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Trump publicizes $25bn in funding for Golden Dome mission
Donald Trump introduced $25bn for his “Golden Dome” protection initiative Tuesday afternoon.
The funding, included in what the president has dubbed his “massive, stunning invoice”, will go towards an expansive air protection system designed to protect all the US.
“This design for the Golden Dome will combine with our present protection capabilities, and ought to be absolutely operational earlier than the tip of my time period,” Trump mentioned. “As soon as absolutely constructed, the Golden Dome will probably be able to intercepting missiles even when they’re launched from the opposite aspect of the world, and even when they’re launched from house.”
Key occasions
US immigration officers seem to have begun deporting migrants from Myanmar and Vietnam to South Sudan, Reuters stories.
Immigrant rights advocates accused the Trump administration of deporting round a dozen migrants in violation of a courtroom order and requested a decide to order their return.
The advocates made the request in a movement directed to a federal decide in Boston who had barred the Trump administration from swiftly deporting migrants to nations aside from their very own with out first listening to any issues that they had that they may be tortured or persecuted if despatched there.
Legal professionals for a gaggle of migrants pursuing the category motion lawsuit earlier than US District Choose Brian Murphy mentioned they realized that just about a dozen migrants held at a detention facility in Texas have been flown to South Sudan on Tuesday morning.
Chris Stein
Trump visits Capitol to induce Home Republicans to move ‘massive, stunning invoice’
Donald Trump traveled to the Capitol on Tuesday to insist that the fractious Home Republican majority put aside their variations and move his wide-ranging invoice to enact his taxation and immigration priorities.
In a speech to a closed-door assembly of Republican lawmakers in Congress’s decrease chamber, the president pushed representatives from districts in blue states to drop their calls for for an even bigger State and Native Tax (Salt) deduction, and likewise sought to assuage moderates involved that the laws, referred to as the One Large Lovely Invoice Act, would hobble the Medicaid medical insurance program.
“I feel now we have unbelievable unity. I feel we’re going to get every thing we would like, and I feel we’re going to have an incredible victory,” Trump mentioned as he left the assembly.
However it’s unclear if the president’s exhortations had the meant impact forward of the Monday deadline that Home speaker Mike Johnson has set to get the invoice handed via the chamber, which Republicans management by a mere three votes. Following his assembly, not less than one key lawmaker mentioned he remained against the invoice as written, whereas others introduced no modifications to their place.
“Because it stands proper now, I don’t help the invoice,” mentioned New York congressman Mike Lawler, one of many Republicans representing districts in Democratic-led states which can be demanding a bigger Salt deduction.
Learn the complete story by Chris Stein:
House Pressure normal Michael Guetlein will oversee ‘Golden Dome’ growth, Trump confirms
Donald Trump confirmed that House Pressure normal Michael Guetlein will oversee growth of the ‘Golden Dome’ antimissile protect.
“We’re speaking about $175bn whole price of this when it’s accomplished,” Trump mentioned. “This is essential for the success and even survival of our nation. It’s a really evil world on the market.”
The mission stems from a January govt order that referred to as for an “Iron Dome for America”, taking cues from Israel’s Iron Dome, designed to counter short-range threats utilizing expertise. US army officers have described the Golden Dome as a “system of techniques”, combining conventional defenses with rising, largely untested applied sciences.
Trump mentioned the “Golden Dome” will take two-and-a-half to 3 years to be accomplished.
Trump publicizes $25bn in funding for Golden Dome mission
Donald Trump introduced $25bn for his “Golden Dome” protection initiative Tuesday afternoon.
The funding, included in what the president has dubbed his “massive, stunning invoice”, will go towards an expansive air protection system designed to protect all the US.
“This design for the Golden Dome will combine with our present protection capabilities, and ought to be absolutely operational earlier than the tip of my time period,” Trump mentioned. “As soon as absolutely constructed, the Golden Dome will probably be able to intercepting missiles even when they’re launched from the opposite aspect of the world, and even when they’re launched from house.”
