Donald Trump

Subterms

    More stories

    • 125 Shares23 Views

      in US Politics

      House passes bill to release Epstein files with near-unanimous support

      by

      The US House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill with nearly unanimous support that will force the release of investigative files related to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, after Donald Trump and his Republican allies backed down from their opposition amid a scandal that has dogged the president since his return to the White House.The measure now awaits consideration by the Senate, where the Republican majority leader, John Thune, has not said if or when he will put it up for a vote. A spokesperson for Thune did not respond to a request for comment.Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, announced after the bill’s House passage that he would later on Tuesday ask for the chamber to pass it unanimously.“We have an opportunity to get this bill done today and have it on the president’s desk to be signed into law tonight. We should seize that opportunity,” he said.Though Trump has for months dismissed the uproar over the government’s handling of the Epstein case as a “Democrat hoax”, he signaled his support for the House bill over the weekend, and said he would sign the measure if it reaches his desk. On Tuesday morning, the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, announced he would vote for it, making its passage certain.Democrats, along with survivors of Epstein and their advocates who were seated in a House gallery, broke into applause after the bill was passed. The sole “no” vote came from Clay Higgins, a Louisiana Republican who said he worried the measure would make public identifying details of witnesses, potential suspects and others caught up in the investigation.Several of the president’s allies who voted for the bill did so only after criticizing it in floor speeches, arguing Democrats were being insincere but that the House could spend no more time on the matter.“As President Trump has stated, we have nothing to hide, nothing to hide here,” said Republican congressman Troy Nehls. “I’m voting to release the files so that we can move on from the [smear] campaign the Democrats have manufactured. God bless Donald J Trump.”Republican judiciary committee chair Jim Jordan argued that Democrats could have pushed for the files’ release during Joe Biden’s presidency. “Why now, after four years of doing nothing? Because going after President Trump is an obsession with these guys.”Even as he announced his support, Johnson criticized the measure for not doing enough to protect victims of Epstein, a financier who died in 2019 by what investigators determined was suicide while he was awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.“Everybody here, all the Republicans, want to go on record to show we’re for maximum transparency, but they also want to note that we’re demanding that this stuff get corrected before it is ever moves through the process and is complete,” Johnson said.Any changes to the bill made by the Senate would require it to be approved again by the House, probably delaying its enactment.Chuck Grassley, the Republican chair of the Senate judiciary committee, wrote on X that he had “been calling for full transparency in the Epstein case since 2019” and that the chamber should vote on the bill “ASAP”.The Epstein case returned dramatically to the public eye in July, when the justice department and FBI released a memo saying they had nothing further to disclose about the investigation. That flew in the face of statements made by Trump and his top officials that indicated they would release more information about Epstein’s offenses and ties to global elites once they took office.Shortly after, four dissident Republicans in the House and all Democrats banded together to force a vote on a bill to release the investigative files, over Johnson’s objections.The leaders of that effort cheered the imminent vote, with the Democratic congressman Ro Khanna calling Tuesday “the first day of real reckoning for the Epstein class”.