Trump outburst prompts removal of his ‘distorted’ portrait from Colorado capitol

Painting of Trump was commissioned by Republicans, though president blamed Colorado’s Democratic governor

A portrait of Donald Trump that was commissioned by fellow Republicans – but which he evidently came to believe had been “purposefully distorted” – was removed from a wall at the Colorado state capitol where it had been since 2019.

After Trump posted complaints about the painting on his Truth Social platform, Colorado’s senate minority leader, Paul Lundeen, a Republican, asked that it be taken down and replaced with one that “depicts his contemporary likeness”. Colorado Republicans had raised more than $10,000 to commission the oil painting that was the target of the president’s ire.

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Rising fears of Trump tariffs pummel US consumer confidence to four-year low

Tariffs panned by economists for sowing uncertainty that they said made it challenging for businesses to plan ahead

US consumer confidence plunged to the lowest level in more than four years in March, with households fearing a recession in the future and higher inflation because of tariffs.

The Conference Board said on Tuesday that write-in responses to the survey showed “worries about the impact of trade policies and tariffs in particular are on the rise”, adding: “There were also more references than usual to economic and policy uncertainty.”

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Trump dismisses Signal security failure as ‘the only glitch in two months’

President says national security adviser Mike Waltz, suspected of adding journalist to chat, ‘has learned a lesson’

Donald Trump defended his embattled national security adviser on Tuesday and said the leak of highly classified military plans was “the only glitch in two months”, as scrutiny intensified into how top US officials shared operational details for bombing Yemen in a group chat.

In an interview with NBC, the president said, “Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” as Democrats called for an investigation into the sharing of the plans for this month’s major airstrikes in Yemen on the Signal app. Later on Tuesday, during a meeting with ambassadors, Trump said his administration would investigate the incident but claimed “there was no classified information” shared on Signal.

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Danish PM accuses US of ‘unacceptable pressure’ as JD Vance says he will join Greenland visit

US vice-president says he will join unsolicited visit to Arctic island, which Mette Frederiksen says is ‘not what Greenland needs or wants’

Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, has accused the US of putting “unacceptable pressure” on Greenland – which she has vowed to resist – before an unsolicited visit to the Arctic island by members of the Trump administration.

Later, just hours after her comments, the White House sprang a fresh surprise, as the US vice-president, JD Vance, announced he would join his wife on a trip to the territory this week.

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US postmaster general resigns with immediate effect

Louis DeJoy led dramatic effort to restructure the US postal service over past five years

The US postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, who said earlier this month that he had asked the government efficiency team led by Elon Musk for assistance with a number of issues, is resigning effective on Monday, the agency said.

DeJoy, who has headed the agency since 2020, in February said he had asked the US Postal Service (USPS) governing board to identify his successor but had given no indication in recent days that he planned to step down abruptly.

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Trump’s shuttering of global media agency endangers reporters, staff say

Employees who may have to return home risk death or imprisonment at hands of authoritarian governments

Foreign workers at US government-backed media outlets being cut by the Trump administration say they face deportation to their home countries, where some risk imprisonment or death at the hands of authoritarian governments.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration moved to defund the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), an independent federal agency that oversees the Voice of America (VoA), the US’s largest and oldest international broadcaster, and provides grants to Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe and other news agencies. The agency had around 3,500 employees with an annual budget of $886m in 2024.

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US and Russia begin talks in Saudi Arabia on Ukraine ceasefire

Uncertainty remains over how and when 30-day halt on energy strikes would take effect amid a gulf on expectations

US and Russian officials have begun talks in Saudi Arabia as Donald Trump pushes to broker a limited ceasefire that Washington hopes will mark the first step toward lasting peace in Ukraine.

Ukraine and Russia have agreed in principle to a one-month halt on strikes on energy infrastructure after Trump spoke with the countries’ leaders last week. But uncertainty remains over how and when the partial ceasefire would take effect – and whether its scope would extend beyond energy infrastructure to include other critical sites, such as hospitals, bridges, and vital utilities.

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Anger in Greenland over visits this week by Usha Vance and Mike Waltz

Greenland’s prime minister says trip is ‘demonstration of power’ and accuses US of interfering in its political affairs

Greenland’s prime minister has accused Washington of interfering in its political affairs with the visit of an American delegation this week to the Arctic island coveted by the US president, Donald Trump.

“It should be said clearly that our integrity and democracy must be respected without foreign interference,” Múte Egede said on Monday, adding that the planned visit by the second lady, Usha Vance, along with the national security adviser, Mike Waltz, “cannot be seen as just a private visit”.

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IRS nears deal with Ice to share data of undocumented immigrants – report

Immigration officials could give names and addresses, raising concerns about abuse of power by Trump administration

The US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is reportedly nearing a deal to allow immigration officials to use tax data to support Donald Trump’s deportation agenda, according to reports by the Washington Post.

Under the proposed data-sharing agreement, said to have been in negotiations for weeks, Immigration And Customs Enforcement (Ice) could hand over the names and addresses of undocumented immigrants to the IRS, raising concerns about abuse of power from the Trump administration and the erosion of privacy rights.

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‘I’m not stepping down’: Chuck Schumer defies Democrats’ calls over funding bill

Party leader faces backlash over his decision to support Republican-led bill to avoid government shutdown

Chuck Schumer defied calls to give up the top Democratic position in the Senate after he voted for Republicans’ funding bill to avoid a government shutdown, saying on Sunday: “I’m not stepping down.”

