Donald Trump

Subterms

    More stories

    • 163 Shares15 Views

      in US Politics

      ‘My vote is my voice’: protesters fight for democracy as Trump casts shadow

      by

      Wearing a T-shirt proclaiming “We won’t Black down”, Wanda Mosley had made the trip from Atlanta. “I had to be here because the Voting Rights Act is on life support,” the 55-year-old explained. “Today the court will synthesise the arguments and decide if they’re going to kill it – or allow it to live.”Mosley was among a few hundred protesters who gathered in warm October sunshine outside the supreme court on Wednesday. Inside the building, whose facade was obscured by scaffolding, justices were weighing arguments in a case involving Louisiana electoral districts and section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.From afar, it might seem like a dry debate over an arcane law enacted by Congress half a century ago. But to those gathered at the court steps, most of whom were Black, there was a palpable consciousness that the legacy of civil rights giants such as Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King and John Lewis was on the line.Speakers noted that the Voting Rights Act had been a landmark law intended to prevent racial discrimination in voting. Undercutting it would reverse decades of progress.People held aloft signs that said “Black voters matter”, “Build Black political power”, “Fight for fair maps”, “Fight like hell!”, “It’s about us”, “My vote is my voice”, “Protect people, not power”. One said, “Protect our vote” around a photo of Lewis, the Georgia congressman who died five years ago.Donald Trump cast a shadow. An African American man waved a black-and-white flag that declared: “Fuck Trump and fuck you for voting for him.” A white woman carried a sign with a mocking cartoon image of the president and the slogan: “Trump’s afraid of free and fair elections.”Another held a sign that referenced Marshall, the first African American supreme court justice, and current justice Clarence Thomas, a conservative who is also African American. “Thurgood is watching you, Clarence,” it said. The back of the sign added: “Stop legalizing Trump’s race war.”There were chants of “Power to the people” and “We shall not be moved”. Songs including Sam Cooke’s A Change Is Gonna Come, Common and John Legend’s Glory and Jill Scott’s Golden boomed from loudspeakers.Cliff Albright, a co-founder of Black Voters Matter, admitted mixed feelings to the crowd: “There’s a part of me that gets sad at the impending death of this thing that has meant so much. I feel that sadness. There’s a part of me that feels weak, that feels small as I stand outside this huge building with so much history.”But Albright also insisted on hope, referencing Lewis’s role in the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965, where he led peaceful protesters across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. “When we believe, we got the power to move mountains, we got the power to cross the bridge in a city called Selma and changed the course of history.“We got the power to make good trouble and we’ve got the power to move this court. This court ain’t nothing but another mountain for us to move. We’ve got that kind of power but we’ve got to believe, y’all.”A great cheer went up when Janai Nelson, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, who had been arguing on behalf of a group of Black voters, emerged from the court building and descended the steps that have witnessed many past triumphs. Two white women in police uniform and sunglasses looked on.Nelson struck an optimistic tone, telling the gathering: “We believe in the future of this multiracial democracy. We believe that, no matter what assaults and attacks we are currently facing, the right to vote is still the lifeblood of our democracy and that it must be protected at all costs.“And we know that the law is on our side. We know that if these justices follow their own words, we will prevail in this case and so that is the argument that we made today.”Speakers framed the legal fight as the latest chapter in a long, generational struggle for civil rights, frequently invoking the movement’s heroes.Terri Sewell, a Democratic congresswoman who represents Alabama’s seventh congressional district, which includes her home town of Selma, said: “I want to remind all of you of what John Lewis said on his very last time on that bridge in Selma.“John’s body was riddled with cancer but he stood up tall and strong at the apex of that bridge and he said with a very strong voice: ‘Never give up. Never give in. Keep the faith and let’s keep our eyes on the prize.’”Alanah Odoms, executive director of the ACLU of Louisiana, cited King’s “promissory note” analogy from the March on Washington, stating that “America had defaulted on that promise” and that generations later the question remains: “When will this country make good on what it put down on paper?”As the crowd dispersed, Mosley, the activist from Atlanta, lingered a while and reflected on why she had come. “It’s frustrating because I’m as American as anybody else,” she said. “I’m a descendant of enslaved Africans that literally built this country.“I deserve to have unfettered rights to vote, and I deserve to have representation that lives in my neighborhood, that comes from my community and knows what our community needs. And we’ll fight for those things.” More

