Closing summary
This brings our live coverage of the second Trump administration to a close for the day. Here are some of the latest developments:
Kilmar Ábrego García, a Maryland resident who was deported to El Salvador in violation of a court order, was returned to the United States and charged with the criminal smuggling of undocumented immigrants inside the United States.
Ben Schrader, a career federal prosecutor, reportedly resigned in protest the same day that charges were filed against Ábrego García, following an investigation that apparently began after the mistaken deportation became a legal and political headache for the Trump administration.
Donald Trump suggested that court orders to his administration to return Ábrego García to the US was a sign that “the judges are trying to take the place of a president that won in a landslide”.
One day after his feud with Elon Musk exploded Trump claimed that he was far too busy to think about the billionaire donor who had accused him of sex crimes and called for his impeachment. That claim was undermined by the fact that Trump spent a chunk of his morning on the phone with at least three television reporters, gossiping about Musk.
Two federal appeals court judges appointed by Trump overturned a lower court ruling to allow him to resume punishing the Associated Press for continuing to refer to the Gulf of Mexico by that name instead of the new one Trump gave it.
Judges appointed by Trump say he can punish the Associated Press for calling the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of Mexico
Two judges appointed by Donald Trump to a federal appeals court ruled in his favor on Friday, allowing him to resume blocking the Associated Press from covering him at events in the Oval Office, on Air Force One and in his Mar-A-Lago club.
The 2-1 ruling was written by US circuit judge Neomi Rao, who served in Trump’s first administration, and joined by fellow Trump appointee Gregory Katsas.
The divided ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit temporarily blocks an order by another Trump appointed judge, US district judge Trevor McFadden, who had ruled in April that the Trump administration had to allow AP journalists access to events while the news agency’s lawsuit moves forward.
The AP sued after Trump banned the news organization for refusing to follow him in referring to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
The court left in place part of a lower-court order that required Trump to give AP access to events held in larger spaces, like the East Room of the White House.
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The Department of Homeland Security conducted raids on multiple locations across Los Angeles on Friday, clashing with the crowds of people who gathered to protest.
Masked agents were recorded pulling several people out of two LA-area Home Depot stores and the clothing manufacturer Ambient Apparel’s headquarters in LA’s Fashion District.
There has not yet been confirmation of how many people were taken into custody, but initial estimates provided by news helicopter reports shows roughly two dozen people were loaded into white vans and taken away.
Armed agents clad in heavy protective and tactical gear, including some who wore gas masks, could also be seen pushing individuals and trying to corral large groups that congregated to challenge the raids, and smoke grenades were reportedly thrown near the crowds. Pepper spray was used as the federal officers attempted to clear the area.
Trump says Ábrego García case shows 'the judges are trying to take the place of a president that won in a landslide'
Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Friday, Donald Trump suggested that some sort of unspecified action needed to be taken against federal judges who ordered his administration to bring the wrongly deported Maryland resident Kilmar Ábrego García back from El Salvador.
Trump continued to insist that the supreme court’s order requiring his administration to bring Ábrego García back to the United States was incorrect. “He should’ve never had to be returned”, Trump said. “Either way it’s a total disaster – this is a pretty bad guy.”
In comments posted on YouTube by the Washington Post, Trump seemed to give insight into the political calculation behind his administration’s decision to bring Ábrego García back, as the supreme court had ordered, but first indict him on new criminal charges.
“I could see a decision being made” Trump said, “‘bring him back; show everybody how horrible this guy is’”.
He then returned to his outrage at federal judges for not allowing him to deport people like Ábrego García who have been accused of crimes without giving them an opportunity to challenge the evidence against them in court.
“Frankly, we have to do something, because the judges are trying to take the place of a president that won in a landslide” Trump said. “And that’s not supposed to be the way it is”.
Trump seems convinced that Ábrego García is so obviously a gang member that there is no need for a trial. However, the president demonstrated in April that he is deeply confused about at least one piece of the supposed evidence.
In a social media post in mid-April, Trump held up a photograph of the tattoos on Ábrego García’s hand, symbols that one corner of the internet is convinced represent the letters and numbers M,S,1 and 3, to signify that he is a member of the gang MS-13.
In an interview with Terry Moran of ABC News two weeks later, though, Trump revealed that he had been confused by the photograph, which added the letters and numbers as a form of annotation. “He had MS-13 on his knuckles, tattooed”, Trump insisted to Moran. When Moran pointed out that the letters and numbers had been added to the photograph he held up to illustrate what people thought the four symbols represented, Trump made it clear that he had mistaken the annotation for part of the tattoo. “Go look at his hand”, Trump said.
Now that Ábrego García is back in the United States and will be in court, new photographs of his hand will soon be available for Trump to inspect.
'I'm not thinking about Elon, I just wish him well' Trump says
During a brief news conference on Air Force One, en route to his golf course in New Jersey, Donald Trump told reporters that he has been far too busy to spend any time thinking about Elon Musk, his top donor and former aide who called for him to be impeached on Thursday.
“Honestly, I’ve been so busy working on China, working on Russia, working on Iran, working on so many things, I’m not thinking about Elon” Trump said. “I just wish him well.”
The president’s comment, one day after Musk accused him of having been involved in his late friend Jeffrey Epstein’s sex crimes, oddly echoed Trump’s response to a question about Epstein’s longtime companion, Ghislaine Maxwell, in 2020 when she was arrested and charged with helping Epstein recruit and sexually abuse girls.
Back then, when Trump was asked during a coronavirus briefing in the White House if he expected Maxwell “to turn in powerful men”, he responded: “I don’t know, I haven’t really been following it too much. I just wish her well, frankly.”
“I’ve met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach, and I guess they lived in Palm Beach. But I wish her well, whatever it is.”
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 and sentenced to 20 years in jail the following year. Her prosecution was led by Damian Williams, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York. Williams later oversaw the indictment on New York’s mayor, Eric Adams, on corruption charges that were later dropped by the Trump administration.
On Friday, Williams left the law firm Paul Weiss to join Jenner & Block, moving from a firm that struck a deal with Trump to one that fought him in court.
Trump’s claim that he was far too busy on Friday to concern himself with Musk’s criticism was slightly undermined by the fact that he spent much of his morning at the White House talking about Musk to multiple reporters on the phone. When Jonathan Karl of ABC News called the president at 6:45 am, Trump picked up to talk about Musk and called him “a man who has lost his mind”. Trump also took time to tell Bret Baier of Fox, “Elon has totally lost it”. Trump also spoke to CNN’s Dana Bash, to insist: “I’m not even thinking about Elon, he’s got a problem, the poor guy’s got a problem”. Bash said that Trump also told her he wishes Elon well.