Pete Hegseth orders ‘complete assessment’ into 2021 US Afghanistan withdrawal
Protection secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered a “complete assessment” of the US’ chaotic army withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, an evacuation operation during which 13 US service members and 150 Afghans have been killed at Kabul’s airport in an Islamic State bombing.
It was unclear how Hegseth’s assessment would differ from the various earlier evaluations which were carried out – together with by the US army, the state division and even Donald Trump’s fellow Republicans within the Home of Representatives.
Reuters stories that Hegseth could possibly be accused of politicizing the matter. The Biden administration, which oversaw the 2021 pullout, principally blamed the ensuing chaos on a scarcity of planning and reductions in troops by the primary Trump administration following a 2020 take care of the Taliban to withdraw American forces.
On the marketing campaign path, Trump incessantly criticized Biden and his administration for the withdrawal.
In a memo, Hegseth mentioned that after three months of reviewing the withdrawal, a complete assessment was wanted to make sure accountability for this occasion. He wrote:
This stays an essential step towards regaining religion and belief with the American folks and all those that put on the uniform and is prudent primarily based on the variety of casualties and gear misplaced in the course of the execution of this withdrawal operation.
In a press release accompanying the memo, he mentioned Pentagon spokesperson and senior adviser Sean Parnell would lead the assessment. Different people who served in Afghanistan, resembling Lt Col Stuart Scheller, who was publicly crucial of the withdrawal whereas he was within the Marine Corps, could be part of the assessment panel.
Senior US army officers, together with then-defense secretary Lloyd Austin and then-top US normal Mark Milley, have already appeared earlier than lawmakers.
US Central Command, which oversees operations within the Center East, has additionally carried out an investigation into the Islamic State assault that killed the 13 US troops and dozens of Afghans throughout the previous couple of days of the withdrawal.
Right here is the clip of the Democratic senator Tim Kaine clashing with the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, over the Trump administration’s extremely controversial transfer to confess 49 white South Africans to the US as “refugees”.
And right here’s my colleague Robert Tait’s story:
Marco Rubio says the variety of US visas he has revoked might be within the hundreds
The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, advised the Senate international relations committee that the variety of visas he has revoked was “in all probability within the hundreds”, including that he believed there was nonetheless extra to do.
I don’t know the most recent depend, however we in all probability have extra to do. A visa is just not a proper, it’s a privilege.
Kristi Noem fails to state right definition of habeas corpus
Earlier this morning, the Division of Homeland Safety secretary, Kristi Noem, couldn’t accurately state what habeas corpus is when pressed to outline the idea by the Democratic US senator Maggie Hassan.
Requested what habeas corpus is, Noem claimed it’s “a constitutional proper that the president has to have the ability to take away folks from this nation and droop their proper to –”.
As Hassan acknowledged, habeas corpus is the precept that the federal government should present a public motive for detaining and imprisoning folks.
Noem went on to say she supported the constitutional proper of the president to droop habeas corpus however, as Hassan factors out, that has by no means been accomplished with out the approval of Congress.
Right here’s the very painful clip.
HASSAN: What’s habeas corpus?
NOEM: Habeas corpus is a constitutional proper that the president has to have the ability to take away folks from this nation
HASSAN: That is incorrect pic.twitter.com/ozRVVfdSoP
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) Might 20, 2025
Fired federal staff stage sit-in on Home-side Capitol steps
In an effort to strain members of Congress to do extra to reign in Doge’s “dangerous and unlawful cuts to federal packages”, a gaggle of fired federal staff are sitting in on the Home-side steps of the US Capitol.
Based on the Fork Off Coalition, the group consists of “federal workers illegally terminated by Doge; contractors on cancelled federal contracts; and different staff harmed by Doge”.
‘The times of woke are over’: Trump defends McIver costs
Earlier this morning, Donald Trump defended the justice division’s determination to cost the Democratic consultant LaMonica McIver of New Jersey for allegedly assaulting regulation enforcement officers earlier this month.
McIver faces a felony assault cost over a bodily confrontation with Ice officers outdoors an immigrant detention facility in New Jersey.
