Connect with us

News

'Boggles my mind': Judge halts Donald Trump's citizenship ban

Published

on

'Boggles my mind': Judge halts Donald Trump's citizenship ban

US President Donald Trump’s plan to outlaw birthright citizenship has been stalled after a judge ruled it unconstitutional.

The ban was signed by Mr Trump on Monday, one of a slew of executive orders he has issued since his inauguration on Tuesday local time.

These are the key moments from the latest day in the Trump administration.

Judge rules birthright citizenship order ‘blatantly unconstitutional’

The court decision temporarily blocking the ban on birthright citizenship follows a challenge launched by multiple Democratic-led states.

Advertisement

Birthright citizenship, long considered a constitutional right, means that anyone born in the United States is automatically considered a citizen.

Mr Trump’s executive order would largely impact children born to undocumented or temporary migrants in the US.

Federal District Court Judge John C Coughenour sided with the four states suing the Trump administration — Washington, Arizona, Illinois and Oregon.

Signing a restraining order to block the executive order for 14 days, Mr Coughenour called it “blatantly unconstitutional”.

Advertisement

“Frankly I have difficulty understanding how a member of the bar would state unequivocally that this is a constitutional order,” he told Trump administration lawyers during the hearing.

“It just boggles my mind.”

Mr Trump has already said he would appeal the ruling.

In total 22 states have filed six lawsuits in an attempt to stop the executive order.

Pro-life protesters pardoned ahead of March for Life event

At least 23 anti-abortion activists have been pardoned by Mr Trump, who said they “should not have been prosecuted”.

Advertisement

Anti-abortion activist Lauren Handy. (Reuters: Sarah Silbiger)

Among them were the protesters involved in blockading a Washington, DC abortion clinic in October 2020.

They were charged with conspiring against civil rights and violating laws which protect access to abortion clinics.

One of those pardoned, Lauren Handy, was sentenced to almost five years in prison and garnered international attention after police announced they had found multiple fetuses in her home following her arrest.

Mr Trump’s announcement was made just a day before the annual anti-abortion March for Life event in Washington, where he is expected to address the crowd via video.

Advertisement

Trump orders files on JFK, Martin Luther King Jr assassinations to be declassified

John F Kennedy’s grandson took aim at Donald Trump over an executive order to declassify files relating to the former president’s assassination.

Mr Trump ordered the release of thousands of classified government documents about the 1963 assassination, as well as the assassination of senator Robert F Kennedy and Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of JFK and son of former US ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy, said there was “nothing heroic” about releasing the files.

“[The assassination was] a tragedy that didn’t need to happen,” he wrote on X.

Advertisement

During his first term, Mr Trump bended to appeals by the CIA and FBI that some documents be withheld.

He promised during the election campaign to make the last batches of still-classified documents surrounding the Kennedy assassination public.

The unreleased documents have fuelled conspiracy theories for decades.

It’s unclear when the records will be released, but the order directs the director of national intelligence and the attorney general to develop a plan within 15 days to declassify the remaining JFK records.

A plan to release the documents relating to the other two cases must be developed within 45 days.

Advertisement

China could help with Russia-Ukraine peace deal, Trump tells World Economic Forum

Speaking at the World Economic Forum, Donald Trump said he hoped China’s President Xi Jinping could help make a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

He added later that he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin “immediately” if possible.

“They [China] have a lot of power over Russia,” he said in the Oval Office.

“They supply energy to Russia, and Russia supplies energy to them … it’s really a very big trade.

“So I think Russia should want to make a deal. Maybe they want to make a deal. I think from what I hear, Putin would like to see me as soon as we can.”

Advertisement

Mr Trump also told media Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would “like to stop” and was “ready to negotiate a deal”.

In a televised interview with Fox host Sean Hannity, Mr Trump said he would impose “massive tariffs” on Russia if Mr Putin did not end the war.

Pete Hegseth waiting on confirmation vote amid ongoing controversies

Mr Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, reportedly admitted to paying $US50,000 ($79,135) as part of a confidentiality agreement with a woman who alleged he sexually assaulted her in 2017.

Mr Hegseth said he had made the payment in written answers provided to Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren in response to her additional questions as part of the vetting process, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press and CNN.

His attorney declined to comment on the dollar figure, which was previously unknown.

Mr Hegseth testified during his confirmation hearings he had been “falsely accused” and completely cleared.

The controversy comes after a confirmation hearing where Democrats raised concerns about his alleged excessive drinking and past opposition to women in combat.

The former Fox News host and Army National Guard veteran vowed to abstain from alcohol if confirmed

He later told Republican Senator Joni Ernst, herself a veteran, that he would support women in combat roles “given the standards remain high, and we will have a review to ensure the standards have not been eroded”.

