Tag: donald trump

Stocks surge as White House confirms 100 countries want a trade deal with U.S.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt has confirmed that there is progress on President Donald Trump’s agenda to get fair international trade standards for American manufacturers and consumers alike.

The president launched a series of tariff battles because for years American producers have had to pay high tariffs to get their products and services into other nations, while those nation’s often have been given virtually free access to American markets.

The imbalance is what has caused America’s large trade deficit and other financial complications.

Trump’s tariffs have been producing results she said.

“We’re doing very well in respect to a potential trade deal with China. There have now been 18 proposals and more than 100 countries around the world who are wanting to make a deal with the United States of America,” Leavitt confirmed.

“The president and administration are setting the stage for a deal with China. … We feel everyone involved wants to see a trade deal happen — and the ball is moving in the right direction.”

The Daily Mail pointed out the Dow Jones Industrial Average rocketed up 600 points on the announcement. Actually, the market surged about 1,000 points on the news.

Fox News reported she continued, “You have Secretary Bessent, Secretary Lutnick, Ambassador Greer, NEC Director Hassett and Peter Navarro, the entire trade team meeting with 34 countries this week alone. We are moving at Trump speed to ensure these deals are made on behalf of the American worker and the American people.”

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Nine US military planes deliver bunker-busting bombs to Israel: Report

Nine US military transport aircraft loaded with bunker-busting bombs landed at an Israeli airbase near Tel Aviv in the past 24 hours, Israel’s public broadcaster said Thursday, Anadolu reports.

“Nine US transport planes carrying bunker-busting bombs and other defensive weapons landed at Nevatim Airbase near Tel Aviv, in central Israel,” the Israeli broadcasting authority KAN reported.

It added that the move comes “in anticipation of a possible joint US-Israeli strike, should nuclear negotiations between Washington and Tehran fail.”​​​​​​​

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Did Ukrainian Intel Attempt Trump Assassination?

For weeks, the mainstream media has been gripped by mania over Nikita Casap, a teenage resident of rural Wisconsin accused of murdering his mother and stepfather, in order to finance an elaborate scheme to assassinate US President Donald Trump and instigate a nationwide race war. News outlets have given the case blanket coverage. This has included extensive investigative timelines, psychological profiles speculating on the 17-year-old’s motives and mental state, and even cautions that federal funding cuts could prevent similar plots being foiled in future.

Eerily absent from this inexorable flurry of coverage, however, has been much if any reference to how Casap was no lone wolf, but a component of a wider conspiracy coordinated with and directed by as yet unidentified actors in Ukraine. Even more damningly, there has been zero consideration of whether the intended assassination of Trump was one way or another orchestrated by Kiev’s security and intelligence services, in order to sabotage ongoing peace negotiations between Moscow and Washington.

This glaring oversight is all the more inexcusable given the contents of a publicly-accessible FBI affidavit. It contains numerous excerpts of private conversations conducted over prior months via Telegram between Casap and pseudonymous individuals with Ukrainian telephone numbers in Cyrillic, discussing the killing of Trump in some detail. In one such chat, Casap posed a variety of questions to an anonymous Ukrainian user, amply indicating he expected to be extracted to Kiev once he took Trump out.

“How long will I need to hide before I will be moved to Ukraine?” he enquired, adding, “I probably should brush up on my Russian.” He further asked, “So while in Ukraine, I’ll be able to get a normal job and have a normal life? Even if when [sic] it’s found out I did it?” In an even more revealing exchange in January, Casap asked an “unknown” confederate “what country do you think will get the blame for this?” They stated plainly:

“Russia will be blamed for it, this is the goal.”

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Harvard Sues Trump Administration Over $2.2 Billion Federal Funding Freeze Amid Crackdown on Woke Campuses

Harvard University has filed suit against nine federal agencies in the Trump administration after the federal government froze more than $2.2 billion in multi-year research grants and $60 million in contracts.

The move was led by a coalition of executive departments, including Defense, Education, and Health and Human Services.

On April 11, the Department of Health and Human Services, along with other federal agencies, issued Harvard a letter demanding sweeping reforms if it wished to continue receiving federal research funding. The demands included:

  • Shuttering of all diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs;
  • A university-wide “viewpoint audit” to eliminate leftist ideological monocultures;
  • Forced hiring and admissions practices to ensure conservative representation;
  • Defunding and disbanding of radical pro-Hamas student groups;
  • And complete transparency on foreign funding sources.

These measures, according to the government, were necessary to combat antisemitism and restore ideological balance in an institution long captured by left-wing radicals.

President Garber of Harvard fired back, stating, “The administration’s prescription goes beyond the power of the federal government. It violates Harvard’s First Amendment rights and exceeds the statutory limits of the government’s authority under Title VI.

“And it threatens our values as a private institution devoted to the pursuit, production, and dissemination of knowledge. No government—regardless of which party is in power—should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” he added.

