US news

Subterms

    More stories

    • 238 Shares60 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump’s tax bill helps the rich, hurts the poor and adds trillions to the deficit | Katrina vanden Heuvel

      by

      The blush is off the rose, or, rather, the orange. The erstwhile “First Buddy” and born-again fiscal hawk Elon Musk recently said he was “disappointed” by Donald Trump’s spendthrift budget currently under debate in the US Senate. Squeaking through the House of Representatives thanks to the capitulation of several Republican deficit hardliners, this “big, beautiful bill” certainly increases the federal debt bigly – by nearly $4tn over the next decade.Equally disappointed are those who have been busy burnishing Trump’s populist veneer. Steve Bannon had repeatedly promised higher taxes for millionaires, but he has confessed he’s “very upset”. That’s because the bill would cut taxes by over $600bn for the top 1% of wage-earners, also known as millionaires. It amounts to the largest upward transfer of wealth in American history.Yet this double betrayal will do nothing to impede the sundry Maga apparatchiks’ breathless support for their dear leader. Musk has already tweeted his gratitude to the president for the opportunity to lead Doge (that is, slash funding for cancer research). So this bill has once again proven Republicans’ willingness to relinquish their convictions as long as they can keep their grasp on power. And for Trump, it has reaffirmed that his pledged golden age is really just a windfall for the uber-wealthy like him. Now there can be no mistaking that Republicans’ governing philosophy is neither conservatism nor populism but unabashed hypocrisy.Expecting the self-proclaimed King of Debt to balance the budget – or hoping workers would be protected by the billionaire whose personal motto is “You’re fired” – was always imaginative thinking at best. In his first term, Trump added $8tn to the national deficit. Even excluding Covid relief spending, that’s twice as much debt as Joe Biden racked up during his four years in the White House. Almost $2tn of that tab came from Trump’s vaunted tax cut, which delivered three times more wealth to the top 5% of wage earners than it did to the bottom 60%. Nor did its benefits trickle down, with incomes remaining flat for workers who earn less than $114,000.Trump’s disingenuousness on the deficit continues a hallowed Republican tradition. All four Republican presidents since 1980 have increased the federal debt. By combining reckless militarism with rampant corporatism, George W Bush managed to balloon it by 1,204%. When Bush’s treasury secretary Paul O’Neill expressed concern about that spending, Dick Cheney, the then-vice president, reportedly retorted: “Deficits don’t matter.”Except, of course, when a Democrat occupies the Oval Office. During his campaign for the US Senate in 2022, JD Vance derided Biden’s signature $1tn infrastructure package as a “huge mistake” that would waste money on “really crazy stuff”. Like improving almost 200,000 miles of roads and repairing over 11,000 bridges across the country.Apparently less crazy, but certainly more callous, are the vertiginous cuts to the social safety net proposed in Trump’s current budget bill. Its $1tn evisceration of Medicaid and Snap would leave 8 million Americans uninsured and potentially end food assistance for 11 million people, including 4 million children. When the Democratic Representative Ro Khanna introduced an amendment to maintain coverage for the 38 million kids who receive their healthcare through Medicaid, Republicans blocked it from even receiving a vote.But for all the budget’s austerity, it also provides $20bn in tax credits to establish a national school voucher program. And equally outrageous are its provisions that have nothing to do with the pecuniary, from easing regulations on gun silencers to hamstringing the power of courts to enforce injunctions.Perhaps most breathtaking of all, though, is how shamelessly the bill enriches the already mega-rich. In its first year, its tax breaks will grace Americans in the top 0.1% of the income bracket with an additional $400,000, while decreasing the earnings of people in the bottom 25% by $1,000. In other words, those who can least afford it are financing relief for those who least need it.When the 50% of working class Americans who broke for Trump in last year’s election realize they voted for a pay cut, they might begin to feel a bit disillusioned with the crypto trader-in-chief. They might even feel pulled to the authentically populist vision outlined by the progressives Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on their nationwide Fighting Oligarchy Tour.In the meantime, it is almost an inevitability that Republican senators will wring their hands before pressing the green button to vote “yea.” Josh Hawley has called the budget bill “morally wrong and politically suicidal”, criticism which Trump has previously mocked as “grandstanding”. The insult contains a typically Trumpian flash of psychological insight, because Hawley and his colleagues will no doubt do exactly what their counterparts in the House have already done – cave.Once Trump has scribbled his oversized signature onto the bill, his vision for the US will have become unmistakable. Try as they might, not even the spinmeisters at Fox News will be able to deny that he runs this country the way he ran his Atlantic City casinos, leading working Americans to financial ruin while he emerges all the richer for it.

