Category Archives: Donald Trump

Donald Trump says residents of Greenland want to be part of US

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President tells reporters he believes US will take control of island, after reports of ‘horrendous’ call with Denmark PM

Donald Trump has said he believes the US will take control of Greenland, after details emerged of a “horrendous” call in which he made economic threats to Denmark, which has said the territory is not for sale.

Speaking onboard Air Force One on Saturday, Trump said: “I think we’re going to have it,” and claimed that the Arctic island’s 57,000 residents “want to be with us”.

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‘We’re watching mass delusion happen’: Trump’s return to White House brings cascade of lies

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In first week in office, president has made false claims on topics from immigration and economy to Panama canal

Donald Trump had been US president again for less than 15 minutes when he made his first factually dubious claim.

“The vicious, violent and unfair weaponisation of the justice department and our government will end,” he said early in his inaugural address. There is no evidence that former president Joe Biden ordered the justice department to prosecute Trump and no violence took place.

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Kristi Noem confirmed by US Senate to head Department of Homeland Security

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South Dakota governor will take on Trump’s anti-immigration mission, air travel and natural disasters

Kristi Noem secured US Senate confirmation as homeland security secretary on Saturday, putting the South Dakota governor in charge of a sprawling agency that is essential to national security and Donald Trump’s plans to clamp down on illegal immigration during his second presidency.

The Senate worked on Saturday as Republicans successfully sought to install the latest member of Trump’s national security team. Defense secretary Pete Hegseth was confirmed in a dramatic tie-breaking vote by JD Vance Friday night, joining the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the CIA director, John Ratcliffe.

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‘Move closer to Europe – not Trump’ voters tell Starmer in major UK poll

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Pressure growing on Labour to improve trade with EU as Rachel Reeves admits Brexit damaged UK

Keir Starmer is under growing pressure to forge closer economic links with Europe five years on from Brexit, as a major new poll shows voters clearly favour prioritising more trade with the EU over the US.

The MRP survey of almost 15,000 people by YouGov for the Best for Britain thinktank shows more people in every constituency in England, Scotland and Wales back closer arrangements with the EU rather than more transatlantic trade with Washington. MRP polls use large data samples to estimate opinion at a local level

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Trump again demands to buy Greenland in ‘horrendous’ call with Danish PM

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Source says: ‘The Danes are in crisis mode’ after US president’s call with prime minister Mette Frederiksen

Donald Trump had a fiery phone call with Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen over his demands to buy Greenland, according to senior European officials.

Speaking to the Financial Times, officials said that Trump, then still president-elect, spoke with Frederiksen for 45 minutes last week, during which he was described to be aggressive and confrontational about Frederiksen’s refusal to sell Greenland to the US.

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The oil crisis fuelled by Russia’s war is evaporating – and so are the profits

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Results from Shell and Exxon this week will be weaker – and Trump’s desire to drill may result in oversupply

Almost three years ago, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine wiped out Europe’s largest source of gas and shocked global energy markets, setting the stage for quarter after quarter of better-than-expected earnings for the fossil fuel producers ready to profit from the volatility. Now those returns are beginning to cool.

But as markets have reduced to a simmer, oil executives have warned that profits are also going off the boil. A glut of new oil and gas projects, stoked by a pro-fossil-fuel agenda from the White House, could mean weaker markets in the future too.

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‘Safe to be a white male again’: how conservative media covered Trump’s first week

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The right is ecstatic about the end of the Biden era – but remains polarized about some of Trump’s decisions

Americans really do inhabit two worlds: some shed tears of sadness at the advent of Donald Trump’s second presidency. Others cried, too – with joy.

Across the conservative, “post-liberal” and alternative media spheres, journalists, pundits and some social media circles celebrated the end of the Biden era with the enthusiasm of rebels toppling the relics of a collapsing dictatorship. As Trump swore his presidential oath, the writer Walter Kirn, a pro-Trump, anti-establishment agitator on X, grandiloquently declared: “This is a revolution against a corrupt ancien regime.”

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Trump fires 17 independent watchdogs at US government agencies

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Inspectors general at state, defense and transportation departments removed in apparent violation of federal law

Donald Trump fired 17 independent watchdogs at multiple US government agencies on Friday, a person with knowledge of the matter said, eliminating a critical oversight component and clearing the way for the president to replace them with loyalists.

The inspectors general at agencies including the departments of state, defense and transportation were notified by emails from the White House personnel director that they had been terminated immediately, the source said on condition of anonymity.

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Pete Hegseth: five things to know about the new US secretary of defense

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Hegseth has been accused of sexual assault and excessive drinking, and has endorsed extremist Christian doctrine

The Senate has confirmed Fox News host and army veteran Pete Hegseth to be the US secretary of defense, placing him in charge of the federal government’s largest agency after a tie-breaking vote had to be cast by JD Vance.

Three Republican senators – Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins – and every Democratic senator voted against his confirmation, leaving him with 51 votes, enough to become Donald Trump’s third cabinet member to secure Senate confirmation.

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Trump signs order to reinstate ‘global gag rule’ on abortion aid

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Federal rule also known as ‘Mexico City policy’ halts US funds to overseas groups that provide abortion services

Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order reinstating a federal rule known as the “Mexico City policy” which halts US aid from flowing to groups that provide abortion services, counsel people about the procedure or advocate for abortion rights overseas.