    • 150 Shares18 Views

      in Elections

      Jack Smith hits back at claims that Trump prosecutions were politically motivated

      by

      In a rare interview former justice department special counsel Jack Smith has hit back against accusations that the federal prosecutions of Donald Trump he oversaw were politically motivated, calling the claims “absolutely ludicrous”.Speaking with former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann at the UK’s University College London in an interview last week, Smith defended the integrity of the criminal investigations he led and his work as special counsel in the Biden administration.“The idea that politics played a role in who worked on that case, or who got chosen, is ludicrous,” Smith said in the interview which was posted online on Tuesday.Smith led two federal investigations that resulted in unprecedented indictments against a former president, when Trump was charged in 2023 – one case concerning his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and the other involving his handling of classified materials after leaving office and the obstruction of government efforts to retrieve them. Trump pleaded not guilty in both cases and denied any wrongdoing.Both cases were dismissed following Trump’s re-election in 2024, consistent with a justice department policy barring indictment of a sitting president, which Trump became again in January 2025.Smith, who resigned from the justice department in January, said in the interview that his special counsel team had acted independently and were not interested in politics.“Those people I brought in were all former longtime, former federal prosecutors who had worked in both Republican and Democratic administrations over and over again,” he said. “These are team players who don’t want to do anything but good in the world. They’re not interested in politics.“I get very concerned when I see how easy it is to demonize these people for political ends when these are the very sort of people I think we should be celebrating,” he added. “The idea that politics would play a role in big cases like this, it’s absolutely ludicrous and it’s totally contrary to my experience as a prosecutor.”When describing the actions of the current justice department under Trump, Smith said that “nothing like what we see now has ever gone on.”He pointed to the department’s dismissal of a federal corruption case against Eric Adams, New York City’s mayor.“This case in New York City, where the case against the mayor was dismissed in the hopes that he would support the president’s political agenda,” Smith said. “I mean, just so you know, nothing like it has ever happened that I’ve ever heard of.”He also criticized the recent indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, who has been charged with one count of making a false statement to Congress and one count of obstruction of a congressional proceeding, which he denies.“This latest prosecution of the former director of the FBI,” Smith said, “just reeks of lack of process.”“Process shouldn’t be a political issue,” Smith said. “If there’s rules in the department about how to bring a case, follow those rules, you can’t say, ‘I want this outcome, let me throw the rules out’.”Smith said that the firings and attacks on public servants, “particularly nonpartisan public servants” has a “cost for our country that is incalculable” adding that “it’s hard to communicate to folks how much that is going to cost us.”“If you think getting rid of the people who know most about national security is going to make our country safer, you do not know anything about national security,” he said. “And that’s happening throughout the department – it makes me concerned.”Smith also noted how some career prosecutors have left the justice department.“They’re being asked to do things that they think are wrong and because they are not political people, they’re not going to do them,” Smith said. “And I think that explains why you’ve seen the resignations you’ve seen.”The White House and Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian.In a statement to NBC, the White House said: “The Trump Administration will continue to deliver the truth to the American people while restoring integrity and accountability to our justice system.”Meanwhile, on Tuesday, House Republicans requested that Smith testify about what they described as his “partisan and politically motivated prosecutions” of Trump. More