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Trump cites lawyer who defended him in impeachment trial saying Epstein had no dirt on him
Donald Trump, who is again enjoying a long weekend at one of his golf courses, took a moment to respond, obliquely, to Elon Musk’s unsourced claim on Thursday that the Trump administration has not released all of the files from the sex-trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein because Trump is implicated in his late friend’s crimes.
During an Air Force One flight to New Jersey on Friday, Trump shared a comment from David Schoen, a lawyer who defended the president at his second impeachment trial in 2021, over the January 6 riot.
“I was hired to lead Jeffrey Epstein’s defense as his criminal lawyer 9 days before he died”, Schoen wrote on Musk’s social media platform X on Thursday. “He sought my advice for months before that. I can say authoritatively, unequivocally, and definitively that he had no information to hurt President Trump. I specifically asked him!”
Following Musk’s post on Thursday, which was viewed more than 200 million times (according to Musk’s company), Schoen also wrote on the billionaire’s platform: “I can tell you unequivocally as someone who would know that President Trump never did anything wrong with Jeffrey Epstein.”
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Federal prosecutor reportedly resigned over concern new investigation of Ábrego García was politically motivated
A career federal prosecutor resigned in protest the same day that charges were filed against Kilmar Ábrego García, following an investigation that apparently began after the mistaken deportation of the Maryland resident became a legal and political headache for the Trump administration, ABC News reports.
Ben Schrader, announced his resignation as the chief of the criminal division at the US attorney’s office for the Middle District of Tennessee in a LinkedIn post on 21 May, the same day the indictment of Ábrego García was signed by the acting US attorney for that district.
Sources told ABC News that Schrader stepped down because of concerns that the case was being pursued for political reasons.
“Earlier today, after nearly 15 years as an Assistant United States Attorney, I resigned as Chief of the Criminal Division at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee”, Schrader wrote on LinkedIn that day. “It has been an incredible privilege to serve as a prosecutor with the Department of Justice, where the only job description I’ve ever known is to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons. I wish all of my colleagues at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Nashville and across the Department the best as they seek to do justice on behalf of the American people.”
At a news conference on Friday, the attorney general, Pam Bondi, refused to say exactly when the investigation that led to the charges was opened, but she told reporters that the indictment was based on “recently found facts” about a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee, and that “thanks to the bright light that has been shined on Ábrego García, this investigation continued”.
The indictment was signed by Robert McGuire, who has been the acting US attorney in Nashville since December, and three senior prosecutors from the justice department’s Joint Task Force Vulcan, which was created during the first Trump administration “to dismantle MS-13”.
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Senator Van Hollen says Trump administration 'relented' to his demand to give Ábrego García due process
In a new statement, Senator Chris Van Hollen, the Maryland Democrat who visited Kilmar Ábrego García in El Salvador, reiterated the point he made after his trip in April, when he said that he was “not defending the man” but “defending the rights of this man to due process”.
Here is Van Hollen’s new statement:
“For months the Trump Administration flouted the Supreme Court and our Constitution. Today, they appear to have finally relented to our demands for compliance with court orders and with the due process rights afforded to everyone in the United States. As I have repeatedly said, this is not about the man, it’s about his constitutional rights – and the rights of all. The Administration will now have to make its case in the court of law, as it should have all along.”
This restates what Van Hollen said in an interview with ABC News in April, of the Trump administration: “Here’s where they should put their facts: they should oput it before the court. They should put up or shut up in court.”
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El Salvador's president piles in on White House trolling of Democratic senator by invoking staged photo
El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, joined the White House in attacking Senator Chris Van Hollen on social media with a post on Elon Musk’s X in which he referred back to a staged photograph of the Maryland senator’s meeting Kilmar Ábrego García in April.
Referencing the release of Ábrego García from custody in El Salvador on Friday, Bukele wrote: we work with the Trump administration, and if they request the return of a gang member to face charges, of course we wouldn’t refuse.”
He added: “No more margaritas under custody”.
On his return from El Salvador in April, however, Van Hollen accused the government of El Salvador of creating the hoax he called “Margarita-gate”, by placing a pair of cocktail glasses on the table between himself and Ábrego García as they met to make it look as though they were enjoying drinks.
Those photographs were posted on X by Bukele, along with a caption that downplayed the seriousness of the situation by falsely claiming that the senator and the wrongly deported man had been “sipping margaritas” as they met.
But the senator said that the drinks were placed there during the meeting by someone from the Salvadoran government before the photographs were taken and that neither he nor Ábrego García had touched them. Van Hollen pointed out that there was visual evidence for this in the photographs: the rims of both glasses were covered in salt or sugar, but it was clear from the images that neither glass had been drunk from, since the rims were undisturbed.
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US supreme court allows 'Doge' broad access to social security data
The US supreme court on Friday permitted the so-called ‘department of government efficiency’, or Doge, a team set up by former Trump aide Elon Musk to take a chainsaw to the federal workforce, broad access to personal information on millions of Americans in Social Security Administration data systems while a legal challenge plays out, Reuters reports.
At the request of the Justice Department, the justices put on hold US district judge Ellen Hollander’s order that had largely blocked Doge’s access to “personally identifiable information” in data such as medical and financial records while litigation proceeds in a lower court. Hollander found that allowing Doge unfettered access likely would violate a federal privacy law.
The court’s brief, unsigned order did not provide a rationale for siding with Doge. The court has a 6-3 conservative majority. Its three liberal justices dissented from the order.
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White House uses new charges against Ábrego García to attack Democrats
White House officials have wasted no time in using the newly announced criminal charges against Kilmar Ábrego García to attack Democrats who objected to his deportation without due process in violation of a previous court order.
Writing on Elon Musk’s social media platform X, the White House’s official account dedicated to partisan “rapid response” resurfaced an April post from Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat whose constituents include Ábrego García’s wife, to suggest that he should now be ashamed of having stood up for the undocumented Maryland resident’s due process rights.
“A grand jury found his full-time job was human smuggling, Chris,” the White House account commented. “He spent his entire life abusing people – including women and children. This is who you spent so much time defending. Shame on you.”
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, also using the platform owned by a former Trump aide who called for the president to be impeached just yesterday, claimed that the indictment against Ábrego García “proves the unhinged Democrat Party was wrong, and their stenographers in the Fake News Media were once again played like fools”.
Apparently unaware that the allegations have yet to be tested in court, the president’s chief spokesperson insisted that “Democrat lawmakers” including Van Hollen, “and every single so-called ‘journalist’ who defended this illegal criminal abuser must immediately apologize to Garcia’s victims”.
