Closing summary
We have reached the end of another day of live coverage of Donald Trump’s second term in office. It’s time to wrap up! But before we leave, here are some of the day’s main developments:
The Pentagon is halting gender-affirming healthcare for transgender troops as it moves to kick them out of the US military, according to a memo seen by Reuters. “I am directing you to take the necessary steps to immediately implement this guidance,” Stephen Ferrara, the acting assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said in the memo.
A coalition of entertainment unions, including the Motion Picture Association, called on Trump to endorse tax deductions that benefit the entertainment sector. The letter was sent in response to Trump’s announcement of a 100% tariff on films produced outside the United States. The letter was also signed by leading writers’ and actors’ guilds, and actors Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone, two of Trump’s selected Hollywood advisers.
House Republicans are pushing a plan to allocate up to $5bn annually for scholarships that would allow families to send their children to private and religious schools. This move marks an unprecedented effort to use public money to pay for private education. The proposal would advance Trump’s agenda of establishing “universal school choice” by providing families nationwide the option to give their children an education different from the one offered in their local public school.
Trump hailed a “total reset” in relations between China and the US after the countries agreed a 90-day pause to the deepening trade war that has threatened to upend the global economy, with tariffs to be lowered by 115 percentage points. “They’ve agreed to open up China,” he claimed at a press conference at the White House this morning, adding that he and Xi Jinping may speak towards the end of the week. Wall Street’s three major indexes closed sharply higher following the news.
The first white South Africans granted refugee status in the US arrived at Dulles international airport as Trump claimed baselessly that they faced “genocide”. Trump has blocked mostly non-white refugee admissions from the rest of the world – even those fleeing war – but in February offered to resettle Afrikaners saying they faced discrimination. The Episcopal church’s migration service is refusing a directive from the federal government to help resettle white South Africans granted refugee status, citing the church’s longstanding “commitment to racial justice and reconciliation”.
Top Democrats in the Senate are pushing for a vote on the floor of the chamber censuring Trump’s reported plan to accept a $400m luxury jet from the royal family of Qatar for use as Air Force One and later as a fixture in Trump’s personal presidential library. News of a possible gift of the luxury jet prompted immediate scathing criticism from senior Democrats and concerns from Republicans. Though the Qatari government has stressed that no final decision has yet been made, Trump appeared to confirm it on Monday when he doubled down, saying he would be “stupid” to turn down the “great gesture” of a free plane.
House Republicans presentedthe cost-saving centerpiece of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill”, at least $880bn in cuts largely to Medicaid to help cover the cost of $4.5tn in tax breaks. Influential senator – and staunch Trump loyalist – Josh Hawley warned that his party is suffering from an “identity crisis” over whether it stands for working Americans or rich corporate executives, signaling a worsening split among Trump’s congressional troops over the plans.
Trump revealed an aggressive drug pricing strategy targeting pharmaceutical companies, promising to dramatically cut prescription drug costs for US consumers. Trump condemned the current pricing system as a “redistribution” that has allowed drugmakers to exploit US patients and signed an executive order that he says will lead to matching lower drug prices abroad. The president said the plan would reduce prescription drug and pharmaceutical prices in the US “almost immediately” by “30% to 80 or 90%”.
Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, welcomed the possibility of Trump’s participation in talks with Russia in Turkey on Thursday, calling it “the right idea”. Trump – now off on a trip to the Middle East – had earlier said: “I was thinking about actually flying over there. There’s a possibility of it, I guess, if I think things can happen, but we’ve got to get it done.”
The Trump administration spent at least $21m transporting people to Guantánamo Bay on military aircrafts between between January and April, with the average flight cost totally more than $26,000, NBC reported. The naval base there currently holds 32 migrants, according to a defense official, a tiny fraction of the 30,000 that Trump promised.
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DNC panel recommends invalidating David Hogg’s election over gender rule violation
A Democratic National Committee panel on Monday recommended that the organization invalidate an internal vice-chair vote that elevated activist David Hogg to the position, determining that the contest had not followed the party’s gender-parity rules.
The decision by the DNC’s credentials committee, which forwards the resolution to the full body of the Democratic National Committee for approval, came after nearly three hours of what appeared to be tortured internal debate. If adopted, it could force Hogg, an activist who has infuriated DNC officials with his pledge to fund primary challenges against “asleep-at-the-wheel” Democrats, and Malcolm Kenyatta, a Pennsylvania state legislator, to run again for their positions.
The committee’s ruling is ostensibly unrelated to Hogg’s activism – the credential challenge was brought by Kalyn Free, one of the candidates who lost the vice chair race to Hogg. Free argued that the party had not followed parliamentary procedure, putting female candidates at a disadvantage.
But in a statement responding to the ruling, Hogg said it was “impossible to ignore the broader context of my work to reform the party which loomed large over this vote”.
“I ran to be DNC Vice Chair to help make the Democratic Party better, not to defend an indefensible status quo that has caused voters in almost every demographic group to move away from us,” Hogg said. “The DNC has pledged to remove me, and this vote has provided an avenue to fast-track that effort.”
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Senate Republicans voiced several concerns, from ethical to legal questions, about the possibility of Trump receiving a luxury jet from Qatar, the Hill reports.
“I’m not flying on a Qatari plane. They support Hamas,” said Republican senator Rick Scott of Florida, and a strong Trump supporter. “I don’t know how you make it safe.”
Trump defended the potential gift (a Boeing 747-8 aircraft from the Qatari government intended as a replacement for the current Air Force One fleet) by saying that it would be “stupid” not to accept the offer.
“‘Gosh, let me give you a plane.’ I mean, that seems pretty nice, but they support Hamas, so I don’t know. I don’t know how you make it safe,” Scott said. “I don’t want the president of the United States flying on an unsafe plane.”
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Leftwing pundit Hasan Piker says US border agents quizzed him on Trump and Gaza
Hasan Piker, a US-born progressive political commentator, said he was stopped by US Customs and Border Protection agents and questioned about his opinions of Donald Trump and Israeli war policy as he returned to the country on Sunday from France.
Piker, recounting the incident on his Twitch livestream on Monday, said he was led to a private room at Chicago O’Hare airport and interviewed for nearly two hours about his political views.
“The goal here is to put fear into people’s hearts, to have a chilling effect on speech that, like, the government is unafraid of intimidating you,” Piker said. “Does this stop me from saying whatever the fuck I want to say? Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous. But the reason why I wanted to talk about it was to give you more insight into what the government is doing, and to speak out against this sort of stuff.”
The leftwing streamer has built a mass following on YouTube and Twitch around his blend of political, cultural and social commentary. Piker, born in New Jersey, was carrying a US passport when he re-entered the US on Sunday, after a trip to France with his family to celebrate Mother’s Day.
“I think they did it because they know who the fuck I am, and they wanted to put the fear of god into me,” Piker said.
“This is nothing but lying for likes,” Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. “Claims that his political beliefs triggered the inspection are baseless. Our officers are following the law, not agendas.”
