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President Donald Trump, in an interview released Wednesday, confirmed an earlier report that he criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “crazy,” and says he’s “a little bit perturbed” that Israel’s fighting with Hezbollah in Lebanon is holding back peace talks with Iran.
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The Trump administration is sticking with a deal to permanently drop tax claims against Trump, an extraordinary flex of executive power that could help shield the president from further examination of his finances and legal conduct, even as it scraps a $1.8 billion fund to compensate the Republican president’s allies amid a fierce political backlash.
Trump’s endorsements helped end the political careers of two senators and a congressman deemed insufficiently loyal, but he couldn’t lift Rep. Randy Feenstra to victory in Iowa’s Republican primary, setting up a Democratic opportunity to pick up a governorship. See other AP coverage of Tuesday’s primary results here.
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Trump’s hosting streak meets America’s 250th birthday and the World Cup
When nearly all the scheduled musical performers pulled out of a concert series marking America’s 250th anniversary, Trump responded by making himself the headlining act of the Great American State Fair.
That put to rest any possible scenario where a president who has built his personal and political persona on seizing the spotlight might cede the stage to avoid overshadowing a celebration bigger than himself — like, for example, the World Cup, where he said he’ll present the golden trophy to the winning team.
From his reality shows to the hours he’s spent entertaining at events to his evident pride in showing off his properties to his overhaul of the White House, Trump can be a gracious, personable and highly watchable master of ceremonies. But he also tends to make every event about himself.
Trump thinks Todd Blanche will become his permanent attorney general
Asked in an interview if acting attorney general Todd Blanche would get the post full-time, Trump said, “I think he will.”
The president said his former personal attorney is doing a “very good job” at the Justice Department. He told the “Pod Force One” podcast that he did not have any other candidates in mind.
“I wanted to see how he’s received,” Trump said of Blanche. “And he’s done a very good job. But I’ve known him a long time.”
Blanche has been the deputy attorney general and became the acting leader of the Justice Department in April after the departure of Pam Bondi as attorney general.
Blanche would need to be nominated and confirmed by the Senate to shift from acting to the official attorney general.
Trump says that Iran’s supreme leader is involved in peace talks
The U.S. president said that Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who succeeded his father, is “involved” in peace talks for ending the war.
“They have a lot of respect for him,” Trump said in an interview with The New York Post’s “Pod Force One.”
Trump said Khamenei is not doing well to do injuries sustained in an airstrike, but “they say he’s giving approval because that’s the way it has been for a long, long time.”
The president added, “We seem to be getting along quite well,” but said he had not previously thought about meeting with Khamenei until he was asked about the possibility in the interview.
Trump said the U.S. had gone through two “sets” of Iranian negotiators who were now gone, as well as some of the third set of Iranian negotiators.
Trump says US blockade of Strait of Hormuz could continue through a summer of elevated gasoline prices
The president said in a podcast interview that oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz could be blocked through the summer, as the extent of progress in peace talks with Iran remain unclear.
Trump said he thought it was “unlikely” that the strait would stay closed that long, but he acknowledged to The New York Post’s “Pod Force One” that the U.S. blockade stopping tankers with Iranian oil could go through the Labor Day holiday on Sept. 7.
“I don’t know. I mean, I think it could be (closed through Labor Day), but I think it’s unlikely. I think that we’ll have it. I think this will resolve itself fairly quickly,” Trump said.
Continued shortages of oil and natural gas could keep global prices elevated and inflict levels of inflation on the U.S. and other countries that could hamper growth.
Trump says he works well with Netanyahu, even after confirming call in which he called the Israeli PM crazy
The U.S. president confirmed an earlier Axios report that he criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as “f—ing crazy” in a Monday phone call, saying he was “a little bit perturbed” that Israel’s fighting of Hezbollah in Lebanon was holding back peace talks with Iran.
Trump has yet to show clear progress in talks to resolve the war with Iran and cement his goals of that country agreeing to abandon its development of nuclear weapons and reopening the Strait of Hormuz for oil and natural gas shipments.
“We’ve worked very well together. I like Bibi a lot. And I work very well with him,” Trump told The New York Post’s “Pod Force One.”
Trump has emphasized in the past that he wanted to be a president who brought peace, but his comments suggested his affinity with Netanyahu reflects their mutual connection over being on a war footing.
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“I’m a wartime president,” Trump said. “He’s a wartime prime minister.”