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US attorney general says Kilmar Ábrego García has been returned to the US and indicted on human smuggling charges
At a news conference, the US attorney general, Pamela Bondi, just announced that Kilmar Ábrego García, a Maryland resident who was deported to El Salvador in violation of a court order, has been returned to the United States and charged with criminal charges related to smuggling undocumented immigrants inside the United States.
Bondi said that the US government presented an arrest warrant for Ábrego García to El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele.
She also said that the grand jury indictment on 21 May was based on recently discovered facts and that the grand jury “found that over the past nine years, Ábrego García has played a significant role in an alien smuggling ring.”
“Upon completion of his sentence, we anticipate he will be returned to his country of El Salvador”, Bondi said.
Bondi suggested that Ábrego García was involved in other crimes, based on what unnamed co-conspirators allege, but he was only indicted on two counts related to the alleged smuggling.
In response to a reporter’s question, Bondi said that Ábrego García would serve a prison sentence in the US if convicted, on charges that carry a possible sentence of 10 years, and then be deported to El Salvador again.
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US criminal indictment charges Kilmar Ábrego García with transporting undocumented immigrants in 2022
We are waiting for the start of a livestreamed justice department news conference, which is expected to deal with the indictment of Kilmar Ábrego García, a Maryland resident who was deported to El Salvador and is reportedly on his way back to the United States to face new criminal charges stemming from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee which prompted officers to suspect that he might have been transporting undocumented migrants.
The criminal indictment, which was filed on 21 May, accuses Ábrego García of being “a member and associate” of the Salvadoran gang MS-13 and charges him with taking part in a conspiracy to transport undocumented immigrants inside the United States.
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The reportedly imminent return to the United States of Kilmar Ábrego García, a Maryland resident who was deported to El Salvador in violation of a court order that he should not be sent there because he had a reasonable fear of persecution in that country, comes nearly two months after the attorney general, Pamela Jo Bondi, insisted that it would never happen.
“He is not coming back to our country” Bondi told reporters at a news conference on 16 April. “President Bukele said he was not sending him back. That’s the end of the story.”
Asked if she could provide evidence that he was a member of the MS-13 gang, Bondi said only that the allegation was contained in a 2019 court hearing.
Kilmar Ábrego García on his way back to the US to face criminal charges - report
Kilmar Ábrego García, the Maryland man unlawfully deported to El Salvador, is on his way back to the US where he will face criminal charges, ABC News is reporting, citing sources.
A federal grand jury has indicted Ábrego García for allegedly transporting undocumented migrants within the US, according to the report.
The outlet, citing sources, reports that a two-count indictment, filed under seal in federal court in Tennessee last month, alleges that Ábrego García participated in a years-long conspiracy to transport undocumented migrants from Texas to the interior of the country.
Among those allegedly transported were members of the Salvadoran gang MS-13, according to the report. The alleged conspiracy spanned nearly a decade, according to the report.
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US and China to hold trade talks on 9 June in London, says Trump
A US trade delegation including three cabinet officials will meet with trade representatives from China in London on Monday “with reference to the trade deal”, Donald Trump has announced.
He posted on Truth Social:
I am pleased to announce that Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and United States Trade Representative, Ambassador Jamieson Greer, will be meeting in London on Monday, June 9, 2025, with Representatives of China, with reference to the Trade Deal. The meeting should go very well. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
It comes a day after Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping held a “very good” phone call during which they discussed “some of the intricacies of our recently made, and agreed to, Trade Deal”, Trump said.
Trump also said Xi had invited him to visit China, an invitation he aid he reciprocated.
Xi said of the call that a “consensus has been reached”, adding that the two sides “should enhance consensus” as well as “reduce misunderstanding, strengthen cooperation” and “enhance exchanges”. “Dialogue, cooperation is the only right choice for China and the US,” the Chinese president said.
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Analysis: Money can’t buy him love – Republicans give Elon Musk the cold shoulder
Elon Musk may believe his money bought the presidential election and the House of the Representatives for the Republicans. But he is discovering painfully and quickly that it has not bought him love, loyalty or even fear among many GOP members of Congress on Capitol Hill.
Faced with the choice of siding with Musk, the world’s richest man, or Donald Trump, after the two staged a public relationship breakdown for the ages on Thursday, most Republicans went with the man in the Oval Office, who has shown an unerring grasp of the tactics of political intimidation and who remains the world’s most powerful figure even without the boss of Tesla and SpaceX by his side.
The billionaire tech entrepreneur, who poured about $275m into Trump’s campaign last year, tried to remind Washington’s political classes of his financial muscle on Thursday during an outpouring of slights against a man for whom he had once professed platonic love and was still showering with praise up until a week before.
One after another, Republican House members came out to condemn him and defend Trump, despite having earlier been told by Musk that “you know you did wrong” in voting for what has become Trump’s signature legislation that seeks to extend vast tax cuts for the rich.
Troy Nehls, a GOP representative from Texas, captured the tone, addressing Musk before television cameras:
You’ve lost your damn mind. Enough is enough. Stop this.
It chimed with the sentiments of many others. “Nobody elected Elon Musk, and a whole lot of people don’t even like him, to be honest with you, even on both sides,” Jeff Van Drew, a New Jersey congressman, told Axios.
“We’re getting people calling our offices 100% in support of President Trump,” Kevin Hern, a representative from Oklahoma, told the site.
Every tweet that goes out, people are more lockstep behind President Trump and [Musk is] losing favour.
Republicans were balancing the strength of Trump’s voice among GOP voters versus the power of the increasingly unpopular Musk’s money – and most had little doubt which matters most.
“On the value of Elon playing against us in primaries compared to Trump endorsing us in primaries, the latter is 100 times more relevant,” Axios quoted one unnamed representative as saying.
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Trump administration preparing to strip federal funding from California – CNN
The Trump administration is preparing to make good on the president’s threat to strip “large scale” federal funding from California, an effort that could begin as early as Friday, according to CNN.
The report says agencies have been directed to start identifying grants the administration can withhold from the state. A whistleblower reportedly told a congressional committee that the administration was planning to cut all research grants to California.
The White House has not commented on the plans. The timeline remains speculative, and it is unclear what grants would be targeted.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to cut federal funding as a way to force states, institutions and universities to comply with his agenda. Last week, he said California could lose “large scale” funding “maybe permanently” if the state continued to allow transgender athletes to participate in girls’ and women’s sports.
The declaration appeared to be in reference to a transgender track-and-field star from southern California. On Saturday, she won two gold medals and a silver, which she shared with other teen athletes under a new rule by the state’s high school sports body.