She added: “Upon entering the country, this individual was referred for further inspection – a routine, lawful process that occurs daily, and can apply for any traveler. Once his inspection was complete, he was promptly released.”
Piker repeatedly described the exchange as “cordial” but said he was transparent with the officer interviewing him that he planned to speak out about his experience, which the streamer said felt anything but random and “routine”.
Read the full story here:
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A federal judge ruled that the Internal Revenue Service can continue sharing tax data of immigrants with Immigration and Customs Enforcement for the purpose of identifying and deporting individuals living illegally in the US.
In a victory for the Trump administration, US district judge Dabney Friedrich rejected a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed by non-profit organizations. The groups argued that undocumented immigrants who file taxes should be afforded the same privacy protections as US citizens and legally residing immigrants.
Friedrich, appointed by Donald Trump, had previously denied a temporary order in the case.
This decision comes less than a month after the resignation of former acting IRS commissioner Melanie Krause, following the agreement that allowed Ice to provide the IRS with names and addresses of immigrants residing illegally in the US for cross-verification against tax records.
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House Republicans are pushing a plan to allocate up to $5bn annually for scholarships that would allow families to send their children to private and religious schools, the Associated Press reports.
This move marks an unprecedented effort to use public money to pay for private education.
The proposal would advance Donald Trump’s agenda of establishing “universal school choice” by providing families nationwide the option to give their children an education different from the one offered in their local public school.
Nearly all households would qualify except those making more than three times the local median income.
“Giving parents the ability to choose the best education for their child makes the (American Dream) possible,” said Bill Cassidy, a Republican Louisiana senator who sponsored a similar proposal in the Senate.
The FBI directed its agents on Monday to increase the time they spend on immigration enforcement and reduce their focus on white-collar crime, Reuters reports.
During a series of meetings, field offices informed agents they would now be expected to dedicate roughly one-third of their time to supporting the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigration.
Investigations into white-collar crime, the source told Reuters, will be deprioritized through at least the end of 2025.
Rachel Savage and David Smith report on the first group of white South Africans to arrive in the US:
The first group of white South Africans granted refugee status by Donald Trump’s administration has arrived in the US, stirring controversy in South Africa as the US president declared the Afrikaners victims of a “genocide”.
The Afrikaners, a minority descended from mainly Dutch colonists, were met at Dulles international airport outside Washington DC by US deputy secretary of state, Christopher Landau, and deputy secretary of homeland security, Troy Edgar, with many given US flags to wave.
Reuters reported that the group numbered 59 adults and children, citing a state department official, while Associated Press said there were 49.
At Dulles airport, Landau told the assembled white South Africans: “It is such an honour for us to receive you here today … it makes me so happy to see you with our flag in your hands.
He invoked his family’s history, saying: “My own father was born in Europe and had to leave his country when Hitler came in … We respect what you have had to deal with these last few years.”
He added: “We’re sending a clear message that the United States really rejects the egregious persecution of people on the basis of race in South Africa.”
On the same day the group arrived in the US, Trump’s government also ended legal protections that had temporarily protected Afghans from deportation, citing an improved security situation in the country, which is ruled by the Taliban.
One consideration for resettling Afrikaners not Afghans was that “they could be easily assimilated into our country,” Landau told reporters at the airport.
Trump suspended the US refugee settlement programme in January, leaving more than 100,000 people approved for refugee resettlement stranded. Then, in February, he signed an executive order directing officials to grant refugee status to Afrikaners, whose leaders ruled during apartheid while violently repressing the Black majority.
Read the full story by Rachel Savage and David Smith here:
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Hollywood groups urge Trump to back tax deductions
A coalition of entertainment unions, including the Motion Picture Association, called on Trump on Monday to endorse tax deductions that benefit the entertainment sector.
The letter was sent in response to Trump’s announcement of a 100% tariff on films produced outside the United States.
The letter was also signed by leading writers’ and actors’ guilds, and actors Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone, two of Trump’s selected Hollywood advisers.
“Returning more production to the United States will require a national approach and broad-based policy solutions,” reads the letter.
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US Customs and Border Protection reported that there were 8,383 arrests for illegal border crossings from Mexico in April, marking a 17% increase from 7,184 in March.
But this also marks a 94% decrease from nearly 129,000 in April 2024. March’s tally was the slowest monthly rate since 1967.
The border patrol averaged 279 arrests along the Mexican border in April, down from more than 10,000 a day on the busiest days of Joe Biden’s presidency.
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Wall Street’s three major indexes climbed sharply on Monday, with the S&P 500 reaching its highest level since early March, following news of a temporary US-China agreement to ease tariffs.
The move offered some hope for relief in the ongoing global trade war that began in early April under Donald Trump.
The agreement sparked investor optimism, prompting a shift toward riskier assets and away from defensive investments. Still, there’s still some uncertainty over the long-term direction of trade policy and where final tariff levels would land.
“It’s a relief rally because there was a lot of anxiety and angst about tariffs between the US and China,” John Praveen, managing director at Paleo Leon in Princeton, New Jersey, told Reuters.
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Chris Van Hollen, a senator for Maryland, told an audience at the Center for American Progress thinktank in Washington: “To watch the Trump administration apply what I call their global apartheid policy by providing asylum or refugee status to some Afrikaners – white South Africans – while they shut everybody else out is just an outrageous insult to the whole idea of our country, and the whole idea of Dr King that at the end of the day it’s character that counts.”
“We have to call it out for what it is: it’s an application of the global apartheid policy by the Trump administration.”
Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, said in a statement: “It is baffling as to why the Trump administration is admitting Afrikaners for resettlement while continuing an indefinite suspension for thousands of legitimate asylum seekers who have fled persecution, often because their lives were at risk.”
Last year, the UN found no South Africans were eligible for refugee status. The decision by this administration to put one group at the front of the line is clearly politically motivated and an effort to rewrite history.”
The interior department announced it would fast-track permitting for a uranium mine in Utah, part of Trump’s effort to shorten environmental reviews and accelerate certain energy projects.
Secretary of the interior, Doug Burgum, said in a statement:
America is facing an alarming energy emergency because of the prior administration’s Climate Extremist policies. President Trump and his administration are responding with speed and strength to solve this crisis.
An environmental assessment of the Velvet-Wood mine will be completed in just 14 days, far shorter than the typical one-year timeline, the agency said.
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The Episcopal Church’s migration service is refusing a directive from the federal government to help resettle white South Africans granted refugee status, citing the church’s longstanding “commitment to racial justice and reconciliation.”
In a letter released on Monday, Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe announced the step shortly before 49 South Africans arrived at Dulles International Airport outside Washington on a private charter plane and were greeted by a government delegation.
“In light of our church’s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step. Accordingly, we have determined that, by the end of the federal fiscal year, we will conclude our refugee resettlement grant agreements with the U.S. federal government,” reads the letter.