“Because survivors spoke up, because of their courage, the truth is finally going to come out, and when it comes out, this country is really going to have a moral reckoning. How did we allow this to happen?” Khanna said at a press conference, adding that the case was “one of the most horrific and disgusting corruption scandals in our country’s history.”Trump’s friendship with Epstein has had staying power in American politics as the late disgraced financier had links to many other rich and powerful figures in the US and overseas. The president’s dramatic shift came after it became increasingly apparent that the bill would pass the GOP-controlled House, most likely with significant support from Republican lawmakers. Trump in recent days changed his approach from outright opposition to declarations of indifference.“I DON’T CARE!” the president wrote in a social media post on Sunday. “All I do care about is that Republicans get BACK ON POINT.”Speaking in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said he did not want the Epstein scandal to “deflect” from the White House’s successes, and claimed it was a “hoax” and “a Democrat problem”.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“We’ll give them everything,” he told reporters. “Let the Senate look at it, let anybody look at it, but don’t talk about it too much, because honestly, I don’t want to take it away from us.”Thomas Massie, an iconoclastic Republican congressman who frequently defies Trump and joined with Khanna to pursue the files’ release, noted the president’s reversal on the Epstein issue.“We fought the president, the attorney general, the FBI director, the speaker of the House and the vice-president to get this win,” he said. “But they’re on our side today, though, so let’s give them some credit as well.”In July, Khanna and Massie turned to a procedural tactic known as a discharge petition to circumvent House leadership and compel a vote on their bill, the Epstein Files Transparency Act, if a majority of the 435-member House signs on.Johnson went to extraordinary lengths to avoid a vote on the the measure, which splintered his conference. Democrats accused the speaker of delaying the swearing-in of the Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva to prevent her from becoming the decisive 218th signatory. She signed her name to the petition moments after officially taking office last week.As president, Trump has the authority to order the justice department to release the documents in its possession, as he has previously done with the government records related to the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr and John F Kennedy.Emails made public last week by a House committee that has opened a separate inquiry into the scandal showed Epstein believed Trump “knew about the girls”, though it was not clear what that phrase meant. The White House said the released emails contained no proof of wrongdoing by Trump.Last week, the president instructed the justice department to investigate prominent Democrats’ ties to Epstein. The US attorney general, Pam Bondi, who earlier this year said a review of the files revealed no further investigative leads, replied to Trump that she would get on it right away and has appointed a prosecutor to lead the effort.The Epstein scandal is a core issue for a swathe of Trump’s rightwing base, some of whom believe in conspiracy theories that surround Epstein and his coterie of powerful friends and associates. Unlike many other issues, the Epstein files have prompted rebellions from Trump’s supporters in politics and the media, who have called on the president to follow through on his campaign promise to release them.Meanwhile, several Epstein survivors have ramped up pressure on Congress and Trump to advance the measure.“It’s time that we put the political agendas and party affiliations to the side. This is a human issue. This is about children,” survivor Haley Robson said at the press conference. “There is no place in society for exploitation, sexual crimes or exploitation of women.”She then addressed her comments to Trump, saying: “While I do understand that your position has changed on the Epstein files, and I’m grateful that you have pledged to sign this bill, I can’t help to be skeptical of what the agenda is.”On Monday night, activists projected an image of Trump and Epstein on to the justice department building, accompanied by the message: “Release the files now.” More