      Katrina vanden Heuvel is editorial director and publisher of the Nation, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a contributor to the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times More

    • 175 Shares104 Views

      in US Politics

      White House insists Trump tariffs to stay despite court ruling – US politics live

      by

      Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you the latest news lines over the next few hours.We start with news that president Trump’s top economic advisers have said they would not be deterred by a court ruling that declared many of the administration’s tariffs illegal.They cited other legal options the White House could use to pressure China and other countries into trade talks.They also indicated that Trump had no plans to extend a 90-day pause on some of the highest tariffs, making it more likely those duties will take effect in July.“Rest assured, tariffs are not going away,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Fox News Sunday.Asked about the future of the suspended reciprocal tariffs first announced in April, Lutnick added: “I don’t see today that an extension is coming.”It comes as China accused the US of “seriously violating” the fragile US-China detente that has been in place for less than a month since the two countries agreed to pause the trade war that risked upending the global economy.China and the US agreed on 12 May to pause for 90 days the skyrocketing “reciprocal” tariffs that both countries had placed on the others goods in a frenzied trade war that started a few weeks earlier.Tariffs had reached 125% on each side, which officials feared amounted to virtual embargo on trade between the world’s two biggest economies.In other news:

      The US veterans agency has ordered scientists not to publish in journals without clearance. The edict, laid down in emails on Friday by Curt Cashour, the VA’s assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs, and John Bartrum, a senior adviser to VA secretary Doug Collins, came hours after the article published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

      Russell Vought, the director of the office of management and budget (OMB), on Sunday cast doubt on the constitutional obligation of the White House to ask Congress to sign off on Donald Trump’s massive cuts to the federal workforce spearheaded by Elon Musk. Vought indicated the White House preferred to rely on “executive tools” for all but a “necessary” fraction of the cuts instead of submitting the whole package of jobs and agency slashing that took place via the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), to the congressional branch for its official approval.

      The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) removed a list of “sanctuary” states, cities and counties from its website following sharp criticism from a sheriffs’ association that said a list of “noncompliant” sheriffs could severely damage the relationship between the Trump administration and law enforcement.

      The White House budget director Russ Vought on Sunday dismissed as “totally ridiculous” fears expressed by voters that cuts to benefits in the huge spending bill passed by the House will lead to premature deaths in America. Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, now awaiting debate in the US Senate, will slash two major federal safety net programs, Medicaid, which provides healthcare to poor and disabled Americans, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), which helps people afford groceries, which will affect millions of people if it becomes law. More

    • 150 Shares87 Views

      in US Politics

      Trump news at a glance: veterans affairs department muzzled after critical article

