President Donald Trump ’s administration is ending the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops sent to Los Angeles to support immigration enforcement activities, Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced Tuesday.
The president ordered the deployment of about 4,000 California National Guard troops and 700 active-duty Marines in early June to respond to protests against immigration raids in and around LA. The troops were tasked with protecting federal buildings and guarding immigration agents, and the legality of their deployment was challenged in federal court by California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
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It was not immediately clear how long the remaining troops would stay in the city as immigration raids continue across the country, part of Trump’s push for aggressive action against immigrants in the country illegally.
Also Tuesday, Trump and Sen. David McCormick of Pennsylvania jointly announced tens of billions of dollars of energy and technology investments in Pennsylvania as the president traveled to Pittsburgh for a conference with dozens of top executives to promote his energy and technology agenda.
Here’s the latest:
Trump reshaped the Supreme Court. Now emergency appeals are helping him reshape the government
Six months into a second term, he has gotten almost everything he has wanted from a Supreme Court he reshaped during his first.
The justices, three of whom were appointed by Trump, have cleared the way for stripping legal protections from more than 1 million immigrants, firing thousands of federal employees, ousting transgender members of the military, removing the heads of independent government agencies and more.
The legal victories are noteworthy on their own, but how Trump is achieving them is remarkable. Administration lawyers are harnessing emergency appeals, which were used sparingly under previous presidencies, to fast-track cases to the Supreme Court, where decisions are often handed down with no explanation.
Trump’s use of the emergency docket reflects his aggressive approach to governing in his second term, with fewer voices of caution within his administration and party. He regularly seeks any possible leverage to advance his agenda, regardless of past practices or tradition.
The result is a series of green lights from the high court without any clarity on how the law should be interpreted in the future.
▶ Read more about Trump and the court
Immigration agency flexes authority to sharply expand detention without bond hearing
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has moved to detain far more people than before by tapping a legal authority to jail anyone who entered the country illegally without allowing them a bond hearing.
Todd Lyons, ICE’s acting director, wrote employees on July 8 to say the agency was revisiting its “extraordinarily broad and equally complex” authority to detain people and, effective immediately, people would be ineligible for a bond hearing before an immigration judge. Instead they cannot be released unless the Homeland Security Department makes an exception.
The directive signals wider use of a 1996 law to detain people who had previously been allowed to remain free while their cases wind through immigration court.
Asked Tuesday to comment on the memo, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said, “The Biden administration dangerously unleashed millions of unvetted illegal aliens into the country — and they used many loopholes to do so.”
She added that Trump and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem “are now enforcing this law as it was actually written to keep America safe.”
Trump wields tariffs to sway Putin on Ukraine. Here’s how they might work, or not
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sacrificed an estimated 1 million of his soldiers, killed and wounded, in a three-year campaign to crush Ukraine.
Now Trump is betting that his go-to economic weapon — tariffs — can succeed where Ukrainian drones and rockets have not and finally persuade Putin to end the war.
Trump said Monday that he would impose 100% tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil, natural gas and other products unless there is a peace deal in 50 days. The levies are meant to cause Russia financial pain by making its trading partners think twice before buying its energy.
He did not spell out exactly how these “secondary″ tariffs would work, and trade analysts are skeptical they will be effective.
▶ Read more about how tariffs may or not work
Senate confirms Anthony Tata for Pentagon position after social media posts drew scrutiny
Senators voted 52-46 Tuesday to confirm the retired U.S. brigadier general as the defense undersecretary for personnel.
Tata, a staunch Trump supporter, was criticized for the social media posts from 2018. They called Islam the “most oppressive violent religion I know of” and referred to former President Barack Obama as a “terrorist leader” and a Muslim.
Tata’s nomination to be defense undersecretary for policy in 2020 was stalled when senators canceled the hearing after a furor over the posts. They were taken down, and Tata told senators he regretted some of his comments.
Trump suggests Powell could be fired over cost of Federal Reserve HQ renovations
Asked by a reporter if that would be grounds for getting rid of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell, Trump answered affirmatively.
“I think it sort of is, because if you look at his testimony ... he’s not talking about the problem,” Trump said. “It’s a big problem.”
