and well-being,' said Anthony Archeval, the acting director of the office for civil rights at HHS, in a statement on the action. It continued: 'We encourage Columbia University to work with us to come to an agreement that reflects meaningful changes that will truly protect Jewish students.' Columbia University had not yet issued a statement on the citation as of early Friday morning. Orders by the Trump administration earlier this month to investigate pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University raised alarms within the Department of Justice, the New York Times reported. A federal judge denied a search warrant for the investigation. Earlier this year, Columbia University agreed to a list of demands from the Trump administration in response to $400m worth of grants and federal funds to the university being cancelled over claims of inaction by the university to protect Jewish students. Burroughs said Harvard had shown it could be harmed before there was an opportunity to hear the case in full. The judge, an Obama administration appointee, scheduled hearings for 27 May and 29 May to consider next steps in the case. The Harvard Crimson student newspaper reported that the Department of Homeland Security gave Harvard 72 hours to turn over all documents on all international students' disciplinary records and paper, audio or video records on protest activity over the past five years in order to have the 'opportunity' to have its eligibility to enroll foreign students reinstated. Before Harvard filed suit, the Chinese government early on Friday had said the move to block foreign students from the school and oblige current ones to leave would only hurt the international standing of the US. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology extended an open invitation to Harvard international students and those accepted in response to the action against Harvard. On Friday afternoon, despite the judge's ruling, Chinese students at Harvard were cancelling flights home and seeking legal advice on staying in the US and saying they were scared in case Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents came to their accommodation to take them away, as they have done to other foreign students. The former German health minister and alumnus of Harvard, Karl Lauterbach, called the action against Harvard 'research policy suicide'. Germany's research minister, Dorothee Baer, had also, before Harvard sued, urged the Trump administration to reverse its decision, calling it 'fatal'. Related: Fear on campus: Harvard's international students in 'mass panic' over Trump move Harvard's lawsuit lists as the plaintiffs the 'President and fellows of Harvard college' versus defendants including the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), the Department of Justice and the Department of State, as well as the government's Student and Exchange Visitor Program and individual cabinet members – Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary; Pam Bondi, the attorney general; Marco Rubio, the secretary of state; and Todd Lyons, the acting director of Ice. The White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said on Friday: 'If only Harvard cared this much about ending the scourge of anti-American, anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist agitators on their campus they wouldn't be in this situation to begin with.' She added: 'Harvard should spend their time and resources on creating a safe campus environment instead of filing frivolous lawsuits.' Harvard's president, Alan Garber, wrote an open letter to students, academics and staff condemning an 'unlawful' and 'unwarranted' action by the administration. 'The revocation continues a series of government actions to retaliate against Harvard for our refusal to surrender our academic independence and to submit to the federal government's illegal assertion of control over our curriculum, our faculty, and our student body,' it said. The Associated Press and Reuters contributed reporting
CNN
23-05-2025
- Politics
- CNN
We're ‘poker chips': International Harvard students describe fear after Trump administration moves to revoke their enrollment
International Harvard students say they are experiencing 'pure panic' amid the Trump administration's move to bar foreign enrollment, as students from around the world told CNN they are coming to grips with the possibility of revoked visas, suspended research and being blocked from reentry to the United States if they leave this summer. A federal judge temporarily halted the Trump administration's ban on Friday, after the nation's oldest and wealthiest college filed a suit in federal court. Harvard argued revocation of its certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program was 'clear retaliation' for its refusal of the government's ideologically rooted policy demands. But thousands of international students remain in limbo, and are 'very clearly, extremely afraid' because they don't know their current their legal status, Harvard student body co-president Abdullah Shahid Sial, who is from Lahore, Pakistan, told CNN. 'They're literally like, teenagers, thousands of miles away from their hometowns having to deal with this situation, which lawyers often fear to engage in,' said Sial, who is currently traveling overseas after exams and is uncertain if he'll be able to return to campus. About 27% of Harvard's student body is international, with 6,793 international undergraduates and grad students hailing from nearly every country in the world. 'Harvard is Harvard because it has the ability to attract people – the best people – from all over the world, not just the United States,' Sial told CNN on Friday. 'The US also benefits heavily from having the best in the world come to the university and study. And then they've been dehumanized and disrespected.' Sial said the university and deans have been helpful in supporting international students at a time of uncertainty and 'pure panic,' which is happening days after final exams ended and just one week before graduation. As student body president, he says he is working to encourage the university to assist international students who want to transfer to other colleges and pushing for students' financial aid packages to transfer, as well. But the window to transfer to other universities for the fall semester is already closed at most colleges, Sial said. 