But the Trump administration isn’t backing down. Sources told Harvard that an additional $1 billion in research funding may soon be revoked, and the Department of Homeland Security is now threatening to revoke Harvard’s international student program. The IRS is also reportedly eyeing Harvard’s tax-exempt status.

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3rd Would-Be Trump Assassin Plotted with Telegram Account Linked to Ukrainian Cell Number — We’ve Identified the Account and Individual It’s Registered To

A newly unsealed FBI affidavit reveals that 17-year-old Wisconsin native Nikita Casap — who murdered his parents, stole $14,000 in cash, and plotted to assassinate President Trump using a militarized drone — was communicating via Telegram with an overseas phone number registered to Vodafone Ukraine, one of the country’s largest mobile carriers.

The Telegram account linked to the overseas phone number +380 50 259 5318 — registered under Vodafone Ukraine — was found to be communicating in Cyrillic script, specifically written in the Ukrainian language.

The Telegram username “PoМаН ВіКТОВИЧ” — written in Ukrainian Cyrillic — translates to Roman Viktorovich, the shadowy figure linked to a foreign cell guiding a would-be Trump assassin.

How We Confirmed It Was Ukrainian, Not Russian:
1. Country Code +380
The +380 prefix is the internationally recognized country code for Ukraine, confirming the phone number is Ukrainian in origin.

The mobile prefix 050 specifically identifies the number as belonging to Vodafone Ukraine, one of the country’s leading mobile operators.

2. Telegram Display Name: РОМаН ВіКТОВИЧ
This is the Cyrillic version of the name Roman Viktorovich.

The presence of the letter “і” in “ВіКТОВИЧ” is key:

The letter “і” is used in Ukrainian, but not in modern Russian (Russian uses “и” instead).

Ukrainian also includes unique letters like “ї”, “є”, and “ґ” which do not appear in the Russian alphabet.

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Trump slams Supreme Court over deportations, says it is ‘not possible’ to try every illegal migrant

President Donald Trump on Monday slammed the United States’ court system, including the Supreme Court, over their response to his efforts to deport illegal migrants, stating it is “not possible” to try every person who is in the U.S. illegally.

The Supreme Court over the weekend temporarily blocked Trump’s latest round of deportations under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. Trump’s deportations have come under scrutiny after he removed hundreds of illegal migrants he accused of being gang members without due process. 

The president defended his actions in a post on Truth Social, claiming it would take “200 years” to try every illegal migrant, and slammed the Supreme Court for allegedly not wanting him to “send violent criminals and terrorists back to Venezuela.” 

“I’m doing what I was elected to do, remove criminals from our Country, but the Courts don’t seem to want me to do that,” Trump wrote in the post. “My team is fantastic, doing an incredible job, however, they are being stymied at every turn by even the U.S. Supreme Court, which I have such great respect for, but which seemingly doesn’t want me to send violent criminals and terrorists back to Venezuela, or any other Country.”

The president praised Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s dissent, stating the justice was right for wanting to “dissolve the pause on deportations.”

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Beneath the Surface: Is the Trump-Netanyahu ‘Unthinkable’ About to Erupt?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent visit to Washington was no ordinary trip. The consensus among Israeli analysts, barring a few remaining loyalists, is that Netanyahu was not invited but, rather, summoned by US President Donald Trump.

All evidence supports this assertion. Netanyahu rarely travels to the US without extensive Israeli media fanfare, leveraging his touted relationships with various US administrations as a “hasbara” opportunity to reinforce his image as Israel’s strongman.

This time, there was no room for such campaigns. Netanyahu was informed of Trump’s summons while on an official trip to Hungary. There, he was received by Hungarian President Viktor Orbán with exaggerated diplomatic accolades, signaling defiance against international condemnation of Netanyahu, an accused war criminal wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC), and portraying him as anything but an isolated leader of an increasingly pariah state.

The capstone of Netanyahu’s short-lived Hungarian victory lap was Orbán’s announcement of Hungary’s withdrawal from the ICC, a move with profoundly unsettling implications.

It would have been convenient for Netanyahu to use his Washington visit to deflect from his failed war in Gaza and internal strife in Israel. However, as the Arabic saying goes, “the wind often blows contrary to the ship’s desires.”

The notion that Netanyahu was summoned, not invited, is corroborated by Israeli media reports that he attempted to postpone the visit under various pretexts. He failed, ultimately flying to Washington on the date determined by the White House. Initially, reports circulated that no press conference would be held, denying Netanyahu the platform to tout Washington’s unwavering support for his military actions and to expound on the “special relationship” between the two countries.

A press conference was held, though it was largely dominated by Trump’s contradictory messages and typical rhetoric. Netanyahu spoke briefly, attempting to project the same confident body language observed during his previous Washington visit, where he sat with an erect posture and spread out his legs, as if in command. But this time, his body language betrayed him; his eyes shifted nervously, and he appeared stiff and surprised, particularly when Trump announced that the US and Iran would begin direct talks in Oman soon.