Trump had also repeatedly threatened to withhold federal disaster aid, assailing the state’s Democratic leaders for their handling of the wildfires that devastated Los Angeles earlier this year.
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More from House speaker Mike Johnson, who has told CNBC he has been texting with Elon Musk and hopes the dispute is resolved quickly.
He said of the “big, beautiful bill”:
I don’t argue with [Musk] about how to build rockets and I wish he wouldn’t argue with me about how to craft legislation and pass it.
Johnson earlier issued a warning: “Do not second-guess and don’t ever challenge the president of the United States, Donald Trump.”
He had also projected confidence that the Trump-Musk dispute won’t affect prospects for the tax and border bill. “Members are not shaken at all,” he said. “We’re going to pass this legislation on our deadline.”
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Bannon says no 'going back' for Musk after calling for Trump impeachment – NPR
There’s “no going back” for Elon Musk after calling for Donald Trump to be impeached, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon has told NPR.
Bannon, a rightwing populist who served as chief strategist and chief adviser during Trump’s first term, and was in prison last year for refusing to testify to Congress, told NPR’s Morning Edition that he felt tensions between Musk and Trump began when “Elon asked for an extension to stay and the president denied it” (as reported by Axios on Tuesday). As a special government employee, there was a 130-day limit on Musk’s White House role.
During the interview Bannon also claimed the feud is “a national security issue” as Musk reportedly used a lot of drugs during his rise to political prominence. He also repeated his claim that Musk is an “illegal alien”. (As NPR has factchecked, South African-born Musk has held US citizenship since 2002, according to PolitiFact. The Washington Post reported in October 2024 that Musk worked illegally in the US in the late 90s; Musk denied his work was unauthorized).
Asked if this could all blow over, Bannon said that Musk had “crossed the Rubicon” by bringing up the Epstein files, calling for Trump’s impeachment, and suggesting JD Vance should take over.
He crossed the Rubicon. It’s one thing to make comments about spending on the bill. There’s another thing about what he did. You can’t sit there and first or try to destroy the bill. You can’t come out and say kill the present most important legislative occurrence of this first term, number one. Number two, he crossed the Rubicon by this outrageous comparison to the Epstein files about saying President Trump should be impeached, replaced by JD Vance. This is so outrageous. It has crossed the line. He’s crossed the Rubicon and there’s no going back.
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So far, the Trump-Musk feud is probably best described as a moving target, with plenty of opportunities for escalation or detente, writes the Associated Press.
It’s been reported that Musk wants to speak with Trump, but the president doesn’t want to do it – or at least do it on Friday. Still, others remained hopeful that it all would blow over.
“I grew up playing hockey and there wasn’t a single day that we played hockey or basketball or football or baseball, whatever we were playing, where we didn’t fight. And then we’d fight, then we’d become friends again,” Fox News host Sean Hannity said on his show on Thursday night.
Acknowledging that it “got personal very quick”, Hannity nonetheless added that the rift was “just a major policy difference”.
Back in February, Hannity interviewed the two men together in the White House, where they had gushed about each other so much that the host felt moved to say: “I feel like I’m interviewing two brothers here.”
The House speaker, Mike Johnson, has projected confidence that the Trump-Musk dispute won’t affect prospects for the tax and border bill.
“Members are not shaken at all,” the Louisiana Republican said. “We’re going to pass this legislation on our deadline.”
He added that he hopes Musk and Trump will reconcile, saying “I believe in redemption” and “it’s good for the party and the country if all that’s worked out”.
But he also had something of a warning for the tech billionaire.
I’ll tell you what, do not doubt and do not second-guess and don’t ever challenge the president of the United States, Donald Trump. He is the leader of the party. He’s the most consequential political figure of this generation and probably the modern era.
Trump administration approves coal mine expansion to boost exports to Asia
The US interior department approved a plan by Signal Peak Energy to expand coal mining, providing exports for Japan and South Korea, the agency said on Friday, as it responded to Donald Trump’s energy emergency directives.
Reuters reports that the approval authorizes the Montana-based coal company to recover 22.8m metric tons of federal coal and 34.5m tons of adjacent non-federal coal and extend the life of the Bull Mountains mine by nine years.
Interior secretary Doug Burgum, who is also a co-chair of Trump’s Energy Dominance Council, said unlocking more federal coal enables the US to bolster ties with US allies abroad.
“President Trump’s leadership in declaring a national energy emergency is allowing us to act decisively, cut bureaucratic delays and secure America’s future through energy independence and strategic exports,” he said.
Signal Peak had initially sent its plan to expand its mining operations to the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement in 2020 but it has been under federal review and subjet to litigation since then.
The interior department completed the environmental impact statement for the mine expansion according to its new policy to speed such reviews to a maximum of 28 days.
Burgum this week joined energy secretary Chris Wright and Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin in Alaska to promote an LNG project, as well as other energy exports, destined for Asian markets that was attended by Japanese and Korean officals.
The Bull Mountains mine, located in Musselshell and Yellowstone counties, employs more than 250 workers and primarily supplies Japan and South Korea.
Environmental groups have tried to block the expansion of the mine over concerns about its water usage and greenhouse gas emissions.
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A White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly, has confirmed to the New York Times that the president plans to sell the red Tesla he bought in March. It was reported earlier that Trump was considering it.
Trump originally bought the car to demonstrate his support for Elon Musk amid a backlash over his role in the administration.
Trump has shown little interest in engaging with Musk today, even after the billionaire signaled he would be open to de-escalating their feud in the interest of the country.
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'But … I really like both of them': Republicans urge Trump and Musk to make up
As the GOP braces for aftershocks from Donald Trump’s spectacular falling out with Elon Musk, lawmakers and conservative figures are urging detente, fearful of the potential consequences from a prolonged feud.
At a minimum, the explosion of animosity between the two powerful men could complicate the path forward for Republicans’ massive tax and border spending legislation that has been promoted by Trump but assailed by Musk.
“I hope it doesn’t distract us from getting the job done that we need to,” said Washington state representative Dan Newhouse. “I think that it will boil over and they’ll mend fences.”
Texas senator Ted Cruz was similarly optimistic. “I hope that both of them come back together because when the two of them are working together, we’ll get a lot more done for America than when they’re at cross-purposes,” he told Fox News host Sean Hannity last night.
Utah senator Mike Lee sounded almost pained on social media as Trump and Musk volleyed insults at each other, sharing a photo composite of the two men and writing: “But … I really like both of them.”
“Who else really wants @elonmusk and @realDonaldTrump to reconcile?” Lee posted, later adding: “Repost if you agree that the world is a better place with the Trump-Musk bromance fully intact.”