Pushing again on Democratic accusations that the Trump administration is pursuing costs for political functions, the president alleged to reporters on Capitol Hill that McIver was “uncontrolled”.
He added:
These days are over. The times of woke are over. That girl – I don’t know who she is – was uncontrolled. The times of that crap are over. We’re going to have regulation and order.
Politico writes: “The legal criticism filed in US district courtroom in Newark alleges McIver ‘slammed her forearm’ into one agent and ‘forcibly’ grabbed him. The Democratic congressmember can be accused of utilizing ‘every of her forearms to forcibly strike’ one other officer, in accordance with the criticism, which incorporates a number of photographs from video cameras worn by officers, in addition to others mounted outdoors the power.”
McIver and different Democratic politicians went to the Delany Corridor detection middle in Newark to protest its use to accommodate immigrants, accusing the non-public jail firm working the power of missing the right permits.
McIver has mentioned she was the one who was assaulted by regulation enforcement as they arrested Newark mayor Ras Baraka.
Marco Rubio defends Trump administration’s admission of white Afrikaners as ‘refugees’

Robert Tait
The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, defended the Trump administration’s determination to admit 49 white Afrikaners from South Africa as refugees after Hillary Clinton’s former operating mate, Tim Kaine, claimed they have been getting preferential remedy due to their pores and skin color.
Kaine, a Democratic senator from Virginia, challenged Rubio to justify prioritising the Afrikaners whereas cancelling long-standing refugee programmes for different teams which were extra documented as victims of battle or persecution.
The conflict between the 2 males was Rubio’s most combative alternate in his first look earlier than the Senate international relations committee since his unanimous approval by senators in affirmation listening to in January.
“Proper now, the US refugee program permits a particular program for Afrikaner farmers, the primary group of whom arrived at Dulles airport in Virginia not way back, whereas shutting off the refugee program for everybody else,” mentioned Kaine.
Do you suppose Afrikaner farmers are essentially the most persecuted group on the planet?
In response, Rubio mentioned:
I feel these 49 people who got here absolutely felt they have been persecuted, they usually’ve handed each form of verify mark that needed to be checked off by way of assembly their necessities for that. They reside in a rustic the place farms are taken, the land is taken, on a racial foundation.
Trump has falsely asserted that white farmers in South Africa are present process a “genocide”.
Kaine requested why Afrikaners have been extra essential than the Uyghurs or Rohingyas, who’ve confronted intense persecution in China and Myanmar respectively, and cited the circumstances of political dissidents in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, in addition to Afghans below the Taliban.
“The issue we face there’s the quantity downside,” Rubio mentioned.
If you happen to take a look at all of the persecuted folks of the world, it’s hundreds of thousands of individuals. They’ll’t all come right here.
Requested why Afrikaners have been a particular case, he mentioned:
As a result of it’s a small subset, it’s a brand new difficulty, and the president recognized it as an issue and wished to make use of it for example. However that’s totally different from having these refugee packages that have been mainly spending cash to place folks up in communities and accommodate them, and it was appearing as a magnet to hundreds of thousands of individuals.
Kaine referred to as the claims of persecution towards Afrikaner farmers “fully specious” and pointed to the existence of Afrikaner ministers in South Africa’s coalition authorities, together with the minister for agriculture.
He additionally contrasted the present refugee designation of Afrikaners with the absence of such a programme for the nation’s Black majority in the course of the apartheid period.
“There by no means has been a particular programme for Africans to come back in as refugees to the US,” Kaine mentioned, declaring that particular classes have been allowed for folks being persecuted for spiritual causes below communist regimes. “[But] we’ve by no means allowed a particular program to permit Africans into the US in an expedited refugee standing till now,” he mentioned, “Afrikaner farmers residing in a nation ruled by a authorities of nationwide unity that features the principle Afrikaner get together.”
Referring to the US statutory customary of recognising a refugee declare as being a “well-justified concern of persecution”, Kaine requested:
Ought to that be utilized in an evenhanded approach? For instance, ought to we are saying in case you’re persecuted on the grounds of your faith, we’ll allow you to in in case you’re a Christian however not a Muslim?
Rubio replied that US international coverage didn’t require evenhandedness, including:
America has a proper to permit into this nation and prioritise allowance of who they wish to enable to come back in. We’re going to prioritise folks coming into our nation on the premise of what’s within the pursuits of this nation. That’s a small variety of folks which can be coming.
Kaine responded: “So you’ve a special customary primarily based on the colour of anyone’s pores and skin. Would that be acceptable?”
Rubio replied:
You’re the one speaking concerning the color of their pores and skin, not me.
Dharna Noor
Trump’s finances cancels billions of {dollars} in infrastructure investments, environmental packages, analysis grants, and renewable power. Maine consultant Chellie Marie Pingree on Tuesday mentioned this is able to quantity to “successfully gutting this crucial this crucial sector”.
“This disregards the local weather change issues that now we have,” she mentioned to inside secretary Doug Burgum at a Home committee listening to.
Scientists have lengthy warned that world leaders should urgently part out fossil fuels and increase inexperienced expertise to avert the more severe attainable penalties of the local weather disaster. However Burgum mentioned that isn’t the menace the Trump administration is apprehensive about.
“The existential threats that this administrations is specializing in are: Iran can’t get a nuclear weapon, and we will’t lose the AI arms race to China,” he mentioned. “That’s the primary and quantity two. And if we clear up these two issues, then we, then we’ll, we may have loads of time to unravel any points associated to, you realize, potential temperature change.
Oklahoma’s Tom Cole, the chair of the committee, claimed Biden’s “misnamed inflation Discount Act and the American Rescue Plan” each “ignited the worst inflation outburst in 40 years.” These insurance policies seemingly resulted in Trump’s re-election, he claimed.
However analysis reveals that inflation dropped after the passage of the Inflation Discount Act, and that it enjoys widespread help.
Trump administration ‘making mockery’ of US refugee course of by granting asylum to Afrikaners, says senator Chris Van Hollen

Faisal Ali
US senator Chris Van Hollen has accused the Trump administration of “making a mockery” of the US refugee course of, turning it right into a system of “international apartheid” by granting asylum standing to white Afrikaners, whereas turning away refugees from war-torn nations, together with Sudan, the place he mentioned a genocide is at present unfolding.
The primary group of 59 Afrikaners started arriving within the US final week after Trump claimed the Afrikaners have been victims of “unjust racial discrimination” and granted them asylum standing. The transfer comes because the US has lifted authorized protections within the US for refugees from many battle torn nations.
Talking in a Senate international relations committee listening to, Van Hollen, a Democrat, mentioned he had voted to verify Marco Rubio as a result of he believed the secretary of state would defend democracy and human rights overseas — however mentioned that he had “accomplished the alternative”.
Van Hollen contrasted the choice by the Trump administration to dismantle nearly all of USAID’s international help packages with the choice to permit Afrikaners to say asylum within the US, calling it “despicable”.
You attempt to block the admission of people that have already been authorised as refugees, whereas making bogus claims to justify such standing to Afrikaners. You’ve made a mockery of our nation’s refugee course of turning it right into a system of worldwide apartheid.
Senate confirms Charles Kushner – father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared – as ambassador to France
Michael Sainato
Charles Kushner, the daddy of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared, has secured US Senate affirmation to function the nation’s ambassador to France.
The elder Kushner’s affirmation late on Monday got here a bit greater than 4 years after Trump, throughout his first presidency, pardoned him from his conviction on costs of tax evasion and different federal crimes.
Cory Booker of New Jersey was the one Democratic senator to vote in help of the nomination. His vote got here after Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump – his spouse and the president’s daughter – held a fundraiser for Booker as he efficiently ran for the Senate in 2013.
Lisa Murkowski of Alaska defected from her fellow Senate Republicans to vote towards Charles Kushner’s appointment to the French ambassadorship, although that didn’t impede him from being confirmed by a 51-45 vote.
Kushner had been requested about his crimes throughout his affirmation listening to earlier than the Senate international relations committee.