Trump has repeatedly demanded that Powell cut the short-term interest rate that the central bank controls, in part because the president believes it will lower the government’s borrowing costs.
Powell asked an inspector general Monday to review the cost of the central bank’s building renovations after coming under attack from White House officials.
The Fed has been renovating two office buildings in Washington for several years at a current cost estimate of about $2.5 billion, $700 million more than originally expected. The project was first approved by the Fed’s governing board in 2017.
Republicans declared it ‘crypto’ week in the House. It’s not going as planned
A trio of cryptocurrency bills that were expected to pass this week stalled Tuesday after 13 Republicans unexpectedly joined all Democrats to prevent the legislation from coming up for debate and votes.
The procedural snafu brought the House’s so-called crypto week to a standstill and dealt a blow to the president, who strongly urged Republicans to pass the bills as part of his push to make the U.S. the “ crypto capital of the world.”
Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters it was just part of the “legislative process” and negotiations were underway between the House, Senate and White House. He suggested they could try again Tuesday evening.
But just hours later, House leadership canceled votes for the remainder of the day.
The stalled legislation includes a Senate-passed bill regulating a form of cryptocurrency known as stablecoins, along with more sweeping measures aiming to address cryptocurrency market structure. Another bill would prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency.
Democrats are trolling Trump and the GOP over the Jeffrey Epstein case
Democrats sensed an opening after the Justice Department said last week that no additional evidence would be released in the case.
Now they are demanding records be released and trolling Republicans on social media, on news shows and in the House as they revel in a rare fissure between the president and his fiercely loyal base.
They are highlighting the dramatic about-face by some Republicans, which has divided the MAGA movement and could weaken a critical following for Trump.
The in-your-face approach also may help Democrats appease elements of the party’s own base, who are hungry for a more aggressive confrontation with the other side.
▶ Read more about Democrats trolling Trump and the GOP
Trump says he will ‘probably’ announce tariffs on pharmaceutical drugs
The president said such an announcement could come at the “end of the month.”
Trump said he would start out at a lower tariff rate and give companies a year to build domestic factories before they face higher import tax rates.
He said computer chips would face a similar style of tariffs.
Trump to put tariffs of over 10% on smaller nations, including those in Africa and the Caribbean
“We’ll probably set one tariff for all of them,” Trump said, adding that it could be “a little over 10%” on goods from at least 100 nations.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick interjected that countries with goods taxed at these rates would be in Africa and the Caribbean, places that generally do relatively modest levels of trade with the U.S. and would be relatively insignificant for Trump’s goals of reducing trade imbalances with the rest of the world.
Trump says he’s mystified as to why many ardent supporters are in an uproar over the Epstein case
“I don’t understand why they would be so interested,” the told reporters after Air Force One landed in Maryland following his trip to Pittsburgh.
“He’s dead for a long time,” Trump said. “He was never a big factor in terms of life.”
The president added that he couldn’t understand “what the interest or what the fascination is” and even suggested that the case was “boring.”
Conspiracy theories over Epstein’s death in prison and potential evidence in his sex trafficking case, including an alleged “client list,” have largely been a fixation for the right, once egged on by Trump himself.
Now, though, he would like to move on from the case. But some of his most influential allies have refused, dividing the MAGA movement.
Nvidia to resume sales of highly desired AI computer chips to China
CEO Jensen Huang says the technology giant has won approval from the Trump administration to sell its advanced H20 computer chips, used to develop artificial intelligence, to China.
The news came in a company blog post saying the government “assured” Nvidia that licenses would be granted and the company “hopes to start deliveries soon.” Shares of the California-based chipmaker were up over 4% by midday Tuesday.
Huang also spoke about the matter on China’s state-run CGTN television, in remarks shown on the social platform X.
He also noted that half the world’s AI researchers are in China: “It’s so innovative and dynamic here in China that it’s really important that American companies are able to compete and serve the market here.”
Huang recently met with Trump and other U.S. policymakers and is in Beijing this week to attend a supply chain conference and speak with Chinese officials.