'Many of us have worked our entire lives to get to a university like Harvard, and now we need to wait around and see if we might have to transfer out and face difficulties with visas,' says rising junior Karl Molden, from Austria. Molden, who is also traveling abroad and concerned he won't be allowed to return to campus, said he feels international students are being used as a 'ball in this larger fight between democracy and authoritarianism.' Jared, an 18-year-old in New Zealand, was just accepted to Harvard and had been planning to start undergraduate studies at the Ivy League school this fall. He told CNN it was a 'heart drop' moment when he learned of the Trump administration's announcement – which came in the midst of applying for his student visa and preparing to move the 9,000 miles to Boston. Harvard and Trump officials have been locked in conflict for months as the administration demands the university make changes to campus programming, policies, hiring and admissions to root out what the White House has called antisemitism and 'racist' practices. Like many other colleges and universities, Harvard drew intense criticism last year for its handling of pro-Palestinian protests and encampments following the start of the Israel-Hamas war, as well as complaints from Jewish alumni and students about antisemitism on campus. Harvard has acknowledged antisemitism on its campus, particularly during the previous academic year, and said it has begun taking concrete action to address it. An Israeli postdoctoral student studying at Harvard said she feels like Jewish students are 'being used as pawns' by the Trump administration, which has accused the university of perpetuating an unsafe campus environment that is 'hostile to Jewish students' and 'employs racist diversity, equity and inclusion practices.' The Israeli student, who did not want to be named in fear of being denied reentry to the United States, said she believed the Trump administration was 'using' the university to 'have this battle with academia that is much bigger than Harvard.' She said the government was clamping down on ideas that 'don't always align with the administration, rather than (having) an actual concern for the safety of Jewish students, Israeli students.' 'So, I do feel like we're being used,' she said, adding that she thinks university leadership is taking the issue of antisemitism on campus seriously. 'I don't want to diminish anyone's experience at the university. I know people have had tough experiences, but I do feel like I have, personally, 100% trust and faith in our leadership.' Another Israeli master's student studying at Harvard, who wished to remain anonymous due to concerns about how speaking publicly might impact their studies, told CNN it is 'very important for Israelis and Jewish people to come here and still be very strong in what they believe in … And not only in Harvard, I would say in American academia and on American campuses right now, more than ever.' One graduate student from Australia, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of being denied future US visas, told CNN it 'feels extraordinary that we are all being punished' for campus activism, given that researchers and PhD students often don't have the time or interest to engage. 'As a graduate student, we are just fully occupied with our research work, which I would say I spend 80 to 100 hours on each week,' said the Australian student, adding that the showdown between the Trump administration and Harvard will likely lead to researchers leaving the country. 'If things really hit the fan, (I) would probably be trying to transfer to a school in the UK.' Other graduate students said they are also feeling fear and uncertainty, with concerns for their research work, their future careers and their loved ones. 'There's the ramifications for their family, you know, spouses, their children, their enrollment, their work status, their rent, housing, everything,' said Fangzhou Jiang, 30, from China. He is a Harvard Kennedy School student going into his second year of a master's program. 'You just don't know what's going to happen.' For some international students, like those from countries at war or experiencing political turmoil, the stakes are even higher. Maria Kuznetsova, a former spokesperson for OVD-Info, a Russian independent human rights monitoring group, is currently a graduate student at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She's graduating in a week and had planned to work on a Harvard-sponsored visa that had already been granted, but she fears it may be canceled now. 'I used to work in Russian human rights and in the opposition, which means I can't return to Russia,' Kuznetsova told CNN. 'And since I've been living in the US for two years now, I don't even have a European visa. So, I don't really know where I could even go geographically if things go wrong.' 'From what I see, people are still in a state of panic – everyone's waiting for the court's decision,' Kuznetsova said. 'It's not just me from Russia here – there are also many Ukrainians, a lot of political students from Venezuela, and people from Afghanistan and Palestine. I even have a classmate from North Korea. These are people who, quite literally, cannot return to their home countries,' she added. Steven Pinker, Harvard University Professor of Psychology, says "The Trump administration is following the handbook of authoritarian regimes and dictatorships" by going after universities, law firms and media organizations that potentially oppose its policies. Ivan Bogantsev, also from Russia, was planning to stay in the US after completing his program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His wife, currently in Russia and also on a Harvard-sponsored visa, is due to arrive for his graduation, but he's unsure whether she'll be allowed entry. 'No one seems able to explain whether we're at risk of deportation or not,' Bogantsev told CNN. 'I believe a brain drain from this country is absolutely guaranteed. I can't say to what extent, but the environment here is extremely unfriendly.' But he said going back to Russia is not an option he is considering. 'I was detained at rallies (in Russia), and let's just say the atmosphere was growing increasingly tense. And secondly, most of my friends are essentially labeled (in Russia) as criminals, traitors or foreign agents.' Leo Gerdén, from Sweden, who is supposed to graduate next week, told CNN that some of his friends still at Harvard 'are making new plans of transferring, especially to other institutions abroad.' 'I was looking forward to celebrating commencement next week, but now, you know, I might leave this place and it will not look the same next semester, because without these international students and its international researchers, the Harvard campus will not be the same,' Gerdén said. 'We are being used essentially as poker chips in a battle between the White House and Harvard, and it feels honestly very dehumanizing.' CNN's Katelyn Polantz, Helen Regan, Todd Symons and Isa Soares contributed to this report.
