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      Trump is ‘obsessed’ with seeming pro-worker – but his actions suggest otherwise

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      Unpaid forced leave and mass firings are hardly the first things to spring to mind as hallmarks of a golden age of the American worker.Yet these were the possibilities floated by Donald Trump this week as he addressed a government shutdown that began on 1 October and is showing no imminent sign of ending as Democrats and Republicans attempt to stare each other down in a dispute over funding priorities.As reports emerged of a White House memorandum suggesting that furloughed federal workers might not receive back pay, Trump – who ostentatiously posed as the champion of American workers during last year’s presidential election campaign – was quick to twist the knife.“I would say it depends on who we’re talking about,” he told reporters. “There are some people that really don’t deserve to be taken care of, and we’ll take care of them in a different way.”On Friday, office of management and budget director Russell Vought – who infamously said he wanted to put federal workers “in trauma” – posted on X that “the RIFs [”reductions in force”, administration terminology for federal job cuts] have begun”, and within hours, agencies began confirming that notices had gone out.That promises to heap more misery on a federal workforce already decimated and demoralized following job losses imposed by the unofficial “department of government efficiency”, also known as Doge, in the early months of Trump’s presidency.Analysts say this tells the true story of the US worker’s plight under Trump 2.0.While voicing the rhetoric of blue-collar solidarity in his election campaigns and public appearances, Trump has enacted policies that have worsened the economic realities of the working person in myriad ways, they argue.The tax-and-spending provisions in Trump’s flagship “big beautiful bill” (passed by Congress in the summer), tariffs and the administration’s agenda of mass deportation of undocumented people are all taking a toll on workers’ living conditions, by raising costs and driving down wages.“Trump is obsessed with a lot of the aesthetics of being pro-worker,” said Samantha Sanders, government affairs director at the Economic Policy Institute, a thinktank.She cited an appearance at the White House in April in the company of coal miners and a giant banner of Trump’s face hung from the Department of Labor building in Washington DC.“But when it comes down to actual actions, we know, from his personal life to his policy life, he just does not deliver on those things,” she said.Trump’s protestations of being on the ordinary worker’s side conceal a multitude of policy sins that make their lives worse while acting as a friend and ally to the wealthy, the powerful and big business, say critics.“He’s applied tariffs, in an un-nuanced way, and deported people that were supposedly taking American jobs and filling their schools,” said Sanders, who said Trump had been “honest and dishonest” about his intentions to a segment of voters who sought clear solutions to their economic problems and had, in many cases, become disaffected with the Democrats.“But the other promises, like addressing the cost of living, bringing back jobs, saying ‘I’m going to increase wages’, etc, there’s clearly no strategy or policy plan to make any of that happen in a sustained way.”A White House press release issued last month to mark Labor Day painted a rosy picture of “surging native-born employment and rising blue-collar wages … [and] innovative workforce initiatives like expanded apprenticeships and trade school funding”.But Gbenga Ajilore, chief economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said the administration’s assault on federal workers had knock-on effects.“The federal workforce serves American workers, low- and moderate-income families,” he said. “You think about the Veterans Administration, Social Security Administration. I used to work for Department of Agriculture, and we had a missionary project focused on rural communities and rural development. That workforce is getting decimated, which is going to impact those things.”Trump’s across-the-board tariffs – a trademark policy that he has hailed as a revenue-boosting device that could also revive long-lost US manufacturing – disproportionately affects workers while big corporations are afforded protections, according to Ajilore.“Look at the range of tariffed goods: fertilizer, steel, aluminum, pharmaceuticals, heavy trucks, lumber, furniture,” he said. “It’s almost like, you name it, there’s a tariff on it. That raises cost for consumers. At the same time, tariffs on these goods are inputs towards businesses, which have to raise their costs.“He’s talking about bringing back manufacturing, but tens of thousands of jobs have gone from manufacturing in the past couple of months and a lot of it is because of increased costs from tariffs. When businesses make adjustments to maintain their margin, labor is always the first to go.”Yet while manufacturing workers took a hit, Apple – many of whose computer products are made in China and other Asian countries – was granted an exemption, Ajilore pointed out.Deportations of undocumented people had created a rising climate of fear among many in the agricultural sector – which has traditionally attracted many immigrant workers – said Antonio De Loera, spokesperson for the United Farm Workers (UFW).Compounding that effect, the Trump administration last week changed the rules governing wage levels for documented workers on temporary, non-immigrant H-2A visas, in effect allowing them to be paid less than laborers already living in the US.The UFW estimates that the change will cost workers across the entire US farm sector $2.46bn in wages a year, as farmers react by hiring cheaper guest workers in place of higher-paid existing laborers, US citizens as well as undocumented workers.De Loera, who warned that the impact would be to drive wages down across the sector, said farm workers were being made to pay the costs of a bailout the administration was preparing for farmers – who have complained about the impact of tariffs and a labor shortage caused by deportations.“We know that there’s discussions of a big farm bailout coming, but in the meantime, this is one of the things that they’ve done to keep the farmers happy,” he said. “They’re taking more money out of the pockets of some of the hardest-working and poorest-paid workers in America to give it to wealthy landowners who are politically well-connected.”Ajilore said others sectors were suffering from a wider economic problem caused by the administration’s policies, adding up to a grim outlook for workers generally.“The American worker is struggling,” he said. “The labor market is frozen. There hasn’t been a lot of layoffs, but there’s very little hiring and so there’s very little churn, which is one reason why the US labor market is normally so robust – people lose a job but are able to get new jobs.“The long-term unemployment, people who have been out of work for more than 27 weeks, has gone up from 20% to 25% of the jobless. And a larger share of them are college graduates, who would normally be able to get jobs. So workers aren’t able to experience mobility or progress – and at the same time, costs are going up.” More

