Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of US politics in the second Trump administration for the day. We’ll be back on Friday. Here are the latest developments:
The Senate again failed to advance a bill to fund part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which has now been shut down for almost six weeks. By a vote of 53-47, mostly along party lines, the upper chamber fell short of the 60 votes needed to move the legislation forward – the seventh failed attempt. More here.
President Trump announced he would sign an executive order directing the secretary of homeland security (DHS) to grant immediate payments to 50,000 airport security officers amid the DHS shutdown. “I am using my authorities under the Law to protect our Great Country, as I always will do!,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “Therefore, I am going to sign an Order instructing the Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, to immediately pay our TSA Agents in order to address this Emergency Situation, and to quickly stop the Democrat Chaos at the Airports.” More here.
US markets saw their biggest slump since the start of the US-Israel war with Iran on Thursday as Donald Trump said the conflict’s impact on oil prices had not been as bad as he expected. The Dow closed 450 points down, while the S&P 500 dipped 1.7%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 2.3%, plunging into correction territory, which happens when an index falls at least 10% below its most recent peak. More here.
The department of treasury announced that US paper currency will soon feature President Donald Trump’s signature to commemorate the country’s 250th anniversary. The move marks the first time a sitting US president’s signature will appear on legal tender. To accommodate this change, the treasurer’s signature will be removed for the first time since 1861. More here.
The Senate failed to achieve 60 votes needed to pass an amendment to the Save America act that would require voters to present photo ID to cast a ballot. The chamber voted 52-47, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed for it to pass. No Democrats voted for it. Earlier today, Trump urged Republicans to terminate the Senate filibuster.
During a cabinet meeting today, Donald Trump said that Iran was letting 10 oil tankers through the strait of Hormuz as an apparent goodwill gesture in the supposed negotiations. He also repeated his earlier remarks that Iran is “begging to make a deal”.
Donald Trump wants to renovate the White House’s treaty room, traditionally a meeting space for diplomats and statesman, into a guest bedroom with an en suite bathroom, according to the New York Times.
Graham Platner, the Democratic frontrunner in Maine’s US Senate race, leads governor Janet Mills by 27 points, according to new polling from Emerson College.
The survey shows Platner — an oysterman and former marine now contending with several controversies from his past — at 55%, while Mills, the 78‑year‑old governor backed by the Senate’s top Democrat, sits at 28%.
The poll also finds both Democrats ahead of incumbent Republican senator Susan Collins in hypothetical general‑election matchups: Platner leads 48% to 41%, while Mills holds a narrower 46% to 43% edge.
Collins, a longtime GOP moderate who has represented Maine in the Senate since 1997, is expected to face a competitive race regardless of which Democrat emerges from the primary.
Last week, I reported that Elizabeth Warren became the fourth senator to endorse Platner, joining Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Democrats Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico in backing the populist candidate.
Platner and Mills will face off in the Democratic primary in June.
Democratic congressman Tom Suozzi, co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional Problem Solvers Caucus, said he’s “happy the president’s taking this type of action,” referring to Trump’s announcement on the planned executive order directing the DHS secretary to pay TSA workers, though “we have to find out if it’s legal.”
Suozzi joined CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Thursday evening, joined by Republican representative Brian Fitzpatrick, also co-chair of the caucus.
“I wish he had done it weeks ago,” Suozzi said.
In a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference outside Dallas, Mike Davis, a conservative lawyer with ties to the Trump administration, repeatedly warned that “justice is definitely coming” for Donald Trump’s enemies.
He singled out former CIA director John Brennan, who has long been in Trump’s crosshairs for how the agency handled the investigation of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election. The justice department announced a criminal investigation into Brennan last July.
“I would say to people like John Brennan, your days as a free man may be numbered,” Davis told CPAC, to applause.
He went on to warn of retribution to come for former special counsel Jack Smith, who indicted Trump but abandoned the cases after he won re-election, and other Joe Biden and Barack Obama administration officials who he alleged “politicized and weaponized the intel agencies and law enforcement”.
“That is textbook conspiracy against rights,” Davis said, something that is illegal under federal law. “This is ongoing. Because it’s an ongoing conspiracy ... they’re not going to be able to hide from the statute of limitations.”
Trump’s record of retaliating against his enemies is mixed. Last year, an inexperienced federal prosecutor handpicked for the job attempted to bring charges against former FBI director James Comey and New York attorney general Letitia James, but quickly saw the indictments dismissed by a federal judge.
Meanwhile, Democratic representative Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut said she was “very glad that these workers are finally being paid,” following Trump’s plans to direct DHS secretary Markwayne Mullin to pay TSA officers, who haven’t received a full paycheck since 14 February.