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A Boston-based federal appeals court two days ago refused to lift a district court judge’s order that had blocked Donald Trump’s plan to eliminate the US Department of Education.
Chief US circuit judge David Barron, writing for a panel of three judges who were all appointed by Democratic presidents, said on Wednesday that a stay was not warranted given the extensive findings a trial judge made about the impact mass firings at the department would have on its ability to function, Reuters reports.
What is at stake in this case, the district court found, was whether a nearly half-century-old cabinet department would be permitted to carry out its statutorily assigned functions or prevented from doing so by a mass termination of employees aimed at implementing the effective closure of that department,” Barron said.
Lawsuits were filed after Linda McMahon in March, a week before Trump signed the executive order to dismantle the department, announced plans to carry out a mass termination of more than 1,300 employees, which would cut the department’s staff by half as part of what it said was its “final mission”.
Affected employees were placed on administrative leave on March 21 and were told they would continue receiving full pay and benefits until 9 June.
US district judge Myong Joun on 22 May concluded that the job cuts were in fact an effort by the administration to shut down the department without the necessary approval of Congress. He blocked the move, the Trump administration appealed and was rebuffed by the 1st circuit court of appeals, leading to its Friday request to the US supreme court.
The Trump administration’s request to the supreme court this morning to allow the dismantling of the Department of Education, if successful, would leave school policy in the US almost entirely in the hands of states and local boards of education.
The department was created by a US law passed by Congress in 1979 and oversees about 100,000 public sector and 34,000 private sector schools, although more than 85% of public school funding comes from state and local governments, Reuters reports.
It provides federal grants for needy schools and programs, including money to pay teachers of children with special needs, fund arts programs and replace outdated infrastructure. It also oversees the $1.6tn in student loans held by tens of millions of Americans who cannot afford to pay for college outright.
Trump’s move to dismantle the department is part of the Republican president’s campaign to downsize and reshape the federal government. Closing the department long has been a goal of many conservatives.
Attorneys general from 20 states and the District of Columbia, as well as school districts and unions representing teachers, sued to block the Trump administration’s efforts to gut the department.
The states argued that the massive job cuts will render the agency unable to perform core functions authorized by statute, including in the civil rights arena, effectively usurping Congress’s authority, in violation of the US constitution. Trump appointed Linda McMahon as education secretary, essentially putting her in charge of dismantling her own department.
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Trump asks supreme court to halt court order over education department
Donald Trump has appealed to the US supreme court to stop in its tracks a judicial order that blocked the executive branch from dismantling the US Department of Education.
The US president requested the highest court moments ago to act, in response to a federal appeals court that on Wednesday declined to lift a judge’s order blocking the Trump administration from carrying out the president’s executive order to tear down the DoE, Reuters reports.
That court order had also required the government to reinstate employees who were terminated in a mass layoff.
The Boston-based first US circuit court of appeals rejected the Trump administration’s request to put on hold an injunction issued by a lower-court judge at the urging of several Democratic-led states, school districts and teachers’ unions.
Trump issued an executive order in March to eliminate the department, to the fury of opponents.
The Department of Education’s role is primarily financial, dispensing federal funds nationwide. It also upholds civil rights protections such as Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination.
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Breaking up is hard to do, and even harder if you are a billionaire who decides to break up with another billionaire on the two social media platforms you own, while the world watches in real time.
Here are the key moments as the relationship between the US president, Donald Trump, and his former senior adviser Elon Musk unravelled in spectacular fashion, precipitated by a dispute over a colossal spending bill that could have major consequences for years to come.
The falling-out between the world’s richest person and the president of the world’s largest economy will have consequences – for both of them.
Elon Musk, as the boss of multiple companies including Tesla, and Donald Trump, who has benefited from Musk’s support in his journey to the White House, have had a mutually beneficial relationship up until now.
Here are 10 ways in which Musk and Trump could hurt each other if they fail to broker a peace deal:
Here’s the New York Post’s front page illustrating the big, beautiful breakup.
Friday's @nypost cover doesn't disappoint: pic.twitter.com/6dpNvxi4wm
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) June 6, 2025
Trump tells CNN: 'I'm not even thinking about Elon. He's got a problem'
CNN’s Dana Bash joined anchor John Berman on CNN News Central earlier to recap her brief phone call with Donald Trump this morning on a potential reconciliation with Elon Musk.
Asked about the feud, Trump said:
I’m not even thinking about Elon. He’s got a problem. The poor guy’s got a problem.
Bash added that the president said he won’t be speaking to Musk for a while, but he wishes him well.
She said that Trump said he’s not interested in the spat, he’s moving on, and instead wanted to talk about what he wanted the story to be today – which is the economy.
Indeed Trump has been posting all morning about how well he thinks the economy – and the US in general – is doing.
He wrote:
Prices are down, income is up, our Border is closed, gasoline is CHEAP, inflation is DEAD — Our Country is BOOMING! Companies are pouring into America like never before!
Followed by:
AMERICA IS HOT! SIX MONTHS AGO IT WAS COLD AS ICE! BORDER IS CLOSED, PRICES ARE DOWN. WAGES ARE UP!
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Trump says Fed should cut rates by a full point
Donald Trump has called on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by a full point.
“‘Too Late’ at the Fed is a disaster! Europe has had 10 rate cuts, we have had none. Despite him, our Country is doing great. Go for a full point, Rocket Fuel!” he said in a post on Truth Social.
In a second post he wrote: “If ‘Too Late’ at the Fed would CUT, we would greatly reduce interest rates, long and short, on debt that is coming due. Biden went mostly short term. There is virtually no inflation (anymore), but if it should come back, RAISE ‘RATE’ TO COUNTER. Very Simple!!! He is costing our Country a fortune. Borrowing costs should be MUCH LOWER!!!”
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There was a lot of tremendous content on X yesterday as the Musk-Trump breakup went global, with many users joking about Putin being called in to negotiate a peace deal between the former buddies.
But the Russians are actually weighing in on the feud, which – predictably – has provoked chatter, mockery and amusement among the ruling class in Moscow, with one senior official joking about hosting peace talks and another saying Musk should bring his businesses to Russia.
Nationalist senator Dmitry Rogozin, who once ran Russia’s space programme, wrote on X:
Elon, don’t be upset! If you encounter insurmountable problems in the US, come to us. Here you will find reliable comrades and complete freedom of technical creativity.
Dmitry Medvedev, a senior security official and former Russian president, posted:
We are ready to facilitate the conclusion of a peace deal between D and E for a reasonable fee and to accept Starlink shares as payment. Don’t fight, guys!
The public feud between the US president and the world’s richest man is an easy target for Russian politicians who have a history of gloating over perceived turmoil in Washington.