Judge reverses rule that would have removed medical debt from credit reports
The rule, finalized in the Biden-era by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, would have removed medical debt from credit reports.
U.S. District Court Judge Sean Jordan of Texas’s Eastern District, who was appointed by Trump, found on Friday that the rule exceeded the CFPB ’s authority. Jordan said that the CFPB is not permitted to remove medical debt from credit reports according to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which protects information collected by consumer reporting agencies.
Removing medical debt from consumer credit reports was expected to increase the credit scores of millions of families by an average of 20 points, the bureau said. The CFPB states that its research has shown outstanding health care claims to be a poor predictor of an individual’s ability to repay a loan, yet they are often used to deny mortgage applications.
The CFPB estimated the rule would have removed $49 billion in medical debt from the credit reports of 15 million Americans.
Trump administration says it is ending deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles
Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced the decision Tuesday in a statement.
Roughly 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines had been deployed. It was not immediately clear how long the rest would stay. The troops were tasked with protecting federal buildings and guarding immigration agents as they carry out arrests.
The president ordered the deployment of about 4,000 California National Guard troops and 700 active-duty Marines in early June to respond to protests against immigration raids in and around Los Angeles.
Their deployment went against the wishes of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who sued to stop it.
A district court judge initially said Trump acted illegally in deploying the Guard over Newsom’s opposition, but an appeals court said the administration could keep control of the troops. The case is ongoing.
Newsom said the National Guard’s deployment to L.A. has pulled troops away from their families and civilian work “to serve as political pawns for the President in Los Angeles.”
Employees at the nation’s consumer financial watchdog say it’s become toothless under Trump
The lights are on at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and employees still get paid. But in practice the bureau has been mostly inoperable for nearly six months. CFPB employees say they essentially spend the workday sitting on their hands, forbidden from doing any work by a White House directive.
The bureau is supposed to help oversee banks and financial services companies and take enforcement action in case of wrongdoing. During its 15-year existence, the CFPB has returned roughly $21 billion to consumers who were cheated by financial services companies.
Instead its main function now seems to be undoing the rulemaking and law enforcement work that was done under previous administrations, including in Trump’s first term.
One employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the directive forbids staffers from discussing their jobs publicly, said outsiders would be amazed at how little work is being done. Employees are reluctant even to talk to one another, for fear a conversation would be considered a violation of the directive.
Another worker described the drastic shift in mission, from trying to protect consumers to doing nothing, as “quite demoralizing.”
▶ Read more about the CFPB and some of its consumer cases dropped under Trump
America’s only rare earth producer gets a boost from Apple and Pentagon agreements
MP Materials announced a new $500 million deal with the tech giant Tuesday to produce more of the powerful magnets used in iPhones as well as other high-tech products like electric vehicles.
The news follows last week’s announcement that the Defense Department would invest $400 million in shares of the Las Vegas-based company, establish a floor for the price of key elements and ensure that all magnets made at a new plant in the first 10 years are purchased.
That unusual direct investment makes the government MP Materials’ largest shareholder.
“This is the kind of long-term commitment needed to reshape global rare earth supply chains,” Benchmark Mineral Intelligence analyst Neha Mukherjee said in a research note on the Pentagon deal.
Rare earths are a key concern in ongoing trade talks. China dominates the market and imposed new limits on exports after Trump announced widespread tariffs. When shipments dried up, the two sides sat down in London.
Trump administration fires 17 immigration court judges across 10 states, union says
Seventeen immigration court judges have been fired in recent days, according to the union that represents them, as the administration pushes forward with its mass deportations of immigrants.
“It’s outrageous and against the public interest that at the same time Congress has authorized 800 immigration judges, we are firing large numbers of immigration judges without cause,” said Matt Biggs, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents the judges.
The firings come as the courts have been increasingly at the center of the administration’s hard-line immigration enforcement efforts, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arresting people as they appear for court proceedings.
A spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Immigration Review, which is the part of the Justice Department that oversees the courts, said via email that the office would not comment on the firings.
Judge says Trump administration can’t use travel ban to keep 80 refugees out of the US
U.S. District Judge Jamal Whitehead in Seattle said in his ruling late Monday that the president’s June order banning entry by people from 12 countries “expressly states” that it does not limit the ability of people to seek refugee status.
