Latest news with #ex-Trump
Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
MAGA activist Steve Bannon claims Elon Musk got physical with Scott Bessent, reveals all details
Steve Bannon, ex-Trump strategist, said Elon Musk got physical with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a fight at the White House, as per Daily Mail report. This happened because Bessent accused Musk of failing to cut enough government spending as promised. Bessent told Musk, "You promised $1 trillion in cuts, and now it's just $100 billion. What are you doing?" Musk didn't like that and shoved Bessent. It wasn't just a shouting match, it was a real physical fight. The White House confirmed the incident happened in April, on Musk's last day as a special advisor to Trump. Leavitt said that Trump's team is full of passionate people, and disagreements happen sometimes, as stated in the report by Daily Mail. Around the same time, New York Times also reported that Musk had been using drugs like ketamine, ecstasy, and psychedelic mushrooms during the campaign. Back in April, when the fight first became public, one witness said it looked like 'two billionaire middle-aged men thinking it was WWE in the West Wing', as mentioned in the report by Axios. Bessent was heard yelling 'Fuck you!' repeatedly at Musk. Musk replied 'I can't hear you. Say it louder.' The fight started in the Oval Office, then moved near Chief of Staff Susie Wiles' office, and then to the National Security Advisor's office, according to the report by Axios. Live Events Bannon said Trump supported Bessent 100% after the fight. Trump also got mad at Musk earlier in March, when Musk had another clash, this time with Marco Rubio over mass firings at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). After that March fight, Trump publicly said he wanted to limit Musk's cost-cutting ideas, as per reports. Now that Musk is no longer working at the White House, he has started saying a few things he doesn't fully agree with about Trump's team. According to the report by CBS Sunday Morning, Musk said that while he agrees with some of what the administration does, there are things he doesn't fully support. Musk said he's in a 'bind' because he doesn't want to attack the administration, but also doesn't want to be blamed for everything they do. FAQ Q1. Why did Elon Musk and Scott Bessent fight? They fought after Bessent accused Musk of not cutting enough government spending. Q2. Did Trump support Musk after the White House fight? No, Trump supported Scott Bessent after the fight, according to Steve Bannon.
Hindustan Times
7 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Trump administration asks SC to greenlight fast-track deportations to third countries
President Donald Trump's administration asked the US Supreme Court on Tuesday to intervene in its effort to rapidly deport migrants to countries other than their own without the opportunity to raise claims that they fear being persecuted, tortured or killed there. The Justice Department requested that the justices lift Boston-based US District Judge Brian Murphy's nationwide injunction requiring that migrants be given the chance to seek legal relief from deportation before they are sent to so-called "third countries," while litigation continues in the case. The administration said in its filing that the third-country process is critical to removing migrants who commit crimes because their countries of origin are often unwilling to take them back. Also Read | Trump grants pardon to tax fraudster after mother attended $1 million fundraiser "As a result, criminal aliens are often allowed to stay in the United States for years on end, victimising law-abiding Americans in the meantime," it told the justices. The filing represented the administration's latest trip to the nation's highest judicial body as it seeks a freer hand to pursue Trump's crackdown on immigration and contest lower court decisions that have impeded the Republican president's policies. The administration has said Murphy's injunction is preventing potentially thousands of pending deportations. The injunction "disrupts sensitive diplomatic, foreign policy and national security efforts," it said in Tuesday's filing. Also Read | Who is Keith Schiller, ex-Trump aide hired as lobbyist by Pakistan amid tensions with India The Department of Homeland Security moved in February to determine if people granted protections against being removed to their home countries could be detained again and sent to a third country. Immigrant rights groups then mounted a class action lawsuit on behalf of a group of migrants seeking to prevent rapid deportation to newly identified third countries without notice and a chance to assert the harms they could face. In March, the administration issued guidance providing that if a third country has given credible diplomatic assurance that it will not persecute or torture migrants, individuals may be deported there "without the need for further procedures." Without such assurance, if the migrant expresses fear of removal to that country, US authorities would assess the likelihood of persecution or torture, possibly referring the person to an immigration court, according to the guidance. Murphy issued a preliminary injunction in April, finding that the administration's policy of "executing third-country removals without providing notice and a meaningful opportunity to present fear-based claims" likely violates due process protections under the US Constitution's Fifth Amendment. Due process protections generally require the government to provide notice and an opportunity for a hearing before taking certain adverse actions. Murphy said that the Supreme Court, Congress, "common