Margarita Simonyan, one of Russia’s most powerful state media executives, mocked it as an example of “modern US political culture” – adding it’s “sort of like the English Industrial Revolution. Only in reverse.”
Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, who has in the past tried to interest Musk in cooperating with Russia on flights to Mars, asked on X: “Why can’t we all just get along?” He then asked Grok, X’s AI chatbot, how Musk and Trump could reconcile. (Grok’s response was alarmingly emotionally intelligent?)
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, when asked about the clash, said it was an internal matter for the US, though he was confident that Trump would handle it. He said:
Presidents handle a huge number of different things at the same time, some more and some less important.
On a far more serious and sinister note, others saw clear benefit for Russia from the feud distracting Washington. “We can just be glad that they won’t have time for us,” said Konstantin Malofeyev, a hardline nationalist tycoon, who said it was now “the best time to strike back” against Ukraine.
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Musk loses $33bn in net worth as Tesla stocks tank amid dramatic bust-up with Trump
According to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, Elon Musk’s net worth took a $33bn hit yesterday. He is still by far the world’s richest person, with a net worth at the time of writing of $335bn, but as Bloomberg notes it’s one of his worst wealth losses ever.
As his feud with Trump exploded into public view yesterday, Tesla’s shares dropped by about 14.2% at market close, wiping roughly $152bn off the value of the company and decreasing the value of the company to roughly $900bn.
The business has struggled throughout the year amid declining sales and buyers around the world rejecting the automaker due to Musk’s association with far-right politics and his highly contentious role at the White House and Doge. Stock traders who had shorted Tesla shares made billions amid the spat, per the Wall Street Journal.
Trump considering getting rid of his Tesla – WSJ
Trump is considering getting rid of his red Tesla, the Wall Street Journal is reporting.
Citing a White House official, the WSJ reports that the president, who bought the car as part of a photo-op at the White House to promote Musk’s company amid global anti-Musk protests and calls to boycott Tesla, is considering selling or giving away his car.
As of yesterday evening, the car was still parked outside the West Wing. CBS reported it has been parked there for weeks.
I’m old enough to remember Trump once telling a cabinet meeting that he had spent “a lot of money” on his “beautiful” Tesla and that his White House team enjoyed taking turns driving it around the grounds. Oh how quickly times change.
Here are some pics from those heady before days.
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In this video produced by my colleagues, people in California, Washington and Texas call the feud between Donald Trump and Elon Musk “two egos going at it” and say their bromance was “doomed from the beginning”. There’s a general sense that things can only end one way when, as one man tells the camera: “Each of them thinks they’re God’s gift to mankind.” As a billionaire once said, you’re not wrong.
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US-China trade meeting expected within seven days, White House adviser says
The planned meeting between US and Chinese officials on trade is expected to take place within seven days, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said this morning, after Donald Trump and Xi Jinping spoke yesterday.
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'You mean the man who has lost his mind?' Trump says he's 'not particularly' interested in speaking to Musk – ABC News
In a phone interview this morning, hours after his blistering exchange with Elon Musk, Donald Trump sounded remarkably unconcerned about their feud, according to ABC News.
Speaking on a phone call this morning shortly before 7am ET, ABC asked him about reports he had a call scheduled with Musk for later in the day.
“You mean the man who has lost his mind?” he asked, saying he was “not particularly” interested in talking to him right now.
He said Musk wants to talk to him, but he’s not ready to talk to Musk.
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What’s more, Reuters is reporting that Donald Trump is “not interested” in speaking to Elon Musk, citing a White House source with knowledge of the matter.
As we just reported, Donald Trump and his one-time close ally billionaire Elon Musk are now not expected to talk today, despite efforts by White House aides to get a truce after the spectacular (and very public) implosion of their relationship yesterday.
A White House official told Reuters that no call was planned for today after a White House official had earlier said earlier that the two men would speak.
No plans for Trump call with Musk on Friday, White House source says
There are no plans for US president Donald Trump to hold a call with Elon Musk on Friday, a White House source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
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Chinese students in the United States are questioning their future in the country after the state department announced last week that it would “aggressively” revoke visas for Chinese students and enhance scrutiny of future applications from China and Hong Kong.
Chinese students hoping to study at Harvard, the US’s oldest and wealthiest university, are under particular pressure after the Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it was banning the school from enrolling new foreign students. The presidential proclamation cited Harvard’s links with China as a particular cause for concern.
For Jerry*, a 22-year-old applied mathematics student at the University of California, Los Angeles, the uncertainty started last month, when the Trump administration suddenly halted Harvard University’s ability to enrol any international students.
Jerry has a place on a health data science masters programme at Harvard, which is due to start in the autumn. The US government’s attempt to ban Harvard from accepting international students appears to have been blocked, at least temporarily, by the courts. But Trump’s announcement on Wednesday invokes a different legal authority.
Donald Trump said he had accepted an invitation to meet Xi Jinping in China after a phone conversation on trade was held between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies.
In a post on Truth Social, the US president said the “very good” call lasted about 90 minutes and the conversation was “almost entirely focused on trade”.
He wrote: “The call lasted approximately one and a half hours, and resulted in a very positive conclusion for both Countries. There should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of Rare Earth products. Our respective teams will be meeting shortly at a location to be determined … During the conversation, President Xi graciously invited the First Lady and me to visit China, and I reciprocated.”
Trump added that teams from the US and China would meet soon at a location to be determined.
University of Michigan using undercover investigators to surveil student Gaza protesters
The University of Michigan is using private, undercover investigators to surveil pro-Palestinian campus groups, including trailing them on and off campus, furtively recording them and eavesdropping on their conversations, the Guardian has learned.
The surveillance appears to largely be an intimidation tactic, five students who have been followed, recorded or eavesdropped on said. The undercover investigators have cursed at students, threatened them and in one case drove a car at a student who had to jump out of the way, according to student accounts and video footage shared with the Guardian.
Students say they have frequently identified undercover investigators and confronted them. In two bizarre interactions captured by one student on video, a man who had been trailing the student faked disabilities, and noisily – and falsely – accused a student of attempting to rob him.
The undercover investigators appear to work for Detroit-based City Shield, a private security group, and some of their evidence was used by Michigan prosecutors to charge and jail students, according to a Guardian review of police records, university spending records and video collected in legal discovery. Most charges were later dropped. Public spending records from the U-M board of regents, the school’s governing body, show the university paid at least $800,000 between June 2023 and September 2024 to City Shield’s parent company, Ameri-Shield.
The Kremlin said on Friday it would not get involved in US president Donald Trump’s row with Elon Musk, but was confident that Trump would deal with the situation.