Advertisement

Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski announced she would oppose Mr Hegseth’s nomination to be Secretary of Defense, saying she could not “in good conscience” support him.

She said in a statement her opposition was driven by Mr Hegseth’s lack of experience, past comments about women in combat, and a “lack of judgement”.

Loading…

She added the allegations of sexual assault did “nothing to quiet” her concerns.

Mr Hegseth’s lawyer said last month his client had been “falsely accused”. Mr Hegseth also denied the allegations during his testimony.

Advertisement

Another Republican senator, Susan Collins, said she did not believe Mr Hegseth had “the experience and perspective” necessary for the job.

The Senate voted 51-49 to advance Mr Hegseth’s nomination.

A final vote is expected late Friday local time.

ABC/AP

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

News

Silicon Valley aghast at the Musk-Trump divorce

Published

on

Silicon Valley aghast at the Musk-Trump divorce

As Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s “bromance” broke apart on Thursday, tech industry figures who had backed both men raced to contain the fallout.

“Elon isn’t taking calls from anyone,” complained one Silicon Valley financier and major donor to Republican candidates. “Not from people who have billions invested in his companies . . . The Valley is losing their shit.”

At stake was an alliance between the tech world and the populist right that not only helped return Trump to office but also one that founders and investors had hoped would herald an era of tax cuts and deregulation, as well as an open door to crypto and artificial intelligence.

Musk’s role in the Trump administration had also paved the way for several Silicon Valley figures to take prominent positions in government — roles that could now be in peril. 

The sudden deselection of Jared Isaacman, a Musk ally and tech founder who had been nominated to lead Nasa, was just the start of an expected “purge”, one person close to the administration said, threatening tech’s hard-won influence in Washington.

Advertisement
Jared Isaacman alongside the recovered first stage of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket © Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

Some of those considered to be at risk were crypto and AI tsar David Sacks, policy adviser Sriram Krishnan, and Michael Grimes, Musk’s former banker at Morgan Stanley, now an official at the Department of Commerce.

As Musk’s relationship with the White House worsened, key figures on the tech right tried to play down the permanence of the rift. 

“USA is VERY lucky to have both E and Pres Trump,” Joe Lonsdale, a co-founder of Palantir and investor in Musk’s companies wrote on X. 

Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman urged the duo to “make peace for the benefit of our great country”, pleading: “We are much stronger together than apart.”

David Friedberg, a co-host of the All-In podcast that often features Musk and that has become a sounding board for the Trump-aligned tech world, suggested there was a broader cost to America from the spat between the US president and the Tesla boss. “China just won,” he posted.

Advertisement

Behind the scenes, prominent Silicon Valley figures were desperately trying to prevent Musk from appearing on an emergency episode of the podcast, according to two people familiar with the matter, out of concern that the billionaire would make the dispute even worse and poison the relationship with tech’s most powerful ally in Washington, vice-president JD Vance.

“It’s going to be a disaster with Musk in this frame of mind,” one of the people warned. 

One of the podcast co-hosts, David Sacks, was “shell-shocked”, the second person added, and needed to be protected from public scrutiny until things calmed down. Sacks, usually a frequent poster on social media, has remained silent since the Musk-Trump relationship imploded. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

David Sacks
David Sacks is said to be ‘shell-shocked’ by the rift © Ian Maule/AFP/Getty Images

Elsewhere, other prominent tech figures debated whether reconciliation was possible and, if not, what life beyond the break-up would look like.   

Ryan Selkis, founder of a crypto platform who became a prominent Trump backer, told the Financial Times: “Elon will be back in the fold in a matter of weeks, but it will be a chastened Elon.”

Delian Asparouhov, a space tech founder who co-runs the Hill & Valley Forum, which links Silicon Valley and Washington, said: “I don’t think there is going to be a de-escalation here.” He expressed concern to tech news site TBPN that smaller space companies that work with Musk’s SpaceX could encounter “more resistance” from the White House.

Advertisement

Others bemoaned the souring of the tech community’s Trump bet. “Maybe Silicon Valley got played by Trump. He got what he wanted,” said one West Coast venture capital founder, citing Musk’s $250mn donation to Trump’s campaign. 

The person lamented the ongoing economic volatility — caused by tariffs and Trump’s unpredictability — during a presidency that they had been promised would be a boon to business. “We’re all experiencing a liquidity crunch,” they said. “We need public markets to open.” 

Cracks in Silicon Valley and Washington’s marriage of convenience had been appearing for weeks, particularly over the Trump tax bill that so irked Musk. Deficit hawks balked at the legislation adding trillions to the US debt pile, while more socially progressive tech figures bridled at proposed cuts to entitlement programmes like Medicaid.