Pentagon halting gender-affirming healthcare for transgender troops – Reuters
The Pentagon is halting gender-affirming healthcare for transgender troops as it moves to kick them out of the US military, according to a memo seen by Reuters.
“I am directing you to take the necessary steps to immediately implement this guidance,” Stephen Ferrara, the acting assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, said in the memo.
The Pentagon referred questions to the Defense Health Agency, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Reuters first reported last week a memo showing that US defense secretary Pete Hegseth issued instructions to the Pentagon to start kicking out transgender troops who do not elect to leave on their own by 6 June.
The actions illustrate how Donald Trump’s administration intends to swiftly act to remove thousands of transgender service members after a supreme court ruling last week cleared the way for a ban to take effect.
There are 4,240 US active-duty and National Guard transgender troops, officials have said. Transgender rights advocates have given higher estimates.
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Here are some pictures of the group of 59 white South Africans who have arrived to be resettled in the US after being granted refugee status by the Trump administration.
Trump has blocked mostly non-white refugee admissions from the rest of the world – even those fleeing war – but has offered to resettle Afrikaners, claiming baselessly this morning that they face racial discrimination and “genocide”.
South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has rejected their classification as refugees and said the US government has “got the wrong end of the stick”.
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The day so far
Donald Trump hailed a “total reset” in relations between China and the US after the countries agreed a 90-day pause to the deepening trade war that has threatened to upend the global economy, with tariffs to be lowered by 115 percentage points. “They’ve agreed to open up China,” he claimed at a press conference at the White House this morning, adding that he and Xi Jinping may speak towards the end of the week. Wall Street rose sharply after the announcement, with the benchmark S&P 500 jumping 2.7% and the Dow Jones industrial average climbing 2.4% during early trading in New York. The fentanyl-related tariff will still apply, and Trump stressed that sector-specific US tariffs on cars, steel and aluminium will be unaffected.
The first white South Africans granted refugee status in the US arrived at Dulles international airport as Trump claimed baselessly that they faced “genocide”. Trump has blocked mostly non-white refugee admissions from the rest of the world – even those fleeing war – but in February offered to resettle Afrikaners saying they faced discrimination. South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa said the US government had “got the wrong end of the stick” and rejected the classification of Afrikaners as refugees. “They are leaving ostensibly because they don’t want to embrace the changes that are taking place in our country [since the end of apartheid], in accordance with our constitution,” he said. US senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the most senior Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, called the move “baffling”. In a statement she said: “The decision by this administration to put one group at the front of the line is clearly politically motivated and an effort to rewrite history.”
Top Democrats in the Senate are pushing for a vote on the floor of the chamber censuring Donald Trump’s reported plan to accept a $400m luxury jet from the royal family of Qatar for use as Air Force One and later as a fixture in Trump’s personal presidential library. News of a possible gift of the luxury jet prompted immediate scathing criticism from senior Democrats. Senator Chris Murphy described the idea of Qatar handing over the jet as being “just wildly illegal” and said that he would object to “any military deal with a nation that is paying off Trump personally – we can’t act like this is normal foreign policy”. Though the Qatari government has stressed that no final decision has yet been made, Trump appeared to confirm it on Monday when he doubled down, saying he would be “stupid” to turn down the “great gesture” of a free plane. The president also said Boeing delays in delivering a new Air Force One make it a practical decision and claimed repeatedly that it wasn’t a personal gift. As well as Democrats, far-right Maga activist Laura Loomer was also dismayed, she said: “This is really going to be such a stain on the admin if this is true. And I say that as someone who would take a bullet for Trump. I’m so disappointed.”
House Republicans unveiled the cost-saving centerpiece of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill”, at least $880bn in cuts largely to Medicaid to help cover the cost of $4.5tn in tax breaks. Influential senator – and staunch Trump loyalist – Josh Hawley warned that his party is suffering from an “identity crisis” over whether it stands for working Americans or rich corporate executives, signaling a worsening split among Trump’s congressional troops over the plans. In an opinion piece in the NYT, Hawley warned his fellow Republicans it would be “politically suicidal” to concede to huge cuts in the federal program that provides health insurance to more than 70 million low-income Americans.
Trump unveiled an aggressive drug pricing strategy targeting pharmaceutical companies, promising to dramatically cut prescription drug costs for American consumers. Trump condemned the current pricing system as a “redistribution” that has allowed drugmakers to exploit US patients and signed an executive order that he says will lead to matching lower drug prices abroad. The president said the plan would reduce prescription drug and pharmaceutical prices in the US “almost immediately” by “30% to 80 or 90%”. The policy plan, dubbed “most favored nation”, would force pharmaceutical companies to match the lowest global prices, in effect ending what Trump describes as systematic overcharging.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the possibility of Trump’s participation in talks with Russia in Turkey on Thursday calling it “the right idea”. Trump – now off on a trip to the Middle East – had earlier said: “I was thinking about actually flying over there. There’s a possibility of it, I guess, if I think things can happen, but we’ve got to get it done.”
The Trump administration spent at least $21m transporting people to Guantánamo Bay on military aircrafts between between January and April, with the average flight cost totally over $26,000, NBC reported. The naval base there currently holds 32 migrants, according to a defense official, a tiny fraction of the 30,000 that Trump promised.
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'US government has wrong end of the stick': white South Africans resettling in US are not refugees, says Cyril Ramaphosa
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa rejected the classification of a group of white South Africans as “refugees”, following their resettlement to the United States under a programme backed by Donald Trump.
Speaking at a conference in Ivory Coast, Ramaphosa said:
A refugee is someone who has to leave their country out of fear of political, religious or economic persecution – and they don’t fit that bill. They are leaving ostensibly because they don’t want to embrace the changes that are taking place in our country, in accordance with our constitution.
We are the only country on the continent where the colonisers came to stay, and we have never driven them out of our country.
He added:
We think that the American government has got the wrong end of the stick here, but we’ll continue talking to them.
Trump said South Africa’s leadership was traveling to see him next week, and that he would not travel to a G20 meeting there in November unless the “situation is taken care of”.
His secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said in February he was
skipping a G20 foreign minister’s meeting in South Africa, accusing the government there of “doing very bad things”.
The claim that minority white South Africans face discrimination from the black majority has become an established trope in rightwing online chatrooms, and been echoed by Trump’s South African-born ally Elon Musk.
Trump said earlier that the news media ignores the alleged persecution of white South Africans. He said, without evidence:
White farmers are being brutally killed and their land is being confiscated in South Africa. If it were the other way around they would talk about. That would be the only story they’d talk about.
Since his return to the White House in January, Trump has cut all US financial assistance to South Africa, citing disapproval of its land policy and of its genocide case at the international court of justice against Washington’s ally Israel.
A spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services said on Friday it was working with the state department to support the South Africans’ resettlement, without giving details about what kind of assistance they would receive.
The spokesperson added that more arrivals were expected in the coming months. The state department paid for Monday’s charter flight, someone familiar with the matter told Reuters.
