WASHINGTON — When President Trump directed his attorney general last month to investigate online fundraising, he cited concerns that foreigners and fraudsters were using elaborate “schemes“ and “dummy accounts” to funnel illegal contributions to politicians and causes.
Instead of calling for an expansive probe, however, the president identified just one potential target: ActBlue, the Democrats’ online fundraising juggernaut, which has acknowledged receiving over 200 potentially illicit contributions last year from foreign internet addresses.
Trump’s announcement contained a glaring omission — his political committees also received scores of potentially problematic contributions.
An Associated Press review of donations to Trump over the past five years found 1,600 contributions from donors who live abroad, have close ties to foreign interests or failed to disclose basic information, often making it difficult, if not impossible, to identify them and verify the legality of their donations Among those was $5,000 linked to a derelict building, and $5,000 from a Chinese businessman who listed a La Quinta Inn as his address. Another sizable donation — $1 million — was made by the wife of an African oil and mining magnate.
It’s against the law for U.S. candidates and political committees to accept contributions from foreign nationals. Laws also place strict limits on donation amounts and prohibit the laundering of contributions to get around legal caps. For the most part, such donations have been policed by campaigns and the Federal Election Commission, with only the most egregious examples being targeted by federal law enforcement.
But after reclaiming the White House, Trump embarked on a campaign of retribution against his perceived enemies, launching broadsides against universities, law firms and his own former officials. If the Justice Department were to investigate ActBlue, it could imperil a key fundraising tool for Trump’s political rivals before the 2026 midterm elections, when Republicans’ threadbare House majority — and the president’s ability to pass an agenda through Congress — will be on the line.
“This is him taking direct aim at the center of Democratic and progressive fundraising to hamstring his political opponents,” said Ezra Reese, an attorney who leads the political law division at the Elias Law Group, a leading Democratic firm that does not represent ActBlue. “I don’t think there’s any question that they picked their target first. He’s not even pretending.”
Trump’s committees collected scores of donations from people living overseas
The White House did not respond to questions about Trump’s fundraising, including what sort of fraud prevention measures his committees have in place. Instead, a senior administration official pointed to the findings of a recent House Republican investigation of ActBlue that the White House alleges “uncovered specific evidence of potentially unlawful conduct.”
“The memorandum directs the attorney general to investigate this matter broadly, and she will follow the evidence and take appropriate action as warranted,” said the official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the matter.
Neither the Justice Department nor Trump’s 2024 campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita responded to requests for comment.
U.S. citizens living abroad are free to donate to politicians back home. But it can be difficult even for campaigns to discern who is allowed to give and whether a person may be serving as a “straw” donor for someone else seeking to influence U.S. elections.
The AP identified only two Trump donors out of more than 200 living abroad whose U.S. citizenship was listed as “verified” in the president’s campaign finance reports. He received over 1,000 contributions from 150 donors who omitted key identifying details such as their city, state, address or country. Trump also received at least 90 contributions from people who did not give a full name, are listed as “anonymous” or whose donations include the notation “name not provided.”
Many of these Trump donors contributed through WinRed, the Republicans’ online fundraising platform that is the GOP’s answer to ActBlue. Only about three dozen of these contributions were rejected, most of which came from an unknown source and were paid in cryptocurrency, campaign finance disclosures show.
WinRed officials did not respond to a request for comment.
“Foreign money in our elections is a legitimate concern,” said Dan Weiner, a former Federal Election Commission attorney who is now director of the Brennan Center’s elections and government program. “What’s not legitimate is to single out one political opponent and pretend the problem is limited to them.”
Donating from a La Quinta Inn
Jiajun “Jack” Zhang, for example, is a jet-setting Chinese businessman whose Qingdao Scaffolding Co. boasts of being one of the “biggest manufacturers and suppliers in China” of scaffolding. In October, he used WinRed to donate $5,000 to Trump, campaign finance disclosures show.
Zhang lives in China’s Shandong province, according to his LinkedIn account, and is described in French business filings as a Chinese national. But his contribution to Trump lists a La Quinta Inn in Hawaiian Gardens, California, as his address, records show. The donation was made around the time that Zhang posted a photo on social media of his family visiting Disneyland, which is near the hotel.
Zhang did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Other potentially troublesome donations include four from unnamed donors listing an address of “999 Anonymous Dr.”
There is also a series of contributions made through WinRed that listed the donor’s address as a vacant building in Washington that was formerly a funeral home. The donor, identified only as “Alex, A” on Trump’s campaign finance report, gave nearly $5,000, spread across more than 40 separate transactions last year. Those types of donations tend to draw scrutiny from campaigns and regulators.
Regulators and watchdogs have also long been concerned about donations from individuals with ties to foreign interests. Trump has received many such contributions, including one in December from Nnenna Peters, the wife of Benedict Peters, a Nigerian billionaire who is the founder and CEO of oil and mining businesses.
Nnenna Peters, who goes by Ella, gave $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee. A naturalized citizen, Nnenna Peters — who lives in Potomac, Maryland, a tony suburb of the capital — is allowed to make campaign donations.
Federal law, however, bars U.S. citizens from making contributions on behalf of a noncitizen spouse if the money is not a shared asset. For example, experts said, a husband could be prohibited from making a campaign donation using funds from a checking account solely in his wife’s name.
In practice, such a prohibition is hard to enforce because it is difficult to assess whether spouses are acting on their own accord or on behalf of significant others. Government watchdogs say donations like these raise the risk of an attempt to influence U.S. policy on behalf of a foreign interest.
That was precisely the kind of problem Trump cited in his executive order that singled out ActBlue.
Benedict Peters, as it turns out, has a lot to offer that could be of interest to Trump, who has made the extraction of natural resources a focus on his second administration. In particular, the Trump administration has sought to secure access to critical minerals that help power modern technology. Peters’ Aiteo Group markets itself as one of the largest energy conglomerates in Nigeria, while his company, Bravura Holdings, purports to hold the rights to vast critical mineral deposits across Africa.
His wife’s donation stands out in light of her past giving: She donated exclusively to Democrats, records show, including a $66,800 contribution to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.
“This clearly could have come from her husband,” said Craig Holman, a registered lobbyist for Public Citizen, a Washington-based government watchdog group. “This is something the FEC should take a very, very close look at.”
Benedict and Ella Peters did not respond to requests for comment.
Indifference towards campaign finance rules
The questionable donations fit a pattern for Trump, who has in the past exhibited indifference toward campaign finance rules and used his presidential powers to assist those facing legal trouble in such matters.
In January, Trump’s Justice Department dropped its case against former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, a Nebraska Republican accused of accepting a $30,000 contribution from a Nigerian billionaire. During his first term, Trump pardoned conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza and Republican donor Michael Liberty, who were both convicted of using straw donors to evade contribution limits. He also pardoned former California Rep. Duncan Hunter, who was convicted in 2020 of stealing $250,000 from his campaign fund.
Trump’s political efforts have also drawn contributions from straw donors and foreigners who have been subjected to legal scrutiny.
Among them is Barry Zekelman, a Canadian steel industry billionaire, who was fined $975,000 in 2022 by the Federal Election Commission for funneling $1.75 million to America First Action, Trump’s official super PAC, in 2018. The contribution helped Zekelman secure a dinner with Trump at which steel tariffs were discussed.
Two Soviet-born U.S. citizens, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were convicted in a straw donor scheme that funneled $325,000 to the same super PAC in the runup to Trump’s losing 2020 reelection campaign.
Jesse Benton, a Republican political operative, was convicted in 2022 of serving as a straw donor for a Russian businessman who contributed $25,000 to Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Democrats say Trump’s focus on ActBlue is a lot to stomach in light of Trump’s acceptance of questionable donations and his seeming lack of interest in enforcing campaign finance laws more generally. They noted that Trump in February fired a commissioner at the Federal Election Commission. The firing, followed by the resignation of a Republican commissioner, has denied the agency the quorum necessary to enforce campaign finance laws and regulations.
“It’s telling that while Trump and his allies attack grassroots-funded platforms like ours, their own campaigns have welcomed money from questionable sources,” ActBlue spokesperson Megan Hughes said.
Republicans counter that there is well-founded reason to investigate the Democratic platform, which eased some fraud detection protocols in 2024 before the presidential election.
Democrats are concerned about ActBlue’s future
There is, however, a political upside to investigating ActBlue. The platform has proved more successful than WinRed, the Republican platform designed to imitate it, which took in less than half of the $3.8 billion that ActBlue raised during the 2024 election cycle.
ActBlue representatives declined to say whether they have been contacted by the Justice Department.
ActBlue is expected to battle any investigation. It took a different approach when a Republican-led congressional committee launched an investigation in 2023. That committee’s findings turned out to be the basis for some of the allegations cited by Trump in his executive order.
Democrats, meanwhile, are preparing for the worst.
“There is a pervasive fear that ActBlue could cease to exist,” said Matt Hodges, a veteran Democratic operative who served as the director of engineering for Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign. “That’s the worst fear people have — that this will escalate or drain legal resources that hinder their ability to operate.”
He predicted that the Democrats could lose more than $10 million in the short term if ActBlue were forced to shut down. That has led some Democrats to begin thinking about alternatives, but they acknowledged it might be too late to create something as successful as ActBlue with the midterms around the corner.
Slodysko and Peoples write for the Associated Press. Peoples reported from New York.
Musk criticizes Trump’s ‘beautiful bill,’ a fracture in relationship
WASHINGTON — Elon Musk is criticizing the centerpiece of President Trump’s legislative agenda, a significant fracture in a partnership that was forged during last year’s campaign and was poised to reshape American politics and the federal government.