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      The quiet toll of Trump’s legal immigration crackdown: ‘I’m trying to stay afloat’

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      Kim Xavier, a senior associate at CoveyLaw, an immigration law firm based in New York, has spent much of the last year bracing herself for any Friday announcements that might affect her clients.So when Donald Trump announced on a recent Friday that he will impose a $100,000 fee on H-1B visa applications, the timing was not totally surprising.“Every day, it’s like I’m trying to stay afloat. And every Friday, I’m just like, now what?” Xavier told the Guardian.Though headline after headline has highlighted the Trump administration’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants, Xavier said many Americans don’t realize the heightened uncertainty legal immigrants are facing – something that immigration attorneys like herself have to confront every day.“The perpetual fear that undocumented immigrants have dealt with their entire lives is now spread across the whole immigration system,” Xavier said. “This is something new, I think. This is something that a lot of people don’t understand.”Cracks and fissures have existed within the legal immigration system for years, long before Trump came into office. The last time Congress passed comprehensive immigration reform was 1986. In the nearly four decades since, those trying to immigrate legally often face ambiguous standards, outdated quotes and backlogs, along with other issues that appear administrative but can have a huge impact on a person’s ability to stay in the country.The difference seen over a generation is stark. “Even for people who have been through the immigration system, they’re like, ‘Oh, 30 years ago, I just came with a suitcase from Canada and I got my green card in three months’. It’s not like that any more,” Xavier said.The pathway to becoming a legal immigrant in the US is a narrow one. A person can get legal status through family – if a spouse, child or parent is a citizen – or through their employer, like H-1B holders, or through extraordinary talent. Though the US has offered legal status for humanitarian purposes, for asylum or refugees, the White House has dramatically cut down on these humanitarian pathways.The Trump administration has emphasizedthat its crackdown on immigration is targeted toward removing undocumented immigrants from the country.“Ramped-up immigration enforcement targeting the worst of the worst is removing more and more criminal illegal aliens off our streets every day and is sending a clear message to anyone else in this country illegally: self-deport or we will arrest you,” assistant secretary for homeland security, Tricia McLaughlin, said in a statement last month.But the administration is reportedly trying to cut down on legal immigration too. A recent Reuters report said the White House is planning to cut the number of refugees the US takes in from 125,000 down to 7,500, with the majority of slots reserved for white South Africans.The administration also seems to be combing through the records of immigrants, including green card holders, for potential violations that weren’t considered deportable before his term. In September, an Irish green card holder living in Missouri was detained at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) facility in Kentucky because she wrote a bad check for $25 in 2015.Immigration attorneys like Xavier, who works solely with immigrants who have gone through the process legally, have seen how the ongoing scrutiny has had a chilling effect on legal immigrants who have lived in and even started families in the US.Hanging over the head of many of these immigrants is the threat of losing their legal status, even temporarily, because of what Xavier calls “operational inefficiencies”: ambiguous delays and unclear communication about applications have left lawyers scrambling to keep their clients’ legal status.Processing delays have been a major stress for Xavier’s clients, and can often leave legal immigrants in limbo. Lawyers don’t know when their client will hear back on an application, which can sometimes leave them stuck in the country.One client with a pending green card application applied for “advance parole”, which would allow her to leave the US and legally re-enter even as her green card application is under review. Because her father was undergoing quadruple bypass surgery, she applied for an expedited advanced parole to be with him after the procedure. But, “they still denied the emergency advanced parole,” Xavier said, so she couldn’t travel back home for his surgery.Xavier has also seen clients who have been living in the US for years and have had multiple visas get “soft denials” for renewals, meaning an application has been put on hold pending further documentary and scrutiny.Complicating the process for visa applicants is that the renewal process requires communication between two branches of the federal government: US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), which is under the Department of Homeland Security, and the consulate of their home country, which falls under the Department of State. Lawyers have said there can often be a lack of communication between the two that causes delays.Delays on application decisions can outlast certain “grace periods” the federal government gives to applicants for certain visas that allow them to legally stay in the country while they await renewal. This puts them at risk of being taken into custody or put into court proceedings when the grace period is up.The Trump administration also recently gave USCIS special agents law enforcement powers, including the ability to make arrests and execute search and arrest warrants, powers that the ACLU has said has never been given to the agency and is a way to “systematically restrict legal immigration and strip people of their legal status”.The added stresses and uncertainty has taken a heavy toll on both immigrants and their employers.“We hear about the erosion of legal immigrant pathways impacting Silicon Valley, but also innovative startups, it’s fashion designers who are using sustainable efforts, it’s architects. There are so many different industries that are impacted here,” Xavier said.Though the changes in immigration enforcement may seem insignificant for legal immigrants, the impact has been huge..“They seem little, they seem incremental, but it’s been a long time coming. It’s been built into the system, and now they are coming at lightning speed, often in different areas and under the radar of the mainstream public, that when taken together they are overwhelmingly detrimental,” Xavier said. “In Spanish, we have a saying that goes la gota que derramó el vaso – it’s the last drop that made the glass overflow. You have these little drops, but they’re coming, and by the time you know it, you’re flooded.” More