Trump also mentioned the need to end the war in Gaza, but the Iran announcement clearly shocked Netanyahu. He desperately tried to align his discourse with Trump’s, referencing Libya’s disarmament under Muammar Gaddafi. But that was never part of Israel’s official regional plan. Israel had consistently advocated for US military intervention against Iran, despite the certainty that such a war would destabilize the entire region, potentially drawing the US into a conflict far more protracted and devastating than the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

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Trump’s Unconstitutional, Presidential War Against Yemen

For Americans who still think that Donald Trump is an advocate of realism and restraint in foreign policy, the events in Yemen should come as a rude awakening.  Unfortunately, the most prominent indicator enabled the president’s political opponents to evade their own share of the blame for the tragic events in that country.  Revelations that members of Trump’s national security team had conducted a discussion of highly classified information about war plans in Yemen over an insecure system exploded in the news media last month.  One official, apparently National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, had even inadvertently invited Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of the Atlantic, to join the chat.  The resulting “Signalgate” scandal dominated the news cycle for the next two weeks.

The dominant focus of most news stories about the episode was both revealing and depressing.  Critics vehemently denounced the Trump team for an egregious inability to keep the Yemen war plans secret.  Few journalists or members of Congress condemned the participants in the chat for planning an unconstitutional war.  There was no hint that President Trump planned to seek a formal declaration of war as required by the Constitution.  Instead, the principal officials intend to continue the illegal practice of waging presidential wars that has become the norm since the end of World War II.

Indeed, a new phase of the conflict with Yemen was already well underway. Vice President J. D. Vance boasted to the other participants in the chat that U.S. forces had located a “terrorist leader” (i.e. a high-level military official of Yemen’s Houthi rebel government) and would be taking him out.  Indeed, the U.S. launched an air and missile attack on the apartment complex where the official was visiting his girlfriend. The collateral damage included the collapse of the building along with extensive casualties. Notably, very few administration critics bothered to criticize the Trump foreign policy team for such conduct.

Matters have grown worse since that episode.  On April 17, U.S. forces conducted an even larger assault on a civilian port in Yemen.  This time, more than 80 people, mostly civilians, perished.  And once again, there was silence from critics who have denounced the Trump administration for everything from the ill-treatment of immigrants, to harassment of law firms linked to the Democratic Party, to the White House’s efforts to downsize the federal bureaucracy.

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Rap sheets, photos of suspected Tren de Aragua gang members Trump admin tried to deport before SCOTUS ruling

The Trump administration on Saturday released the rap sheets and photos of alleged Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang members detained in Texas who the administration is trying to deport.

The suspects of the violent Venezuelan gang were going to be deported using the recently reinstated Alien Enemies Act of 1798 before the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruled Saturday morning against deportations under the 18th century law.

In a decision in favor of the American Civil Liberties Union, the administration was barred from removing Venezuelans held in Texas’ Bluebonnet Detention Center “until further order of this court.”

Following the ruling, Trump administration lawyers filed an opposition to the request to block the deportations, noting the government provided advance notice to detainees prior to removals, and they had adequate time to file habeas claims.

At a minimum, attorneys argued the court should limit the administrative stay to removals.

SCOTUS previously ruled the president could conduct deportations under the Alien Enemies Act as long as suspected illegal aliens were afforded due process to challenge their removal from the US.

“These are some of the TdA gang members detained in Texas that we are trying to deport,” a senior Trump administration official told Fox News.

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“Unnamed Pentagon Officials Have Slandered Our Character with Baseless Attacks”: Hegseth Aides Ousted in Leak Probe Fire Back, Say They Were Never Told What They Were Accused Of

Three senior advisers to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth—Dan Caldwell, Darin Selnick, and Colin Carroll—were abruptly ousted this week amid an expanding probe into alleged information leaks.

The trio, all veterans and key figures in the Trump-Vance administration’s efforts to reform the Pentagon, have publicly condemned their dismissals as unjust and politically motivated.

In a joint statement, Caldwell—an advisor to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; Selnick, Hegseth’s deputy chief of staff; and Carroll, chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg—expressed profound disappointment over their treatment, asserting that they were never informed of the specific allegations against them.

Read their full joint statement below:

“We are incredibly disappointed by the manner in which our service at the Department of Defense ended. Unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door.

All three of us served our country honorably in uniform – for two of us, this included deployments to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And, based on our collective service, we understand the importance of information security and worked every day to protect it.

At this time, we still have not been told what exactly we were investigated for, if there is still an active investigation, or if there was even a real investigation of “leaks” to begin with.

While this experience has been unconscionable, we remain supportive of the Trump-Vance Administration’s mission to make the Pentagon great again and achieve peace through strength. We hope in the future to support those efforts in different capacities.”

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