The billionaire entrepreneur, who supported Trump’s candidacy with at least $250 million and has worked for his administration as a senior advisor, said he was “disappointed” by what the president calls his “big, beautiful bill.”
The legislation includes a mix of tax cuts and enhanced immigration enforcement. While speaking to CBS, Musk described it as a “massive spending bill” that increases the federal deficit and “undermines the work” of his so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which is not a government agency.
“I think a bill can be big or it could be beautiful,” Musk said. “But I don’t know if it could be both.”
His CBS interview came out Tuesday night. Trump, speaking in the Oval Office on Wednesday, defended his agenda by talking about the delicate politics involved with negotiating the legislation.
“I’m not happy about certain aspects of it, but I’m thrilled by other aspects of it,” he said.
Trump also suggested that more changes could be made.
“We’re going to see what happens,” he said. “It’s got a way to go.”
Republicans recently pushed the measure through the House and are debating it in the Senate.
Musk’s comments come as he steps back from his government work, rededicating himself to his electric automaker Tesla and rocket manufacturer SpaceX. He’s also said he’ll reduce his political spending, because “I think I’ve done enough.”
At times, he’s seemed chastened by his experience working in government. Although he hoped that DOGE would generate $1 trillion in spending cuts, he’s fallen far short of that target.
“The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I realized,” he told the Washington Post. “I thought there were problems, but it sure is an uphill battle trying to improve things in D.C., to say the least.”
The White House is set to send proposed rescissions, a mechanism used to cancel previously authorized spending, to Capitol Hill to solidify some of DOGE’s cuts.
A spokesperson for the Office of Management and Budget said the package will include $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS, and $8.3 billion in foreign assistance.
Musk had previously been energized by the opportunity to reshape Washington. He wore campaign hats in the White House, held campaign rallies and talked about excessive spending as an existential crisis.
He often tended to be effusive in his praise of Trump.
“The more I’ve gotten to know President Trump, the more I like the guy,” Musk said in February. “Frankly, I love him.”
Trump repaid the favor, describing Musk as “a truly great American.” When Tesla faced declining sales, he turned the White House driveway into a makeshift showroom to illustrate his support.
It’s unclear if Musk’s comments about the bill will affect the legislative debate. During the transition period, he helped whip up opposition to a spending measure as the country stood on the brink of a federal government shutdown.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has asked senators to make as few changes to the legislation as possible, saying that House Republicans reached a “very delicate balance” that could be upended with major changes. The narrowly divided House will have to vote again on final passage once the Senate alters the bill.
However, Musk’s criticism could embolden Republicans who want bigger spending cuts. Republican Utah Sen. Mike Lee reposted a Fox News story about Musk’s interview while adding his own take on the measure, saying there was “still time to fix it.”
“The Senate version will be more aggressive,” Lee said. “It can, it must, and it will be. Or it won’t pass.”
Only two Republicans — Reps. Warren Davidson of Ohio and Thomas Massie of Kentucky — voted against the bill when the House took up the measure last week.
Davidson took note of Musk’s comments on social media.
“Hopefully, the Senate will succeed with the Big Beautiful Bill where the House missed the moment,” he wrote. “Don’t hope someone else will cut deficits someday, know it has been done this Congress.”
The Congressional Budget Office, in a preliminary estimate, said the tax provisions would increase federal deficits by $3.8 trillion over the decade, while the changes to Medicaid, food stamps and other services would reduce spending by slightly more than $1 trillion over the same period.
House Republican leaders say increased economic growth would allow the bill to be deficit neutral or reducing, but outside watchdogs are skeptical. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates the bill would add $3 trillion to the debt, including interest, over the next decade.
Megerian and Freking write for the Associated Press. AP writer Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
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The U.S. and the European Union are in a showdown over trade
FRANKFURT, Germany — Top officials at the European Union’s executive commission say they’re pushing hard for a trade deal with the Trump administration to avoid a 50% tariff on imported goods. Trump had threatened to impose the tariffs on June 1, but has pushed back the deadline to July 9, repeating an oft-used tactic in his trade war.
European negotiators are contending with Trump’s ever-changing and unpredictable tariff threats, but “still, they have to come up with something to hopefully pacify him,” said Bruce Stokes, visiting senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
Stokes also sees more at play than just a disagreement over trade deficits. Trump’s threats “are rooted in frustration with the EU that has little to do with trade,’’ Stokes said. “He doesn’t like the EU. He doesn’t like Germany.”
What exactly does Trump want? What can Europe offer? Here are the key areas where the two sides are squaring off.
Buy our stuff
Over and over, Trump has bemoaned the fact that Europe sells more things to Americans than it buys from Americans. The difference, or the trade deficit in goods, last year was 157 billion euros ($178 billion). But Europe says that when it comes to services — particularly digital services like online advertising and cloud computing — the U.S. sells more than it buys and that lowers the overall trade deficit to 48 billion euros, which is only about 3% of total trade. The European Commission says that means trade is “balanced.”
One way to shift the trade in goods would be for Europe to buy more liquefied natural gas by ship from the U.S. To do so, the EU could cut off the remaining imports of Russian pipeline gas and LNG. The commission is preparing legislation to force an end to those purchases — last year, some 19% of imports — by the end of 2027.
That would push European private companies to look for other sources of gas such as the U.S. However the shift away from Russia is already in motion and that “has obviously not been enough to satisfy,” said Laurent Ruseckas, a natural gas markets expert at S&P Global Commodities Insights Research.
The commission doesn’t buy gas itself but can use “moral suasion” to convince companies to turn to U.S. suppliers in coming years but “this is no silver bullet and nothing that can yield immediate results,” said Simone Tagliapietra, an energy analyst at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels.
Europe could buy more from U.S. defense contractors as part of its effort to deter further aggression from Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, says Carsten Brzeski, global chief of macro at ING bank. If European countries did increase their overall defense spending — another of Trump’s demands — their voters are likely to insist that the purchases go to defense contractors in Europe, not America, said Stokes of the German Marshall Fund. One way around that political obstacle would be for U.S. defense companies to build factories in Europe, but “that would take time,’’ he said.
The EU could also reduce its 10% tax on foreign cars— one of Trump’s long-standing grievances against Europe. “The United States is not going to export that many cars to Europe anyway … The Germans would be most resistant, but I don’t think they’re terribly worried about competition from America,’’ said Edward Alden, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. ”That would be a symbolic victory for the president.’’
A beef over beef
The U.S. has long complained about European regulations on food and agricultural products that keep out hormone-raised beef and chickens washed with chlorine. But experts aren’t expecting EU trade negotiators to offer any concessions at the bargaining table.
“The EU is unwilling to capitulate,” said Mary Lovely, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “The EU has repeatedly said it will not change its sanitary rules, its rules on (genetically modified) crops, its rules on chlorinated chickens, things that have been longtime irritants for the U.S.’’
Backing down on those issues, she said, would mean that “the U.S. gets to set food safety (standards) for Europe.’’
Value-added tax
One of Trump’s pet peeves has been the value-added taxes used by European governments, a tax he says is a burden on U.S. companies.
Economists say this kind of tax, used by some 170 countries, is trade-neutral because it applies equally to imports and exports. A value-added tax, or VAT, is paid by the end purchaser at the cash register but differs from sales taxes in that it is calculated at each stage of the production process. In both cases, VAT and sales tax, imports and exports get the same treatment. The U.S. is an outlier in that it doesn’t use VAT.
There’s little chance countries will change their tax systems for Trump and the EU has ruled it out.
Negotiating strategy
Trump’s approach to negotiations has involved threats of astronomical tariffs – up to 145% in the case of China – before striking a deal for far lower levels. In any case, however, the White House has taken the stance that it won’t go below a 10% baseline. The threat of 50% for the EU is so high it means “an effective trade embargo,” said Brzeski, since it would impose costs that would make it unprofitable to import goods or mean charging consumers prices so high the goods would be uncompetitive.
Because the knottiest issues dividing the EU and U.S. — food safety standards, the VAT, regulation of tech companies — are so difficult “it is impossible to imagine them being resolved by the deadline,’’ Alden said. ”Possibly what you could have — and Trump has shown he is willing to do this — is a very small deal’’ like the one he announced May 8 with the United Kingdom.
Economists Oliver Rakau and Nicola Nobile of Oxford Economics wrote in a commentary Monday that if imposed, the 50% tariffs would reduce the collective economy of the 20 countries that use the euro currency by up to 1% next year and slash business investment by more than 6%.
The EU has offered the US a “zero for zero” outcome in which tariffs would be removed on both sides industrial goods including autos. Trump has dismissed that but EU officials have said it’s still on the table.
Lovely of the Peterson Institute sees the threats and bluster as Trump’s way of negotiating. “In the short run, I don’t think 50% is going to be our reality.’’
But she says Trump’s strategy adds to the uncertainty around U.S. policy that is paralyzing business. “It suggests that the U.S. is an unreliable trading partner, that it operates on whim and not on rule of law,’’ Lovely said. “Friend or foe, you’re not going to be treated well by this administration.’’
McHugh and Wiseman write for the Associated Press. Wiseman contributed to this report from Washington.
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Mobster from notorious Trinitarios gang that was targeted in Trump crime crackdown arrested in Spain after London murder
AN ALLEGED gang member wanted over the fatal stabbing of a young man in London has been arrested in Spain.
Six mobsters went on the run after the tragic murder of 21-year-old Giovanny Rendon Bedoya in Walworth, south London, on April 21.