    • 150 Shares30 Views

      in US Politics

      US revokes six foreigners’ visas over social media comments criticizing Charlie Kirk

      by

      Donald Trump’s US state department said on Tuesday it had revoked the visas of six foreigners over social media comments made about the assassination of rightwing activist Charlie Kirk.“The United States has no obligation to host foreigners who wish death on Americans,” the state department said in a statement posted on X. “The State Department continues to identify visa holders who celebrated the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk.”The state department then listed six “examples of aliens who are no longer welcome in the US” in a thread on the social media platform owned by Elon Musk, the Trump donor who called himself “a free speech absolutist” before buying the site formerly known as Twitter.The thread included screenshots and quotes from people identified as foreign nationals of Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Mexico, Paraguay and South Africa.None of the individuals was identified by name, but the screenshots made it possible to trace the identities of two people, including one who had been singled out for abuse by conservatives on X.“Charlie Kirk won’t be remembered as a hero,” one of the comments posted on X read. “He was used to astroturf a movement of white nationalist trailer trash!”The thread ended with a statement from the state department that Trump and the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, “will defend our borders, our culture, and our citizens by enforcing our immigration laws. Aliens who take advantage of America’s hospitality while celebrating the assassination of our citizens will be removed.”Last month, a deputy secretary of state, Christopher Landau, urged social media users to send him posts critical of Kirk, saying he was “disgusted to see some on social media praising, rationalizing, or making light of the event, and have directed our consular officials to undertake appropriate action”.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe administration has previously ramped up efforts to identify and potentially expel thousands of foreign students it accuses of participating in unrest in the form of protests against Israel’s mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. The administration has also required foreign visitors to make their social media accounts public so that they can be checked before they are allowed to enter the land of the free.In recent months, the administration has expelled South Africa’s ambassador to the US for comments critical of Trump, revoked a visa for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York and cancelled visas of the visas for British punk-rap duo Bob Vylan.The government has also said it is reviewing the status of the more than 55 million holders of visas to enter the US for potential violations of its standards.Those actions have been criticized by civil rights groups as blatant violations of constitutional protections for freedom of speech, which apply to anyone in the US, not just citizens. More

    • 225 Shares18 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump news at a glance: Administration will produce list of ‘Democrat programs’ to be closed due to shutdown

      by

      Donald Trump has said his administration is planning to produce a list on Friday of “Democrat programs” that will be closed as a result of the ongoing federal government shutdown, after the Senate failed in its eighth attempt to pass legislation that would end the impasse.He did not specify the programs but indicated to reporters at the White House on Tuesday that the closures would be permanent.The number of US federal worker laid off as a result of the shutdown was put at 4,108, according to a statement filed in court by the department of justice.Since 1981, the US has had 15 federal government shutdowns that furloughed hundreds of thousands of workers, however no president until now has sought to use a shutdown as the basis for large-scale firings. The dismissals are expected to disrupt government operations, including disease outbreak investigations.Johnson refuses bipartisan negotiations as US shutdown drags onThe top House Republican said he won’t negotiate with Senate Democrats as the government shutdown dragged into its 14th day on Tuesday, while defending the Trump administration’s decision to shuffle Pentagon funds to make sure military personnel get their paychecks.Read the full storyTrump awards Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of FreedomDonald Trump posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States, to the assassinated far-right commentator Charlie Kirk at the White House on Tuesday.Read the full storySix killed in US strike on another boat near VenezuelaDonald Trump announced on Tuesday that the United States has struck another small boat that he accused of carrying drugs in waters off the coast of Venezuela, killing six people aboard.Read the full storyUS revokes visas of at least 50 Mexican officialsThe US government has revoked the visas of at least 50 politicians and government officials in Mexico amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on drug cartels and their suspected political allies, according to two Mexican officials.Read the full storyTrump floats removing World Cup and Olympics from blue cities Donald Trump has again said he’d pressure Fifa to remove 2026 World Cup games from a host city on the basis of that city’s politics, with Boston becoming the third such city to come in for threats from the US president. Trump also said he would consider similar action against Los Angeles for the 2028 Olympics on account of potential safety issues.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      Republican leaders in North Carolina said they will redraw their state’s congressional maps to add another Republican seat before the 2026 midterms.

      The far-right US congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is further distancing herself from her fellow Republicans and accusing men in her party of being “weak”.

