Vance says Americans can use TikTok ‘with more confidence’ after Trump signs order transferring ownership in US – live

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a written statement sent to the Guardian that security at Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) offices will be stepped up after the shooting at an Ice office in Dallas, which she claimed was part of a wider pattern.

“In light of the horrific shooting that was motivated by hatred for Ice and the other unprecedented acts of violence against Ice law enforcement, including bomb threats, cars being used a weapons, rocks and molotov cocktails thrown at officers, and doxing online of officers’ families, DHS will immediately begin increasing security at Ice facilities across the country. Our Ice officers are facing a more than 1,000% increase in assaults against them,” McLaughlin said (bold text in the original).

McLaughlin then suggested, without evidence, that the shooting at the Ice facility had been inspired by anti-Ice rhetoric from Democrats. Law enforcement officials said earlier on Thursday that the gunman in Dallas acted alone, and wasn’t acting as part of “any specific group or entity”.

“This shooting must serve as a wake-up call to the far-left that their rhetoric about Ice has consequences,” McLaughlin said. “Comparing Ice day-in and day-out to the Nazi Gestapo, the Secret Police, and slave patrols has consequences.”

Donald Trump just announced that TikTok will be able to remain operating in the United States because a deal has been agreed for a group of US investors to buy the video-sharing app’s US operations.

“We have American investors taking it over, running it,” Trump said, mentioning that one of the investors is Larry Ellison, the Oracle founder, and others include Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch.

The vice-president, JD Vance, said that the deal means that Americans will be able to use the app “with more confidence” because their personal data will not be shared with China, and the app will “not used as propaganda weapon” by the Chinese company that created it and designed the algorithm.

Asked whether the algorithm will still be under the control of the app’s Chinese parent company, Vance said “the US company will control how the algorithm pushes content to users”.

Trump also said that he as getting calls from friends who wanted a TikTok deal approved because of pressure from their children whop wanted to keep using it.

The vice-president said that the company is valued at $14bn.

Asked by a reporter if the change in ownership could mean that users will see “more Maga-related content”, Trump first joked that he would like to “make it 100% Maga”, before saying: “No, everyone is going to be treated fairly … every philosophy.”

Officials today said they believe Jahn acted alone, but their investigation is ongoing.

Ice official Marcos Charles, who is the executive associate director for enforcement and removal operations, said that the shooter used “Ice tracking apps” to monitor the movement of federal agents.

Charles characterized the apps as “a casting call to invite bad actors to attack law enforcement officers”.

“It’s no different than giving a hitman the location of their intended target, and this is exactly what we saw happen in Dallas yesterday,” Charles said. “The media has been amplifying these apps, even as we warned them, it would only lead to more attacks on law enforcement. We truly wish we didn’t have to say, ‘I told you so’, but here we are.”

FBI special agent in charge of the Dallas field office, Joe Rothrock, said that Jahn “intended to kill Ice agents” as he fired at “transport vehicles carrying Ice personnel, federal agents and detainees”.

Rothrock noted that the suspect also fired multiple shots into the windows of the office building where “numerous Ice employees do their jobs every day”.

Speaking now is acting US attorney for the northern district of Texas, Nancy Larson, who said that the FBI found “a collection of notes” at Jahn’s residence.

“He wrote that he intended to maximize lethality against Ice personnel and to maximize property damage at the facility,” Larson said. “It seems that he did not intend to kill the detainees or harm them. It’s clear from these notes that he was targeting Ice agents and Ice personnel.”

Larson added that “the tragic irony” of Jahn’s “evil plot” was that a detainee was killed, and two others were left in critical condition.

While Larson said that the suspect’s words were “definitively anti-Ice”, authorities did not find evidence of membership in “any specific group or entity”.

Today’s press conference has begun, and authorities confirm the suspect is Joshua Jahn, 29, of Texas.

Law enforcement said that about 3 o’clock in the morning on Wednesday the suspect “was seen driving on footage with a large ladder on his car”. They believe that is what he used to position himself on top of the building.

A Utah court has appointed an attorney to represent Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old charged with shooting and killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk, after they determined he couldn’t afford private counsel.

“This action fulfills the Commission’s constitutional responsibility to ensure that individuals accused of a crime—who cannot afford legal representation—are provided with a qualified defense,” a spokesperson for Utah County said in a statement.

The court named Kathryn Nester as Robinson’s counsel moving forward.

Britain’s prime minister Keir Starmer has rejected Donald Trump’s recent false assertion that there was a push to apply sharia law in London, calling it “nonsense” and defending London mayor Sadiq Khan in a rare criticism of the US president.

At the United Nations earlier this week, Trump delivered a blistering and sweeping criticism of immigration policies in Europe in which he singled out the UK capital, falsely claiming “now they want to go to sharia law” and calling Khan a “terrible, terrible mayor”.