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The fugitive was detained at the request of British authorities in the town of Sabadell around 15 miles north-west of the Catalan capital as he entered a restaurant, Spanish police said.
He is said to belong to the dangerous Latin gang known as the Trinitarios.
They have become a major security threat across much of Europe in recent years especially in cities like Madrid and London.
The alleged killer is now facing extradition to the UK and a possible “life sentence” according to Spanish cops.
Met Police pleaded for information around the death of Giovanny earlier this year.
It comes as three of the six people initially arrested have now been bailed pending further inquiries.
In the latest update this month, they said a fourth man has now been charged with murder.
All four men have been named by police as Joseph Jimenez, 21, Angel Gonzales Angulo, 19, Brian Villada-Hernandes, 19, and Zozoro Mohamed Olivier, 20.
Cops previously said a 17-year-old boy was also arrested on suspicion of murder.
Confirming the latest arrest near Barcelona today, Spain’s National Police said in a statement: “National Police officers have arrested a member of the Trinitarios gang in the town of Sabadell in Barcelona who is wanted by the British justice system after allegedly committing a murder in the United Kingdom.
“An international arrest warrant was issued for him after the crime which took place on April 14.
“He could face a life sentence for attacking with five other alleged members of the same gang, another young man from a rival gang who was killed.
“The investigation was launched by the British authorities on 14 April when the fugitive and five other alleged members of the Trinitarios gang violently accosted another young man from a rival gang following a dispute.”
Giovanny was attacked just after 9pm and was left with serious injuries which resulted in the amputation of fingers, the loss of an organ and multiple fractures.
These injuries resulted in his death, police confirmed at the time.
The Trinitarios gang is said to have been founded in 1993 by two Dominicans facing separate murder charges being held in the Rikers Islands New York City jail.
The gang’s notoriety across the globe even caused them to be scrutinised by the Trump administration this year.
Donald Trump described them as “animals” as he carried out his sweeping sanctions on US criminal enterprises.
Nearly two dozen Trinitarios gang members were hit with RICO conspiracy charges in February.
They were accused of six murders and 11 attempted murders, according to the US Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts.
Spiralling violence around Madrid in recent years has been blamed on the fracturing and spread of Dominican gangs which have become Spain’s primary urban security threat.
Officials believe the man arrested today may have been in Spain trying to flee to the Dominican Republic.
The Sun has contacted the Metropolitan Police for further comment.
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How has Bitcoin performed since Trump took office? | Crypto News
The world’s largest Bitcoin conference is taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada from May 27-29.
This year’s event includes several speakers from US President Donald Trump’s circle including Vice President JD Vance; Trump’s two eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump; as well as White House crypto tsar David Sacks.
Trump’s favourable view of cryptocurrency and his family’s heavy involvement in the industry is raising concerns about the integrity of Trump’s administration and how he is using his influence as president of the United States.
How has Bitcoin performed under Trump?
Over the past week, Bitcoin reached an all-time high of $111,970, marking a 2.6 percent increase from its previous Inauguration Day peak of $109,114.
Since Donald Trump’s re-election in November 2024, Bitcoin has surged 60 percent, rising from about $69,539 at close on Election Day to its current record level.
The cryptocurrency briefly dropped below $90,000 on February 25, amid market jitters triggered by Trump’s announcement of new tariffs on multiple countries and industries worldwide, before recovering.
What were the policies during the Biden administration?
During the Biden administration, government policy on cryptocurrency was mixed, with a plethora of lawsuits brought against crypto firms by then Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Gary Gensler, who has been replaced under the new Trump administration. There were also major moves to adopt cryptocurrency, with the SEC approving 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs in January 2024.
In 2022 and into 2023, the crypto market faced major drawdowns following the implosion of Bahamas-based cryptocurrency exchange FTX in 2022 and the regional banking crisis in early 2023. This led to the Federal Reserve Board releasing statements to banks on the risks of crypto assets, which it has recently withdrawn.
What are Trump’s crypto policies?
The crypto industry has emerged as a significant political player, contributing large sums to support Trump and other legislators.
Much of Biden’s crypto policies have been rescinded under the Trump administration, with the US Senate advancing key pro-crypto legislation such as the establishment of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and the Digital Asset Stockpile, aimed at maintaining control of Bitcoin seized as part of “criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings”.
Trump’s cryptocurrency policies included appointing pro-crypto figures to key regulatory roles, such as naming Paul Atkins as the new SEC chair.
The most recent rally in Bitcoin is largely prompted by investor optimism over a more crypto-friendly administration and proposed regulatory changes to reduce barriers to entry in the crypto asset markets.
Unlike fiat currencies, Bitcoin’s maximum supply is 21 million coins. Because of this, the White House has stated “there is a strategic advantage to being among the first nations to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve.”
What if Bitcoin were a country?
With Bitcoin priced at $110,000 and a circulating supply of approximately 19.87m BTC, its market capitalisation stands at roughly $2.18 trillion.
If Bitcoin were a country, it would be a major economic powerhouse, ranking roughly in the top 10 worldwide by gross domestic product (GDP) size, roughly on par with countries like Brazil ($2.17 trillion), Canada ($2.14 trillion) or Russia ($2.02 trillion).
What are the regulations and ethics on government officials’ involvement in crypto?
Just before taking office, Trump launched the $TRUMP meme coin at a Crypto Ball held in Washington, DC. Meme coins are often created as a joke and are susceptible to volatile price movements, however, Trump’s coin has allowed top investors access to him.
Last week, President Trump hosted top investors for a cryptocurrency project at his luxury golf course in Northern Virginia. It’s estimated investors spent $148m on the $TRUMP coin to secure their seats at the dinner, with the top 25 spending more than $111m, according to crypto intelligence firm Inca Digital, the Reuters news agency reported.
While the White House insisted Trump would be attending the event “in his personal time”, he spoke at the event behind a podium marked with the presidential seal.
When Trump’s meme coin launched, it first surged, then fell in value, while its creators, which include an entity linked to the Trump Organization, made hundreds of millions in trading fees.
The Trump family is now deeply invested in crypto, with ventures like First Lady Melania Trump’s coin and a stake in World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency firm founded in 2024.
While government officials have financial disclosure requirements, and regulatory agencies can monitor the goings-on of officials, critics have warned of conflicts of interest, as Trump backs crypto after once opposing it, potentially using policy to boost his own gains.
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Germany’s DAX hits a new high as Trump expresses optimism on US-EU trade talks
By Tina Teng
Published on
28/05/2025 – 7:29 GMT+2
European stock markets extended their rally for a second consecutive trading day on Tuesday as concerns over escalating US-EU trade tensions eased. Germany’s DAX rose 0.82% to 24,226.49, marking a fresh record high, while the Euro Stoxx 600 climbed 0.33% to 552.33, edging within 0.2% of its March peak.
US President Donald Trump expressed optimism toward the trade negotiations. “I have just been informed that the EU has called to quickly establish meeting dates,” he wrote in the Truth Social, “This is a positive event, and I hope that they will, FINALLY, like my same demand to China, open up the European Nations for Trade with the United States of America. They will BOTH be very happy, and successful, if they do!!!”
The US president’s comments also lifted Wall Street, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 1.78%, the S&P 500 rising 2.05%, and the Nasdaq composite surging 2.47%.
On Sunday, Trump announced he had agreed to postpone the implementation of a 50% tariff on EU imports until 9 July, following a phone call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. During the call, von der Leyen expressed the EU’s readiness “to advance talks swiftly and decisively” in a bid to avert further trade escalation.
Trump had initially announced 20% “reciprocal tariffs” on EU goods on 2 April before reducing the rate to 10% for 90 days. However, last Friday, he threatened to impose a 50% tariff from 1 June, citing frustration over the pace of negotiations and disagreement among EU member states.
While specific meeting dates remain absent publicly, EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič is expected to meet his US counterpart in Paris next Tuesday during the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) summit. Talks are expected to focus on removing bilateral tariffs on industrial goods and addressing US import levies on steel, aluminium, semiconductors, automobiles, and pharmaceutical products, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Earlier this month, the EU postponed a proposed package of retaliatory tariffs on up to €95 billion worth of US imports, including wine, spirits, aircraft, auto parts, electrical products, and more.
Defence and banking stocks lead gains
The DAX is up 22% year-to-date, making it the top performer among major global indices. The index had pulled back sharply in April following Trump’s announcement of the reciprocal tariffs but has consistently rebounded on signs of de-escalation in trade tensions.
In sectors, the defence and banking stocks led the broad gains, underpinned by optimism over Germany’s fiscal and defence spending reforms. In March, Germany’s Friedrich Merz announced plans to increase defence spending beyond 1% of GDP and a €500 billion special fund for infrastructure investment. The landmark fiscal package particularly lifted sentiment in European defence and industrial stocks, with Rheinmetall AG shares soaring 207% so far this year, repeatedly hitting new highs.
Meanwhile, European banking stocks have been supported by the European Central Bank’s accommodative monetary policy stance, which has bolstered investment banking income and lending activity. Shares of Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank soared 50% and 75% respectively this year.
The euro retreats
Despite the bullish momentum in equities, the euro weakened against the US dollar, as the greenback staged a strong rebound following Trump’s decision to delay tariffs — a move that mirrored previous dollar rallies during the US-China trade talks.
The EUR/USD pair fell to just above 1.13 during Wednesday’s Asian session, retreating from over 1.14 on Monday, as markets priced in renewed optimism over US-EU trade negotiations and an improved US economic outlook.
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Trump admin. sues North Carolina over voter registration records
May 28 (UPI) — The Trump administration is suing North Carolina and the state’s Board of Elections on accusations of maintaining voter registration records that include voters who did not provide required identifying information, in violation of federal law.