      Trump warned he could cut financial aid to Argentina if his ally Javier Milei loses crucial legislative elections later this month.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened on 13 October 2025. More

    • 213 Shares28 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump calls Charlie Kirk a martyr and boasts about 2024 election at posthumous medal ceremony – live

      by

      Donald Trump just presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Charlie Kirk’s distraught, tearful widow, Erika Kirk.Erika Kirk then made remarks from the podium, telling Turning Point USA members that her husband’s mission lives on through them.Erika Kirk delivered an emotional speech, at times dabbing her eyes with a handkerchief, as Trump stood to her right.She said: “I have spent seven and a half years trying to find the perfect birthday gift for Charlie… But now I can say with confidence, Mr President, that you have given him the best birthday gift he could ever have.”The pair then spoke quietly for some moments as a band began to play Amazing Grace.The White House ceremony in honor of Charlie Kirk has now concluded.At a campaign event last year, Donald Trump said that the Presidential Medal of Freedom for civilians, which he bestowed on Kirk on Tuesday, was “much better” than the top military award for those killed or wounded in action: the Medal of Honor.Trump was widely criticized for that comment, made as he addressed Miriam Adelson, the widow of the Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson. Trump had awarded Miriam Adelson the Medal of Freedom in 2018.The civilian medal, Trump told supporters then, is “actually much better because everyone [who] gets the congressional Medal of Honor, they’re soldiers.”“They’re either in very bad shape because they’ve been hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead. She gets it, and she’s a healthy, beautiful woman. And they’re rated equal.”Charlie Kirk is not the first to receive the medal from Trump posthumously. During his first term, he gave it to Babe Ruth, Elvis Presley and Antonin Scalia.In 2020, Trump also presented the medal to the rightwing radio host Rush Limbaugh during a State of the Union address.In his speech at the memorial for Kirk in Arizona last month, Trump revealed that Limbaugh was one of Kirk’s role models. “He was an Eagle scout who spent his school lunch breaks listening to another champion for liberty, somebody that he greatly admired, Rush Limbaugh,” Trump said.“Charlie Kirk was one of a kind. He was unstoppable… He’s irreplaceable. Nobody can replace him,” Donald Trump said in his remarks.“In Charlie’s honour we will continue to fight, fight, fight and win, win, win.”A military officer then read Kirk’s citation for the presidential medal of freedom.Kirk’s widow Erika thanked Trump and said: “Charlie always admired your commitment to freedom.”In remarks at the White House, Charlie Kirk’s widow praised her late husband in explicitly Christian terms and said that he would likely have run for president one day had he not been killed before his 32nd birthday.“If the moment had come, he probably would’ve run for president, but not out of ambition,” Erika Kirk said.In paying tribute to Kirk, Trump railed against “radical left extremism, violence and terror.”He asserted: “They have the devil’s ideology… They seem to become very violent on the left.”Trump claimed these attacks included the attempt on his own life at a campaign rally last year, even though the would-be assassin had no apparent political motive.The president went on tout his law and order crackdown on US cities. “We’ve done a great job.”He said of Washington: “We’re done with the angry mobs.” He claimed the city is now safe.But then police car sirens wailed near the White House. Trump, however, insisted: “That’s a beautiful sound. They’re stopping crime. That’s what they’re doing.”Donald Trump just presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Charlie Kirk’s distraught, tearful widow, Erika Kirk.Erika Kirk then made remarks from the podium, telling Turning Point USA members that her husband’s mission lives on through them.As Donald Trump boasted about the impact of his federal takeover of policing in the District of Columbia, blaring sirens could be heard in the distance, undermining his claim that there is no longer any crime in the capital city.Trump then claimed, falsely, that sirens were previously not heard in Washington DC because the city’s police force did not respond to crime.“You hear those sirens going off? That’s good, that’s a good sound,” the president said. “That means they either got the bad guy, or are gonna stop the bad guy. You didn’t hear that sound, because nobody wanted to do anything.”