      by

      Senior officials at the US Department of Veterans Affairs have ordered VA physicians and scientists not to publish in medical journals or speak with the public without first seeking clearance from political appointees of Donald Trump.Veterans advocates say the decision fits into a pattern of censorship by the Trump administration, and came hours after the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine published a perspective co-authored by two pulmonologists who work for the VA in Texas.The article warned that cancelled contracts, layoffs and a planned staff reduction of 80,000 employees in the nation’s largest integrated healthcare system jeopardizes the health of a million veterans who served in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.Here are the key stories at a glance:Exclusive: US veterans agency orders scientists not to publish in journals without clearanceThe edict, laid down in emails on Friday by Curt Cashour, the VA’s assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs, and John Bartrum, a senior adviser to VA secretary Doug Collins, came hours after the article published in the New England Journal of Medicine.“We have guidance for this,” wrote Cashour, a former Republican congressional aide and campaign consultant, attaching the journal article. “These people did not follow it.”Read the full storyVought says Trump may not need Congress’s approval to cut federal workforceRussell Vought, the director of the office of management and budget (OMB), on Sunday cast doubt on the constitutional obligation of the White House to ask Congress to sign off on Donald Trump’s massive cuts to the federal workforce spearheaded by Elon Musk.Vought indicated the White House preferred to rely on “executive tools” for all but a “necessary” fraction of the cuts instead of submitting the whole package of jobs and agency slashing that took place via the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), to the congressional branch for its official approval.Read the full storyUS homeland security removes list of ‘sanctuary’ cities after sheriffs’ criticismThe US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) removed a list of “sanctuary” states, cities and counties from its website following sharp criticism from a sheriffs’ association that said a list of “noncompliant” sheriffs could severely damage the relationship between the Trump administration and law enforcement.Read the full storyTeen trans athlete at center of rightwing attacks wins track events in CaliforniaA teenage transgender athlete in California, who has been at the center of widespread political attacks by rightwing pundits and the Trump administration, won in two track events over the weekend. The 16-year-old athlete, AB Hernandez, tied for first place alongside two other athletes in the high jump, and tied for first place in the triple jump.This comes as the Trump administration threatened to withhold federal funding from California for allowing trans athletes to compete in girls’ sports.Read the full storyUS budget chief calls fears that cuts to benefits will lead to deaths ‘totally ridiculous’The White House budget director Russ Vought on Sunday dismissed as “totally ridiculous” fears expressed by voters that cuts to benefits in the huge spending bill passed by the House will lead to premature deaths in America.Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, now awaiting debate in the US Senate, will slash two major federal safety net programs, Medicaid, which provides healthcare to poor and disabled Americans, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap), which helps people afford groceries, which will affect millions of people if it becomes law.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      The is FBI investigating a multiple-injury attack in downtown Boulder, Colorado.

      One person died and 11 other were injured after 80 shots fired at North Carolina house party.

      A British businessman was accused of plotting to smuggle US military technology to China.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened on Saturday 31 May. More

    • 163 Shares93 Views

      in US Politics

      Exclusive: US veterans agency orders scientists not to publish in journals without clearance