The Justice Department filed the lawsuit Tuesday, alleging the defendants violated the Help America Vote Act of 2002 by using a state voter registration form that did not “explicitly require” a voter to provide a driver’s license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number.
Those who filled out the form, without providing the identifying information, were then added to the voter registration record.
HAVA was sweeping voter reform legislation that included updated voter identification procedures. Under the law, a voter registration application must include either the applicant’s driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number.
The lawsuit alleges that a “significant number” of North Carolina voters who did not provide the required identifying information were registered to vote by election officials.
“Accurate voter registration rolls are critical to ensure that elections in North Carolina are conducted fairly, accurately and without fraud,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement. “The Department of Justice will not hesitate to file suit against jurisdictions that maintain inaccurate voter registration rolls in violation of federal voting laws.”
The lawsuit comes after Jefferson Griffin, a Republican Court of Appeals judge, finally conceded defeat to his Democratic opponent for North Carolina’s state Supreme Court seat earlier this month, following six months of litigation over the legality of tens of thousands of votes cast in the election.
Griffin lost to Associate Justice Allison Riggs by 734 votes and sought to have some 60,000 ballots in six Democratic-leaning counties rejected on the same grounds that the Justice Department cited in its lawsuit on Wednesday — the ballots were cast by voters, mostly in the military or overseas, who did not provide photo ID or an ID exception form.
Democrats accused him of attempting to steal the election, and the state’s high court ruled to uphold the validity of the votes cast.
With Riggs’ victory, the state’s Supreme Court maintains a 5-2 Republican majority.
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Trump says Canada will pay $61bn for Golden Dome, or become 51st state | Donald Trump News
Trump’s latest comments come as China, North Korea, Russia say the Golden Dome missile defence system will create ‘space arms race’.
United States President Donald Trump says he has told Canada it will have to pay $61bn to be part of his proposed Gold Dome missile defence system “if they remain a separate, but unequal, Nation”.
In a post on TruthSocial, Trump claimed Canada “very much wants to be part of our fabulous Golden Dome System” and would gain free access if it joins with the US.
Participating in the proposed defence system would cost Canada “ZERO DOLLARS if they become our cherished 51st State”, Trump said, adding, “They are considering the offer!”
Trump’s post came just hours after Canada’s parliament hosted the UK’s King Charles III for a rare royal speech in which the monarch emphasised Canada’s sovereignty in “dangerous and uncertain” times, and amid the US president’s exhortations for the country to become part of the US.
Following the king’s speech, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told Canadian Public broadcaster CBC that he hopes Canada will join ReArm Europe by July 1, in an effort to reduce dependence on the US for weapons.
Canada did not immediately respond to Trump’s latest comment, but Carney has previously confirmed his country has held “high-level” talks on the defence system issue with the US.
Funding, timeline uncertain
In total, Trump has claimed the Golden Dome system will cost some $175bn and would be completed by the end of his current term in 2029, although defence industry experts have questioned the feasibility of this timeline and budget.
Trump is hoping to secure an initial $25bn funding for the system through the sweeping “Big, Beautiful Bill” which is next to go up for a vote in the Senate after narrowly passing the Republican-controlled US House of Representatives last week.
The bill boosts spending on the military and border enforcement while cutting funding for social programmes, including Medicaid and food assistance that helped tens of millions of low-income Americans.
The Golden Dome is modelled after Israel’s Iron Dome, which also receives significant funding from the US, including $500m per year for its upkeep.
It is unclear how Trump would scale up the Iron Dome to cover the entire US, since Israel is only about the size of New Jersey, one of the smaller states in the US.
The Iron Dome is also designed to target short-range missiles, with a range of 1,000km (about 620 miles), while the main threat to the US would likely come from long-range ballistic and hypersonic missiles.
Golden Dome will create ‘space arms race’
China, North Korea and Russia have all criticised Trump’s plan to put weapons in space, which the US president described in detail for the first time last week.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs swiftly responded, with spokeswoman Mao Ning saying the plan “heightens the risk of space becoming a battlefield, fuels an arms race, and undermines international security”.
“The United States puts its own interests first and is obsessed with seeking its own absolute security, which violates the principle that no country’s security should come at the expense of others,” Mao Ning said.
North Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also responded, saying the US is “hell-bent on the moves to militarise outer space”.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Tuesday that the Golden Dome project undermines the foundations of “strategic stability” as it involves the creation of a global missile defence system.
According to Russia’s state news agency TASS, Zakharova said developing the Golden Dome would also lead to development of the “means of pre-launch missile destruction and infrastructure that ensures their use”.
“This is already a literal manifestation of the US’s highly dangerous doctrinal course toward delivering so-called preventive, but essentially first strikes,” she said, warning it would turn space into a “weaponised environment” and an “arena of armed confrontation”.
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Trump to pardon ex-reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley
May 27 (UPI) — President Donald Trump is set to pardon Todd and Julie Chrisley, former television stars serving lengthy prison terms after being found guilty of conspiring to defraud banks and committing tax evasion.
The couple gained fame in the United States through their Chrisley Knows Best reality show in which they flaunted their wealth. They were found guilty in 2022 of manipulating financial records to make it appear as if they were wealthier than they really were, when applying for more than $30 million in loans from 2007 to 2012.
They received a combined 19-year prison sentence, with Todd Chrisley to serve 12 years in prison and Julie Chrisley sentenced to serve seven. Both sentences came with three years’ supervised release.
Trump, a former reality star, is expected to grant the couple the latest presidential pardons of his second administration.
In a video excerpt published on X by a White House aide of a phone call Tuesday between Trump and the jailed couple’s adult children, the president is heard stating, “your parents are going to be free and clean, and I hope we can do that by tomorrow.”
“I don’t know them, but give them my regards and wish them a good life.”
“Mr. President, I just want to say thank you for bringing my parents back,” Grayson Chrisley is heard responding.
“Yeah, well, they were given a pretty harsh treatment from what I’m hearing,” Trump replied.
Margo Martin, the White House aide who published the clip online, said in the caption that Trump will be granting them “full pardons.”
“Trump Knows Best!” she added.
The Conservative Political Action Conference said in a statement that it “appreciates” Trump’s pardoning of Todd and Julie Chrisley, the parents of its Nolan Center for Justice senior fellow, Savannah Chrisley, who was on the phone call Tuesday with Trump.
“The Chrisleys were targeted by weaponized prosecutors who abused the power granted to them by our criminal justice system,” CPAC said in a statement.
“Thank you to President Trump for restoring order and integrity to the justice system.”
According to prosecutors, the Chrisleys, who were found guilty in June 2022, spent money they defrauded from banks to purchase luxury cars, real estate and travel and then used new fraudulent loans to pay off the old loans.
Todd Chrisley filed for bankruptcy and walked away from $20 million in debt. On top of the conspiracy to defraud banks, they were found guilty of conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service. Julie Chrisley was also found guilty of wire fraud and obstruction of justice.
Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has used his executive powers to punish political adversaries with executive orders and to seemingly reward convicted friends, supporters and donors with presidential pardons.
On Monday, Trump pardoned disgraced former Virginia sheriff Scott Jenkins who was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment after a federal court found he accepted tens of thousands of dollars in bribes to appoint local businessmen as auxiliary deputy sheriffs. The president described Jenkins as being a victim of a “corrupt and weaponized Biden” Department of Justice.
Last month, Trump pardoned Paul Walczak, a former nursing home executive who was sentenced to 18 months in jail for tax crimes and whose mother had raised millions for the New York real estate mogul’s campaigns.
In March, he also pardoned Devon Archer, a former business associate of Hunter Biden who was sentenced to a year and a day in prison in 2022 for a scheme to defraud a Native American community. However, he testified against the Biden family during the Republicans’ failed investigation to try and impeach former President Joe Biden.
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‘Drug drive arrest’ and ‘Worried about Trump?’
The Daily Mail, the Daily Express and The Sun lead on the man suspected of driving into crowds in Liverpool being questioned on suspicion of offences including drug-driving. The Express describes how a steward correctly allowed an ambulance to pass by a road-block before a Ford Galaxy “raced through” behind. The Sun’s editorial praises the police for revealing the ethnicity of the suspect within hours and backs calls for “full consistency” the next time there is a tragic incident or terror attack.
The main story for The Times is a letter from police and security chiefs to ministers raising concerns about plans to release some prisoners early to ease pressure on jails. A source tells the paper that although there have been changes to sentencing announced since the letter was written, the thrust of their concerns remains the same.
The Treasury is in a standoff, according to The Guardian, with some ministers over possible cuts to social housing and policing in next month’s spending review. The paper says the Home Office and the housing ministry are among the departments yet to agree their budgets. The paper highlights the suggestion yesterday, by the International Monetary Fund, for the chancellor to consider refining her fiscal framework, to allow for shallower spending cuts. But government sources insist there will be no change to the rules and point to the high cost of borrowing. The Financial Times, leading on the debt market, says fiscal pressures are forcing the Treasury to shift to borrow in the shorter term to try to bring down the bill on interest payments.
The i Paper carries a warning from economists, that the policies announced by Reform UK leader Nigel Farage yesterday would risk “mini-budget style market chaos”. One explains that gap between Reform’s savings target and what is reasonably practical is about £75bn, double the un-costed commitments proposed by Liz Truss.
The Daily Telegraph focuses on the call by the Mayor of London, Sir Sadiq Khan, for the possession of cannabis in small quantities to be de-criminalised. The paper points out that the mayor does not have the power to make such a change and figures in the national Labour party, including the prime minister, remain opposed.