The quarrel between the two was an internal US matter, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
Elon Musk has suggested he may de-escalate his public row with Donald Trump after their spectacular falling out.
The Tesla chief executive signalled he might back down on a pledge to decommission the Dragon spacecraft – made by his SpaceX business – in an exchange on his X social media platform. He also responded positively to a call from fellow multibillionaire Bill Ackman to “make peace” with the US president.
Politico also reported overnight that the White House has scheduled a call with Musk on Friday to broker a peace deal after both men traded verbal blows on Thursday.
The rolling spat – which played out over social media and in a Trump White House appearance – included the president saying he was “very disappointed in Elon” over Musk’s criticism of his tax and spending bill. Musk also said the president’s trade policies would cause a recession and raised Trump’s connections to the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Musk had responded to a Trump threat to cancel his US government contracts on Thursday with a post on X stating he would retire his Dragon spacecraft, which is used by Nasa. However, responding to an X user’s post urging both sides to “cool off”, Musk wrote: “Good advice. Ok, we won’t decommission Dragon.”
Musk also appeared to proffer an olive branch in a reply to a post from the hedge fund owner Ackman, who called on Trump and Musk to “make peace for the benefit of our great country”. Musk replied: “You’re not wrong.”
Politico also reported a potential peace call between Musk and the White House, claiming Trump’s aides had worked to persuade the president to tone down his public criticism of the Tesla owner before arranging the phone conversation for Friday.
Musk suggests 'making peace' with Trump would benefit US
Elon Musk appears to have hinted that a reconciliation with president Donald Trump would be in the best interests of the country, after their public spat escalated last night.
In response to the hedge fund manager Bill Ackman – a known Trump donor – calling for the pair to “make peace for the benefit of our great country” on X, Musk replied:
You’re not wrong.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Friday that he had “absolutely no doubt” that US president Donald Trump would keep the United States within the Nato military alliance.
“I have absolutely no doubt that the American government is sticking with Nato,” Merz said in a speech at an entrepreneurs’ event just hours after returning from his inaugural trip to Washington.
Tesla shares rose on Friday as investors took some comfort from White House aides scheduling a call with CEO Elon Musk to broker peace after a public feud with President Donald Trump, reports Reuters.
The electric carmaker’s shares were up about 5% in Frankfurt on Friday, having closed down 14.3% on Thursday in New York, losing about $150bn in market value.
“It’s unlikely that Trump will end subsidies and contracts with Tesla. Those are obviously threats that are unlikely to come into fruition,” Fiona Cincotta, senior market analyst at City Index told Reuters. “I don’t expect this to blow out into anything more serious than a war of words for a couple of days.”
Analysts said some of Thursday’s sell-off was down to factors beyond Musk’s personal relationship with the president.
“We think the stock’s sell-off reflects a number of other factors: an unjustified run-up following its Q1 earnings release, ongoing market share losses in China and Europe, and a realization that next week’s Robotaxi launch in Austin could disappoint,” Garrett Nelson, senior equity analyst at CFRA Research, said in a note to Reuters. “We remain at Hold, expecting more volatility in the near term. Buckle up!” he said.
Tesla shares, which hit record highs when Trump won the election in November, have since been punished harshly, as Musk’s cost-cutting role in the US administration hurt Tesla’s image with shareholders and consumers alike.
“Elon Musk has already signalled that he is open to a cooling off period with Trump, and stock market futures are higher on Friday morning. Thus, the risk could be more localised with Tesla shares in the short term,” Kathleen Brooks, XTB research director, said.
Germany will remain dependent on the United States “for a long time to come,” chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Friday just hours after returning from his inaugural visit to Washington DC, where he held talks with President Donald Trump.
“Whether we like it or not, we will remain dependent on the United States, on America, for a long time to come,” Merz said in a speech during a family entrepreneurs’ event, reports Reuters.
Rubio imposes sanctions on four ICC judges for ‘targeting’ US and Israel
The United States is placing sanctions on four judges from the international criminal court (ICC) for what it has called its “illegitimate actions” targeting the United States and Israel.
The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, announced the sanctions in a statement on Thursday. They target Solomy Balungi Bossa of Uganda, Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza of Peru, Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini-Gansou of Benin and Beti Hohler of Slovenia.
Donald Trump ordered cabinet officials to draw up sanctions against the ICC after the court issued arrest warrants for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and former defense minister Yoav Gallant. They were accused of overseeing an Israeli offensive during the Gaza conflict that caused famine and included the commission of war crimes.
Two of the sanctioned judges authorised the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, and two authorised an ICC investigation into abuses by US personnel in Afghanistan.
“As ICC judges, these four individuals have actively engaged in the ICC’s illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America or our close ally, Israel,” Rubio said. “The ICC is politicized and falsely claims unfettered discretion to investigate, charge, and prosecute nationals of the United States and our allies. This dangerous assertion and abuse of power infringes upon the sovereignty and national security of the United States and our allies, including Israel.”
The decision to move forward with the sanctions will escalate Trump’s feud with the court and other international organisations, which he has broadly dismissed as politicised.
As the simmering tensions between Donald Trump and his once top adviser, the billionaire Elon Musk, erupted into public view on Thursday, eyes turned to the Republican lawmakers still weighing whether to pass the president’s so-called “Big, Beautiful Bill”.
It was approved by just a single vote in the House of Representatives with no Democratic support last month, and nonpartisan analysts have found the sweeping legislation could add a whopping $2.4tn-$5tn to the $36.2tn US national debt and make deep cuts to Medicaid and food-assistance programs. Seen as an outline of Trump’s “America first” agenda, the bill would also extend tax cuts, fund beefed-up immigration enforcement and impose new work requirements for enrollees of federal safety net programs.
In a barrage of tweets over its cost, which Musk warned would undo Doge’s efforts to save the government money by cancelling programs and pushing federal workers out of their jobs, the billionaire called on conservatives to withdraw their support for the bill.
Along with personal barbs aimed at Trump – including trumpeting support for his impeachment and signaling the president’s ties to child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein – Musk spent Thursday afternoon re-posting years-old quotes from the House speaker Mike Johnson and the Senate leader John Thune, when the Republican lawmakers spoke critically of federal debt.
Musk’s intense withdrawal of support for the administration has magnified a rift in the Republican party that was already threatening the bill’s passage in the Senate.
While the Senate’s Republican leaders have shown no indication that they share Musk’s concerns, they are eyeing changes to some aspects of the measure that were the result of hard-fought negotiations in the House, and could throw its prospects into jeopardy.