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First white South African 'refugees' arrive in US as Trump claims they face 'genocide'
The Trump administration has welcomed 59 white South Africans it has granted refugee status in the US for being deemed victims of racial discrimination, Reuters reports, in a move that has drawn criticism from Democrats and stirred confusion in South Africa.
Donald Trump has blocked mostly non-white refugee admissions from the rest of the world – even those fleeing war – but in February offered to resettle Afrikaners, the descendants of mostly Dutch settlers, saying they faced discrimination.
Asked on Monday why white South Africans were being prioritized above the victims of famine and war elsewhere in Africa, Trump claimed, without providing evidence, that Afrikaners were being killed. “It’s a genocide that’s taking place,” Trump told reporters at the White House, going further than he has previously in echoing rightwing tropes about their alleged persecution.
He was not favoring Afrikaners because they are white, Trump said, adding that their race “makes no difference to me”.
South Africa maintains there is no evidence of persecution and that claims of a “white genocide” in the country have not been backed up by evidence. Treating white South Africans as refugees fleeing oppression has drawn alarm and ridicule from South African authorities, who say the Trump administration has waded into a domestic issue it does not understand.
A state department official said the charter plane carrying the first 59 Afrikaners brought under Trump’s offer had landed at Washington Dulles airport. Some were heading to Democratic-leaning Minnesota, which has a reputation for welcoming refugees, while others planned to go to Republican-led states such as Idaho and Alabama, sources told Reuters.
Democratic senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the most senior Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, called the move “baffling”. In a statement on Monday she said:
The decision by this administration to put one group at the front of the line is clearly politically motivated and an effort to rewrite history.
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Deputy attorney general tapped to serve as acting librarian of Congress
Deputy attorney general Todd Blanche has been appointed to serve as the acting librarian of Congress, a justice department spokesman confirmed on Monday, Reuters reports, after Trump recently fired Carla Hayden.
The White House announced that Hayden was being fired as librarian of Congress on 9 May, citing in part her advancement of diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
Hayden, who was the first woman and first African American in the role, headed an office that has overall management responsibility for the library and sets out policy on its programs and activities. Barack Obama appointed her in 2016 to a 10-year term in the role that needed Senate confirmation.
Blanche is the latest Trump administration official to be asked to serve in multiple roles at the same time. Secretary of state Marco Rubio is also serving as the acting archivist, as well as Trump’s national security adviser and the acting administrator of the US Agency for International Development. US army secretary Daniel Driscoll, meanwhile, is also serving as acting director for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. FBI Director Kash Patel also briefly served two roles, leading both the FBI and the ATF.
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As Trump heads to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, the goal is to return with $1tn worth of deals and investment pledges, reports Axios citing two current and former US officials and two Arab officials.
“His regional agenda is business, business and business,” one Arab official told Axios, which notes “the geopolitical agenda is very much secondary”.
Axios writes:
Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman pledged $600bn in investments in the US over the next four years right after Trump took office. And the deals signed in Saudi Arabia will include at least $100bn in military sales as well as big energy and minerals deals.
The Qataris are also expected to announce $200-300bn in deals and investments, including a huge commercial aircraft deal with Boeing and a $2bn deal to purchase MQ-9 Reaper drones, a source with knowledge of the issue said. [Plus the offer to gift a certain $400m plane that we’ve been reporting about all morning].
The UAE already declared in March that it would invest $1.4tn in the US over the next decade.
Trump clearly sees the Gulf as a place where there’s big money to be made, for the US and for businesses like his. The Trump Organization announced a new luxury real estate deal in Qatar just two weeks ago, and also has projects in Jeddah, Dubai and Oman.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia are among the countries lobbying hard to gain access to advanced AI chips exported from the US. The Trump administration last week rescinded a Biden-era rule that aimed to block China’s access to advanced chips via third parties by capping how many could be exported to most countries. It has said it will replace it with a new rule, leaving open the question of whether the Gulf states will face any restrictions.
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House Republicans unveil $880bn in Medicaid cuts that Democrats warn will leave millions without care
Here is more detail on the GOP’s planned cuts to Medicaid to fund Trump’s massive program of tax and spending cuts, from the Associated Press.
House Republicans unveiled the cost-saving centerpiece of Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” on Sunday, at least $880bn in cuts largely to Medicaid to help cover the cost of $4.5tn in tax breaks.
A preliminary estimate from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said the proposals would reduce the number of people with health care by 8.6 million over the decade.
As Republicans race toward House speaker Mike Johnson’s Memorial Day deadline to pass Trump’s big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts, more than a dozen House Republicans have told Johnson and GOP leaders they will not support cuts to the healthcare safety net programs that residents back home depend on. Trump himself has shied away from a repeat of his first term, vowing there will be no cuts to Medicaid.
Eleven committees in the House have been compiling their sections of the package as Republicans seek at least $1.5tn in savings to help cover the cost of preserving Trump’s 2017 tax breaks. But the powerful energy and commerce committee was instructed to come up with $880bn in savings. It reached that goal with the Medicaid cuts and rolling back Biden-era green energy programs.
Central to the savings are changes to Medicaid. To be eligible for Medicaid, there would be new “community engagement requirements” of at least 80 hours per month of work, education or service for able-bodied adults without dependents. People would also have to verify their eligibility to be in the program twice a year, rather than just once. This would probably lead to more churn in the program and present hurdles for people to stay covered, especially if they have to drive far to verify their income in person.
Many states have expanded their Medicaid rosters thanks to federal incentives, but the legislation would cut a 5% boost put in place during the Covid pandemic. Federal funding to the states for immigrants who have not shown proof of citizenship would be prohibited.
There would be a freeze on the so-called provider tax that some states use to help pay for large portions of their Medicaid programs. The extra tax often leads to higher payments from the federal government, which critics say is a loophole that creates abuse in the system.
The energy portions of the legislation include rollbacks of climate-change strategies Joe Biden signed into law in the Inflation Reduction Act. It proposes rescinding funds for a range of energy loans and investment programs while providing expedited permitting for natural gas development and oil pipelines.
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Following reports of Qatar gifting a $400m super-luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet to Donald Trump, senator Chris Murphy, a member of the US Senate foreign relations committee, on Monday announced that he will seek to block any arms sale to a nation whose government is directly enriching Trump and his family.
Murphy posted on X:
I will block any arms sale to a nation that is doing direct personal business with Trump. We should have a full Senate debate and vote. UAE’s investment in Trump crypto and Qatar’s gifting of a plane is nuclear grade graft. An unacceptable corruption of our foreign policy.
Normally, arms sales go forward without a vote. But any Senator can object and force a full debate and Senate vote. I will do that for any military deal with a nation that is paying off Trump personally. We can’t act like this is normal foreign policy.
Josh Hawley warns against 'politically suicidal' Medicaid cuts and says Republicans are in ‘identity crisis’
Here’s more on Josh Hawley’s comments urging fellow Republicans against deep cuts to Medicaid to fund Trump’s tax cuts, warning it would be “politically suicidal”, from my colleague Ed Pilkington.