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Trump wants an investigation of Democrats’ fundraising. His own campaign has issues
WASHINGTON — When President Trump directed his attorney general last month to investigate online fundraising, he cited concerns that foreigners and fraudsters were using elaborate “schemes“ and “dummy accounts” to funnel illegal contributions to politicians and causes.
Instead of calling for an expansive probe, however, the president identified just one potential target: ActBlue, the Democrats’ online fundraising juggernaut, which has acknowledged receiving over 200 potentially illicit contributions last year from foreign internet addresses.
Trump’s announcement contained a glaring omission — his political committees also received scores of potentially problematic contributions.
An Associated Press review of donations to Trump over the past five years found 1,600 contributions from donors who live abroad, have close ties to foreign interests or failed to disclose basic information, often making it difficult, if not impossible, to identify them and verify the legality of their donations Among those was $5,000 linked to a derelict building, and $5,000 from a Chinese businessman who listed a La Quinta Inn as his address. Another sizable donation — $1 million — was made by the wife of an African oil and mining magnate.
It’s against the law for U.S. candidates and political committees to accept contributions from foreign nationals. Laws also place strict limits on donation amounts and prohibit the laundering of contributions to get around legal caps. For the most part, such donations have been policed by campaigns and the Federal Election Commission, with only the most egregious examples being targeted by federal law enforcement.
But after reclaiming the White House, Trump embarked on a campaign of retribution against his perceived enemies, launching broadsides against universities, law firms and his own former officials. If the Justice Department were to investigate ActBlue, it could imperil a key fundraising tool for Trump’s political rivals before the 2026 midterm elections, when Republicans’ threadbare House majority — and the president’s ability to pass an agenda through Congress — will be on the line.
“This is him taking direct aim at the center of Democratic and progressive fundraising to hamstring his political opponents,” said Ezra Reese, an attorney who leads the political law division at the Elias Law Group, a leading Democratic firm that does not represent ActBlue. “I don’t think there’s any question that they picked their target first. He’s not even pretending.”
Trump’s committees collected scores of donations from people living overseas
The White House did not respond to questions about Trump’s fundraising, including what sort of fraud prevention measures his committees have in place. Instead, a senior administration official pointed to the findings of a recent House Republican investigation of ActBlue that the White House alleges “uncovered specific evidence of potentially unlawful conduct.”
“The memorandum directs the attorney general to investigate this matter broadly, and she will follow the evidence and take appropriate action as warranted,” said the official, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the matter.
Neither the Justice Department nor Trump’s 2024 campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita responded to requests for comment.
U.S. citizens living abroad are free to donate to politicians back home. But it can be difficult even for campaigns to discern who is allowed to give and whether a person may be serving as a “straw” donor for someone else seeking to influence U.S. elections.
The AP identified only two Trump donors out of more than 200 living abroad whose U.S. citizenship was listed as “verified” in the president’s campaign finance reports. He received over 1,000 contributions from 150 donors who omitted key identifying details such as their city, state, address or country. Trump also received at least 90 contributions from people who did not give a full name, are listed as “anonymous” or whose donations include the notation “name not provided.”
Many of these Trump donors contributed through WinRed, the Republicans’ online fundraising platform that is the GOP’s answer to ActBlue. Only about three dozen of these contributions were rejected, most of which came from an unknown source and were paid in cryptocurrency, campaign finance disclosures show.
WinRed officials did not respond to a request for comment.
“Foreign money in our elections is a legitimate concern,” said Dan Weiner, a former Federal Election Commission attorney who is now director of the Brennan Center’s elections and government program. “What’s not legitimate is to single out one political opponent and pretend the problem is limited to them.”
Donating from a La Quinta Inn
Jiajun “Jack” Zhang, for example, is a jet-setting Chinese businessman whose Qingdao Scaffolding Co. boasts of being one of the “biggest manufacturers and suppliers in China” of scaffolding. In October, he used WinRed to donate $5,000 to Trump, campaign finance disclosures show.
Zhang lives in China’s Shandong province, according to his LinkedIn account, and is described in French business filings as a Chinese national. But his contribution to Trump lists a La Quinta Inn in Hawaiian Gardens, California, as his address, records show. The donation was made around the time that Zhang posted a photo on social media of his family visiting Disneyland, which is near the hotel.
Zhang did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Other potentially troublesome donations include four from unnamed donors listing an address of “999 Anonymous Dr.”
There is also a series of contributions made through WinRed that listed the donor’s address as a vacant building in Washington that was formerly a funeral home. The donor, identified only as “Alex, A” on Trump’s campaign finance report, gave nearly $5,000, spread across more than 40 separate transactions last year. Those types of donations tend to draw scrutiny from campaigns and regulators.
Regulators and watchdogs have also long been concerned about donations from individuals with ties to foreign interests. Trump has received many such contributions, including one in December from Nnenna Peters, the wife of Benedict Peters, a Nigerian billionaire who is the founder and CEO of oil and mining businesses.
Nnenna Peters, who goes by Ella, gave $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee. A naturalized citizen, Nnenna Peters — who lives in Potomac, Maryland, a tony suburb of the capital — is allowed to make campaign donations.
Federal law, however, bars U.S. citizens from making contributions on behalf of a noncitizen spouse if the money is not a shared asset. For example, experts said, a husband could be prohibited from making a campaign donation using funds from a checking account solely in his wife’s name.
In practice, such a prohibition is hard to enforce because it is difficult to assess whether spouses are acting on their own accord or on behalf of significant others. Government watchdogs say donations like these raise the risk of an attempt to influence U.S. policy on behalf of a foreign interest.
That was precisely the kind of problem Trump cited in his executive order that singled out ActBlue.
Benedict Peters, as it turns out, has a lot to offer that could be of interest to Trump, who has made the extraction of natural resources a focus on his second administration. In particular, the Trump administration has sought to secure access to critical minerals that help power modern technology. Peters’ Aiteo Group markets itself as one of the largest energy conglomerates in Nigeria, while his company, Bravura Holdings, purports to hold the rights to vast critical mineral deposits across Africa.
His wife’s donation stands out in light of her past giving: She donated exclusively to Democrats, records show, including a $66,800 contribution to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign.
“This clearly could have come from her husband,” said Craig Holman, a registered lobbyist for Public Citizen, a Washington-based government watchdog group. “This is something the FEC should take a very, very close look at.”
Benedict and Ella Peters did not respond to requests for comment.
Indifference towards campaign finance rules
The questionable donations fit a pattern for Trump, who has in the past exhibited indifference toward campaign finance rules and used his presidential powers to assist those facing legal trouble in such matters.
In January, Trump’s Justice Department dropped its case against former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, a Nebraska Republican accused of accepting a $30,000 contribution from a Nigerian billionaire. During his first term, Trump pardoned conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza and Republican donor Michael Liberty, who were both convicted of using straw donors to evade contribution limits. He also pardoned former California Rep. Duncan Hunter, who was convicted in 2020 of stealing $250,000 from his campaign fund.
Trump’s political efforts have also drawn contributions from straw donors and foreigners who have been subjected to legal scrutiny.
Among them is Barry Zekelman, a Canadian steel industry billionaire, who was fined $975,000 in 2022 by the Federal Election Commission for funneling $1.75 million to America First Action, Trump’s official super PAC, in 2018. The contribution helped Zekelman secure a dinner with Trump at which steel tariffs were discussed.
Two Soviet-born U.S. citizens, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were convicted in a straw donor scheme that funneled $325,000 to the same super PAC in the runup to Trump’s losing 2020 reelection campaign.
Jesse Benton, a Republican political operative, was convicted in 2022 of serving as a straw donor for a Russian businessman who contributed $25,000 to Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Democrats say Trump’s focus on ActBlue is a lot to stomach in light of Trump’s acceptance of questionable donations and his seeming lack of interest in enforcing campaign finance laws more generally. They noted that Trump in February fired a commissioner at the Federal Election Commission. The firing, followed by the resignation of a Republican commissioner, has denied the agency the quorum necessary to enforce campaign finance laws and regulations.
“It’s telling that while Trump and his allies attack grassroots-funded platforms like ours, their own campaigns have welcomed money from questionable sources,” ActBlue spokesperson Megan Hughes said.
Republicans counter that there is well-founded reason to investigate the Democratic platform, which eased some fraud detection protocols in 2024 before the presidential election.
Democrats are concerned about ActBlue’s future
There is, however, a political upside to investigating ActBlue. The platform has proved more successful than WinRed, the Republican platform designed to imitate it, which took in less than half of the $3.8 billion that ActBlue raised during the 2024 election cycle.
ActBlue representatives declined to say whether they have been contacted by the Justice Department.
ActBlue is expected to battle any investigation. It took a different approach when a Republican-led congressional committee launched an investigation in 2023. That committee’s findings turned out to be the basis for some of the allegations cited by Trump in his executive order.
Democrats, meanwhile, are preparing for the worst.
“There is a pervasive fear that ActBlue could cease to exist,” said Matt Hodges, a veteran Democratic operative who served as the director of engineering for Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign. “That’s the worst fear people have — that this will escalate or drain legal resources that hinder their ability to operate.”
He predicted that the Democrats could lose more than $10 million in the short term if ActBlue were forced to shut down. That has led some Democrats to begin thinking about alternatives, but they acknowledged it might be too late to create something as successful as ActBlue with the midterms around the corner.
Slodysko and Peoples write for the Associated Press. Peoples reported from New York.