“I am fully for pursuing the elimination of waste and fraud,” said Jon McNeill, a former Tesla president who worked alongside Musk and now runs start-up incubator DVx Ventures. “But at the same time, I don’t want a tax break so badly as to make the most vulnerable suffer. And from what I’m hearing, a lot of my peers feel the same way.”

The public bust-up could now open the door for others in Silicon Valley to replace Musk as tech’s de facto ambassadors in Washington, especially his arch-rival, OpenAI’s Sam Altman. 

Advertisement

“Tech is not represented by one person,” an investor in Musk’s companies said. “Engagement between tech and government is not because JD is a tech guy or because Trump is, it’s because tech is so important,” they added. “This doesn’t end because of one person, even if he’s the most prominent person in the world.”

Additional reporting by Alex Rogers in Washington

Continue Reading

News

No 'going back' for Elon Musk after calling for Trump impeachment, says Steve Bannon

Published

on

No 'going back' for Elon Musk after calling for Trump impeachment, says Steve Bannon

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference with Elon Musk in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, May 30, in Washington.

Evan Vucci/AP


hide caption

toggle caption

Advertisement

Evan Vucci/AP

Elon Musk “crossed the Rubicon” when he echoed sentiments on his social media platform X, calling for President Trump to be impeached, says former Trump adviser Steve Bannon.

Trump and Musk have been locked in a very public fight this week after Musk has spent days bashing the “big, beautiful bill” — a multi-trillion dollar spending bill key to unlocking the president’s agenda currently in the Senate. In return, the president threatened to cut the federal government’s contracts with Musk’s companies, including SpaceX.

Bannon told Morning Edition that “there’s no going back” for Musk after his feud with the president. The right-wing populist podcaster was an early Trump backer. Bannon served as the 2016 Trump campaign’s CEO and then went on to become chief strategist and senior adviser to the president.

Advertisement

Bannon went to prison last year for refusing to testify in a congressional investigation of Trump. He also has pleaded guilty to crimes in New York state. In January, Bannon told NPR he believed Trump would listen to the MAGA populist movement that helped him secure two presidencies over the billionaires backing his inauguration – Musk among them.

NPR reached out to Musk for comment but has not yet received a response.

Bannon discussed the public feud between Trump and Musk with NPR’s Steve Inskeep.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Steve Inskeep: Do you believe it is good for Trump to have this very public breakup?

Advertisement

Steve Bannon: Whether it’s good or not, it’s a reality. The president’s done gone out of his way to make sure that Elon had every opportunity, all the support, admiration, resources. [Trump] took him and his son and some of his children into his family [for] Christmas, all that. Elon asked for an extension to stay and the president denied it. And I think that was the beginning of this friction. And as I’ve said before, since December, this was inevitable. And so I just think the president needs to deal with it as a national security issue now.

Steve Bannon speaks during the Semafor World Economy Summit 2025 at Conrad Washington on April 23 in Washington, DC.

Steve Bannon speaks during the Semafor World Economy Summit 2025 at Conrad Washington on April 23 in Washington, DC.

Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images North America


hide caption

toggle caption

Advertisement

Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images North America

Inskeep: I think that that one thing you said there I had not specifically heard before. You believe that Elon Musk had asked for an extension of his time as a special government employee?

Bannon: Yeah, I think it’s Marc Caputo at Axios, said that Elon had asked for an extension or some sort of workaround to the limitation of his time. And it was denied. And the president said it was time to kind of move on. And also, remember, the president is sitting there saying, like, where’s the trillion dollars? You said you were going to get a trillion dollars of waste, fraud, abuse. And quite frankly, he hasn’t turned up any fraud. So there’s been a lot of tension. And Elon Musk, like the 11 year old child he is, didn’t take it very well.

Note: Axios reported on June 3 that Musk sought to remain working as a “special government employee” beyond his statutorily allowed 130-day contract but was denied. NPR has not independently confirmed this.

Advertisement

Inskeep: Is Trump really going to follow your advice to cancel his government contracts, his companies government contracts?

Bannon: Steve, look, I think that this is not personal now. I think we have as a country a national security issue here. We have an individual that The New York Times has said has a massive drug problem, and that has not been refuted. We have an individual that has a deep financial and business relationship with the Chinese Communist Party. And we know he’s asked for private briefings of top secret information. He’s also somehow involved in this invitation to President Xi Jinping to come to the inauguration. You have someone whose legal status is in question. You can’t deport people from all over the world because the Third World countries that came here at the invitation of the Biden regime and we’ve a white South African who may be here illegally were here. It’s just not right.

Note: Musk has held U.S. citizenship since 2002, according to PolitiFact. The Washington Post reported in October 2024 that Musk worked illegally in the U.S. in the late ’90s; Musk denied his work was unauthorized. The New York Times reported last month that Musk used ketamine, ecstasy, and psychedelic mushrooms during his campaigning for Trump last year. NPR has not independently confirmed the NYT’s reporting.