He pleaded responsible in 2005 to 18 costs that included tax evasion, retaliating towards a federal witness and making false statements to the Federal Election Fee. The witness tampering cost concerned his hiring a intercourse employee to seduce his brother-in-law, who was cooperating with federal authorities. Kushner organized to secretly document the encounter between the intercourse employee and his brother-in-law after which ship the footage to his sister, the opposite man’s spouse.
Trump pardoned Kushner for these crimes in December 2020 after Joe Biden had defeated him in that yr’s election.
“My misjudgment and mistake was over 20 years in the past,” Kushner mentioned. “Since then, I’ve been pardoned by President Trump. However I don’t sit right here earlier than you at present and inform you I’m an ideal particular person. I’m not an ideal particular person. I made a really very, very critical mistake, and I paid a really heavy value for that mistake.”
America has expressed to the United Arab Emirates and different nations that they’re turning the battle in Sudan right into a proxy battle, secretary of state Marco Rubio advised the Senate international relations committee earlier.
Rubio additionally mentioned that Washington wished to nominate a particular envoy for Sudan however wanted to seek out the appropriate particular person.
RFK Jr says ‘Make America Well being Once more’ report popping out on Thursday
Robert F Kennedy Jr mentioned earlier that the MAHA fee report Donald Trump tasked him producing would come out on Thursday.
Trump signed an govt order to ascertain a fee to “Make America Wholesome Once more,” throughout Kennedy’s swearing in ceremony on 13 February and tasked it with investigating continual sickness and delivering an motion plan to battle childhood illnesses, beginning with a report due inside 100 days.
“You’ll see the report. It’s going to be launched on Thursday. Everyone will see the report,” Kennedy advised the Senate appropriations committee listening to in response to questions concerning the contents of the report and its influence on agriculture.
Trump seems to have did not get Republican holdouts behind his tax invoice
Earlier at present, Donald Trump pressed Republicans in Congress to unite behind his sweeping tax-cut invoice, however – regardless of his very optimistic entrance – apparently did not persuade a handful of holdouts who may nonetheless block a package deal that encompasses a lot of his home agenda.
In a closed-door assembly on Capitol Hill, Trump bluntly warned Republicans within the Home of Representatives to not press for additional modifications to the sprawling invoice, which might reduce taxes and tighten eligibility for the Medicaid well being program.
He strongly cautioned towards additional plans to make it harder for folks to entry Medicaid, a program for low-income People. One particular person within the room advised Reuters Trump advised the holdouts:
Don’t fuck round with Medicaid.
He additionally discouraged Republicans from searching for additional carve-outs for state and native tax funds (SALT) – a distinct segment difficulty that’s particularly essential for reasonable Republicans in high-tax states like California and New York.
However Trump did not persuade some lawmakers who’re pushing for these provisions.
“The president I don’t suppose satisfied sufficient people who the invoice is sufficient the way in which it’s,” mentioned Republican consultant Andy Harris of Maryland, who leads the hard-right Home Freedom Caucus and has been pushing for additional Medicaid cuts.
Republican consultant Mike Lawler, a New York reasonable who’s pushing to lift limits on deductions for state and native tax funds, likewise mentioned Trump didn’t change his thoughts.
Because it stands proper now, I don’t help the invoice.
After the assembly, Trump predicted the package deal would in the end move the Home, which Republicans management by a slender majority of 220-213. “It was a gathering of affection,” he mentioned. He didn’t deal with Harris’ issues.
Freedom Caucus members have been pushing for brand spanking new work necessities on some Medicaid recipients to kick in sooner than is deliberate for 2029. However centrists have fought to guard this system, warning that steep cuts may imperil their majority within the 2026 congressional elections.
Trump mentioned afterward the invoice would remove “waste, fraud and abuse” in Medicaid however wouldn’t trigger folks to lose protection.
Trump is urgent for each Home Republican to vote for the invoice, in accordance with a White Home official. As he arrived on the Capitol, Trump mentioned Republican lawmakers who vote towards it may “probably” face a main problem in subsequent yr’s congressional elections.