Category Archives: US Politics

Musk should stay out of politics, treasury secretary says after ‘America’ party news

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Scott Bessent suggests Musk focus on business a day after tech billionaire announced his new political party

Elon Musk should focus on running his companies and keep himself out of politics, Donald Trump’s treasury secretary said on Sunday, a day after the world’s richest person – and a former White House adviser – announced the formation of a new political party.

“The principles of Doge were very popular – I think if you looked at the polling Elon was not,” Scott Bessent said on CNN’s State of the Union, referring to the so-called “department of government efficiency” that Musk temporarily headed after Trump’s second presidency began in January.

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‘I want my vote back’: Trump-voting family stunned after Canadian mother detained over immigration status

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Family of Cynthia Olivera reconsiders support for president after Ice detained her at green card interview

The family of a Canadian national who supported Donald Trump’s plans for mass deportations of immigrants say they are feeling betrayed after federal agents recently detained the woman in California while she interviewed for permanent US residency – and began working to expel her from the country.

“We feel totally blindsided,” Cynthia Olivera’s husband – US citizen and self-identified Trump voter Francisco Olivera – told the California news station KGTV. “I want my vote back.”

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‘Blatant misinformation’: Social Security Administration email praising Trump’s tax bill blasted as a ‘lie’

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Previously apolitical agency lauds Trump’s spending bill with false statements about federal taxes, experts say

An email sent by the US Social Security Administration (SSA) that claims Donald Trump’s major new spending bill has eliminated taxes on benefits for most recipients is misleading, critics have said.

The reconciliation bill – which the president called the “one big, beautiful bill” before signing it on Friday after Republicans in Congress passed it – includes provisions that will strip people of their health insurance, cut food assistance for the poor, kill off clean energy development and raise the national debt by trillions of dollars.

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Elon Musk’s proposed new political party could focus on a few pivotal congressional seats

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Billionaire said his ‘America party’ would try to turn attainable House and Senate seats to decide major issues

The new US political party that Elon Musk has boasted about possibly bankrolling could initially focus on a handful of attainable House and Senate seats while striving to be the decisive vote on major issues amid the thin margins in Congress.

Tesla and SpaceX’s multibillionaire CEO mused about that approach on Friday in a post on X, the social media platform which he owns, as he continued feuding with Donald Trump over the spending bill that the president has signed into law.

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US judge clears path for eight immigrants to be deported to South Sudan

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Justice department says the men – including nationals from Vietnam, South Korea, Mexico, Laos, Cuba and Myanmar – will be flown to South Sudan

Eight migrants lost their last-ditch effort to halt their deportation to South Sudan by the Trump administration on Friday, clearing the way for their imminent transfer after a judge in Massachusetts denied their request.

Lawyers for the justice department said the men were scheduled to be flown to South Sudan on Friday at 7pm Eastern Time after two courts considered the request on an emergency basis on 4 July, when courts were otherwise closed for the Independence Day holiday.

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Trump has ‘good conversation’ with Zelenskyy after heavy bombardment of Ukraine by Russia

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US munitions slated for Ukraine held up over shortage as Trump ‘disappointed’ by Putin’s refusal to make concessions

Donald Trump spoke with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Friday as the US president appears increasingly disheartened over his chances of fulfilling a campaign pledge to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.

The call with Zelenskyy comes as Washington has halted its latest shipment of military aid to Ukraine including Patriot air defense missiles and other crucial munitions meant to support the country’s defenses.

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El Salvador’s president denies that Kilmar Ábrego García was abused in notorious prison

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Nayib Bukele disputed claims of Ábrego García’s lawyers that he was tortured and deprived of sleep while in custody

The president of El Salvador has denied claims that Kilmar Ábrego García was subjected to beatings and deprivation while he was held in the country before being returned to the US to face human-smuggling charges.

Nayib Bukele said in a social media post that Ábrego García, the Salvadorian national who was wrongly extradited from the US to El Salvador in March before being returned in June, “wasn’t tortured, nor did he lose weight”.

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‘A dark day for our country’: Democrats furious over Trump bill’s passage

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez condemned bill’s expansion of immigration enforcement and cuts to social benefits

Democrats have erupted in a storm of outrage over the passage of Donald Trump’s budget bill, delivering scathing critiques that offered signs of the attack lines the party could wield against Republicans in next year’s midterm elections.

Party leaders released a wave of statements after the sweeping tax and spending bill’s passage on Thursday, revealing a fury that could peel paint off a brick outhouse.

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Trump’s big bill achieved what conservatives have been trying to do for decades

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The Republican fantasy of lower taxes and hard-to-access social safety net programs will now be a reality

For decades, Republicans have argued that the US would be better off if taxes were low, and programs to help low-income Americans were harder to access. With Donald Trump’s marquee tax and spending bill now set to become law, the country will find out what it’s like to live under that sort of system.

The massive legislation that Trump plans to sign Friday will make his campaign promises a reality by extending tax cuts enacted during his first term, and creating new deductions aimed at the working-class voters who backed his re-election.

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US supreme court clears way for deportation of migrants to South Sudan

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Court halts ruling that allowed migrants to challenge removal to countries where they could be in danger

The supreme court has allowed the Trump administration to deport the eight men who have been held for weeks at an American military base in Djibouti to war-torn South Sudan, a country where almost none of them have ties.

Most of the men are from countries including Vietnam, South Korea, Mexico, Laos, Cuba and Myanmar. Just one is from South Sudan.

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Twisted arms and late-night deals: how Trump’s sweeping policy bill was passed

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With narrow majorities and intra-party splits, Republicans faced a battle to give Trump his bill to sign – but they did it

Just a few months ago, analysts predicted that Republicans in Congress – with their narrow majorities and fractured internal dynamics – would not be able to pass Donald Trump’s landmark legislation.