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War of words: Russia’s Medvedev rebukes Trump over Putin social media post | Russia-Ukraine war News
US President Donald Trump says Russia’s Vladimir Putin is ‘playing with fire’ and Russia has so far been shielded from ‘really bad things’.
A senior Moscow security official has rebuked United States President Donald Trump and raised the danger of another world war breaking out after Trump said Russian leader Vladimir Putin was “playing with fire” by refusing to engage in Ukraine ceasefire talks with Kyiv.
Dmitry Medvedev said World War III was the only “REALLY BAD thing” in a response, late on Tuesday, to Trump, who had earlier posted a message to Putin on social media saying that “really bad things would have already happened in Russia” without his intervention.
“What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realise is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened in Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He’s playing with fire,” Trump said in a post on his platform Truth Social.
Medvedev responded on the platform X: “Regarding Trump’s words about Putin ‘playing with fire’ and ‘really bad things’ happening to Russia. I only know of one REALLY BAD thing — WWIII.”
“I hope Trump understands this!”
Currently the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council and a key Putin ally, Medvedev served as the Russian president between 2008 and 2012, and is known for his sabre-rattling comments.
He has repeatedly warned throughout the course of Russia’s war on Ukraine that Moscow could use its nuclear arsenal.
Putin also raised the possibility of nuclear confrontation in a state of the nation address in March 2024, warning Western powers of Russia’s nuclear capabilities should any decide to deploy troops in support of Ukraine.
“Everything that the West comes up with creates the real threat of a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons, and thus the destruction of civilisation,” Putin said at the time.
Medvedev’s public rebuke of Trump also comes after the US president said in a post on Sunday that Putin had “gone absolutely CRAZY” by carrying out extensive aerial attacks on Ukraine despite widespread calls for a ceasefire and Washington’s frustrated attempts to broker a peace accord.
“I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him,” Trump posted on Sunday.
Trump also told reporters he was considering new sanctions on Russia amid the impasse in ceasefire talks.
The war of words on social media comes as hopes for a swift end to Russia’s war on its neighbour dim. Kyiv suffered another battlefield setback on Tuesday, with Russian forces capturing four villages in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region.
Sumy Governor Oleh Hryhorov wrote on Facebook that the villages of Novenke, Basivka, Veselivka and Zhuravka had been occupied by Russia, although residents had long been evacuated.
Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Monday that it had also taken the nearby village of Bilovody, implying a further advance into Ukrainian territory, as the more than three-year war grinds on.
Ukrainian officials have said for weeks that Russian troops are trying to make inroads into the Sumy region, the main city of which lies less than 30km (19 miles) from the border with Russia.
Russian forces, attacking in small groups on motorcycles and supported by aerial drones, have been widening the area where they have been carrying out assaults on the front line, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s border guard service said.
Ukrainian forces last year used the Sumy region as a launchpad to push into Russia’s neighbouring Kursk region, where they captured a vast area of territory before being driven out by Russian forces last month.
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Judge accuses the Trump administration of ‘manufacturing’ chaos in migrant deportation case
WASHINGTON — A federal judge suggested the Trump administration was “manufacturing” chaos and said he hoped that “reason can get the better of rhetoric” in a scathing order in a case about government efforts to deport a handful of migrants from various countries to South Sudan.
In the order published Monday evening, Judge Brian Murphy wrote that he had given the Trump administration “remarkable flexibility with minimal oversight” in the case and emphasized the numerous times he attempted to work with the government.
“From the course of conduct, it is hard to come to any conclusion other than that Defendants invite a lack of clarity as a means of evasion,” the Boston-based Murphy wrote in the 17-page order.
Murphy oversees a case in which immigration advocates are attempting to prevent the Trump administration from sending migrants they’re trying to deport from the U.S. to countries that they’re not from without giving them a meaningful chance to protest their removal.
The judge said the men couldn’t advocate for themselves
In a hearing last week called to address reports that eight immigrants had been sent to South Sudan, Murphy said the men hadn’t been able to argue that the deportation could put them in danger.
But instead of ordering the government to return the men to the U.S. for hearings — as the plaintiffs wanted — he gave the government the option of holding the hearings in Djibouti where the plane had flown on its way to South Sudan as long as the men remained in U.S. government custody. Days later, the Trump administration filed another motion saying that Murphy was requiring them to hold “dangerous criminals in a sensitive location.”
But in his order Monday he emphasized repeatedly that it was the government’s “own suggestion” that they be allowed to process the men’s claims while they were still abroad.
“It turns out that having immigration proceedings on another continent is harder and more logistically cumbersome than Defendants anticipated,” Murphy wrote.
The government has argued that the men had a history with the immigration system, giving them prior opportunities to express a fear of being deported to a country outside their homeland. And the Trump administration has said that the men’s home — Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Myanmar, Vietnam and South Sudan — would not take them back.
The administration has also repeatedly emphasized the men’s criminal histories in the U.S. and portrayed them as national security threats.
The administration is relying on third countries
The Trump administration has increasingly relied on third countries to take immigrants who cannot be sent to their home countries for various reasons. Some countries simply refuse to take back their citizens being deported while others take back some but not all of their citizens. And some cannot be sent to their home countries because of concerns they’ll be tortured or harmed.
Historically that has meant that immigration enforcement officials have had to release people into the U.S. that it wants to deport but can’t.
But the Trump administration has leaned on other countries to take them. In the Western Hemisphere, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama have all agreed to take some people being removed from the U.S., with El Salvador being the most controversial example because it is holding people deported from the U.S. in a notorious prison.
The Trump administration has said it’s exploring other third countries for deportations.
Murphy said in his order that the eight men were initially told May 19 they’d be going to South Africa and then later that same day were told they were going to South Sudan. He noted that the U.S. government “has issued stark warnings regarding South Sudan.”
He said the men had fewer than 16 hours between being told they were going to be removed and going to the airport “most of which were non-waking hours” and “limited, if any” ability to talk to family or a lawyer. “Given the totality of the circumstances, it is hard to take seriously the idea that Defendants intended these individuals to have any real opportunity to make a valid claim,” the judge wrote.
Santana writes for the Associated Press.
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Trump to pardon Todd Chrisley, Julie Chrisley in fraud case
“Chrisley Knows Best” reality TV stars Todd Chrisley and Julie Chrisley may soon leave life in federal prison behind, thanks to President Trump.
The White House announced Tuesday that the president was set to pardon the imprisoned reality TV personalities nearly three years after they were convicted in 2022 of tax evasion and bank fraud. The Georgia couple gained popularity for their USA Network series, which showcased their luxurious lifestyle and zany family dynamic.
The White House posted a video of Trump on the phone with Todd and Julie’s 27-year-old daughter, Savannah Chrisley, who has publicly decried her parents’ conviction and the toll it has taken on their family. He called the younger Chrisley, who also starred in “Chrisley Knows Best,” “to inform her that he will be granting full pardons to her parents.”
“Trump Knows Best,” the tweet said.
A legal representative for the Chrisleys did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment on Tuesday.
A federal grand jury in Atlanta indicted the Chrisley parents on several charges including tax evasion, conspiracy and wire fraud. Prosecutors alleged the charges stemmed from a scheme, which lasted from 2007 to 2012, that involved the stars submitting fake financial statements to financial institutions to get loans worth millions of dollars. A second indictment was filed in February, and Todd, 56, and Julie Chrisley, 52, were convicted on all charges in June 2022.
In November of that year, the reality TV stars were sentenced to prison: Todd was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison and Julie received seven years. They also received 16 months probation each. In September 2024, Julie Chrisley was resentenced, but a federal judge upheld her seven-year sentence.
Since her parents’ convictions, Savannah has spoken out, strongly challenging the verdict. Over the years, she has alleged corruption in the court proceedings, described the alleged “nightmare” conditions of her parents’ prison facilities and touted plans to appeal their convictions — airing her grievances and hopes on her “Unlocked” podcast, “The Masked Singer” and even at the Republican National Convention in July, where she threw her support behind Trump. During the political event, she alleged her family “was persecuted by rogue prosecutors in Fulton County due to our public profile … and our conservative beliefs.”
“Donald J. Trump has only one conviction that matters, and that is his conviction to make America great again,” she added elsewhere in her RNC address.
On Tuesday, Savannah brought news of Trump’s intentions to pardon her parents to Instagram. Wearing a white and gold MAGA hat, Savannah shared her side of her call with President Trump.
“I have shed so many tears. The president called me personally as I was walking into Sam’s Club and notified me that he was signing … pardon paper[s] for both of my parents,” she said. “So both my parents are coming home tonight or tomorrow. I still don’t believe it’s real.
“The fact that the president called me — I will forever be grateful for President Trump, his administration and everyone along the way,” she said, adding later in her video she “vows” to stand alongside Trump and continue to expose “corruption.”
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US judge temporarily bars Trump admin from ending NYC congestion pricing | Transport News
The ruling comes as US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy is set to pause federal funds to New York state.
New York City has won a temporary reprieve in its legal battle against the administration of US President Donald Trump, which had threatened to withhold federal funding from New York state unless the city ended its congestion pricing programme.
United States District Judge Lewis Liman held the hearing on the matter on Tuesday and granted a temporary restraining order that will allow the programme to keep running until at least June 9 as the administration and state-level officials battle over the future of congestion pricing.
A day earlier, US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said he believed the federal government would withhold government approvals in the state, which would have frozen contracts for highway and transit projects.
Congestion pricing is likely to move forward indefinitely despite the federal administration’s objections because the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) – New York City’s mass transit system, which is operated as a state-level agency – “showed a likelihood of success”, according to the judge.
The courts said this is because the plan was already reviewed by state, local and federal agencies, according to the New York Times newspaper.