“It is shameful the Trump administration chose not to pay them for 41 days,” DeLauro said in a social media post. “Why couldn’t it have been done sooner?”
Senate majority leader John Thune told the AP that Trump’s announcement that he will pay TSA agents “takes the pressure off” negotiations over funding the entire department of homeland security (DHS), but it is a “short term solution.”
Thune said he would have more to say about next steps later Thursday evening, but senators want “to fund everything.”
“We’re going to try to fund as much of the DHS budget as we possibly can,” Thune said.
It remains unclear whether the Senate would stay in session ahead of a two-week recess to figure out how to fund the rest of the department.
Republicans on Thursday praised President Donald Trump after announcing he would sign an executive order directing the secretary of homeland security to cover the salaries of airport transportation security officers.
“I very much appreciate President Trump’s decisive leadership to get TSA back to full capacity and to end the debacle created by the Democrats’ resistance,” said senator Lindsey Graham.
“President Trump is doing absolutely the right thing to get TSA agents paid,” said Republican senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, in a social media post. “President Trump is showing leadership at a time the Democrats are continuing to fight against the hardworking, freedom loving people of our country.”
It remains unclear exactly where the money to fund paychecks for 50,000 airport security agents will come from as the partial government shutdown continues without a definitive resolution in sight.
Senate Democrats have stated their willingness to reopen DHS if Republicans agree to make significant changes and oversight for ICE and its operations.
Updated
Trump to sign executive order directing DHS to pay TSA agents amid funding standoff
President Trump announced he would sign an executive order directing the secretary of homeland security (DHS) to grant immediate payments to 50,000 airport security officers amid the DHS shutdown.
“I am using my authorities under the Law to protect our Great Country, as I always will do!,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “Therefore, I am going to sign an Order instructing the Secretary of Homeland Security, Markwayne Mullin, to immediately pay our TSA Agents in order to address this Emergency Situation, and to quickly stop the Democrat Chaos at the Airports.”
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents have been working without pay since mid-February amid a budget stalemate in the Senate, which has led to hours-long delays at airports nationwide.
Updated
Trump's signature to appear on US paper currency, Treasury says
The department of treasury announced that US paper currency will soon feature President Donald Trump’s signature to commemorate the country’s 250th anniversary.
The move marks the first time a sitting US president’s signature will appear on legal tender. To accommodate this change, the treasurer’s signature will be removed for the first time since 1861.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are on a path toward unprecedented economic growth, lasting dollar dominance, and fiscal strength and stability,” said secretary of the treasury Scott Bessent in a statement. “There is no more powerful way to recognize the historic achievements of our great country and President Donald J. Trump than U.S dollar bills bearing his name, and it is only appropriate that this historic currency be issued at the Semiquincentennial.”
The first $100 bills with Trump’s signature and that of Bessent will be printed in June, followed by other bills in subsequent months, according to Reuters.
“As the 250th anniversary of our great nation approaches, American currency will continue to stand as a symbol of prosperity, strength, and the unshakable spirit of the American people under President Trump’s leadership,” said treasurer Brandon Beach in a statement.
The Trump administration has opened investigations into medical school admissions at Stanford, Ohio State, and the University of California, San Diego, according to a department of justice official.
Harmeet K Dhillon, DoJ’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, reposted a report by the New York Times about the news on social media and said “We did this yesterday. Among other things!”
This is the latest step in the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs that officials say exclude white and Asian American students.
According to the report from the Times, the administration is seeking information about medical school applicants from each of the past seven years, including test scores, home ZIP codes and any familial relationships to alumni or ties to university donors. DoJ is also requesting copies of any internal messages at the universities about diversity, equity and inclusion and any correspondence between school officials and pharmaceutical companies about admissions policies.
Since Trump took office, his administration has warned schools and colleges they could lose federal money over “race-based preferences” in admissions, hiring, scholarships and all aspects of campus life.
“At this time, our investigation will focus on possible race discrimination in medical school admissions,” Dhillon wrote in each of the letters to the universities, per the Times.
The Guardian’s David Smith brings us more details about today’s cabinet meeting:
They have become so notorious for displays of flattery and obsequiousness that critics have drawn comparisons with North Korea. Thursday’s cabinet meeting at the White House was no different.
Doug Burgum, the US interior secretary, outflanked his fellow praise singers by saying he believes that Venezuela – which the US attacked in January – intends to honour the president with a statue.
Trump had brought up the subject by claiming the raid that captured president Nicolás Maduro, who was replaced by interim leader Delcy Rodríguez, was a win-win situation.
“We’ve made a lot of money and they’ve made a lot of money,” Trump declared. “I am the highest polling person. In other words, after the presidency I think I may go to Venezuela and run for president against Delcy. I may run against Delcy. It’s an option. They love me in Venezuela.”