sense", and "basic decency" all require migrants to be given adequate due process. The Boston-based 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals on May 16 declined to put Murphy's decision on hold. As with previous cases challenging Trump's far-reaching executive actions and initiatives, the case raised further questions over whether the administration is defying court orders. Murphy, on May 21, ruled that the administration had violated his court order by attempting to deport migrants to South Sudan. "The government has continued to flout the district court's order. Behind the government's rhetoric is not an emergency, but the law. The law requires due process," Trina Realmuto, one of the lawyers for the plaintiffs with the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, said on Tuesday after the administration's filing. Also Read | Did British Royals just take a side in the US vs Canada trade war? King Charles III's speech has the answer The injunction requires due process before deporting migrants to third countries, including those "where the State Department has documented systemic human rights abuses and violence against foreign nationals," Realmuto said. 'INTOLERABLE CHOICE' The migrants, now being held at a military base in Djibouti, all had committed "heinous crimes" in the United States, the administration told the Supreme Court, including murder, arson and armed robbery. "As a result, the United States has been put to the intolerable choice of holding these aliens for additional proceedings at a military facility on foreign soil - where each day of their continued confinement risks grave harm to American foreign policy - or bringing these convicted criminals back to America," the Justice Department said. Murphy has also ordered that non-citizens be given at least 10 days to raise a claim that they fear for their safety. In another action, Murphy modified his injunction to guard against the possibility of the Department of Homeland Security ceding control of migrants to other agencies to carry out rapid deportations, after the administration took the position that the US Department of Defence was not covered by his orders. It made that argument after acknowledging the Defence Department flew four Venezuelans held at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to El Salvador following Murphy's initial ruling. After Reuters reported in May that the US military could deport a group of migrants for the first time to Libya, Murphy issued an order saying such removals would "clearly violate" his ruling.
USA Today
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Liev Schreiber praises his trans daughter Kai with Naomi Watts: ‘Such a fighter'
Liev Schreiber praises his trans daughter Kai with Naomi Watts: 'Such a fighter' Show Caption Hide Caption Elon Musk says trans child was 'killed' by the 'woke mind virus' Elon Musk claimed his daughter was "killed" by the "woke mind virus" after he was tricked into agreeing to gender-affirming care procedures. unbranded - Newsworthy Liev Schreiber is supporting his 16-year-old trans daughter Kai, whom he calls "a fighter." The proud dad praised his youngest child, shared with ex-wife and two-time Oscar nominee Naomi Watts, in an interview with Variety published May 8. "Kai was always who Kai is," Schreiber said. "But I suppose the most profound moment was her asking us to change her pronouns. To be honest with you, it didn't feel like that big of a deal to me only because Kai had been so feminine for so long." The pair of A-list exes also share son Sasha, 17. "Kai is such a fighter, it's important that she goes, 'Hey, I am trans,' and 'Look at me,'" Schreiber said. His daughter walked at the Valentino fall/winter show during Paris Fashion week in March. Kai will also appear alongside her famous dad and her stepmom Taylor Neisen at the Place at the Table Gala on the night of May 9 in New York City to benefit the Ali Forney Center, which provides housing and support for homeless LGBTQ+ youth. Schreiber's comments come as President Donald Trump has issued executive orders that seek to restrict the rights of transgender Americans and curb their ability to serve in the military, participate in school sports and obtain government documentation, including passports that reflect their gender identity. Schreiber seems hopeful about the future for trans youth like Kai, telling Variety that he doesn't "like to dwell on it too much. To some degree, I feel like I don't want to overcook that fear or that anxiety," he explained. "There's enough in the world to be anxious and afraid about." Liev Schrieber said the trans community 'desperately needs' support The "Ray Donovan" star also spoke out about the need to help other LGBTQ+ youth. "This isn't just about representing the trans community," he said. "This is actually a community of people who don't have great resources, who don't have access to help, who aren't being protected and looked after by their families. These are people who are being rejected. These are people who are experiencing the harshest version of humanity that we can offer, and some of them are not surviving it." Liev Schreiber on 'Ray Donovan' in NY, ex-Trump fixer's Ray embrace, 'SNL' hosting nerves However, Schreiber isn't running to give advice to other parents of trans kids, admitting that he doesn't know everything. "I don't know the answer for your kid," he continued. "I don't know what it's like for you to be a trans dad. I don't know how you were brought up. I don't know what religion you encountered or what your spirituality is. And for me to tell you what I think about my kid feels like an overstep." Contributing: Naledi Ushe, Saleen Martin, Fernando Cervantes Jr.