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      Trump news at a glance: layoffs for federal workers begin and president threatens China with tariffs

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      Mass firings of US federal workers have begun, as Republicans work to exert pressure on Democrat lawmakers to end a government shutdown. The White House budget office said the layoffs were “substantial”, with unions for federal workers taking the matter to court. President Donald Trump said of the job losses “it’ll be a lot” and suggested those losing their jobs would be in areas that were “Democrat oriented”.The government shutdown comes as the US president has revived the trade war with China, this time promising to increase tariffs on Chinese imports by 100%. His administration is also considering using visa restrictions and sanctions against countries that support the International Maritime Organization’s “net zero framework” proposal.White House announces federal worker layoffsThe White House announced layoffs of federal workers on Friday, making good on a threat it had made in response to the US government shutdown, which now appears likely to stretch into a third straight week. Russell Vought, the director of the White House office of management and budget, wrote on social media that “RIFs have begun”, referring to the government’s reduction-in-force procedure to let employees go.Read the full storyTrump threatens 100% China tariffsDonald Trump has threatened to impose additional US tariffs of 100% on China from next month, accusing Beijing of “very hostile” moves to restrict exports of rare earths needed for American industry. Wall Street fell sharply after the US president reignited public tensions with the Chinese government, and raised the prospect of another acrimonious trade war between the world’s two largest economies.Read the full storyNational guard troops seen on Memphis streetsNational guard troops were seen patrolling in Memphis for the first time on Friday, as part of Donald Trump’s controversial federal taskforce, amid fierce legal challenges as he was blocked from sending troops to Chicago and a court ruling was awaited in Portland, Oregon.Read the full storyMIT rejects White House proposal to overhaul policiesThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has become the first US university to formally turn down a Trump administration proposal that would overhaul university policies in return for preferential access to federal funding.Read the full storyWhite House slams Trump’s perceived Nobel peace prize snubThe White House has denounced the Norwegian Nobel committee’s decision to award the Nobel peace prize to someone other than Donald Trump.“The Nobel committee proved they place politics over peace,” wrote Steven Cheung, a Trump aide and the White House’s director of communications.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      Donald Trump had what he has described as a “semiannual physical” at the Walter Reed national military medical center.

      Up to 40 US academics have been dismissed or disciplined after rightwing campaigns targeted their comments on Charlie Kirk’s assassination, creating a “climate of fear” on campuses.