“Charlie Kirk was a martyr for truth and freedom,” Donald Trump just said in the Rose Garden. “From Socrates and St Peter, from Abraham Lincoln to Martin Luther King, those who change history the most, and he really did, have always risked their lives for causes they were put on earth to defend.”In the course of praising Charlie Kirk for his efforts to turn out conservative voters, Donald Trump boasted at length about his victory in the 2024 presidential election, repeating his familiar exaggerated claims that his popular vote victory “was massive”.Trump in fact got about 77.3 million votes, or 49.81%, to Kamala Harris’ 75 million votes, or 48.33% — a 1.48-point margin.From my vantage point at the back, I saw Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity greet each other warmly. Laura Ingraham, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Spicer and Jesse Watters are also present.Reflecting on Kirk’s death, Trump said: “It’s a horrible, heinous, demonic act of murder.”The president, who just returned from the Middle East, noted the inconvenient timing of today’s event but insisted: “I would not have missed this moment for anything in the world.”Guests are sitting or standing in warm sunshine and a gentle breeze as Trump speaks from a lectern with four US flags behind him.Recent additions to the rose garden and surrounding area include a statue of George Washington, bust of Abraham Lincoln and gold framed portraits of every president except Joe Biden, replaced by an auto pen.Trump referred to the government shutdown and commented: “We’re dealing with some radical left lunatics.”He suggested that Kirk would have responded by organising a young people’s march on the US Capitol.Trump said: “Charles James Kirk was a visionary and one of the greatest leaders of his generation.”The president seemed to be telling Kirk’s life story but veered off into talking about his past election campaigns. “Too big to rig.”Donald Trump has arrived for Charlie Kirk’s posthumous presidential medal of freedom ceremony, which is taking place in the Rose Garden at the White House.Trump walked out of the Oval Office with Charlie Kirk’s widow Erica.The guests here include JD Vance, treasury secretary Scott Bessent, commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, attorney general Pam Bondi and defense secretary Pete Hegseth.Also here are top Trumpworld operatives who were close to Kirk, including lobbyist Arthur Schwartz, former Trump deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich and Alex Bruesewitz.Donald Trump just began his remarks by praising his own renovation of what he called “the new and improved Rose Garden, and people are loving it”. He also drew attention to the new “presidential walk of fame”, which is a gallery of portraits of 44 of the 45 men to have served as president, with an image of an automatic pen in place of Joe Biden.Trump said that they were gathered to honor “the late, great Charlie Kirk”, the founder of the conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA he is awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America’s highest civilian honor.The president took issue with the characterization of Kirk at his memorial in Arizona as someone who loved his enemies. “He didn’t necessarily love those enemies”, Trump said.Trump also suggested that he would have asked to push back the ceremony so that he could stay longer in the Middle East with the wealthy leaders of Gulf nations, but “October 14 is Charlie’s birthday, and he should have been turning 32 years old”.The president went on to give a largely familiar political speech, attacking Democrats as “radical left lunatics” and making jokes about the ABC host George Stephanopoulos, whose name he intentionally mispronounced.Trump also suggested that the current government shutdown would have been ended by Kirk, had he not been killed last month in Utah, who would have led “a march on the Capitol.”Guests have assembled in the new Mar-a-Lago style patio in the White House Rose Garden for the Medal of Freedom ceremony to honor Charlie Kirk, the murdered conservative activist and podcaster.The guests include Kirk’s widow, Erika, and current or former Fox hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Bill O’Reilly and Jesse Watters.Also there is Jack Posobiec, a conspiracy theorist who hosts a show on the far-right Real America’s Voice network sponsored by Turning Point USA, the advocacy group founded by Kirk.The are currently listening to a rendition of Ave Maria as they await the president, Donald Trump.