      by

      Senior officials at the US Department of Veterans Affairs have ordered that VA physicians and scientists not publish in medical journals or speak with the public without first seeking clearance from political appointees of Donald Trump, the Guardian has learned.The edict, laid down in emails on Friday by Curt Cashour, the VA’s assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs, and John Bartrum, a senior adviser to VA secretary Doug Collins, came hours after the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine published a perspective co-authored by two pulmonologists who work for the VA in Texas.“We have guidance for this,” wrote Cashour, a former Republican congressional aide and campaign consultant, attaching the journal article. “These people did not follow it.”The article warned that cancelled contracts, layoffs and a planned staff reduction of 80,000 employees in the nation’s largest integrated healthcare system jeopardizes the health of a million veterans seeking help for conditions linked to toxic exposure – ranging from Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange to veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who developed cancer after being exposed to smoke from piles of flaming toxic waste.“As pulmonologists in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), we have been seeing increasing numbers of veterans with chronic bronchitis, pulmonary fibrosis, asthma, and other respiratory conditions,” doctors Pavan Ganapathiraju and Rebecca Traylor wrote.The authors, who practice at the VA in Austin, Texas, noted that in 2022 Congress dramatically expanded the number of medical conditions presumed to be linked to military service. “But legislation doesn’t care for patients, people do,” they wrote.The article sparked an immediate rebuke from Trump’s political appointees, according to internal emails obtained by the Guardian. “We have noticed a number of academic articles and press articles recently,” Bartrum wrote, attaching a copy of the journal article. “Please remind the field and academic community that they need to follow the VA policy.”Cashour, the assistant secretary, wrote that approval for publication in national media was delegated to his office. Local and regional directors were to inform Washington “as soon as possible” when situations exist “that have the potential for negative national exposure”.In an email statement, the VA press secretary Peter Kasperowicz said the agency’s policy on publications and public comments “simply requires VA employees to properly coordinate with public affairs staff prior to speaking with the media. Virtually every organization both inside and outside government has similar policies.”The policy “has been in place for several years across both Democrat and Republican administrations”, he said.Ganapathiraju told the Guardian that the article was in full compliance with the VA regulations, which state that employees are encouraged to publish in “peer-reviewed, professional or scholarly journals”. Coordination with public affairs officers is encouraged, but not required, when sharing personal or academic opinions, the rules say.Ganapathiraju said neither he nor his co-author had yet faced punishment. “We have received emails and messages from other VAs across the country (including doctors, department chiefs, chief of medicines, and chief of staff) supporting our article,” he wrote in an email. “No communication from our local VA or from National.”Still, VA workers and veterans advocates say Friday’s warnings fit a pattern of censorship by the Trump administration, which critics say is waging a “war on science”. Since taking office, Trump administration officials have cancelled billions of dollars in grants funding medical research at the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Nearly 2,000 leading scientists, including dozens of Nobel Prize winners, signed an open letter released in April saying science was being “decimated” by cuts to research and a growing “climate of fear” that put independent research at risk.In his statement, the VA’s Kasperowicz said it is “absurd” to suggest that enforcing the agency’s media policy is part of a “war on science”.Trump issued an executive order on 23 May titled “Restoring Gold Standard Science”. It accused his predecessor, Joe Biden, of misusing scientific evidence when crafting policies on climate change, public health during the Covid-19 pandemic and other issues. Thousands of academics signed a new open letter that protested the move, arguing it opens the door to political interference.On 28 May, the secretary of health and human services, Robert F Kennedy Jr, said he was considering barring government scientists from publishing in top journals, including the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine, calling these publications “corrupt”.The Department of Veterans Affairs has long been one of the nation’s most important centers of medical research. Funded by Congress with nearly $1bn annually, VA scientists operate at 102 research sites and are engaged in 7,300 ongoing projects, while publishing more than 10,000 papers in scientific journals last year.VA scientists invented the nicotine patch and the pacemaker and developed the CT scan. The agency runs the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which has pioneered mental health treatments that benefit not only veterans but also rape victims and survivors of natural disasters and other violent crimes.Harold Kudler, a psychiatrist and researcher who served as the national mental health policy lead for the VA under the Obama and first Trump administrations, said the rebuke to the pulmonologists’ article was “powerful in its impact and frightening in the threat it represents”.It was “another attack on freedom of speech”, he said. “Veterans will suffer because of it. Plus, all research programs will take note.” More

    • 138 Shares109 Views

      in US Politics

      US homeland security removes list of ‘sanctuary’ cities after sheriffs’ criticism

      by

      The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) removed a list of “sanctuary” states, cities and counties from its website following sharp criticism from a sheriffs’ association that said a list of “noncompliant” sheriffs could severely damage the relationship between the Trump administration and law enforcement.DHS on Thursday published a list of what it called sanctuary jurisdictions that it deemed were included in areas that have a policy of limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. The list prompted a response from the National Sheriffs’ Association, which represents more than 3,000 elected sheriffs across the country and generally supports federal immigration enforcement.Sheriff Kieran Donahue, president of the association, said in a statement on Saturday that DHS published “a list of alleged noncompliant sheriffs in a manner that lacks transparency and accountability”. Donahue said the list was created without input from sheriffs and “violated the core principles of trust, cooperation, and partnership with fellow law enforcement”.Donald Trump had called for his administration to tally apparent sanctuary jurisdictions, in a late April executive order, saying the lack of cooperation amounted to “a lawless insurrection”.The DHS website listing the jurisdictions was offline on Sunday, an issue that Fox News host Maria Bartiromo raised with the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, on the talk show Sunday Morning Futures.“I saw that there was a list produced,” Bartiromo said. “Now, the list I don’t see anymore in the media. Do you have a list of the sanctuary cities that are actually hiding illegals right now?”Noem did not acknowledge the list being taken offline but said some localities had bristled.“Some of the cities have pushed back,” Noem said. “They think because they don’t have one law or another on the books that they don’t qualify, but they do qualify. They are giving sanctuary to criminals.”Leaders of some cities publicly questioned the sanctuary label this week, including jurisdictions in southern California, Colorado and Massachusetts.San Diego city attorney Heather Ferbert told local outlets that San Diego – named on the DHS list – had never adopted a sanctuary policy and that the move appeared to be politically motivated.“We suspect this is going to be used as additional threats and fear tactics to threaten federal funding that the city relies on,” she said.Immigrant advocates and some Democrats say sanctuary policies help build trust between immigrant communities and law enforcement so that residents will be more likely to report crimes.At a hearing before a US House of Representatives committee in March, mayors from Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York City, which vote majority Democrat, said sanctuary policies made their cities safer and that they would always honor criminal arrest warrants.Noem, who shares Trump’s hardline anti-immigration views, said the department would continue to use the sanctuary tally. DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The internet archive website Wayback Machine showed the list still online on Saturday. More