Inskeep: As dramatic as all of this seems right now, Bill Ackman, another billionaire in the trump coalition, said publicly they should make up. Elon seemed to agree with that. Politico is now reporting that there’s a call of some kind scheduled with the president. Is it possible this whole thing was all just a social media tempest and it’s going to blow over?

Bannon: 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.

Advertisement

Note: Trump is currently serving his second and final constitutionally allowed term as president. Trump told CNN Friday that he won’t speak to Musk “for a while.”

This digital story was edited by Treye Green. The radio version was edited by Reena Advani and produced by Barry Gordemer, Julie Depenbrock and Nia Dumas.

Continue Reading

News

Donald Trump attacks ‘crazy’ Elon Musk as relationship implodes

Published

on

Donald Trump attacks ‘crazy’ Elon Musk as relationship implodes

Donald Trump has attacked Elon Musk as “crazy” and threatened to rip up his government contracts, as the spat between two of the world’s most powerful men erupted into an all-out public feud.

In a flurry of bitter comments in the Oval Office and online on Thursday, the US president said he was “very disappointed” in Musk for criticising his signature tax bill, suggested he had “become hostile” after being turfed out of government, and accused the billionaire of intervening in politics to serve his business interests.

Musk, who spent more than $250mn bankrolling Trump’s re-election bid last year and said in February that he loved the president “as much as a straight man can love another man”, returned fire on X.

The billionaire called for Trump to be impeached, suggested his trade tariffs would cause a US recession, threatened to decommission SpaceX capsules used to transport Nasa astronauts and insinuated the president was associated with the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The enmity deepened through the day, opening a breach that could widen long into Trump’s presidency and even influence US electoral politics, with Musk talking of starting a new party and removing Republicans from office.

Advertisement

Trump, who had previously defended Musk against charges of corruption and self-dealing, said the Tesla boss had soured on his “big beautiful bill” because it would end policies that benefited the electric-car maker.

“I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday afternoon.

“The easiest way to save money in our Budget . . . is to terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts,” he added, in an apparent threat to end billions of dollars’ worth of business between the US government and Musk’s companies, including SpaceX and Starlink.

Musk, who is upset that the tax bill now before the Senate would increase the US deficit, accused the president of lying about his motives.

The exchanges were an extraordinary escalation of the feud between Trump and Musk, who had refrained from criticising the president directly even as he opposed the White House’s trade and tax policies.

Advertisement

The billionaire, who in April began his retreat from politics because of the “blowback” against his businesses, also suggested that he now regretted backing Trump during last year’s White House race.

“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate,” he posted on his social media site X soon after the Oval Office tirade. “Such ingratitude.”

Shares in Tesla fell by almost 11 per cent following Trump’s remarks and were down 13.5 per cent on the day, wiping more than $150bn from its market valuation — its biggest one-day drop in value ever.

Musk, the US’s largest political donor, also suggested that Republican lawmakers should side with him over the president.

“Some food for thought as they ponder this question: Trump has 3.5 years left as President, but I will be around for 40+ years,” the billionaire wrote on X.

Advertisement

He also hit back at Trump’s suggestion that he had opposed the “big beautiful bill” because it axed tax credits for electric vehicles and clean energy, which have long benefited Tesla in the US.

“Keep the EV/solar incentive cuts in the bill, even though no oil & gas subsidies are touched (very unfair!!), but ditch the MOUNTAIN of DISGUSTING PORK in the bill,” Musk posted.

The deepening discord between Trump and “first buddy” Musk has in recent days spread through Washington.

Last week, Trump pulled the nomination of billionaire astronaut Jared Isaacman, a close ally of Musk, to lead Nasa, ostensibly over contributions he had made to Democratic candidates in the past.

Isaacman, who was on track to receive bipartisan support from the Senate, disputed the White House’s justification for the decision.

Advertisement

“I don’t think the timing was much of a coincidence,” Isaacman told the All-In podcast on Wednesday. “There [were] some people that had some axes to grind, I guess, and I was a good, visible target.”

Musk had already announced that he was stepping back from his involvement in the Trump administration, where he had led the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).

Steve Davis, one of Musk’s lieutenants at SpaceX who led Doge on a day-to-day basis, had also now left the administration, according to a government official.

More senior figures close to the billionaire were set to abandon the initiative in the coming days, the official said.

Musk himself has suggested that the tax bill would wipe out any savings made by Doge, which claims to have identified roughly $180bn in cuts to date. On Wednesday, the congressional fiscal watchdog said the legislation would add $2.4tn to the US debt by 2034.

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending