Since Donald Trump's first term, Stephen Miller has risen into an architect and enforcer of some of the president's most controversial policies. On Washington Week With The Atlantic, panelists joined to discuss the senior aide's rise, and how he's become one of the most powerful figures in the Trump administration.
Donald Kinsella was appointed the U.S. attorney in New York's Northern District in place of John A. Sarcone III, who left his post as the acting U.S. attorney after a judge blocked Sarcone from any further involvement in the investigation of New York Attorney General Letitia James, claiming he was not lawfully serving in the office at the time the subpoenas were issued in the case.
Donald Trump claims he does not know who Bad Bunny is. I've never heard of him, the U.S. president said a few months ago about the most listened-to artist in the world. The Republican considers the NFL's decision to select the Puerto Rican superstar for the Super Bowl halftime show to be terrible and ridiculous and, in the midst of his tantrum, declined to travel to the biggest sporting event in the United States, which he attended last year.
TrumpRx, the Trump administration's much-anticipated direct-to-consumer drug platform, went live on Thursday. A key pillar of President Donald Trump's effort to lower prescription drug costs, the website will serve as a clearinghouse that connects patients with drugmakers selling certain products to those willing to pay cash and forgo insurance. The medications, including the blockbuster obesity drugs Zepbound and Wegovy, will be available at a discount through these channels.
The price of Bitcoin has fallen to its lowest level in 15 months despite US president Donald Trump's personal and public support of cryptocurrency. A single Bitcoin is now worth $66,000 (48,700), its lowest level since October of 2024, with the price down 24% since the start of this year. The drop followed months of surging Bitcoin prices, which saw the cryptocurrency hit an all-time high of $122,200 in October.
When Rosaly Estevez self-deported from Miami to Havana last November, US immigration officers bid farewell by removing her ankle monitor. The 32-year-old had been told she was about to be detained, so she left with her three-year-old son, Dylan, a US citizen. It's been brutal, said Estevez. Imagine Dylan hugging his phone every night when he sees his dad. I wouldn't wish this on any mother.
So you would guarantee to the American public that ICE will not be around polling locations or voting locations in November? I can't guarantee that an ICE agent won't be around a polling location in November. I mean, that's frankly a very silly hypothetical question, but what I can tell you is I haven't heard the president discuss any formal plans to put ICE outside of polling locations, replied Leavitt. It's a disingenuous question.
Scott Bessent used a Senate appearance to defend President Donald Trump's campaign to slash interest and raise tariffs. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has faced questions from the United States Senate about President Donald Trump's ongoing campaign to slash interest rates, despite concerns that such a move could turbo-charge inflation. Bessent appeared on Thursday before the Senate's Financial Stability Oversight Council. There, he received a grilling from Democrats over rising consumer prices and concerns about Trump's attempts to influence the Federal Reserve, the US central bank.
So, for a solid year while he ran for president, Donald Trump promised pretty much every day that he was going to lower costs on day one if he was elected. Those were his words, not mine. So, Secretary Bessent, you are one of the president's top economic advisors. Let's just start with a little truth-telling about the Trump economy one year in. Affordability is the top concern for Americans across the country.
During the previous government shutdown, President Trump reveled in the chance to fire federal workers, expand his executive authority, and steer taxpayer dollars toward his allies and away from his perceived political enemies. After a record-setting 43 days of gridlock-during which Trump pursued those goals with varying degrees of success-several Democrats abandoned their quest to force Republicans to negotiate a health-care deal, and voted to end the shutdown.
When there aren't enough houses for everyone who wants to buy one, the price goes up as wealthier people bid up the cost of existing housing. Building more houses would drive down the prices of existing houses. That's good for people looking to enter the housing market, but many existing homeowners view their homes as investments, assets they believe should appreciate faster than inflation over time.
President Donald Trump said Friday that he will nominate former Federal Reserve official Kevin Warsh to be the next chair of the Fed, a decision likely to result in sharp changes to the powerful agency that could bring it closer to the White House. Warsh would replace current chair Jerome Powell when his term expires in May. Trump chose Powell to lead the Fed in 2017 but this year has relentlessly assailed him for not cutting interest rates quickly enough.
The 11th-hour additions of Attorney General Pam Bondi, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Director of the Office of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard come as the Trump administration pushes for more voter data from states and hunts for evidence to back up Trump's discredited voter fraud claims. The intrigue: It was not immediately clear what the cabinet secretaries intended to discuss, but organizers have added a new session to accommodate them.
A federal investigation was launched into the university immediately following Trump's executive order, Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports, issued a year ago last February. The school made headlines in the heat of the 2024 election campaign when the girls' volleyball team co-captain, Brooke Slusser, joined a lawsuit led by anti-trans activist and swimmer Riley Gaines and outed the trans player on her team.