Schumer has faced a wave of backlash from Democrats over his decision to support the Republican-led bill, with many Democrats alleging that the party leader isn’t doing enough to stand up to Donald Trump’s agenda.

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White House reportedly halts funding for legal aid for unaccompanied migrant children

Critics say cuts will mean that children will have to face off alone in court against experienced Ice attorneys

The Trump administration is reported to have cut funding to a legal program that provides representation for unaccompanied immigrant children, one month after directing immigration enforcement agents to track down minors who had entered the US without guardians last month.

Organizations that collectively receive more than $200m in federal grants were informed that the contract through the office of refugee resettlement had been partially terminated, according to a memo issued on Friday by the interior department and obtained by ABC News.

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Trump revokes security clearances for Biden, Harris and other political enemies

In Friday memo, president also pulls clearances for Antony Blinken, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger and Letitia James

Donald Trump moved to revoke security clearances for Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and a string of other top Democrats and political enemies in a presidential memo issued late on Friday.

The security-clearance revocations also cover the former secretary of state Antony Blinken, the former Wyoming representative Liz Cheney, the former Illinois representative Adam Kinzinger and the New York attorney general, Letitia James, who prosecuted Trump for fraud, as well as Biden’s entire family. They all will no longer have access to classified information – a courtesy typically offered to former presidents and some officials after they have left public service.

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The Trump administration is descending into authoritarianism

From media to culture and the arts to the refusal to abide by court orders, we’re nearing ‘Defcon 1 for our democracy’, experts say

Entering the magnificent great hall of the US Department of Justice, Donald Trump stopped for a moment to admire his portrait then took to a specially constructed stage where two art deco statues, depicting the “Spirit of Justice” and “Majesty of Justice”, had been carefully concealed behind a blue velvet curtain.

The president, who since last year is also a convicted criminal, proceeded to air grievances, utter a profanity and accuse the news media of doing “totally illegal” things, without offering evidence. “I just hope you can all watch for it,” he told justice department employees, “but it’s totally illegal.”

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Gold has surged amid economic uncertainty. Should you buy some?

As Trump escalates a global trade war, looking to gold to shield cash might not be the worst option

As economic uncertainty roils the US, the price of gold has roared to record highs amid investors seeking a place to shield their cash from Donald Trump’s scattergun trade wars.

A single ounce of gold cost $3,051.99 on Wednesday, compared with $2,160 in 2024, and gold has historically been seen as the safest place to invest in financially turbulent times.

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US urged to ‘think bigger’ on healthcare amid Trump onslaught on sector

Healthcare journal calls for radical change in approach, urging policymakers to invest in their communities

An academic journal may inject some optimism into US health policy – a scarce commodity amid the Trump administration’s mass layoffs, funding freezes and the ideological research reviews.

A new issue of Health Affairs Scholar argues the conversation around healthcare can change – and radically – if academics think “bigger” and policymakers invest in their communities.

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Exclusive: 20% of Americans support boycott of firms aligning themselves with Trump agenda

New poll also shows that a significant share of Americans will avoid companies that drop social-inclusion policies

One in five Americans plan to turn their backs for good on companies that have shifted their policies to align with Donald Trump’s agenda, according to a new poll for the Guardian.

As high-profile brands including Amazon, Target and Tesla grapple with economic boycotts, research by the Harris Poll indicated the backlash could have a lasting impact.

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US tourism industry faces drop-off as immigration agenda deters travellers

Westerners increasingly hesitant to travel to US out of fear of arrests and detentions as Trump enforces crackdown

A string of high-profile arrests and detentions of travellers is likely to cause a major downturn in tourism to the US, with latest figures already showing a serious drop-off, tourist experts said.

Several western travellers have recently been rejected at the US border on increasingly flimsy grounds under Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, some of them shackled and held in detention centers in poor conditions for weeks.

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Columbia University caves to demands to restore $400m from Trump administration

Measures include empowering security officers to arrest people, and reassigning control of Middle East department

Columbia University has yielded to a series of changes demanded by the Trump administration as a pre-condition for restoring $400m in federal funding the government pulled this month amid allegations that the school tolerated antisemitism on campus.

The university released a memo outlining its agreement with Donald Trump’s administration hours before an extended deadline set by the government was to expire.

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Trump revokes legal status of 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans

Move takes effect on 24 April as president weighs also stripping parole status from some 240,000 Ukrainians in US

Donald Trump’s administration will revoke the temporary legal status of 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans in the United States, according to a Federal Register notice on Friday, in the latest expansion of his crackdown on immigration.

It will be effective on 24 April.

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US-EU trade war could cost Ireland more than €18bn, says report

Report co-authored by Irish government also finds tariffs could cause job losses and relocation of US multinationals

A trade war between the US and the EU could cost Ireland more than €18bn (£15bn), trigger waves of job losses and cause US multinationals to relocate, according to a report co-authored by the Irish government.

Ireland’s GDP could shrink by 3.7% over the next five to seven years under the worst-case scenario, in which Donald Trump imposed 25% tariffs on all exports on the EU and the EU retaliated with counter-tariffs, the study carried by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) found.

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