    • 150 Shares93 Views

      in US Politics

      Vought says Trump may not need Congress’s approval to cut federal workforce

      by

      Russell Vought, the director of the office of management and budget (OMB), on Sunday cast doubt on the constitutional obligation of the White House to ask Congress to sign off on Donald Trump’s massive cuts to the federal workforce spearheaded by Elon Musk.Vought indicated the White House preferred to rely on “executive tools” for all but a “necessary” fraction of the cuts instead of submitting the whole package of jobs and agency slashing that took place via the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge), to the congressional branch for its official approval.The White House budget director, in an interview with CNN on Sunday, also defended the widespread future cost-cutting proposed by the US president’s One Big Beautiful Bill act that was passed by the House last week, which covers budget proposals for the next fiscal year starting in October.But, as Dana Bash, CNN’s State of the Union host, pointed out, Doge cut “funding and programs that Congress already passed”. And while those cuts, cited by the departing Musk as being worth $175bn, are tiny compared with the trillion or more he forecast, Vought said OMB was only going to submit about $9.4bn to Congress this week for sign-off. That amount is understood to mostly cover the crushing of the USAID agency and cuts to public broadcasting, which have prompted outrage and lawsuits.Leaders of Congress from both parties have pressed for the Trump administration to send details of all the cuts for its approval. “Will you?” Bash asked Vought.“We might,” Vought said, adding that the rest of the Doge cuts may not need official congressional approval.As one of the architects of Project 2025, the rightwing initiative created to guide the second Trump administration, Vought is on a quest to dismantle the federal workforce and consolidate power for the US president, and to continue the Doge cuts.Vought said that one of the executive tools the administration has is the use of “impoundment”, which involves the White House withholding specific funds allocated by Congress. Since the 1970s, a law has limited the presidency from engaging in impoundment – typically requiring the executive branch to implement what Congress signed into law.Bash said: “I know you don’t believe that that is constitutional, so are you just doing this in order to get the supreme court to rule that unconstitutional?”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionVought said: “We are not in love with the law.” But he also said, in response to criticism from some on Capitol Hill: “We’re not breaking the law.”Meanwhile, on the Big Beautiful bill, the Congressional budget office (CBO) and many experts say it could swell the US deficit by $3.8tn, and business tycoon Musk said it “undermines the work the Doge team is doing”.Vought disagreed. “I love Elon, [but] this bill doesn’t increase the deficit or hurt the debt,” he said.Vought – and later on Sunday, the House speaker Mike Johnson on NBC – argued that critics’ calculations don’t fully account for extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts and slashing regulation.Vought also chipped in that Trump is “the architect, the visionary, the originator of his own agenda”, rather than the Heritage Foundation’s blueprint for the administration, Project 2025, although he did not deny that the two have dovetailed. More

    • 250 Shares109 Views

      in US Politics

      The Guardian view on Trump and children: protect the innocent from this dark vision of the US soul | Editorial

