Trump dismisses bishop’s call for mercy; ban on immigration raids in churches and schools scrapped – live | Trump administration

Speaking at the White House, Donald Trump announced $500bn dollars in private sector investment over the next four years to build artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States. Trump was flanked by the heads of three firms who have formed a joint venture called Stargate: Larry Ellison, the chairperson of Oracle, Masayoshi Son, chief executive of SoftBank, a Japanese investment firm, and Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive.

Ellison said that Stargate, the new AI infrastructure company, is already constructing 10 buildings in Texas, and expects to expand further soon.

According to Ellison, examples of the kind of AI applications that the company is working on include: early cancer detection, the search for a cancer vaccine, and the use of electronic health records, “not just maintaining them but helping to provide health care plans”, so that doctors in remote locations can instantly check on the type of care doctors at leading cancer hospitals would provide.

The Department of Homeland Security has issued two new directives from the acting secretary, Benjamine Huffman.

The first directive “rescinds the Biden Administration’s guidelines” that prohibited immigration enforcement from so-called “sensitive areas”. As Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, explains, the sensitive locations policy “prevented Ice from carrying out enforcement arrests inside churches, hospitals, and schools”.

The second directive reinstates with immediate effect so-called “expedited removal” nationwide. Under this authority, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) can quickly deport any undocumented person arrested inside the country who can’t prove they have been here continuously for more than two years.

The DHS sent reporters the following comment to be attributed to an anonymous DHS spokesperson:

This action empowers the brave men and women in CBP and ICE to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens – including murders and rapists – who have illegally come into our country. Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.

Jamelle Bouie, a New York Times columnist, commented on Bluesky: “I said a few times here and there before the election that we’ll see what the mass deportation plan looks like when it’s ICE agents dragging grandmothers out of churches and, well, here we are.”

After a prayer service this morning, in which the Episcopal bishop of Washington, Mariann Edgar Budde, urged the President Donald Trump to rethink some of his hardline policies, particularly towards immigrants and transgender people, Trump was asked by reporters what he made of the sermon. “Not too exciting, was it”, he said. “I didn’t think it was a good service. They could do much better”.

Georgia Representative Mike Collins, a Republican, posted video on X showing Trump’s visible displeasure during that part of the sermon. “The person giving this sermon should be added to the deportation list”, Collins commented.

Here are the comments from the bishop that so irked Trump.

Joan E Greve

Senators have reportedly received an affidavit from the former sister-in-law of Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump‘s controversial pick for secretary of defense, alleging that the nominee’s aggressive behavior prompted his second wife to fear for her safety.

NBC News reports that the former sister-in-law, Danielle Hegseth, submitted the affidavit after the top Democrat on the Senate armed forces committee, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, sent her a letter requesting a statement on her “personal knowledge about Mr Hegseth’s fitness to occupy this important position”.

A photo of part of the affidavit, shared by Punchbowl News, shows Danielle Hegseth’s account that Hegseth’s second wife, Samantha Hegseth, instituted a system of sending two friends a safe word to signal when she feared for her safety because of her husband’s erratic behavior.

According to Danielle Hegseth, she shared details of Hegseth’s allegedly aggressive behavior with the FBI when the bureau conducted a background check on the nominee last month.

Samantha Hegseth, who divorced Hegseth in 2017, disputed the characterization of her marriage, telling NBC News, “There was no physical abuse in my marriage. This is the only further statement I will make to you, I have let you know that I am not speaking and will not speak on my marriage to Pete. Please respect this decision.”

A lawyer for Hegseth similarly denied the accusation against him, saying, “Sam has never alleged that there was any abuse, she signed court documents acknowledging that there was no abuse and recently reaffirmed the same during her FBI interview.”

As of now, Hegseth is expected to be narrowly confirmed by the Senate despite concerns over allegations of sexual assault, financial mismangement and excessive alcohol use.

Donald Trump is expected to deliver remarks from the White House at 4pm, after he meets with Republican congressional leaders.

The new president has signaled two main legislative priorities: extending tax cuts enacted during his first term, and funding his plans for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. However, debate is ongoing among Republicans over whether it would be better to address these priorities in one bill, or two – a subject Trump could weigh in on in his remarks.

The president could also talk about other legislation making its way through Congress, such as proposals to assert US control of Greenland and Panama, and the Laken Riley Act, which targets undocumented immigrants accused of crimes.

We’ll let you know what Trump has to say once he starts speaking.

John Bolton, who served as national security adviser during part of Donald Trump’s first term but has since fallen out with him, says the president has taken away his Secret Service protection.

In a statement on X, Bolton said the agents have protected him from an assassination plot linked to Iran. Here’s what he wrote:

I am disappointed but not surprised that President Trump has decided to terminate the protection previously provided by the United States Secret Service. Notwithstanding my criticisms of President Biden’s national-security policies, he nonetheless made the decision to extend that protection to me in 2021. The Justice Department filed criminal charges against an Iranian Revolutionary Guard official in 2022 for attempting to hire a hit man to target me. That threat remains today, as also demonstrated by the recent arrest of someone trying to arrange for President Trump’s own assassination. The American people can judge for themselves which President made the right call.

New York Representative Elise Stefanik, Donald Trump’s nominee for UN ambassador, expressed support for Israeli claims of biblical rights to the entire West Bank during a tense confirmation hearing exchange.

Maryland senator Chris Van Hollen confronted Stefanik about her agreement of a position that aligns her with the Israeli far-right, including Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir derived from a private conversation ahead of the hearing.

“You told me that, yes, you shared that view,” Van Hollen said during questioning. “Is that your view today?”

“Yes,” Stefanik said.

The hearing remains heavily focused on the UN’s stance on Israel, with this particular exchange a clear example on how Stefanik’s stance might affect US diplomatic efforts during ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, particularly regarding Palestinian self-determination and territorial disputes.

Still, Van Hollen warned that such positions could hamper peace negotiations.

“It’s going to be very difficult to achieve peace if you continue to hold the view that you just expressed,” he said.

Harry Davies

Donald Trump has reinstated an executive order allowing him to impose economic sanctions against the international criminal court (ICC), paving the way for the US to hit the judicial body and its staff with draconian measures.

Among the blizzard of executive orders made on Monday evening, Trump revived an order issued during his presidency that used emergency powers to create a sanctions regime targeting the court.

The powers were used in 2020 to impose asset freezes and travel bans against the ICC’s former chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, and one of her top officials. The order was revoked in April 2021 by Joe Biden.

Trump’s reinstatement of the order comes as the ICC braces itself for a volley of aggressive sanctions by the new US administration in response to arrest warrants it has issued against Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former defence minister.

The Guardian reported on Monday the court is planning for a worst case scenario in which the US imposes sanctions against the institution in addition to measures targeting senior figures including its judges and current chief prosecutor Karim Khan.

America’s top markets watchdog, now under Donald Trump’s leadership, wasted no time in announcing a new “crypto taskforce” as the industry cheers on the new administration.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said the taskforce will aim to set a “sensible regulatory path” for crypto, claiming the agency “can do better” than its previous approach – widely deemed a crackdown – under Joe Biden.

On the campaign trail, Trump pledged to transform the US into a “bitcoin superpower” and the crypto capital of the world. His election victory triggered a crypto rally that propelled bitcoin to record highs.

The SEC’s crypto task force will be led by Hester Peirce, a commissioner who accused the Biden administration of welcoming the “extinction of new technology” through its regulation of crypto.