Hawley, the influential US senator from Missouri, warned that his Republican party is suffering from an “identity crisis” over whether it stands for working Americans or rich corporate executives, signaling a worsening split among Donald Trump’s congressional troops over the president’s plans for deep Medicaid cuts.
In an opinion piece in the New York Times published on Monday, Hawley – a devoted Trump loyalist who has backed some of the most controversial aspects of his Maga movement – warned fellow Republicans it would be “politically suicidal” to concede to huge cuts in the federal program that provides health insurance to more than 70 million low-income Americans. He derided what he called the “Wall Street wing” of his own party that he said favoured corporate giveaways at the price of “slashing health insurance for the working poor”.
Hawley’s pointed attack on his Republican colleagues highlights the intensifying clash within his party over how to deliver Trump’s desire to extend his 2017 tax cuts. To pay for the extension, the House energy and commerce committee has been charged with finding $880bn in federal spending cuts over a decade – much of which is likely to come from Medicaid.
Late on Sunday, the committee released its latest iteration of its proposals. The plan would strip almost 9 million low-income Americans of their health insurance mainly by trimming Medicaid, according to the Congressional Budget Office. The latest draft proposals would also require millions of low-income Americans who earn above the federal poverty level to contribute co-payments for medical services.
The plans for Medicaid cuts would require approval from both the House and the narrowly divided Senate. Hawley is one of a few Republican senators, including Susan Collins from Maine, who are putting up staunch resistance.
Zelenskyy on Trump's possible participation in Turkey talks – 'the right idea'
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the possibility of Donald Trump’s participation in talks with Russia in Turkey on Thursday and expressed hope that Russian leader Vladimir Putin will not “evade the meeting”.
“All of us in Ukraine would appreciate it if President Trump could be there with us at this meeting in Türkiye. This is the right idea. We can change a lot,” Zelenskyy said on X.
He added that Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “can indeed host highest-level meeting”.
I have just heard President Trump’s statement. Very important words.
I supported @POTUS idea of a full and unconditional ceasefire — long enough to provide the foundation for diplomacy. And we want it, we are ready to uphold silence on our end.
I supported President Trump with the idea of direct talks with Putin. I have openly expressed my readiness to meet. I will be in Türkiye. I hope that the Russians will not evade the meeting.
And of course, all of us in Ukraine would appreciate it if President Trump could be there with us at this meeting in Türkiye. This is the right idea. We can change a lot. President @RTErdogan can indeed host highest-level meeting. Thank you to everyone who is helping.
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Pentagon spent at least $21m on flights to Guantánamo, which currently holds 32 people – NBC News
NBC News reports that the Trump administration spent at least $21m transporting migrants to Guantánamo Bay on military aircraft between 20 January and 8 April, according to figures provided to Congress by the US military in response to questions from Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren.
The naval base there currently holds 32 migrants, NBC reports citing a defense official, “a tiny fraction of the 30,000 that Donald Trump pledged”.
NBC writes:
Democrats condemned the Guantanamo effort as a wasteful ‘political stunt’ by Trump, who announced in late January that migrants would be held at the navy base, which houses the notorious detention facility. Two months after the effort began, administration officials acknowledged that it was logistically and legally flawed and beset by administration infighting.
Warren, a member of the Senate armed services committee, denounced the use of US military assets and personnel for the mission.
‘Every American should be outraged by Donald Trump wasting military resources to pay for his political stunts that do not make us safer,’ Warren said. ‘US service members did not sign up for this abuse of power.’
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Democrats call Qatar plane offer a 'conflict of interest' if Trump accepts it
Democratic senators Cory Booker, Chris Coons, Chris Murphy and Brian Schatz have issued a joint statement arguing that there is a “clear conflict of interest” if Donald Trump accepts a luxury plane from Qatar’s royal family.
Trump earlier today defended his administration’s plan to accept the plane. “I think it’s a great gesture from Qatar,” he told reporters at the White House.
I would never be one to turn down that kind of an offer. I mean, I could be a stupid person and say, no, we don’t want a free, very expensive airplane.
The Democratic senators urged colleagues to reassert that lawmakers cannot take gifts from foreign governments without congressional approval.
“Air Force One is more than just a plane – it’s a symbol of the presidency and of the United States itself,” the lawmakers wrote.
Any president who accepts this kind of gift, valued at $400 million, from a foreign government creates a clear conflict of interest, raises serious national security questions, invites foreign influence, and undermines public trust in our government.
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The White House is unveiling an aggressive drug pricing strategy targeting pharmaceutical companies, promising to dramatically cut prescription drug costs for American consumers.
Donald Trump condemned the current pricing system as a “redistribution” that has allowed drugmakers to exploit US patients, saying he will sign an executive order that would match lower drug prices abroad.
“We are subsidizing others’ healthcare, where they paid a small fraction of what we pay,” the president said in a press conference on Monday.
Even though the United States is home to only 4% of the world’s population, pharmaceutical companies make more than two-thirds of their profits in America … That’s not a good thing.
The proposed policy, dubbed as “most favored nation”, would force pharmaceutical companies to match the lowest global prices, in effect ending what Trump describes as systematic overcharging.
The new order aims to level the global pharmaceutical playing field, with Trump suggesting that “Europe’s going to have to pay a little bit more” while Americans will pay “a lot less”.
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Donald Trump has been pictured boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews to begin his Middle East trip.
Trump is set to land in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, followed by visits to Qatar and then the United Arab Emirates.
Edan Alexander, an Israeli-American soldier who was kidnapped on 7 October 2023, has been released by Hamas on Monday.
Alexander, 21, was the last living American hostage in Gaza. He is now “en route to Israeli territory through [the] Kissufim crossing with Gaza,” Reuters reports.
Donald Trump, speaking to reporters shortly before departing for his Middle East tour, said Alexander would be “coming home to his parents, which is really great news”.
Trump credited his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, in helping secure the release of Alexander. “He has a special way about him,” Trump said of Witkoff.
He added that he hoped “other hostages” will be released.
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Key takeaways from Trump press conference
Trump said tariffs on China won’t return to 145% after the 90-day pause, adding that he sees a deal happening. He called the talks in Geneva over the weekend “productive” and a ‘“total reset” had been achieved, and said he may speak to Chinese president Xi Jinping “maybe at the end of the week”. “They’ve agreed to fully open China,” he said, adding that Beijing had agreed to remove non-monetary barriers to US trade. He added that the 90-day pause doesn’t include tariffs on cars, steel, aluminum, or tariffs that may be imposed on pharmaceuticals.
In a tense exchange, Trump attacked ABC – which first broke the story of Qatar offering his administration a $400m luxury jet – calling the network “a disaster”. He claimed it wasn’t a personal gift to him but a gift to the DoD, and said Boeing’s delays in delivering a new Air Force One make it a practical decision. Turning down a free plane would be “stupid”, Trump said, adding that he has no plans to use the plane after he leaves office.