      Donald Trump said that a list of ‘Democrat programs’ that White House plans to cut will be released on Friday. He noted that he plans to cut “egregious, semi-communist” programs that, he claims, Democrats hold dear, but doesn’t plan to touch Republican programs, “because we think they work”. While hosting Javier Milei, president of Argentina, Trump took questions from reporters, in what became a far-ranging, impromptu press conference.

      Trump warned that Hamas must disarm ‘or we will disarm them’. Trump added that could happen “quickly and perhaps violently”. When he was asked about a timeline for disarmament, the president said that it would be “a reasonable period of time … pretty quickly”. So far, Trump has been taking a victory lap, complete with bipartisan praise, for brokering the hostage-prisoner exchange on Monday, and the ceasefire deal in Gaza.

      Earlier, Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that the United States has struck another small boat that he accuses of carrying drugs in waters off the coast of Venezuala, killing six people aboard. “The strike was conducted in International Waters, and six male narcoterrorists aboard the vessel were killed in the strike,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “No U.S. Forces were harmed.”

      Back in Washington, the government shutdown enters its 14th day, with no end in sight. House Republicans continued to criticize the Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, who they accuse of holding out on the House-passed funding bill to appease the left-wing base of his party. “We’re certainly not going to allow the American people to be taken hostage for his political gain,” House speaker Mike Johnson said today. Meanwhile Democrats, claim their colleagues across the aisle have abandoned good faith negotiations. House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries said that Republicans have gone “radio silent” since congressional leadership met with Trump at the White House days before the shutdown began. The Senate will hold its eighth vote, in the hopes of passing a funding bill to reopen the government. Spoiler alert: it’s unlikely to happen.

      The supreme court declined to hear Alex Jones’s challenge to a $1.4bn judgment awarded to families of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in 2012. Jones, a noted conspiracy theorist and founder of Infowars, made several false statements that the shooting – which killed 20 children – was a hoax.

      On the campaign trail, Maine’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills, has officially announced that she’s running for US Senate, challenging the incumbent, Republican Susan Collins. Mills, 77, will face a primary challenge from Graham Platner, the progressive oyster farmer entering politics for the first time and backed by Independent senator Bernie Sanders, of Vermont.
      Speaking to reporters while hosting Argentina’s president, Donald Trump said that he plans to cut “egregious, semi-communist” programs that, he claims, Democrats hold dear.“They’re never going to come back,” Trump said. “The Democrats are getting killed, and we’re going to have a list of them on Friday.”“We’re not closing up Republican programs because we think they work. So the Democrats are getting killed, but they’re not telling the people about that,” he added.Donald Trump floated taking away Boston’s ability to host several 2026 World Cup matches, calling out mayor Michelle Wu. “She’s intelligent, but she’s radical left,” Trump said, while offering to send federal law enforcement to the city. “All she has to do is call us. We’ll go in and take them back. But she’s afraid to, because she thinks it’s bad politically.”Trump added that if he feels that the city is “unsafe” he will “call up Gianni” and tell him to move the games to another location. Gianni Infantino, the head of Fifa, has emerged as an ally of the president as the games inch closer.“Boston better clean up their act, that’s all I can say,” Trump said. More

    • 125 Shares22 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump posthumously awards Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom

      by

      Donald Trump posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States, to the assassinated far-right commentator Charlie Kirk at the White House on Tuesday.Kirk, who was shot at an event at Utah Valley University in September, was among the most significant rightwing activists in the modern political era, galvanizing a younger generation of conservatives to engage in politics and support Trump’s candidacy ahead of the 2024 election.But Kirk was also polarizing through his rhetoric, which often criticized gay and transgender rights. He made suggestions that the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a “mistake”. Some critics have argued tributes to him elevated extremist views that stoked division.The ceremony for Kirk was held on what would have been his 32nd birthday. Kirk’s widow, Erika, accepted the award on her husband’s behalf.Trump returned to the US early Tuesday morning in time for the event after an impromptu trip to Israel and Egypt to take a victory lap after Israel and Hamas agreed to an initial ceasefire deal last week.The Presidential Medal of Freedom was first awarded in 1963. Previous recipients have included Audrey Hepburn, Milton Friedman, Walter Cronkite and Edward Kennedy. Trump has often conferred it to his supporters, like Rush Limbaugh, and last month said he would award it to Rudy Giuliani, his former personal lawyer.Kirk became a key ally to Trump through his organization Turning Point USA and its various offshoots, including Turning Point Action, which in effect ran the ground game operation for the Trump campaign in the key battleground state of Arizona, which Trump won.His introduction to Trumpworld came around a decade earlier. In the early days of Trump’s 2016 campaign, Kirk scored a meeting at Trump Tower and offered advice to Don Jr on how to attract young voters.That meeting got Kirk hired on the spot as Don Jr’s personal campaign assistant, but Kirk’s closeness with Trump grew in the wake of the 2020 election when he became a leading voice in pushing baseless claims that the election had been stolen.Kirk was also one of the few political operatives who stuck by Trump when he was in exile at Mar-a-Lago after the January 6 Capitol riot, which Trump remembered as a notable display of personal loyalty at one of the lowest points for the president.During the 2022 midterms cycle, Kirk encouraged Trump to endorse JD Vance’s Senate campaign – and then two years later urged Trump and Don Jr to select Vance as running mate before the 2024 Republican national convention. After his death, Vance accompanied Kirk’s casket to Arizona on Air Force Two. More

    • 150 Shares34 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump threatens to cut US aid to Argentina if Milei loses election

      by

      Donald Trump has warned he could cut financial aid to Argentina if his ally Javier Milei loses crucial legislative elections later this month.“If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina,” the US president said as Milei visited the White House to seek the Republican’s political and economic support. “I’m with this man because his philosophy is correct. And he may win and he may not win – I think he’s going to win. And if he wins we are staying with him, and if he doesn’t win we are gone.”Trump’s administration has already promised $20bn to prop up Argentina’s struggling economy but his backing has failed to calm the markets – or help Milei’s polling before midterms on 26 October.The results of the elections, in which Milei’s minority party is hoping to boost its seat tally, will dictate whether he can pass tough cost-cutting reforms or will face a legislative brick wall for the next two years of his term.Hailing Milei as a “great leader”, Trump said he would “fully endorse” his ideological ally in the elections. “He’s Maga all the way, it’s ‘Make Argentina Great Again,’” he added.Trump has, however, faced questions about how a big bailout for Argentina tallies with that same “America First” policy. Asked by reporters what the benefit to the United States was, Trump replied: “We are helping a great philosophy take over a great country. We want to see it succeed.”With Argentina struggling to stave off yet another financial crisis and Milei’s disapproval ratings rising, the country’s president has come to his rightwing ally Trump for help.Trump has repeatedly voiced political support for Milei, while backing it up with a promise of huge economic aid, but the markets remain spooked by Argentina. In recent weeks, the highly indebted country has had to spend more than $1bn to defend the peso, a strategy most economists believe is unsustainable.That prompted Milei’s allies in Washington to step in with a financial bailout. “Argentina faces a moment of acute illiquidity,” the US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said last week, announcing a $20bn deal.The announcement sparked a rally in Argentine bonds and stocks and helped ease pressure on the peso. It also marked a rare instance of direct US intervention in Latin American currency markets, underscoring Washington’s strategic interest in Milei’s success.In Argentina, there has been fevered speculation about what Trump might want from Milei in return for his support. Before Milei took power, Argentina – a major lithium producer – had been deepening ties with China.The Argentine president’s office said the leaders would discuss “multiple topics”.Trump also threatened trade penalties, including tariffs, against Spain on Tuesday, saying he was unhappy with its refusal to raise defence spending to 5% and calling the move disrespectful to Nato.“I’m very unhappy with Spain,” he told reporters at the White House. “They’re the only country that didn’t raise their number up to 5%. I was thinking of giving them trade punishment through tariffs because of what they did, and I think I may do that.”Nato leaders agreed in June to raise military spending to 5%, although the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, secured a last-minute exemption at the time, saying Spain would only spend up to 2.1%. Madrid has argued it compensates for the lower spending with strong troop contributions to Nato missions, including deployments in Latvia, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. More