    • 138 Shares40 Views

      in US Politics

      Jon Stewart on Trump’s Epstein files flip-flop: ‘This dude is flailing’

      by

      Late-night hosts tore into the next chapter of Donald Trump’s never-ending Jeffrey Epstein scandal.Jon StewartJon Stewart ripped into Trump on Monday evening after the president abruptly changed tack and called on House Republicans to authorize the justice department’s release of files related to Epstein, a convicted sex offender – files which Trump himself could order to be released.“If he had nothing to hide, he could have declassified and released these files himself at any time,” the Daily Show host explained. “How do I know this? A legal expert named Donald Jurisprudence Trump said so.”Stewart then played footage of Trump from 2022 in which he insisted that the president can declassify anything, at any time, just by saying so or “even by thinking about it”.“Is it possible that Trump’s whole bullshit facade is crumbling?” Stewart wondered. “I mean, right now, all he can do is distract from one lie with what is clearly another lie.”Stewart then rolled a clip of Trump attempting that move, telling reporters: “All I want is I want for people to recognize a great job that I’ve done on pricing, on affordability.”“What planet do you live on?” Stewart responded. “Great job on affordability? My Taco Bell order is now $72!”“This dude is flailing,” he later added. “The normally reliable Trump is even struggling to deliver on his greatest gift: the cutting nickname.”Over the weekend, he took to Truth Social to call his former ally Marjorie Taylor Greene “Marjorie Taylor Brown”, explaining in parentheses that green grass turns brown when it rots.“You know, I’ve always said that the best nicknames are the ones you have to explain in parentheses,” Stewart joked.Jokes aside, Stewart concluded: “Epstein was a convicted sex offender at the time of these emails. And of course, mentioned in these emails more than anyone else, more than 1,600 times, is Donald Trump.”“Is that evidence of his guilt? No,” he continued. “But it shows that he’s a part of that world and certainly the circumstantial evidence points to his understanding of what was occurring.”Stephen ColbertOn the Late Show, Stephen Colbert homed in on one specific email from Epstein, in which the late pedophile claimed Trump “knew about the girls”. The line prompted Republicans to accuse Democrats of cherrypicking. “Let’s pause there,” said Colbert. “Guys, for this one, let’s maybe go with a different fruit.“So to prove that the Democrats were, let’s say, pineapple-choosing,” he continued, “House Republicans released 20,000-plus pages of other Epstein documents.“They did it to show that they were way more transparent than the Democrats, who they say released just enough to make Trump look bad,” said Colbert. “And they were right because the Republicans’ additional release of documents made him look awful.”In the new batch of documents, Trump’s named appeared more than 1,500 times.“These are not casual mentions, either,” Colbert noted. In one email, Epstein wrote: “i have met some very bad people ,, none as bad as trump. not one decent cell in his body.”“It’s gotta hurt when Jeffrey Epstein calls you a bad guy,” said Colbert. “That’s like an airport muffin accusing you of being dry.”Seth Meyers“This weekend, Trump sought to quell the Maga furor by ordering an investigation, but only into Democrats,” Seth Meyers explained on Monday’s Late Night. “Which even some Republicans fear could be another delay tactic.”As Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky put it: “If they have ongoing investigations in certain areas, those documents can’t be released. So this might be a big smokescreen, these investigations, to open up a bunch of them as a last-ditch effort to prevent the release of the Epstein files.”“How dare you accuse the president of setting up a smokescreen,” Meyers laughed. “For one thing, I don’t think he’s nimble enough for that. If Trump threw down a smoke pellet, he wouldn’t run away. He would just stand there coughing until the smoke cleared.”Reporters asked Trump about Massie’s statement on Sunday night, and “all Trump had to do was make clear that he was sincerely interested in getting to the truth”, said Meyers.Instead, Trump claimed “fake news” and said the media “kept bringing [Epstein] up to deflect from the tremendous success of the Trump administration”.“Nailed it!” Meyers joked. “Everyone knows the least suspicious thing you can do when someone asks you about a scandal is to say ‘I don’t want to talk about it’ and then immediately insult. Try that next time your spouse asks why you got home so late.”And then Trump flip-flopped again, telling House Republicans to vote for a discharge petition for the justice department’s release of the Epstein files, after he spent months opposing the measure. “But the whole point of the House vote was to force you to release the files, which you can do on your own. So if you’re in favor of releasing the files, then just do it,” said Meyers. “This new position makes even less sense.”Jimmy KimmelAnd in Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel looked ahead to a House vote, possibly as early as Tuesday, to authorize the release of the files, with dozens of Republicans expected to break ranks. “Which has forced Trump to now claim that he’s for the files being released,” Kimmel noted. “After almost a year of saying he didn’t want them released, after a year of stalling, hedging, browbeating members of his own party, last night, all of a sudden, Trump reversed course completely.”Trump posted on Truth Social: “As I said on Friday night aboard Air Force One to the Fake News Media, House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide.”“We have nothing to hide?” Kimmel laughed. “There’s no ‘we’. ‘We’ have nothing to hide. It’s just you.“If you have nothing hide, why even have the vote?” he added. “Why not just have the Department of Justice release the files now?“After 10 months of fighting tooth and nail, doing everything he could to keep the files secret, he’s now asking for a full release,” Kimmel continued, “which is what got all these guys in trouble in the first place.“So his plan now is hurry up and release the files so I can start saying they’re fake.”Trump also instructed Pam Bondi, his attorney general, to investigate prominent Democrats’ ties to Epstein. “Which is like Diddy ordering an investigation into why there were so many bottles of baby oil in his house,” Kimmel joked. More

    • 163 Shares38 Views

      in US Politics

      Will Marjorie Taylor Greene turn the Maga movement against Trump? | Arwa Mahdawi

      by

      There are 535 members of Congress; only a dozen or so are household names. If you want to achieve that sort of brand name recognition, there are a few tried-and-tested ways to do so. You can spend years working your way up the ranks until you’re a power-broker like Nancy Pelosi. You can burst on to the scene and dramatically unseat an incumbent like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did. Or you can go the Marjorie Taylor Greene route and achieve notoriety by being utterly unhinged.Since becoming a congresswoman for Georgia in 2021, Greene has kept herself in the news by spouting conspiracy theories, fighting with colleagues, and being one of Trump’s biggest cheerleaders. In recent months, however, something strange has been happening. Greene has continued to generate headlines, but largely because she has turned on her party and is part of a growing Maga civil war. Greene was the first Republican lawmaker, for example, to say that there is a genocide in Gaza and has been one of the loudest voices demanding that the Epstein files be released. She has also criticised the Maga movement for not focusing on affordability or putting America first. Now, things have escalated to the point where Greene is making Trump see red; the pair are in a full-blown feud.On Friday the president, who stood by Greene when she voiced conspiracy theories about school shootings and claimed that wildfires were started by space lasers, announced on Truth Social that he was finally withdrawing his endorsement of the congresswoman. “All I see ‘Wacky’ Marjorie do is COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN!” he complained. Adding: “I can’t take a ranting Lunatic’s call every day.”Greene, meanwhile, has said that Trump’s comments are “hurtful” but she still supports his administration and hopes they “make up”. She has also said she believes that his comments have fuelled threats against her safety. When asked on Sunday about these threats, Trump said: “I don’t think her life is in danger … I don’t think anybody cares about her.”But that last bit isn’t quite true. If Greene learned anything from her apprenticeship with Trump, it’s how to generate media coverage. The congresswoman’s face is everywhere. And while she may no longer be buddies with the president, she is building bridges with former foes. On Sunday, for example, she appeared on CNN’s State of the Union and apologised for her role in “toxic politics”. And earlier this month, she went on the high-profile talkshow The View and criticised her party for not having a health care plan. “You are a very different person than I thought you were,” the presenter, Sunny Hostin, said.So is Greene a different person? I’d love it if that truly were the case; it would be heartening to believe that some of the most toxic people in US politics might be capable of introspection and change. Alas, I don’t think this is some sort of road to Damascus moment. Rather, as Ocasio-Cortez has posited, this is more likely a case of sour grapes. AOC’s theory is that the Trump administration shut down Greene’s ambitions to run for Senate and she “has been on a revenge tour ever since”. Greene said at the time that she didn’t believe she could make a difference as a senator and wanted to continue to serve her congressional district.She’s not alone in her revenge tour. The Republican congressman Thomas Massie, who along with the Democrat Ro Khanna is leading a bipartisan push to release the Epstein files, has also been trading barbs with the president. In a dramatic U-turn, Trump has now had to concede defeat on the files, declaring on Sunday that he’s happy to have a vote on the issue, as “we have nothing to hide”.Trump has bounced back from scandals that would have buried most people. He is, let’s not forget, the first convicted criminal elected to the presidency. But it’s not just the Epstein files and traitorous deputies that he’s battling at the moment. According to a recent NBC News poll, 63% of registered voters, including 30% of Republicans, said that Trump has fallen short of their expectations on the economy. The president has been building ballrooms and blowing up boats instead of lowering the price of bread. While his base is still loyal, his approval ratings are eroding. Whatever Greene’s motives, her political instincts are sharp: there’s a real opportunity now to turn the Republican party against Trump. May the revenge tour roll on. Perhaps, with all this infighting, Greene will turn the electoral map blue. Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist and the author of Strong Female Lead More

    • 213 Shares36 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump news at a glance: in a U-turn, president tells Republicans to vote to release Epstein files