Calls are growing for European countries to boycott the 2026 FIFA World Cup later this year in opposition to President Donald Trump, as many of the games are set to take place in the United States. The World Cup will be held in multiple locations across three countries in North America (Mexico, Canada, and the U.S.), with most games happening in the U.S. Many fans are concerned about traveling to the U.S., noting not only the high ticket and travel costs, but also difficulties getting travel visas due to Trump's immigration policies and the invasive surveillance measures his administration is implementing against people entering the country.
No longer confined to the partisans and activists, the fierce backlash against Donald Trump's immigration crackdown has begun to break out across American culture, spanning the worlds of business, sports and entertainment.Bruce Springsteen released a new song Wednesday that slammed "Trump's federal thugs." OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman told employees that "what's happening with ICE is going too far," referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Compare that with the pace of turnover in Trump's first term, when he set a modern record for year-one turnover among senior staff. In just the first 12 months of that term, Trump pulled the plug on his chief of staff, deputy chief of staff, national security adviser, chief strategist, communications director (x2), press secretary and Health and Human Services secretary.
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground.
WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Marco Rubio plans on Wednesday to warn that the Trump administration is ready to take new military action against Venezuela if the country's interim leadership strays from U.S. expectations. In prepared testimony for a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio says the U.S. is not at war with Venezuela and that its interim leaders are cooperating, but he notes that the Trump administration would not rule out using additional force if needed following a raid to capture then-President Nicolás Maduro early this month.
It is easy to dunk on this title and dismiss it to the land of headlines already adjudicated by Betteridge's Law, and I am not going to fight back against its undefeated winning streak, but I do think there is value in asking simple questions that you can answer with provable reality. A lot of people dunked on the Wall Street Journal's front-page story about how data revealed that-like
The killings in Minneapolis of Renee Good and Alex Pretti have been compared to the murder of George Floyd, because they all happened within a few miles of one another, and because of the outrage they inspired. There's an important difference, though: In 2020 the United States was in turmoil, but it was still a state of law. Floyd's death was followed by investigation, trial, and verdict-by justice. The Minneapolis Police Department was held accountable and ultimately made to reform.
MS NOW host Rachel Maddow cheered on protesters of the violent crackdown by Trump deportation forces amid backlash over the Alex Pretti killing, telling them You are winning! and that President Donald Trump is in retreat! Trump's initial reaction to the shooting of Pretti was to lash out and blame the deceased and Democratic leaders in a lengthy social media rant. But as the outrage grew, the president pumped the brakes a little, and by Monday, was striking a conciliatory tone with Democrats in Minnesota.
On the campaign trail in 2016, candidate Trump often reassured voters that he intended to hire only the best and most serious people top-of-the-line professionals, if you will. Even his most devoted supporters must look back on that particular vow with amusement. Trump's first term saw him cycle through four full-time chiefs of staff (yes, you count, Mick Mulvaney), national security advisers, and press secretaries among numerous other major staff shakeups.
The factual bullshit from Trump-administration officials about Minnesota is, at least, easily detected: Hear claim, watch video, reject claim. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem declares that Alex Pretti "brandished" a firearm. ( He did not.) White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller tells us Pretti was "an assassin" who "tried to murder federal agents." (Pretti never drew his weapon, got pepper-sprayed, and wound up at the bottom of an ICE dogpile.)
Target's incoming CEO, who starts next week, sent a video message to staff in which he described the violence and loss of life in the local community as "incredibly painful;" he did not mention Trump or ICE directly. Others have been more blunt. Big names in tech and venture capital, as well as small business owners around the country, have expressed outrage at the Trump administration and ICE on their own social media pages, using words like "murderer," "shameful," and "a conscious-less administration."
Former CNN host Don Lemon predicted President Donald Trump's administration will not stop pursuing him, even if it means they have to go around a judge. Lemon sat down with Alisyn Camerota this week just as his fellow former CNNer launched her new gig with Scripps News as a special events anchor and contributor. Lemon is currently facing pushback (and possible legal consequences) for his coverage of a group of Minnesota anti-ICE protesters who disrupted a church service in St. Paul.
But if you view the year through the lens of the president's powers, all of that action comes to seem more circumscribed. By neglecting some of the most significant formal and informal tools at his disposal, Trump has largely failed to advance durable policy change, at least on domestic matters. He has dominated a lot of news cycles, but at the expense of shaping the future-for good or ill.
Outrage over ICE operations has been building since the killing of Renee Good, and escalated Thursday with the apprehension of a five-year-old boy amid conflicting reports on the incident. The White House also posted an altered photo of an anti-ICE protester's arrest. On Friday's edition of CNN's Inside Politics, Bash ticked through several examples of the White House trying to reshape the narrative amid the outrage.
It replaces the old homepage-which featured a banner image of Trump, the bolded phrase "America is Back," and headshots of the first lady and vice president-with a decidedly more cinematic design. Now, when people visit whitehouse.gov, they're immediately greeted with a wall of videos, including shots of Trump sporting his own "Make America Great Again" merch, saluting military personnel, and taking off in a helicopter. Every shot is bathed in a warm, fuzzy filter, making the whole page feel like a retro-inspired movie trailer.
