Tag: donald trump

Trump Order Focuses on ‘Secret Weapon’ to Reshape Colleges

President Trump issued new executive orders Wednesday targeting US colleges and the accrediting organizations that oversee them, part of his campaign against “wokeness” and DEI efforts in higher education. One order calls for tougher enforcement of Section 117 of the Higher Education Act. This federal law, passed in the 1980s, requires colleges to disclose foreign gifts and contracts of $250,000 or more. The White House claims Harvard and other universities have violated this law, which has been “unevenly enforced,” per the AP. A second order aims to shake up the bodies responsible for accrediting colleges, which then allows them to accept federal financial aid; Trump has referred to this move as his “secret weapon” to remake higher education, the Wall Street Journal reports.

  • One order directs the Education Department and the attorney general to increase enforcement and possibly withhold federal money from institutions that violate disclosure rules. The administration aims to “end the secrecy surrounding foreign funds in American educational institutions” and protect against “foreign exploitation.” Concerns over financial ties between higher education institutions and foreign countries, especially China, have been persistent among Republicans and have been reignited during the recent dispute between the White House and Harvard University. One Republican representative says he believes China uses academic ties to “indoctrinate students” and steal US research.
  • Another order focuses on organizations known as accreditors, which set the standards colleges must meet to access federal financial aid. Trump has criticized the current system, calling it “dominated by Marxist Maniacs and lunatics.” The new order instructs the government to suspend or terminate accreditors that, in the administration’s view, discriminate against colleges due to DEI requirements. Some accreditors have already dropped or stopped enforcing DEI criteria following previous pressure from Trump. “Revoking accreditation is an existential threat for these universities,” explains one research fellow. “If you lose Pell grants and lose student loans, for most colleges that means you’re done.”

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Trump’s Solicitor General Asks Supreme Court For More Time To Weigh Challenge To Gun Ban For Marijuana Consumers

The government’s top lawyer is asking the Supreme Court for more time to consider whether to challenge a February appeals court ruling concerning the federal prohibition on gun ownership by people who consume marijuana. It’s the latest development in a series of recent cases around the constitutionality of the firearm restriction.

The new filing, from Solicitor General D. John Sauer, concerns a case in which the defendant, Keshon Daveon Baxter, was found in possession of both a firearm and a bag of marijuana. The government charged him under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3), which prohibits gun ownership by “unlawful” users of controlled substances.

Baxter argued in district court that the prohibition was itself illegal, contending both that “unlawful” use was too vague in the statute to be enforceable and also that the government’s ban on drug users’ possession of firearms was unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.

The lower court rejected both arguments—a ruling Baxter appealed to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

It a February opinion, an Eighth Circuit panel upheld the portion of the district court’s decision denying Baxter’s vagueness claim but reversed the lower court’s ruling on the constitutionality of the firearms ban. However, judges wrote that there were insufficient factual findings in the record “for this Court to review Baxter’s as-applied Second Amendment challenge.”

Nevertheless, the Eighth Circuit wrote, “We reverse the district court’s ruling on Baxter’s as-applied Second Amendment challenge and remand to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”

The federal government currently has until May 6 to decide whether to file a writ of certiorari asking the Supreme Court to review the appeals court ruling. The new filing from Sauer asks for a 30-day extension on that deadline.

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Trump Administration Must Give Some Venezuelans 21 Days Notice Before Deportations: Judge

The Trump administration must provide Venezuelans whom officials arrest for alleged links to the Tren de Aragua gang three weeks’ notice before removing them from the country, a federal judge ruled on April 22.

A temporary restraining order from U.S. District Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney applies to all noncitizens in Colorado who were, are, or will be subject to President Donald Trump’s March proclamation declaring an invasion of the United States by the gang and directing the deportation of its members.

Government officials must under the order provide 21 days’ notice to the noncitizens advising them that the government intends to deport them, that they can hire an attorney, and that they have a right to seek judicial review.

The notice “must be written in a language the individual understands,” Sweeney wrote.

The judge also required the government not to remove any of the affected noncitizens from Colorado, until at least May 6. The restraining order may be extended by then, or turned into a preliminary injunction—a longer-term form of relief.

Sweeney sided with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which is representing two Venezuelan nationals who were apprehended under Trump’s proclamation and said they feared being deported.

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Trump’s mass deportation raids result in 655% spike in arrests of terrorists roaming US — including one of India’s ‘most wanted’

The Trump administration’s mass deportation raids have nabbed more than 200 known or suspected terrorists since January — including one of India’s “most wanted,” who is accused of masterminding a grenade attack on a cop there and has ties to a US-designated terrorist organization in Pakistan.

Since President Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have arrested 219 known or alleged terrorists, marking a 655% increase from the same period last year when 29 such arrests were made under former President Joe Biden, according to new Homeland Security data obtained by The Post.

Among the dozens of terrorists swept up in Trump’s raids was Harpreet Singh, a citizen of India who entered the US illegally on Jan. 27, 2022 by crossing from Mexico into Arizona and was swiftly released into the country by Border Patrol agents with a future court date, a DHS official said.

The Biden administration is to blame for allowing Singh to roam the country for more than three years, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told The Post.

“The Biden administration not only let a wanted terrorist into our country, but after he was arrested by Border Patrol agents, they released him into the interior of our country,” she charged.

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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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