The policy, which was first instituted by Ronald Reagan in 1984, is typically implemented whenever a Republican president wins the White House and rescinded whenever a Democrat wins. But this whiplash has major implications for abortion and reproductive healthcare around the world.

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Trump store ‘unabashedly’ cashing in on his White House return, inquiry finds

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Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington found 168 new products appeared for sale on site since November

Donald Trump’s merchandising operation moved into overdrive between election day and his inauguration this week as it rushed to cash in on his return to the White House, an investigation has found.

In all, 168 new products appeared for sale on trumpstore.com since November, many celebrating his election to a second term of office, according to the pro-transparency group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew).

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Ontario premier Doug Ford to call snap election to fight Trump tariff threat

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Progressive Conservative leader of Canada’s most populous province seeks ‘strong mandate’ to counter 25% tariff plan

The Ontario premier, Doug Ford, has said an early election is needed in the Canadian province in order to fend off an income “attack” from Donald Trump as a trade war looms between the close allies.

But opposition parties criticized the move, calling it a “distraction” from an ongoing criminal investigation into the government’s handling of a controversial multibillion-dollar land swap.

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Putin ‘ready for negotiations’ with Trump on Ukraine war

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Russian president strikes noticeably favourable tone, downplaying Trump’s economic threats

Vladimir Putin has said he is ready to discuss the war in Ukraine with Donald Trump and suggested it would be a good idea for them to meet.

In his first comments since Trump issued threats to inflict economic damage on Russia if it failed to end the war in Ukraine, Putin struck a favourable tone towards the US president.

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How the world has responded to Trump’s Paris climate agreement withdrawal

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From Europe to Africa and South America, countries reaffirm commitment to tackle crisis

World leaders, senior ministers and key figures in climate diplomacy have, one by one, reaffirmed their commitment to the Paris agreement this week, in response to the order by Donald Trump to withdraw the US from the pact.

The prospect of the world keeping temperatures to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, as the treaty calls for, was damaged by the incoming US president’s move. Hopes of meeting the target were already fast receding, and last year was the first to consistently breach the 1.5C limit, but the goal will be measured over years or even decades and stringent cuts to emissions now could still make a difference.

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North Korea preparing to send more troops to Ukraine war, says South Korea

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Pyongyang said to be planning to increase support despite high casualties among estimated 11,000 already sent

North Korea is preparing to send more soldiers to fight in the Ukraine war, military officials in South Korea have said, despite reports of heavy casualties among troops from the communist state who have already been sent to the battlefield.

The claim that Pyongyang could be planning to increase its support for the Kremlin came as Donald Trump suggested he would attempt to rekindle his relationship with Kim Jong-un, describing the North Korean leader as a “smart guy” in an interview with Fox News.

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California governor signs $2.5bn relief package for LA wildfire recovery

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Announcement comes day before Donald Trump will visit fire-torn areas and amid criticism around state water supply

Gavin Newsom has signed a $2.5bn relief package to help areas of Los Angeles recover from the devastating fires that have been burning for nearly two weeks. The funds were announced during a press conference on Thursday in Pasadena, just outside of Altadena, the town hit hardest by the Eaton fire, which ignited on 7 January.

The signing of the bipartisan aid package comes a day before Donald Trump is set to visit the fire-torn areas and amid continued criticism of the California governor and other state officials’ management of the state’s water supply. It also follows a new blaze, the Hughes fire, which sparked on Wednesday morning and quickly grew. It is now 36% contained and has burned nearly 10,400 acres (4,209 hectares), according to Cal Fire.

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Trump orders release of thousands of classified files on JFK assassination

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Executive order also aims to declassify federal records on killings of Robert F Kennedy and Martin Luther King

Donald Trump has ordered the release of thousands of classified governmental documents about the 1963 assassination of John F Kennedy, which has fueled conspiracy theories for decades.

The executive order the president signed on Thursday also aims to declassify the remaining federal records relating to the assassinations of Robert F Kennedy and the Rev Martin Luther King Jr. The order is among a flurry of executive actions Trump has quickly taken the first week of his second term.

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Trump’s health department cancels meetings and pauses communications

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Health and Human Services is expected to be overhauled as Robert F Kennedy Jr waits to take department’s reins

Trump administration appointees are asserting control over the enormous US federal health department after the president’s inauguration this week – pausing public communications and abruptly canceling scientific meetings.

While temporary communications pauses are not entirely abnormal as new administrations find their feet, the orders come at a time of high anxiety for US scientists and public health workers.

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US judge blocks Trump’s order to end birthright citizenship

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Judge rules in favor of states who sued over president’s executive order, which was set to take effect on 19 February

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked Donald Trump’s executive order ending the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship regardless of the parents’ immigration status.

US district judge John C Coughenour ruled in the case brought by the states of Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon, which argue the 14th amendment and supreme court case law have cemented birthright citizenship.

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Advocates ‘deeply worried’ as Trump’s justice department halts new civil rights cases

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Call to stop civil rights cases follows order putting staff on federal DEI programs on leave as a prelude to shutting programs down

The Department of Justice has ordered its civil rights division to halt new cases, further signalling the new administration’s hostility to racial and gender equality since Donald Trump’s return to power.

The decision came amid a blur of frenzied activity across a range of sectors that sent out simultaneous signals of incipient purges and revenge against political opponents, along with a determination to act on radical campaign pledges.

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