“Congestion relief is perfectly legal and thoroughly vetted. Opponents exhausted all plausible arguments against the programme, and now the increasingly outlandish theories are falling flat, too,” Danny Pearlstein, policy and communications director for the Riders Alliance, a transportation advocacy group, told Al Jazeera.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul called the judge’s decision “a massive victory” for New York commuters.
“So here’s the deal: Secretary Duffy can issue as many letters and social media posts as he wants, but a court has blocked the Trump Administration from retaliating against New York for reducing traffic and investing in transit … Congestion pricing is legal, it’s working and we’re keeping the cameras on,” the governor’s office said in a statement.
“It’s really upsetting that it came to this point to begin with. We should not be in a position where the federal government is trying to stop New York state from enacting its own policy and trying to blackmail New York state when it doesn’t follow their [the US Department of Transportation’s] lead,” Alexa Sledge, communications director for the advocacy group Transportation Alternatives, told Al Jazeera.
New York state launched the programme in January. Drivers have to pay congestion pricing tolls of $9 per day for driving during peak times in parts of Manhattan. The state made the programme in an effort to cut congestion in the nation’s most populous city as well as raise funds for NYC’s mass transit system.
“New York state should be able to make their own laws, and they should be able to run their own streets. And so hopefully, this can be the end of this,” Sledge said.
Meeting its goals
Since the programme began earlier this year, it has fulfilled many of its goals. Within a month of congestion pricing, subway ridership increased by six percent, and bus ridership by nine percent. Traffic decreased by 11 percent.
In March, the MTA forecasted that congestion pricing would bring in $500m in revenue for the system, which will fund a swath of new transit-system projects including station upgrades and zero-emissions buses. At the time, a Siena College poll found that 42 percent of New Yorkers wanted to keep the programme, while 35 percent wanted to get rid of it.
Neither the MTA nor the US Department of Transportation was immediately available for comment.
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US pauses student visa processing amid plans to up social media vetting | Donald Trump News
Latest Trump administration move comes amid a wider pressure campaign against top universities, and targeting of students.
The administration of United States President Donald Trump is temporarily suspending the processing of visas for foreign students, according to an internal memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The cable, widely reported by US media on Tuesday, ordered embassies and consulates not to allow “any additional student or exchange visa… appointment capacity until further guidance is issued”.
It added that the State Department “plans to issue guidance on expanded social media vetting for all such applications”.
The move is the latest blow to foreign nationals seeking to study in the US, as the Trump administration intensifies pressure on universities and students alike.
The administration last week revoked Harvard University’s approval for enrolling international students, amid a wider standoff over the school’s response to pro-Palestine protests and its diversity programmes. A federal judge has temporarily blocked the move.
The processing pause also comes as Rubio has sought to rescind hundreds of visas for foreign students, citing minor legal infractions or pro-Palestine speech or advocacy.
Speaking on Tuesday, US State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce did not directly respond to the cable, but said broadly, “We take very seriously the process of vetting who it is that comes into the country.”
“It’s a goal, as stated by the president and Secretary Rubio, to make sure that people who are here understand what the law is, that they don’t have any criminal intent, that they are going to be contributors to the experience here, however short or long their status,” she said.
Bruce added that those applying for student visas should continue to proceed normally, but should expect higher scrutiny.
“If you’re going to be applying for a visa, follow the normal process, the normal steps, [and] expect to be looked at,” she said.
Rubio’s cable did not give a timeline for the suspension, but told diplomatic staff they should receive guidance in the “coming days”.
Ongoing challenges
The Trump administration’s actions towards higher education have raised thorny constitutional questions about academic freedom and the rights of individuals living in the US on temporary visas.
Last week, Rubio told lawmakers in the US Senate that he had revoked “thousands” of visas since Trump took office on January 20, although a full accounting has not been released.
Rubio has relied on an obscure law that the administration maintains grants broad powers to remove foreigners whose presence in the US they deem to be counter to US foreign policy interests.
Lawyers for several students targeted by Rubio for their pro-Palestine views – including Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk, Mohsen Mahdawi and Badar Khan Suri – have maintained that their clients’ freedom of speech rights are being trampled.
Meanwhile, Harvard University has also said the Trump administration is violating its rights by cutting funding and revoking its ability to enrol foreign students.
US media also reported on Tuesday that Trump’s administration was expected to soon sever the remaining federal contracts with Harvard, in what would be the latest escalation.
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Trump administration to cut remaining US federal contracts with Harvard | Donald Trump News
Government escalates row with university over demands to curb pro-Palestine student activism and change racial diversity policies.
The administration of US President Donald Trump will move to sever remaining federal contracts with Harvard University, escalating a row centred on issues such as pro-Palestine student activism and racial diversity.
The New York Times and Reuters news agency reported on Tuesday that a draft letter from the General Services Administration (GSA) instructs all federal agencies to review and possibly cancel existing contracts with Harvard, worth an estimated $100m.
A copy of the draft letter shared by the Times states that Harvard has continued to engage in “race discrimination, including in its admissions process” and that the university’s failure to halt alleged acts of anti-Semitism suggests a “disturbing lack of concern for the safety and wellbeing of Jewish students”.
The move would be the latest effort by the government to use federal funds to force universities to accept changes sought by the Trump administration, including greater control over curricula, harsher steps against pro-Palestine students, and an end to policies that encourage racial diversity and greater opportunities for racial minorities.
The Trump administration has portrayed efforts to encourage greater racial diversity at US universities as a form of discrimination that prioritises racial identity over merit. Supporters say that such efforts, such as using race as one factor of many in admissions decisions, are necessary to remedy long histories of racist discrimination and exclusion in US higher education.
“GSA understands that Harvard continues to engage in race discrimination, including in its admissions process and in other areas of student life,” the letter reads.
The administration has also taken an aggressive stance on pro-Palestine activism on university campuses, which erupted after the beginning of Israel’s most recent war in Gaza in October 2023.
Critics have portrayed those steps as part of a larger assault on US universities, which Trump has depicted as hotbeds of political dissent and radical ideas at odds with the goals of his administration.
“The Trump administration has gone after Harvard because of the pro-Palestinian protests, and also has made a list of demands that goes far beyond any of that,” Al Jazeera correspondent Patty Culhane reported from Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Harvard is located.
“It wants detailed information on foreign students that Harvard is refusing to give. It wants basically a political audit to see where people’s ideologies are. So Harvard University has sued in court to stop many of these moves, and this will undoubtedly be the next one that goes before a judge.”
In March, the GSA and the Departments of Education (DOE) and Health and Human Services (HHS) announced an official review of $255.6m in Harvard contracts and $8.7bn in multi-year grants, stating that the review was part of an effort to combat alleged anti-Semitism on college campuses.
The administration also cut $400m in grants to Columbia University in New York City in March, despite a series of concessions to government demands.
The administration has said that campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza and the US provision of billions of dollars of weapons to Israel are driven by anti-Semitism and create an unsafe environment for Jewish students on campus.
Several international students have been arrested and detained by the administration for their involvement in pro-Palestine activism, including a Turkish international student named Rumeysa Ozturk at Tufts University, who was arrested on the street by federal agents for co-signing an op-ed calling for an end to the war.
Trump has consistently threatened to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status, and moved last week to block the university’s ability to accept international students, who currently make up about 27 percent of the university’s total enrolment.
A judge blocked that effort, which Harvard had called an act of retaliation 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”.
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Trump administration moves to cut $100 million in federal contracts for Harvard
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is asking federal agencies to cancel contracts with Harvard University worth about $100 million, a senior administration official said Tuesday, intensifying the president’s clash with the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university.
The government already has canceled more than $2.6 billion in federal research grants for the Ivy League school, which has pushed back on the administration’s demands for changes to several of its policies.
A draft letter from the General Services Administration directs agencies to review contracts with the university and seek alternate vendors. The administration plans to send a version of the letter Tuesday, the official said. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations.
The New York Times first reported on the letter.
President Trump has railed against Harvard, calling it a hotbed of liberalism and antisemitism. The school filed a lawsuit April 21 over the administration’s calls for changes to the university’s leadership, governance and admissions policies. Since then, the administration has slashed the school’s federal funding, moved to cut off enrollment of international students and threatened its tax-exempt status.
Contracts include scientific research, executive training
The administration has identified about 30 contracts across nine agencies to be reviewed for cancellation, according to another administration official who was not authorized to speak publicly and provided details on the condition of anonymity.
The contracts total roughly $100 million. They include executive training for Department of Homeland Security officials, research on health outcomes related to energy drinks and a contract for graduate student research services.
Agencies with contracts that are deemed critical are being directed not to halt them immediately, but to devise a plan to transition to a different vendor other than Harvard.
The letter applies only to federal contracts with Harvard and not its remaining research grants.
Trump threatens to give Harvard’s funding to trade schools
Trump laid into Harvard on social media over the weekend, threatening to cut an additional $3 billion in federal grants and give it to trade schools across the United States. He did not explain which grants he was referring to or how they could be reallocated.
The president also accused Harvard of refusing to release the names of its foreign students. In a new line of attack, he argued that students’ home countries pay nothing toward their education and that some of the countries are “not at all friendly to the United States.” International students are not eligible for federal financial aid, but Harvard offers its own aid to foreign and domestic students alike.
“We are still waiting for the Foreign Student Lists from Harvard so that we can determine, after a ridiculous expenditure of BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, how many radicalized lunatics, troublemakers all, should not be let back into our Country,” Trump said on social media.
It wasn’t clear exactly what he was demanding. The federal government already has access to visa information and other records on foreign students at Harvard and other universities.