Later in the meeting, Burgum, who recently visited Venezuela with oil and mining executives, sensed his opportunity. He said: “I literally think they’re going to put up a statue to President Trump and I’m not being – it’s not a political statement.”
Read the full story:
White House pushes back on report that Trump considering bypassing Congress to pay TSA staff
Earlier, we noted that according to the Washington Post, several Senate Republicans are pressing the White House to declare a national emergency to free up money to pay TSA agents if lawmakers fail to reach a deal, citing people familiar with the matter.
In response to the Post’s reporting, Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that the White House “is having discussions about a number of ideas to blunt the impact of the Democrat shutdown crisis, but no preparations or plans are currently underway”.
The press secretary added that “the best and easiest way to pay TSA Agents is to fund DHS.”
At a cabinet meeting today, Trump continued to blame Democrats for the deadlock on Capitol Hill. “They need to end the shutdown immediately, or we’ll have to take some very drastic measures,” he said, without going into detail.
Updated
President Donald Trump said he was postponing any strikes against Iran’s power plants for 10 days, extending the pause to 6 April at 8pm Eastern Time.
“Talks are ongoing and, despite erroneous statements to the contrary by the Fake News Media, and others, they are going very well,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Here's a recap of today's events
Senate majority leader John Thune has said he believes that DHS funding talks are beginning to make progress again, as the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security enters its sixth week, per Punchbowl News. The Democrats are in possession of “what I think is our last and final” offer, the reporter quotes Thune as saying, giving no further details.
The Senate failed to achieve 60 votes needed to pass an amendment to the Save America act that would require voters to present photo ID to cast a ballot. The chamber voted 52-47, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed for it to pass. No Democrats voted for it. Earlier today, Trump urged Republicans to terminate the Senate filibuster.
During a cabinet meeting earlier, Donald Trump said that Iran was letting 10 oil tankers through the strait of Hormuz as an apparent goodwill gesture in the supposed negotiations. As a reminder, my colleagues are covering all the latest from the Middle East here.
Donald Trump wants to renovate the White House’s treaty room, traditionally a meeting space for diplomats and statesman, into a guest bedroom with an en suite bathroom. This is according to the New York Times.
The deposed Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro again appeared in a Manhattan federal court for his “narco-terrorism” case after his capture by US military forces earlier this year. The full report by Victoria Bekiempis and Tom Phillips is here.
Trump administration considers bypassing Congress to pay TSA staff
The Washington Post reports that “unilateral action” is a possibility if Democrats and Republicans cannot reach agreement on funding the Department of Homeland Security.
The Republican Senate majority leader, John Thune, laid out the plan to fellow GOP senators at a closed-door lunch, the Post reported.
It would mean Congress being sidestepped at a time when passengers are facing record security delays.
Updated
The left wing senator for Vermont, Bernie Sanders, has teamed up with the Democratic representative from Texas, Greg Cesar, to introduce the home team act, which is designed to give sports fans the chance to buy their local franchise before owners move it to another location.
The proposed legislation is designed to protect fans and local communities from losing teams or being extorted for large subsidies by owners who threaten to move elsewhere.
Franchise owners would be required to give a year’s notice before moving out of state or to a different metropolitan area.
“The American people are sick and tired of billionaires threatening to move the sports teams they own to different states unless they get hundreds of millions in corporate welfare to build new stadiums,” Sanders said. “In my view, professional sports teams should be owned and controlled by the fans who love them, not by the multibillionaire oligarchs who are getting even richer by charging outrageous prices and getting taxpayers to pick up their extravagant costs.”
Updated
Maduro re-appears in court
The deposed Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro again appeared in a Manhattan federal court on Thursday for his “narco-terrorism” case after his capture by US military forces earlier this year, Victoria Bekiempis and Tom Phillips report.
The hearing opened with the defense and prosecution arguing over whether Maduro should be allowed to use Venezuelan government funds to pay for his defense. The defense has insisted that the US is violating the deposed leader’s constitutional rights by blocking government money from being used for his legal costs.
The full report is here
Senate fails to pass voter photo ID amendment to Save America act
The Senate failed to achieve 60 votes needed to pass an amendment to the Save America act that would require voters to present photo ID to cast a ballot.
The amendment had been sponsored by senator Jon Husted, of Ohio. The chamber voted 52-47, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed for it to pass. No Democrats voted for it.
Here’s more on the proposed legislation from the Guardian’s Rachel Leingang:
The Save America act is a rebranded and expanded version of last year’s Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (Save) act, which passed in the US House but didn’t get a vote in the Senate. This year’s version includes expansive documentary proof of citizenship requirements and criminal liability for election officials from the initial Save act, in addition to a very strict voter ID requirement for casting a ballot and a provision that requires states to regularly turn their voter rolls over to the Department of Homeland Security.