The order includes a provision that says nothing in it “shall be construed to limit the ability of an individual to seek asylum, refugee status, withholding of removal, or protection under the CAT, consistent with the laws of the United States.”
In his ruling, Whitehead said “by its plain terms, the Proclamation excludes refugees from its scope.”
Barring refugees from entering would limit their ability to seek refugee status and therefore run counter to the order, the judge added.
He ordered the administration to immediately resume processing 80 “presumptively protected refugees” who were rejected based on the travel ban.
The State Department did not immediately have comment Tuesday.
Department of Homeland Security criticizes court ruling delaying end of protections for Afghans
The appeals court decision temporarily delayed the department from removing protections from some Afghans living in the U.S.
DHS said in May that it was ending Temporary Protected Status for 11,700 people from Afghanistan in 60 days. That status had allowed them to work and meant the government couldn’t deport them.
It was supposed to expire Monday, but an appeals court stepped in late in the day and issued a one-week stay while it hears arguments from both sides.
Reacting Tuesday, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement: “Temporary Protected Status (TPS) was never intended to be a de facto asylum program, yet it has been abused as one for decades.”
“The Trump administration is restoring integrity to our immigration system to keep our homeland and its people safe,” it continued, “and we have the law, the facts, and common sense on our side.”
Republicans look to tweak Trump’s request for $9.4 billion in spending cuts
Senate Republicans worked Tuesday to slightly scale back the president’s request for the cuts in previously approved spending as they tried to build momentum before a key test vote.
The amended package removes proposed cuts to a program known as PEPFAR that is credited with saving millions of lives since its creation under then-President George W. Bush to combat HIV/AIDS.
The change could help the bill’s prospects. Congress has until Friday to get a bill to Trump’s desk for his signature or the spending stands.
The president is looking to claw back money for foreign aid programs targeted by his Department of Government Efficiency and for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The change preserving about $400 million for PEPFAR takes the total savings in the measure down to about $9 billion.
Bondi dodges questions about Jeffrey Epstein and FBI deputy director
The attorney general is seeking to press ahead with a business-as-usual approach in the face of right-wing outrage that has plunged the Justice Department into turmoil.
Pressed by reporters during an announcement about drug seizures, Bondi sidestepped questions about the fallout of the administration’s decision not to release more records related Epstein investigation. Amid calls from some members of Trump’s base for her resignation, Bondi made clear she has no plans to step down.
“I’m going to be here for as long as the president wants me here,” Bondi said. “And I believe he’s made that crystal clear.”
Bondi was also asked about Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, with whom she clashed last week over the Epstein files. Bondi would not answer whether she believes he should remain in his role, saying only that she would not discuss personnel matters.
China does have wind farms. Trump claims otherwise
Trump falsely claimed that China is lacking in wind farms, despite its role in their production.
“China makes windmills. But how many wind farms do you see in China?” he asked. “I haven’t seen any lately. Sort of crazy.”
China is the world’s largest manufacturer of wind turbines, producing more than half of the supply. However, it is also installing them in China at a record pace.
In total, China has 1.3 terawatts of utility-scale wind and solar capacity in development, which could generate more electricity than neighboring Japan consumed in all of 2023, according to a report from the Global Energy Monitor released last week.
Trump: ‘We are way ahead of China’
The president boasted during a summit on energy and AI that the U.S is far ahead of China when it comes to developments in artificial intelligence.
“We believe America’s destiny is to dominate every industry and be the first in technology,” he said.
Democrats say Trump’s State Department cuts undermine US at home and abroad
Congressional Democrats are criticizing the Trump administration’s budget and personnel cuts at the State Department, saying they rob the country of massive expertise and institutional knowledge and damage America’s standing abroad in the world.
Top Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee took issue with defenses of cuts offered by the deputy Secretary of State for Management Michael Rigas, who argued that the budget and personnel reductions were needed to streamline diplomacy and make it more efficient. Rigas’ testimony was the first from a senior department official since Friday when more than 1,300 career civil servants and foreign service officers were fired as part of the administration’s broader revamp of the executive branch of government.