Sky News
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
Project 2025: Is Donald Trump following a right-wing playbook - and what's next?
Why you can trust Sky News "I haven't read it, I don't want to read it." That was Donald Trump on the campaign trail denying knowledge of Project 2025, a right-wing plan to tear down swathes of the US government. Written by a prominent conservative thinktank, Project 2025 is a plan to fundamentally reshape America. Its 900 pages set out how a president should expand their power by gutting the federal workforce while abolishing the department of education. For some it represents an anti-woke "wishlist". For others it is a fundamental threat to American democracy. The document got a lot of attention during last year's election, leading to Mr Trump disavowing its contents and saying it had nothing to do with his campaign. But now - 100 days into his second presidency - we see how much of what has occurred since he returned to the White House looks like the Project 2025 blueprint. The architect of the plan, lawyer and political activist Paul Dans, said what Mr Trump has achieved in office is "beyond my wildest dreams". So how closely does the trail being blazed by the Trump administration mirror the key tenets of Project 2025? Project 2025 debuted two years ago and was put together by the Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative thinktank based in Washington DC. It spoke of the need to "dismantle the administrative state" by suggesting radical changes to the way the country is run and also creating a database of thousands of people who might work in the next conservative government. Some say it's a "playbook" for how to reshape America, but Dr Emma Long, an associate professor at the University of East Anglia, says it's more of a "wishlist". Many of the people who worked on the document - including the likes of principal author Russell Vought - were ex-Trump administration officials who said they wanted to avoid past mistakes and ensure the next Republican president hit the ground running. Since his return to the White House, a lot of what President Trump and his allies have done has concentrated more power in the presidency, rather than in state institutions - or as some on the right wing like to call it, the "deep state". What Project 2025 said: The document called for the president to slash regulations and make federal employees easier to fire. It says the president should use executive power to "handcuff the bureaucracy", dismantle the administrative state and "defund the woke culture warriors who have infiltrated every last institution in America". What Trump has done: From the day he returned to office, Mr Trump has instructed allies to go after the so-called "deep state" by bringing federal agencies including the FBI and the justice department much more under presidential control. He has moved to reclassify thousands of federal workers as political hires, making them easier to fire if they do not show sufficient loyalty, while his administration has sought to gut federal workforce numbers overall. "It's radical," says Professor Inderjeet Parmar, an expert in international politics at City St George's, University of London. "You could call it an assault on the state to reshape it." What Project 2025 said: "Illegal immigration should be ended, not mitigated; the border sealed, not reprioritised." What Trump has done: He has promised sweeping deportations and declared a national emergency at the border with Mexico. He has gone beyond Project 2025 in seeking to end birthright citizenship, which is enshrined in the constitution. What Project 2025 said:"The next conservative President must make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors." It said this should be done by "deleting" terms like diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), gender equality and abortion. What Trump has done: He promised a war on woke and has certainly delivered that. His executive orders have stipulated there are only two genders and sought to end government support for DEI programs, while the Pentagon has purged DEI content from its online platforms. Meanwhile, thousands of federal employees received an email telling them to report any efforts to "disguise" diversity initiatives in their agencies or face "consequences". 1:40 What Project 2025 said: Interestingly, on the issue of tariffs and trade the document is split. One author argues for higher tariffs on nations which won't reduce theirs to match America's, while another argued not only that tariffs should be scrapped, but the power to create them should be stripped from the president. What Trump has done: While he has proved somewhat movable on other policies, President Trump has spoken of his love of tariffs for decades. Now his series of global tariffs have sent markets tumbling and left allies reeling. This is a "big divergence" from the Heritage Foundation, which published Project 2025, says Prof Parmar, which has a tradition of free trade. 1:30 What Project 2025 said:"Federal education policy should be limited and, ultimately, the federal Department of Education should be eliminated." It claims that bureaucrats at the department "inject racist, anti-American, ahistorical propaganda into America's classrooms" - a reference to critical race theory. What Trump has done: Signed an executive order calling for the dismantling of the Department of Education. The department's staff is cut in half, while Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency has wiped out dozens of contracts branded "woke", including effectively eliminating a research office that tracks students' progress. Schools and colleges deemed to be pushing "critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual or political content" will have their funding cut. Dr Long says eventually the administration wants to shut the department but in the meantime are defunding it, "reducing power over what's happening in education". What Project 2025 said:"The next conservative administration should scale back USAID's global footprint by, at a minimum, returning to the agency's 2019 pre-COVID-19 pandemic budget level. "It should deradicalise USAID's programs and structures and build on the conservative reforms instituted by the (first) Trump administration." What Trump has done: Gone far beyond Project 2025 here and instead moved to dismantle USAID altogether. Federal programmes overseas, totalling billions of dollars, have been slashed, with potentially dramatic consequences. For example, the closure of funding for organisations combating HIV could lead to 500,000 deaths in South Africa, it has been reported. What Project 2025 said:"The Biden Administration's extreme climate policies have worsened global food insecurity and hunger. Its anti-fossil fuel agenda has led to a sharp spike in global energy prices." What Trump has done: Withdrawn the US from the Paris climate agreement (again), revoked President Joe Biden's goals on electric vehicles and promised to "drill, baby, drill". 42:33 What Project 2025 said: The Supreme Court's decision to strike down abortion protections in Roe v Wade is hailed as "the greatest pro-family win in a generation" - but says things shouldn't stop there. Project 2025 called for the US government to enforce a 150-year-old law known as the Comstock Act, which criminalised sending obscene materials by post, arguing it can be used to prevent abortion pills being sent in the mail. Critics say this could amount to an effective nationwide ban on medicated abortion. What Trump has done: While his initial flurry of executive orders did not include measures to expand or enforce the Comstock Act, Dr Long said it is still very early in the president's term. What's more, Mr Trump has shown support for coming after abortion access, including by rolling back two executive orders designed to protect the right to choose signed by Mr Biden in the aftermath of the fall of Roe v Wade. However, Prof Parmar argued that Mr Trump may be recognising that there is "broad support for some degree of choice" and that could be why he hasn't moved towards a nationwide ban. What Project 2025 said: The wide ranging playbook for power called on US allies to "take far greater responsibility for their conventional defence". It said the US faces "real threats" from adversaries including Russia"evidenced by Vladimir Putin's brutal war in Ukraine". It added: "The United States needs to deal with these threats forthrightly and with strength, but it also needs to be realistic. It cannot wish away these problems. Rather, it must confront them with a clear-eyed recognition of the need for choice, discipline, and adequate resources for defence." What Trump has done: Similar to Project 2025, Mr Trump and his administration have urged NATO allies to spend more on defence. However, his ambitions to bring a rapid end to the war in Ukraine have seen him put pressure on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy while seemingly initially applying much less to Mr Putin. 0:41 What Project 2025 said: TikTok is "in effect a tool of Chinese espionage" that should be outlawed by the president. What Trump has done: Tried to negotiate a sale of the app's US operations to a US company, or face a ban. "He saw that TikTok was a way of reaching young voters in his base," Prof Parmar says, suggesting why the president might be inclined to keep the app around. So is Project 2025 underpinning President Trump's policies? It may be best understood as similar ideas within the US right wing as well as overlapping of specific people, experts say. While much of Mr Trump's return to office has mirrored the incendiary ideas contained in the pages of Project 2025, it may be that this relationship is better understood as an alignment