Trump welcomes news of a potential meeting between Russia and Ukraine on Thursday, and mused about flying to Turkey to join the discussions: “I was thinking about actually flying over there. There’s a possibility of it, I guess, if I think things can happen, but we’ve got to get it done.”
Trump said US drug prices could drop 90% due to his executive order, which aims to “equalize” prices for America with other countries. “It’s just a redistribution of wealth,” he said. “Europe and the rest of the world is going to have to pay a little bit more, and America’s going to pay a lot less.” He said he’ll add on to tariffs if countries don’t abide by his “equalizing” drug policy to lower prices.
Iran is “being very reasonable thus far”, said Trump, signalling that nuclear talks are going well and “intelligently”. “I think they understand that I mean business.”
Trump hinted towards removing sanctions on Syria following a query from Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He said: “We may take them off of Syria, because we want to give them a fresh start.”
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'ABC is a disaster': Trump issues attack on network after claiming $400m plane from Qatar is not a personal gift
Asked what he says to people who view the luxury $4oom plane from Qatar as a gift to him, Trump says:
You’re ABC News fake news right? … You should be embarrassed asking that question.
ABC News broke the story. “They’re giving us a free jet. I could say no, no, I want to pay you $400m or I could say ‘thank you very much’,” Trump says, before descending into a golf analogy.
He reiterates that declining the offer would be “stupid”.
He doubles down that it’s not a gift to him but a gift to the Department of Defense, adding a further attack on ABC News:
You should know better because you’ve been embarrassed enough and so has your network. Your network is a disaster. ABC is a disaster.
Also, he signed the executive order on drug pricing.
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Trump says he thinks China will follow through with removing non-monetary barriers, adding: “I think they want the deal very badly.”
Trump raises the prospect of joining talks between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey on Thursday.
Trump will be visiting Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. He says:
I think you may have a good result out of the Thursday meeting in Turkey between Russia and Ukraine.
I was thinking about flying over. I don’t know where I’m going to be on Thursday. I’ve got so many meetings, but I was thinking about actually flying over there. There’s a possibility of it, I guess, if I think things can happen, but we’ve got to get it done.
Trump says he doesn’t plan to use the plane after he leaves office.
Trump says “it’s a great gesture” from Qatar and says turning down a free and very expensive plane would be “stupid”.
Trump says US needs Qatari plane after Boeing delays
Asked if Qatar has asked for anything in exchange for the $400m jet, Trump says no, adding Air Force One “isn’t even in the same ball game” as planes owned by “some of the Arab countries”.
He justifies his plans to accept the plane as a gift from the Qatari royal family by arguing that Boeing’s delays in delivering a new Air Force One make it a practical decision.
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Trump says tariffs on China imports won't return to 145% and that he sees a deal
Trump is asked whether if no trade deal is reached with China at the end of the 90-day pause the tariffs will go back up to 145%.
“No,” he says. “But they will go up substantially higher [than 30%].”
He thinks Washington and Beijing will have a deal, he adds.
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Trump hints towards removing sanctions on Syria following a query from Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
“We may take them off of Syria, because we want to give them a fresh start,” Trump says.
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Iran is “being very reasonable thus far”, says Trump, signalling that nuclear talks are going well. “I think they understand that I mean business.”
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“Many other [trade] deals are coming in,” Trump claims, adding the US will “set the price”.
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Trump says he will add on to tariffs if countries don't abide by drug policy
Trump says he’ll add on to tariffs if countries don’t abide by his “equalizing” drug policy to lower prices.
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Trump says his order will “cut out the middlemen” in drug sales.
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“It’s just a redistribution of wealth,” says Trump. “Europe and the rest of the world is going to have to pay a little bit more, and America’s going to pay a lot less.
“Basically what we’re doing is equalizing,” says Trump, claiming he came up with the word.
Updated
Trump says he just spoke to House speaker Mike Johnson and Senate majority leader John Thune telling them to “score” that his tariffs and this pharma announcement will have save them “hundreds of millions of dollars”.
Trump says US drug prices could drop 90% due to executive order
“We’ll slash the cost of prescription drugs,” says Trump, adding the price could come down by from 59% to 80 or 90%.
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Key event
On to the main announcement, Trump says the US “will no longer subsidize the healthcare of foreign countries”.
He says the US will also “no longer tolerate profiteering and price gouging from big pharma”.
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Trump welcomes the news of a potential meeting between Russia and Ukraine on Thursday. “I think good things can come out of that meeting,” he says.
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China agreed to work very hard to stop fentanyl, Trump says. “I take them at their word,” he says.
Edan Alexander is due to be released later today, Trump says.
China will also suspend and remove all non-monetary barriers to trade with the US, Trump says. But he adds his administration needs to get this “on paper”.
“They’ve agreed to fully open China,” Trump says.
Trump to speak with Xi Jinping 'maybe' end of this week
Trump says he will speak to Chinese president Xi Jinping “maybe at the end of the week”.
“We have some other things we’re doing,” he says.
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Trump says 'total reset with China' achieved after trade war pause
Trump says the US “achieved a total reset with China” after “productive” talks in Geneva.
He says the agreement, which lowered US tariffs on China to 30% for 90 days, “doesn’t include that are already on … on cars, steel, aluminum … or tariffs that may be imposed on pharmaceuticals”.
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'We helped a lot': Trump says trade was big reason behind India-Pakistan ceasefire
Trump says his administration helped broker “what may be a permanent” ceasefire between India and Pakistan, claiming trade was a big reason behind it.
We helped a lot.
Trump says he told the two countries:
Come on, we’re going to do a lot of trade with you guys. Let’s stop it. Stop it. If you stop it we do trade. If you don’t stop we don’t do any trade. People have never used trade the way I use it.
And all of a sudden they said I think we’re going to stop … Trade was a big reason.
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Netanyahu speaks with Trump after meeting US officials, Israeli leader's office says
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with Donald Trump today after meeting with the US president’s Middle East envoy and ambassador to Israel, Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.
Netanyahu thanked Trump for his assistance with the expected release of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, the statement said. Trump reiterated his call for close cooperation with Netanyahu, it said.
“Hopefully this is the first of those final steps necessary to end this brutal conflict,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last night.
Trump is set to visit Qatar this week, which has played a key diplomatic role in talks between Israel and Hamas, as well as Saudi Arabia and the UAE during his upcoming trip to the Middle East, but he is not going to visit Netanyahu in Israel.
You can read more about this on our Middle East blog:
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A marker of continued GOP infighting over enormous and highly contentious cuts to Medicaid – which covers almost 80 million Americans – to fund Trump’s proposed massive tax cuts, Republican senator Josh Hawley has written a New York Times op-ed out this morning (paywall) arguing against slashing the popular social safety net program.