      by

      “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children,” Nelson Mandela observed 30 years ago. Though the ugly heart of the Trump administration has hardly been hidden, there is an especially grotesque contrast between its vaunted family values and its treatment of the young.On the campaign trail, Donald Trump declared: “I want a baby boom.” JD Vance, his vice-president, says he wants “more happy children in our country”. Maga pro-natalists are pushing incentives for families to have more children.Yet Bruce Lesley, president of the advocacy organisation First Focus on Children, says that we may never have seen an administration “so laser-focused on targeting the nation’s children for harm”. Its dismantling of the Department of Education is on hold thanks to a judge. But it has already slashed staff at agencies overseeing key services such as child protection and the enforcement of child support payments. Mr Trump’s “big, beautiful” budget sacrifices the interests of babies for those of billionaires, slashing foundational programmes that provide healthcare and food to more than two-fifths of American children.One detail is telling: it would also deny the child tax credit to families with mixed immigration status. Mr Trump’s vision of the nation is the antithesis of Mr Mandela’s inclusivity. Unaccompanied migrant children as young as four are facing immigration hearings without lawyers. That’s unlikely to concern him: as many as 1,360 children separated from their parents at the border in his first term have never been reunited with them.An estimated 5.6 million US-citizen children live with at least one undocumented parent. Almost 4% are at risk of being left with no parent in their home in the event of mass deportation. Mr Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship makes explicit the belief that these children are not truly American either. They are what the historian Prof Mae Ngai has called “alien citizens”, whose standing is deemed suspect – if not denied – due to their race. Young US citizens have been deported alongside parents who say they were given no option to leave their children, one of whom had late-stage cancer. In another case, a two-year-old was sent to foster care when her parents were deported: this time, her mother was reportedly given no option to take her.The immigration crackdown will further encourage employers short of workers to turn to children – often those born to migrants – for badly paid, dirty and dangerous jobs. “Why do we say we need to import foreigners, even import them illegally, when teenagers used to work at these resorts?” asked Florida’s governor, Ron deSantis. Child labour laws are already too frequently ignored, yet Republicans have loosened them further in 16 states in the last few years, and sought to do so in many more.Florida’s House of Representatives recently approved legislation allowing children as young as 14 to work overnight without breaks. Yet the state Senate chose not to move the bill – and overall more states strengthened than diluted labour protections last year. For now at least, the administration appears to have reversed course on eliminating the Head Start early education programme. Mr Trump and his allies are exposing their grim vision of a nation in which only some children deserve to be treated with care and basic respect. Others must continue to fight to protect the most vulnerable.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. More

    • 163 Shares71 Views

      in US Politics

      Teen trans athlete at center of rightwing attacks wins track events in California

      by

      A teenage transgender athlete in California, who has been at the center of widespread political attacks by rightwing pundits and the Trump administration, won in two track events over the weekend. The 16-year-old athlete, AB Hernandez, tied for first place alongside two other athletes in the high jump, and tied for first place in the triple jump.This comes as the Trump administration threatened to withhold federal funding from California for allowing trans athletes to compete in girls’ sports.The meet took place days after the California Interscholastic Federation, the governing body for high school sports in the state, changed its rules. Now, if a transgender athlete places in a girls’ event, the athlete who finishes just behind will also receive the same place and medal.Despite protests at the meet, the athletes expressed joy during the meet, multiple outlets reported.“Sharing the podium was nothing but an honor,” another high school athlete said to the San Francisco Chronicle. “Although the publicity she’s been receiving has been pretty negative, I believe she deserves publicity because she’s a superstar. She’s a rock star. She’s representing who she is.”View image in fullscreenHernandez finished the high jump with a mark of 5ft 7in (1.7 meters), the Associated Press reported, with no failed attempts. The two co-winners also cleared that height after each logged a failed attempt. The three shared the first-place win, smiling as they stepped together onto the podium.Hernandez received first place in the triple jump, sharing the top spot with an athlete who trailed by just more than a half-meter, the AP said. Earlier in the afternoon, Hernandez placed second in the long jump.Hernandez and her participation in the meet brought national attention and attacks by the Trump administration. She has become the target of a national, rightwing campaign to ban trans athletes from youth sports. The justice department said it would investigate the California Interscholastic Federation and the school district to determine whether they violated federal sex-discrimination law.The federation’s rule change reflects efforts to find a middle ground in the debate over trans girls’ participation in high school sports. They announced the change after Trump threatened to pull federal funding from California unless it bars trans athletes from competing on girls’ teams. But the federation said it decided on the change before the Trump threats.Hernandez’s participation in the sport is allowed by a 2013 state law, stating that students can compete in the category reflecting their gender identity.At least 24 states have laws on the books barring transgender women and girls from participating in certain women’s or girls’ sports competitions, the AP reported. More