of similar orbits within the US right. "Alignment is probably a fair way to think about it rather than enacting of a playbook," Dr Long says. "It shouldn't be surprising that there is overlap here," she adds, pointing to the fact that many people who have worked for Mr Trump have also worked for the Heritage Foundation. Prof Parmar agreed and also pointed out that several of the architects of Project 2025 work in the Trump administration and can now "carry through big parts of this agenda". What's next? So what could be next? If Mr Trump continues to mirror Project 2025 - consciously or unconsciously - some unrealised parts of the document include: • Its focus on family, which it says is "in crisis". It adds: "It's time for policymakers to elevate family authority, formation, and cohesion as their top priority and even use government power, including through the tax code, to restore the American family," with one of the authors saying "Every threat to family stability must be confronted". • A further crackdown on abortion rights, potentially through the Comstock Act • A reining in of big tech companies, which it says are "abusing dominant positions" in the marketplace, with one of the authors saying "The worst of these companies prey on children, like drug dealers, to get them addicted to their mobile apps". How much Trump 2.0 will continue to mirror the provocative ideas in Project 2025 will be a major theme of the next few years. It's very possible that large parts of the American state could become unrecognisable.
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
David Hogg and ex-Trump official spar in fiery clash over Kilmar Abrego Garcia deportation
DNC Vice Chair David Hogg and former chief of staff to President Donald Trump Reince Priebus clashed during a fiery exchange on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" Sunday over the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Priebus, who served as RNC chairman from 2011 until 2017, when he was tapped to become Trump's chief of staff during his first term, began the war of words when he said he would have Hogg "removed from the party" if he were in charge of the DNC. Priebus was responding to a question about how he would handle Hogg's pledge to spend $20 million to primary older Democratic incumbents. "It's $20 million out of the DNC's pocket. You can't be on the board of the fishing and forest company and on Greenpeace at the same time," Priebus said. Hogg's plan has drawn the ire of his party, with a longtime Democratic strategist calling the Parkland shooting survivor a "contemptible little twerp." The former RNC chair went on to slam the Democrats, accusing them of being a party in disarray that does not know how to effectively counter Trump. Democrats' Vice Chair Ignites Civil War, Targeting 'Asleep At The Wheel' Incumbents In Primaries "The Democrats are a complete mess. They have no movement… They have no message… They have no leader. It doesn't get any worse than that. You're defending Harvard, you're traveling to El Salvador to defend MS-13 gang members," Priebus said. Read On The Fox News App The ex-Trump official was referring to Sen. Chris Van Hollen's, D-Md., trip to El Salvador to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Garcia, an illegal immigrant residing in Maryland, was deported to El Salvador, his home country, and incarcerated in the country's notorious CECOT mega-prison. Democrats have decried that Trump deported Garcia, who had no criminal record, in defiance of a court order to a country that subsequently jailed him without due process. The Trump administration has claimed that Garcia is a member of MS-13, and released records showing his wife had once accused him of domestic violence. Van Hollen flew to El Salvador to meet with Garcia on Friday and advocated for his release. El Salvadorian officials announced Garcia had been transferred to a different prison prior to Van Hollen's arrival. Sen. Van Hollen Pours Cold Water On 'Margarita-gate' Photo-op After El Salvador Trip: 'Nobody Drank Any' Hogg interjected and accused Priebus of deliberately misleading the audience about Garcia's criminal status. "This was not an MS-13 gang member, and you damn well know that," Hogg replied. "The administration admitted this was wrong. In America, we have due process. We are a land of law and order, and this administration is repeatedly showing time and time again they do not care about what the Supreme Court says. They do not care about the rule of law, and you cannot defend sending people to another country where they don't have rights." Priebus responded that polls indicate that the majority of Americans support mass deportations of illegal immigrants and that "every intel community agency" had concluded that Garcia was a member of article source: David Hogg and ex-Trump official spar in fiery clash over Kilmar Abrego Garcia deportation