“The idea of the introduction of sharia law is nonsense and Sadiq Khan is a very good man,” Starmer told ITV London. He added that there are few things he disagrees with Trump on, “but I’m very clear, this is one of them”.

Khan in 2016 became the first Muslim to be elected mayor of London. He has since won two more mayoral elections and has the largest personal mandate of any British politician, something Trump usually holds in high regard.

The US president’s comments this week were the latest in a long-running public feud between the two men that goes back to at least 2017, when Khan criticised Trump for pledging a travel ban on a number of majority-Muslim countries. Trump has called Khan “a nasty person” who has “done a terrible job” and rightwing commentators in the US have routinely attacked crime rates in London and the diversity of the capital’s population.

Trump’s surprise criticism of Britain on Tuesday was particularly jarring as it came only a week after he gushed about the US-UK relationship during his unprecedented second state visit, in which he was treated to the full array of British pageantry including a white-tie banquet at Windsor Castle hosted by King Charles.

Khan responded to Trump’s comments this week by accusing him of being “racist, sexist, misogynistic and Islamophobic”, and pointed to data that shows a record number of Americans are settling in Britain.

He said liberal US citizens identified with London because of the city’s “fundamental values, like adhering to the rule of law, being proud of our diversity and championing the rights of minority communities”.

In the latest instance of the US justice department moving against Donald Trump’s political enemies, the New York Times (paywall) reports that “a senior DOJ official has instructed more than a half-dozen US attorney’s offices to draft plans to investigate a group funded by George Soros, the billionaire Democratic donor whom Trump has demanded be thrown in jail”.

Per the NYT report:

The official’s directive, a copy of which was viewed by The New York Times, goes as far as to list possible charges prosecutors could file, ranging from arson to material support of terrorism. The memo suggests department leaders are following orders from the president that specific people or groups be subject to criminal investigation – a major break from decades of past practice meant to insulate the justice department from political interference.

Trump has revisited his grievances with Democratic megadonor Soros, 95, in recent days, amid a backdrop of threatening to silence liberal and progressive individuals and groups in the wake of the killing of Charlie Kirk – which he has repeatedly blamed on the so-called “radical left”.

Last Friday he singled out Soros, a longtime backer of progressive causes and Democratic candidates, and his foundation, the Open Society Foundations which funds global democratic initiatives, telling Fox & Friends that “we’re going to look into Soros” for possible violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law. He also told NBC News Soros “should be put in jail”, adding: “He’s a bad guy.”

Per the NYT report:

[Soros’s foundation] provides grants to groups that work for human rights, democracy and equity, but Mr. Trump and some Republicans contend, without providing evidence, that it is a shadowy network promoting civil unrest, violent protests and property destruction. Liberals say the assertions are falsehoods aimed at stifling dissent.

Chad Gilmartin, a spokesperson for the justice department, defended the move to the NYT. “This D.O.J., along with our hard-working and dedicated U.S. attorneys, will always prioritize public safety and investigate organizations that conspire to commit acts of violence or other federal violations of law,” he said.

In a statement provided to the Guardian, the Open Society Foundations denounced the accusations as “politically motivated attacks on civil society, meant to silence speech the administration disagrees with and undermine the first amendment right to free speech.”

The organization said its work in the United States was “solely dedicated to strengthening democracy and upholding constitutional freedoms.” Saying it condemned terrorism and denying that it funded it, the group added, “Our activities are peaceful and lawful.”

During his brief media availability before his meeting with the president of Turkey, Donald Trump once again blamed “radical left” Democrats for the increase in political violence throughout the country, after yesterday’s shooting at an Ice facility in Dallas.

One detainee was killed, and two were severely injured in the attack. Notably, no federal agents were wounded. Department of Homeland Security officials said on Wednesday it was “an attack on Ice law enforcement”. At both today’s press conference and in a statement, law enforcement said that shell casings found near the shooter had “anti-Ice” messaging on them.

In the Oval Office today, Trump said that “the radical left is causing this problem, not the right”.

The president said that he “didn’t know what was going to happen” with regard to reports of the imminent indictment of former FBI director James Comey.

“I can only say that Comey is a bad person. He’s a sick person. I think he’s a sick guy…he did terrible things at the FBI,” the president said, after praising Lindsey Halligan, the new US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia.

Trump appointed Halligan, a former White House staffer, after firing her predecessor, Erik Siebert, when he said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Comey.

In response to a question about the circulated memo by the OMB to federal agencies, telling them to prepare for significant layoffs in the event of a government shutdown, Trump blames Democrats for any reduction-in-force.

“This is all caused by the Democrats. They asked us to do something that’s totally unreasonable. They never change,” the president said. “This is what Schumer wants. This is what the Democrats want.”

When asked whether Trump and Erdoğan are aligned on the war in Gaza, and foreign policy in the region, the US president said he “doesn’t know” what the leader of Turkey’s stance is.

However, he noted that his meeting with Arab leaders on Tuesday was successful, before repeating his insistence on the release of all Israeli hostages. “We want them all back, we want them back at one time,” Trump said.

During his spray with reporters, Trump said: “I’d like to have him [Erdoğan] stop buying any oil from Russia, while Russia continues this rampage against Ukraine.”

The president repeated that the Russian economy is struggling due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. “It’s such a waste of human life, and so he ought to stop. Putin ought to stop,” Trump said.

Speaking in front of reporters, Donald Trump describes his strong relationship with the president of Turkey.

“When I was in exile, we were still friends,” Trump said, referring to the four years after he lost the 2020 election to former president Joe Biden.

Trump said that Erdoğan has “built a tremendous military” and they buy a significant amount of weapons from the US.

“They want to buy F-16s, F-35s and some other things, and we’re going to talk to them about that,” Trump said. “We’re just going to have, I think, a very interesting couple of hours.”

Donald Trump just welcomed the president of Turkey to the White House. They’re due to start their meeting shortly.

Ryan Walters, the controversial state superintendent in Oklahoma, announced he would resign from his position to take on a new role at a conservative teachers non-profit.

Top congressional Democrats have made their feelings clear about a memo issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that tells federal agencies to brace for layoffs in the event of a government shutdown.

A partisan blame game has ensued after lawmakers failed to pass a resolution to keep the government funded beyond the 30 September deadline.

In a post on X, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries called Russ Vought, head of the OMB, a “a malignant political hack” and said that Democrats “will not be intimidated by your threat to engage in mass firings”.

Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said the move to fire workers was “nothing new and has nothing to do with funding the government”.

“Donald Trump has been firing federal workers since day one – not to govern, but to scare,” Schumer added.

The president of a major union representing federal employees has called on both parties to resume negotiations and prevent a government shutdown from beginning next Wednesday.

The appeal from American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley comes after the White House warned that it would use a shutdown to begin another round of layoffs of government workers and focus on agencies that would be closed if funding lapses.

“The truth is simple: Republicans cannot fund the government without Democratic votes. That means the only path forward is compromise. The president and congressional leaders must sit down and negotiate in good faith to keep the lights on for the American people. Nothing less is acceptable,” Kelley said in a statement.

“Federal employees are not bargaining chips. They are veterans, caregivers, law enforcement officers, and neighbors who serve their country and fellow Americans every day. They deserve stability and respect, not pink slips and political games.”

Republicans have demanded that Democrats agree to extend government funding through 21 November. But the minority party has balked, and insisted that the GOP agree to undo cuts to Medicaid and public media funding approved earlier this year and extend subsidies for Affordable Care Act health plans.

The two sides do not appear to be negotiating. At the Capitol on Wednesday, Democratic House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries said he had last talked to Republican speaker Mike Johnson last week about “logistics around the government funding vote, but had no discussion about substance.”

At 11am EST the president is due to welcome the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. We’ll bring you the latest lines as that happens.

A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that she won’t reinstate several inspectors general who were fired by Donald Trump earlier this year.

But noted that the administration’s actions likely violated the Inspectors General Act, which requires the president to give Congress at least 30 days notice and provide detailed reasoning behind the termination of a government watchdog.

When Trump took office he cleared house, firing 17 inspectors general – whose job is to monitor agencies for waste, fraud and abuse – with two-line emails.

Eight of the fired inspectors general filed a lawsuit, asking to be reinstated to their positions.

“President Trump violated the IGA. That much is obvious,” judge Ana Reyes, a Biden appointee, wrote. However, she noted that the court cannot “provide the plaintiffs more”.

“If the court reinstated plaintiffs, the president could refire each of them by providing the required notice and rationale. And that ‘rationale’ could well cause the very reputational harm they seek to avoid,” Reyes added. “They sacrificed much to take on the role of an IG and its many demands – no doubt including substantial time away from family and far larger paychecks available in the private sector. They deserved better from their government. They still do.”

Regarding James Comey’s expected criminal charges, ABC news has reported that federal prosecutors in the eastern district of Virginia presented the newly minted US attorney, Lindsey Halligan, with a memo earlier this week that detailed why not to file criminal charges against the former FBI director.

ABC cites sources familiar with the memo, who also noting that justice department lawyers would be unable to secure a conviction of Comey by proving the claims “beyond a reasonable doubt”, and they couldn’t reach a significantly lower standard to secure an indictment.

A reminder, Donald Trump fired Halligan’s predecessor, Erik Siebert, after he said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute Comey, and Letitia James, the New York attorney general and longtime Trump adversary.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), managed by Russell Vought, is instructing federal agencies to prepare “reduction-in-force” plans for mass firings during a possible government shutdown, according to a report by Politico.

A reminder that government funding expires on 30 September, and congressional lawmakers have yet to pass any kind of funding extension.

According to a memo shared with Politico, federal programs which did not benefit from “mandatory appropriations” will bear the brunt of the firings should a continuing resolution, to keep the government funded, fail to pass. Agencies have been instructed to submit plans for layoffs to OMB, and to issue notices to employees even if they would otherwise be excepted or furloughed during a lapse in funding, according to the report.

The memo notes that reductions in force will be in addition to furloughs in the event of a government shutdown.

According to an official granted anonymity to speak with Politico about plans not yet public, programs that will continue regardless of a shutdown include “Social Security, Medicare, veterans benefits, military operations, law enforcement, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and air traffic control”.

“We remain hopeful that Democrats in Congress will not trigger a shutdown and the steps outlined above will not be necessary,” the memo reads. As of now, leaders on Capitol Hill are continuing the blame game if a shutdown comes to pass.

Donald Trump’s budget would cut funding for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by 53%, eliminating 61 programs and laying off another 16% of health agency staff, according to a new report – moves that would drastically reduce disease prevention and fuel more chronic illness, public health leaders say.

“We cannot lose this,” said Joseph Kanter, CEO of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO). “This is crucial to the health of every person in every community across this country, whether they realize it or not.”

Federal cuts are already reverberating throughout the US. The Trump administration has clawed back more than $12bn from public health budgets.

There have been delays in releasing funds already appropriated by Congress, which means local programs have had to shutter even when they were supposed to be funded. More than 20,000 employees have left health agencies in the past eight months because of layoffs, firings and resignations.

“We’re facing really significant threats to our ability to invest in chronic disease prevention with what’s been happening these last few months,” said Lori Tremmel Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials (Naccho).

The public health system in the US is fragmented by state, but it is underpinned by funding and support from the CDC. Some 80% of the CDC’s funding flows to state, local, territorial and tribal health departments.

Donald Trump has added a “Presidential Walk of Fame” to the exterior of the White House, featuring portraits of each of the previous commanders-in-chief – except for one.

Instead of a headshot of Joe Biden, the Republican incumbent instead placed a photo of an autopen signing the Democrat’s name – a reference to Trump’s frequent allegation that the former president was addled by the end of his term in office and not really the one making decisions.

The snub is the latest attempt by Trump to delegitimise a predecessor he routinely belittles, including in front of more than 100 world leaders on Tuesday at the UN general assembly gathering. Trump has never acknowledged his own defeat to Biden in the 2020 election, instead falsely chalking up the outcome to voter fraud.

Trump had previously signalled he would represent Biden with an autopen on the walkway. Trump has alleged without evidence that Biden administration officials may have forged their boss’s signature by using the autopen and taken broad actions he was not aware of.

He has also cast doubt on the validity of pardons and other documents that Biden signed with an autopen, even though other presidents before him have also relied on the device to sign key papers. A Republican-led House committee is investigating the Biden administration’s autopen use.

A gunman, who wrote “ANTI-ICE” on an unused bullet, fired on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Dallas from a nearby rooftop on Wednesday, killing a detainee and badly wounding two others before taking his own life, officials said.

Donald Trump and members of his administration seized on the attack as the latest instance of what they characterized as an escalation of politically motivated violence incited by the left.

They accused California governor Gavin Newsom and other Democrats of stirring hate by unfairly vilifying law enforcement and conservative political figures, Reuters reported.

FBI director Kash Patel posted a photo on X showing what he said was the suspect’s unused ammunition. The shell casing of one round was inscribed with “ANTI-ICE”.

“While the investigation is ongoing, an initial review of the evidence shows an ideological motive behind this attack,” Patel wrote. US homeland security secretary Kristi Noem later said in a Fox News interview that the gunman “was targeting Ice,” based on “evidence so far in this case”.

On his Truth Social platform, Trump accused “Radical Left Democrats” of stoking anti-ICE violence by “constantly demonizing Law Enforcement, calling for ICE to be demolished, and comparing ICE Officers to Nazis”.

Invoking the recent assassination of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, Trump said that “radical left terrorists” pose a “grave threat” to law enforcement and “must be stopped”.

Trump said he would sign an executive order this week to “dismantle these domestic terrorism networks”. He offered no evidence to support the notion that “networks”, rather than individuals, were behind recent acts of political violence, or that left-wing perpetrators were any more prevalent than those on the right in recent years.

In a statement about the Texas shooting, the Department of Homeland Security said the suspect fired “indiscriminately” at the Ice facility, including at a van in the building’s secured entryway where the victims were shot. DHS said one detainee was killed and two others were in critical condition.

Officials have not disclosed the identities of the victims.

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