      Leading New York Democrats have rallied behind Letitia James a day after she was indicted on mortgage fraud charges by a federal prosecutor appointed by Trump.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened on 9 October 2025. More

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      ‘Substantial’ federal layoffs begin as Congress remains deadlocked over funding to end shutdown – live

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      The Guardian has independently confirmed that reductions in force (RIFs) are under way at the following departments and agencies:

      Department of Education

      Department of Health and Human Services

      Department of Homeland Security (specifically the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency)

      Department of the Treasury
      Certain agencies haven’t immediately responded to the Guardian’s request for comment, but other media outlets have reported layoffs are expected at the following:

      Environmental Protection Agency

      Department of Energy

      Department of the Interior

      Department of Housing and Urban Development
      Donald Trump just started an Oval Office announcement on a deal with the British-based drug maker Asta Zeneca, for a “most-favored-nation” drug pricing model aimed at making prescription medicines more affordable, by boasting that he would have struck the deal sooner, but “we were interrupted by a rigged election”.Trump went on to repeat the wildly false claim that the discounted prices for American consumers would reduce the price of prescription drugs by up to 1,000%.As Daniel Dale of CNN has explained: “Cutting drug prices by more than 100% would mean that Americans would get paid to acquire their medications rather than paying for them.” A health economist, Timothy McBride, told the network Trump’s claims are “just not logical,” since a 500% price reduction would mean that a drug that now costs $100 would cost be available for free, with consumers given a $400 rebate.The actual deal includes cutting prices for the government’s Medicaid health plan for low-income Americans and discounted prices through a “TrumpRx” website the president said.AstraZeneca’s chief executive Pascal Soriot stood near Trump in the gold-clad Oval Office as the president made the announcement.Pfizer previously agreed to drop prescription drug prices in the Medicaid program for lower-income Americans to what it charges in other developed countries in exchange for relief from tariffs threatened by Trump.Americans currently pay by far the most for prescription medicines, often nearly three times more than in other developed nations, and Trump has been pressuring drugmakers to lower their prices to what patients pay elsewhere or face stiff tariffs.Last month, he threatened 100% tariffs on drug makers, increasing pressure on the pharmaceutical industry to agree to price cuts and shift manufacturing to the US.Writing on his social media platform, Donald Trump just announced that, in response to what he called China’s “extraordinarily aggressive position on Trade” and new export restrictions, he intends to “impose a Tariff of 100% on China, over and above any Tariff that they are currently paying” starting on 1 November.The same day, he adds, “we will impose Export Controls on any and all critical software.”That date is after Trump’s planned meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.Our colleague Callum Jones has more on the latest friction in Trump’s trade war with China.The wave of layoffs at federal agencies has reportedly reached the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) now, according to the PBS correspondent Lisa Desjardins.Federal prosecutors in Maryland could seek criminal charges next week against Donald Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton, report the Pulitzer prize-winning reporter Carol Leonnig and her colleague Ken Dilanian for MSNBC.A grand jury in Maryland has been hearing evidence related to claims that Bolton, a former ally of Trump turned harsh critic, improperly kept classified national security information in his Maryland home.The journalists also report that Ed Martin, a Republican operative who served briefly as Trump’s acting US attorney in the District of Columbia now running the justice department’s “Weaponization Working Group”, has met multiple times with the Trump-appointed acting US attorney in Maryland, Kelly Hayes, on the Bolton case.An indictment on Bolton for illegally retaining classified documents would be the third of a Trump critic in recent weeks, and would echo the indictment of New York’s attorney general, Tish James, in accusing critics of the president of committing crimes he was indicted for after his first term.I’ve been chatting to Jessica Roth, a former federal prosecutor in the southern district of New York, about the indictment of Letitia James.Roth said it was “extremely distressing” to see prosecutions brought against the president’s perceived political enemies.“I can’t say that I was surprised that the department [under attorney general Pam Bondi] pursued these charges against Tish James,” she added. “That doesn’t lessen my distress … particularly in light of what had been longstanding Department of Justice policy not to pursue an indictment unless prosecutors were convinced that they would be able to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.”Lindsey Halligan, the handpicked and newly installed US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, has pursued the charges against James and former FBI director James Comey, and Roth notes that we could see a wider effort to bring charges against the president’s adversaries in districts throughout the country that are now run by Trump-friendly prosecutors.Much like the charges brought against Comey, Roth underscored that the crimes that James is being accused of are very difficult to prove “even under the best stances” because they require proof of “criminal intent as opposed to an honest mistake or negligence”.The Guardian has independently confirmed that reductions in force (RIFs) are under way at the following departments and agencies:

      Department of Education

      Department of Health and Human Services

      Department of Homeland Security (specifically the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency)

      Department of the Treasury
      Certain agencies haven’t immediately responded to the Guardian’s request for comment, but other media outlets have reported layoffs are expected at the following:

      Environmental Protection Agency

      Department of Energy

      Department of the Interior

      Department of Housing and Urban Development
      The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) confirmed to the Guardian that employees across “multiple divisions” have received reduction-in-force notices. HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said this was “a direct consequence of the Democrat-led government shutdown”.He added that HHS under the Biden administration “became a bloated bureaucracy, growing its budget by 38% and its workforce by 17%”.Nixon said that all employees receiving RIF notices were “designated non-essential by their respective divisions”.“HHS continues to close wasteful and duplicative entities, including those that are at odds with the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda,” he added.The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest union representing federal government workers, has condemned the mass layoffs announced by the White House budget office.“It is disgraceful that the Trump administration has used the government shutdown as an excuse to illegally fire thousands of workers who provide critical services to communities across the country,” said Everett Kelley, the union’s president.AFGE has already filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the firings, and a hearing is set for Thursday, 16 October. “We will not stop fighting until every reduction-in-force notice is rescinded,” Kelley added.The Department of Education has also confirmed to the Guardian that their employees will be affected by the reductions in force.An office of management and budget (OMB) spokesperson told the Guardian that the reductions in force that have begun are “substantial”.The official didn’t confirm an exact number, but we’re bringing you the latest as we hear from different agencies and departments about how they stand to be affected. More

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      The mortgage fraud case against Letitia James is ‘bupkis’, experts say

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      A prosecutor installed by Donald Trump may have been able to secure an indictment against the New York attorney general, Letitia James, but actually obtaining a conviction may be an uphill battle, legal experts say.Even before a grand jury handed down the indictment on Thursday, there was already deep skepticism about possible charges. Career prosecutors in the US attorney’s office for the eastern district of Virginia had looked at accusations James committed mortgage fraud and concluded there was no probable cause to charge the case. Lindsey Halligan, Trump’s handpicked interim US attorney, nonetheless went ahead and presented the case to the grand jury. Her decision to do so reportedly caught top justice department officials off-guard.The indictment handed down on Thursday charges James with bank fraud and making a false statement when she secured a mortgage to buy a second home in Norfolk, Virginia, in 2020. As part of the purchase, James signed a rider that indicated she would use it as her second home and prohibited her from renting it out, according to the indictment. James proceeded to then rent out the home, prosecutors allege. By lying on the mortgage statement, prosecutors say, James secured a better mortgage rate and a seller credit that saved her about $18,933 over the life of the loan.“In this case, prosecutors will be required to show that at the moment James signed the mortgage paperwork, she was aware of the provision regarding a secondary home, that she intended to use it for some different purpose, and that she intended to obtain a financial benefit as a result of her deceit,” said Barbara McQuade, a former US attorney for the eastern district of Michigan. “That can be very difficult for a prosecutor to do because we cannot read other people’s minds. Anyone who has ever participated in a mortgage closing is familiar with the daunting pile of papers they put in front of you.”The second-home rider James signed does not prohibit renting the home outright, Adam Levitin, a law professor at Georgetown University, wrote in a blogpost. Instead, the rider prevents the owner from giving control over rental decisions to someone else. The agreement also only imposes the restriction starting one year after the agreement. The indictment made public on Thursday does not say when James rented the home or for how long.The rider also includes an exemption for “extenuating circumstances”, Levitin noted, pointing out that the mortgage was obtained in August 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.“I’m unaware of the federal government having previously charged anyone for fraud based on renting out a second home,” Levitin wrote in the post on Credit Slips. “It’s clear why the career prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia refused to bring a case: James doesn’t appear to have made any misrepresentation in her mortgage because the mortgage does not directly prohibit rentals.”James has forcefully denied the charges. Last month, Trump publicly admonished the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, to indict her, along with the former FBI director James Comey and California senator Adam Schiff.“These charges are baseless, and the president’s own public statements make clear that his only goal is political retribution at any cost. The president’s actions are a grave violation of our Constitutional order and have drawn sharp criticism from members of both parties,” James said in a statement on Thursday evening.Trump’s public statements, combined with the conclusion of career prosecutors about a lack of probable cause, make it likely James will bring a selective prosecution argument to try to get the case thrown out.“Normally, a claim [that] this is a vindictive prosecution does not work,” said John Coffee, a professor at Columbia Law School. But, he added: “You don’t usually have the president calling for these sort of things.”The charges against James come as William Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, has deployed mortgage filings to attack Trump’s rivals. In April, Pulte, a staunch Trump ally, sent a criminal referral to the Department of Justice regarding two different real estate transactions involving James. Neither of the transactions in the referral were the ones actually charged this week.Pulte has also accused Schiff of mortgage fraud as he has the Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, whom Trump is trying to remove from the central bank. In Cook’s case, Pulte has made an allegation similar to the one against James, alleging she rented out a property she indicated was her second home on mortgage documents.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionAlso unusual in James’s case is the amount of money she is said to have benefited from because of the fraud. Typically, investigators in the inspector general’s office at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which handles mortgage fraud investigations, pursue cases where there are substantial losses to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, government-sponsored enterprises that support the housing market by guaranteeing mortgages.Even the most junior prosecutor in a US attorney’s office would turn down a case with a loss amount that low, said Jacqueline Kelly, a former federal prosecutor in New York who is now a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner.“It would never be signed off on by a supervisor with a loss amount that low,” she said. The low loss amount could also bolster James’s claims of selective prosecution. “When she has to prove that someone similarly situated would not have been prosecuted, she is on really strong ground there because if you look at other cases charged under these same statutes, you’re not going to find one similar to this at all.”While the length of James’s loan is not clear, if it was a standard 30-year mortgage she would have defrauded the government out of about $633 each year.“That’s bupkis,” said one former federal prosecutor who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid professional repercussions. “Are you really going to believe when you get up there that the attorney general of New York would commit this willfulness over $600 a year?“It’s a race as to whether this is weaker than the Comey case or stronger because they’re the two weakest cases I’ve ever seen in my life.” More

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      Trump completes ‘semiannual’ physical before traveling to Middle East

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      Donald Trump – the oldest person ever to be elected US president – had what he has described as a “semiannual physical” at the Walter Reed national military medical center on Friday.The visit, which the White House announced earlier this week, comes as Trump is preparing to travel to the Middle East on the heels of a ceasefire deal in the Israel-Hamas war. The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, described it as a “routine yearly checkup”, although the president had his annual physical in April.Trump left the White House at about 10.45am on Friday and returned to the grounds at 2.15pm, which was slightly ahead of schedule. He did not answer questions from reporters upon his arrival, and the White House has not indicated when it would release results or more information about his exams.The White House declined to explain why Trump was getting a yearly checkup at Walter Reed, which is in Bethesda, Maryland, six months after his annual exam. But in an exchange with reporters on Thursday, the Republican president said it was a “semiannual physical”.“I’m meeting with the troops, and I’m also going to do a, sort of, semiannual physical, which I do,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I think I’m in great shape, but I’ll let you know.”Trump’s April physical found that he was “fully fit” to serve as commander in chief. The three-page summary of the exam done by his doctor, navy Capt Sean Barbabella, said he had lost 20lb (9kg) since a medical exam in June 2020 and that he had an “active lifestyle” that “continues to contribute significantly” to the wellbeing of the president, who is 79.Since his April exam, Trump was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a condition that can cause swelling, as the president has experienced in his legs and is common in older adults. Trump’s physician also addressed concern about bruising on the president’s hand, attributing it to irritation caused by frequent handshaking and his use of aspirin as a standard cardiovascular prevention regimen.Recent images of a purplish bruise on Trump’s hand, which appeared to have been covered with makeup, fueled online speculation that the president was ill. When Leavitt discussed the results of his chronic venous insufficiency diagnosis from the briefing room, she noted that the White House was disclosing details of the checkup to dispel rumors about Trump’s health.At the April physical, Trump also passed a short screening test to assess different brain functions.Presidents have large discretion over what health information they choose to release to the public. Trump’s summary from his April exam included information about his weight, body mass index, past surgeries, mental health screenings, cholesterol levels and blood pressure. Trump’s previous medical reports typically produced a flattering report scarce on details.Trump has long been cagey about his health, and concern about the president’s wellbeing stretches back to his first term. But wild rumors reached a fever pitch when the president faded from public view for several days over the summer, with critics and TikTok influencers speculating that the president was on his deathbed. “NEVER FELT BETTER IN MY LIFE!” Trump wrote at the time, in an assertion that only fueled suspicions of a cover-up.Lauren Gambino contributed reporting More

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      Trump officials cancel major solar project in latest hit to renewable energy

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      The Trump administration has killed a huge proposed solar power project in Nevada that would have been one of the largest in the world, indicating that the White House plans to attack not only wind power but all renewable energy.On Thursday, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) changed the status of the Esmeralda 7 project to say its environmental review has been “cancelled”, the climate publication Heatmap first reported.The super project in southern Nevada was set to cover 185 sq miles – a footprint close to the size of Las Vegas – and include seven solar projects proposed by different companies, including NextEra Energy Resources, Leeward Renewable Energy, Arevia Power and Invenergy. Together, the network of solar panels and batteries was set to produce 6.2 gigawatts of energy, enough to power nearly 2m homes.Asked to comment, the interior department appeared to leave open the possibility that at least parts of the project could be resubmitted for review. In an email, a spokesperson said: “During routine discussions prior to the lapse in appropriations, the proponents and BLM agreed to change their approach for the Esmeralda 7 Solar Project in Nevada. Instead of pursuing a programmatic level environmental analysis, the applicants will now have the option to submit individual project proposals to the BLM to more effectively analyze potential impacts.”The developers’ joint proposals were permitted by Joe Biden. Even once Donald Trump re-entered the White House this year, the process appeared to be moving forward when his BLM advanced a draft environmental impact statement. But the process has since come to a standstill, with the BLM failing to issue a final environmental impact statement or record of decision for the project.Reached for comment, a spokesperson for NextEra Energy Resources said: “We are in the early stage of development and remain committed to pursuing our project’s comprehensive environmental analysis by working closely with the Bureau of Land Management.”The Guardian has also contacted Leeward Renewable Energy, Arevia Power and Invenergy for comment.In an executive order on day one, Trump directed a pause on new renewable energy authorizations for federally owned land and water. Then in February he appointed Kathleen Sgamma, president of the Colorado-based oil industry trade group Western Energy Alliance, to head the BLM, which manages a quarter of a billion acres of public land concentrated in western states.In July, as part of an attempt to win support for his tax and spending bill, Trump issued another order aimed at halting renewable projects, which called on the Department of the Interior to review its policies that affect wind and solar, and gave the interior secretary, Doug Burgum, final decision-making power on whether such projects could proceed.The following month, the president said his administration would not approve solar or wind power projects. “We will not approve wind or farmer destroying Solar,” he posted on Truth Social. “The days of stupidity are over in the USA!!!” More

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      US farmers caught in Trump-China trade war – who’ll buy the soybeans?

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      At the Purfeerst farm in southern Minnesota, the soybean harvest just wrapped up for the season. The silver grain bins are full of about 100,000 bushels of soybeans, which grab about $10 a piece.This year, though, the fate of the soybeans, and the people whose livelihoods depend on selling them, is up in the air: America’s soybean farmers are stuck in the middle of a trade war between the US and China, the biggest purchaser of soybean exports, used to feed China’s pigs.“We are gonna have to find a home for them soybeans some time soon,” said Matt Purfeerst, a fifth-generation farmer on the family’s land. “They won’t stay in our bins for ever.”No other country comes close to purchasing as many American soybeans as China – last year, it was more than $12bn worth. This year, the country has not purchased a single dollar’s worth, cutting off the country that makes up about half of US soybean exports.While Trump has said he intends some sort of payment to go to soybean farmers hurt by tariffs, an announcement of a specific plan is on hold while the government is shut down. He said in a Truth Social post last week that he would be meeting with the Chinese president soon and “soybeans will be a major topic of discussion”.The White House cast blame on Democrats for the government shutdown for the delay in a response to the Guardian on Wednesday, erroneously claiming they were prioritizing healthcare for migrants over farmers.View image in fullscreen“President Trump, [Treasury] Secretary [Scott] Bessent, and [Agriculture] Secretary [Brooke] Rollins are always in touch about the needs of our farmers, who played a crucial role in the president’s November victory,” spokeswoman Anna Kelly said. “Unfortunately, Democrats in Congress have stalled progress on this issue with their prolonged shutdown to serve illegal immigrants instead of America’s farmers. No decisions have been made, but we look forward to sharing good news soon.”Purfeerst’s family farm grows soybeans and corn, and has some beef cattle. The job is a round-the-clock combination of engineering, business, manual labor, environmental science. And it’s increasingly hard for family farms to make it. Costs for propane, fertilizer and seed have gone up, he said, and the prices for the goods they are selling don’t make up for the increased costs.Soybean farmers have become the “poster child out there right now of how this one particular segment’s getting hurt”, he said. The farm recently welcomed the Democratic US senator Amy Klobuchar for a visit to talk about how the tariffs were playing out, but Purfeerst said political affiliations didn’t matter.“Only 1% of the population is even involved in [agriculture] any more,” he said. “And what gets really challenging is this perception of ag out there, whether it’s on tariffs and prices or environmental issues, farmers kind of seem to be the crosshairs of a lot of it.”Farming areas voted for Trump in 2024, as did much of rural America. One analysis, by Investigate Midwest, showed Trump growing his support among farming-dependent counties in 2024 despite a trade war during his first term that negatively affected farmers.“I’m not gonna get into who I voted for particularly, but I would just have to say, at the time, you got to make decisions who you think is going to be the best leader of the country, and go on with life,” Purfeerst said. “And in four years, you get to vote again. That’s the beauty of our society. It’s not an 80-year regime. It’s a four-year cycle. It’s hard to say what’s gonna come about. I mean, everyone’s got their pros and cons.”View image in fullscreenPurfeerst has options for his soybeans: because of his farm’s location, he can sell domestically to soybean crush facilities in nearby towns, sell on the rail market, or sell in Minneapolis and put product on barges down the Mississippi River. Other soybean farmers, especially those in more remote parts of the midwest where soybeans are mostly produced, aren’t as lucky.Stories from all parts of the country where soybeans are grown have surfaced in recent weeks – in Arkansas, Illinois, Nebraska, Indiana, the Dakotas. Farmers face higher costs for inputs like fertilizer and equipment. They rely on China as a purchaser. Soybeans sitting in bins too long is subject to weather and pests. The prices fluctuate, so it’s a gamble to hold on to it that sometimes can pay off, or sometimes lose money.“Let’s say tomorrow we get a trade deal with China, and it’s favorable to soybeans. All of a sudden you might see this market jump from $10 to $12 in three, four days,” Purfeerst said. “So it makes it extremely challenging from a risk management standpoint of: when do you market your crop, and how many eggs do you put in that basket? The potential is $12, but if we don’t get a trade deal, it could go to $9 … There’s a huge volatility in soybeans.”The soybean industry has been warning for months that China’s exit from the market would be devastating, calling on the Trump administration to come up with a trade deal that spares farmers. The American Soybean Association wrote a letter to Trump in August, saying the country’s soybean farmers were “standing at a trade and financial precipice” and “cannot survive a prolonged trade dispute with our largest customer”.Tim Walz, Minnesota’s Democratic governor, declared the first week of October as soybean week, saying in the announcement that “our soybean farmers are confronting a crisis they haven’t seen since the 1980s”.“They’ve produced a bumper crop this year, just to find out they have nowhere to sell their harvest thanks to Trump’s trade policies,” Walz said. “Minnesota’s got the best beans in the world – I encourage Minnesotans to stand with our farmers and continue to advocate for federal trade reform.”It’s not the first time a Trump trade plan has hurt soybean farmers: in 2018, a trade war led to significant reductions in soybean exports to China. Since then, the market has rebounded, though China has ramped up soybean purchases from Brazil and Argentina, stockpiling imports earlier this year.Republican lawmakers have said they are sympathetic to the farmers and want to find a way to help them. James Comer, a Republican congressman from Kentucky, said this week that soybean farmers were not to blame for the problem they are facing.“They planted that crop assuming that those foreign markets were going to be there,” Comer said in a recent TV appearance. “I think we need to do something to help the soybean farmers.”A bailout is “really just a Band-Aid”, though it’s one that many farmers would welcome as they are getting squeezed right now, Purfeerst said. Most farmers would prefer an open market, without tariffs, for their products, letting the market dictate prices. They don’t want the trade war now to affect a long-term relationship that makes up a significant chunk of market share. There also should be more emphasis put on increasing domestic uses of soybeans, though a long-range plan like that won’t help the farmers who are stuck right now, he said.“There’s farms that are struggling to make money on soybean acres, and you’ve got to remember: whatever payment we’re getting, whatever that dollar amount might be, if we get anything, it’s not just going in our back pocket,” he said. “We’ve got a fertilizer bill. We’ve got to pay the seed bill. There’s a lot of payments. So really, that money might be in the farmer’s hands for a month, until it gets spent on inputs for next year.” More