Updated
Trump scoops 'America first' award to go with his inaugural Fifa 'peace prize"
Amid an aggressive war in Iran, heightening and devastating pressure on Cuba, immigration enforcement operations throughout the country and a partial government shutdown, the lead Republican in the House has given Donald Trump a newly concocted award, the Guardian’s José Olivares writes.
Democrats, lawmakers and commentators are criticizing and ridiculing the “America First” award given to Trump on Wednesday evening during the National Republican Congressional Committee fundraiser.
“The president has done so much for the American people and we want to honor him, in some small way, some token of our appreciation for his leadership,” said Mike Johnson, the US House speaker. “So, tonight, we have created a new award.”
Johnson then introduced the “America First” award, made up of a golden eagle statue.
Read the rest of José’s report here
Updated
Trump wants to renovate the White House's treaty room
Having demolished the east wing, the president has set his sights on another part of the presidential mansion to transform out of recognition, the New York Times reports.
The latest plan is to turn the treaty room – traditionally a meeting space for diplomats and statesman – into a guest bedroom with an en suite bathroom.
The room is one of the most storied in the White House, having seen the signing of the peace protocol at the end of the 1898 Spanish-American war, as well as John F Kennedy’s signing of the nuclear test ban treaty of 1963. It was also the setting for wartime addresses by George W Bush and Joe Biden and was once known as the “Monroe room” after President James Monroe, who used it as his work space.
The Pentagon is considering the possibility of diverting munitions from Ukraine as the war on Iran depletes some of the US’s most vital weapons stockpiles, the Washington Post is reporting.
The paper says a final decision has not been made. But Ukraine has become heavily dependent on US-made air defense interceptor missiles, ordered through a Nato program launched last year under which allied countries purchase the missiles for Ukraine.
Trump referenced the Ukraine war in Thursday’s cabinet meeting, saying it’s deadly four-year conflict with Russia was “not our war” in a deliberate echo of the description of the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran by Germany’s chancellor, Friederich Merz.
Updated
Hillary Clinton is to speak at a Democratic party fundraiser in New Hampshire next month.
The former first lady and defeated 2016 presidential candidate will address the New Hampshire party’s McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Dinner on 25 April. It promises to be her first foray into the limelight since last month’s testimony to the House of Representatives’ oversight committee over the Epstein files, after Clinton and her husband, Bill, were subpoenaed.
The event has become something of a way station for Democrats hoping to capture the White House.
The first 100-club dinner was held in 1959 to promote the hopes of the then Democratic senator for Massachussetts, John F Kennedy. Kennedy won the following year’s presidential election.
The 2020 dinner was attended by 10 presidential hopefuls, including Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg.
Updated
Trump says Iran's 'present' to US was allowing 10 oil tankers through strait of Hormuz
Trump also told the cabinet meeting that Iran was letting 10 oil tankers through the strait of Hormuz as an apparent goodwill gesture in the supposed negotiations.
They said, to show you the fact that we’re real and solid and we’re there, we’re going to let you have eight boats of oil, eight boats, eight big boats of oil. I guess they were right, and they were real, and I think they were Pakistani-flagged ... It ended up being 10 boats.
The White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for more details on the vessels.
The president on Tuesday had baffled some observers when he said that Iran had given the United States an expensive, energy-related concession. At the time, he declined to elaborate on exactly what he meant, telling reporters:
They gave us a present and the present arrived today, and it was a very big present, worth a tremendous amount of money.
My colleague Tom Ambrose is covering all the latest from the Middle East here:
'Iran is begging to make a deal, not me,' Trump claims
During the cabinet meeting earlier, Donald Trump repeated his earlier remarks that Iran is “begging to make a deal”.
Just so we set the record straight, because I’ve been watching the Wall Street Journal’s fake news and all these stories that get printed like, oh, I want to make a deal. They are begging to make a deal. Not me. They’re begging to make a deal.
Iran were “lousy fighters but great negotiators”, he added.
They are begging to work out a deal. I don’t know if we’ll be able to do that. I don’t know if we’re willing to do that. They should have done that four weeks ago. They should have done it two years ago.
Updated
Senate reportedly makes progress on DHS funding deal
According to Punchbowl News, Senate majority leader John Thune has said he believes that DHS funding talks are beginning to make progress again, as the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security enters its sixth week.
The Democrats are in possession of “what I think is our last and final” offer, the reporter quotes Thune as saying, giving no further details.
It signifies a more optimistic tone than the leader took yesterday on the prospects of striking a deal, when he balked at a Democratic counteroffer to reopen the department, telling reporters there was “no point” in the GOP even issuing a response to it.
Minority leader Chuck Schumer had called the offer a “reasonable, good faith proposal”.
A reminder that lawmakers have been in an impasse as they scramble to reach an agreement before the two-week recess for spring break and Easter that begins on Friday, with Democrats demanding significant changes and oversight for ICE and its operations.
Amid the partial DHS shutdown airports across the country are experiencing the “highest wait times in TSA history”, the acting head of the Transportation Security Administration said yesterday, with sprawling security lines and the transfer of ICE agents to some airports.
Updated
More than an hour and 20 minutes into the meeting, Trump makes reference to the 25th amendment – the constitutional implement for declaring a president unfit to remain in office.
The context is refusing to be transparent about his plans are with Iran. “I can’t say what we’re going to because if I did, I probably wouldn’t be sitting here for long. They probably – what is it called, the 25th amendment.”
But he quickly connects it to his predecessor, Joe Biden. “They didn’t do it with Biden, which is shocking enough.”
Trump says he voted by mail ballot despite trying to dismantle it
The president addressed the revelations that he had voted by mail ballot despite trying to all-but abolish the practice, which he has said is an agent of mass voter fraud.
“I was going to vote by mail in ballot because I couldn’t be there because I had a lot of different things. But, you know, we have exceptions for mail in ballots.
“You do know that, right? So if you’re away, you have an exception. If you’re in the military, we have an exception. If you are on a business trip, we have an exception. If you’re disabled, we have an exception. And if you’re ill, if you’re not feeling good when.
So I was away mostly in Washington DC, so I used a mail ballot. But I appreciate the question because I know it was so well meaning.”
Updated
Trump has given a clue on what the cryptic “present” is he referred to earlier this week.
He said: “We’re going to let you have eight boats of oil, eight boats, eight big boats of oil. This was two days ago. And they’ll sail up tomorrow. That was three days ago. And I didn’t think much about it. And then I watched the news and they said, a very good anchor actually happened to be Fox. But I watched it and they said, something’s unusual happening. There are eight boats that are going right up the middle of the strait. Eight big tankers are going loaded up with oil right through.
“And I said, well, I guess they were right. And they were real. And I think they were Pakistani flagged. And, I said, well, I guess we’re dealing with the right people.
“And actually they then apologized for something they said, and they said, we’re going to send two more boats. And we ended up being ten boats. And I hope I haven’t screwed up your negotiations, but I thought it was appropriate to say, because I did talk to you the other day by saying they’re going to give us a present.”
Confusing, but the nearest thing yet we have to clarity about what Trump was talking about.
Sadly, Trump has returned to his appallingly racist depictions of Somalians in Minnesota. “They come to our country, low IQs and they rob us blind, stupid people.”
It is worth reminding ourselves that these words are being spoken from the cabinet room of the White House.
Trump’s grievance with Nato carries over into comments about the war in Ukraine, which he once promised to end within the first day of his presidency.
“I think we have a chance of getting it done, but it doesn’t affect us thoussnds of miles away. That’s why when I heard the head of Germany [chancellor Friedrich Merz] say “this is not our war” about Iran, I said, ‘well Ukraine’s not our war.’”
In the question and answer session, Trump is asked if he will “go in for the uranium” – stockpiles of which Iran is known to still known to possess.
“Why would I answer a question [like that]. Am I going to go in tomorrow at three o’clock. How could you possibly ask a question and expect an answer.”
Trump has now embarked on an interminable, barely comprehensible rant about buildings, the Federal Reserve and sharpies. An enigma encryption device might be useful to discern a meaning.
Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, is then introduced and says: “Sir, as always, you are a tough act to follow.”
Updated
Trump has pivoted to talk – luridly – about domestic matters.
“It would be great if people like the Mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois would say, please come in and stop the crime,” he says, depicting the windy city in darkly dystopian terms, that he later extends to other cities, including San Francisco.
“Because we would have the National Guard in Chicago and in New York and in other places. And they love doing it. It’s like training .
Referring to the presence of national guard troops in Washington, where they have been on patrol since last August, he said, “I never want to take them out of DC.”
Updated
Witkoff confirms US presented Iran with 15-point action list after White House denial
Steve Wifkoff, Trump’s chief negotiator, earlier announced to the cabinet: “I can report to you today that we have, along with your foreign policy team, presented a 15-point action list that forms the framework for a peace deal. This has been circulated through the Pakistani government, acting as the mediator, and this has resulted in strong and positive messaging and talks, as you just indicated to the press.”
This comes after Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt castigated reporters for asking about the 15-point plan: “I saw a 15-point plan that was floated in the media. I would caution reporters in this room from reporting about speculative points, speculative plans from anonymous sources. The White House never confirmed that plan.”
Updated
The president gives the floor to several his cabinet members, among them the aforementioned Hegseth, who launches into an aggressive diatribe against “the dishonest hate-Trump media.”
“The folks here in this room, those cameras, they have a choice,” Hegseth said. “You’re either informing the American people of the truth or you’re not, because I hear it from my people every day. My message to the media is: get it right.”
Updated
Trump seems confused on the dates of the Iranian revolution.
“Nobody did it for 47 years,” he said of his attack on Iran. “I guess now its 48 because we’ve been saying 47 for a long time.”
In fact, 48 years ago, Iran’s leader was the western-allied Shah, the late Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was toppled the following year.
Updated
Trump seems pre-occupied by the media’s coverage of the war, depicting it as insufficiently favorable.
He reserves particular criticism for the Wall Street Journal, a paper that takes a generally conservative editorial line but which has published some critical reporting.
“I’ve been watching the Wall Street Journal’s fake news and all these stories that get printed like, oh, I want to make a deal.” he said. “[Iran is] begging to make a deal. Not me. They’re begging to make it.”
Updated
Trump lavishes praise on Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, who he says was “born for this job.”
Now we’re onto Venezuela and Nicolas Maduro, the deposed president who is due in court in New York today.
“He emptied his prisons in Venezuela, emptied his prisons into our country,” he said in yet another familiar refrain. “I hope that charge will be brought at some point because that was a big charge that hasn’t been brought yet should be brought.”
Updated
Trump attacks UK and Nato for alleged failure to support US war effort
Trump then diverts to attack the UK and Nato for their alleged failure to support the war effort.
“I’ll say it publicly, we’re very disappointed with Nato. Because Nato has done absolutely nothing. I said 25 years ago that Nato was a paper tiger. But more importantly, that we’ll come to their rescue but they will never come to ours.”
A reminder here: Nato’s Article 5 on collective security – meaning an attack on one member of the alliance is an attack on all – has been invoked only once in its 77-year history; when the US was attacked by Al Qaeda on 11 September, 2001.
Updated
The president then goes into a long homily about the war in Iran. The war started, he says, because the leadership of Iran’s Islamic regime failed to make a deal when they had a chance – a failing he attributes to them being “sick people”.
Updated
Trump then gets into the substance of the matter by addressing the fact that Mullin’s department is currently partially shutdown.
The scapegoat he chooses to blame for that is his old foe, Chuck Schumer, the Democrats’ leader in the Senate.
“The Democrats are really punishing the American people,” Trump said. “I saw it today on one of the shows where they were interviewing people at the airport and they’re all angry at the Democrats. They’re saying they’re actually angry at Schumer. I didn’t think anyone knew his name. One woman said that Schumer is disgraceful. He’s a disgrace to our country.”
Then he launches into a familiar litany of complaints about the Democrats and immigration.
Updated
Trump holds cabinet meeting
The cabinet meeting has started and Trump has introduced the new homeland security secretary, Markwayne Mullin to a round of applause from fellow cabinet members.
You can watch live here:
Updated
Maduro back in New York federal court in ‘narco-terrorism’ case
The deposed Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro is again scheduled to appear in a Manhattan federal court on Thursday for his “narco-terrorism” case after his capture by US military forces earlier this year, the Guardian’s Victoria Bekiempis and Tom Phillips write.
US special forces captured Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, on 3 January in a controversial pre-dawn raid during an assault on Caracas that reportedly killed 100 people.
Charging papers allege that Maduro spearheaded a “corrupt, illegitimate government that, for decades, has leveraged government power to protect and promote illegal activity, including drug trafficking”.
Updated
We are awaiting the start of Donald Trump’s latest cabinet meeting, which was due to start at 10am eastern time. This will be the 11th such session Trump has staged since re-entering the White House in January last year. Previous meetings have been open and freewheeling – as well as newsworthy.
The Pentagon is preparing plans for a “final blow” in the war with Iran that could include deploying ground troops and a massive bombing campaign, Axios reports, citing four sources – including two US officials.
The potential action is presented variously as a huge show of force that could allow the Trump administration extra leverage in peace negotiations with surviving regime officials in Tehran, or alternatively, could be presented as something that Trump could point to and declare victory.
Axios’s report presents four major “final blow” options being discussed: invade or blockade Kharg Island, Iran’s major oil export hub; invade Larak, an island that helps Iran solidify its control over the strait of Hormuz; seize the strategically important island of Abu Musa and two smaller islands; block or sieze ships that are exporting Iranian oil in the eastern side of the strait of Hormuz.