      by

      Donald Trump has told his fellow Republicans in Congress to vote for the release of files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in a sudden reversal of his earlier position.The US president’s post on his Truth Social website came after the House speaker, Mike Johnson, said previously that he believed a vote on releasing justice department documents in the Epstein case should help put to rest allegations “that he [Trump] has something to do with it”.Late on Sunday, Trump wrote on his social media platform: “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files because we have nothing to hide.“And it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party,” he added.Trump’s surprise reversal on releasing Epstein filesThe White House has struggled to contain suspicion within Trump’s usually loyal Make America Great Again (Maga) base that the administration is hiding details of Epstein’s crimes to protect the rich elite with whom the financier associated, including Trump.Despite continued releases of files by Republicans this year, including a cache of more than 20,000 pages that were published last week, pressure has grown to disclose more information from Epstein’s estate, as well as FBI investigation documents.The US House of Representatives is expected to vote on the legislation regarding the release of more Epstein files this week, possibly as soon as Tuesday.Read the full storyUN security council votes to endorse Trump’s Gaza planThe resolution, passed by a vote of 13-0 with abstentions by China and Russia, charted “a new course in the Middle East for Israelis and Palestinians and all the people of the region alike”, the US envoy to the UN, Mike Waltz, told the council chamber.The price of passing a resolution was vague language which left many issues uncertain. It gives overall oversight authority to a “board of peace” chaired by Trump, but of uncertain membership.Read the full storyUS will label supposed Venezuelan drug cartel ‘headed by Maduro’ as terrorist organizationThe US has said it will designate a putative Venezuelan drug cartel allegedly led by Nicolás Maduro as a foreign terrorist organization, as the Trump administration sent more mixed messages over its crusade against Venezuela’s authoritarian leader.The move to target the already proscribed group, the Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns), was announced by Marco Rubio on Sunday.Read the full storyUS judge finds evidence of ‘government misconduct’ in federal case against ComeyA US judge on Monday found evidence of “government misconduct” in how a prosecutor aligned with Donald Trump secured criminal charges against former FBI director James Comey and ordered that grand jury materials be turned over to Comey’s defense team.Last week, prosecutors were ordered to produce a trove of materials from the investigation, with the court saying it was concerned that the US justice department’s position on Comey had been to “indict first and investigate later”.Read the full storyTrump has ‘blurred’ line between military and politics, ex-officers warnWith months of escalation between US cities and the Trump administration amid the deployment of national guard troops, former military officials released a report on Monday about the risks of politicizing the country’s armed forces.The report warns that increasing domestic military deployments, such as using national guard troops for immigration enforcement in the US, and removing senior military officers and legal advisers have made the armed forces appear to serve partisan agendas.Read the full storyCharlotte, North Carolina, reels as 81 people arrested in immigration raidsMany communities in Charlotte, North Carolina, were reeling after federal Customs and Border Protection teams descended on the city at the weekend and arrested at least 81 people – while normally-thriving immigrant enclaves and business districts came to a standstill. Federal agents were deployed in what the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), calls Operation Charlotte’s Web, sparking protests.Read the full storyTrump signals he may soon meet with Zohran MamdaniThe president told reporters that New York City’s mayor-elect “would like to meet with us”, adding, “we’ll work something out” despite trading sharp words for each other previously.“He would like to come to Washington and meet, and we’ll work something out,” Trump said late on Sunday, referring to Mamdani, the 34-year-old Democratic socialist and former state assemblymember who won the New York City mayoral election earlier this month. “We want to see everything work out well for New York.”Read the full storyNew international student enrollments in US plunge this year, data showsThe number of international students enrolling in US colleges and universities plunged this year as the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown on higher education began to bite, data released on Monday reveals.Read the full storySupreme court to review Trump policy of limiting asylum claims at borderThe US supreme court agreed on Monday to hear a defense by the Trump administration of the government’s authority to limit the processing of asylum claims at ports of entry along the US-Mexico border.The court took up the administration’s appeal of a lower court’s determination that the “metering” policy, under which US immigration officials could stop asylum seekers at the border and decline to process their claims, violated federal law.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      In the underworld of accelerationist neo-Nazis, where talk of attacks against western governments are commonplace, the spread of illegal weapons manuals and tradecraft on drone warfare are proliferating. Experts say, in some cases, that classes are being taught online with the input of leadership from proscribed terrorist groups with links to Russian intelligence.

      A powerful atmospheric river weather system has mostly moved through California but not before causing at least six deaths and dousing much of the state.

      Eswatini has confirmed for the first time that it had received more than $5m from the United Statesto accept dozens of people expelled under Washington’s aggressive mass deportation drive.