“This is a dark time for American diplomacy,” said the top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York. “President Trump continues to isolate the United States, alienate our allies and create space for our adversaries like Russia and China to fill the void.”
Rigas said a proposed roughly 50% cut in the department’s budget is intended not to punish diplomats but rather to “make the State Department a more efficient and effective organizations better able to advance the core interests of the American people.”
House Speaker breaks with Trump on Epstein saga
House Speaker Mike Johnson appears to be breaking with Trump over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein criminal investigation and is calling for the Justice Department to “put everything out there and let the people decide.”
The Louisiana Republican said Attorney General Pam Bondi needs to come forward and explain what happened. Bondi earlier this year had made claims that officials were reviewing a “truckload” of evidence, but last week the Justice Department concluded that Epstein did not leave behind a “client list” and that public disclosure of more information would not be appropriate.
The lack of revelations has angered many MAGA loyalists, particularly after some had expected more transparency and accountability based on previous comments from Trump during the campaign.
“The White House and the White House team are privy to facts that I don’t know. This isn’t my lane. I haven’t been involved in that, but I agree with the sentiment to put it out there,” Johnson told conservative podcaster Benny Johnson.
Tens of billions for Pennsylvania
Trump announced a $92 billion investment from 20 technical, agricultural, and energy companies in Pennsylvania.
He described it as the “biggest private investment in Pennsylvania history,” calling it a “triumphant day for the people of the commonwealth and the United States of America.”
Trump participates in energy and AI summit
The energy and innovation summit, hosted by Sen. Dave McCormick and featuring the president, is now underway.
McCormick kicked off the event by welcoming Trump back to the city and the state. The senator says $90 billion in investments were spurred by Tuesday’s summit.
“Your presence and those commitments showcase Pennsylvania’s story to the world,” McCormick said as he introduced Trump.
Education Department resumes layoffs
The Trump administration is moving ahead with mass layoffs at the Education Department.
After the Supreme Court cleared the way in a Monday decision, the department began sending updated termination notices to hundreds of employees.
The notice tells workers they will formally be separated from the agency Aug. 1. It said the department thanks them for their service and “recognizes the difficulty of the moment.”
Education Secretary Linda McMahon in March said she was laying off about 1,400 employees as part of the president’s plan to wind down the agency. A lower court paused the layoffs, but the Supreme Court halted that order.
Democrats see an opening in Epstein backlash
A super PAC working to elect Democrats to the U.S. House in next year’s midterm elections is naming and shaming Republicans who once demanded to see records from Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation but on Monday voted against a Democratic effort to release them.
GOP Reps. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Anna Paulina Luna and Cory Mills of Florida are “complicit” with a Trump administration that’s trying to bury documents about the wealthy financier who abused underage girls, the Democratic-aligned House Majority PAC said in an emailed memo.
Democrats had tried to force the release of information about Epstein’s case by attaching an amendment to cryptocurrency legislation. Just one Republican on the House Rules Committee, Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, voted with them.
Democrats have been taking full advantage of fissures in the GOP over the federal government’s decision not to release the much-hyped records. Several left-wing lawmakers have taken to social media in recent days calling for the files to be made public.
Pew survey: Global views of China and Xi Jinping improve, US and Trump decline
Views of China and its President Xi Jinping have improved in many countries around the world, and those of the U.S. and President Donald Trump have deteriorated, resulting in closer-than-ever international views of the two superpowers and their leaders, according to the latest survey of about two dozen countries by Pew Research Center.
Across 24 countries, Pew found that the U.S. was viewed more favorably than China in eight countries, China was viewed more favorably in seven, and the two were viewed about equally in the remainder.
Pew surveyed more than 30,000 people across 25 countries in total -- including the U.S., which was excluded from the comparison -- from January 8 to April 26.
This year’s results are a drastic departure from those in the past several years when the U.S. and its leader — then President Joe Biden — enjoyed more favorable international views than China and its president.
Pew provides no certain answer to what caused the shifting views, but Laura Silver, associate director of research, said it’s possible that views of a country may change when those of another superpower shift.