Bill Maher, who has been a frequent thorn in Donald Trump’s side, is to be awarded a prestigious prize for comedy by the Kennedy Center – an institution the president has gone to great lengths to take over.
Despite earlier White House denials, Maher will he awarded the center’s Mark Twain humor prize, Politico confirms.
The confirmation comes just days after Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, and Steven Cheung, the communications director, dismissed initial reports of the award in the Atlantic as “fake news.”
Now it turns out that Maher is indeed to be the recipient of the award in a ceremony broadcast by Netflix that is scheduled to be one of the last public events hosted by the Kennedy Center before it shuts down for a two-year renovation.
A Kennedy Center spokesperson told Politico that the Atlantic story had been published before “conversations were finalized.”
Previous recipients include David Letterman, Adam Sandler and Conan O’Brien.
In response, Maher said: “I’d just like to say that it is indeed humbling to get anything named for a man who’s been thrown out of as many school libraries as Mark Twain.”
Trump last year hosted Maher to dinner at the White House but more recently denounced him as “a highly overrated lightweight” and a “jerk.”
Trump attacks Chuck Schumer over voter ID act standoff
Donald Trump has been “truthing” on his Truth Social platform early today, urging Republicans to terminate the Senate filibuster in his quest to have the Save America Act mandating tough voter ID enacted into law.
Two posts contain a barely veiled warning to Republicans against compromising with the Democratic Senate leader, Chuck Schumer, over funding the Department of Homeland Security, which has been partially shuttered in a dispute over immigration patrols – leading to disrupted security services and delays at airports.
Schumer has signalled in recent days that Democrats are open to a deal but Trump has said he will be unhappy with any compromise.
Instead, he wants Republicans to press ahead and abolish the filibuster, which decrees a 60-vote threshold for any new legislation.
“When is ‘enough, enough’ for our Republican Senators,” he wrote in a screed posted at 6.51am ET. “There comes a time when you must do what should have been done a long time ago, and something which the Lunatic Democrats will do on day one, if they ever get the chance. TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER, and get our airports, and everything else, moving again.
Also, add the complete, all five items, SAVE AMERICA ACT items. Go for the Gold!!! President DJT”
In a second post, barely half an hour later, he writes in withering terms about Schumer – an opponent he has frequently lampooned -saying he has lost control of his party and that he “will make a deal now because he thinks that if he doesn’t, Republicans will TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER, something which they should do whether he makes a deal or not!!!”
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As travelers continue to face sprawling security lines across the US, one company is thriving amid the ongoing chaos.
Clear Secure, a biometric firm that allows travelers to bypass Transportation Security Administration (TSA) lines at more than 60 airports in the US, has reportedly seen a jump in new sign-ups this month amid the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown.
Clear’s app saw 625% more downloads this Sunday compared with its daily average across January and February, according to the analytics firm Appfigures Intelligence. The company’s stock is also up 57% for the year, its highest value since it went public in 2021.
US-Iran indirect talks 'taking place', says Pakistan, as Israel says it killed Iran naval chief
The US and Iran are engaged in “indirect talks”, Pakistan’s foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, has said, confirming his country has been relaying messages.
According to Dar, Iran has been “deliberating” on the proposal, although no Iranian official has publicly confirmed this.
In a post on X, Dar wrote:
There has been unnecessary speculation in the media regarding peace talks to end ongoing conflict in the Middle East. In reality, US-Iran indirect talks are taking place through messages being relayed by Pakistan. In this context, the United States has shared 15 points, being deliberated upon by Iran.
This latest news comes as Israeli defence minister Israel Katz said the Iranian naval commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Alireza Tangsiri, has been killed along with other “senior officers of the naval command” in a strike overnight.
You can follow the latest updates on the US-Israel war on Iran in our dedicated live blog:
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After casting her vote for Donald Trump in 2024 in hopes that he would bring transparency around the Jeffrey Epstein case, Epstein survivor Jena Lisa Jones said in an interview this week that she now fears “we’re not going to get justice in all of this”.
“I wanted my day in court,” said Jones, who has said she was abused by Epstein when she was 14, in an interview on the Shadow Sessions podcast that aired on Thursday morning. “I didn’t get that, and we were so close to it, it really got ripped from us, and then after [Epstein] passed, everything just went into a circus show.”
Jones said she backed Trump in the 2024 election because of his promises to release the files related to Epstein – who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges of sex-trafficking minors – and his network.
“Trump ran his whole freakin’ election on the release of these freakin’ files,” she said. “And it sparked it back all up again, gave us hope, gave me hope at least.
“He runs his campaign on this, and he runs it really, really hard to the point that a lot of us voted for him,” she added.