Tesla’s shares dropped by about 14.2% on Thursday at market close, wiping roughly $152bn off the value of the company as a feud between Elon Musk and Donald Trump erupted into public view. The former political allies traded threats and insults through posts on their respective social media platforms throughout the afternoon as the company’s price fell.
Trump suggested on Truth Social that he could cut Musk’s government subsidies and contracts, of which both Tesla and SpaceX have been immense beneficiaries. Musk meanwhile threatened to decommission the SpaceX spacecraft that Nasa relies on for transport missions, called for Trump’s impeachment, derided the president’s signature tariffs and accused him of being affiliated with the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Musk said late Thursday evening his company will not decommission its spacecraft.
The decline in Tesla’s share price on Thursday knocked about $8.73bn off Musk’s total net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The reported $152bn drop also decreased the value of the company to roughly $900bn.
Elon Musk called for Donald Trump’s impeachment and mocked his connections to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as the US president threatened to cancel federal contracts and tax subsidies for Musk’s companies, in an extraordinary social media feud that erupted between the former allies on Thursday.
The deterioration of their once close relationship into bitter acrimony came over the course of several remarkable hours during which the president and the world’s richest person hurled deeply personal insults over matters significant and insignificant.
The direct shots at Trump were the latest twist in the public showdown over a Republican spending bill that Musk had criticized. Trump and Musk had been careful not to hit each other directly, but on Thursday the pair discarded restraint as the feud escalated on their respective social media platforms.
In the most churlish moment of the astonishing saga, Musk said on X the reason the Trump administration had not released the files into Epstein was because they implicated the president. He later quote-tweeted a post calling for Trump to be removed and said Trump’s tariffs would cause a recession.
“Time to drop the really big bomb: Donald Trump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!” Musk wrote, after Trump threatened to cut subsidies for Musk’s companies as it would save “billions”.
It was a bizarre drama that served to underscore the degree to which Trump and Musk’s relationship has been one of mutual convenience, despite the White House claiming for months that they were simply ideologically aligned.
It also caused the rightwing writer Ashley St Clair, who gave birth to Musk’s 14th known child and sued Musk for child support, to weigh in. “Let me know if u need any breakup advice,” she posted on X, tagging Trump.
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Judge blocks Trump’s ban on Harvard’s foreign students from entering the US
A district judge in Boston has blocked the Trump administration’s ban on Harvard’s international students from entering the United States after the Ivy League university argued the move was illegal.
Harvard had asked the judge, Allison Burrough, to block the ban, pending further litigation, arguing Trump had violated federal law by failing to back up his claims that the students posed a threat to national security.
“The Proclamation denies thousands of Harvard’s students the right to come to this country to pursue their education and follow their dreams, and it denies Harvard the right to teach them. Without its international students, Harvard is not Harvard,” the school said in a filing to the judge.
The filing also argued that the national security argument was flawed as the ban did not stop the same people from entering the country, it only barred them from entering to attend Harvard.
Harvard amended its earlier lawsuit, which it had filed amid a broader dispute with the Republican president, to challenge the ban, which Trump issued on Wednesday in a proclamation.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson earlier called Harvard “a hotbed of anti-American, antisemitic, pro-terrorist agitators”, claims that the school has previously denied.
“Harvard’s behavior has jeopardized the integrity of the entire US student and exchange visitor visa system and risks compromising national security. Now it must face the consequences of its actions,” Jackson said in a statement.
The suspension was intended to be initially for six months but can be extended. Trump’s proclamation also directs the state department to consider revoking academic or exchange visas of any current Harvard students who meet his proclamation’s criteria.
Maanvi Singh, an immigration reporter for Guardian US, has written about how Trump’s travel ban comes as little surprise amid barrage of draconian restrictions.
You can read Singh’s analysis here:
What we know so far on Trump and Musk’s fallout
President Trump’s signature “Big Beautiful Bill” has precipitated an epic fallout between the US president and one of his closest allies, billionaire Elon Musk.
The blowup played out publicly on social media, with both men using their respective platforms, X and Truth Social, to exchange criticisms.
Here is a summary of how the rift unfolded, and what we know so far:
Opening summary
US president Donald Trump told Politico, “Oh it’s OK,” and, “It’s going very well, never done better,” when asked about his public breakup with billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the news outlet reported on Thursday.
White House aides have scheduled a call on Friday with Musk to broker a peace, Politico reported.
On Thursday, Trump and Musk escalated their disagreement about the US budget bill into a big public argument on social media. When asked about Musk’s criticism of his “Big, Beautiful Bill”, the US president told reporters:
Elon and I had a great relationship. I don’t know if we will any more.
Trump also said he was “very disappointed in Elon”.
In return, Musk published a flurry of posts that stepped up his feud with the president and went on to claim that without him Trump would have “lost the election” before bemoaning what he called “such ingratitude”.
Meanwhile, a district judge in Boston has blocked the Trump administration’s ban on Harvard’s international students from entering the United States after the Ivy League university argued the move was illegal.
Harvard had asked the judge, Allison Burrough, to block the ban, pending further litigation, arguing Trump had violated federal law by failing to back up his claims that the students posed a threat to national security.
More on both of these stories in a moment, but first, here are some other key developments:
Musk also suggested Trump should be impeached and that JD Vance should replace Trump, warning that Trump’s global tariffs would “cause a recession in the second half of this year” and claimed Trump was in the Jeffrey Epstein files.
The White House described the Epstein assertions as an “unfortunate episode”, in a statement to CNN.
Meanwhile, Steve Bannon, a longtime Trump ally and Elon Musk critic, suggested there were grounds to deport the tech billionaire, who has US citizenship. Bannon told the New York Times: “They should initiate a formal investigation of his immigration status because I am of the strong belief that he is an illegal alien, and he should be deported from the country immediately.”
Poland’s foreign minister poked fun at Musk late on Thursday, returning to a social media spat from March after the Tesla and SpaceX boss spectacularly fell out with Trump. Warsaw’s top diplomat Radoslaw Sikorski found himself embroiled in an extraordinarily public clash with Musk and US secretary of state Marco Rubio in March after he said Ukraine may need an alternative to the Starlink satellite service.
Trump’s pick to be the next US surgeon general has repeatedly said the nation’s medical, health and food systems are corrupted by special interests and people out to make a profit at the expense of Americans’ health. Yet as Casey Means has criticized scientists, medical schools and regulators for taking money from the food and pharmaceutical industries, she has promoted dozens of health and wellness products – including specialty basil seed supplements, a blood testing service and a prepared meal delivery service – in ways that put money in her own pocket. A review by The Associated Press found Means, who has carved out a niche in the wellness industry, set up deals with an array of businesses.
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