      Lawyers for Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor, called Trump administration allegations of mortgage fraud against her “baseless” on Monday and accused the administration of “cherry-picking” discrepancies to bolster their claims.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened Sunday 16 November.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion More

    • 125 Shares48 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump has ‘blurred’ line between military and politics, ex-officers warn

      by

      With months of escalation between US cities and the Trump administration amid the deployment of national guard troops, former military officials released a report on Monday about the risks of politicizing the nation’s armed forces.The report warns that increasing domestic military deployments, such as using national guard troops for immigration enforcement in the US, and removing senior military officers and legal advisers have made the armed forces appear to serve partisan agendas.“The use of troops, bases, and ceremonies in partisan settings has blurred the line between military service and political messaging, eroding morale and public trust in the military’s apolitical character,” the report reads.The report, The Perils of Politicizing the US Military, was authored by six former service secretaries and retired four-star admirals and generals, including former army secretary Louis Caldera, former air force secretary Deborah Lee James, former navy secretary Sean O’Keefe, retired navy admiral Steve Abbot, retired coast guard admiral Thad Allen, and retired army general George Casey.The white paper comes as the Trump administration continues to battle the courts over deploying the national guard in Portland. In Washington DC, where the president has more control over the guard than in states, troops were ordered to remain there through at least February.After sending troops to the nation’s capital, Trump sent others to Chicago and threatened to send more to other Democratic-run cities such as San Francisco and New York.Meanwhile, months of upheaval at the defense department have been a hallmark of Pete Hegseth’s tenure. Last month, Hegseth, the US defense secretary, abruptly fired the navy chief of staff. In May, he ordered the military to cut 20% of its four-star generals and admirals, while Hegseth and Trump have fired more than half a dozen top generals since January.The Trump administration has also fired the only two women serving as four-star officers. In February, Hegseth also fired air force general CQ Brown Jr, the chair of the joint chiefs of staff and the second Black man to serve in that role.Monday’s report warns about the consequences of such efforts, most acutely the “erosion of the armed forces’ apolitical character”.“When service members, senior leaders, or military symbols are perceived as aligned with political agendas, the public begins to see the institution as partisan rather than national – and once eroded, that trust is difficult to rebuild,” reads the report. “This loss of trust makes it harder to recruit across the political spectrum, harder to retain talent, and harder to reassure allies and deter adversaries abroad.”Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate armed services committee, urged members of Congress last month to put a halt to Trump’s efforts to deploy national guard troops in US cities without the consent of local leaders, as well as to consider the implications such actions will have for trust in the military.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“Congress has the Constitutional authority and moral obligation to stop this,” Reed said in a statement. “We are not powerless. We control the purse. We have oversight authority. We can pass legislation. And we must act now.”Reed called on lawmakers to pass legislation that requires the administration to publicly explain to and notify Congress when it removes senior generals or admirals, as well as measures that would “establish clear standards requiring congressional approval for domestic military deployments except in genuine emergencies”.The report by former military leaders outlines similar recommendations to Congress, calling on lawmakers to require “clear justification and post-action review of significant domestic deployments and high-level personnel changes”. More