It’s safe to say the Trump coalition was not pulling the lever for Medicaid cuts in November. [M]any of my House and Senate colleagues keep pushing for substantial cuts, and the House will begin to hash out its differences in negotiations this week … Republicans need to open their eyes: Our voters support social insurance programs. More than that, our voters depend on those programs.
Politico reports that new mandates proposed for the megabill “would likely force states to revamp how they finance their programs or cut benefits”.
Energy and commerce committee chair Brett Guthrie told committee Republicans on a call on Sunday that the package will create more than $900bn in savings, according to two people granted anonymity to describe the private discussion to Politico.
The health provisions also include new work requirements that are expected to lead many people to lose coverage, as well as a new cost-sharing requirement for some beneficiaries in the program, not to exceed 5% of a patient’s income.
The energy and commerce plan also hits on hot-button social issues — proposing, for instance, to cut federal funding for groups like Planned Parenthood and ban the use of Medicaid dollars for gender-affirming care for youth. It also scales back funding from states that use their own funds to offer coverage for undocumented people.
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Trump set to sign executive order aimed at lowering US drug prices
As has been trailed, Trump will sign an executive order today directing his government to take actions against “discriminatory” policies in foreign countries that suppress drug prices aboard, Reuters reports that a White House official said this morning.
Briefing reporters, the official said the Department of Health and Human Services will impose “most favored nation” pricing via rule-making if adequate progress is not made with the drug industry.
Trump has previously toured the plane his administration is preparing to accept from the Qatari royal family, which is so opulent it is known as “a flying palace”, while it was parked at the West Palm Beach international airport in February, according to ABC News’s report. Semafor has photos of the jet’s luxurious interior.
From ABC News’s report: “Sources told ABC News that attorney general Pam Bondi and Trump’s top White House lawyer David Warrington have concluded it would be “legally permissible” for the donation of the aircraft to be conditioned on transferring its ownership to Trump’s presidential library before the end of his term.
“The sources said Bondi provided a legal memorandum addressed to the White House counsel’s office last week after Warrington asked her for advice on the legality of the Pentagon accepting such a donation.” It’s also worth noting that Bondi used to work as a lobbyist for the Qatari government.
The plan has drawn criticism from even those most loyal to Trump, including – as we reported earlier – far-right activist Laura Loomer. Just to remind you of her comments:
This is really going to be such a stain on the admin if this is true. And I say that as someone who would take a bullet for Trump. I’m so disappointed.
As Politico notes: “There were plenty of Maga faithful posting similar messages all over X. And who can blame them? The optics of accepting a $400m luxury jet while cutting Medicaid is only one part of it. And there’s a reason why the constitution says explicitly that ‘no person holding any office’ may ‘without the consent of the Congress’ accept a gift ‘of any kind whatever from any King, Prince, or foreign state’. It’s because people generally don’t hand over $400m gifts for no reason.”
Democratic senator Chuck Schumer wrote on X:
Nothing says ‘America First’ like Air Force One, brought to you by Qatar. It’s not just bribery, it’s premium foreign influence with extra legroom.
Senator Adam Schiff cited the constitution’s “No Title of Nobility” clause, writing:
The corruption is brazen.
He later added:
While the cost of air travel continues to go up for average Americans, Donald Trump gets a half-billion dollar “air palace” from a favorite Emir. Trump’s corruption makes him richer. You get poorer. Same old story.
And Independent senator Bernie Sanders said:
I don’t know who needs to hear this, but NO, Donald Trump cannot accept a $400 million flying palace from the royal family of Qatar. Not only is this farcically corrupt, it is blatantly unconstitutional. Congress must not allow this over-the-top kleptocracy to proceed.
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Analysis: Trump might claim China tariff victory – but this is Capitulation Day
Donald Trump will inevitably claim Monday’s temporary truce in the US-China trade war as a victory, but financial markets seem to have read it for what it is – a capitulation.
Stocks were up and bond yields were higher after the US treasury secretary Scott Bessent’s early morning press conference in Geneva, where he has been holding talks with China.
Tariffs on Chinese goods will be cut from 145% to 30% – initially for a 90-day period. In return, China has cut its own tariffs on US imports to 10%, from the 125% it had imposed in retaliation against the White House.
That still marks a big shift in the terms of trade between the two countries since before Trump came to power, but falls far short of what was in effect a trade embargo.
The two sides have pledged to keep talking, but there was no reference in the White House’s statement to other gripes it has previously raised about China, including the weakness of the yuan.
Instead, the statement hailed “the importance of a sustainable, long-term and mutually beneficial economic and trade relationship”. The language was rather different to Trump’s Liberation Day speech, about the US being “looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far”.
In other words, the president has caved. He may have been swayed into tactical retreat by market wobbles but it seems more plausible that dire warnings from retailers about empty shelves – backed up by data showing shipments into US ports collapsing – may have strengthened the hands of trade moderates in the administration.
Trump and RFK Jr to hold news conference
Donald Trump and his health and human services secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, are due to hold a news conference at the White House in about an hour, with Trump expected to sign his executive order on lowering medicine costs before boarding a flight to Saudi Arabia. I’ll bring you all the key lines from that.
Updated
Further to the comments we just reported, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News this morning: “Any donation to this government is always done in full compliance with the law, and we commit ourselves to the utmost transparency, and we will continue to do that.”
Asked if the White House was worried that Qatar might want something in return, Leavitt said: “Absolutely not. Because they know President Trump, and they know he only works with the interests of the American public in mind.”
A source briefed on the matter told Reuters yesterday that Trump’s administration intends to accept a Boeing (BA.N) 747-8 plane as a gift from the Qatari royal family that would be outfitted to serve as Air Force One.
Democrats and good government advocates said it was unethical and probably unconstitutional for Qatar to make such a gift.
The luxury plane, which would be one of the most expensive gifts ever received by the US government, would eventually be donated to Trump’s presidential library after he leaves office, the source told Reuters. A new commercial 747-8 costs approximately $400m.
Trump is set to visit Qatar, which has played a key diplomatic role in talks between Israel and Hamas, during a trip to the Middle East this week.
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White House: details of Qatar plane offer 'still being worked out'
Qatar has offered to donate a plane to the United States and details are still being worked out, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Monday.
“The Qatari Government has graciously offered to donate a plane to the Department of Defense. The legal details of that are still being worked out,” Leavitt said in an interview with Fox News.
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Bessent: US and China to meet again to discuss more details on trade agreement
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday he believed US and China negotiators will meet again in the coming weeks to discuss a more detailed trade agreement, but he was not clear on when another meeting might take place.
In an interview with CNBC after initial talks in Switzerland, Bessent said the US was not looking to decouple its entire economy from China but will aim to protect its steel and semiconductor industries.
Updated
President Donald Trump said he will push to cut prescription drug prices by 59%, but gave no further details about his plan to lower medicine costs ahead of a health-related event at the White House later on Monday.
On Sunday, Trump said he would sign an executive order to pursue what is known as “most favored nation” pricing or international reference pricing. The Republican president previously tried to implement such a program during his first term in office but was blocked by the courts, Reuters reported.