Independents emerge in red-state Senate races
If Democrats hope to compete in red-state Senate contests this fall, they may have to abandon their party’s nominees and rally around independents.
That’s one of the takeaways after voters on Tuesday finalized general election matchups in Montana and South Dakota, where little-known Democrats earned their party’s nominations. In both states, however, higher-profile independent candidates also qualified for the general election ballot.
It’s much the same in Idaho and Nebraska, which held Senate primaries last month. Democratic leaders in Nebraska are openly endorsing independent Dan Osborne over their party’s nominee, who has promised to drop out to make it easier for Osborne to win.
In Montana, independent Senate candidate Seth Bodnar, the former University of Montana president, looks like the strongest opponent to Republican Kurt Alme — on paper, at least. Bodnar raised more money than all of the five Democratic primary candidates combined. He’s even significantly outraised Trump-backed Alme.
Trump’s Education Department is backing away from addressing civil rights for Black students
For generations, the federal government enforced civil rights laws with an eye toward remedying historic, systemic discrimination against Black people and other people of color. The Justice Department pressed schools to desegregate. The Education Department worked to promote equal opportunity and held schools accountable for racial bias.
But under the Trump administration, efforts to address deep-rooted inequities for students of color are being cast as discriminatory against white students. Programs that have long withstood legal scrutiny are now quick to be deemed “ illegal DEI ” — diversity, equity and inclusion — by the White House. Schools that do not comply have faced threats to their funding, and in some cases, lost federal grants.
Civil rights attorneys describe the administration’s actions as a complete inversion of legal history.
The U.S. government has opened investigations or joined litigation over a wide range of efforts to address racial inequality. The Justice Department is investigating programs to increase the number of teachers of color in Rhode Island and Iowa. And grants to districts to train teachers or recruit school mental health workers have been discontinued for mentions of diversity in recruitment.
Trump signs an executive order that invites vetting of top AI models for national security risks
Trump signed an executive order on oversight of artificial intelligence Tuesday, less than two weeks after postponing a White House ceremony over his concerns that a similar policy could dull America’s technological edge.
The order establishes a framework for the federal government to vet the national security risks of the most advanced AI systems for up to a month before their public release. Participation by AI developers would be voluntary, the order says.
“Advanced AI capabilities make our Nation stronger, but also introduce new national security considerations that require coordinated action across executive departments and agencies,” the order says.
It was not immediately clear to what extent the order differed from the one Trump declined to sign on May 21.
The order says the government would have only 30 days to review an AI system, a shorter time frame than some in the industry were expecting. A longer time period might have been seen as too burdensome for a fast-moving and highly competitive industry.
US says it plans extra tariffs of 10% or more for most trading partners after forced labor probe
The Trump administration is proposing that tariffs of 10% or more be imposed on products from dozens of major trading partners following a probe into imports of goods allegedly made with forced labor.
The report released early Wednesday by the U.S. Trade Representative said Canada, Mexico, Taiwan and the United Kingdom and some other countries and territories would face 10% additional tariffs for allegedly failing to enforce a forced labor import ban.
A 12.5% additional tariff would be imposed on China, Japan, India, South Korea, Brazil and Switzerland and dozens of other countries.
“The failure of our most important trading partners to address the importation of goods made with forced labor is unacceptable. This creates a dynamic where American workers are forced to compete globally on an unlevel playing field,” USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer said in a statement.
He added that “each of our trading partners must do more to ensure that trade does not perversely encourage and entrench forced labor globally.”
The USTR said failure to prevent such imports is “unreasonable and burdens or restricts U.S. commerce.”
Trump administration is scrapping $1.8B fund meant to compensate president’s allies, Blanche says
The Trump administration is scrapping plans for a $1.8 billion fund that would have compensated allies of the Republican president, the Justice Department’s top official said Tuesday in retreating from a program that faced a fierce political backlash that had threatened to stall key elements of the White House agenda.
“We are not moving forward with the fund, period,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in response to questions at a House hearing on the Justice Department budget.
“Not moving forward ever?” asked Rep. Grace Meng, a New York Democrat.
“Correct,” Blanche answered.
The blunt declaration marked an extraordinary and rare Trump administration turnabout in the face of mounting political opposition to a fund that officials said was meant to compensate people who believe they have been improperly targeted by the criminal justice system. Since the establishment of the fund two weeks ago, it’s been paused by a judge and lambasted by Democrats and Republicans alike, who said they were troubled by a lack of oversight and the potential for payouts to participants in the violent Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
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