On Thursday, the president’s commanding influence over his party was apparent once again: the bill passed just in time for Trump’s Fourth of July deadline.

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Former CBS anchor slams Paramount settlement with Trump: ‘It was a sellout’

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Dan Rather laments ‘sad day for journalism’ after company settles for $16m over 60 Minutes Kamala Harris interview

A former CBS News anchor and 60 minutes correspondent, Dan Rather, has blasted the $16m settlement between Paramount, the parent company of CBS News, and Donald Trump, calling it a “sad day for journalism”.

“It’s a sad day for 60 Minutes and CBS News,” Rather, a veteran journalist who was a CBS News anchor for over 20 years, told Variety in an interview published on Wednesday. “I hope people will read the details of this and understand what it was. It was distortion by the president and a kneeling down and saying, ‘yes, sir,’ by billionaire corporate owners.”

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Kilmar Ábrego García was tortured in Salvadorian prison, court filing alleges

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New court documents allege physical and psychological torture at Cecot in one of first looks at conditions in prison

Kilmar Ábrego García, the Maryland man who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador and detained in one of that country’s most notorious prisons, was physically and psychologically tortured during the three months he spent in Salvadorian custody, according to new court documents filed Wednesday.

While being held at the so-called Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot) in El Salvador, Ábrego García and 20 other men “were forced to kneel from approximately 9:00 PM to 6:00 AM”, according to the court papers filed by his lawyers in the federal district court in Maryland.

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Pentagon says US strikes set back Iran nuclear program ‘one to two years’

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Sean Parnell repeats Trump claim that key sites were destroyed, based on ‘assessments inside the department’

The Pentagon has collected intelligence material that suggests Iran’s nuclear program was set back roughly one to two years as a result of the US strikes on three key facilities last month, the chief spokesperson at the defense department said at a news conference on Wednesday.

The spokesperson, Sean Parnell, repeated Donald Trump’s claim that Iran’s key nuclear sites had been completely destroyed, although he did not offer further details on the origin of the assessments beyond saying it came from inside the defense department.

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Pentagon reviews arms exports to allies as munition stockpiles reportedly drop

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Spokesperson Sean Parnell confirms defence department reviewing shipments may not affect only Ukraine

The Pentagon has said that it is reviewing weapons deliveries to allies around the world as reports grow of concerns over dwindling stockpiles of crucial munitions including anti-air missiles.

The announcement came after the White House confirmed that it was limiting deliveries of weapons to Ukraine to “put America’s interests first following a Department of Defense review of our nation’s military support and assistance to other countries around the globe”.

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Planned Parenthood CEO warns budget bill could devastate group and slash abortion access in blue states

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Alexis McGill Johnson says nearly 200 health centers could close if US House passes sweeping tax-and-spending bill

Planned Parenthood stands to lose roughly $700m in federal funding if the US House passes Republicans’ massive spending-and-tax bill, the organization’s CEO said on Wednesday, amounting to what abortion rights supporters and opponents alike have called a “backdoor abortion ban”.

“We are facing down the reality that nearly 200 health centers are at risk of closure. We’re facing a reality of the impact on shutting down almost half of abortion-providing health centers,” Alexis McGill Johnson, Planned Parenthood Federation of Americas’s CEO, said in an interview Wednesday morning. “It does feel existential. Not just for Planned Parenthood, but for communities that are relying on access to this care.”

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‘A win for humanity’: Trump’s asylum ban at US-Mexico border ruled unlawful

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President exceeded his authority and his proclamation of an ‘invasion’ at southern border is unlawful, court rules

A federal court has ruled that Donald Trump’s proclamation of an “invasion” at the US-Mexico border is unlawful, saying that the president had exceeded his authority in suspending the right to apply for asylum at the southern border.

As part of his crackdown on immigration, Trump abruptly closed the southern border to tens of thousands of people who had been waiting to cross into the US legally and apply for asylum, signing a proclamation on the day of his inauguration that directed officials to take action to “repel, repatriate, or remove any alien engaged in the invasion across the southern border of the United States”.

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Paramount settles with Trump for $16m over ‘60 Minutes’ Kamala Harris interview

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Paramount said it would pay the $16m to Trump’s future presidential library and not to Trump himself. It also said the settlement did not include a statement of apology or regret.

CBS parent company Paramount on Wednesday settled a lawsuit filed by Donald Trump over an interview broadcast in October, in the latest concession by a media company to the US president, who has targeted outlets over what he describes as false or misleading coverage.

Paramount said it would pay $16m to settle the suit with the money allocated to Trump’s future presidential library, and not paid to Trump “directly or indirectly”.

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Judge blocks Kristi Noem from ending temporary protected status for Haitians

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Homeland security secretary attempting to end legal status for approximately 521,000 Haitian immigrants

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s bid to end temporary deportation protections and work permits for approximately 521,000 Haitian immigrants before the program’s scheduled expiration date.

Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security rescinded Joe Biden’s extension of temporary protected status (TPS) for Haitians through 3 February. It called for the program to end on 3 August, and last week pushed back that date to 2 September.

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Trump administration raises possibility of stripping Mamdani of US citizenship

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Move comes after rightwing Republican accuses New York City mayoral candidate of concealing support for ‘terrorism’

The Trump administration has raised the possibility of stripping Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic mayoral candidate for New York City, of his US citizenship as part of a crackdown against foreign-born citizens convicted of certain offences.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, appeared to pave the way for an investigation into Mamdani’s status after Andy Ogles, a rightwing Republican representative for Tennessee, called for his citizenship to be revoked on the grounds that he may have concealed his support for “terrorism” during the naturalization process.

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