The Department of Homeland Security has demanded that Harvard turn over a trove of files related to its foreign students, including disciplinary records and records related to “dangerous or violent activity.”
Harvard says it complied, but the agency said its response fell short and moved to revoke the university’s ability to enroll foreign students. A federal judge in Boston temporarily blocked the move after Harvard sued.
Other nations respond
Japan’s government said Tuesday that it’s looking for ways to help Harvard’s foreign students. Education Minister Toshiko Abe told reporters she planned to ask Japanese universities to compile measures to support international students.
The University of Tokyo, Japan’s top school, is considering temporarily accepting some Harvard students hit by the Trump sanctions.
Superville and Binkley write for the Associated Press.
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Trump Media to raise $2.5bn to invest in Bitcoin | Crypto News
Trump Media says the money will be used to create a ‘Bitcoin treasury’.
The Trump Media and Technology Group will raise about $2.5bn to invest in Bitcoin, United States President Donald Trump’s social media firm says, as it looks to diversify its revenue streams with a push into the financial sector.
The company is raising the funds by selling $1.5bn in stock at its last closing price and $1bn in convertible notes priced at a 35 percent premium, it said in a statement on Tuesday. The money will be used to build a “Bitcoin treasury”, the company said.
The Bitcoin will be held on Trump Media’s balance sheet alongside existing cash and short-term investments totalling $759m at the end of the first quarter. Crypto platforms Anchorage Digital and Crypto.com are to provide custody for the Bitcoin holdings.
“We view Bitcoin as an apex instrument of financial freedom,” Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes said, hailing the move as a “big step forward” in the company’s plan to acquire “crown jewel assets consistent with America First principles”.
Shares of the company behind Truth Social, a streaming and social media platform, were down 6 percent in early trading.
Trump Media has been exploring potential mergers and acquisitions as it aims to diversify into financial services.
Last month, it reached a binding agreement to launch retail investment products, including cryptocurrency and exchange-traded funds aligned with Trump’s policies.
Embracing cryptocurrencies
The Trump family, long rooted in skyscrapers and golf clubs, has opened multiple beachheads in cryptocurrencies, quickly gaining hundreds of millions of dollars. Its other crypto forays include Trump nonfungible tokens (NFTs), a meme coin, a stake in a newly formed Bitcoin producer called American Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency exchange World Liberty Financial.
But the crypto push has attracted scrutiny from lawmakers, including Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, who last month asked the US securities regulator about its plans to supervise exchange-traded funds (ETFs) due to be launched by Trump Media.
Trump, who referred to cryptocurrencies in his first term as “not money”, citing their volatility and a value “based on thin air”, has shifted his views on the technology.
During an event at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida during his presidential campaign in May 2024, Trump received assurances that crypto industry backers would spend lavishly to get him re-elected.
Last week, Trump rewarded 220 of the top investors in one of his other cryptocurrency projects, the $Trump meme coin, with a swanky dinner with him at his luxury golf club in northern Virginia, spurring accusations that the president was mixing his duties in the White House with personal profit.
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Noem urges Poles to elect Trump ally as CPAC holds its first meeting in Poland
WARSAW, Poland — The Conservative Political Action Conference, the United States’ premier conservative gathering, held its first meeting in Poland on Tuesday, just five days before a tightly contested presidential election between a liberal mayor and a conservative backed by President Trump.
The two candidates vying to replace Polish President Andrzej Duda offer starkly different visions for Poland: Rafał Trzaskowski, the pro-European Union liberal mayor of Warsaw, and Karol Nawrocki, a conservative historian backed by the Law and Justice party who is skeptical of the EU.
“We need you to elect the right leader,” Kristi Noem, the U.S. Homeland Security Secretary and a prominent Trump ally, said in a speech at the event. “You will be the leaders that will turn Europe back to conservative values.”
Noem described Trzaskowski as “an absolute train wreck of a leader” and Nawrocki as someone who would lead Poland in a style similar to Trump.
She opened her speech saying: “I just had the opportunity to meet with Karol and listen: he needs to be the next president of Poland. Do you understand me?”
She also implied that electing Nawrocki would strengthen the U.S.-Poland relationship.
“If you (elect) a leader that will work with President Donald J. Trump, the Polish people will have an ally that will ensure that you will be able to fight off enemies that do not share your values,” she said.
“You will have strong borders and protect your communities and keep them safe, and ensure that your citizens are respected every single day,” she said. “You will continue to have a U.S. presence here, a military presence. And you will have equipment that is American-made, that is high quality.”
The United States currently has some 10,000 troops stationed in Poland, a mission aimed at reassuring the frontline NATO nation worried about Russian aggression.
“Donald Trump is a strong leader for us, but you have an opportunity that you have just as strong of a leader in Karol if you make him the leader of this country,” Noem said.
CPAC sees a ‘globalist’ attack
CPAC chairman Matt Schlapp opened the proceedings with a speech claiming that conservatives around the world are locked in a battle against “globalists,” whom he described as enemies of faith, family and freedom.
Schlapp claimed CPAC had stood by Trump throughout his legal battles and declared that similar threats were playing out in countries like Poland.
“Are you happy that America is getting closer to being great again?” Schlapp asked the audience. “Did the reelection of Donald Trump bring you joy?”
“When one of us is under attack, the rest of us must come to that person’s defense,” he added. “The globalists intend to take each one of us out one by one — to shame us, to silence us, to bankrupt us, to ruin us, to make our kids turn against us.”
He said that’s why it was important to “win all these elections, including in Poland, that are so important to the freedom of people everywhere.”
The conference took place in Jasionka, near the southeastern Polish city of Rzeszow, located in a region of Poland that is staunchly conservative. Jasionka has also been the hub for U.S. and Western weapons sent to Ukraine following Russia’s full-scale invasion more than three years ago.
A global conservative movement
CPAC meetings, which started in 1974, used to champion tight budgets and a hawkish foreign policy, but have steadily been taken over by the Trump wing of the Republican party. CPAC has rebranded itself as a celebration of the U.S. president’s populist approach.
At the same time, it’s reached out to other conservative populists with a stated goal of helping grow a global conservative movement. CPAC has held gatherings in Japan, South Korea, Mexico City and Israel. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his staff have become regular speakers. The gathering in Poland followed multiple CPAC meetings in Budapest.
Another speaker Tuesday was John Eastman, a conservative lawyer who was the architect of much of Trump’s unsuccessful strategy to overturn his 2020 election loss.
In his speech, Eastman framed the upcoming Polish presidential election as a decisive moment for the future of Western civilization. He argued that a cultural and ideological “cancer” marked by a loss of faith in Western civilization is spreading eastward.
“Poland is poised to play a critical role in defeating this threat to Western civilization. That is why the election this coming Sunday is so important,” Eastman said.
Gera writes for the Associated Press.
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Trump threatens to strip federal funds to California over transgender youth athletes
President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to cut federal funding to California if the state continues allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports.
Trump blasted Gov. Gavin Newsom in an early morning post on Truth Social saying the state under his leadership “continues to ILLEGALLY allow MEN TO PLAY IN WOMEN’S SPORTS.”
“I will speak to him today to find out which way he wants to go???” Trump said of Newsom. “In the meantime I am ordering local authorities, if necessary, to not allow the transitioned person to compete in the State Finals. This is a totally ridiculous situation!!!”
The president’s post appeared to reference a California high school junior who won the women’s long jump and triple jump during the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section Masters Meet over the weekend.
California is the second state to enter Trump’s cross-hairs over transgender athletes participation in youth sports. Last month, Trump began the process of stripping Maine of federal education dollars in a battle over the issue between the president and Maine Gov. Janet Mills. The dispute immediately landed in court.
Unlike the governor of Maine, Newsom recently said it was “deeply unfair” for people born as biological men to compete in women’s sports. He has not responded to Trump’s post.
When asked at a press conference in April if California should adopt a law restricting transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports, the governor said he’s open to the discussion.
“You’re talking about a very small number of people, a very small number of athletes, and my responsibility is to address the pressing issues of our time,” Newsom said, before adding that the conversation has been weaponized by conservatives.
“And to the extent that someone could find that right balance, I would embrace those conversations and the dignity that hopefully presents themselves in that conversation, meaning the humanity around that conversation, not the politics around that conversation.”
This isn’t the first time Trump has threatened to cut funding, particularly education dollars, to California.
In an April letter to Newsom, the Trump-appointed head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture conditioned its aid to abiding by Trump directives — and cited a federal investigation into a state law that prohibits schools from automatically notifying families about student gender-identity changes and shields teachers from retaliation for supporting transgender student rights.
California also joined other states in April when it defied a Trump administration order to certify that the state’s 1,000 school districts have ended all diversity, equity and inclusion programs. That Trump order, too, arrived with federal threats to cut billions of dollars in education funding if the state did not comply.
One uncertainty in Trump’s latest social media post was whether he was referring to education funding alone or additional federal support for California — which could include, for example, disaster relief, food aid for the poor and dollars to support low-income housing.
California has long sent more money to Washington, D.C. in federal tax revenue than it receives in federal support, according to Newsom. Regardless, the funding that California relies on is significant.
While it’s difficult to calculate the total dollar amount California receives from the federal government in education funding, some tallies have put the annual figure at $16.3 billion — or about $2,750 per K-12 student. That money includes funding for school meals, students with disabilities and early education Head Start programs.
The state also receives more than $2.1 billion in Title I grants to counteract the effects of poverty — more than any other state — with about $417 million provided to Los Angeles Unified, according to the California Department of Education.
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