    • 175 Shares48 Views

      in US Politics

      US unveils World Cup visa system but warns fans could still be denied entry

      by

      The Trump administration on Monday unveiled a new fast-track visa system for the millions of visitors expected to come to the US for the 2026 World Cup, but said fans could still be denied entry to the country despite holding tickets.The Fifa prioritized appointment scheduling system, announced at the White House on Monday, will push World Cup ticket-holders to the front of the line for visa interviews. However, secretary of state Marco Rubio made clear that expedited processing does not mean automatic entry.“Your ticket is not a visa. It doesn’t guarantee admission to the US,” Rubio said. “It guarantees you an expedited appointment. You’re still going to go through the same vetting. We’re going to do the same vetting as anybody else would get. The only difference here is we’re moving them up in the queue.”The warning suggests non-American citizens within the roughly million people who have already bought tickets could find themselves barred from entering the country despite holding valid match passes and securing faster appointment slots.Fifa president Gianni Infantino said World Cup officials would eventually sell up to 6 to 7 million tickets and told reporters in the Oval Office “we’ll have between five and 10 million people coming to America from all over the world”.So far, most demand has been domestic: the US, Mexico and Canada will be co-hosting the tournament next June and make up the majority of ticket holders. But Fifa said people from 212 different countries and territories have also already bought their tickets.To handle the surge in applications, Rubio said the state department has deployed more than 400 additional consular officers worldwide, in some cases doubling embassy staff. The measures have already slashed visa wait times from up to a year to 60 days or less in approximately 80% of countries, according to Rubio.“In places, for example, like Brazil and Argentina, you would have [had] over a year to get an appointment. Now you can get [one] in less than two months,” Rubio said.Separately, Trump threatened to relocate matches from host cities he deems problematic, singling out Seattle and its new democratic socialist mayor. The city is scheduled to host six games.“If we think there’s going to be the sign of any trouble, I would ask [Fifa president] Gianni [Infantino] move that to a different city. We have a lot of cities that would love to have it,” Trump said. “If we think there’s a problem in Seattle where you have a very, very liberal-slash-communist mayor … we’re going to move the event to some place where it’s going to be appreciated and safe.”The president said he would be willing to deploy the national guard to Los Angeles, another host city, citing concerns with crime and demanding California officials request federal assistance immediately.“I would love to send in [the] national guard, or whoever’s necessary to help them,” Trump said. “If there’s even a hint of a problem, we want to get in there before the problem. We want to make it totally safe for [Infantino] and Fifa and all the great people that are going to be there.”Trump called the tournament a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” for the country. The US previously hosted the World Cup in 1994. The 2026 edition kicks off in the summer, and will be the first to feature 48 teams, expanded from the traditional 32. More

    • 150 Shares48 Views

      in US Politics

      Acting Fema head resigns after furor over handling of deadly Texas flooding

      by

      The acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) is leaving the agency, a senior Trump administration official said on Monday.David Richardson resigned after only a brief stint leading the agency amid a furor over his responsiveness, especially during the catastrophic flooding in Texas during the summer that swept away a children’s camp and killed more than 130 people.The Trump administration has been vocal about wanting to dismantle Fema and the Washington Post was first to report on Monday that Richardson had handed in his resignation after six months doing the job.Richardson’s departure was confirmed by an unnamed official, according to Reuters, and is taking place while the Atlantic hurricane season is still under way.He is a former US Marine Corps officer and becomes the second Fema head to leave or be fired since May. Richardson has been accused of keeping a low profile during the deadly Texas flash floods in July. He had already baffled staff in June when he said he was unaware the country had a hurricane season.His staff later insisted that the comment had been meant as a joke, an explanation greeted with skepticism by former Fema personnel.The Trump administration official familiar with Richardson’s departure gave no reasons for the Fema chief stepping down.In a statement, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)– which has overall responsibility for Fema – said Richardson would be returning to “the private sector” and would be replaced by the agency’s chief of staff, Karen Evans, from the beginning of next month.Evans would oversee a radical overhaul of Fema, as set out in a forthcoming report from a review council set up by the White House for that purpose, the statement said.The spokesperson praised Richardson for “[leading] Fema through the 2025 hurricane season, delivering historic funding to North Carolina, Texas, Florida, New Mexico and Alaska, and overseeing a comprehensive review that identified and eliminated serious governmental waste and inefficiency, while refocusing the agency to deliver swift resources to Americans in crisis.“We anticipate the forthcoming release of the Fema Review Council’s final report, which will inform this administration’s ongoing efforts to fundamentally restructure Fema, transforming it from its current form into a streamlined, mission-focused disaster-response force. Starting December 1, Fema Chief of Staff Karen Evans will step into this important role.”Richardson’s predecessor was fired in May, after pushing back against Trump administration efforts to dismantle the agency.Donald Trump has said he wants to greatly reduce the size of Fema, which is the agency currently responsible for preparing for and responding to natural disasters in the US, although the president has said state governments can handle many of the federal agency’s functions.Richardson’s abrupt departure is an ignominious end for an official who told staff when he first arrived in May that he would “run right over” anyone who resists changes and that all decisions must go through him.“I, and I alone in Fema, speak for Fema,” he said at the time. Fema has lost about 2,500 employees since January through buyouts, firings and other incentives for staff to quit, reducing its overall size to about 23,350, according to a September Government Accountability Office report.The cuts are part of Trump’s broader push to cut the cost and size of the federal civilian workforce.Reuters contributed reporting More