“Drug prices to be cut by 59%” Trump wrote on Monday in capital letters on his social media platform as global pharma shares traded lower. Shares of US drugmakers fell between 2% and 3% after his weekend comments before Trump’s latest post Monday morning.
Trump is scheduled to hold an event at the White House with US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. at 9:30am.
Drugmakers have been expecting an order focusing on the federal Medicare health insurance program for people aged 65 and older and disabled people, according to four drug industry lobbyists who said they had been briefed by the White House.
The US-China trade deal does not cover “de minimis” exemptions for e-commerce firms, a source briefed on the talks told Reuters on Monday.
The administration of US president Donald Trump ended on 2 May US duty-free access for low-value shipments from China and Hong Kong, removing the “de minimis” exemptions availed of many e-commerce firms.
President Donald Trump on Monday said in a post on Truth Social that Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander will be released by Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Hamas said earlier that it would release Alexander.
Around two dozen California State University students began a hunger strike last week to protest starvation in Gaza due to Israel’s aid blockade, marking the latest act of political protest on college campuses.
The strikers – students from San Jose State, Sacramento State, San Francisco State and CSU Long Beach – began their fast on 5 May
“We, the students of San Francisco, Sacramento, Long Beach, and San Jose State Universities, are beginning a united hunger strike in solidarity with the two million Palestinians at risk of starvation in Gaza,” Students for Justice in Palestine wrote in a press release. They are also pushing the university system to divest from weapons manufacturers, among other stated goals.
The hunger strikes come as Israel’s aid blockade in Gaza passes its second month, and is facing mounting international criticism for the millions of Palestinians pushed toward famine, as well as Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich’s, recent assertion that “Gaza will be entirely destroyed.”
Max Flynt, a hunger striker and undergraduate student at San Francisco State University, cited the aid blockade as a decisive factor for organizing the strike. Flynt sets up daily on the campus quad with other organizers and strikers under a “Hunger Strike for Gaza” canopy. Organizers hold educational workshops and strikers have their vitals taken every few hours, but do not stay overnight.
“Many of the forms of protests that were used last year, specifically the encampments, have become effectively illegal in the United States,” Flynt said. “If we were to put up a tent today, the police would be called on us almost immediately.”
The first 49 white South Africans deemed victims of racial discrimination and granted refugee status under an offer by president Donald Trump were flying to the US on Monday in a move deepening frictions between the two nations, Reuters reports.
The US government has blocked mostly non-white refugee admissions from the rest of the world but is prioritising Afrikaners, the descendants of mostly Dutch settlers.
Giving refugee status to white South Africans has been met with a mixture of alarm and ridicule by South African authorities, who say the Trump administration has waded into a domestic political issue it does not understand.
It comes at a time of heightened racial tensions in South Africa over land and jobs that has divided the ruling coalition.
The charter plane carrying the 49 from Johannesburg was expected to arrive at Washington Dulles airport on Monday morning.
“The government unequivocally states that these are not refugees,” South African foreign ministry spokesperson Chrispin Phiri told local broadcaster Newzroom Afrika.
“But we are not going to stand in their way.”
Plan to accept luxury jet from Qatar draws criticism from allies and rivals
President Donald Trump is ready to accept a luxury Boeing 747-8 jumbo jet as a gift from the ruling family of Qatar during his trip to the Middle East this coming week – and American officials say it could be converted into a potential presidential aircraft.
The Qatari government said a final decision had not been made, AP reports.
However, Trump defended the idea – what would amount to a US President accepting an astonishingly valuable gift from a foreign government – as a fiscally shrewd move for the country.
“So the fact that the Defense Department is getting a GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40 year old Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction, so bothers the Crooked Democrats that they insist we pay, TOP DOLLAR, for the plane,” Trump posted on his social media site on Sunday night. “Anybody can do that!”
ABC News reported that Trump will use the aircraft as his presidential plane until shortly before he leaves office in January 2029, when ownership will be transferred to the foundation overseeing his yet-to-be-built presidential library.
The gift was expected to be announced when Trump visits Qatar, according to ABC’s report, as part of a trip that also includes stops in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the first extended foreign travel of his second term.
Laura Loomer, a far-right ally of Trump, said accepting Qatar’s plane would be a “stain” on the administration, adding that Qatar “fund the same Iranian proxies in Hamas and Hezbollah who have murdered US Service Members.”
The Democratic National Committee said the move was proof of Trump using the White House for personal financial gain, while Democratic lawmakers blasted the plan as “wildly illegal,” and “corruption in plain sight.”
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and will be bringing you the latest news lines.
We start with the news that China and the US have agreed a 90-day pause to the deepening trade war that has threatened to upend the global economy, with reciprocal tariffs to be lowered by 115%.
Speaking to the media after talks in Geneva, the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said both sides had shown “great respect” in the negotiations.
Bessent said: “The consensus from both delegations this weekend was neither side wants a decoupling”.
The 90-day lowering of tariffs applies to the duties announced by Donald Trump on 2 April, which ultimately escalated to 125% on Chinese imports, with Beijing responding with equivalent measures.
China also imposed non-tariff measures, such as restricting the export of critical minerals that are essential to US manufacturing of hi-tech goods.
The US trade representative, Jamieson Greer, said China’s retaliation had been disproportionate and amounted to an effective embargo on trade between the world’s two biggest economies.
For the full story, see here:
In other news:
Hamas announced on Sunday that it will release the last living American hostage in Gaza, Edan Alexander, an Israeli-American soldier who was kidnapped on 7 October 2023. Trump confirmed the news in a social media post, writing that Alexander, 21, “is coming home to his family”, while thanking mediators Qatar and Egypt.
A group of 49 white South Africans departed their homeland on Sunday for the United States on a private charter plane having been offered refugee status by the Trump administration under a new program announced in February. They are the first Afrikaners – a white minority group in South Africa – to be relocated after Trump issued an executive order in February accusing South Africa’s Black-led government of racial discrimination against them.
Mass terminations and billions of dollars’ worth of cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have gutted key programs – from child support services to HIV treatment abroad – and created a “real danger” that disease outbreaks will be missed, according to former workers. Workers at the HHS, now led by Robert F Kennedy Jr, and in public health warned in interviews that chaotic, flawed and sweeping reductions would have broad, negative effects across the US and beyond.
The US transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, plans to reduce the number of flights in and out of the Newark Liberty international airport for the “several weeks”, as the facility – one of the country’s busiest airports – struggles with radar outages, numerous flight delays and cancellations due to a shortage of air traffic controllers.
A group of Quakers were marching more than 300 miles from New York City to Washington DC to demonstrate against the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants. Organisers of the march say their protest seeks to show solidarity with migrants and other groups that are being targeted by Trump.
Trump said on Sunday he would sign an executive order to cut prescription prices to the level paid by other high-income countries, an amount he put at 30% to 80% less. The White House did not immediately offer more details on how the plan would work.