However, after the election, Jones said that she felt a shift.
“As soon as he gets in, we started pushing for the release of the files, and now it’s a ‘Democratic hoax’,” she said, referring to remarks Trump made in the fall in which he dismissed some calls to the release additional Epstein files as a Democratic “hoax”.
Trump to hold first cabinet meeting since start of Iran war at 10am ET
Donald Trump will hold a cabinet meeting later today, his first since the US started its war with Iran.
It is due to be held at 10am ET, with the president and defense secretary Pete Hegseth expected to give a rosy view of the US military campaign.
Venezuela's Maduro due back in US court in dispute over legal fees
Ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro returns to a Manhattan court on Thursday where he will argue that drug trafficking charges against him should be thrown out more than two months after he and his wife were captured in a surprise US military raid in Caracas.
Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, have been embroiled in a dispute over US sanctions that prevent the Venezuelan government from paying for the couple’s legal defense, Reuters reported.
Maduro, 63, and Flores, 69, have each pleaded not guilty to charges including narcoterrorism conspiracy and are jailed in Brooklyn pending trial.
They have asked US district judge Alvin Hellerstein to dismiss the charges, saying their inability to rely on Venezuelan public funds is interfering with their right to have a lawyer of their choosing under the sixth amendment of the US constitution.
Their lawyers have said Maduro and Flores cannot afford to pay their defense fees on their own.
Maduro’s lawyer, Barry Pollack, who represented WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, has said he wants to withdraw from the case if Hellerstein doesn’t dismiss the charges and the Venezuelan government cannot pay his fees.
DHS shutdown extends to almost six weeks with no end in sight and delays at airports
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
There was no breakthrough in talk to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Wednesday as the shutdown extends to almost six weeks with no end in sight.
Democratic lawmakers demanded new restrictions on federal agents carrying out the president’s deportation crackdown. But Republicans rejected the proposal, offering instead to remove money for immigration enforcement from the homeland security spending bill.
The Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, quickly shot down the offer, and said Democrats had countered with a measure that coupled DHS funding with a host of new guardrails on immigration enforcement operations – something the party has insisted on for months.
But that gained no traction with the GOP. “Get serious, folks,” the Senate majority leader, John Thune, said, in response to the Democrats’ counteroffer.
The funding lapse has led to lengthy lines at Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoints at some major airports, including including Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta international airport and George Bush intercontinental airport in Houston, prompting the president to this week deploy ICE agents in a bid to relieve congestion.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed yesterday that nearly 500 TSA officers have quit since what she called “the Democrat shutdown” began.
“This is a dire situation,” the acting TSA administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill testified at a House hearing Wednesday.
The standoff seems likely to prolong the partial government shutdown, which began in mid-February after Democrats refused to approve funding for the department overseeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), border patrol and other agencies involved in Donald Trump’s mass deportation push, without reforms demanded in response to the deaths of two US citizens in Minneapolis at the hands of federal agents.
Meanwhile, Schumer has sought to place the blame on Republicans for the travel chaos, saying its most recent proposal disrupted talks that had been nearing a compromise.
“We thought there had been some progress. Then Republicans sent us their offer yesterday, and it contained none of what we talked about, none of the reforms we had been discussing,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “So if anyone is slowing down negotiation and hurting TSA workers, it is the Republican leadership, who did not include one single reform.”
Read our full story here:
In other developments:
The acting head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said on Wednesday that airports across the country are experiencing the “highest wait times in TSA history”, as the partial shutdown of the DHS enters its sixth week. At a House homeland security committee hearing, Ha Nguyen McNeill said her agency has been shut down for 50% of the fiscal year so far – a stretch that includes last year’s record-breaking 43‑day lapse in federal funding. She told lawmakers that by Friday, TSA employees will have missed $1bn in paychecks as a result of the closures. More here.
The US has launched another strike on a vessel in the Caribbean, killing four people, the US Southern Command said. The command, which oversees combatant operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, announced on X that it had conducted a “lethal kinetic strike on a vessel operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations”. More here.
Progressive lawmakers have unveiled a new policy to place a moratorium on the construction of AI datacenters. The policy, announced by Bernie Sanders, an independent senator from Vermont, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democratic representative, aims to ensure the AI boom protects the environment and communities, and benefits workers instead of harming them. More here.
The Trump administration’s federal housing director Bill Pulte is asking prosecutors to investigate New York attorney general Letitia James for insurance fraud, according to criminal referrals reported by MS Now and CBS News. The referrals to prosecutors in Florida and Illinois allege that James may have committed mortgage insurance fraud. The allegations center on applications made to Universal Property Insurance company, which is based in Florida, and Allstate in Illinois. More here.
